Here is the first chapter of the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to get another chapter or two posted before Tuesday.

"When you come right down to it, would you be willing to break her out of prison? Because that, my boy, is true love."

"Don't worry, Castle. I'd get you out."

Anatomy Of A Murder

"Darling, what are you doing home already?" Martha asked Rick when she came sweeping into the loft. Rick, sitting on the couch with his feet up on the nearby coffee table, looked up from his laptop where he had spent the last four hours since he had left the precinct looking for anything he could find on mind reading. "Is Detective Beckett sick and she didn't come in to work today?"

"No," Rick assured his mother, "She's just not happy with me right now and told me to go home."

"I'm sorry, kiddo," Martha, having made her way to her son's side, put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Surely it can't be too serious. She'll probably be calling you any time...Richard, what are you doing?" she asked, having just noticed what Rick was looking at.

"Research," Rick answered.

Martha's baffled gaze went from the computer screen, to Rick and then back to the computer screen. "But mind-reading? Really, Richard. Don't you think that's a bit...out there for your readers?"

"This isn't for a book," Rick said.

"But why else would you...?" Martha's voice trailed off. "Then the legend is true," she murmured.

"Legend?" Rick's head snapped up at that. "Mother, what are you talking about?"

"Darling, you wouldn't by chance be hearing Detective Beckett's thoughts, would you?"

Rick's jaw dropped. "What legend, Mother?"

"I'll take that as a yes," Martha decided that now was not the time to tease her love-struck son. "There's this old family legend; I first heard about it from my grandmother when I wasn't much younger than Alexis is now. No one knows for sure, but family consensus is that the story dates back to the mid seventeenth century. Your who-knows-how-many-times great grandfather Jack was in love with the daughter of one of the big landowners of the day. She was this beautiful young woman named Isabella. Because Jack was only a stable boy and also because Isabella was betrothed to the son of another of the big landowners, there was absolutely no chance of Jack winning Isabella's hand."

"Does this have anything to do with mind reading, Mother?" Rick asked impatiently. He thrived on good stories, no matter what their source. But his mother was not the best storyteller in the world, and he was much too concerned about his own situation at the moment to have much patience with a long-winded tale.

"I'm getting to that, Richard," Martha said. "It was only a few days before the wedding when Jack was tending Isabella's horse and he overheard Isabella talking about how much she was dreading her upcoming wedding. He was surprised that she would mention something like that so openly. But when he located her, he saw that she wasn't speaking at all, and yet her 'voice' kept on about how miserable she was. Although how the girl was able to go to the barn without a chaperone, I have absolutely no idea. Back then a woman was never allowed to go anywhere alone. When I played Beatrice in Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing' which was set during that same time period there was always some other woman present..."
"Mother," Rick interrupted, "I'm sure your story is fascinating, but what happened with Jack and Isabella?"

"Sorry, dear," Martha said. "As I was saying, Jack and Isabella made plans that night to run away. They ended up joining a circus; I'm told they were the first circus people of our family line. It was said that as soon as they safely escaped, Jack could no longer read Isabella's mind."

"Is Jack the only mind reader in our family that you've heard about?" Rick asked, trying to glean as much as he could to help him figure things out for his own situation.

"Nothing definitive," Martha said apologetically. "I haven't thought about it in years, but there were rumors that my grandmother's father had the gift. It was whispered that such things only happened when a person with the gift found his or her soul mate. And that it would only be manifested when the relationship was in danger."

"But Kate and I have both been in danger, many times," Rick protested. "Why would it not happen until now?"

"I really can't say, kiddo," Martha had to regretfully admit. "But I remember it was specifically said when the relationship was in danger, not when one of the two people involved were in danger."
"So what kept it from happening last summer?" Rick asked. Considering what he now knew about what Kate went through back then, he was sure he could consider that a time when their relationship was in mortal danger.

"I don't know what to tell you, Richard," Martha said. "I've told you all I know."

Rick sighed. "You've given me a lot more than I had an hour ago. The computer research was going nowhere, and this makes as much sense as anything."

"Well dear, if you stop hearing Detective Beckett's thoughts after everything is settled between you two and there is no longer any threat to your relationship, then I'd say you have your answer."

Rick nodded in agreement. The only question was, how long was he going to have to wait?

Please R&R. They really do inspire me. A special shout-out to phnxgrl, whose review of the very first chapter gave me the idea of how Castle got his mind-reading powers. This story wouldn't have been the same without it.