Castle had just sat down when it happened.

"Sergeant Malcolm Reynolds. You are to come with us."

He could feel their eyes on his back. He took a deep breath and stood slowly, Beckett looked at him curiously.

"Castle-"

Then in one swift motion he grabbed Beckett's sidearm and swung round to face the two Alliance men. They too had their guns pointed at his chest.

Why? Why would they come for him now, after all these years? Well, at least he could be thankful that there weren't many people in the station. If this turned into a shoot off less people would be hurt. Actually, the only people here were Beckett and the boys. They were all working late on a case, but when had everyone else left? But now was not the time to think about this, he had to focus.

"Put your gun down Sergeant," one of the officers said in Chinese. They had obviously realized that he had changed his name and had switched languages to avoid suspicion.

"Not happening officer," he said, "What's all this about? I'm out of harms way here. Why is the Alliance sending two important looking guys on a no return trip for little old me, eh?"

"Castle what's going on? Give me my gun. Officer's put your weapons down," ordered Beckett but they ignored her.

"Put your gun down Sergeant Reynolds," repeated the Officer.

"It's just Richard Castle now actually. Now what are you doing here? Unless…the Alliance has found a way to travel forward in time as well as back? Oh that is brilliant. But why would you come and get me? Unless something's happened back home?"

Apparently they'd had enough of this chatter. They pointed at Ryan and Esposito who had drawn their guns and had been pointing that at the floor, unsure who's side to be on because they couldn't understand.

"Officers. Please direct you're guns at this man. He is to be brought into our custody," said an Officer.

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other, then at Castle and slowly they began to point their guns at him. He didn't blame them. After all they had to follow orders and didn't understand the situation. Beckett began to back away from Castle, unsure what else to do. He supposed he looked like the bad guy to them, after all he had drawn his (or rather Beckett's) gun first and he was resisting arrest.

When all of this was happening though he had never looked away from the Officers. If he did-

"Dad!" cried Alexis from the doorway behind him. His head snapped back in reaction and then BANG! One of the Officers fired off a shot. It went through his shoulder but the only thing he could think to do was to tackle her to the ground to make sure she was safe. Dammit! He hadn't wanted to drag her into this!

Sheltering behind Beckett's desk he did the only thing he knew, he shot back. He could hear Beckett shouting and Ryan and Esposito too, but he ignored them. He could feel blood running down his shoulder but he ignored that too. Soon the Officers were shooting back but he had the advantage. He'd been in fire fights before, they, obviously, hadn't.

He peered over the desk and fired another shot, taking down one Officer. He heard the other man swear in Chinese and continue to fire. He felt a tugging on his injured arm and saw Alexis pulling at his arm.

"Dad what are you doing! Stop!" she shouted.

And he did. He was scaring his Alexis. But still he had to stop them. They knew he had a daughter now. She was in danger if they ever caught them.

"I'm sorry sweetheart," he said, kissing her forehead.

"Sergeant Reynolds, you are to come with me immediately to Alliance headquarters and await your punishments for the crimes you have committed. I am placing you under arrest."

He took a deep breath.

"I really am sorry," he whispered, and fast as lightning he peered around the edge of the desk and fired off one shot, which took the remaining Officer by surprise and got him straight in the chest. He was dead before he hit the ground.

When he stood up fully it was to see Ryan, Esposito and Beckett (who had managed to find a gun, it would seem) pointing their guns at him. They all had steely looks in their eyes. He looked at Alexis, the food that she had brought him was scattered on the floor. She looked terrified and was crying.

"Castle, put the gun down," said Beckett.

"Can't do that Kate," he said.

"Why not Castle? You planning on shooting us too?" asked Esposito.

"Of course not, guys. I wouldn't shoot you-"

"Well, you seemed to have no problem shooting them," said Beckett.

He ignored her. Instead he turned to Alexis who immediately stepped back, which made him wince.

"I'm so sorry, Alexis," he said, letting some of his accent through. "You don't have to point those at me ya know. I'll be out of yer hair soon enough."

"Castle you are under arrest for-"

"Yeah, yeah. Killing these guys. Right. Now Kate, take care of Alexis. Promise me you'll take care of her," he said.

"Wait! Dad, where are you going?" asked Alexis.

"Somewhere," was his answer as he took off the time travelling device from the man and putting it on himself.

"Whoa, whoa! Dude, what is that?" asked Esposito.

"It's a device that will allow me to return home," he said, fiddling with some knobs.

"Home?"

"Well not 'home' exactly. But someplace that used to be home. It's a really long story."

"Castle if you don't put that gun down right now-"

"Well. I probably won't be seeing you. I love you Alexis," said Castle and he flicked a switch and all was black.

F_I_R_E_F_L_Y_C_A_S_T_L_E

When he woke, he was on the ground, but he wasn't alone. Around him were the unconscious bodies of Beckett, Ryan, Esposito and Alexis. But that didn't make sense. Only he should have moved through time, not them! Looking around he saw he was on Ariel, which was just peachy considering that it was an Alliance planet and he was surrounded by unconscious people. He had to move them. If the Alliance got a hold of them…but they didn't trust him anymore.

Just then Beckett groaned and soon the others were joining her in making as much unnecessary noise as possible.

"Where are we?" asked Alexis.

"Shhh. Do you want to get caught?" hissed Castle.

They hadn't noticed him hiding in the shadows up until that point and Beckett and the boys immediately pointed their guns at him.

"Put those away. You need me right now. Listen we need to move-"

"Why should we listen to you? Where are we?" asked Beckett.

Sighing Castle said, "You are on a planet named Ariel. An Alliance planet I should mention, so unless you want to get arrested I suggest we keep quiet and put the guns away!"

"A planet! Come on Castle. I don't know how you played that trick to get us here but do you really expect me to believe we are on a different planet. Please Castle, you're a better liar than that," said Beckett.

"Hey Beckett. Check this out," said Ryan in an awed and frightened sort of voice.

They all rushed over to peer out the curtain that was concealing them from the outside world. Castle, who had hung back, could imagine what they were seeing. A gigantic city with spaceships flying casually in the air, people in strange mixtures of clothing walking the streets and he knew they would believe him now.

They were on another planet.

"Oh. My. God," said Alexis.

"Yes it's quite fascinating, but could we please put the curtain back in place before some Officers see us?" said Castle softly.

Beckett turned back and looked at Castle in a funny way that made him think that they might believe him to some degree, but they still didn't trust him.

"If what you say is true," she said, letting the curtain fall back into place, "Why shouldn't I hand you into the authorities?"

"Because," he said sliding down the rickety back wall, "You would effectively be handing yourselves over to 'the authorities' as well."

"But we're police officers too Castle. We could just explain-"

"Beckett it's not as simple as that. They would have you killed too."

"Whoa! When did this escalate to killing?" asked Alexis, who was quite pale.

But Castle couldn't answer. This entire sitting around business had let his adrenalin wear off and he was coming to realize things. Firstly he had been shot!

He could only groan and could feel himself losing consciousness.

"Hey Castle! Stay awake!" he heard Beckett saying and he could feel someone slapping him.

"'m wake," he said groggily opening his eyes again.

"Let me take look at that shoulder," said Beckett.

"You wanna play nurse, Beckett? That's cool, but a bit more privacy would be good," he slurred.

"Shut up, Castle." He watched as Beckett frowned, looking at his wound.

"We need to get you to a hospital," she said.

"Nope. Not happening," he said.

"Castle, don't argue. You have a very serious bullet wound and-"

"Oh this is not a serious bullet wound. I have had much worse, believe me," he said sitting up.

"What do you mean, bro?" asked Esposito.

"Long story-"

"Everything's a long story with you lately," he said heatedly.

"Look. I will tell you everything at a later date, but the only things you need to know right now is that we need to leave as soon as possible. If the Alliance catches us we're dead. Now help me up," he said and Ryan and Beckett helped him up and he looked around. They were in a small house. So the fiddling he'd done with the controls and sorta worked. He wasn't in the middle of the city but on the outskirts it would seem. But still, they couldn't stay here forever. The occupants would come home soon.

Searching he found what he needed. With some help he got his shirt off and some gauze wrapped around his shoulder.

"Funny, this stuff just lying around," said Ryan, as he wrapped Castle's shoulder.

"Almost every house has some gauze here," said Castle.

"This is a house!" said Beckett.

"Yep."

"Someone lives here!" said Ryan.

"More than one someone I would think," he said, going through a pile of clothing. He couldn't find a shirt that would fit him so he put his own back on and put a coat he had found on to cover his wound.

"You can't just take that Castle," said Beckett.

"Sure I can." He could tell she was about to protest when Alexis interrupted.

"Dad. I know you said that this was another planet and I believe you. But how do you know about it if noone else back home does? Where are we exactly?"

"That would be because only two people I know of back home know of this places existence and I'm one of them."

"But why would you know about it? Why were you living on Earth if you knew of this place?"

"This planet isn't the only one. There is an entire solar system of inhabited planets," he told her.

"What! How can people not know this place exists! If you've been to Earth, does that mean they, the Alliance, know about Earth?"

"Of course they know about Earth. Every person here's ancestors lived on Earth," he told them.

"But how can they know about Earth and we not know about them?" Esposito asked.

Peering around the curtain to check the coast was clear he looked back at them. They marginally trusted him, he could see. They all looked so frightened and what he was about to say was not going to make that fear go away.

"We're several hundreds of years in the future. Didn't I mention that?"

F_I_R_E_F_L_Y_C_A_S_T_L_E