Beckett's Sister: A Castle AU Fanfiction

Chapter 29

When Kate and Rick got home later that night, Kate was still in shock at what her sister had revealed earlier in the evening. Kate always knew that Kris had a hard time in her past, what with losing their mother when she was only twelve but she never imagined that her sister was caught up in the things she had been.

Kate silently headed into the bedroom to get ready for bed while Castle locked up the loft and turned out all of the lights. Sitting on the edge of the bed, Kate was lost in thought when Castle finally made his way into the bedroom.

"You okay?" Castle asked as he approached her.

"Out of all the shit she's done, never in a million years did I ever think she would be involved in something like this." Kate replied with a sigh.

"Kate, she was in college. We all do stupid things during that time in our lives. Granted, most of us don't hack government agencies and steal information but she was young and dumb. She didn't know this guy was using her." Castle wrapped his arm around Kate's shoulders as he sat down beside her.

"I shoulda seen it though, Castle. I knew something was off about her but I didn't pay any attention. I put it off as stress from college. She changed so much. I was so caught up in trying to find our mother's killer that I didn't pay attention to my own sister." Kate's voice wavered as a stray tear slid down her face.

"Listen to me, Kate. Kris is an adult. She's not a kid anymore and you can't always protect her, especially from herself. You're two sides of a coin, you and her. She's so much like you used to be that it's kinda creepy. None of this is your fault. The only person at fault here is the bastard that manipulated Kris into doing his dirty work for him. He found her weakness and used it against her." Castle said as he pulled Kate closer and ran his fingers through her hair.

"I have to protect her, Castle. I can't lose anyone else. Especially my baby sister." Kate replied as she clutched Castle's shirt.

"We're not losing her, Kate. We're going to figure this out like we always do. He's not going to lay a finger on Kris, I promise." Castle kissed the top of Kate's head and held her tight as her body became wracked with silent sobs.

Kris woke up to the sound of her alarm blaring at her from the bedside table. She wiped the sleep from her eyes and stumbled into the bathroom to get ready for the day. She felt somewhat lighter at having finally revealed her secret to her sister and Castle, but she was also afraid. Afraid that Kate being involved would only paint a huge bulls eye on all of them, especially since she knew Kate would stop at nothing until Nikolai was found.

Turning the water to the point of boiling, Kris stripped her clothes off and hopped into the shower. She knew that the next person she had to talk to about this mess was Russo. She suddenly found herself wishing she could move to Middle Earth and live in a hobbit hole. She knew he would most likely hate her and would probably never want to see her again. Scrubbing herself clean, she climbed out of the shower and toweled herself off. Throwing her hair into a ponytail, she made her way back into her bedroom to pick out some clothes. Putting on a Wonder Woman t-shirt and faded boot-cut jeans, she pulled on her red Converse and headed into the kitchen.

Throwing a pumpkin spice latte K-Cup into her Keurig, she grabbed a mug from the cabinet and put a bagel into the toaster. While she waited, Kris finally checked her phone and saw a missed call from Russo while she had been in the shower. Her heart sped up a little, considering she hadn't seen him at all the previous day. Pulling his number up, Kris hit the call button and chewed her thumbnail while she listened to the ringing. Part of her hoped he wouldn't answer the phone.

"Hey, sweetness." Russo answered cheerfully.

"Hey, yourself handsome." Kris replied with a grin.