Author's Notes:
We need a new country song "Mama's don't let your babies grow up to write Fan Fiction." This is a lot of work! (Fun but work!)

"Gift from Beyond"
Chapter 35
You have my permission to shoot Castle.

Chapter Posted: 18/4/14; WC: 5k~
Chapter Notes:
I have a problem here. I had written this story as being early in S5 and even mention E6 & E10 a bit later on which is okay but I mention Ryan's undercover work which doesn't come to light until E18, which is late in S5. Soooo... Time for the magical FanFic calendar. This is where I fake it and ask forgiveness. Please suspend your chronological logic and try to enjoy the story and forgive me for my errors.

"May I have everyone's attention." Captain Gates says from the front of the room in a way that makes it very clear that no one has a choice in the matter. "As some of you already know, we are working a joint operation shared by both homicide and robbery. We are against a deadline. At two p-m today a truck will be arriving at its destination and that is when we will be going in. That gives us less than six hours to plan, prepare, stage and execute. Detectives Ryan and Esposito" she says pointing to the two "are leads on this. If there are any questions, go to them. Their backups are Detective Reenberg from burglary and Detective Beckett from homicide and her partner Mister Castle. This is Lieutenant Lee. He is in charge of the SWAT team that will be working with us for this operation."

Gates pauses for dramatic effect to let the gravity of the situation settle in on everyone.

"Let me start with Lieutenant Lee." Gates says. "He will give us an overview of the tactical aspects of this operation." as she steps aside and lets Lee take over.

As Lee starts to speak, there's a light tapping on the glass door behind Castle. He turns and sees Karpowski holding part of a newspaper and looking like she has something to say. He cracks the door sticking his head out, she whispers to him while showing him the paper. He nods, takes the paper and carefully closes the door to pay attention to what's going on in the room when the smooth and surgical discussion is pierced by Captain Gates' most icy and angry sounding voice "MIS-TER CASTLE!Do you have something CON-STRUCTIVE to add to this briefing?"

Noticing all eyes on him and the absolutely vicious glare she's giving him he does his best to be as professional as he can "Yes Captain." he says before clearing his throat again. "Detective Karpowski just handed me this. It is from today's Ledger, specifically page six-"

Her voice dripping with venom she spits "We don't care who they say you are dating this week MIS-TER CASTLE!" obviously to shut him up.

On his best behavior, he straightens up and addresses her calmly and as dryly as he can "No Captain. Nor do I. Detective Karpowski pointed to a note here that says that the star slash celebrity William Shatner is staying at the Hotel Lancelot and holding meetings there about a new project he's developing." he pauses for a second before continuing "Detective Karpowski thought that a high-profile third party being there could cause complications for your operation and asked me to make sure that you were aware of his presence."

He can see the look on Gates' face. She's been caught off-guard by him not being the fool she expected and everyone is turning to look at her for a reaction. Quickly Castle tries to deflect for her "If its of any help Captain, I'm not dating him this week or at least I don't think so." to raucous laughter from the crowd in the small room. He can see the recognition in her eyes of his actions to help her save face and in return he schools his features to show no reaction but an ever-so-slight respectful bow of his head.

"That's a good point. Thank you for letting us know. I mean about his presence at the hotel not your dating habits." she says to a round of giggles. She pauses half a beat and says "Mister Castle, would you have any suggestions for how to deal with this situation?"

"I might Captain." he says holding up a finger and whispering to Kate who nods in return and squeezes through the door, pulling out her phone outside the room. "If you'll permit of course. I suggest that you assign me to one of the physically larger officers in your arsenal. I will go to the hotel with said officer in plain clothes and introduce myself to the front desk and the officer as a 'personal protection expert'" he says doing that thing of making air quotes. "At that point, I'll go visit Mister Shatner with the officer and we can corral him and his entourage in the suite during the operation. We can bring vests and your officer can bring his weapons and such in a bag so no one identifies him as a cop." As he finishes Kate steps back into the room giving him a nod.

All eyes again turn to Gates. "Lieutenant Lee." She says without taking her eyes off of Castle "Does this sound like a viable plan to you?"

"Yes Sir." he says "That would give us two people on the inside which might be of value if things do not go exactly as planned. Knowing that someone is looking after a high-profile third-party can keep us from wasting man-power on them as well as possibly bad publicity."

"Okay Mister Castle." Gates announces with only the slightest twitch of the muscles at the corners of her mouth. "Can you arrange this?"

Beckett cuts in at this point "Sir, I just called Bill and told him that I was going to send Castle over to talk to him about something so he'll be expecting him and will be receptive to Castle's presence." As she finishes she notices everyone staring at her. "What?" she says then it dawns on her "Yeah-yeah. We met at SuperNovaCon, he gave me his number when he was trying to get a date." she says sheepishly to roaring laughter by everyone.

"Well, it seems Mister Castle's not the only one with an interesting social life." Gates says to break the mood. "Detective, and Mister Castle, good plan. Thank Detective Karpowski for her alertness to this situation. Detective, please pick two officers to go with him and brief them on what they need to know about the operation. I'd prefer you choose from the homicide ranks to not diminish the available bodies from robbery we're going to need them in two locations." Then after a heartbeat of contemplation "Mister Castle." Gates says much friendlier than before "Please be careful. We don't want to deprive page six of one of their favorite subjects."

Before anyone else can say a word, she turns to Lee, "Sorry about the interruption, please continue."

As Lee continues to cover the tactical aspects of the operation, Rick feels a gentle squeeze of his arm from behind. He doesn't even need to look he knows it's Kate telling him he did good.

When Lee talks about the hotel entrances that they'll be securing, something seems amiss to Castle based on the video he saw with Ryan and Esposito. Discreetly he pulls out his phone. Then pulling up some Google street views of the location, he sees what looks like a loading dock facing an alley in the back of the building that is not on the building schematic being used for the briefing. He taps Kate's arm and holds the phone up for her to see the picture. She looks at it, then the diagram on the wall and back to the photo. She pats his arm to tell him to wait for a moment. Intensely she stares at Gates until she returns eye contact at which time Beckett gives her a head nod requesting that the Captain comes over to where they are.

When Gates, looking a little bit sour arrives in front of the detective, Beckett leans in and whispers to her ear to not disturb the room and points to the photo on Castle's phone. Gates looks up at her surprised, reaches out and takes the phone, looks at it, then to the diagram then back to Beckett when she nods and, with the phone in hand, returns to where the Lieutenant is speaking. She walks up to him and shows him the phone while speaking softly. Lee, also looking surprised looks at the diagram hung on the wall and then at the photo again. After a moment he draws a thick black line on the diagram. Turning around he announces "We've just gotten word of a change. This drawing from the city planning office isn't perfectly accurate and we've not had the opportunity to go out and properly recon the location before planning this operation. It seems that the hotel has a loading dock facing the back alley where team Bravo was to assemble. I just drew a line on our diagram here where it seems to be. Because of this, the alley is out of bounds. No doubt they've got cameras on the area so we'll need to split team Bravo into two parts, I want one at each end of the alley out of sight. Their job will be to block this alley off after the truck has entered and the go command is issued. Thank you Captain for that correction." he says before talking more about which teams go where and their responsibilities. Gates, thinks for a moment and then in what can only be a conciliatory move, looks at Castle and holds out his phone for him to retrieve, indirectly letting the group know where the crucial information came from.

After a long hour of planning and instructions, Gates steps back into the center of attention. "Because of the abnormal concentration of civilians involved in this location, we're going to set up a staging area where people will be identified and checked through. All identities will be checked and double checked. No one leaves the zone of operations until cleared and all clearances are to be made face to face, no taking anyone's word for it. The identification group will be Tango unit. I have four uniforms and two T-S-U techs assigned."

"Once the target zone is secured, then Detectives Ryan and Esposito along with Reenberg will move in with their teams. We are looking for any contraband and or records that can be attributed to the smuggling operation. Detective Esposito, you've dealt with this kind of an operation before. Please brief us on what sort of things we're looking for and what we should be expecting." She says stepping aside to let Espo speak.

Esposito takes the floor and his disciplined training becomes obvious to anyone watching as his whole bearing changes, his back gets stiff and straight and his manner of speaking becomes more formal and concise as he outlines a number of methods used for this sort of smuggling operation based on his previous experience at the fifty-fourth precinct.

At one point, Ryan steps forward, and looks at the assembled teams then in an unusually confident voice tells them "If you or your team run into anything that you aren't sure of, even if you questioned it and then discarded the idea, STOP! We want you to contact one of the members of team X-Ray from robbery to look at it and assess it. The nature of this sort of operation is that things are more likely to look normal than you'd expect so we want extra eyes on anything hinkey."

"Thanks Kevin" Esposito says as Ryan steps back. A voice from the back of the crowd says "Kevin Ryan?" and Ryan stops and turns back to the crowd, "Yes, who's asking?"

At that an older officer from the back steps forward. "Sorry to interrupt, are you the Kevin Ryan who worked the Irish mob case a few years ago?"

"Ahh yeah. Why?" Kevin says sheepishly.

"I'd always wanted to meet you although I'd have thought you'd be older. I just transferred in from another precinct." he says in a jolly sort of way then looking to his young partner and the group he was with he informs them "This guy is as close to a freakin' legend as you'll find still working the streets." then back to Ryan "I got to work clean-up after that raid. Even Saint Patrick's day didn't cause as much trouble as we had that day."

Kevin blushes and gives a nod of thanks to the guy who's smiling wide like a kid meeting his favorite baseball player.

Esposito, to break up the tension a bit looks over at Rick "Hey Castle, you might not be the only celebrity we have among us." to everyone's laughter.

Smiling proudly Javi slaps his partner on the back and finishes his part of the briefing "Remember, some of the contraband will blend in with other things. Containers of colored water can hide diamonds and other stones very well, also, that green crap they stick flowers in, we've seen them use that to hide small things in and then put the flowers in the holes so pay close attention to them. I think that covers it." he says looking at Ryan for anything more.

"Fake or dead flowers are going to be a giveaway." Ryan adds stepping back into fore. "We're dealing with them using a professional florist as a cover and either one of those are going to be unlikely so if you find them, give them extra attention." Ryan says before stepping back again.

"Detective Reenberg, do you have anything to add?" Esposito asks.

"Yes thank you Javi." she tells him before turning to the crowd. "We're going to try something new to keep track of the horrendous amount of paperwork that this investigation and seizure is going to produce. You'll find forms that look like this" she says holding up a fluorescent pink color "don't blame me I didn't choose the color."" She says to light laughs around the room. "The color is so they stand out. These forms are for you to record anything that you come across. Use them freely. I'd rather you fill one out on a soap dispenser than miss one on something else. We stand the chance of running into something questionable with every corner you turn."

Stepping a bit more into the middle of the group she continues "Here's another thing. Based on some reports that I've been reading from the F-B-I crime lab-" She stops when she hears a snicker in the crowd to which she laughingly says "Yeah, I'm single and don't have a life, so what's new." before continuing. "There's a trick that's been getting some traction in some smuggling organizations, you should keep your eyes open for it and flag anything you might think fits into this category. It seems that our clever smugglers are using ultrasonic type lab mixing equipment to vibrate tubs of dirt and small stones. They then drop the contraband into the dirt which is vibrating so fast it looks and acts like water then they put a small tree or bush into the container and the roots and contraband get swallowed up by the vibrating dirt. When they turn off the vibrations, everything solidifies again like it grew that way. Why am I telling you this? If you see larger plants that look like they've just been put into place or that look like they don't fit into the container they're in or the container is cracked or scratched, that's a tell that we should look at it more carefully. That's it for me. Thank you. Javi." she says stepping back into the crowd.

"Thanks. All communications inside will be on tactical channel seven once SWAT has secured the premises. We're going to have a command center on scene immediately after the raid. Command will then be transferred into the building to centralize the operation. Okay, back to Captain Gates." Esposito says.

As the captain steps further into the middle of the group, she looks around to everyone's face. "I expect to see all of you in one piece after this operation. Anyone who gets hurt is going to have to deal with me afterwards and it won't be pleasant." she says with a crooked smile. "Let's be careful, get this job done and all get home afterwards." she says dismissing the group.

As Ryan and Esposito head over to where Beckett and Castle are standing by the exit, Castle, quickly grabs Kevin's hand and drops to one knee to kiss his knuckle as if he was kissing the Pope's ring. Everyone roars with laughter except for Ryan who's beet red at the implication.

"Duuude! That's not funny! You're embarrassing me." Ryan hisses yanking back his hand.

"Oh yes that was funny and you think you're embarrassed now," Esposito laughs, "wait until Jenny and your future kids hear this story!"

The two partners leave heading back to their desks, still arguing the appropriateness of disclosing such foolishness to their future offspring, while Castle tries to flag down Gates. When she comes over this time, she looks a lot less pissed off than before.

"Mister Castle?"

"Captain, the reason I found that picture was that I was looking for information about that hotel and the floor layout." Castle explains. "I found this diagram which is of one of their fire-escape routes near where their larger suites are." he says holding up his phone for her to see "If you look, you can see that there's two hallways with emergency stair exits leading into two sets of elevators. I thought you should know what the floor layout might look like."

"Sir," Beckett cuts in, "May I suggest we send him in with three officers? I'd suggest L.T. posing as his bodyguard, no one will question that. I'd suggest we send Hastings in with him posing as a personal assistant, that will also fit in with the narrative and we can send in Velazquez or Karpowski as a third. This way we'll be more likely able to secure a perimeter."

She ponders it for a moment while looking at the diagram and then looks up at Castle "Sounds like a valid plan Mister Castle." Turning to Beckett, she issues her orders "Detective Beckett, make the arrangements. I want everyone to have vests, their sidearms and Taser, except for Mister Castle of course. I want everyone with a radio set to a separate tactical channel and I want Detective Karpowski, your third, to have a second radio set to the operations channel. She will be their point of contact with the operations team."

"Acknowledged." Beckett says formally.

"Detective Beckett, I also want you in the command center coordinating between the tactical assault teams and the investigation teams. We need someone with experience on both sides to keep an eye on what's going on. You'll also be responsible for directing translators and EMT units to where they're needed if things don't go, exactly, as planned." Gates finally says before departing and heading for her office with a couple of the other suits.

"Beckett?" Castle quietly asks "Did she just do both of us a favor?" staring at her retreating back.

"I'm not sure and I'm not going to question it. Let's get back to my desk so we can begin prep." she says shaking her head before walking along.

As she passes she tells Karpowski "You've been assigned to this operation. I need you to get L.T. and Hastings up here, meet me at my desk as soon as you can collect them."

"Right." Karpowski says getting up and walking quickly to find the other two.

"Hey Espo," Beckett calls as she sits down at her desk. "You got your wish. Your suspect confessed. His lawyer had to convince him that he wasn't going to get any sympathy from a jury. I'll write up the notes and give it to you in a minute."

"That's great, thanks. Uh... Did he give a reason?" Javi asks.

"Yeah. Sad case. He got angry because his wife was having an affair with, as he put it, someone normal, who didn't have a physical deformity." she explains shaking her head as she turns to her desk to do her tasks.

Almost magically a fresh cup of coffee appears on the edge of her peripheral vision. "Thanks Castle." she says without looking up while she reaches out to grab the cup for a drink.

After a few minutes of relative silence, Beckett turns around with the folder in her hand for the case. "Ryan, here." she says handing it off to him.

"What's this?"

"That case I just closed for you. Sign it and send it on." she tells him.

"But you did the work-" the Irishman begins to object.

"I batted clean-up, you guys did the work. You take the credit for it. That's an order." she says with a smirk on her face.

Both Ryan and Esposito, despite having their attention on different things, in unison drone "Yeeesss Mom." earning them a Beckett eye roll to Castle's great amusement.

"Hey guys, by the way, congratulations on getting the credit for this collar." Castle says.

"Thanks." Ryan responds still head-down and working on his tasks. "It seems that the guys in robbery, of which one was Carter, has had this case for almost a year but they haven't been able to get a break until Castle noticed that truck. We've been told that in five hours we made more progress on this case than they have in twice as many months. The rumor mill has it that Reenberg has put in for a transfer three times because of how crappy their organization is down there, sorry, was down there."

"Hey Castle. That's twice now you've stuck your head into the lion's mouth and survived. Way to go." Esposito tells him in a bit of a hushed voice.

Ryan, nodding in agreement adds "Dude I don't think I've ever seen her so mad at anyone. I think if she didn't have so many witnesses she'd have shot you on the spot."

"Thanks guys. It means a lot." Rick says earnestly.

"I mean it Castle." Espo says with an unusual sound of seriousness in his voice. "I'm proud of you man, even a year ago you'd have folded or said something really stupid and got her more pissed off."

"Thanks! Maybe it's the great teachers I have?" Castle acknowledges with a nod to the two just as the two officers and Karpowski show up.

"Beckett?" Karpowski prompts. "What do you need from us?"

"Let's go into the break room where we can talk for a bit." She says grabbing her notebook and coffee. "Castle, you too y'know." she says with a smile.

As the five file into the room Beckett nods to Castle to close the door behind him for a little sound control. "Okay you four have a special task to do for this operation." Beckett starts.

"L.T. you and Hastings, change into street clothes." She instructs. "You put your badge, vest, Taser and such along with your NYPD coat into a ditty bag. L.T. You'll wear your sidearm under a suit jacket."

"I have a shoulder holster if that would help." he tells her.

"Perfect. Your undercover role in this operation will be bodyguard to Castle who'll just be his own charming self." she says smiling. The senior detective relaxes a bit and explains more "All three of you will be going in with Castle as part of his entourage. Hastings."

"Here." she snaps sounding a bit on-edge.

"Relax!" Kate says smiling. "You're going to be Castle's assistant. Get a pair of glasses to wear so you look more bookish if you can. If you can't don't worry about it."

"Roz, you're the third member of the group. You will be going in as... Castle? Got a good role for her?" she asks not sure how the narrative will work.

"Definitely, agent." Castle says smiling at her.

"Is that good or bad Beckett?" Karpowski asks giving him a scary stare.

"It's not bad. His agent could probably whip half of us." Beckett says laughing. "So, now the why part of this charade. In case you've not heard, we have an operation going on at the Hotel Lancelot-"

Her explanation is cut off by the laughing. "I know, get it out of your system. It's stupid and the name makes no sense but there it is."

After the laughter dies down she continues. "The operation is going to be big and we just found out, thanks to Karpowski, that William Shatner is there. Castle offered to go in to help control the situation. We don't need Shatner or his people wandering into the middle of a SWAT containment operation. So. Castle's going to go in with L.T. as his bodyguard, Anne, you'll be his assistant and Roz, you're his agent. The plan has already been approved by Gates and we've told Shatner that Castle's coming to visit him but no details about why."

"You mean I'm going to get to meet William Shatner too?" Karpowski says grinning with that fan-girl look.

"First Gene Simmons and now Shatner." Kate says lightly. "Yes you are but you might come away with a different opinion once this is over." Beckett says remembering the feeling she had of him hitting on her. "Castle? Anything to say to the team?"

"Yes, fairly simple instructions to create believable characters. L.T., you need to look imposing and terrifying." he explains then after a half beat he continues "Good you're already in character." he says with a smirk and a pat on the guy's back. "You'll need dark sunglasses, wrap-around types if you can. The only reason you carry a gun is as a warning to others who see you from a distance. You know that you'll never have to pull it out to hurt someone."

"Anne. You'll have a notebook. You should open and close it constantly checking a schedule and you'll be wearing a large watch. We can get you one if you need, oh hell, here" he says unfastening the watch from his wrist "put this one on." handing her his watch.

"Wow, nice watch!" Hastings says looking closely at it.

"Anne?" Kate says getting her attention "That's worth more than half your salary so don't lose it please. Castle?" she says raising her eyebrows.

"Oh yeah, sorry. Anne," he says addressing the young cop directly "you're the white rabbit, you're perpetually terrified of being late and you always think you're late. Oh, and you're a nag constantly reminding me 'Mister Castle!' and pointing to your watch."

"Oh this is going to be fun." Hastings says with a little giggle causing Castle to stumble and stare at her for a beat.

"Karpowski. You're easy. Imagine you're constipated. Badly." he says to everyone laughing at the description. "Your sense of humor has shut down due to lack of use and you find nothing amusing and everything annoying."

"I can't wait to tell Paula about this description." Kate threatens.

"Go ahead, I'll bet a buck she doesn't argue with it." He smirks. "If an agent, with a bleeding cut, was to fall into a school of hungry piranha she'd survive unscathed out of professional courtesy."

"Hastings, do you have a change of clothes that would look like something a professional would wear?" Kate asks.

"It just so happens I do. I have a pantsuit that I just got from the cleaners. Will that do?"

"Yes. Excellent. L.T. You might want to try for all dark clothes, you know, the Hollywood bodyguard look, can you do that?"

"Yes Detective. All set for that. Even have the glasses." he says with a smile.

"That's it for you guys. I'll just be me." Castle says brightly to which Beckett coughs earning an attempted imposing glare from Castle.

"Okay, I think we're done here." Beckett announces. "I want to see you two back here in two hours. If you need props for the show, ask the guys over in vice, they've got some stuff you can use. Karpowski, I need you for another minute." she says dismissing the other two.

"Roz, you're going to be in charge of this little circus." Beckett explains as Karpowski sits at the table with them. "You're going to have radios for command and another to talk to these three. You have my permission to shoot Castle if he misbehaves just don't hit Shatner. I'll be in the task force command vehicle, you can reach me if you need me. Castle will print out a floor plan of what we think the floor there looks like. You'll want to put Hastings and L.T. at the end of the pair of hallways so they can control access and egress as needed. You and Castle will be in the suite. You can leave Castle if you need to. Do what you have to in order to control the situation."

"Castle," she says seriously, "I've given Karpowski permission to shoot you if you misbehave so don't make her do all that paperwork. Your job is to stay with Shatner. You are responsible for him." she says with particular emphasis.

"Gotcha." Castle agrees then "Roz, you can't shoot me or you'll never get more of those muffins."

"Don't believe him, I'll tell you where he gets them but only if you make the shot count." Kate laughs.

"Do I only get one shot?" Karpowski asks with a predatory glare and a smile at Castle.

"Okay, let's go." Kate declares as they all go their ways.