CH2

Kate snapped out of it in her car. "Get it together Kate," she chastised herself. She started the car, drove to the precinct, and was just walking into the bullpen when it suddenly occurred to her that Espo had texted her the address of a body drop. "Damn it!" She was really losing it. "I'm going to get someone killed if I keep this up." Kate reached a conclusion and a decision.

She knocked on the door frame of Montgomery's office. "Got a minute sir?"

"What have you got Beckett?" Montgomery knew Esposito and Ryan had gotten a call to a body drop. "I was thinking it might actually be a good idea if I took a few days off. Maybe 2 or 3 days if that's alright?" She didn't want to even take two days off, but she needed to get her head straight before she got someone hurt or worse, killed. Plus it would destroy her if it was one of the guys. And right now she feared it could be.

"It's about time Beckett. I thought you were never going to come to your senses. Take the week off. I don't want to see you in here again until Tuesday morning," Roy told her."Sir, I was just thinking of 2…" Kate's voice trailed off as Roy interrupted her. "Take the week Beckett or I'll make it a month. Your choice. What's it going to be? One week or one month?" He glared at her. "One week it is, sir," she relented since one month might as well be a lifetime. "I thought you'd come to your senses. Remember, don't come back in here until Tuesday morning or I'll default your time off to a month. Now get out of my office and go home!"

Kate drove home on auto-pilot even if home was now her parents' place. She'd done it often enough that auto-pilot actually worked. She parked and woke-up, so to speak, and sighed. She really didn't have any idea how she'd gotten home. "I'm in so much trouble," she moaned and hung her head.

Unlocking the front door, she found her mother seated at the dining room table in her pajamas. Her hair was still wet so she had likely just gotten out of the shower. She looked to be sipping a cup of tea. Kate turned on the coffee maker which made barely tolerable coffee and sat down in front of her mother. "Hi Mom, how are you?"

"I…I don't really know anymore Katie. The hole in my heart is just too big. I'm too old to go dating again and I don't want to. Your father was my one and done," Johanna sighed. "I'm not asking you to Mom. I miss him too you know. You're not the only one hurting. …I'm even having trouble concentrating at work. Espo texted me the address to a body drop this morning and I forgot all about it. I'm not even sure how I drove home," Kate admitted.

"OH no, Katie! You got fired?" Johanna was suddenly awake and listening. "No Mom, no. I'm fine. Well, maybe not fine." She couldn't bear the look on her mother's face. "I asked for a couple of days off and my boss told me to take the entire week off. He threatened to make it a month if I didn't accept the entire week. I'm not supposed to set foot in the precinct until Tuesday morning." She didn't like being banished. She also didn't have a clue what she was going to do for an entire week, so she asked her mom for ideas.

"You know, you could go on a date," Johanna suggested. "MOM!" Kate exclaimed. She refused, complaining about her mother's choice of what to do. "I'm just saying. The last man that I knew you were dating was Sorenson," Johanna mentioned. Kate all but collapsed in on herself. "Ugh," she groaned. "Do not even mention his name! I don't know what I ever saw in him," she was forced to admit. Will Sorenson was yet another poor choice of boyfriend or potential boyfriend.

"I thought you liked him. You did date him for a while," Johanna pointed out. "Please don't remind me Mom. The guy was a self-absorbed jerk. Flat faced, flat jawed, flat headed." Kate suddenly realized she had just spoken her mind and her filter hadn't stopped her. Johanna simply stared at her, not sure she had ever heard her daughter talk that way before.

"Since I have the week off we should go out and have some fun. Maybe see a movie or go out to eat someplace nice. Perhaps go to the top of the Statue of Liberty," she said, rattling off a short list of things to do. "I'm sorry Katie, but there just isn't anything in this city that I want to see. I grew up here, you know, and your father took me almost everywhere while we were dating. There isn't much left to see." Suddenly Johanna sounded sad and weary again. "I'm going to go back to bed." She got up and shuffled down the hall to the master suite.

Kate was too taken back by her mother being so sad about remembering her father that she couldn't get her mouth to work fast enough to stop her. She pulled the bank receipt out of her bra and looked at it again. Was $1.8 million enough to make her mother happy again? Just how was she going to accomplish that? How did she use money to make a person happy?

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Rick was doing everything he could think of to keep his daughter entertained on their flight out of New York in first class seats. His mind wasn't on his next book or who was going to publish it. Nor was it on his old life at all. They had a new name and a new home waiting for them. However they had to get there first; he couldn't remember ever traveling this far with his daughter. A number of stops were likely in their future. Stops for bathroom breaks, for coffee to stay awake, and of course, for gas. And that was after he bought a car, truck, or SUV.

They had to change planes in Chicago and had a 2 hour layover there. Rick used the time to get Alexis into the restroom and to stop and get them something to eat. He tried to talk her into something that looked like Chinese but there was a pizza place right next to the Chinese restaurant. He ended up being dragged over to the pizza place.

Finally landing in Rapid City, they took a taxi to The Cambria Hotel and Suites where they were spending the night. It was a simple enough hotel but it was also one of the few where he could get a two bedroom suite so Alexis would have her own room. After finding somewhere to eat dinner, Rick pulled out one of the games he had brought with him. They played it on the coffee table in the living room area of their room until Alexis's bedtime. "Good night pumpkin, I love you." He tucked her into bed. "Love you too, Daddy," Alexis responded and got her goodnight kiss.

He stayed up and watched a little TV while going over his notes on what was going to happen tomorrow. They had a lot to do as well as a 1-1/2 hour drive to the town closest to their new home. He would also need to stop at the elementary school and get Alexis registered since school was starting in just a few weeks. Rick finally went to bed and was just starting to get drowsy after getting his mind to finally quiet down.

"Daddy?" He lifted his head and saw Alexis standing next to his bed clutching her most precious treasure on the planet. "What's wrong?" Rick turned over to look at her. "Lonely," she whispered. Both bedrooms had king-sized beds; her bed at home was only a twin. There was just too much space, plus it wasn't her bed, or her room. He lifted up the covers. "Come on in." And he watched Alexis climb onto his bed and cuddle up close while clutching her precious Monkey-Bunky.

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Filled with breakfast and all packed up, Rick and Alexis took a taxi to the local FORD dealership. Two hours later they were driving off the lot in a brand new 2001 Ford F-350 Lariat AWD/4WD, crew cab dually with two-toned paint. It was dark burgundy with a wide tan stripe down each side. It was a 5.1 litre V8 short bed. The truck came with a towing package that had a trailer hitch and light connection already installed. It came with a number of options thanks to the Lariat package. Rick took the flat bed cover that was dealer installed. The dealer had just gotten his first load of next year's trucks and this was the only 2001 F-350 that he had.

The interior was a little bland for his taste but he could work on that later. He had been asked if he had any plans on towing a camping trailer and saw his daughter's eyes light up at that, so the answer became yes. The salesman explained the automatic transmission and rear differential to Rick so that he knew just how big of a trailer he could tow. He was advised to buy one that had a braking system that could be plugged into the brake connection that was already installed.

Rick chose the tire package that was between highway and off-road. It made the ride a little bumpier than what he was used to, however Newcastle, Wyoming routinely got a lot of snow so the tire package and the dually seemed like a no-brainer. Plus its size gave him much needed room. He always felt like he was shoe-horning himself into his precious Ferrari. He wasn't fat by any means. His work-out schedule prevented that, but he was a big man and he ate a lot normally, most of which got burned off when exercising. Still he was just short of 6' 5" at 258 pounds and this truck gave him space.

He had plugged in his portable GPS unit and was bringing up the address he'd already pre-programmed into it then pressed GO. "Know where we're going next?" Rick asked as he looked over at Alexis who was buckled into the child's booster seat on the rear passenger seat.

Alexis only shook her head. "We're going to go find you a puppy," Rick informed her since he had made a number of phone calls and done a lot of research. She practically lit up with joy as she started bouncing up and down while smiling wide. It was the first true wide smile he had seen on his daughter since they had started this trip.

Their destination turned out to be a farm that doubled as a local breeder. "I'm Rick Rodgers and this is Alexis. We spoke on the phone," he said to the woman who greeted them along with her 7-year-old daughter who was right next to her. "Jennie, please take Alexis to see the puppies while I work on the paperwork," she told her daughter. "Okay!" Alexis followed Jennie through the house and out into the backyard.

"As I told you on the phone, the puppies have already had their tails cropped and their ears have been altered. They've healed nicely. I have a copy of all of his vet visits for you and I'm going to give him a shot before he leaves. You'll need to take him to your vet in 2 weeks for his final puppy shot and then take him in for his rabies shot as your vet instructs you. It's all on the papers that I have for you." She spoke to Rick as they moved to the dining room table where the paperwork was located.

"All of our puppies are very happy and my daughter has spent time playing with them for weeks so they're used to children," she explained. They were soon out on the large back porch watching Alexis and her daughter inside one of the enclosures with a single puppy that was all over Alexis who was giggling her like mad as she tried to keep up with him. "It looks like someone else wants in on the action," Rick pointed out as he saw another puppy that had escaped from the other enclosure and was running round and round the one the girls and the single puppy were in.

"The one your daughter is having fun with is Midas. He's the one that we talked about and that I sent you pictures of. The one outside the enclosure is his litter mate, Maggie. The two of them have been all but inseparable since they were born. I don't suppose you would be interested in her too? I'd be happy to lower the price by $100. The people who were going to purchase her backed out yesterday," the breeder told Rick. $4,300 instead of $2,200.

"JENNIE! Would you put Maggie inside with you, please?" she yelled to her daughter who stepped outside to collect Maggie then stepped back inside and released her. He watched as the puppies played with each other and as they ganged-up on Alexis while paying a little attention to the breeder's daughter.

It was an hour later and they were leaving the farm. Rick had a little bit of both the dry and canned food that the breeder had been feeding her puppies, as well as all of the paperwork for them. Alexis was behind him giggling away as the puppies tumbled all over her. Rick grinned, keeping one eye on the road and one eye on his rear view mirror. Their next stop was already on his GPS. It was a pet store.

"You stay here with Midas and Maggie while I go shopping. Do not get out of the truck and do not open the doors for anyone but me. Understand?" Rick locked her in the truck with both windows cracked open 5 inches or so.

He filled two carts with puppy paraphernalia, paid for everything, and then hauled it out to the parking lot where he dumped it all into the bed of his truck. He had 4 beds, 4-50 pound bags of dry puppy dog food, 4 cases of canned dog food, every pig ear the store had, two collars that he hoped would fit properly, 2 retractable leashes, 2 regular leashes, Advantage Flea and Tick Protection for puppies, one package of 24 puppy pee pads, 2 packages of 6 puppy poop bags used to pick it up with, 4 tennis balls, 2 Frisbees, 2 food bowls and 2 automatic water dispensers that each held a quart of water in a refillable holder, 2 bottles of shampoo, 6 squeaky plush stuffed toys, two tags with their names on them, and 2 extra-large metal bar kennels. He also found a hot water bottle with a built-in clock that would make a tick-tock sound. It was advertised to help puppies sleep away from their mother.

Rick kept the collars and the non-retractable leashes out and handed them to Alexis. "Try and put the collars on your puppies. We need to stop before we get home and let them out so they can pee and poop," he told her.

They were just entering the town closest to their new home and Rick drove straight to the elementary school to get Alexis registered. By now the puppies were curled up on each other sleeping. "We'll leave Midas and Maggie in the truck, we have to get you entered into school," he said and closed the door softly so as not to wake up the puppies.

Newcastle Elementary was not near the middle or high schools which were located next to each other. Alexis would probably attend both of them but that was still years away. They had a quick meeting with Principal Brandy Holmes then they were back out at the truck with still more paperwork for Rick to look over and a school supplies shopping list to take care of. Alexis's first class was in 3 weeks.

Their furniture wasn't scheduled to show up until the day after tomorrow, which meant spending the next two days in a hotel room. Rick had gotten lucky and had booked the one triple room that the Pines Motel had. It had a living room with a fireplace, a fully equipped kitchen, and a bedroom that had a queen-sized bed and two twin beds. After unloading their luggage and some of the puppies' stuff, Rick set up one of the kennels and put the still sleeping puppies inside.

It was time for their next trip - grocery shopping! "Hey look, they have pizza," he pointed out as he drove to the grocery store. It was the Pizza Barn which happened to look like a barn that was about the size of two smaller barns combined. Just knowing that there was a pizza place made Alexis happy. They both checked out what was in town on their way to the grocery. Rick had gotten the address of the grocery store from the phone directory in their room and entered it into his GPS. It was a short trip to the store and they pulled in to go shopping. The place was half empty! "Are you going out of business?" he asked the cashier. "Oh no, it's always like this in summer. You must be new here," she replied. "We're just moving in. We're about another 20 minutes outside of town," Rick said. "Really! Is that log home up north on 85 yours? Everyone in town is dying to see who's building that place. It's nice! I think everyone in town has been out to look at it," she gushed over the home Rick had begun building over a year ago. "Yeah, it's ours. I'm Rick Rodgers and this is Alexis. We just got her enrolled in the elementary school," he told her.

"Well, just so you know, we're half-empty for about half the year. Then just before the first snow fall, we get filled up to overflowing. In fact there will be a freezer trailer outside filled mostly with cow halves hanging on hooks. Everyone comes into town and empties the place to fill up their freezers and pantries. Out here it's possible that you'll get snowed in and have to rely on what you have on hand at home. Once we're empty it gets filled up to about what it is now for the rest of winter into late spring and early summer, only to do it all over again. The local butcher gets a lot of work. I hope you're ready for it," she warned him.

"We should be. The house has solar hot water, a few solar panels and a windmill for a little power. Those last two are supposed to serve the freezers. There are two upright freezers not counting the one in the kitchen. There's also a generator that runs off a propane tank that holds 1,000 gallons. It only serves emergency lights, the freezers and the blower on the pellet stove." Rick had done his homework. She looked impressed. "Sounds like you're all set then," the cashier remarked as he paid the bill. "Looks like we'll be seeing you later," he replied since it sounded like he was going to need to fill his truck maybe twice over with groceries soon. "It's a small town, you'll be seeing everyone soon," she said, smiling at him.

Rick was back at their hotel room unloading their groceries when the puppies woke up. "Time to take them outside to pee so they don't make a mess inside," he told Alexis and they were both soon outside with a puppy each, walking around in the grass.

He was cooking dinner while Alexis played with her puppies. She found out quickly that the tennis balls were too big for their mouths though they did manage to hold onto one a little by the fuzz on the ball itself. They did, however, love the squeaky plush toys though they would chase the ball if she didn't roll it too far or too fast. They just didn't come back with it. Not that they always came back with the plush toys either.

"Dinnertime for your puppies," he announced and handed her one bowl at a time filled with a tiny amount of canned food and a lot of dry puppy food. Dinnertime was followed by another potty trip outside.

It was another two days before they packed everything up and headed north on US85 to look for the turn-off that would lead to their new home.