A/N: I know it's been forever since I've posted! I did not intend to be gone so long though. My parents sold their house, I moved to my own place and I'm adopting a couple of cats (hopefully getting them Sunday!) so I've had a lot going on. The cats names will be Maisie and Remy in case you were curious.
With promises from Rick to Martha that he would call to give her more details about Kate's sudden departure from the restaurant and why he needed to follow her, he raced after his girlfriend who was walking in the direction of her father's apartment. When he caught up to her, Kate's face was in an unreadable daze and Rick didn't know whether to expect tears and if so if they were in sadness, shock or joy.
Rick pulled Kate toward the wall of a storefront and asked if she was okay. She looked up at him after a few moments and he saw tears lining her eyes and a soft and sad smile gracing her lips. He probably should have expected her reaction would be a mix of sadness, shock and joy and it amazed him that now that she was looking at him, he could see the perfect blend of these emotions in her gaze.
"Rick, I don't know what to do."
"I don't either," he admitted. "Did you want to go back to your dad's place?"
Kate nodded and said, "he probably doesn't know what's going on yet."
"Let's go then."
"What about your mom?"
"I'll call her when we get to your dad's place. I didn't get much time to explain."
Kate was quiet for most of the cab ride, so Rick put his arm around her and didn't press her to talk.
"I doubt there's a book on how to deal with this," Kate said. "So, You Helped Catch Your Mother's Murderer, Now What?: the step-by-step guide to dealing with it." She let a humorless laugh escape as she wiped away a few tears.
Rick grabbed one of her hands and squeezed it. "You and me, we'll get through this together. I'll be with you every step of the way. You don't have to do this alone."
Kate gave him a soft smile and whispered, "thank you."
Jim Beckett was on the phone when Kate and Rick arrived. To Rick, it sounded like he was talking to a reporter or a very nosy telemarketer. After ending the call Jim confirmed that he'd been getting phone calls from the press since the news broke.
"The police called too. They wanted to know if I was interested in being at the press conference and if I wanted to make a statement. I told them I'd talk with you and get back to them."
"I'd like to say something. I think Mom deserves at least that."
Being the writer, Rick helped Kate draft up a statement that she could say at the press conference. He already agreed to stand near the podium with her dad while she spoke the words she had longed to say for over a decade.
The press conference was scheduled for nine the next morning, so after a few tweaks to the script, Kate and the two most important men in her life, ate a quick breakfast, got ready for the day, and left the apartment together.
Standing at the podium, Kate fought back tears by breathing deeper and focusing on the words she and Rick wrote together. The flashing lights from the cameras didn't deter her from speaking, nor did the slight waver in her voice and her jittery hands.
"My mother fought for justice for people who had been forgotten. After losing my mother over a decade ago, I started to believe it was a cruel sense of irony that my mother's murder was unsolved and filed away as a cold case. When new evidence was found, my dad and I finally started to believe we would have closure and a resolution like Johanna Beckett gave to countless people in New York. My dad and I would like to thank the brave men and women of the NYPD who serve the city we love every day and were instrumental in getting justice for my mom. We are grateful for your hard work and dedication and my dad and I will be forever in your debt. We'd also like to personally thank Lieutenant Victoria Gates for believing that the evidence that was found was important enough to reopen the case. The last decade has been a struggle for my dad and me, but we held on and stuck together with the shared hope of finding my mother's killer. Now that we have the truth, we can hopefully start to heal from carrying the burden of the unknown for so long." Kate looked out into the sea of cameras having finished reading the entirety of the statement that was in front of her but continued after taking a shaky breath. "Lastly, I want to thank Rick for having my back during this difficult time and loving me despite all the drama." Kate turned to catch Rick's eye and smiled. "I love you. Always."
When Kate stepped away from the microphone, Rick enveloped her in a hug and whispered, "I love you, too" into her ear.
Following the press conference, Kate, Rick and Jim found a relatively secluded place just inside the precinct where they sat and attempted to process everything that had happened to them in only two days. Rick grabbed Kate's hand and gave it a squeeze to get her attention.
"How would you feel if we honored this important day by going to your mom's favorite restaurant in her memory?"
Kate smiled at Rick then looked to her dad, "What do you say, Dad?"
"I think that is a wonderful idea," Jim agreed with a smirk.
Rick was surprised when the two Becketts led him to a hot dog cart on Lexington Avenue and not the typical sit-down restaurant he was expecting.
"Mom loved these hot dogs. They were her biggest guilty pleasure."
"And they were her biggest craving while pregnant with Katie."
"I hope that doesn't pass down to her daughter if we're still living in Hawthorne in a few years."
Kate's horrified but surprised reaction had her father laughing. Fighting back the terrified but excited feeling in her gut, Kate retorted with, "if you're smart you'll hire a hot dog vendor for the library before it's necessary and avoid the countless trips to New York."
"Sounds like an investment opportunity to me," Rick joked taking a big bite of the hot dog in his hands.
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