A Convergence of Storms

Summary – 2nd part of A Convergence of Storms. Someone from Castle's past is murdered and that gives Kate a look into his unconventional childhood, something that hasn't been discussed on the show. AU of course, with some grounding in canon and tie-ins to A Convergence of Storms – Part 1.

Author's Notes – Nope, they aren't married yet. And I have a crush on James Brolin so I didn't kill him off, but he won't return in the story. All OCs came out of my imagination.

Disclaimer – Don't own Castle – Marlowe, ABC, and Disney do. I am reading the spoilers though.

Chapter 13 – The End of My Short Stage Career

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Castle paused for a moment and then chose to take a different tactic. "People," he reprimanded, "this poor man has been murdered. Let's pay him a little respect by staying focused and finding his killer.

The team stared back at him with the 'Really – you're playing that card' look and Castle eventually capitulated. "Okay, fine – dinner tonight at the loft. I'll tell you everything then. And yes, you can bring Lanie and Jenny," he said looking at Ryan and Espo. "I wouldn't want you to get the facts wrong when you tell them."

He raised his eyebrows at them. "Now can we get back to the investigation? The trail is getting colder by the minute."

"Uh, huh," Beckett hummed as she put the picture inside an evidence bag and then turned to Ryan and Espo. "Get CSU over here and sweep the place. Let's see if we can turn up anything about his last job. Castle and I'll head back to the precinct and meet with his sister."

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Aunt Natie was the kind of aunt that all kids wanted growing up. She was good-natured, an easy smile lit up her round face, her dark eyes twinkled with laughter, and she smelled of cinnamon spice from the hours she spent in the kitchen baking for her neighbors.

Now that twinkle was dimmed slightly as she sat with Castle and Beckett in the conference room at the precinct. She dabbed her eyes with a lace handkerchief in one hand while the other hand clutched one of Castle's.

"I can't believe he's gone," she said, voice hitching slightly. "He didn't see so well anymore and I told him to be careful – not everyone is kind, but that never stopped him," she said, shaking her head.

"Mrs. Davidson—" Beckett started.

"Sweetie, everyone calls me 'Aunt Natie'," the woman interrupted with a slight smile.

"Aunt Natie," Beckett started over. "Do you know if Mr. Tavitian had any enemies – someone who would want to kill him?"

"No, no one," said Aunt Natie, shaking her head. "Everyone liked Armie. He was always helping someone, giving them a handout when he could."

"Aunt Natie," said Castle, "the super where Uncle Armie lived said that he had a job recently – tuning pianos. Do you know anything about that?"

"Yes, yes," she said as she picked up her oversized purse and rifled through it, finally pulling out a piece of paper. "He was tuning a piano for this man," she said, handing the note to Beckett. "And when I saw him for dinner the other day, he said they had asked him to come out again – they had more pianos for him to tune. They paid really well."

"Thank you," said Beckett, taking the note. She handed the woman a card. "Aunt Natie, please call me if you think of anything else. I'll have a car take you home."

"Thank you, dear – I will," Aunt Natie nodded, wiping her eyes again. "It's so hard to believe that he's gone. We were going to have lunch tomorrow."

Castle squeezed her hand gently. "Aunt Natie, please call me if you need anything."

"Thank you – that's very sweet of you, Ricky." She paused for a moment and smiled tentatively at him. "There is one thing that I know he would have liked – would you give the eulogy at his service?"

Castle smiled back slightly. "I'd be honored to."

Aunt Natie stood with a sigh and gave Castle a quick hug. "Thank you, hokees eemeen," she said, pinching his cheek.

Beckett watched as she walked away and then turned to Castle. "The soul of me?" she asked.

Castle nodded, making a slight face and rubbing his cheek where she had pinched him. "She never had any children, so she adopted a lot of us along the way. But at least she's quit spitting on me for good luck."

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Later that evening, Martha walked into the loft with several sacks in tow as Beckett emerged from the bedroom, now dressed in casual clothes. Castle was busy in the kitchen fixing dinner, the sleeves on his button down rolled up to his elbows.

"Oh, you're making your fabulous pasta Carbonara," Martha said as she sniffed the air. "Are we expecting company?"

She dropped the sacks on the couch and then walked over to give Beckett a quick hug. "Hello, Kate dear," she said, greeting her should-have-already-been-and-was-already-in-her-mind daughter-in-law.

"Martha," Beckett smiled, returning the hug.

"Uh, yeah," said Castle, stopping for a moment and pouring a glass of wine for Martha. "The team is coming for dinner."

"What's the occasion?" Martha asked, noting his seriousness. She walked over and took the glass from him.

"Uh, yeah," said Castle, frowning slightly and then pausing before saying, "Uncle Armie is dead."

Martha took a sip from her glass. "May he rot in hell," she said somewhat vehemently.

"He was murdered," continued Castle.

"God rest his soul," Martha said, lifting her wine glass in a toast before taking another sip. "So they must have found the pictures at his place." She regarded her son. "Are you going to tell them before dinner or during? I'm thinking before might be better – you really don't want them choking on their food."

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Epso and Lanie arrived a few minutes after Ryan and Jenny had, and soon the group was seated in the living room, drinks in hand, the bread baking in the oven and filling the loft with a delightful aroma.

Castle pulled a photograph album out of the bookcase, turned to one of the pages, and then handed it to Beckett, whose eyes grew wider as she looked at the pictures. "Castle, is this you?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

"Yeah, bro – spill," said Espo as Beckett handed him the album.

"Yeah, Castle – why do you have a picture of you in a bar drinking a beer?" asked Ryan.

Jenny looked at Ryan. "Kev, what's wrong with that? He is a famous author."

"Thank you," said Castle, nodding at her. "But I was 8 at the time. Apparently not very appropriate or legal," he said, looking at Beckett, who tried not to choke on her wine.

Castle sat back and looked at his mother, giving her permission to start.

"Well, I knew Armen from the theater," Martha began. "He was the assistant pianist when I was the lead in 'Annie, Get Your Gun' in an off-off-Broadway revival when Richard was in 3rd grade. Armen worked during the day and was available in the evenings, so it seemed like a good idea at the time to have him watch Richard while I was working. And he worked for fairly cheap, but you get what you pay for," she said, taking a sip of her wine.

"In the afternoon, Richard would come to the theater after school and do his homework while he waited for Armen to finish. Then they were supposed to go home, but it seems they were making an unscheduled stop along the way."

Castle shrugged and made a face. "Well, I was in bed by the time you got home. Anyway, Christmas was coming and I wanted to buy you a gift. I found a really nice bracelet, but money was tight. So one day, I showed Uncle Armie the picture, and he let me do a few chores to earn some money.

"But the bracelet cost a lot more than I had managed to save, so I asked Uncle Armie if there was something else I could do to earn more money." Castle leaned forward slightly. "He said he might have something, but he needed to check with a friend first. So with Uncle Armie's help, I got my first paying job," Castle said proudly.

"Working at a bar?" asked Beckett. "As what? The youngest bus boy in the world?"

"Isn't that illegal?" asked Espo.

"Probably, but no, I had a better paying job," said Castle cryptically.

"Well, Christmas came around and Richard presented me with this lovely bracelet," said Martha. "I was thrilled, but concerned, and asked where he had gotten the money. He told me that Armen was letting him help him and I didn't think much of it at the time. We had finally gotten paid and everyone went a little giddy with the spirit of the season.

"About a month later, I started getting notes from Richard's teachers that he seemed inattentive – falling asleep in class, wearing wrinkled clothes. I asked him if he was staying up too late when they got home and he said no, he wasn't, which could be considered somewhat truthful." Martha took another sip from her glass. "What I didn't know was that they were only getting home about 30 minutes before I was and Richard was jumping into bed with his clothes on. Of course, he was sounded asleep by the time I got home."

Castle shrugged. "Well, it was only 2 school nights, so it didn't seem so bad at the time."

"Uh, huh," said Martha, nodding at him. "Anyway, a couple of weeks after the musical started, a pipe burst during the first scene and we had to evacuate the theater. We didn't even have time to change clothes. The director said he would buy the cast and crew drinks so we went to a piano bar a couple of blocks from the theater. Imagine my surprise when I saw Armen playing the piano when he should have been home with Richard. But I knew Natie so I thought she was watching him that night so Armen could pick up a little extra money.

"Armen played several songs and then paused and introduced his stage partner, an up-and-coming singer, Little Ricky. And to my utter amazement, my 8 year old son walked out on stage wearing a gold tux that Natie had made him and started to belt out Broadway hits."

"Much to the delight of the crowd, I might add," said Castle.

"You were singing at a bar?" Lanie said incredulously, trying not to laugh. "At 8 years old? And your mother didn't know?"

"In her defense, I did tell her that I was helping Uncle Armie, just not the details, and it was what she did, so I didn't see anything wrong with it at the time," Castle said, making an innocent shocked face. "And it paid really well – I got all of the shiny coins in the tip jar."

Ryan snorted in his drink, trying to contain his laughter.

"Anyway," said Castle, "since Mother was in musicals, I knew all the songs and I was about to sing 'Tomorrow' when I heard this booming voice coming from the darkness, saying…" he looked at Martha who responded, "Richard! Alexander! Rogers!" in her booming stage voice.

"I knew immediately that I probably wasn't going to have a tomorrow and one of two things was going to happen," Castle said. "I had either just heard the voice of god and I was going to be struck by lightning, or my mother was in the audience and I was about to face her wrath, and I think the lightning would have been preferable."

"So he put on this big radiant smile," said Martha, "and gave a little wave," which she demonstrated, "and said, 'Hi, Mom, look – I'm on stage just like you.'"

Beckett tried to bite back her laughter, but failed which set off the rest of the people in the room who howled in laughter.

After a few moments, Castle wiped his eyes and then continued. "Mother strode on stage in full cowgirl costume and make-up, with her rifle in her hand, and drug me off the stage by my ear." He rubbed his left ear. "And to this day, I think it's longer than the other one."

Martha smiled softly in memory. "Armen apologized, saying he was just trying to help Richard earn some money. I told Armen that this was very inappropriate and that his services were no longer needed."

"Yeah," said Castle with a dramatic sigh. "And then Nanny Ratched showed up the next Monday and my afternoons then consisted of watching her drink peppermint schnapps and watching soaps. So that was the end of my short stage career."

"Jezz, Castle," Beckett said, wiping her eyes. "Your childhood could be an ABC afternoon movie."

"Or a sit-com," laughed Ryan.

Espo smirked. "Well, it could have been a lot worse – I had a rap sheet by the time I was 11."

"Oh, trust me," said Martha. "They don't press charges in private school – they just cash the check and send you on your way."

The timer in the kitchen dinged.

"And that would be the rolls," said Castle, getting up from the couch.

Ryan helped Jenny up and looked at Castle in empathy. "Or you could have had older sisters who liked to experiment with eye makeup and made you be the guinea pig."

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Beckett studied Castle for a moment as they were cleaning up the kitchen after dinner.

"You were fairly quiet tonight after the big revelation," she asked as she dried one of the pots. "Is everything okay?"

Castle thought for a moment and shook his head as he rinsed out the sink. "It's nothing."

"No, it's something if it's got you thinking that hard," said Beckett, putting the pot up and then walking to Castle to put her arms around him.

Castle stopped what he was doing, his brow furrowing in thought. "It's just that looking at those pictures reminded me that I didn't have the most normal childhood," he said.

"Yeah, if that story is any indication," Beckett commented, still laughing slightly.

Castle leaned back against the counter. "Mother was in the theater and I didn't have a whole lot of rules growing up. There were times we didn't have a lot of money and times we did. We moved around a lot, kind of like gypsies, and she always made it an adventure. I knew that my life wasn't the same as other kids and that made me different."

Beckett smiled at him, resting her hand against his cheek. "But that's what made you the man you are today."

Castle nodded. "Don't get me wrong, mother was great and tried her best, but when I look at you, I see a normal childhood – 2 parents who were lawyers, which was definitely more socially acceptable no matter the jokes people tell, and probably the standard white picket fence house and rules."

Beckett made a face and shrugged slightly. "So?"

He frowned. "Well, it made me realize that we haven't had the talk yet."

Beckett looked at him in surprise. "The talk? Castle, you do know that I know where babies come from."

Castle shook his head. "No, the parenting talk." He took her hand in his. "When Alexis was little, Meredith wasn't around every much and I was a single parent. I didn't have to check with anyone else where she could go, what she could do, what she could wear, what she could eat."

"But then with Gina, one of the reasons we got divorced was that she said I didn't let her get involved with Alexis, even though I thought Alexis needed a stable mother figure in her life." Castle frowned. "And that was true. I wasn't good at sharing."

He looked Beckett in the eyes, shaking his head slightly. "And I don't want to make that same mistake, Kate, not with you."

Beckett smiled at him softly and gently kissed him. "When that time comes, we'll talk about things – we'll be in this together. And I think you did pretty well with Alexis."

"I was lucky – Alexis was the type of kid who pretty much raised herself," Castle replied and then frowned. "But what if we get someone like me, or even worse, someone like Espo?"

Beckett laughed gently. "Castle, we'll be okay – they'll be okay."

She paused. "But first, if you don't mind, I'd like to get married before we start thinking about kids. Can we do that?"

Castle smiled and pulled her closer, touching his forehead to hers. "Yeah, we can do that."

Beckett kissed him again. "But in the meantime, maybe you need to refresh my memory of where babies come from."

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