Lets wrap this story up
The beginning is Angst
The end is better
Kate is sitting curled up on the couch in her apartment. She cannot go back to the loft. The memories from there are too powerful. She doesn't think she can handle being there without him. It has been 4 days since she last saw her husband. Four days since he disappeared. No one knows who took him or where he was taken. The police and the FBI have exhausted all leads on the case.
She really does not want to do anything but she knows she really needs to get moving again. She can't just sit here in tears 24/7. She must get back to work.
There is a knock at the front door. She struggles to get up and see who it is
She opens the door to find a delivery driver standing there holding a long covered box. Kate didn't order anything especially something so large. She doesn't know why someone would be delivering anything at all let alone such a large item. She signs the delivery ticket and asks the driver to take the box and place it on the table in her apartment.
Closing the door, she walks back into the main living room looking at the package and trying to figure out what might be inside. When she gets to the table she takes the top cover off of the box.
Kate collapses onto the floor and begins to cry. Why has someone done this to her? Who is it that has such a sick sense of humor that they would do such a horrible thing to her at a time like this? She looks all over the package to find out who sent it. But the only information is the delivery ticket addressed to Katherine Beckett and her address. There is no return address, but she knows where it came from. But she doesn't know why it was sent right now
Kate stumbles to the nearest telephone and dials her best friend. When she answers, Kate hears the voice of Lanie Parish
"Lanie, I need you here. I need you right now!"
"Kate, what's wrong?"
"Lanie, please just come over to my apartment. Please hurry"
"OK girlfriend. I will be there in a few minutes"
Kate hangs up the telephone and sits beck down on the couch just looking at the box that just delivered.
It takes Lanie about 10 minutes to get to her door. When Kate hears the knock, she bolts to open the door and drags her best ever friend into the apartment.
"Kate, what in the world is going on? Why are you so panicked? I thought someone attacked you."
"Well, that is just what has happened! Look!"
Kate points to the package sitting on the couch. Lanie walks over and the shock on her face is evident
"Where did this come from? Who delivered it?"
Kate answers as best she can "A delivery driver just brought it and I have no idea where it came from or why now"
"Did you call the delivery service to see where it was sent from and by whom?"
"Look Lanie at the delivery ticket. There is no company name or phone number. There is no shipper. The only address is mine"
"Sweetie. This is so wrong. Let me get CSU down here to do fingerprints on the box and see id we can find something to trace the people who are trying to do this to you."
"Lanie, I don't think you will find anything. Anyone who is capable of pulling this off will not leave prints"
Kate drops down on her couch again and places her head into her hands then grabs a handful of hair and runs her fingers thru from front to the back.
"Lanie, this is one hell of a cruel joke"
"There is nothing funny about this, Kate"
Before Kate can respond to the comment her phone rings. Kate looks up toward the phone "Lanie will you answer that? I don't want to speak to anyone right now"
Lanie is closer to the phone anyway and was already walking to pick it up. Caller ID says Blocked
"Hello" Lanie pauses a brief moment "I'm sorry, Mrs. Castle is not available right now. Can I help you?" As she listens, there appears a frown on Doctor Parish's face. "Just a moment"
Lanie takes the phone down from her ear and looks toward her best friend "Kate, he asked for Mrs. Castle and he said he needs to talk to you about the delivery you just received and he has some good news for you"
Kate grabs the phone from Lanie "WHO IS THIS?"
The voice on the other end is familiar. "Mrs. Castle? Call me Mr. Smith and you and I need to talk"
"Mr. Smith or whoever you really are. I want to know what is going on? My husband is missing. You are calling me right after my wedding dress shows up here. I want some answers"
"Mrs. Castle. I believe I have the answers you need. But I cannot give them to you over the telephone. Please meet me at The Old Haunt in 30 minutes. I will buy you a burger and answer everything you need to know."
Kate drops the phone, asks Lanie to stay at the apartment and she will be back soon but before Lanie can ask anything or say anything Beckett rushes out the door
It is starting to rain so Kate grabs the first cab she can hail.
Kate enters the door of The Old Haunt and looks around for a person she has never met before. She walks past the bar where the manager sees her "Kate are you looking for Rick? He's not here"
"No Jeff, I am meeting a business associate"
At that moment she hears a voice that she recognizes "Mrs. Castle please follow me"
Kate turns and sees an older distinguished man is his early 60's. Tall, slim, white hair. He leads Kate to the rear booth that she knows so well. This is the secluded booth where she and Castle would meet when they were dating in secret. It was hidden from the front door. Any nosey photographers would not see her and Rick making out like teenagers
Kate sits down across from Smith "OK! What is going on? Do you have my husband?"
"Mrs. Castle. First things first. Mr. Castle is fine. He suffered a mild concussion from the bump on the head. But something else took place a long ago that caused the coma."
"What are you talking about? What something a long time ago?"
Smith never looks away. He is always in total eye contact with Kate.
"Rick has a past. A past that you are not aware of. In fact, he is not aware of"
"What do you mean a past? What past?"
"You and he were involved in a CIA case several years ago. An agent named Sofia Turner brought you two into the lion's den so to speak. In fact the lion tried to kill you and eat you two"
"I remember very well. I did not like her at all"
"Yes. She turned out to be quite bad in the end. Well, when Mr. Castle went in to shadow her, the company choose to use him as a covert agent. He actually went thru an abbreviated training program at Langley. He received weapons training, hand to hand combat and some other more classified items. After the shadowing was done, he was debriefed and released back into society"
"That explains his marksmanship with a hand gun"
"Along with other training"
Beckett is looking off in the distance "Are you telling me that Rick has been lying to me all these years?"
"No! Please understand something. The debrief we are discussing took place at the same hotel where you rescued Andrea and Angie"
"Rick had been there before?"
"Yes, but he has neither memory of the event nor any memory of his work with the agency. Please don't blame him for keeping anything from you. His memories were erased"
"Does this mean he is permanently damaged and I will never get him back?"
"No, we have brought him back. Well mostly back. He still has some holes when it comes to his most recent memories"
"Where is he now? What can I do?"
"That brings me to the delivery today"
"My wedding dress being delivered?"
"Yes. We need for you to go to him and do something to shock him into remembering. We thought maybe seeing you in the wedding dress might be the jolt he needs to bring him back. Can you do that?"
"Of course I can do that. Where is he?"
"He is home in his loft"
Before Kate jumps up to head out the door Smith again speaks "Good luck Kate"
"Thanks" she says as she is running toward the front entrance
When she exits the door and walks back up to street level she walks into a driving rain. Looking up and down the street she can see no available taxi so she begins walking-running toward the loft.
By the time she arrives at Castle's building she is totally drenched. She doesn't even wait for the elevator. She bolts up the stairway taking two to three steps at a time. When she gets to the door, she realizes she did not bring her key to the loft and the door is locked.
Quickly she knocks and waits
Inside the loft, Richard Castle is sitting at his desk trying to get his memories in order. They kept telling him that he and Kate were together, but his last memory was of angrily walking out of her apartment knowing that they were finished as partners and the love he has for her would go unfulfilled.
Then he hears the knock on his door. He slowly gets up and opens the door. The vision in front of him is all his brain needs to snap back to where it belongs
Two hands reaching out to his face is all he needed to bring him back
I do have a couple of more chapters to post. They are fun. I promise