CH4

It is now one month later: (September)

Kate was just thinking that she had been in the pool floating around on her mattress long enough when she heard Castle humming. At first it didn't mean anything to her, till she had heard it more than a couple of times.

It was the theme song to JAWS! "Don't even think it Castle." Kate warns him not bothering to open her eyes. He wouldn't, … would he?

Castle went silent so Kate relaxed thinking Castle had gotten the message when suddenly Kate was completely wet and sitting on the floor of the pool. Kate came up spitting water. "You're going to die Castle!" Kate yelled at him after getting enough air in her lungs, only to hear Alexis scream and listen to water splashing.

He had gotten Alexis too. Kate had only just registered that thought when her feet suddenly went out from under her, ending up almost on her butt at the bottom of the pool.

Down here she could see Castle under water smiling at her as he worked at staying under water.

Kate planted her feet on the bottom of the pool and pushed off heading for Castle like a torpedo with her hands out in front of her, catching Castle in the stomach forcing all the air out of him, getting him to go to the surface sputtering and spitting water.

It's just that Kate needed air by now too since she had been caught unprepared and ended up surfacing right in front of Castle, face to face.

Kate was just starting to think about splashing water in his face to try and drown him when suddenly Kate found Castle's arms wrapped around her tight. "Castle!" Kate started to complain but was silenced when Castle suddenly kissed her.

Kate initially struggled against his arms, however those lips were making their way past her walls and Kate found herself kissing Castle back with equal passion.

Kate broke from the kiss. "Slow down Castle, … please." Kate was learning to like Rick, just wasn't yet ready for the next step.

"Fine, but I'm not going to stop kissing you." Rick replies.

"And I don't want you to Castle. I just need a little more time. … I'm sorry." Kate was still fighting the playboy image she still had of him, even if she did know it was all Gina's fault and Castle was stupid enough to go along with it.

Kate found herself sitting on the sofa outside taking in some of the sun with Rick sitting next to her while Alexis was floating around in the pool. "Tell me about Meredith and Gina, maybe it'll help." Kate could feel that Rick wasn't a playboy, it's just she was having trouble getting it out of her head.

"Meredith. …. I never could get Meredith to be a mother. She gave birth to her. The second she was placed in my hands, I knew my life had just changed and that I loved her with all of my heart.

Meredith. …. She threatened to get an abortion and kill her before she was even born. I married her because she was pregnant. … I mean that's what you're supposed to do right, marry the woman that you get pregnant?

I had a meeting for one of my books with Black Pawn and they kept me really late, it was pissing me off.

I came home to a crying Alexis. I changed her really dirty diaper and started warming up a bottle and wondered where Meredith was. She was supposed to watching over her, she was a mother.

I found her in our bed riding her director for some part that she wanted. … I threw both of them out and Meredith sent me divorce papers three days later.

Next thing I knew Meredith had almost everything and I had Alexis, clothes and not much else and was flying to New York to start again." Castle explains Meredith.

Kate knew she had her answer about Meredith, that just left Gina and all the bimbos that Castle had gone to bed with.

"Didn't Gina help?" Kate knew he was twice married.

"Gina, … Gina and I made perfect sense on paper. She was my publisher, editor, call it what you want. We were both in the same industry and I hadn't dated or been with anyone since Meredith. I thought she was just what I was looking for. Someone who knew me and be a step-mother to Alexis.

We were out at my beach house in the Hamptons one week. One whole entire week, just us as a family. … Alexis was still little. We were out at the pool that Gina refused to get into. … Didn't want to get her hair wet.

I went inside to gather up the food to put on the grill. Apparently Alexis had taken to diving into the pool to show off to Gina, who simply ignored her. Gina always ignored her, it was one of the things we fought most about.

Seems Alexis would jump and then climb out and run around the pool edge to get where she could dive back in again." Rick pauses, as it plays out in his mind again.

It also had Kate slapping a hand over her mouth, fearing what she knew was coming.

"Alexis slipped, miss jumped, I don't know. All I knew was that Alexis was in the pool screaming in pain while Gina just stood there doing nothing.

Best I could work out, Alexis had slipped and hit her arm against the side of the pool breaking her arm and fell into the water." Rick paused again, since he could still hear his baby screaming in pain while almost drowning in his own pool.

"Gina and I fought over what she had and obviously hadn't done. I drove Alexis to the emergency room and was given a ticket for speeding while I was in the waiting room to find out how Alexis was.

Gina stayed at the house and made no attempt to come with me. … She was my daughter and I should have been watching her. It wasn't Gina's job to watch someone else's child was all Gina would tell me.

It was the beginning of the end for us. A few short months later Gina had my $2 million advance for my next book and I was divorced for the second time.

While Gina and I may have our differences, she was still good at her job and incredibly focused on that part, so I kept her.

It was shortly after that, that Gina came up with the playboy idea to get me into the papers. If my name was being used a lot, people talking about me, it would help sales. … And it seemed to be working.

Next thing I knew I had women hanging all over me." Rick starts laughing, which only was pissing Kate off, not that Rick was watching.

"All these women that wanted to be the next Mrs. Castle, or at the very least get me into their bed. Every man's perfect dream right? … Except all I wanted to do was dump them and forget they even existed and go home to Alexis.

Sit on the sofa watching a Disney marathon. … And after she got older we would have a movie classic marathon, or even old TV shows. … George Burns, Laurel and Hardy, Three Stooges, Marx Brothers.

Then we moved on to comics, Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin, Bob Hope and that guy that would smash watermelons or other things with his giant mallet." It had Rick smiling, listening in his head to his daughter laughing.

"I even bought her and her friends tickets to the local Jeff Dunham show one time. You know, the guy that's a ventriloquist that plays with dolls." Castle offers.

Kate didn't know who Jeff Dunham was since Kate didn't get out much. Her life was work. She did however know who Rodney and the others were. She was just a little girl sitting in front of the TV on the floor watching Three Stooges episodes on reruns on some channel that she didn't remember.

"Don't get me wrong there was an occasional woman that would gain my interest. It's just as soon as I mentioned that I had to go home to my daughter, they all disappeared. An occasional one night stand might be some men's cup of tea, but that wasn't me. Even if the papers did make up all kinds of stories based on the women Gina had selected for me for all the events that I would attend.

Gina sent me to all of them. Then my little girl grew up and I started taking her to all these events. It pissed Gina off, not that I cared. Having Alexis there was the only thing that made those events fun and worth going to.

And she's still growing up, I don't know how she got to this age. All I see is the little girl that I took and dropped off at elementary school. Now she's smarter than I ever dreamed of being." Rick wiped away a few tears that had escaped. His little girl was past her sweet 16 and growing up fast. Way too fast.

"And it never occurred to you that Gina was making sure that she was going to be your last stable woman in yours or Alexis's life by pairing you up with air head big tit bimbos?" Kate decided to just ask.

It got Rick to turn his head to look at Kate in shock, like something had just slapped him upside his head. Kate watched Rick open and close his mouth like a fish, which told Kate, 'no he hadn't'.

"Are women really that vicious?" Rick finally found his voice.

The question found Kate with a problem. "Some women can be Castle, while others can be so submissive that they'll see being beaten daily as being loved. No two are the same Castle, just like not all men are playboys that will go to bed with any woman who comes their way."

"Is that what you see Beckett? Gina sends me these airheads and you think I took them home with me and took them to my bed?" Kate saw a hurt look on his face, and knew that she had put it there, however before she could say anything.

"I suppose thanks to Gina that's all anyone thinks. I saw all those stories that the paper made up because of all those different women. I simply ignored what the papers said since I knew it wasn't me.

I never suspected Gina of being that cruel or manipulative. … I've been an idiot." Rick tried to melt away into the sofa, seeing that he had screwed up so bad for years. He had allowed Gina to belittle him in the eyes of everyone and listened to her lies.

"You said she was good at what she does Castle, she's just better at things besides publishing your books. …. And Alexis never came home telling you that she defended you from what her friends were saying about you?" Kate didn't mean to make him feel worse.

"OH GOD!" Rick moaned, just what had he done? He would rather cut his arm off before hurting Alexis. "She hasn't said a thing. …. You think she's hiding it by not telling me?" Kate could see the pain on Rick's face of all the scenarios that were now running wild in his mind.

Kate took a hold of Rick. "She's fine Rick, you have raised the most perfect woman on this planet and it's all because of you. … If you want I can ask her later." Kate offered, besides if Alexis was hurting Kate wanted to help her.

"Can you, … please?" Rick really did want to know if his little girl was hurting because of his stupidity.

"I'd be happy to. …. I'm sure she's fine Castle." Kate was sure Alexis was fine, but she would ask.

"Castle why did you kill off Storm?" Kate loved his books and her two signed copies of his books were safely tucked away in her bedroom plus she wanted off of this negative thinking.

"Honestly? … I got bored with him. I mean how many times can you save the United States or the entire planet? And just how many super villains are there in the world anyway?

I knew what he was going to do today, what he was going to do tomorrow. The only things that were going to change were the names. If I kept it up he was just going to be another James Bond, only without all the cool gadgets that he has. And he was never going to find the right girl, ever." Castle tries to explain.

"So you killed him." Kate still didn't like that Storm was dead. The books were entertaining. Kate didn't care if Derek Storm didn't evolve into being something more. The mere fact that Storm didn't change was part of the appeal.

Castle started grinning. "Yeah, and it was messy too. Kind of hard to come back from that, unless he was a zombie. Of course he wouldn't be Derek Storm anymore. … Hhmmm, a zombie Derek Storm who can't die because he's already dead." It had Rick thinking. NO, he liked the idea for this book better. There was more life to it. More depth to the characters. He could do so much with this new character.

"I better start dinner." Rick kissed Kate's cheek and got up and went into the house.

(Maybe he's not a playboy. Maybe it all was Gina's fault and lies that the papers wrote to get sales. He was obviously an amazing father, and all he wanted was to spend time with his daughter.

Just why did he let Gina do that to him? The only women he was ever going to meet with that image were the ones that were only interested in his money or a one night stand.)

It did however leave Kate feeling better about Castle and start liking him just a little more.

The next morning Kate was up early and something was gnawing at the back of her mind and it had her scared. Kate was searching the refrigerator when Alexis came out and told Kate she was going down to the store to transfer a few items and check on the plane.

"ALEXIS STOP!" Kate just knew what was going to happen today, she just knew it and it scared her.

"Wait right there, I'm going with you. … Do not move an inch." Kate points a finger at her and runs up the spiral stairs to get to the roof and comes back down carrying the Tommy Gun.

"What do you need that thing for?" Alexis knew there were two of them. One was on the roof with three of the 100 round drums, while the other one and the other two 100 round drums was out in the storage shed.

The only other weapon not in the house was Kate's shotgun along with the 25 shells that was out in the store.

"Humor me and take your SIG out of the kitchen drawer and take it with you." Kate instructs Alexis and waits for her to do just that.

Kate was walking down the path to the store with a purpose and had her gun up and ready with the safety off. "Take off your safety honey." Kate calls to Alexis behind her.

"Something happens doesn't it?" Alexis answers back as Alexis flicks off the safety.

"I think so yeah, … just stay behind me. They hurt you over my dead body." Kate wasn't losing Alexis, that just wasn't an option.

Kate and Alexis made it to the store and knew just where the boat they got here on was located. Kate knew she couldn't explain how she knew, just that she did.

"Stay here and watch this side." Kate tells her as Kate moves to the other side and watches two guys, each with weapons in hand step outside of one of the staff tents.

"Stop right there guys and drop the weapons." Kate yells at them, only to have both of them raise their weapons at take a couple of pot shots at Kate before running back inside the staff tent.

Kate somehow knew they were rapists and likely killers already and they had no way of holding prisoners so Kate stepped out from behind the store and ran to the other end of the building and started spraying the tent with round after round. Holding her finger down on the trigger.

Kate watched as hole after hole opened up in the tent as Kate could hear the shell casings landing in the sand, which what most of this island was.

Kate felt more than saw Alexis step up next to her and prayed that Alexis had her weapon up and was paying attention.

Kate never took her finger off the trigger until the Thompson stopped firing, meaning Kate had used up all 100 rounds. "Give me the keys." Kate holds out her hand.

"Stay here and keep your eyes open, if it moves, shoot it. Just think of it as another paper target. Be careful honey." And Kate kisses her head and runs for the door to the store and unlocks the hurricane shutter and lifts it up and then unlocks the door and runs inside.

Kate is back standing next to Alexis as she chambers a round into the shotgun, only to whip around and point her weapon. "CASTLE! … Don't do that, I almost shot you." Kate tried to get her heart to calm down.

Kate did notice however that Castle had the other Thompson in his hands. "I heard shots, what are you shooting at? … And what happened to my tent?" Rick looked passed both of them to the staff tent that was riddled with holes.

"We have some unwanted and armed guests, who fired first." Kate explains.

"Two guys wasn't it." Somehow Rick just knew. "I grabbed the crossbow first till I remembered we had this baby tucked away in the storage building. This whole thing feels different somehow."

"You two stay behind me and spread out a little, in case they escaped out the backside of the tent unnoticed." Kate tells them.

Inside the tent was a mess. Absolutely everything had at least one hole in it if not several. Including the two guys who each turned out to have 4 rounds in each of them. Kate checked for a pulse. "Their gone." Kate stands back up and lets her shotgun hang from her hand.

"Just the two?" Rick asks, which got Kate to lift up her shotgun again.

"Let's find out. … You two check the tents, TOGETHER. While I check the boat." Kate didn't know why there was a boat, just that there was one.

The tents were empty just like the boat was. Somehow they all knew they would be, but still they had to make sure. Rick picked up the bodies and took them far out to sea and dumped them in the ocean for the sharks.

Kate and Alexis meanwhile moved the boat around to the dock area along with the three boats that were already there.

Kate spent the next three nights sleeping with Alexis to make sure she didn't have any nightmares and if she did Kate wanted to make sure she was there to sooth Alexis and take the nightmares away. Something she wished her mother had been there to do for her. It's just that losing her mother was why she had nightmares.

It is now one month later: (October)

Castle had decided it was 'Who am I' night and it turned out Castle was pretty good at it.

ROUND ONE:

"All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner. "

"I'm nuts and I know it. But so long as I make 'em laugh, they ain't going to lock me up."

"Congress: Bingo with billions"

"A fellow told me he was going to hang-glider school. He said, 'I've been going for three months.' I said, 'How many successful jumps do you need to make before you graduate?' He said, 'All of them.'"

"Exercise? I get in on the golf course. When I see my friends collapse, I run for the paramedics."

"Talking about the Dalton Girls, and bandits and stuff, you know that one of the biggest crimes now, number one on the plate, is counterfeiting.

One guy sold a bill for forty cents, and the government is mad at him because he got more for his than they're getting for theirs!"

"Is there anyone here from Texas? Yeah?! You can always tell a Texan, … not much, but you can tell 'em."

"Texas, now there's a state to visit if you have never been. You name it, they got it. You name it, they ain't got it, you didn't need it no how!"

"Down there they got miles and miles of nothing but miles and miles."

"Everything down there is big. I seen a flea, … it had 4 dogs on it."

ROUND TWO:

"If pro is the opposite of con, is progress the opposite of congress?"

"Why do they put the little "on/off" words on a light switch? If the light's on, you can see that it's on. If the light's off, it's too dark to see the words on the switch."

"If your knees bent the other way, what would a chair look like?"

"I like church though. Church was a weekly reminder there was something worse than school."

"Remember this advice... Never let your mom comb your hair when she's mad at your dad!"

"What is dumber than a blind person with a gun? The idiot who handed them the gun. Where do you hide from a blind person with a gun? How do you make a noise that ain't like a rabbit?"

"Why do Cowboys wear a spur on each boot? If one side of the horse moves, the other side goes with it."

"I found out why God made babies cute. It's so you don't kill them."

"I wish there was a knob on the TV so you could turn up the intelligence. They got one marked "brightness" but it don't work, does it?"

"Why do they call that funny little statue a bust when it stops right before the part of the body that it's named after?"

"If 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors?"

ROUND THREE:

"I'm a big boy, but I can get jiggy with it. Ladies, I will go to dance clubs, and I will tear it up hardcore for a good 30 seconds. I got off the plane."

"I was walking and cooking at the same time."

"When you have nothing but big friends, you never get into arguments - except one. And that is, who is the biggest? I'll let you know right now, there's only one way to settle this. We all get in a bus and we go to Disney and we get on a roller coaster - whoever gets the least amount of clicks on the safety bar is the big one."

"The cop gets to the window and says the same thing that they all say, right, "Do you know why I stopped you?" It was too easy. I looked at him and I said, "'Cause you can smell it.""

"I'll walk up to a woman, I'll say the first thing that comes to mind: 'Hey, you hungry?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Can you guess who Rick is impersonating? Love to hear your guesses. Take your best shot, and no cheating THIS TIME!