April 12, 1980

Central Park Exercise Trail

Johanna Beckett was out pushing the baby carriage like she had been every day since the sun has begun coming out in earnest and the temperatures had finally hit the upper sixties. The past six months of relative inactivity during her maternity leave had been hard enough on a workaholic like her. Throw in the late night feedings, the bouts of colic and lack of sleep and she had become a wreck. Then being stuck indoors during one of the harshest winters since 1977 and she had been about to come unglued by the time March had rolled around.

She loved her little Katie-bug more than life itself, of that she had no doubt. She had known that as soon as her baby girl had been wrapped in a pink blanket and laid screaming in her arms this past November. She would not trade a single moment she had spent with Jim and their baby, but being stuck in the house for nearly six months with only marginal amounts of sleep and no coffee had nearly turned her into a basket case.

"Thank God March went out like a lamb this year" She thought to herself, not for the first time. Incredibly thankful that it had felt warm enough to bundle Katie up and get some exercise without feeling like she was a terrible mother.

Every day she had agonized over the decision of stroller vs. baby carriage and went with the carriage every time. She could walk faster with the stroller...get more of a workout, but she simply could not help her desire to be able to look down into the cherubic face of her daughter...the life that she and Jim had created. To be able to touch Katie's little pink face whenever the mood should strike her.

"Yes, I'm becoming one of those mothers, but I don't care." She mused to herself as she cooed and kissed Katie's forehead for the fifteenth time since leaving the house. She knew she was being obnoxious, but she just couldn't bring herself to care what other people thought of her.

She was bonding with her baby...creating a connection with Katie that she hoped would last all of their lives. Just like the ring Jim had put on her finger the day they married and the brand new expensive watch she had custom ordered to give to Jim for his first father's day were meant to signify the lifelong commitment between herself and her husband.

She had just turned off the running trail and entered one of the little playgrounds that dotted the park making a beeline for one of the benches when she started to hear a noise. She startled at first, concerned about the safety of her baby when she heard it again. A quiet sniffing and snuffling coming from under the slide. When she peeked around behind the ladder to the slide she saw the source...a little boy, who couldn't be more than ten years old, sitting underneath his arms wrapped around his knees trying not to cry.

His clothes were nice enough, so Johanna knew somebody took care of him, but he looked scuffed up. A bruise was forming over his right eye and there was a cut on his lip that looked like it had only recently stopped bleeding along with a collection of other bumps and scrapes. The boy had obviously been roughed up quite a bit and was trying to hide it.

Something snapped inside Johanna Beckett in that moment when the pieces came together, unleashing something primal that only a mother bear could understand. She tamped it down as best she could as she reached out her hand to the boy.

"Hey...what's wrong? Are you okay?" She said as quietly as she could, not wanting to startle him.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but mom said I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." The boy replied quietly. "He's very articulate for a ten year old." She thought to herself.

"My name is Johanna, I'm here with my daughter Katie...it's her first time out in the park."

Her admission, and the offer of her hand seemed to have the desired effect, and the boy put his hand in hers and let her pull him out from under the slide. Much to her relief he didn't seem too worse for wear once he was standing up, other than the injuries she'd already noted. Though a small part of her still raged that anyone would do this to such a beautiful, obviously sweet natured little boy. She had only been a mother for a few months but the mama bear in her was out in full fury...and this wasn't even her child.

"Are you hurt? Who did this to you?" She asked, her heart filled with motherly concern as she retrieved a moist towlette from her diaper bag and worked at cleaning his face, wiping the dried blood from his split lip and carefully cleaning around the bruise over his eye. She could see the small war going on in the boy's eyes as she cleaned him up, so she gave him time to make up his mind.

"The...the other boys at school...they don't like me...because I don't have a daddy." He finally whispered between sniffles, causing Johanna to nearly break down in tears. "They say mean things about my mom...behind her back."

Johanna Beckett couldn't help herself, she wrapped the poor boy in a hug before she even knew she was doing it. The little man had been defending his mother's honor and had obviously taken a beating for it. Judging by some of the healed over bumps and scrapes, it likely hadn't been the first time.

She took his hand and let him help push the stroller over to the swings where this whole mess had obviously started, judging from the boy's messenger bag and it's contents strewn all over the ground. Including what appeared to be a dog eared New York Public Library copy of "Casino Royale" which he very carefully picked up, inspected for damage and slid into the front pocket along with a small notebook and a pack of pencils.

"Obviously his most prized possessions" Johanna thought to herself as she noted everything else seemed to just be randomly shoved inside while she held it open for him before closing it and slipping the strap over his shoulder when he was done.

The boy thought about it before sticking his hand back out. "My name is Rick," he said quickly, but politely, "Rick Rodgers"

"Hello Rick, this little bundle of joy is my daughter Katie," she replied, running a finger over her daughter's face, "Katie Beckett"

Rick was quite the little charmer as he made faces at Katie, getting her to giggle which caused a warm feeling to settle over Johanna, that whomever his mother was, Rick was an even tempered good natured little boy who obviously loved his mother.

The moment was broken when a redhead in high heels, only marginally older than herself came bounding up to them, an expression of unconcealed panic on her face, obviously the boy's mother.

"Richard! There you are, I've been looking for you for ages since Florence called said you slipped away from her again!"

Johanna watched as the woman doted on the boy...alternating between hugging him tight and kissing him all over his face as she went through the very familiar litany of "what happened? Who did this to your face? I'm so glad you're okay" she remembered well from her own mother. She'd been something of a tomboy herself growing up. The redhead looked familiar, but Johanna couldn't place her.

When Rick's mother was done, the woman rose to her feet and rounded on her, a look of abject gratitude on her face as her features broadened into a beaming, well practiced smile.

"Thank you so much for finding him, he means so much to me...He's all I've got!" The woman whispered in a hushed tone, the lingering terror and guilt over his injuries plain on the woman's face. It was another piece of evidence to show Johanna that he had likely come home from school like this before.

If there was one thing Johanna Beckett, attorney at law could not and would not abide, it was bullies...not when she was in school, and not in the courtroom as a defense attorney. She had always stuck up for the little guy. Only there was no one at school, sticking up for this little boy and it made her sick inside.

"My name is Martha Rodgers, what's yours?" She said.

It took Johanna a few moments to get her breathing under control. "Martha Rodgers? THE Martha Rodgers? Holy crap!" She thought to herself trying not to come off as an obsessed fan. Martha waited patiently, she seemed to be used to it by now.

"And who is this this precious darling little thing?" Martha said, as she leaned over the baby carriage, the mother in her coming out and cooing over Katie just like her son had done moments before. Johanna picked her up, partly out of protective instinct and partly to give Martha Rodgers a better look at her.

"This is my Katie, she's almost six months now, my name is Johanna, Johanna Beckett."

"Oh my, she's just precious!" Martha gushed, spilling naturally into talking motherhood with another woman, "No wonder you're out and about now that the weather is warmer, you must have been going crazy! I'm so glad i had Richard here in the spring, I would have lost my mind!"

They talked back and forth for several minutes before they both realized the time and bid each other goodbye. Johanna walked with Katie every day that the weather held and most of the summer, but she never saw Rick Rodgers again.

Over the years, Johanna Beckett would occasionally wonder what had become of the little boy she had met that spring. Twelve years later she was perusing Barnes and Noble and saw a familiar set of blue eyes on the back cover of a book titled "In A Hail of Bullets"

Once she read it, she knew she would buy every book he wrote, even though Katie rolled her eyes at her choice in literature. She had known he would make something of himself the moment she saw the book and the writing tablet in his bag that day. She couldn't have been more proud of him if he had been hers. The man who had risen from the bullied little boy she had met so long ago.

He didn't recognize her when he signed her copy, of "In A Hail of Bullets" but she had obviously made an impression.

To Johanna,

You look at me like my mom did when I was ten. Keep fighting the good fight, Mother Bear.

Richard Castle.

*Author's note* This story started as a fluffy "what if?" kinda AU story that swiftly took on a serious life of its own as I went along. Bullying is a serious issue in our schools, in our society and on the internet. (Including here on ff...we've all seen some of the cowardly anon and not so anon reviews on here) If you see it, do something about it. Evil thrives when good men and women do nothing.

ERASE THE HATE.

*steps off soapbox*

Mark