Doppelgänger 13
What Rick wanted to do was go straight to Kate and ask her point-blank, however his memories of Kate Beckett told him that she would just shut him down. Perhaps even pack her bags and find her own way back into the city. It might be weeks before she talked to him again – if ever.
He carefully slid the knife back into her bag and would analyze his readings later. It was certainly a puzzle, an incredibly expensive one. "You surely are a mystery, Kate Beckett." He was quite willing to admit that.
Since Kate left her bag behind he assumed she would be back out to retrieve it eventually after she calmed down. Still he needed that tube of sunscreen. But first he needed to be more ready for the next miscreant. Their "visitor" wasn't going to check in so who sent him would send someone else.
He pulled a case out of his left wristband. Opening it exposed what he needed. "SIX!? Damn… Alexis is so going to hurt me." She'd been after him to replace his equipment. It was just he always found something else to spend his money on. Six would have to do then. He activated the computer in the case that would direct his "eyes" to cover as much of the exterior of the house and surrounding area as possible. Rick set his locations on his computer and then watched his little guys fly away all at one time. After that he connected the alerts he would get to his contact which would show him what they saw.
Putting it all away he began searching for that tube of sunscreen. After finding it and gooping himself up, he got back in the pool and started doing some lazy laps back and forth. His mind wasn't on swimming, though, it was on Kate and her knife.
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Kate wasn't sure where to begin her search. She had an entire house to look through. It could be anywhere and she didn't even know what she was looking for.
Her thoughts were interrupted when suddenly she got an image. It was exactly like the one she got from her Crystal Parrot in her apartment. But this image was from high above this house. "What is that?" She saw a small object that seemed to fly on its own. It appeared to come from the back of the house near the pool. Then she saw another one just like it followed by still another. The ones she saw were spread far apart. One landed on the house; the first one actually landed near her Crystal Owl. Her Owl turned its head to give her a better look at it. It looked nothing like what she was used to seeing. Even the memories that Kate Beckett gave her showed her nothing.
"You're not a Parrot and not an Owl. How are you doing what my Owl is without wings?" Was someone watching her and Castle?
"THEY CAME FROM THE POOL!" It was where she'd left Castle. "Castle!" She was on her feet and running as fast as she could. It occurred to her that she had left her bag at the pool so she didn't have a weapon on her. How was she going to defend him without a weapon? Her fear of losing him was taking over. She couldn't lose him, she just couldn't.
Kate ran downstairs and opened the back door, leaving it open in her haste to reach the pool. She didn't really have a plan, she just knew she needed to be there.
She actually jumped over the pool's security gate. What she found baffled her. Castle was just floating on his back in the water. Everything looked peaceful to her. "Castle… CASTLE." That got him to stand up since he was in the shallow end at the moment. "Is… is everything okay?"
"Yeah, why? Come on, hop in the pool." Rick crooked his finger at her, inviting her to come to him. She ran earlier which this Rick's memories told him she was wont to do. So why did she come back? If she really wanted to leave she could.
She was conflicted. She had rushed down here because she feared for his life. But nothing had really changed. She didn't know how or why, but she found herself slipping into the pool and slowly walking over to him.
He was glad to see her do as he asked. "What's going on Kate? Can you explain it to me?"
Kate looked up at him and only saw love and a longing for her to talk. She knew talking wasn't her strong suit.
"How long have we known each other? Have I ever given you cause to fear me?" Rick felt some of this Rick's memories. "Okay, skip that question. Have I ever intentionally hurt you? Knowingly caused you pain?"
She searched her memories and shook her head. "Kate Beckett loves you."
She felt him step closer and she let him wrap his arms around her. It was just what she wanted and feared most. "Are you going to tell me what got you back down here in such a rush?" he asked in a gentle voice.
She pressed her face into his chest. She needed to hide somewhere. She shook her head. "I was scared," Kate whispered.
Rick considered this progress. "Have you been scared ever since… ever since we got together back in LA?"
"NO!" She lifted her head to look at him. "I wish I could tell you but I can't. Not yet." Not until she found that item. It was here somewhere, she just needed to find it. Speaking of which she started looking Castle over. She even ran her hands over his body.
"Keep that up and neither of us are making it out of this pool anytime soon." He was beginning to enjoy the attention she was giving him.
"What are these?" Kate lifted up one of his hands to show them both one of the wristbands he was wearing. Including into the pool.
"Wristbands." Rick resisted yanking his hand away, out of her grasp.
"What do they do?" Was this what she was looking for? "Take it off." She tried to figure out how to remove it.
Now he did jerk his hand away. "Why do you need to know? They're wristbands." Very technologically advanced wristbands filled with countless items. But he didn't tell her that.
Kate grabbed hold of his hand again and held it up. "It looks…" She stopped when he pulled his hand away again and backed up a step. Confused, she stared at him.
"I'll tell you if you tell me what's in your bag," he said. She looked shocked and suddenly was very defensive; she moved a couple feet away from him. Rick said nothing; he tilted his head as he looked at her.
"You got in my bag?" She didn't want to be angry, but he had snooped into her private things.
"I was looking for sunscreen. You know – the stuff that you and everyone else have been reminding me constantly that I should be wearing when I'm outside?" he snipped.
"So does that mean you can go into my room and search my suitcase since you are only looking for sunscreen?" she asked heatedly. Just where did her privacy stop?
"Don't change the subject. What is that thing?" Rick certainly wouldn't go snooping in her room and she should know that. This was just deflection.
Kate was in a bind. He had seen it so how did she describe it? She knew what it could do since that was why she had stolen it in the first place. She just didn't know how to make it work.
"It's a knife." Technically it was a dagger in her world but it was still just a knife.
Rick glared at her. "With a blade made out of a giant ruby?" Sarcasm practically dripped from his voice. Knives were just not made using that material. It was far too expensive, yet alone the difficulty in finding a ruby that size.
She was wracking her brain to come up with an answer that didn't give herself away. Kate Beckett trusted him and she was learning to, but…
He didn't want her to be angry nor did he want her to run, which based on what he had learned from this Rick was what she was likely thinking of doing. So…
He paused for a moment then stepped up to her, wrapped his arms around her again, and pulled her in close. That she didn't resist spoke volumes.
"Talk to me, Kate. I know that's a novel concept for us. This is your chance – tell me you want to go forward to more or stay as we are… Or were." Before they had made love to each other.
Her shoulders slumped and her head dropped. "You wouldn't believe me." Kate was sure of that.
"I think you'd be amazed at what I can believe. It might be you that's amazed." Rick had made up his mind that if she talked to him he would explain everything to her. Followed by never letting her out of his sight, since she would be sure to run. After all, her Rick was dead.
"You promise to listen and let me explain?" Kate could feel that Kate Beckett would be running. Kate knew that she loved him and she herself was getting there. The main part that worried her was this – was it Kate Beckett or was it she who loved him. Being Kate Beckett with all her memories was blending with who Snohbal was.
"I'm not going anywhere, I promise." What could she possibly say that would get him to run?
She made sure her arms were wrapped around him nice and tight. "It's a dagger from my world. I stole it just before I escaped from it. It really wasn't home to me. I needed to find a better place to live so I planned for months to escape. It's magical. I know what it can do but not how to make it work." Kate squeezed her eyes closed and waited for the inevitable.
"You escaped?" That didn't make a whole lot of sense even to him. "Escaped from where?" The memories he had of Rick weren't helping here. This Rick knew a lot but nothing about this.
Kate squeezed a touch tighter without actually hurting him. "From one of the 666 layers of the Abyss." She prayed this would go well. She could feel her heart pounding. However, it didn't.
"The Abyss." Rick felt his heart rate leap or maybe it stopped completely. "You're a goddamn DEMON!" He ripped her arms from around him, took a step back, and produced a weapon from his right wrist. He pointed it straight at her. "A STINKING DEMON!" He was wrong, he was shocked. He'd let a demon get close to him.
Kate tried to talk to him. "Castle…"
"SILENCE!" he roared then pressed his weapon to her forehead. He needed to think. Really think.
"What did you do to the real Kate Beckett?" He hunted demons so he knew what they could do. He was betting this one was a succubus.
She did her best to explain by using the truth. "Nothing, I swear! I found her in an alley. She'd been stabbed and was bleeding terribly. She was almost dead. I wanted to help her, truly, but there was nothing I could do. I needed a place to hide. I needed a new life so I took as many of her memories as I could before she died and made them mine."
That didn't sound like something a succubus would do. It didn't escape him that she hadn't as yet tried to kiss him and drain him. To try and make him hers. In fact she was the one that had wanted to take things slow.
"Say I believe you. Why should I trust you?" Rick demanded. She was an evil demon like all the rest of her kind. They killed and tried to dominate people everywhere they went.
"I don't want to hurt you. I've tried so hard not to. Kate Beckett loved you." She cocked her head, a puzzled look on her face. "How do you know about demons?" As far as she knew demons couldn't leave her world unless they were summoned to perform a task for the summoner, the one who called them forth. The more powerful ones might actually escape after being summoned and go on a killing spree.
Kate had been threatened before on her world. Threatened with far more than a bullet to the head. Besides if she really felt like he was going to pull the trigger she could try and charm him. Except instead of kissing him she would run and never stop.
"I hunt your kind and either kill them or capture them for a living. It's good money," Rick explained, not sure why he was telling her about himself. He couldn't capture her and take her anywhere since he didn't have a ship. That meant he had to kill her. But this Rick loved her and he was learning to. Before he found out she was a demon, that is.
Kate's memories told her that Rick was a writer. He was filled with strange stories about CIA and aliens. Kate Beckett had put up with it and learned to love some of them. He made life fun. "Is this one of your stories?" And where did he suddenly get the gun?
"You assumed the life of Kate Beckett. So who killed her if you didn't?" Rick quickly pulled out a device from his left wristband.
"What's that?" she asked warily since he already had a weapon pointed at her head.
"It's a lie detector. I just need to set it for your kind." He used his forefinger to touch the tiny screen. "All right, explain to me what you did to Kate Beckett." Now that he had a machine to tell him if a demon was lying, he felt better. Plus he had selected a round that would enter her head and explode. It would make one hell of a mess, but the demon would be dead.
"Kate Beckett loved him."
"I escaped from my layer of the Abyss because I didn't fit in. Everyone was malicious and vile. The Prince that ruled my layer was viciously evil. Plus I'd heard that people from another plane could summon my kind and force them into servitude. I hated my home and the idea that I could be made to do something I didn't want to do was… Anyway, I spent months coming up with a plan. The timing had to be perfect to steal something from the Prince.
I stepped out onto this plane simply to find a place to sleep because I was tired. That was where I found a woman lying on the ground in a pool of blood. A very large pool of blood. I wanted to help her but she was too badly hurt. So I used one of my abilities, joined my mind to hers, and found out everything." Kate stopped for a moment. She raised her hand then dropped it to her side. "She touched my heart, Rick. I admit that I needed a place to hide and live my life. I felt so helpless. But I made her a promise that I would live her life and find out who killed her. And she… she loved you. She had such strong emotions for you and her mother who had also been killed." She ended her story and stood there mute, waiting for him to say something, anything.
Rick had been keeping one eye on her and one eye on his device. He knew that a demon could look and sound convincing but his device was showing that she told the truth throughout her entire story.
"You wanted to go slow," Rick whispered as he started to understand.
"Kate Beckett loved you. I'm falling in love with you. But I can't kiss you. I want to kiss you but I can't. My kisses will drain you and end up killing you. I'll not risk that. I just won't. I don't want to hurt you… What do we do now?" She could still feel the gun pressed against her forehead. She might be fast enough to take his weapon away from him, but where had this gun come from? There was probably another; she couldn't fly away fast enough and not be shot.
His conscience told him what to do and his device told him she was telling the truth. He could always kill her later if need be. He retracted his gun and his device. He saw Kate relax and let out a breath.
He struggled internally. This Rick loved her and he was learning to love her. What he himself thought just took a giant hit. She was a demon!
Rick drew in a deep breath and let it out. He made his choice."I'm not Rick. I mean I am, but I'm not… not really. My real name is Richard James Rodgers and I'm a hunter. I take jobs all across the galaxy and make money hunting down people like you. Or I hunt down items that have been stolen from their rightful owners."
Kate's heart sank and she wanted to escape. If he was telling the truth, she was everything he hated.
"My ship had a major malfunction and I was forced to escape. I ended up here completely by accident. My escape pod was all but destroyed just trying to get into this planet's atmosphere. I had no choice but to parachute in and I landed on a low rise building. I saw a van drive by very slowly and they threw out a well-dressed man. By some miracle he was still alive when I reached him, however every one of his fingers had been smashed. I was amazed that he was still breathing." Rick watched her react with distaste when he talked about his fingers. Her reaction spoke volumes.
"I downloaded as many of his memories that I could." Rick finished explaining how he got to be here.
Kate had listened to everything. "So you needed a life too." He was hiding just like she was.
He was ready to contradict her; he'd had time to think about his choice. He might have been able to integrate himself into this planet's culture. He had to admit that being Richard Castle was so much simpler, though. "There are a few similarities to my life and his along with a number of glaring differences." He was still coming to grips with all of them.
Kate caught onto one of them real fast. "You're not a writer are you?"
"No, I'm not. I've never written anything other than reports about those I capture or goods I retrieve."
Her eyes opened wide. "Alexis and Martha… You haven't told them have you?" Her heart ached for them.
Rick shook his head. "I haven't really thought about that yet. Surprisingly, I have a daughter of my own and her name is Alexis. Amazingly enough, she looks exactly like this Alexis."
A thought suddenly struck her after he said that. "How do you look like this Rick, the dead Rick? Did you use another one of your devices? And how do you do that?" Kate pointed to one of his wristbands.
"That was a tremendous shock. I look like this Rick. He could be my exact double. In my world they are called Doppelgängers. They're creatures that duplicate your looks and try to take over your life after draining you dry and killing you."
Kate was catching on. "Someone you hunt down." Rick nodded.
"So what now?" She was back to her original question. "I need a life, you need a life. Kate Beckett loved you." She loved him. "I just can't kiss you."
"Richard Castle loved her, too." He twisted his head from side to side a little. "There is a way." Rick could feel this Rick's love for her – the other Kate – and he couldn't help it.
"A way? A way for me to kiss you?" Was he the item that her book had shown her that she needed to be able to kiss him?
He apparently wasn't going to kill her so did that mean she could stay? He had a way that she could be Kate Beckett and keep her promise.
"How?" If he had a way she was going to get to finally kiss him!