The Photo Album

An early season one AU story where Kate comes across a photo album that seems to have pictures of older versions of herself and Castle. A one shot.

A/N: This was something that just popped into my head. It's not an action packed story. I don't really know what to call it. But it's not too long so it won't take up too much of your time.

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Kate Beckett dragged herself up the stairs and down the hallway to her apartment. As was normal, the elevator didn't work. She was used to it, but it would have been nice to be able to ride up the three floors to where her apartment was located rather than have to climb the narrow stairway. It had been a tough week and she was tired. She was really looking forward to having an entire weekend off. It had been a while since that had happened.

It had been a close one this time. Castle had only been hanging around for a few weeks now but the last couple of days she'd been running scenarios through her mind of how she would be able to get rid of his body after she shot him. The man was beyond belief.

Kate knew that he was several years older than she was, but by his actions you'd think he was little more than a grade schooler. He was always cracking wise, or telling off color jokes that had the unfortunate result on not even being remotely funny. She was thankful that he'd cut back on the sexual innuendo with some of his comments, but he still undressed her with his eyes, and she'd caught him leering at her on several occasions.

How could he call the Mayor his friend? And apparently Montgomery, her captain, was a poker buddy. What was even worse, he was following her around because he planned to use her as the inspiration for a character for a new book series! Why were the gods punishing her?

She pinched the bridge of her nose. It was like a spike had been shoved between her eyes and into her brain. She came home with splitting headaches most days. When would that annoying man-child realize that he really wasn't funny? At least not to a room of people over nine years old.

She shifted the bag of take out that she'd picked up on the way home and inserted her key and opened the door to her apartment. She was home.

Leaving the bag on the counter in the kitchen, she walked into her living room and after dropping her bag on the chair she collapsed onto her couch.

She let her head fall back against the plush back of her sofa and closed her eyes. She needed the time to unwind and she was so looking forward to an entire weekend to herself.

She had plans. She was going to go through her whole apartment, clean and sort through every room, every closet, dresser and storage space she had.

Most people might not find that an enjoyable activity. At least not one that she should have been looking forward to. Few people considered spending a weekend off cleaning something to be enjoyed, but she had been chomping on the bit to do this since she found out she had the time off coming.

And the best thing of all would be… no Castle. Two blessed days without that nine year old on a sugar rush underfoot. Two days without inappropriate actions or comments. What could be better?

She tucked her short dark hair behind her ears as she got up off the couch and grabbed her bag of take out.

The plan was to break out some wine, eat her dinner while watching the news. Then she would go to bed early so she could get an early start in the morning. She'll have a little music playing while she cleaned. No one to bother her with stupid questions. No one to annoy her with wise cracks or bad jokes. Just her and her apartment… with no Castle.

She finished her dinner while watching the news as she had planned, and was able to hit the hay with a smile on her face.

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Kate woke up without the help of an alarm. She knew she could sleep in late, but her body was trained to get up and get ready for work. But since there was no work this morning, she just laid in her bed and smiled.

She had two whole days off and she was going to enjoy just being lazy. She had some plans, but there was no hurry to get up and get started. There was no time limits on her plans. And if she decided she wanted to do something else, she could. It was heaven.

Being the practical person she was, she didn't let herself just lay in bed if she wasn't tired. So she got up and got dressed in her favorite worn jeans with the holes in the knees and her favorite T-shirt. It was too big for her and had been washed so many times it was as soft as a baby's blanket.

The shirt had belonged to an old high school boyfriend. It had the name of a band on it that she didn't remember. It was a dark blue shirt with the band's logo on it, Blue Liars. She couldn't remember if she'd ever heard any of their songs, but she liked the shirt.

She decided she didn't need to shower because she planned to spend much of the day cleaning and organizing her apartment. She'd worry about a shower afterwards.

A leisurely breakfast with the morning paper and then she would tackle her intended chores.

After her breakfast Kate began with the living room since it would be the easiest. Aside from tossing out any magazines she no longer wanted, and straightening up things there wasn't much to do there.

The kitchen took a bit of time because she had let the dishes pile up for the last couple of days, and the garbage needed to be taken out to the dumpster in back of the building.

She took the time to really scrub her sink and countertops, and went through all her cupboards and wiped everything down. She also checked expiration dates and wound up tossing out a lot more expired food than she had planned on.

She also went through the fridge, but that was pretty easy since there wasn't much in it. She made a note to go grocery shopping once she finished with her chores.

She decided to hold the bathroom until last since she'd have to take a shower and clean herself up after finishing all the cleaning she was doing. So that put her in her bedroom.

This was going to be her biggest challenge. Aside from the bed, two nightstands that flanked the bed and a large dresser, there were also two closets. It was one of the reasons she had liked this apartment in the first place. There was a typical clothes closet with folding doors, a bar for stuff on hangers. It also had a large shelf above the closet rod. But not only did she have the clothes closet, she also had a separate storage closet located in the other corner of the bedroom. That was going to be the biggest challenge to deal with because she couldn't remember when the last time she stuck her head in that storage closet. She wasn't sure at all what might be in it.

It didn't take her long to go through her dresser drawers or the single drawers in the nightstands and make sure everything that needed attention was dealt with. She opened the doors to the clothes closet and took a quick inventory. The floor was covered with her shoes and boots. Not much to do there. If anything, she needed more room for her shoes. She checked all the clothes on hangers, from the coats to the dresses, to the shirts and skirts that had to be hung.

It did take a while because there were several items that had to be tried on and a decision had to be made whether it would stay or go. She was surprised to find that she still had a couple of shirts she had while at Stanford. A quick try on proved that they still fit her, so she put them back.

The shelf above the hanging bar was sparsely filled with boxes of stuff that she had packed away when she had moved out of her parents place. Mostly just mementos of high school and college that she wasn't ready to throw out just yet. There was also her helmet for her motor cycle stuffed up on that shelf.

After making sure all her boots and shoes still fit, she closed the door to that closet and turned toward the single doored storage closet in the corner. She couldn't remember the last time she had gone in there to look for anything. She almost just left if alone.

But no, if she was going to do a thorough job of cleaning up her place, she had to tackle the dreaded storage closet too. She took a deep breath and reached for the knob on the plain, solid wooden door.

She almost closed the door again. She took a deep breath and stared into the little storage cubby. It was less than half the size of her clothes closet, but it probably held twice as much stuff.

There were several stacked boxes on the floor. A small portion of the hanging bar was occupied with old coats and jackets covered in plastic bags. There were six in all and she pulled them all out and set them on the bed.

She just shook her head when she inspected them. The colors and the styles were awful. She refused to check to see if they still fit her because she didn't want any possible reason to keep them to influence her decision on whether or not to save them. She decided to toss them because she was too embarrassed to even donate them to Good Will. Maybe some homeless street person would pull them from the dumpster out back and get some use from them.

Several of the boxes stacked on the floor of the little closet were full of old shoes and boots. She immediately set them aside to join the coats in the dumpster. She shook her head. What in the hell did she consider fashion all those years ago?

There were also a couple boxes containing old folded sweatshirts. From the messages written on the front of those sweatshirts it was clear that they were pretty old. Mostly back from her college days at Stanford. There was one particular sweat shirt that she had to smile when she saw it. It was a blue sweat shirt with the Blue Liars logo on it, just like the T-shirt she was wearing. The only difference was the sweat shirt was way too big for her. Even larger than the T-shirt she was wearing. It must have belonged to her boyfriend and she had borrowed it and not given it back.

She wasn't sure that she would ever wear any of the sweatshirts again, but they all seemed in good shape and they all still fit, except for the Blue Liars one, so she refolded them and tucked them back into the box.

There was also an upper shelf which held several boxes. As she brought the first few down she got a face full of dust which triggered a sneezing fit.

She set the dusty boxes on her bed, realizing too late that she'd have to take the spread off and wash it before she used it again.

Once she opened the boxes she knew at once what they all contained. They were boxes of her mother's knick knacks. Her mother was famous for collecting little souvenirs from nearly every place they ever visited. Kate had taken Johanna's parade of elephants and kept it on her desk at work. Other than that Kate wasn't a knick knack person. She didn't have little figurines sitting on tables, or desks in her apartment.

Her father didn't want them around to serve as reminders so she boxed them up and brought them home with her. There was nothing particularly valuable beyond sentiment, but Kate couldn't bear to throw them out since they had been her mother's.

She had a tickle in the back of her mind that maybe someday, if she had a kid or two, they might like to have these little figurines to put on their dresser as a reminder of the grandma they never got to meet.

After wiping the dust off the boxes she put them back up on the upper shelf. When she did she seemed to bump into something she couldn't actually see. It was something flat and was shoved to the back of the shelf. She reached up and pulled it down.

It was a photo album. It was covered in a purple leather that seemed in very good shape. It didn't show any wear or age.

She walked over and sat on the edge of her bed. She placed the album on her lap and flipped open the cover. She was instantly confused.

Her mouth fell open as she gazed upon the four high definition photos on the first page. They showed a woman with long brunette curls standing next to a man who was obviously a bit older than she. There were three young children in front of them, and all of them stood in front of a large mansion like house.

She looked closely at the two adults and it caused her to feel a cold chill down her spine. The woman was familiar to her. In fact she looked like an older version of herself. The hair was very different, but those cheek bones and those eyes, were the ones she saw in her bathroom mirror every morning! There were some extra lines in the forehead, and around the eyes, but Kate would swear it was somehow a picture of her years from now.

And even though the man standing there had a well-trimmed beard and some grey at the temples she would testify in court that the man was Richard Castle. What the hell?

There were two young boys about three years old, obviously twins, standing in front of the woman. She had a hand on a shoulder of each of them. Standing in front of the old looking Castle was a young girl maybe five or six years old with shoulder length hair the same color at the woman. She had a big grin which showed a missing tooth.

The next picture was posed the same except for the old Castle was missing and his place had been taken by a young woman with short red hair. Kate shook her head when her thoughts went immediately to Alexis.

The other two pictures weren't quite so posed. The kids seemed to be horsing around and the woman and the man weren't doing a very good job of corralling them.

Kate closed the cover and stared at the wall of her bedroom. She was afraid to look at any more. She needed to come up with some reason for those pictures. And why she would have a photo album she'd never seen before.

It took her several minutes of just sitting there staring at the wall before she was able to open the album again. The four pictures were still there. She bit down on her lower lip and turned the page.

There were four more pages of pictures all apparently taken on the same day, showing all those same people in various poses, and being caught in some horse play. There seemed to be a large expanse of a beautiful green lawn which led down to a beach. The inviting sandy beach overlooked a large expanse of water. Either the ocean, or a large bay.

Except for the first couple of shots, most of the rest were pictures taken but not poses. So there wasn't any more good pictures that would allow her to really look at the older woman, and older man. Most were side shots or bending over to deal with the children.

Looking at the pictures over and over caused Kate to feel a strange sensation in her gut, and chest. Was she feeling some sort of longing, or was she just feeling sick?

She closed the book and stared at the wall. What was this? How did it get in her apartment? She'd never seen it before. It looked fairly new, but she hadn't been in that closet for months, maybe years.

The more she thought about it the more she felt it had to be some sort of joke, or prank. But who… Of course. Who did she know that could find someone with the expertise to fabricate something as convincing as this photo album? If she hadn't known any better she'd almost think it was real.

Her eyes went flinty as her glare centered on the far wall as if she could burn a whole right through it.

"CASTLE!"

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Rick Castle was bored. He was supposed to be writing, but he wasn't in the mood. He had just gotten off the phone with Gina and she had given him an ear full about being late with his new series chapter outlines.

Castle had thought she'd be happy that since meeting, and now working alongside the lovely Detective Beckett, he had the bases for a new series of murder mysteries just waiting for him to put it all on paper.

But that was the problem. He didn't have any of those ideas put down on paper yet for her to look at. She knew how he worked and he'd hadn't written anything since he finished his last Derek Storm book. It didn't matter if the new idea for his next series had great potential. She wanted to see some preliminary outlines for the initial book.

Rick was very excited about the new series and knew that it would be great. He just wasn't in the mood for writing today. Becket had taken the weekend off to do some stay at home chores and that left him a bit bereft. It also denied him his number one excuse for procrastinating doing any actual writing. His research.

He couldn't very well call it research if they weren't together.

He'd had a leisurely morning which started at about 10:00. Alexis was at school and his mother was god knows where, and he liked it that way. After a reading the paper with his cobbled together breakfast he was sitting on the sofa wondering if he should watch an old movie, or boot up his X Box. Then his phone rang.

It was Gina. She immediately began to harangue him about promised chapter outlines that he had promised but hadn't gotten around to writing yet. They spent several wasted minutes, and raised blood pressure, arguing when he finally told her she'd get them when he thought they were ready. Of course he made it sound like he was trying to make them 'just right' to try to appease her a bit.

He also knew that she knew the truth. He hadn't written anything yet. She had been married to him, so she knew his predilection for putting things off. So she made it her 'job', as his publisher, to ride him relentlessly until he produced what she wanted. It wasn't the best of working relations, but it seemed to work for them.

Castle had been sitting on the couch for nearly an hour trying to figure out how best to avoid Gina's future calls when his phone rang again. He glanced at the number. It wasn't Gina. It was actually from someone he was eager to talk to.

"My dear Detective Beckett. It's lovely to hear your voice. Do we have a body? I thought you were off for the weekend?"

He could hear screeching from the other end of his phone, but couldn't quite make out what she was talking about.

"Beckett, calm down. I can't understand what you are saying." He rolled his eyes. "Now take a deep breath and calmly tell me what's wrong."

He sat there and listen to threats to his wellbeing for some apparent prank he pulled on her that 'wasn't at all funny'. He had no idea what she was talking about.

"I'm sorry, Beckett, but you have me at a disadvantage here. I have no idea what you are talking about. Believe me, if I had planned a prank that got this kind of reaction I'd be proud to take credit for it. But I haven't pranked anyone for years… well months."

He sat and listened to her rants for several minutes more, and when she took a breath he inserted himself into the conversation. "Okay, I can tell that you are upset about something. So I think I should come over and talk this out with you." He didn't give her a chance to disagree. "It's a little past lunch time, but I assume you haven't eaten yet. So why don't I stop somewhere and pick up some lunch and we can discuss what's bothering you, calmly over a nice meal. Do you have any preference?"

The line was quiet for several heartbeats. She mumbled something which ended in 'za'. "Okay, pizza it is. And I'll bring a nice bottle of red to go with it. What is your address?" He held his phone away from his ear for a second, then pulled it back in. "No I don't know your address. I've never been invited over… yet." He got the impression that she didn't believe him, but he wrote in down on the corner of the newspaper when she reluctantly gave it to him.

"I'll see you in about forty five minutes." He hadn't asked her what she wanted on her pizza, he'd experienced her order before. While he was a typical garbage pizza guy, the more toppings the better. Kate liked her pizza simple, sausage with extra cheese. Nothing else.

He opened his directory on his phone and made the call to Mancuso's and ordered the pizza he would pick up on the way.

Castle got out of the chair and decided he'd take a shower and change before dropping in on the irritated Detective Beckett.

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Beckett stared at the clock on the wall above her stove. She changed her mind for the fifth time since she'd got off the phone with Castle. She refused to shower and change clothes just because he was coming over. But she argued with herself as to whether to change the T-shirt she was wearing. Not because the logo was for a band she knew he'd never have heard of, but because it was too big for her and it had the tendency to slip off her shoulder occasionally.

She finally opted for a grey NYPD T-shirt and she put sneakers on her feet rather than her slippers which she had been wearing.

She didn't know if she should believe Castle or not as to whether he was the one who put that photo album in her closet. He sounded sincere, but if not him then who? Who would else come up with something like that?

Who would have the talent to do it? Castle, at least, had connections and knew people who could fake pictures like those. It wasn't that they were racy, or even uncomplimentary. It was that someone had been in her apartment unbeknownst to her. Someone had been in her bedroom, and that was just creepy, and more than a bit unsettling.

She hadn't gotten any farther along with her cleaning since she called Castle, she just paced, or sat on the sofa trying to think of anyone else who could, or would, have done that.

Suddenly there was a knock at her door and she startled before getting up to answer it. She checked the peep hole before unlocking her door and swinging it open.

Something smelled good.

She had set up her small table with some basic silverware, paper plates, and napkins. She gave him a slight smile as he came in with the good smelling box in one hand and a bottle of wine I the other.

He handed her the bottle of wine as he set the large square box on the table.

One might think that they'd been friends for much longer than the few weeks they'd actually known each other to watch them move around each other getting everything set up for their lunch.

She couldn't help but smile when he flipped open the box. She grudgingly admitted to herself that Castle had his moments.

He grinned. "Please accept this token lunch as a peace offering for whatever you thought I'd done which I hadn't." He gave her apartment a quick glance at what he could see from the table. "I swear, this is the first time I've ever been in your apartment." He smiled at her. "It's nice."

She dropped her head a bit. "Thanks." She was rapidly beginning to believe that Castle hadn't been behind the photo album.

Castle waited until each of them had a chance to eat a few pieces of pizza and had washed it down with some good red wine.

He leaned back in his chair. "Okay, now that we are partially sated with food, can you tell me what it was that you called to accuse me of that I didn't do."

Beckett blushed a bit remembering her outburst at Castle. "Okay, you have to realize that I was angry and creeped out. It wasn't actually about what I found, it was mostly I found it in a closet in my bedroom. That meant someone had been in my apartment without my knowledge, and that creeped me out."

Castle nodded. "I understand that completely. We should look into getting your locks changed, just for your peace of mind."

Beckett gave Castle a 'duh' look. "I've already called. I've got a locksmith coming out tomorrow."

Castle shrugged. "Of course you do."

She smirked at him. "As I said, the most disturbing thing was that someone had put that in my closet, but what they left there was bizarre in of itself."

Castle shook his head. "Come on, Beckett. I'm dying here. What was it?"

She shrugged. "It wasn't something awful. Actually it was kind of sweet, but it didn't make sense. It was a photo album which had about twelve pictures in it. They had somehow photo shopped, or hired actors to look like older versions of us with three children."

Castle nearly slipped off his chair. "What?" He shook his head. "So you are saying that someone faked pictures to look like older versions of you and I with three kids."

Kate nodded. "Yeah, and in a couple of them an older version of Alexis was there too, only her hair was cut above her shoulders."

Castle stared at her for a few moments. "Could I see them? Perhaps I can detect how it was done. I do know guys in the movie business who can do a lot with make-up and photo tricks."

Beckett got up and went into her bedroom. She came back out and set the photo album on the table which Castle had cleared off.

He paged through the pictures that were in the album. He whistled in awe. He looked up at Kate.

"These are incredible. I don't know if these are photos of actors, or manipulated photos of us, but they are perfect." He smirked at her. "I can't decide if I think you look better with short hair, or that long mass of curls." Beckett swatted his arm.

"That's one way you can tell these are just fakes. I may have had longer hair when I was in school, but never than just past my shoulders. Do you have any idea how much work it would be to keep that much hair looking that good?"

Castle grinned. "I do have a daughter with long hair, but she keeps it pretty simple."

Beckett gave him a mild glare. "Well, it's obvious whoever did this, and I haven't entirely absolved you of it yet, didn't know me very well. Three kids? Are you kidding me?"

He laughed and shook his head. "A romantic relationship can change one's thinking about children. And just look at those kids. Whoever picked them had a great eye. The young girl is literally a clone of you. She has your hair."

Kate points at a picture that has a closer shot of the girl. "But she has your eyes."

Castle suddenly frowned.

"What is it?" Kate asked.

He quickly paged through all the pictures again. "Omigod! These pictures were taken at my house in the Hamptons. I recognize these views of the yard, and the beach and bay."

Beckett looked over to the pictures Castle was pointing out certain views. "I thought you said you had a beach house. This looks more like a mansion."

Castle shrugged. "It's the Hamptons."

Beckett shook her head. "Are you sure you aren't behind this? I mean how easy would it have been for someone to stage this fake photo shoot at your Hampton's place?"

"Not that hard, actually. We aren't there all that often." He continued to look at the photos.

Castle noticed that the pictures were secured with corner caps. He looked up at Beckett. "Can I take these out and see if there is any writing on them?"

Kate shrugged. "Why should I care? This album isn't mine."

"Well, possession is 90 per cent, they say." She rolled her eyes. He carefully slipped the picture of the older him and her with the three children out of its holders. He flipped it over. There was writing on it.

Kate leaned over the table so she could read what it said also.

Castle read it. "Rick and Kate with Lily, Jake and Reese. August 2025." Rick didn't say anything but the handwriting looked a lot like his.

Kate's eyes just grew big and Castle quickly flipped it back over. "I don't believe it." He said.

"Well of course you don't believe it. We have a ways to go before we get to 2025." She realized he wasn't talking about the date. "What?" Kate asked.

Rick pointed to a nice sized tree standing behind the assumed family in the picture. "This tree, I recognize this spot out in the front yard. I just had a spindly little tree planted right there this past spring. It couldn't have been more than four feet high. Now look at it."

Both looked again and noticed that all of the tree that was in the picture was a wide thickly branched out much older tree.

They stared at each other for several silent seconds. Then Beckett spoke up.

"So why do you think someone would do something like this? It doesn't make any sense." She glared at him. "Unless you 'are' responsible for this." Castle held up both hands and shook his head.

"I swear on my mother's grave that I had nothing to do with this."

Beckett gave him a 'look'. "I happen to know that your mother is quite alive and well."

Castle shrugged. "That doesn't change the fact that I had nothing to do with it."

"So why did someone do this?"

Castle sighed. "Apparently someone thought that it might annoy you, or cause you to wonder why someone would do it. Just like you are now. It's a distraction. Or just a well done prank." Castle shrugged again. "Maybe someone wanted you to think I did it and he/she wanted you to have a reason to give me the boot."

Beckett shook her head. "I should be so lucky."

Castle reached over and patted her on the hand. "Have no worry Detective Beckett. I plan to be around for a long time to come."

She points at the album. "Long enough for us to look like that?"

Castle grinned. "Who knows?"

"So what should I do with this?" Beckett crossed her arms over her chest.

Castle smiled at her. "I think you should keep it. Put it back in that closet you found it in and take it out in sixteen years and see how close whoever did this was." Castle chuckled. "You have to admit that they sure made our kids cute."

Not able to fight it, Kate returned his grin. "How could they not?"

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Somewhere in the not too distant future.

A young man walked through an apartment door. "Hey, Doyle, you home? I haven't seen you around for a couple of days."

A short, dark-haired young man came out of the bedroom. He waved his hand at the other man. "Just walk right in. No need to knock." His reply had a sarcastic tone to it.

The visitor just rolled his eyes. "The door was unlocked so I assumed you were home."

Doyle shook his head. "What if I was entertaining someone?"

The other man turned his head back and forth as if he was looking about the apartment. "Again, the door was unlocked. And I was entering the domicile of Simon Doyle, who we all know never entertains anyone in his apartment."

Doyle rolled his eyes and shook his head. "You are such a jerk." They both sat down on the somewhat worn couch.

"I'll have you know I just got back from another assignment from the Time Guardians."

The guest nodded. "Cool, was it an exciting one?"

Doyle shook his head. "Nah, it was actually pretty boring, but I did a little side trip where I was able to pull a pretty epic prank on a couple that I ran into on a previous assignment."

"Oh yeah, tell me about it."

Simon Doyle let himself smile as he looked at his friend. "Well, it just came to me, but I decided that it might be fun to mess with the minds of these two who gave me a lot of grief on my assignment." Doyle leaned in closer. "This is what I did…"

Fin.

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