CH41

It is now one day later: (April 3, 2001)

Kate woke up the next morning, turned her head, and moved her arm only to find the other side of the bed empty. Even worse the sheets were a little cool, telling Kate that he had been gone a short while.

Kate rolled over and grabbed his pillow and pressed her face into it so she could smell him first thing. Then Kate did something stupid, she started to get up. "OH GOD!" Kate fell back onto the bed. "SHIT! What did I do last night anyway?" Kate still had a hold of Castle's pillow so she placed it over her face.

Kate stayed where she was for a few minutes until deciding it was time to get up and take a shower. She started off with lukewarm water before changing it slowly to cold to wake her up.

Kate checked the time and knew they had a flight a little after noon today so she decided to not get dressed completely. She grabbed one of Rick's dress shirts and buttoned it using just a couple of the buttons. She pulled on a pair of panties and headed upstairs to start on breakfast. She figured by the time they were done eating, she could let Castle pack for them while she got dressed.

Kate turned the corner going through the butler's pantry to get into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator to pull out milk, butter and then reached into the pantry to find the pancake mix. She moved over to the pass through after turning on a burner on the stove . "Castle, are pancakes... AWWEEE!" Kate immediately ducked down behind the counter and pulled her shirt closed.

"CASTLE, who is that?" Kate called out from behind the counter, embarrassed since she was half naked.

Kate looked up at Castle's voice and saw his head leaning in over the counter. "Kate this is my mother, Martha Rodgers. Mother, the lady hiding behind the counter is Kate Beckett."

"Your mother!?" Kate whispered. She drew her legs together and pulled her shirt even further closed. "Castle!? …I'm half naked, Castle." Kate tried to tug the shirt even more closed than it already was.

"It's a pleasure to meet you dear," Martha said as Kate attempted to look past Castle's head to see his mother, but couldn't see her. Kate swallowed hard and stood up with a strangle hold on his/her shirt.

"Um...HI!?" Kate tried to smile and for the first time saw Castle's mother. Martha was older than her own mother, had short red hair, and she was DRESSED! "I'm going…" Kate let go of the shirt with one hand to point back the way she came, only to quickly grab a hold again when Kate was sure she was giving the older lady an unintended view.

"I'm going to go get dressed." Kate started backing up with a laugh and turned to run, putting one hand around her back to grab the shirt just below her ass to hold the shirt in place as Kate shuffled her feet 'til she was out of sight.

Kate ran down the stairs. "I'M GOING TO SHOOT YOU CASTLE!" Kate yelled behind her.

"She seems nice son," Martha commented looking at Rick, smiling at his obvious discomfort.

"I should… um, I should probably…" Rick pointed in the direction Kate had gone and wished someone would shoot him right about then.

Rick stepped into the dressing room just in time to see Kate throw his shirt onto the center island that had drawers on two sides. "Your mother Castle! Seriously?" Kate doubted she could be more embarrassed if she tried.

"My mother showed up last night while you were out drinking with your friend Lanie. Seems the auditorium they were scheduled to perform in burned down. They aren't scheduled to go to the next town for 2 months so she came here."

"You fell asleep the second you got home or you would have met her last night." Rick looked around and didn't see any of the gun safes open, yet."

"We're leaving soon Castle. We have a case," Kate reminded him.

"That's where the good news comes in. Mother is going with us, I got Mother her own suite in the same hotel to stay in. Mother will keep herself entertained while we work on the case and spend our off time with us." Rick tried smiling, though Kate's face didn't look happy.

"Your mother is going with us? Have you lost your mind Castle?" Kate yanked down one of her tops and started putting it on.

"Well, I could have let Mother stay here while we were gone, however she can't cook so it would be all eat out or delivery. She has nowhere else to go Kate. Besides this way you two get to talk when we are not working."

"I've met your father, now you get to meet my mother," Rick shrugged his shoulders.

Kate had been bugging Castle about going to see his mother. After all they were going to be married in a few months. But did his mother have to see her for the first time half naked?

Kate pulled down a pair of pants and paused. "What did she say Castle?" Kate looked at Rick with a pleading look on her face.

"You did make one hell of a first impression Kate," Rick grinned. Kate slumped over, putting her head down onto the center island. "GOD!" Kate moaned.

"Relax Kate, my mother will love you. Vegas is going to be a blast. …Mother did ask if there was going to be a wedding while we were there." Rick prayed that Kate wouldn't kill him.

Kate lifted up her head and glared at Castle. "I told her no and that you already had plans for a beach wedding during the winter in New York. Mother thought it was brilliant by the way." Rick switched back to smiling.

Kate gave him a slight smile since Lanie had said something similar. "Put your pants and shoes on and come upstairs for a moment Kate, just long enough for breakfast and then we need to pack for 2 weeks." Rick left her in the closet.

Martha gave Rick a knowing smirk when he came back into the living room area, however she said nothing.

Kate followed a few moments later, dressed to leave. "You must be Mrs. Rodgers." Kate walked right up to Martha. Kate instantly found herself wrapped in a mother's hug that had her thinking of days long ago.

Martha let go of Kate. "Please call me Martha; I'm already old enough that I don't need to start thinking I'm even older hearing people call me Mrs. Rodgers."

"Martha." Kate replied instead. "I'm Kate."

"Oh, no dear, you are definitely Katherine. A woman as beautiful as you are my dear deserves to be called by her full name. Besides Katherine sounds so much more regal. You are a woman, not a child." Martha countered, refusing call her Kate.

Kate tried to hide her face. "Thanks. Are you interested in breakfast? I was planning on making pancakes. …OH, my milk and butter!" Kate hadn't put it back in the refrigerator.

"A beautiful FBI Agent who can also cook. I think we are going to get along well dear." Martha sat at the breakfast bar with Richard next to her.

"My mother taught me everything she knew," Kate commented as she searched for a bowl to start mixing her batter together, followed by pulling some sausage out of the fridge. She started cooking.

"I'd like to think so," Kate stated. She wasn't really ready to start talking about her mother with Martha just yet.

"Oh I'm sure she does dear. Mothers know a lot about their children even before they do. I'm sure your mother knew long before you did that you would turn out perfect." Martha could just feel that Katherine needed to be mothered.

"I'm anything but perfect Martha, I have plenty of faults," Kate contradicted her.

"Nonsense dear, what you call faults I call character. What you did or didn't do growing up has made you who you are today. That and any as yet unfulfilled dreams that you actively pursue make you who you are. It tells people who have just met you a lot about you."

"For example, you were listening when your mother taught you how to cook, and I'll just bet that you were simply humoring her at the time." Martha offered some motherly insight.

Kate stopped mixing her batter and stared at Martha. How had Martha known that? Ever since she started cooking for Rick she had been racking her brain trying to remember everything her mother had taught her, even the stuff she hadn't paid much attention to.

Martha pointed at Kate. "THAT is why your mother knows just how well you are doing now. Some day when you are a mother, it will all make sense to you. It will just hit you."

Kate made breakfast in silence while thinking about what Martha had said. Kate had paid some attention to what her mother had been trying to teach her and everything else was her trying to fake it. She did what felt right and guessed at what little she could still remember that her mother did when Kate was younger.

Martha telling her about how she would know about things making sense with her own children resonated with Kate. She knew she wasn't even remotely ready to have children yet. However if some miraculous accident did happen, killing her baby was the very last thing that would come to mind. She could never do that to Castle, their baby, herself. It was against what her mother had taught her.

Kate finished loading the dishwasher and turned it on so that the dishes would be clean when they came back home. "I don't suppose you have any stories to share about Castle?" Kate was digging while talking to Martha.

Kate and Martha could see Rick shake his head with a pleading look on his face. "I have loads of them dear and I'll be happy to share a few after Richard falls asleep on the plane." Martha was smiling at her son's discomfort.

"I'm drinking nothing but coffee and soda from now till we land," Rick countered, determined to stay awake this time.

"It won't help Richard. We both know that you will fall asleep on the plane. Have you flown with him yet dear?" Martha asked, looking at Kate.

"Now that you mention it, he did fall asleep on the flight down to Miami." Kate smiled while turning to look at Castle.

"This is so not fair, and I'm staying awake this time if it kills me." Rick pointed at the two of them.

"We'll slip out later and talk while playing the slots." Martha tried to whisper to Kate, failing on purpose, as Rick moaned knowing he was so screwed.

"Just remember Kate-I have access to your father. I'm sure he will be only too happy to tell me about all those boyfriends you brought home." Rick left them to go downstairs and start packing.

"DAMN!" Kate softly cursed not seeing the look on Martha's face. She still planned on embarrassing her son anyway even if Kate didn't ask any questions.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Martha took a window seat and Kate slid ahead of Rick so she could sit next to Martha, leaving him to sit across the aisle from them. Rick really did try to stay awake. He ordered coffee and even poured a little kick into it thinking that it would help.

Rick had just one problem that was left over from his Ranger days. He could fall asleep at the drop of a hat even in a helicopter or C-130 bouncing up and down every 1,000 feet.

"Do you know anything about when Castle was a Ranger?" Kate got down to business asking her questions the second she was sure Castle was asleep.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you much dear. I know he was officially stationed in Okinawa, Japan. It was always easy to tell when he came back from a mission and would call to check in. I think Richard was trying to comfort me by calling, but all it did was make me worry."

"He was always so secretive about what he did or where he went. A mother can tell when her child is stressed. Richard called one day and he sounded so scared. He put on a brave face but I could hear it in his voice. Something had happened." Martha couldn't tell Kate much.

"He won't tell me anything. Just keeps telling me it is all classified. Not everything he did can be classified. He was assigned to a unit that did things after all. I just worry about him." Kate looked down and realized that she was playing with her hands.

Martha reached out and took hold of one of Kate's hands. "You love him, don't you?" Martha wasn't asking since to her it was obvious.

"More than anything. Rick found me in a really bad time and he just kept trying to turn himself into a friend. His early date choices were…questionable, however they were all fun no matter the location."

"Ping Pong, bowling, pool, shuffleboard, …playing Candyland while Castle colored his boobs some obnoxious color." Kate laughed and then saw the perplexed look on Martha's face. "He knows this lady who opened a bar and BBQ place that was based on women's boobs."

"They had coffee mugs that were shaped like boobs, the back of their menu had boobs that you used the crayons at your table to color them. Even the menu names had names for boobs in them."

"They handed out old children's board games for everyone to play while eating some of the best BBQ I've ever had. Castle wouldn't let us leave until I had colored my boobs on the back of my menu. And our waitress!" Kate rolled her eyes.

Martha had a vision in her mind of just how much the waitress was or in this case wasn't wearing. "Then he took me to place that teaches circus performers and bought me a lesson in flying the high trapeze, way up there." Kate pointed at the ceiling of the plane.

"It was like nothing I had ever done before and it was so much fun. A little scary at first, but so much fun. I still don't know what got him to think of it," Kate confided.

"I'm glad my son found you Katherine. After what he has been through, he needs someone in his life to bring him back into the land of the living and give him a reason to live again." Martha patted Kate's hand.

"Meredith." Kate tried not to spit out her name, and was sure she had failed.

"What Meredith did almost broke him. I don't think he was in love with that woman." Kate heard hatred for Meredith in Martha's voice. "Richard's father was a one night stand who captivated me. I could never hate him for leaving the next day. He gave me a son."

"Our life was hard and money was tight early on and he may not have gotten the best childhood that he deserved, but he learned how to treat women with respect. Even after what that woman did." Martha hated Meredith just as much as Kate did.

"Then he joined the Army." Kate mentioned.

"Being in the Army changed him, and not all for the better. Richard came home one day on leave. Home being a one bedroom apartment, Richard had to sleep on the sofa, but he never said a word."

"I woke up to Richard crying out one night. He was yelling out men's names, hollering what sounded like orders. Something about calling for fire support and screaming for a medic while literally crying in his sleep."

"It broke my heart to think about what he was doing that would do this to him. It took my little boy who only wanted to help people and turned him into a killer. I don't mean murder, I know there is a difference," Martha reflected.

"And he never talked about it?" Kate was sure he didn't.

"He just said it was all classified. He took me out to eat and then to a movie. A Disney movie no less." Martha smiled and Kate chuckled.

"Richard told me you two met in a library. A strange place to meet someone." Martha remarked.

Now it was Kate's turn to talk about herself and she wasn't sure just what to say.

"Richard said that he met a woman who looked like she was hurting and started asking me questions on how to reach her." Martha offered a way for Kate to begin.

Kate was a little shocked. Castle's mother had helped him reach out to her. Castle's mother had helped her son get her to fall in love with him?

"I… I was…" Martha interrupted her. "You don't have to tell me anything dear, nothing you don't want to. You just have to keep my son happy and we'll get along fine." Martha gave Kate an out.

"I'm sorry Martha, it's just…it's highly personal, and I have trouble…" Kate left it at that.

Martha started smiling suddenly like she knew something that she couldn't keep to herself. "Now what would you like to know?" Martha asked, smiling an evil smile. Kate broke into an equally evil smile, following Martha's example.

"Do you know who Castle's first kiss was with?" Kate wanted history.

"Ah, Becky McAllister, she was 11 and Richard was 10. Even as a little boy he treated girls with care. Becky was having trouble with some of the other girls. Girls can be so mean to each other." Martha reflected, causing Kate to remember her own personal antagonist when she was a little girl.

"Richard got some of the guys together and started playing tricks on her. Most of them were harmless fun. Loosening the salt container, filling her purse with sand, shooting her with those old school water pistols…" Kate interrupted Martha.

"I loved those things. They glowed in the dark and you could add food coloring to the water!" Kate grinned. "WHAT!? I was a little girl once," Kate defended herself seeing the look on Martha's face.

"What was her name Katherine?" Martha knew there was a story in there somewhere.

"Marcy Reynolds. She was my own personal Sith Lord. Marcy did her best to try and be my antagonist and get the better of me in everything," Kate remarked.

"And you fought back," Martha replied. "She had it coming!" Kate justified, causing Martha to start laughing.

"Rick woke up when the plane touched down and found Kate and his mother still laughing which he found to be very disconcerting. His mother had obviously ratted him out while he slept.

"Did you have a nice nap babe?" Kate was the first to notice that he was awake. Rick was still a bit out of it and worried about how well his fiancé and his mother were getting along to respond, so he remained quiet. Martha however heard the love Kate had for her son in one simple question. It was asked softly and simply laced with love and caring, like Kate cared if his nap had been nightmare free.

They found Agent Avery and someone from their team along with a local Las Vegas agent waiting for them. Since Martha wasn't part of their team, Rick got her a cab and gave her some spending money along with the address for their hotel. "We'll catch up with you mother."

"You two be careful." Martha kissed both Richard and Katherine and climbed into the taxi. Her bags were loaded in the trunk and the taxi drove off to the hotel.

"We are going to the field office first," Avery informed them as they piled into the big black 4x4 that just screamed FBI.