CH20

It is now one month later: (February)

Kate was tempted to say that for the next two weeks they had settled down to a comfortable rhythm and life became comfortable. Well as comfortable as living on an island could be.

First, one week after having sex with Rick without protection, something they hadn't done again since then, Kate had her period taking away the fear that she was pregnant. Kate had soon found that she was insatiable, she had done without for so long never really enjoying sex. Well that wasn't totally true, she did enjoy it, or at least she thought she had.

It wasn't until her heart was added into having sex that she really understood what making love to another person was really about, and she was making up for lost time. It was only her good fortune that Rick was not only keeping up with her but was actually starting something.

However he was also driving her mad. He was teasing her, getting her hot and horny only to turn around and involve Alexis in something forcing her to wait. Kate finally caught on and decided that turnabout was fair play.

"You're a tease Katherine Beckett." Rick informed her already knowing that with her libido she wouldn't tease him for long.

Kate woke to an empty bed again, not that, that happened very often. And since it didn't, Kate usually just snuggled in a little closer and woke up Rick in what had become her normal way. That was usually followed by a little fun in the shower. This time however she was forced to keep her hands to herself.

This morning however was different since she woke alone, however she still remembered what Rick had told her last night while they were cuddling close after making love again.

"I love you Captain Katherine Beckett. Maybe you don't believe me, but I'm going to find as many ways as I can to prove it to you, no matter how long it takes me. And after you finally believe me I'm still never going to stop.

I'm going to let you in on a secret Captain Katherine Beckett. I fell in love with you by reading all of those pages you left me to write you that book. … I even fell in love with one Johanna Beckett from reading all of those pages. … And while you might not believe me, but her dying hurts my heart almost as much as it does yours.

She was an amazing person and knowing how much losing her damaged your heart hurts mine even more. I vowed while I was writing to do what I could to take all that pain away. I can't give you your mother back, but I can work at giving you the life she would want you to have." Rick leaned over and kissed Kate's head.

Well since we're baring our souls, I love you too, and while I didn't fall in love with you by reading about you. I did however have Alexis who has done nothing but talk about you since we've been here.

She loves you a lot and has told me a lot of stories about you." Kate smiles remembering one of them.

"Great, I'm dead!" Rick moans knowing that Alexis knows practically everything about him.

Kate poked him in the ribs getting Rick to wince and complain. "Alexis loves you a lot and is very protective of you goof ball." Kate snuggles back in close.

"GOOF BALL?" Rick took exception to the term.

"Jackass?" Kate offers up another option.

"Jackass? … Take that back Beckett." Rick demands and pokes Kate in her ribs like she had poked him.

"No." Kate offers since it was the truth.

"Take it back Beckett." And Rick starts tickling her since he still remembered that it had worked at her birthday.

It had Kate laughing and squirming. "Take it back Beckett." Rick offers while still tickling her.

"No." Kate manages to get out between laughs while still squirming.

"Take it back Beckett." Rick asks again but never stops tickling her.

"I love you." Kate manages to tell him while using up precious air.

That did however get Rick to stop tickling her. "Besides you're my jackass." Which earns Kate a quick tickle and a long passionate kiss.

Kate was up, showered and dressed in one of her bikini's, wrap and flip flops and found Rick and Alexis in the kitchen. "And how are you two this morning?" Kate asks kissing Alexis's head and Rick on the lips.

"Today is our scheduled call into Espo so we can talk to grams and your dad." Alexis reminds her.

"Robert is tonight and Andy is tomorrow morning." Rick adds.

"I'd like to hear something new but I'm not holding my breath. I just hope the precinct is ok, if we're starting to have trouble Manhattan is likely in even worse shape." Kate was worried about that. They still didn't have any place to go if they needed to.

"Anything planned for the day?" Kate was curious, since most of the major chores had already been completed earlier.

"Nope, until the phone call are likely after it's a fun day." Rick was still trying to bring fun into Kate's life.

"Fun huh!" Kate started smiling wide and that had Alexis worried.

"Uh oh." Alexis had seen that face before. They were in trouble.

Alexis was soon sitting in back next to her dad and they were both screaming. Problem was Kate was screaming too, just for a different reason.

Kate was working at bringing the Flash up to 70 plus and was screaming at the thrill of the ride, while Alexis and Rick were aft screaming for their life.

Sometime later Kate was tying the Flash to the dock like Alexis and Rick had taught her. "You were right babe, it is a fun day." Kate gives Rick a quick kiss and chuckles as she walks for the house and one of the satellite phones, putting a little extra sway in her walk on purpose.

"We're both going to die dad." Alexis was sure Kate was mad. Not mad, mad, just mad. Or was it the other way around?

"Yeah, but what a way to die." Rick was learning new things all the time as he watches Kate walk for the house.

"Hi Espo, it's been a week, how are things?" Kate asks using speaker phone as usual.

"Beckett, it's about time you called. You can come home." Espo tells them.

That got all three of them to look shocked, so shocked that none of them had a voice.

"Beckett, you still there Beckett?" Espo asks after too much silence.

"We can, … we can come home?" Kate finds her voice first.

"Not today of course but soon. Likely a month or so maybe." Espo put the brakes on their celebration.

"They found a cure?" Kate asks, not believing it, but praying that it was the truth.

"Not a cure exactly. Seems they worked out that the infected need an un-infected body to bite and infest with their disease. If you are already infected with another disease they seem to know this and not bite you.

They're calling it invisibility, since they don't even know you're there. So they are working on making shots to give everyone a disease. One that can be cured and isn't fatal. It's just that they need time to make that many shots." Espo explains.

"So we need shots to get this disease so we can come home. … How are we going to get these shots?" Kate asks.

"That's one of the things that we're still working on. Places that are already clean are going to be last to get the shots delivered. The idea is to prevent further spread of the disease, plus they need farmers working their crops, so we can process them into new food.

I don't know about you, but Manhattan is almost sucked dry. Our once a day meals have gotten smaller and simpler since we lost power. Our latest search of the local restaurants didn't turn up much. Plus the water stopped flowing yesterday, so our rations have spread to water now too." Espo didn't like it, but they needed to last just a little longer.

Rick bent down to the phone. "We'll try and bring what we can when you clear us to leave." Rick knew that for the three of them they still had a lot of the basics, especially meat and fruit. It was the vegetables that they were getting really short on. Like a couple of weeks at best kind of short.

"That would be great, by then we will likely need it. I'd say you missed all the action Beckett, but in a way I'm glad you're there and not here.

And if you come back with a tan I am so going to hurt you." Espo teased trying to make it sound like he meant it.

Kate turned to look at Rick and Alexis and then at herself. They all had heavy tans since they were outside a lot. Hunting, fishing, recreation, maintenance, inspections of the tents, boats, plane. Even the solar panels on the roof got looked at and washed off almost weekly.

Kate chickened out. "Is my dad there?" Kate changed the subject.

"He wouldn't actually hurt us, would he?" Rick asks not know much about Espo.

"It's more Lanie that I'm worried about." Kate knew that she was going to take a serious pasting when Lanie saw her. Especially when she screwed up and called Rick, babe or Alexis, honey. She may not be able to hear for weeks, and that's if she was still breathing.

Kate spent a few short minutes talking to her dad to find out how he is doing. "Still mad at me honey?" Jim scrunched his face even if Kate couldn't see it.

Kate knew just what he was talking about. "No dad, not anymore." Kate fought to keep the blush that was starting on her face since Rick and Alexis were sitting right next to her.

"Martha has told me a lot about Rick, Katie, …." Jim stops when he hears Rick moan "Oh god!"

"It's all good son, you've had quite the colorful life." Jim had heard a lot like Kate was learning from Alexis.

"It's all lies sir, all lies." Rick was deftly afraid of what his mother was telling him.

It did however have Jim chuckling. "You're safe Richard dear; I haven't told him about the time that you stole a police horse while naked." Martha lets slip and doesn't even notice.

"Borrowed mother, borrowed." Rick corrects her statement.

Kate turns on Rick. "Naked Castle?" Alexis hadn't told her about that one yet. "You and I need to talk." Kate looks at Alexis.

"Jim!?" Rick pleads.

"Be nice Katie or I'll tell Rick about what you did for your prom instead of going to the dance." Jim threatened.

"DAD!?" Kate knew it wasn't what she had done instead of going to the dance it was what she did AFTER that.

"Tit for tat Katie." Jim reminds her, that the sword she was thinking of using had two sides.

Kate moaned. "Fine dad, but we never talk about this again. … Ever."

"You can tell grams Jim and I can get it from grams." Alexis speaks up for the first time.

"ALEXIS HARPER CASTLE!" Kate glares at her, only to hear Jim and Martha laughing on the other side through the phone.

The rest of the call was them finding out that to make the heating oil last as long as possible they had the heat turned way down, so that it was cold in the building. Just not as cold as it was outside.

Meals were still small and only once per day. And with the water off, they were rationing it too. Showers were out now even though they had showers upstairs just off of the exercise room. There weren't a lot of them so they had created a schedule on who and when they could be used.

Now they were down to using a wash cloth to clean themselves with and laundry was almost nonexistent. Montgomery had relented and let a large team go out looking for winter clothing and came back with only a little.

Another team had been sent out for more personal items. Those it turned out were more easy to find. They had even found a few space heaters that worked off of electricity. Downside was they only had these little Honda generators and most of those were being used to keep the refrigerator/freezers going.

With a little work they managed to consolidate the food and free up a few of the generators for heating. It's just that they were using up the last of the gasoline from their sole tanker that still had gas.

The 54th at the hospital was a little better off. Their big generator worked off of diesel which lasted longer than normal gas, though even they were starting to get worried.

They might be free of infection, but they were slowly suffering. This needed to end soon, really soon.

"WE GET TO GO HOME!" Alexis even though 16 with a birthday in a month, starts hopping and clapping.

Kate soon found herself wrapped up by Alexis. "Where do we live when we go home? We don't have a home, I sold everything." Rick points out.

"Your old place might be empty or you could stay with me. Even if I do only have the one bed. … There is a sofa." Kate offered.

"We'll think of something. Hotels have rooms with beds, even if we do have to climb the stairs to get to it. We're really going to have to plan, no food, no water, no heat, no electricity. … Even if we can leave do we wait for things to be better? And I don't mean perfect, that's likely going to take years.

Unless Kate here knows how to wiggle her nose and make things happen." Rick points out.

"Or clap her arms together and blink really hard." Alexis was grinning wide and joins her dad to stare at Kate.

"And I don't have a black hat, black cat or a wort on my nose either." Kate points out knowing just who these two were referring to. "And I don't think your name is Darrin babe, or Tony."

"Have you even tried to …. " Rick stops when he sees the look Kate is giving him, wondering where the closest gun is and if he can get to it first to save his life. She wouldn't shoot him with Alexis standing right there, would she?

"We already know how much cargo the plane can handle since we've done it a couple of times." Rick points out.

"We may need to delay going back for another reason. … It's winter there, and likely snow and ice. What if the runway is filled with both? Who's going to clear it for us to land?" Alexis points out, since she was the pilot.

"SHIT!" Kate curses, since she hadn't thought of that. "And if we sit there too long who's going to de-ice us to take off again even if we wanted to?"

"So we wait as long as we can." Rick resigns himself to staying here longer.

"It sounds like they could use what supplies we could bring them." Kate points out not ready to give up yet.

"And they've got just under 300 people staying in the precinct, with desks piled on top of each other to create floor space to sleep on. People are even sleeping in the basement Kate. What we could take wouldn't feed all of them even one meal. Our plane just isn't that big." Rick understands, but they only have just so much.

"Our boat will only reach Miami and carry even less cargo." Alexis adds.

Kate started cursing silently, there just had to be a solution to this problem. "We have until they call us Kate. … Until then we think about it and create a list on what to load the plane with, besides us and clothes." Rick offers his opinion.

CLOTHES!? Kate hadn't even seen her clothes in months, they probably needed to be washed before she wore them again. Plus how would they clean them again if they went home? No water, no electricity, no food.

They decided to wait until they talked with Espo again next week to see what kind of timing they had to work with and what they wanted to do. Staying here was going to become very difficult to do eventually. Just was going home going to be better?

It is now one month later:

The three of them were running around all over trying to accomplish any number of things. Alexis was overseeing the loading of the plane, knowing just how much cargo it could hold and where to store it. While Kate and Rick were loading the golf cart and trailer with what was left of their food out of the pantry.

They also filled 3 coolers, all the coolers they had, with all the pork and some of the shark that was in their freezers.

In addition they were taking all of their weapons along with all of the ammunition.

Rick had shown Kate how to close the hurricane shutters on the house and lock them in place. So the two of them were walking around pulling all of them down save for one.

Kate found Rick inside the house. Kate stepped up behind him and wrapped her arms around him. "What babe?"

"Just thinking, … patio furniture, grill, smoker are all tied down. The solar hot water is turned off. All the breakers are off, so the windmills will simply be keeping the batteries charged and keep sending electricity to the freezers.

All the radio equipment is off. The quad and everything is all locked up. The boats are all tied up to the dock, all 5 of them now." Rick runs down their list one last time.

"That's not it babe and you know it." Kate buried her head into his back.

"It's just that a lot has happened here. I found inspiration to write again, all thanks to you and your mother. … I found you." Rick spins in Kate's arms and looks into her eyes.

"I had long ago given up finding anyone that I was actually going to love like I love you." Rick opens up.

"You're not losing me Rick. We may be moving back to New York, but I'm not giving up on either you or Alexis. You both mean far too much to me to lose you now. Maybe one day I'll even feel like I'm Alexis's mother, she so deserves one." Kate lifted up to place a quick kiss to Rick's lips.

It got Rick to smile. "Really? … You don't have to you know. I know that Alexis, ..." Rick stops talking when Kate places a finger on his lips.

"I love her Rick, just as much as I love you. I don't mean tomorrow, but someday hopefully. … Come on we have a plane to catch, and we don't have to go through security." Kate grinned and grabbed Rick's hand and pulled him outside.

With the final hurricane shutter down and locked in place they walked for the plane. "No pat downs and no radiation machines as they try to turn the populace all infertile." Rick laughs and watches Kate walk up the stairs.

"I feel funny wearing clothes again." Kate states as she sits down in the seat next to Alexis just like she was on the way out here.

"It does feel weird doesn't it? Not to mention where we are going is going to be cold and we don't have any winter clothes or coats." Alexis laughs a little.

"It's going to take some getting used to, to wear my high heel boots again." Kate laughs a little.

Kate watched Alexis start flipping switches and heard the engines start up one at a time, just before she put on her headset like Alexis was already wearing.

Kate watched as Alexis took them down to the far end of the runway and applied the brakes.

"Here we go." Alexis states and pushes a pair of levers on the middle console far forward. However they didn't go anywhere and just as Kate started to question Alexis, Alexis let go of the brakes and they shot down the runway and were airborne in no time.

Kate was silent as she just watched Alexis work the controls and watched the three color screens.

About half way into their flight Kate could see Alexis talking. "Who are you talking to?" Kate asks finally, only to have Alexis point.

Kate looked and found that just off their port side was an F/A-18E Super Hornet.

"They wanted to know who we were and where we are going and if we had shots waiting for us when we land." Alexis informs Kate.

Kate remained quiet and let Alexis handle it all, still very impressed with her. Kate had learned a lot in the last few months, and was looking forward to learning still more about both of them.

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This ends book one of what I think will be a three book series. Each is likely to have roughly the same number of chapters.

Keep your eyes open since it will have a slightly different name.

Happy reading! Mine or someone else's, since there is a lot to read.

Thank you to everyone!