Episode Three: "Halloween"

"Is this shop reputable?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, has it been here long? Have you bought stuff here before?"

"Buffy, it's just a Halloween store. Are we going to stand in the doorway all day or are we going to go in?"

Buffy hesitated then walked into the small shop. "I'm just picky about Halloween stuff, that's all. Halloween's aren't very lucky for me."

Castle thought reflectively for a moment before nodding. "I guess that would hold true…with your profession."

"It's supposed to be a real uneventful night for—" Buffy lowered her voice as a man and woman walked past—"us, but it NEVER ever works that way."

"Ooh, explain, please." Castle held up a very scantily clad cheerleader's costume.

"Not here and hell no. Already done the cheerleading thing….that didn't really end well either."

Castle moved to the next rack and picked up a sailor's costume that had even less material to it.

Buffy glared. "Why do I even need a costume? I mean—"

"Because it's a costume party. People generally tend to wear costumes to costume parties. And yes- you have to come."

"Fine." Buffy huffed. She sorted through the rack of costumes closest to her while Castle stayed where he was. "But if we all get turned into our costumes, count this as my big 'I told you so'."

"You never answered about the sexy sailor." he said, wiggling the costume in his hand.

Buffy shook her head and Castle moved on.

"Oh, did I tell you? I think I've come up with a name for your character and a title for the book." he added, after a minute.

"Really? What?"

"Mallory Reynolds: Monster Hunter"

Buffy slowly turned towards him. "Mallory. You're naming my character Mallory."

Castle nodded. "…Yeah?"

"Mallory Reynolds. She sounds like she belongs in 'The Babysitter's Club'. Not my book."

"Well, my dear, you are forgetting that it's not technically your book. It's mine. And I'm naming her Mallory Reynolds."

Buffy shifted her eyes. "This name seems important to you. Why?"

"No reason. What about sexy nurse? It's a classic." he said, holding up a skimpy nurses' costume.

"Castle—"

"Sexy barmaid?"

"Castle—"

Buffy sighed. The discussion, what little of a discussion there was anyway, over her character's name was apparently over.

"Sexy zombie?"

"There is absolutely nothing sexy about zombies."

"Sexy beast?" Castle laughed. "Get it? It's a werewolf!"

"Something else that's extremely not sexy. Turning into a rabid dog-beast three nights a month."

"Ooh…sexy pirate?"

"Castle—"

"Sexy vamp-ooh, never mind. Sorry."

"Castle! You have exactly five seconds to find somewhere else to go before I wittle one of these fake, plastic knives into a real one."

Two nights later, Buffy arrived at Castle's apartment. She was greeted by Alexis, who was on her way out the door.

"Buffy! Come in! …Wow! Great costume. Is that a costume? Please don't tell me you let my dad pick it out."

In the end, she had chosen a Wonder Woman costume. You know, just in case. Well, it was sort of a costume anyway. It was basically blue hot pants, a fitted red and white stop that stopped just above her hips and red knee high boots. Instead of wearing the head…thing like it was supposed to be worn, she had weaved it into her hair like a headband. She carried a lasso tied to her hip.

"No, he didn't. This was all me. I thought the shorts were going to be longer than the skirt option. Now that I'm wearing it though, I'm not so sure. Are you off somewhere?"

Buffy had grown quite fond of Alexis in the last two months. She reminded her quite a bit of Dawn. Well, minus the rebellious kleptomaniac stage and the whole general "huge pain in the ass little sister" thing.

"My friend is having a sleepover Halloween party. My dad should be around here somewhere."

"Have fun and be safe." Buffy said as Alexis waved 'goodbye'.

She stood in her spot not sure where to even look for Castle. His apartment was big, for sure, however, there had to have been close to fifty people swirling about, making the place feel very crowded and very tiny.

"Buffy, is that you? What do you think of my cos—holy Jesus"

Castle stopped dead in his tracks as he was walking out of his room and gazed at Buffy.

"I swear to the Powers themselves that if you make one comment, I will use my Lasso of Truth as your noose."

Castle just staggered in the same spot for a few minutes, mouth slightly ajar and ogling.

"Close your mouth, darling, or else you'll have drool all over your outfit." Martha said in passing.

"What exactly are you supposed to be, anyway?" Buffy asked, looking over Castle's costume.

He was wearing a maroon button up shirt, with the sleeves rolled up, tight-ish khaki pants, brown boots and brown suspenders. He had a holster attached to his hip with a fake gun in it.

"I'm clearly a space cowboy. Duh." Castle said, shaking himself out of his little Buffy-induced daze.

"A….space cowboy?"

"Oh, it's from silly show he used to watch that got cancelled a few years ago." Martha said, pouring herself a drink.

"It wasn't….silly! It was brilliant. Wonderful. Amazing."

"And then it got cancelled. Time to get over it." Martha countered.

Buffy couldn't help the tiny giggle that escaped.

"Why don't you introduce me to some of these people?" Buffy said, grabbing Castle by the arm and yanking him away from his mother.

Soon, Buffy regretted the idea of Castle introducing her to his friends. Not that they weren't nice or anything, because they were, well, most of them were, but all the 'how did you meet' and 'oh, is this your girlfriend, Rick?' questions got old fast. There was one reporter friend that Buffy felt she might have to follow home to make sure there wouldn't be any 'Rick Castle's newest flame…' headlines.

Buffy and Castle were mingling with said reporter friend when Buffy felt it. The spidey sense tinglies. She tried to hide it as best she could, but Slayer mode had been activated. She excused herself from the present conversation and moved around the room, trying to get a direction on where said tinglies were coming from.

"Everything alright, Ms. Prince?" Castle whispered into her ear.

"Wait, what? Ms. Who?"

"You don't even know-Diana Prince. Wonder Woman's alter ego. Never mind. What's up?"

"My spidey sense is tingling."

"Wrong super hero, sweetheart."

"Oh, just…shut up. You know what I mean."

"Oh. OH. Wait, here? There's something in my place?"

Buffy spotted a couple that she hadn't yet been introduced to.

"Them. Who are they?" she asked, nodding at them.

"The man is Laurel Gent. He's a columnist for the New York Post. The woman, I assume, is his date."

"Introduce me to them."

Castle nodded and led Buffy over.

"Laurel! Great costume. How's it going? Enjoying the party so far?"

Buffy had to hold back from rolling her eyes at Castle's completely obvious conversation starter.

Castle and Laurel made small talk for a few moments before Castle introduced Buffy.

"Pleasure to meet you Miss Summers. This is my date for the evening, Anna Hale."

Buffy's tinglies had quadrupled since in just the two or three minutes they'd been standing there. Buffy let her senses stretch out a bit then quickly reeled them back in.

Her.

It was definitely her.

Buffy realized that Anna was staring at her. More than staring. It was like she was boring a hole into Buffy.

She knew. Buffy could feel it.

"Castle, it's her." Buffy said, interrupting, his conversation with Laurel.

"Pardon?" Laurel questioned. "I'm afraid I don't understand."

"Are you sure?" Castle asked.

"You…you murder my kind." Anna hissed at Buffy.

"And what exactly do you call draining people? Science? You're the murderer. "

"Our kind was here first, Slayer. So quick to forget, aren't we now?"

"The difference is that mankind evolved. You didn't. And let's face it—we don't get a damn choice in being Chosen. You all choose what you become. Most of the time."

Instead of responding verbally, Anna chose to respond physically. She reached back and punched Buffy in the face, so hard that Buffy was knocked to the ground.

Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and the corny Halloween sounds were abruptly shut off.

Just what Buffy needed. A mass amount of people to witness a Slayer and a vamp fighting.

Buffy leapt up and was in an automatic fighting stance. The shorts were a good idea now, she thought idly. Anna swung again, this time Buffy blocked her. She swung again and Buffy caught her fist, mid punch. She twisted Anna's arm till it cracked and flung Anna down to the ground.

She had her pinned easily but that's where she stopped. She obviously couldn't stake her in front of the entire party. Well, actually, she couldn't stake her at all seeing as how she didn't have one.

No room in the outfit.

She could always use one of Castle's kitchen knives or if he had a letter opener or hell, even a pencil, but then that led back to she couldn't stake her in front of all the party guests.

While she was busy contemplating, Anna managed to swing her legs around and knock Buffy off from her. She jumped up and bolted out front door.

Buffy was up in less than a second, chasing her down.

Anna was obviously a little bit faster on account of her vampness but Buffy was able to catch up to her in no time. It also helped that Castle's building wasn't that big.

Buffy caught up to her just as she was running into the small hallway that led to the fire exit staircase.

She peered over the edge of the railing. Castle's building was only five floors total and by the looks of it, Anna was just descending to floor three. Buffy backed up a bit, ran, grabbed the railing and flung herself over the side. She landed nearly directly on top of Anna and they fell into a tangled heap. They squirmed around a bit and Anna ended up on top of Buffy, however, she was facing upwards and her arms were trapped underneath Buffy's body.

Buffy was definitely hurting from the landing but she managed to wriggle around and grab the lasso off of her hip. She wrapped it around Anna's neck and pulled tight.

"Are you seriously trying to choke a vampire? I thought Slayers were supposed to be smart!"

At this point, Buffy could see Castle practically flying down the stairs, with Martha in tow.

"Okay, I'm really over this." Buffy twisted the rope till she heard another crack and Anna burst into dust.

"Oh my God! She just—dust. She turned to dust. I….I…think it's time I had another drink. Or fifty." Martha said, turning away.

Castle rushed down and helped Buffy up.

"It took you this long to realize that I was in the stairs?"

"Ninety-nine percent of that time was me trying to convince my mother not to follow. I have no idea what I'm supposed to tell my guests."

Buffy shrugged. "Eh, I'll handle that. I'm used to it. I believe the old faithful 'gangs on PCP' one should do it. Except for 'gangs' will be just one. And, oooh, I'll be part of the Narcotics department for some random police station somewhere."

It was well into the wee hours of the morning when Buffy and Castle found themselves, still costume clad, lounging on Castle's sofa, in the now party guest-less apartment, passing a carton of ice cream back and forth.

"Think I intimidated your reporter friends enough to not write a story about me? F" Buffy asked, in between a spoonful of Chocolate Mocha Delight.

"I think you intimidated them to the point of a career change." Castle laughed, digging his spoon into the ice cream.

"Next Halloween I'm just staying home. And eating pizza. And watching TV. And there will be nothing you can do to change my mind on that."

Castle licked his spoon clean. "Well, two good things did come out of the evening."

"And what would those be?"

"My mother most certainly believes you now and I've got an excellent chapter for the book!"
_

A/N: I apologize if there are any spelling and/or grammar errors I've missed in this chapter. It's currently 2:45AM and I'm not entirely functional but I really wanted to get this one updated before I get busy with the rest of the week. :) I've already got the next one written and I'll upload it in a few days!