Another Chance
Chapter 3
Esposito sounds angry, and Kate can't blame him. "Beckett. I was special ops. I ate classified for breakfast."
Espo had said it before, and if he hadn't heard the rumor about the secret Dreamworld base, Rick might never have survived. Still that in itself was evidence of a leaky mouth, even if the leak was lifesaving. But she didn't call to accuse, she called to apologize. "I'm sorry Javi. I should have been straighter with you. No one is straight about anything here, and I hate it."
"So you're coming back to New York?"
"I want to," Kate confesses. "And of course Castle wants me there. I've been waiting to hear from the department about reinstatement, but it's been crickets."
"Then I guess no one told you. The commissioner has a hiring freeze. The budget was completely blown by all the anti-terrorist activity. They aren't even starting a new class at the academy. No one is getting any vacation, and if you call in sick, even for a day, it has to be certified by Health Services. We're all busting our asses, Beckett. Can't you like, transfer to the FBI in New York, like Sorenson did?"
Kate can feel her fingernails digging into her palms. "It doesn't work that way. The task force is the task force. It's separate from the rest of the FBI. If I'm out, I'm out - and I need to be a cop - some kind of cop."
"Maybe you oughta talk to Ryan," Esposito suggests.
"I should anyway. I owe him an apology too," Kate admits.
"Yeah that, but you know his brother-in-law was a cop. He's got his own outfit now."
Kate sighs into the phone. "Javi, I can't work some rope line at a red carpet. I mean a real cop."
"Just call him, Beckett. It's not what you think."
"I understand you not wanting to upset Martha. Sometimes Jenny and I walk on eggshells around her family," Ryan confides. "And I'm glad Castle's going to be OK."
Kate thinks she sounds a little like Castle as she clears her throat before trying to ask a favor. "Listen, Ryan, Espo told me about what's going on at the N.Y.P.D. right now, but I want to come back and work in New York. He said something about your brother-in-law."
"Frank? Yeah, he started an agency when he retired from the force. Part of why he left was because Gwen wanted him too, but he was tired of some cases that just got ignored. You know, like when parents thought their kids were abducted, but Missing Persons chalked a disappearance up to running away. Or when a detective or M.E. screwed up and said a death was accidental when it was really a murder or a suicide. You'd like it, Beckett. It's all ex-cops after justice, a lot like you. You want me to give him a call?"
Kate doesn't want to start out with a potential employer thinking she's looking for special consideration. "Just give me his number Ryan - or the URL of his website. I can take it from there."
"What are you looking at?" Castle asks as Kate surveys the screen of her laptop.
"Info on Ryan's brother-in-law's agency. They've cracked a lot of cases, brought a lot of people justice or at least, closure. They even uncovered a serial killer, who'd been taking kids from parents living in the kind of neighborhood where the cops just assume they're off in a shooting gallery somewhere. The parents pooled their money to hire Frank. He found the guy. Most of the kids were dead, but he was able to rescue two of them. That is the kind of work I want to do, Babe - going all-out, doing whatever it takes to get the bad guy and save anyone I can."
Castle plants a kiss on her hair. "Like you have to tell me that. So are you going to sign up?"
Kate reaches for his hand. "If they'll take me."
Villante doesn't seem surprised when Kate hands him her letter of resignation. "I wish you well, Beckett. And tell your fiancé that I'm holding him to his promise to put a dashing Columbian-American agent into his next book."
Kate offers her hand. "You can count on it."
Kate has just one more thing to do before she leaves Washington. Valkyrie should rest in peace, and the only way to make that happen is to make sure that the travesty Secretary Reed committed is exposed. She knows someone who just might be able to do that.
Molly Previn greets Kate with a 100-watt smile. "Roomie! I haven't seen you since you left Stanford, but I've read enough about you - and your alter ego. What brings you to my door now? I'd think if you have a story, Richard Castle would write it."
Kate glances around the bullpen at The Post. "Molly, I do have a story, but can we go someplace private?"
Molly runs a finger down the page of her notes. "Kate, before I can put out something like this about a member of the cabinet, not to mention someone who made the front pages as a hero, I have to be sure. I'll have to investigate every word of this, particularly since you can't let me use your name."
Kate leans across the table to her old friend. "Do whatever you have to do, Molly, but Reed shouldn't be able to get away with this."
"If everything you've told me is true, you're right," Molly agrees, "and he won't."
Castle lets out a deep breath as he sits on the edge of his bed in the loft. Being home is good. It's even better to have Kate home with him. He'd expected that she'd take more time to acclimate to being back in New York, but she starts at the Frank Kelly Agency first thing in the morning. At least they have the night together, and Goldberg gave him his blessing to do anything that feels comfortable. Comfortable isn't exactly the way he'd describe making love with Kate. Exhilarating or mind-blowing would be closer, but if he is going to pour his all into something, he could never choose anything else. He can always recover his strength while she's out slaying dragons.
Kate is nervous, almost as nervous as she was when she came out of the storm to Castle's door what seems a lifetime ago. Back then she knew the kiss they'd shared while hunting a killer had rocked her world, but she'd hurt Rick so profoundly that she didn't know if he'd accept her or turn her away. Now, she's tentative again. She came so close to losing Rick, she can't bear the thought of doing anything that might hurt him.
He reaches for her, and his mouth is anything but tentative. His tongue plunges deep as he draws her tightly against his body. He is like a starving man, tasting her everywhere he can reach. As his passion infuses them both, her fear is banished to a back corner of her mind. She wraps around him, every nerve in her body on fire and desperate for his touch. Oh God! How did she live without this? How could she ever live without it again?