Thanks for the reviews - it's much appreciated. Please trust the process and I hope you all stick in there and come on the ride with me.
Also just a reminder that as far as Kate knows Castle is still with Gina - so it's understandable that she might seek comfort from someone familiar - she is hurting...
After being in Sydney for a week Kate couldn't believe how great the Leadership course was going, it was awe inspiring to say the least and she felt very privileged to be participating in it. She had hardly seen Demming since that night at the bar before they left for Sydney and something definitely seemed up with him, she just couldn't pinpoint what exactly. Thankfully there wasn't much time to get caught up in it all as the program for the course didn't leave much room for free time. The time they did get to share together always seemed brief and Demming was getting an unusual amount of texts coming through and he seemed uncomfortable about it all.
The next day the team were due to meet at breakfast at 6:00am as they were going to do the Bondi to Coogee beach walk as a team building exercise. Kate had heard a lot about Sydney's eastern beaches and was keen to check them out. Demming had asked Kate to meet him early in the morning prior to the briefing and Kate was looking forward to catching up with him as she was determined to get to the bottom of whatever was going on with him.
As Kate prepared for bed she checked some e-mails and noticed a few from Lanie, Javi and Kevin - she decided to answer them all as she didn't know how tired she would be after the beach tomorrow. After responding to the e-mails her fingers danced across the keyboard tempting her to go to his website in search for any snippet of information of where he was and what he was doing. Finally after about twenty minutes self control took over and Kate shut down her laptop. She reminded herself that she was on a self imposed media blackout so that she didn't come across anything she wasn't ready to see about him and his perky blonde ex-wife. She still missed him though and longed to text or call as she missed the sound of his voice, but the chance that Gina would be there was just to great.
...
Castle, much to Martha and Alexis' relief had finally, after alot of internal debate, had decided to choose Australia as the location for the book launch. There were two major factors that helped in his decision making process. The first was Black Pawn was happy form him to scout the major cities for the perfect location. The second and probably the one that tipped the scales was that being on the other side of the world removed any chance of him running into Kate and Demming. This trip may just give him the time he needs to heal.
He set about packing as his flight was leaving in four hours. Part of him wanted to text Kate to let her know that he was leaving the country but he just couldn't bring himself to do it.
Castle chose Tamarama as the first location in Australia to start from and as he re-read over the specifics he felt a pang of loneliness realising that he would be going alone.
...
Kate rose early so that she could meet Demming before the briefing. The prearranged location was the Pool at Milsons Point. When Kate arrived there was no sign of Demming. She waited half and hour and then tried to call him but his mobile kept going to his voicemail.
Kate started to feel a little faint (this had been happening a lot lately) and she was also a little nervous as she had discovered last night that there was something she desperately needed to tell Demming and it really couldn't wait another day.
When Demming didn't show Kate headed back to the hotel and joined up with the rest of the team. Demming was nowhere in sight.
...
Castle had a pleasant flight from New York to Sydney via LA. So far everything had gone smoothly and he was starting to wind down and feel relaxed. Time and space had given him a little perspective and he decided that he would text Kate when he was settled in just to let her know that he was out of the country - they were meant to be friends after-all.
As soon as Castle disembarked the plane he turned his mobile on. A few notifications came through and Castle notices a text from Esposito.
What Castle didn't realise when he opened that text was that life as he knows it will be changed forever. Castle opened the text to see what his buddy had to say and as he reread for the third time just to be sure, he felt his world collapsing in and he had to rush to the bathroom as he sick to his stomach.
...
The next day...