When It All Comes Tumbling Down.
Intro and Teaser

Authors intro

It won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me I like Firefly. I thought it was a good show, with inventive ideas and a clever storyline. Also liked the cast and have tried to follow them they pretty much spread to the four winds. Among them was, of course, Nathan Fillion.

Now Castle isn't my usual show. Most detective dramas just strike me as predictable, far fetched rubbish. And for someone who watches a lot of science fiction that's saying something. Still I do like the show, fun inventive and some very clever twists every so often. The key to the show, as with Firefly and many others, is the chemistry between the cast, both on and off screen (from what I can tell at least). So in my usual way lets play with that, shall we?

Disclamer

I do not own Castle, or Doctor Who. They, and all the characters and monsters from both belong to ABC television and the BBC respectively. This story is not for profit and is simply a bit of fun.

Richard Castle glanced at the stairs from his kitchen. 'Morning!' he gave his daughter a broad grin as he flipped a pancake. 'Three days to go.'

'Dad.' she gave him the look all women seemed to be born with. Condescending, patronising and just a little amused. Alexis had become a master of that look by the time she was four years old and Richard had been in the receiving end countless times. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing, just wondering how long until you're off at some university somewhere. Your grandmother will be gone soon too, with any luck and that just leaves me.'

'Just you huh?' Alexis sat down and helped herself to one of the stack he'd just made. 'Not you and a detective friend?'

Richard grinned and swished his spatula. 'So any plans for the party? We could go for another pirate theme.'

She was long used to him changing the subject like this and both knew all to well she'd find a way to bring it up later. She never forgot or ever let anything go. 'Dad, we did that when I was like twelve.' Alexis rolled her eyes.

'So, you loved it.'

'You loved it, but the film's done.'

He was about to argue when his phone rang. It was Beckett's ring tone, he wasn't sure if this one got on her nerves more or less than the last, but until he did he'd keep it around. Picking it up he flicked it on 'Castle here,'

'Castle, you might want to get down here.' Kate said, there was an edge to her voice. He already knew this was going to be a good one. She fired off an address.

'I'll be right there.'

'Something wrong?' Alexis asked looking concerned, she must have heard something in his voice. He must have picked it up from Kate.

Grabbing his coat Richard grinned, putting a good face on it. 'Don't know. I get the feeling I'm going to like this one!'

Kate shuddered and pulled her coat up, she wasn't sure if was the wind that gave her a chill or the case. So far they only had a body and it was already bad. Lanie was crouched over it, taking measurements.

Behind her she heard someone walking up to them, casting look over her shoulder Kate wasn't surprised to see it was Castle. 'Glad you could make it.' she called out.

'So am I, what have we got?'

'This one's just your sort of case bro…' Esposito jumped in.

Castle gave him a look,' Like you said last time?' Last time, as Castle called it, was just the officer pulling his leg.

'No, this is way better.

'Better in what way?' Lanie asked darkly, finally coming away from the body.

Castle looked back and forth. 'Alright I'll bite, what happened?'

'We don't know, a couple of homeless kids found the body. They're still in shock.' Kate nodded to the ambulance up the road. 'Not that I can blame them. They're just kids.'

'What is it?' Castle asked again and tried to get a look at the body.

Kate, Esposito and Ryan all got in his way, 'Ah you really don't need to see it. So doc what was the cause of death.'

'Hard to tell, but I'm guessing it was the neck first.' Lanie told them pulling her gloves off. 'It would have taken a while to do the rest.'

'Then why?' Ryan waved at the top of his head.

'You got me. That's all I can tell you before we get the body back to the lab. Or what's left of it.'

Castle was looking more and more confused 'The neck first, what do you mean? What rest of it?'

It was at that point Kate took pity on him, besides they were going to need him on this. 'The victims head was almost totally ripped off, not just broken.'

'People just don't have that strength. Maybe a bear or a tiger, but this doesn't look like an animal attack.' Lanie pointed out.

'Except, of course, something ate the vic's brains.'

Castle's jaw litteraly dropped. 'Brains?'

'Who or whatever did this practically ripped their head off, cracked their skull open like an egg and scooped out part of their brain.'

'Just to make things even better.' Esposito grimaced and pointed behind him. 'He was seen leaving that bar not one hour ago.'

'Zombies.' Richard suggested as the lift door's opened to the police station. 'Hyped up super fast radioactive undead.'

'That your theory Castle?' Beckett raised an eyebrow. He'd been thinking about it on the way there and it was only thing he could come up with. This was going to be one of the more weird ones. There probably was a real explanation somewhere down the line, but it was still fun to go wild.

'What have you got?' he asked. 'A drug crazy maniac? Jason, or Freddy?'

'Kruger, original or remake?' Ryan asked.

'Original, Englund and Craven all the way. I loved new nightmare!' Richard grinned 'Hey that's a good theme for Alexis's party, right?'

'Castle, she's a teenage girl having a birthday party. She won't want to go as Freddy Kruger.' Beckett rolled her eyes as only she could.

'Yeah, but we did Princess Bride last year. I was the Dread Pirate Roberts.' He struck a pose.

'Save it for the party Arthos.' She smirked. 'Ryan, Esposito; see if anyone at the scene has found the Vic's ID yet.'

A uniformed officer Richard has seen around was standing at Beckett's desk. Sat in his usual seat was an elegantly dressed old lady with a tight bun of white hair. 'Officer?' Beckett asked as she came closer.

'Detective, this lady requested to see you.'

'I'm detective Kate Beckett and this is Rick Castle. I'm afraid were in the middle of a case right now, if you could…'

The old lady stood up and looked at them. 'I know.' she interrupted before looking off into the middle distance. 'You can wait you're whole life for something and still not know what to do when it actually happens.'

'Okay, why don't you try at the beginning?' Richard suggested.

An almost haunted look passed across her face. 'Because in this story the beginning is the middle and the middle is the end.' She suddenly laughed. 'I know. James Ian Walthan.'

Beckett and Richard looked at each other 'Who?'

Not that second Ryan came up. 'Hey we got lucky, one of the kids that found the body picked up his wallet. His name was James…'

'Ian Walthan.' Beckett finished.

'Yes, how did you guess?'

End teaser