This isn't a crossover fic, but I was thinking about Firefly and there are some obvious similarities in the characters of Castle and Mal Reynolds – they are both passionate, brave, have a certain amount of cheek, like to bend the rules etc. etc. but I think Castle is a bit more soft around the edges and slightly more of a clown – I'm probably not explaining this very well, but the upshot is that I wanted to have a play with Castle's character and see what happened if I injected a little of Mal's roughness and well meant aggression. Anyway – see what you think!
This is set sometime after series 3, but I've not seen any of season 4 yet so it'll be off cannon.
Castle slammed the door of the loft behind him and crossed to his kitchen, flinging his coat off and throwing it in the direction of the couch before angrily pouring himself a scotch with shaking hands.
'Goddammit!' he shouted into the empty space. Alexis was away and his mother wouldn't be home for hours and right now Castle was glad of the solitude, the opportunity to vent without someone asking him what was wrong. He wanted to be angry and to be alone – to be able to just shout and bang and smash things without someone making him actually deal with it.
He poured himself another measure but with the glass halfway to his lips he growled and threw it as hard as he could at the wall. He knew he would regret the waste of good scotch later but the resulting smash was satisfying enough.
He leaned his elbows on the counter and buried his head in his hands, groaning with both fury and agony.
The silence was suddenly broken by a knock on his door. He knew that knock, and he knew the person behind it well enough to know that it wasn't a happy knock.
'What?' he shouted, and the door flew open.
'You mind telling what the hell that was about Castle?'
Castle took a deep breath and looked up into the confused and very pissed off face of Kate Beckett.
'What exactly would you like me to explain, Beckett?' he said through clenched teeth.
'Castle, that bust was all ready, we had all our units sets up and you completely screwed it up. What were you thinking, charging in there?'
'Really? You think I wanted to screw up your stupid drugs bust? Is that what you think?' his voice had risen with every word until he was almost shouting in her face. Beckett flinched away from the raw emotion in his eyes.
Castle sighed
'I'm just tired of it, Kate. Tired of watching you, putting your life on the line, again. Tired of thinking that every time you do one of these busts it could be your last. Do you have any idea how hard that is for me? How it makes me feel?'
Kate paced back and forth before coming to stop in front of him, her arms wrapped protectively around herself.
'Why do you care so much?' she asked, and he could hear how she was forcing herself to sound calm despite the waver in her voice.
Castle threw up his hands in frustration.
'Why do I care? Why do I care?' he paused and looked at her for a long moment. 'Because you spin me about Kate. You always have.'
'what is that supposed to mean?'
Castle's anger was fading despite himself and he felt a faint annoyance at the affection her looked of forced confusion drew out of him. He turned away from her to pull two fresh glasses from the cupboard before putting them down on the counter in front of her.
'You're the cop, Katie, you work it out. Now are you staying or going?'
Kate gave him the tiniest of smiles before taking the scotch and filling the glasses.
Not sure if there was ever really any plot behind this but it was a moment I wanted to put on paper! I know it ends abruptly but I'm still learning and for that reason reviews are very very welcome!