CH69
For those of you keeping track, I'm almost back into my Apartment. I lost my mattress, sheets, pillows, comforter, desktop computer, printer, keyboard, VCR, 2 dog beds, area rug, carpet runner, 5 shirts, 4 tube socks and 4 dress socks. And everything in the Refrigerator/Freezer! (The city came out and turned the power off)
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The dish Castle had cooked was a little weird. Maybe it was the eggplant, however the cheesy topping seemed to make up for it.
Kate changed into sweats and grabbed the gloves and started hitting the bag. Working her way up slowly to pounding the crap out of it. She found that she liked it. It came upright quickly and unlike the ones that hung from the ceiling it didn't start swaying around on her.
Next time she was going to add some leg kicks to it and see how that went.
Rick meanwhile was running hard and getting nowhere fast. Kinda what happens when you're on a treadmill.
While he was running he decided to look into having a TV or two installed so they had something to watch.
Once Kate was all punched out they both went upstairs and got into the shower. It took them a little time before they came back out, due to some extracurricular activities.
Kate went to put Alexis into bed and then read to her until she was sure she was asleep. Then leaned over and kissed her. "I love you sweetie." Then went in search of Castle.
She found him in the kitchen making smoothies. "Smoothies Castle?"
"It's just what the doctor ordered after a nice workout in the exercise room." Castle explains.
"Castle can I ask a question?" Kate asks softly. Worried she was treading into uncharted waters.
"I think you just did Kate." Castle teases. Earning him a glare from Kate.
Smiling back at her. "Sure ask away." Saying a silent prayer.
"I think you know what Jill does, what does Jack do?" Kate was curious, just how different where the two.
"Well, … As you know there are 5 memory cores or gems if you prefer. One is used to contact the operator and receive direction for you to download into your laptop. Jill has or is probably finding out that she can also scan for listening devices and the like so your conversations with her remain private.
Another two out of the five I think are just that, memory storage. It's probably also where their personality is stored. Now since they are likely to be with us for years to come, knock on wood." And Castle does so. "Their memory compression program is likely very advanced." As he hands over the smoothie to Kate and takes a sip of his own.
"That leaves two gems left. Of these two for Jack, one allows him to access the internet and essentially hack into anything he can find. He has hacked the FBI mainframe a few times already. Naval intelligence once or twice. I think even the NSA once. I think?
Usually it's to download a fake person into their system that I use as a cover for when I need to.
The other can create or maybe more accurately, form a disguise around me that will make me look like someone else. Pretty much anyone else. There is this 'membrane' if you will that he projects that he then displays the likeness of someone onto using light.
Think of it as a 3-dimensional hologram that is displayed on the backside of this membrane.
There are however a couple of limitations to it. One the membrane is just a blank. Now Jack will display onto this membrane the look of everything. Clothes, weapons, hair, etc. right down to being able to see finger prints. However the membrane is just a blank so I don't leave behind any finger prints.
If someone looks for them all they will find is pretty much nothing.
The other problem is the eyes. They say the eyes are the window to a person's soul. The eyes are just too complex for Jack to duplicate so if someone who knows me looks, they will see me.
Here I'll give you an example. Jack let's try, …. Brad Pitt." Castle suggests.
And quickly with only a second or two of delay, Brad Pitt is standing in front of Kate.
"Another problem is the voice." Castle tells her. "Let's try something more obvious, how about Angelina Jolie, Jack." And Brad Pitt quickly changes to Angelina.
"Now comes the hard part, trying to sound like her." Castle tells Kate while freaking her out. She sees Angelina but hears Castle.
Then Castle comes in real close and looks into her eyes. Then slowly moves in and kisses her. He is soon kissing her hard and his tongue soon asks for entrance which is granted.
Breaking from the kiss Castle goes back to staring into her eyes.
"That was creepy Castle. I could see her kissing me, but I could taste you. Plus I can see you in your eyes. And the kiss felt funny. I don't mean because it's a girl kissing me, it just felt funny." Kate comments still wrapped up in Angelina's arms.
"Jack" Castle calls out and Angelina disappears and Castle is back.
"That my dear Kate is because you were kissing a membrane and not my lips." And Castle promptly kisses her again just like last time.
After breaking from the kiss Kate rests her head on his shoulder. "I like kissing you, the real you much better." Kate confides.
"You should try it from my end sometime. Except for being able to taste you, I didn't feel you at all. I couldn't even feel you in my arms all thanks to the membrane." Castle tells her.
So if you tried to enter a facility that required a finger print, palm print or retina scan, you couldn't do it?" Kate gathers.
"Well partly true. You see most fingerprint or palm readers run a scanner over you like a photo copier. And Jack literally does project a finger print or palm print onto the membrane. In theory it should be able to defeat the scanner and allow me entrance.
Now the retinal scanner, yea I would be screwed if that was necessary." Castle explains. Taking another sip of his smoothie.
"And fail voice recognition." Kate points out. Taking her fist sip of her smoothie.
"Yea there are a couple of glitches that need to be watched. But so far it hasn't presented a problem." Castle points out. "How's your smoothie?"
"It's pretty good Castle, I'm impressed…. Have I ever seen you in one of your disguises?" Kate asks.
"I plead the 5th." Castle tells her.
"I have haven't I? …. That was you with that couple in the interrogation room that one day. That was you. I knew there was something about you, I just couldn't place it." Kate suddenly perks up. "What were you doing Castle? …. They were part of the job you are doing weren't they?" Kate manages to put 2 + 2 together.
"Kate?" Castle is worried now.
"Talk Castle." Kate makes her voice clear she wants to know.
"Kate please." Castle begs.
"You don't trust me Castle?" Sounding hurt.
"On the contrary Kate, I trust you with me life and with Alexis's life. But this is different Kate. Way different."
"Different how Castle? Talk Castle!" And she pokes him in the chest.
Castle puts his smoothie down on the counter and takes hers away from her and sits it down. Then takes her hand and starts walking.
"Where are we going Castle?" Kate wants to know since she wants answers not to be dragged somewhere.
"To our bedroom." Castle replies.
"Why?"
"Because there aren't any guns in there."
Once inside he takes Kate over to the bed and lets go of her, and then grabs a chair. Closing the bedroom door he puts the chair down in front of it and sits in it.
"You want answers, fine you'll get your god damn answers." Castle sounds serious, mad and scared all at the same time.
"Two things first. You know that I love you right?" … "Answer me! ...You know that I love you right?"
"Yes." Kate whispers out thinking that this might have been a bad idea after all.
"And you know that Alexis loves you, right?"
"Of course." Now Kate was sure this was a bad idea.
"I got a case about Bracken just as I told you. It basically started when a pair of corrupt cops started kidnapping mob bosses and ransoming them back to their gang to make money and at least have the mob boss have to pay a little instead of getting away with it all the time.
Then these two got assigned a rookie, fresh out of training. They took him with them on one of their kidnappings. But things went wrong and someone got killed. In this case it was an undercover fed who had infiltrated the gang.
They decided to pin the killing on the mob boss. A certain assistant district attorney at the time got wind of what was going on and instead of busting the crooked cops he blackmailed them for the money they were making.
He used that money to win his first election and has been rising up the ladder ever since. Now he wants to be president.
Problem is he has a skeleton in his closet. A big one, one big enough to prevent him from gaining the presidency if it ever got out. So he's been having people killed ever since." Castle pauses.
"You got all that from what the president sent? Why didn't he just have the FBI pick him up?" Kate doesn't get it.
"That's because he didn't know that much at that time. I found out most of that from a guy I talked to who was very close to it." Castle whispers out sounding sad.
"Who could possibly know that much and not do something about it?" Kate is still lost.
"Because it was that rookie cop. Who has been trying to get out from under this mess ever since he got involved with it because of those two crooked cops." Castle looks up at her with a tear running down his face. "My best friend."
Kate slaps her hands over her mouth and sits on the bed. "NO! Can't be. … It can't be him Castle, it can't."
"He got the luck of the draw and has been trying to get out from under it ever since."
"So that's what you wouldn't tell me?" Kate thinks that's all.
"If only that was the case, if only. It gets a lot worse Kate, a lot worse.
Well this mob boss ended up in prison and kept his mouth shut. For that he got to live. But a certain lawyer caught wind of his case and found some problems associated with it.
She started researching it and went to his prison to interview him and started finding problems with his conviction. Then one night she went to a dark dead end alley and never came back out of it alive." Castle tells her with a pained face.
"OH MY God! …. Oh my god." Kate knows that alley and the tears start to fall and breathing becomes difficult.
She pushes herself up against the headboard of the bed and draws her legs into her chest and wraps her arms around them, and goes into shock.
"Based on what I know now about the three hired killers that he had been doing his dirty work to keep his skeletons in their closet, I'm pretty sure it was the same guy that was going to stab you in the back in the same alley, in almost the exact same spot as your mother."
Kate just sits in bed shaking and crying when she finally calms down after a number of minutes, she looks to Castle and opens her arms inviting him into them.
However Castle just sits there and shakes his head.
A new pained face and new tears instantly appear. A face Castle knows he put them there but he has his reasons.
"You're not getting out of this room Kate. Not until I'm sure you're not going to do something stupid like going to find Bracken and confront him. I love you too damn much to watch you put a bulls eye on your back and get yourself killed.
And I'm sure as hell not going to watch Alexis fall apart on me because her mother went out and got herself killed. Or do you want to do that to Alexis intentionally what happened to you?" Castle looks firmly at her.
Now the hurt face is instantly gone and even more tears take its place. And Castle can see her shake her head.
Castle lifts his arms and reaches out in Kate's direction. And Kate responds by getting out of bed and sitting in his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"We both love you Kate. I know what happened to your mother caused you pain. But if you go out there and do something rash even with good intentions and get yourself killed, and he will kill you Kate, my pain at your loss is going to be at least equal to yours.
And the pain Alexis will feel is going to be even worse. She's ignored by one mother and her second mother whom she loves dearly, ends up dead. It will break her Kate, and that sweet, caring, trusting little girl is going to be a broken and bitter little girl, wondering why you didn't love her anymore. Who will grow up to be, I don't know what. And I'm not sure I'll be able to prevent it." Castle tries his best to reach her. As his own tears about what could possibly happen to Alexis are dreamed up in his mind.
"Castle!" Kate makes out thru her tears.
Castle stands and removes the chair. Then opens the door and takes Kate with him out into the hallway.
Points her in the direction of Alexis's bedroom door. "Now go down there and wake YOUR little girl, and hug her and kiss her and tell her you're not leaving her. That you are not going to do something rash or stupid that will put a bull's eye on your back and leave her broken and crying for the mother she has been dreaming for and wishing for since she can remember when." And Castle gives her a little shove.
And Kate shuffles her feet down the hallway wiping away tears and opens the door to Alexis's room and closes it behind her and disappears from Castle's view.
It's almost an hour before Kate is back and changes out of her clothes and climbs into bed to snuggle next to Castle. "I want in Castle." Kate tells him.
"You are in Kate, you're in both of our hearts."
"I know but that's not what I mean. I want in; I want to help you get Bracken." Kate re-states herself.
"Not until you're my partner Kate." Castle informs her.
"I'm your wife, we are partners."
"Kate that's not what I mean and you know it. Obama let you keep Jill and be my partner. But you're not my partner until after Quantico. Not until we both know what the other can do, then you'll be my partner and we can go after Bracken together.
You didn't actually think I was going to give Johanna an excuse to rip me a new one when I reach the other side with her did you? And leave her daughter behind to fend for herself?" Castle challenges her.
Kate chuckles. "Yea she probably would lay into you pretty good. Fine, after Quantico it is. Besides I get to spend your money this way." Kate teases.
"Oh I beg to differ; it's going to be your money wife of mine." Castle corrects her.
"Oh really?" As Kate rolls over until she is on top of him straddled between her legs. "We'll just have to see about that." And bends down to kiss him passionately.
It's not until just over an hour later that they are cuddled up together and on their way to sleep.