Castle slowly returns to consciousness. He opens his eyes but immediately regrets it. The world spins, round and round, so he quickly slams his eyes shut again.
He asses his injuries, noting all the kinks and bumps he begins to feel. To his right a soft groan was heard. All of a sudden the world stopped truning, hit heart stops dead in its tracks. Nobody else should be here.
He quickly sits up and looks around the run, spinning be damned. He immediately spots the rest of them- Lanie, Esposito, Kate, Martha, and oh god Alexis. This wasn't supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen. The alliance was supposed to have forgotten about him and left him to live his life in the past. He was suppose to live his life happily ever after.
"Castle!" Came the angry voice of one Kate Beckett.
He stands up and looks around. They seemed to be dropped in the middle of nowhere.
"Castle what the hell is going on?" if there is one thing Castle is scared of it's an angry Kate.
"I-I don't know. Give me a minute." He takes in the surroundings. The area was full of sand and dust. Even the lightest amount of air made the dust rise up from the ground and whirl around angrily.
He knows this barren land.
"Castle, Castle! What is going on?" Lanie yells. By now Alexis is crying in the arms of Martha.
"Do you know where we are?" Martha asks him. He nods yes and continues to look around, attempting to locate which direction they need to head.
He picks a direction and starts walking, the rest of them are befuddled as to why he was just leaving.
"Where do you think you're going?" Alexis yells.
"We need to get somewhere safe. Away from plain sight." He replies.
"What is going on? DAD! Don't walk away from me! What is going on?" she yells, the vein on her forehead sticking out. Her voice cracks as she yells a mix of anger and hurt are evident in her voice.
"I'm sorry sweetheart, I will explain everything when we get to a safe place; please, just follow me."
They all heard the plea in his voice, the edge they had never heard before coming through. That extra urgency in his voice made them all follow him, and none of them spoke up again.
After walking through the sand covered land they finally arrived at what looked like pieces of tin and scrap wood put together to form what could have been a hut.
Castle seems to recognize the place so they follow him up to the front door and are immediately greeted by the sound of tons of women.
"Well, well, well if it isn't Captain Malcolm Reynolds." Says a woman with a kid standing next to her.
"Petaline! So good to see you again, and little Jonah I assume."
"Yes, Jonah this is the man we have told you stories of. The man who risked his life to save us and you."
Little Jonah-no older than 12- looks up at Castle and puts out his hand to shake it.
"May we stay here for a few days? Just until we get on our feet and find a boat."
"Of course, you are always welcome here. We only have two extra rooms at the moment, will that do?"
"Of course Petaline, thank you."
Castle leads them to the top story of the house and leads the gang into a room.
He runs a hand over his face and lets out a long sigh.
"First off I want to say I'm sorry. None of you were suppose to get wrapped up in this or hurt. I didn't ever want to drag any of you into this. My real name is not Richard Castle, it's Malcolm Reynolds and I'm from the future."
Esposito looks him dead in the eye and bursts out laughing. This was the kind of stuff Castle makes up. Only he could think up all of this.
"That's funny Castle. Good one. I don't know how you got all of this done but congrats, you win whatever joke contest you think we are in." Espo says. Castle rolls his eyes before they lock eyes again and all Espo sees is total seriousness and something else indefinable, and at that moment Esposito knows whatever Castle went through has left scars on his soul, he knows this isn't a joke.
"I was sent to the past as part of my punishment for revealing a government cover up. I don't understand why tonight of all nights the Alliance would show up to take me back."
"Ok, say we believe all of this; what are we suppose to do?" Lanie says.
"Well, first we need to get in touch with my old crew. Than we find a way to get you all back to the past."
Kate was the only one who hadn't spoken up yet. Her eyes remained permanently down casted on the ground. He could see that her eyes are watered. Castle knows he needs to talk to her and sort things out. Alexis looks like she was still in shock but she had Martha there to calm her down, he needs to talk to his Kate.
"Lanie and Esposito how about you guys take the other room. You guys can get some sleep and be well rested for whatever is going to happen tomorrow." They nod and slowly stand up, still unsure of all that is around them. Lanie grabs Esposito's hand as if it were a life line. He leads her out the door.
As soon as the door closes Castle gets up and crosses the room towards Kate. "Kate, honey, I'm so sorry. I never thought any of this would resurface again. I wish I could go back and have told you ahead of time. I am so sorry, I could understand if, when we find a way to get you home, you never wanted to see me again."
Castle reaches his thumb out to wipe away the stray tear that trailed down her soft pale cheek.
"Your dam right I'm furious. I want nothing more than to take out my gun and shoot you just once. But, I love you Rick, I love you and I love Alexis. I'm not going to run away again. You owe me a full explanation when it's safer but for now, for now we will do what you need to do. "
A smile broke across Castle's face, one so big it made his cheeks turn red. He kisses Kate before turning and looking at Alexis.
"Alexis, honey. Come here." He says. He opens his arms wide as if to hug her. She walks toward him and before he has time to react she punches him square in the chest. She continues to punch him as she crys.
"How dare you! How could you keep this from me!"
"Alexis, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. I just wanted to protect you from my secrets."
"Oh, so now you're playing the oh I was just protecting you card. You don't get out of it that easily!"
"I wish it were that easy Alexis I wish all it took was an 'I'm sorry' right now you hate me, some day I hope you can see that I was just trying to protect you."
Alexis huffs at him before turning and laying down on one of the beds.
Castle sighs, he thought Kate would be the one who couldn't accept it not Alexis. This whole day was turning out to be crap.