173. Chapter 173

Chapter 173

AN: Disclaimer. Again I take no credit for the work or words of Marlowe and Miller in the Poe's Pen Award section of this chapter. Direct quotes and phrases that belong to the writers are italicized. I did change the population of Castle's guests, but almost everything between the first two page breaks belongs to the writers.

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In the latter part of May, Castle received his Poe's Pen Career Achievement Award. The adult members of the immediate family, and the group he and Kate referred to as their extended family, Ryan, Esposito, Lanie and their spouses, and Gates and her husband, were invited as his guests. He was introduced by Michael Connelly; and humbly, for Castle, thanked the audience of writers for the honor. After mentioning his reflections on how he got there, he spoke of people's opinion that writing is a solitary profession…blank pages and being lost in your imaginary worlds.

"But we don't do it alone because anything that's good in our writing comes from the truth, and the truth is I'm here because of the people in my life." He singled out his mother and Alexis, calling them his redheaded pillars of unconditional love. And newer members of my family, Jim Beckett and John Farnsworth, who have become fathers to a man who grew up without one. Then he thanked the people at the twelfth for letting him in, especially Javier and Kevin for making him their brother in arms. Captain Gates for finally deciding that he could be useful, and Lanie for putting up with his endless questions over dead bodies. "And Kate… Seven years ago, I thought I'd never write again, and then you walked through the door and my whole world changed." He gave her shared credit for the award. In conclusion, looking at her lovingly, he stated, "This is because of you…because of us. Always."

The group at Castle's table congratulated him on an excellent speech, and they sat at the table enjoying the camaraderie until the room began to empty. Castle proposed a toast, "To us." And the others echoed it, finished their drinks and went home.

xxxxx

When Castle collected his first creative writing assignments from his high school students, he speed read through a couple of pages of each one to get an idea of how they had done, and he had high hopes for some of them when he had time to finish them. When one of the girls handed him her assignment, he couldn't stop reading, or smiling, then he suddenly laughed out loud.

"Lila. Our quiet little Lila," he said. "Your description of Caliban is creatively priceless."

"Nuh-uh," she challenged shyly. "You can't have read that much yet. That's halfway through it."

"Speed reading. It comes in handy when the publishing company asks me to read other writers' books for comments on the book jackets. It helped a lot in college, too." He grinned and shook his head. "This is definitely creative…the last POV I would have imagined for The Tempest. I can hear it as I read, but I want everybody to get the full picture. Can you read it in the voice?" He air quoted the last two words.

"Yeah," she answered hesitantly.

Looking at the class, Castle said, "I saw some other good work as I looked at what we have so far, and I'm impressed. But I want you to actually hear this."

The usually shy Lila stood up with Castle, then he handed her paper back to her and introduced it to the class. "I told you to be creative, and one of my suggestions was using an unusual point of view. This synopsis is given by a valley girl. The floor is yours, Lila."

Lila struck an appropriate stance and twirled a lock of hair around one finger, Then, in a perfect valley girl delivery…complete with the forward placement of the voice, the little rise in pitch at the ends of sentences, the word "like" in a minimum of every other sentence, and abounding with "totally's", "O.M.G.'s", "whatever's", "seriously's", "as if's", and the occasional "gag me with a spoon" or "grody to the max", she told the story and described the characters. By the time she had read the whole thing, the rest of the class was in stitches, and both teachers were as entertained as their students, some of whom were nearly breathless from laughing. She had to stop three times for them to pull themselves back together; and when she finished, the applause and vocal response was deafening. She laughed, turned shy again, and went back to sit down, appearing to try to blend into her desk.

"I'm so sorry my mother missed that," Castle told her, wiping laughter tears from below his eyes. As for the rest of you. I'll have these back to you on Tuesday. Meanwhile, let's talk about your next assignment."

xxxxx

The closeness of family and the natural joy that usually bubbled from their children, combined with the pleasure found in working with students and their creative minds, was slowly pulling Castle back to most of his own natural exuberance. And as Dr. Burke had predicted, seeing that happen was easing Kate's mind. The experience involving Dr. Holtzman would always inhabit that part of their memory that was the residing place for Bracken, Johanna Beckett's death and its accompanying involvement of people they should have been able to trust, Montgomery's death, snipers, bombs, a freezer, Jerry Tyson, Sophia Turner's gun against Castle's head, and a car at the bottom of the Hudson River. And occasionally one of those would escape into a nightmare or a day when it invaded their thoughts uninvited. With all of those things retained in even a small corner of their consciousness, it was a wonder they ever slept without nightmares; but Richard and Kate Castle were resilient enough to continue and to provide each other with the support they needed. They were still a strong team who would never stop being close, but they gradually stopped feeling the need to be as constantly dependent on one another as they were in the months following the Holtzman case.

Adding to the things they were able to enjoy was joining Ryan and Jenny in celebrating the birth of Javi and Maria's daughter near the end of April. The couple congratulated their friends, and Castle talked to Javi about how great it would be to have a little girl.

"Yeah. She's already got to me," Esposito admitted in one of his rare, emotional moments. "I hope I'll be a good enough dad for her."

"You're already a good dad. Ask Gabe," Castle assured him.

"You will," Kate confirmed as she joined them after talking to Maria. "You look good with a baby in your arms, Javi. She's beautiful."

Without looking away from his new daughter, he smiled a proud daddy smile and just said, "Thanks."

"Hey. I did all the hard work. Do I ever get to hold my baby again?" Maria asked.

They all laughed as Esposito hustled back to her hospital bed and reluctantly gave their daughter back to his wife.

"We'll go now and let you enjoy time with just your family. Gabe can come home with us if he wants," Kate offered.

"Thanks anyhow," Gabe answered before his parents could. "I'll stay here and go home with Dad."

"Okay. You can visit another time," Castle answered. Turning to the Espositos, he put his hand on Ryan's shoulder and said, "The four of us are going to The Old Haunt and toasting your baby girl."

xxxxx

On Memorial Day weekend, the whole family gathered at the beach house and enjoyed the weekend together.

The children had both been in the pool a lot during the weekend, and Jo loved the water as much as Jamie. He played in the shallow kiddie pool with her for a while, pushing water toys over to her and watching her bat at them, grab them, and splash them in the water as they both laughed. Castle took her into the large pool and let her get used to getting her face wet and sitting in her floating baby seat with at least half of her dangling in the water; and she laughed and kicked and squealed as her older siblings and her parents took turns pulling her around the pool in the baby seat. Jamie entertained himself by getting out of the pool, jumping back in from the side and paddling around on his own, and watching his family play with both of them and do the same thing with Jo that they were still doing with him the previous fall. Both young children were worn out when they put them to bed, and their parents and older siblings were, too…all of them happy, but exhausted.

After the children were in bed, there were enough adults in the house that Rick and Kate felt comfortable about taking a long walk on the beach alone. They were using that time to celebrate the anniversary of their first weekend there together, the weekend that started their relationship. The night was clear, and their jeans and jackets took care of the chill of the cool breeze from the ocean. The stars were clearly visible, and the moonlight was bright enough to make walking easy. They alternately held hands, wrapped arms around waists, talked, and stopped for kisses before turning around and heading back home, enjoying each other the same way as they returned.

"Well, that's a look of contentment if I ever saw one," Martha teased when they returned.

"It was nice," her son answered, kissing Kate's head. "We like walking on the beach. We'll probably still do that when we're old and gray."

"Well, there's not much to save us all from getting old, but I don't have to settle for gray if I don't want to," Martha answered with some sass. "Not a peep out of your little ones, by the way."

"Thanks, Mother." He walked to the table where she sat with the others, placed his hands on her shoulders, and kissed her head, too. The young children were asleep, the older siblings were playing cards with all their grandparents, and the walk on the beach had somewhat rejuvenated Castle and Kate.

"We're going to get some sleep," Castle told them. "Kate has to leave pretty early tomorrow morning to get to work on time. We'll have her for the whole week in July, though."

Goodnights came from the others, and the Castles went to bed and enjoyed their time together before Kate left the following morning.

xxxxx

During the previous month, the fraud squad at the twelfth had been busy with a case that was driving them crazy. They knew what was going on…a lot of misrepresentations and coercion, particularly of the elderly…but they couldn't find enough irrefutable evidence to prove their suspects' connections. The entire precinct had their eyes and ears open when the group's members crossed paths with undercover surveillance officers or detectives in other situations. One day an officer was lucky enough to catch a scrap of information, and it was like cutting a thread in a loosely knit sweater. It all began to unravel, and after an admirable operation was carried out, a number of arrests were made.

The press caught wind of the arrests, and the universally despised reason for them, and several reporters wanted interviews which no one at the twelfth wanted to do. Beckett called the department's rather self-important PR rep, who immediately arranged a press conference that afternoon. Beckett, despite her aversion to the press, was glad to have it over before normal business started the next day. The press conference was called, and the glory seeking PR rep gave Beckett a longer winded introduction than she was comfortable with. Since the arrests had been amply explained by the PR woman, Beckett simply introduced the detectives who did the work, and told the reporters, "These are the people who successfully worked the case. They have all the answers you need." Then she moved out of the way and let the team leaders answer the questions.

She called a halt to the press conference when the questions became a bit repetitious and one took a personal turn. Rather than have her uncomfortable looking detective answer it, she said, "I believe the important information has been presented, and we have other cases waiting for us."

One reporter quickly asked Beckett how she felt about her detectives bringing an end to such a heartless criminal enterprise, and she answered, "Proud." Turning to her detectives, she said, "Very proud." She then raised a hand in parting as she turned and led her teams away from the gathering of reporters, allowing the PR rep to bask in the glory of her too lengthy closing statement.

"You didn't say much, Captain," Lieutenant Malicot said as they walked away.

"I didn't do much. Your work, your spotlight," she told them. "Excellent job, ladies and gentlemen. I don't think the DA could have been any more pleased with the evidence you provided." Then she went back to finish her end of the month reports, and her detectives went back to work with a morale boost.

xxxxx

"I saw the press conference. You didn't tell me about that." Castle said when she got home that afternoon.

"It happened fast. I didn't expect it until this morning when I heard from several reporters who wanted interviews. I called about it, and PR sent that Kinnably woman to handle it."

"She does love the spotlight, doesn't she?"

"Yeah. I'm glad it's over. Things should settle back to a normal day tomorrow." Kate huffed a little laugh. "I hope whoever decided she should have that job cringes like the rest of us when they see her in action."

"Mommy, you were on TV," Jamie told her enthusiastically as he came to give her a hug. "We saw you."

"The news station was still on when Jamie turned on the TV to watch his favorite cartoon, and there you were. He was flabbergasted."

"Flabbergasted?" Kate asked with a grin. "I haven't heard that in a long time. I think my grandmother used to say that.

Jamie giggled. "That's a funny word."

"It's a perfectly good word. My mother used it when I was a kid. Anyway, you made that Kinnably woman look as narcissistic as she is. You got right to business and got out of the way. I'll bet everybody skipped her closing comments after you guys left."

By then Kate had picked Jamie up and playfully kissed the end of his nose. "Is Jo playing in the crib?" she asked.

Castle nodded and she and Jamie went into the study. She put Jamie down, and when she picked Jo up, he said, "Kiss her on the nose, too." She did, and he laughed as Jo's eyes crossed when Kate's face was so close to hers. She took them back to the living room to sit with her on the sofa and asked Jamie what they did at the beach that day. As he told his story, Castle was taking dinner from the refrigerator. He had brought back all the leftovers from the beach and shared them with his mother so she wouldn't have to cook, either.

xxxxx

The launch party for the new book, Capitol Heat, was scheduled for the first weekend in June. It involved Nikki and Rook working with the FBI on cases that had connections to both DC and New York. Lots of political and criminal intrigue built around two murders, one in each city. Kate had already given the book her Number One Fan stamp of approval and predicted another best seller.

Bentley Keane was coming in from London to be at the party…more to see Gina, they suspected; and both Castle and Kate were looking forward to seeing him. Martha decided to take a rare pass on a party, and she and John were voluntarily babysitting again. He seemed to love the children as much as Martha did, and Martha said her graydar didn't need any more blips anyway. She had finally found the right man.

It was standard to have a fan contest for invitations to the launch party. This year, it was limited to five, each of whom could bring a guest, and the fans were thrilled when Castle and Kate both met them at the door and escorted them to their own VIP table. When all the fan guests were there, he and Kate spent some time sitting at the table reserved for the one man and four women and their spouses or guests. Just as the least inhibited of the group asked the Castles a question that was a step beyond too personal to suit them, Bentley Keane interrupted; and the couple stood to greet him with a hug and a handshake. They introduced him to the fans at the table; and Bentley apologized and promised to send them back in a little while, using as his excuse, "Business to be done." The women in the group found it easy to forgive the tall, handsome, charming man with an accent reminiscent of James Bond.

"Your timing was spectacular," Castle told Bentley. "One of them was asking a question we had no intention of answering."

"You're welcome," Bentley answered with a grin.

They walked over to a group made up of Black Pawn's Publisher, Walter Haskell, Gina, Paula, Brad, and Garrett. Bentley's business excuse was just that. The only business connection to most of their conversation was that those were the people Castle worked with regularly.

"I'll be here for two weeks. I'm taking some vacation time as well as taking care of some Black Pawn business. I'd like to get together while I'm here," Bentley said. "I'd love to see your little Castle clone again, too. He was fun."

"He enjoyed you, too," Kate told him. "I don't know how much he'll remember from the trip, though."

"Well, if he's forgotten me, I'll just have to create a few more memories for him. He's a little older now. Maybe he would remember the new ones." Turning to Castle, he said, "I was impressed with the Girl With Red Hair book, by the way. I understand you'll have another one out in time for the holidays."

"That's the plan. And the next Heat book is down to the last few chapters. That should be out at the same time."

"I think the children's books should be introduced on the same schedule as the Disney movies…about the time school is out for the summer and in time for the December holidays. You have four more, right?"

"Right."

"So that's two more years of releases before you'd need to write anything new."

"I might consider it. Jamie and I are already collaborating on a new one, and that one will include Little Sister. We have a little Beckett clone now, too. She's almost ten months old."

"I'm looking forward to meeting her," Bentley answered, putting his arm around Gina's waist as he spoke. "I'll call when the business end of the trip settles down."

"We'll look forward to it," Kate answered.

"Would you like to dance, Mrs. Castle?" her husband asked. She answered by putting her hand in the one he extended to her, and he led her to the small dance floor near the center of the room.

"Do you think we should offer to dance with them?" Castle asked his wife. "The fans? I don't think I want to dance with Mr. Maxwell, but I'd dance with his wife."

"Okay. I'll dance with Mr. Maxwell and the husbands and boyfriends," Kate agreed. "And then you have to dance with me again…at least once. Show them that you're still all mine."

"I have absolutely no problem with that plan, Sweetheart," he answered, kissing her head as they stayed for another slow dance.

After going back to the fan table and talking for a while again, they asked if anyone would like to dance; and there were smiles and nods all around the table. The two of them danced with each couple and then invited the fan group to continue to help themselves to the food and drinks, do a little schmoozing, dance, and enjoy the party. "And see me before you go. I have something for you before you leave," Castle told them. "I'm gonna go and dance with my wife again."

"He really does his duty with the fans, doesn't he?" Bentley asked Gina. "When you were married to him, would you have danced with all the spouses?"

"Hell, no," she answered. "I guess that's part of why we didn't work out. I wanted him to do what I wanted him to do, but I wasn't willing to…"

"Hey, I wasn't trying to get you to beat up on yourself. I just wondered if you had done that, too."

"Kate considers what's good for him more than I ever did," Gina answered. "I'm trying to learn from my mistakes, Bentley. They're longstanding habits, but I'm trying. I want things to be good between us, and I know I have to let you be yourself or we'll both be miserable…but you're so much like Richard sometimes. I worry that I'll ruin it again."

He squeezed his arm tighter around her waist. "Our personalities are similar, but I'll never ask you to have children or live with them. I have a few nieces and nephews who might want to come and visit, and for whom I might turn into a complete man-child for a few days; but I don't want a houseful of children twenty-four/seven. I love my grownup life too much to want that kind of confinement. I'd like us to be free to travel or accept social invitations without having to see who has a dance recital or a little league game first. Every time we've made the plane trip to see each other, I can see that you're making the effort. And I'm trying to understand what you need as well. I'll keep trying if you will. I think we're good enough together to be worth it."

"I do, too," Gina answered with a smile. "But it kills me that I'm looking to Kate Beckett for relationship hints. I know she isn't particularly fond of me."

"You actually talk to her about…"

"Oh, god no. That would be humiliating. She's a professional in a job still basically ruled by men, but Richard and their family are still the center of her world. I think ambition and I have always been the center of mine, and a lot of people…aren't fond of me."

"She must be ambitious, too, though. She's pretty young to already be a police captain."

"But she handled it differently. I've run things well, but the people I work with do what I ask because they're afraid not to. From what I understand, the people who work for her do what she expects because she's learned how to earn their respect…because she respects them. It's something I need to work on. I resent her, but I also respect her. God, how can you be interested in me? I'm such a disaster."

"And you think Rick doesn't give me some feelings of inadequacy? He's an amazing writer, he's an amazing husband and father, he's earned the respect of law enforcement, in spite of a few minor skirmishes with it in his younger days, he's actually been out with Kate hunting down murderers, he's a good businessman, he's in great shape…he's even a good dancer."

"And I'm not interested in him anymore," Gina assured him.

"I can't say how happy I am to hear that," Bentley answered. "But if this is going to work, we have to figure out how get there our own way…not by comparing ourselves to other people. Will you dance with me? Our own way?"

"You're right, and I'd love to."

Castle had signed his new book for each of the five fans, and before presenting them to the group, he added for the female fans, "Thanks for the dance." In the case of Mr. Maxwell, he added, "Thanks for loaning me your wife for a dance." Kate had also signed the books, and added similar comments as well, and the fans seemed to go home happy.

Obligations being handled, the Castles said their goodnights and went home.

xxxxx

As a gift to his students and a souvenir of the class, Castle compiled copies of all his students' writing projects. True to his mischievous nature, they were complete with corrections and his comments (some of which, also due to his mischievous nature, were rather entertaining), and he had each one bound into a book with the student's name printed on the spine. The college students had received theirs on their last day of class near the end of May.

In mid-June, on his last day at the high school, Kate took the day off and went with him to meet the class and help hand out the books he'd had bound for them. When she met Lila, Kate complimented her work and mentioned nearly falling off the sofa as she laughed at the valley girl's take on The Tempest. Mace had told Castle not to bother with plans for a class that day…to just come in and say goodbye. He said he needed to use the rest of the class time to review for exams anyway. Kate and the students mutually enjoyed one another. "I've read your work, and I'm impressed. He's been coming home with stories about things you did in class, how proud he is of your accomplishments, and how much he's learned from working with you and Mr. Brigham. Thank you for giving us that. I've enjoyed hearing about it. Martha Rodgers enjoyed you just as much, and now I can see why," she told them.

Mace and his students presented Castle with an Awesome Teacher certificate, a school T-shirt, and a large thank you card with notes and signatures from all the students. He made sure Mace still had his phone number and told him to call if he was going to be in town…or ever decided he wanted to publish a book.

The library requested Castle for the two weeks of his community service after school was out. They asked him to do a couple of children's story readings and lead a couple of book discussion workshops. While he was there, he volunteered to help with the mundane activities, too, like shelving books, moving boxes, or organizing materials for children's summer programs. His story reading sessions were attended by almost as many parents as children. He left the county's librarian with a complete set of his books, appropriately signed to use as the board saw fit for their next fund raiser. The literary part of the community hated to see him go, and he admitted to Kate that he would miss working with them.

xxxxx

Kate fulfilled her backup duties for Captain Dohrman for his chosen two weeks in June and July; and he provided the same for Memorial Day weekend and the week of July fourth, which allowed her to spend the entire week in the Hamptons relaxing and enjoying her family. The entire extended family was there, for the long weekend, including the Ryans, the Espositos, Lanie and Frank Stokes, and Victoria and Ray Gates. The extended family spent the long weekend and stayed until after the fireworks on the holiday before going back to the city.

During the rest of the week, the immediate family enjoyed varied activities in varying small or large groups, parents of all ages enjoying their children. Sometimes others watched the youngest children to allow Rick and Kate a couple of their beloved long walks on the beach and an afternoon or evening out, sans lovable but distracting munchkins. And all of them returned to everyday life relaxed and in a good mood.