A Future Caskett
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: You know this by now, right? Rating: K Time: See below.
"Why not?" He asked, puzzled.
"Look at how I'm dressed. I can't go looking like this."
"Nonsense. I've seen women come to La Finca straight from horseback riding, sweaty, boots covered in horse dung and smelling like….Well, smelling. You look fine."
"Castle! Those are Elite women."
"And none of them can hold a candle to you." He glanced at his watch. "It is a bit early for lunch. How about we shoot some more."
"Sorry. I'm out of my monthly allowance of ammunition."
"No problem. I'll just get some more."
"Get more ammo? How?"
"Beckett, I know a guy."
Castle took out his phone and called someone. "Mike? It's me, Rick. I'm doing some research at the 12th Precinct." There was a pause. "Yeah, that one. Can you send a couple of thousand rounds of 9mm?" Pause. "An hour will be fine, thanks."
Kate looked at him after he hung up. "Who was that?"
"Oh, that was Major General Mike Doyle, head of ordnance for the MSS."
"And he'll just send over a thousand rounds?"
"A couple of thousand. Now, shall we shoot?"
Kate was a bit worried, but she drew more ammunition and they continued shooting. Kate won every round, although Castle came close once, only losing 98 to 97. Kate helped him with his grip on the 6mm Spoletto and he scored 88 out of 100. He even tried to fire the .50 caliber Spencer and got knocked on his ass both times. And, within an hour, a messenger arrived with four thousand rounds of 9mm ammo.
He checked his watch. "Okay, it's lunch time. Ready, Detective?"
"Let me clean up and do my makeup. I'll be back in ten minutes."
Kate ran to the lady's room, stripped and washed herself as best she could. Then she went to her locker where she kept a set of her nicer clothes, just in case she had to brief some VIP, then she did her makeup. Looking at herself in the mirror she decided she was not anywhere ready to go to La Finca with Castle.
She walked into the bullpen and smiled at Castle. "You know, we could just go to Remy's. It's close and…."
"I already made reservations. Ready to go?"
Fifteen minutes later they walked into La Finca. A maître d in a tuxedo greeted Castle.
"Mr. Castle, how good to see you again. And your friend…?"
"Henry, certainly you haven't forgotten my dear friend, Katherine Beckett?"
Henry looked properly appalled at his "error". "Miss Beckett. Of course. How good to see you again."
Henry led them to a table. Castle seated Kate, something she wasn't used to.
"Castle." She whispered. "Henry has never seen me before in my life."
He smiled. "True, but soon there'll be rumors all over La Finca that Rick and Katherine are back together. You'll probably be getting invitations to parties."
She couldn't think of anything worse.
Then the menus came. Kate had decided that she'd order the least expensive thing on the menu. However, there were no prices on the menu.
"Castle, I have no idea what most of these dishes are." She whispered.
"May I order for you?"
"Please do."
Suddenly there was another man in a tuxedo standing there. "Wine, Sir?"
Castle nodded. "Miss Beckett has taken an interest lately in the Chateau d'If '87."
"Excellent choice, sir. Just one moment."
The food and the wine were excellent, but Kate was so happy to get back to Castle's car, she let out an obvious sigh of relief.
Castle had a puzzled look on his face. "Didn't you enjoy the lunch?"
"Castle, I felt like everyone in the place was staring at me."
"They were. All the men were staring at you because you were the most beautiful women there, and all the women were looking at you because they were jealous."
"They were only jealous of me because I was with you."
He shrugged. "They were still jealous of you."
"It's easy for you to do this, you were born to the Elite."
He smiled. "Oh? So you think I was born an Elite?"
"You weren't?" Kate suddenly realized she didn't know much about Castle.
"My mother was an actress named Martha Rodgers. You'd have to be a real film buff to remember her. She always played the female lead's best friend, or the secretary of the hero, or maybe the sister of the hero. Later she played a teacher or a nurse, or maybe a government official. We were comfortable, but definitely not Elite."
"How did you become an Elite, then?" Kate had never wondered how one got to be an Elite. They just seemed to exist.
"I wrote a book in college, In a Hail of Lead. The Ministry of Culture liked it and published it. It sold way more than they thought it would, so they asked for another book, then another and another. Then I wrote the first Derrick Storm and things took off. The books were more popular than anything the Ministry had ever published. Then there were the Derrick Storm movies, the action figures, the lunchboxes, and the money just rolled in. Oh, I'm nowhere as rich as say, the Minister of Culture, or even someone like the Deputy to the Division Sub-secretary for Coal Extraction at the Ministry of Energy, but I'm a lot better looking, funnier and I can dance better. All of a sudden I could buy a home in an Elite neighborhood, I mixed with the Elite, I went to Elite parties, dated Elite women, and there I was, an Elite myself."
"You're still more at home in La Finca than I ever will be."
"Don't be too sure, Beckett." He said with a smirk.
They left the precinct early and went back to Castle's home. Castle stopped his car at the guardhouse.
"Tommy, can you do me a favor?"
"Anything you want, Mr. Castle." Came the prompt reply.
"Detective Beckett will be coming here regularly. She needs her own ID. Okay?"
"Certainly. Miss Beckett, if you'll please come into the guardhouse?"
Kate quickly had her photo taken, was fingerprinted, DNA was taken and her retinal scans were taken. A small ID badge was handed to her.
"Miss Beckett, this allows you entry to Mr. Castle's home 24/7 and it's indefinite. You can keep your sidearm, of course. You're not allowed access to any other home, although you can go and ask to visit. If you're not with Mr. Castle, you don't have to stop here. Our sensors will pick up your ID as long as you have it with you."
Since they had had such a large lunch, Castle made them sandwiches. They were, as Kate expected they would be, better than anything Kate had ever had.
Rick asked her about her time as a Robbery detective. She told him a number of stories about her time in Robbery. She did not tell him about the obnoxious Robbery detective who kept trying to get her into bed. He had finally dragged her into a storage room and pulled her pants down. She acted like she was resigned to it, so that when he pulled his pants down, she pulled hers up and began kicking him in the crotch. She left him sobbing on the floor. In revenge, he spread a rumor that Kate was male. She didn't care.
"Then there's the toll, of course." Kate said off handedly.
"The toll?"
Kate was surprised he didn't know about that. Perhaps he was naïve. "Suppose you're a store owner and fifty high-end 57 inch TVs get hijacked from your delivery truck. The police recover forty-five and tell you the thieves sold five before they were caught. In reality the cops keep five. Maybe for themselves, but more likely they sell them."
Castle looked at her. "And what kind of a TV do you have, Beckett?"
Kate bridled at the implied insult. "A seventeen inch black and white that my parents had. Would you care to inspect my apartment?"
He smiled at her. "No need to. I already knew I wouldn't find anything out of line."
"You just wanted to get me angry." She accused.
"Sometimes people say the wrong thing when they're angry. Not you, I suspect."
When Kate left, she found an armored limousine waiting for her.
"The Protective Service will take you home from now on, okay?" Castle asked.
Kate could hardly say no.
When she got in, she found that there was both a driver and a guard. Both were in camouflaged fatigues, flak jackets and the guard at least had an assault rifle.
"Miss Beckett," said the guard, "there's both food and drink on either side of you. If there's anything you want that we don't have, we can get it for you."
Kate was beginning to understand just how well the Elite lived. "I'm fine thanks."
Kate was amused when the guard insisted on escorting her to her door in her apartment building, acting like they were deep in Junktown rather than in a collection of buildings reserved for low level government employees.
When the guard came back, he saw the driver was using the night vision equipment.
"Got something, Larry?" He asked.
"A half a dozen scags hanging around the next corner."
"You want me to light them up as we go by?" The guard stroked his assault rifle.
The driver shook his head. "Detective Beckett would hear it and she might come down."
"A CrimPo that cares?" The guard said sarcastically.
"Remember Lt. Price and the guy who built his own pistol?"
"Sure."
"Beckett was the one who suggested to Price that the shooter didn't have some cleverly hidden place for more guns but took it apart and hid the parts in plain sight. Price ignored her and seven months later someone mentioned Beckett's idea to the Sector Commander."
"And?"
"And, Price is in the mountains making sure the trees stay loyal and Beckett is with Richard Castle."
The guard thought for a moment. "You think she's undercover?"
The driver shrugged. "They say ISA has people everywhere."
The next day they knew summer was well and truly over. It was not just cold outside, but the air conditioner in the precinct had finally decided to work, and at full blast. No one could turn it off. Castle and Beckett examined seven bodies that day. All were confirmed to have died of exposure, although Dr. Parish didn't bother to get out of the heated morgue truck to make the calls. It seemed that even the presence of Richard Castle couldn't get her to actually examine the corpses. But Kate was good enough to determine that no foul play was involved.
Back at Castle's home. He ran to turn the heater up. "I know what we need for dinner, Beckett. Chili con carne and cornbread. That'll warm us up."
Kate had no idea what that was, but was happy to stand in front of the heater until there was hot food.
When they were done, Castle asked about her time in Vice. Kate's description of her time there were very brief.
"You're not telling me everything, Beckett. What is it?"
She glared at him. The first time she'd done that. "Oh, you want details? Okay. When I was in Vice, I was always sent undercover as some Junktown whore. That meant a short, low cut dress, with no bra and usually no panties. My fellow Vice officers would always make sure I was properly dressed, or undressed, by groping me. Then I'd get sent into some dump to check the place out and every scag in the place would grope me. One time I found the guy we were looking to arrest and waved at the undercover Vice cops. Then some pimp grabbed me and shoved me against the wall and pushed my dress up. He undid his pants and leaned in. The Vice cops just stood there laughing. Then I bit the guy's nose and grabbed a bottle and slammed it over the pimp's head. Then the undercovers moved. Do you know why? Because the pimp gave the Vice cops free rein with his girls in return for protection. Would you like some more details, Mr. Castle?"
He shook his head slowly. "No. That's more than I needed. None of that goes in the book."
"I thought you wanted to know all about this Nikki Heat." She said angrily.
"Beckett, I apologize for asking you to tell me about that. I had no right to make you go through that. I am truly sorry and I don't want to know anything about your life that makes you uncomfortable or hurts you in any way. Do you forgive me?"
Kate had never had an Elite apologize to her before. She smiled at him. "Castle, what hurt me was what was done to me by those cops, you didn't do any of that. There's no need to apologize."
"I still want you to forgive me."
"Sure. I forgive you, Castle."
"You know, Beckett, I could use a drink. How about a Margarita? It goes with the food we had tonight."
She watched as he made their drinks. "Why is their salt on the rim of the glass?" She asked.
He shrugged. "Because that's how you make the drink."
When it was time for her to leave, she turned around so he could help her on with her coat, something she'd almost gotten used to. As soon as she felt the coat go on, she knew something was wrong.