thoughtformed | Castle meets Stormfan1117

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Castle meets Stormfan1117

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.

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Kate had been wandering around town, looking for interesting things to do and see. For the most part, she was desperately trying to take her mind off of what was going on - she'd never been kidnapped before, and she hadn't ever heard of a kidnapping that went anything like this.

She missed her parents already. And she wondered how long it would take them to find her.

The bookstore looked fun and cozy, and there was nothing that took Kate's mind off of her own troubles than losing herself in a good book. So she opened the door and slipped in, pausing a moment when she saw the man behind the counter.

She paused a moment, giving him a warm, friendly smile. She hadn't noticed him on the network yet, but she hoped he was one of "fictionals" Sheska had warned her about.

Castle heard the door open and gave the young woman a similarly warm smile in return, intending to return to his book right away, but he had to pause. Something about her seemed very familiar, but he couldn't quite place what.

"Need help finding anything, or do you just want to poke around?"

There wasn't anything familiar about him to Kate, but he had kind eyes. He was probably old enough to be her father, and that thought just served to remind her of her father and it made her a little sad. Her smile dropped a little.

"I'm just bored. This place is really cool, I guess, but I'm not really jivving with the 'being here against our will' thing yet." She glanced around at the shelves, pursing her lips. "Actually, do you have any comic books?"

"Ahh, believe me, none of us really do." With a small grunt- he really needed to work out more instead of just sitting here- Castle got up and led her over to the comics section. "Help yourself. We've got quite a diverse selection- enough to keep you interested for a while."

He really wished he could place why the girl was so familiar to him, but he was sure it would come to him eventually.

Kate followed obediently, pleased now that he not only had something available that she would be interested in, but that he didn't tease her for her interest.

She took a look - a lot of it was stuff she didn't have back home, so that was a good start. She wasn't sure how Sheska would feel about her spending money on comic books, though, so she might need to settle on more of the "legitimate" variety. No doubt he had some mysteries in this place, somewhere.

"Is this all yours? The bookstore, I mean?"

"Nah, I'm just a clerk here," Castle replied. "I'm a writer, but, well, lack of a publishing house and agents and all that fun stuff means I don't do much writing, so it seemed like a natural extension."

He wasn't going to mention his writer's block. No need to, after all, to a stranger.

"Oh," Kate said. She always loved reading but she never really understood writers. Her brain wasn't really wired that way, she guessed. Not to say she wasn't good at the usual school essay or analytical paper; but when it came to creative thinking, she preferred to leave that to the professionals.

"That's kinda too bad that you can't get anything published here. But you could still write, you know. Unless you're one of those people that just does it for the money." She paused a minute, almost horrified at herself for saying something like that to a total stranger. She backpedaled, trying to make up for it so he didn't kick her out of the store. "Um, have you written anything I might have read?"

If Castle had to be honest with himself, the money (and attention) were at least part of the reasons he'd started out writing, so her remark went totally over his head. He'd grown out of it to some extent, but he was who he was, and being famous was something he had relished for quite a long time.

"I write because... well, money is one reason, but more than that, I've always had this deep need to entertain people with the written word. I used to get in trouble in elementary school for my overactive imagination on my assignments." And tendency to write a lot when he should have been doing other things, but that was neither here nor there. "I write mysteries. Ever hear of the Derrick Storm books?"

He honestly wasn't expecting her to know him, of course- he'd long gotten used to the disappointment.

Kate looked at the comic books, only halfway listening to him whittle away about his creative plight and trying not to roll her eyes too obviously. She figured he was probably just another boring, wannabe novelist.

At least, until he dropped the name "Derrick Storm" and her mouth dropped almost to the floor.

"Shut the front door!" She spun around, gaping at him. "You're Richard Castle?"

And with that, Castle froze, and it suddenly hit his brain who this girl was- the familiarity in her looks, her phrasing, her voice.

Kate. Oh, GOD.

However, after a momentary look of shock, he returned to his usual friendly demeanor.

"The one and only. ... I haven't met anybody here who's known who I am yet."

Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God. Not just any fan, but a teenage version of Beckett. His partner, his best friend, his... whatever she was to him.

Right now, all Richard Castle was to Kate Beckett was her favorite author. She was trying to regain her composure though, clasping her hands behind her back and trying to reign back her grin. She felt a little nervous, and she stared at him with wide-eyes, examining him. He was a lot older than she had thought he looked on his book covers, but just as cute.

"Sorry, I'm a... Uh, I really like your books. I've read a lot of them, well, all of them. My mom got me the first one because she really liked it and..." She blushed and shot out her hand to offer to shake his, smiling. "My name's Katie."

Castle took the offered hand and shook it, still feeling a little dazed inwardly. Fannish admiration was nothing new to him, of course, but, well... this was different.

"I'm glad to meet you, then. I especially love hearing when my fans share my stuff with their families... makes me feel like I've done something right."

This is way too surreal.

Kate felt like it was surreal too, but for completely different reasons. She was doing her best to not absolutely fall over and die - after all, it was Richard Castle; not exactly like meeting, say, Stan Lee, but pretty darn close for her quickly beating teenage heart.

She'd always been a fan of pulp mystery, and Richard Castle had certainly beat out James Patterson ages ago for her absolute favorite. Crime novels weren't exactly as much of a guilty pleasure as her comic books, but they were up there, and she would have never thought she'd meet him face to face without standing in a really long line to get a book signed.

Which is something, of course, she would do in a few years time and never, ever tell him about.

"My mom's a lawyer and she really loves your books. I mean, I like them a lot too and... Wow, I sound like a total raving lunatic right now." She clasped her hands together and took a deep breath. "No offense, but what are you even doing here? I mean, my parents will notice I'm missing pretty soon but you're a famous author. Wouldn't people totally freak out if you just... disappeared?"

"You're fine, honey. I've had much weirder people approach me, believe me, and, well, it's normal to be a little star struck."

Weirder people. Yeah. Like, oh, say, the serial killer who was inspired by me to "write what he knew" and start killing people to inspire his manuscripts. I don't think much will top that.

Castle bit his lip at her question and tried not to look too worried, shrugging.

"Yeah, I'm sure people have noticed by now- but I didn't exactly have a choice in coming here, either. I think about home and my family a lot, but I've told myself to just not dwell on it. You know, trust in the fact that I'll eventually be able to get back to them, and in the meantime, that they'll be able to take care of themselves."

"I'm not star struck," Katie lied. She averted her eyes from him then, straightening her shoulders so she looked taller and shrugged as if he was just some guy who worked at a bookstore and not her favorite author in the known universe.

"I just think it's kind of wacky. I mean, who do these people think they are, kidnapping us like this? It's sick." She sighed and crossed her arms, now more distracted by their predicament than his fame now. "I bet your family misses you a lot. My parents are probably totally freaking out."

"Of course," he said, letting her act like she was totally nonplussed around him. But then he became more sober at the mention of his family. "I'm sure we're both missed, yeah. We both have people who care a lot about us. Maybe if we're lucky, this won't last much longer and we can go back to them."

Hearing Kate talk about her mother in the present tense made Castle's heart hurt a little- but, well, who was he to tell her what her own future held?

Kate was definitely fine with having no idea what her future held. If she had known everything she loved would be gone in three short years - her mom, most of her dad's sanity, the happy life that she had spent so long taken for granted - it would have made her current situation all that much worse to deal with.

And if she'd known she was fated to spend twelve years of her life a slave to her mother's fate, she might not have wanted to go back home at all.

But even without all of that hanging over her head, Richard Castle still put her at a strange kind of ease. The nagging feeling that she knew him was started to actualize, but she shrugged it off to her fangirl ways and her love for his books. She knew that reading enough articles could give someone a very false sense of familiarity, and she still didn't want to let on that she was as much of a fan as she really was.

"How long have you been stuck in this place?"

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."

Edited 2012-09-10 01:16 (UTC)

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

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."

"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."

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."

"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."

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Castle meets Stormfan1117

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