Castle meets Stormfan1117

[thebestseller]

Who: Castle, his usual ruggedly-handsome self thebestseller and a teenage Kate Beckett stormfan1117
What: A suddenly teenage Kate Beckett meets the object of her fannish affections. Castle is a little lost.
When: August 19th
Warnings: Fangirling.

Another day, another random event, and another dollar. It sounded like very few of the island's residents had remained unaffected by this curse, and Castle was one of them. He couldn't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing yet- because sometimes he wanted to recapture that reckless feeling of youth, and the younger body that went with it. He was a little concerned that he hadn't yet heard from Kate, half wondering if she, too, had become a child and he simply did not recognize her.

However, either way, work needed to be done, and so there he was, at his usual perch at the bookstore's counter, his feet propped up on it.

Comments

[thebestseller]

Castle was rather happy to steer the conversation away from her life; he wasn't sure how long she was going to stay a teenager and what, if any, affect on her future that knowing it would cause.

"Gosh... more than eight months now," he replied, thinking. "I was the New Year Baby, in fact- arrived here on January 1st of this year. No cake or fanfare or anything, but I still arrived fresh on the first of the year."

[stormfan1117]

Kate didn't look happy at that response. She was expecting a few weeks, maybe - at the worst, a couple months. But eight?

"Great. That's just awesome." She walked away from the stacks then, less occupied with finding something to read. Maybe she'd buy a few comic books before she left so she could go back to the apartment and drown her despair in super heroes. "I can't do this. I have school. If I miss a year, Stanford's never gonna take me and then what am I supposed to do? Not to mention how much this stupid place is going to cost my parents in therapy bills."

[thebestseller]

Castle felt a sudden stab of pain in his heart at the mention of that- and suddenly, for a few moments, Kate was gone, replaced by Alexis, standing and lamenting about school and her grades- knowing where her priorities were.

And that made him feel a sudden, deep, aching longing to see her.

Then the image was gone and Kate was there once again.

"... If it makes you feel any better, people have left here and come back not remembering anything about this place. I like to think that it means that when we're taken, wherever we came from is frozen in time, til... til we can make it back."

[stormfan1117]

Kate was having that same longing, but it was for her parents. The last couple of months had been hard - she was a teenager, and they didn't like the boy she was dating or his motorcycle. Her dad was just praying for the day they broke up and her mom could say "I told you so." Sometimes Kate couldn't stand her mom, but right now, her's was the face Kate wanted to see more than anything in the world.

But the words were a little comforting, even if they didn't make sense. On the one hand, at least her parents weren't worried if Richard was right. On the other...

"But that means no one knows we're gone. No one's looking for us." She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. "I guess that means it's all on us to figure out a way out of here, Writer-Boy."

[thebestseller]

Castle had to grin at that- because there was the Kate he knew. She had to have been worried, but even at this age, she was able to put aside her own emotions and problems and see the bigger picture.

"Being all pro-active and right on the case. That kind of attitude will serve you well," he observed. "Not that you were looking for sage advice from an old man, I'm sure."

[stormfan1117]

She was worried. She was definitely worried, but freaking out and crying in a corner - which she was very tempted to do - was not going to help anything. Kate was mature enough to accept she wasn't in any immediate peril, and if Richard had been here eight months and seemed, more or less, still whole, that wasn't something she was too concerned about.

"You're not that old," she told him, grinning. "You're like, my dad's age. That's not bad. And he is perfectly happy trying to give me sage advice all of the time."

[thebestseller]

Castle chuckled.

"Point taken. Still, I'm probably not as good at it as he is..." He paused, thinking he should tread a little carefully so as not to accidentally reveal that he was from her future. If Kate was just a teenager, this meant that at her age, Alexis had only been an infant, if had even been born then. "My daughter's too young for that sort of thing."

[stormfan1117]

"My dad's a pretty smart guy." Kate nodded, frowning. She hadn't thought about that - at least she was a teenager and pretty capable of taking care of herself. She couldn't imagine being dragged away from away from a baby, especially for how long he'd been away. Her heart went out to him, then. Famous writer or not, they were still stuck here, away from everyone who had ever mattered to them.

"And you have a wife, too, right? I bet you miss her." She paused for a moment, blushing again. "I, uh, read your bio in your last book."

[thebestseller]

Castle laughed a little at that. He and Meredith had, of course, long since divorced- but again, that obviously hadn't happened in her time yet.

"I don't mind people knowing about my life or else I wouldn't let them write those little blurbs- but yes, I do. My mother's still around, too. That helps me not worry too much about how my family's doing, even if I do think about them a lot."

[stormfan1117]

"Oh, if you mom is anything like mine, you probably don't have to worry about anything," Kate informed him. Johanna was probably already on the warpath to get Kate back anyway; at least, if Richard was wrong about time standing still while they were gone.

"So, Mr. Castle... Why are you running a bookstore here, anyway? Shouldn't you be writing about all kinds of adventures or opening a publishing house or something? I mean, you could probably corner the market."