203. Chapter 203

Chapter 203

Chapter 203

Before heading for the beach for what was left of the summer, the Castles took their children shopping for school supplies. They planned to stay at the beach as long as they could and be back the day before school started, so the plan was to have new uniforms that fit after the summer's growth spurts and the school supplies the school listed for their grade levels in place before they left the city.

As they shopped, Jamie asked, "Can we take Sarah Grace to the beach with us?"

"Yeah. Can we?" Jo asked, making two sets of hopeful eyes looking up at them."

Castle looked at Kate and they both shrugged. "We can call Aunt Jenny and Uncle Kevin and see if she can come with us. It's kind of short notice, though. They may still have to do their school shopping, too," he answered.

"Call them now? We're leaving tomorrow," Jamie reminded him.

Let's finish up here and we'll have uniforms and shoes for both of you, then we'll call when we stop for lunch. Burgers today?"

Both children nodded and got back to business.

It was decided that the Ryans would get Sarah Grace ready for school, spend the following weekend at the beach with the Castles, and leave Sarah Grace with them for a couple of weeks. The two families enjoyed the weekend, the older children playing with Nick often. Since Nick wasn't as much of a swimmer as the Castles' children had been, he found some of the pool toys they used when their children were much younger to keep him afloat. Sarah Grace and the Castle children had all taken to the water like fish.

After the Ryans went home, the children were practically living in their swimsuits, so on one of their trips into town, they bought each of them a couple of extra ones. Otherwise they would all be practically standing at the washing machine waiting for them so they could put them on right then…their argument being that they didn't need to dry first. They'd get wet in the pool or on the beach anyway. When they bought suits for their own children, they bought two more for Sarah Grace, too, and all of them were well used. They played on the beach, took walks with the adults, found sea shells, built sand castles, and played in the pool.

Sarah Grace was two years younger than Jamie but a year and a half year older than Jo, and they all played together well. There wasn't much squabbling among them, but there were a few times when Jo came to a parent looking sad that she was feeling left out. Kate explained to her that Jamie and Sarah Grace had been good friends since before Sarah Grace could even talk, and before Jo was born and that they got into something they enjoy and didn't mean to hurt her feelings. Whichever parent she went to would usually take time to play some games with her or read some books while the other supervised beach or pool activity.

"Give them a little time to play on their own; and before too long, they'll be looking for you to come and play with them again," Kate told her when she was out of the loop again that morning. "Meanwhile, we'll play for a while without them." Kate snuggled Jo close before sending her in to choose some games. "Go inside and find a few and we'll spread out the blanket and play them. It's breezy, though. Don't choose something that might blow away." She and Jo chose one of them and then Jo relaxed into enjoying it; and sure enough, after about an hour, the other two children came over to see if Jo wanted to build a sand castle.

Kate caught herself using some of her mother's favorite words. "I told you so," she whispered in Jo's ear, and Jo gave her a big hug before deserting her in the middle of their last game. Kate chuckled and picked up the book she had been reading as she was overseeing beach action.

The next morning they went to Bernie's for breakfast, and Bernie and Inez greeted them as warmly as always.

"Did you have another one and didn't tell us? Inez asked when they came in with three children.

"Do you remember the Ryans?" Castle asked. "They've been here with us before. This is Sarah Grace Ryan. When her parents went home last weekend, we kept her."

"And I get to stay another week, Sarah Grace told them."

"Well, we're glad to have you, too." Bernie assured her, and Sarah Grace gave them a big smile.

"And how is our favorite redhead?" Inez asked. "And her handsome husband. We haven't seen them yet this summer."

"We haven't seen much of them this summer, either. Alexis finished medical school a couple of years ago and is starting her residency. She's working with a trauma team."

"Doesn't that expose her to some grisly injuries sometimes?" Bernie asked softly as the children chose their breakfasts.

"No more than when she interned with a medical examiner when she was eighteen. I think the worst of it for her was realizing those awful injuries belong to a living, breathing person who's going to have to endure recovering from them. From what we hear, she's doing well. She's planning to be a surgeon. JD has his doctorate, too…in finance with a good background in business and economics. He's working for a financial firm and also doing well. I'm not sure he's all that happy with the ethics of some of the people he's working with, but he's doing well. We're proud of both of them."

"I guess so. You should be."

"Your daughter is already a doctor, isn't she?" Kate asked.

"She's a family practice doctor and loves working with the families," Inez answered. And our son owns a small fleet of charter fishing boats now. He has a good business going."

Then Bernie put a hand on Kate and Rick's shoulders and said, "Sit down. What can we get you? I think I see the brunch rush starting, and I don't want you to have to wait."

They ordered and then talked to the three children about what they'd like to do while they were out. They decided to start at the lighthouse and then swing by the farmers' market on the way home.

The time at the beach ended in what seemed like half the time they had looked forward to, and it was time for the children to be back in school.

xxxxx

Jo was starting first grade, and Jamie was in fourth, and both were excited to see their friends and meet their new teachers. Rick and Kate walked them in, said hello to a few of their friends, and met their teachers. Then they left, stopping at their favorite coffee shop near the school to regroup.

"What do we do now that we're kidless again almost every weekday until January?" Kate asked. Castle smirked and wiggled his brows and Kate laughed. "We can't do that all the time."

"But we can whenever the spirit moves us."

"That's gonna be nice," she agreed. "We should just unwind today. The beach was nice…relaxing, but we were keeping an eye on three children, mostly very well-behaved children, but still three children under nine years old." After a thoughtful little pause, she said, "Sarah Grace is very bright. She's reading well above her grade level, and she's interested in everything, like Jo and Jamie are."

"That makes it fun to have her around. She fits right in." After a little stretch of comfortable silence as they enjoyed their coffee, he said, "I've outlined the story we decided will span the next three Nikki Heat books. I need to start deciding how much happens in each book and working on the details. Do you want to help? I think I'm beginning to like collaborating."

"I'm not sure I'm that much help."

"Hey, we have a great story to keep readers wanting more at the end of the next two books. You were a big help with that. I'm not asking you to write the books, just help me bounce around some ideas…try to find a way for the overarching case to grow out of something else they were working on."

"Do you already have something in mind?"

"Maybe. Just a few thoughts, though. Nothing firm."

"Okay." Let's go home and see what you've got and bounce ideas. I have to admit I enjoyed helping."

"I enjoyed it, too."

He swung his arm around her shoulders and she put hers around his waist, and they walked home to collaborate.

After taking a break to extend the collaboration to making lunch, they worked a little longer; and by the time they went to pick up the children, they had a rough sketch of how the entrance to the longer case would grow gradually from a much more innocent looking piece of another case. They were pleased with themselves.

Honoring another Castle tradition, the parents took their offspring for treats after the first day of school. As the family ate ice cream, the little Castle storytellers told them all about their new teachers, seeing their friends, new people in the class, things they did, etc., and the parents smiled and asked questions about what was fun, what was funny, what they learned that they didn't know before, what they would be looking forward to, and helped them enjoy their excitement.

As the weather got colder, the family made several ski trips on weekends, and the children enjoyed it as much as they had before. Martha and John went with them once to see the children's skiing progress. Otherwise, they stayed warm and socialized with others in the lodge. Alexis and JD went once when she had a rare little break. Alexis stayed busy most of the time and needed to rest when she had time off, but she and JD decided they needed the fun of a ski weekend with family for their sanity. Jim and Meagan went with them once. Meagan had done some skiing, but Jim hadn't; so he sent Meagan to enjoy the more advanced trails with Kate and Castle. He said he would be observing the children's ski skills or keeping all of them involved in nice warm children's activities inside the lodge...and was strongly in favor of not killing himself by trying to take up something like skiing at the age of seventy-three.

xxxxx

At the end of October, Castle came home from an afternoon of meetings at Black Pawn looking surprisingly relaxed.

Kate looked surprised. "I was making comfort food for dinner, but it doesn't look like you need it as much as I thought you would."

"Comfort food is always good…whether I need it or not." He leaned to kiss her and went back for a quick second one. "There was a publicity meeting with Blake and Paula before I sat down with Blake about the edits for the new chapters, and there was absolutely no drama. Everything was very calm and professionally handled. When I walked into Blake's office, Gina's former assistants were there and handled things as well as they always have; but as Blake's assistants, they were relaxed and smiling. I had forgotten how editing works when there isn't an angry ex-wife vibe involved in the process. To be fair, I guess there was probably a little angry ex-husband vibe in the process, too."

"I'm glad it's better. Maybe you won't have to dread those meetings anymore."

"Maybe not. Time will tell. Where are the kids?"

"In their rooms…theoretically doing their homework. Jo is probably finished, but Jamie is probably still working."

"It looks like they both inherited your discipline there."

"I don't know, Babe. Alexis got it from somewhere," Kate answered. "I doubt it was Meredith.

"I could always come through at the last minute. I don't know where she got the drive to stay on top of everything consistently, but it sure made it easier on me that she did." Looking at the stairs, he said, "I'll go up and check on them and grab a couple of hugs."

"You can tell them dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes."

He went bounding up the stairs booming out, "Daddy's home and coming for his hugs." Both of them came out of their rooms to meet him. He was there with them for a little while before he came down the stairs with one arm wrapped around each child's middle, each of them with arms and legs dangling and bouncing as he came down the stairs energetically.

xxxxx

They had their traditional Thanksgiving and again enjoyed the freedom of Christmas shopping while the children were in school, and it seemed the rest of the holidays flew by and it was time for Kate to return to work.

There was no Captain's exam scheduled for that year, so no interview panel; but there were still several remaining candidates lined up to fill openings as they happened, and one of the women who hadn't had anyone to mentor her was to intern with Beckett. As she had predicted, there was a second one, who was now walking toward her office.

"Lieutenant Schroder. You're back…and impressively early this morning."

"Trying to learn from my mistakes. I know you were told that you don't have to accept me back into the program, but I was also told you promised to allow me to make my case."

"I did make that promise. So have a seat and tell me what changed your mind and why I should expect a different outcome."

First, I've banned my father from any say in the matter. He and Commissioner Nagle grew up together. The commissioner has always been like an uncle to me…and he always felt free to correct me like one of his own children. He said my father and I both embarrassed him. He sent Dad home and then showed me stats. Dad and I thought we were pretty good detectives, and we were…pretty good; but then he showed us yours, which were much more impressive. Dad had me convinced he was one of the best captains around. Then, in comparison, I saw your numbers, and again they were more impressive. I was told that Dad was a good captain, but he never got better because he never thought anybody else had a better idea than his. He said that you never care who a good idea comes from, that good ideas are meant to be used…and that you give the person it came from full credit for it. Then he showed me stats from several precincts where you started with problems to solve, and I saw the evaluations rise significantly over the time you were there. I was told that I was an idiot not to take advantage of learning from someone who could consistently do that. He said to think about it, and if I wanted another shot at it that he would let you decide if I was worth your trouble. But he wasn't going to force you to put up with me again…said I'd have to do my own convincing."

"I know my stats. I don't need to hear that. I need to hear why you want to be a captain and what you plan to do to get there."

"I went to the academy with Cannady, and I never saw him as leadership material, even though I understand he was well respected as a detective; but he has his own command now, and when I went in to talk to him about his internship, he looked and acted the part of a captain. According to him, I missed a good chance at learning how to make a difference. I'll admit the first time you met me, I was more interested in the prestige than anything else; but I've had time to do some thinking, and if you're willing to give me a second chance, I'll cooperate this time. After talking to Cannady, I'm more inclined to want to know how to make a precinct work up to its potential and how to make it happen, even if there are problems."

"Well, I'm a believer in second chances; so as long as you're willing to keep an open mind and put in the effort, we'll be working together. Fortunately for you, this is a different precinct, so no one here will have any memory of your first internship. And we'll be working with a second intern this year. She's due in about fifteen minutes."

"Is that her?" he asked, looking past Beckett.

"I think it is." An African-American woman around forty was walking toward Beckett's office.

"Captain Beckett?" she asked from the doorway. Beckett stood and shook her hand as the woman introduced herself. "Lieutenant Aisha Tate, Ma'am"

"It's good to meet you, Tate. This is Lieutenant Glenn Schroder."

Schroder stood to shake Tate's hand.

"We'll all be working together for the next few months, Beckett told her, and I'll look forward to getting to know you. Change of command was yesterday, so I'm going to get right to business and give you both a tour of the building and an overview of what needs to be done here. After that, you're going to meet some of the people you'll be working with. The end of the hall outside my office is wasted space, so I'm having a cubicle set up there that you can use for office space. It's already approved, so we're just waiting for delivery," she told them as they started their tour. By the end of the building tour, it was obvious that Beckett and Tate shared a similar sense of humor, and Schroder was loosening up and smiling along with them. After that, they took over the conference room on their floor and before visiting some of the detectives, they sat down to talk about what to expect.

xxxxx

JD called one morning while Castle was at home alone and asked if he could come over. He had taken a day off, which was rare.

"Hey, Son. Come on in. You sound like there's something on your mind."

"I just wanted to talk to you before I end up doing something stupid. I'd talk to Granddad, too if he and Grams weren't still in Europe."

"Want some coffee, or should I break out something stronger?"

There was a little grin, and JD said, "It's kind of early. Coffee is fine."

As he poured a cup for JD, Castle asked, "So what kind of stupid are you talking about? I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be talking to me if you were thinking of cheating on my firstborn."

He chuckled. "That would be the worst stupid I could think of. With you having Mom and all the aunts and uncles, no one would ever find my dead body."

Castle grinned at him mischievously and said, "Well, now that I'm sure we've come to that understanding, what do you need to talk about?"

"My job. I want to do more than just line my pockets, but the people in charge there don't seem to have any other purpose in life, and some of them don't seem too concerned about how they go about it. And I'm getting the feeling there's a little insider trading going on. It's a prestigious place to work, but I don't want to stake my career and professional reputation being seen as a part of that."

"That's an admirable outlook, as well as in your best interests. Are you thinking of quitting?"

"Yeah, but I don't want to put myself on a hiring blacklist of some kind, either. I'm pretty sure that company could do it if they wanted to."

"Are you interested in doing something smaller?"

"How small?"

"A one man operation. Self employed. I have a friend from college. The man has handled my finances since my second book. After I saw how fast I managed to decimate the income from the first book, I talked to him about money. Once I knew I was going to be a father, I got serious enough to really listen, and I've done extremely well financially. He's scrupulously honest, and he's never led me astray. He's a wizard."

"If it's a one man operation, why would he need me?"

"There was hope for a two man operation. He trained his son to use his natural skills, and he has skills as outstanding as his father's. I'm sure he thought they'd work together. But his son has decided to use them for himself and his family and doesn't want a job that ties him down. It was a major disappointment for Wes, so he might be interested in seeing what you can do. He's going to want to retire sooner or later, and he might be interested in the right partner to share the load until then."

"At least his son is earning it himself…not stealing it from his family." JD answered. "That's what I call a major disappointment."

Seeing the sheen of tears in the younger man's eyes, Castle pulled him into a fatherly hug. "I know it isn't the same, but you have us now."

"It isn't the same. It's better," he answered, returning the hug. "Even if someone I love died, my father wouldn't have done this. Grandad would, but not my father. I don't know if my parents ever even wanted me. Maybe I was an accident. I always felt like a disappointment…like a bother…a necessary evil."

"Son, you are so far from a disappointment…or a bother. Your parents were the disappointment. I'm so happy that my daughter has you to take care of her…and that my family has you and your grandfather. I'm telling you basically what your grandfather told me. No matter what you had before, as long as Kate and I are here, you have two parents who love you." He gave his son-in-law a pat on the back and released him from the hug. "How about warm up our coffees, and I'll give Wes a call and see if he'd like to meet you." Then he turned away to pick up his phone and give JD a minute to compose himself. "That is if you want me to."

"Yeah. It can't hurt to meet him," JD answered quietly, adding to the two cups that were still actually plenty warm.

Wes was interested; and when told that JD had the day off, he suggested meeting in about an hour, so JD was gone shortly after that.

"Let me know how it goes," Castle told him as he was leaving.

xxxxx

Beckett's interns were now six weeks into their time with her. In general, the precinct was functioning well. There were still a lot of unhappy attitudes, some of which were softening. The former captain hadn't been blatantly dishonest and hadn't mistreated his people; but his idea of doing the job was to close cases as fast as possible, and he wasn't above allowing someone to be railroaded into a conviction if they had been in trouble before. Beckett was trying to change that, and there was resistance. He also hadn't worried if his officers manhandled people on their beat. That was how he had worked as an officer back in the day. That was their biggest problem. Some of the officers who had never served under anyone else grumbled about Beckett trying to make them make them go soft, and about half of the ones who were the worst offenders were ignoring a lot of her orders.

She told her interns what she intended to do and said she'd never done anything of the sort before, but nothing else was making an impression. The three of them were there the next morning with the officers before they went on patrol, and she planned to speak to them again about methods of dealing with the public, and she had arranged ahead with one of the officers to help her out.

"So you're still planning to do this?" Tate asked.

"Yes. There are six officers who have had a reprimand, discipline reports placed in their files, and have been given short suspensions…and some others who are drifting back and forth over the line. The three of us have been working too hard on community interaction to let these people sideline us. I never thought I'd consider this, but it's time for drastic action before I have to take discipline farther and go outside the precinct. I don't want to have to do that." She took a deep breath and said, "Understand that this is not anywhere in the rule book. If I don't show up tomorrow, do the best you can to keep things together and assume the top cops have decided they no longer need my services. Okay, let's go. I'm about to do a bad thing."

When they reached their destination, the sergeant was briefing the officers for the day. When he finished, he told them, "Captain Beckett would like to speak to you before you leave."

Beckett remained at one side of the group when she was introduced and again reminded them of what she had said before about undue aggression. One of the officers to her left smirked and said something to the woman seated next to him, and Beckett seemed to snap. She stalked a couple of rows back where he sat in the outside seat and said angrily, "You think this is a joke, Officer?" Then she grabbed his arm, snatched him out of his seat and shoved him against the wall, bringing his arm up behind him. The room went deathly silent for a long moment as she turned her head to look over her shoulder. Then she relaxed, patted the arm of the officer she was restraining, and said, "You okay there, McGill?"

His smirk was more humorous this time, and he answered, "Yeah, I'm good. I know we practiced that, but it still took me by surprise." He looked at the other officers and said, "The captain's got a good arm."

Beckett turned to the group again and said, "I apologize for that. It had nothing to do with protocol, but some of you have ignored everything I've said about acceptable methods of controlling a situation. When I looked back at you, I saw a visceral reaction. All the way down to your core you hated me and what I had just done. McGill is one of yours, and you haven't accepted me as part of you yet. I'm the outsider. Stop and think for a minute. In spite of previous disciplinary actions, some of you are still doing that to people you encounter on your beats. If you're the parent or family member or friend of somebody who sees you do that to one of theirs, they hate you the same way you probably still hate me right now. And they have every right to if the action was as unnecessary as what McGill and I convinced you I just did. It's been that unnecessary in most of the cases I've followed up and investigated. The thing is that they don't hate just you. They hate anybody in the uniform or behind the badge…seventy-seven precincts of us. You make all of us look bad. Schroder and Tate and I are busting our butts trying to convince people in the community that working with us is worth their trouble, and some of you are out there proving their point that it isn't. I need your help to work with the community. Things are going to change in that regard…one way or another."

One of the men who was among the most guilty, said angrily, "I'd like to see you get out there and put up with the garbage we deal with every day. They hate our guts."

"Like everybody here is hating mine…and probably for the same reason? I know what's out there. I've put in my time in the same part of the job you're doing, and I haven't forgotten. I know this is a rough neighborhood; but these people aren't all thugs, and we need to pay enough attention to know that. There are some good people in this neighborhood." Indicating her two interns, she said, "We've met a lot of them, but they all have stories about the way family or neighbors have been treated. I'm not asking you to hold back if there's a need for force, just gauge the need to the situation. If you're in the right, I'll stand behind you. If you aren't, you're going to have to take responsibility for it."

xxxxx

On Thursday night, Castle found his wife rummaging around in the closet looking for something.

"If you'll tell me what you're looking for, I'll help you find it," she told him.

"I'm pretty sure it's downstairs in storage…probably with the things you brought home when you left the twelfth the first time."

"Thanks. I think I know where to find it now." She was back about ten minutes later saying, "Got it."

"And why do you need it?"

"A surprise for one of the uncooperative officers," She explained about Cotter's angry outburst and he laughed. "I'll be waiting to hear how that story goes. After a long moment, he said, "JD took the day off and came by today to talk. He's thinking of quitting his job."

"Why?"

"We knew he didn't like the ethics of a few of his co-workers, but he's concerned that some of them might be involved in insider trading and doesn't want to be around it. I called Wes this morning and he had JD come in to talk to him while he had the day off."

"Do you know how things went with Wes?"

"Our boy called just before you got home. He's asking for a week of vacation time week after next, and he's going to sort of intern with Wes that week and see how he works."

"We're surrounded by interns…although I guess Alexis is a resident now," Kate answered. "I'm glad he's looking into something else. It's hard working where you feel your principles might be compromised, no matter how prestigious the firm is. I'm proud of him."

"He hides it pretty well most of the time, but what his parents did cut pretty deep. He said he always felt like a disappointment…a bother…wondered if they ever wanted him. I wanted to cry. He did a little bit…a few manly tears."

"He got a Richard Castle hug, didn't he?"

Castle nodded. "I had to. My kid was crying."

"Those are the best," Kate told him, walking into his arms to get a hug of her own. "The absolute best. You did good."

"Can I talk you into my lair to reward me?" he asked with a playful leer.

"Want to start with helping me shower? I'll wash your back…or wherever…"

"You had me at 'help me shower'. Why are we still out here in the kitchen?" He turned her toward the study, put his hands on her shoulders, and pushed her ahead of him into their bedroom.