76. Chapter 76

He's in the middle of downtown New York, peering over Kate's shoulder as she inspects the body of the dead. He keeps having to grab her, keep her from bending over too far. Jeez, Kate, hasn't she seen all those movies where the guy reaches up and crushes your larynx with his ice-cold, formerly-dead-now-undead grip? Honestly.

The medical team is prodding at the putrified flesh; he keeps his coffee under his nose so he doesn't have to smell the fast-acting rot. Kate leans in again, and he snakes his arm around her waist to hold her away.

She turns to glare at him just when sirens go off down the street. ZombieRaid Sirens.

"Let's go, let's go," someone shouts, and then Castle is hustling her down to the fallout shelter, away from street level, making her go ahead of him, trying not to spill his coffee down her back.

The siren is loud; it rings in his ears, wailing and unconsoled. He shoves Kate down the steps because he can hear the shuffling feet, the moans, the chomping and smacking and thick, wet sound of fresh blood. Kate has a hand on his belt, tugging him down into the fallout shelter after her, and he turns for one final look at the zombies-

"Agh!"

He jerks upright, heart pounding, grabbing hold of the thing that grabs hold of him, trying to breath - jeez -

"Castle?"

Her face, the half-laugh coming out of her mouth lets him know that he's looking pretty stupid, silly, and he realizes he's clutching at her arm and has the other hand fisted in her shirt. Sitting up in bed. In the condo.

Not in New York.

Her cup of coffee on the bedside table. He can still smell it.

"What are you doing?" he asks, breathing hard, sweat dripping down his back. She woke him up at. . .six?

Kate eases out of his grip and he sees that she's dressed in workout clothes; her hand comes up to smooth over his hair.

"What are *you* doing, Castle?"

He nods, runs a hand down his face. "Yeah, no. Having a dream about zombies."

Her eyebrows knit. "Oh, sorry. You okay?"

Castle lifts an eyebrow, grins at her. "Uh, yeah. Don't be sorry. It was awesome. I was this close to getting a good look at a real-live, undead zombie when you interrupted." He sighs for effect.

Kate puts a knee on the bed and leans into him, so fast he almost doesn't catch her (still back with the zombies), and then she gives him a smiling kiss, tender in between the jarring moments of her laughter.

"What?" he mutters, letting her go when she pulls back.

"Nothing. Just. A dream about zombies. Makes me happy."

"Yeah me too, until you woke me up," he whines, but it's only to cover the funny flip that his heart does when she says she's happy, the evidence of it in her kiss and her laugh. "It's six. Why'd you wake me up?"

"Two things." Kate gets off the bed and he notices that she's got her Nikes on as well. "I wanna go on a run with you this morning before everyone wakes up."

"So you woke me up to run-?"

"And. More importantly."

He shuts up, waits for it. She puts a hand on her hip, the other held across her torso and tucked up under her chest, that pose he never really, truly paid attention to until Natalie Rhodes started copying it, and now it brings to mind indecision and hesitance. And for what?

She needs a dry erase marker, a whiteboard, and the ensemble would be complete. HesitantKate puzzles out the mystery.

"More importantly?" he prompts.

"I wanted to make sure that Vicki gets to the airport for her flight this morning." She might as well be chewing on her lower lip; she looks so nervous. Aww. Cute Kate.

"Okay."

"I want you to come with me when I go down to their condo."

"Why?" But he's already throwing back the covers, answer enough.

"I think you should be there."

He has no idea what that means. Seriously none. And instead of letting his overactive imagination jump to all kinds of wrong conclusions - like she wants him there for an object lesson - he just asks.

"Why do I need to be there?"

"Just in case." Kate scrapes the hair back from her face and winds a rubber band around it, but she's still got her eyes locked on his. At his silence, she goes on. "In case Austin has a problem with Vicki leaving."

He huffs and stands up. "And I'm there why? To watch you take him down? Hold your gun for you?"

"I didn't bring my gun."

He rolls his eyes and bumps her shoulder with his as he passes. "I know that. Still. What makes you think you can't handle Austin?"

"Not what I'm saying, Castle." She follows him into the bathroom and leans against the door as he goes. "I can take him all right. I just don't want to have to. Not in front of his kids."

"Oh," he says, flushing and then going to wash his hands. He meets her eyes in the mirror. "And how am I supposed to keep it from getting to that point?"

"You're famous."

He laughs, but she's serious. "I'm. . .famous."

"To them you are. I think Austin would be more polite, less likely to embarrass himself, if you're there."

He shakes the water off his hands, dries them on the towel, then turns to her, putting his back against the sink. She looks ready to do battle, with him, with Vickie, with Austin. Anybody in her way. She's gorgeously tenacious. And she loves him. She does battle for him too.

"Come here," he mutters, and throws the hand towel down to grab her wrist, uncross her arms, pull her to his chest.

She stumbles around his wide stance, finds a place for her feet, presses her hips into the cradle of his thighs. "I'm here," she says, drawing on an old inside joke. Never fails to make him smile.

"Yes, you are." He hooks his arms loosely around her waist as she props her elbows on his chest, her fingers rubbing against his tshirt. They stand in silence for awhile, her eyes somewhere over his shoulder, lost in thought, and his own mind going back over things - divorces, exes, relationships that fall apart.

She comes back to them first, lifts off his chest, hooks her fingers in the waistband of his boxers. "You'll come with me?"

"Yeah. Course."

She nods and pops his waistband, gives him a wink. "Must still be too early for you, Castle."

"Why?"

"I set you up, and you didn't even leer at me."

She set. . ? Oh. Come with her.

He sighs dramatically and shakes his head. "Six is an ungodly hour."

"And undead, apparently."

He laughs so hard he has to hold on.

Kate reaches for his hand in the elevator ride down, loose and easy. She waits, but he doesn't comment, doesn't have to anymore. The comment probably doesn't even enter his head after all this time. Hopefully, anyway. She's a long way from six years ago.

As they walk down the breezeway towards the Farrell's condo, she wonders what will happen to them in six more years. Dash will be turning eleven, Ella close to nine - oh my word, her last baby will be nine - and the two of them? Kate and Rick? What happens to them?

He presses the doorbell, leans against the side of the textured, faux-adobe wall. She shakes her arm, makes their hands swing between them. He gives her a lazy half-grin, turns his eyes back over her shoulder to the sky.

In six years, it won't be the same. Just as it's not the same now as it was then. That's good though. She hasn't any anxiety about it, just curiosity. She wants to know that family, wants to see them. She will see them. Soon enough.

She hears a kid-fit on the other side of the door, straightens up just as Vicki opens it. Claire is right behind her, doing the sulking and tantrum thing.

"Oh," Vicki says, looking startled.

Rick is at Kate's side; she can feel him shift on his feet, knows he's offering a smile. A charming one. In front of her, the effect is instantaneous. Even Claire hushes.

Uh-huh, all the girls, Castle.

"Hey there," he says. "We wanted to stop by and make sure you had a ride to the airport."

Vicki blushes and Claire opens her mouth; Kate braces herself for more yelling, but instead Claire is plaintive. "Mom, please let me go with you. I don't want to be stuck with the boys. Please, Mommy."

Pulling out Mommy is a low blow; Kate can see Vicki tense up.

Castle is pushing at Kate's back, hustling them inside even though Vicki really hasn't offered. They all crowd into the foyer, and Kate can see Austin down the hall, hands on his hips in the living room.

"Claire," Vicki warns. "I told you. Now hush."

Claire stomps off to her room, slams the door. Kate glances to Castle, realizes she's looking to him as if asking permission, and instead takes Vicki's arm.

"If you. . .if you want her to go with you-"

Vicki waves her off. "We don't - there's no way the flight is available. I've been looking online all night. There's just nothing-"

"Do you want Claire with you?" Kate hesitates, not sure she should be pushing, not sure this is her place.

Austin disappears from the living room; she sees bedding on the couch. Beside her, Castle has pulled out his phone.

"I'm calling our travel agent, Vicki. We'll get you on the same flight, you and Claire. Okay? No problem."

"Oh, oh, please don't-"

Kate, caught in that rush of pride and possessiveness that always makes her a little speechless, finds her voice again, shoots Castle a grateful look.

"It's fine, Vicki; don't worry. I didn't know if you'd want company, so I just booked the one ticket. But of course Claire shouldn't get stuck with the boys." Kate reaches out and hugs Vicki hard around the shoulders, smooths a hand down her back like she's one of her kids who needs the comfort. She pulls back, squeezes the woman's bicep. "You'll be okay having her with you?"

Vicki puts a hand to her head, gives a tremulous sigh. "It'll be good. Better. I'll have to keep it together if she's with me instead of bawling like an idiot through airport security."

Kate gives a gentle smile back, sees Austin coming into the living room, skulking at the edges of the scene. Graham opens a door and comes out into the hallway; his eyes are carefully neutral. It makes Kate's heart clench.

"Hey, Graham. Thanks for being such a good guy with Dash," she says, offering him a smile. "He's been practicing on the boogey board we bought him."

Graham nods, but won't be drawn in. He eyes his mother, takes a long look down the hall at his father, then back to Vicki again. "Uh. I'll. . .see you at home, I guess?"

"Of course you will," Vicki insists. "Don't let your father kidnap you, all right?"

Graham gives a little huff of laughter at that, morbid though it is, and his blank eyes evolve into something a little more natural. "I'm going back to bed. See ya, Mom." He turns and opens a different door; Kate can see a still-sleeping Tate in the room beyond.

When the door closes, Vicki slumps back against the wall, turns her eyes to Kate. "He laughs, but I'm not exactly kidding. At least if Claire's with me, I've got leverage, right?"

Oh, shit. Oh, wow.

Kate turns her head back to her husband, overcome.

Castle is talking on the phone with the travel agent he uses for book tours; Kate had her do most of the legwork for this trip as well, back when she got swamped with work and didn't have time. Castle is nodding now and lifting an eyebrow at her. She doesn't know why, shrugs at him with a question on her face.

He covers the mouthpiece and says, "Spell her name. For the ticket."

Vicki startles, a little noise of surprise coming from her mouth, but spells her daughter's name. "E on the end."

Castle nods and repeats that into the phone, listens for a moment, then laughs, agreeing with whatever it is. Kate reaches out and takes Vicki's hand, squeezing.

"You'll be fine."

Vicki nods. "Eventually."

Kate nods back. "But you will be."

Castle grins and thumbs off his phone. "Flight 8153 leaves at 9:08. You both are on it."

"You. . ." Vicki turns stunned eyes to Kate, then back to Castle. "But you. . .I - you bought new tickets? I thought. . ."

"Of course. Easier like that." Castle shrugs, glances down the hall; Kate can see the way his eyes harden, almost imperceptibly, the tic that makes the scar over his eyebrow a little deeper.

Austin comes a little ways down the hall, pauses there. "Ah. Thank you. Claire. . .needs this. So thanks."

Vicki's hand squeezes Kate's, hard, tight, a release for anger and grief that Kate can nevertheless see all over the woman's face.

Castle has gone still. Kate shifts; it brings his eyes down to hers; she gives him a long look. No.

She knows exactly what he wants to say, knows he has the words ready, wants to say them. But he shouldn't.

I didn't do it for you.

He doesn't say them, but it hangs in the air anyway.

"We should let you pack," Castle murmurs, and Kate releases Vicki's hand. "We were on our way out for a run."

Vicki nods, looking at him. "Thank you, really. Thank you for this. I'm going to tell Claire."

Castle turns and leads the way back to the front door, pulls it open for Kate to go through. He hugs Vicki as well, asks if Kate has her address, yes, good, and then the door is being closed on their personal pain.

Kate stands there for a moment, her heart thundering, and then Castle takes her hand.

"Let's go, Kate," he says, and it sounds like-

Let it go.

Which is good advice as well. One she always has trouble with.