A Convergence of Storms – Part 1

Summary – A post 6x23 fic previously titled Hours Lost Forever. What happens when Castle shows back up after the car crash and thinks the crash happened after the wedding and Kate was in the car with him. Will be 3 parts and 3XK or Bracken are not involved. This looks at some new "old" mythology based on Castle's time shadowing the CIA.

Author's Notes – Thanks for all the favs, follows, and reviews – they really mean a lot. You are awesome. Yep, it's a Monday again.

Disclaimer – Don't own Castle – Marlowe, ABC, and Disney do.

Chapter 10 – Lightning Strike

# # # # # # # # #

"What?" Castle asked, stunned by the revelation. "Why would she do that?"

"Someone wanted the information in the reports," Althea replied simply.

"I – uh – read a lot of reports while I was there. Do you – uh – do you know which ones they were?" Castle asked, swallowing thickly.

Anders shook his head. "We've narrowed it down to some that analyzed certain accounts at UBS that could be considered 'tainted'. The source files have gone missing though. We'd like you to come in and look at them to see if they are familiar. They've been redacted, so it may not do any good. Like I said, Turner was very good at covering her tracks."

Castle nodded slowly and looked at the couple questioningly. "So why didn't Sophia just give them the information?" he asked. "Why did she need me?"

"Turner needed to maintain her cover, so she couldn't meet with them directly," said Althea. "And any paper copies or electronic copies would have left a trail."

"I feel so used, like a cheap information mule," Castle commented, staring off in the distance.

"$500,000 was deposited into an offshore account in her name a couple of weeks before you quit shadowing the company, presumably from whoever she was working for," offered Althea.

"Like an expensive information mule," Castle quipped, still stunned by the revelation.

"So how was this supposed to go down?" he asked. "How were they going to retrieve the information?"

"Do you remember the two courier drops you were allowed to go on in Argentina just before you quit shadowing the agency?" Althea asked.

"Kicked out, more like it – told in very polite terms that I wasn't welcome any more," growled Castle. "Yeah, I remember those."

Castle noticed the look that passed between Anders and Althea. "And one of those is a fake memory – just like the car wreck, isn't it?" He stood and starting pacing. "Is that all you can do – lie?"

"Basically yes," admitted Anders.

"So it couldn't have been the first one – Sophia was on that one." Castle stopped suddenly, squeezing his eyes shut, a stricken expression on his face. "Oh, oh, damn—I've been such a fool. It was supposed to have been then." He shook his head. "It all makes sense now."

He looked off in the distance. "We flew into Buenos Aires and took a small private plane to Mar del Plata. It was pouring rain when we got there – we both got soaked getting out of the plane and into the cab. The small inn we were staying at had lost power and Sophia came to my room later to see if I was okay." He paused for a moment, looking at Beckett, and then continued.

"It was dark and I had lit several candles – it was hot and steamy – and we didn't have anything else to do so we…fraternized. Several times," he admitted. "The next morning, we were sitting at the table outside, waiting for breakfast, when she picked a red rose from the garden and put it in the lapel of the jacket I was wearing. I thought she was being romantic – that it meant something – but she was just marking me," he said, shaking his head.

"Then she said she had left her phone in her room and left to go get it. She said that the courier wouldn't be there until about lunch time and to not do anything stupid until she came back.

"I was watching the crowd to see if I could spot the courier when a man across the patio stood up after a while and started toward me. I thought he might have been the courier. But then a police car pulled up with its lights flashing and a man got out, waving his arms and yelling at me. The other man took one look at him and took off.

"I was pretty sure I was going to be arrested on the spot for being an undercover CIA agent, when he asked if I was Richard Castle, no? A fan in a small town in Argentina – who would have guessed?" Castle said.

"Anyway, his wife owned the local bookstore and he asked if I was available to sign books at her shop. Some of my books had been translated into Spanish and I didn't want to turn him down and start an international incident, so I went with him."

Castle ran a shaky hand through his hair. "Then, when I got back to the inn several hours later, Sophia was surprised – shocked in fact – that I was there. And she wasn't pleased when I told her that the police chief had invited us to dinner at his house that evening. She reminded me very vehemently that we were supposed to be flying under the radar, not socializing with the town officials.

"The dinner ran long and she left about midnight. She barely spoke to me the rest of the trip and only said that the courier had been detained by the rain storm."

Anders nodded. "That was her account also – but without the mention of fraternization."

Castle nodded. "So the next trip was the fake one." His eyes narrowed in thought. "Sophia couldn't go because she twisted her ankle when she was sparring, so you went in her place." Castle looked at Anders for confirmation.

"Everything seemed fine – same plane rides, same inn. We met with the courier and then we left…" Castle paused for a moment as if remembering something not thought of for a long time. "But the sea plane we were on crashed when taking off from Mar del Plata and I dislocated my shoulder and hit my head. You were so afraid I was going to sue that you asked me to leave – said it hadn't been a good idea to have a civilian consultant after all."

He looked at Anders and Althea. "But that's not the way it happened, is it?"

Anders frowned for a minute. "The crash, yes, but not the moment before and not what happened afterwards. Of course, we didn't know what had happened at the time." He nodded at Althea and she pulled a tablet from her satchel.

"You didn't remember what happened and we thought it best to leave it that way, then this showed up at Black Pawn several months later," she said, handing the tablet to Castle.

Castle read the first page and then looked up in surprise. "My story – A Convergence of Storms – I thought it had been lost. You stole my story! Do you know how long it took me to start writing again after that?" he exclaimed. "Everything was so jumbled – I couldn't come up with a coherent thought for weeks – unless that was you again…" He frowned at the thought.

"Rick, I am sorry about that, but we just took back what was ours, per the agreement that you signed," Althea said.

Castle shook his head. "But I just made that up."

Althea shook her head in response. "No, Rick, you didn't – except for the locations, that's what happened during the 2nd trip."

Rick looked at the tablet and then back at Althea. "I don't understand."

"Several people were quite shocked when they read the first few chapters. Others of us, vindicated. The courier drop that Derek was sent on, meeting the contact, the spider in the bathroom, the kidnapping by the enemy, and daring escape," said Althea.

"It was like staring into the mirror," Castle said remembering what he had written.

Althea nodded. "Some of us wanted you to continue to see if you could remember the events, remember the contact, at least subconsciously. Others, Sophia for one, said that it was too dangerous and you should never have gone. Anders wanted to give you a lobotomy."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Castle said. He frowned, narrowing his eyes in thought. "So Storm and Bentley were waiting at the extraction point. Bentley was standing several feet away, talking on his phone. Storm was talking with their guide, Adelmo, and the sea plane started to land when Adelmo's head just exploded in a hail of hot lead…"

Castle paled as he realized what he had said and rushed to the trash can and vomited up his lunch. He waited a few minutes before standing, taking out his handkerchief and wiping his mouth.

Beckett silently handed him the bottle of water she carried and gave his hand a quick squeeze. He rinsed his mouth out and gave her a shaky smile back.

Althea watched him for a moment. "At the time, we thought it was just insurgents, but during the forensic audit, we found a carefully laid out plan. Sophia fed you the reports and sent you to South America where the people who paid her were waiting for you."

"Did I tell them anything?" Castle finally asked.

Althea shrugged. "Apparently not since they came after you again."

"So how did we get out? Did my father rescue us?" Castle said. "Or is what I wrote true?"

Althea smiled sadly. "We don't know. Anders had a severe head injury from the attack – lost his eye," she said nodding at the man beside her. "A couple of days after the crash, you walked into a medical aid camp, dragging Anders behind you on a tarp and said he had been injured. Fortunately we had someone who was embedded into that group and they contacted us immediately."

"You were stabilized and flown out. We followed the path you had taken and found where you had been held a couple of miles away." She paused. "There were 5 men there, all dead. They had been shot, but we didn't find any guns and the bullets had been removed. They were ghosts – we never could identify them. But it just another mystery until after we found out about Sophia."

Castle shook his head. "Why don't I remember any of this? Traumatic amnesia? Jedi mind control? Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?"

"No," said Althea, sweeping his bangs off of his forehead, pausing over the almost invisible scar above his left eyebrow. "A knife embedded there. They think the force disrupted your short term memory of the event."

Castle's mouth gaped open. "Really – must not have needed those brain cells," he remarked.

"Do you know who these people are?" Beckett asked quietly.

Anders shook his head. "It's taken us years to uncover this much. We'll keep at it though."

Castle looked up suddenly. "These people – did they come after Kate too?" he asked urgently.

Althea paused a moment and then nodded. "Yes, but they obviously weren't successful."

Anders nodded. "A couple of weeks after your engagement announcement was published, a fake marriage license was inserted in the New York marriage license database for a Katherine Beckett and Rogan O'Leary. We traced the addition to an unidentifiable temp worker."

"And we also had a long talk with O'Leary," said Althea. "About 2 months ago, he was contacted by a Mr. Stephen Cannell who said he wanted to play a trick on his good friend Mr. Richard Castle before he was married and paid him $5,000 in cash to pretend to be married to Kit-Kat."

"Hmm," Castle said, looking at Beckett. "Your ex isn't a reader either."

"So they got us up there – why didn't they do anything then?" Beckett asked.

"They didn't count on the bikers and Barbozza. A little too exposed for them," said Anders.

"Our venue?" Castle asked.

Althea nodded.

"My dress?" Beckett said.

Althea nodded again. "What they didn't count on was your father having your mother's dress – divide and conquer. But you were never alone, Kate, so you were untouchable."

"So they just took me," said Castle. He frowned as he looked at Beckett. "Is it over? Are they still out there?"

"No and yes, they are," said Althea. "We've had a tail on you since the wreck and have seen certain signs."

Castle swallowed again. "Okay." He studied Anders and Althea. "How do I know that any of this is true? How do I know that you aren't lying to me now? How do you even know any of this?"

Althea paused a moment before answering. "We managed to discover Turner's original contact and your father volunteered to resolve the situation. He said he felt responsible for putting you in the crosshairs. He managed to track the man down and found pictures that the man had of you, Rick. Then we followed the trail."

Castle nodded. "Uh, my passport – I lost my passport on the 2nd trip to Argentina…"

Althea nodded. "Actually, it's been found but we're not sure by whom—"

Castle's head snapped up. "That's why I'm on the no fly list."

"Yes," confirmed Althea. "Someone is using your passport, so we've locked that avenue down."

Castle nodded, thoroughly shocked by what had been revealed. He dropped his head into his hands and Beckett laid a supporting hand on his back.

He finally looked up. "This happened more than 10 years ago – why now? What's changed?"

Althea pressed her lips together and then took Rick's hands in hers. "Rick, we just had confirmation that your father was killed in a bombing about 5 weeks ago. It's been verified by hair, teeth, and bone fragments. I'm so sorry."

Castle nodded slowly, tears forming in his eyes. This day had just gone from bad to worst.

# # # # # # # # #