Moment in Time
Time Will Tell
"Before yesterday I had never even met Ward," Doyle told the detectives and Castle.
"That's not entirely true," Ryan corrected. I went back through Ward's incarceration file. Before his trial he spent two weeks in a psychiatric ward being evaluated by the state. In the next room was a patient, a John Doe. I had them pull his photo," he said showing a picture that was clearly Doyle.
A triumphant grin spread over Beckett's face. "There's the connection."
Doyle shook his head emphatically. "No, no, that's ridiculous," he insisted, "because I have never, never, -oh, wow! That's really clever."
"What? What's clever?" Castle asked.
"That's me," Doyle said indicating the picture Ryan held. "But I haven't done it yet. Don't you see? Now that they know where Ward is and where's he going to be they'll send me back to make contact, find out who he's working for, if they're planning anything else. It's perfect." Castle smiled broadly while Beckett rubbed her temple as if a headache was coming on. Doyle checked his watch. "I don't have much time left," he said, beginning to walk away. "See you in twenty years."
"Is it just me," Castle asked "or does that make sense?"
"No, it's just you," Ryan told him as Castle spied the tracker Doyle had left behind.
"Oh! He forgot his little doohickey here. Hey!" Castle called, following after a rapidly retreating Doyle, "you forgot this."
Doyle turned around. "I really don't need it. The components get beat up in time jumps. They'll give me another one before they send me out again, but thanks. You can keep it if you really want to annoy Miss Sunshine."
"Listen, Doyle," Castle whispered conspiratorially. "Beckett may not have wanted to know what happens, but I do. What is all that crazy stuff we get into and what are the names of our kids going to be?"
"I don't think I'll have time to tell you much, Doyle answered, but we can see how far I get. Your kids will be Johanna, R.C., which stands for Roy Cosmo, and Martha. After Johanna is born, Beckett will decide she wants to go to law school. That's when you start writing serious literature, because you aren't following her around as a cop anymore. Beckett will become a victims' rights advocate and people will come to both of you with their problems because of your history. There will be this one guy, Merkle, who'll say he had new energy source. He'll say it came from alien technology, but it got taken from him by a shadowy government organization."
"Like SHIELD, only real?" Castle asked.
"Actually," Doyle told him, "SHIELD is real. Someday Phil Coulson will be known as one of the world's great heroes. But it's another organization. I don't know which one, but you and Beckett had some dealings with them before, with an Agent Westfield. Anyway Beckett thinks Merkle is nuts. She does that a lot, doesn't she?"
Castle nodded. "She's the ying to my yang. I believe in almost everything and she believes in almost nothing. We average out. It works."
"I don't know how you take it," Doyle commented, "but anyway, you believe Merkle and you start trying to track the agency down. When you get too close, they grab you and take you in for interrogation. Beckett goes after you when you go missing, but they grab her too. They realize that neither one of you knows anything, drug you and dump you in her car."
"That sounds eerily familiar," Castle said.
"Yeah, it seems to be their M.O.," Doyle agreed. "Well anyway, it really gets under Beckett's skin. She goes after the agency with the Freedom of Information Act and everything else she can think of. You help her by stirring up all your old Derrick Storm conspiracy fans. You get quite a little grass roots organization going. In the middle of all of that, Beckett gets pregnant again, with R.C.. She actually goes into labor with him when she's on a speaking tour. She never even makes it to the hospital. You deliver him. It makes quite a splash in the papers, that's how I remember it.
Anyway despite the organization, you guys don't make much headway against the agency. I guess that's why Beckett decides to run for office. She wants an in. She runs for Congress first. You stump for her and so does your mother. She does a wonderful job, by the way, as a Grand Dame of the theater. She gets all sorts of names to come out to fund raising events. Of course what really does it is Beckett's history in law enforcement. She makes the other guy look like a wimp, even though he had been a cop too. He was only in robbery – not very manly next to 'Bad Ass Beckett.' I think his name is Demming."
Castle began to cough, and Doyle slapped him on the back. "You know him?" Doyle asked?
"We have a passing acquaintance," Castle told him. "Then what?"
"Beckett still doesn't make as much headway as she wants to, so after a term in Congress, she runs for the Senate. She almost doesn't make it. Her opponent tries to smear her, something about messing up a CIA operation against the Russians."
Castle started to cough again. "You coming down with a cold?" Doyle asked. "We're going to have a vaccine for that."
"Good to know," Castle said, "but what happens to the smear?"
"Funny, there's a leak of CIA documents incriminating her opponent in some overseas money laundering scheme. No one ever finds out who was responsible for the leak."
"I think I have an idea," Castle muttered.
"Anyway," Doyle continued, "she gets elected Senator. Not to long after that, Martha's born. Last I heard, when I left, Beckett got herself put on the Intelligence Committee. She should really be able to dig up some good stuff that way."
"Thanks," Castle told him, "just one more thing, do you know exactly when and where we actually get married?"
"Yeah," Doyle answered, "That was a funny story on one of your book jackets. It was..." Doyle disappeared, leaving Castle standing there, the tracker in his hand. Castle returned to Beckett, his head spinning.
"Hey, so what happened?" Beckett asked.
"Nothing," Castle said. "I looked, but I must have missed him. What happened here?" Castle asked looking at the Deschile letter Beckett had spilled coffee on."
"Nothing," Beckett replied too quickly, "just a little accident."
"Castle noted the shape of the still wet stain, which exactly matched the one in Ward's photograph - and smiled.
A/N The very last day of Nathan's Charity Water Campaign and the last chance to win lunch with him. Tweet me at CheerfulChemist if you need the URL.