CH57

Rick finally fell asleep. Kate however just laid there with him and couldn't sleep. Why is he thinking of his wife now? Had he changed his mind and wasn't in love with her anymore? What was at that site that could bring this on? Kate didn't want to leave Rick but she also needed some answers.

So she extracted herself from Rick and using the communication disk behind her ear asked for Javi and Ryan to meet her at the bedroom door.

Kate steps out and the guys are already there. "How is he?" Javi gets it in first.

"He's sleeping. Which is probably a good thing. Tell me what happened. Don't leave anything out."

Ryan starts at the beginning about how Javi went with Jim and Ryan went with Castle. Finding out her father had gone got a rise out of Kate, but she held her tongue. She would give her father a thorough tongue lashing later.

"No bad guys? No shooting? No strange colors? His suit didn't fail?" At this point Lucile interjects. "Scans of Richard when he returned did not indicate his suit had failed or his breather had failed."

"So he didn't breathe in any of the drugs or get it on his skin and absorb it." Kate is now thinking out loud. "Did he fire his stunner at anything during the whole time?"

And again Lucile interjects. "There was no weapons fire of any kind inside or outside the building."

"Have the explosives been detonated?" Kate asks. Maybe they went off too early.

"I detonated the explosives using the coded tone as required 30 seconds after Castle and Ryan returned." Lucile tells them.

"So it wasn't a concussion of the blast. Could the Transmat have affected his suit?" Kate asks.

Ryan answers this one. "He was already acting funny before I even opened it to leave. Actually I opened it earlier than was planned to get Castle out."

"Solar flares? Radiation? Sonic weapons? Different aliens? This time the gray guys with the big black eyes?" Kate is now grasping at straws.

"None detected." Lucile responds.

"Damn it! Something happened. Something. …. Was there anything in the air? Something that might be taken for a ghost or other spiritual apparition?" Kate is really reaching now.

"There was product everywhere. I mean it is a processing lab after all. But I don't remember seeing anything that would look like that. Why would you want to know that?" Ryan asks.

"Just something Rick said before he went to sleep." Kate tells him.

"So maybe he saw something I didn't?" Ryan speculates. "But what could he have seen that would cause this?" Ryan is still just as baffled as Beckett.

Changing topics. "How's Alexis?" Kate asks.

"She's scared Beckett. Like really scared." Javi tells Beckett.

Kate looks upstairs and then turns to look at the door to the bedroom that Rick is behind.

"You stay with Castle, Beckett. Jenny, Lanie and your father are doing what they can for her. You should be there when Castle wakes up." Javi tells her.

Not sure it's the right thing. Maybe she could spare a minute for Alexis. But if she shows up in front of Alexis they both might end up in a crying pile in the middle of the living room.

"Thanks guys. I'll let you know if there is any change." And Kate heads back into the bedroom to lie down next to Rick. And wait.

"Lucile was there a problem with Rick's wife before he came here?" Kate wonders.

"She was diagnosed with a debilitating disease just after they were married. Rick spent the next two years running from doctor to doctor trying treatment after treatment. They would each prescribe new drugs. Some where part of a testing phase before being made available to everyone else." Lucile explains.

"So Rick pumped her full of drugs to combat the disease and he ends up here instead of being there to help her." Kate concludes. "He thinks he abandoned her after pumping her full of drugs and comes here and goes into a processing plant to destroy drugs." Kate is thinking out loud.

"You are thinking the drugs in the processing plant triggered something he feels responsible for about his wife?" Lucile states partly as a question.

"The longer he stayed in the processing plant the worse he became. According to Ryan." Kate remembers. "What was the disease Lucile?"

"It was a type of motor neuron disease." Lucile informs Kate.

It was hours later and no one upstairs had gone to bed. Alexis was beginning to lose her battle with sleep but she was forcing herself to stay awake. She had just about lost the battle when Kate came up the stairs.

When Kate came into view it was easy to spot that she had been crying. Alexis had spotted her and ran into her arms. "MOM!"

"He's sleeping sweetie. Which is what you should be doing. Come on let's get you to bed. You can see your dad when he wakes up in the morning." Kate tells the still scared little girl.

"You promise?" Alexis squeaks out.

"I promise." As Kate draws an X on her chest. "Come on sweetie let's get you tucked in." And lifts Alexis up and carries her down to her room. "I'll be right back guys." Kate tells the others.

Kate gets Alexis changed after brushing her teeth for the night. Sings her a song to get her even more tired. And kisses the now sleeping Alexis good night and heads upstairs.

Kate manages to make it to the sectional where she collapses. "How's Castle?" Lanie asks.

"He's sleeping. Hopefully he'll be better tomorrow." Kate tells them.

"Did you find out what it was?" Jenny now asks.

Kate nods her head. "It was the processing plant." Kate tells them.

"Seems his wife was diagnosed with a disorder just after they were married. Something about a motor neuron disease.

They immediately started doing treatments and using every experimental drug they could find. Went to every doctor on the planet sounds like. Test after test. Drug after drug." Kate whispers out.

"That place was packed to the rafters with drugs." Ryan also whispers out.

This got Jenny to place both her hands over her mouth to keep silent.

"You have something similar on your planet." Lucile tells them. "You call it Nuro-muscular dystrophy. More commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease. Muscles and bones become less efficient as a person ages. The most prominent person still alive with it would be Steven Hawking. A brilliant mind trapped in a deteriorating body. Barely able to communicate." Lucile informs them.

"Wife, drugs. Processing plant with tons of drugs. It must have been a walking nightmare for him." Lanie whispers. Barely able to hold the tears back. Which was not helping Kate keep hers back.

"He didn't say a word. Not one word. And he went anyway. It was even his idea. I think." Jim comments.

Jim goes to sit next to his daughter who is barely holding it together. "He's hurting dad. Really hurting. And I don't know what to do." Kate can't take it anymore and cries into her father's shoulder.

Jim wraps his arms around his daughter. "You love him and support him Katie. Go thru it with him and come out the other side. If you love him, don't give up on him."

"I wonder if that is why he wanted it gone so badly?" Lanie questions.

"You don't mean he wanted to have a breakdown?" Javi questions the sanity of Lanie.

"NO. NOT THAT! Running around, pumping his wife full of drugs to combat the disease. And here a processing plant filled with drugs that do nothing but bad things to people and their families. He wanted it gone. And was willing to walk straight into his own personal hell to do it." Lanie comments.

"Ever since we got here to combat Bracken he has been leading the charge. I mean he's just a writer. Was a writer then and is a writer now. But to do that. Requires some serious 'Huevos'" Javi comments. Impressed.

"He's got a heart as big as the planet, I can tell you that. Who else buys lunch for the entire homicide floor almost once a week? How many people help a woman like Jessica who you only just met? And do for her what he did? Dives right in to help all of us. Not just Kate when Bracken goes on the war path. And who do you know that would give a huge anonymous donation at that fund raiser ball?" Jenny concludes.

Everyone, including Kate who whips around still crying to look at her. "What? Who else at that would make a donation that big?" Jenny tells them. "What? Just because I wasn't there doesn't mean I don't have ears." Jenny concludes.

Kate just wraps her arms around her father and kisses him soundly on both cheeks. "Thanks dad!" And Kate gets up and races down the stairs.

"What did I say?" Jenny asks to the air.

"I don't know Jenny. But whatever it was. Keep it up." Jim tells her.

Jenny just smiles and blushes a nice crimson color and gets a kiss from her husband. Who is interrupted by a baby crying.

"I'll go." Ryan tells his wife and heads for the stairs also. Just to a different room.

Kate has stripped and crawled in under the covers and snuggled up close to Rick. With her arms wrapped around him and breathing him in. Kate wasn't a virgin. But she had never wanted to snuggle like this with any man before. In fact she had done anything and everything to avoid doing it. Now here she was wrapping herself around him and she wanted to do it. BAD!

Kate went off to sleep knowing that she was going to fix Rick or die trying. Starting in earnest first thing in the morning. Maybe she would wake Rick up like he had done to her one morning. Yea, a little morning cream before her coffee just might do the trick.

Morning came and Rick found himself in a dream. Kate was doing things to him that were beyond pleasurable. Her lips and tongue were working magic on his erection. It had to be a dream because it was so good. Only when he woke up enough to figure out what was going on that Rick realized it wasn't actually a dream. Kate was doing amazing things.

After coming down from his climax, courtesy of Kate. "I could get used to waking up like that." Rick tells her.

Giggling and glad that he was in better spirits this morning. "Come on. Time for a shower." Kate is not ready to talk about yesterday just yet. After some more amazing shower sex. Which they are both getting good at doing.

"How do you feel?" Kate asks timidly.

"I'm sorry. I really thought I could do it. Just walk in and walk right back out again. Guess I was wrong." Rick looks downcast.

"Rick, we all have our demons. Some are buried a little more deeply than others. But you could have said something. Come up with a different plan." Kate isn't mad. Just wishes he had been willing to talk.

"Yea. Sorry. It's just, …. How does one talk about a demon that you really want to get rid of. So you can move on? Since i wasn't given a choice."

"Next time, talk to me. You scared the crap out of me Rick. I thought you were going to disappear in here (as Kate taps her head), and never come back out again."

Properly chastised. "How's Alexis?" Rick finally asks.

"She's scared Rick. Really scared."

"I better go find her and then we can have breakfast." Rick tells her.

"You go find your daughter. I'll start breakfast. Then we can decide what's next. Deal?" Kate asks.

"Deal! Mom." As Rick moves in for a kiss that starts to get serious before Rick breaks and heads for his daughter's bedroom.

Kate meanwhile, with a face that is seriously flush, heads for the kitchen to start breakfast.

Breakfast turned out to be relatively quiet. Rick had come upstairs carrying Alexis while trying to get her to laugh at his jokes.

Rick turned to Kate. "Did you finish your tests?"

Kate shook her head. "Lucile called us back here before we could finish."

"You better go do that. And take Alexis with you." Rick tells her with conviction.

"No daddy. I want to stay here." Alexis wanted her dad.

Rick picked up Alexis and took her into the living room to talk to her privately. "Pumpkin, if Kate doesn't finish those tests, you know what that means? Right?"

Alexis nods. She knew it meant loosing mommy.

"And no one up there speaks her language. So how is she going to finish if you don't help her?"

"But what about you dad?"

"Kate has you and I have friends. Kate really needs you. She isn't going to finish without you. You are very important."

"I guess?" Alexis speaks softly. "Are you going to be ok?" Still worried.

"I'll be fine. I promise. Besides when you and Kate come back we'll all be together again. You do want that? Right?"

Alexis just nods. It's so complicated now. Before it was simple. Now it's not.

"You'll do fine pumpkin. I'm proud of you." Rick tells her with a smile. "Now go tell Kate you are in charge and take her back for her tests. Ok?"

"Ok daddy." Alexis is still speaking softly.

"Come on. Let's get you back to Kate so you can get going and finish those tests."