Bring Her Home

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Kate's Desk was filled with work when she entered the bull pen.

Apparently, paperwork doesn't care if your daughter was kidnapped and you spent the last two days worrying for her life. So she sat down and began. She didn't want to think about the morning's events, so she kept her mind occupied with the paperwork.

It wasn't until she got a call about a murder up town, that she checked her phone and saw a text from Castle. It wasn't the three words she wanted to hear from him, but it was something close to it. She knew the unsaid meaning of it. And it made her smile. She sent him a reply, small and simple. Just to let him know she was not going to let anything happen to her. She'd be home tonight.

The whole morning went by, and by the time she returned to the precinct from the crime scene it was afternoon. She always called home every afternoon, to check on Joanne, she was just about to dial home, when her phone began to ring. She laughed, the caller id said 'home'. It must be Joanne she thought. The girl wouldn't sleep in the afternoons sometimes until she heard her mommy's voice. "Hey honey, missed me already?"

"Hey" came the reply. It wasn't Joanne, it was Castle.

"It's Rick"

"oh, I thought it was Joanne. What is it? Is she throwing tantrums again to sleep?"

He chuckled "no, no, it's nothing like that; I just thought I'd call to check on you... I mean... to see if everything's alright... I mean... you didn't call... so I was just a little worried..." he was stammering.

But the fact that he got worried cause she was late to call, warmed her heart. He had been worried something happened.

She smiled and said "Rick, everything's alright, I just got caught up at the crime scene and was just about to give you a call when you called up"

He said "Oh. Okay. Tough case?"

"Hmmm… I wouldn't say tough, but it's weird enough to make it into one of your books"

he chuckled "oh really? Well then you'll just have to brief me in when you get home."

He was talking to her and that was more than enough for now. She would ask for his forgiveness later in the evening, but for now, just to hear a smile in his voice was enough. He was no doubt a kind man.

Their conversation didn't last long; Kate had to get back to the case work. But it was now evening and Kate turned the lock in the door and entered. She was late; the case work had kept her back longer than usual.

Castle had already fed Joanne and tucked her in for the night. Kate entered the loft and saw castle sitting in the living room, watching a movie, he had served both of them dinner and was waiting for her to come home. She smiled at him and then went into the bedroom to change into something more comfortable and to freshen up.

When she sat beside him, they began eating dinner silently, sipping at the wine he had poured out for them in-between bites. When they were done, he stood to take their plates to the kitchen, but she stopped him.

"We can do that later. Please, I need to talk to you"

he looked at her for a second then placed the plates back down and sat. "Okay" he said.

She took a deep breath and started "Rick, I made a huge mistake by not listening to you, by not believing you"

"you're damn right, you did" he muttered.

she waited a moment before continuing, now reaching out to hold his hands in hers, "I did, I shouldn't have let you go off alone, I should have been there when you had to fight that guard, I should have been the one to have your back" tears were making their way through again.