128. Chapter 128

Chapter 128

Kate had some stress factors in play in varying degrees throughout May. It had actually started in March when she realized that the breakup of her longtime team was about to actually happen. April saw the boys moving up, and Kate leading a different team and training Archer as a part of the process…all that happening as she was preparing herself to assume her own command the following month.

The change of command left her in a position that there was no doubt she could handle, but she was in a sea of unfamiliar faces and personalities with no one she knew well to turn to. The people Captain Dohrman had recommended were cooperative and easy to work with; but the rest of the precinct was a surprise package, with Patton as the jack-in-the box, ready to spring out in a noisy distraction at the drop of a hat.

Her new job was going well in spite of a couple of problems, but there were a few built in strains there as well. Basically a captain is on call twenty-four/seven, so taking a day off outside the city, let alone a weekend, requires coordinating with someone else to be sure precinct business is covered if a problem arises. And there were also family/friend/anniversary things to attend to within a month of her arrival at the fifteenth.

JD graduated from college the week before the Castles' weekend anniversary stay in the Hamptons, and the entire family went and cheered as he crossed the stage. That was the first time he'd had anyone there other than his exuberant grandfather and his two very proper and staid parents; but this time, the entire Castle clan joined John in standing, applauding, and cheering for him and then taking a ridiculous number of pictures with a beaming JD. Then there was Lanie's wedding and the accompanying best friend handholding before the big day.

When she was ready to leave for work the Monday after Lanie's wedding, she surprised Rick with a long, lingering kiss, bringing her arms up around his neck and running her fingers through his hair.

"Mmmmmm," he said, nuzzling her neck. "Nice goodbye this morning."

She looked at him flirtatiously and answered, "I was thinking about Lanie's wedding night."

"The night that worked out so well for us, too? Is that the one you're talking about?" he asked, holding her with his arms loosely around her waist. There was a little pause and a lowered brow before he added, "In spite of my interfering mother."

"She's just glad that her children are still happy together. Besides, you had to get that teasing nature of yours from somewhere. I'm sure it's genetic…and I love your mother. We still enjoyed our night, didn't we?"

"I know I certainly did."

"And you certainly made sure I did, too." She smiled and gave him another lingering kiss and then moved to her son, who was playing on the floor.

"You have to work, Mommy?" he asked dragging his bear along with him as he stood and held his arms up, reminding his parents of Christopher Robin and Pooh.

"I'll come home to you and Bear as soon as I can, I promise." She picked him up for a hug and got one in return. Then he leaned back in her arms, grinned, and worked Bear's arms to make his teddy give her a hug, too.

Kate laughed and kissed his cheek, saying, "I love you Baby Bear."

"Jamie grinned again and pointed at each of them, saying "Papa Bear, Mama Bear, Baby Bear."

"And what about Alexis?"

"Sister Bear," he answered quickly.

She smiled, tickled his tummy, and said, "I'll see you at dinnertime." He giggled, leaned against her for another hug, and she put him down, before kissing her husband one more time. Then she stopped at the door to say, "I love you, too, Papa Bear.

Rick caught her hand and reeled her in for another kiss. Then he turned her toward the door again, swatted her bottom and said. "Now get to work. Can't have the captain coming in late."

xxxxx

Nothing eventful had happened at the precinct over the weekend, so there was nothing out of the ordinary to deal with. She took a look through her emails and the everyday paperwork and then sat back and picked up her phone. If Captain Dohrman hadn't intended for me to use it, he wouldn't have given me his cell number," she muttered to herself. But she sent a text rather than making a call.

"Is Patton our 'problem child'? The one you mentioned but didn't identify?"

Within a few minutes, her phone pinged with a text. "Found her already, I see."

"I had my suspicions before you even had time to get to the airport."

"Did something happen?"

"I overheard some insults the first day, and a few days later, she got unnecessarily rough with a non-threatening teenage boy. When I confronted her about it, she seemed more annoyed than concerned."

"That sounds about right."

"Any idea if there's anything in particular that sets her off?"

"Whatever annoys her. She did seem to be more easily annoyed with women than men. Whatever it is, it's concerning."

"Yes, it is."

"Keep me posted?"

"Wouldn't your wife rather have you paying attention to vacation? : )"

"LOL I am, and I'm enjoying it. Not asking for the full weekly precinct report, Beckett. Just a few words now and then. She knows me well enough not to be surprised. If you hadn't sent a text, I probably would have before long."

"Then I'll be in touch now and then. Give her my regards, and tell her I'll keep it to a minimum,"

"I will. Good luck with Patton."

"Thanks. Looks like I might need it."

Before she started her daily rounds, she checked the name of the sergeant in charge of the uniformed officers, made a quick run across the street for good coffee, and went to speak to him after he had sent his officers out for the day.

"'Morning, Sergeant Kirst."

"Captain Beckett. What can I do for you?"

"Tell me about Patton."

He sighed deeply and indicated the break room. "We need want coffee and a place to sit down."

"I can't say that heavy sigh surprises me, so I brought the coffee. Yours is black. You can flavor it the way you want."

He laughed and said, "I see you've met her. And thanks. I drink it black anyway. Aaaaah. Way better than precinct coffee. This was over and above."

"No, it wasn't. I've met her, remember?" she said in a conspiratorial whisper. He chuckled and nodded, and Beckett asked, "Does she have friends? Is there anybody at all she gets along with? What kinds of problems are you aware of? Do you know anything about her background? Have you identified anything in particular that sets off her temper…or attitude? Start anywhere you think might help me figure her out.

"Friends? I thought you said you'd met her. Befriending that young woman's personality is like trying to snuggle up to a riled porcupine. The rest of the probationary officers never wanted to be around her more than they had to be. She doesn't have much respect for authority, and they're probably afraid they might be painted with the same brush if they're around when she's being rude. They probably don't want to do anything to get on her bad list, either. She's been here a little over six months…barely more than a rookie. The only reason she isn't still a rookie is that we had a new graduating class from the academy, and we have a limited number of people to assign as training officers. The TO who was working with her wasn't happy that she was being "released into the wild" as he phrased it. He didn't think she was ready, but it is what it is. I don't know a lot about her background. She was in the system, at least through high school I think. That's all I know.

Do you know how she did in the academy?

"I'm pretty sure her grades were high, concern about attitude was mentioned more than once. Her physical skills are good. When she's seeing reason, she reasons pretty well; but that could go to hell in a handbasket at the drop of a wrong word. It's a shame. She'd have a lot of potential if she'd get that chip off her shoulder and consider the job more than what makes her mad.

"Have you pinpointed anything that seems to trigger the anger?"

"It isn't as bad with the men in authority. It's not like she flirts with them or plays up to them or anything, just accepts orders with less of a problem; but I don't think she likes taking orders from other women. Makes no sense to me. It wasn't as obvious until she felt like she was past being a rookie and started feeling her oats…the last month or so.

"Thanks, Kirst. I appreciate the help."

"Any time, Captain," he said, standing when she did. "I appreciate your interest."

"She's one of mine. Just trying to figure out what's going on. I'll probably stop by to observe your officers one morning soon and meet the ones I haven't met. I've been talking to the detectives often, trying to stay on top of what's going on, so I haven't managed to get that far yet."

"We'll be glad to have you when you do, Ma'am."

She dropped her empty coffee cup in the trash, thanked him again and said goodbye. Then she made a trip to Robbery to see what was going on there. A lot of the detectives were now readily volunteering information before she had to ask, and the people at the precinct in general were warming to her frequent presence among them. Her bearing made it clear that she was in charge, but she made an effort to look at the cases with them as a colleague rather than someone of higher authority. When she made a suggestion, she only exerted authority when her experience told her it was necessary to explore that avenue of evidence and she thought it might be ignored. That had only happened once, and that evidence had solved the case. Afterward, rather than using her mother's favorite words, she simply said, "Good work."

She was learning a few more names every day and honing in on personalities and quirks. When she got to Coulter's team, he wasn't there. One of his team members pointed to the bulletin board where he was putting up a note on light blue paper. The note announced, "It's a boy!" along with the name, weight, length, time of birth, and a picture of the scrunched up little face of a newborn.

"Congratulations," Beckett said when he returned.

"Thank you, Ma'am."

"Is this your first one?"

"Yep. As soon as we found out we were having a boy, my dad started buying baseball gear. My mom told him it would dry rot by the time he was big enough to use it."

Beckett laughed. "Even after he knew I was a girl, my dad still bought baseball gear. He did start with the soft, foam ones, though. So…Yankees?"

"Is there anybody else?" he asked with a grin.

"Just making sure you're bringing him up right," she answered. "How is your wife doing?"

"She's good. They're both doing great. The doctor said they can come home this afternoon."

"Well, what are you doing here?"

"I don't have that much leave time left, so…"

Looking at his team, Beckett asked. "Are you three willing to cover for him today?" On their smiles and nods, she told him, "Go home and spend the rest of the day taking care of your wife and getting to know your little boy."

She ordered lunch on the way back to her office, then called to make arrangements to speak to someone in HR before checking her to do list and getting to work on it. At the end of the day, she stopped on the Robbery floor and snapped a picture of the baby announcement before leaving. After hailing a taxi, she composed a text to Captain Dohrman on the ride home. She described Coulter's excitement, told him the baseball gear story, and saved it to send later. The substantial time difference meant it should probably wait until morning.

The return text the next morning was from Mrs. Dohrman. "Thank you so much. The people at the fifteenth have been important to Jared for a long time. It meant a lot to him to see the word 'our' applied to the them. It caught him by surprise that you would take the time to send the birth announcement. We're going out to look for a card for Coulter and his wife right now, and we will find one that references baseball gear."

"Then I'll start passing along things like that."

xxxxx

When she arrived at home that night, Castle was working on dinner.

"Where's Jamie?"

"It seems that his older siblings are at loose ends with no classes, so they stole him away and took him to the park."

"And Papa Bear gets a little break?"

"Not completely. They're staying for dinner, so Papa Bear is still cooking. Good thing he likes to cook." He leaned to kiss her when she came close to him.

"I'll change clothes and help you. Be right back." She returned in jeans and a T-shirt and pitched in.

As they worked, he told her he had been to the art store to arrange to have Jamal's sketch framed. "It should be ready on Friday. The owner was as impressed with the drawing as we were. I had forgotten how close to the fifteenth the store is, so I told the owner the artist was looking for a summer job; and he said to tell him to come in any time for an interview. No promises, just a fair chance. Do you know how to get in touch with Jamal, other than rescuing him from overzealous officers?"

"No, but I can find out. I don't want to spend too much time hanging out with him, though. He lives in a neighborhood where it's not healthy to be too friendly with the cops. But I'll find a way."

"Speaking of… How goes it with Patton?"

"She's had an uneventful couple of days. I'm simultaneously counting my blessings and waiting for the other shoe to drop." She paused for a moment and said, "I may be about to stick my nose into her personal business. Not sure yet if I'll follow through, though. I'll let you know when I decide."

"That's intriguing. You sure you don't want to tell me more?"

"There isn't much to tell yet. But if I decide to pursue it, I might need a little of your research expertise, depending on what I find."

"Just say when…and what."

The door opened a few minutes later, and a small, noisy group of siblings came in, looking a little windblown but happy.

"Mommy, Lexis pushed me on the swing, and I went way up." His arms stretched up, his fingers with the little twist reminiscent of the 'mongous cow.

"How far up?" Castle asked Alexis with a bit of disapproval in his look.

"Not that high, Dad. I do have good sense."

"Well forgive me for remembering the lack of it when you were finally big enough you could swing on your own."

"You did an admirable job of letting me spread my wings without harping at me, though."

"Yeah, well it wasn't easy. Kate and I talked about that after going to the park the other day. She's going to apologize to her father for the same thing. I apologized to my mother for my high swinging days back when you decided it felt like you were flying…while I was imagining my baby girl as a big splat on the ground."

"And with two of you apologizing to your parents for the same thing, you had the audacity to think you might escape easy with this one?" Alexis teased.

"Granddad took it pretty well," JD told them. "I just made him promise not to tell Grandma. It was much easier on both of us if she didn't know."

"Ha! Both of you are swing monsters. Your day will come, Daughter, and your dear old dad will be happy to provide an appropriately childish 'told you so' raspberry when it happens." He grabbed her head and scrubbed his knuckles lightly across it the way he did when she was younger, mussing her hair in the process; and all the others were laughing at the pair of them.

"A noogie, Dad? I'm a grown, married woman," she protested, laughing as she tried to get away.

"A grown, married woman who will always look to me like my little girl," her father said, as he got in one more quick scrub before she managed to pull away.

Alexis escaped from her father's grasp and said, "Come on, Jamie. Let's wash our hands and set the table. JD picked up a giggling Jamie and held him close to the kitchen sink while Alexis helped him wash his hands, and then she found some Jamie appropriate jobs for him to do. JD helped Kate and Castle move the food to the table, and their meal followed with the same sort of easy foolishness.

As they were finishing dessert, Alexis asked, are all of you going to spend a lot of time at the beach house this summer?"

"I want Rick and Jamie to spend some time there, but I probably won't be able to go. The job is too new to feel like I can just come and go from it at will," Kate explained. "I'll probably go with them on a weekend here and there and be back here by Monday. What about you?"

"JD is taking the summer off and starting his master's in the fall. I'm taking a couple of summer sessions, so I'll only be going on weekends for most of the summer, too. The last couple of weeks, I'm free to stay for a while. I thought I'd see if it's okay if JD and I go whenever I have time, even if you aren't there."

"You know you can be there any time you want," Castle assured her. "Just let me know and I'll be sure the place is ready for you,"

"And on the weekends when you and I have to get back to the city, we can drive back together." Kate offered, "Maybe Martha, too. I don't know, though. If Grandpa John goes with us, do you think we can trust this rascally crowd of men not to corrupt my baby boy if we leave them all alone?"

"JD and I turned out pretty well. It's probably okay."

"We can hear you," JD sing-songed from the other side of the table.

The two women grinned at the men and Kate kept talking to Alexis. "We should probably be more concerned about leaving all those big, strong, handsome men wandering around by themselves with an adorable little boy. That's a woman magnet if I ever saw one." The men seemed to be appeased, and Kate was still talking to her stepdaughter. "I'm not going to ask anybody to cover for me for the July fourth holiday, but I can probably go at the end of July and maybe once more sometime in August."

"Let me know when in July. We can coordinate our visit, and the guys can enjoy as much time as they want together at the beach," Alexis answered.

With all four adults helping, the kitchen and little boy cleanup was accomplished in very little time, and Jamie had the benefit of a variety of bedtime story voices and lots of goodnight kisses. Before he and Alexis went home, JD and Castle agreed to challenge each other at their new video game one day soon while the women were working.

"That was fun," Castle said wistfully as he locked up for the night. "I miss them."

"Me, too."

"It's hard to remember not having JD around. I hope Jamie grows up like him."

"I hope he grows up like you…but he can skip the playboy part."

"I'm a pretty good example now. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad."

"I think it would be great."

"That means a lot, Kate…for you to want our son to be like me."

"The Castle/Beckett/Farnsworth men are an impressive crowd, but I'm partial to the Castles. I'm so proud of my men."

"Your men think you're pretty impressive, too. Can we pick you up and take you to dinner tomorrow?"

"I'll look forward to that."

xxxxx

Beckett went to HR the next morning to look at Patton's background check and Academy records.

Looking at the file, the HR manager, Susskind, said, "Her father died when she was ten, and her mother disappeared when she was barely sixteen. No record of what happened with her mother. She was there when the girl went to sleep and gone when she woke up the next morning. No other relatives were found, so she was placed with a foster family. She aged out of the system and applied for the academy not long after high school. It looks like she was difficult, but there's no criminal activity or violence…mostly uncooperative or socially unacceptable behavior…fits of temper. Her grades were good, it looks like she's bright and capable. Given her difficult behavior pattern, somebody must have seen a reason to give her a chance."

"You're the second person to tell me how much potential is there, and I'd like to help her build on it if I can."

"Then she's lucky she landed on your doorstep."

"Maybe. Not sure yet. What's her mother's name?"

"Beverly Faye Davis Patton. Her father was John Alton Patton."

"Is there anything else?"

"Nothing I see that could be helpful." Susskind handed the file to Beckett, and she concurred that there wasn't much else that looked useful."

"Thanks for your time, Susskind. I appreciate it."

"No problem." She started to say something but stopped and sighed. "It's just my gut, but something feels wrong about the CPS information."

"I thought so, too. I may call them," Beckett said as she stood. "Thanks again."

Beckett went back to work and accomplished what she needed to for the day before contacting Child Protective Services. She asked to meet with someone who could give her information on a five year old case and was told that one of the supervisors, Byron Salter, could see her at nine-thirty the next morning if she could make it then. She agreed and put together a plan for the next day to work around the meeting. Not long after that, Castle and Jamie were at the precinct, and Jamie was storming her office as soon as Castle put him down.

The entire homicide floor could hear, "Mommy!" as he ran into the office and scrambled to climb into her lap.

McCade walked by as the scene unfolded, smiled and looked amused, and said, "Misses his mom, does he? How you doing, Castle? Cute kid."

"Thanks, McCade. We like him," Castle answered, shaking the detective's hand. "Good to see you."

"He sure puts a different look on the Captain," McCade noted. "She smiles at us, but never quite like that."

"We came to pick her up for a dinner date with her men."

"Well, have fun. I'm going home for a date with whatever my wife cooked for dinner, but don't tell her I said that." With that, McCade entered the elevator, and Castle followed Jamie in to see Beckett, who was in full mommy mode at that point. He had seen her show their son how glad she was to see him before he walked in to hear her telling the two year old that he shouldn't shout as loud as he did when they were where she worked.

"Hey," he said, leaning against the doorframe and watching his family lovingly.

"Hey, Castle." Her whole bearing softened when she looked at him, and he mentally preened at the thought that he had that effect on her. "I'm ready to go." She put Jamie down to stand at her side, gathered her things, and picked her son up again before walking to the edge of the bullpen and calling Chen.

He walked over and asked, "What do you need, Captain?" and smiled at Jamie.

"I just wanted to let you know I'll be in later than usual tomorrow morning. I'll be in a meeting at CPS. I'll let Sergeant Wesley know where to find me, too, but I didn't want to leave him your name for backup without talking to you first."

"No problem."

"Thanks, Lieutenant. I'll let you know when I get back."

As they left the precinct, Kate pointed out a woman crossing the street at the end of the block. "Castle, that's Jamal's mother," she said excitedly. "Take Jamie, and let me catch up with her. Meet me over there?"

"Be right behind you," he agreed, taking Jamie and moving at a more reasonable pace as Kate jogged to the corner to cross the street.

"Mrs. Keaton," she called as the other woman reached the door of the coffee shop.

Mrs. Keaton turned and then smiled as she answered, "Captain Beckett, you remembered." Then she stepped away from the door to talk to her.

"Of course I did. I have a message for Jamal. I was going to figure out how to get in touch with you tomorrow."

"I did some extra work today and got a better than average tip, so I'm treating myself to coffee that costs too much. Want to join me?"

"I can't this time. My husband and son are taking me to dinner, and we were just leaving; but I wanted to see if Jamal is still looking for a job."

"Yes, he is."

"I mentioned that to my husband, and he mentioned it to the owner of an art supply/all kinds of art services store about three blocks past the precinct." Castle caught up then, and Kate said, Mrs. Keaton, this is my husband, Richard Castle, and this is our son, Jamie."

"What a handsome little boy. Hi, Jamie." Jamie gave her a shy little wave, and she smiled at him and waved back. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Castle. I'm your wife's biggest fan."

Castle smiled. "You can't be more than my wife's third biggest fan. I'm first, and Jamie's second," he answered with a smile and reached to shake her hand.

"Oh, this one's a keeper," the other woman answered, looking at Kate.

"Yeah, he is," Kate agreed "But the reason I stopped you… Why don't you tell her, Castle?"

"Tom Walters, the owner of Walters Art Warehouse, was as impressed with Jamal's sketch of Kate as we were. He didn't make any promises, but when I told him the artist was looking for a summer job, he said to tell him to stop in any time for an interview. He's always had a good staff, wants people who can relate to the customers and help them find what they need. No guarantees, but it's an opportunity. He'll have to earn it on his own merits. I thought the job might be a good fit for an artist."

"I know where that place is. I bought some Christmas gifts for Jamal from there last year. He'd love working there. I might skip the coffee and go home and tell him right now. Thank you for thinking about him, Mr. Castle. I might be your number one fan, now."

"Nope, Kate answered with a grin. "I've got first dibs on that one, but his daughter might fight me for it."

Mrs. Keaton laughed and said she was going home. "Thanks again…both of you."

They waved, went back to their car, and drove to the restaurant Castle had decided on.

"So, dinner? Precinct neighborhood, or our neighborhood?" Castle asked when they were in the elevator.

"Somewhere it can be just us without interruptions," she answered.

"Long day?"

"Yeah. I'll tell you about it over dinner. Right now, let me just enjoy my men."

"Sounds like comfort food is in order. Italian?" She nodded and sighed.

When their meals came, Kate was getting around to telling Castle about her excursion into Patton's background. "I probably shouldn't be doing this, but she's going to ruin any possibility of a police career if I can't get through to her…"

"And you recognize a little bit of your life in hers?"

"I knew you'd understand that. That's what made it such a long day. It brought back a lot of feelings of loss and frustration and anger. I have an appointment to talk to somebody at CPS tomorrow morning. Her background check didn't sound like there was any new information about her mother, and I…"

"If there isn't any, you want to give her some kind of closure, don't you?"

"I'm walking a shaky line here, but yes. If it's still a cold case, I want to see if that's possible."

"Well, if they try to throw you out for it, they'll have to at least admit that your heart was in the right place." After a momentary pause for effect, he added with a mischievous smile, "And the sugar daddy offer still stands if you need it."

"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind as I skulk around into her past. I might make things worse. I should probably cancel that appointment tomorrow and drop it, but I just can't. It's too close to home. She was barely sixteen, and…"

"And your heart will accept nothing less than exhausting all the possibilities. I know."

Then they had to turn their attention to Jamie, who had spilled his apple juice and looked like he was about to cry. Once they had him squared away, Castle said, "Let's table this discussion until we get home, and after bedtime," he leaned his head slightly to indicate his son, "we'll see what we can find online."

"And I have her parents' names now. There should be a missing persons report, so I can look for that after I see the man at CPS."

They enjoyed their dinner and their little boy; and before they slept, they spent some time looking for Beverly Faye Davis Patton. They were certain they had identified the right woman. They found birth records for a number of people named Beverly Faye Davis and narrowed them down by age and probability of New York residence. Further efforts uncovered an engagement picture that matched the age of their most likely Beverly Davis, a wedding announcement with a picture of John Alton and Beverly Faye Patton, and finally a birth announcement for a baby girl, Rebecca Faye Patton born to those parents. But nothing was found anywhere about her disappearance.