Richard Castle, Watcher (Castle/Buffy) (Complete)

[Starfox5]

New York, November 2009

Both women glared at him, and he winced. "Too soon?"

Kate rolled her eyes and stepped inside, pulling on latex gloves while she carefully navigated the various stains on the concrete floor.

Rick and Vi followed her. "He skinned them," the Slayer said, pointing at a bloody frame from which straps of fur hung.

"Is there a market for wolf pelts?" Rick wondered. And if it was, would it be profitable? The whole set-up looked rather small-scale. He peered at a few cans with chemicals. "Did he cure the pelts too? Quite the entrepreneur, I think." Something didn't add up, though.

"Bottles of what looks like blood," Kate said, pointing at a shelf. "And dried meat."

"More meat," Vi said, after opening a large fridge.

"And bones here. It looks like he was a very wholesome butcher - no part went to waste;" Castle said. When no one laughed, he muttered "Though crowd."

"Ew…"

He looked up and saw Vi standing in the frame of a door at the back. Rick walked over to her and peered inside. "A sewing machine… 'Silence of the Lambs', anyone? Or would that be 'Silence of the Wolves'?"

"Castle, making clothes out of fur is not a sign of a serial killer. People have been doing that for thousands of years," Kate said, joining Rick and Vi.

"Not a serial killer… but a furry!" Rick nodded at the most prominent template pinned to the wall. "That's a fur suit!"

"That's not illegal either." Kate was shaking her head.

"It should be," Rick muttered under his breath. Then he blinked. "There's a book under those templates! And it doesn't look like a sewing book."

Kate walked over and brushed the papers on top of the book away. "'Skin-Walkers'," she quoted the title. "Those didn't appear in any of your books, Rick." She looked the book over. "And unless grimoires have started to be published with ISBNs, that's not a magic book either, isn't it?"

"Willow would have dealt with anyone trying to publish books covering real magic," Rick said. The last thing the world needed were more people dabbling in magic without a responsible teacher. "Not that there would be any books about real skin-walkers; the Navajo do not share any information about them with outsiders, and they certainly wouldn't write in English."

"This doesn't smell like magic either," Vi added, her gesture encompassing the whole basement.

"There's no ties to demons then," Kate said. "I'll call it in."

"Maybe there was a furry convention in New York, and Miller was killed by militant vegan furries after they realised that his suit was made from real fur?" Rick rubbed his chin.

"Is there even such a thing as militant vegan furries?"

"Well… wouldn't it make sense for plant-eating furries to be hostile towards carnivorous furries?" Rick held up his hands when he noticed the stares. "I'm no expert on furries. And I don't want to be."

"Too freaky for you, Castle?" Kate asked.

"No. But some of them look far too much like some demons, at night, without good lighting."

"Castle?"

"I didn't kill anyone… but a few might have been accidentally singed, a bit. By someone else. Hypothetically." Rick smiled widely.

Kate kept frowning at him, though.

*****​

"So, Mister Bancroft. Would you care to explain what exactly you were doing in Mister Miller's house?"

Sitting next to her in the interrogation room, Rick glanced at Kate when leaned over the desk between her and Bancroft. She was a sight when she was all focused like this. Impressive. And intimidating - for the suspects. Bancroft would crack soon.

"I told you - I wanted to save the puppies he had locked up in the basement."

"And you broke into his house for that."

"I had to!"

"And how did you know about those puppies? His neighbours had no idea that he had been keeping such pets."

The young man hesitated. "Ah…"

"You are currently studying biology in college."

"Yes?"

"Wildlife Biology, to be exact. And you spent one month helping out at a preserve - working with wolves." Kate stared straight into the kid's eyes. "You're almost an expert on wolves."

"Almost? I'm top of the class!" Bancroft said with an indignant tone.

"Were top of the class - until you took a sabbatical," Kate said, sitting down again.

"Dropped out, in other words," Castle added. "And not even for a good reason, like having painted the deacon's car pink." Mother had been amused even if she denied it, he was certain.

The kid glared at him, but pressed his lips together.

"We also found a stack of bills in your home." Kate dropped the bundle on the desk. "You're in financial troubles, aren't you?"

"I have a temporary cash flow problem."

"Which you wanted to solve by working part-time. You applied at several preserves, without success," Castle said. "Not enough experience."

"But," Kate continued, "there was an offer from a man in need of an expert on raising wolf pups. Quite a generous one, too."

Bancroft stared at her. Castle hoped the man would say that they couldn't prove this - that would make the scene perfect.

"So, you accept, and begin your descent into the dark shadows of the puppy mill world," Rick said in the same tone he used to read scary stories to Alexis. "Driven to crime by your debts and desire to work with wolves."

"No! I didn't know that the man had acquired the pups illegally!" Bancroft fell silent, realising too late what he had just admitted.

"And when did you realise that Mister Miller had not legally acquired those wolves?"

The man hesitated. Rick would have prodded him again, but Kate simply waited. She was right - Bancroft started to talk. "He kept saying that the permit for the pen in his backyard would soon arrive, that the basement was just a temporary solution.... I believed him, he was very convincing."

"And he paid you well," Rick cut in.

Bancroft looked down on the floor - Rick had been on the mark! "After a month, I started to question him. The puppies needed space. I wanted to get them to a preserve, until the pen was ready. That's when he fired me."

"Why didn't you inform the authorities?" Kate asked.

The boy took another deep breath. He wasn't looking at Kate or Rick. "I had… faked some documentation. And he knew it."

"A college degree?"

The kid nodded. "I needed the work, and I have the knowledge and training, but without a degree, no one would be hiring me, so I thought…"

Castle nodded. A classic tale. So classic, indeed, that he'd have to twist it some, to be able to use it, or his editor would complain. Maybe add some romance… expelled after a steamy affair with a professor, and blacklisted by the jealous husband of his paramour… no, people would think it was autobiographical.

"But if you broke in to save the animals, why didn't you leave when you discovered that the pens in the basement were empty?" Kate made a few notes on her pad.

"I saw the… remains, and I searched his house to find the names of his buyers."

"His buyers?"

"He must have sold the meat and fur - there wasn't enough in the house."

"Unless he was a very big eater," Castle added as they got up. The kid looked green in the face at that, as planned.

*****​

It was already late when they returned to Kate's desk, where Vi was sitting. On Kate's chair, Rick noticed.

Kate glared at her, and the Slayer got up - slowly. And then she stretched. Provocatively. Rick glanced around, but he couldn't spot Ryan or Esposito. A uniform was staring at Vi's chest as if the man had never seen a young woman in a tight top before. Castle shook his head.

"Where are Ryan and Esposito?" Kate asked while she adjusted her chair.

"Ryan was called home by his girlfriend, and Esposito went to Lanie's office to check on the results of her tests. Half an hour ago."

Rick coughed, and she glared at him, as if it was his fault that the two detectives had not enthusiastically joined the demon hunting. Granted, he had jumped at the chance to finally share some of his more impressive hunting stories when he had shot the breeze with the two detective, but he hadn't even mentioned Sunnydale. Not by name at least. Not everyone was cut out for that, anyway. Vi shouldn't be taking it personally, but of course, she was. Not that he was commenting on that - he knew better.

Instead, he said: "Well, we could go home as well. There's a few bookshops I'd like to check."

"You think Miller tried to get the real deal." Kate was closing windows on her computer.

"Yes. And I doubt that he would accept that there were no books by the Navajo, so some of the vendors might remember him."

"First wolf blood and shit, and now moldy books with a touch of evil… my poor nose." Vi pouted.

"You could use plugs if it's too much for you," Kate said. She sounded almost sincere.

"It's nothing," his Slayer said, quickly.

"Of course." Kate nodded.

Rick had the impression that this would be a rather tiring drive.

*****​

 

[steamrick]

Rick had the impression that this would be a rather tiring drive.

Click to shrink...

are we there yet?

 

[Starfox5]

New York, November 2009

"We should get paid overtime for this," Vi said, passing the car in front of them with a very illegal manoeuvre in the middle of a crossing.

"We don't get paid for this at all," Rick Castle said. "We're private consultants, as far as the police are concerned."

"Everyone knows that consultants get paid!" his Slayer insisted.

"Actually, officially you're not consultants. You're just private citizens tagging along for PR reasons," Kate remarked from the backseat.

"We have helped solve quite a few cases, though," Castle said. "I like to think that this is at least unofficially appreciated."

"Almost as much as your doughnut and coffee bribes," Kate answered.

"We do their work for them, and we feed them..." Vi sighed. "I feel like we've adopted the NYPD."

"Says the girl who eats more of those doughnuts than the rest of the precinct combined." Kate was shaking her head; Rick knew that without having to glance over his shoulder. "I guess that makes you Castle's adopted daughter."

Rick saw Vi frown at hearing that.

"That would mean you're the stepmother, right?" the Slayer said, and Castle heard the unsaid 'evil' clearly.

Castle changed the topic before things could escalate, the best way he could think of: "Where do you want to stop to eat on the way?"

Of course, Vi's enthusiastic response triggered a remark about gluttony from Kate. Rick couldn't win.

*****​

"Skin-Walkers?" The old woman, 'Ms. Brooks', as the owner of the 'New Dawn' shop had introduced herself, pushed her tiny glasses up with one finger. "We're a respectable shop; we don't sell books about such topics." She raised her chin. "We respect the beliefs of our Native American brothers and sisters."

Rick thought the curses some shamans could cast upon those who defiled their rites were a good reason to respect the Navajos' faith, but commenting on that would have been counterproductive.

"Have you seen this man?" Kate showed the woman a picture of Miller.

Brooks peered at it, then pulled her glasses off and squinted. "Oh… him. Yes. A rather rude young man. He said he wanted to reconnect with his Native American ancestry, but if he had one drop of Native American blood in his veins, it'd have to be the result of a transfusion." She shook her head. "I sent him on his way."

"When was that?" Kate was remarkably professional, Rick noticed, while Vi was strolling through the shop and poking at the various trinkets on sale. Hopefully, she'd not break anything and claim it had been an evil item.

"Oh… six months or so ago." The woman frowned. "I told him there were no respectable books on that topic, but he didn't listen! He was as bad as that werewolf hunter asking around."

"Werewolves?" Kate's question was aimed as much at Brooks as it was at Castle, he realised.

"There haven't been any troubles with werewolves in New York in years," Rick said. "Why would a hunter visit?"

"And without asking for permission!" Vi growled. "Didn't Buffy teach Cain that that you don't hunt in a Slayer's territory?" The sound of breaking wood interrupted her next words, and she stared at the wrecked dream catcher in her hands.

"You broke it, you bought it," Brooks said firmly.

"More like, she broke it, I bought it," Castle muttered.

Vi pouted while Kate tried not to laugh.

*****​

"I have to grant our victim this," Rick said a few hours and shops later, when they were walking back to his Shelby, "he certainly was persistent. He visited every shop catering to the magically-minded in New York."

"And he made such an ass out of himself, that everyone remembered him," Vi added.

"And he had no success," Kate said. "And seeing as he has not shown much concern for the law when he started raising wolves, what are the odds that he tried to gain his information illegally?"

"From the Navajos?" Rick shook his head. "Slim to none. Their shamans would have… dealt with him, should he acted like he did in those shops. And not in the 'making a deal' meaning of the word."

"Maybe there's a record of an altercation at the reservation," Kate said. "I'll have Esposito and Ryan look into it."

"Oh… if there's a casino around, they'll have a fun time sifting through all those reports," Rick said.

"Serves them right!" Vi scoffed.

"Just because they do not return your feelings is no reason to be angry at them," Kate said.

"What feelings?" Vi snarled.

"Wounded pride?" Rick ventured. He ignored Vi's glare. She certainly hadn't been serious about either of the two detectives. He cleared his throat. "In any case, we'll have to look into the werewolf hunter rumour. Miller was killed with a silver bullet."

"But Miller was no werewolf," Kate pointed out.

"A hunter might not have known that," Rick said.

"Poachers in my territory! Damn kill stealers!" Vi growled again.

"Vi, Miller was no demon; you wouldn't have killed him." Or so Rick hoped.

"It's the principle of the thing!"

"Many animals are territorial," Kate said, nodding. Which earned her a glare from Vi.

"In any case," Castle said, "we'll have to find out if any of the known hunters are in New York."

"There are known werewolf hunters?" Kate raised her eyebrows.

"Known in the right circles, yes. There's a thriving black market for werewolf pelts in Sri Lanka - don't ask me why." Rick chuckled. "But there aren't that many." It was a high-risk profession. Almost as dangerous as being a Watcher, Rick thought. "We'll get you names to run through the system."

"I'll have to make up an anonymous tip again, so the D.A. won't know that we're following a demon hunter's knowledge?" Kate sounded more resigned than annoyed.

"Well… it works?" Castle smiled at her.

Now she seemed annoyed. He wondered why.

"Do you really think it's possible that a hunter mistook Miller for a werewolf?"

"If he had been wearing a fur suit, and acting like a wolf…" Richard Castle paused while he opened the door to his car for her, "I can definitely see such a thing happening."

"Those amateurs don't have Slayer senses, so they'd not be able to tell a furry from a furball!" Vi said, sliding into the driver's seat with her usual grace.

"It's not impossible to hunt demons without supernatural help," Rick said. "Nikki Heat certainly will manage just fine using her brain and guts."

Vi snorted. "She'll have to get bailed out by the Vampire Hunter main character often enough."

"I rather think that Nikki Heat will have to bail out the short-sighted, impulsive Vampire Hunter from trouble," Kate remarked, "until she learns that not all problems can be solved with violence. Which shouldn't take her more than, say, a dozen books to learn."

While the two women had their proxy war in the car, Castle was very tempted to ask if they were forming 'Team Nikki' and "'Team Vicky', as he had decided to call the Vampire Hunter in his next book. He didn't, of course - they'd gang up on him at once. At least, he told himself, Kate seemed to have warmed up to her alter ego starring in one of his novels.

Although that could just be because Vi was needling her about it. Sometimes, Kate was as competitive as a Slayer.

*****​

"The lab sent their results," Esposito announced the next morning as soon as they arrived at the bullpen. "Five months ago, there was a break-in at the Wolf Mountain Nature Center in Chenango County in upstate New York. Several of the animals escaped, and while most of them were recaptured, a few pups were never found. The hair found on Miller matches that pack, or so the tests claim."

"Wow, that was quick. I guess everyone loves puppies, even the forensic labs," Rick said. "I bet the FBI would love to make pupnapping a federal crime. Their funding would double."

Ryan chuckled, but Kate was rolling her eyes. Even though that hadn't been a dig against the Fed Ex. Well, mostly not. "Tough crowd," he muttered.

"While it's nice to know where his wolves came from, I doubt he was murdered in retaliation for stealing puppies," Kate said.

"You never know… maybe the Great Wolf Spirit possessed a man to avenge this slight against his children…" Rick trailed off when he saw everyone but Vi staring at him. "I'm joking!"

There were drawbacks to having more people know the truth, he thought.

"We found out that there are werewolf hunters in New York. One of them could have killed Miller. I've received an anonymous tip with a few names," Kate said.

Esposito and Ryan turned to stare at Castle at once. They were even worse at keeping a secret than Buffy! He glared at them until they cringed and turned away. At least some people reacted to his glares as they should!

After picking the jelly-filled doughnuts from the box in the break room, Castle joined Kate at her desk.

"You were right, Castle," she said. "Here's a report about a man who was stopped because he was carrying a rifle on his back. He had a hunting license, and told the uniforms checking him that he was carrying it to a gunsmith."

"Who is it?"

"Gib Cain."

*****​

 

[steamrick]

"Gib Cain."

Click to shrink...

You write that like I'm supposed to recognize it...

*uses google*

Oh, okay. I am supposed to recognize him. Fair enough.

 

[Tranquil Zebra]

You write that like I'm supposed to recognize it...

*uses google*

Oh, okay. I am supposed to recognize him. Fair enough.

Click to shrink...

Vi refers to Cain as a werewolf hunter earlier in the chapter as well.

I wonder if they'll actually just put Cain in prison this time, though. He killed a man without supernatural dealings, by completely mundane means, and a silver bullet points to a serial killer or an insane person, both of which will seem to fit him if he tells the police about his hunts.

 

[Starfox5]

New York, November 2009

They found Gib Cain in the hotel he had given as an address to the police. That might mean that the hunter was not involved in the murder, Richard Castle thought, or he would have made a runner. He was in the lobby, reading a newspaper.

"Mister Cain? NYPD," Kate said, showing her badge.

The man looked up from his newspaper - the National Enquirer, Castle noted - and scowled. "Is this about my rifle again? I showed you my license!" He was about fifty years old, but looked older - or more weathered, Rick thought. If Cain had been a sailor, 'crusty' would be a good attribute for a character patterned after him.

"You did, which is why we're here. Where were you in between Monday 11 pm and Tuesday 2 am?" Kate asked while Rick snuck a peek at the article Cain had been reading. Bigfoot sightings? There were a number of demons behind that myth, but Castle hadn't heard of any recent trouble with them.

"During the night of the full moon?" Cain's scowl deepened. "I was drinking with a few acquaintances, and then I went to bed. The concierge saw me return. What's this about?"

"A man was found shot to death with a silver bullet," Castle said. "Sound familiar?"

"My rifle was with my gunsmith, locked up. You can ask him."

"We will," Kate said.

"But as a big bad werewolf hunter, you'll have a backup piece." Rick smiled. "Just in case your rifle gets damaged… or bent."

The hunter's eyes widened, and he glanced from Castle to Vi and back. "Slayer," he hissed.

"Right on the mark," Vi said, widely grinning. "And you're poaching in my territory!"

"I'm not hunting in any Slayer's territory!" Cain spat out. "Even though there are far too many of you around these days. Used to be, there was one of you, on the Hellmouth, and the rest of the world offered plenty of game! Nowadays it's worse than trying to hunt big game in Africa!"

"Without us, you'd be demon chow!" Vi hissed.

Rick stepped between the two. "Now, now… we know you've cleaned up your act since your run-in with Buffy - she was just in New York, by the way," he added, and Cain cringed. "But you have to admit that your presence in our fair city, right when a man is shot with a silver bullet, raises some questions."

"Especially since we haven't had any troubles with rabid werewolves!" Vi said, moving to Castle's side to glare at the man.

"Really? I heard differently from the locals. I was given a list of feral werewolves, even!" Cain sneered at them.

Rick exchanged a glance with Vi. That was a first.

"And who gave you this list?" Kate cut in. The man hesitated "You can tell us here, or on the precinct."

"Your choice!" Castle said, smiling brightly.

"Brooks."

Castle exchanged a surprised glance with Kate. "The owner of the 'New Dawn' shop?" he asked, to make certain they were talking about the same person.

"Yes. But I wasn't about to hunt in a Slayer's territory. Not even if they didn't keep it safe for the rest of the humans."

"Do you have that list?" Kate asked while Castle took a step to the side, blocking Vi while she snarled at the hunter.

"Yeah." The man pulled out a rather grimy note, with five names on it.

Martin Miller was the second from the top.

"Don't leave the city," Kate told the hunter before they left.

*****​

"The names on the list don't match up with known werewolves," Castle said, after a quick check on his phone back in the car. Cain had sounded sincere - resentful, but sincere - back then.

"You have a list of known werewolves?" Kate asked. "Of course you do," she added before Castle could confirm it.

"Most of the werewolves are perfectly nice people who lock themselves up in their basement three nights per month," Rick said. "Not any more dangerous than people who practise bondage. Who, I have to add, are not dangerous at all. But every once in a while, someone gets bitten who likes being a werewolf. It makes hunting those down easier if you can quickly check the other werewolves."

"Do they all have a unique scent?" Kate asked. Almost innocently, Rick thought,

"Yes," he said while Vi ground her teeth. He quickly continued before his Slayer could retort. "So… we have a list of names of allegedly dangerous werewolves, given to a known werewolf hunter by a woman 'in the know' about the supernatural. Who then complains to us about a rude hunter asking around. Why does that sound like a set-up?"

"Because it is one? I knew you couldn't trust that woman! She so scammed me with her far too easily breakable shoddy merchandise!" Vi exclaimed.

"Where's the motive, though?" Kate asked. "It's not enough for a case yet. Nor for one of your 'interventions'."

"We'll need to look into Mrs. Brooks again," Rick said. "There has to be a connection. People don't get murdered for being rude when asking about books."

"Librarians might dream about it, though," Vi said. "Giles certainly did."

Castle cleared his throat. This wasn't the time to speculate about Rupert's inclinations. "So, we need investigate Mrs. Brooks. And without using supernatural or illegal means," he added, for Vi's benefit. "This looks like a mostly mundane case, and should be solved through the proper channels."

"Boring and inefficient channels," Vi complained.

"You might be surprised at what modern forensics can achieve," Kate said from the backseat. She sounded quite smug.

*****​

"So? What has CSI: New York found out?" Vi could sound really smug as well, Rick noted.

"That Miller visited Brook's shop the day before he died," Kate answered, dropping grainy traffic cam pictures on her desk. "We found his car, but forensics hasn't found anything in it."

"Isn't that enough for us to interrogate her?" Vi asked.

"It would be - but if she lawyers up, we have nothing to hold her for. We might get a search warrant, but if we do not find anything in her shop…" Kate trailed off with a frown.

"See? That's why it's boring and inefficient!" Vi said. "We should just go in and shake her until she confesses. Poaching in my city…"

"Miller wasn't a demon or werewolf," Rick pointed out.

"It's the principle of the thing!" Vi pouted.

"If only you were that principled when dealing with the law," Kate said.

"I am!" Vi perked up. "I always ignore the law if it gets into the way of slaying!"

Rick sighed. "So, since he was found naked and meant to be mistaken for a werewolf, we can assume someone took his suit."

"Brooks!" Vi said.

"She probably disposed of the suit already," Kate said.

Castle kicked Vi, who was sitting on Kate's desk again, before she could utter a snarky remark. "But she has to have been there, too. And she must have used a car."

"Not hers, though." Kate said, picking up his thought. "Not a cab either, nor a borrowed one or a rental - that would have left witnesses."

Rick nodded. "I don't think she'd risk stealing a car..."

"...which leaves buying a used car just for the occasion," Kate finished.

"A very cheap used car," Vi added. "She's a greedy one!"

*****​

"Bingo!" Esposito said, waving a fax around a few hours later. "A woman matching Brooks's description bought a used car at a dealer in New Jersey - under a fake name. The DMV noticed the discrepancies in the paperwork filed by the dealer. We've got traffic cam footage of the car near the location of the murder, and we're checking if we can find where she ditched the car."

"Foiled by the efficiency of the bureaucracy!" Rick said.

For some reason Vi glared at him.

"Can we go and arrest the poacher now?" his Slayer asked.

"We'll need to find the car first, to nail the case shut," Kate explained. "Be patient."

"I think we'll take a stroll through the usual haunts," Castle said. "Visit a few bars, maybe, while we wait."

"Oh!" Vi perked up - as usual for her when faced with the prospect of violence. Castle wouldn't have minded waiting at the precinct, but Vi was getting a bit too impatient. A patrol would do her good.

"Text us once you have the car?"

"Sure, Castle. Take the girl for a walk."

Castle had to push Vi out of the precinct after that.

*****​

"We found the car, we found blood inside, and we could link it to Brooks through witnesses, and fibres found inside the car that match her clothes," Kate explained during dinner the next day. "She confessed already. Too bad you weren't there at the arrest."

Rick, propping up his sprained ankle on a cushion, couldn't tell if she was truly sympathetic or not. He decided to assume the best. "Thanks."

"What did that?" Kate nodded at his leg.

"He stumbled while dodging a claw swipe from a Polgara Demon," Vi said, sliding on her seat.

"The floor gave way," Castle said.

"Clumsy," Vi whispered to Kate loud enough for Castle to hear.

"And the eye?" Kate asked, pointing at his head.

"Dumb jock hit him while we were saving the idiot from a vampire posing as his girlfriend," Vi said.

It wasn't his best night, Castle thought, but everyone had a day or night off once in a while. He coughed. "So… why did our dear Mrs. Brooks kill Miller?"

"For money."

"She didn't strike me as a hit-woman," Castle said. Although a harmless-looking old woman who worked as a professional assassin would make a great character for a novel!

"Her money. Apparently, Miller had found out that she was dealing with poachers…"

"I knew it!" Vi said gleefully.

"... the normal kind of poachers," Kate clarified, "and blackmailed her into supporting his 'ignorant attempt to become a skin-walker' until she felt that killing him was better than paying him off. So she sold him a lie about a ritual, waited until he was 'sky-clad', and shot him, trying to make it look like a werewolf hunt gone wrong."

"Which, given her greed, was probably five minutes after he started!"

Vi was still carrying a grudge for that broken piece of merchandise, Castle thought.

He smiled. "So… case closed! And we didn't even have to threaten her with telling Cain who tried to frame him for murder!"

Kate was glaring at him.

"What?"

*****​

 

[steamrick]

He smiled. "So… case closed! And we didn't even have to threaten her with telling Cain who tried to frame him for murder!"

Click to shrink...

I think Cain might have put two and two together

 

[Starfox5]

New York, December 2009

"Either there is an Apocalypse looming," Rick Castle said out loud, looking at the display on his desk phone, "or someone's hacked my computer." He had been on the way to the kitchen, for a late breakfast, when he had noticed his phone was blinking.

"Hm?" Alexis asked, less than eloquently, from the door to his office, waving with a paper bag containing fresh croissants and doughnuts.

"Six missed calls, all of them from London," he explained, pointing at the phone.

"Willow did the security on all our computers; no one can hack through her code," Alexis declared, digging into the bag and retrieving a croissant while she walked towards him.

"Unless it was Willow herself who did the hacking." If that could be called hacking - she had full access after all. He reached for the bag, and she dropped it on his desk while looking at the phone herself.

"Why didn't you take the calls?" His daughter frowned. "Wait… they called at five in the morning? That has to be important!"

"If it was important they would have called Vi when I didn't answer," Rick said. "Since she didn't shake me out of my bed, I can only conclude that there is no apocalypse scheduled. Which means that someone has to have hacked my computer."

"How do you come to that conclusion?" Alexis asked, between two bites from her croissant. Unlike him, who was in his pajamas and a dressing gown, she was dressed in street clothes already. Bu she hadn't pulled an all-nighter either.

"Because I sent the finished draft of 'Heat Wave' to my publisher at 4.47 am this morning." In hindsight, Rick thought, he shouldn't have told the Scoobies that in his new series, there would be more than one vampire hunter at a time. They had all taken this to mean that they might appear in the book as well, even if only as a cameo. As if he would do that! Well… maybe in the next book.

"Oh. OH!" Alexis was glaring at him. "You told Gran two days ago that you were stuck on the final scene!"

"I was," he defended himself. "But I had a breakthrough last evening, and I finished the book in one go!" Well, the first draft. The editors would wreak havoc on it - especially on a new series. He'd probably have to rewrite half of it. But a good bestselling author listened to their editors if they wanted to keep being a good bestselling author and to avoid becoming a mediocre bestselling author with a lot of indiscriminating fans.

"And you didn't tell me? Dad!" She was frowning at him, hands on her hips. It would have looked more impressive if she hadn't been chewing hastily on the rest of her croissant a moment before.

"I just woke up!"

"You didn't wake up when Kate left?" She looked at him as if she expected him to lie to her!.

"No." It didn't count when you fell asleep again after five minutes of semi-coherence.

"Well, you're awake now. Send me a copy!"

Claiming that his publisher had sworn him to secrecy wouldn't work - it hadn't worked since Alexis had started to read his contracts five years ago. Rick bought himself some time by picking a doughnut before answering. "It's just the first draft. You know how much a book changes until the final version."

"Yes. Which is why I want to read the first draft, so any urgently needed changes can be implemented early on." Her smile looked disturbingly like Vi's when his Slayer was in a particularly belligerent mood.

"'Urgently needed changes'?"

"Just in case you modeled a character after me." And she showed her teeth. Vi definitely was a bad influence on his daughter - the wrong kind of bad influence, to be exact. Why had he ever thought that the Scoobies would be good for his too-serious daughter?

"I didn't!" He hadn't. Really.

"Not consciously, maybe. But you do remember the Loremaster's daughter in 'Munich Massacre', don't you?"

"That character was just a generic cute kid." That was his story, and he as sticking to it!

"A kid my age, described as 'precocious'. With red hair." She put both her hands on his desk and leaned forward - a very familiar looking pose, he thought, another thing to blame Vi for. "And a stuffed rabbit named 'Mister Bunny'."

"Alright! That time, I may have been influenced - subconsciously - by my absolutely wonderful experiences raising my precious and precocious daughter," he admitted, "but I can assure you that nothing like that happened in this book."

"What did you tell me when it came to boys and their promises, Dad?"

He blinked. He had told her a lot about boys over the years. "Um…"

"'Trust, but verify'. And you certainly count as a boy," she added.

"I don't!" he protested.

She merely glanced at his laser tag gear in response. Damn!

He sighed. "Don't tell anyone that I sent you a copy, though. I don't want to be called out for favoritism." Or was that nepotism when it came to his daughter?

"Favoritism?" Vi peeked inside his office. "Oh, doughnuts!"

Rick managed to pull his hand away before he lost it when his Slayer made a grab for the bag. Four seconds and two unhealthy bakery products later, she blinked. "What was that about not telling anyone?"

He pleaded silently with his daughter to remain silent. They shared a secret as father and daughter. It was a bonding experience.

"Dad finished the first draft of Heat Wave," Alexis said. When Vi gasped and stared at Castle, his daughter used the opportunity to grab another croissant from the bag before leaving him to the tender mercies of his Slayer.

She definitely had inherited that ruthlessness from her mother, Castle thought.

*****​

"You finally managed to get up, Castle?" Kate greeted him when he entered the 12th Precinct.

Her pointed glance to the clock at the wall was a fine touch, Rick thought. Apparently, his girlfriend - and, he hoped, soon-to-be fiancée - hadn't been as understanding of his need to write all night when inspiration had finally hit him as he had thought this morning.

He handed her a cup of coffee - just as she liked it - and sank into his usual chair - he really should replace that one with a more comfortable one, maybe one with a massage function, for those days after a demon hunt left him sore and stiff - and sighed. "I actually got up earlier than it may appear, but my family and friends ganged up on me, and it took me some time to escape from their clutches."

"Speaking of clutches - were is Vi?" Kate looked at the entrance to the bullpen.

"She is staying home today." He had finished his own cup on the drive there already - without Vi at the wheel, the trip took longer than usual - and he needed more coffee. But unless he decided to buy a coffee maker for the precinct right now, he'd have to either drink the brown dishwater in the break room, or go outside. Wasn't there some coffee delivery service?

"Oh? She wasn't hurt, was she?" Kate asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"Huh?" He blinked. "No, no. She's reading."

"Reading?" Kate looked puzzled for less than a second. Then her eyes widened. "You finished your book!"

"The first draft," he corrected her, almost automatically at this point. "Very raw. Very much not a finished work. You'd lose all respect for me as a writer if you read that mess, trust me. Almost a drunken ramble, in parts."

Kate didn't say anything, just stared at him with narrowed eyes. She wasn't buying his excuses. Story of his life. And especially, of this morning.

"I'll mail the draft to you as soon as I get home," he said.

She smiled at him, and he felt his heart lift. What was one more critic, anyway? Feedback was good! Oh, wait. Kate was the model for the main character. And he had taken certain liberties…

Why was here never a case when you needed a distraction?

*****​

Four hours later, he cursed himself for thinking that. He should have known better than to tempt Murphy.

Alexis was missing.

*****​

 

[Tranquil Zebra]

I have to say that I'm ecstatic that this story has updated, and I would shout in joy were it not for the late hour. Well done as usual, I can't wait to read the rest of this new arc!

 

[RoninSword]

The episodes around Alexis' kidnapping were my favorite episodes of the series, or at least in my top 5. Very excited to see you do a version on it. I think.

 

[macdjord]

Yaaaaa~aaaaaay, it's back!

 

[Starfox5]

The episodes around Alexis' kidnapping were my favorite episodes of the series, or at least in my top 5. Very excited to see you do a version on it. I think.

Click to shrink...

Indeed. Although the plot will not follow the canon plot too closely - having Willow on your contact list, and the rest of the Scoobies, means a lot of the searching parts will be skipped.

Yaaaaa~aaaaaay, it's back!

Click to shrink...

And this time it should stay back until finished.

 

[steamrick]

I'm very happy to see this updating again

 

[Prince Charon]

Indeed. Although the plot will not follow the canon plot too closely - having Willow on your contact list, and the rest of the Scoobies, means a lot of the searching parts will be skipped.

Click to shrink...

Likewise, Alexis is smart and nice, likely makes friends easily, and has met a lot of Slayers and Watchers; if they need more muscle, the only way they won't get it is if none can be spared.

 

[Starfox5]

New York, December 2009

On the TV on the bullpen, a pillar of smoke was rising into the Sky above New York. Police and News helicopters were circling it, and the reporter on the ground was repeating what they already knew: There had been an explosion on the roof of Marlowe Prep. No reports of any victims, yet. Very little visible damage to the building. The first experts were talking about a hoax. Or a warning by a terrorist group.

Rick Castle knew better. This wasn't a hoax - Marlowe Prep was his daughter's school, and she wasn't answering her phone. Alexis was smart; after such an explosion, she would immediately contact him, Vi or his mother. Maybe even Mary. Even if she had lost her phone, she would call from someone else's. Or find a landline.

But she wasn't answering her phone, and she wasn't calling. Which meant she couldn't call. Which meant…

"Alexis has been kidnapped!" he yelled at Kate.

"What?" The detective turned around and stared at him.

He pointed at the TV. "That's her school. It happened right when she was leaving, and I can't reach her on the phone." He held up his own cell phone, which was once more dialing his daughter's number.

"Are you certain?"

He controlled himself, even if he wanted to yell how obvious it was. "Her grandparents died in a terrorist attack on a building. If a bomb went off at her school she would call me - with her phone, or someone else's," Castle said.

"He grandparents died in a terrorist attack?" Ryan was staring at him. Rick realised that he was now the center of attention.

"London 2002. Entire building gone." He remembered how afraid Alexis had been for her mother, that day.

"The school was barely scratched," Esposito commented.

"Plenty of students will have run away in panic," Ryan said, "and forgot to call their parents."

"Not Alexis," Castle insisted. "And even if she did - she's not answering her phone. You know how attached teenagers are to their phones; she would have noticed by now if she had simply lost it." If it hadn't been Alexis, he would have laughed at that.

"That's true," someone said in the background. "They would take pictures of themselves in front of the school."

Not Alexis, Castle wanted to say. He didn't - the faster the police accepted that this was a kidnapping, and not some hoax, the better. His daughter's life depended on it.

Kate looked at him for a second, then nodded. "Start the investigation. I'll take responsibility."

"Isn't that usually my line?" Relief made him blurt the words out, but no one laughed.

*****​

"Their cell phones were found in a dumpster near her school." That was Esposito, just back from canvassing the area around Alexis's school, holding up a plastic bag containing two phones.

Kate Beckett nodded at him. "Good. Pass them to the IT department; they might find something in the memory." Alexis might have managed to set the phone on recording, Kate thought - the girl had received training for such situation, given her family's background.

As soon as Esposito had left, Ryan leaned back from his computer and yelled to her: "I've got the recordings from the security camera of the electronics shop on the other side of the street."

She hurried over to him, looking over his shoulder.

"See? Here are the two girls leaving school together."

"They're not leaving together," Kate corrected him. "They aren't talking to each other or even looking at each other; they're just walking into the same direction at the same time."

He nodded, then pointed at the screen. "Look at this van. Drives slowly, and stops when it passes the two. And right at that moment, there's an explosion on the roof of the school."

That made everyone turn around and look at the school, away from the van. And started a panic. Kate saw the students starting to run and the van drive on - and Alexis and El-Haddad had vanished. "Did you get the van's license plates?"

"Yes. According to the registry, they belong to a flower service in Queens." Ryan's face told Kate that he didn't think that anything would come of that.

She agreed. "Probably stolen. Send a uniform to check up on the shop." They couldn't afford to miss any lead, no matter how improbable. Maybe there was a fingerprint on the delivery van the plates had been taken from. Such things happened, after all.

"Right."

"And track the van's route through traffic cameras."

He nodded. That was far more likely to get them results - but it would take time, or a lot of luck. And the longer it took them to trace the van, the further the kidnappers would have gone.

She went back to her whiteboard and added the results from her colleagues. The board was still rather empty, containing nothing more than a map of the school and pictures of the two victims, Alexis Castle and Aicha El-Haddad. Pictures of their parents. Both of them rich - the El-Haddad significantly more so than Castle. A fact Kate would have mentioned with a smirk during any other investigation.

But it wasn't just any investigation. Kate knew Alexis. And liked the girl. They might even become family one day, as Castle had been hinting at lately in his not so subtle ways. This was personal. So personal that Kate knew that she should withdraw from the case - she wasn't objective enough. But if she did that, who would deal with Castle and keep him from going out of control? Vi certainly wouldn't; the Slayer would back Castle up to the hilt. Probably literally, too.

She shook her head and focused on the case again. She was a detective, she could, had to do this.

The two girls had no ties - Castle and their classmates had confirmed that. So, one had been the kidnapping target, and the other… had been taken as well. Using a spectacular distraction that was bound to draw attention from both the news and federal agencies. Even if the bomb had been an 'overgrown firework', as the Precincts expert had called it, at least some agencies were going to treat this as a terrorist attack.

Why would anyone do this? Why draw that much attention? The rest of the kidnapping had been professional. This wasn't just a kidnapping. This was a demonstration. But who would go to those lengths, and for whom? Castle, or El-Haddad?

She walked over to Ryan. "I need a thorough background check of the El-Haddads!"

He looked at her. "I'm still tracking the van."

"Pass that to IT. This is more important."

"Are you certain?"

Kate nodded. It made sense, and her gut agreed. "People who fake a terrorist attack as a distraction won't be caught in their first getaway vehicle. Pass that task on and get on El-Haddad."

She saw Esposito return to the bullpen. "Esposito! We're going to the El-Haddads."

She saw him shake his head, and frowned. What… Then she saw the men and women in familiar (and rather cheap, Castle would say) suits enter the precinct. Feds, here to take over.

They were faster than usual - but then, this was a potential terror attack.

Kate sighed. She hoped Castle wouldn't antagonise them. Or they him.

Then she saw Will among the agents and winced. Her hope had just died.

*****​

"Mister Castle."

"Agent Sorenson." During any other investigation, Rick Castle would have made a joke about the man's name, or asked how Alaska had been this time of the year. But this wasn't any other investigation, and he had far more important things to do than cut down Agent Jealouson's ego.

"You know each other?" the female agent asked. Walker something.

"We've met," the Fed Ex said. "Unfortunately."

On the other hand, the man had just started it. And Castle always worked better when he didn't have to control his tongue too much. "We've worked together on a or two case before," he said with a wide smile.

"I was under the impression that you were an author." Walker's face showed what she thought of authors.

"That's what my bulletproof vest says. Actually, it says 'Writer', but close enough for government work." He smiled. Behind the two Feds, Kate was baring her teeth at him. Maybe he should cut the snark down a bit? No.

"This is a federal case. What deal you have with the local police department doesn't matter now. But even if you were a federal agent you are far too close to the case to be part of the investigation," Walker stated.

"And it's on American soil," Fed Ex added. The man still thought Castle was working for the CIA, then. And judging by the puzzled look of his colleague, he hadn't shared that suspicion.

"Trust me, Agent, breaking the law is the furthest thing from my mind." He wasn't even lying - until Alexis was safe, he didn't care at all about laws. "You have my number, or Kate's, if you need me."

He turned to leave.

"Mister Castle! We require your cooperation in this case. Your daughter's life is in danger," Walker said.

"I know. I'll call you should the kidnapper contact me. And no, you don't need to tap my phone - it's already set up." He nodded at them, then left the precinct.

"Castle!" Kate hissed behind him before he reached the elevator. "What are you doing?"

"Going home."

He entered the elevator. Kate followed him. When the doors had closed, she asked: "Where's Vi?"

"Shaking down the usual suspects for information." Without success so far.

"And what will you be doing? You're not about to wait at home for her or us."

"I'll actually be waiting at home," he corrected her.

She blinked, then her eyes widened. "You called London."

Castle nodded. "The Council's prepared for such an event. Willow will track Alexis with a spell." He grinned with more humour than he felt. "They'll arrive in two hours."

Which would be the longest two hours of his life.

*****​

 

[RoninSword]

Woot.

The only thing I can say is that if the kidnappers have any inkling about magic at all, there will be things in place to block a tracking spell.

 

[Starfox5]

Woot.

The only thing I can say is that if the kidnappers have any inkling about magic at all, there will be things in place to block a tracking spell.

Click to shrink...

If the kidnappers have any inkling about magic, they wouldn't have taken Alexis. There's not that much that can stop Willow.

 

[steamrick]

For now at least it certainly sounds as if Alexis was only a target-of-opportunity (or a witness they didn't want to remain behind) and they have no idea who exactly they caught...

and Alexis is smart enough not to lecture them once she realises she wasn't the target unless she needs to make herself sound valuable enough to not hurt too badly.

 

[Starfox5]

New York, December 2009

"No, Agent Smith, you do not need to be here. As I've told your superior before, I've set up a relay, so you will be informed at once and can listen in, should the kidnappers call me to name their demands." Richard Castle was glaring at the two Feds standing in front of his door. That was the second time they had come to bother him.

"Mister Castle, I understand that you are under a lot of stress. Anyone in your situation would be. But we cannot help your daughter if you do not cooperate with us," the other agent - a young woman, Hutchins - said. "Please, let us do our job."

He was tempted to shout at them that he could deal with stress much better than they could - had stared into hell itself, and had fought the First Evil - but that might make them try to have him committed, so he controlled himself. "I am cooperating with you. I am providing you with all the information and access you need to do your job. But you do not need to do your job in my home! You can sit and wait for a call on my landline in one of your black vans outside!" He really couldn't have any Feds in his flat when the Scoobies arrived. That wouldn't end well.

The female Fed flinched, so Rick probably hadn't sounded as calm as he thought. Smith, though - and that Fed only needed sunglasses and about twenty more years and he would fit into M.I.B. - looked distinctly unamused. In the Royal sense of the word. "Mister Castle. It's not just about your daughter. The circumstances of this kidnapping indicate a strong possibility that an organised group with more than just monetary goals is involved. And seeing as your ex-wife's parents were killed in a terrorist attack seven years ago, an attack which has never been solved, I have to point out, you and the rest of your family could be in danger as well. You need our protection."

Castle took it back - no one in the movie would have talked like that. He didn't mention it, though. Nor did he point out that the only danger his mother was currently facing was wearing a hole in the floor of his flat. Instead he smiled at the two Feds. "I do believe that I'm already as safe as I can be, Agent Smith."

"Yep, he is!" Vi said, right behind the two Feds. Completely surprised - Hutchkins loudly gasped - they whirled around. Smith even went for his gun, but Vi grabbed his arm and held it in place. "You're a bit jumpy, aren'tcha?" Her toothy grin would have made even a Polgara Demon jumpy, Castle thought.

"My bodyguard, Miss O'Malley," he said with a wide smile. "As you can see, she's easily able to guarantee my security." Rick didn't have to add 'much better than you two idiots' - they understood his meaning perfectly well, judging by their expressions. "Now, please leave and start doing your job." He waited until they had gone a few steps, then called after them: "And tell Agent Sorenso that I don't need spies in my flat!"

Once inside his flat, he sighed. "Did you find out anything from the demons of New York?" If she had, she would have called him, but he had to ask anyway.

Vi shook her head. "Nothing. And I was thorough. Either those guys are new in town, or they have no ties to the resident scum."

"Not to the resident demon scum," Rick amended her statement. "But this looks too organised for a group of strangers not familiar with New York."

Mother appeared on top of the stairs, a glass in hand. Castle hoped it was her first or second. She slowly descended. "I take it there have been no news."

Vi shook her head. "Busting demon heads was a bust."

"And the Feds are as useless as if this was a typical crime drama," Castle added.

"Speaking of, where's our detective?" Vi asked, making a show of sniffing the air.

Castle overlooked her attitude - she was as tense as he was, and needed the release it provided. "Kate's picking up the Scoobies at the airport."

"Oh? I'd wondered if you'd spring for a chopper." Vi slid out of her leather jacket and threw it on the backrest of the couch, revealing the harness for her Glock and for the various blades she wore underneath. It covered almost as much skin as her tank top. If Alexis started to follow her example… then he would be happy beyond belief because that would mean she would return safely.

"No, that would draw too much attention." He had actually considered that, but the time gained would have been marginal, since there was no good landing spot near his flat. And the Scoobies rappelling from a hovering helicopter definitely would draw too much attention. Especially if they were carrying their usual assortment of weapons.

"Well have to hope that there won't be a traffic jam," Vi commented, heading to the kitchen to raid his fridge.

"If that happens I have it on good authority that it would justify using the siren in her car," Castle responded.

"Really?" Vi was leaning back so her head peaked out from behind the fridge's open door. "She'd break the law for us?

"It's not exactly breaking the law," Rick retorted. "Just… stretching it a bit."

"I'll remember that next time I get a traffic ticket!" Vi yelled back while grabbing the ingredients for a sandwich. Or three. Feeding her was a bigger drain on his grocery budget than restocking his wine cellar after one of Mother's parties.

He stared at the clock at the wall, then, then checked the time on his phone. That said the same: Eighty-five more minutes until the plane arrived. His phone also informed him that he hadn't received any calls since he sent all information he had to the Scoobies thirty minutes ago. It looked like the Feds had - finally! - gotten his message.

The doorbell rang again.

Or not, Castle thought, clenching his teeth. If they couldn't take a polite hint, maybe they needed an impolite hint? Vi throwing them out into the street, headfirst, might do the job. Maybe they tried to enter, and he could claim self-defence too?

He reached the door and checked the spyglass. It wasn't the Feds, but an old man. He could see his reflection, so he wasn't a vampire. Full head of white hair. Good suit, a class above the usual federal suit - had the government a special agency to procure them in bulk? He buried the stray thought and checked the screen next to the door for the cameras covering the hallways. No one was waiting around the corner. "We've got a stranger in front of the door," he announced.

Vi was at his side in a second, swallowing what was probably one half of a footlong sandwich as she drew her gun and loosened the short sword in its sheath on her back. "Ready."

He checked that Mother had retreated from the living room, then nodded and opened the door. "Yes?" Maybe it was a fan. Or someone looking for his neighbour. Both had happened before.

"Mister Castle?"

Vi pushed Castle to the side before he could answer and pointed her gun straight at the man. "He's armed. Three guns." She sniffed the air. "And he has recently fired one!" Not a demon, or she would have said so.

For an old man faced with a large-calibre pistol aimed at his head - a pistol in the hands of a decidedly hostile Slayer - the stranger showed a remarkable lack of a reaction. He slowly raised his hands. "I don't mean you or yours any harm, Miss O'Malley," he said in a calm voice - much calmer than Castle would have been in his situation. And he knew Vi's name. Granted, so did everyone who read the yellow press's society pages, but still - something fishy was going on. Castle's gut told him so.

"Who're you?" Rick asked

"Hunt. Jackson Hunt."

Funny guy, Castle thought. Too bad he wasn't in the mood to laugh. Hunt - if that was his name - sounded vaguely familiar, though. He was the right age for a Watcher of the old generation, but his accent was American. Castle would have known if the Council had had a fellow American among their ranks before Sunnydale - he had looked into that. Rick had his hand near his own gun. The man was carrying more weapons than the Feds, after all. And he was much too calm to be harmless. "What do you want?"

"I'm here because of Alexis's kidnapping," Hunt said. When Vi started to growl, he quickly added: "I didn't kidnap her! I'm here to help!"

So, he wasn't as unflappable as he had first appeared, Castle thought, with no small amount of satisfaction - it would have been bad if an old man was more cold-blooded than a veteran Watcher. He narrowed his eyes and was about to tell the man to slowly step inside the flat when he heard Mother gasp behind him and a glass shatter on the floor.

Hunt smiled, rather weakly, Castle noticed. "Hello, Martha."

Rick glanced at his mother. She was gaping at Hunt, one hand pressed to her lips. "You know him?" he asked her, already dreading her answer, given how shaken she was.

"Yes." She took a deep breath, and slowly inclined her head. "Yes, I do." She turned her head to look at Rick.

"Richard, he's your father."

*****​

 

[Prince Charon]

Really tempted to post some dramatic YouTube clips ('belt going dun dun duuunnn,' dramatic cat, dramatic gopher, et cetra), but too tired to go looking. I'm guessing this is something that happened in canon? It seems like a good time for him to have shown up.

 

[Starfox5]

Really tempted to post some dramatic YouTube clips ('belt going dun dun duuunnn,' dramatic cat, dramatic gopher, et cetra), but too tired to go looking. I'm guessing this is something that happened in canon? It seems like a good time for him to have shown up.

Click to shrink...

Alexis was kidnapped in season 5, which led to Castle meeting his father. Although the circumstances are a bit different here.

 

[Starfox5]

New York, December 2009

His father! Hunt was his father! The father Richard Castle had never known. The father who had left his mother after one night. The father Mother had never talked about. The… Castle blinked, closed his mouth, and focused on Hunt. Now that he knew, he could see the roguish charm and class evident in the older man's features. His father!

Whom Vi was still pointing her gun at. Who apparently knew about Alexis's kidnapping. And carried three guns of his own. Castle blinked again, then narrowed his eyes. "I don't suppose your surprising visit is closely related to my daughter's kidnapping."

"I just told you that," Hunt retorted, with a rather too familiar expression. Mother even was faintly smiling!

"What I mean is that I can't help but thinking that without Alexis's disappearance, you would not have reappeared after forty-one years." And four months, but who was counting? "You haven't bothered to visit at all, after all." He wasn't bitter, not really. Anyone in his place would feel the same.

Hunt sighed, and, for a moment, looked far older than before. Less Sean Connery in 'Never Say Never Again' or 'Hunt for Red October', and more like… had Connery ever looked really old? And was Castle's subconsciousness trying to tell him something with all those tangents his thoughts came up with? "I think this is something we should better discuss while sitting down. And maybe without weapons pointed at each other," Hunt added with a glance at Vi.

The Slayer scoffed. "Not as long as you're armed!"

Castle saw Mother close her mouth - she must have realised that there was no way Vi would drop her guard. Not now. Not after Alexis had been kidnapped. Which wasn't her fault at all, Castle knew. But he also knew that telling her that wouldn't help either.

Fortunately, Hunt nodded. "That's acceptable. I assume you want to remove them?" He hadn't lowered his hands yet.

"Yes. Don't move." Vi all but snarled, and started to frisk him. For a normal human, getting so close with a gun would be a mistake. But she was a Slayer - they were even more dangerous up close and personal.

Hunt either knew this, or hadn't any plans to attack them, and therefore nothing to worry about being disarmed. Either way, he didn't move a muscle until Vi had divested him of three pistols - a Heckler & Koch USP, a Glock 26 or 27, and a Derringer-looking hold-out - and two knives.

After sniffing once again, Vi stepped back. "He's clean now."

Castle looked at her gun and raised his eyebrows. Pouting, she lowered it. "Let's sit down then," he said and gestured at the couch.

Once everyone had taken a seat - Vi on the armrest of Castle's couch, ready to shoot Hunt in case he tried something, or maybe to pounce and strangle him; Slayers were fond of melee combat, after all - Hunt cleared his throat and started to talk. "You're probably wondering why I didn't contact you until now."

"I'm currently more wondering what you know about my daughter's kidnapping," Rick said. His personal issues could wait until Alexis was safe. He had been fine without a father for over forty years; he could wait a bit longer.

"It's related," Hunt said. "I'm working for the government. I… solve problems."

"With your guns," Castle said. His father was a secret agent. As he had imagined as a kid.

"Yes." Hunt glanced at Vi, then at Rick. "A job I think with which you are more than a little familiar as well."

Vi snorted, and Castle knew she was grinning now. "I'm doing the actual work!" Slayers!

"You weren't when he started, though," Hunt retorted. Rick wasn't a hundred percent certain, but his father sounded almost proud. How much did he know about what they really did? "Back then he worked with Alexis's mother. Who recruited him for her agency."

That wasn't entirely accurate, Rick thought, but close enough. "London," he said, nodding as if that said everything.

"I didn't realise exactly what organisation you had joined until it was too late," Hunt admitted. "I hindsight, I should have arranged for your recruitment. It would have made things… easier," he added with a glance at Rick's mother.

"You've been keeping tabs on us for a while then," Rick said. That was… disconcerting.

"Since I heard of your birth." Hunt smiled at Rick's mother. "I had to leave on a mission after… you know. And I didn't return until he had been born already."

"Why didn't you visit?" Mother asked. She was hiding it well, but Rick could tell that she was very fragile right now. First the kidnapping, then this...

"I'm in a very dangerous business. If I had made contact with you, you would have been in danger too."

Hunt's smile looked sincere, but Castle didn't believe him. He knew about dangerous business, every Council member did, and he hadn't let that stop him from having a family. But his personal issues were not as important as Alexis right now, he reminded himself. Still… "After I started to work for London I was in a rather dangerous business as well." The implication was clear.

"Yes. But you were working for London. The British are not exactly the other side, but for all our 'special relationship', we don't exactly work that closely together in the kind business for which I am usually needed. And when I tried to do more than keep tabs on you, feel out the situation, I was quite strongly warned away by my superiors." He chuckled, once. "I had to use private contacts to keep track of you - and quite loosely, too."

So, he didn't know, Rick thought. He probably thought Castle was working for Her Majesty's Secret Service. Well, it could be possible - he certainly was charming and handsome enough for a double-oh agent! He snorted when he realised that his father probably had made the same assumption Kate had made, and almost hummed the intro of 'The Avengers'.

That seemed to surprise Hunt, and his father narrowed his eyes. Rick gestured. "Nothing. So… you knew I was involved in some British business, and you kept your distance. On orders from your superiors, too." Which was a very convenient excuse - although not an implausible one.

"Yes. I kept up with the more public part of your life, of course. Your marriage. The birth of my granddaughter. Your books. Your apparent retirement."

His tone told Castle that he didn't think Rick had actually retired from the Council. Castle glanced at the clock again. Still more than an hour left, but if they went over his entire life, especially the whole fight against the First Evil, they'd still be talking around the real issue when the Scoobies arrived. Time to cut to the chase. So to speak. "Leaving my career aside, you think Alexis's kidnapping is connected to you."

"Yes." Hunt nodded. "By using a bomb as a distraction, the kidnappers ensured that every media in the USA, maybe the world, would report the incident. They ensured that no matter where I was, I would know about it at once. Even if the kidnapping would not be reported, I would recognise my granddaughter's school."

That sounded… plausible. Not impossible, at least, Rick had to admit. Better than his own theories.

"So, Alexis is in danger because of your secret agent work?" Vi said, glaring at Hunt.

"Vi." Castle's mother looked at the Slayer, and to Rick's surprise, Vi relented. A little, at least. She didn't apologise, of course.

"I strongly suspect that this is the case," Hunt said. "Though I cannot yet say who is behind them. The group I was investigating didn't have the resources for such an operation. Nor the skill."

"So it's related to your past work." Castle rubbed his chin. "Unless this is all a coincidence."

Hunt scoffed at that notion.

"That leaves us with… how many dozen suspects?" Rick went on. If his father had been a secret agent for more than four decades…

"I didn't leave many loose ends when working."

His father sounded almost proud of that, Castle thought. But then, Rick had a similar attitude towards dealing with demons. They might be more alike than he might like. But Rick would never leave his family under the pretext of keeping them safe. "If this is aimed at you, they'll plan to contact you," he said. "And since you're so hard to get ahold of," - he couldn't keep the bitterness completely out of his tone - "they'll do so through me."

"Yes."

"Unless they simply want to hurt you through Alexis." Rick hated to say it, but he had to mention that possibility. To go as far as fake a terror attack on US soil… no sane people would do that.

Mother gasped and Vi snarled - and pierced the upholstery of the couch's armrest with her bare fingers. Hunt didn't show any reaction other than a slow nod, but his expression probably mirrored Castle's. Whoever hurt Alexis would pay for it. With their lives.

Rick took a deep breath. "I've called in a few of my colleagues. They'll arrive in about an hour, and they'll track Alexis's location." They'd also check Hunt's story, but he didn't think he should mention that.

Hunt raised his eyebrows. "London?"

"Yes."

"I've been warned to stay away from them, even after you started to work in New York with Miss O'Malley." And if that wasn't fishing for information, Castle didn't know what was.

"This is personal. Washington will understand that." They knew better than to mess with the Council.

His father looked sceptical, and Rick grinned. "You don't know what exactly 'London' does, do you?"

"Covert ops. 'Problem solving'. World-wide. Often using rather young, but highly trained female operatives," Hunt answered. Predictably, Vi grinned at that. Ever since Kate had come into Castle's life, Vi had started to embrace her younger age. Slayers!

He glanced at the clock again. Still a good hour left. Not counting traffic. More than enough time for the classic version. He took a deep breath and began.

"The world is older than you know…"

*****​

 

[Starfox5]

New York, December 2009

"... and after Sunnydale, we've rebuilt, spread out and increased our efforts against the demons on all fronts. We have the active Hellmouth in Cleveland locked down and the rest of the Hellmouths are under close surveillance. Vi is the resident Slayer in New York, and I'm her Watcher. We've kept the population of hostile demons quite low." Richard Castle finished his story with a smile and a well-deserved bow to his Slayer.

"I did all of that - while at the same time keeping you out of trouble!" Vi interjected.

Maybe not so well-deserved, Rick thought while he frowned at the redhead. Then he turned to his father. "So, now you know what 'London' stands for."

Hunt looked sceptical. Or to be more precise, he looked as if Castle was a lunatic in dire need of institutionalisation. Rick was more familiar with that look than he liked - why didn't anyone ever believe him when he told them the truth?

Fortunately, he had proof available. He sat down on his couch again. "Vi? I think my… father needs a demonstration." He had to get used to that word.

Vi rolled her eyes, but she bent down, grabbed the couch on which Castle and his mother were sitting, and lifted it up. Rick waited half a minute, then gestured at the couch. "Feel free to check for wires, magnets, anything you can think of."

Hunt actually did, running his hand below the couch, then glancing up. Castle nodded to Vi, and she slowly lowered the couch and Castle's father actually checked for wires. Kate hadn't done that, he remembered. She had trusted him that far at least.

"Are you now convinced that I told you the truth?" Castle asked with a wide grin. This never failed.

"No." Hunt responded in a flat voice.

What? Rick stared at his father. "And how do you explain this feat of strength without magic?"

"Bionic augmentation. Drugs. Genetic engineering." Hunt bared his teeth. "I've been hearing rumors about black projects. Cyborgs able to carry weapons meant for vehicles. Special drugs to enhance soldiers." He nodded at Vi. "She would fit either project. Or some gene splicing - if the civilians are starting to clone people, the government could be far further down that road."

Castle exchanged a glance with Vi, who seemed torn between amusement and outrage, then shook his head at his far too cynical father - what kind of man would so stubbornly deny that magic existed when it was demonstrated in front of him? An accountant, maybe? "Those experiments you heard about happened in Sunnydale, and they used magic for them." Maybe he shouldn't have skipped the mess with ADAM when he told his story.

Hunt looked at him with an almost pitying expression.

Rick set his jaw. "It's the truth. We know people who were there. Hell, we know people who took part in those experiments. And who had to clean up the mess when it went out of control."

"An entire army base, wiped out by monsters - including a cyborg-human-demon-hybrid," Vi added, nodding as if she had been there.

"I've heard better cover stories," Hunt said. "The British have a reputation for a reason. Especially if they were active on our soil for so long."

"The treaties with the Council actually go back to a time before the American Revolution," Castle pointed out. "The first records of the Council date back to the time writing was invented."

"Richard. When someone doesn't believe your story, doubling down on your claims won't make it more believable." Mother shook her head. "I was sceptical myself, but seeing a vampire rise from the dead quite convinced me."

"We don't have the time to organise that," Rick pointed out - was he the only one remembering that Alexis had been kidnapped? - "but fortunately, we'll soon be visited by someone who can demonstrate the existence of magic." He blinked and held up a hand before his father could say anything. "Don't tell me - you would consider that psionics."

"There have been rumours of agents with special talents…" Hunt started.

Castle cut him off with a gesture and crossed his arms. He wasn't pouting, though. Not really. "Foiled by an overly strong faith in government conspiracies… who would have thought that would ever happen to me?" He ignored Vi's raised hand. And that of his mother. Then he frowned. What if Hunt was correct, and the US government had such programs? He would have to remember to ask Willow to check the government systems for that, before they had to deal with another ADAM mess.

"I could hit 'Clark's and fetch a demon," Vi offered. "Someone he can't explain away as genetic engineering."

Rick checked the time, then shook his head. "No, we can't afford that." And he preferred to keep Vi with him - in case Hunt decided that Castle had to be institutionalised for his own good. "We'll just have to hope that the Scoobies brought Spike with them."

And if anyone had told him that he'd ever utter those words, he would have called them crazy.

*****​

"Scoobies in da house!" Xander entered with a wide smile.

"Xander! Show some respect!" Willow.

"I just wanted to raise morale." Xander again.

"Well, you failed miserably." Spike. His usual self.

"At least he tried." Dawn. Not helping.

"He'd need to dress more sexily to raise my morale." Faith. Who else?

"Hello, Richard." Mary. Of course she would come as well.

"Hi everyone!" Buffy, being professional. "Kate's off to the precinct, to get the latest information. Oh, who's the old guy?" Or not.

Glancing at his father's expression, Rick felt like rubbing the bridge of his nose, if that wouldn't make him look far too much like Rupert. Hunt's first impression of the Scoobies was, predictably, not the best.

"Rick, we came as quick as we could. Well, as quick as we could while still being able to track Alexis - we could have come more quickly, but then I would have been too exhausted to do anything for a longer timespan than it took us to fly in," Willow said. Her lack of breath told Castle just how agitated the witch was. Then she noticed Hunt. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I didn't notice you, I'm sorry. Hello."

Castle decided to cut in before Willow did breathe. "Hello everyone. This is Jackson Hunt, my long-lost secret agent father. Who has decided that his granddaughter getting kidnapped is sufficient grounds to enter our lives. Dad," he said in as sweet a voice as he managed, "these people are the Scoobies. Also known as 'London', 'the Council', and a demon's worst nightmare."

"A secret agent?" "Your father?" "Where was he for the last forty years?" "Now we know where Castle gets it from." "Hello, Mr. Robinson!" "'Lo." "Your father is alive?"

Long experience allowed Castle to understand what the Scoobies - and Mary - were saying, despite everyone talking at the same time. He cleared his throat before Hunt caught on. "Also, I've given him the speech," - he ignored Xander's 'the talk' comment - "but he remains somewhat sceptical of the existence of the paranormal. Even after a demonstration of Vi's supernatural strength. His scepticism is based on rumours of cybernetic experiments and enhanced combat drugs."

Willow got it first. "ADAM!" Then she gasped. "Does that mean there actually are such experiments going on? But how could they manage that outside the area of effect of an active Hellmouth? The magic required to compensate for the rejection and physics couldn't be provided in any other location apart from sacred groves and similar hallowed ground, and the very presence of what such experiments would need would defile them…"

"Breathe, Willow!" Buffy cut in, smiling at the witch, then narrowed her eyes and walked towards Hunt until she was looking down at him from her not so impressive height of five foot nothing. "So, you're Mister Agent Sceptico."

"He's not a cat," Castle heard Dawn mutter.

Hunt met her gaze without flinching. Castle's father had nerves of steel. Or he didn't know the Slayer. On the other hand, he thought that she was a combat cyborg able to rip him in half. A secret combat cyborg. Castle's father did have nerves of steel.

"Yes." And a very expressive voice, Rick added. Which, unfortunately, was currently expressing Hunt's profound scepticism and lack of respect, unless Castle was mistaken.

"I guess me mangling one of your guns, or maybe you, wouldn't convince you that magic is real?"

Hunt shook his head.

"And Willow dismantling a gun with her magic?"

"He'll think it was psionics," Vi said.

"But psionics is just another term for magic, since both cannot be produced by conventional physics or technology," Willow said. "And while Magic is often deemed more fantastical, ultimately both are terms for the same - a paranormal power most humans lack."

"I think the problem is that as long as he thinks it's just a special power, he will not accept that there are demons, hell, and all the rest," Dawn cut in.

"Ah!" Willow nodded. "I see the problem. So…"

"And I have the solution," Buffy declared. The Slayer sounded as impatient to Castle as Rick himself felt. "Spike!"

"Oy! Forget it!" the vampire exclaimed. "He'll claim I'm some freak."

"You are a freak," Xander said.

"Not that kind of freak. The wrong kind," Spike clarified. "Besides, you heard the man. Or the author, in this case - his daddy will think I'm a pisonic. Or a mutant. Or some escaped experiment."

"Technically, you are an escaped experiment," Xander said, smirking. "Did they ever stop searching for 'Hostile 17'?"

"Xander!" Willow scolded him while Spike snarled - and vamped out.

Rick saw his father react to that, before regaining his composure. Progress, maybe.

"See, Mister Hunt - by the way, are you related to Ethan Hunt from the movies?" Buffy smiled at Rick's father in that vapid way of hers that made people underestimate her all the time.

"No." Hunt said, in the same tone you usually talked to children. Of course he could be faking it, and make her think that he was underestimating her.

"Ah… just a coincidence then. Where was I?" Buffy blinked.

"You wanted to abuse Spike to prove the existence of demons and magic," Xander helpfully pointed out.

"Oy!"

"Thank you," Buffy said, smiling widely. "We will now thoroughly demonstrate that Spike is a real vampire, cursed, walking corpse and all that, and not some weird experiment."

"I never agreed to that!" said vampire protested.

"If he's connected to Alexis's kidnapping, then we need his help," Buffy pointed out. "And he'll not help us if he thinks we're a bunch of loons."

"We aren't?" Xander asked, acting surprised.

"Xander, not the time!" Dawn glared at him.

Spike sighed. "Alright. Let's get this over with. But just because it's for Alexis."

While the vampire was soon undergoing all kinds of painful demonstrations of his magical nature - the various crosses he was touched with, to show it was a metaphysical and not an allergic reaction were an especially thoughtful touch, Castle felt, but his lack of a reflection had a bigger impact - Rick wondered just how close Alexis was to the vampire. And if he should be concerned. Spike had taught her how to pick locks, after all, and the vampire had the morals of… Castle couldn't actually think of a suitable comparison until Hunt, after Willow had briefly transformed Spike into a rat, finally was convinced that yes, magic existed.

Which meant that they could get on with saving Alexis.

******​

 

[Starfox5]

I added Mary's arrival to the update above.

 

[Starfox5]

New York, December 2009

Kate Beckett knew Castle had done something to rile up the Feds when she entered the precinct and saw Will make a beeline towards her. Or, to be exact, she knew he had done something else to rile them up - he had been rude to them when they had first met, after all. Though she would have known that even if she hadn't been present then - the dozen messages on her phone sent by Will would have told her so.

"Kate!" She saw that Will had trouble controlling his temper - he was opening and closing his left hand, one of his tells.

"Yes?" She tried to sound as calm and professional as she could. One of them had to.

"Where were you? You haven't answered any of my messages!"

"I was driving." She almost added 'and messaging while driving is illegal' - she blamed Castle's influence. She certainly wasn't being influenced by Vi, and Alexis wouldn't use such an excuse.

Will took a deep breath and even closed his eyes for a moment. "Get your lover," - he almost spat the word out - "under control. We cannot solve this case if he doesn't cooperate!"

Kate narrowed her eyes. Castle could be aggravating, but Will hadn't been as bad during his last visit. Something else was going on. "What happened? As far as I know, he has cooperated and set up a trace on his landline."

"He has thrown out the agents sent to protect him."

Kate felt like sighing herself - or laughing. She didn't either and kept her cool. "He has a very capable bodyguard. He doesn't need additional protection." Not from the FBI, at least. Those agents would be more useful somewhere else.

"Why are you helping him?" Will stared at her. "Are you involved in his work?"

"What?" Did Will know about the demons, or did her ex still think Castle was working for the CIA? "He's using me as a model for the character of his next book." And she still hadn't been able to read the first draft.

"Don't play dumb. He's CIA, and this kidnapping is connected to him. And you're covering for him."

Kate snorted this time. "He's not working for the CIA."

Will was clenching is teeth in frustration. "Who is he working for? We can't afford any interference. The lives of two girls are at stake!"

And careers, the cynical part of Kate whispered inside her mind. Out loud she said "Castle will not hinder the investigation." Quite the contrary - Willow would find them, Kate knew, and then they'd make the kidnappers wish they had never set foot in New York. "But you really don't need to waste anyone on a protection detail for him. Vi is very good, and I'll be with him as well."

"Ah." She knew that tone. Far too well.

Kate sighed. "Are you still not over the fact that I'm with him?"

Will pressed his lips together for a moment. "This is not about that." Meaning, yes, it was.

She sighed. "Get over it." Leaving him, she walked towards Ryan. "Anything new?"

He shrugged. "I'm just checking electronic trails on the Feds' orders."

Turning her head, she looked at Esposito, who was standing behind his partner with a cup of what passed for coffee here in his hand.

"I'm helping him," he answered her unspoken question.

She caught Will talking to Walker, his superior, and frowned.

"Trouble with the Fed Ex?" Esposito asked, his grinning mouth half-hidden behind his mug.

When had Castle's bon mot become popular? Kate thought, then shook her head. "Maybe." When she saw Walker coming towards her, she added: "Yes."

"Detective Beckett."

"Yes, Agent Walker?" Castle would have made a 'Texas Ranger"' remark, she thought.

"Are you related to one of the victims?"

"No. But I am in a relationship with the father of Alexis Castle." She hadn't anything to hide.

"And you didn't think to mention that before?"

"I assumed that Agent Sorenson had informed you." Kate tried to sound as bland as possible. "He was well aware of that fact."

"He has… just now." Walker glanced at Will, who pressed his lips together. Kate waited. She knew what was coming. Walker went on: "You are too close to this case, Detective. And you should have known that."

She had expected that, and prepared for it. "I wasn't aware that I was still on the case," Kate said. "I haven't worked on it since you arrived, and I even signed out for today two hours ago. Private errand." She shrugged. "I did check in to see if there were any news, before returning to Castle's apartment." But that was nothing they could hold against her.

Will opened his mouth, then closed and glared at her. Walker snorted. "I see. You wouldn't have been doing some private investigation?"

Kate gave her same look she had perfected on Esposito when he had been speculating about her love life. "No, Agent. I was actually picking up friends at the airport."

"Your friends or Castle's 'friends'?" Will interjected, causing Walker to frown.

"Shared friends." She turned back to Walker. "If there is nothing else and no new information for us, then I'll head back home."

Before Walker could answer, another agent yelled from the section of the precinct the FBI had taken over. "Someone's calling the El-Haddads!"

A few seconds later, everyone was gathered around the speakers relaying the conversation - if you could call a curt ransom demand that.

"Where is it from?" Walker asked the FBI technician.

"We're still tracking it, ma'am." He didn't sound very optimistic, though.

"Nothing on Castle's line?" Walker asked.

"No, ma'am."

Kate wasn't surprised. Concerned, but not surprised.

*****​

She was surprised when she reached Castle's flat - had she really called it home in the precinct? And found an older man sitting on the couch she certainly hadn't picked up at the airport. And he was talking with Martha.

"Kate!" Rick hugged her. "Right on time - Willow's about to cast the spell. Did you find out anything else at the precinct?"

"There was a ransom demand sent to the El-Haddads." She nodded at the couch. "Who is your visitor?" She had almost said 'our visitor'.

"Ah… that's my father. He works as a secret agent with a license to kill."

"What?" She stared at him with her mouth open. If that was his idea of a joke, she would kill him. And if wasn't a joke…

Her face must have betrayed her thoughts since Rick quickly lost that infuriating grin of his and started to explain.

*****​

"Hello, Mr Hunt."

"Hello, Miss Beckett."

His handshake was firm, she noted, and his smile told her where Castle's had come from. Definitely Rick's father. She nodded towards the room where Willow was working her magic. "You've been told about magic."

"And you've been informed - like everyone else here - about my background."

Ah, that smile could slip. Rock's father wasn't as happy as he tried to appear.

"Most of my friends don't take well to secrets. Some even have an almost pathological need to ferret them out," Castle interjected. "Present company excluded, of course," he added quickly with a forced smile.

"Why? I'm not about to deny that I've got a healthy curiosity," Dawn said while she grabbed some of the peanuts that had managed to survive three Slayers.

"She means that she's an incorrigible snoop," Buffy said, reaching out for the snacks herself.

Dawn smacked her sister's hand, but that didn't deter the blonde and she left the bowl almost empty.

"And she's an incorrigible glutton," Dawn said, scowling.

Buffy's retort was hampered by her mouth being full of pilfered peanuts.

Kate tried to ignore the antics of their guests. "So… you think this kidnapping is related to you and your work." Which, she suspected, were one and the same for the man - otherwise, he wouldn't have stayed away from his son for so long.

"Yes. All circumstances point at that conclusion."

"Will your employers involve themselves in the investigation?"

"No. I was actually warned several times in the past not to contact my son. I now realise why exactly my employers were so keen on keeping me away." Hunt smiled wryly.

"You make it sound as if we're bad," Buffy said, in her 'blonde airhead' voice, with a pout that would have made Brigitte Bardot jealous.

"Did you threaten to tear out his rib cage and wear it as a hat, Buffy?" Dawn asked.

"No… but I think I should." Buffy nodded slowly. "In case he wants to go to spain after this."

Hunt looked as lost as Kate felt. Mary, who hadn't said anything so far, sighed, and leaned forward. "She means that she wouldn't like it if Rick's father disappeared from his life after this."

Buffy nodded emphatically. "Yes. I really don't like runaway Dads. Children need their parents - just look at how Dawn turned out."

"Hey!"

"I'm not a child anymore," Castle said. "Kate, back me up!" he added after a few seconds full of throats being cleared and eyes being rolled.

Fortunately, Xander's loud "Willow's found her!" saved Kate from having to answer that.

*****​

 

[steamrick]

Fortunately, Xander's loud "Willow's found her!" saved Kate from having to answer that,

Click to shrink...

.

 

[steamrick]

I think a single dot is the shortest comment I've ever made that's actually on topic lol.

I couldn't get myself to add to that one, so hence the double post to comment on it.

 

[Starfox5]

Corrected.

 

[macdjord]

"He's using me as a model for the character of his next book. And she still hadn't been able to read the first draft.

Click to shrink...

Missing closing quote.

 

[Starfox5]

Missing closing quote.

Click to shrink...

Corrected.