G'Day groovers.
I normally play around in a very strange and an especially padded corner of the Chuck 'verse. This is my first foray outside the safety of that sand box. For those of you who don't know me, and I'm assuming that'll be most of you, I should provide a little back ground.
Over in the Chuck side of things, there is a very funny author called Wepdiggy, who created the 'Adorable Psycho' persona for Sarah.
In The Adorable Psycho versus The Doppelganger it is revealed that Sarah/AP loves a TV show called 'Sam.' The show seems to be a fictionalised version of their own lives, a super secret agent and her asset, Sam. The two love each other, but well you should get the idea.
Once upon a time, I figured that if there was a show, then there would be fan fiction for that show. So what would happen if one of the characters wrote fiction for that show...
Episode 3.18, when Beckett let slip she knew some of our secret code words. Well, I had this silly idea...
I don't own Castle et al.
Wepdiggy owns Sam.
My thanks to MyNameIsJeffNImLost for letting me bounce ideas of him.
Kate versus The Fan Fiction.
"Castle... What are you doing here?"
Richard Castle stood in the now open doorway to Beckett's apartment. He looked apologetic, but he could do that, and still be... Castle.
"Sorry, I just had a thought. We've still got a hole in our time line. Barnes and Patel's alibis are feeble, at best" he said as he came into the room. "Rather like the pair of them, actually."
"Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow? I don't have all that much down time Castle, and the time I do have, I like to..."
"It's just... you said something the other day, when we were at the soap opera crime scene. And when I mentioned it to Alexis, she suggested... she thought you might be..."
"What, Castle?" she stood very still, her expression dangerously neutral.
Richard Castle had an inordinate number of powerful women in his life. His daughter, his mother, the ex-wives ... Beckett herself...
And when they got that look, well it was time to check that all the knives were still in the block, and cover the wedding tackle. And there was a firearm around this apartment, somewhere.
He tried to adopt his 'isn't it a silly idea' pose "It's just that, Alexis thought you may be..."
Silence. Daggers.
"Maybewritingfanfiction" he blurted. One eye half closed, ready for the onslaught.
Her body stiffened. Then she tried to act normally "That's..." she backed away, Castle following her, as she oh so casually closed her laptop screen "...preposterous" she concluded with a challenging stare.
"Preposterous huh?" he tried to reach past her "Then, what have we...Ow! Leggo! Ow! Ow! Ow!"
"Castle? Boundaries, remember?" she released his thumb. To her credit, it was only a small smirk.
"So, that Word document you have open there, is purely ... work related? Despite the fact that it seems to have a manuscript-y layout?" he tried his thumb out, it seemed to be still working.
She whipped from his face to the computer, and back. It was possible he'd seen it when he came in...
"Ah Ha! I haven't seen a face that guilty since... well, since my mother found I'd ..."
"I don't want to know!"
"You see, I was seventeen, and a bit of a late..."
"Castle! No! Don't open that!" the bastard had distracted her so he could get back to her computer. She was too late.
"Oh. Dear. Lord." He intoned.
"Castle, that's private..."
"And yet you're planning on posting this on the Internet... so it can't be all that private" damn that smirk of his.
"It's... not finished yet." Ok, that sounded lame, even to her.
All this time, there had been a simultaneous silent slapping contest going on as she tried to close the laptop, shove him away while he did the opposite. It wasn't fair his arms were so long.
"Mmmm hmmm" he managed while he perused her magnum opus.
"Castle, I'm not comfortable with you..."
"Noo... it's... It's gooo-ood."
"Gee, thanks Castle" said she 'twixt gritted teeth.
"If you like, I could..." her stare forced him to peter out.
"Richard Castle. I am not a professional writer. This is a website for fans of the show. Fans. And I'll have you know that the woman whose work got me hooked on this, is a fan of mine" she stood with her arms crossed, after slamming her laptop closed.
"It's just..." he looked around and sat on the couch "OK. Tell me about this show."
She sighed. He wasn't going anywhere. And short of un-handcuffing her gun from the bed head...
"Your not going to let up, are you?"
He shook his head.
"It's called Sam. It's about a regular guy who ends up with government secrets. And the CIA sends Clair to kill him and recover the secrets..."
"...But they fall in love. But they can't. Yes I know it. One of the writers is a friend of mine. Well, he went to the same school as me. I love that show. It's got that gun happy grunt from that cancelled space cowboys series... I'm surprised that it is still going, though. X-Files proved once you resolve the sexual tension, the ratings go..."
"That was because of stupid season three! Special Agent Kent!" Kate almost spat.
"Who? Oh yes, Mathew Bomer. The guy who single headedly killed off the last Superman movie. So, what's your plot?"
Beckett was a tad flummoxed. He seemed to be genuinely interested. Not in his normal single entendre-annoy-Kate-Beckett-like-I'm-a-school-boy-and-I-like-her kind of way.
"Beck... Kate. Remember what I do for a living? I'm lucky enough to do something I'm good at, and get paid ridiculous amounts of money for it" he had a cheeky grin "When I first discovered writing, well it was a... good feeling. Scary as hell when I was first published..."
"Tell me about it... I mean nothing like what you must have felt, but... I've had all sorts of guns pointed at me... but putting my first story up was the scariest thing I've ever done."
"Annnd, I'm guessing, you liked the results...Its habit forming" he encouraged her.
"OK, why are you being so nice all of a sudden? Who are you, and what have you done with Rick Castle?"
"Kate, you are a very private person. I thought I saw something, and..."
"If this is some plot to ..." her clenched teeth ground out "Heat" with some heat.
He was surprisingly calm "No. It's just... like it or not Kate, you are my friend. I just wanted to know a little something about my friend."
"Not for publication" she clarified "and not for those two gossip merchants at work."
"Hey! It's me!" he tried his best Han Solo.
"My point exactly."
He managed the rare feat of looking hurt and proud at the same time.
"How well do you know the show?" she sighed.
"I may have seen he first two seasons three or four times" he admitted "and have the rest on my iPhone."
"Nothing to do with that Australian actress wearing short skirts all the time, I'm sure."
"Actually, Mother and Alexis love her. She kicks ass. Literally. Mind you, the taekwondo fizzled out after she got hit the first time. Alexis, that is."
They shared a smile.
"So, plot?" he repeated.
"Well, its..."
"If you say 'complicated,' you get two Brownie points." That rated a smile from her.
"OK. It's a little bit AU. That means... and of course you know what that means. OK, say at the end of season two, instead of staying, Claire gets sent on a mission..."
"Ah, potential for lots of angst-y 'did she ever really love me' and hand wringing. With her thinking longingly, yet unable to..."
"Fine. So I'm not a real author."
"No, this... this could be fun." He rubbed his hands together.
"Castle, this is for me. It's my... hobby. I just do this for fun."
"And I'm going to make you better. Come one Kate, you have a professional on tap" he pointed at his own chest.
"It's just... Castle, thank you but this doesn't feel comfortable. I don't feel comfortable. Yes, you're right, I am going to put this up so others can read it, but..."
"No, I get it. It's personal. While you are writing, it is a very personal thing. You use elements of your own life, your experiences. You should know about that, after what I've done to you. I mean Nikki. And even though you are going to hold this up to the whole world, while you're still working on it... I don't like it when Alexis reads it until I'm ready. Mother doesn't even bother waiting." He did his little 'I've got a mouth-full of bad chutney' shudder.
"Castle, thank you for the offer, but this is mine. I've got this. Good night."
"OK, well, good night then. Tomorrow?"
"See you tomorrow, Castle."
When he was alone in the lift, he searched for Sam Fan Fiction on his phone. He should be able to figure out Beckett's stories from the others...
-o0o-