Chapter Three
"Look, Daddy! It's a spaceship!" Alexis says as she shows him an impressive looking spaceship.
"Woah, that's awesome!" he responds and he takes the piece of cardboard from his daughter. It really looks beautiful. "Can we give it a name?"
"Yeah! What about… Millennium Falcon?" she exclaims, proud of herself that she's remembered the name of the ship.
It doesn't look like a Millennium Falcon, but Rick's willing to overlook that for the sake of his daughter. "So be it. This universe will have a Millennium Falcon defending it," he says and he hands back the spaceship to Alexis.
The model of the solar system is coming along quickly. They've googled images of each planet so they can make it look as real as possible. He's enjoying himself. He always loves hanging out with his daughter and just goofing around. Even though this is for a school project, he still loves it.
When they've painted every planet, they put them to the side to dry. "We'll put a protective coat over them tomorrow so they stay pretty, okay?" Rick says and Alexis nods. "You hungry?" It's close to dinnertime already, he notices when he checks his watch. "How about we make pizza?"
"Yes! Homemade pizza! Can I pick my own toppings?" she asks him.
"Yes, but don't be boring," he tells her. "That's the rule." Alexis has the tendency to keep her pizza toppings on the safe side, so he makes it a rule that the pizza cannot be boring. He challenges her to try something new every time so she has to pick toppings that she usually wouldn't pick.
He once tried a pizza with marshmallows and chocolate chips, but after he'd put it in the oven, it had all turned into a mushy mess. So now he does have limits. Nothing that melts in the oven – apart from cheese.
That night, when he's put Alexis to bed, he looks over his notes from that afternoon again. His afternoon with Alexis took his mind off the issue, but now there's nothing to distract him. He wonders what it is about Kate that draws him to her. What makes him so driven to find her, because that's how he feels. The need to find her weighs heavily on his shoulders. So he goes over his notes again.
Did she go by the bar to pick up her car first?
The sentence catches his eye and he realizes that he doesn't know if she even had her car with her. Maybe her car is still at her apartment. That would mean that she walked to the bar. Or took public transportation.
He sighs. It's not like this information is getting him any closer to finding her. It's irrelevant. It's not like Detectives Ryan and Esposito haven't gone by her apartment already. He wonders if they've gotten any further yet. Maybe they've already found her and he's here worrying over nothing. If she's a cop, they probably have already found her. It would be a high profile case.
He decides to search the web on any news on a missing NYPD detective but doesn't find anything. He busies himself with looking for other information on missing cops. He reckons it's too soon for a story to appear on the internet, if there's a story at all.
He Googles her name and gets an address out of it. It bothers him how easy it is to find someone on the internet when you know where to look. He decides to drop by her place tomorrow, along with the bar where they met and see if he can find anything. He doubts that he will, or that he police haven't already been at her place, but he needs to do something. After poking around some more on the internet, he decides to call it a day and goes to bed.
The next morning, after he's dropped Alexis off at school, he walks to the bar where he met Kate. The place is deserted, which doesn't surprise him at half past nine in the morning. He's surprised that they're even open. He goes inside and looks for the bar manager. When he locates him, he's about to ask him about Kate when he realizes that he doesn't even have a picture of her. How is the guy supposed to know who he's talking about? He's probably seen a lot of people since then.
Rick has already turned around to leave the way he came when the manager speaks up, "Can I help you, sir?"
Rick turns back and says, "I – uh – You probably don't remember, but I was here two nights ago…"
"Yeah, I remember, you left with the pretty lady," the man grins and Rick flashes him a smile.
"Yes, great! You remember! You haven't seen her here after that have you?" he asks tentatively.
"No, I haven't, but you're not the first to come asking questions. Two detectives were here yesterday, I sent them your way. Sorry about that," he grins.
"No, that's fine," Rick says, "If you hadn't, I wouldn't have known that she's gone missing."
"You need a drink?" the manager says.
"No, thanks. It's too early for that," Rick smiles back. "Thanks for your help, though."
"Sure, man. Like your books, by the way," he grins. Rick nods and thanks him before he leaves the bar.
Well, that was very helpful, he thinks. He already knew that the two detectives who came to see him had been sent here from the bar, so even that's nothing new. He decides to check out her apartment and then call it quits. He's not getting anywhere without any more information.
He takes a cab to her apartment and wonders how he's going to approach this. He could pretend that he's her friend and is just dropping by. He wouldn't classify himself as a friend of her, more like an acquaintance. Probably a one night only acquaintance. But posing as one of her friends might be his best bet, so when he enters the building, he walks up to the doorman. "Hi, I'm looking for Kate Beckett?" he asks.
"Who are you?" he doorman asks.
"I'm a friend of hers. Just dropping by to check in," he says. This isn't going great, he didn't expect the doorman to start asking him questions.
"I've never seen you here before," the man says with a slight frown as if he's trying to recall seeing Rick there before today.
"No, I – uh – we've met pretty recently," he says, he realizes that he had to give the man something more if he wants any information. "At a bar, actually. We got along really well and – well, now I'm here."
The doorman studies his face and then sighs. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this," he says, "but Detective Beckett's colleagues came by yesterday looking for her. Apparently she's gone missing."
Rick feigns shock, mentally thanking his mother for the acting lessons she put him on when he was a kid. "Missing?" he chokes. Even though he already knew, hearing the words out of someone else's mouth still constricts his heart. He wonders why. He doesn't even know the woman and yet he cares so much for her already. "When?" he asks, trying to figure out when the detectives stopped by her place.
"Her partners came here yesterday around eleven, telling me that she hadn't shown up for work that morning. I told them that I hadn't seen her since the morning before, when she left for work. I checked with the night shift, and they hadn't seen her either."
"Damn," Rick mumbles. "Okay, uh, well, thank you, sir."
His thoughts are disorganized and all over the place when he walks home. He realizes that her place is actually not that far from his. He wonders if he's ever met her before two nights ago. He would like to think that he'd remember someone as amazing as Kate Beckett, but he knows that it's very much possible that they've crossed paths before that night and don't even remember it. Well, she might remember, since she seemed to know who he was. She didn't say in so many words, but the way she reacted to certain things tipped him off.
He wonders how she's doing now, if she's hurt. The thought of her being hurt makes him angry. He wants the person that did this to her caught. He wants him to pay. The thought of going by the precinct to see if Detectives Ryan and Esposito have had any luck crosses his mind, but he dismisses it almost immediately. Those guys don't know him. For all they know, he's had a one night stand with their colleague and that's it. If he's honest. That is it. He would come off as some weird creep if he'd go to the precinct for an update.
He knows that there is nothing more for him to do than wait, but something is nagging at the corner of his mind. It tells him to keep looking. If he only knew where.
