A Biker's Tale
Chapter 5 - Where's Castle?
Kate arrives at Castle's loft by noon. She had stopped off before that, at her apartment, to drop off a few things. When she gets to the Loft she knocks. Martha is the one to answer.
"Katherine", she says, "Richard never returned home. We waited till late last night, but fell asleep. This morning we wake to find he never got home. We did not know this until we checked his room and found his bed still made. We should have checked earlier this morning, but thought to let him sleep-in. Had we checked on him before you came in we would have known sooner. We had just made lunch and thought to share the meal with him. When we learned he had never arrived, we tried to call you about it but your cell was off."
Kate checks her cell, she does have a missed call from Martha.
"Yes, here it is, missed call from you. Where could Castle be?"
"Alexis checked his cell location on her app when we discovered he never made it back. He is somewhere between Cleveland and Chicago on the U.S. highway going to Chicago."
"Where could Rick be heading?", asks Kate.
"I checked his office and think I may know where he is going", says Alexis to them, "Dad keeps reference materials in his file cabinet to use in his writings. One day he asked me to look for a certain file, that is when I saw it, his travel bucket list. He had on that list, a trip to Fairbanks planned via the ALCAN. He also has a file he started that is labeled 'Motor Trips'. That file is missing. Then on a hunch, I got on the Castle Fan site. He is posting his trip, just like he did when he made his New England trip, back when he divorced momma Gina."
Kate brings up the browser on her cell and then hits a link to the Castle fan site. She was a member from way back, even before Castle started researching with her. Kate's user name for the site is Fan41319. Kate wonders if Rick had ever seen her site name, as the number she used is that of her NYPD Badge. Sure enough he has a current picture posted, captioned with, 'My first layover in Cleveland on my momentous trip to Fairbanks'. The pic on the post shows him setting up a one man tent on what appears to be pop up feature of a trailer he is hauling for the safari. He is at some Camp Site as can be seen in the photo, surrounded by RV's and other camping tents.
"I'm so sorry you were not able to speak with Dad. I know you have an issue you need to resolve with him", says Alexis in an apologetic manner.
"That is all right Alexis, I am just trying to figure out now how to have that talk with him since he is not responding to my calls or emails."
"We will help you with that Katherine, but a least now we can track him and know where he is going. He has not called either myself or Alexis, but if he does we will let him know he should call you."
Kate is disappointed. "I do not know if by asking him to get hold of me that will prompt him to do so. He's made it clear he does not want to speak to me. So, what should I do now?", she asks of the two Castle women.
"For now all you can do is monitor his trip. As to the present moment, please join us for lunch Katherine. We have more than enough for three as we prepared for four people, thinking Richard would be with us to share a meal."
"Thank you, I will do just that. I ate the snack I packed for the return trip about an hour out of the Hamptons. I ate it on the go. So lunch sounds good", Kate says.
The three enjoy lunch and the Castle women notice the longing look from Kate each time Rick's name is brought up in their lunch conversation. Both realize now, as a result of Rick's departure from Kate, that she has indeed come to a reconciliation of her somewhat undefined relationship with him. The two confirm in their minds that Kate is meant for Rick. Now they needed to help Rick come to grips with his feelings for Kate. Those affections he now is trying to lose so intently and fueled by the incident with Josh that one morning.
From Kate's perspective, she now at least had a way to keep in touch with Rick, and she needed to do so. She would find a way to let Rick know of her true affections for him. She wanted to do that talk face to face. Kate knew it would not be easy. Rick no longer trusted her with his heart. Kate had to win back that trust. Using the Castle web site might just give her an 'in' to speak to him. He had been ignoring her and not answering her calls or emails. At least, she now knew where he was at and where he was headed.
New Routines
Kate got into the habit of checking the Castle Fan Site daily. It was now part of her routine. Rick might be gone from her side, but thru his Fan Site, she felt connected to him. She had yet to post on the site and had not planned to do so unless in an emergency. She wondered if Castle had ever come across her user name on the site and realized it was her. She knew once she posted, Rick would know it's her, just by her user name. She knows now that he is hurting badly from his perception of Kate's rejection of him.
She had read all of the comments on his trip. Most were asking questions like, was he doing this as research? Was the trip experience for a future plot where Rook and Nikki Heat took a similar trip? One perceptive fan asked if the trip was prompted from an event that had just happened and he was seeking to forget by traveling. Another fan recalls his past posts from his New England motor trip years ago. Another fan asked if his current trip is part of a bucket list of such trips.
Rick Castle likewise was also into a new routine. He enjoyed the open road. It certainly gave him a sense of freedom from Kate and his feelings for her. Those feelings that had been unrequited. So he would do a day's travel then post about it to the Fan Site using his cell. He had read all the comments to date, and had responded back to them. His responses were always that the trip was just a vacation reward to himself for finishing his latest novel. He revealed the trip was but part of a travel bucket list he was working. He denied the trip was for research on a future planned Nikki plot. To the one fan who asked if he was doing the trip to forget a recent life experience, he denied that premise and restated it was a vacation reward to himself.
Rick was now on his way to Minneapolis. Once getting there, he would soon cross to Canada. This is his first week of the motorcycle safari to Fairbanks, Alaska. He had stayed a day longer at a hostel in Chicago and taken in some of his favorite places in the Windy City. He after all was on vacation. Rick is also on a time schedule as he needed to stay within a window to get back before the cold weather started. So as much as time allowed, he would stop on occasions to enjoy his surroundings. He was trying to forget Kate, the main reason for his road trip, but for now everything reminded him of her. Rick knew eventually he would work her out of his system. He hoped for this relief. Still, his mind would often wonder how she was doing in his absence, it appeared his psyche was not about to let him forget Kate Beckett.
Back At The 12th
"So Castle is on some adventure road trip! What prompted that?", asked Ryan when Kate answered his inquiry as to why Castle had not been there all these past weeks, now nearing close to a month.
"It's a reward to himself for finishing his current Nikki novel", Kate says using Rick's own response to the same question posted on Rick's fan site.
"And you know this how? As by your own admission, he is not returning your calls or messages?", Espo questions.
"He is posting about the trip to his Castle Fan Site."
"Oh, well, surprise, surprise! Detective Beckett is a fan girl! Why are we just finding out about this now?", again Espo being facetious in his remark to Kate.
She gives both of them a Beckett glare, "Don't you two have enough work on your hands to spend it wasting time digging into my personal life. If not, here's something you both can do", she hands them several more case files.
The look from the two is not a happy one, they had provoked Kate and she was now on the warpath due to their prodding.
"These are case files that should have been closed some time ago. They are still open as the two of you have not done your part to close the cases. See that these cases are done by end of the week or the two of you will get a rip from me".
The two look back at Beckett.
"Sorry boss, we'll get to them right away", both say in sync so as to appear apologetic for their actions.
'Well that should shut them up for a while', Beckett thinks to herself and is smiling inwardly.
The two having been chastised by her are now quietly and intently doing their long overdue paperwork.
Kate gets back to her desk and takes out her cell. She had not checked the fan site this day so she needed to do just that. She opens the site and sees Rick with an attractive blonde in an enticing summer dress standing next to him. The unknown women is typical of the blonde 'dimbo' types Rick is reported to favor of his female fans. Castle Groupies, as they were often called, knew the most recent fan gossip, and shared them on line. From that, Kate reads fans' speculation that Castle is sleeping with a Groupie,….. or two, …for the trip!
Kate had early on come to realize that some of these fans, are the source of such rumors. Still, after having known Castle for a while, she realized he no longer did such things. True, there had been Ellie Monroe and then Natalie Rose briefly with Rick, but that was mostly a result of the two women's seduction of him.
But the nagging question in Kate's mind was: Had he now reverted to old habits in his attempt to forget her? Whatever the reason for the posted photo, Kate is seeing green. Much like she had when she saw Natalie Rose kiss Castle in the elevator. She had fumed about it to Castle for days afterwards. She is reminded also of what had happened with Gina that lost summer when he had left her for the first time only to return. But her dread now is that this time, …. he won't be coming back. It hits her hard!
'What's he see in her?', she is thinking and then realizes that post had her seething.
The caption to the posted picture simply reads, 'A fellow traveler'.
Kate wonders what is the story behind the posting? Is Rick traveling with a travel companion?
She is curious and jealous at the same time. Kate needs to do that talk with Rick. She needs a plan on how to go about doing that talk. You never quite know what you have until you lose it. That applied to Kate in this instance. Angry, jealous, and perplexed, all at once, Kate grabs her cell. She makes a call to Lanie.