You ever have one of those stories where you have 90% of it figured about but that last 10% that would make it work is eluding you? Until this last weekend, that was the case with this story. As with the prologue and this chapter, there will be a few different POV's in this.
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own Castle. But I did find season 5 on sale for under $20 and so I now on that. Season 6 is still over $30, so I'll just use Netflix to watch those episodes for the time being. Although I wouldn't object to it being a birthday present or something…but since that's months away, Netflix it is.
As for Moonlighting….if I had any control over the show AT ALL I would have begged the David and Maddie shippers for ideas. Maybe had some contests. Fans would have been okay if I used an idea of theirs if they got to meet Bruce Willis & Cybil Shepherd as a result, right?
If it hadn't been for what Castle had been through in the last few days, Kate wouldn't be here. But after everything that had happened with Jerry Tyson trying to frame Castle for murder, she was willing to do practically anything to make him smile again. To give him back a sense of normalcy. Even if what she was about to do wasn't exactly normal. Not for her, anyway.
Three years. Three years since she had been in this shop. Not that she had intentionally avoided it, there just hadn't been any reason for her to be here.
It HAD to be here. Kate knew how much it would mean to Castle that she remembered. Imagining his boyish excitement that would quickly turn into a man's raging desire made a giggle slip out before she could stop it.
She had been doing that a lot since her wall had finally come down and she let Castle in. The first time had caught her off-guard; she'd been bringing him coffee and he had rapturously said, "So, it wasn't a dream." Kate had thought her giggle had gone unnoticed until a few days later when she'd let another one slip and he decided to engage in a tickle war. She had won, but just barely.
Yep, there it was. Now if they just had it in her size….Perfect!
The costume draped over her arm, Kate made her way up to the register. The store clerk had just rung up the sale when her phone rang.
Kate glanced down at her watch before looking at her phone. Empathy rather than irritation filled her when she saw that it was Castle. She had told him she had a quick errand to run for the next night's Halloween party and that she shouldn't be gone longer than an hour. It was five minutes past that now. He was normally very good about giving her space, but since Jerry Tyson disappeared (his opinion; hers was that the man was dead-no one could survive that kind of fall), he was as overprotective with her as he was with Alexis.
"Hey, Castle, I'm just about to-" Kate started but didn't get a chance to say more before someone started to speak. Someone who wasn't Castle.
"Four long years is how long it took
To embark on a relationship
That started because of a book.
Starting right now
Over the next twenty-four hours
The love that shines so bright
Will lose all its power
On All Hallow's Eve
The wall will rise up
The pen will crack
There will be no way to change it all back
With each strike of the clock
Things will go bad to worse
Now that you've triggered
The Moonlighting Curse."
The Moonlighting Curse? Where in the world had Castle come up with that?
Except-this wasn't something Castle would do. A Halloween trick, certainly. But one that mocked their love, even implied that their relationship would be threatened?
No, that wasn't something Castle would do.
But Jerry Tyson would.
Was Castle right? Was the 3XK still alive?
What if, right this very second, he was at the loft?
What if it was already too late?
But the rhyme had said 24 hours. Tyson liked to play a cat and mouse game with them; he'd proved that more than once. So he probably wasn't going to strike until just before midnight. So they had time. Not a lot, but enough.
It had to be.
There was no other option. She was not going to lose Castle.
No matter what.
