Chapter One
"Look at what's happened to me,
I can't believe it myself;
Suddenly I'm up on top of the world,
Should've been somebody else."
Believe It Or Not, Performed by Joey Scarbury
Music: Mike Post Lyrics: Stephen Geyer
Long Island Expressway
May 2014
"Hey lover. How close are you?" Kate asked through his cell phone.
"Twenty minutes." Castle responded, "And you'll be happy to know things went smoothly with the judge. You are a free woman."
Kate sighed in happiness over the phone at this news, Rick knew that the last couple of days had been and emotional roller coaster for both of them, but especially Kate since she'd found out to her horror she had been married to Rogan O'Leary for the past fifteen years. Not to mention that the man had known the truth all this time and not even so much as warned her until he wanted something from her, the skeevy little bastard.
"But not for long." Rick interjected, "I've got everything squared away and will be there soon. Oh, and Kate?"
"Yeah?" Kate responded happily
"I love you." Rick said without reservation.
"I love you, too." she said back with equal conviction.
Rick smiled broadly after hanging up and set his phone back in the charger to check his hair in the rear-view mirror. As his hand moved to his scalp, he noticed a black sedan quickly getting too close to his rear bumper for comfort. He mashed his foot down on the accelerator to speed up, but the car behind him sped up up to compensate.
Without warning, the car slammed into the back of his once, but he'd blunted the impact at the last second by accelerating again, just enough for him to keep control. He cranked the wheel to veer away, but the black sedan came on again, striking the back corner of the car and he lost control, swerved hard and his car punched through the guide rail, over an embankment and down into the concrete berm of a rain culvert.
Half a second before the car hit bottom and burst into flames, his unconscious body was swathed in blue light and disappeared like he was never there.
That same moment
Somewhere near Baltimore
Rachel McCord knew she was in deep shit.
Her latest assignment for the AG special task force had her investigating the threat of nuclear material being smuggled into the U.S. through the port of Baltimore. The nuclear material angle had been a bust the tip had to be investigated, but it was simply bad intel from a little fish trying to cut a deal. Her investigation had gone from bad to worse quickly anyway, however as she tried to extricate herself from the situation.
As it turns out, the Russian mob, on general principal, takes a dim view of federal agents poking around their human trafficking and prostitution rings. Hence her current predicament.
No matter how McCord looked at it, her immediate future looked bleak. This situation couldn't get any worse actually from her perspective, considering she was bound hand and foot with her own zip ties in the back seat of her car inside a weighted shipping container sinking into the Atlantic Ocean. Most likely in international waters, if she were to hazard a guess.
She began to look back on the last decade or so and wondered where her life had gone wrong as the oxygen slowly began to run out. (leading her to wonder just how long she'd been in the container for that to be the case) Maybe she'd let this job consume her life for a little too long. Maybe her former protege, Kate Beckett had the right idea after all... find a good man who would have her back no matter what and settle down. Or maybe while she was looking for "Mr. Right", at least have a lot of fun with a "Mr. Right Now" or two.
She wondered idly if anyone aside from her mother would even remember her name after this death ride was over and she was interrogating Saint Peter. The kind of thoughts she'd heard that one typically has right before the end.
As she slipped into unconsciousness, her body was bathed in blue light and she disappeared seconds before the container reached crush depth and imploded.
Two Months Later
80 miles off the coast of Delaware
The United States Coast Guard Cutter Sailfish would have missed the tiny blue dinghy had it not been coasting along at a leisurely four knots outside of it's usual patrol route to map the currents of the coastal waters near Delaware. The captain gave orders to change course to investigate and the Marine Protector Class cutter surged to life, her small crew on full alert. Her powerful twin diesels came fully online and she heeled over in a wide turn to starboard. Her two .50 Cal machine gun mounts manned and ready as the search lights snapped on.
The captain exuded cool professional authority as he spoke through the loud hailer.
"Small craft this is the United States Coast Guard Cutter Sailfish. Please respond if you are in distress or need assistance."
There was no response, but when their lights swept over the small boat as they closed the range the men standing watch on the bow could see the shape of a man lying face up inside. A Zodiac was dispatched to retrieve him and secure the boat.
"Hey! Isn't that Richard Castle, the author who went missing?" a young ensign exclaimed as they came alongside, "my sister loves his books!"
"From what I hear he faked his kidnapping to get out of his wedding to Nikki Heat." one of the boat crew replied.
"I don't know anything about that, guys but wherever he's been the last two months it wasn't someplace nice. He looks thin...sick thin."
The medic got on her radio moments later.
"Boarding party to Sailfish, we have secured the small craft and have a single Caucasian male aboard, approximately 40 to 45 years of age, unconscious and unresponsive, preliminary examination indicates signs of exposure and malnutrition, subject tentatively identified as Richard Castle. Recommend immediate airlift to Cedar Sinai in New York."
For the first time, the medic noticed the bullet holes in the side of the boat.
"Captain, better contact the FBI en route, I believe there are definite signs of foul play."
Washington DC
Rachael McCord woke up in a hospital room with no idea how she had come to be there. She remembered waking up bound in the back seat of her car, of losing consciousness, then nothing after that.
Only the distinct impression that she should be dead.
Only she wasn't.
She had no idea what day or time it was, only that the room she was in was dimly lit with the privacy curtain drawn around. When she raised her hands to her hair, there weren't any ligature marks on her wrists, and she knew that she must have struggled at some point, that they must have dug in, but there was nothing. She tugged on the blanket covering her and didn't see any on her ankles either.
Only that she'd had some really strange dreams about Kate Beckett's fiancee in a red superhero costume.
"Sheesh McCord," she whispered to herself, "you that hard up that you're dreaming about Beckett's fiancee now? You really need to get laid more often."
Deep down she knew there was more to it. Should feel the pull to know where he was. To find him. As if her priorities had shifted. A single thought echoing in her brain.
Montreal. There was something absolutely important there. She had to make certain to get Richard Castle to Montreal.
A commotion outside the perimeter of the privacy curtain drew closer, so McCord drew the blankets back over herself to protect her modesty, before the curtain drew open to reveal her boss, Carlos Villante, Director of the AG special task force. Though he flawlessly schooled his features like always, she could see the war between concern and suspicion going on behind his eyes. Though it felt like she had lost consciousness in that shipping container yesterday, for the first time she began to wonder just how long she had actually been gone.
"You gave us a hell of a scare the last couple of months, Agent McCord." He stated flatly.
"M-months, sir?" McCord stammered. Had it really been that long?
"Two months to be exact." Villante supplied before asking, "Where the hell were you? We had multiple unconfirmed sightings of you along with a couple seconds of camera footage shortly after you disappeared, then it was like the earth just swallowed you whole."
McCord blanched visibly, the closest thing Villante had ever seen to an emotional reaction from her in the ten years she had been with the unit.
"I... I don't know, sir." She responded woodenly. "last thing I remember is being trussed up in the back of my car in a shipping container before everything went dark...next thing I know... I'm waking up here."
"You were listed as missing and presumed dead, Agent McCord. I had no choice but to fill your position, so there's no vacancies in the task force." Villante stated, "To be brutally honest. even if that weren't the case, I can't take the risk that you've been compromised."
McCord lowered her head, even though she understood his position, it hurt to hear. Unlike Beckett she'd worked her ass off as a federal agent to be here. Now she was considered "damaged goods", to be pawned off on any field office that would take her until she could prove herself all over again.
After breaking that bit of bad news and noting her reaction, Villante softened a little.
"You have two months of back pay plus overtime coming, not to mention hazard pay and nearly five years of vacation days accrued. My suggestion? Take some time. I'll see what I can do to get you a decent posting under the circumstances, one commensurate with your abilities."
Villante paused for a moment, during which it seemed he was unsure what to say next.
"Rachel. For what it's worth... I really am sorry it crumbled this way."
"Me too, sir." she whispered, suddenly understanding how Beckett had felt last year when she'd fired her. Though inexplicably, she was not nearly as sorry as she thought she should be, all things considered.
Rather chillingly, a single thought echoed in her brain in an older man's voice she didn't recognize.
"Make sure Richard Castle goes to Montreal."
**Author's Note** For all of my loyal readers eagerly awaiting updates on my other stories. I offer my sincere condolences for the delay. This isn't my fault! Somebody who shall remain nameless **cough**AlwaysCastle47 *cough* put this plot bunny in my head and I could not get it out. It will be brief ...no more than five chapters if I can help it. I will try to work on my other stories too in the meantime.