Hope 14

Kate was lying on her back on the bed laughing her ass off. Martha's latest story about Rick when he was a lot younger had finally gotten to her. Yes, several of the others had been funny and she had laughed at almost all of them. That was after Martha had been talking to her for a while, though. The woman simply wouldn't give up on her son and wasn't willing to let Kate give up on him either.

Martha had stopped talking and the silence had Kate sitting up to look at her. What she saw worried her a little.

"I had a lot of fears for my son. His Jumping was cute, exasperating, dangerous, and in some instances, endearing. Fortunately he saw himself as a super hero and not a super criminal. I don't think I want to think about what evils if not just mischief he could get himself into." Martha didn't want her son in prison for the rest of his life. Not that any prison could hold him. That just meant he would be on the run forever.

"I know I'm exaggerating here, but what if some government got their hands on him and tried to find out how he did what he does?" Martha had great fears that they would take him apart to find what was so different about her son.

"I…I think someone has already found out," Kate told her softly and saw Martha looking at her for an explanation. "There were these two men in the casino. I think they both had knives," Kate began, watching Martha just watching her. "I was a little drunk at the time and threw my drink in his face. Next thing I knew we were on a battleship in Hawaii. Then in the middle of a parking lot.

"I think Rick fought with the guy. I…I didn't react very well to what he'd done." Kate, after listening to a lot of Martha's stories, now felt terrible about how she had reacted and what she'd said. "I think they wanted to capture him. …And me." Kate now saw that what Rick had done was to save her from both of the men.

"OH, NO!" Martha's worst fear might have just come to pass.

"Where is he, Martha?" Kate needed to apologize for her actions.

"He's in my room. Though with his ability he could be anywhere." Martha was beginning to be deeply frightened for her son.

"If they've found him and know you are involved, dear…" Martha didn't want Kate to be hurt. "He loves you, you know." That was the one clear thing she had gotten from her son in their short exchange.

"I love him, too." Kate recognized that she hadn't fallen out of love for him, even after what had happened.

Martha held our her card key. "Then go talk to him. You two have some decisions to make." If they had found them here, then they could find them in San Francisco.

Kate got up and took the key. "Martha?" Kate didn't know what to say. Martha got up and hugged her like only a mother could do. To Kate it was a hug she had never experienced in her life. She could feel tears starting.

"You're going to need to put your foot down. My son can be a handful, as you have learned." Martha smiled and hoped Katherine was up to the challenge.

Kate chuckling wryly. "Provided he'll talk to me." Kate had her own worries.

Martha gave advice that she hoped Katherine already knew. "Love isn't a switch, my dear. You don't just turn it off and on when you please."

"Thank you, Martha. I don't know what I'd do without you." Kate knew just what her dad would say if she told him. He might even turn Rick in.

"Keep hold of him, Katherine. He can't Jump away from you if you can hold onto him and never let go. He has power to do a lot. There's one thing I learned as he was growing up. If his heart is involved, his power gets stronger. I wouldn't be surprised if he could Jump an entire house if he wanted."

"Good to know." She would take hold of him and never let go until they had talked.

"I'll be here until you two want to talk. Good luck, dear. Just remember, he does love you. He risked Jumping in public because of you," Martha told her.

That had Kate sucking in a breath. Casinos were loaded with cameras. That casino and most probably the Las Vegas Police had likely seen everything by now. They already had a problem.

Kate reopened the door after leaving. "I don't know your room number." It was just a card key that didn't have a room number on it. It didn't even say which hotel.

Martha chuckled and told Kate her room number. "Good luck," Martha said to the closed door.

o- [:] -o

Kate could only think of one thing to do. She picked up the room phone and called her room.

"Hi Martha, it's Kate. Rick isn't here. Any idea where he could be?" Her room was empty.

"I don't know, Katherine. With his ability he could be anywhere. I suggest you settle in and wait. It's not likely that he will come here if he's trying to avoid you. I'll wait here and order something from room service.

"Give him some time, my dear. You both have suffered a blow." Martha hung up. "Hurry up Richard, before it's too late."

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Kate was losing her mind. She rolled over on the bed to look at the clock yet again. Rolling back over and spreading her arms wide, she sighed. It had been a whole 10 minutes since the last time she had looked. It had also been a whole 3 hours since she had been in Martha's room waiting for Rick.

"Maybe he went to our room!" Kate sat up suddenly. "Except Martha would have called me if he did." She flopped back onto the bed, exasperated with the entire thing.

Since she was all alone she went back to wondering how he did what he did. He had Jumped as Martha put it with her and that other guy. That was something that Martha had mentioned during their talk. She had never known him to Jump with anyone else, let alone two people. "What else can you do, Castle?" Kate had been reduced to talking to herself. "Come on, Castle. …I'm sorry already." She wiped at the tears that had started.

Kate had been even further reduced to pacing the room and with every trip her heart ached even more. She stopped at the phone with the intent of calling Martha to see if she had seen him or if she knew where he would go. "How would she know. You can go anywhere." Kate flapped her arms and let them hit her legs.

"Anywhere." She gave off an irritated sigh and went back to pacing when suddenly what felt like a gust of wind hit her. Immediately she turned to look. "CASTLE!" Kate jumped at him. Her kind of jump and grabbed hold of him.

"I'm sorry, Rick, so very sorry." Kate wrapped her arms around him. "I'm sorry, I jumped to a conclusion and it was the wrong one." She looked up at him.

Rick tried gently to try and extract himself from her arms but she held onto him even tighter. "You were right, Kate, I'm a freak." He'd frequently used his gift to do some of the stupidest things.

Kate moved her hands to cup his face. "No, Castle, you're just different. You're still you and I still love you." This time she meant it more than she ever had.

Rick reached up to take hold of her hands and remove them from his face. "Yes, I am and I always will be. I fell for the dream of being normal and I just can't." He released her hands only to have Kate wrap them around his neck.

"Let go, Kate." He couldn't Jump away and never come back with her draped all over him.

"Not a chance, Rick. Your mother warned me that you might try and Jump away from me and that's not happening until we've talked." Kate held him tighter. "Your mother told me a lot, Rick," Kate confided. She knew more than he thought she did.

"My mother? …MY MOTHER!" Rick tried to collapse but Kate held him up. "I forgot all about her. GOD, could I screw this up any more." He had forgotten that his mother was capable of telling her any number of things. "It was lies, Kate. All lies." He needed to defend himself, even if his mother was right.

Kate agreed with him quickly. "All lies." She raised an eyebrow, remembering one of the more endearing moments when Rick had Jumped. "So it was a lie that you jumped home to get something she had forgotten and needed badly for her show. Or the time you jumped to rescue her from a guy who was hitting on her. A guy that was driving her mad."

"David Love." Rick tilted his head back and rolled his eyes. "That guy had the soul of a petrified tree trunk and the skin to match." He began laughing and Kate joined him.

"So my mother and you talked." He dreaded just what his mother could have told her. "Just remember she exaggerates everything. She's an actress."

"Your mother's amazing and she loves you. Even if you did drive her nuts sometimes." Kate smiled and raised up to give him a quick kiss.

"So where have you been, Castle?" He had run away after she had been awful to him and she wanted to know where he had gone to hide.

He huffed a breath. "Stratosphere to be precise."

"A different casino? To do what?" What did it have that this one didn't. This one had smoke coming out of the fake manholes. How cool was that?

"It's where the man who tried to take us was staying," Rick said.

"They had knives, Rick. What did they want anyway?" Besides him, that is.

"To kill me. He tried it once before in New York. Said I was a Demon and he was a servant of God and it was his duty to kill me," Rick explained.

"God doesn't kill people. Only the Devil does that. Is that why you were so worried about going to New York?" She just knew it wasn't because of her dad. Her dad had obviously loved him.

"Yeah, tell that to him and his lady boss." Rick let his head rest up against hers.

"They want you dead?" Kate wanted to learn what he knew.

"The first time…and this time, he had this big knife that he said he had used to kill other Demons like me."

"There are more like you?" She was astounded. How many of them were there?

Rick told her the truth. "That was the first I knew. As far as I knew I was alone. I've never met anyone who can do what I can."

Kate thought that over. "So what was in the Stratosphere? I assume you went there."

He shrugged. "Something that's hopefully going to be helpful. I found his overnight bag, a laptop, and something I've never seen before. I dumped it in the middle of the Atlantic along with his knife and his clothes. I gave the laptop to James."

"Your roommate?" Why would he do that? Why is his roommate involved in this?

"The laptop had a password and for all I know it has other things, like bugs. Maybe it'll blow up and kill whoever tries to use it. James is a genius with computers so I left it with him."

"Blow up?" Kate was starting to question why she loved him so much.

Rick became defensive. He really did need information about them and their organization, after all. "Format the hard drive. Overheat the CPU. I don't know. I'm no computer expert. That's what I have James for."

"Don't your roommates know that you are in Vegas and not San Francisco?" Was his Jumping going to cause more trouble?

"They only know that I'm with you, not where we are. Actually I'm amazed that James was still at school." Rick counted himself lucky that he was still in the house. It was the Christmas break and most everyone left campus.

"So where did you go with him. I think I saw you jumping on that battleship. The guy that wants to kill you." Kate wanted to know everything.

"I left him naked and alone." Rick didn't want her to think that he was a killer.

"Okay, but where?" Kate took him at his silent word.

"It's a place called Maunsell Army Sea Forts." Rick had seen a picture of it and retained it in his memory. Kate was looking at him, wondering where the hell that was?

"They are antiaircraft tower-forts that were constructed during World War II just off the coast of Kent. It consists of seven stilted buildings surrounding a central command tower. They've been abandoned for years." Rick didn't think it would hold the guy, at least not forever. However it would do for now.

Kate tightened her hold on him and pressed her face into his chest. "What now?" she whispered into his chest.

"I don't know. Haven't really thought that far ahead. They found me in New York and somehow found me here. If they can do that they can probably find me in San Francisco. I'm not really sure just where is safe. At least not long term." Rick really had no idea just what to do now.

Kate moaned. She was afraid of that. "Don't go anywhere without me, Castle."

"It's not safe to be near me, Kate, it really isn't. I think I've been targeted and they aren't going to stop until they kill me. I can't have them killing you, too." He loved her too much to put her into that kind of danger.

Kate looked up at him. "You're NOT going anywhere without me. …Got it?" She put her foot down and wanted to make sure he understood that. She was not to be excluded in what they did.

Rick tried to get her to see reason one more time. "This isn't a good idea, Kate. They want me, not you. You're just collateral damage."

"We'll think of something. Change our names. Change schools. Something." She wasn't losing him. She loved him too much and after her talk with Martha, she loved him even more.

"I actually already have changed my name." Rick did his best to close himself off from what he was sure Kate was going to say. However she remained silent.

"My real name–" Kate interrupted him. "Richard Alexander Rodgers. Martha told me." She looked up at him again. "Martha didn't know you had changed your name to Castle. She's not a fan of the new name, babe." Kate had talked about Castle and Martha didn't know who she was talking about.

"Where is my mother?" He had expected her to be in her room. Not to find Kate in it.

"She's in our room in case you went there. She's suppose to latch onto you and call me if you do. Which reminds me." Kate took a firm hold of his hand and guided them over to the room phone.

"He's here, Martha," Kate said to the older woman after she picked up the phone on her end. "I have hold of him. We'll be waiting." She ended the call. "Martha's coming here. We can figure out what to do next. What about the guy who had a knife in my back? The one I threw my drink at." There had been two men involved.

Rick shook his head. "I don't know. I haven't seen him since then. He could be anywhere. Likely telling everyone that he lost me again."

Kate sagged against him. It sounded to her like they would still be after him. Just because he could do what he does. She didn't really understand why they wanted him dead.

"Who are they? I mean what, besides killing you, do they hope to accomplish?" Just what was the reasoning behind wanting Rick and others like him dead?

"Maybe we'll find out if James can get into that laptop." It was the best clue Rick had.

o- [:] -o

The three of them sat there with Kate draped all over Rick in case he got a stupid idea of Jumping away without her. She took Martha's warning to heart.

"So we have a plan." Kate hoped this would work out for them. They still had a lot of research to do for it to work. But it was better than nothing.

"I'm sorry, Richard." Martha didn't have anything better and she felt responsible. After all, she had given birth to him.

"Martha, no!" Kate wanted to go over to her, to hold and console her. But that meant letting go of Rick and that was something she had no plans of doing.

They were all distracted when Rick's phone started ringing. A minute later Rick shared his conversation. "That was James. He's managed to get into the laptop and says it's ready for me to come get."

"GREAT, let's go." Kate stood up and took Rick's hand. "I don't want to hear it, Castle. I'm going so just Jump us there. You can get the laptop and we'll come back."

A broad smile lit Martha's face. She was learning to really love Katherine. The young woman was just what her son needed. She had come around and didn't see her son as a Demon, monster, or freak any longer. Plus she was willing to take charge of their lives.

"We'll be back, Mother." Then Rick and Kate Jumped back to San Francisco.

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To Rick and Kate it had only taken a few minutes to get the laptop and jump back. For Martha who was waiting alone, it seemed a lot longer.

They were both standing behind Rick as he searched the laptop to see what it contained. A picture popped up on the screen. "That's the woman in New York. The one that tried to have me killed."

The blood drained from Kate's face. Totally stunned, she placed both hands over her mouth. "Katherine, what is it, dear?" Martha could see her reaction even if Rick couldn't since he was facing the laptop, not her.

Kate stared at the picture, her eyes wide and in complete shock. Tears streamed down her face as she whispered, "That's my mother."