Hope 15

Rick stepped up behind Kate and wrapped his arms around her. They had done a lot over the last month. All because of his unique ability. He was thankful that she hadn't freaked out on him about what he could do again.

He had no idea how to console Kate about the picture he'd found on that laptop. Granted the woman on the laptop was older, however, Kate was certain it was her. She had also refused to tell her dad. Her pain was enough; she didn't want to add to her dad's pain. Martha hadn't even argued over her decision. He was even more thankful for his mother.

"No… yes… maybe." Kate still wasn't sure she was ready for this. So many changes in such a short time. It was difficult to take it all in. Rick was being hunted and by extension, so was she. So they'd left Stanford and enrolled in a different university. A lot of their credits transferred but some did not. Especially Rick's.

The University of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia. They'd gotten the idea from what Veronica had said over Thanksgiving. Kate was more than happy to find out that the University of Melbourne was ranked as the 7th best for studies in the field of law. Rick's writing classes, though, took a hit. Stanford and Melbourne just didn't compare for him. But he was quite willing to sacrifice for Kate.

Next came a new place to live since their college of higher learning wasn't in San Francisco. 1710/22 Dorcas Street, Southbank, VIC 3006. It was $AU833 a week and Kate had been momentarily shocked into silence. At least it had come furnished, plus it included all utilities and Foxtel. It was just one bedroom and one bathroom. They had both initially liked the clean lines of the place and they'd been in a hurry to find something, anything.

They had already been there for two weeks and had started their classes. Kate was the first to start hating the place. It was WHITE! White walls, white ceilings. Hell, the kitchen was entirely white. The floors were a gray tile and even the furniture was mostly gray.

"The TV is in the kitchen, Castle! …I mean, Anderson." Kate let her chin fall to her chest. That was one of the things she had given up in order to keep him. Her name. She now had a drivers license and passport with her new name, the same as Rick did. He hadn't asked her, though in her head she was trying to come to grips with being Mrs. Anderson instead of Mrs. Castle. It just wasn't the same.

Kate came back to the present. "I'm not sure I want to do this."

"If you want answers, she's the only one who can give them to you," Rick reminded her; going there was his idea. "Get your coat, Kate, it's going to be cold." He let go of her so she could go back into the bedroom to retrieve her coat. His was laying on the sofa.

Kate's mind continued to race all over the place. The laptop had been filled with hidden treasures. It had a listing of every person they'd killed that shared Rick's ability. Eight total so far; Rick would have been number nine. It even had a list of people that they were gathering information on to verify that they were in fact Demons. And it had addresses and phone numbers, including where they worked and who their family members were. That was one more thing that had scared them into action. They'd found Martha and Jim in their database. Martha knew what Rick could do, but Jim didn't. They were still talking about that. First, however, had come getting out of San Francisco.

They hadn't even finished their trip to Vegas. They didn't attend their show, get a car, drive to the dam for a tour. The entire trip had been wiped out because of her mother. On a lark they'd done one thing. "It's fake, Kate. Think of it as a rehearsal for when I really do ask you," Rick had argued. That alone had caused her to briefly stop breathing. He was really going to ask her and after a couple of minutes of not breathing, she knew what her answer would be when he did. Just like her answer was for this. "I do."

Kate had laughed in the taxi all the way back to their hotel in Vegas to collect Martha and leave that cursed city. "How do you feel, Mrs. Castle?" Rick teased. Kate's answer had been to kiss him.

It was barely the size of an outhouse. It looked like a tiny church and it had just the one elderly man inside it. A drive-thru wedding chapel. It was fake but Kate had a ring of sorts. It was just as fake and had come from a gift shop in one of the casinos.

Martha had hugged both of them. "I better be invited to the real one…or else." She had glared at her son.

"I'll make sure you're there, Martha. And I'll make sure Castle Jumps to collect you." Kate hugged her for all she was worth. Martha had done so much for her in such a short time.

Kate came walking back to Rick while putting on her coat. She didn't say a word, just pressed herself into his chest. If anyone asked her, she was scared. Getting married had been fun; fake, but fun. Confronting the mother that had abandoned her and her dad? That wasn't going to be any fun. Still Rick was right. She needed answers.

"Ready?" Rick wrapped his arms around her.

"No," Kate replied weakly and then she felt it. It was like being pulled on suddenly only to have that same someone let go of her. She didn't actually see anything. She was still trying to get used to seeing one thing one second and then seeing another a moment later. If she blinked, she would miss all of it.

It was also suddenly cold, freezing actually. The driveway along with the walkway to the front door had been shoveled. However, everywhere else there had to be at least 3 feet of snow on the ground, if not more. Literally everything was white. More white than their apartment.

The house was in the countryside of Minneapolis, Minnesota and it was after New Year's. The dead of winter. Rick had been there a few times just to get the lay of the land.

"Go ask her." Rick kissed her forehead and spun her around. "Go get answers. I'll be watching and I'll be there if you need me." Out here he didn't worry about anyone seeing him. Plus her mother already knew about him. She was the one that wanted him dead, after all.

Kate felt him Jump away. There was a tiny burst of wind that wanted to suck her in with it, and then suddenly it was gone. She had seen him do it a few times by now. He always left behind this tiny swirl of dark gray cloud that looked like a mini black hole that just vanished.

She shook herself and gathered her courage around her like armor. "I can do this…I think." What she really wanted to do was signal Rick and have him come get her so she could get out of there. At the very least she wanted a few answers.

Whatever she or they did, they had money. It had a three car garage, stone exterior, nice landscaping – what she could see of it in the snow. It had a second floor and it was also easily 3,000 square feet in size. She guessed there must be several acres if they owned all the land around it.

Kate walked up to the front door and stared at it. She looked around to try and spot Rick, but didn't see him. Still she had faith that he could see her. So she reached out and pressed the doorbell. She could hear it chime and she waited impatiently. It was possible that no one was home. Her nerves started to leave her. Maybe they would have to come back later. That idea was crushed when the door opened. It was a girl, maybe 11 or 12 years old. "Kristine?" Kate questioned. Please tell me there's no one here by that name.

The girl turned her head. "MOM! …DOOR!" Then she ran off leaving the door standing open. Kate didn't see much. There was a tile floor, maybe marble. A grand staircase curved up not far away. Even the furniture she could see looked elegant. Kind of French Classic.

"Yes, can I help…" She came to the door and stopped mid-sentence. Both were shocked into silence.

"Mom?" She looked like her picture on the laptop. Just an older version of the picture her dad still had of her.

"Katherine." It was easy to tell she hadn't been expecting Kate.

"It is you, isn't it." Suddenly Kate felt nothing but rage and hatred for her. She had grown up wanting to know why her mother had abandoned them. Finding her picture on that laptop had explained why. But she didn't want to believe it. She couldn't believe it. Her mother wasn't a murderer.

"Katherine, how did you… What do you want? How did you find me?" She thought she had covered her tracks pretty well. Her daughter shouldn't be here. She should be in New York with her father.

Kate got right to the point. "I want to know why you left dad and me. I was just a kid. I also want to know why you became a murderer."

"It's not what you think, Katherine." She had a reason. She just never expected to have to explain it to a family member, let alone a daughter that wasn't hers any longer.

"So you're not a murderer?" This woman was trying to kill the man who had her heart.

How was Katherine involved in any of this? How had she found her? Somehow she knew though. She self-righteously said, "I am the hand of GOD."

Kate began laughing. "The hand of God? God isn't a murderer, Mother. Or have you forgotten the sixth commandment: Thou shall not kill." Let's see her talk herself around that.

"I do what God can't. I perform a service that God wants but won't do himself." She was the hand of God.

Kate went back to laughing and couldn't help but notice that her mother was starting to get angry. "You told yourself a lie so you can clear your conscience about making a deal with the Devil. A servant of Satan," Kate countered.

"I don't expect you to understand. You should go before I forget who you are. Don't ever come back, Katherine." The implications of what would happen if she did were evident.

"You murdering bitch!" Kate's anger over what her mother actually was boiled over. Kate took a small step to close the distance, used every muscle in her arm, swung wide, and slapped her. Kate watched her head snap to one side and the sound actually echoed off of the walls and floor. She saw her mother actually stagger from the blow. As she turned back to face her, Kate could see her handprint in red on her mother's face. "Murdering bitch!" she repeated. Kate had always hoped for a loving mother and a reason why her mother had left her. Now she knew what her mother was and why her younger self and her dad had been abandoned.

She started to open her mouth to respond, then felt the familiar sensations of someone Jumping. In a moment she and Kate no longer felt the cold. The house was gone. It was replaced with rusted metal everywhere. She looked around and saw him. He released her arm and moved a foot to shift next to Katherine.

"YOU!" It was Richard Rodgers. The kid that had escaped her right-hand man. TWICE!

"Yeah, me. …You alright?" Rick turned his head to look at Kate but never took an eye off of her.

Kate nodded. "I think I've learned enough. …Not to worry, Mother, we're not murderers and you won't receive an invitation to our wedding. Take me home." Kate had learned enough.

Rick didn't bat an eye; he Jumped them back to their apartment in Australia. He hugged her tightly and kissed her. "I'll be right back," he said and Jumped without her.

"RICK, DON'T!" But she was too late. She was talking to a vanishing mini black hole.

He Jumped to where he had been. "It's over," Rick informed her coldly, noting that Kate's mother hadn't moved an inch from where she had been.

She tossed her head. "It will never be over until all of you are gone. God never rests."

"I have your man, Aaron's, laptop. It's filled with details about your entire organization. Every name, address, and phone number that you have helping you to be a murderer." Rick simply smiled, certain he now had the edge.

"I'm not a murderer. Killing scum like you is not murder." She hadn't lost her faith in her mission.

"You just keep telling yourself that. You can explain that to the man that bars your entrance to Heaven and sends you to Hell instead to join up with your master. Not to worry, you won't be alone here for long." Rick had every intention of going hunting. Only instead of killing, he was going to maroon them.

Rick Jumped to the other side of the room the second she twitched a muscle. "You'll find your friend around here somewhere. I'll fill the other spaces with the rest of your killers. Enjoy your stay." He Jumped for home to find Kate had barely moved.

Kate felt Rick Jump in and immediately found herself in his arms. "Rick? …Babe?" He hadn't done what she feared he had done, had he?

Rick thought he knew what she was asking. "No, I didn't. I left her where I left the other guy, just in a different one."

Kate leaned into him, trusting him to tell her the truth. "Where were we? Where is she?" Kate was curious. Mostly because she wanted her to suffer for what she'd done.

"There are six two-story metal anti-aircraft forts that Britain built during World War II. They're out to sea several miles off of Kent. They used to be interconnected by a bridge, but now that's long gone. They were abandoned years ago," Rick explained, hoping that was enough.

"Abandoned. Can they escape?" It wasn't a prison, after all.

"They might one day be found and rescued, hopefully not for a long time, though." He'd chosen this location because it gave them hope. Plus if they were smart, they could collect rain water, do some fishing. They wouldn't die but life wouldn't be easy.

Kate gave a small nod. It was enough. "Now what?"

Rick smiled and tightened his hold on her. "Now we get back to living our lives. Right after I collect all the others and leave them there. I'm going to fill the other four forts with her hired killers. They can all watch each other suffer."

"Do we have to get the others?" Kate just wanted to go back to living their lives. Yes, she wanted to live it without fear of being hunted and killed. But did they have to make this many sacrifices to do it?

"Leave them to me. I'll hunt them down when we don't have classes and we can look for a different place to live if you want." They'd been in a hurry when they selected this place. Now that they were here, they had time to learn about their new home and find a place they both liked. They both had three more years of classes before graduation.

Kate looked up at him. "Yes, please." This place was not to her taste. If felt more like a hospital.

Rick chuckled and leaned down to kiss her. Kate broke from the kiss and tried to bury her head against his chest. "I love you." It suddenly hit her that she hadn't said that to him since that day he jumped them to Hawaii and that battleship. She felt bad about that. "I love you so much."

"I love you too, Kate, and we're going to be fine." He just had to clean up the mess so that they could.

"What do we tell my dad? Your mother knows everything, but my dad's in the dark." She really didn't know what to do. Did they tell him everything, show him what Rick could do?

"We'll work it out, love. You can still talk to him when either of you calls. If you think he'll worry less, let him think you're still at Stanford. Explain and apologize later, perhaps." Rick didn't have a good answer for her.

"We're going to need jobs." They needed money to live here with. Pay the rent, pay their tuition, buy books and food to eat. They also needed to figure out how to get around.

Rick attempted to reassure her. "I have money, Kate, enough to last us for a while."

That had Kate looking up at him. How did he have so much money. She had seen him use cash when they got this place and when he purchased everything else. Including groceries after they had moved in. He sighed, knowing that this was not going to go over well with her. How did he explain that he was a bank robber? "Rick?" He was quiet for too long and she started to glare at him, beaming her demand that he explain into his brain before she hurt him.

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Aaron had considered having survived forcing his personal killing knife into his own belly as a sign from God. Yes, it had hurt and he had bled a lot, but he'd survived. Then he'd gotten lucky and had found that kid, Richard Rodgers, in Vegas. A quick plane ride with a friend and he had located them sitting at a blackjack table. Since all casinos had so many cameras he had chosen to do it a more risky way. Getting casino security or worse involved would have been trouble. Add to that it had taken him weeks to recover. It was a sign from God.

Now here he was, naked, drinking what water he could accumulate in at least a semi-clean manner. It had taken a lot of work but he had worked out a way to fish so he wouldn't starve. He'd even found a net that he was able to repair and that went over the side and into the water as well. All things considered he was doing better than most might expect. He was always on the lookout for a boat or a plane. He could see land but it was several miles and he had no illusions that he could swim it without first becoming shark bait.

He had even hit the jackpot, or so he thought at the time. Case after case of WWII k9 rations that had been left behind. Only to find that most and possibly all had not survived the test of time all that well. Still it was something.

In addition he had found enough material to cover himself and hopefully enough to survive the winter. Not that he had any intention of staying here that long.

Then one day he saw something that should have been impossible. Even worse in some ways, she'd spotted him.

The woman who at one time had been Johanna Beckett, couldn't believe the mess she found herself in. All she had were the clothes she had been wearing. She had even been wearing heels at the time. She was an agent of God, so why was she here? "It's a test, a test of my resolve to serve him."

Still she couldn't believe that she had been face to face with her first daughter. Worse in some ways was that since she was here, she was involved with a Jumper. In many ways that hurt the most. Her daughter was involved with a Demon. If she ever got out of here she would be forced to order the death of her own child.

"Nothing!" She threw what was in her hand to the far side of the room. No food, no water, no clothes, nothing useful. It was on her way up the stairs when she thought she saw something. It fell from one of the other stations. Johanna sat down and just watched until finally she saw it come back up and it looked to have fish in it. "Food." It was a sign. She may have failed the latest test, but her job wasn't over yet. She was going to escape here and get her revenge against that kid and against her own daughter.

"What have you done, Jim, you idiot!"