CH59

Dr. Lee injects the nanites into each of Kate's arms. She feels a kind of tingly sensation spread out from there, but goes away quickly.

"All done. I want you to watch what you do and how you feel carefully. Example, do you feel like you are getting sick? Do you feel weak and tired? Does your skin color change? Like does your face flush more easily? If you feel anything at all, I want you to come back here and we will give you a physical.

I want you to check with us before you leave 24 hours from now and go home. Questions?"

Kate just shakes her head. "You are free to go then. We will see you in 24 hours. Have a good day Miss Beckett."

Kate collects Alexis out in the waiting area. "Can we try that trans pod tube thingy that you can see the Rings of Saturn? I kind of missed it last time." Kate tells Alexis.

"Sure mom. Then breakfast?" Alexis asks.

"Sounds like a plan sweetie. Lead the way. You are in charge." Kate tells her. Making Alexis grin wide.

This time Kate was awake for the trip and boy was in memorable. It was n't nearly as colorful up close as Kate remembered in the pictures she had seen. Still they were really close. Kate had actually reached out and touched to top of the pod, as if she could actually touch the rings. Kate couldn't take her eyes off of them the entire trip. Breakfast was only ok. It all had a funny taste to it. Not that it was bad, just different. Alexis had decided to start teaching Kate her language during breakfast.

Next came a tour of the largest park on the ship. Alexis had continued the teaching the entire tour. Kate was wrong, it was going to be more difficult than Russian.

Back to their apartment after dinner and Kate was not looking forward to this thing these people called a bed. How does Alexis sleep on this 'thing'? There was no place for Kate to be in Alexis's bedroom since the room itself was only just big enough to hold the bed itself. So Kate had to kneel next to her bed to sing Alexis a song before kissing her goodnight. Just as Alexis was about out "Sing our language mom." And then Alexis was asleep.

Kate went to her room and thought about it. Rick had mentioned early on that it helped if you sang the words instead of trying to force them out. Kate didn't really remember any of the words that Alexis had tried to teach her. So next time Kate would try to sing the words like she sang to Alexis at night.

The next morning Kate and Alexis were back in the medical center for the final time. Hopefully.

"How do you feel Miss Beckett?" Dr. Lee asked.

"I feel fine." Kate responded.

"No sudden heat flashes? No pains of any kind?" Dr. Lee asked.

"No, everything seems like normal." Kate tells her.

"There is presently nothing happening that is causing you discomfort?" Dr. Lee tries one last time.

Kate is shaking her head. "Well there is one thing, …. It's kind of embarrassing." Kate tells her.

"I'm a doctor Miss Beckett. And what we are doing is very important. So I need to know."

"Well, …. I 'm,... I mean I need, …. (Kate fidgets a little), I need Rick." Kate finally manages.

"You need Mr. Castle? I'm sure he is at his house waiting for you. I highly doubt he has left you." Dr. Lee tries to calm her fears.

"Oh I'm sure he's home waiting also. It's just, … I've needed him here. I've wanted him with me in bed." Kate finally comes close to explaining her present problem.

A light bulb seems to come on over Dr. Lee. "Oh, …. It sounds like you are quite healthy and in good shape to me then. Would you like a moment alone to clean up a little before you leave?"

"Yes, please. Though it will only be a short stop gap at best." Kate tells her.

"Well I'm sure you know how to fix that problem." Dr. Lee gives her a wide smile. "When you are done you are free to go. Don't take this wrong, but I hope I don't have a reason to see you again Miss Beckett." Dr. Lee tells her.

"Thanks Dr. Lee. You've been most kind. And I hope I don't have reason to come see you professionally either." And Dr. Lee leaves. And Kate takes the moment to dry herself.

Kate has never had this problem before. Oh she got wet during sex alright. Just not soaking wet wanting any man this badly before. Kate hoped they would get some time alone before tonight. Kate wasn't sure she could take much more of this.

Having finished cleaning herself up, she got dressed again and went out looking for Alexis so they could go home.

Kate and Alexis are very glad to be home. Alexis races up the stairs yelling "DAD!"

"Hey pumpkin, over here." Rick calls out.

Alexis launches into him. Rick is chuckling. "I guess you are glad to see me?"

"How do you feel dad?" Still worried about him.

"I'm fine pumpkin. Almost as good as new. Enjoy your trip?" Rick asks.

"It was fun. It was nice to see the old home again. But I missed being here." Alexis explains.

"Where's Kate?" Rick asks her.

"Right here Rick. How do you feel?" Kate is also still concerned.

"I'm doing just fine. Just resting is all. I take it you are done?" Rick is hopeful.

"Yup, I think I still have a few pieces of me left. That place is amazing Rick! I'm glad I don't live there, but still it was an amazing place." Kate tells him.

"Wouldn't want to live there huh. You realize there are a lot of people that still live there?" Rick reminds her.

"I know. I didn't mean it like that. It's just that the bed in that place was not much more than a piece of concrete." Kate tells him complaining.

Rick looks at her funny. "I'll admit it's not like the bed downstairs, but it's not THAT bad." Rick tells her.

"THAT BAD? Rick it was literally nothing more than a flat slab and as hard as concrete." Kate's face even shows the pain she went thru sleeping on it.

"Mom, it wasn't that bad. The jell pad you sleep on helps a lot." Alexis tells her.

"What jell pad?" Kate looks confused.

"All the beds have this jelly like pad about 2" thick that you sleep on. It molds to your form. It's nothing special, but it beats nothing." Rick tells her.

Kate just stands there with her mouth hanging open and closing over and over.

"Uh-Oh!" Alexis had her hands over her mouth.

"YOU MEAN I SLEPT ON CONCRETE ALL THIS TIME, AND I DIDN'T HAVE TO?" Kate was going to make sure someone paid for this.

Rick however is not helping himself as he falls back onto the sectional laughing. He tries to stop laughing and looks up at Kate and the look on her face has him laughing all over again.

"SOOO NOT FUNNY RICK!" Kate yells at him and kicks his feet hanging over the edge of the sectional just to enforce her point.

Rick however again tries to stop laughing however the sight of his daughter trying really hard to silently laugh set him off all over again.

"AAAUGH!" Kate yells out and heads for the kitchen to look for something for breakfast.

Rick has finally recovered and joins Kate in the kitchen. "I sorry Kate. I didn't know one of the beds was missing one." Rick tries to make it up to her.

"It was not funny Rick!" Kate is still fuming.

"You're right, it's not funny, …. It was freakin HILARIOUS!" And Rick starts giggling again. Earning him a swat in the chest from Kate.

Rick just wraps his arms around her and gives her a quick kiss. "Come on, I'll feed you breakfast. Go find the others and we can eat." slapping her butt as Kate leaves. Getting a quick "Haa" out of Kate as she continues on in her search for her friends.

Kate came back to the kitchen however only Javi and Ryan were with her.

"The guys told me you went shopping in San Francisco. I'm sorry I missed that. It would be nice to have seen something of that city." Kate tells everyone.

"Did Javi tell you what he did yesterday?" Rick asks Kate. Kate just shakes her head.

Rick waves his hand at Javi. It was his story to tell.

"It was nothing. They had a C-130 sitting at a small strip somewhere in Turkey. I stepped inside using that Trans-thingy. Dropped one of those explosive crystals and came right back. Then Lucile blew it up. She even showed us a picture of it blowing into itsy bitsy pieces." Javi just shrugs his shoulders as if it was no big deal.

"So their processing plant is gone. And now the transport they were using and the drugs in it are gone too?" Kate is confirming. "We have General Reed and Bracken's money maker is gone. Anything I missed?"

"Well there was one thing. We found out that Bracken is also a gun runner. We wanted to blow up the shipping containers they were in, but they wouldn't let us." Javi informs Kate.

"Who wouldn't let you?" Kate is curious. It sounded like a good target.

"We decided that it was too dangerous to go onto a large Naval base near Seattle, WA. So we decided to blow them up while they were on the ship. But my request for the explosives was rejected." Rick interjects.

"Well no wonder. You would have killed the crew." Kate was now glad it didn't happen.

"Yea, but we had a plan for that too." Javi explains.

"We came up with a plan that MIGHT get them to abandon ship allowing us to blow it up without loss of life." Rick adds.

"MAYBE is not a good plan guys." Kate tells them.

"You didn't see the list of weapons that was being sent. That stuff is going to get a lot of people killed." Javi still complains.

"We can't kill innocents for a perceived greater good Javi. We're cops, not assassins. We are better than Bracken." Kate tries to make him see.

"I get it Kate I do. I just wish. That stuff has no business being in the hands of bad people." Javi does get it. Doesn't make it better. That stuff deserved to be at the bottom of the ocean.

"Do we have a plan on what to do next?" Kate asks.

"I think we've basically decided to go after General Reed's men here in NY next. But we will probably need to wait until they go to sleep at night. Provided hired killers do sleep?" Rick offers up his summation.

"So between Breakfast and Dinner we have nothing to do?" Kate questions. "I do however have a concern." Kate finishes.

"Do tell." Rick is curious.

"Well we are getting rid of Bracken's men and his money; however this does not expose him and get him behind bars. We are accomplishing something. But we only have one more day before we all have to be back at work at the 12th." Kate is worried.

"What you are accomplishing is making things difficult for Bracken. Based on his personality he will eventually lash out and expose himself. You can use this action to go after him in your courts and prevent his rise to the Presidency." Lucile informs Kate.

"You think he will actually pull out a gun and go do something stupid?" Kate questions.

"No Kate I don't. He is far too much of a coward to do anything that involves him having to do something in person. He has relied on getting others to do what he wants. He will not deviate from that now. However without Reed and access to his men, he will need to resort to less trustworthy men to do his killing for him. Statistics suggest he will try something big and have it blow up in his face.

And without Reed or anyone else to bail him out of the mess he has created he will stumble and falter and begin to make still more mistakes." Lucile advises.

"Anything we can do during the day then? What about other methods Bracken uses to make money? Can we take away any of those. Ones that don't involve blowing up container ships?" Sending a stink eye in Javi's direction.

"More so than prostitution, illegal Internet sports gambling generates huge profits. Legally speaking, online gambling is a gray area. Last June, Congress enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, barring the transaction of "unlawful Internet gambling" funds through banks. Although the wording is vague, there is no doubt that wagering on sporting events and races across state lines is illegal. Seeing an opportunity, the Mafia set up Web sites in Costa Rica—one of several South American and Caribbean countries where online sports betting is legal—to process online bets placed back home in New York. The Costa Rican computer servers effectively operated as digital wire rooms, keeping track of stateside betting accounts while bouncing data through different server nodes to evade U.S. law enforcement detection." Lucile explains.

"So Lucile could block all the wire transfers preventing the betting to take place. Thus eliminating a potential profit from sports betting. But that just gives Lucile something to do. What do we do?" Kate is back to asking.

"We could go on a mini vacation. Spend a few hours exploring before we start picking up General Reed's men later tonight? There is no need to sit around the house when we could be outside. Literally anywhere." Rick suggests holding up his left arm as a hint.

"I suppose you have someplace in mind?" Kate asks suspicious of Rick's grand places he has suggested so far.

"Actually I do have someplace in mind. How about Sedona, Arizona?" Rick suggests.

"Sedona is regularly described as one of America's most beautiful places. Nowhere else will you find a landscape as dramatically colorful? The towering red rocks and jagged sandstone buttes matched against an almost always blue sky have beckoned to professional and budding artists for years. Book an afternoon at one of Sedona's many spas. Traditional treatments with a local twist - such as red-clay wraps and blue-corn body scrubs - followed by a glass of local wine are great ways to relax after a long day spent on the trails. " Lucile offers up the tourist guide sell.

"A trip to a SPA. Where are Lanie and Jenny? You are a genius Rick." As Kate heads down the stairs to see who is with her.

"Great just what I wanted to do. Get lathered up in mud all day. Whose side are you on Castle?" Javi would just as soon shoot him and himself.

"Oh yeah, did I mention that the area is home to more than 100 hiking trails?" Lucile adds.

"I'm going to go change. You coming partner?" Javi is now interested.