Written for the Journey Story Big Bang on livejournal. The story has a bit of a fantasy/sci-fi/suspend your belief in reality tinge to it.

Check out the beautiful story artwork by hutcherie: hutcherie . livejournal . com / 11295 . html

Note: None of these characters are mine

An Eastern Exposure

Chapter 1 – An Eastern Exposure

Kate Beckett woke up to the sun on her face, which, as anyone with an eastern facing bedroom window can tell you, is a rather pleasant sensation. Keeping her eyes screwed shut against the bright light, she stretched a little before sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of the bed. She stood up and took two steps before slamming face first into a bureau.

You see, Kate Beckett doesn't have an eastern facing bedroom window.

Kate's eyes popped open wide with surprise as she reached out a hand to steady herself on the bureau. Her mind instantly flashed back to her college days when she'd woken up in a stranger's bedroom far more times than she'd care to admit. Grimacing at her own stupidity, she took a quick look over her shoulder towards the bed.

"Shit!" Kate swore loudly, thumping her forehead down on the top of the bureau.

There was a rustle of sheets from the bed behind her, and she swore again, this time quieter, but the damage was already done.

"Kate?" Castle sat up in the bed and peered at her through bleary, (dare she say it) sleep-deprived eyes.

"This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening." Kate muttered to herself, her words muted slightly by the wood of the bureau.

"You look cute in my boxers," Castle commented nonchalantly. Kate vehemently ignored him.

"These are nice sheets," he said a moment later. "How did I end up here? How did we end up here? This is not how I remember last night ending. Wish I could remember. I didn't think I'd had that much to drink. Certainly wouldn't have wanted to forget this. Wow, ouch, where did that come from? Your nails must be sharp. Kind of hurts…" He rambled on and on randomly, seemingly unaware of her distress. She would have pegged him as a suave morning-after type, but apparently she was wrong. "You've got a nice bedroom. I totally had you pegged as a blue and white kind of girl. Very Cape Cod of you."

His words filtered in through the din of her mortification, and she turned towards him suddenly.

"My bedroom?" She wrinkled her brow, confused.

Castle's brow immediately mimicked hers. "Um, yes?"

"Open your eyes sleeping beauty; we're in your bedroom."

Castle glanced around, and then shook his head at her. "For a Detective, this is a little worrisome. I don't wear those," he pointed a line of high heels resting by the door, "or those," he gestured towards few pairs of lacy underwear resting on top of a full laundry basket, "and she is definitely not my mother." He gestured towards a picture frame on the nightstand next to Kate's hip. She picked up the photo and stared down at the smiling faces of herself and her mother from years before.

"This isn't your bedroom?"

"No, definitely not. I'm not really understanding the confusion here."

"Castle, this is definitely not my bedroom either." He still looked confused, so she pointed out the window. "Look. This isn't even my street."

Castle made to get up from the bed. "Wait!" Kate shouted at him and he froze in place. She turned her back to him and returned her forehead to comfort of the bureau. "I believe I'm wearing your boxers, which means you most decidedly are not."

Chapter 2 – A Predicament

When Kate turned around, Castle had pulled on his jeans and was sitting on the edge of her bed, "Now that we're both decent, shall we address the problem at hand? Shouldn't you have your gun out by now?"

Kate rolled her eyes at him. "For goodness sakes, Castle. No matter what happened last night, I'm sure I was a willing participant. I'm not actually going to shoot you."

His mouth twitched for a moment as he fought not to smile at her words, but then his eyes grew serious. "Not exactly the problem I was referring to, though I would very much like to discuss this further. But first, maybe we should figure out to whom this bedroom belongs? Especially since neither of us seems to remember how we got here."

Kate stared at him for a moment as his words sunk in. Then in an instant she was lunging for her gun which rested on the nightstand. "Shit! Where the hell are we?" She made her way to the door, pressing her ear against it and beckoning Castle to move to the other side.

On her signal, Castle whipped open the door and Beckett advanced quickly into the hallway.

Beckett stopped dead. "What the hell?"

Castle moved out of the doorway to stand next to her. They stared at the scene in front of them.

"Beckett? This looks like - "

Kate cut him off. "I'm well aware of what this looks like, Castle."

They were standing in her apartment, which was only worrisome for one reason - it had been blown to smithereens over a year ago.

Flabbergasted, Kate and Castle walked slowly through the apartment. Everything looked like it had a year ago before the explosion. Maybe there was a blanket on the couch she didn't recognize, or a few magazines she didn't remember subscribing to, but overall, nothing stood out. They were in her old apartment, as unbelievable as it may be.

Their last stop on the apartment tour was the kitchen, where Kate leaned against the counter, and closed her eyes momentarily. When she opened then, she noticed something she'd missed before. Kate sprang forward and snatched a bottle of tequila off the countertop near the sink.

"What is this?" she asked accusingly, spinning around and shaking the bottle at him.

The tag hanging from the bottle was swinging wildly as Kate moved, but Castle could just make out the neat line of script.

I hear there's a thunderstorm brewing. Want to relive old memories? - Rook

Kate stalked towards Castle menacingly, brandishing the bottle like a weapon. "Is this some sort of sick joke?"

He raised his hands in defense. "Kate, think about this," he said, moving away from her slowly. "I swear I did not erase your memory and then reconstruct your exploded apartment down to the very last detail. I'm a little bit eccentric at times, but I'm not insane."

She glared at him for a moment, until her eyebrows began to furrow in thought. Slowly, she took a step back and shook her head as though to clear it. "You're right, that would be insane. Even for you. Sorry."

At that moment, her cell phone started ringing loudly in the bedroom.

"Saved by the bell," said Castle, melodramatically swiping the back of his hand across his forehead.

"Beckett." Kate answered the phone, all business despite the fact that she was standing in an apartment that didn't exist. She listened for a few moments, and then jotted an address down on a scrap of paper.

"We'll meet you two there in twenty. Oh, and Esposito, quit the Nikki Heat bit. This is definitely not the morning for it." She snapped the phone shut, annoyed.

"Let's go, Castle."

"But," Castle stammered, gesturing to the apartment.

"I know, but murder calls. We'll figure out the meaning behind this little joint hallucination of ours later. Go find your shirt."

Castle saluted her and headed towards the bathroom. When he reached the door, he turned and winked at her. Nodding towards the boxers she was still wearing, he said, "Oh, and Beckett, I'm going to need those too."

Thanks for reading!