CBs

Chapter 38

Emily gazed at the water in the harbor, then up at the sky. It was beautiful. She had hoped to see some sign of her mother, maybe just a face in a cloud, but there was nothing. Still, if she closed her eyes she could imagine her mother was there - almost. She reached back for Kate's hand and found Rick's instead. It was warm and gentle and almost as comforting as Kate's. She looked upward one last time before announcing she was ready to go. Somehow climbing down the stairs was a little scarier than climbing up, but Rick and Kate were there and she made it all the way down to the museum on the second floor of the statue's pedestal. Kate explained the exhibits and read to her from the documents in the glass cases. Then Rick took her picture as she sat on the huge copy of the statue's foot.

Rick seemed more excited than Emily was about the Museum Store and happily bought her a T shirt, a book, and a teddy bear dressed as Lady Liberty. Kate tucked the T shirt and the book into her tote, but Emily hugged the bear through the ferry trip back to Manhattan.

Rick brought up a list of restaurants on his phone, with pictures and descriptions of the offerings, and told Emily she could pick whatever she liked. Emily loved the idea of designing her own dessert and chose a barbecue place not far away where she could do it. The air in Blue Smoke was rich and heavy with spice. After they were seated, Emily received her own giant cookie to decorate and was told that it would be baked while they ate. She chose baby back ribs for her main course because they were just her size to eat, but too messy for her foster mother to serve. Kate read a few pages of Emily's book to her while they waited to be served. When their food arrived, Kate tucked one of the large napkins provided around Emily, and Rick covered her bear with another one - just in case it wanted to sample the cuisine. There were no shakes, but Emily was happy with a soda and Kate and Rick enjoyed sipping excellent coffee. When the waitress delivered Emily's finished cookie, she shared some of it with the Castles, but she was still too full of ribs to finish the rest, so it was carefully packed up by Rick and stowed in Kate's tote with the protective padding of Emily's new T shirt.

After lunch Castle suggested a walk to nearby Rockefeller Park. Spying the swings, Emily proudly announced that she was a great pumper and could get even higher than her brothers. Emily let Kate hold her bear and Kate and Castle sat in swings side by side next to the girl. Rick reached for Kate's hand as they watched Emily's joyful ascent. When Emily was finally tired of soaring, Castle proposed a stroll to the koi pond to look at the fish.

While they watched the finny creatures, the temperature dropped as a cold front moved into the city. Emily began to shiver. She was swallowed up in the jacket Castle wrapped around her, so before taking her back to her foster mother, he suggested a trip to a kid's clothing store that had been one of Alexis' favorites. Emily was astonished but pleased when Rick told her she could choose any jacket she wanted and she found one with fanciful fish she said reminded her of the pond.

Emily didn't want to let go of Kate's hand when Rick and Kate returned her to her foster home, but Kate assured her that she'd see her again soon. She gave Emily her card and promised it would be fine if the girl called her any time. Clinging to her new bear, Emily reluctantly said goodbye.

"So," Castle asked as he and Kate drove back to the loft. "how did you enjoy your first official pre-parental outing?"

"Castle, I'm not sure," Kate admitted. "When someone looks at you like that, depends on you like that, it's kind of overwhelming."

Castle's face darkened. "Second thoughts? We've only just started the process, Kate, and we haven't made any promises to Emily about the future. If you change your mind at this stage, at least she won't be disappointed."

"But you will be, Babe," Kate replied.

Castle pulled the car to the side of the street. He turned in his seat so he could look straight at his wife. "Kate, it may not seem that way a lot of the time, but I am an adult. I've been disappointed before, especially if you count my first two marriages. I can handle it. I know you said you're sure about Emily, but you're really just getting to know her. So I'm going to ask you again, before you break that little girl's heart, are you sure about this? For once, give me the Kate Beckett who doesn't just go along to prevent confrontation. Give me the Kate Beckett who isn't afraid of looking bad. I need the truth, even if I'm not going to like it."

Kate sat silently for a moment. "Castle, it may be overwhelming, but it's not nearly as overwhelming as being constantly in the a killer's cross hairs or getting shot was. I'm just learning how to deal with new feelings. I'll be fine."

"Kate, if you're going to decide otherwise," Castle warned, "do it soon."

Kate wordlessly nodded.

Hayley presided over her table for what she hoped was her last night as a dealer. A client had approached RCI about recovering a stolen painting, and that was much more the kind of case she loved. She also knew that her payment for this one was coming straight out of Castle's pocket for the CBs. There was no reason to feel guilty about that. He could afford it and if he used it for a book, he could write it off as research. Still she felt more comfortable if their working relationship was strictly through RCI. It tended to eliminate complications, especially in terms of police procedures. In terms of evidence, she could gather it for RCI pretty much any way she chose, as long as she didn't bend the rules too much - or at least not in a way that would draw too much of Kate's ire. If her methods were questionable on a police case, an attorney could get evidence tossed and put some bounder back on the street.

She spotted Yuri Tomov's familiar frame making his circuit of the tables. She didn't dare have a transmitter that would put out a continuous signal, but touching the bow tie that was part of her uniform, she sent a split second, virtually undetectable burst, to Kate's team, letting them know their quarry was present. The team would be unable to respond back to her. Hayley would have no way of knowing she had been successful until the evening ended. She still had hours to go. She avoided looking at Yuri unless he was directly in her field of vision, but when he was close, she noticed that he was eyeing a player at her table. Before the end of the night, the player ran out of chips and apparently out of funds to purchase more. Muttering under his breath, he left the games. A moment later Yuri followed. Hayley could only hope that Kate's people were on him.