It was quite in the car Her blood rushed trough her veins. This was the most terrifying situation in her life. Her daughter and husband were following her trough the cold corridors of the precinct. She could imagine a brighter and better place to drop such a bombshell. She had texted Lanie to come to the precinct. She wanted to tell them all at once.
"We have to go this way", she lead her family to to break room.
"Take a seat. I'll be back in a minute. "
She tried to hide her nervousness but her voice sounded differently.
Her husband scrutinized her and grabbed her arm when she turned to go.
"You don´t have to do this. You always could tell them you are my best friend from high school and since my wife left me you help us out."
Kate exhaled: "No, I am done lying to my friends about the most important things in my life. I am done denying that I love you. I'll be back soon."
She left her stunned husband and daughter to go and get her friends.
"So Beckett, what is up? ", Ryan asked while they entered the breakroom. Lanie jumped I on the question.
"Yeah, why do you made me come over?"
Her colleagues couldn´t find an explanation. There was no way back now.
She tried to concentrate, not on her sweating hands but on the words she intended to say.
"You guys, you know I trust you, right?"
The boys and Lanie felt like there was standing a totally different person than their friend.
Kates voice sounded so soft, so insecure, so vulnerable.
They nodded and told her that they knew.
"Great. I have to tell you something more. I kept a little secret..."
"What is it?",Espositos words were disturbed by Ryans.
"Beckett?",he asked
"Kate?!"
That was it. Lanies famous glare which let her talk like a will-less doll.
"Ehm I want to introduce you to those two." She pointed her finger to Rick and Alexis who were sitting at the table.
She saw the confusion on her friends faces. Lanie was the first one who started to speak.
"Wait, you know Richard Castle and never thought a second about introducing him to me."
Alexis started laughing.
That was so not the reaction Kate expected. The boys still looked puzzled.
"Mom, is she always like this."
Now her friends shot her a disbelieving look.
"Mom?!", Esposito spoke out what the other two were thinking.
Rick tried to support his wife by taking the situation seriously but with a little bit of humour.
"Well, nice to meet you. I am Rick. Kate's husband. Her little secret and this is our daughter Alexis. Her smaller secret. " He couldn´t resist.
They always teased each other a lot.
"Okay Beckett. I think you have a lot to explain.", Lanie demanded.
Kate sat down on the chair to Rick's right site. She then took her husbands hand and made her daughter snuggle into her left side.
"Rick and I met in high school. It was senior year. He always pulled my pick tales and I...well he was the most popular boy at school and I liked him. All my friends had a crush on him. Everyone had. Except me. To be exact, I hated him. But he tried again and again. I still believe his ego got somehow offended. Well, after some time I gave in and met with him to study. He made made a date night out of our study night. I recognized that he wasn´t that bad. Since this day we were a couple. And what should I say I love him. If anything ever happens to him or Alexis it would kill me. There was an incident on my first week on the job which made me vow to keep my family out of my professional life. I'm sorry for not telling you. But I was so scared and then time passed and well..." Her friends just nodded. They were too amazed about this totally different side of their friend. Kate was no longer only the hardboild detective. She was a love drunken, caring wife, too.
Once that her secret was out she felt like she had to tell them their whole story.
"We went through everything together. My mom was murderer, what made me become a cop. My dad turned himself to the bottle, he's sober now." She smiled with a sad expression. "We married early, pretty early. I had just turned 18 but call it coincidence, I was lucky having my mom with us on that day. I think we had the right instinct. To be honest, we married because I got pregnant." Her friends took in the information. There was a small pause. "So what do you want us to do now. Shell we keep your secret and pretend you never told us and keep things as they were or do we finally get to spend dinner parties at your place?"
"We need to close the case. Rick might have some insight to the case. I can rule him out as a suspect 'cause at time of death he was with me. Afterwards I suggest we discuss everything. And like I said I am done lying. But there is still the press I don't want to get wind of us."
They went back to work. Kate noticed the smile on her daughter's face and that she and her were fine.