CH32
Back at the precinct Kate and the boys got to work. They had her car, they had her purse, complete with money and credit cards. Lanie had the body and Kate was armed with what she saw.
They had her cell phone and were working on getting her cell phone records. They were after her financials and her car had a Garmin GPS unit.
Tech was working on the GPS. Hopefully she used it for everywhere she went.
With her purse they had where she worked and Kate was just now coming back from there after getting everything she was working on.
Kate had just finished putting her white board together when she noted the time. It was time to leave and pick up Alexis from school.
Kate got in line and waited with all the other parents who were picking up their children. It gave Kate time to think. Kate knew Alexis loved her and she knew she loved Alexis. Alexis was her's now. Meredith had given her away years ago; she wasn't getting her back now. Kate was going to fight for her if she had to.
Kate was snapped out of her mind when Alexis opened the car door. "Hi Kate!" Happy to see her.
"Hi sweetie, how was school?" Kate asked while she waited for her turn to leave.
"It took forever." Alexis tells her.
"Oh, did something happen?" If Meredith showed up that was it. She was going to shoot her. Then call Lanie and the boys.
"Dad said you could stay if I asked you and that we could go to your place and pick up more clothes." Alexis tells her all excited.
Kate's eyes open wide. "He told you I could, …. move in?" Kate has trouble getting out the words.
"Yup, so can we go to your place now?" Alexis wants to help her move.
Kate opens and closes her mouth like a fish. It was like a dream come true and scared the crap out of her all at the same time.
What would Lanie say? That was a stupid question. As soon as she told Lanie she had moved in with Castle, Lanie would crush her ribs in the bear hug of the century.
"Do we need to go someplace else first?" Alexis asks her in her silence.
"What? … No, no place else. My place it is." Kate tells her. Getting a whoopee from Alexis.
Alexis talked a mile a minute all the way there. Kate however drove all the way in a haze.
She was moving in with Richard Freaking Castle! 'Oh mom, if only you were here to see this!'
Her mom! She needed to talk with Castle. If she was going to live there he deserved to know. Just how was she going to tell him? How much should she tell him?
Kate unlocked her front door and stepped into an apartment that she hadn't been to in what felt like a long time. It looked like her and yet it didn't feel like her. At least not anymore.
Kate pulled out a suitcase and opened it and had Alexis fill it with what she found in the dresser drawers. Kate meanwhile went into the bathroom and started packing away everything but towels and other things she didn't need.
"Kate, what's this?" Alexis called out.
Kate stepped into the bedroom and had an instant heart attack. Alexis had found 'Freddie'! Then Alexis twisted the bottom and it started vibrating in her hand and Kate could hear its distinctive hummm.
Kate launches herself across the bed and grabs it from Alexis and turns it back off. "That's, …. Uhm, it's used to remove aches and pains in my muscles. You'll understand when you get older." Kate takes it with her into the bathroom.
"Oh." And Alexis goes back to packing not understanding.
Kate is standing in the mirror and can see her face is about as red as it's ever been. But now Kate had a choice to make. Does Freddie go with her or does he stay behind?
Kate places Freddie in the cabinet below the sink. "Please Castle! Please!" Freddie was getting left behind.
It took two trips for both of them to get everything down to her car and then again up to Castle's/their apartment.
Alexis's room didn't have enough space for everything they had brought with them so a lot of it went in the guest bedroom. They were going to need a big walk-in closet with room for her shoes in this remodeled apartment of theirs.
Theirs? Kate tried it on for size. Their apartment. Strangely she wasn't scared anymore. Not like she was when Alexis had first asked her, or even when Alexis had mentioned it in the car.
Next came dinner. Kate started looking at what was available. "Castle is right. We need a bigger kitchen and we don't need that little kitchen nook." Kate is talking to herself.
Kate takes a quick peek out in the great room. "Those columns probably have to stay. …. Moving the plumbing below the floor is probably going to be difficult since there is probably someone down there.
I wonder where the ductwork for the AC is located. The washer/dryer locations can stay." Kate starts thinking.
Her dinner prep is interrupted by the front doorbell.
Opening the door without first looking out the peep hole. "YOU!
"MEREDITH!"
Kate wastes no time and grabs Meredith and spins her around and puts one of her arms behind her back and shoves it as high up her back as she can without actually breaking her arm. Getting a squeal out of Meredith from the pain.
Kate walks her across the hall and slams her up against the wall and with her other hand grabs a fist full of hair and yanks her head back, getting another squeal out of Meredith.
"BITCH! Listen up. Alexis is mine now. It has taken me weeks to make her feel better after what you have done to her." Kate talks straight into her ear that is now bent back for her to reach.
"You come anywhere near her again and I'll bury you. And I have friends who know just where to dump a dead, useless, pathetic excuse of a body like yours." And Kate slams her face up against the wall, getting another squeal out of Meredith.
"And while we are talking and you are listening, stay away from Castle also. I live here now and unlike you I love both of them. You had both of them but you threw them away. I have no intention of losing what I found. I love them too much to let a stupid, egotistical, self-centered bitch like you interfere with our future." And Kate shoves her face into the wall again, getting still another satisfying squeal out of Meredith.
"Now get lost and don't set foot anywhere near either of them again." And Kate launches Meredith down the hall and kicks her in the butt just to make sure.
This makes Meredith off balance and ends up sprawled on the floor on her stomach. After getting up. "Run Bitch!" Kate yells at her and fake lunges for her, getting Meredith to squeal and run for the elevators.
Kate glares at her all the way and shoots death rays out of her eyes until Meredith disappears into the elevator.
Kate punches the air. "Bitch!" Just before the elevator doors close. And walks back into the apartment and closes and locks the door and stands there with her forehead against the door still pissed as hell.
"Who does she think she is?" And Kate starts doing breathing exercises to calm herself.
"Kate who was at the door?" Alexis is standing at the hallway.
Kate jerks and looks her way. "No one you need to worry about sweetie." Kate tries to think fast. "You want to help me fix dinner?" Kate asks as a deflection.
"Can I?" Alexis asks excited and with her attention on Kate now and not who was at the door.
"Of course. Come on, I'll teach you. My mom taught me and I can teach you." Kate tells her feeling better.
Turns out teaching Alexis how to cook was good therapy. Kate was a lot calmer after eating dinner.
"Do you have any games we can play?" Kate asks her. "Yahtzee, Monopoly maybe?"
"I have Clue." Alexis offers.
"That'll work, you go get it and we can play it out here on the coffee table." Kate tells her.
"Ok." And Alexis runs for her room to find the game.
Kate sat on the sofa smiling. "Alexis is mine and I'm not giving her up." Kate tells herself.
Rick was sitting in his seat on the train headed for his appointment. It was time to shake the tree a little harder. Maybe he could break one of the branches off.
Rick stepped into a quiet place. "Time for a disguise my friend." Rick tells Jack. "Oh, and make sure any of the Simmons medical bills are covered for what happened earlier. They didn't deserve that."
Hailing down a taxi and giving him the address Rick sat back and reflected on what might happen.
Once he was there he paid the driver and got out. After knocking and getting an answer. "I'm here to see the Senator. I'm Capt. Dupree and I have an appointment." Rick tells the person who answered the door.
"Of course, please come this way. You can wait here while I call him." And he disappears.
The room smelled of money. Seems the Senator liked spending his money on things that showed he was rich. It was the kind of high nose snob kind of crap that rubbed Rick the wrong way. Rick didn't have the same amount of money, however most of his money was making him more money. This stuff was just junk. If it was lost in a fire it was gone.
Rick left things behind everywhere he went. Jack could make use of them all later.
"Captain Dupree, how may I help you?" The Senator asked as he entered.
"Senator, thank you for your time." Rick shakes his hand. "Could I trouble you for a glass of ice water. We have a few things to discuss?" Rick asks.
What he really wanted was access to other sections of his home.
"Of course, the kitchen is this way." And leads Rick to the kitchen where a servant gets him what he asked for. Rick leaving little things along the way.
"Is there somewhere we can talk privately?" Rick asks. Really wanting more access.
"The back porch perhaps?" The Senator offers.
"That should work." Rick accepts. No need to push for too much.
Sitting at an outdoor table with one of those umbrellas over it. "What can I do for you Captain?"
"I'd like to start with Rutgers Law School." Rick tells him.
"I attended school there."
"Yes I know, along with 3 other Senators." Rick tells him. The Senator however doesn't flinch.
"It is a very good law school. It would not surprise me if some of my colleagues attended the same school."
"Yes, same school, same classes, same teachers, same after school activities and same school loans from the same location." Rick tells him.
"It was a big school." The Senator blinks.
"And when you got out you three opened a company together." Rick tells him.
"Small businesses open all the time." The Senator blinks again.
"Yes small in number of employees, just not small in amount of money it makes." Rick corrects him.
"Sounds like a profitable business."
"Yes, very profitable. All at someone else's expense. As in permanent expense."
"I'm certain I have no idea what you are talking about."
"NO? There are 8 profit gains of 8 million dollars each during the last 2 years alone. Funny how 8 people paid the ultimate price associated with that same 8 million dollars." Rick tells him.
"Money is money."
"And death is death." Rick counters.
"Are you threatening me Capt. Dupree?"
"Oh heavens no Senator. Just pointing out that there is a lot of death surrounding you. Did they really have to die Senator?"
"I think this conversation is over." And the Senator gets up and looks into the house.
Rick takes this moment to drop something in his glass of water.
"You discuss your options with your Senator friends along with Col. McMaster and Gen. Wichita and let me know. Death is a very permanent thing. Being associated with it can destroy politicians and their hopes and dreams of a bigger future." Rick tells him.
Rick gets up and lets himself out and calls for a taxi. After the taxi arrives he gives him an address that turns out to be a restaurant. Rick pays off his cab walks inside and out the back door. Then walks down to the next building and enters it and then promptly out the back. This gets him next to a fast food place where he walks in and goes into the restroom. "Time to drop the disguise Jack." Then washes and steps out and gets something to eat and drink and sits down.
After he is done Rick gets up and exits just as he watches a car with blacked out windows pull up and two men get out and enter the fast food place.
Rick walks down the street and decides to do some shopping. Stepping inside he calls for a taxi and gives the address for the train station.
Rick makes it home very late. Unlocking his front door he finds a light on in the living room. Closing and re-locking the door he goes over to turn it off and finds Kate asleep on the sofa.
Rick kneels down and smiles. "Kate?" Rick gives her a little shake. "Kate?" Shakes a little harder.
This time he gets a response. Kate blinks open her eyes. "Castle? ….. Hhmmm, what time is it?" Kate asks yawning.
"A little after midnight." Rick tells her.
Kate raises a hand and strokes Rick's stubble on his face. "Take me to bed Castle."
Rick smiles. "Your wish is my command." And Rick lifts Kate up and Kate wraps her arms around his neck and buries her head in his shoulder.
"Hhhmmm." Kate hums out.
Rick places her in his bed and strips her clothes off and folds them up. Then goes into the bathroom to wash up a little and strip his clothes off. Then slides in next to Kate with her back to his chest. Then places his arm over her protectively and palms one of her breasts. "Sleep Kate, just sleep." Rick whispers into the back of her head while giving it a quick kiss.
"Castle." Kate breathes out and is soon asleep.