729. Chapter 729

After Veritas

Episode 6.23

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: True. I do not own Castle. Rating: K Time:

Berlin Germany, May 1939.

The wind blew her skirt up over her knees as she boarded the train. Seeing them, he made a small bet with himself. Anyone who has legs like that will have a face that'll stop a clock. She quickly pushed her skirt down and looked quickly around to see if anyone had noticed. I lose. She's gorgeous.

"Herr Rodgers?"

He turned his attention back to the very officious German official. "Yes?"

"Papers please?"

Rick Rodgers handed over his passport and other travel documents. They were examined in great detail and finally handed back to him. "Please take your seat in this compartment."

"I thought I'd…"

"This compartment." The man insisted. Rodgers smiled and sat where he had been told to sit.

He was still busy arranging himself for his journey when the official returned. He had the woman with him. "Fraulein Beckett, this is your compartment."

"I wish to be by myself." She said, glaring at the man.

"This is your compartment." He said, handing her papers back to her and leaving. She watched him leave, then took a seat as far from the man as she could. She removed an Ernest Hemingway novel from her purse, looked resolutely away from the man and began reading.

Rodgers smiled to himself. She's gorgeous and does she ever know it? It's too bad I have a job to do, otherwise I might like to see if I could unthaw her a bit. He folded his trench coat up and rested his head on it and was soon asleep.

After several chapters, she peered over the top of the book at the man. She was sure he was asleep. She looked him over. Handsome. Well dressed. No, very well dressed. An expensive watch as well. And hand stitched pigskin luggage. Doubtlessly a wealthy and very spoiled young man. If I weren't doing something important, I'd love to take him down a peg or two. She went back to her book.

Many hours later they arrived at the port of Bremerhaven. Rick Rodgers and Kate Beckett left their compartment without speaking.

Rodgers was driven to an expensive hotel. After checking in, he left his room, carrying his suitcase and went to another room. He knocked. The door shot open and he was pulled inside.

"Ricky!" Cried a handsome, well dressed older man. "Do you have them?"

"Of course, Gustav." He handed over his suitcase, which was methodically torn apart. From within were taken twenty four forged US passports for the children of anti-Nazis. An identical suitcase was brought out and Rick's effects were replaced exactly as they had been.

"Remember, Ricky, do not pay any attention to the children, either tomorrow or on the ship. We can take no chances." Then he was pushed out of the room.

Kate Beckett went to an inexpensive hotel where she waited until three woman tapped furtively at her door. "Katerina?" One asked.

"Yes."

"Thank God. You have them?"

Kate held out her purse. From the lining twenty four forged US passports for the children of anti-Nazis were pulled. A skilled seamstress sewed up the purse exactly as it had been.

The next day, at the docks, Rick and Kate found themselves in the same line to have their papers checked. Oddly, the Germans were rather lackadaisical, apparently being happy to get rid of any Americans who might be so inclined as to leave.

An American official was far more thorough, apparently the US was determined to keep unwanted refugees from its shores. But behind the seated official, another man was pacing back and forth.

"Come on, Jimmy." He said, checking his watch. "We've missed late breakfast and at the rate you're going, we'll miss lunch as well."

Jimmy, looked back over his shoulder. "Georgie, this is important. It's my job." When he turned around he found a smiling and very friendly Kate Beckett. As Kate leaned over his desk, showing some cleavage, Georgie apparently decided he'd had enough.

"You three. Passports."

Three teenaged girls handed over three forged passports. Rick held his breath. Georgie hardly looked at them, but grabbed a rubber stamp, stamped them and handed them back. "Next?"

"Georgie!" Jimmy cried. "You can't do that!"

"You going to report me?"

"Well…."

By the time Jimmy got to Rick, all of the children with forged passports were headed to the ship. And so was Kate.

Rick and Kate avoided each other and any other people on the trip across the Atlantic in case they had to do this again. They never did.

Normandy, France, June 6, 1944

She came awake at once having heard that sound many times before. However, the sound of massed airplane engines had previously been heard in northern France, not here in peaceful Normandy. The war is coming to us. She thought.

She knew what she had to do. She threw off her nightdress, pulled on a bulky sweater and a thick pair of corduroy trousers, then boots and finally tucked her long hair up under a knitted cap. As she walked outside, she was almost hit by a man parachuting. "Where is your officer?" She demanded.

"I dunno, lady. I just got here."

"The Captain's over by the barn." Someone called from the pitch black night.

She walked quickly to the barn. "Who's in charge here?"

"Me. Captain Rodgers." Said a vague blur.

"I'm Kate Beckett, Office of Strategic Services, with the French Resistance. Don't worry, Captain, we'll have you and your bomber crew back in England in a week. I've been doing this for a year now."

That brought a chuckle from the Captain. "We're not a bomber crew, ma'am. This is the 101st Airborne Division and we aren't going to England. We're going to Berlin."

"The invasion?" She asked.

"So they tell me."

"Captain, can you ask her where the hell St. Mere-Eglise is? I think we got dropped a hell of a long way from there."

Kate spoke up. "You're a good twelve miles from St. Mere-Eglise. I can lead you there."

"Miss Beckett, that's very kind of you, but it's too dangerous."

This time Kate chuckled. "I've been living in German occupied France for over a year. I could tell you a thing or two about dangerous, captain."

They began moving through the night, occasionally getting into firefights with German troops, and picking up lost paratroopers.

Shortly after dawn, the captain spoke. "I should have talked to you on the train."

"What?" She turned and looked at him.

"The train from Berlin to Bremerhaven. We shared a compartment. I slept and you read. Hemingway, I think."

She laughed. "That was you? I couldn't have talked to you. I had orders."

"Me, too. I was carrying twenty four forged US passports for anti-Nazis."

"You were carrying the passports for Gustav's group? I had the other twenty four passports."

"Small world. Nice to meet you Katherine Beckett. I'm Rick Rodgers."

The next day, trucks came to take the paratroopers off. Rick and Kate exchanged addresses in New York. Then Kate through her arms around Rick and kissed him. "You'd better wait for me in New York." She whispered.

He nodded and kissed her back.

The River Rhine, Germany, March 28, 1945.

The major was standing by the pontoon bridge when another convoy of brass arrived. He hoped they'd stop, look around and then leave, not bothering him or his battalion. No such luck. A general hopped out of the back of a halftrack and headed straight for the bridge and him. He saluted, hoping the general would ignore him. No such luck.

"Good morning, Major."

There was no point in pretending he didn't recognize the general. "Good morning, General Patton."

The General nodded towards the far bank. "Now that Montgomery has finally gotten his ass across the Rhine, every Allied Army Group has troops across the Rhine. Every damned one." He looked the major in the eye. "I know you. Fort Benning? England?"

Major Rodgers smiled. "No, sir. Bremerhaven, Germany. I was smuggling a bunch of children of anti-Nazis out of Germany with forged US passports. You grabbed them from some guy named Jimmy and approved them all because you wanted to go to lunch."

Patton looked at him and then laughed loudly. "Well, don't tell the damned State Department. The bastards will want to sue me or something." Patton looked serious. "There was a gorgeous brunette with you. Did you have the brains to marry her?"

"Not yet, but I ran into her in Normandy and got her address."

Patton looked back across the river. "Well, Major. Keep your head down and kill a few more Krauts and you'll get back to her."

They exchanged salutes and the general and his convoy raced across the pontoon bridge.

"What'd the general want?" Rick's first sergeant asked.

"Wants us to keep our heads down and kill a few more Krauts."

"Well, I can keep my head down."

Rodgers didn't answer. He was thinking about New York.

New York City, February, 1946.

Kate Beckett checked herself in the mirror in her old bedroom in her parents' home. She decided she looked as good as she was going to look, even if she didn't measure up to Broadway actresses and showgirls.

The address Rick Rodgers had given her was for his mother's brownstone off of Central Park. When she had gone by after being discharged a two months ago, she had found that the world was full of young women who were either claimed to be very close friends with Broadway star Martha Rodgers, or of her son, Rick. The maid had been absolutely adamant that Kate, and almost all other young women, were not actually in that category.

She had, however, bought tickets to every one of Martha Rodger's shows she could lay her hands on and was determined to see Rick again.

She walked to the front door, threw it open and walked into the man standing there about to knock.

"Rick?"

"Kate?"

He recovered first. "Oh. You're about to go out. That's okay, I can come back…." He found Kate's arms around him and her lips on his.

"I guess I don't need to come back later?"

"Not at all." She said with a grin.

"So, do you want to go find a train we can talk on?"

She laughed. "We can talk inside."

And talk they did, for a very long time.