"What information do you have about what happened to my husband, Jake?" Worrying about what happened to Castle, Kate is the one to ask the opening question
"We have information that Castle has been part of a secret CIA program having to do with mind control and memory management"
"What type of experimenting did they do on Rick?" She asks
"To understand all of this we need to go back over 50 years ago" he begins his explanation "There was a project that actually started during the Viet Nam war. It began with a CIA project investigating the effects of the use of hallucinogenic drugs and they started with the party drug of choice in the day, LSD"
"Are you saying Castle has been given LSD?" Kate is honestly becoming more worried about what might have been done to her husband. She knows from her police training that certain drugs including LSD have lasting effects in including flashbacks.
Jake responds quickly trying to alieve her fears "No. That program was only the beginning of the human testing. The CIA has been doing experiments for decades but only the 60's involved LSD. They later moved to other more designer type drugs and also other methods of memory management"
Castle has been sitting quietly but finally feels the need for information "Jake…what did you find out concerning what was done to me?"
"Yes, about that… You got involved with Sophia Turner doing early research for Derrick Storm, right?"
"Yes. I followed her for a year"
"She was a part of the program early on. It was one of her first assignments. To recruit subjects for the testing"
"Didn't they just seek volunteers from within the company or from military that were close to separation?" Beckett questions
Rick feels Kate's grip on his arm tighten again. He had known just how much Kate was jealous over this woman but he had hoped that over the recent years of him and Kate being together, that she has grown to know that she IS his one and only.
"She had the hots for you Rick" Kate speaks into his ear with a pained tone
"Did she?" he responds "Or was it all a fake memory planted by her and the rest of her team?"
Jake responds to that comment "It appears that she did have an interest in Rick. There are reports that she was reprimanded for having an improper relationship with a non-agent and that is why he was pulled into the memory control program. To control what he remembered"
"So was my memory of Sophia…false memories?" Castle asks
"Without all the detail of what you remember of that that time and what you have of your three months with Sophia, it is an impossible question to answer. It does appear the person who recruited you into the program was the agent we now know as Lockstat"
"Three months? I was with her for a year" Castle states as a fact
"The file only indicates you were with her for three months" Jake responds
Rick can feel Kate's grip tighten again and her head drops to his shoulder. Castle does recall her reaction when he first admitted to her that he had in fact slept with Sophia and Beckett's comment of 'The More The Merrier' filled with jealousy that he had not yet fully admitted to seeing on Kate's part concerning her suppressed feelings for Castle
"So my memories of Sophia is probably a fake memory"
"Evidently part of it is" Jake agrees "I believe it turned out she was a Soviet agent still in deep cover"
"Uh…yeah. She WAS. But she had been left out in the cold by the collapse of the USSR"
Jake continues in his briefing "She was probably using the information she had about the memory program to sell it to foreign powers"
Kate finally looks up from her position on Castle's shoulder "So is it possible that Rick really has done some horrible, terrible things?"
Castle looks into his wife's eyes and he believes he can see deep worry in her feelings
"Kate. I promise I have never done anything bad…I…I don't think I have" Castle looks back to Jake "Have I?"
"Rick. We honestly do not know…for sure. We have not found any evidence that you did any 'wet' work but we do believe you very confident that you did have had direct contact with Lockstat at some point"
The three sit quietly for a moment then Castle speaks up "Am I really Jason Bourne?"
"We don't think it went that deep but you were a part of a program like that"
After another pause Rick looks at his wife "Kate, you know my mother has acted differently every time we have tried to dig into my disappearance. She wanted us to just drop it"
"She did seem to push us away, didn't she?"
Jake interdicts "Your daughter was very young at the time. If you were off the grid for three months, Martha would have had to take care of Alexis during that time frame"
"That's right! If I were gone for that time mother would have to know. I need to ask her about that"
Jake continues in his information "Let's hold off on bringing her into this until we know more facts, but we probably will need to get a filler from her later"
Again there is silence in the room when Jake finally breaks the quiet "I will leave this file with you two. There is not really much else in here, but we are discovering more and more data every hour"
Jake stands, drops the folder on the table, and moves toward the door "You know how to reach me" and he exits the house
The Castles sit quietly for several minutes with Kate pulled up as closely to Rick as she can possible be. He can definitely feel the tension in her body. Tension that he does not ever remember her having before
"Kate…I have not done anything really bad. I promise. I could never hurt another human being unless I was in danger or…"
"Or what?"
"Someone I loved was in mortal danger"
"OK" her comments just seems to hang in the air
"Rick?"
"Yeah"
"They evidently planted false memories in you about Sophia. Memories that you and her were…"
"We were a couple or something. I don't know what is true or not anymore"
She slides her hand up his arm "What if they planted other memories…"
"Memories like my abduction? I think we can pretty much agree those are fake. I am pretty sure I did not go to Thailand and rescue someone from Al-Qaeda, but I have been in some level of danger"
"That's not what I'm talking about…"
He places his cheek on top of her head "Then what are you talking about, Kate?"
"What if they…what if they put a false memory that you…you loved me?"
Rick turns his head to Kate and pulls her head to face him "Katherine Beckett Castle, if anything, YOU pulled a Jedi mind trick on me and you made me fall in love with you. No outside force could do what you have done to my heart"
"So this is all real?"
"Very Real" he softly responds
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"Has Beckett ever answered?" Ryan questions his partner
"Not yet" is the answer
"Do we need to have communications try again?"
"I don't think it will do any good" Esposito responds
"She is probably out with her paramour" Kevin comments almost under his breath
"That's enough Kevin. I concede that she's probably a big cause of this breakup"
"Sorry Javi. I am hurt as much as you are about them, but if there is something going on that she needs protection from, we really need to get a hold of her"
"I know this is probably not a good idea, but I can't believe Castle is totally in the dark about her…so why don't we contact him and see if he has any idea about where she is or who she is with"
"Espo! That is a really bad idea. He might just go all Jason Bourne on us and try to go after her and whoever she is with"
"OK. Then let's just pretend and ask if he knows where she might be"
"OK, but be really careful in what you say to him"
Esposito picks up his cell phone and dials Castle's number
After three rings it goes to voice mail
"Hey bro. It's Javi. Can you call me when you get this message? Thanks" He disconnects the call and puts his phone back on the counter
It is just a minute later when the device rings. The ID says "Castle"
"Hey man, what's going on?"
Rick responds "Fine. What's going on there?"
"Listen man. I…er I mean we were just wondering if you might know where Beckett is?"
"Why?" Rick asks with concern in his voice
"UH…well we have been trying to contact her about an event here in the city and her phone seems to be off and she is not calling us back"
"And you called me…because?"
"We were hoping you might have an idea where she might have gone. She said something about a spa retreat and we were hoping you might know where she would have gone"
"Sorry guys. I got nothing for you"
"Thanks Castle" Esposito responds then he thinks he needs to tell Castle about Beckett
"Listen bro. Can you come in to the station, Kevin and I need o talk to you about something"
"Sorry, Espo but I am not in town right now"
"Oh. OK When will you be back?"
"A couple of days. Why?"
"I just need to apologize to you about something I said to you. That's all"
Then Esposito hears a woman's voice off in the distance on the phone
"Rick. Who's on the phone?"
He can tell that Castle covered the mouthpiece muffling the voice so the Hispanic detective cannot tell who she is
"I got to go" Castle hangs up the phone
Esposito looks at the phone still in his hand and starts thinking about what he just heard.
"No other woman my ass! That dirty SOB" and he slams the instrument down on its cradle