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Chapter Twelve

Kate looked at the dress her new friend held up.

"What about this one? This will look absolutely stunning on you," Lanie gushed and Kate couldn't stop the roll of her eyes as she shook her head.

Kate had finally accepted Lanie's offer for a day of shopping, a day Lanie had been nagging on her about. Ever since that event Lanie had asked for a chance to take Kate out and just spend a day with her, get to know her more, but Kate hadn't exactly had the time nor the right energy for a girl's day. However she had immediately accepted the offer the second her former foster parents were arrested, or more accurately Rick had convinced her it could be good for her to have someone more than him to talk to. Plus he said he knew Lanie enough to know she would be an amazing friend to her.

"I'm not here to buy anything," Kate answered her and heard the brunette snort.

"Didn't Rick give you money to buy something?"

"Yes but I'm not gonna use them, it's his, not mine."

Kate was stubborn, said she didn't need or want anything despite Rick's objections. She had eventually agreed to bring the card he gave her but that didn't mean she would actually use it for other than lunch.

"Girl, you need to buy at least one dress okay? Wear it on date night," Lanie said with a matter-of-fact voice. "Come on, let's try this on!"

Lanie grabbed onto Kate's arm and dragged her towards the fitting room. After seeing the way the dress hugged her body in just the right places Kate couldn't refrain herself from buying it anyway, not when her friend kept insisting she should buy it and wear it the next time she and Rick went out on a date. All in all Kate had an amazing time, that was until someone called her out, as Rick Castle's new girlfriend and Nikki Heat.

"Oh my god that is her!" someone called out and Kate couldn't hide her reaction.

Her hole body froze mid-step and how the hell had they known it was her?! Lanie noticed her friend's sudden stop and halted only a couple feet in front of her.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she met Kate's eyes.

Lanie didn't know, and god how Kate wanted to keep it that way. But at the same time she had a strange knot in her stomach telling her that if someone had connected her to both Rick Castle and Nikki Heat there would be nothing stopping them from telling the world. But she just gotten rid of them!

"Excuse me, is it true you're paid to be Rick Castle's girlfriend? Does he take advantage of you?" a woman asked out of nowhere and Kate could see Lanie's sudden shock before something changed in the latino american's eyes.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" she bursted out at the woman with red eyes.

The woman looked scared, and if Kate had been on the other side of those eyes she'd been scared too because damn did Lanie look like she could murder someone right about now. Kate couldn't stop thinking about what she would do if she found out who she was, who she'd been.

"Isn't this you?" the woman asked with a small voice holding up a paper towards them and Kate felt her heart stop.

On the paper was a big picture with her laughing at an event with Rick's arm around her waist and lips in her hair, the text on the page was big, screaming at her. 'Rick Castle's new flame is all other than innocent, you might know her as either Kate Beckett or NIKKI HEAT'. Lanie gasped at the paper and Kate closed her eyes, not wanting to see the friend she'd just gotten leave her again. Her feet started moving, backwards, she didn't want to witness this, didn't want more people to find out, to see her. She thought she could leave this all behind, she thought this was over, she thought she could live a normal life. Her breathing was all other than normal, she felt as though she couldn't breath yet she could hear how her breathing was only increasing in speed. Suddenly she felt something to her back and she stumbled forwards, not realizing she had backed into someone. She opened her eyes and saw the guy who she'd stumbled into move his lips as if he was saying something, or maybe he was shouting, she couldn't tell. She couldn't hear, couldn't concentrate on anything but the fear inside her. Her whole body flinched when she felt someone grabbed onto her arm, she turned to the person only to see it was Lanie, she hadn't left? What was she still doing here? Her lips were moving as well, saying something, but Kate could still not hear a thing. Except for the ringing in her mind, along with the questions that kept spinning around and around. How did they know? Who had talked to them? Had someone who knew her as Nikki Heat come forward? Why? And now Rick was to blame? Had he paid her? No, what?