Chapter 32 – 16 Weeks continued…
Kate sat in the backseat with Alexis on their drive to the Hamptons, avoiding all conversation with Rick. She didn't want to make things awkward or disappoint Alexis, but she didn't know how to feel. She wanted to forget about today, all of it. She hadn't been able to focus on much of anything other than the fact that someone out there had photo's of her being intimate with the person she loved. She didn't understand why or how it had happened, and there was no logical explanation other than someone hacking into her account to get those photos. She was thankful that Rick's face wasn't in any of them. That meant there was a chance they would never see the light of day.
When they arrived at the Hamptons house, Kate carried her bags up to one of the guest bedrooms. She chose the one closest to the master so she could be near him, just in case. She knew that she was going to struggle sleeping alone when she could be cuddled up with Rick, but she needed her space, time to think about everything that he had said to her today. She knew that he probably didn't mean most of it, but he also knew that she was insecure about taking money from him or allowing him to take care of her completely. No matter what he was going to be a part of her life, they were having a baby together, and there was no getting around that.
She had initially planned on hiding away this weekend, staying in her room, but she knew that Alexis would be disappointed if did that. So she took out her bikini and put it on, throwing one of Ricks old t shirts on over it as a cover up. She slid through the house un-noticed and made her way down to the beach. She laid out her blanket and sat down. The warm sand under her feet felt amazing. Before too long Rick and Alexis made their way down to the beach as well, Alexis stripping her cover up off and pulling out her shovels and buckets to make a sand castle.
Rick took a seat next to her on the blanket, keeping enough, but still making the effort to be there.
"You still mad at me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"More sad, less mad." She sighed, pressing her sunglasses higher on her nose so that he couldn't see her red rimmed eyes.
"Look, I know what I said hurt you, but I love you, and I love our family. We aren't perfect, neither of us, and my insecurities about Josh came out. I don't think you're freeloading off me, and I don't feel burdened by you or any of the things I've done for you."
"I shouldn't have gone to see Josh, but I was mad, and I just knew he was behind it. Now, I'm almost certain he wasn't, which makes me sick to think about. Someone else out there has those pictures."
"They are private pictures, and I understand why you would be upset about them. I was insensitive and a little selfish."
She wasn't angry at him anymore, and he could tell that she had been worrying about the pictures. They had both said things they didn't mean, but as they sat watching Alexis play in the sand things started to feel a little more normal to both of them. They were a family, and Kate knew that, she knew that Rick loved her, and wanted to take care of her. She also knew that they had both disrespected each other during their fight, and she didn't want to have that kind of relationship with him. That had been her and Josh's relationship and she had been miserable in it.
"I want us to be better, Rick."
"Better how?"
"Better than this morning, better than most of the fights we have."
She shifted her body closer to his, wrapping her arms around his arm and cuddling in close to him.
"We can work on things, but it's going to take time. We went from barely knowing each other to having a baby together. We are young, you're really young, and we both have a lot of growing up to do."
"I know, and I'm willing to put in the work for us."
"I think we should set some rules. The first being that neither of us is allowed to walk out on a fight, we aren't allowed to leave. You don't know how that felt, when you told me you were leaving. My heart dropped out of my chest, I didn't know what to do, I just want to grab you and never let you go. I cant lose you, ever."
"I'm sorry babe. I shouldn't have taken it there anyways. You know I would never leave you, right. I cant imagine being with anyone else ever again. You're it for me and I hope you feel the same about me some day."
"Someday? I do feel that way about you Kate. I am fully committed to you, and this life we are building."
She put her left hand up in front of them, wiggling her ring finger.
"Not fully committed." She looked up at him, pulling her sunglasses on top of her head.
"If you need a ring to make it real, I'll get you any ring you want."
"hahahaha" she laughed, a smile spreading across her face. "I don't need a ring, I was teasing. I don't want you to put a ring on my finger until the time is right."
"When will that time be?"
"I feel like we will know when it's right. Probably not after we have a huge fight where a lot of threatening to do things we both know we aren't going to do happens."
He let out a loud laugh, "Yeah, we need to stop doing that."
She leaned over towards him, cupping her hand around his neck and pulling him in close before capturing his lips in between her teeth. He opened his mouth for her, allowing her to dive in, and she did, their tongues were exploring, and hands started to roam quickly. It was as if they had never done this before. He pulled her shirt up over her head, exposing her growing midsection and her swollen breast.
"Whoa, those baby's are out to play today."
She backed away from him quickly, seeming very annoyed.
"and he ruins the moment."
"I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it."
She looked down over her body. The bikini barely covered anything. Her breast were so swollen that they barely fit inside her top.
"I should put my shirt back on."
"Don't worry about it. It's just me and Alexis, neither of us are going to complain about your boobs being out."
"Yeah, but what if someone takes pictures, I'd be mortified."
"No one is going to take pictures."
"Really, because today when I went to Josh's there was a paparazzi following me."
"Wait, why would they be following you?"
"I don't know, I just feel a little overexposed. I mean there are already naked pictures of me out there somewhere."
Alexis ran over interrupting their conversation. She was hungry so Kate put her shoes back on and folded her blanket up. Heading back to the house to make the little girl a snack before dinner.
As she stood in the kitchen making Alexis a sandwich while the little girl played in the living room, Castle snuck up behind her and placed a kiss on her shoulder, and another on her neck.
"I love you."
It was simple, and sweet and he didn't stick around long enough for her to reply. She knew what he was doing, and she appreciated the effort. As much as she wanted to stay mad at him, it was impossible. The more she thought about their fight the more insane she felt. Was she the one at fault, she should have stayed away from Josh and trusted that Rick would take care of everything. The fight would have never happened if they hadn't both been worked up over the pictures.
He joined Alexis in the living room, watching tv while the little girl played with her Barbie's.
Kate cut the sandwich in half, placing a few chips on the side of the plate and took it to Alexis, plopping down next to Rick and cuddling into his side.
Alexis got tired after a while and came up to cuddle in next to Kate, laying her head over Kate's lap and passing out.
During their movie, Rick heard his text tone go off a few times, and then his phone rang. He let it go, not moving to check on it until about the fourth time it rang.
When he made his way into the kitchen to check his phone, he yelled for Kate.
She slowly slid out from under Alexis' head, replacing her body with a pillow and made her way to the kitchen.
She walked in to Rick sitting on one of the bar stools with his head in his hands.
"Rick, babe, what's wrong."
"The pictures are out."
Her heart felt like it was beating a million miles an hour, and she started to feel warm and tingly all over her body. He stood from his stool to help her sit.
"It's gonna be okay, we are going to face it head on."
"Those pictures were supposed to be for us, not anyone else. They are private pictures, an intimate moment between us, that the whole world is going to see."
He pulled her hair back over her shoulders, trying to do anything to calm her down.
"Listen, Kate. I talked to my publicist. The pictures already hit the internet, so maybe we should think about making a statement. Something simple."
"Yeah, whatever you want. You're the one that this stands to hurt the most publicly. I mean my parents are going to kill me. I feel like my dad already hated you and now he is going to hate you more."
"We cant worry about how other people feel about our relationship right now. Not while we are still finding our way, together."
"I'm not worried about how they feel about my relationship with you. Now everyone is going to know what I look like naked, that's embarrassing."
She was trying to be strong, holding back the tears, but they were slowly releasing from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks.
"You have nothing to be embarrassed about, I am not ashamed of those pictures. They are intimate, and revealing, but those are two committed adults, who love each other very much sharing something that is suppose to be between them, and only them. Some asshole took it upon himself to share it with the world, and we cant control that now, but we can control how we react to it. This doesn't change us, right?"
"So what do we do?"
"Well we need to make a statement as soon as possible, and hopefully it will die quickly, It could be worse."
"Really? I don't see how."
"It could be a video, and it almost was, if you hadn't have done that thing you do, I would have definitely started filming, but I couldn't concentrate so I had to toss the phone." He laughed.
"This isn't funny Rick. My dad is going to know about this."
"I know it's not funny, but we are going to have to make light of it. This seems like a big deal right now, but it will go away. People will forget about it."
"You're right." She paused, taking a deep breath. "What do we do next?"
"We write a statement out and send it to my publicist." He sat at the bar next to her with a pen and paper as they wrote a statement up that he would send off.
They both agreed to keep it simple, and to the point. Expressing that the invasion of privacy was completely heartbreaking to the couple and that they hope that anyone with information on how the pictures were obtained come forward.
Kate snuck her hand over to run up and down his thigh, "Rick, I'm sorry, this is my fault. I should have deleted the pictures."
He spun his chair to the side to face her, picking her hand up from his leg and kissing her knuckles.
"This is just as much my fault. We are in this together."
"I don't deserve you, I am a complete train wreck most of the time. I'm sorry that you have to put up with me and all the stupid things I do."
"We all make mistakes, you're still growing up and so am I, and we already have one kid at home, another on the way. If we have made it this far, I think we have a good chance."
She leaned in, capturing his lips between hers.
"I think we need a reality show at the rate we're going."
He chuckled at that, standing and wrapping his arms around her waist, lifting her from the chair. She tightened her legs around his waist as he walked back into the living room.
"I love you, Richard Castle."
"Yeah? As much as I love you?"
"Way more."
"Not possible."
He sat down on the couch, she shimmied her body off of his and cuddled into his side.
"I think we should stay here for a while, you know.. hide out."
"Kate, it's going to be fine, I promise."
"Really? Because my phone just went off like four times in there and I was scared to check it."
"Don't ignore it, just face it head on, own up, and move on. Believe me, I have made many mistakes in my life. It's much easier to move on if you own up."
"I'll call my parents later and warn them if they haven't seen it."
"I'm going to have to name our son James to make up for this aren't i?"
"It's a girl, Rick."
"Oh, we will be finding out soon, don't you worry."
The Internet is a crazy thing.
Hide your opinions, Hide your creativity, because a guest reviewer is out there ready to attack you because you aren't writing your story the way they want it.
I respect your opinion, but like I said, this is the first time I've written anything, ever, it's not going to be perfect, and it might be all over the place at times. This is something I am doing for fun, so don't suck the fun out of it.
If you want to criticize my work, do it respectfully. Don't just say you suck and call me names. Give me advice, help a sister out, and yank that stick out of your ass while you're at it.