Chapter 191

Over the summer, Beckett, as predicted, had been tied to the city; but she had been at the twenty-seventh for three months now and the atmosphere there was more upbeat. And some people were standing out as particularly dependable and capable. Lieutenant Cain was one of them.

Beckett hadn't taken a day off since she was transferred, so she called Lieutenant Cain to her office and explained "I wanted to remind you I have a captain's meeting this afternoon. I've already spoken to Chambers. And the day after Labor Day is my daughter's one and only very first day of school in her life, and I want to be there. I need a day off anyway, and I can't think of a better way to spend it than to walk the kids to school with my husband and watch them be excited about it, then pick them up and hear all their stories about what went on. They've both picked up some storytelling skills from their father. It's so much fun..." She stopped and said, "Sorry, I'm babbling and wasting your time. The point is I'd like to leave you in charge that day. And I plan to be out of town the weekend of the fourteenth and fifteenth. I'd like to call on you again for that. Do you have any prior plans for that weekend? I can talk to Williams in Vice if…"

"I'll be glad to. And I appreciate the advance notice about the weekend. You haven't taken a day off since you've been here. And that means you haven't been out of town at all, either."

"We have a beach house, and I haven't seen it since before I got here in July. I'd like to be able to go with the family once before the ocean is too cold for us to be in it."

"Williams and I used to do this for Captain Lautrec back when everything was normal. Then he and I and Morrell in Robbery started trying to keep the day to day things done and help with reports, keep us in supplies, take care of maintenance problems and such. If we put the form on his desk and explained the need, he'd sign it and we'd take it from there. He and his wife were really close. We all felt bad for him, and nobody wanted to complain to anybody official. I guess we thought he'd snap back any time and…"

"That was a lot of pressure on you. The precinct and the captain were lucky to have you, And your team was still able to hold on to the highest arrest and conviction rate here. I'm impressed."

"Well plan on taking those adorable kids to school next week."

"Thanks, Cain."

After he left, she got as much done as she could before leaving for her meeting. When she got there, she joined Captain Dohrman, and O'Conner joined them a couple of minutes later.

"Hey, Beckett. I thought I'd let you know the twelfth is still intact. I haven't managed to destroy it yet," he told her good naturedly.

Then Malicot as a result of human nature, gravitated to the people he recognized and reached the group just as O'Conner made his comment. "You'll be glad to know the fifty-first is still intact, too," he told O'Conner. "But some days I wonder about me."

"You still want to be a captain?" Beckett teased.

"Most days," he answered. "Some days being a hermit looks pretty good, though."

Everybody in the group chuckled and agreed and then settled in as the meeting started.

xxxxx

On the first day of school, Jo and Jamie were both excited. Jamie was as excited that Jo was going to school as he was about seeing his friends again. Castle had started taking pictures when the children got up...and when they came downstairs, while they ate breakfast... There were pictures of Jo's tiny little backpack, with and without Jo, and various shots of Jamie walking next to Jo, who was riding in the stroller. They talked to Jo about what to expect, and parked the stroller outside the school's door when they arrived. The Castles walked the children into the building, but Jamie took Jo's hand and said, "I'll show you where your class is." And his parents smiled proudly and followed them down the hallway.

"Hi, Miss Kreger. This is my sister, Johanna, but we call her Jo. She gets to be in your class this year. They all stopped long enough to meet Jo's teacher, and Jo hardly acknowledged them when she saw the room and the other children. They had to stoop down next to her and get her attention to say goodbye. Then they called her name and took one more picture.

"Well it doesn't look like this one has any separation anxiety," Miss Kreger observed. She introduced herself to Jo, and then introduced all of them to her aide, who she called Miss Stacy, and promised they would take good care of Jo. The Castles realized that was probably their cue to leave so Miss Kreger and Miss Stacy could give their attention to other parents who were having a little separation anxiety, like the Castles.

Then Jamie was the center of attention. They walked him to his classroom, and as they walked, he looked up at his father and said, "No hugs and kisses here. Okay?"

"But I can still hug you and kiss you at home, right?"

He looked up and smiled at his parents and said, "Yeah. That's okay."

"Looks like this is your class," Kate said

They met Jamie's teacher, Mr. Forrester, and introduced themselves, Castle took another picture that included the teacher, and then they said goodbye to Jamie…with a little squeeze of his shoulder...no hugs and kisses.

"Well we managed no hugs and kisses, but the picture probably embarrassed him sufficiently," Kate said as they walked to the coffee shop about half a block away.

They sat and enjoyed their coffee and bemoaned the fact that their last baby was in preschool and their other school age child was old enough to be embarrassed at a hug goodbye. Then they discussed what they should do until time to pick Jo up.

"We haven't had time to wander around, just the two of us, in ages…have a little shopping adventure. Shall we just walk and see what strikes our fancy?" Castle asked.

"Yeah. This feels kind of weird now, doesn't it?" Kate observed. "Morning with not even one kid."

"Good weird, though?"

"Yeah. Good weird. Let's see what's out here."

They wandered in and out of shops along the street and eventually stopped at another coffee shop and sat for a while.

"I know I have weekends, but I'd kind of forgotten how it feels to have really free time."

"Just think. About this time next year, we'll have a lot of it. Both our offspring will be in school at least part of the day, and we can take the kids and go away for the weekend or off on vacation for a holiday without having to make arrangements for somebody to be in charge of the precinct."

"Right now that sounds wonderful."

We did pretty well when you were pregnant with Jo and you took your leave of absence. We had a trip to Europe, and holidays, and time at the beach…"

"I did enjoy that. I loved all of it. And I don't want you to think I don't want that…time to be with you; but the police work for me is a little like your books. It's in there wanting to get out sometimes. I may need to ease out of it."

"Kate, I know you're not wired to just stop cold turkey and do nothing at all outside home, at least not as young as you'll be when you retire. If they have arrangements for part time in some capacity, I know you'll want to stay involved, but I'm looking forward to part of the year when we can go where and when we please without pressure from anywhere…probably with children most of the time, but sometimes a little vacation just for us. I loved taking Alexis to places I never had a chance to see when I was a kid. We travelled all over. If I had a book tour and we could work it into her school schedule. I'd always arrange a few extra days to see some specific landmark and learn something and then maybe take a side trip just to see what else was out there. I want to do that with Jamie and Jo, but this time with my wife. These children will have their mother with them."

"I'm looking forward to that, too. Victoria thinks they're going to try to talk me out of retiring, but I told her I'm not backing out of my promise to you. Can you work with at least half the year unencumbered?"

"We can squeeze a lot of spontaneity into six months a year. I don't want you to have police withdrawal or anything."

"If it works out, I'll insist whatever they give me has to be during the school year so I'm free when the kids are out of school…no more than January through June. That would give us most of the summer and Thanksgiving and Christmas."

"We can work with that," Castle said, reaching out to take her hand. "We can afford to go where we want when we want, and I want to take advantage of that now and then. It doesn't have to be constant. Being at home and not having to consider work schedules is nice, too. And when I have a long book tour, I'd like to be able to bring the comforts of home with me." The signature eyebrow wiggle appeared, and Kate laughed.

"The comforts of home would like that, too." she answered with a grin.

Before long it was time to pick Jo up, and they went to a little diner where Castle sometimes took the children for lunch after picking Jamie up. They got her the kids' favorite, a chicken nuggets meal with veggies the cook at the diner managed to make attractive to children, and a cookie…also on the list of favorites. It took an uncommonly long time for their daughter to eat it because she was so busy talking about school. They took her home afterward for a nap before they went back for Jamie. After picking Jamie up, their next stop was the ice cream shop so both children had a treat after the first day of school. This time Jamie was doing the talking. He was obviously happy with the idea of a man teaching his class, and he told them all about what Mr. Forrester said they'd be doing in the first part of the school year, and talked about his friends. Jo told Jamie about her class, too, in three year old terms, and they both laughed now and then as they talked to each other, seeming to forget their parents for a while. Kate and Castle just smiled at each other across the table, enjoying the fact that their children actually liked each other…most of the time…rather than just felt obligated to be together because they were siblings.

When they got back to the loft and Eduardo asked Jamie about his first day back at school, Jamie let him know he had a man teacher and was surprised because last year second grade was Miss Powers.

Jo had already told the doorman both before and after school that she was a big girl now and was going to school with Jamie. Kate stopped her before she was off again, but now that Jamie had his turn, Jo added, "And we got ice cream on the way home."

"Well I'm glad both of you had such good days at school," he answered. Looking at the parents, he said, "This is certainly better than having to dump them out of the bed to get them up on school days."

"Yeah. Gotta give you that one," Castle answered. "Come on, Munchkins. To the loft," He used a superhero voice and pointed toward the elevator, and they ran in that direction. Kate was already holding the elevator door for them, so he knew the kids wouldn't mow anybody down on the way.

xxxxx

Community outreach was going well for the community and the twenty-seventh. Case files were coming in looking more professional, and morale was building. Inspector Auerbach, as he had said he would, came to the precinct once a month and spent half a day following Beckett and asking for reasons she was handling things the way she did. They had attended one meeting with community leaders, and spent his time one day where she was visiting one of the bullpens talking about cases and talking to the teams. He said he would spread his visits out to gauge progress.

The morning he was there that week, she was fielding problems from several sources, mostly small ones. Most of the people they passed acknowledged her in one way or another, and everyone she spoke to about something, asked questions of, or offered suggestions to accepted it easily and respectfully. She was quick to praise but not without good reason. When he asked what the individuals or teams she praised had done, she explained.

"I've been watching what you've done with interest, Captain Beckett, and I'm impressed."

"It wasn't just me. This had been a good precinct before, and the people in it were in a slump for a while. All they needed was some encouragement to get back to business the way it used to be done, and having someone new to take the burden at the top helped them focus their attention where it needed to be. We have a ways to go, but we're getting there."

"Yes you are, and faster than we expected." He shook her hand, saying, "Thank you. I'll see you sometime next month."

"Yes, Sir."

xxxxx

The weekend before Jo's birthday, the family headed for the beach. It was a beautiful late summer day, warm and sunny. They got up early, all of them excited that Mommy would be there with them. Everyone but Kate had plenty of summer clothes there already, so there was very little packing to be done. Castle and Kate had put together a grab-it-and-run-for-the-car breakfast and some snacks, and Castle had called ahead for someone to stock the kitchen for the weekend.

When they walked inside the house, the children hardly slowed down on their way to the beach. After playing for a while and taking their walk, they spent the weekend alternately playing at the edge of the water, in the sand, or in the pool, and finding quiet things to do in the house.

The entire family returned to the loft Sunday night, tired but happy.

xxxxx

The week between the beach trip and Jo's birthday, Kate let Lieutenant Cain and Sergeant Chambers know she was taking a long lunch and stopping by the fifteenth. She took a package from the little fridge she had added to her office and took it as a gift for Captain Dohrman for being on call for her over the weekend. He thanked her for the cheesecake with a little sparkle in his eyes. "Renee never lets me bring home a whole cheesecake. I just keep eating until it's gone. But this one is a gift. Fair game." Then he asked if she'd had lunch yet.

They were on their way to a small restaurant a block away, when they saw a lot of movement ahead in a little alcove between two buildings. As they got closer, it looked like a rather large man violently shaking something that was hidden behind his body. He was close to Castle's height but had a slightly smaller build, and he looked angry. It turned out that he was shaking an elderly woman about half his size, trying to wrench her purse away from her; but she was shouting for help and refusing every time he demanded it. He finally started hitting her, backhanded her face.

"I don't have a radio," Beckett said as they moved quickly toward the trouble.

"I do, Dohrman told her, and he uncovered it from beneath his jacket, identified both of them, and called for backup.

When they got to them, the man was hitting the woman and shoving her against the wall, but she still wasn't giving up. A couple of people were shouting at the man to stop, but he didn't. Dohrman drove quickly past, and parked his wheelchair in the middle of the sidewalk behind the man, and Beckett braced for a fight on his other side. Dohrman shouted "NYPD. Stop!" Then Beckett did the same, displaying the badge on a chain around her neck. When the man turned to look at each of them, he looked like he was high on something and just growled, "I ain't afraid of a girl and a cripple." Then he turned back to the woman, who doubled down on her efforts to save her purse now that she had help. It didn't take long for the man to try to fight his way past them and to be subdued. There were people standing in a semi-circle at the street recording the melee on their phones...and applauding when the attacker was put in a squad car.

While the police and EMS took care of the aftermath, a reporter from The Ledger saw the crowd gathering from where he was eating lunch and left his food behind to see if there was a worthwhile story to be had. He walked over to the crowd and asked what was going on. Someone on the outer edge of the group that had gathered said they thought somebody was being beat up and they thought the police just took the guy away.

As he pushed farther into the crowd, it was obvious that the people on the sidewalk had been involved somehow. There was a tall woman, a man in a fancy wheelchair, a uniformed officer, and an EMS vehicle was just leaving. They seemed to be at the center of whatever had happened, but the officer was keeping people away from them. The reporter stopped a man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties, who was wearing shorts and a tank top with the name of a popular band. He didn't seem to be the least bit fashion conscious, but he was animatedly asking people around him, "Did you see that?"

He may not have presented the prettiest picture for a news story, but he was certainly enthusiastic; and the reporter asked him, "Did you see what happened?"

"Yeah, I saw all of it. It's on my phone. I just sent it to my Facebook page." His eyes were glittering with excitement. "It was awesome." He looked like he could have been a touch high on something other than excitement, too, but the reporter identified himself and asked if he could record his story for the news."

"Yeah, man. Go ahead." The young man was obviously dying to tell the story.

The phone captured a video as the reporter asked, "What's your name?"

"Mitch Gray."

"Would you tell us what you saw, Mitch?"

"Yeah. I got it all on my phone." As he talked, he gestured widely, ran his hands through his already not-ready-for-camera hair, and pointed at various things in various directions. The farther he got into the story, the closer he came to breathless with excitement.

"Okay. So I'm recording my friend, then I get distracted by this hot brunette walking beside this guy in a wheelchair and wonder how they ended up together, you know. Then I caught some action up ahead of them. This big guy's trying to take a purse from a little old lady about half his size, but she's got the strap around her, and her arms folded over it, and she's not givin' it up, not even when he gets right in her face and yells at her to. Then he tries to take it again, and he grabs her arms and he's shaking her hard trying to get it away from her. Then the brunette and the wheelchair guy see what's happening and move in. Wheelchair guy's got a radio under his coat and calls for backup, a squad car, and EMS. Then he parks his wheelchair in the middle of the sidewalk behind Big Guy and yells 'NYPD'. Then the brunette stands behind Big Guy on the other side and yells 'NYPD'. I wouldn't figure either one of 'em for cops. Anyway, Big Guy turns around and looks at them and says he ain't afraid of a girl and a cripple and blows them off. Big mistake. Wonder Woman over there knocks his feet out from under him and has him on the ground with his arm behind him like it's easy as walking. He's big and mad, though; and he manages to get back up. Wonder Woman gets up, too, and he throws her against the wall; but she comes right back. She elbows him in the gut, he gets in a couple of punches, and she lands a good one to his nose. When it looks like he's gonna hit her again, Professor X over there in the wheelchair revs it up to high gear and rams into the back of Big Guys's legs, and Big Guy falls into the Professor's lap. Wonder Woman is there in a flash while a beat cop comes racing around the corner and helps Wonder Woman get Big Guy cuffed and out of the Professor's lap. A squad car rolls up at the corner over there, and Wonder Woman and the other cop haul him to the car and everybody applauds. Then Professor X drives his wheelchair close to the wall…and I'm tellin' you, this chair does more than just roll. He does something, and it straightens out and stands him up. Wonder Woman helps him to the wall so he can lean on it, and puts the chair back to sitting. Then he tells the little old lady to sit down until the medics get here. After they get the little old lady into the ambulance, one medic checks Wonder Woman and the Professor, and Big Guy. Then they call the little old lady's daughter for her, and EMS takes her to the hospital. Wonder Woman helps the Professor back to his chair, and it's all over." He took a deep breath and finished with, "Man, it was awesome." Then he asked the reporter, "So am I gonna be on the news?"

"Oh, yeah," the reporter answered, chuckling. "It won't be on the network news right away, but it'll probably get there before long. I'm from the Ledger. We're a newspaper, but we're digital, too. You can see it at our website, probably in half an hour, maybe less. I have to get this to my editor and give him a lead in. It won't take long.

The officer had just cleared a lingering group of gawkers from the street near the sidewalk when the reporter stopped her, his pen and notepad in hand. He looked at her nametag, and asked, "Officer Patton, did you hear any of that?"

"I did. Mostly the last part."

"That guy is going to be internet gold. Can you give me the secret identities of Wonder Woman and Professor X," he asked with an amused smile."

"You'll have to speak to them, but I'm pretty sure they'd rather do that later," Patton said and turned to go back to both of her captains. "Ledger reporter at my six. I thought you'd want to know," she told them.

"We've already had enough surprises for today, and it looks like we'll be filling out incident reports instead of eating lunch. The last thing I want is to deal with is a reporter." Beckett said.

"So we go back to the precinct, get a pack of crackers and a coke, fill out incident forms, and repeat 'No comment' all the way back if he follows us?" Dohrman said with a smirk.

The crowd was already dispersing, and Patton asked mischievously, "You want an armed escort?"

"I don't want to talk to him, but I don't want you to shoot him, either," Beckett answered, looking amused. "If you have time, I'd love your company, though. What's new in your life? Anything interesting?"

"Well, I'm engaged. The bottom rung of the ladder lawyer who helped me with Mom's estate…we're still together. But he's moving up the ladder now. And I'm trying to prove to Captain Dohrman that I could be a good detective."

"You can be proud of her, Beckett. She's about to convince me. It's a little too soon right now, but probably before too much longer."

"I'll be working mostly with homicide starting next month."

Patton walked with them, and when they got close to the front door of the precinct, the reporter tried to move in again. Patton told him, "They've done enough for right now. Back off. That crazy guy gave you your story." She walked inside with the captains and made sure the reporter wasn't following them.

"Thanks for the escort, Patton," Beckett said.

Patton impulsively hugged her and said, "Gotta get back to my beat."

"It was good to see you," Beckett called after her.

The young officer flashed Beckett a smile and waved as she walked out.

Word hadn't spread to the fifteenth yet, so the two captains got their incident reports done without the hassle of being ragged over the crazy report of the incident. However, by the time Beckett got back to the twenty-seventh, there was a Wonder Woman insignia on her office door.

"Well, I guess morale is up enough they can razz the Captain now," she muttered as she went in. When she came back out to get coffee, every mouth on the homicide floor was grinning at her.

"Impressive, Captain," Pegram called out. "Was that Captain Dohrman?"

"Yeah. We thought we were going to have lunch."

"Big Guy had other plans?" Salazar asked.

"Big Guy?"

"Oh, you haven't seen the video yet, have you?" Fenn asked with an even bigger grin, if that was possible. Cain had the Ledger video open on his computer in no time and Beckett watched in a state somewhere between amusement and horror, barking a short laugh at one point. At the end, she covered her face and said, "I need that coffee worse than I thought." Moving her hands away from her face, she said, "I'm never going to live this down, am I?" The bullpen filled with grins again as Salazar handed Beckett a Wonder Woman mug.

She accepted it, looked at it, shook her head, and said, "Getting coffee. Now." As she returned to her office, she raised the mug in salute, stopped and bowed slightly, and continued walking past, leaving chuckling detectives behind her.

Castle called a few minutes after she sat down at her desk and said in an excited voice, "I'm married to Wonder Woman."

She groaned and he laughed.

"It's gone viral, hasn't it?" she asked.

"Oh, yeah. And the crazy guy did a decent job of recording the actual incident. His video and the reporter's are paired up in some places, including the Ledger's website. You and Jared were pretty impressive. Are you hurt? It looked like you were hit a few times."

"I'm okay. A bruise on my jaw and a little cut on my cheek…bruised knuckles…but his nose looked a lot worse than my knuckles. I didn't break it, but he had a good nosebleed, and it was all swollen. I sent the medic to check on him before he checked me."

"How's Jared...and the little old lady?"

"Jared seemed okay. Mrs. Frazier. Seeing her face after that man slapped her didn't leave me feeling too bad that Big Guy's nose was approaching twice its normal size. She's one tough, tiny little woman. She said she had just been to the bank and didn't have enough money to let some good-for-nothing take that much of it. She was roughed up, but I think she'll be okay. I think we got there just in time to keep it from being a lot worse, though." Then she told him about the insignia on her door.

He laughed and said he was proud of her and would look forward to time with Wonder Woman after the kids were asleep.

Jared Dohrman called Beckett the day after their incident. "Have you seen the news for the last couple of days?" he asked.

"Yeah. Looks like you're now an X-Man," she answered and laughed. "I'll bet there's X-Man stuff all over the fifteenth.

"Are you going to lie and tell me there aren't Wonder Woman symbols all over the twenty-seventh?"

"I could try, but you'd never believe me…and you'd be right. It's everywhere, but it's all been in good fun. I guess if they feel free to joke with me, I must have worked my way in. After I got back here yesterday, Rick called, partly to see if I was hurt, and partly to crow about being married to Wonder Woman."

"Renee told me to enjoy the cheesecake, that I'd earned it."

"And you did. I'm glad Big Guy didn't hurt you falling on you like that."

"I'm fine. I've had reporters calling for interviews. Some of them want us together. I'm not excited about an interview, but I thought I'd check with you before it gets any crazier."

"I'm not excited about it, either. They've identified us by name. That's enough to live with. Let's just say no unless the PR people say we have to."

"Sounds good to me." After coordinating a refusal statement, he said, "Well, that's what I called for. I'll let you get back to work, Captain Prince."

Beckett laughed and said, "I'll talk to you soon, Professor."

Both of them gave the Sergeants who fielded their calls a statement to read to anyone asking for an interview, thanking them for their interest but saying they didn't need publicity for simply doing their jobs. The PR woman, Kinnably appeared delighted to be in front of cameras again to speak for them as she verbosely represented the NYPD on their behalf.

For a couple of days, there were Wonder Woman references thrown around where Beckett could hear them and themed odds and ends in sight…a page from a comic book on the refrigerator door in the break room, another coffee mug, a pencil, even a Christmas tree ornament…a wide variety of small things left around for Beckett to find in random places and collect. She responded to all of it with good humor. By the end of the second day, it was getting a little old, but it had been fun for everybody.

When Kate got home that night, she brought dinner with her and enjoyed time with her family. Later, when they were alone for the rest of the evening, Castle took her hand and led his willing wife to the bedroom. Still teasing her about the video, he stopped at the door, ushered her in, and pressed a finger to his phone. And the theme from the old Wonder Woman TV show sounded through the room.

"Atmosphere," he explained with a grin. "You ready to do wondrous things?"

"Oh, yeah."

Later, he was on the edge of sleep with one arm wrapped around Kate, mumbling, "It's soooo good being married to Wonder Woman."

xxxxx

With Castle's next book deadlines approaching and the new precinct still pushing Kate, they decided to have Jo's birthday party at home with just the family. The parents and siblings and grandparents always had fun. There was birthday cake, ice cream, and presents, and Jo was happy and proudly telling everyone that she was three and going to school and she was a big girl now.

xxxxx

All the silliness connected to the Wonder Woman moment seemed to be a catalyst for change in the precinct. It gave everybody there a common subject to focus on just for fun. After that, there was more laughter and good natured teasing among themselves, work showed improvement, and closure numbers started to rise. Camaraderie and pride was building as well.

Morale at the twenty-seventh was growing. Even Banks and Houston's two grumpy friends were slowly getting with the program. Beckett had found that the other two lieutenants Cain had mentioned were as dependable as Cain, and some of the other lieutenants were getting back some game and beginning to prove themselves. Most of the officers were handling their jobs well. That was what their sergeant encouraged, but a couple of them had to be dealt with for excessive force, and there was a constant watch for any such incidences.

"You came home looking happy tonight," Castle said one evening.

"I feel good about the twenty-seventh. It's begun to feel like I belong there now, and we're making real progress. It's a good feeling."

He smiled and wrapped her in his arms, kissing the top of her head soundly. "I knew you could do it. It's good to see you happy and relaxed again. I'm looking forward to more of that."

She snuggled a little deeper into his arms and answered, Mmmmm… Me, too."