Written at the request of Jden. Thanks to domina tempore for reading over it for me!
Disclaimer: Nothing Castle belongs to me, and neither does Romeo and Juliet. No profit is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.
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"This is ridiculous," Kevin Ryan protested for the umpteenth time.
Richard Castle, who was standing beside the detective, was still grinning, as he had been since entering the dressing room several minutes before. "Oh come on. It'll be fun. Besides, you promised my mother, remember?"
"I know, I know," Ryan grumbled. "Do I at least look okay?"
The writer surveyed the other man's appearance. "I think it's perfect!" He made a circle of his thumb and forefinger, extending the other three fingers in an a-okay gesture. "You remember all your lines?"
"As well as I'm ever going to," Ryan shrugged. He tugged on the brightly colored, short tunic that fell right at his knees. "I'm so glad humans moved past this wardrobe."
Castle chuckled and handed Ryan the feathered hat that was sitting on the counter just as a knock sounded on the door. The writer stepped quickly across the small dressing room to open it.
"It's nearly curtain time," Martha Rogers announced dramatically. The older woman was wearing a bright red dress and the multiple strands of beads that hung around her neck matched the numerous bracelets on her wrists. "And the theater waits for no man!"
"I am aware of that, Mother," Castle assured her.
"Then why are you still yapping about? There is a show to put on, and I need my stage manager and Romeo front and center!" With a clap of her hands, Martha hurried back down the hallway.
"She has a point," Castle responded, taking in the look the other man was shooting him. "The age-old tale just wouldn't be the same if Romeo and Juliet don't even meet. Besides," he added, "there is that criminal we need to catch."
He leaned over to see in the mirror and was busily adjusting his tie when his phone rang. He grabbed the device from his pocket and put it to his ear. "Hello? … Oh, hey, Esposito. Yeah, we're just about ready." He looked over at Ryan. "Like a very embarrassed Romeo Montague. Mother decked him all out."
"Tell him if he makes one comment about me in tights, I'm going to slug him," Ryan put in.
Castle ignored him in favor of listening to the voice on the other end of the line. He hung up and then turned back to Ryan. "Esposito and Beckett are ready. And Mother's going to come for our heads if we don't get out there, so let's go."
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A few minutes later, Castle peeked out from behind the curtain, surveying the crowd as the action onstage began. Javier Esposito, Ryan's partner, was decked out in a black 'STAFF' t-shirt and was helping another crew member quickly repair a piece of the set behind the curtain while Kate Beckett, the remaining member of the team, was blending in with the audience in the second row.
It was a strange set of circumstances that had led the homicide detectives, along with Castle, to the acting school's opening night. Martha had expelled a student from the school for conduct issues, resulting in her having to recast the lead male role in the upcoming production. This ex-student had not taken his expulsion well, and after several mishaps that were obviously the result of vandalism, such as lights falling due to loosened screws, she turned to her son and his influence in the NYPD.
Ryan came up beside him. "Anything yet?"
"Not yet," Castle shook his head. "Mother might just be paranoid, but she said someone left a note threatening something would happen to the new Romeo when he made his first entrance." He paused, then added, "Too bad they didn't just sign the note so we could arrest whoever it was."
"And I wouldn't have to be worrying about wearing clown clothes and talking like I just stepped out of a time machine," Ryan groused.
"Don't worry; we'll be sure Jenny gets a copy," Castle winked. "The production is being filmed, you know."
Ryan gave him a threatening look. "You'd just better be right. I don't think I can get all the way through the first scene, let alone the entire play, if nothing happens."
"You'll be fine," Castle assured him. "Just relax."
The detective started to reply but Castle interrupted whatever he was about to say. "It's almost time; better get ready for your cue."
Ryan was still shooting looks at Castle as he walked out from behind the curtain. The younger man already onstage, a student by the name of Tom Atkins, greeted him. "Good-morrow, cousin."
"Is the day so young?" Ryan returned.
As the two actors continued their conversation, Castle took the time to survey the entire backstage area. Nothing suspicious seemed to be going on, and he crossed his fingers that the play would continue smoothly until something did.
Ryan was just launching into his first large chunk of dialogue. "Alas, that love, whose voice is muffled still, should with eyes, see pathways to his will! Where shall we dine? O me! What fray was...here…"
He trailed off, and Castle leaned over so Ryan could see him, mouthing the next line. It seemed to work, and Ryan started again, albeit somewhat haltingly.
"Yet tell me not, for I have heard it all. Here's much to do with hate, but more with love. Why, then, O brawling hate! O loving love! O nothing if anything first created!"
Castle could just imagine his mother wincing from her place in the wings, and he studiously avoided looking across to where she stood on the other side of the stage as Ryan continued, deviating from Shakespeare's original wording more and more.
"O light heavens! Misshapen chaos of well-seemed forms! Feather of lead, bright fire, cold smoke! This love...I feel no love in this. Dost thou not laugh?"
Tom indeed appeared to be trying to keep from laughing; he had a strange look on his face at the stunted dialogue but continued with his lines. "No, coz, I rather weep."
Ryan caught Castle's eye, and the writer made a mental note to watch his back for the next few days. He glanced away and movement on the other side of the stage caught his attention. A middle-aged man in a black shirt was studying the wires that ran up to the stage lights. There was nothing abnormal about it, other than the fact that Castle didn't recognize the man as one of his mother's employees and the man did not have an actual staff shirt on.
He took a deep breath and strode over to the other side of the stage, staying behind the curtains and out of sight as the action continued onstage.
"Good heavens, Richard!" Martha whispered as he came up. "I thought you said Detective Ryan took acting in college."
"Sorry, Mother, but do you know that man?" he asked quickly, ignoring her complaint.
Martha's brow furrowed. "No, no I don't. And I didn't hire him, if that's what you're asking."
"Good enough. Thank you, Mother." Castle didn't stick around to hear anymore about Ryan's acting abilities, or lack thereof, and hurried towards the man as quickly as he could, looking around for Esposito in the meantime.
"Why, such is love's transgression," Ryan was saying on the other side of the curtain. "Grief of mine own lies heavy in my chest, which thou..."
Castle spotted the Hispanic detective next to a rack of costumes, talking to one of the stagehands. Not wanting to disrupt his mother's production even more by yelling, he resorted to waving both arms as frantically as possible.
Esposito caught sight of the writer's motions and gave him a questioning look. Castle pointed towards the man near the wires and the detective rushed over.
"Mother says she didn't hire that guy," Castle said hurriedly. "Something doesn't seem right."
But before either of them could make a move towards the man, whose back was to them, he grabbed a box cutter from his pocket.
"Hey!" Esposito yelled, causing the man to whip his head around in search of the sound.
Castle could see his mother put a hand to her forehead, and he quickly turned his attention back to the situation in front of him.
The audience was now divided between the play and looking around for the source of the sound, murmuring to one another in questioning tones. One look showed Castle that Ryan was clearly debating if he should rush backstage to help or obey Martha, who was waving her hands at him from her place in the wings, gesturing emphatically that he should stay right where he was.
"Soft! I will go along," Tom was trying to keep the production on track. "An' if you leave me so, you do me wrong."
Esposito pulled a gun out from under his shirt. "Stop what you're doing," he warned the man. "And put the blade down."
Still kneeling, the man put the box cutter against one of the cables. "And what's going to stop me from slicing through this and sending one of those big lights down on the stage?"
Beckett appeared in the wings, gun in hand. "We will. Now drop it!"
"Tom, I have lost myself; I am not here," Ryan, clearly distracted, replied. "This is not Romeo, he is elsewhere."
Castle couldn't help a grin at the truth of Ryan' line, even as he took in the standoff between the detectives and the saboteur.
The man seemed to be contemplating his options.
"Tell me in sadness, who is that you love," Tom was saying as Esposito tightened his grip on his gun and took another step towards the man.
"Drop it now!" the detective ordered firmly.
That seemed to convince the man, and he reluctantly dropped his knife. Esposito and Beckett moved in quickly, Beckett covering her teammate as Esposito kicked the box cutter aside and cuffed the man.
Castle turned his attention back to the stage, where his mother had apparently had enough of the disruptions and botched dialogue.
"Groan! why, no," Martha called, continuing the dialogue as she strode out onto the stage. "Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for the interruption; we will have a brief intermission before our show continues."
Taking that as their exit cue, Ryan and Tom hurried offstage as quickly as they could without actually running. Tom headed for where a few of the other actors and actresses were gathered in a small huddle in the wings while Ryan made his way straight to his team.
As the detectives led the man away in handcuffs, Castle paused and looked out over the crowd that was milling about, waiting for the action to resume. Castle knew the actor who had originally been recast as Romeo before the threatening letter would take up the part when the play resumed.
He was debating sticking around the theater since he wasn't needed for the investigation any longer, but then he spotted Martha making her way determinedly off the stage and made up his mind.
"Hey, guys, wait for me!"