Hi guys; this chapter is full of internal dialouge. Kate is pretty much thinking to herself about things. I'm hoping to get Chapter 8 up in the next couple of days.
Sorry for the wait between Chapters 6 and 7; life got hectic again. I'm going away in 2 weeks for a week so hoping to have a few more chapters up by then.
How was that season premiere. AMAZING. So glad that the hiatus is over. Really looking forward to Tuesdays (I'm in Australia) to be able to watch it.
Anyways; Please read and review and I hope you enjoy.
xx K
Chapter 7
Kate walked through the door of her lonely apartment after a very long night to get a few hours of shut eye before she had to head back to the precinct in 5 hours. Her usual routine went on without a hitch; keys, wallet and phone on the coffee table by the door and her weapon and badge placed carefully in the drawer between the lounge and bedroom.
Kate walked into the bedroom, carefully removing her mother's ring from her neck and her father's watch from her wrist placing them in a box that had a photo of her parents on the lid. Normally after a long day at work, Beckett loved to take a nice long hot bath but tonight, well this morning, she just wanted to climb into bed and sleep but hated sliding into bed with the day's dirt and grime still covering her nicely toned body so she jumped in the shower for a quick scrub. Once her short, dark brown hair was washed and her body clean she jumped out of the shower, dried herself off and changed into a pair of black tights, a black singlet and a larger off the shoulder shirt.
Walking around the bathroom to pick up after herself Kate picked up her jacket and threw it onto the chest of drawers to be hung up and picked up her jeans and top to through in the hamper. After years of washing important documents in the washing machine, Kate had gotten into the habit of checking the pockets of her pants before putting them in the dirty wash.
After the long drive home and the relaxing shower Beckett had completely forgotten about the note her ex-lover had left her until she pulled it out of her pocket during her nightly routine. She looked at the inscription on the front, it was only her name, but in his writing, to her it was beautiful. Only one other person alive today called her the name written on the front. There have only ever been three people in the world that called her Katie, her father, her mother and Rick. Everyone else went for Beckett, Kate sometimes even Katherine; even her best friend from school called her Becks. Katie was a special name to her and every time she heard it, in this case read it, it made her heart melt.
Sitting on her bed and opening the letter, Kate only had to read the first line before she felt the tears well up in her eyes. By the end she was crying, that was something that didn't happen a lot anymore. Over and Over she read the letter in her head, imagining his voice than she read it out loud just to etch it into her memory.
"Dearest Katherine; I am so very sorry that I hurt you all those years ago. Please talk to me; you don't know the whole story, you never gave me a chance to tell you what I said to the book deal and research opportunity. I have and will always love you. Call me if you need details or 'fan mail' for the case; or if we can catch up for coffee and talk. Love you always; Your Ricky.
Kate refolded the letter and placed carefully on her bedside table grabbing her favourite Richard Castle book A Rose Forever After. This was her book; the proof that what they shared was real. This book was the most worn, the most read in her collection. Suddenly it dawned on her, if they were dealing with a serial killer basing all his or her murders on the crimes they read in these mystery novels she was clearly the only member of their team that know the books and the department isn't going to pay for a copy of every single Richard Castle book written, some of his earlier works weren't even being published anymore; it would take them ages to track them all down.
A lot was running through Kate's mind at this point.
'Ryan and Esposito need to familiarise themselves with all the murder scenes', 'I could take all my books in for them to read', 'Yeah, that'll work.'
By this time she was having a conversation with herself over these books then as she flipped through A Rose Forever After and stopped on the back of the dedication page she realised and thought 'Fuck. All of mine have very personal inscriptions from him. I can't take them in. The boys will know, and then the whole station will know. I can't do that. I've worked too hard to create my image. I can't have that following me around this whole case. But I really have no other option if I want the boys to familiarise themselves with all the crime scenes to be able to spot anymore'
The internal dialog running through Kate's head was starting to panic her, she then got up out of bed, went to the bookshelf to pack all the required novels into a box and then carefully emptied that packed box onto the floor. Kate felt she had to do this to protect her reputation at the 12th, not that she was ashamed of her past relationship with the writer but because she was a very private person and he was very public with a playboy attitude to those who didn't know him like she did.
Walking back to the spare room the detective grabbed a bunch of spare cardboard manila folders, scissors and the invisible tape. After grabbing these items she walked back to the lounge, where the books were dumped, sat on the floor and went to work.
It took her over an hour to complete the task she was working on but now that every book was now complete to her satisfaction and packed neatly into the box she climbed back into bed.
Once tucked up nicely in bed Kate couldn't exactly turn her brain off to go to sleep. That kiss, well make out session, was playing over and over through her head. She couldn't believe that Rick did that in the interrogation room, what if she hadn't order the boys to look through financials and phone records just to get them out of the observation room and they were in there watching.
She tried to be angry at him but god, that kiss was amazing. It really reminded her of old times living at the loft with him and Alexis. 'Alexis, she didn't remember me. I loved that little girl so much I still do. I wanted to give her a mother; I didn't want her to be me, 19 and motherless. I wanted to be there for her through everything she would need a mother for.' Kate was now getting upset, not at Alexis for not remembering but at the fact she wasn't remembered. Her brain didn't turn off but she was exhausted and went to sleep dreaming of the life she wished she could still live, but with a husband, not boyfriend, and a daughter maybe more.
