The Haunting Past (A Castle Fanfiction)

Part Nineteen: Remember

Rick didn't sleep that night. Instead, he watched Kate. He watched her breath. He watched her stay peaceful and calm. Any time one of the boys fussed, he soothed the child back to sleep. His entire night was devoted to making sure his wife got to sleep because- by morning, he would have to drag her into the darkest moment of her life. He would have to finally ask her what happened on that table.

He had never made her share that story. From the first time he gave her the choice to hear it or stay outside while I.A had to listen to her say it, he understood why she didn't want him to hear that story, even if he claimed it wouldn't hurt him. She and he both knew he was unintentionally lying. No matter how hard he tried to keep that story from bothering him, it would. But- now he had to hear it.

As soon as morning came, the nurses were in, waking the mommies and asking how their nights went. Kate looked at them and then at Rick and she questioned him, "Did you juggle the boys all by yourself all night?"

He replied to her innocent question, "Yeah. I even did the midnight and one A.M bottle feedings."

"Bottle," Kate asked.

One of the nurses answered, "We would have needed you to pump and dump. The medication they gave you for your heart would have gotten into your breast milk and the boys can't have that." Beckett nodded in understanding, and the nurses helped her do what was needed to be done so that when it came time, she could nurse Jaxon and then James.

By the time she was finished with step one of three, the nurses were gone, but all Kate wanted to do was hold her boys. With James in her arms and Jaxon in Rick's, he didn't think he could talk to her about what happened. When she suggested a trade, Castle finally grew a voice. "Kate, I really need to talk to you about something."

She looked up from James for a moment and said, "Okay, well, I think we can still talk about it after switching."

He sighed, telling her ominously, "I think maybe we should put the boys down for this."

"What," she questioned before looking into his eyes, catching a glimpse of how troubling this was for him. "Alright," she said, letting him get up to put Jaxon down and then lifting James from her arms and putting him into a bed. "What's up?"

He sighed, sitting back down on the edge of her bed, trying to find the right words. He decided to lead off by saying, "Judge Hail called last night with some information about the case."

She sat up, thinking about the way she'd worked him. "What did he say?"

"He-... he said... he told me Tanner didn't rape you. He said we had the wrong Gerick."

Beckett looked at him and smiled, convinced for a moment that this was a joke. Castle didn't smile. In fact, his eyes were more sullen than ever before. Kate flew immediately into denial. "No. No, it- it had to be Tanner. I mean, the DNA matched. It- it had to be Tanner. There's no way it was anyone but him. I mean, he confessed to the whole thing."

"Yeah." Rick replied softly, "He did confess to the whole thing, but because he confessed, we never ran the DNA, Kate. Come on. You know that. And- it was all so inconsistent. He only used a condom once. He- he had different levels of anger on not only different victims, but each one individually. It was odd, but- we just shook it off."

"Because it was Tanner," Beckett insisted.

"Because we didn't have a reason to think it could be anyone but Tanner."

Kate immediately drew back. She didn't know what to say. It had to be Tanner. The way he looked at her, the way he studied her, the way he claimed he brought Maddie and Kate together, it had to be Tanner. There was no other explanation. She looked at her husband, swallowing at a lump in her throat as she told him, "It had to be Tanner."