Kate runs a hand through her hair.
"Oh by the way Blaire, I love the hair. It looks good short."
Shit, Kate thought to herself this was not the time or the place to explain everything and by the fish impersonations she was receiving from her friends she is going to have to answer soon.
Castle is the first one to recover, "Blaire? Did he just call you Blaire? And this is the longest your hair has ever been."
"Wait, they don't call you Blaire?" Kate shakes her head no.
Kate just wants to run. To get out of here and run away, take off and forget all the judgmental and pitying looks she is bound to receive by the end of the night. She would rather die than have her boys treat her any differently.
Luka is looking at her questioningly. Kate takes a deep breath and remembers what her therapist told her about letting her friends in. Her therapist knew all about what happened all those years ago.
"O-ok, how about we head to my apartment so we can discuss this privately." Kate offers. The others just nod in shock, half of them expecting her to run away and the other half wanting to demand answers that second.
"Come on Luka I'll drive you to my apartment. I'll see the rest of you there." Kate stood up and headed to the exit leaving no room for argument.
"what the hell is going on do you think?" Lanie asks the others.
"I have no idea but I want answers so we better get going." Ryan says. Castle and Espo agree so the four of them head out moments after Kate and her friend.
Once Kate arrived at her apartment her and Luka took the elevator. He was texting his wife as she relished the quiet. Finally, she was able to gather her thoughts.
As the elevator dings she steps off and she makes the quick walk to her apartment door. She fishes her keys out of her bag and turns the lock entering the quiet apartment.
"Make yourself at home. I'm going to pour myself a glass of wine do you want anything?"
He shakes his head no but takes a seat on the couch. Kate pours herself a big glass of merlot, perches herself next to her old friend on the couch, then sits and waits.
After a few sips later and no more than a few moments Kate hears the quiet knocking on her door. She pads across the carpet relishing in the feel of it beneath her toes after taking off her heels.
She opens the door and there is an awkward pause as everyone just stares at each other.
Everyone takes a seat. Each of them is stiff as they sit down, all waiting for the eruption.
Kate sighs, "Ok, there are a few things I haven't been completely honest about. Starting with my mother's murder. For my safety the police thought it would be better to leave a few details out of the cases."
Rick is the first to interrupt, " Wait, your safety? What do you mean?"
Kate holds up her hands, "Just let me finish telling my story. My mom and me were living in Chicago at the time, we were out shopping. More specifically I had just gone in for my last dress fitting for my upcoming wedding. We were on the way home when our car was hit. At first we thought it was just random but it wasn't these men pulled us out of the car and they-they-they beat and rapped my mom then they hit me over the head. My mother was killed that day and I fell into a comma."
Lanie as always was worried about her friend, "Oh Kate, girl why didn't you just tell us?"
"I don't know I was always scared about what people would think if they found out the truth."
Castle spoke up next, his voice soft and caring; "Kate, there's no need to be ashamed you were young. There was nothing you could have done."
"Why would they keep it out of public records though?" Esposito asks.
"My doctors asked them to. There was no one to speak up for me. They thought the men who did this to my mother would come after me so they kept my name out of the paper. They didn't want my name to be tarnished forever."
"You said you were in a coma, for how long?" Lanie asks.
"That's where Kovac comes in. It was by sheer luck that I was dropped off at the ER he was working at. No one wanted my case, I had been in a coma for 6 years by then. Even my fiancé had given up on me."
Lanie gasps at this, "Six years? Girl, that's a long time. You must have had to go through so much to even begin to walk again." Kate nods.
"When I first woke up I couldn't even lift my arms." Kate admits.
Castle looks shocked, his muse who's so strong and indestructible is sitting here telling him that she was so weak she couldn't even raise her arms.
Kate continues,"Kovac here gave me a new dose of medicines and I eventually woke up. He was there helping me through it all. I had no one in the world to help me. My father at the time wasn't in the picture and I'm an only child. No one at the hospital would tell me what happened to my mother or me. After slipping back into the coma again Kovac stood by me and wouldn't let them pull the plug on me. A few months later I woke up and he helped me back to my normal self. After I was able to walk around and be on my own I moved here to New York and never looked back."
They all sat there in shock not knowing what to say. Kate couldn't look any of them in the eyes, she didn't want to see their pitying looks. She knew what was to come, Kovac placed a reassuring hand on her back. At least she has one friend in the room.