the time we went on spring break (?)
"That's it, let it out," Castle says, softly rubbing circles into his wife's back as she haunches over the toilet.
"Shut up, Castle," Kate groans. She heaves into the porcelain throne once more and then slides next to her husband on the cold bathroom floor, backs and heads resting against the shower door.
"Feel better?" Castle asks after long moments of silence.
"Mmm hmm," Kate nods, keeping her eyes closed to shield herself from the harsh lighting.
"You're doing great, you know," Castle whispers sweet encouragement as Kate works to steady her breathing and swallow her residual nausea.
"Babe, I love you, but I really need you to shut up," Kate says, holding a finger up to her husband's lips, her eyes still shut, taking deep breaths.
He's silent for a few moments, but then climbs to his feet. "I'm going to check on Ruby," he announces softly.
"She puking her guts out in there?" Ruby asks when she sees Castle emerge from his bedroom.
"Yep," Rick says calmly. "You're very empathetic, kiddo."
"I get it," Ruby says in a serious tone. "I got sick from chemo a lot. Sorry if I sounded mean. I don't mean to."
"Sometimes I forget that you were sick," Rick admits. "What helped you feel better?"
"Not having cancer anymore," Ruby chuckles. Rick rolls his eyes. How'd he get so lucky to be raising a mini-Richard Castle?
When Rick doesn't say anything, Ruby answers in earnest. "Saltines. A lot of them. And a hand to hold even when I said I wanted to be alone."
"You're very wise," Castle tells her. "Are you almost ready for school?"
Ruby took the last bite of her breakfast and nodded. "Yeah. I'll be ready in five minutes."
"Perfect, because Alexis told me she'll be here in five minutes," Rick says, looking down at his watch.
"Alexis?" Ruby questions.
"Remember, she..."
"Oh, right, it's Tuesday," Ruby recalls. On Tuesdays, Alexis had a work meeting scheduled just a few blocks from her younger sister's school, so she picked her up and dropped her off on her commute. "I'm going to say goodbye to Kate."
"Ruby, I really think she wants to be alone right now," Rick calls out as the girl made her way to the en suite. Ruby shoots back a glare that would make a hardened criminal shutter and just says, "saltines."
Ruby knocks softly on the door and walks into the bathroom before Kate can answer. "Baby still trying to kill you?" she asks as she takes a seat next to Kate, who is still on the floor.
"Yep, it definitely wants me dead," Kate says, her focus still heavily centered around not puking.
"They just don't know how lucky they are yet," Ruby says, grabbing for Kate's hand.
"What're you talking about?" Kate asks.
"The baby, doesn't know how lucky it is," Ruby clarifies. "To have you for a mom."
Kate sucks in a deep breath and then lets out a huge, dramatic, sob.
"Are you okay?" Ruby asks, looking up at Kate as she wipes away a tear.
"Yeah, that was just," Kate sniffs. "That was really nice. Are you–are you ready for school?"
"Uh huh," Ruby says. "We're going to the museum today."
"Oh, that's right. I forgot about that," Kate smiles. "I love the museum."
"Me, too. It should be fun," Ruby says. "Alexis is going to be here any second, so I should go."
"Okay, Rubes," Kate says. She leans in and plants a kiss on Ruby's forehead and squeezes her daughter's hand before letting go. "Have a good day. I love you."
"Love you, too, mom" Ruby says as she stands up.
"Oh, wait, um, I'll forget if I don't say this now," Kate calls out before Ruby leaves. "Your spring break is coming up, so I was wondering if you'd like to go somewhere. Think about it, okay?"
"Okay!" Ruby exclaims. "I've never gone on a vacation for Spring Break before!"
Kate hears the front door open and close and open and close again in the following few minutes as she gathers enough strength and courage to get up off the bathroom floor. Before she does, though, Castle re-joins her, a sleeve of saltine crackers and a glass of water in his hands. He starts to sit down next to her, but she finds herself flying to the toilet once again. She heaves the last of her stomach contents as her mouth stings with the acidity of bile. After a few moments, she sits back down where she was before.
"I think I'm actually done now," Kate chuckles. Rick hands her the glass of water and she cautiously sips from it.
"You okay?" Rick asks, noticing the splotchy redness on her tear-stained cheeks.
"Yeah, Ruby was just being really nice," Kate explains.
"Ah, yes, the day Ruby is nice to me will bring me to tears also," Rick jokes. "Wanna try a saltine?"
He holds out the open end of the sleeve to his wife and she grabs one and takes a nibble. "Thanks."
"Always," Rick smiles. He grabs her hand and rubs calming circles into the dorsal side. "Are you sure we shouldn't call your doctor?"
"It's just morning sickness," Kate shrugs.
"Except for when it's all-day sickness," Rick adds.
"That's normal, too, babe."
"I know, sweetie," Rick sighs. "It just seems like you're sicker than you should be. Maybe your OB could prescribe something to help the nausea."
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to bring up," Kate agrees. "But it'll start getting better in a few weeks."
"I still can't believe that Espo and Ryan don't know given how sick you've been in the last week," Castle adds.
"They suspect, I can tell," Kate says. "They are detectives so I'd be worried if they didn't."
"How do you know that they suspect something's up?" Rick asks.
"Well, yesterday Ryan couldn't stop staring at my boobs," Kate says.
"What!?" Castle exclaims.
"I mean, they're almost a full cup size bigger than they were a few weeks ago," Kate laughs. "And they're sore all the time so I'm probably rubbing them without even thinking. He probably just picks up on it because the same thing happened with Jenny."
"Next time you catch him looking you should ask him how he likes your new implants," Rick says.
"Oh, god, he'd be mortified," Kate laughs.
"Which is exactly why you should do it," Rick says. "In fact, I will give you 50 bucks if you do it."
"I'm not doing that," Kate rolls her eyes.
"You're no fun," Castle sighs.
"And to think I was going to ask if you wanted to come to work with me today," Kate says.
"Well, we do still have a serial killer at large," Rick says. "Do you have any more leads?"
"Help me up and I'll tell you." Kate holds out her arms for her husband to grab and in a single tug, she's back on her feet.
20 hours until Spring Break
"She does know that we could have gone anywhere, right?" Castle asks for probably the twelfth time that week. "Tokyo, Paris...New Zealand?"
"She wants to go to the Hamptons. What's wrong with that?" Kate chuckles.
"Nothing's wrong with it, I just, ya know..."
"You wanted to go somewhere more exciting for you," Kate sighs.
"...No," Rick denies unconvincingly.
"Well, Ruby's excited about this, so you should be too," Kate says. "Plus, I don't think I would have been much fun on a long flight."
"I suppose," Castle sighs. "You are doing better though."
"Yeah, the anti-nausea medication works wonders most of the time," Kate says. "But turbulence is a different story."
It had been ten days since Kate called her OB to get some help for her morning sickness, and since Ruby came home from the Museum of Natural History and requested they go to the house in the Hamptons for her Spring Break. It had also been ten days since the 12th precinct exhausted its last lead in their active serial killer case. After the fourth murder with the same modus operandi and signature was discovered two weeks ago, the killer had seemingly gone dormant. With no apparent connection between victims, and no forensic evidence to guide them to a suspect, the detectives were at a dead end. It was going to take a miracle, and sadly, likely another victim, for Kate and her team to catch the perpetrator before she was set to go on vacation for a week. As she packed her suitcase, that realization tugged at her. Was she really doing this? Leaving, knowing there were four victims, four families, sitting in limbo, not knowing who was responsible for the death of their daughter, their sister, their friend? And then she thought about the alternative. Was she going to skip out on a family vacation, the first family vacation with their daughter, for a case that was going nowhere? Yeah, she needed a miracle, fast.
"Kate, what's wrong?" Castle asks, pulling her from her conflicting thoughts.
"What? Oh, nothing, nothing's wrong," Kate shrugs.
"Honey, c'mon, you've got your thinking face on, and I doubt you're thinking too hard about folding clothes into your suitcase."
"Fine, uh, just thinking about the serial case," Kate says.
"The serial case? There hasn't been a lead in over a week," Rick says.
"Exactly. I just...I don't want to be gone for a week with four unsolved murders and nothing to go on," Kate sighs.
"Well, I can understand that, but you not being in town has nothing to do with there being no leads," Rick tries to ease her mind. "I just mean, you can't pull a lead out of thin air."
"I know, I know..." Kate sighs. "I'm just...what if they find another body while I'm gone?"
"Then it's a good thing you've got a great team of detectives to investigate," Rick offers. "And it's just a hypothetical. If that does happen...we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
"You're right," Kate says. "And I can't really be in the field anyway, I suppose."
"Do my ears deceive me?" Rick asks. "Did you just say I'm right?"
"Something about a blind squirrel, actually," Kate rolls her eyes.
Rick gasps sarcastically as he pushes his duffel bag out of the way and dives across the bed toward Kate. "Castle!" Kate exclaims, laughing as her husband grabs onto her hips and pulls her into his body. He picks her up and turns her so they're face to face but instead of looking into her eyes, he sits down on the bed and talks to her stomach.
"Your mommy is so mean to me," he whispers through her pajama top.
"Oh, please, Castle, they've already tried to kill me with morning sickness, I don't need you fanning the flames," Kate laughs, placing her hands over her husbands that rested gently at the ever so slight bump that was forming in her lower abdomen. Even close friends wouldn't notice the change to Kate's body yet, if it weren't for her engorged breasts, of course. But, she and Castle had definitely taken notice of Kate's typically taut abdomen starting to expand ever so slightly. "Plus, the baby doesn't have ears yet," she adds after a few moments.
"Details," Castle scoffs.
Kate yawns and glances down at the clock. She'd actually made it to the very respectable bedtime of 9:30 before feeling herself hitting the wall. "Okay, babe, I think I'm gonna go to bed. I'll finish packing the rest of my stuff before work tomorrow."
"You want company?" Rick asks innocently.
"Only if you're actually gonna go to sleep, too. I know your dirty intentions," Kate chuckles.
"Fine, I'll...I'll go see how Ruby's packing is going," Rick pouts.
"Night, babe," Kate says as she pecks his cheek before turning off the bedroom lights.
14 hours until Spring Break
Kate felt for her phone as it rang on the nightstand, eyes still closed and heavy with sleep. She answers it without checking the Caller ID to protect herself from the harsh light.
"Beckett."
"Hey, Cap," Ryan's annoyingly chipper voice replies. "Sorry to call at, uh, 3:30 in the morning, but we got another one."
"You're sure?" Kate asks, suddenly feeling much more awake.
"100%," Ryan says. "Same as the first four, but, Cap, the victim, I think she might be the reason we finally get this guy."
"I hope you're right, but why's that?" Kate asks, keeping her voice down to avoid waking Castle.
"She's Amber Josley, the daughter of State Senator Maura Josley," Ryan says.
"Right," Kate says, resisting the urge to curse. "Send me the address and I'll meet you at the scene as soon as I can."
After she hung up, Kate stops resisting the urge and starts swearing like a sailor as she gets dressed.
"Kate?" Rick groggily calls out when he sees the light on in the bathroom. "You okay?"
"Yeah, I, I gotta go to work," Kate calls back.
"Fuck, really?" Castle says. "Everything okay?"
"Uh huh," Kate sighs. "Well, no, actually. They found another body."
As she applies her concealer Kate stares at herself in the mirror and hates the thought that crosses her mind. She really hoped that Amber Josley was the miracle she needed to catch the serial killer, not the body that kept her from her family vacation.
12 hours until Spring Break
"Senator Josley..."
"Please, uh, Maura," the woman in her late fifties says as she takes a seat in the 12th precinct lounge.
"Maura, I'm Captain Kate Beckett, and this is Head Detective Kevin Ryan," Kate says. "I am so sorry for your loss."
The Senator uses a tissue to dab the corners of her eyes as she nods. "I appreciate that, Captain, but I would quite rather hear about what's being done to catch her killer."
"Yes, ma'am, I assure I have my very best people on Amber's case, but we need to ask you a few questions about your daughter, if you're up for it," Kate says.
"I'll do whatever you think will help," Maura Josley says, leaning forward in her seat as Ryan set out pictures of the other four victims.
"We believe that Amber's death may be related to the deaths of four other women around Amber's age. Claire Steinfeld, Hannah Morris, Brooke Hallis, and Felicity Curtain, have all been killed in the last six weeks. Do you recognize any of them?" Ryan asks.
"Hold on," sighs the Senator. "The person who killed Amber has killed four other women and you haven't caught him yet?"
"I understand the frustration, believe me, but we believe that these women were not killed at random," Ryan offers.
"Do you have children, Detective Ryan?" asks the Senator.
"Yes, ma'am," he nods.
"How about you, Captain Beckett?"
Kate hesitates for just a moment before nodding, too. "I do."
"Then you'll understand when I say that you insinuating that my daughter was murdered for a reason isn't exactly putting me at ease," Maura says.
"I do, we do, understand that. Completely. What we mean to say is that we think that Amber may have known her killer, and we are wondering if she might have known any of these women, too," Kate navigates through the complexities of interviewing a mother who just lost her only child. "Maybe before taking a look at these pictures, you could tell me a little about Amber. What was she like?"
"Sure," the Senator smiles through her pain. "Amber, she was...we were quite close. We talked most days, texted when we couldn't talk. It wasn't always that way, but my husband Dale, Amber's father, died suddenly almost six years ago. She was finishing up her senior year at NYU, and was planning on attending UCLA Law School, but instead, she stayed in the city, worked as a paralegal. She didn't exactly love what she did, but she seemed to be happy enough. She got her kicks other ways, traveling a lot, visiting friends, dating. She was very friendly and outgoing."
"Do you know if Amber was seeing anyone?" Ryan asks.
"No one serious," says the Senator. "She'd had a few dates with a few different people recently, but I don't think she saw it going anywhere with any of them."
"How about her friends and colleagues? Did Amber mention any arguments?"
"No," says the senator. "Like I said, she was just very friendly. She never really caused or dealt with much drama in her life."
"Thank you, Maura," Kate says. "Now, if you could, take a look at these pictures. Do you recognize any of them?"
The Senator pulled out her glasses and pushed them onto her nose as she scanned each of the headshots. She meticulously looked at each of the young women's faces before moving on to the next.
"I don't recognize these three, but Brooke, I remember. Amber brought her to dinner with Dale and I once, when she was in college. Her hair was bleached back then, which is why I didn't recognize her at first," the Senator explains. "But that's definitely her."
"Do you remember how Amber knew Brooke?" Kate asks.
"Let's see, I think she said they'd had a class together, but that they'd actually met at a Halloween party the previous semester," Maura says. "Dale was alive, so I think it was the spring of her junior year when I met Brooke."
"Do you recall the names of any of Amber's close friends or significant others from around this time?" Kate asks.
"You know, now that you mention it, I remember thinking that Amber had a bit of a crush on Brooke. They got on a bit better than just friends," mentions the Senator. "But she never said anything about dating Brooke, so I didn't pry."
"So, you think she may have been in a relationship with Brooke?" Ryan asks.
"It was certainly possible. She only had one somewhat serious boyfriend, Tyler, when she was a Senior, but they broke up when Amber graduated," Maura says. "Tyler Boswell, is his name. And her friend, um, Katie Hammerville, is, well, was still Amber's best friend. They were roommates freshman year, and stayed that way all through college. She'd maybe have a better idea about Amber's love life during that time, since you think it could be relevant."
"Senator, thank you so much for coming in this morning, and again, I am so sorry for us to meet under these circumstances," Kate says in earnest, but working hard to hide the nauseating feeling that was creeping up on her. "Please excuse me, and don't hesitate to ask Detective Ryan for another cup of coffee, considering the sun hasn't even risen yet."
The Senator grabs Kate's hand and squeezes it in appreciation as Kate coolly exits the lounge and heads straight to the bathroom. The one perk of being at work at 5:30AM was that the precinct was still relatively empty, so Kate didn't have to worry about an awkward encounter with any of her employees as she puked her guts out in the fourth floor bathroom.
After sitting on the cold, hard floor for a few humiliating minutes, Kate felt well enough to get up and clean herself up, but as she exited the stall, she was hit with another wave, this time, of panic. Standing at the sink was State Senator Maura Josley. Kate weighs her options, but decided that she felt too gross not to wash up, so she runs the water from the sink two stations away from the Senator and stares ahead. After cleaning her hands, she splashes the stream up into her face and uses her hands to control the drips as they flow back down the drain.
"How far along are you?" the Senator blurts out before exiting the bathroom.
Kate hesitates to answer again, but finally says, "about nine weeks".
"Ah, then it'll be getting better soon," the Senator smiled.
"I hope you're right," Kate says with a chuckle.
"I was quite sick when I was pregnant with Amber, too," Maura says. "But, um, ginger ale always worked wonders for me."
"I'll have to try that," Kate says. "Thank you."
"You said earlier you had kids. Is this...?" the Senators question trails off.
"First pregnancy," Kate explains. "My husband and I adopted our foster daughter a few months ago."
"Ah, babies have such hilarious timing, sometimes, don't they?" the Senator chuckles. Kate certainly didn't disagree, plus, it was nice to see a genuine smile on Maura Josley's face. "Don't take it for granted, Captain Beckett." And Kate certainly didn't.
a/n: okay this chapter was going to end up being extremely long so I decided to split it into two chapters. apologies for the delay in posting and that this chapter is a bit fragmented. it'll come together with the following chapter as Kate and the gang race to wrap up the case.
