204. Chapter 204

AN: I've been long-winded again. One more chapter and an epilogue.

Also, there's a small section that includes domestic abuse between the page breaks that look like this

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If you'd rather not read that, skip to the second of those page breaks before you start reading again.

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Chapter 204

The next day Beckett showed up early for roll call in her old dress blues, strapping on a duty belt, hair in a bun at the back of her neck.

"Captain?" the sergeant asked. "Is there something I need to know?"

"I got rid of my old uniforms, but I still had a set of dress blues. The general public won't notice that much difference. Cotter wanted me to see what he has to put up with every day, so you need to reassign his partner for today…security or something. Sorry about the short notice. Reassign him after you've finished everything else. I'll just sit down in the back for now. I'll be a little surprise for Cotter. I'm not afraid to be on the street again."

The sergeant shook his head and chuckled. "He's gonna be surprised alright." When Sergeant Kolwacki had finished and was ready to send them out, he said, "Fullerton, you're working in homicide today. Beckett is riding with Cotter."

"Who the hell is Beckett?" Cotter asked.

"That would be me," she said standing up in the back of the room. "You wanted me to see what you put up with every day. I'm ready." Turning to the rest of the officers, she smiled and pointed a finger at them as she walked toward the door and said, "Be careful what you wish for."

Sounds of teasing filled the air, and somebody called out, "Good luck, Cotter," as everybody was leaving.

The sergeant called after them, "Be safe out there, Captain."

xxxxx

The first part of the morning was just driving around patrolling. Then they got a call from dispatch… a thirteen year old girl was reporting domestic abuse. "Her dad is drunk and hitting her mother, it's worse than usual, and she's really scared for her mom. She said her mother told her to hide in the closet and get out when it felt safe, so she's in the closet next to the front door. Her parents are in their bedroom. Second door on the left when you get in. Her name is Tisha Grant."

"Is she still on the phone?" Beckett asked. "If she is, ask her if she's safe enough to unlock the front door."

"I asked, and she said she just did."

"Good. Tell her to stay hidden until we get there and then get out of the apartment as soon as we're in." Beckett was out of the car as soon as it rolled to a stop. "Apartment 307?" she asked someone leaving the building.

"He's beating her again, ain't he?" the old woman asked. "Go left when you get off the stairs. Elevator's broke again. Stairs is all the way in the back." She pointed out the direction.

Beckett radioed for backup. The first thing she did when they reached the apartment was to open the closet door, put a finger at her lips for silence, and motion Tisha out of the apartment. "Does he have weapons?" she asked.

"Just whatever he can find to pick up," she answered as they stood in the hallway."

"We'll meet you at the front door."

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They could hear the sounds of fisted hands and slaps hitting a human body and the cries and whimpers of pain from the woman inside. Beckett took charge, signaling for Cotter to stay out of sight next to the door, and she eased toward the open bedroom door to get a better look at what was happening. When she reached the doorway, she saw another blow to the woman's head and then Mrs. Grant was on the floor, and the sounds of pain had stopped, but the beating hadn't. The man was kicking her unresponsive body as if she were a rag doll, then he kicked her once to the head. He was grabbing a large, heavy ceramic lamp that he lifted over his head, obviously intending to throw it at the woman on the floor, when he seemed to register that Beckett had shouted sharply, "NYPD. On your knees! Hands on your head!"

Instead of throwing the lamp at the woman's head, he threw it at Beckett, and she moved away from the open doorway just as the lamp flew by and destroyed a mirror across the room. Then she was back at the doorway again. He came at her before Cotter could get to him, and she managed to plant an effective, hard kick, knocking him off balance long enough for Beckett and Cotter to take advantage and move in to restrain him. He was a large man and wasn't making it easy. Backup was welcomed and Beckett told them to call EMS, get him into their squad car, and take him back to the precinct.

"Cotter, check on her," she ordered before giving the other two officers a few brief additional details and instructions and returning to the bedroom.

"She's alive…but she's in bad shape. I hope that bus isn't far away," Cotter said when Beckett came back into the room.

"Me, too. Even if she won't press charges, we can make a case for resisting arrest and attempted assault of a police officer. There's body cam footage of everything from the time I reached the door. He was drunk, in a rage, and that lamp could have been lethal to any of us. That buys us some time to hold him while we try to talk her into taking her daughter and going elsewhere…or testifying against him…or both."

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Once EMS arrived, Beckett and Cotter went to talk to Tisha, who was sobbing as she waited nervously in front of the building, wrapped in the arms of the old woman who met them as they came in. She had stayed with the teenager until she knew someone would be there to see that she was safe.

"Her grandmama on her mama's side lives on the next block. Roberta'll take good care of her. I just called her."

"How bad is it? Is Mama gonna be okay?" Tisha asked.

"I'll be straight with you, Tisha," Beckett told her. "She was unconscious a couple of minutes after you left, and she has a lot of injuries. It's good you called when you did. You were brave enough to get her help and calm enough to make it easy for dispatch to get us here quickly. Your mom will be proud of you. I'd like to talk to your grandmother when she gets here. We'll get you the information on which hospital your mother will be in and see that you have a ride there if you need one."

The old woman with Tisha looked at Beckett's nametag and said, "My name's Mavis Johnson, Officer Beckett. Most cops around here don't give us the respect you just did…and you told our girl things she needed to hear. I appreciate that."

"Just doing my job." Turning to the teenager, she said. "We'll arrange for you to get some clothes to take to your grandmother's house later this afternoon, Tisha."

About the time the medics left the building with Tisha's mom on a gurney, her grandmother, Roberta Gerard, hurried toward them just in time to watch in horror as her daughter was put in the ambulance by EMS personnel with serious expressions on their faces.

"One of these days, he's gonna kill her," Roberta said quietly to Beckett, tears falling as she spoke. Then she went and took her granddaughter in her arms.

Beckett exchanged a few words with the EMS crew before returning to the victim's family and offering them a ride to the hospital. When they arrived, she got out of the car, opened the door for the two women, put her hand in one of her pockets, and turned to the grandmother.

"Mrs. Gerard, I know you left your house in a hurry when Ms. Johnson called you. Do you have a card or enough cash with you to take a taxi home after you know what you need to about your daughter's condition?"

"I hadn't thought about that yet. Maybe enough for the bus."

"Then take this. It should cover a taxi. A bus would take forever, and you probably have a long wait ahead of you here."

"I can't take money from you."

"If you want to pay it back later, you can leave it with the desk sergeant at the precinct and tell him it's for Beckett. By the time you need it you're going to be exhausted." She took Tisha's hand and put the money in it, closing her hand around it."

Tisha impulsively hugged her and said, "Thank you for everything, Officer Beckett."

"Go check on your mom. A doctor is probably with her by now. I won't keep you." She turned and walked back to the car.

"Did you just give her money?" Cotter asked incredulously.

"I wanted to be sure they could get home."

"How much did she hit you up for?"

"Nothing. She had left home in a hurry. I offered and she refused it. Then I gave it to the girl and told the grandmother she could leave it at the precinct for me if she felt like she needed to pay it back."

"You'll never see it again."

"It wasn't that much. Even if she doesn't, they're in a bad place right now. I feel better knowing that after the day they've had, they don't have to worry about how to get home. I could use some coffee. How about you?"

"It's about time for lunch, too."

"I could eat. Just take me where there's good coffee."

Cotter parked the car on a block not far from the precinct where there were three restaurants and a barbershop among the other stores. When Beckett got out of the car, she said, "Oh, let's go there. He has great coffee and some of the best turkey sandwiches I've ever tasted."

Cotter followed but didn't look happy.

"Mr. T," Beckett said as she walked up to the order counter with a smile. "I need a big coffee and one of your turkey sandwiches."

"Captain Beckett?" He looked confused. "Is that you?" Did you get in trouble and get demoted or something?"

"Just for today," she answered. "Cotter wanted me to be reminded of what the officers go through every day, so I'm accommodating him."

"I got no use for him. He stopped my boy 'cause he thought he was selling drugs…no questions or nothing. He and his partner threw him on the ground hard enough to give him a concussion and searched him. Didn't find squat. My boy's never been in trouble. I don't like it, but I'll fix that man's lunch since he's with you."

"We'll both appreciate that."

"How do you know him?" Cotter asked as they found an empty table.

"I get out and have lunch in different places…talk to people along the way sometimes. Schroder and Tate are on good terms with him, too. If you talk to people, sometimes it can help down the road. Besides, it's more pleasant than growling at them all the time." As they walked back to the car later, she waved at the man standing outside the barbershop. "Hey, Mr. Ballard."

"Captain Beckett?" he asked, doing a double take. He chuckled and said "You're dressed funny today."

"Just for today," she answered with a smile.

"And how do you know the barber?"

"He was eating at Mr. T's last time I was there, and he was at the table beside mine. He reads a lot and we talked books. He seems like a good guy. You've really been at this precinct as long as you have and don't know people or stop to speak to them?"

"So you just go out and have random conversations with whoever's there?"

"Yep. You should try it. It might not be so hard to get a really good turkey sandwich if you'd talk to the people in the neighborhood. At least enough to figure out which ones are and aren't likely to be doing something illegal."

"What would I say?"

"Good morning. How ya doin'? How's the food at that place? Nice shirt. Whatever you might say to one of your neighbors. Something small to start making yourself an opening. The only thug I've seen this morning is the guy who was beating his wife."

"Yeah, well the day is young."

"I need to go back to the precinct about an hour or so before shift ends…things to do that I can't avoid. When I do, I want you to go with Tate and canvass the neighbors to see how often Grant abuses his wife. Those apartment walls are pretty thin. People around them will know. Tate and Schroder will take over the case, and we're going to try to get hospital records to see if we can establish a pattern of injuries that look like abuse."

As they drove around patrolling the area, Cotter pulled over where there was a group of teenagers hanging out at a playground near a basketball hoop. Two of them were playing. To Beckett's eye, that's all that was going on; but Cotter pulled over and got out of the car, stalking in their direction. Beckett quickly followed him.

One of the boys in the group groaned and said, "Here we go again. We weren't doing nothing wrong any other time you been here. What makes you think we're doing something now?"

"Nobody said you were," Beckett interceded quickly, to Cotter's chagrin. "Who's winning?" she asked, nodding toward the game.

All of them looked at her like she had three heads. After a while, one of the girls said, "Lamar…the tall guy in the dark blue hoodie."

"You any good at basketball, Cotter?"

"High school team. It's been a while."

"I was never on a team, but I held my own with some of the neighbors who were."

"What do you think?" she asked the group. "You think they can take us?"

"Yeah. They're good," one of the boys answered.

"Come on, Cotter. Let's see what you can do. It's more fun than chasing people." She walked over toward the two boys playing and caught the first ball that somebody needed to chase down. "Most points in the next ten minutes?" she asked.

The two looked at her the same way the others had, then one of them said, "I guess. You any good?"

If we're not, it's gonna be a long ten minutes. Somebody over there time us," she called out. About seven minutes in, they were obviously losing anyway when they heard a call coming in."

"Gotta get back to work. He'll be back with his regular partner for a rematch next time we have another nice February day."

"Won't make his game any better," Lamar said, and gave them a challenging grin.

Back in the car, they reported in to take the call from dispatch. There was a suspected drug deal in a little park across the street from the store owner who called it in.

Two teenage boys were leaning against a fence passing something back and forth. When they saw uniforms, they sprinted across the park and Beckett and Cotter took off behind them. When they caught the two, Beckett glared Cotter back when he showed signs of undue aggression. Both teenage boys looked defeated rather than aggressive. Beckett explained why they were being stopped, and Cotter patted them down. They had been trading old video games to use with workable equipment they had found left from their father's childhoods.

"Why did you run?" she asked.

"'Cause around here, the police rough you up first and ask questions later," one boy told her. Leaning his head in Cotter's direction, he added, "That one hurt a friend of mine once. Same stuff as today. He didn't have drugs, either.

What are your names?" Beckett asked.

"Why? You didn't find drugs," the other one asked.

"Because I like knowing who I'm apologizing to."

The boy rubbed at the back of his neck and hesitated before saying, "I'm Winton and that's Carlton."

She shook both their hands, apologized to them by name, both boys nodded as if they didn't know what else to do, and they all left.

"Would it have done any good to use your usual methods?" Beckett asked as they drove away.

"No…Ma'am," Cotter answered grudgingly.

"Which one is best for the precinct and the department?" There was no answer. "Either one gets the job done, but this way we left both of them feeling like they got a little respect. And you heard why they ran. You will stop handling everything that way or you'll push me into taking disciplinary action beyond the precinct. I'm serious as a heart attack about that, but I don't want to do it unless I have to…and I'll expect you to rein Fullerton in, too. From what I heard this morning and from the community action people, the two of you have a less than professional reputation. So today you can start your list of teenagers you don't need to immediately assume are up to no good. I gave you your first opening with the basketball game. Take Fullerton and show up there again soon without an agenda…and lose gracefully if you have to. Start looking at faces and behavior and reserve the aggression for where it's needed. Did you see me hold back on Grant this morning?"

"No," he admitted, again grudgingly. "Those were some good moves. I thought he had you with that lamp."

"I was a little concerned for a few seconds there myself. You were good support."

You're big on respect aren't you?"

As they pulled up in front of the precinct, she answered. "Yep. It doesn't make you a wuss. It builds respect for you and makes it easier to get things done. I need to get back in. I'll send Tate down to meet you at the car."

xxxxx

When Kate got home after work that day, she was greeting by four children looking for hugs instead of two.

"Sarah Grace and Nick. What a nice surprise!" She hugged the older three and then scooped Nick up and kissed all over his head while he giggled. "I haven't seen you much lately."

"We're having them stay for dinner and to play for a while," Castle told her. Ryan called with a question this afternoon, and we talked for a few minutes. Jenny isn't feeling well, and I told him to bring them over here after the kids were out of school. He's picking them up at eight. I invited Alexis and JD, too."

"Well, lucky us," she said with a grin, kissing Nick's head again. He wrapped his arms around her neck, squeezed her tight, and then wiggled to get down with the other children again. "What have you guys been up to?" she asked.

Jamie answered, "Jo and Nick were playing cards and Sarah Grace and I were coloring. Dad said dinner is almost ready and we should do something kind of quiet before we eat.

"Then I'll let you get back to it, and I'll help Daddy finish in the kitchen."

Alexis and JD got there as the two adults were deciding whether to start putting everything on the table or wait until they arrived, and they all joked around with the children during their meal. As they talked, Sarah Grace asked why both Castle children's names started with J. and Castle told her they were named for Kate's parents…both J names.

There was ice cream for dessert, and whipped cream. Castle held the can above his mouth and pressed on the nozzle, helping himself to the sweet concoction. "Do you want whipped cream, Baby Bird?" Castle asked Alexis. She grinned then leaned her head back and opened her mouth and Castle pressed the nozzle and filled her mouth with the whipped cream.

"Why do you call Alexis Baby Bird?" Jamie asked. "She isn't a baby. And can we have whipped cream, too?"

"I used to do that when she was little, and I called her that because it was like a baby bird holding its mouth open to be fed. I'd call you that, too; but you guys don't want to be called anything with the word baby in it. Hey, You're both J's. You and JD can be our J Birds."

"I want to be a bird, too," Nick said.

"Okay," Castle answered. "You and Sarah Grace have blond hair like your mom. You and Sarah Grace can be our Yellow Birds."

"Do Yellow Birds get whipped cream, too?" Sarah Grace asked with an impish grin.

"You guys have one track minds," Castle grumbled playfully. "Kate, we may need the extra can, 'cause I'm still planning to have some of this on my ice cream. Line up and open wide little birds. Starting with a chuckling JD, who was never to be left out of the fun if he could help it, he went from one open mouth to the next leaving bursts of whipped cream and sounds that translated "Yum!" behind him.

"What about Mommy? Jo asked.

Kate had just put the last bowl of ice cream on the table, and she stopped, smirked, and opened her mouth, too. Castle turned his back to the children to kiss her and lick the excess whipped cream from her lips where they couldn't see.

"What kind of bird is Aunt Kate?" Nick asked.

"She's my Lovebird," Castle answered and gave her another quick kiss after she had time to swallow.

"Daaaaaaad," Jamie moaned, looking embarrassed again.

"Anybody who's ready for ice cream should get back to the table." There was an immediate scuffle of little feet getting back to the table where the bowls and spoons were lined up with ice cream and another dollop of whipped cream.

When Ryan came to pick up his children, they excitedly told him about Alexis being Castle's Baby bird and why. Sarah Grace said, "And Jamie and Jo and JD have J names so they're Uncle Rick and Aunt Kate's J Birds, and Nick and I are blond, so he said we could be their yellow birds."

"And all their birds get whipped cream in their mouths…right from the can…even Aunt Kate. She's Uncle Rick's Lovebird," Nick said and giggled.

Ryan looked at the other two adults with an evil grin and then told his son and daughter, "It sounds like you had a lot of fun."

Both children were nodding as they pulled their jackets closed and walked out the door. "Thanks for keeping them tonight. I got Jenny to go to bed early, and I think she was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. I'm gonna see how quietly I can get these two to bed."

"We enjoyed having them," Castle answered, Kate nodding beside him.

The children were already in the hall, and Ryan was at the door. "'Night Castle. 'Night, Captain Lovebird," he said, grinning with mischief as he walked out the door.

Just before the door closed, Beckett called out good naturedly, "Shut up, Ryan." And they heard a deep chuckle as he closed the door.

xxxxx

The next morning, Beckett went in a little late after stopping at the hospital to check on Mrs. Grant, who was in a medically induced coma. Once they had talked and she realized that Mrs. Gerard had medical power of attorney for her daughter and access to all her medical records, she arranged for Beckett to take copies of all of the victim's medical records from that hospital back to the precinct with her.

"If she doesn't press charges this time, I'm gonna sue for custody of Tisha," Mrs. Gerard stated firmly. "That child ought to live better than having to call the police on her own father for what he does to her mother. Anything I can do to keep that man locked up, you just tell me." Looking at the well dressed woman she had first met in uniform, she asked, "You're really the new captain there?"

"I am."

"Well, there may be hope for that place yet."

"I hope your daughter recovers completely. Give Tisha my best, please."

Mrs. Gerard took Beckett's hand, then gave in and hugged her before she left.

When Beckett was back in her office, Tate reported in on their canvass. Mavis Johnson wasn't one of the community action organizers, but apparently she held a lot of sway in her neighborhood. Tate and Cotter started with her statement, and she took it upon herself to go with them. Tate told her Mavis knocked on every apartment door within hearing range of the Grants' apartment, introduced Tate, and told the occupant at the door, "That woman officer I told you about yesterday? She's actually the new captain at the police station. I trust her, and she sent this young woman here, Lieutenant Tate, to do something about that wife beater. You need to tell her what you know, 'cause if that man does this to her again, he's probably gonna kill her. And you know that sweet woman ain't done a thing to deserve to be treated like that."

"And they all talked to us," Tate added. "Some were reluctant, but they all talked to me. There's a solid pattern of abuse over several years. Apparently it started small and escalated over the years to pretty vicious."

"Her mother has medical power of attorney, and I have copies of all Mrs. Grant's records from that hospital for the last six years. I haven't had time to look at them yet." Beckett pointed out the pile of paperwork on the corner of her desk and said, "You and Schroder get started on that and let me know what you find."

"We're on it." Tate answered.

Beckett walked down to observe the patrol officers the next morning, singling out Cotter just before they all went out on patrol and waving a small sheaf of bills at him. "You know what this is?" she asked.

"Money?" he deadpanned.

"Taxi money from Mrs. Grant's mother to be exact."

"She paid you back?" he said, looking shocked.

Beckett waved it in the air and sang just the title line of Aretha Franklin's song…R-E-S-P-E-C-T and walked away playfully with just the bare hint of a dance move. Cotter actually chuckled and some of the others asked what that was all about. He left explaining to several other officers.

Over the next couple of weeks, Beckett, Tate, and Schroder each went on patrol with the problem officers. Neither she nor the interns wore a uniform. Beckett had made her point and didn't need to do it again. In each precinct, there seemed to be a breakthrough moment just before cooperation and progress began; and that day, Mrs. Grant's case, and Cotter's admission that the captain still had what it takes to be on patrol, seemed to be the catalysts she needed. She included her interns in every facet of her work, and Schroder seemed to be an entirely different person from the son of an arrogant captain he had been the year before.

When Mrs. Grant was awake and realized how long it was going to take to recover this time and how fortunate she was not to have permanent damage…including brain damage, she cooperated with the police investigation. Her mother's serious threat to take full legal custody of Tisha probably didn't hurt the cause, either. Tate and Schroder did a fine job of putting together a case file that made the DA's office happy, and before he had finished his time in jail for the original charges, he was arraigned for multiple counts of assault on his wife, and with the video from the body cam, they were going for a charge of attempted murder for the assault Beckett and Cotter had interrupted.

As usual, Beckett subtly trained her detectives to look for more than they had been finding and to stay with the evidence before a case was closed. She didn't gush compliments, but she made sure to let them know she saw improvements. Her interns were picking up on her methods; and between the two of them, they were doing some training of their own. She explained that they should have been doing some of that when they were lieutenants in their former precincts and had them working with their present lieutenants to help her leave NYPD a precinct that could run itself well under the next captain.

During the time she was there, another case came up that crossed cases in two different units. When they saw a new case in the Fraud division, all three of them simultaneously made remarks about one of the men in a picture looking familiar.

"Homicide?" Beckett asked the other two. "I think I remember him from an autopsy photo."

"Is this Loudon's homicide victim?" Schroder asked.

Tate was on her phone calling Loudon right away. "Can you meet us in Fraud and bring your latest case file and a picture of the murder board?" There was a pause. "Yeah. Right now."

Two weeks later, the two detective teams had pooled their information and broken up a fraud ring that preyed specifically on the elderly and the barely pre-retirement population. Homicide had found connections showing that there were several cold cases that led back to the same financial group...the deaths being clients who realized what the group was doing and let them know they were going to the police. Beckett sent the reports back to the teams a couple of times before the case reports were up to her standards and then went into the two bull pens to thank them publicly for the excellent reports, saying the ADA would be happy to have such thorough work.

By the end of her six months at the precinct, Beckett could manage time to spend a couple of weekends out of town with her family and take a day off now and then. When she was gone, she left the phone numbers of her group of captains who covered for one another and left, trusting the precinct to Tate or Schroder.

There was a change of command on the morning of July first where Beckett turned the precinct command over to Lori Wright, her intern from the year before. Castle and the two children again met her at the precinct with all their bags packed for two weeks at the beach. That was followed by a few days back at the loft and another book tour, this time through most of Western Europe, with a little jaunt into Moscow. The family would join them for a week again, starting in Prague and working their way east through some cities the tour missed the year before. The following year there would be several shorter tours within the United States and more time at the beach…or travelling just for fun.

That fall, the Ryans joined the Castles for an impromptu visit to the beach on a warm, sunny October weekend. As Castle and Ryan kept an eye on the children playing in the sand, Ryan mentioned that Sarah Grace was in first grade and already losing interest in school.

"She's been reading well for a while, and none of the reading groups in her class are as advanced as she is. I'm not even trying to brag about it. I just worry that she'll lose that spark that makes her want to learn. Nick wasn't interested in learning letters and numbers as early as she was, so he's at the same level as his classmates, and he likes school. Jenny mentioned parochial school. We could afford that but I really don't want to deal with the nuns it was okay, but I have a few bad memories."

"Yeah. I remember you when we had that case with the nun. I'm not Catholic, and I was a little intimidated." For the moment, he just commiserated, but when he walked the children to school Monday morning, he went to the director to ask about scholarships.

He called Ryan that night, told him what he found out, and gave him contact information to call to arrange a meeting with the director. Within the week, Ryan and Jenny had spoken to the director, Sarah Grace had easily whizzed through a screening interview and test, and was accepted. There would be a scholarship available after Christmas when one of their scholarship students was moving out of state, and the director offered to distribute the monthly tuition for the couple of months that wouldn't be covered by scholarship to spread the payments over the rest of the year. The school was not cheap.

Ryan called Castle to tell him Sarah Grace would start School at Westerly Academy on November first. "Now our only problem is to figure out how to get everybody to where they need to be on time in the mornings.

"Well, that isn't a problem. You pass my place on your way to the precinct. Drop Sara Grace off here on your way, and she can walk to school with us."

"You'd really be willing to add that much more crazy to your mornings?"

"I'm assuming you'll bring her dressed for school and with everything she needs in her backpack. That takes care of most of the crazy right there. My kids will be thrilled."

Sarah Grace loved the school and excelled, her enthusiasm for school fully returning. She and Jamie and Jo were all conscientious about their school work and usually had homework done and some play time to enjoy before Ryan came to pick her up on his way home.

Castle and Kate walked the three children to school in the mornings and took full advantage of their own time together while the children were in school. Sometimes that meant taking care of necessities like grocery shopping, sometimes visiting a place they wanted to see, sometimes going home and spending the morning in bed and being lazy, sometimes taking a class or going to a workshop on something that interested them or collaborating on the next Nikki Heat books. They fully enjoyed Kate's six months off. As they had promised each other early in their marriage, they still found ways to hold on to the romance and not be boring…and they were still deeply in love.