September 26, 2010
Beckett wakes up the next day feeling fatigued. She'd barely caught a wink, her thoughts crashing and tumbling together in chaos all night. Was it possible to travel back? Was Castle's father up to something? Who killed Diane and why? How was Montgomery involved? What did the photo of that alleyway mean?
The photo.
Throwing off her covers, she jumps out of bed and rushes through her morning routine, letting her hair air-dry into gentle waves as she applies minimal makeup. She brews coffee and reads the time on her father's watch. 9:10am. Shit. She's supposed to meet Castle at Bryant Park in twenty minutes to pick up Fitz. It was halfway between her parent's place in the Upper West Side and Castle's SoHo loft and the writer liked having an excuse to visit the New York Public Library.
She calls Sadie on her way out the door.
"Can you look into something for me?" the detective asks when the investigator picks up.
"Hello. Good morning. How are you?" Sadie replies flatly.
"Hey, sorry. I didn't mean to run out on you last night."
"You really scared me. What's going on?" Sadie asks.
Beckett clutches her phone. "I'll explain everything once I know more. Promise. But, um, do you know anything about the alleyway in that one photo?"
"From Diane's file? Uh, no. Couldn't figure out where it was taken. No address or street markers."
"It's in Washington Heights. Near the corner of 164th and Broadway."
"How did you—nevermind. What do you need to know?"
Beckett relaxes. "Could you see if there's a history there? Any incidents or police reports?"
"How far back?" the investigator inquires.
"Maybe twenty or thirty years?"
"Got it."
"I appreciate it. I know it's Saturday," Beckett says, as she swipes her metro card at the 86th St Station.
"If it helps with my sister's case, I don't care what day it is," Sadie says determinedly.
"Call me if you find anything?" the detective asks.
"You'll be the first person to know."
Castle is regaling Fitz with a story about Lady Astor and Lord Lenox, the lions perched in front of the library, when she arrives at the front steps.
"And that's why you should never mess with a lioness," Castle concludes and she chuckles.
He looks up from Fitz's carrier and smiles upon spotting her. "Hey," he says warmly, like she never broke his heart and screwed everything up between them. Like there was still hope.
"Hi," she says, her heart picking up speed. "I, uh, brought you some coffee," she says, offering him one of the to-go cups she brought along.
"This really is a parallel universe," Castle says jokingly.
She offers him a half smile.
"I'm sorry about last night," she says.
"What for?"
"I shouldn't have...I didn't mean to," she manages, leaving the implication hanging.
"You don't have to apologize for that," he says.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asks tentatively.
"Is there something to talk about?" he asks, probing.
"Uh, yeah," she says, looking down at her feet. "If that's okay with you."
"I look forward to it."
"Are you free tonight?" she asks, glancing up at him.
"My mother is coming back from her London tour today so Alexis is on her way into town. We have dinner plans together," he says, "But what about tomorrow?"
"Yeah, absolutely," she says. "Actually, why don't you bring everyone to brunch at my parent's?"
"Really? That'd be great."
"Great," she says, a grin stretching across her face.
Fitz gurgles, drawing both of their attention.
"How'd he do the rest of the night?" Beckett asks.
"Woke me up two more times but his drops calmed him down," Castle says, passing the carrier and diaper bag over to her.
"Everything in here?" she queries.
"Running low on powder but otherwise all good."
"I think I have extra at my parents'," she says.
"Perfect," he replies, shoving his free hand into his pocket as he sips from his coffee.
She misses the openness between them, hating this stilted small talk, the air between them stiff.
"Any fun plans before your dinner with the girls?" she asks cordially.
"If I told you, then I'd have to kill you," he says cryptically, but she understands the subtext. He's meeting with his dad.
"Ah, got it," she says, tapping a finger to her nose. "Tell me about it tomorrow?"
"It's a date."
Castle watches Beckett retreat with Fitz, feeling like there was finally some light at the end of the tunnel. After weeks of awkward tension and perfunctory hand-offs, she wanted to talk. Last night had changed something between them, a spark reignited. Maybe she was finally ready to discuss how difficult it was existing in a universe they weren't meant to be in. He still hasn't been able to articulate to her how hard it is being away from Alexis. He misses the girl who came home after a day from school, bursting to tell him about her day. The strong mind and gentle heart that kept him grounded and acted as his voice of reason.
But with this Alexis...everything was off. She lived 35 miles away in Connecticut and anytime they spoke on the phone, there was a thread of resentment in her voice, possibly from an unresolved fight that he'd never been a part of. A couple days after Beckett broke up with him, he made the trip to Greenwich to visit the redhead at her school, surprising her at lunchtime.
August 28, 2010
"It's not like you to visit," she said, turning from him and heading down a well-worn trail toward one of the main buildings.
"It's not?" he asked, curious.
"Usually a case with Kate comes up," she said, barely hiding the bitterness in her tone.
"I see," he said. He'd been so wrapped up in Beckett, adjusting to their new roles, and figuring a way out, he hadn't dug deeper. Hadn't looked outside of his own hurt to see what was right in front of him—a lost little girl.
"Do you?" she asked.
"You feel like I abandoned you. Started a new family and left you behind," he says, as if he were psychoanalyzing a perp.
"You really are clueless, aren't you?"
"Pumpkin, please. I just want to talk. I miss you."
"Pumpkin? What is that? Some new way of trying to connect with me?"
"I thought...sorry, is there something else I call you?"
"Something else? Do you have some sort of amnesia?"
"You could say that."
Her brows turn down in slight concern.
"You used to call me Gingersnap...but it's been a while."
It was one of those infinitesimal changes that threw him off and reminded him this wasn't his world. That this wasn't his daughter. Not his Pumpkin. A deep ache filled him as he experienced the loss of the daughter he raised and sorrow for this other Alexis...Gingersnap, a little girl who needed and wanted her dad. Someone he wasn't. The least he could do was try and be there for her.
"I want to fix this, Lex. Please. Tell me what I did."
She stopped in the middle of the path, her arms tightening around her books, her head bowing towards the ground in contemplation.
"It used to be just you and me. Us against the world," she said after a moment.
The tip of her shoe knocks a pebble loose from the ground.
"It was weird when the girls and the teachers at school would swoon over you, but it didn't happen too often. I eventually found friends who didn't care about that kind of stuff. But then—" she stopped, a breath shuddering through her. "Then, you knocked up the DA."
She looked at him, her clear blue eyes swimming with unspilled tears.
"And it was like everything we did came under a microscope. People wanted to know all the insider details about New York's new power couple. Were you really in love? Were you just doing the honorable thing? Are the sex scenes in Scarlett Rain accurate?"
"Oh, sweetheart. I had no idea," he said, anger and grief swirling through him, his heart breaking for her.
She pressed a palm into one of her eyes, sniffling. "I love Kate. I do. I think she's amazing, and I know what you two have is real. But I didn't fit in the picture anymore. I became some girl from a previous marriage—an afterthought."
"You know that's not what I think at all, right? You are everything to me."
She choked on a wry laugh. "I know that. It just didn't feel like it for a minute there. And it sounds stupid, but I was jealous of Fitz, too. Having two loving parents. I was like an outsider looking in. So I came here," she said, gesturing around. "I needed some quiet. Some time to concentrate on myself and gain some perspective."
"You've always been too smart for your own good," he said.
A phlegm-filled chuckle escaped from her.
"I really missed you," she said and he took a step forward, enveloping her in a bear hug.
Her books tumbled to the ground as she wrapped her arms around him and finally let her tears fall, crying into his shoulder. He held her tight, murmuring nonsense.
"It's all going to be okay."
Their relationship flourished in the last month as they became close again. She started visiting him on weekends, and the ache of missing his Alexis lessened a little.
Someone bumps into him, interrupting his thoughts.
"Sor—" he starts but he catches sight of the stranger. He's older, his hair white and his face worn, but Castle's sure it's the same man who gave him a copy of Casino Royale. Sophia had told him his father would find him some time today. "Are you—?"
"Meet me in the reading room," the man says in a low, gruff voice before disappearing into a crowd of tourists.
Ten minutes later, Castle quietly opens the door to a private room in the library, scanning the stately space. It's empty inside, except for shiny mahogany tables with green banker's lamps and bookshelves neatly packed with classic tomes. Once he takes a step forward, he hears the snick of a lock behind him. He turns his head to see the white-haired man sail past him and place a black electronic device on a table in front of them.
"What's that?" the writer asks, intrigued by the cloak-and-dagger of it all.
"Jammer. Knocks out any electronic device or wireless connection in a twenty foot radius."
"That's such a spy thing to say," Castle says gleefully.
"'Intelligence asset' is the term," the man replies.
"Does my mom know?"
"What did she tell you about me?"
"That it was a special night. She was in love. She woke up the next morning, you were gone. She never saw you again," the writer says.
"Yeah, that night, I had just finished a job at the U.N. And the next day, things went south. I had to get out of the city fast. It was a year before I was stateside again. That's when I found out about you."
"So you've known about me...about us, all these years, and you never once let us know you were out there?" he asks.
"What I do means no communication, no relationships, to anyone. But...hey, I've been around. We've met before," the spy offers.
"Yeah?"
"When you were about 8 years old, you were in the library after school, and I gave you a copy of…"
"Casino Royale," Castle finishes.
"I couldn't believe it when I read your first spy novel."
"You read my books?"
"Derrick Storm is a fascinating protagonist."
"Thank you."
"Interesting name."
"Oh?"
"You know, I never forget a face," the man says, eyeing the writer. The tone in the room shifts and Castle's palms start to sweat. What was he getting at?
"Is that so?" Castle replies.
"How'd you do it?" the spy asks.
"Do what?" the writer pushes back, trying to maintain a calm poker face.
"I know it was you."
"What was me?"
"You were there in the library in '77. And I don't mean 8 year old you."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Castle says, playing dumb.
"I looked you up after our meeting in the stacks. Your story didn't smell right. I kept tabs on you and your mother, so I knew Martha didn't have a boyfriend at the time. But I didn't find anything. You didn't exist. And then I read the name Derrick Storm in your books all those years later and I thought, that's impossible. But when you had Sophia reach out, I knew it could only be because you put two and two together. And the only way you could've done that was if you were in that library on that day. The man who called himself Derrick Storm."
Panic builds in Castle's chest, his paranoia running wild. If he confirmed his father's suspicions, was he going to find himself waking up in CIA black site, tortured for information about time travel?
"I reached out because Sophia told me you greased some wheels to have me shadow her back in the day," the writer retorts.
"I did do that, but that's not why you're here right now," his father says, his eyes dark and calculating.
"Is this why you wanted to meet? To talk about some time travel conspiracy? No, hey, sorry for taking 40 years to say hello?"
"I know this has been tough for you…you should know, I have always been proud of you."
"I wish I could say the same," Castle says, turning on his heel. He needed to get out of there, fast.
"Richard, wait."
"What?"
"If what I'm saying doesn't make sense, then I've misjudged something. But I know I'm right and you can trust me with the truth."
"Trust you? What reason do I have to do that?"
"Because I can help you get back."
xxx
June 28, 2010 - Castle and Beckett arrive in another timeline where Johanna is alive. The next day they discover Espo was killed in action and resolve to be happy.
July 2010 - They settle into a new life.
August 25, 2010 - They break up.
August 28, 2010 - Castle visits Alexis in Connecticut and reconciles with her.
September 25, 2010 - Sadie brings Beckett information that sends her into a tailspin, Fitz gets an ear infection, Beckett meets Sophia Turner, Castle and Beckett go over Diane's case, leading to a kiss between the two, and Beckett talks with her mother, deciding she wants to go home with Castle.
September 26, 2010 (Present) - Castle and Beckett meet at the New York Public Library to switch parent-duty (it's Beckett's turn). Castle runs into his father.