Close Encounters 27

She showered. It took a while but she got it done. She dressed. Took a little less time because she just pulled on yoga pants and a loose t-shirt and scraped her hair back into a pony tail.

James liked to play with her hair, and the pony tail meant he'd twirl his fingers around and around and-

Okay. Well. She wasn't that much of a sap but. Uh, well. Squishy. She could accept that one. She had the tendency to be squishy when her little boy played with her hair.

Or when Castle came up behind her and lowered his chin to the slope of her neck, a soft kiss and the hum of his contentment at her back. That-

Stupid. Stupid to be standing still like an idiot in the middle of the room - a pile of dirty clothes in one corner and James's now-clean diapers stacked up on top of his open duffle bag.

Hell. Go find them, you squishy idiot.

She walked outside barefoot, the damp places on her skin quickly evaporating in the summer heat. The sun was a force out here, bouncing off the glassy waves, illuminating the whole bay. She wanted to get down there, float in that calm serenity.

Her father thought he was unnecessary; he was going out there to make himself useful to them.

She sighed, rubbing her forehead with the heel of her hand. The cottage was nestled in the dip of the grass and she made her way to the front door, let herself inside.

"Mama!" James came bolting for her, hurtling himself into her knees. She crouched down and rubbed her fingers through his hair, spiking it up, and he lifted his head to give her that shy smile.

"Hey, wolf. What are you and daddy doing?"

"Kate, glad you made it over," Castle said, coming to get James. "Hunt's in there. He's got something to say."

"What?" she asked, bewildered by the blunt address.

Castle lifted James up and loudly smacked a kiss to the boy's neck, making him giggle, and then carried him back to the kitchen table. "I'm making lunch; we've been over here talking. Lost track of time. James is hungry. Aren't you, wolf? So we took a break."

"Colin has something to say?" she repeated, moving slowly to follow him. "Wait. Why did my dad leave?"

Castle lifted his gaze to hers, his body hunched over James in the kitchen chair, trying to keep him seated. "He heard us talking yesterday about how we didn't have the supplies we needed. And called me out on not having a bed for you."

She grunted, frowning at him. "Castle, I'm fi-"

He pointed at her, leveling a glare her direction. "Don't even."

She huffed, sinking down into the chair beside James. The boy clapped his hands, hugged them under his neck, shy smile and all. She reached out and rubbed her thumb at the smudge of something over his eye. He ducked her touch.

Oh, oops. A bruise. "Sorry, Jay. It's attached. What're you guys making for lunch?"

"Grilled cheese. Tomato soup. Protein powder," he grinned, shrugging at her. "Want some? Be good for you too."

"Yeah." Her stomach growled and James chuckled, making her laugh as well. She scratched his scalp and he wriggled in his chair, so pleased with himself. Such a big boy. "What about you, wolf? Tomato soup isn't quite your speed."

"He can gum on toast. And I'm making him some eggs again." Castle winced. "We really need rice cereal, fresh fruit. A nutribullet so I can puree his vegetables. Your dad going is a lifesaver."

She sighed and leaned in to kiss James's forehead. "All right. You need food. I'm being panicky for no reason."

"Panicky?" Castle said, his head coming up from the stove where he stirred the soup. "Is it panic attack panicky or just-"

"Just," she interrupted. "Tired is all. James. I see elephant on the floor. What're you doing?" She leaned over and picked it up, dusting it off. She handed it back to him and James beamed, hugging it around the neck. "And where's Sasha? She usually fetches elephant for you."

"Dog's outside," Castle said.

"Castle," she gasped. "You let her loose?"

He turned around, giving her that do you think I'm stupid look. "No one is carrying on the island, Kate. Not a single one of the guys has a weapon on him. There are weapons stashed in the houses, the perimeter guard shacks, but there is a very specific mandate that they cannot be carried."

"Oh," she whispered.

"None of the foxes will be trapped, the pheasants stay in the bushes, and Sasha is perfectly safe here. So is our son."

She sank back against the chair. "Of course. I..." Kate took a breath. "You saved my baby foxes?"

"The whole nest."

"You think foxes can be tamed?"

When Castle looked at her, his whole face softened, tender towards her in a way that made her fingers curl around James and long for things.

"Kate, love, foxes usually can't be tamed. But with you, anything is possible."

Castle knew that Hunt wouldn't want to do this with him in the room, but he didn't like the way Kate was shying away from the meeting. She took her time over lunch, practically dawdling, spending an inordinate amount of time cuddling James and mothering him when he was already over it.

James finally wriggled off her lap and down to the floor, scooted off towards the pots and pans Castle had pulled out for him to play with. Toys. They needed to send Jim to a store and get a cruiser, like one of those lawn mowers to push across the floor like he did to Sasha. Stacking toys - blocks or those car garages, repetitive motion; James was endlessly fascinated by the cars' slide down the chute. Something with language acquisition since James seemed ambivalent about learning his sounds.

Though he seemed perfectly content with pots and pans.

Castle watched Kate out of the corner of his eye, the faint movement of her fingers as she picked at the crumbs of lunch. He made up a plate for Colin, all while he studied her, and as she seemed to wilt, he knew it was time to get it over with.

"All right," Castle said. "Come on, Kate."

She lifted a startled pair of eyes and he stood up, reaching for her hands to pull her to her feet.

"Stop stalling," he said. "Hunt has something to say." He turned and snapped his fingers for the boy. "James Beckett. We're going with mommy. Come on."

James raised an eyebrow as if saying yeah right, which only made Castle laugh. He released Kate's hands and moved for James, picked up the boy and carried him away from the pots and pans.

"Castle, really-"

"All of us," he said, threat and promise both. "Supervised visits until we're sure that Colin Hunt is feeling - himself again."

She scowled at him, but he knew her. He knew she wasn't up for this, for wrangling with whatever it was that happened between her and Hunt - had happened or would happen. Had she been feeling better, not quite so exhausted, he'd be glowering and pouting as usual.

But she was already stressed out; she was already tied up in knots about him and Colin and herself, and he wasn't going to add another load. He was going to head into the room with her and be her bulwark, the foundation she needed to make it through this-

And the emotional feedback loop from their son to shore her up.

"Castle," she protested again. But he was guiding her by the hip, he and James nudging at her back to get her moving, herding her towards Hunt's bedroom door.

"I left him alone to rest, but he can be woken for lunch." He had the man's plate in one hand and James on his other side, Kate before him as he crowded her in the hallway.

"Fine, fine, stop pushing," she muttered. "Here, give me that." She took the plate from him and twisted open the knob, went right on into the bedroom without hesitating.

"That's my girl," he murmured.

She shot him a dirty look over her shoulder, but she set the plate on the bedside table and leaned over Colin, shook him awake. Hunt startled up as if from a bad dream, let out a gasp of air as the movement did something to him. He curled on his good side, knees coming up.

"You okay?" she said softly, her hand on his shoulder.

Castle cradled James against his chest and sat down on the chair in the corner, out of the loop, not wanting to intrude. Perhaps just be a faint reminder, a little feedback loop of his own. Whatever the fuck that meant.

A little headache.

Kate straightened the covers and sank back into the seat beside the bed. "We've brought you lunch."

"Lunch," Hunt echoed hollowly. He shifted on the bed and managed to sit up, glancing once over at Castle and James. "Thanks."

Kate blinked, looked over at him as well. Castle avoided her eyes and set James on his feet, those little hands curling around his thumbs and bouncing, giggling.

"Good kid," Hunt said, clearing his throat.

Castle could hear Kate sigh from here. "He's only a baby," she murmured. "So much of his character is still being shaped. We're doing the best-"

"I meant it, Kate," Hunt said. A note of sadness in his voice. "He's a good kid."

James was grinning like he totally knew they were all talking about him.

"Well, thanks," Kate said softly. She lifted her eyes from James and caught Castle's. There was a desperation in her gaze that nearly had him out of his chair; she wasn't comfortable and she was just exhausted enough to look to him for help.

But he couldn't do that. She needed this too.

"Kate, I owe you an apology."

Her head whipped back to Hunt, staring. "Colin."

"I've never had... even my own mother wasn't someone to trust with anything precious. I don't know how to be selfless, how to put someone else first, let alone be family."

"Colin," she sighed.

"You both have - you came back for me in the woods. You didn't have to do that."

"Yes, we did," Kate said. She was studying Hunt now, something stronger, steel going down her backbone. Castle was relieved to see it. "We had to come back for you because I promised you - because you made a sacrifice for me, you showed up for me. And you are, actually, family."

"Not that we've had such good luck with family," Castle interjected, pointedly so that Hunt would get to it.

"No, we haven't. Any of us," Colin said, tilting his head back against the wall behind the bed. "I don't know how to do this, Kate. My first instinct is to protect myself. Get out. Cut my losses. But bloody hell, you have a kid. I can't do that."

"Do what?" she said quietly.

Hunt swallowed and lifted his head again, his eyes meeting hers and then drifting over to James. "I can't keep - playing you. Betraying you. And I'm sorry."

Kate was quiet. Castle could see her picking at the arm of the chair, her brow furrowed.

"I'm sorry I'm a lousy - lousy brother. Sorry I - hurt you, Kate."

"You didn't hurt me," she denied. Denial it was. Neither Castle nor Hunt believed her, not even James did. The boy was straining to go to her, and Castle finally let go of him, allowed him to lurchingly run towards his mother.

Kate let out a startled breath when James ran into her, but she reached down and cupped the back of his head as he hugged her knees. "Hey there, wolf."

"I've got to report in when I get the chance," Colin got out. He was staring at James and Kate. Castle felt a slithering pride that he had made that, his family, that she and James were his and he belonged to them.

Hunt was on the outside.

And yeah, that fucking sucked. Castle had been the outsider; he knew what that was like. "Colin," he said. "John Black - Jackson Hunt - he was the kind of father who cultivated a sphere of isolation. It caused severe independence, unmatched confidence, and self-reliance. But it also made it fucking impossible to connect with anyone."

Kate sucked in a breath and stared at him - because she knew what came next. She did; she came next.

"But then I met Kate," he said carefully. "And she changed everything for me. I know that - in some ways, she's done the same for you. Cracked you open. Something about you, Kate." He shrugged at her, hands flat on his knees, watching her cuddle James.

"It wasn't just me. You were already there, Rick."

He shook his head, looked back to Hunt. "So, I get it. You don't know what to do now, don't know how to handle it. And while I had Kate to teach me, make me understand, you don't."

"Well, thanks, big brother. If I didn't already feel like shit."

"That's exactly what I'm getting to," Castle growled. "Brothers. Taught the same fucking things, by the same asshole, even if he never showed up for you - taught you the same things, didn't he?"

Hunt rubbed his hand down his face. "Fine. Yes. The bastard. And so?"

"And so Kate and I - and James, and her father, and this family we've made out of our friends - we'll teach you. James is pretty great teacher, actually."

Colin's jaw dropped. So did Kate's, actually, but he'd wanted Hunt to fucking get here on his own, apologize to Kate and look like he damn well meant it.

Castle himself wasn't thrilled about Hunt being around Kate, but when she wasn't fucking exhausted, she could more than handle Hunt. And Colin Hunt was already part of this, whether Castle wanted him to be or not, and so Castle would have to work to get this man even close to being worthy of it.

Get him up to speed but with the help of their whole family, not Kate alone; never Kate alone. It was a group effort.

But right now she was tired, and she needed him to do this, to be better than her jealous husband when he had no need to be jealous. She needed him to not antagonize Hunt because it hurt her, and he'd just spent the last few hours explaining to Hunt how they didn't do that. They didn't hurt Kate.

"Castle?"

"So is it a deal?" Castle asked, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. "Colin? You family or you out?"

Colin stared at him.

James clapped.

Castle grinned and glanced at his son, saw him beaming at the whole room, gracing them all with his smile. "Well, we've got official approval. Colin?"

"I..."

Kate was staring at him, and it felt pretty damn good to have surprised her.

Colin's eyes slid to Kate and finally back to Castle. "I'm - in. I'm in."

"Then, here," Castle said. He stood quickly and moved for James, picked the kid up from where he stood before Kate. "You can baby-sit. He naps for about two hours after lunch. So you eat, rub his back, he'll fall right to sleep."

He lowered James to the mattress beside Hunt and cupped the back of the boy's head. James sank into the pillows and lifted both arms to Castle. He obliged, lowered to give James a fierce hug, making the kid giggle again. His tired giggled.

Being a feedback loop was hard work, wasn't it?

Castle kissed his son's forehead and straightened up, ignored the flabbergasted indignation rising in Colin's eyes, and he turned back to his wife. He gripped her by the wrist and pulled her to her feet before she could protest.

Outside in the hall, she finally found her voice. "Castle. What the hell-?"

"You trust him or not, Kate?"

She let out a breath, frowned.

"Yeah, I don't either. Don't worry, we've got a camera in the room. Security monitors set up, the guys have it covered. Len's got the feed right upstairs too."

She was glaring at him. "Rick Castle."

"We gotta make him think we trust him, Kate, or he won't ever get there. Plus James - he can hold his own. And he's your son. Got a lot working for him."

He was a feedback loop; a little headache. Yeah, James would be fine. Hunt was injured enough to be mostly manageable.

Kate suddenly stepped into him, buried her face against his neck, her arms sliding around his waist.

He twined his arms around her and gripped the back of her head, softly kissed her temple.

"Come sit on the beach with me," he whispered. "Come away with me, Kate."

"Yes," she said, her voice catching. "I want to see the ocean."

He hadn't taken her down to the bay, the quiet, tranquil bay.

No. He'd led her through the cool woods to the shoreline against the sandy cliffs' edge of their island. She couldn't get down to the ocean from here, but it pounded violently against the crumbling rocks below, something fierce - and soothing in that fierceness.

She sank back against Castle's chest, his arms loose around her as they sat together. He was leaning against one of the birch trees, the thin white trunk, with a knee pulled up. Kate turned her shoulder into his sternum, knees tucking under his drawn up one. She laid her hand over the snarling tattoo at his chest, just below his t-shirt, felt his heart thumping.

Neither of them spoke - couldn't be heard over the pounding surf anyway - but Castle pulled out his phone and propped it up at his hip, where her eyes fell naturally.

When she saw the video on his phone, she had to smile, nipping her teeth against his chest in gratitude. He knew her too well: he had the security feed from Colin's room and she could see her baby boy, sacked out on the bed, safely asleep.

Her worry sifted, settled out, and disappeared.

She could see that Colin Hunt was asleep as well, lunch uneaten, his hand resting on James's back like he'd been in the middle of comforting the boy, just as Castle had told him. James was cared for, the monitor showed him content, and she was feeling her own exhaustion now.

Kate drew her other arm around her husband and closed her eyes, fingers gripping the waistband on his shorts, her other hand stroking the inked wolf.

The crash and tumult of the ocean below them was just what she'd needed. She would have been just as restless in the bay, with its peace and its easy, lapping waves. The chaos inside her own heart was being played out here, on their island, and she was awash in how numbingly grateful she was to this man. Who knew her. Who absolutely knew her.

As if timed to perfection, as if he knew the wandering line of her thoughts, Castle lifted his hand and stroked his fingers through her hair, drawing the sweaty tendrils off her neck. He blew a breath against her skin and rubbed his thumb over her ear. "Sleep, love. You should sleep."

"Getting there," she promised.

"Too hot?"

"Mm, no. Perfect." The stand of birches provided just enough light to warm her bones and make her liquid against him, but the breeze and the cool shadows kept her energy from being drained by the sun. It was soporific in its own way.

He kissed her temple, a pressing kiss to the corner of her eye. He couldn't possibly believe she'd fall asleep if he kept touching her like this.

Kate drew her hand down to the hem of his t-shirt, pushed her fingers up and under to bare skin. His muscles jumped and twitched as she slid her palm back up to his heart, to the bristling wolf she knew was there.

Castle's fist knotted in the hair at her nape; she could feel him straining down to kiss her. But his cheek merely scratched against hers, that downy-thorny beard abrading her skin.

"Talk to me," she murmured. For him as well as herself. "Tell me about Jolin." He needed to talk just as much as she needed to be in the loop.

"We had to get rid of the body. Burn it. But she was wearing a ring; I sent it to my father."

She startled, eyes opening to look at him.

"He may have loved her, somehow. Or not. Either way, he ought to know what he did to her."

"Did you tell him she'd been taking it? For - for those weird experiments with telekinesis?"

"No. Best leave that out of everything." His fingers stroked at her neck, into her hair tangled by the wind over the island. "Mitchell and his team grabbed her personal effects from the motel room. Walker confiscated her laptop and while it was definitely connected to the Collective's network, he said she hadn't sent them anything in a long while."

"Damn. We got lucky," Kate breathed.

"And now Walker has an inside link to the Collective's network. Plus Colin Hunt."

"Hunt?" she whispered.

"He has handlers in the main organization. He was reporting to them while supposedly on Jolin's payroll. She thought he was on her side, they had Black as a mutual enemy, mother and son against the conniving father. So Hunt will be going back to the Collective, telling them the story we carefully construct."

Kate must be exhausted, to have missed that. "I get it now. What you've been doing. Basic brainwashing techniques in there. Shit."

He didn't apologize, just kept brushing the hair off her neck.

"But it's smart," she admitted. "We need someone on the inside who can tell us how much information they gathered from Jolin. Someone who - who knows our family, knows what's at stake. And won't betray us."

"It's not really brainwashing, is it?, if you're undoing decades of brainwashing by a man without a conscience and a woman without a soul. It's what you did for me, Kate. What we can do for him."

Kate let out a breath, a little blindsided by the picture he had of himself. Brainwashed. A hostage to his father's program. God, it tore her heart for him. She tightened her arm at his waist and breathed the clean scent of his shirt. "Not brainwashing. You're right. Just - showing him a better way."

Castle rumbled something under her ear and spread his fingers out at her neck, massaging the muscles where they attached to her skull, making her body loosen again.

He brushed a kiss to her ear as he spoke. "From what Walker has gotten with his little trojan horse on their network - they're so off-base it's going to be decades before they get even close to Black's program. More - they'd begun to doubt Diane Jolin nearly ten years previous. A review board was even set up to second-guess her work. Which is how Hunt got where he was in their hierarchy."

"She must have been suspicious of the Collective as well," Kate sighed. "That's why she wanted to talk to Black, to me in Paris. Right? She must've felt them pulling away from her."

"That's our working hypothesis. She was a pacifist, ideologically. And the people in charge were nominally on her side until she got too far out there for them. But until we know for sure that the Collective didn't get a single bit of data about us, we stay here."

Under the warm sun, their little island. "I should-"

"No, Kate."

She dragged open her eyes, not sure when they'd closed. "Castle. You can't just keep me swaddled like an invalid. I-"

"I can. And I will, if you make me. You need to recover, Kate."

"I know that," she muttered, irritated with his hands on her, the wall of his body surrounding her, the way he trapped her. "I know I need to recover. But I'm also - a mother, wife, an agent. I have things to do. Hell, my father is getting us supplies and I've got to-"

"You don't," he insisted. "You don't have to anything. What you have to do is sleep and eat, and I'll make you, Kate, I will make you, because you did far more than you should've had to do."

"It was necessary," she muttered.

He reached up between them and caressed her lips, pulling apart the frown she'd been giving him. "It was. And you did it, everything I needed you to do. But now you need to do this. Partner me in this, Kate."

She closed her eyes, trying to cut off the way his gaze seemed to tunnel right down into her heart and make her want to promise him impossible things.

"If you don't, you'll never be strong again. You'll spend all your energy on doing these stupid little things that you don't have to be the one to do, when you should be spending your energy on healing. Healing. You can't ever heal if you waste your strength on insisting that you be the one to carry James or make lunch or track down the Collective."

She sighed.

"You know I'm right. You just don't want to admit it." His whisper caressed her ear like a breeze, made her skin tingle. "I love you anyway, and I'm going to make you stop."

She growled and opened her eyes again. "Just don't - don't keep me out of the loop. I need to know. You have to-"

"I won't. I'll let you know every last thing we do. I promise."

She sighed and turned her back into his chest, her face to the horizon of brilliant blue sky and turbulent ocean. Castle went still, but she reached back and dragged his arm over her waist, made him curl around her.

"Then I promise too," she muttered.

She kept her eyes on the ocean, hoping its violence could drain her own, drown out her restlessness.

Maybe it could.

Castle kissed the back of her neck and she shivered.

Maybe it all could.

the end of Close Encounters 27: Sea Fire

stay tuned for Close Encounters 28: GoldenEye