It is evident that Richard Castle has had a major shift occur in his demeanor. He is not the same man he was just a moment ago. He is hardened and the lines on his face are set in a more threatening way than any others have ever seen in him
Castle reaches and takes Kate by the arm and pulls her towards the exit door "Kate! You cannot be here. You have to leave. NOW!"
"I am not going anywhere Castle. What is going on?"
He looks around like a man on a mission "You and the guys are in danger"
"In danger? In danger from what or who?"
LocSat" is his one word answer
"You know who LocSat is don't you?"
He is still scanning the area "You need to go. I will have Jake take you some place. Some place where you will be safe" As he pulls his wife by the arm once more
She jerks away from his grip "Rick…I love you and I am not leaving you. We have to do this together. We always been the safest when we are together"
Her words sink in to Castle and he seems to be listening "Ok but you must do what I tell you…when I tell you. OK?"
She looks into his eyes where she sees his love for her still as strong as it has ever been.
"OK" she responds "Now what happened?"
"I remember everything. I remember my training… I remember Sophia Turner…I remember being kidnapped from our wedding. …and I remember…. "His voice trails off
Kate reaches up to touch his face "What else do you remember Rick?"
"I remember being in a firefight and being wounded"
Kate pulls Castle back towards the other two detectives but he stops her "We need to keep the details secret. They don't have clearance. You do"
She stops in her movements "Start at the beginning Rick"
He looks across the room "When I began to write the Derrick Storm books and I needed to do some research. I needed to make Storm real. I actually called the CIA and asked to interview an agent"
"And they said what?…sure Mr. Castle we will be glad to have an active agent drop by and help you out with that"
He smiles softly at his wife "No! Of course not, but a few days later I got a visit from Agent Gray. That is when I met him.. He came by and we talked for several hours. I think he was investigating me. Thought I was a foreign agent looking to break into the CIA".
Kate smiles at her man "Break in how? Knocking on the front door and asking to come in?"
"He later told me that that was exactly what they thought"
"So how did you get in then?"
"He called back a week later and said that I had been cleared. So I got to go in"
"So you went into where? The facility in Virginia and got to see a few things?"
He looks away from Kate like he is afraid she is going to be upset about what he is going to say "I went to the Farm"
"EXCUSE ME? WHAT? What do you mean you went to the farm? Castle that is the training facility for their best filed agents"
He only shakes his head agreeing to her question
"So what happened then?"
"This is when I met Sophia Turner. She is the one who put me into the special assets unit"
"What is that?"
"We each had special talents. One guy was a whiz with numbers. One woman was a chemistry genius. I was the one to solve puzzles"
"That is how you ended up helping by looking at the intel and determine what is happening. Sort of like you do with us here at the NYPD?"
"Right. I spent a lot of time with Sophia at the beginning. That is when I came up with Clara Strike"
Kate suddenly feels the green eyed monster climb up her chest and settle in her throat "So…This is when you two slept together?"
Castle knows that his conversation is not going as well as he hoped. He takes Beckett's hands and gives her a gentle squeeze "Kate….she was not you. No one even comes close to you"
Kate closes her eyes trying to remove the jealousy from inside. She knows his love for her is unconditional. She needs to make sure her love for him matches.
"I know" She responds after taking a deep breath "Rick. Since you have all your memories back right now, can you answer a question for me?"
"Of Course"
"Are there any planted memories about…" she pauses "US?"
He reaches around Beckett "Nothing planted. All real…so very, very real"
She lets out the breath she did not know she was holding "So what happened then?"
I was contacted by the NSA and they asked me to assist. I already told you about Jake and his team"
"You saved their lives"
"It was after that my memory was blanked from then until our wedding then again until just now actually"
What happened after you saved Jake's team?"
"I was sent to assist in a human trafficking interdiction in Bangkok. That is when everything went bad wrong"
"What happened?" Kate is still holding her husband's hands
"We were in the hotel the night before we were scheduled to return to the states. I got up to go to the bathroom and while I was in there, I heard automatic weapon's fire"
"What happened then?"
"When I came out the entire bar was shot up. Everyone was dead. The bartender, the waitresses, the rest of the patrons, and…"
"And what?"
"My team. All of them were dead, except me…just because I had to go to the head"
Kate takes another deep breath realizing that what she has now almost didn't happen
"When I got back to our base, I was debriefed and sent back stateside. I met back up with Sophia and she said that if they didn't remove the memories of the carnage in the bar I would be haunted forever"
"What did they do?"
"They told me they had ways to blank my memories of what happened and I asked them to just do it"
"But there is an activation code that brings it all back" Kate is fretting
"They told me it was so they could retrieve more information later if needed to. It is obviously used for more than that"
"Is that what happened at our wedding? They needed more information?"
"What kind of information?"
"They needed me and my skills in deciphering clues. That is when I was shot"
"Were you shot at in a gun fight?"
He pauses as if he is trying to decide how much information to give her "Yeah…I was…I was defending myself"
"From who? Who was shooting at you?"
"Drug dealers. I was with a drug survey unit and we were ambushed"
He pauses a few seconds "That is where I was during the wedding. I was taken and sent to search out a drug cartel in South America"
"That would explain the scar and the Dengue fever" Kate remarks
"And that's where my bullet wound came from"
"Was it Columbia?" Kate wonders since that is drug central in South America
Castle stops to think "Yeah. It was" Then a light seems to come on in his head "I remember!"
"They pulled me to send me to an operation in Colombia. A drug operation and money laundering"
"Like what Vulcan Simmons was doing?"
"Simmons was not the only operative they had doing it at the time. There were several issues"
"What do you mean …issues?"
"They had a cartel leader skimming from them and they wanted him to have an attitude correction done"
"Why did you go?"
"They were going to destroy the cartel but needed information"
"Why did you go? Rick you could have refused them…right?"
He looks deep into Kate's eyes "They didn't give me an option. They said either I help or they were going to kill everyone I loved…starting with you"
"Why didn't they just send in a hit team? They are real good at that" She draws in a long breath "Why were you the one needed?"
"My speed reading and image recall skills. They needed for me to search a set of records to see where and how the drugs were leaving the country and their destination along with the money and make a decision to our next plan"
"Why didn't they just take a camera and photograph everything?"
"A camera takes too long. I not only looked at the paper work. I looked over the room, the paintings on the wall, the furniture. Everything. Then based on what we saw I made decisions on our next action We were acting on instant information. There were no cameras. This action was totally off the books"
"We had gone in like all friendly. We were in the main room. They were arguing in Spanish and I only understood one or two words then guns came out and bullets began to fly. I was hit and ducked behind the desk. It was a thick wooden desk and blocked some of the bullets"
"But you got out?"
"Yeah. After the shooting stopped I crawled out to find the room full of bodies…" He looks off again
"Castle are you OK?" Kate is becoming worried about him "These are some terrible images I am sure"
"The worst. Back outside the extraction team came in and took me back to base camp. They treated my wounds and sent me back stateside"
"What happened then?"
"They told me if I ever told anyone what happened or what I saw, you would be the first to die"
The outside door opens and a shadow of someone enters. Beckett and Castle recognize him immediately
"Hey Jake. What's going on?"
The man has a stern look on his face "We need to talk. In private"
The three walk into one of the empty rooms when Jake looks at Castle "Rick. We have been waiting for you to recover your memories. Tell me. Who is LocSat?"