Thanks so much for the wonderful response from the last chapter! I agree with several of you who said that having a real version of Goo would be fun.
Sorry for the delay; I published a chapter of another of my stories since the last chapter of this one, so that's partly to blame.
Now, before and as you read this chapter, try to get a mental image of the actors and their facial expressions, mannerisms, etc. If you can imagine those things when you read this, I think you'll enjoy the chapter more. I wrote this around the time that the promos and sneak peeks were released for 5X04, so I was envisioning that sort of vibe from R&E when I wrote this.
Disclaimer: I have no rights to the characters, only to the concept of Goo, which I've explained in previous chapters.
"So tell us again why we're in here again?" Esposito asked softly as he entered the conference room behind Castle and Beckett.
"Because Castle apparently found out why he's being stalked by crazy fangirls." Beckett rolled her eyes a little bit, just for effect in front of the boys. Before coming in this morning, they'd concocted a hopefully plausible story that allowed her to know about Goo and have the app on her phone, but leave out that fact that she was at Castle's late the previous night—in Castle's robe, no less—when Alexis had enlightened them to the wonders of virtually Oozing Goo.
"Isn't it just because he's rich and ruggedly handsome?" Ryan asked with a smirk. "And, oh yeah, because he made the front page of the Ledger yesterday as being ..." he clarified, lifting his fingers to make air quotes, "... 'eligible'?"
"Well, yes," Castle said proudly, the vain part of him not wanting to deny the 'rich' and 'ruggedly handsome' descriptors, "that may be true, but that's not the cause of all of the coffee-stealing, cheek-kissing, clothes-stealing madness. It seems—"
"Some chica stole your clothes? When?" Esposito wanted to know. He didn't remember anything like that from yesterday.
"Yesterday, in the park," Castle answered. "So anyway—"
"I don't remember that. Ryan, you remember someone stealing Castle's clothes?" Esposito asked him.
This time, Beckett interrupted him before Ryan could answer. "It was that little thing in his pocket, Esposito. That one woman grabbed it and ran off with it? Remember?"
"That's not clothes though. That's ... well, I don't know what it is, but it's not clothes." He sounded strangely disappointed.
"It was good enough for her. Now will you guys shut up and listen to Castle before Gates finds us in here?" Beckett asked in a hushed voice, reminding them of how Gates was even less of a fan of Castle after the phone call incident from the day before.
"Fine," Ryan agreed.
"Okay," Castle continued, "as I was saying, it seems that I've become quite the phenomenon since yesterday morning."
"You and all of the other Most Eligible Bachelors," Beckett clarified. She had checked and it was true that all of the men in the Ledger list were getting ... gooey, or were Oozing, or whatever you called it. But of course, as luck would have it, Castle seemed to have a bigger Ooze than anyone else, mostly, she surmised, due to his greater accessibility and the fact that his connecton to the 12th was mentioned in the article, thereby giving people a hint where to find him that the other bachelors didn't have.
"Yes, all of us," he acknowledged to her, somewhat reluctantly. Turning back to the boys, he explained, "There's this thing, almost like a contest, and if someone sees me, for example, the person can get points for it."
"A contest?" Esposito asked.
"Kind of," Beckett interjected. "To hear Castle explain it," she continued, trying to keep up the ruse that she didn't get the information at the same time that Castle did, "it's kind of a cross between a contest and some sort of social networking."
"Yeah, those women yesterday were networking your social side pretty well, Castle," Ryan observed, trying to stifle a grin.
"So anyway," Castle interrupted again after pointedly looking at Ryan. He took a breath and tried to formulate what he wanted to say using the new Goo terminology that he'd just learned. "I'm Oozing. I'm really Oozing a lot, and there's just a lot of Goo. Which means that—"
Esposito, who was the closest to Castle, made a point of taking a few steps away from him quite quickly and held up a hand before Castle could say anymore. "Whoa! Man, I really don't want to know any more."
"No!" Castle said quickly, seeing that Esposito was misunderstanding. He tried to explain. "My Goo is really—"
"Dude! Just stop! There are just some things that shouldn't be shared, even with friends. And that's one of 'em."
But Ryan perked up, saying, "Really? You're Oozing? Goo? That's what this is about? Pretty impressive, Castle! So how much Goo do you have? Beckett, did you see his Goo?"
Kate watched the look on Esposito's face get more shocked as he listened to Ryan's words. He started shaking his head from side to side. Before Castle could answer Ryan's first question, Esposito pointed at both of them. "No. Just no. Not another word. That's sick."
"Esposito—" Beckett tried, surprised by his reaction because although she'd gotten used to the terminology since last night and Ryan also apparently knew about Goo, Esposito was obviously still in the dark and was getting a little creeped out by what he thought Castle was implying.
His eyes flitted over to Beckett. "Don't tell me you want to hear about Castle's personal problems with ... " He leaned closer to Beckett and lowered his voice. "Man, just make him go to a doctor or something, okay?"
"No, it's not that ... Look, Esposito, Goo is the social networking thing that Castle was talking about. That's what it's called. Castle has a category or something by virtue of being the number four most eligible bachelor."
Esposito didn't say anything, but he looked over at Ryan, who confirmed what she was saying. "Yeah. Jenny's done a couple of the Oozes. What is it ... floating on the Ooze or something?" He looked at Beckett, who just shrugged. "The Ooze is the topic or the thing that you're looking for. So Castle is the topic. He's Oozing. For one of the Oozes that Jenny did about a month ago, she even won a pretty nice gift card for a new coffee place."
Esposito reiterated, "So there's a contest for people who ... what? See Castle and rip off parts of his clothes? There are prizes and stuff? And he's not ... really ... oozing ... something?" His tone was still wary and somewhat disbelieving.
"Yes, it's a contest of sorts, somewhat like a scavenger hunt," Beckett confirmed. "At least his Goostream is. From what I've seen, not all of the Oozes have prizes. And don't worry, Esposito," she added wth a smirk, "he's not really oozing anything real. At least I don't think he is."
"Hey Beckett," Ryan said thoughtfully, "You know a lot about Goo and Goostreams, especially since you just found out about this whole thing this morning. What's up with that?"
She gave Ryan a pithy look. "I read fast, Ryan. Okay? It's not like I'm some closet Goober." As soon as she said it, she thought, 'oh, crap.' She hoped Ryan might not catch it, but then she took a look at his face.
"Goober? Beckett!" Ryan exclaimed in surprise. Esposito, still very new to this whole thing, just looked at them quizzically. "You—"
"Shut up, Ryan," she said, giving him a menacing look, "Or I may have to shoot you." Then she happened to look back at Castle, who had a look on his face that was somewhere between shocked and pouty. "What's wrong, Castle?"
He cocked his head toward Ryan. "How has he known about Goo for a month and I just found out about it?"
Ryan shrugged, but then smirkily smiled. "Not sure, Castle. And I've actually known about it since ... oh, I don't know, but it's been at least a couple of months. Seems like this is right up your alley though. Your book is done ... so what've you been doing that's been so important you totally missed this?"
All eyes were on Castle now, who looked between the three faces staring at him. "I ... uh ... was catching up on some sleep, and there are meetings ..." he stammered before taking a breath and snapping himself out of the denial mode he was in. "Who cares what I've been doing? The point is that Esposito now knows that I don't have a disgusting personal problem and we now know these women are on the hunt for me."
"Yeah, too bad they don't really want you. They just want to use you to win the stuff. Hey, did you see what they can win?"
Castle puffed up. "Yeah. Some good stuff. Yesterday they had a couple of Broadway tickets they gave away. They had an iPad too, but after I ditched them in the alley ..." Castle started rambling, not really realizing that he was giving way more information about his evening than he needed to.
"You had to ditch some women?"
"Uh, yeah ... but another time, okay? We need to talk about this whole Oozing thing."
"Why? You need help avoiding them? I'd offer to take some of them off your hands, Castle," Esposito told him, "but deranged stalker chicas really aren't my type."
"Well, yeah, not mine either. But if you can help ... sure. Beckett and I downloaded the app ... uh, I mean I did when Alexis told me about it and Beckett said she was going to after I, uh, talked to her this morning. So we could ... see what was Oozing about me." He was stammering as he was trying to remember to refer to it like they hadn't found out about Goo together the night before. He wasn't used to measuring his words quite this much before he spoke, and darn, it wasn't easy!
"So anyway," Beckett took over, giving Castle a censuring look, "after he told me about it, I thought maybe you guys should download the app too. Then we can all have a heads-up if they're going to start stalking Castle for some Goo. Or the Ooze."
"Hey!" Ryan said brightly. "We could stalk Castle!"
"Excuse me?" Castle said.
"We could stalk Castle and get some of the prizes! And if we get the prizes, then the crazy stalkers will leave him alone. Hey," he shrugged, "I could use some Broadway tickets."
"Dude," Esposito told him, "this is a 'most eligible bachelor' thing. You gonna go out in public and try to kiss Castle or steal his clothes?"
The smile dropped off Ryan's face. "Yeah, you have a point there. Damn. Guess the contest only works for women."
And then Beckett and Castle watched as the other two detectives looked at each other for a few seconds before smug smiles appeared on their faces. They slowly turned to look at Beckett.
"What?" she said, getting a little weirded out by the smiles that were directed at her.
"You're a woman," Esposito observed.
"Well, thanks for noticing, Esposito. You're really quick this morning," she told him sarcastically. "But what ... oh, wait a minute. No way," she said forcefully as she shook her head.
"Come on, Beckett. It's perfect."
"What's perfect?" Castle asked, obviously not following their train of thought like Beckett was.
"Beckett can be your stalker!"
"My stalker?" Castle was starting to get a deer-in-the-headlights look.
"Yeah! She can float on your Ooze and do the challenges! She could totally nab the prizes," Ryan explained.
Beckett grimaced at how 'float on your Ooze' sounded when spoken aloud, especially when referring to her and Castle, and she hoped he wasn't going to make some comment about it. But she quickly ignored that in favor of addressing the main issue. "No way, Ryan. I am not going to stalk Castle for prizes!" she interjected.
"Come on, Beckett! You don't have to keep the stuff. We'll be happy to take it all of your hands," he offered, trying to sound generous.
She only responded by glaring at the other two detectives.
Esposito tried again. "Hey, it's not like you and Castle are involved or anything, so what's the harm? You're just as ... well, eligible for the Ooze as anyone else is. No conflict of interest. Totally fair. Right?"
Right? Right? No! She was not going to act like a fangirl and do any of those challenges! "Esposito! Just ... no!"
"Think about it, Beckett," Ryan reasoned. "The Ooze is out there. You might as well float on it. And you know if you don't, then some other other crazy women probably will. And then we'll have to worry about crowd control at the crime scenes, and phone calls or people coming to see him here, and you know how Gates feels already ..." he trailed off, raising an eyebrow at what he was implying. The more Ryan thought about it, it really was a perfect scenario to curb Castle's sudden popularity, not to mention annoying Beckett at the same time. Then, not above trying a little bit of guilt, he delivered his closing shot. "And you know, Gates is already pretty mad about the whole phone call thing from yesterday. If this all continues and you don't do your part—you know, take the heat off of Castle—well, Gates just might decide he's really too much trouble and kick him out for good."
Beckett looked at both of them and then rolled her eyes. "Guys—"
"Take one for the team, Beckett," Esposito urged in a calm, smooth voice. "Make like you're hot for Castle. Get some Ooze on him."
"Goo," the other three of them corrected simultaneously.
Hot for Castle. The guys wanted her to act like she was hot for Castle. Little did they know that she was already hot for Castle. And they heated things up reasonably often.
But they didn't know that, and she wanted to keep it that way for now. She stared at them, her lips pursed, not saying anything. Castle almost looked like he was holding his breath waiting to see what she would say.
"Look, guys," she reasoned, trying for the softer approach. "I cannot act like one of those strange women. That's just not me. You know that."
"But it doesn't have to be you. You just have to do enough to win the chal—uh, get the women away from Castle." Ryan changed his mind mid sentence, cognizant of the fact that helping Castle would outweigh the need for her to help them win prizes. "Although I'm sure that Castle wouldn't mind if you ripped some of his clothes off in public."
She was getting frustrated, and she wanted out of this conversation. And when she sneaked a look at Castle, his expression was some sort of a strange cross between wary and smug, with a little bit of 'fantasizing about Beckett fangirling me in public' thrown in there somewhere, if the blank look and the little smile were a good indication. She knew him well enough now to know when his brain was taking a detour like that, and right now, she could see he was obediently following the detour signs that Ryan and Esposito had put up.
"Castle!" she said tersely. His eyes snapped back to her, totally focused now. "Stop thinking that right now!" She didn't even bother to say what 'that' was.
"I wasn't ..." he weakly protested, but it was so obvious that he was.
"Freaky ..." Ryan observed softly as he watched her read him so accurately.
"Creepy is more like it. She could totally win stuff," Esposito whispered to him.
Beckett heard the murmurs and gave her attention back to the guys. Taking a deep breath, she told them resolutely, "Guys, it's a new day. All of that stuff is probably dead and buried and they've moved onto today's Goo. We should watch the Goo app just in case, but I'm sure it won't be as much of a problem today." She shrugged. "No big deal."
As she said the words, she had a strange feeling. And then it hit her that what she'd just said was the exact same thing that Castle had said the day before. Several times. But he'd been wrong; it had proven to be a big deal.
But they didn't know then why it was happening. Now they did, she rationalized to herself. So they were still better off today than they were yesterday. Right.
She chewed her lip and tried to think positively. No big deal. She just hoped she was a lot better at these types of predictions than Castle was.
I thought it would be best to end it there, for now. I thought I'd go a bit farther with this chapter, but it didn't work out that way. Add Ryan and Esposito to the mix, and things just take a little longer. (And of the two, of course Ryan would be the one to already know about Goo.) But although we're not done by any means, I'm envisioning that I'll have this wrapped up in about another three or maybe four chapters.
Thank you to all who reviewed or sent me a note on the last chapter! Some of you had some interesting insights on Goo. I'm still really surprised to be getting new readers! Welcome! Don't forget to say Hi, and please give me your constructive criticism.
Reviews/comments are always appreciated. You know ... what works, what doesn't work. What you thought was funny ... what fell flat. Feedback helps.
