Pictures of Home
Introduction, Disclaimer and Teaser

Authors Introduction:-

Oh boy, welcome to my what if. This is a huge what if. A more than a year ago I came up with an idea. Couldn't do anything with it at the time so I threw it out there for other people to try. Unfortunately I've done this before and the same thing happened:- Lots of writers liked the idea and tried to get me to pick it up. I honestly couldn't. It was a good start, but no matter what I did it just went nowhere. Right up until I came up with this one…

Where was Richard Castle during the summer and who kidnapped him? This is my who and why.

Once again as ever I'm woking on so much right now I don't have the time to do everything so this will be updated on a very off kilter schedule.

Disclamer:-

I don't own any of the characters used here. Believe it or not all now belong to Disney. They own Marvel and ABC television.

Teaser

Steve tried to keep to the back of the procession. With all the chaos after taking down SHIELD he had almost missed the news report about Peggy. It had been buried amongst the latest dark secret the various press outlets had dredged from the SHIELD files he and Black Widow had made public.

The revelation of what SHIELD had become was too much for Peggy. A combination of age, regret and devastation was just too much for her damaged heart to take and she'd passed on. Report had it down to a stroke in her sleep. Steve hoped that much was true.

At the very least Steve hoped it had been peaceful, as horrible as it was he could even feel a little glad. For her it was over. at long last. Since they last talked he knew she was slipping. With one final act she had moved on. No long, lingering, farewell. All the goodbyes had been said. They were done.

Her extended family were at the front of the funeral. Sons and daughters he would never know, cousins and nephews. Wiping the tears from his eyes, Steve struggled with the waring emotions inside of him. A thousand should haves and regrets, one for every breath. A dozen with each tear.

Before the priest had finished his opening prayer he left. This was her family, he had no right to be there. Later. When they had said their goodbyes, that would be his turn. As much for himself as her.

Outside the english weather was unusually bright. winter, early spring. It should have been raining. Instead, while the sun still hung low in the sky, it was warm. The trees and flowers were already full with leaves. Peggy had moved back to her homeland when she'd stepped down from SHIELD. She'd bought a little house in the countryside and tried, from all reports unsuccessfully, to let the world get by.

Looking at the weather he sighed, remembering when he was station in London during the war. When it wasn't raining bombs it was just raining. Global warming had changed that, another thing he had to get used to these days.

As he walked through the long shadows cast by the church and surrounding trees he realised someone was following him. They weren't even trying to hide the fact. He could tell they hadn't been in the church, which meant they'd been waiting for him Steve stopped and turned around. He couldn't see anything, but he knew they were there. 'Alright, who are you and what do you want?'

A man with grey to white hair and a short beard stepped out into view. 'I'm a friend Captain.' His accent was american, flat, but there was just enough to hint that he was from the west coast.

Steve had left his shield with his luggage at the hotel. He didn't think he'd need it at a funeral and there was no point advertising who he was. Most of the time people didn't recognise him without the uniform and that suited him fine. That this man hadn't was worrying. He had been waiting for him and Steve didn't have a weapon on him 'Friend huh? Have you any proof of that?'

'It's not a good idea these days for me to carry ID. Even my usual fake ones. Not since you took down SHIELD.' The man told him and leaned against a tree. 'I have some, information. Need to know, and you're the one person that should have it.'

'SHIELD's gone, it's secrets aren't secret any more. Find a new job.' Steve told him and turned to leave.

'This isn't SHIELD, it's family.' The man insisted, that got Steve's attention. 'About forty years ago I was a SHIELD agent, told I could have been one of the best. Director Carter pulled me for a mission. Shadow an asset, make sure they had no contact with SHIELD or anyone else. I blew the mission, made… Contact.' There was a lot of emphasis on that last word but Steve didn't know what he meant by it

'What has this to do with anything?' he asked carefully. He might be curious, but so far it didn't sound like this had anything to do with him.

The man snorted. 'Madam Director heard and pulled me out of assignment so fast it made my head spin. Next thing I knew I was posted to Argentina, taking down suspected HYDRA agents with little to no backup. A year later she shipped me back home. The asset had a child, a son. My son.' He looked down, ether he was a damn good actor or he regretted something. 'She told me to stay away from them, gave me my pick of assignments. Just anywhere but New York. His name's Richard. He's even got a daughter himself now. Girl called Alexis'

'Congratulations. What's this got to do with…'

'She's your great-granddaughter.' he interrupted. 'The asset Madam Director had me shadow, her name's Martha Rodgers. Your daughter.'

Steve felt his world collapse in on himself. 'You're… You're lying.'

'Wish I was Captain. Madam Director delated every record. Rewrote birth certificates.' He pulled off his backpack and put it on the ground and inside was a file. 'This is the only copy of anything. She swore me to secrecy, for Martha's safety and Richard's. She knew everyone, even SHIELD, would be after them incase anything connected to the super serum could be found so she buried them so deep no one could find them.'

'No. She would have told me.' Steve shook his head before leaping the distance between them. Picking the other man up and ramming him against the tree he had been leaning on. 'Who are you?'

Wincing against the super strong grip the man gasped. 'It's the truth. She probably would have told you, but we both know she was couldn't.'

Steve dropped him, impressively he didn't collapse and somehow kept his feet under him. 'Is she here?'

The man rubbed his neck. 'Martha?' he asked. 'No. She, she doesn't know, neither does Richard. Madam Director kept her in the cold. She gave her up for adoption, it's all in the file.'

Picking it up Steve looked him in the eye. 'And you?'

'I ended up being farmed out to the CIA. I headed joint ops between SHIELD and more conventional agencies until you kicked open the snake pit. Most of us in the field had no idea, I hope you can believe that.'

Steve looked at the file in his hand. 'I can. What are you going to do about it?'

'Disappear.' The man said with a shrug. 'I've still got some friends in the CIA and elsewhere. They've scrubbed a couple of safe houses, one or two accounts I had tucked away for a bad day, from the records. Other than that I'm finding the darkest hole I can and crawling down it.'

Steve looked up and, almost on automatic, saluted the man that would, in other circumstances, be his son-in-law. If this was the truth that is. The man saluted back and walked away.

He was on the plane back to New York. Seven hours, not including the change in time zone. It was more than long enough to read the file. He was going to have to research, independently. He didn't know how much he could trust what he had in front of him but from what he could tell it was legitimate. Both the real paper work and the cover story Peggy had cooked up.

She'd taken one of the false applications he'd made when trying to sign up before Dr Erskine found him and created a false trail. Their history was pretty much the same, dead parents, no brothers or sisters. Martha, of course, was born out of wedlock, but her mother supposedly died during child birth.

Steve had wondered what had happened to his home and belonging after he had been frozen. The answer he'd gotten was that it had been sold and the proceeds put back into the war effort. Now he knew different. The invented mother's employer, one H. Stark, had indeed auctioned everything off, but by some strange coincidence the name H. Stark had also set up a trust for Martha until she came of age. A trust that just happened to contain that money and Steve's army pay combined.

Sitting back he looked out the tiny window and nodded to the attendant. He had a lot to do.

Richard Castle almost skipped into the reception of his apartment building. Kate Beckett had just done it, she'd taken down Bracken. Right now she'd be filling out reports, paperwork and dodging reporters.

Luckily they hadn't turned up here yet, but it was only a matter of time. 'Mr Castle.' The doorman come security guard at the door waved him over. 'Mr Castle have you heard?'

'About Detective Beckett? Of course, she just called me.'

'No. It's that apartment on the third floor. Someone's renting it.'

That was a surprise. He was actually looking at buying that for Alexis and his mother. That way they could both move out, but still be close by. 'Who?' he asked.

'I think that would be me.' A tall man came in, carrying a bag in one hand and what looked like a trash can lid in the other. He put both down. 'Steve Rodgers. I take it we're going to be neighbours.'

Richard gaped for a moment, desperately trying to think of something to say. Eventually after mumbling a couple of vowel sounds he offered his hand. 'C… Castle Richard Castle. That's who I am.'

'The novelist? A friend of mine likes your books.' Again Richard's mind raced. A friend, one of… one of them was a fan. 'Well it's good to meet you. James isn't it?'

'Urm, yes sir?'

'It was good to meet you too.' with that Steven Rodgers picked up his bags and headed for the stairs.

'That, that was Captain America!' James, the doorman, gaped.

'I know! Alexis is going to freak.'

End Teaser