"This way Castle," Kate called, running off to his right.
"Coming," Rick gasped as he ran after her, trying to keep up with his partner. How she managed to outpace him in those heels of hers he would never know but he always seemed to be the one trying to catch up with her, not the other way round. They had been chasing their guy for what seemed like an eternity to Rick (he really needed to get in shape!) but was probably only a few minutes. But those minutes had involved a veritable obstacle course, starting with a trip down the fire escape and dodging cars in a very scary trip across a busy road...he wouldn't be able to rid himself of the image of that blue Chevy screeching to a halt only inches away from him any time soon!
Rick turned a corner and slowed as he saw Kate standing in front of him. She turned at his approach and waved him to silence. "Over there," Kate whispered, pointing to an alleyway between two warehouses. "It's a dead end."
"How do you know...never mind," Rick said. Kate had probably been places in this city he never knew existed and for all he knew had chased others in this part of town before. "What now," he panted, trying to catch his breath.
"We take him down...here," Kate leant down and removed her spare gun from her ankle holster and handed it to him. "As it seems you're my only backup you'll need this...don't hurt yourself with it!"
"Funny," Rick muttered but he was nevertheless pleased Kate had trusted him with her gun.
"Ready?" Kate asked.
"Always," Rick replied.
"Ok...go," Kate said before she stepped towards the mouth of the alleyway. "Police," she called. "You're surrounded with nowhere to go. Come out with your hands up."
"Does that ever work," Rick muttered from just behind her.
"Not really, no," Kate replied. "Oh well, here goes..." she took a breath then pirouetted into the mouth of the alleyway, gun raised."Freeze!" she called.
Rick watched his partner, he hated moments like this, fearing the possibility the next thing he would see would be her flying back after being shot. A couple of seconds passed and nothing happened, no crack of a gun or any other sound.
Rick watched as Kate slowly lowered her gun and glanced over at him, puzzlement clear on her face. He stepped around the corner, Kate's gun ready at his side and was presented with a short alleyway between the buildings, containing exactly nothing...just a dozen or so feet of empty space and a none too clean brick wall at the end of it.
"There's no-one here," Rick said, rather foolishly.
"I can see that Castle," Kate replied, slamming her gun back into her holster.
"Are you sure he ran into this alleyway?" Rick asked. There was no way out if he had. The sides of the alley were defined by the walls of the adjoining warehouse buildings, both of them smooth, if somewhat rusty, steel with no doors, windows or anything else to afford an escape. The brick wall which divided the two buildings was run down and in need of repair but it was also very high and the top dozen feet or so were covered in a dirty looking plaster, making it impossible for anyone to have climbed up it to escape.
"Positive," Kate said shortly, looking around.
Rick glanced over at her, he didn't want to contradict her but there was no way anyone could have run in here and not be standing in front of them right now. This alleyway was the absolute definition of 'dead-end'!
"Well, he's not here now," Rick said weakly.
Kate gave him a look that made him wince. She stepped over to him and took her spare gun from his hand and returned it to her holster without saying a word. She straightened and walked cautiously into the alleyway.
"Kate," Rick said hurrying to join her. "There's nothing he..." he started to say before he bounced off something and scrambled back, just managing to remain on his feet. He looked around in puzzlement, trying to identify what he'd hit but there was nothing there. Kate was looking back and forth between him and the empty alleyway in front of them.
"What...?" Rick asked.
"Ssshh," Kate said, reaching out slowly in front of her. Her hand stopped about a foot away from her body and her eyes widened in surprise. "Castle," she hissed. "There's something here!"
"Kate, this is no time to be messing around," Rick said as he watched her do what appeared to be a bad mime artist impression. He stepped back to her side from where he had stumbled and extended his own arm.
"There's nothing there..." he trialled off as his hand felt a soft surface which his eyes told him simply wasn't there. He exchanged a wide-eyed look with Kate.
"Can you feel that?" Kate whispered.
Rick nodded, unable to form any words. He lifted his other arm and with both hands felt the invisible wall in front of him. It felt like handling jelly, invisible, not really there jelly!
"It gives when you push," Kate said from beside him. Rick turned to watch her push at nothing and tentatively applied some pressure with his own hands. He felt the...whatever it was give under the gentle force and he could feel his hands sliding into...it. He quickly pulled back.
"What the hell is this stuff," he said in wonder, taking a step back. He looked from side to side and all he could see in front of him was a dozen or do feet of empty space and the back wall of the alley, except now around where Kate was still applying pressure the air seemed to shimmer and buckle, causing eye bending distortions.
"I don't know," Kate whispered in awe before visibly straightening her back in determination. "But our guy must have gone this way so I'm going after him."
"Kate, no!" Rick exclaimed. "You can't do that! We have no idea what...what this is. It could be dangerous!"
"I think if it was dangerous we would have found out by now," Kate said, a stubborn set to her shoulders. "Go get the guys if you want but I'm going in!"
Rick stepped forward immediately and placed one hand on her shoulder. "No," he said simply. "If you're going in then we go in together."
Kate looked at him for a long moment then nodded. "On the count of three," she said.
Rick took his hand from her shoulder and lifted both arms in front of him until he could feel the invisible jelly like surface. He braced himself ready to push and nodded at his partner.
"Luck," Kate said. "One...two...three!"
They both pushed and Rick could feel his hands slide into the invisible wall like he was pushing through thick treacle. He gritted his teeth and lowered his head slightly as his face reached the wall. With an unpleasant sucking sound his forehead breached through the wall and Rick stumbled forward as the treacle like resistance disappeared. He turned and caught Kate as she too tumbled out from the invisible wall, which shimmied behind them before stilling and showing a perfect, smooth white face.
Rick looked at Kate in astonishment before they both slowly turned to see what had been hidden behind the invisible wall. The alleyway in front of them was almost identical to what they'd seen from the other side. The same rusty warehouse walls and run-down brick wall were all present as before...the only difference was that this alleyway wasn't empty. Standing in front of them, looking completely odd and out of place was a large blue...wardrobe?
"What's that?" Rick asked, looking at the blue box in puzzlement. It was about eight feet tall and appeared to be fairly regular all round, more of a square base than the usual rectangular one he would expect from a wardrobe. One of the doors was hanging slightly ajar and there appeared to be some kind of sign on it.
"No idea," Kate said, drawing her gun. But it's the only thing in here...he must be inside."
"Inside!" Rick exclaimed. "Don't be ridiculous Kate, why on earth would he be in there?"
"I don't know Castle, just like I don't know why we seem to have just passed through some kind of invisible wall...or at least some kind of barrier which was hiding...that!" she pointed at the...whatever it was with her gun. "I don't know what is going on but I know our guy ran into this alleyway and that it the only place he can be."
She stepped forward with her gun raised and raised one hand to the half open door.
"Kate!" Rick hissed urgently at her, but she ignored him and after a second or two she yanked the door wide, raising her gun.
Neither of them was in any way prepared for the sight that greeted them on the other side of the door. Rick had not known what he'd expected to see...a blue back to the box perhaps? Or maybe some clothes hanging on hooks? Even their perp huddled in one corner, desperately hoping they wouldn't find him, was something he could have accepted. What he had not expected to see, would never have guessed even if he'd had a thousand chances to do so, was an enormous space leading back from the entrance. A vast cavern on which he could vaguely make out some kind of console in the middle distance. The middle distance! What the hell?
Rick scrubbed his eyes and looked to one side of the doorway. Yes, a blue wooden box. An odd thing to be in an alleyway to be sure but no more than eight foot high and six foot deep. He returned his eyes to the space behind the now open door, a space which stretched back for at least a couple hundred feet and which seemed to have no roof, or the roof was just so high he couldn't make it out.
"Rick," Kate said in a strangled voice. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing?"
"Errr...are you seeing an impossibly sized room inside a small blue box?" Rick replied, not sure if he was going mad.
Kate nodded and stepped back from the doorway her gun forgotten as she grabbed one of his hands in hers.
"What is it?" She whispered to him.
"A TARDIS," came a voice from inside the box, causing them both to jump. Kate tried to raise her gun but she yelped and dropped it, sucking her fingers.
"Sorry about that," said a man as he stepped out from inside the box. "I can't abide guns."
Rick stared at the man, standing so calmly in front of him, wearing what appeared to be a tweed jacket and a...bow tie? It was their perp...The guy they'd chased across what felt like half the city.
"You," Kate said.
"Me, yes," replied the man, walking up to them and holding out his hand. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."
Rick looked down at the extended hand as if he'd never seen one before. The guy was smiling pleasantly at them and was holding out his hand as if they'd just met at some social function or other and not after being chased by them across the city. And certainly not after stepping out from a blue box which was bigger on the inside than the outside and was hidden behind an invisible wall!
"Ah," the Doctor said after a moment, following their gazes back into the box. "The TARDIS gets them every time. What is it about humans that fascinates them so much? Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you; it is bigger on the inside than the outside. Quite simple spatial mechanics really."
"Bigger on the inside," Rick said weakly, not able to think of anything more coherent.
"Yep...good isn't it. I must say I'm impressed, I didn't think you'd find me behind the not-there force field. I know, I know, boring name. The inventor was a genius but had no flair for names. Sad really, he would have been the greatest man of the 25th century if only he'd been able to come up with half decent names for his creations."
"25th century," Kate repeated from beside Rick, her voice an octave higher than normal.
"Hmm, what. Oh yes. Or was it the 26th? I lose track of your calendar sometimes...you humans are very good at complicating such things."
"Who are you," Rick whispered. "What are you?"
"I told you, I'm the Doctor," the man said simply, as if that explained everything.
"I don't care who you are, you're under arrest," Kate said suddenly. "On suspicion of murder."
Rick gaped at her, completely taken aback by her sudden statement. They'd chased this guy across the city because they had disturbed him over the body of their vic and he'd ran. But that was before they'd passed through an invisible barrier and this guy had stepped out and talked about the future as if it was normal and kept referring to 'you humans'! Arrest him! They needed NASA or somebody, not the NYPD!
"Murder? Oh, no no no. I didn't kill that poor young man. What a horrible thought!"
"We saw you standing over his body...and you ran!" Kate said. She seemed to be trying to deal with this truly surreal and bizarre situation by retreating into something normal, or at least nearly normal. It would have been almost believable if it wasn't for the fact Rick could still feel her trembling hand in his.
"Of course I ran, do you have any idea...no of course you don't...you never see what's right in front of you. Hah! Always amazes me how humans survived as long as they did. Perhaps the universe's most tenacious species and yet so blind to what's going on around them. It really is astonishing!" He said with what Rick could only describe as delight.
"The body," Kate prompted.
"What? Oh yes. Most unfortunate, he really was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I mean, what are the odds that he would have been right there when the temporal rift opened? Astronomical!"
"Temporal rift?" Rick asked, now utterly bemused. He felt like he was a piece of driftwood being carried down a river made of this man's words and being thrown from one side to another as the water cascaded chaotically around him.
"Yes, yes, do keep up. The Daleks use them to travel around, very dangerous for those that happen to be in the vicinity when they open up of course but they don't care about that. Your poor young man had the rift open right beside him, would have scrambled his brain instantly. The only blessing is that it would have been quick, he wouldn't have felt a thing."
"I'm sorry, what the hell are you going on about?" Kate demanded. "Temporal rifts? Daleks? What planet are you on?"
"Why Earth of course," the Doctor replied with a puzzled frown. "Don't you know that?"
"Enough!" Kate exclaimed. "You're under arrest. You can explain this all back at the station..."
"Arrest?" the Doctor said, sounding bizarrely delighted by the prospect. "Oh, I would love to know...but no, I don't have time for that now. I've got to track which century those Daleks jumped to. I'm afraid I'll have to decline."
"Decline! You can't decline, you're under arrest. It's not a choice!" Kate exclaimed.
"I'm afraid I'll have to disagree with you on that one detective," the Doctor answered, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a strange looking instrument, about the size of a pen but thicker and with one end glowing blue. "But I think, when I get time, I might come back and take you up on that offer. Ah here we go, this won't hurt," he said and held the instrument up in front of him. It buzzed briefly and Rick found his legs weakening as his entire body suddenly felt like he'd been awake for 48 hours straight. He collapsed down on his knees and felt Kate stagger beside him before also sinking down to the floor.
"I'm really sorry to have to do that, I just don't have time right now to explain...ironic that isn't it, a time lord not having time but...what was I saying, oh yes, the affects won't last long but I'm afraid that when you wake up you won't really remember the last few minutes. It's normally an unfortunate side affect but in this case is probably for the best. Still, it has been absolutely fascinating and I really must be going. It was a pleasure meeting you both...coming through the not-there barrier, really quite impressive..."
Rick felt his eyes close as his body gave in to the sudden exhaustion and blackness closed around him. He felt Kate settle on top of him as he struggled to remain conscious, a struggle he knew he was losing as the blackness enveloped him completely and he settled into a dreamless sleep.
"...oh, I see you've gone," the Doctor said to the now unconscious forms of Rick and Kate. "Such a shame to have to do that but needs must."
The Doctor stepped away from the two prone bodies and back into the doorway of the TARDIS. As he closed the door and walked over to the console he smiled to himself, it really was kind of cute the way they had held hands the entire time he was talking to them. He made a mental note to look them up, maybe come back and visit them to find out what happened to these two. Humans fascinated him and he could sense something about these two...no, that would have to wait for another day. He set the TARDIS to collapse the not-there field and follow the Daleks ship. 'First things first', he thought as the TARDIS warped away from 21st century New York, but perhaps when this was over...
Rick awoke with a groan, feeling like he'd just run a marathon. His bed felt cold and hard and his eyelids weighed a ton. It took an enormous effort but he slowly managed to pry his eyes open and found himself staring up at a dreary sky. 'What the...?' he thought as his brain tried to process what his eyes were telling him.
He made to get up and became aware that he was not alone; someone was lying across his chest. He looked down and was surprised to see Kate draped across him, for all the world as if he was her usual pillow. He couldn't have stopped the grin which spread across his face even if he wanted to! The moment of pleasure didn't last long however as awareness of his surroundings seeped back in. He looked around and saw what appeared to be rusting metal walls. He was on the ground! He was lying on the ground in some random New York street with Kate lying on top of him!
"Kate," Rick said urgently, using his right arm to gently shake his partner. "Wake up!" Rick had no idea what they were both doing lying in the street wrapped around each other but for the moment they seemed to be alone and he didn't want anyone to find them like this. "Kate," he repeated.
Kate stirred slightly on his chest and turned her head towards him. "Rick," she said sleepily, which despite the bizarre position he found himself in still caused an involuntary shiver of pleasure to run down his back. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," Rick said honestly, then added in the spirit of self preservation. "And it's not my fault!"
"Your fault...what?" Kate started to say before freezing. Rick grimaced, guessing what was to come next. Sure enough she continued, "Castle, why am I laying on top of you?"
"I don't know," Rick repeated, at a loss of anything else to say and sticking with simple honesty.
Kate stared at him for a moment longer before levering herself up so that she knelt straddled across him. Rick closed his eyes, 'Not helping Kate, so not helping,' he thought miserably.
"Castle, why are we lying on..." she paused and looked around, "...or rather in some random alleyway?" She asked in a dangerous tone.
"I honestly, truly, don't know," Rick repeated for the third time. "But this ground is hard and uncomfortable..."
Kate got the hint and made to stand. She stopped almost immediately and looked down to his side. After a long moment she looked back at him. "Castle, why are you holding my hand?"
Rick closed his eyes, he thought that he might be doing something like that but he rather foolishly hoped she wouldn't notice! If only he did have some idea why they were lying in the street, her hand clasped in his.
"Kate," he said after a moment. "I'm as utterly bemused by this as you are. I awoke only moments before you did and I have no idea what we are doing here."
Kate started at him as if weighing his words but she eventually just removed her hand from his and used it to lever herself to her feet.
Rick sighed in relief and slowly made his own way to his feet. He still felt a little woozy and had to reach out and grab hold of one of the walls to steady himself.
"What do you remember?" Kate asked.
"My name?" Castle replied, earning a disapproving stare from his partner. "Sorry...er...the last thing I remember is...a body! Yes! A body of a...a young man."
"Over by the fire station and we..." Kate pick up on his thought, "...we saw a man standing over him. We chased him and then...and then..." she trailed off and looked at Rick. He shrugged.
"And then nothing," he said. "I remember setting off down the fire escape after the guy then it's a blank, until I woke up down there with you lying on top of me. What, you were!" Rick protested at the look Kate gave him.
"Fine whatever," Kate replied. "The more important question is why?" She paused and felt around her neck and then her back. "Um, I don't feel any sore spots this time...do you?"
Rick looked at her in puzzlement for a moment then cottoned on. She was referring to the two previous times they'd woken up next to each other, both times after being drugged. He felt around his own neck and sides but could feel nothing. No mark, no tenderness that would indicate a needle had been used to inject him with anything.
"No nothing," he said, before barking out an ironic laugh. "Still, look on the bright side - no marks for the guys to liken to hickey's, no handcuffs and definitely..." he took a long look round, just in case."Definitely no tigers!"
"Funny Castle," Kate said, but he couldn't help but notice she also looked around the alleyway as if to assure herself that there were no big cats in the vicinity. "So, somewhere between giving chase to our potential killer and this alleyway we were both rendered unconscious, with no apparent marks on us and with no memory of events...that doesn't make sense!" she said, slapping one of the walls in frustration.
"Aliens!" Rick exclaimed, snapping his fingers.
"Aliens Castle, really? You're going to go with aliens?"
Rick looked at her and added a little defensively, "Well it might have been! You don't know that it wasn't!"
"I don't know that it wasn't Elvis either but I'm not ready to blame this on the king just yet," Kate said sarcastically.
"Well do you have a better idea then detective? Some more logical reason why the both of us have no memory of the past few minutes?" Rick asked.
"No," Kate said reluctantly after a few moments. "Not at the moment. But I'm sure that whatever the reason it's terrestrial in origin."
"Maybe, maybe not. But we have more pressing concerns at the moment...like what are we going to tell the guys? We can't tell them we both passed out in some strange alleyway and have no memory as to why...they'll think we're mad!"
Kate looked over at him and worried her bottom lip in thought. "No, you're right," she said after a moment. "We'll just tell them we lost the guy sometime during the chase...it's true after all, we did lose him."
Rick nodded...what else could they do? They couldn't tell the guys that they'd somehow passed out and had woken up together (again) only this time holding hands! That would just be wrong on so many levels!
"Right, well, I suppose we should head back," Rick said. "We're not achieving much standing here."
"Hmm, what? Right, yes, head back," Kate said and the two of the walked to the mouth of the alleyway. Rick looked around, he didn't recognise anything.
"Do you know where we are?" he asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Kate replied looking around. "Yes, the fire station is back that way," she added, pointing off to the left.
"Right," Rick said but neither of them made any attempt to head off in that direction. Instead Kate turned and looked back into the alleyway behind them. Rick followed her gaze and took in the empty alley, the rusty metal walls either side (which he could now see belonged to some kind of warehouses) and the high brick wall which separated them, the top half covered in dirty plaster. It was an unassuming place on the middle of an uninteresting industrial estate, and there were no clues as to why they'd so recently found themselves waking up on the floor draped around each over.
"Castle, this is going to sound crazy but...but have you ever seen somewhere where the inside seemed to be bigger than the outside?" Kate asked in a distant sounding voice as she stared into the alley.
Rick opened his mouth to tell her she was being ridiculous but closed it after a moment without saying a word. For some reason he couldn't put his finger on the idea just didn't seem as preposterous as he knew it should.
They continued to stare into the alleyway for a few more moments before Kate gave a slight shudder and walked away in the direction she'd pointed, back to their crime scene. Rick stood there a moment longer before turning and hurrying up beside, trying to put all thoughts of rooms bigger on the inside out of his mind.