A/N1: Hello peoples and welcome to the 22nd Chapter of Absolution titled 'Someone Knows' I do apologize for the long break in between chapters but I was hit but a bitch ass case of writer's block that only resolved itself a few days ago. This chappie is a bit heavy emotions wise but I think it'll be a good read. But of course that is up to you to decide **Grins**
On with the show!
The trip to Washington soon came to an end and Rick returned to New York to resume his usual duties at the 12th precinct. Rick, Ryan, Esposito and Gates continued to meet weekly in the bowels of the Old Haunt and liaised with Frank, Woodson and Parnell regularly so both teams were kept up to date with what the other was doing.
Three weeks after his return from Washington Rick was working back at the precinct late with Ryan, Esposito and Kate on a fresh case when his iPhone began ringing
"DAD DAD DAD DAD DAD DAD DAD DAD!"
"Coffee?" Kate suggested, getting up from her seat and cracking her knuckles
"Thanks," Rick said as Ryan and Esposito chorused 'The usual!'
"Hey Pumpkin," he answered.
"Dad?" Alexis screeched down the line. "You've got to come home right now. The loft is on fire! I-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa...hold on," Rick exclaimed as he tried to calm Alexis' rambling. "What do you mean the loft's on fire?"
There was a loud clattering in the break room as Kate dropped the milk jug and Ryan and Esposito looked up in perfect unison at Rick's voice.
"All the smoke alarms in the building went off an Eduardo rang on the intercom and said the parking garage was on fire and I'm out on the street here with everyone and the FDNY is here and the cars-the parking garage-" Alexis rambled.
"Right, stay there. I'm coming home right now!" Rick exclaimed. "Stay there, do not move Alexis. Do you hear me?"
"How are you going to get home, Dad? You went to the precinct today in a taxi! Shit, the Prancing Horse! Kate's bike!"
"They don't matter, you're safe and that's all I care about," Rick said. "Stay out of the way, Alexis. Do you hear me? I'll be home soon."
"Alright, bye!"
"Yo bro, what's happening?" Esposito asked as Rick pulled on his jacket.
"The parking garage at the loft is on fire," Rick informed them, yanking on his jacket. "I've got to get home."
"I'm coming with you," Kate said, grabbing her radio and hooking it onto her belt.
"Yeah us too."
"You two don't need to–" Rick said pocketing his phone. "I-"
"Dude, there's no argument." Ryan said holstering his gun.
"Oh whatever."
"Let's take the Crown Vic," Kate said. "I'll put the sirens on and we'll get home quicker."
"Whatever, let's just go!"
Abandoning their work, the three detectives and writer left the bullpen and headed down to the parking garage. Rick ran over to Kate's Crown Vic and was in and had his seatbelt fastened before Kate had opened her door. The female detective dropped into the seat and immediately started the ignition.
"What did Alexis say?" she asked, yanking on her seatbelt before putting the Crown Vic in reverse.
"I couldn't fully understand her because she sounded panicky but I deduced that the parking garage is on fire." Rick replied tensely as Kate turned on the sirens.
"Shit my bike is in there!" Kate exclaimed. "And my car! AND the Ferrari!"
"I know let's just get home, huh?" Rick replied as Kate gunned the accelerator and sped out of the parking garage and onto the street with Ryan and Esposito close behind. "I just want to make sure Alexis is alright."
The rest of the journey continued on in silence between the two partners, the only sound was the blaring sirens of the Crown Vic. Kate repeatedly hit the horn and let fly with several swear words at drivers who were a bit slow to get out of the way and took several side streets off the main route streets and ten minutes after leaving the twelfth precinct screeched to a stop at the boundary the Fire Department and First precinct NYPD had set up.
"ALEXIS?" Rick yelled over the huhub of the fire trucks and the crackling and snapping of the fire which was roaring from the underground parking garage.
"Sir, you can-" a uniformed officer began as he made to restrain Rick.
"Detective Kate Beckett with the twelfth precinct, that is my partner Rick Castle and we live in that building. And those two-" Kate snapped as she flashed her badge at the young officer and pointed at Ryan and Esposito who had just arrived. "Are Detectives Ryan and Esposito. You restrict our access to this scene and I will personally make sure you're a desk jockey for the rest of your career...got it?"
The young officer's eyes widened. "Y-yes ma'am," he stammered lifting up the 'Do Not Cross' tape. "The residents are on the other side of the cordon, by fire truck fifty."
"Javi, Kevin find out what the hell's going on." Kate ordered. "Castle and I are going to find Alexis."
"Got it!" the two male detectives chorused.
"ALEXIS?" Rick bellowed as he and Kate took off across the street. "ALEXIS WHERE ARE YOU?"
"Alexis?" Kate echoed as she dodged a fire fighter. "ALEXIS?"
"DAD! KATE!" the teen called back from behind the tape.
Alexis ran under the tape and dodging a uniformed officer she ran into her father's arms. The writer wrapped his muscular arms around her.
"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you..." the older more senior ranked officer said to Rick.
Kate rolled her eyes and flashed the officer her badge. "Detective Kate Beckett with the twelfth precinct," she began. "This is my partner and that is his daughter and we live in that building. We're not going anywhere, got it?"
"I understand that, Detective. But the first precinct has everything under control..."
"Are you deaf?" Kate told the officer. "We're not going anywhere."
The senior officer gave the female detective a look of deep disgust before making his way back to the tape.
"Alexis, tell me what happened," Kate said in a firm voice as the teen released her father from the crushing hug they had shared. "Can you do that for me?"
"Y-yeah, um I was upstairs just making myself dinner when all the smoke alarms started going off," Alexis stammered. "Not the ones in the loft, the one in the hallway. Then I went out in the hallway to see what the problem was and that was when Eduardo-you know the night doorman rang up to the loft on the intercom and told me to get out because something in the parking garage was on fire. I grabbed my keys and phone and took the fire escape stairs down to the ground floor. Our cars are in there! You bike is in there."
"They don't matter, all that matters is you're safe," Kate told the wound up redhead as she enveloped her in a hug. "You did well to-"
But Kate never got to finish her sentence suddenly the atmosphere split apart, a deep ground shaking rumble shook the ground and the air broke as a deafening explosion rent the air. A massive fireball erupted from the basement car park and knocked everybody to the ground.
"GO GO GO!" Kate yelled, pushing Alexis and Rick toward the crime scene tape. "Rick get her out of here NOW!"
Rick grabbed Alexis' arm and dragged his daughter as far away from the site as possible.
"Alexis, you stay here!" he told his daughter yelling over the roar of the fire and panic of the crowd. "Promise me you'll stay here!"
"B-but Dad-"
"Promise me Alexis!"
"O-okay, promise."
Rick left Alexis sitting on the seat of the bus stop and raced over to Kate who was where he had left her screaming into her radio.
"THIS IS DETECTIVE KATE BECKETT, BADGE NUMBER 41319 ALL UNITS TO FOURTEEN SIXTEEN BORDEAU AVENUE TRIBECA. AMBULANCE, FIRE AND ALL AVAILABLE OFFICERS REQUIRED NOW. EXPLOSION HAS OCCURRED, REPEAT EXPLOSION HAS OCCURRED. ALL UNITS TO FOURTEEN SIXTEEN BORDEAU AVENUE!"
"Is Alexis safe?" Kate asked the writer as she hooked her radio back onto her belt.
"Yeah, she's over at the bus shelter. W-what now?"
"I need you to work with me, find Ryan and Esposito and work with the first precinct to widen the cordon. If that happens again, there's going to be major casualties," Kate told her partner in her usual no nonsense manner. "GO!"
Rick sprang into action and with Ryan and Esposito help. He widened the cordon of the crime scene and no sooner than five minutes after the explosion two more fire trucks, three ambulances and the NYPD Bomb Squad arrived. The three men waved them through. Kate waved down the bomb squad truck and raced over to the driver's door ready to take command. Rick took the opportunity of her attention been focused elsewhere and pulled Ryan and Esposito off to the side by a first precinct squad car.
"Bro?" Esposito inquired.
"This is deliberate!" the Writer hissed, jabbing his finger in the direction of the burning luxury apartment block. "This is fucking deliberate!"
Ryan looked over his shoulder to make sure they weren't being watched and pulled the writer closer to him and Esposito.
"You sure?" he hissed.
Rick rolled his eyes. "Think about it Kevin, in the last week Gates has had her car keyed, you had your tyres slashed and Javier was run off the road on Monday. Now my apartment building is on fire, someone knows we're investigating Johanna Beckett's murder! AND it's only happened since Woodson and Parnell interviewed Nic Warrington and Rod Halstead! That explosion was a damn petrol bomb. I'd recognize an explosion like that a million miles away."
"Bro, you sure?" Esposito questioned his friend.
"I've never been surer of anything in my life, Javier. This is getting serious. The Dragon knows we're onto him!" Rick yelped, panic rising in his chest. "My daughter could have been killed and if we hadn't had that drop tonight, Kate and I would have been home and we could have been killed. Now that he knows we're onto him, shit is going to hit the fan. He wants to keep whoever is capable of revealing the truth quiet. Surely you realise this?"
"So what do you want to do?" Esposito asked.
"We've got to get Frank, Woodson and Parnell down here. We can't fuck about with this investigation anymore, Javier!" Rick yelped. "The longer we drag it in the more chance there is of someone coming after Kate!"
"D'you want me to ring him or do you want to do it?" the Latino detective asked.
"I'll do it," Rick groaned rubbing his face. "Where's your Crown Vic?"
Ryan pointed to the gleaming black vehicle and gave the writer the keys.
"Thanks."
Rick made his way over to Ryan and Esposito's Crown Vic and dropped into the front passenger seat. He locked the doors and immediately dialled Frank Grasman's number.
It rang a few times then the older FBI agent answered."Grasman."
"Frank its Rick, shit has hit the fan." Rick said not bothering with the usual perfunctory greeting.
"Oh shit, what's wrong?" Frank asked.
"My apartment building is on fire," Rick divulged. "Well the parking garage is, someone put a petrol bomb in there. This is the latest thing to happen since Woodson and Parnell interviewed Nic Warrington and Ron Halstead. Victoria had her car keyed. Kevin had his tyres slashed. Javier was run off the road and wrote off his car and now the basement of my apartment building is on fire. Alexis was home on her own at the time, Frank. The Dragon knows we're onto him and if we don't ramp things up, Kate is going to get another bullet in her. It's time to move. You, Woodson and Parnell need to get to Manhattan now. At the very least pull rank on the NYPD and FDNY and take over the investigation that's going to start after this fire has been put out. It's time to stop the chain of corruption that started thirty years ago."
Frank swore. "Alright, I'll get onto Woodson and Parnell now and see if we can get the next flight to Manhattan," the older FBI agent said. "From now on you are to carry your service weapon with you, understand? If someone has petrol bombed your residence they mean business. If anyone asks, the NYPD gave you authority, alright? I'll ring Victoria now and inform her of what's going on."
"My gun is in the loft!" Rick exclaimed. "My FBI issued one anyway and I'm telling you right now there's no way I'll be able to get back in there to get it. The only thing I have on me is my I.D."
Frank swore. "Shit!" he cussed. "Look don't worry about it I'll bring a spare weapon with me. And a new vest. If Woodson, Parnell and I can't get a flight down we'll drive it. It'll only take a few hours."
"Alright, keep me up to date won't you?" Rick asked. "But text first, I still don't want Kate finding out what's going on, not yet anyway.
"Yeah, no worries Ricky. Say safe pal."
"Yeah, you too."
Rick disconnected the call then left the Crown Vic, making his way back to Ryan and Esposito who were standing with Kate by the Bomb Squad truck.
"So what's happening?" He asked furtively slipping the keys into Esposito's pocket.
"There's a body in the parking garage." Kate said in terse tone.
"Oh shit," Rick exclaimed. "So is the first going to have jurisdiction on this one or are you going to push to investigate?"
"I've already rung Gates and she said to let the team at the first lead but she promised to organise for our team to consult," Kate replied. "Until then we can't do much but wait for the fire department to extinguish the fire. That could take all night."
"Hope you had insurance on the Harley, KB." Esposito joked trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah thankfully, shit. WHY would anyone petrol bomb the parking garage of all places?"
"Well being a pin entry with a twenty four seven doorman, it'd be pretty hard to get access inside to set fire to a particular apartment," Rick reasoned, giving Esposito a meaningful look. "That'll be up to the FDNY to investigate and for the first homicide department to discover."
"I know it's a long shot but d'you think it could be a nutjob fan?" Kate asked the writer. "It's not the first time you've had a fan go off their rocker."
"Nah, got a gut feeling it's something else," Rick replied, slipping an arm around her waist. "Dunno though. I'm glad we're on the top floor, though. The likelihood of any damage is going to be low. Not everyone in the building has cars and some of those that do, are away."
"So where are we going to spend the night, Rick?" Kate questioned after several minutes of silence watching the fire fighters aim the flow of eight hoses into the burning parking garage. "We're not going to be allowed to go back to the loft tonight."
"I'll get us into the hotel," Rick replied, wrapping his muscular arms around her slim frame. "Then tomorrow I'll take you and Alexis out to get a change of clothes, you can't wear the same set two days in a row and despite being on the top floor there might be some smoke that's come in through the air vents and everything in the wardrobe is going to smell like burning gas."
"You don't have to do that, I have some spare clothes in my locker at the precinct and some in the spare room at Dad's" Kate replied. "It's just you we've got to worry about. I know Alexis has some at Martha's."
"I have some sweats at the precinct I'll wear those til I can get a change of clothes," Rick replied as another boom shook the ground. "God, there goes the Prancing Horse."
Rick and Kate stayed at the crime scene til well after midnight, just as the fire got under control. The two dozen fire fighters were able to get closer to the parking garage and re-double their efforts to extinguish the fire. One of the more senior fire fighters made his way over to the twelfth precinct team, his face dripping with sweat and bright red from the effort of fighting the fire.
"Detective Beckett?" he inquired, holding his hand out to the brunette. "I'm Len Creighton. I'm the chief of this unit. How do you do?"
Kate grasped the chief's hand and shook it briefly. "Oh, I'm fine," she said with mild sarcasm. "My car and bike that I've had for twelve years is now a pile of charcoal. Oh, this is my team Detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito and my partner Rick Castle. We, Rick and I live in that building. What the hell's happening?"
Creighton sighed. "Looks deliberate," he said, putting his hands on his hips. "That explosion looked like a Molotov cocktail to me that alone wouldn't have caused such a big explosion but it would have ignited the gas tanks of all the vehicles in there."
"No telling for sure?" Kate asked.
"Nah, I can't begin the investigation til the fire has been totally extinguished and it's going to be a couple of hours before its dampened enough to go in."
"Can you tell if there's any structural damage?" Rick asked.
"There's a little to the first and second floor that I can see from the outside, but I won't be able to tell how much damage there is til I can get inside of the apartments on those floors. What floor do you live on?"
"The top, the fifteenth."
"You should be alright then," Creighton replied. "At this early stage the most I expect would be water damage from the internal sprinkler system, but that would go for every apartment in the building."
"So where's the body?" Kate asked. "In the garage itself?"
"Yeah, near the entrance. It's still too hot to get anywhere near it yet."
"So is there anything we can do?" Kate asked.
Creighton exhaled and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. "No, look all you'd do is stand on the side til the fire is extinguished and that could be hours yet. Go to some friends or family and get some sleep. I'll make sure I ring you when it's safe to come back and begin your investigation.
Kate made to protest but Rick cut her off.
"He's right, there's nothing we can do," Rick said, grasping the female detective's shoulders. "Besides you're exhausted, we're all exhausted. We'll come back in the morning."
"We'll stick around for a bit," Esposito said immediately. "And we'll ring when we know anything."
"There's no point in me complaining, is there?" Kate said dryly.
"No," Rick answered. "C'mon, let's take Alexis to Mother's then head to the precinct to pick up a change of clothes. We can come back in the morning."
"Hey, we've got this-" Ryan said, briefly grabbing Kate's arm but giving Rick a surreptitious glance.
"Thanks Kevin, Javi."
Rick and Kate left the crime scene and made their way over to the bus shelter where Alexis was still waiting and looking exhausted.
"Hey, what's happening?" she asked, immediately perking up.
"They're still putting out the fire there's, nothing your father and I can do or Javi and Kevin can do til the morning when the fire's out." Kate replied. "And anyway it's the FDNY and first precinct's jurisdiction. Captain Gates rang me and said we're only assisting in the investigation."
"So where are we spending the night?" Alexis asked with a yawn.
"You are staying with your Grams. Kate and I are going to a hotel," Rick told his daughter, authoritively as the trio began heading towards the Crown Vic. "You have everything you need at your Grams. Kate and I have to head back to the precinct to get a change of clothes from our lockers. The fire chief suspects a Molotov cocktail was what started the fire in the first place and to me that says it was deliberate, which means you're not safe. No one who lives in the building is safe until the NYPD find out who was being targeted and who was targeting them."
"Can't I stay with you and Kate?" Alexis asked slightly petulantly.
"No," Rick replied firmly. "Not until it's safe to go back to the loft. And anyway, we're going to be up and down all night and might have to head back to the crime scene in the middle of the night."
"It is the middle of the night," Alexis shot back, her voice taking on an ever so slight snide tone.
"No argument Alexis. I don't want you to be alone. You stay with your Grams or Lanie when you're not working, don't go anywhere without company."
"You mean I can't even socialise?" Alexis exclaimed. "Dad, it's the holidays. I go away to college in a month. It's the-"
"Of course you can socialise, but as I said I don't want you to be alone. Stick in a group and if you need to go somewhere, use the car service and let me, Kate or your Grams know where you're going, alright? Just until we find the culprit. Whoever it is pumpkin, they were aiming to hurt someone and I don't want you to be in danger." Rick finished softening his tone.
Alexis' face relaxed as she got into the back of the Crown Vic.
"Alright, I'll stick with Grams," she said fastening her seatbelt. "You and Kate will be alright though, won't you?"
"We'll be fine pumpkin. I know how to look after myself and Kate has some pretty badass ninja skills she can use to defend herself if need be. And you know we work best as a team if we've got each other's back, we're good."
Kate flashed Rick a wink and briefly squeezed his thigh before starting the engine. 'I love you,' she mouthed.
Rick returned the wink and reached across the console to squeeze her knee. 'Love you too,' he mouthed back.
Minutes later Kate pulled up outside Martha's acting school and cut the engine, she followed Rick and Alexis out of the car and across the sidewalk to the main entrance.
"Does Grams actually know we're here?" Alexis asked as Rick poked his key into the keyhole.
"I sent her a text," Rick replied, pushing open the door. "She should be up."
"Richard?" Martha called. "That you, darling?"
Rick looked up and saw his mother appear at the top of the stairs behind the reception desk, clad in a bright pink dressing gown and matching slippers her auburn hair mussed up.
"Yup, we just got back from the scene."
"Come up for a coffee. I want to know everything."
Rick locked the door again and followed Kate and Alexis up the stairs til they reached Martha's large, spacious apartment.
"So what happened?" Martha demanded as she went into the kitchen and lit the stove.
"I was at home making myself dinner and the building's smoke alarms started going off," Alexis began, sliding into one of the stools on the other side of the kitchen island. "Then Eduardo, the night doorman rang up through the intercom and told me to get out of the loft and downstairs because something in the parking garage was on fire. By the time I grabbed my phone and locked the door then got outside, the police and fire department had already turned up. That's when I rang Dad and not long after that he arrived with Kate and Detectives Ryan and Esposito."
"And then?" Martha asked turning to Rick and Kate.
"We got back home and found the parking garage on fire," Rick continued as his mother bustled about retrieving mugs and sugar from a nearby cupboard. "About five minutes later there was this massive explosion that knocked us all on our feet. The head fire fighter at the scene said later he expected it was a Molotov cocktail that started the fire."
"Who would throw a Molotov cocktail in a parking garage?" Martha exclaimed in shock.
"Dunno, but we'll find out," Kate said. "And on top of that, someone was killed in the explosion. But the fire is too intense to get near the body and find out who it is yet. The Boys and I will be investigating it along with the first precinct homicide team."
"The bomb squad turned up too," Alexis chimed in as Martha spooned sugar and coffee into the four mugs on the island. "And there would have to have been six or seven fire trucks there and at least a dozen NYPD squad cars."
"Good Lord! So where are you going to spend the night?" Martha asked Rick.
"The Waldorf, I rang on our way here and after we've picked up some clothes from out lockers at the precinct we're going to head there and try and get a few hours sleep," Rick replied as the kettle began to whistle. "We were working late at the precinct and were tired enough as it is and it's not even four in the morning. It's been nearly twenty four hours since we started our day."
"There's no hope of saving the Prancing Horse or your bike?" Martha asked turning to Kate.
"No, the explosion would have destroyed anything in the parking garage," Kate replied, allowing Rick to wrap his arms around her waist. "It was huge it knocked everyone in the vicinity onto the ground. The only thing left in there would be burnt out chassis."
"Oh your bike! You've had that for years!"
"Yeah, I bought it when I was eighteen." Kate replied as Martha poured boiling water into the mugs. "It was the first big purchase I ever made."
"Did you have it insured?"
"Oh, of course. I've spent too much on it over the years tricking it up and fitting it out, not to," Kate replied. "I'll be able to replace it, but it won't be the same as having the original one, ya know?"
"I totally understand. I'm just glad you're all safe," Martha proclaimed, relief written on her face. "I have to say I was more than shocked to receive Richard's text message. Trouble seems to follow you two."
"Eh, what can we say we're just gifted," Rick said with a chuckle. "In more ways than one," he added whispering into Kate's ear.
The female detective elbowed him in the stomach. "Behave," she hissed. "Be a good boy."
Rick and Kate stayed til they had finished their coffees then made to leave.
"We better go," Rick spoke up, setting down his mug. "We're both exhausted."
Alexis slid off her stool and embraced her father, hard. "Love you Dad," she said, giving him a squeeze. "Thanks for coming to get me."
"That's alright pumpkin. I'm glad you're safe," Rick replied returning his daughters hug. "Remember stay with Grams or Lanie, alright? I'll be in touch."
"Okay Dad, stay safe."
Rick and Kate left Martha's apartment and went back out to the Crown Vic returning to the precinct shortly before five AM.
"I'm going to head to the bathroom you go get your clothes." Rick told Kate as he felt his iPhone vibrate in his pocket.
Kate smiled and kissed him on the lips. "I love you, Writer Man." she said.
"Love you too, Tulip."
As soon as Kate disappeared into the locker room Rick made his way into the men's bathroom and down to the far end stall. He locked the door and retrieved his iPhone from his pocket swiping his thumb across the screen to read the text.
"It's Frank. Woodson, Parnell and I have just arrived in Manhattan. Where are you? Ring if safe."
Rick immediately dialled his friend's cell, not surprised when it immediately picked up.
"Grasman, Ricky that you?" the elder Federal Agent questioned.
"Yeah it's me, look I can't talk for long. I'm at the precinct getting a change of clothes. I've had to duck into the men's bathroom, what's up?" Rick asked.
"Well, we're in New York and met with Kevin and Javier. We're at the scene of the fire and taken over the investigation," Frank began. "We're teaming up with some old friends of mine from the Manhattan office."
Rick groaned.
"Ricky, I know what you're thinking but I trust them," Frank assured. "And you did say to me when you came to Washington that if there was someone I could trust as much as you trust me, to bring them in. We can't run an investigation this big with just you me, Kevin, Javier, Victoria and Woodson and Parnell. If we're going to take the Dragon down, we need a big team."
"Alright, I trust you," Rick answered with a sigh. "I have to, if we go through this investigation not trusting anyone outside the group, we'll never get anywhere."
"That's my boy," Frank said with a chuckle. "Now, where are you staying?"
"The Waldorf Astoria," Rick replied. "I've paid for a room there til we're allowed back in the building."
"What number?"
"I don't know yet, Kate and I haven't been there yet." Rick replied.
"Text me the number when you're checked in, alright? And Ricky?"
"Yeah?"
"Prepare yourself to tell Kate. I have a feeling we're not going to be able to keep this from her much longer, especially if we want to keep her safe."
Rick groaned his vocalisation echoing of the tiled walls. "I was hoping I'd never hear you say those words," he muttered.
"That was never going to happen, Rick. You want Kate to be the one to arrest her mother's killer and she has to know what's going on at some point."
"Yeah I know," the Writer replied with a sigh.
"Anyway that's the situation for the time being." Frank concluded. "Stay safe, alright?
"You got it Frank, thanks for the heads up."
"No problemo Ricky, see you after you've had some sleep, alright?"
"You got it."
Rick pocketed his iPhone then dropped his head into his hand with a frustrated sigh.
Things were getting complicated.
A/N2: Well what d'you think? Has the month long wait since the last chapter been worth it?...lol Remember Reviews feed the beast!