AN: New Story! It's a Miracle! I Know!
"Tāmāde!" The explanative ripped out of his mouth without thought, a stunned hush fell over the 12th Precinct as officers and perps alike turned to look at him.
"Ahh, heh!" The tall man stammered out as he self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck in shame of his slip.
"When did you start learning Chinese Castle?" A pretty detective inquired with a raised brow.
"It's for a new book, I was going over one of my character's back stories last night with Mother before bed, must have fallen asleep still in character." He lied smoothly, drawling on old skills to save his ass once more.
"Oh really?" Came disbelievingly out of her smirking lips, as Detective Kate Beckett raised her coffee taking a small sip. She peered at her longtime partner and more recently lover as he shoves his hands into his pockets, spreading his jacket to the sides of his torso, and widens his stance to even his footing on the polished floors.
"What's it about then, man?" Javier Esposito digged as he crossed his arms, carrying the air of someone about to call Bullshite.
"Yeah tell us Castle!" The only friendly voice cried out in the form of Kevin Ryan, ever eager to listen to the best-selling authors words.
Still feeling the eyes of the precinct on him he just smiled and said, "I've been thinking of starting a new series set round 'bout 500 years from now, about a space-cowboy trying fighting against a totalitarian government who goes around destroying people's lives without a second glance. I figure I'll give him a ship and a crew and have 'em sail the stars doin' odd jobs and such, as they try to inform all of the planets of the central governments bones hiding in their closet." He finished without a hitch.
Snorts and chuckles started to sound through the air as everyone slowly started to go back to what they were doing before, secure in the knowledge that the mystery writer was crazy.
"Oh please Castle! Like that is even plausible. And if he is a space-cowboy as you say, then why the Chinese?" Beckett pointed out with an eye roll.
"Well isn't it obvious? Only the American and Chinese governments could survive a mass exodus from Earth! And the new worlds need order, so the combine together into one, so everyone speaks a mix of Chinese and English." He exclaimed loudly with a touch of hysteria (in other words his usual tone for defending his ideas).
"You just wanted to use an excuse to have people spout random things in Chinese didn't you?" Javi asked as he shook his head at the writer's flamboyance.
"And didn't you go as a space-cowboy for Halloween a few times?" Beckett added in helpfully. "I think you should stick to murder mysteries, they are at least more realistic than space-cowboys, Castle."
"Castle? Realistic? Never!" Javi chimed in as he and Beckett walked away to get back to their latest case.
"Ah what do you guys know anyway?" He exclaimed dismissively under his breath, glad that they hadn't bothered to look further than the story given.
"Don't listen to those cynics! They just don't know how to imagine anything any longer!" Ryan patted his shoulder as he walked off, not realizing just how close he had come to dying from one of his many hidden knives.
Sighing as he calmed himself down from the adrenalin high he had been running since every eye in the 12TH had turned his way.
"Want me to introduce them to Vera Capt'in?" Detective Slaughter asked from the wall he was leaning against from the very start, quietly observing the man he had served under for over twenty years now, his hand never straying very far from the gun attached to his shoulder harness.
"No, that's quite unnecessary Jayne. I can handle a little skepticism every now and then." He spoke tiredly, his accent slipping through.
"Yes Sir, Capt'in." Was the bear masquerading as a human's reply as he left him alone.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, and continuing to sigh under his breath the man known as former Sargent turned Captain Malcom Reynolds, carried on across the room to join his new family at the Murder Board. Glad for the relative peace of The Earth-That-Was, compared to his original time period, he still couldn't help but miss the old days when things were much simpler. You had a Ship, you found a Crew, you got a Job, and you kept Sailing.