Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. *le sigh*

A/N: I know I say it a lot, but it's because I mean it a lot. Thank you.

P.S.: Lanie's thoughts in italics in some places. You'll know when you read it.

Chapter 10: Operation Crazy Caskett : Part Castle.

31st July

10:30 am, at the loft.

Richard Castle let out a long yawn as he scratched his stubble laden jaw. His hair was mussed up, his clothes were wrinkled, but he was a happy man. Last night he was on a writing spree. He had feared a bit, that getting together with Kate would somehow reduce her…muse-y-ness. That ought to be a word. I ought to have some coffee. He needn't have worried. She was, by far, the most inspiring person – the one person, other than Alexis, who never ceased to amaze him.

He hated leaving her at the precinct. Though it wasn't his job, it had become something like it. And days like this actually did help him with his actual job. As he made his way to the en suite bathroom trying to decide which coffee to bring Kate later, he passed his hand over his hair all the way to the nape of his neck, till he felt a bump. What the - ?

He tried to twist and turn, and looked a little bit like a puppy chasing his tail, as he tried to get a look at the reflection in the mirror. It seemed to be exactly in the middle so that he couldn't turn enough to get a good look himself.

Before taking a shower, he decided to ask Alexis take a look at it for him, just in case she was planning on leaving soon for work. Lanie and Alexis had worked it out so that Alexis would come in during her morning free period, and then later again if her evenings were free.

"Good morning, Pumpkin.", he said as she was steadily making her way through breakfast.

She looked up from the book lying next to her plate – of course – and replied, "Good morning, dad. Did you get a lot of writing done last night? You were totally immersed in it when I came into the study to say good night."

"Ah! Yeah, I did get a lot done. Sorry about that, honey. I didn't even realize when you came in there."

"Oh, it's fine. You know I'm used to it.", she replied.

"Right. Hey, pumpkin, can you just take a look at something for me?"

"You need me to proof read? Sure, I can do it after I get back.", she said, although she knew that wasn't what he'd meant.

"No, not that, thank you though. There's just – there's a bump on the back of my neck, and I can't see it for myself."

"Let me see.", she said as she hopped off the stool and walked over to her father. Just as he finished turning around, she let out a gasp. She was Martha's granddaughter after all. "Ew! Dad, what is that?"

He turned around to face her, eyes wide, looking concerned. "What? What? Is it an insect?", he said, as he started jumping up and down.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "No, would you stand still."

"You know bugs freak me out."

"It's not an insect. It's something – I don't know what it is, but there's green stuff coming out of it."

"Ewwww!", Castle cried out while making a disgusted face.

"I think you should show it to a doctor, dad."

"Yeah. I'll just go take a shower and – "

"NO!", Alexis shouted and then turned pink. "Sorry. I mean, you probably shouldn't get it wet, right? I was just on my way to the morgue. You should come with me, show it to Lanie.", she said hurriedly.

"Yeah, I guess it's not a good idea to let it get wet. Just in case. Okay, I'll come with you. You think Lanie will know what it is?"

"I think so. And if she doesn't, she could recommend a good doctor to show it to."

"Huh. I suppose. Okay, just give me a minute to throw some clothes on.", he said as he walked towards the bedroom.

As soon as he was gone, Alexis texted Lanie.

11 am, at the morgue.

Castle senior and junior came in just a few minutes after Kate had left. That was a close call. Lanie listened patiently as Castle went on about the lump and how he first thought it was an insect. Alexis stood quietly at the back, trying to hold her laughter. She gave her a surreptitious glance, conveying to her to hold it together for a bit longer, or Alexis would give them away. She was, in fact, a little surprised that Alexis had agreed to do it. It seemed that Alexis wanted to get him back for this year's April Fools pranks anyway.

"So, what's up doc?", he asked Lanie in a Bugs bunny voice. Now she knew why Kate rolled her eyes so much.

Time to put on a show. "I'm not sure, Castle. I've seen my fair share of gross lesions over the years, but I've never seen anything like this before.", she said in a serious, and curious tone. "I think – Oh my God!"

"What?", Castle said, panic evident in his voice.

"It's peeling off!"

"Ew! Gross!", Castle said.

"And there's something under – ", she said as she used her gloved hands to peel off the 'lump'. "Stay still Castle, I'm going to take it off. Tell me if it hurts."

"Okay, go ahead. I can only feel a little tug."

I know, Writer-boy. Alexis, girl, you've done a great job with the makeup.

"Okay, it's come off, and your skin underneath looks a little raw. Like – new skin has grown over that area.", Lanie said, as she held the thing in her left hand and made a show of examining it.

"Does that normally happen?", Castle asked as he turned back around, looking more curious than scared. "Oooooh! What is that?"

"Castle, there's nothing normal about this. I don't know what it is. Must be a rare – oh!"

"Oh, what?"

"I – this can't be real. Are you trying to punk me, Richard Castle?", she glared at him.

"Lanie, I really don't know what you're talking about. I woke up and this thing was there, and you're starting to scare me."

"You're serious? He's serious?", she asked Castle and then Alexis, who nodded exaggeratedly. "Castle, there's a – it looks like a microchip."

"A microchip?!", he nearly shouted. "Like on the X-files? This is .. this is.. SO COOL!", this time he did shout. Both Lanie and Alexis rolled their eyes. She should have anticipated that's how he'd think.

"Castle, this is not cool. You woke up with a microchip in your neck, and a weird green pus oozing lump, to boot."

"I gotta tell Kate!", he said excitedly, bouncing on his heels, ignoring Lanie.

"NO!", Lanie and Alexis shouted simultaneously, resulting in a suspicious look from him.

"You can't tell Kate, Castle. We don't even know what this is. It could be a tracking device, it could be anything!"

"Isn't that more of a reason to tell her?", he asked with his eyebrow raised.

"And come across as some kind of whack job? You both just got together. Do you really want to chance scaring her off?", Alexis said.

He gave that some thought. It's true that he puts forward theories about alien abductions and CIA conspiracies all the time. But he's always joking about them. Or, well, almost always. Anything is possible. The truth is out there, and all that. She knew he was kidding though. What if she really did think that he was off his rocker? Wouldn't it be a tragedy to have gone through all the things they did, and end up broken because he'd been – actually abducted by aliens? Even in his head it sounded preposterous. In the end, he thought that maybe he should hold off on telling her till they figure out what it is.

"Okay, I guess I shouldn't tell her just yet.", he said as he saw Lanie squeezing out the thick green liquid into one of the vials that she usually used for dead people goop. It made a weird squelching noise that almost made him nauseous, but he was too fascinated to care.

"Yeah, you do that. I'll send this to the lab to a friend of mine and let you know as soon as he gives me something."

"Thanks, Lanie.", he said.

"No problem. We'll figure this out. Alexis, could you give this up to the guys in tech?", she said as she held out the microchip that was now in an evidence bag. In reality she was trying to give the poor girl an excuse to get out of there so she could burst out laughing where her father wouldn't see her. Alexis was positively shaking with silent laughter.

"Sure", she choked out and ran for it.

Castle watched her run and mistook it for anxiety, so he shouted after her, "Don't worry, pumpkin. We'll figure this out."

"It's a good thing you came to me, Castle. Who knows? Maybe they'd have locked you up in a military facility if they found out.", Lanie said coyly.

"Psh. That's if they came to know."

"They have eyes and ears everywhere. But don't worry, I'll be discreet.", Lanie said, fighting off a smirk.

"Thanks again, Lanie.", he said as he paled, seriously thinking about the option of being thrown in a military bunker. Though, he thought he'd totally rock the patient-X look. What if they didn't let him see Kate? Speaking of whom, "I guess I'll go see Kate."

"No! I just saw her a few minutes ago, and she's getting along fine without you. What you need to do is go take a shower. No offense, Castle, but you reek.", she said as she scrunched up her nose.

"I do? Well, okay. I guess I'll head home then. You'll tell me as soon as you find out?"

"Absolutely." Sucker. She smirked after she turned around.

xXxXx

Noon, at the loft.

He'd already told her that he would be in late, so he took his time in the shower and tried again to see the back of his neck. At least it felt normal now. He dressed for the day and just had toast, since he had skipped breakfast earlier. He was starving but didn't want to eat much since he was getting antsy to meet Kate. Maybe they could get lunch together if she hadn't eating yet.

Just as he picked up his keys, Lanie called.

"Hey Lanie", he answered, "Did you find something?"

"Yeah. Kind of. The green stuff – it's not in any of our data bases. And you know how extensive those are."

They used those data-bases to identify all kinds of gunk that was found on bodies. You never knew where the evidence might lead you. So yes, he knew how extensive those data-bases were.

"Yeah. And the microchip?"

"I don't know how they managed it, but they found something on it.", Lanie said.

"What did it say?", he asked.

"That's just it. They don't know. It's gibberish as far as they're concerned. It's a bunch of symbols that they've never seen, and couldn't match with anything, but they're still running it. Might take a while."

"Lanie, you know what this sounds like?", he whispered.

I know exactly what this sounds like."Yeah Castle. I can't believe it myself."

"This is so cool!", he said again. "Could you imagine the publicity this could garner for my books? I'd be on every news channel across the globe!"

On the other side of the phone, Lanie couldn't believe that it was harder getting Castle to keep quiet than Kate. Then again, this was Castle. How could she have thought that he'd keep quiet? She had some convincing to do. Before she could put a word in, though, he went on blabbering.

"Wow! Abducted by aliens! Hey! Do you think they injected me with stuff? Maybe I have super strength. Oooh ooh ooh! Maybe all my future progeny will be super soldiers. We could start our own precinct! The super NYPD!"

Oh brother. And he doesn't stop. How does Kate put up with it? The girl really is in love.

"Kate would be the Captain. It'd be great! Looking after our kids and working at the same time. And all of you would work there with us, of course."

"Does Kate know you're thinking about having super children with her?", Lanie asked. This is ridiculous. What am I even saying?

But Castle seemed to have ignored her. "Hey, maybe I'd finally get an honorary badge. What?", Castle finally asked after he heard Lanie call his name four times.

"Castle, we don't even know what this is yet. You're just assuming. Don't get ahead of yourself."

"You're no fun.", he said, pouting.

She rolled her eyes and wondered about how fatigued Kate's eye muscles must be.

"Castle, remember what I said earlier? If the military gets a whiff of this, they'll send you away."

"Hah! I'd like to see them try. I'll tell the media. Plus, Kate will save me.", he said, grinning over the phone imagining a movie-style scenario with Kate busting him out of a secret underground military site.

"Castle, do you want Kate to get dragged into the middle of it if it gets that far?"

At that, he finally seemed to sober. He thought as much about the rogue military trained assassins who had already tried to kill Kate, as the stories he'd read in so many books and claims. No, he wouldn't want Kate anywhere near that.

"Lanie, what do I do?", Castle asked, seriously.

Finally, she thought she'd convinced him.

"I told you, we'll figure it out Castle. Just remember what I said earlier. You can't tell anyone. For now, not even Kate, at least till I have something more concrete.

"Yeah. Thanks Lanie.", he said and hung up. He wondered, what more concrete evidence she needed, but soon his thoughts derailed, as they often did, to thoughts about Kate.

For a long time, he just sat thinking about the possible consequences. Would it be so bad to tell her? Maybe Alexis was right. Maybe Kate would think that he's legitimately gone crazy. Maybe they'd all admit him to the psych ward. And he wouldn't want to drag Lanie along, even if she could maybe give some evidence. If it was something unidentifiable though, there was hardly evidence for either side of the argument.

On the other hand, he'd seen what keeping secrets had done to them. And Kate wouldn't just toss him aside. No matter what it was, she would stand by him. They always stood by each other. Why would that stop? Besides, she was a sci-fi fan. Maybe she'd believe it too? He was sure, that even if she didn't believe in his abduction theory, she believed in him. She believed in them. He could see it in her eyes. Over the last couple of months, he thought, it was growing stronger – her faith in them. No, he decided. Keeping this from her was stupid. He had to tell her, even though it worried him slightly.

With that thought in mind, he finally got up and headed to the precinct.

He'd been to her desk, but she wasn't there. Neither were Esposito and Ryan, so he didn't know where to go next. He knew that she had already been to the morgue, so he thought that she might be out chasing leads. He thought about getting some coffee and giving her a call. Just as he turned around for one last look at the precinct, he saw Kate, Lanie and the guys getting out of the building.

It was like his whole world lit up. His heart picked up its pace, when she noticed him too and smiled at him. She looked as relieved to see him, as he did her.

"Hey!", he greeted all of them, and then turned to Kate. "I've been looking all over the place for you.", he said softly.

"Oh? Lanie had some stuff she needed to show us, so we were at the morgue.", Kate replied.

Lanie wasn't too worried about her scheme falling apart. She thought she'd convinced him over the phone earlier.

He told Kate that he needed to talk to her, but Lanie interrupted and said that he could steal his Kate after lunch. His Kate. He liked the sound of that, and worried for a second that Kate would be offended at being seen as a possession. But she surprised him by shrugging and giving him that secret smile that he knew was so much bigger inside. He smiled back at her and took her hand in his. He knew he'd made the right decision. With her by his side, everything felt right.

After lunch, once they got back to the precinct, Kate suddenly dragged him into an empty stairwell. Over lunch he had forgotten about anything and everything but her, but now he remembered. He still wasn't sure how to break it to her. Maybe he would let her think that he didn't believe any of it either. Reverse psychology. Something like that. It seemed to work on her sometimes. He took in a deep breath, and watched her do the same.

They simultaneously blurted out, "I think I'm going crazy."

Say what now? Was she abducted too? Maybe that's why Lanie was so adamant about not telling her. Kate was freaking out too. She must've made Lanie promise not to tell him. Maybe they could share a bunker.

A/N: See? Far less elaborate than Kate's thing. I'm glad to get these two together again. Phewpf. Personally I love that Lanie's plan backfired because she misjudged their need for each other. I also loved getting Castle to drive Lanie nuts. Heh. It's fun to irritate them.