280. Chapter 280

After Montreal

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: As many people as live in Montreal know I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

Author's note: After Driven is Chapter 237.

"You're looking mighty chipper this morning, Katherine."

Kate smiled, the warmest smile Martha had seen in months. "Getting that memory card from Castle took a load off of my mind. You don't know how badly…" Kate stopped and just shook her head.

"Surely you didn't believe that Richard would just up and leave you at the altar, do you?"

Kate shook her head firmly. "No. I never believed that. But still…."

"Still?"

Kate nodded. "I'm a cop. Ever since the academy I've been trained to follow the evidence. The evidence said that Castle paid Vinnie the Scar to crush the Escalade. The evidence said Castle was camping out on the coast of Massachusetts for two months. We had a witness that he was there, perfectly happy."

"And you felt?" Martha said, kindly.

"We'd been through this before with 3XK. But this was even worse. He was there at the dumpster dropping off the cash. It was Castle. It was my Rick. I just felt sick inside, even if I didn't believe it."

"But the witness was a fake."

"You have no idea what that was like. For the first time there was evidence that there was more going on than met the eye. And the memory card ….made me so happy. He told me that he didn't mean to leave me at the altar. And that he loved me. Always. Just his use of that word…"Kate smiled.

"Always?" Martha frowned.

Kate blushed slightly. "Before I was ready to accept that Castle loved me, he'd use the word always. I'd thank him for something he did and he'd reply, "Always." And I knew it meant that he did it because he loved me. And I even said "Always.", back to him. And I hoped that he understood that I was saying that I loved him, too."

"You two kids would have had a much easier time of it if you had just said, "I love you.", to each other."

Kate laughed and nodded. "We don't do anything the easy way, I guess. But he said that he loved me always, and as strange as it sounds, it feels like that. It feels like we've been in love with each other always. It's like nothing really ever happened to me before Castle came along, that I've always been in love with him."

"Now that is a love for the ages, Katherine. I'm sure Richard feels the same way."

"It'll take a little bit for us to settle back down, but we'll be together and we'll be married. Soon, I think."

"Well, I hope so. And just so you know, as far as I am concerned, you are family." Martha hugged Kate. "Katherine, I know that I can never take the place of your mother, but to me, you are my daughter. I hope that someday you'll think of me as being your other mother."

"I already do…Mom." Kate felt a tear fall as she said that.

"Thank you, Katherine."

Shortly after that, Alexis came down from her room for her breakfast. She noticed that Kate was busy in their bedroom. Martha was still sitting at the kitchen island. "Grams, "Alexis said softly, "Dad and Kate? Are they going to be all right?"

Martha smiled. "All right, Alexis? They are going to be spectacular."

Alexis smiled back. "I'm glad, it's just that this has been so hard on Kate. That has to have been a soul crushing experience for her. And it's been just as hard on Dad."

"I don't think there's much out there that could crush Richard's and Kate's souls. After all they have been through to get where they are today….Well, I can't think of a thing."

"I know how rough the last six years or so have been on Dad, but I'm beginning to think they were pretty hard on Kate as well. She hasn't really opened up except in the last year or so, but she really was miserable before she met Dad and then things just got crazy and finally they got better."

"To quote my friend, Mr. Shakespeare, "All's well that ends well.""

Alexis smiled slyly. "I hadn't realized you were quite that old."

Martha just glared at her, then smiled. Alexis went on. "Sometimes I wish we were like one of those 50s sitcoms we see on TV. Dad would be all serious and go off to work each day and Kate would put on a frilly dress to vacuum and bake cookies all day long. No drama."

"That is not who they are, kiddo. And if this was a 50s sitcom, you'd be the dutiful daughter who wouldn't have sex until you were married."

"Ewww."

That night, Kate slid into bed next to Rick and rested her head on his chest.

"I've been thinking."

"About?"

"My disappearance. So many things don't add up."

Kate chuckled. "Tell me about it."

"Consider. Faux Henry Jenkins was waiting for me in Montreal. Why? Does he just hang around old abandoned buildings in Montreal? Or was he waiting for me? Waiting for me makes a lot of sense. Which means he's got me under surveillance. And if he's really my pal and is helping me, why not just go on his merry way and forget about Rick Castle?"

Kate thought about that. "Whatever you did, or didn't do, or saw or whatever, you did with the fake Henry. He's as involved as you are. Maybe more."

Rick smiled at his lovely fiancé and kissed her. "And he was waiting with a gun, which he pointed at me. If he was helping me, would he have threatened me with a gun? And how about the slight gunshot wound I had? The one that Lanie found? If I'm with people who are trying to help me, how do I end up getting shot?"

Kate thought for a second. "There's someone else involved in this, maybe. A third party. They shot you."

Castle nodded. "Good answer. And if someone else shot me, might I not still be in danger? And if I'm not in danger from some mysterious third party, then am I really in danger from Faux Henry?"

Kate nodded slowly. "Possibly."

"And I was found eighty miles off the coast of Delaware in a dinghy. In the Atlantic Ocean. Just a bad day out there, let alone a real storm, and I'm fish food. If Henry is my pal, why aren't I found in some inland waterway where I'd be safe? Maybe beached on the Massachusetts coast?"

Castle stroked Kate's hair which he found aided the thinking process enormously. "And if I accidentally drifted out to sea, why didn't Henry the Fake do something? He's supposed to be my pal. I mean, all he has to do is make an anonymous call from a pay phone to the Coast Guard and say he's seen a little dinghy drifting out to sea. He sure as hell doesn't sit in someone else's trailer and hope I don't sink into the sea. Not if he's my good buddy."

"So what you're saying is…?"

"I've got to find out what happened. There are too many unanswered questions here. And I don't believe that I'd do something so…evil, that I'd demand to forget it. I need answers. And so do you. You deserve to know what happened."

"Babe, I don't need anything but you here with me."

"Then, I need to give you answers. Because I love you."

"Always?" She asked quietly.

"Always."