WITH THE WIND IN OUR FACE – Chapter 7

As they sit in the Red Room, Kate ravenously eating the peaches and turning her nose up at the tin of palmetto shoots. He begins to tell her about his escape, but she interrupts him "Rick, later, what I need to know is what happened that day?"

"I'm sorry Kate, of all the days I really should …" but she interrupts him.

"It's ok Rick, you're alive and we're together, that's all that matters. But I need to know what happened to you back there … when I saw the car … I couldn't take it Rick … I just couldn't!"

He sets the water bottle down and pulls her onto his lap, feeling her scoot her legs across and pull herself into him like she was trying to meld them together as one, dirt and grime and staleness no barrier to their need for each other.

"After I hung up , I noticed a black Escalade coming up behind me … normally I'd not have worried, but since meeting you …" he trails off and has to grin as she thumps him gently on the chest, both in protest and agreement, "… anyway, I sped up, they did too, I slowed down, so did they. Then suddenly they pulled up alongside and shot ahead. Before I could react they'd pulled across the front of me and I had to slam on the brakes … by the time I'd come to a stop, they were out the vehicle and pointing some nasty looking assault rifles at me. I wasn't about to argue".

"They had me out of the car, hood over my head and into the back of the Escalade before I could even say 'hey!' … then I felt a jab in my neck and when I came to, I was sitting … well, laying in my dark hole and cursing them for ruining my wedding day. What about you Kate, how the hell did they get you?"

He can feel her shaking her head where it rests against his shoulder. "When I saw the wreck …"

"What wreck?" he interrupts

"Your car, it was in the ditch and on fire …"

"Damn! I liked that merc"

She lifts her head off his shoulder and turns to look at him, the Beckett glare not quite full power, but enough to tell him to shut up now. He offers a somewhat apologetic look and she glares at him a little longer before settling back against him.

Very purposefully, and with an occasional pause just to make sure he's not going to interrupt her, she starts again. "When I saw the wreck … I died, inside. I couldn't take any more. Your Mom, Alexis, Dad, they must have dealt with everything, gone back and told everyone what had happened …I don't know, all I know is that when I did made it back to the house … and don't ask me how … only the family and Ryan and Jenny were there. Lanie and Espo had gone with the local cops to … I suppose to keep an eye on things," she shrugs helplessly "I just made it upstairs and crawled into a corner of our room and … well, that was where you're mother found me … hours later".

Kate lifts her head off his shoulder and looks at him "I've never known anyone as strong as her Caste, she's ... she's incredible!"

"What happened?" he asks gently, brushing some of the matted hair off her face, the red light casting a strange glow over her.

"She told me that the body found in the car had been taken to the local morgue, that Lanie had been unable to identify it as you from visuals and prelims, but that she had a feeling it wasn't you. They were running DNA test but that the results wouldn't be in till the following day, even though the lab was making it a priority case, and that Lanie was staying on at the lab overnight and would call us as soon as anything came up".

"Then she mentioned the earrings …"

"What earrings?" he asks, puzzled.

"When I was getting ready, just before you and I spoke on the phone ... she handed me a box, said it was as a thank you for making you so happy … they were a pair of sapphire drop earrings … beautiful ones…"

"My grandmother's" he nods, surprised, given what they meant to Martha and yet not surprised at all, knowing how she regarded … regards Kate.

Kate nods, "We were both sitting on the floor, I was trying to pull myself together and not succeeding very well, still wearing the dress and the earrings … then she asked me if I remembered what she'd said about them"

"And, what had she said?" he asks curiously

"That only women of substance had worn them … and the implications were pretty obvious, she expected me to get off my ass and find out what had happened to you!" and there's a muffled huff from somewhere around his chest, a mix of laughter and sob.

"What happened then?"

"I did just that. Got changed and went downstairs, started making calls, it was a pretty lousy evening for all of us, Jenny and Ryan put all the presents away 'for when you were back' they said … that almost set me off again. Alexis has obviously inherited your Mother's strength, she dealt with the caterers, arranged with them to have the food delivered to the hospital and local hospices ... we had to take the phone off the hook in the end and turn all our mobiles off, it was just too much, I don't know how the press got all our numbers, but it just became crazy, the local uniforms kept them away from the house. Luckily I remembered the burner phone you told me about, so I used it to call Espo and Lanie, told them to use it if anything came up".

"Next day we went back to New York. Gates obviously wasn't hanging around, by the time I got into the precinct, Hills and Ramirez were already working on it, it … it wasn't the first time I'd seen your picture up on the board …. Hell Rick, I nearly fell apart right then".

He waits for her to continue, arms tight around each other. After a deep breath she carries on. "The captain had me in her office most of the time, I'm sure she wanted to throw me out, but she let me sit there, kept me up to date on what was happening, wouldn't let me out of there though, said it was either sit there or go home, that right then I was of no help, that maybe the following day, when they might have something to go on … and that she'd let me know if anything popped".

"I think she must have called your Mother, both she and Alexis appeared and made me go back with them", Castle raises his eyebrows; she must have been out of it to allow herself to be dragged away from there!

Kate picks up the last of the water bottles; they've already emptied the other five between them. He twists the top off for her and she takes it, drinking about half of it before handing it back to him. He screws the top on, sets it on the floor and replaces his arm around her.

"I took some pills that night, couldn't sleep at all and knew I needed to be fresh if I was to find out what had happened to you. Next morning I was still feeling a bit groggy from the pills, Martha wanted me to stay in for a bit, but I couldn't … I needed to be at the precinct. I went down to the garage … maybe if I hadn't taken those pills …"

"What happened?" he asks gently as her voice peters out.

"There was a SUV parked a couple of spaces away from my car … I didn't think anything about it … went to open my door, heard someone getting out behind me … then I woke up here … well, down there where you found me in my own hellhole. I screamed at them, asked what they wanted, who they were … nothing, they just left a bucket, food, if you can call it that and water, not a word all this time … until you appeared …" and she's sitting upright, suddenly frightened, taking his face between her hands and staring hard at him "... it is you, isn't it Rick? I'm not going crazy?"

It's a few minutes before she calms down and by then he thinks she's probably ready to try her eyes out with the lighting outside. He gets to his feet, pulls her up to stand next to him and slowly eases the door open, grinning at his caution when doing this the last time, he still doesn't know if there are others out there waiting for them, but with Kate next to him, he's ready to face whatever they want to throw his way.

"What's so funny?" she asks as they step out into the passageway, her eyes squinting slightly as she looks up at him, but not really bothered by the bright lights any more, and looking down at her he shakes his head.

"We both need a shower" he says, and can't help his laugh at her eye-roll, only to glance up nervously as his laughter echoes through the passageway.

He's no sooner shown her the washing facilities than she's looking each of them over. With a shake of her head she says "There's no way I'm getting into these rags again after a shower, they need to be burnt!"

He waggles his eyebrows at her, "We can always wear out birthday suits …"

Apparently ignoring him, though he catches the twitch of her lips she asks "Didn't you come across any clothes when you were searching?"

He shakes his head, "Food, beds, computers … and some locked cabinets and drawers. Unless they were locking their clothes away … there's also another doorway, I'm guessing to the outside, but I haven't been through it".

"What about the clothes the guards were wearing?"

"Uh, well you might fit into Shorty's stuff, the othe…"

"Shorty's?" she interrupts him

He grins, explains about the name and then remembering the view of the twitching jacket on the screen, shudders. "His jacket might do you, but …" he's reluctant to even go back and look. "As to the other guy … no way, I'd rather put these back on" he says, pointing at their filthy rags. Then he pauses, thinks about it a moment, "There has to be something, there were at least those two guys here, but there's no towels, no shaving gear, and apart from the rather utilitarian look of the glass room, there's no sign of a couple of guys making the place liveable … first thing you'd expect to see would be some centrefold up on the wall, cd's, books, magazines … kind of things you see anywhere someone settles in … maybe we need to go check out the other door first".

Kate looks down at herself, reluctantly at the dripping showerhead and then nods. "Ok, but you'd better let me have whatever it is sticking out your pants …" her innocent look belied by the laughter in her eyes as she adds, "round the back", fingers flicking in that direction.

He pulls the gun from his waist band, giving her the pout before handing it over. Glancing at it as he hands it to her, she's puzzled, and feeling his gaze on her looks up. "It's a Chinese Type 54" she says, "what the hell have the Chinese got to do with this?"

"Wait till you see the food labels" he says, and when she looks up at him, he shrugs "Asian, Mexican, American … but no price tags, so it could come from just about anywhere"

Having checked the weapon over she nods to him, "Ok, let's go see what's behind the next door!"