A Convergence of Storms

Summary – Someone from Castle's past is murdered and that gives Kate a look into his unconventional childhood and time spent shadowing the CIA, something that hasn't really been discussed on the show (yet). AU of course, with some grounding in canon.

Author's Notes – Thanks again for all the follows and reviews. You make my day. Wow – it's almost August – where has this year gone? And how fast is the rest going to go as we wait for Sept. 29th?

Disclaimer – Don't own Castle – Marlowe, ABC, and Disney do. The OCs came out of my imagination.

Chapter 17 – Always Know a Guy

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By the time Beckett, Ryan, and Espo arrived at the Old Haunt late that afternoon, Aunt Natie and several of Uncle Armie's friends were already there, toasting to his memory and laughing over shared stories.

Uncle Armie had requested that his body be donated to science, so there was no funeral, just a small gathering of friends paying their final respects. A picture of him graced the bar, with several candles placed around it, the flames gently dancing in the air.

Aunt Natie insisted that Castle stand with her to receive the mourners, and there were quite a few who remembered 'Little Ricky' fondly from the 'good old days'. He greeted them good-naturedly and shook hands with a smile, graciously listening to their stories and nodding at their comments on how he had grown.

After Beckett and the boys joined Martha and Alexis who were sitting at a table, Castle excused himself and walked over to them, giving Beckett a quick kiss.

"Hey," she said softly, "how are you holding up?"

"Better if you tell me you have a suspect," Castle said hopefully.

She shook her head and frowned slightly. "We called the car service, but the owner is out of town until tomorrow and the assistant manager doesn't want to talk with us in case it involves something illegal."

"We're in the process of getting a subpoena for their records," said Ryan.

Castle nodded and then looked at Aunt Natie who waved discretely at him. "Guess we're ready to start," he said, giving Beckett's hand a quick squeeze before walking back to where Natie stood.

He picked up a glass and rapped on it with a knife, the clinking sound getting everyone's attention.

"We're here this evening to remember a good friend, Armen Tavitian," Castle started. "'Uncle Armie' as he was affectionately known to his friends, was born in Armenia in 1939 just before the start of World War II. He was 8 when he, his parents, and Aunt Natie immigrated to America. They arrived in New York during the Christmas season and he was instantly captivated by the bright lights and parades – by the spectacle of it all.

"His mother worked as a seamstress in the theater district where he spent his childhood years. There, he learned to love music – especially the piano – and started playing the songs by ear. He was called a child prodigy and received a scholarship to Julliard.

"But fate was not kind to him – he was in a car wreck when he was 20 and lost part of his finger. Armie persevered and learned to play again, but it wasn't quite the same. He never lost his love of music though, so he became a piano tuner and assistant pianist working with the theaters in New York.

"I had the pleasure of meeting Uncle Armie when he worked with my mother on Broadway and he was even my 'nanny' for a while. And even though that didn't quite work out as expected," there were several peals of laughter at that, "I did learn several things from him." Castle paused for a moment before continuing.

"When life knocks you down, get back up and keep trying – there's always hope that things will turn out better even than you thought." He smiled at Beckett and then continued. "Treat everyone with respect – you never know when you'll need a friend. Learn to play cards well enough that you can deal from the bottom of the deck, but don't because that's just rude…unless you can get away with it. Make sure people don't know when you're picking their pocket. Always drink your liquor neat. And always know a guy because you'll never know when you need help."

Several people around the room nodded at the list. "Yep, that was Armie," someone said. "Hell to play cards with," someone else responded. "And you always had to make sure you had your wallet," someone else laughed.

"I'd like to end with the song that Uncle Armie taught me for my 3rd grade talent show," Castle said, picking up a glass. "So if everyone will…"

As he had been talking, a hostess had sat drink glasses filled with a slightly amber liquid on the tables for the mourners.

He waited until everyone picked up a glass, paused for a moment, and then began singing in Armenian. The people in the room who knew the words started singing along, clinking their glasses in time to the rhythm.

When Castle finished the chorus, he raised his glass, knocked it against the nearest person's glass, and took a swig, the other people in the room mimicking his actions.

As Castle was singing, Beckett smiled as she watched him and then raised her glass and then clinked it against Martha's glass after the chorus. She took a swig and then decided she had 2 choices – she could either swallow whatever this disgusting liquid was – definitely alcoholic – and be poisoned – or be rude and spit it back in the glass.

She looked at Espo and Ryan and realized they were in the same predicament. Martha, however, was downing hers like a pro as Castle kept singing.

"Armie's special brew," Martha said in a stage whisper. "The trick is to swallow it quickly so your taste buds aren't burnt to a crisp."

Tears forming in her eyes, Beckett finally managed to swallow and then nodded at Martha.

"Yeah, real smooth," gasped out Ryan as he finally managed to swallow what was in his mouth.

"Does he refinish pianos with this?" gasped Espo.

Martha shrugged. "Probably. And used it for liniment too."

Castle finally finished the song and raised one final toast to Armie.

Beckett and the others raised their glasses and pretended to sip before putting the glasses back down on the table.

"Ah, Armie's special song," said Martha with a slight smile as Castle walked over. "How could I forget it?"

"Well, it does hold a special place in my heart," quipped Castle as he clasped Ryan on the shoulder.

Beckett thought for a moment and then looked at Castle in astonishment. "You didn't take whatever that was to school, did you?" she asked.

Castle made a face and shrugged. "Armenia culture doesn't have any such thing as underage drinking and Uncle Armie couldn't quite grasp that concept even though he lived here. So I was invited to leave school after that."

Martha nodded sadly. "And it was to be the first of many times," she stated. "But I will give credit where credit is due – Armen talked to the school principal and convinced him to let Richard back in."

Castle looked at her. "Oh, I thought he let me back in because you were dating him."

Martha shook her head. "No, that would have been your 6th grade PE teacher, Mr. Mahoney." She looked at the group. "Richard was never very athletic," and then added with a slight smile, "and did that man have stamina."

"And on that note, I'm going to take Aunt Natie home and see if I can get that image out of my mind," Castle said with a slight shudder.

"Jenny and Sarah Grace have dinner waiting for me, so I'll be going too," said Ryan, standing up. He looked at Espo. "You wanna come?"

"Nah, I've got plans," sniffed Espo.

"Kate, darling, would you like to ride back to the loft with Alexis and me?" Martha asked.

Beckett looked at her watch. "I think I'll go back to the precinct and see if that warrant has come through."

"Thanks," said Castle, leaning in to kiss her. "I'll see you at home then later."

"Yeah," said Beckett, nodding. It felt odd that Castle wouldn't be coming with her to the precinct for a while.

Meanwhile, Ryan was feeling his pockets for his keys. "You haven't seen my keys, have you?" he asked, looking at the table.

"Oh, you mean these?" Castle asked, dangling a set of keys from his finger.

Ryan frowned and quickly took the keys. "You don't deal from the bottom of the deck, do you?" he asked warily.

"Of course not," Castle said innocently. "That would be rude."

Beckett rolled her eyes at him and quickly kissed him. "See you in a little while."

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Being ever the gentleman, Castle walked Aunt Natie to her door while his assigned guard sat waiting in the car.

"Thank you, hokees eemeen," Natie said as she gave him a quick kiss. "Armie would have been pleased."

"I'll call you when we have something," Castle promised and turned to leave.

"Oh, Richard, wait," Natie said a little nervously. "There is another matter I need your help with."

"Okay," Castle said as he followed her in the house.

"Well, you know how Armie was – a little light fingered at times," she said, handing him a large manila envelope that had been on the table in the foyer. "And with macular degeneration, he wasn't seeing so well. He saw this picture at the man's house where he tuned the piano and thought it was you. So he brought it home so I could see it. Could you please see that the owner gets it back?"

Castle nodded. "Of course, Aunt Natie. No problem." He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "We'll be in touch."

"Thank you, Richard," Natie said as she closed the door and locked it.

Castle rolled his eyes at the envelope as he walked down the steps.

Armie was a good man, but he had slight problem with kleptomania. When Armie had been watching him, Natie had had Castle returned several items that Armie had acquired, thinking that the owners would be more lenient towards a charming boy than with her brother, which had been true most of the time. Armie had always promised to do better, but never quite did.

His curiosity getting the better of him, Castle opened the envelope and pulled out the picture. He recognized the frame immediately. It was a match to the leather one on Mr. Melekov's table.

He flipped it over and then froze, looking at the photo using the light of the streetlamp.

The man in the picture was a younger version of the son in the picture on the table, but the young woman he would know any place – Sophia Turner.

This may have been why Uncle Armie was killed.

He tucked the photo back in the envelope and shoved it under his arm as he pulled out his phone and sprinted towards the car.

"Kyle, we need to get back to the precinct right away," he said, running up to the driver's side.

Castle stopped suddenly at the sight of Kyle slumped over the steering wheel, blood running down his left temple. "Kyle?" he asked, reaching inside to feel for a pulse.

It was that reaction that was his undoing as a dark shadow body-slammed him against the car, dislodging the phone and envelope. They clattered noisily to the street.

Castle grunted as his arm was roughly twisted up behind his back and a gun was pushed into his ribcage.

"Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way," the man behind him said as he stomped on Castle's phone, crushing it. He then reached inside Castle's pocket and found the gps tracker, dropped it on the group, stomping on it also.

Castle relaxed for a moment, causing the man to lean forward slightly, and then jammed his other elbow into the man's solar plexus. He was not going down without a fight.

But it was a short-lived hope as the man tightened his grip on Castle's arm, almost dislocating his shoulder and slamming his head into the roof of the car, stunning him and causing his nose to bleed.

"So we do this the hard way," the man responded. "They want you alive, but they don't particularly care in what condition."

The man pocketed the gun and pulled Castle's head back by the hair, getting ready to shove him into back seat of the car, when a pair of arms came from behind him and wrapped around his neck in a vice grip.

Castle dropped to the ground in front of the car, out of the way, as the man slowly slumped to the ground unconscious. "Espo?" he said, looking up at the Latino detective.

"So how's that for retired?" Espo said, holding out his hand to Castle to help him up. "I told you I ate classified for breakfast."

Castle nodded and then started to get up when a black van screeched to a halt in front of them. Althea and Anders scrambled out, along with several men.

"Richard, are you okay?" Althea asked as she approached them.

"Yeah, thanks to Detective Esposito," said Castle, looking up from where he was sitting, "but Kyle's dead."

Althea nodded as she walked to the front of the car. She also felt for a pulse and then nodded at two of the men. They quickly moved the body to the van.

"Uh, how did you know to come here?" Castle asked, holding a handkerchief to his nose. "He crushed my gps device…and my phone."

"They send out a signal if they are disabled or destroyed," said Althea. She looked at another man who stepped forward. "Richard, this is Dalton. He'll be covering you now."

Espo stepped in between them. "I've got this," he said territorially.

Althea stared at him for a moment and then nodded. "Okay."

Meanwhile, the men were hauling the unconscious assailant into the van.

"We'll take it from here," said Anders as he picked up the envelope containing the picture.

Espo sputtered slightly but stopped after a look from Castle.

"Here," said Althea, pulling out another gps and handing it to Castle as he stood up and put his handkerchief in his pocket. "Try not to destroy it this time."

"He also crushed my phone," commented Castle. "Do I get reimbursed for that?" he asked hopefully.

"Sure," said Althea. "Come by the office and fill out an expense report."

"But I don't know where the office is," said Castle as she and Anders walked back to the van.

"Bro, are they just going to take everything?" Espo whispered.

Castle nodded and waved at the van as it drove off. "That's what they do." He turned to Espo. "But we have this," he said opening his handkerchief which held the crushed gps. "The guy wasn't wearing gloves so we may be able to get a print off of it."

"Then we'd better get back to the precinct," said Espo.

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