In A Heart Beat (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Chapter 10: Announcing Lies

10

"Alexis? Is that?" her gram pointed to the bottom of the escalator to Kathrine standing and waiting for her.

"Yeah, it is. But I told her we could grab a cab." Alexis looked bewildered, but as soon as Kate looked at Alexis with a warm, welcoming smile, Alexis couldn't help but be thrilled Kate had descided to pick her up. She had coffee in her hands for them all and looked to be waiting for a hug. This was weird. For Kathrine Beckett, this was the world's strangest thing ever. This was the woman who gave a hug every thirty years to anyone but her own father and Alexis's father in Alexis' opinion. She's never seen Beckett sooo... touchy-feely- happy and crap.

"Kathrine!"

"Beckett!"

"Martha, Alexis, it's great to see you both. I know your father's been going crazy missing you." She hugged Alexis first, then turned to Martha, "And I'm sure he's missed you too. I think he mentioned something about missing your constant budding in."

"That sounds about right. But, hey, my bidding in has gotten you both this far." Alexis couldn't believe her grandmother was being so normal around the oddity of this.

"No offence, but did I not say we could take a cab? What are you doing way out here?" Alexis tried and succeeded at playing that as a friendly greeting.

"I was already up here. Your dad left his favorite plane up here, and I thought I'd bring it back for him."

"Aren't you on a case?" Martha asked.

"No, I- they sent me home."

"Why?"

"Because being a cop sucks and suddenly, you get emotionally involved and you're dismissed for a week." the faked face of sadness over being kicked off the case wasn't really fooling either of the two who knew her too well. "But, you know, I'll be fine. Just because I'm off the case doesn't mean I can't help Rick, you know?"

"Kate, what really happened?" Martha asked.

"Well, can you both keep a secret?" the two nodded, and Kate leaned in to whisper something to them. They leaned, and she spoke, "I was kicked off the case because I was emotionally compromised. It's happened a lot lately and shouldn't stop until Rick gets better."

"That wasn't a secret." Alexis said.

"No, the secret is, this also mean I don't have to give a statement to the press." Kate said. Suddenly, Martha knew something happened to her son that she hadn't heard yet.

"Wait a moment, you came out to get his plane. So, he's awake? Is he okay, I mean-."

"He- was awake, but this morning when they went in to take out a mass they found in his brain, there was some kind of complication. He's alive, but we won't know anything more until he wakes up since it was around the memory portion of his brain."

"Oh, God. Richard." Martha got a little choked up at this, and her eyes grew watery red.

"But he's going to be okay, right? I mean, it's not like this could kill him, right?" Alexis was frantic, and Kate couldn't bring herself to tell her it could. Unfortunately silence was the loudest answer possible. Alexis began to cry, and Martha pulled her into a hug as she cried with her. Tears began to well up in Beckett's eye, but she choked them back. Thinking of telling them about the poison, Kate decided not to. It was so uncertain what the toxins would do, when they would start to affect him, and if they would get the antidote yet that she didn't want to worry them if there was nothing to worry about.

"And- he's, did he- are you two-" Martha was trying to ask if he'd proposed, but wasn't able to say the words. She just gave a convincing confusion look and that gave Martha the answer. "You know Kate, I'm not that close to my son, but I know he loves you, with all his heart."