CH48 (127)

Certain sections of the following chapter may be too sensitive for some readers.

Reader discretion is strongly advised!

Seriously!

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It was now one year later:

The design for their first stealth ship was complete mostly because of the Castle's, though listening to the Earth military talk about their own stealth program for fighters helped. It was now about 6 months into construction.

Also just starting construction was a newly designed explorer ship. The last city tower on Ariel was almost complete and it's maximum population would be reached when it was filled.

The third city tower on Athos was also almost complete and when it was that would complete it's maximum population.

Callsito was just starting it's second city tower. When the third was complete it too would reach it's maximum population.

Also both cities on Cyliene were complete. New modules were added only when necessary. Sarah and her husband had elected to remain on Cyliene. They had one son so far and Sarah was now 4 months pregnant with their second. Sarah had kept in touch with Alexis once in a while.

Sarah had expressed her sorrow about Kate not being a detective anymore.

Rick and Kate were presently attending the wedding of Kali and Joseph. Kali had decided to follow only the ring portion of the Earth like ceremony. This meant all the Castle girls were wearing rings, and each had a slightly different type of ceremony.

Kate had found Alexis before the ceremony and had found her giddy with excitement. "I take it you FEEL Joseph is right for her?" Kate glared at her.

Problem was Alexis had gotten used to Kate glaring at her so it didn't work as well as it used to. "This is why you didn't object to Joseph staying with us isn't it." Kate was pretty sure it was Alexis who supported it initially in the first place.

"I plead the fifth." Alexis counters.

Kate squints her eyes at Alexis. "Fifth of what?"

Alexis chuckled. "It's an old Earth saying. It means I decline to answer on the grounds i may incriminate myself." Which was another way of saying 'guilty as charged'.

Kate smiled at Alexis. "I still don't understand how you do that."

Alexis chuckles again. "To be honest. Neither do I. … When I was little things just felt like the right thing(s) to do, and I'd always check in with dad if it was a good idea. Dad never did shoot anything down. Most of the time he even helped me a little." Alexis tells her.

"And now?" Kate was curious.

"It still feels like the right thing to do. I just trust it more and have seen the results." Alexis answers her question.

"And this feels right?" Kate sweeps her arm at the ceremony that hasn't started yet.

"Yes mom, it feels right. Joseph has made Deiter a distant memory. Sis is still haunted with a touch of that time, but that dark cloud no longer has any hold on her. Her natural color has returned." Alexis admits.

"I wonder when we get our first grandchild from them?" Kate mumbles out. Expand her family.

"Sorry mom, I don't have that kind of vision." Alexis couldn't do everything.

"How are the kids doing?" Kate changes the subject.

"Maggie seems to think she has found her first boyfriend. It sounds like she is trying to win him from some other girl in class. Her brother has decided to start teasing her about it. Girls are still yucky to him." Alexis giggles.

"Has she?" Did her ability include her own children?

Alexis however is shaking her head. "No, but she'll figure that out soon. Maggie is more stubborn than even you were mom. Even more than Kali was. I push too hard and she'll pick him just to spite me and end up miserable." Alexis hasn't seen her with anyone that feels right yet.

"You sound like a mother." Kate points out.

Alexis laughs. It sometimes amazed her that she was a mother. It seemed like yesterday she desperately wanted a mother, only to have Kate show up out of nowhere. "I've had a good teacher." Alexis hugs Kate.

"And what are my two most favorite girls doing?" Rick walks up to join them.

"Just talking about Kali. Hoping that she is happy." Kate tells him. "And maybe a little reminiscing of when she was younger."

"Aahhh, daddy's little girl and my talented hands." Rick wiggled his fingers.

Kate couldn't help but chuckle. The hands that kept Kate's insides from being permanently damaged when it felt like she was trying to kick her way out of Kate.

Kate took one and brushed a kiss across them. "Very talented hands indeed." Kate could remember what else Rick could do with his hands.

"Eeeww, TMI." Alexis moans. "I'm going to go find Ell, see if she has found those three jerks yet." Alexis really wanted Ell to make those three that took Lucy away from them suffer a little. What they had done was cold, really cold.

"Shouldn't you be with the bride babe?" Kate moved in close and patted his chest with both her hands.

"This is a Tellus wedding, I don't get to walk this one down the aisle." Rick points out.

"No but you are suppose to offer her good fortune and a long life. Or do you want our daughter to be dirt poor and die long before her time?" Kate teases.

"I'm going, I'm going." Kate lifts up on tippy toes to give him a quick kiss. Then Kate watches him walk off. He seemed to be walking a little stiff. She hoped he remembered his pills this morning.

Kate moved way up front and sat down and pulled out her pad. "Hi Lucy."

"Hi Kate. What's happening today?" Lucy had no way of keeping track of time when she was off.

"The family is attending the wedding between Kali and Joseph today." Kate smiles at her.

"SERIOUSLY! … It's about damn time. I thought she would never recognize that she loved him." Lucy responds back.

Kate laughs. Lucy didn't always have an answer. Sometimes Kate got an "I'm sorry I'm not programmed to answer that question. You have to phrase your question in a manner I have a response for."

It happened less often than Kate thought it would. It wasn't Lucy, but it was close and it helped ease the pain of losing her.

"Is she pregnant yet?" Lucy asked a question.

It caught Kate by surprise. Lucy, this Lucy didn't ask that many questions. Mostly she just answered them.

However there was one thing that Lucy could do that caught all of them by surprise. This Lucy knew how to play Monopoly Zapped, Tellus version. She even won on occasion. The bigger surprise was that when Alexis played with them Lucy would call her Munchkin or Oompa Loompa on occasion.

Actually all three Lucy's knew how to play. They had talked among themselves and had found that each Lucy was developing a different personality for each person.

You could use the tablet to record things into Lucy's memory and each recording seemed to help cement the differences between the three. Three pads, three personalities.

"She's not pregnant that we know of. Kali hasn't said and I don't see a baby bump. You think she is?"

"I'm sorry I'm not programmed to answer that question. You have to phrase your question in a manner I have a response for." Lucy answered back.

"If I record her image during the ceremony would you be able to tell?" Kate tried a different question.

"I'm incapable of scanning people being restricted to your pad." Lucy answers.

That was a response that Kate had heard before too. Or a variation of it.

Kate held her pad in her lap with the face of it facing the ceremony so Lucy could see it and record it.

Kate noticed that Rick, who was sitting next to her was nodding off during the ceremony. His head would lean down till it was resting on his chest then suddenly bolt upright.

Kate only jabbed him in the ribs a couple of times to get him to wake up. "I'm awake, I'm awake." Rick would answer just a little too loudly.

Rick and Kate had arranged for everyone to eat at a local restaurant after the ceremony.

All the food came from Castle Gardens. The produce came from Alexis while the meat came from Emily and was shipped in from Athos. Emily had expanded her portion to include an Emu farm.

It had caused Alexis too look into expanding to include Byson on Ariel. She had the land, but they needed land to roam on so she was looking into fencing off certain sections and building a bridge to allow them across to the other section of land. It was still in the planning phase.

Alexis was with Emily, Ell and Kali talking and giggling about something. Kate was too far away to hear them.

Another group was Rick who was yawning, Leon, Andre and Joseph. Joseph looked to being picked on as one of them would punch him in the arm on occasion.

Most everyone here was on the Castle side. Since Joseph's parents had died years ago, and since he was shy, his side was only a couple of friends who were still sitting at their table talking and eating.

Suddenly the girls all started screaming and were dancing in place, all but Kali. This got Kate's attention so with pad in hand Kate walked over to them. "What's going on girls?"

Alexis, Emily and Ell looked like they were all set to spill the beans but they looked at Kali and kept their mouths shut. However they all looked ready to burst, so Kate turned her attention on Kali.

Kali looked like she was scared and bursting with happiness. "I'm pregnant mom."

"SERIOUSLY!" Lucy yells from the tablet. "That's fantastic!" Lucy was smiling wide on Kate's pad.

Kate hands off the pad to Alexis and hugs Kali. "That's great sweetie. Does Joseph know?"

Kate's answer was hearing the guys voices suddenly raise in volume and Joseph was being hugged and patted on the back.

"Apparently he does." Kate chuckles. "How far along are you?"

"About 11 weeks." Kali answers her question.

"Too soon to know if it's a boy or a girl." Lucy comments from the pad in Alexis's hands. "Your family is still expanding Kate."

"What does Joseph think?" Ell asks since she was worried Leon was going to divorce her with their last one.

"He's a little worried. He will still be doing his residency after the baby is born. He works really long hours." Kali was worried about that too. Getting help from her new husband was likely to be limited until he was done with his residency.

"Nothing to worry about sis. That's what you've got us for. I can probably talk Maggie into babysitting from time to time." Alexis assures her that she will not be doing this alone.

"We're still a team sis, Leon and I will help you. And maybe another baby sitter if I can convince him. Just don't hold your breath." Ell chuckled.

"You have me and your father too. Don't forget his magical hands." Kate teases her.

"I don't know if it's dad's hands or his eyes. Maggie never says no when dad looks at her and asks her to do something." Alexis chuckles. Her dad had a skill.

"All I know is how Kali here responded to his hands when she was a baby. And I've always gone swimming in his eyes. From the first time I saw him." Kate confides embarrassing Kali just a little.

An hour later Kate found her husband sitting at a table all alone nursing a drink.

"How you doing babe?" Kate sat next to him.

"Tired." His body was slumped and Kate couldn't see any of the sparkle in his eyes.

"It's been a long day. …. How's your back?" Kate's leg was hurting a little from all the standing she had been doing.

Madison had told her a year or two after her latest operation. One year down, one to go. Then she would be on borrowed time.

"I could use a pain pill." Kate figured he must really be tired if he was willing to admit he needed medication.

"Let me go take our leave from everyone and we can go home and get you a pain pill." Kate got up and kissed his head and went in search of the girls.

By the time Kate made it back to him she found him with his head on the table, sound asleep.

"Rick?" Getting no reaction, Kate shakes him a little. "Come on babe, wake up and let's go home."

"Huh?" Rick mumbles out.

"Get up babe and let's take you home. Give you a pain pill and put you to bed. You're tired." Kate takes his arm and pulls just a little, lightly.

The girls met Rick and Kate at the door. "Good night dad." Alexis tells him.

"I'm glad you found someone honey. You deserve to be happy." Rick hugs Kali.

"Thanks dad, I am happy. Joseph makes me happy." Kali hugs him back.

"I look forward to seeing your first baby honey, so I can spoil him or her." Rick kisses Kali's head.

"Dad and his magical hands." Kali teased.

"And don't you forget it." Rick kissed her head again.

"We'll be home in a couple of hours mom." Alexis tells Kate. The kids were still running around and needed to burn off some more of that energy.

Kate flew them home after taking a GETS train to their shuttle.

Kate sat Rick at the breakfast bar and went in search of his pills. "Can you find my pad too?"

"Sure babe, give me a minute." Kate was soon back with his pain pill and his arthritis pill, placed his pad on the counter and got him a glass of water.

"Thanks." Rick picks up his pad.

"I'm going to go take a shower babe. You alright here?" Kate would help him to the sofa if he wanted to move.

"Want some company?" Rick arched his eyebrows a couple of times. He knew he couldn't do anything about it. Madison's little yellow pills stopped working some time ago, but it didn't stop him from flirting with his wife.

"I'll take another shower in the morning and you can join me and we can play then, after you've had some sleep." Kate pats his arm. "But I look forward to it." Then leans in to give him a quick kiss.

Kate hadn't gotten very far when she heard. "Hi Lucy."

Kate had finished her shower and was back to look for her husband in a robe and not much else.

She found him right were she left him. He was still looking at his pad.

Kate walked over to peek at what he was looking at. "That's the three of us at the old firehouse in New York." Kate recognized it.

They had all found that Lucy had really recorded lots of things and downloaded them into the server. Everything except for Kate's time at the summer house. However that was because she was not plugged into anything at that time.

"Yeah, this is a few days before your first interview for your business you had just started." Rick supplies a time stamp.

Kate watched for a little while and soon they were celebrating her first contract. Holding her first check out for Rick to see, asking him what she should do with it, so it could make more money.

Kate already had plans for her own building for her company.

It felt strange watching a young her kiss deeply a young Rick. What came next didn't take much imagination as they disappeared into the master bedroom, for some more celebrating.

They weren't even married yet. Kate wasn't wearing the ring she was now back then.

Kate however noticed his eyes were closing and his head was dropping. "Come on babe, let's get you into bed. We both need our beauty sleep before our shower in the morning."

It wasn't until Rick was just finishing putting on his sleep clothes. "What do you mean by needing beauty sleep?" Rick had finally caught up.

"You must really be tired. Took you long enough." Kate teased and kissed his cheek.

"Speak for yourself old woman. I'm as ruggedly handsome as ever." Rick counters.

"Perhaps I should go get your pad so you can look again or make an eye appointment for you tomorrow." Kate teased back.

"Oh har, har. Very funny, it is to laugh." Rick replies back and climbs into bed.

Kate climbs in after him and works to get herself into her normal position with her ear directly over his heart.

Listening to his heart beat always helped her sleep, it was no different now.

"Night babe, we have a date in the shower in the morning." Kate reminds him and kisses his chest.

"I'll be there. Night Kate, I love you." Rick wrapped his arms around Kate to hold her close. He had long since learned to like her favorite position too.

"I love you too babe." Kate kissed his chest again and relaxed and listened to his heart.

Kate was awake but she didn't feel refreshed from sleep. Looking around Kate could tell that it was still dark out. She had only rarely ever woken in the middle of the night.

Kate twisted her head and could see it was 2:16 in the middle of the night. She didn't see anyone, didn't hear anyone. Lucille was sounding any kind of alarm and she didn't feel the need to use the toilet.

Rick was still warm so she settled back down to go back to sleep. But she couldn't, something was preventing it. It didn't feel right somehow. It didn't sound right.

Kate lifted her head, this time to look at her husband. He didn't look any different really. But his arms weren't holding her in place that they almost always were. They were laying off to the side. That almost never happens.

Kate placed her head back down so she could hear his heart beat. Help her get back to sleep. It was only then that she noticed that she didn't hear it. She didn't hear anything.

Suddenly panicked, Kate lifted up and tried to wake her husband, except he didn't move or even attempt to wake.

"No, please no." Kate was in severe panic now.

Placing the side of her head back down on his chest, this time in search of his heart beat. "Rick, … babe, please no."

Now with the intent of waking her husband she was lightly slapping his face. "Please babe, you need to wake up. P-L-E-A-S-E!" Kate was already way past crying.

"Please babe, you can't leave me. I need you!" Kate fell back down on his chest and held him close and felt her heart shatter and crumble around him as the crying turned into sobbing that turned into wailing for what she had lost.

Kate never did hear the bedroom door crash open or hear Alexis and Andre enter the room followed closely by Kali and Joseph. "MOM?"

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Hang in there, it's not over yet!