Something Old, Something New
by Castlefan6
A/N: By Request, PRE-Series Hookup, SEQUEL to Diminished Recall. Picks up exactly where that ends. COMPLETELY AU except for the conversation that prompted this and the use of some character's names. For CeCe, Friend, and Co-Writer with Pen2Paper.
I don't own Castle; I use the characters for amusement purposes only
I hope it's close to what you wanted.
A/N: Laurie's occupation was a songwriter, she said she had been lucky a few times. For the sake of this fiction, please assume the songs written by Diane Warren, were the work of her, under her pen name of DW. Thx
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A/N: I'm Skipping the number three for chapters to align the chapters with Fan Fic, Sorry for those who have encountered problems with it, I couldn't even see my OWN story, and after 10 persistent emails, I THINK they fixed it.
A/N 2: Some readers pointed out that I had switched names for Rick's new love interest from Laurie to Julie. Long story, I was writing when a friend named Julie called, and I thought I could multi-task, apparently, I can't. My apologies, any reference to the Julie character belongs to Laurie Hill.
Chapter 4
Beckett's Apartment
Later Same Evening
"Come on, Come on, pick up the phone Lanie, Jesus, what did I do that earned me this?" she spoke out loud more to herself than anyone else. Once again, the answering machine's cold voice was heard, "You've reached Dr. Parrish, leave your message at the tone, or not" She was in one of those I'll smack the hell out of you modes when she recorded her message obviously, Kate thought.
"Lanie, it's Kate, again, Look I don't know what else I can say, I've said I'm sorry a hundred times. I didn't mean to infer what you and Castle had was anything like what they report on page six. Would you please call me back? I know I fucked up, but how can I fix it if you won't speak to me?" she pleaded one last time.
She then turned her attention to her cold coffee and the tasteless meal she had picked up from the bodega just down the street on her way home. She decided to warm the coffee, the meal wasn't worth saving, so in the garbage, it went, less than half eaten.
If she had to testify under oath about what it was supposed to have been she would have been wrong and guilty of perjury. It was food, just stuff to put in her body to keep her head from reminding her that she had failed to eat today, AGAIN, and a body could only survive so long on coffee alone.
She had just pulled the coffee out of the microwave when her phone rang, she wasn't on call and was off for the next two days, so she was hoping it was Lanie. She answered the phone in a reserved tone, rather than the normal brash, almost bragging, Detective Beckett, I don't need you or anyone else, I'll show you all, attitude.
"This is Beckett," she said softly,
"Kate, it's me, Lanie, look, I had to cool down before I could talk, I didn't intend to ignore you forever." She said softly,
"I know Lanie, but I wanted you to know, I did it again, I just think a thought, and then just open my mouth and say whatever comes out. I know that is hurtful to you, and I'm truly sorry, I'm working on the open mouth insert foot routine I seem to have mastered." She said,
"OK, Kate, but you're right it is hurtful. Are you on call tonight?" she asked,
"No, I'm off for the next two days, how about you?" she asked,
"The same" Lanie replied, then paused, "Kate, I'll be over in an hour with pizza, I know you didn't eat, or if you even tried you didn't get much down. You go pick up the ice cream, we can talk about some things that you need to understand." Lanie said,
"What flavor Lanes?" was the reply,
"Excuse me?" Lanie asked,
"I mean what flavor of ice cream should I get, are you in a mint chocolate or butter pecan mood tonight?" she clarified,
"Let's go with the chocolate, OK? See you in an hour" she said as the phone disconnected.
Kate hurried to the little store and picked up both flavors, just in case Lanie had a change of heart, hell if not she would eat the other quart, she thought.
When she got back to her apartment, she researched Richard Rogers, USMC as Lanie had suggested, and almost fell out of her chair as she read the public postings of the man, she thought was a poor male excuse of Nancy Drew in the flesh. She knew something had spooked Esposito, he was very courteous about anything he said about him, after the initial encounter with him when they exchanged words.
She read further where he had served time in the Afghanistan arena, under the command of Captain Roy Montgomery, head of a special unit of Marines who were sent where many troops had failed to accomplish the objective. The third member was one Lieutenant Robert Weldon, under the same command, Son of a bitch she thought, they were in the service together. Not just any service, but a special unit of the U. S. Marines.
She read further, embedded in the article was a black and white photo, and discovered Lieutenant Rogers had been presented a medal for his bravery, and he was lying in a hospital bed in Germany when it was presented to him. Who was that woman sitting next to him? Holy Shit? No wonder Lanie went ballistic, it was her next to his hospital bed. She would really have to tread softly on this topic she thought, just as she heard Lanie's signature rat-a-tat-tat, tat on the door.
She opened it and accepted the hug from the only friend she had, and said softly, "I'm sorry Lanes, let's eat then we'll talk, OK?" Lanie just nodded as she set the pizza down, and started to remove her coat.
The pizza was better than usual, or perhaps it was Kate who was hungrier and more thankful for the only true friend she still had, either way, it disappeared quickly, except for the crusts. They laughed about having the same hangup about bread crusts, although Lanie was worse than Kate.
"You won't eat bread crusts, yet you eat those stale cubes of bread they pass off as croutons on your salad, Girl, you need to rethink that idea." Lanie laughed,
"I know Lanie, I need to rethink a lot of my first conclusions, I did what you suggested and researched Castle, I understand a little bit better where you're coming from now," Kate said, softly,
"Well, I have to back off of my attitude as well, it's not my job, I'm not his girl any longer, and people can have whatever opinion of him and me as they care to, I know what the truth is." She said, looking down at the floor,
"I read where he was presented with a medal while he was still in the hospital in Germany, the girl in the picture looked"
"Kate, let me save you the time. Yes, the girl in the picture is me. Yes, we went together for almost 2 years, it would have been longer, but I got disappointed when he was extended on his tour, so I did something very stupid, I wrote him a Dear John letter." Lanie said with tears in her eyes,
Kate looked confused, "I don't understand, what is a Dear John letter?" she asked, and Lanie could tell she was serious, she had no idea what she was talking about.
"Are you serious, I mean I know you didn't date much, but I would think that you knew girls who broke up with their lovers by mail when they were overseas fighting a war" Lanie said sadly,
Kate looked down, "Truth is Lanie, I only had a few boyfriends and after Brent Edwards, I didn't get too close, or allow anyone to get close to me." She said,
"Well, just so you know, Dear John letters are the worst thing you can do to your boyfriend outside of cheating and lying to him, and well, I had to live with the last letter that Rick read from me. I mean before he woke up in Germany, after a long, long operation, he almost didn't make it several times." She said with tears in her eyes,
"Lanie here's a beer, we need to start at the beginning of this story, I am lost," Kate said,
For the next two hours, several wet and shredded tissues, and 8 beers each later, Lanie had managed to explain to Kate the 30,000-foot view of her background with Rick Rogers, AKA Rick Castle.
"Wow Lanie, I never would have thought in a million years your background with Castle was so deep," Kate said,
"Well, now you do, but Kate, at work we are just colleagues, he is with someone new, someone that has carried a torch for him since he was in college and dating KB," she said,
"KB?" Beckett asked,
"If you have noticed I have NEVER used his ex-girlfriend, the one that married Gregg Murphy after his uncle whacked the bridesmaid to try to cover up embezzling millions of dollars from his nephew's trust fund full name. I referred to her as KB since the day I started to try to pick up the pieces she left, all because she was too weak to say no to her mother. She nearly destroyed Rick, God, he was a mess." Lanie said, still not able to fight a tear from dropping from her eye.
"You still love him, don't you Lanie?" Kate asked, "I know it's none of my business, but I mean I can tell just by the way you talk about him."
"You heard how close he was to my parents, especially to Mom after Dad died. He couldn't do enough to try to get her to try to live again, I don't know how much money that man spent, but it was to no avail. We hadn't talked for a long time, but he was the first person I called when she died. Do you know what he did?" Lanie paused, making Kate ask,
"No, what Lanie, but from what you've told me about him, it was something kind." Kate was finally beginning to open her eyes,
"He told me to stay in my house, he was on his way, and he would take care of everything. He took his private jet and was there in almost record time, he handled everything Kate, even the arrangements that I couldn't make. Mom had told him what she wanted, not me, but Rick, she even wrote him a letter and put a time limit on his eulogy," she smiled a slight smile for the first time,
"I'm sure that brought you two closer, I mean"
"Kate, I'm not going to get into the specifics, I'll just say that when we parted, it was as two very close friends who knew deep in their hearts the other person was not their PERSON, the one to spend the rest of your life with. I'm going to snag a pillow and blanket and camp out here, I don't think I can make it home, the room is beginning to spin." She said, as she plopped across the couch and was out cold.
Kate covered her with a blanket, put two aspirins and a bottle of water on the dresser next to her, and moved the trash container to where she could grab it if she began to heave. She then took the potted plant that was next to her and dumped out the majority of the beer that Lanie thought she had consumed with her. She hadn't explained about her Dad, not yet, but that was a story for another time.
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Hamptons
Same Time Frame
Rick and Laurie had settled into a routine, well not just a routine, but one that involved, rising in the morning, and eating breakfast first, it only took them two days to figure out not to try to shower together BEFORE eating anything, then a run on the beach while the temps were still mild, splashing the waves against each other as they ran.
Once they returned, they took a long swim in the pool, then another shower, and its benefits, and then finally Rick would begin to review his notes on his next character, or series of books. Laurie was almost as bad as Rick when it came to creativity. One morning Rick awoke to find Laure missing from the bed, he listened softly to the sounds coming from the music room clear across the house and made his way softly over to that direction.
He peeked in to see Laurie, with a pencil, sitting at the piano, jotting down lyrics and notes that had come to her while sleeping. He stood quietly as she hummed the tune, then played it softly on the piano, scratching a word out and replacing it on her sheet of paper occasionally. The song was simplistic, only using a minimum number of chords and key changes for the chorus, but it was powerful, almost bringing tears to his eyes. The lyrics that hit home for him were something she had said to him earlier, in the day.
"Rick, I had almost given up, lost my faith, in love, in life, and then you and I connected in the most horrific and unusual ways. You encouraged me before you even knew what I did, telling me that if I truly believe, that no star was out of reach."
You gave me wings and made me fly
You touched my hand I could touch the sky
I lost my faith; you gave it back to me
You said no star was out of reach
You stood by me and I stood tall
I had your love I had it all
I'm grateful for each day you gave me
Maybe I don't know that much
But I know this much is true
I was blessed because I was loved by you
He waited a few moments as she collected her materials, and then he said, "So this is where you ran off to, I missed you" he crossed the room as she rushed into his arms.
"Rick, I'm so sorry, I woke up the words, and music were just running through my head, I knew that if I didn't capture them now, I would have forgotten them by daybreak, especially once I snuggled into you and felt your presence near, on, and in me. I can't tell you; I just almost lose consciousness every time we make love." He felt the tears on his shirt,
"Hey, hey, I didn't mean to make you cry, but could I ask you a favor please?" he lifted her head gently up to face him and gave her a gentle kiss.
"Of course, Rick, what is it, you know I'll do anything for you." She said as she returned his kiss,
"Would you play it from the beginning and sing the words, all of them, please? I recognized something I had said to you earlier, and it touched me deeply," he said softly,
He carried her to the piano, placed her gently on the stool, and sat down beside her, as she honored his request. It was more than a song; it was a pledge of love and a poem of thanks she had created just for him. She sang it to him with her head on his shoulder, then when they returned to bed, the words were put into action in the most loving ways.
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12th Precinct
One Week Later
Roy Montgomery's Office
Roy had his door closed, but that did little to hide from his troops that he was catching hell from the Commissioner, Mayor, or both. There had been a string of murders, Beckett's team had caught two, and Roz Kapowski's team the third of some of New York's most prestigious citizens. Translated loosely, that meant campaign donors who were pissed as hell that nothing had been disclosed about solving the murder of their loved ones.
They didn't have to say it out loud, but the message to Mr. Mayor was to solve these crimes, or we'll support someone who can with our checks of support for their campaign.
"Bob, you know damn well we are doing our best, and Commissioner with all due respect, your austerity moves couldn't have come at a worse time. You cut my staff, my resources, my equipment then tell me to solve the crimes or else. Or else what Boyle? Are you going to come into my house and solve these crimes just by showing up? Bob, I need a favor, I need you to call Castle to see if we can get him on these cases.
Roy was quiet, apparently one of the other two was speaking, but when he answered, his voice was louder and a pitch higher than normal.
"Of course, I have his number, but he's your best friend, the one that carried your ass for five miles even when he was hit worse than you, or do I need to remind you, or perhaps leak it to the press?" Roy was hot, they had threatened, well Boyle had insinuated his job was tied directly to the conviction of the murderer of the three families, he had enough time in he could tell them to shove it anytime he wanted to.
"Calm down Roy, no one is threatening your job, apologize, Boyle, if you think you could do any better then get out of your plush office and hit the field, or take some of the press conferences that I've been forced to give. Roy, look, I'll call Rick, but remember the guidelines he laid down after the last time.
"I won't put up with a raw lead detective treating a valuable, and trained asset as she did. You take care of Beckett, and I'll call Rick. If we're lucky, I can convince him to help. I'll be in touch." Roy slammed the phone down, still pissed at Boyle and his insinuation,
At the City Hall Private Line, Mr. Mayor dialed the private cell number of his friend, and confidant, Rick Castle.
"Bob, what do you need, may I remind you I'm on a short vacation" Rick answered the phone as Laurie laid her head on his shoulder,
"Rick, I need your help, well Roy and the 12th need your help as well, and"
TBC
