After the Vows
Jim Beckett's Journal
Chapter 7
Dear Johanna,
When you were with us I don't think anyone ever spoke the words "polar vortex." They do now. It is cold! New York City is not as bad as many other places. The buildings still provide a heat sink, especially in Manhattan. Buffalo is a tragedy. They certainly know how to handle snow up there, but there was a lake effect storm that outstripped even their capacities. Our country has at long last made an agreement with China to start to decrease the amount of havoc we are wreaking on our planet. I hope it isn't too late. If Katie and Rick give us grandchildren it would be nice if they could live on a Manhattan that isn't underwater.
I don't know that there is much time for the kids to indulge in the kind of fun that produces grandchildren. Maybe they managed to get something done while they were out in Arizona. Katie and Rick have both been working practically around the clock on the Donovan matter and don't seem to be any closer to a solution. As may well be imagined about a cop who worked in Internal Affairs, Donovan managed to alienate a lot of people, cops and otherwise. For that reason, Rick and Katie have been working separately the past couple of days.
As I've mentioned before, Rick is a speed reader, so with the sheer number of files to go through, Captain Gates has put him on that duty. He brought boxes and boxes of them back to the Castle loft, which is quieter than the precinct. Katie is continuing to interview suspects, something at which Rick assures me with great pride, she is a master. Neither Rick nor Katie has said anything further about a Bracken connection. I'm not sure if that means they just don't have any evidence of one or that by not mentioning it, they are keeping thoughts of the possibility at bay. I hope it's the former.
J.J. is turning out to be a very lightening influence in the office. The paralegals like him a lot. He is always cracking jokes or leaving funny little gifts on their desks. We are getting a great deal done, even though the company is doing its best to throw roadblocks in our way. Whenever we have managed to subpoena documents, it has pulled the old trick of trying to overwhelm us with an incredible amount of mostly irrelevant data. We have to sift though it to find the diamonds. We have found some help from a couple of quarters to do that. We have volunteers from a local women's organization reading through page after page. They have no legal expertise, but we've given them guidelines about what to look for. A local church has donated classroom space they don't use during the week and we have set up groups of women, each supervised by a paralegal, to find relevant documents amidst the tons of paper. Vincent omnia veritas, but there is a lot to be said for a lot of hands and a lot of elbow grease. The paralegals consult with me or with J.J. and through this process we have been assembling files that I at least, find pretty impressive. I hope the judge shares my opinion.
I fear Rick may be up against a similar battle, without all the helping hands. Thinking about it, even though Katie is pretty secure in Rick's love for her, I can't imagine that she would be overjoyed at the prospect of a loft full of other women. Alexis and Martha pose enough of a challenge. Alexis is starting to prepare for midterms and as I understand it, despite her excellent academic record, has always been a little jumpy about exams. Her father's presence in the loft seems to be a calming influence on her. She says she gets a lot more work done when he is there. I'm not sure the reverse is true. I'm glad to say that as far as she's told me, Alexis is also keeping up with her attendance at meetings of her support group. Between that and Declan, in the future she may not need to have Rick around as much to lower her anxiety level. It would probably be ideal if she could move into the dorms now that Rick and Katie are newlyweds. I think it would be good for Alexis to regain her independence in any case.
Of course Katie has a mother-in-law in residence which is not the ideal situation for newlyweds either. Admittedly, Martha is very busy right now, but she is also a huge presence when she is around. Katie, in her usual close to the vest fashion, hasn't shared much in the way of details, but Rick has made comments from time to time. I know he loves his mother deeply, but his frustration is obvious. From what I have gathered, Martha has had an inhibitory influence on Katie's intimacy with Rick on multiple occasions and I really don't think Martha has wished to do any such thing. I'm truly sure she doesn't want to put up any barriers between them now that they're married. She dotes on them as a couple and wants to see them happy every bit as much as I do.
Katie has been talking about giving up her apartment. That is a huge move for her. She has always tended to keep one foot out the door and preserve a path for retreat. That has changed with the marriage. She now considers the loft as her place with Rick. The practical thing would be to put Martha in the apartment, if the finances can be worked out somehow. It's only twenty blocks from the loft, so it would still be handy for Martha to be wherever she needed to be. However, I imagine that it would be a great relief to the kids to know that she couldn't just come barging in on them. Much as I loved your mother, I would not have liked having her on the other side of a couple of bookcases from us.
We as a family: Katie, Rick, Martha, Alexis, and me, have started talking about Thanksgiving. We did it last year, with the addition of Alexis' then significant other Pi, but this year is even more special since Rick and Katie are finally married. The Donovan case is certainly an obstacle and I doubt that a resolution will come in time, but this year there is so much to be thankful for that none of us want to ignore it. Katie finally got what she sees as justice for you. In the case of Rick's homecoming, it is much like the return of the prodigal son. He was lost and he was found. That was never fully celebrated. Then, of course there was the wedding. The party was certainly a celebration, but it was mostly intended for Rick's and Katie's friends. We need a time when we can all consider the gifts the last year has brought to all of us. The plan is still in process, but I'll let you know how it is going. I can't recall a year I've so looked forward to the holidays, or for that matter really looked forward to them at all, since you were taken from us.
Forever love,
JB