Fate's Case (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Moving Forward Stepping Back

How many times have we heard our parents tell us, "You can do anything if you set your mind to it," with that happy, confident, lively voice? I can still hear my mother's calming voice telling me that one day everything will be okay, because I am one of the few that has always reached for their dreams until they've obtained them. As I look into the picture I had of my mother and father in my locket, and I remember being five years old in the back yard. They sat on the porch, watching Kyle and I playing on the swings as I dreamed of being an astronaut or a ballerina or a teacher and played as though I was. My father's warming smile brought my mother to once again laugh the laugh that had gotten me through my hardships.

I looked at my mother and father in their pictures, and I saw the hundreds of times they were there for me. Then, as it always did, the sound of three gunshots split the thought into remembering the moment my father and brother were shot in the backyard while my mother was at work. The face of the man who did the shooting stuck in my head forever, and I hung onto every word he said. "Tell your mother I was this close, and that this was just the start of her consequences." The words that had, until now, meant nearly nothing to me would later change everything about my mother.

After that moment my mother was never the same. From then on I was home schooled, living on the road with nothing but the school book my cousin would send to different mail boxes all over the country, three sets of clothing that we would trade around at thrift shops, and this locket. My mother would only stay in a city for one or two weeks, and would get jobs as a waitress or anything she could find. By the time I was thirteen, I was getting money by working lowly jobs like mowing lawns and cleaning houses. Luckily enough, I was a great babysitter, and was hired fairly often.

Now all of that was over, and all I could do was miss it. I missed the SUV and the few things of clothes I had. Truly, I missed the good times, the laughter and the bonding I had with my mother. There were few things in the world that I got to have, but one of those things was something I wouldn't have traded for anything, I got to have a relationship with my mom that some people could only dream about. Now I got to relive the pain I'd had when Kyle and my dad were shot. Now I got to be in protective custody of the NYPD while all I wanted was to be home.

I stared at my locket, not able to look up at the woman in front of me or the other one beside me. Whatever room I was in was cold, and the camera in the right corner of the room pointed at the microphone in the middle of the medal table recorded every move I made. "Kris, please answer the Detective's question."

"Why should I? When have the police ever been on my side?" They'd told me that they would protect me, that they would find the man who did this to my little brother and my dad, but look how far that got us.

"Kris, I can't help if you won't let me try."

"Look, no offence, but you people tried to help me once, and look what a great help that was! My mother is dead. My father is dead. My brother, my grandparents, everyone who would take me in is dead, and the rest of my family is turning their backs on me. I have no one on my side. So why should I think you would be any different?"

"Because I've been on the other side of this table. My mother was murdered a few years back, and the police on her case couldn't solve it either. So I know what this feels like, and I promise you, I can help, if you'll let me." She seemed to be telling the truth, but she was still a cop, and I knew there was no way to trust cops.

I brought my eyes up to meet hers. "Look, Detective-"

"It's Kate."

"Alright, Kate. I'm sorry about your mom. But you are nothing like me, and you will never convince me of anything otherwise. Trying to let me relate to you, trying to get me to feel like this is a safe place is not what I need. I need someone who will keep their promises, and this is one you can't keep." She was starting to make me mad.