CH2
It is now two days later: (May)
The last two days had been a whirlwind for Kate and even everyone at the 12th. Kate had passed her captains exam. She had gone through the ceremony of accepting her captain's bars. Roy Montgomery had actually taken his off and placed them on Kate who was dressed in her dress blues.
Everyone that could from the 12th had attended and like an Army/Navy football game or a high school graduation, hats went flying into the air and everyone was screaming and yelling.
Kate next found herself in her father's arms wiping away her tears. "I'm proud of you honey. … Your mother would be proud of you too." Jim tells Kate.
"Thanks dad. … I love you." Kate hugged her father; even after all they had been through together and separate from each other.
"I love you too honey. You're going to make a great precinct captain." Jim knew why Kate was doing this, even if she wasn't captain of a precinct yet.
It was hours later and after all of the celebrations. The guys were out in the bull pen working on one of their many cases. Lanie was downstairs after hugging and crying all over Kate after going over the latest body that was a simple GSW to the chest that uniforms had just found their lead suspect hiding out in his parent's home.
Kate was in Roy's office going over a recent robbery report followed by a report on the recent gang activity when there was a knock on Roy's office door.
They guys and everyone else in the precinct had seen these two enter the building and were whispering their thoughts about why there were here.
Everyone on the 4th floor had stopped working as they all watched these two walk for Roy's office. Epso took a pen being thrown in his chest from Ryan who gestured to the two men that Espo had his back to.
Ryan and Espo, like everyone else that could see this had stopped breathing. "Roy got a moment." Bob Wheldon asked him.
"I'll be right outside." Kate offered and got up to step past them.
"Stay captain, we're here for you too." Bob tells her.
"I think you know we're going to miss you Roy, you've done a lot of good work over the years. I know your official last day isn't for another 10 days, however word of what you have been doing the last few weeks as made it out of this precinct." Bob tells him.
"Thank you sir, I've done my best. I've had a good team here to work with." Roy was proud of what the 12th had accomplished.
The Commissioner steps up next and hands over a large vanilla envelope to Kate. "Captain Katherine Houghton Beckett, this is our official offer for you to take over as Captain of the 12th precinct in four days time. In the intervening time you and Montgomery will be co-captains of the 12th precinct until Roy's official last day here takes place.
You'll find our official offer along with all the other paperwork, base pay, medical coverage's, 401K options and the various pieces of paperwork that require your signature." The commissioner completes his small speech.
"Also after you accept and send in your signed paperwork, you will be spending the next 4 days at a seminar that we are sending a few captains to, with pay of course. You will be driving yourself there and your hotel stay is already taken care of. You will find all of that in there too." The commissioner adds.
Kate quickly closes her mouth, she may have made captain but there was no guarantee that she would be make captain of the 12th. Cast Iron Bottom Sound Gates had more seniority over her.
"I know this is a lot to think about Captain Beckett, think it over and send in the paperwork only if you really want this.
To be honest my IN BOX in my office has been overflowing the last few days with letters from officers in this precinct rating your skills to take this job as being rather high. … There were also a number of letters that also indicated that they would be applying for a transfer if we didn't offer you the job." Bob admits.
"You already have a lot of support in this precinct captain; it was one of the things that we considered in who to offer the position to. Along with the support of the 12th 's present captain." The commissioner adds.
Kate has the envelope in her hands and is still stunned. "Thank you sir, you'll have my answer before the end of the day." Kate tells them.
"Just so long as it is a yes Captain." Bob shakes Kate's hand as does the commissioner.
"Your official date is not for another 10 days Roy, we've already got a big going away ceremony planned along with some parting gifts down at 1PP. Yourself and the 12th's new captain will be expected to attend, naturally." Bob shakes Roy's hand as does the commissioner.
"You will be missed Roy, but I think your replacement leaves the 12th in good hands." The commissioner tells him.
"Thank you sir, I'll make sure we're all there." Roy responds.
"And don't forget to bring that lovely wife of yours and the kids." Bob adds before the two of them leave his office and head back to 1PP to continue the planning for what comes next.
"You'll do great Beckett, you're the best I've ever seen." Roy tells her after they were gone. "Now get out of my office, and take those two with you. I think a celebration is in order." Roy tells her. "And Beckett, congratulations, I'm sure you'll have a long and successful career as Captain. At least until you decide you want to replace someone a little higher up." Roy smiles at Kate.
"Yes sir, thank you sir." And Kate heads out of his office. And the entire encounter seemed to go off word for word, as if Kate had expected to hear exactly what she did in fact hear.
"This is impossible, stuff like this doesn't happen." Kate was confused, it didn't make sense.
Kate and the guys were standing at the elevator waiting when the 4th floor erupted into applause. It got Kate to start blushing and hide her head. Kate did however offer a little wave after stepping into the elevator before the doors closed.
It was a little more subdued down in the basement, at least until someone screamed. "KATHERINE BECKETT!" And Lanie slammed into Kate and gave her the Lanie bear hug of the century.
"Lanie, … can't breathe." Kate manages to whisper out.
"I'm so happy for you girl, please tell me your excited." Lanie just wanted Kate to be happy.
"To be honest, I'm not sure just what I am just yet. Maybe it'll hit me tonight when I read all the paperwork that came with the offer." Kate tells her. "Right now Montgomery has given us the rest of the day off, so we're headed for lunch. You're invited of course." Kate tells her.
"Let's go." Lanie dumps all her stuff and grabs her purse and has a hold of Kate's arm as they make their way up to the first floor, where all hell breaks loose.
"So tell me about this deal they offered." Lanie asks now that they were down to just sucking their milkshakes through a straw.
Kate pulled out her envelope and started pulling papers out. "Oooo, can't show you that one." Kate places it face down and covers it up and keeps a hand on it, even though she had taken a peek at it. $101,742 annually. "They want me to go to some seminar for four days starting tomorrow." Kate hands over the paperwork for that.
Kate finds her 401K paperwork, medical coverage; minimum hours expected and job description.
"They want you to go to Jersey for this seminar." Espo points out, since he loathes all things Jersey.
"JERSEY!?" Kate snatches the papers out of his hand and starts looking at them. "Three night stay at Crowne Plaza Fairfield, 690 Route 46 East, Fairfield, NJ 07004. … What the hell am I doing over there?" Kate couldn't believe it.
What the hell was near there anyway that could handle a seminar, and why in the hell is it in Jersey?
"It's a hotel; don't all hotels have banquet facilities?" Lanie offers taking the papers from Kate to read them herself.
"Couldn't they do it closer to home, so that I didn't need a hotel?" Kate questions. Now she needed to pack at least 3 days of clothes if not 4. This was beginning to suck and she hadn't even been on the job one day yet.
"There is something at this hotel, something I can't afford to miss." Kate whispers to herself, just not loud enough for the others to hear her.
"Have you loaded the car dad?" Alexis asks.
"All there is is our suitcase's that will get loaded in the morning and what is in the storage area in the garage." Rick tells her as he pulls out the last of almost everything so he can make dinner. The last dinner in the loft.
"I'll do it." Alexis offered and headed for the front door.
"Thanks, dinner will be ready soon so don't take too long." Rick called after her.
Alexis was out the door already when what Alexis had said registered in his brain. "ALEXIS WAIT!" Rick ran for the door but she was already in the elevator on her way down to the garage. "She's going to kill me." Rick knew he was in big trouble when she got back. So he started thinking up what he was going to say when she got back.
Alexis had the bob for the car and opened it and went over to the storage unit and unlocked it. Inside Alexis found two long hard sided pieces of luggage and five good sized duffel bags.
Alexis started with one of the long cases which had a little weight to it but nothing she couldn't handle. It did cause her to put one of the back seats down to gain the length she needed. After putting that one in the car she went back for the other case.
After that came the first duffel bag, which weighed a lot more then she gave it credit. Getting it into the back of the car was a bigger challenge since she three more bags to put into it.
The second and third weighed just as much as did the fourth. Now Alexis was curious, just what was her dad planning on taking with them? The weight didn't concern her; they could handle this and six people.
Alexis zipped it open and pulled it open and found a smaller hard sided case inside along with several small boxes.
All of the boxes were the same color and size and there were a lot of them.
Remington Golden Saber, .45 ACP Smith & Wesson.
Alexis had a clue as to what this was but she opened it just the same. "Bullets!" Alexis whispered to herself. "What the hell are you doing dad!?" This got Alexis to open the small hard case bag that was in the duffel bag. It held a semi-automatic weapon that had the word SIG on the side of it.
"Weapons and bullets." Alexis whispered out and looked up at the roof, wondering who was in their now old home and what he had done with her dad?
Alexis put it all back into the car and locked it up and left the storage unit open since it was empty now and went back upstairs to find out who was actually up there and were her real dad was.
Alexis was sitting at the breakfast bar eating what Rick had cooked, if it really was Rick and was giving him the silent treatment.
Rick ate his dinner in silence. Alexis had come back and not yelled at him, in fact she hadn't said a word since she got back, and it was slowly eating at him.
Rick put his fork down, since he had reached his breaking point. "Alexis I can explain." Rick offered only to watch Alexis ignore him and just keep eating.
"I know you don't like that I'm watching the news too much and probably think I've finally lost my mind. … However Alexis, do you really buy into this many countries having a rabid rabies epidemics. The US has closed their borders; all international travel has been suspended. Even Europe has started closing their borders. Just this afternoon they called up the National Guard in the area along the border with Mexico and deployed all their big weapons to close the border completely. Tell me this is all because of a rabies outbreak." Rick tries to plead his case and challenges Alexis to contradict him.
"You can keep the weapons dad, we might need them." Alexis couldn't counter what was on the news, it even had her sucked into watching it a little. Plus somehow Alexis knew they were going to need them, just not why.
"And what do you think comes next pumpkin with the borders all closed and no flights. They have reporters out at the airports and all flights have practically ended because no one is flying. Amtrak is running almost empty, only those people with bigger commutes are traveling at all." Rick was amazed that Alexis seemed to be taking this so well.
"We need to leave tonight dad, just don't ask me why, but we do." Alexis tells him.
That got Rick to look at Alexis funny. "I've already made reservations at a hotel almost next door to the airport. It should be an easy drive in the morning." Rick tells her, feeling that he has stayed at this hotel before, but just can't remember when.
They have the car loaded with their two bags and the weapons and ammunition that Alexis had already loaded when Rick started reaching the bridge between Manhattan and Jersey. The traffic was moving, but really slowly.
When they got close enough they found that the bridge looked like a military encampment.
There were two M1/A1 Abrams main battle tanks along with 2 Bradley fighting vehicles. There was also a few Humvee's, most of which had a heavy machine gun mounted on them and they were all manned. In addition there were sandbags all along the edge of the river on each side.
As Rick approached there were several soldiers that were all heavily armed and they waved him through along with all the others. "I take it back dad." Alexis tells him about him buying weapons and leaving tonight instead of in the morning. As Alexis waves at the soldier who was waving them through.
"Did any of that look familiar to you dad?" Alexis asks as they cross the bridge.
"It was nothing Alexis, nothing to worry about." Rick tells her trying to keep Alexis calm, even if all of that looked familiar, something was about to happen, he just couldn't quite remember what it was.
Kate has made up her mind and goes out to her cruiser and throws her bag with 4 days of clothes inside along with some odds and ends that she thought she might need, which included the two signed books written my Richard Castle, even if she had read them countless times.
Kate was out on the road headed for the bridge leading to Jersey when traffic slowed considerably. Kate wasn't in a hurry and using her lights to get them to move was against regulations, so she just inched along like all the others.
When Kate got close she found the bridge entrance manned by the army, complete with tanks and other big vehicles and humvees, with men manning the machine guns that were mounted on them.
"What the hell?" Kate watched all of them and went across the bridge when the soldier waved her through. It gave her a really bad feeling about this, however she continued on anyway as planned.
"I've seen this before, just why can't I remember where or when." Kate talks to herself as she crosses the bridge.
"Is that?" Kate questions herself. "Nah, can't be. Why would he be in this hotel?" Kate shakes her head. She must really be tired if she's seeing Richard Castle and some really young woman with him entering a hotel. "Maybe he hasn't given up his playboy image; just she was really young looking." Kate's opinion of her favorite author just went down several notches. It was quick so she didn't get a good look at the woman, but her hair color was something she wasn't likely to forget.
Kate grabbed her bag and found her room and dropped it on one of the two beds.
It was a seen one, seen them all hotel room, nothing special. At least it had breakfast in the morning.
Rick had been jolted awake and was up and watching the idiots and their cars outside the hotel when he decided to move over to the TV and turned it on.
What he saw had him scrambling for the remote and turned the volume up a lot higher.
"ALEXIS! …. Alexis." Rick tried shaking her again to wake her up.
"What dad?" Alexis groans out still half asleep.
"Get up, up, up, up. You need to see." Rick shakes her even harder till she was up and watching her dad move over to his bed to sit in front of the TV and turn the volume up even higher.
Alexis was watching and listening and her mouth was falling open further and further. "MY GOD DAD!"
"We need to move pumpkin, get dressed and grab your bag, we're leaving. … NOW!" Rick tells her. Neither bother using the bathroom to change clothes in, time was something it looked like they didn't have.
Kate was jolted awake by the sounds of car horns and rolled out of bed to look. Being on the top floor she found herself looking out onto chaos as people were trying to drive everywhere all at the same time. "What the hell?"
Kate moved over to the TV and turned it on and started watching and listening. "OH, MY, GOD!?"
Kate scrambled for her phone and pulled it off the charger cord and scrolled down for Espo's name and was ready to press call. "It's too late; they've already blown the bridges leaving no way back into Manhattan. … Castle!" Kate had already transferred his cell phone number into her phone.
Kate scrolled down her list and didn't hesitate to press call.
"Kate Beckett." Rick answered his phone after seeing the caller ID. "Now is not a good time Kate." Rick didn't want to just brush her off, but his mind was on Alexis and their lives at the moment.
"I'm in the same hotel Castle, can I come with you? … Please?" Kate knew going with them was the right thing to do, just now how she knew that.
"Meet us downstairs, you've got two minutes." Rick tells her and hangs up.
Kate scrolled down her list of contacts again and pressed call while she stuffed her clothes into her bag.
"Find my dad Espo and get him to the precinct. … Please Espo?" Kate needed for him to be safe; he was all she had left. "I know it's too late to get back into Manhattan, but I think I have a safe place to go." Kate tells him. She just had to get to him in time.
"We'll do what we can Beckett, but it's a mess out there." Espo would do it, just wasn't sure if him and Ryan would succeed.
"Just do what you can Espo, he's all I have left. I'll call you again when I can." Kate hangs up and stuffs everything into her bag and runs down the stairs with waiting for an elevator sounding like a really bad idea and out the door for her car.
It was a mad house out here too as Kate ran for her car.
Out here she found Richard Castle and his young woman throwing bags into the back of their car. "Hurry up dad, we need to get there, like now!" Alexis yells at him, sounding scared since she was.
DAD! It was his daughter! Kate was ready to kick herself for jumping to conclusions. "WAIT! …. NYPD." Kate shows her badge. "Can I come with you?" Kate asks since it sounded like they had a plan and she didn't.
"We meet again Kate Beckett, throw your stuff in the car and get in." Rick tells her.
"Wait one." Kate steps over to her car that was parked next to theirs and opens the trunk and pulls out the bag she knew was in there and throws at Castle, and then reaches in and pulls out the shotgun that was in it also.
That and her bag went into the back of his car and Rick slammed it closed with Rick getting behind the wheel and Kate in the only usable back seat.
This felt all too familiar to Kate; she just couldn't place how she knew that, just that she knew she had to stay with these two. They were going to save her life.