Curly Kate and Doc

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: This here's cattle country, sheepherder….Oh, wrong line. I don't own Castle. Or cattle. Rating: K Time: Sometime after Once Upon a Time in the West.

Author's note: I recently took a trip to Tombstone, Arizona. I had an idea while I was there, and this is the result.

Six months later.

Rick nudged his sleeping wife.

"The plane's landed, Kate. Time to wake up."

"I'm awake." She said, then yawned and stretched.

The plane came to a full stop and the flight attendant walked over to them, a professional smile on her face.

"Mr. and Mrs. Castle, thank you for flying on Deseret Air, and if you ever need a private jet in the future, please consider us. Your limousine is right outside the aircraft's doors. Have a good stay."

The limousine was right outside with the driver standing by the passenger door. He was dressed as a cowboy gunslinger, down to the bright red sash around his waist.

He doffed his Stetson and opened the door.

"On behalf of Doc Holliday's Saloon, welcome to Tombstone, Arizona, the town to tough to die. My name is Stilwell and if you need anything, all you have to do is ask."

"Just take us to Doc's." Rick said.

As they drove toward Doc's, Stillwell spoke to them.

"You can just see the first of our hotel's towers just to the right. The saloon, with the casino, has been completed for several months and the second hotel tower will start soon. The golf course will be a while. Some problem concerning the layout of the back nine."

"Do you play golf?" Kate asked.

"Who? Me? A red blooded, rootin', tootin' six gun shootin' cowboy? Durn tootin' I do, Ma'am."

They pulled up to the front of Doc's to be greeted by a local Apache in 1880's costume.

"Howdy, Mr. and Mrs. Castle. Per Doc's instructions, you're allowed to carry your personal sidearms inside and not have to leave them at the bar."

Kate was dressed in the black gunslinger's outfit she'd worn on her honeymoon in Arizona. Rick had decided to dress up a bit. He wore a black suit, the coat fashionably buttoned at the top, a blue shirt with a white collar and a large, floppy red bow tie. His hat was a fashionable derby. At his waist was his Colt Single Action Army revolver.

"Thank you. And you are?" Rick asked.

"Name's Tzoe, but the white folks call me Peaches. I'm an Apache Scout for the US Army." He lowered his voice. "I'm off duty now, but I'm also a local peace officer."

"Same here." Kate said. "Glad to meet you."

Once inside, the found themselves in what might have been a luxurious saloon of the 1880s. However, the "gas lamps" actually had LED lights in them and the "authentic" cash registers had computers inside.

Only a few of the customers had decided to dress up in 1880s clothing. They could easily be told by their empty holsters. Otherwise, there were cowboys, miners, gunslingers, gamblers, soldiers and saloon girls scattered around the large casino. They were employees and had pistols in their holsters, although they lacked live ammunition.

They could hear Doc talking from a card table in the middle of the room. People were crowded around him.

"I never did cotton to Ike Clanton, the man was a bully, a drunkard and a damned thief. But he was no coward as that motion picture showed him to be." Doc suddenly caught sight of Rick and Kate. "Why, its my good friends, "Dude" Castle and his wife, Curly Kate. I'll have to finish my story before I talk to you two, but Big Nose Kate here will get you some drinks."

A tall, willowy brunette detached herself from Doc and walked behind the bar.

"Three fingers of Laphroaig for you, Mr. Castle? And white wine for you, Mrs. Castle?"

"That'll be fine, but please call me Kate."

The girl giggled. "You can call me Kate as well. Big Nose Kate." She lowered her voice. "Doc doesn't like us to get out of character when were working, but my name is Beth Holland. I'm a theater arts major at ASU. And I have you to thank for my job here."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "You do? How?"

"When I came down here for the audition, all the other girls had these big, fake D cup boobs almost falling out. I figured I'd be lucky to get a job as the waif who emptied the spittoons or something. But Doc took one look at me and said I was the spitting image of his friend, Curly Kate from New York and decided right then and there that I'd be Big Nose Kate, his girlfriend."

"We do look a little alike." Kate said.

Big Nose Kate nodded "We both have long, light brown hair, although your is lighter than mine and we both have curls. Our eye color is about the same. You have great legs: I've seen photos of you, and my legs are my best asset. We're both B cups, I think, and you have a great ass. Luckily, my ass is covered by my bustle which make it look like my ass sticks out a foot behind me."

Suddenly there was a commotion at a gaming table behind them. A bearded miner stood up and threw his cards down.

"You're cheating me, you son of a bitch. I want my money back."

The gambler stood up, revealing that he was carrying a Smith and Wesson revolver.

"I didn't cheat you, you're just a bad card player. You should go cool off."

"I'll cool you off!" Yelled the miner, going for his gun.

Alas, the gambler was quicker and fired one shot. The miner fell to the floor.

"He drew on me." Cried the gambler. "That was self defense." The people at the table all agreed as two bartenders dragged the miner off.

"Don't worry." Big Nose Kate said. "The "dead" miner will be back in fifteen minutes as a cowboy or something."

"I wish things worked like that in my job. I'm a cop back in New York. A homicide detective."

"So, Doc tells everyone." Big Nose Kate looked over towards Doc. "I wonder about Doc sometimes. He's never out of character. Sometimes I almost think he really does believe he's Doc Holliday."

Kate thought quickly. "It's probably like when you're undercover as a cop. You can't be a cop pretending to be Elena Markov, you have to be Elena Markov, even if no one is around you."

Big Nose Kate nodded. "I was a little worried at first. I mean, Big Nose Kate was a prostitute, after all. I was worried that Doc would want…you know, sex. But he's always been a perfect gentleman towards me and all the other girls. Sometimes I wish he'd do something. He's really a great guy."

Kate lowered her voice. "For the longest time I was terrified that I loved Rick more than he loved me and that one day he'd be gone and I'd be left heartbroken. Then one day I decided that not being with him was breaking my heart anyway, so I made the first move. Now I'm his wife and I know we'll always be together."

Big Nose Kate nodded. "Maybe I'll try that."

Doc stood up from the table. "Now I have to go see my friends. But I'll be back to tell you all how I didn't shoot Johnny Ringo." Doc motioned to Rick and Kate to follow him to the office.

Sitting behind the desk was Simon Doyle.

"Rick, Kate. Would you like to see the books on Doc's Saloon?"

Rock shook his head. "Not necessary. The accountants back in New York tell me we're making money. However, I'm not too sure how you got to open a casino here."

"It's a Native American casino, Chiricahua Apache casino actually. We, er, found an addenda to a treaty made in 1875, giving this land to the tribe." Doyle sounded a bit embarrassed.

"You "found" the addenda?" Kate said suspiciously.

"Let us not look a gift horse in the mouth, Mrs. Castle." Doc said softly.

"When the local authorities found that we had a wealthy investor from New York interested, everyone loved the idea. We've upgraded the local airport, gotten the saloon and casino built and have one hotel tower up. We've made money from day one. And Doc loves it here."

Doc nodded. "With my lungs healed, I feel I'm back in my prime. I'm in my prime."

"Doc does watch Val Kilmer as him a lot." Doyle said.

There was a knock on the door and Big Nose Kate stuck her head in.

"Doc, it's time for your gunfight."

"Excellent. Will you join me, my love? And Curly Kate and the Dude as well?"

Once Doc explained what was expected of them, they agreed.

Ten minutes later they stepped out onto the shooting range. Behind then, in tiered seats and behind bullet proof glass, were several hundred spectators. The voice of a public address announcer boomed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Doc Holliday shootout. Joining Doc today will be Curly Kate Beckett, a New York Police Department detective, best known as the inspiration for the famous Nikki Heat."

There was applause and cheering for Kate.

"Next to Curly Kate is her husband and world-famous novelist, Richard "Dude" Castle."

Castle also got applause and cheers.

"And lastly, we have Big Nose Kate herself, Doc Holliday's lady love."

Big Nose Kate was obviously popular as she got more applause and cheers than anyone.

"Now, let me explain how the gunfight works." The announcer said. 'Our gunslingers' guns are loaded with frangible ammunition. Now those are bullets made of compressed copper powder that will crumble to bits and pieces when it hits something. Now they can still hurt you, folks, so don't try this at home."

"Now naturally, our pistoleros aren't going to shoot at each other. They'll be firing at special man-sized metal targets some twenty feet from them. When the targets are hit, they record the time of the hit and the location, so we can tell who won. Just to make it interesting, we place life sized photographs of the West's most feared gunslingers on the targets. As always, the winner, if it's other than Doc, will get one thousand dollars, cash money, coin of the realm. In the event of a tie with Doc, the other gunfighter wins and in the case of a tie between two, or more, shooters other than Doc, the money is split evenly."

"Now, let's see who our heroes are facing today."

Doc's target popped up.

"Doc Holiday will be facing Johnny Ringo today folks."

The audience booed Ringo.

The target in front of Kate popped up.

"Curly Kate will be facing Curly Bill Brocius."

Curly Bill was roundly booed.

"Dude Castle will be facing Ike Clanton."

Once again, the villain was roundly booed.

"And the lovely Big Nose Kate will face Billy Clanton."

There were cheers for Big Nose Kate and boos for Clanton.

"Now, gunfighters, make sure your weapons are holstered and when you hear me yell draw, you may fire."

The atmosphere became tense as they waited for the word to draw.

"Draw!"

There was a burst of gunfire.

"Well," said he announcer, "let's see who won."

A green light came on over Doc's target. Then another came on over Kate's target.

"There you have it, folks, Curly Kate Beckett has tied Doc Holliday for time and both fired kill shots. Let's see how the others did."

A yellow light went on over Big Nose Kate's target.

"Big Nose Kate drilled Billy Clanton right between the eyes, but was a tenth of a second too slow."

A red light came on over Rick's target.

"Dude Castle was three tenths of a second behind Big Nose Kate, and well, his bullet hit a bit south of a kill shot. However, Ike Clanton won't have much fun with the ladies now."

The audience laughed.

"I'd like to announce that Curly Kate has asked that her winnings be sent directly to the Johanna Beckett Scholarship Fund. Doc has advised me that he'll match that amount."

The audience applauded.

Just before sundown, Rick and Kate were relaxing in the owner's suite on the top floor of the hotel. Neither was dressed for dinner yet, Kate's red silk dress was on their bed, and Rick's tux was on a hanger.

Kate, dressed in just a bra and panties, came over to stand by Rick, who wore only boxers.

"This must have been what Arizona looked like in 1881." Rick said, staring out the window. "You can almost see the prospectors, the Apaches, the soldiers and the cowboys out there."

Kate took a sip of her drink. "However, no one ever looked at them from twenty stories up, through a plate glass window, in air-conditioned comfort while sipping champagne."

"And there's my wife bringing me back to reality again." He pulled her close and kissed her forehead.

"I tried to get Doyle to give me some spoilers about how our lives would be, but all he'd say was that we'd never see him and some famous gunfighter again."

"So, we'll have long, happy lives?" Kate asked.

"Always, Kate."

She kissed him. "Always, Rick."

Author's note: Next up I'll be working on a sequel to Into Africa. I sure hope I can make it interesting. I mean, what would possibly go wrong on an archeological dig in North Carolina?