Follow the Orange Brick Road
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Even if we were in Kansas, Toto, I still don't own Castle. Rating: The occasional M. Time: Following I, Spy.
Chapter Two.
"Oh, bother." Cried Vickie, waving her hands and causing the windows to reassemble. "Can you do something about that, Declan? That noise is disturbing my concentration."
Both Declan and Kate headed for the door and flung it open. Declan shouted something in Irish Gaelic and waved his shillelagh in an odd pattern. As he did so, Kate fired at a man firing a submachine gun at them. Both men fell.
Kate and Declan ran to where they had fallen. Kate's victim had a bullet hole in his throat which had apparently severed his spinal cord. Kate quickly picked up the man's weapon, an H&K MP5 with a suppressor. Kate found two extra clips of ammunition on him as well as another Glock 17 and more ammunition. She looked over at the one Declan had killed to see only a pile of clothing. As she watched, a small white rabbit crawled out from under the clothing and looked around. Declan picked him up. "Now, me little friend, we'll find yez a nice home where ye can lay Easter eggs."
Declan turned to Kate. "So that's yer science, t'is it? Well, me magic is more elegant, Oi'm thinkin'."
"Think what you like." Kate snapped at him.
Before they could say another word, there was a horrible wailing sound coming towards them.
"A banshee!" Cried Declan. "Git behind me."
Declan was surprisingly strong for his size and knocked Kate on her ass. While she struggled to get up, Declan screamed in Gaelic and waved his shillelagh about. That seemed to push the banshee from side to side, but didn't move her back.
Kate managed to get to her feet, and fired a burst around Declan. She thought she had hit the banshee, but aside from a momentary pause in the wailing, nothing happened. As Kate took aim again, Declan pushed her away. "This is nae time fer yer science. That's a banshee, it tis."
Before Kate could fire again, Rollo rushed out to the Orange Brick Road and stood facing the banshee, blocking her line of fire. "Oh, you're a banshee, are you?" He roared. "Well, I'm a bear. Do you want to try some of this, banshee?" Rollo roared again and pounded his chest. "Come on, come at me. Let's see what you have besides a bunch of noise!" He gestured for the banshee to come closer, then laughed as the creature turned and sped away.
"Banshees!" Rollo shouted. "Nothing but noise!" He cocked his hat at a rakish angle and strutted back to the gingerbread house.
"Ye needn't hae bothered. "Declan said. "Oi just about had her beat." The little man said as he went back to the house.
"Thank you." Kate said.
The bear turned, smiled and then bowed. "My pleasure, m'lady. My pleasure."
Once inside and seated at the fire, Kate gave one of the Glocks to Rick and kept the other, and one of the submachine guns for herself. The other submachine gun went to Simone.
Rollo passed around a fresh plate of cookies that he'd gotten from Vickie. "Perhaps you three should tell us who you are?"
Rick quickly explained that he was a writer and that Kate was his wife and a police captain. Explaining Simone was a bit harder.
"We've been to alternate Earths before. The first time we were there, we met a woman named Kathleen Beckett, who was that Earth's version of my Kate. When we could go back to our own Earth, we couldn't leave Kathleen behind, so we took her with us, but having two absolutely identical Kate's was a problem. So, we changed Kathleen's face and set her up running the best restaurant in New Orleans under the name Simone Renoir. However, the last time Kate, Simone and I got shanghaied to an alternate Earth, we met this Kate Beckett, "He pointed to Simone, "who was a Russian called Tatiana Beckov. The first Simone fell in love and stayed behind on another Earth and we took Tatiana back with us, with her face changed so she looked like the original Simone and she just took the place of Simone. She was visiting us when the Gipper here brought us all here."
Rollo scratched his head. "So Kathleen became Simone, but then stopped being Simone so that Tatiana could become Simone and not be Kate." Rollo examined both Kate and Simone. "So, there are lots of Kates of one kind or another out there….somewhere?"
"Probably an infinite number of them." Kate replied.
"That's an awful lot." Rollo began counting on his fingers.
"All o' this Kate and Taty-Anna makes me head spin." Declan said. "Jist tell us what kind o' magic ye uses where ye be from."
"We have no magic." Kate replied.
"Beggin' yer pardon? No magic. None at all?"
"That's awful." Said Rollo. "How do you get from place to place without magic, or contact each other over long distances, or replace lost blood as we're doing for poor Katie?"
"Science." Kate said. "We have cars, trains airplanes and ships. To communicate we have cell phones, radio, TV and the internet. We use medicine to heal the sick. Specifically we transfuse blood from one patient to one that needs blood. And we use guns." Kate tapped that submachine gun on the table.
Of course, Declan and Rollo had no idea what those words meant. Kate tried to explain, how do you explain a computer to someone who has no concept of electricity?
Finally, Castle quoted Arthur C. Clarke. "Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic."
"So ye do hae magic." Declan said triumphantly.
"Forget it." Castle muttered.
Vickie joined them at the table with a plate with one red cookie on it. "I've finished with one cookie. Shall we give it to her and see how she does?"
They all walked over to Katie who was still hovering in midair. Her mouth opened and Vickie popped the cookie into her mouth.
"She's getting a bit of color in her cheeks. That's good." Rollo said.
"Um." Vickie muttered. "I should make up some more cookies for her. "I'll do that tomorrow. Bedtime for us now." She winked at Rick.
Kate looked around the little gingerbread house. "There isn't much room. We can all sleep on the floor, I suppose."
"In a gingerbread house?" Vickie laughed. "Don't be silly. You two can have the guest bedroom."
"Where is it?" Kate looked around.
"Right there." Vickie said, pointing to a door that wasn't there a minute ago.
Declan headed for Simone. "It looks like we'll be takin' the other guest bedroom, macushla." He said with a leer.
"Oh, I'll be sleeping with Rick, as I always do. You can share the room with Rollo."
"Rollo?" Cried Declan. "But he snores awfully."
"I do not." Said the bear.
"Ye sounds like a bluidy landslide at night."
"Rollo can take the upstairs bedroom." Vickie said, pointing to a staircase that hadn't been there a moment ago.
Rollo smiled and headed upstairs. "Good night all."
Simone hurried into the bedroom and stopped. The bed was just a cot, hardly big enough for one person, let alone three.
"The bed is too small for us all." She said, wondering if Declan had a hand in this.
Declan strode importantly into the bedroom and muttered a few words in Gaelic. The bed expanded to king sized. "See all the good yer science does ye?" He said and left.
"Sorry about imposing myself on you like this, but I had to get away from Declan."
Kate smiled at her friend. "No problem. I'll sleep in the middle with Rick on one side and you on the other." She looked around the bedroom. "Now if we just had a bathroom…." No sooner had she said that, than a door appeared in one wall. Kate walked over and found, as she'd halfway expected, a full bathroom. "I'll go first, okay?"
When Kate came back to the bedroom, she found both Rick and Simone in baggy red and white striped night shirts and nightcaps. "As soon as you went in the bathroom, the door over there opened." Rick said. "It's a clothes closet. Um, we changed in the closet. Not together. No together at all. She went in first and I never even tried to look, even though…."
Kate kissed him. "Simone, why don't you use the bathroom and I'll change. Oh, and I won't need to use the closet. But I am glad that you and Rick are out of the closet." She teased.
Eventually, they all ended up in bed and snuggled down for a good sleep. After a few minutes, Rick whispered to Kate. "Do you think Simone's a sound sleeper?"
"I am a sound sleeper." Simone said." But if the noise you two made on my first night at your loft is any indication, you'll wake poor Rollo up."
Kate was laughing too hard to do anything but kiss Rick goodnight and roll over.
Simone woke up as soon as sunlight hit her face. She looked at the sleeping couple next to her and decided she's get started in the bathroom. She swung out of bed, but instead of her feet landing on the gingerbread floor, they landed on something fluffy.
"Hey, watch it, will ya?"
Simone pulled her feet back in as Rick and Kate woke up and looked around. There was the sound of scrambling on the floor, and then a six foot tall rabbit stood up. In addition to his size, she noticed he was wearing clothes: Khaki slacks and a dark blue polo shirt.
"Who are you?" Simone demanded.
The rabbit quickly clasped his hands over his ears. "Do you have to scream? I have an awful hangover."
"What are you doing in our bedroom?" Simone demanded.
"Sleeping." The rabbit looked around him, then reached to the floor and picked up a large earthenware jug. "I need a little of the hair of the dog that bit me." He took a long draught from the jug. "Care for a hit?" He said, holding the jug out to the three.
"What is it?" Castle asked, unable to contain his curiosity.
"Castle?" Kate muttered.
The rabbit held out the jug. It read, "Hair of Dog Whiskey. 151 proof."
"No thanks." The three said in unison.
The rabbit shrugged and headed for the bathroom. "Be back in half a mo." No sooner had he gone in than he came back out. "All done. Next?"
Once Rick, Kate and Simone were through they went to the main room, finding Vickie, Declan, Rollo and the rabbit sitting at a table, eating cookies.
"Cookies for breakfast?" Kate asked.
"Try some." Vickie said, as the table expanded to seat three more people and plates, glasses and utensils appeared along with chairs.
Once seated, Castle took a bite of a cookie. "Hey! This tastes like pancakes with maple syrup and butter."
"O' course they do, ye ninny." Declan grumped. "They be breakfast cookies."
"Who's our new furry friend here?" Kate asked, around a cookie that tasted like bacon.
Rollo smiled. "Do you remember the little bunny that Declan magicked yesterday? That's him."
"Harvey." He introduced himself. "My name is Harvey. And I confess, I have no memory beyond yesterday afternoon."
"I'm afraid Declan's magic was a bit off."
"Me magic were perfect, as it always is. There's sumptin' wrong wi' him." He then pointed to a plate on the table. "Will someone gi' me a potato blintz cookie?"
Castle handed the plate over and Declan took several.
"I'm very much afraid Declan did make a mistake. " Vickie said. "Harvey is supposed to be a cute little bunny who lays chocolate Easter eggs. But he's a big bunny who drinks. And drinks a lot."
"Hare." Harvey said coldly. "I'm a hare. Harvey Hare. And I do not drink a lot. I drink just enough. Um, would someone pass me a Guinness Stout cookie? Or perhaps two?"
After breakfast, Vickie began cooking a supply of cookies to replenish Katie's blood and made up a package of cookies for each of the travelers.
"Harvey is coming with us?" Simone asked.
"He can't stay here." Vickie replied. "He's soon eat me out of house and home. And we can't just let him wander about by himself. He is only a day old, you understand."