React, Castle

Back-from-wherever-post 2/8

Summary: So this guy is pointing a gun at the woman you just kissed. OneShot.

Warning: first (and probably last) Castle-fic ever. Because, so far, I've seen exactly two episodes, not more.

Set: post the first episode that aired in German TV fall 2011. Yes, you've read correctly: I have no idea which one it was, and what its name was. I apologize.

Disclaimer: Standards apply.

You are in a store-house.

The cliché is so worn out that you would never use it in one of your novels, let alone think of using it. There are levels you'd never risk sinking down to, and this is one of them. But to make the plot of one of those fourth- or probably fifth-rated thrillers complete, the ware-house is dark, dusty and untidy and there are a lot of boxes placed in a pattern that suggests they have been dropped and stacked in a rather careless manner. There barely is enough cover to hide behind them. But currently you're doing exactly this: hiding behind a stack of old, dusty cardboard boxes which probably won't even hold off a bullet, desperately trying to blend in with the shadows.

If there was the possibility, you'd probably swear. But every sound is loud in the earsplitting silence, cuts through the room like the splitting of glass. The rustling that resounds loudly either is caused by Beckett or the abductor, you aren't sure. Plus, the rushing of your blood in your ears and the hammering sound of your heart is so loud you are barely able to tell whether what you are hearing is real or not. And the reason why adrenaline is shooting through your veins is that some bad-ass abductor is pointing a gun at a certain woman.

He's pointing a gun at the woman you just kissed.

Okay.

So this definitely is another cliché. But contrary to the first one, you already have used it in one or another of your novels. You'd probably excuse it by saying a million different other authors already have used it and some of those authors have been brilliant in themselves so the idea can't be too bad. To tell the truth, it is a method too effective to not use it. As you already have experienced yourself. Approximately ten minutes and thirty-six seconds ago. And you'd never have imagined in your keenest dreams it would be that effective. Well, since it is used in movies and series and novels again and again it has to be. In fact, it is also a perfect teaser for the audience. If this was a series – you'd name it Castle the brilliant author detective – this episode would have managed to double the quota. But this is reality, heart-racing, blood-flowing, possibly-you're-dead-soon-reality. Not a TV series. Not a thriller.

Just life.

Distraction in its simplest form: a kissing couple, obviously entirely oblivious to its surroundings. And, apparently, too distracted to care that it is past midnight, that they are on a public parking lot and that someone is watching. You kissed her because it was the simplest way to get near the guard without – as Beckett was about to do – pointing a gun at him directly and thus giving away your advantage of surprise. So you grab her gun hand, pull her over and kiss her and after the initial shock of two pairs of lips meeting rather involuntarily she stops resisting. She gets the idea. And suddenly she is kissing you back, like you are air and she cannot breathe, and you're probably doing the same but you can't know because you can't think. You just feel her warmth and smell her scent and taste her lips and you don't ever want it to stop, not ever. But of course, Beckett never forgets what she is about to do, and she takes out the guard faster than you can blink.

You never wondered before whether Kate Beckett was an exceptionally good kisser. But you cannot deny you wondered how it would feel like to kiss her, now and then. She is a beautiful woman, even beautiful in her cold determination. She is intelligent. She is so much more there aren't words to describe it. Or there were, of course, but for the first time in your life you, Richard Castle, one of the richest and handsomest men in N.Y. City, bestselling author, don't feel the urge to put something into words. Worlds can be created and destroyed by them; you know that much from your own experience. Feeling her lips on yours, her arms around your neck, her body soft against yours, is…

Incredible.

There she is.

Beckett is kneeling behind a stack of boxes, re-loading her gun. And there is the abductor, pointing his gun at her head and taking aim. And whatever you think right now – whatever you feel – whatever – Hell, whatever you dream of, stop it now!

React, Castle.