One More Kate

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: One more time. I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: Sometime in Season Seven, after the Caskett wedding.

Author's note: This is one of a series of AU stories that builds on the alternate universe Rick found in The Time of Our Lives and continued by me in Alexis's in Wonderland, Four of a Kind and I, Spy. One or two characters from I, Spy will make an appearance.

"God damnit, Castle! What do you think you're doing?"

Rick Castle was woken by his wife's scream. He looked blearily at his watch. It was just a bit past 5:30. "Trying to sleep. Go back to bed."

"Don't tell me to get in your god damned bed. Who the fuck do you think you are?"

He opened his eyes again. He had no idea what he'd done, or hadn't done, but Kate was obviously royally pissed off. "I think I'm your husband. Who do you think I am?"

"My husband? Are you totally insane? What have you done with my clothes? How did you get me out of my place and here? Answer me, dammit."

He sat up and looked at her standing by her side of the bed. For the first time he realized something was really wrong. "What did you do to your hair?" Her hair, previously long, curly and light chestnut colored, was now short and dark brown with a very slight tint of red. He realized her hair was like when he had first met her. He also decided her boobs were a bit firmer and perkier than when they had been just the night before.

She reached across the bed and slapped him, hard. "Don't you dare look at me, you pervert. Oh my God! Did you have sex with me?"

"No. You were too tired when you got home to have sex." He was now staring at his side of the bedroom. Even more was wrong. The usually neat loft was a mess. The bookcase that formed one wall of the bedroom was missing more than half its books. The carpet was filthy and the whole place smelled musty. He began to get out of bed. "Beckett, something is wrong here. We need to…" Before he could say anymore, he was struck across the back of the head and went face first into the carpet. He could feel Kate jump on top of him and tie his hands behind his back.

"Where are my clothes? What have you done with them?"

"They're in the closet, on the right."

He heard a muffled shriek when she opened the closet. "It's filled with women's clothes. Are these souvenirs from the bimbos you've brought here, or do you wear them, you pervert?"

"They're all yours. If you look carefully, some have been made specifically for you."

"Was that your plan? To kidnap me and keep me here pretending we're married? It's not going to work, Mr. Castle. You'll spend the rest of your life in prison."

He could hear her getting dressed and then heard her rummaging around in the chest of drawers. "You have my dad's watch. What did you do with my mom's wedding ring?"

"Nothing. You stopped wearing it when we arrested the guy who ordered her murder. Look, we have more important…"

"How do you know about my mom? And what do you mean by we arrested her killer? Are you totally insane?"

"Beckett, something is seriously wrong here."

"You bet there is. What have you done with my phone? I can't get any service."

"Beckett, will you listen to me?"

"You open your mouth again, and even if it costs me my badge, I'll brain you with this." He turned and saw she was wearing a nice light grey pants suit he'd gotten for her with a white turtleneck. In her hand was a badly broken lamp she'd used to hit him with.

"Where's my weapon? Tell me."

"In the safe. In my office."

He led her there and told her how to open the safe.

"You have a gun stored here?" She demanded.

He shook his head. He wished he hadn't. It hurt. "It's yours. It's a .40 caliber Glock you carried as a Fed."

"Why do you have to keep lying? It just gets you in more trouble." She took the Glock 19 out and put in her holster, the locked the safe. She picked up his phone from the charger on his desk. She couldn't get any service.

"We'll take a cab to the precinct." She said decisively.

Suddenly Castle remembered something. "Shit! Alexis and my mother. I have to see if they're here and if they're okay." He headed for the staircase.

"Castle! Stop or I'll shoot."

He turned to face her. "Then shoot, but I have to make sure they're not here."

Kate was too good a cop to shoot him, but ran up the stairs and pushed him face down. "Okay, you can go, but only after I cuff you. You so much as blink wrong and you're dead. Understand?"

He didn't move a muscle as she cuffed him. He ran to Alexis' room. It was empty. "Monkey Bunkey is gone, so she must have gotten out of here with it." He then ran to Martha's room. It was empty.

"Okay, Castle. We're going to the 12th Precinct. Now."

"With me just wearing my boxers?" Castle bleated.

"Yes!"

They went to the elevator, but found it was inoperative. They walked down the stairs. At the lobby, he noticed no one was manning the doorman's desk. Something was seriously wrong.

As soon as they hit the sidewalk, Castle changed his assessment for seriously wrong to catastrophically wrong. Except for two battered cars, the street was empty, dirt, leaves and trash blew around empty buildings with smashed windows. There were no people and there was an eerie quiet that hadn't been heard, or not heard, in New York City in centuries.

"What the hell is this?" Kate asked softly.

"I'm sure you'll decide I managed to depopulate New York as part of my plan." Castle said sarcastically. "Now, do you want to listen to me?"

"Castle, what the hell is going on? What the hell…" Kate stopped. "What's that?"

Castle turned around and found something out of his nightmares headed for them.

It was a spider, but like none he'd ever seen or heard of. Covered with shaggy grey fur, its legs were a good four feet long and its body was the size of a St. Bernard dog. The mouth was full of fangs and the red eyes screamed malevolence. It skittered towards them and a spray of clear fluid shot from its mouth. It missed them which was just as well since the liquid was starting to dissolve the cement sidewalk.

"Beckett! Shoot the damned thing before it kills us!" Castle screamed.

She put two shots into the thing's head. It staggered back a bit, then as it collapsed, a small stream of more fluid shot out.

Castle sighed in relief, then turned to thank Beckett. There was another monster, this one flying straight at them. He clumsily pushed Beckett to the ground and the thing soared over them.

"What the hell are you doing, Castle?" She screamed.

"Didn't you see that thing go over us?"

"So, a bird flew over us. Is that any reason to try to grope me?"

"A bird? Take a look. What flew over us picked up that spider thingy and took it off with it. Do you think that was a damned Central Park pigeon? It looked like a damned dragon." He pushed himself to his feet. "We have to go back to the loft and…"

"Shh. "She put her finger to her lips. "Something's coming."

Sure enough, he could hear a metallic clanking approaching. "It's probably the tin man with his axe." He grumbled.

Then a tank came around the corner. It was huge and as far as Castle could tell, it was unlike any tank of his Earth. In researching Derrick Storm, he'd gotten familiar with all sort of weapons. The hull looked to be a good ten feet tall, with a short cannon mounted in front. On top of the hull was a small turret, housing at least one cannon. Perched on the back to the thing were a dozen or so infantrymen wearing blue uniforms and carrying long rifles with very long bayonets.

"I've never seen one like it."

Kate stood up and waved at it. "Over here." She shouted.

The reaction was immediate. The soldiers opened fire and the turret swiveled to face them.

"Did you have to do that?" Castle screamed as they both dove behind an abandoned car.

"I thought the military would help us."

Before Castle could come up with a sarcastic remark, the tank was itself attacked. Dozens of men, wearing nothing but blood red capes and armed with flintlock muskets poured out of an alley and swarmed towards the tank. They could hear rifle fire and the sounds of at least one machine gun. A quick look told them that the tank was reversing down the street. Also, that one of the red caped men was headed straight for them.

Kate stood up and pointed her Glock at the man. "NYPD! Put down your weapon."

The man fired and missed. Kate didn't miss.

"Beckett, we need to go back to the loft and get all of your weapons and ammo. And I need the cuffs off and clothes on. Then we can….Oh SHIT!"

Coming up behind Kate was a truly gigantic man. He looked to be over eight feet tall and must have weighed four or five hundred pounds of solid muscle. His only weapon was an enormous erection. He smiled when he saw Kate and lumbered towards her.

Kate didn't bother yelling NYPD, but she did only shoot the man in his kneecap. He growled and kept coming at them. Kate put two rounds in his head and he collapsed in front of them.

"Beckett…"

"I know. The loft."

"Yes, but first, I think part of his face is on my chest. Can you get it off?"

Kate rolled her eyes, but wiped the blood and flesh from his chest.

They ran back into the loft and up the stairs. They went at once to the safe.

"Beckett, will you please uncuff me?"

"Castle, do you promise…"

"Beckett! Haven't you figured out by now this isn't some plot of mine to get you in bed? We're in big trouble and I'm trying to keep you alive."

"Sorry. Turn around." She undid his cuffs.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to get dressed." He stomped off without waiting for her reply.

He dressed in boots, jeans and a woolen shirt. He'd grab a coat from the hall closet. He did put Kate's engagement and wedding ring in his pocket.

When he came back to the office, she had the weapons out, her spare magazines filled and the extra boxes of ammo stacked up. She handed him the .40 caliber Glock. "Here. Sorry about everything, but you can see where I might…"

"Yes. I can see. Forget about it." Castle shook his head to clear it. He had to think. "What was the last case we worked?"

"The murder of City Councilman Horn."

"So we hardly knew each other"

"Oh, I knew you well enough." Kate blushed. "You said you married me? What is this, some kind of time travel?"

He shook his head, trying to think of some way to tell about this without sounding crazy. Oh, what the hell. He thought. Of course, it sounds crazy. "There are an infinite number of alternate Earths, parallel dimensions if you will. On some, Earth never coalesced as a planet. Some, there's no intelligent life, or the intelligent life is non-human. Most are some variations of what you know. But maybe Alexander the Great lived a long life and his empire endured for centuries. In one, the World Wars were different and the British Empire is still the global power, and on and on and on. I was accidentally transferred to one, then kidnapped into another, and was asked to help…Well, we don't need to go into detail. That's what happened to us. I don't know how or why, but here we are. One other thing. I love my wife, Kate Beckett, more than I ever could imagine loving anyone. I've met other Kate Becketts, and I love them too, just not as I love my wife. I love you too, and I'll do anything, anything, to keep you safe."

Kate bit her lip. "That's a lot to digest. Especially the part about a guy I don't really like being in love with me."

"Okay, but you don't know this Richard Castle at all. And I've been with you for over six years. I've changed a lot, and so have you. That wall that you put up after your mom died isn't there anymore."

"You know about that? What else do you know about me?"

"Plenty. But our job now is to get out of this alive. I think we should head for the 12th Precinct. They'll hopefully have weapons and ammo there."

Kate nodded. "They also have emergency food, water and medical supplies in case of a disaster of some kind."

"Okay. We need to check the street. You take that side and I'll take this one."

They headed for the respective windows. "Mine is okay." Castle called out.

"Mine isn't. Will you come and look?"

He walked over and looked out. "Oh shit."