632. Chapter 632

After Under the Gun

Episode 3.03

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Whoever owns Castle is hidden from me. Rating: K Time: See above

Renowned archeologist Dr. Katherine "Idaho" Beckett stood on the narrow ledge fifteen stories above the well lit streets of Shanghai, hoping no one would notice she was there.

"Really, Dr. Beckett. You could catch your death of cold out there." Drawled a familiar, but unwelcome voice.

She cursed to herself. "It's summer. I'll be fine. Why don't you just go away?"

Her only answer was sarcastic laughter.

How did I end up standing out here in my underwear on the night before my wedding? She thought.

Four Months Previously

"Do you see him?" She asked anxiously.

Rick Castle laughed and held his fiance's hand tightly so that she didn't get swept away by the crowds streaming in every direction along the docks. "I don't really know what he looks like. You just had that old photo of him from when you were an undergrad."

Suddenly Kate stood on her tiptoes. "There he is." She began waving, "Professor Royce! Over here."

A grey haired, older man looked over, then smiled and waved at her.

"Professor Royce, it's so good to see you again." Kate threw her arms around the man and hugged him. She stepped back. "This is my fiancé, Rick Castle. Rick, this is my old professor from Stanford, Michael Royce." The two men shook hands.

"Could we go get a drink?" Royce asked. "I'm parched."

"Our hotel is just a few blocks away. They have a bar." Kate said.

Once in the bar, Castle was surprised that Royce downed his Scotch in two gulps and ordered another one.

"You were Kate's faculty advisor at Stanford?"

"And she was my finest student. Oh, my colleagues complained that women had no place in archeology, or in college at all, but Kate proved them wrong. She's the best there is."

Rick nodded. "I can attest to that."

Kate blushed prettily. "Oh, please."

Suddenly, a man was standing by their table. "Why it's Professor Royce of Stanford. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Ulric ap von Von."

"Yes, we've heard of you." Kate said coldly.

Von Von preened. "I own the von Von Bank, the von Von Trading Company, the von Von Shipping Line, the von Von…"

"Do you own anything that isn't named after you?" Castle asked.

"No, why should I?" Von Von looked down at Castle. "And you are?"

"Rick Castle. I'm an amateur archeologist. This is my fiancé, Kate Beckett."

Von Von bowed to Kate. "Of course, the lovely Doctor Beckett. You really must come and see my collection of Chinese antiquities someday."

"Antiquities that you've looted from the Chinese people."

"Looted? Hardly. They have all been legally acquired from the local authorities."

"Gangs of warlords, you mean. The Chinese government doesn't recognize your "acquisitions".

Von Von laughed. "The Chinese Government? There isn't any. As you say, there is nothing but feuding warlords ever since the revolution of 1911. In the fifteen years since then, nothing has changed."

"It will change, I'm sure."

Von Von bowed. "I really must be going. So good to meet all of you." And with that, he turned and left.

Once in the suite that Rick and Kate shared, Royce explained why he had come to China. "Do you know anything of Buddhism, Mr. Castle?"

Castle frowned. "A bit."

Royce settled into his lecture mode. "Lord Siddartha, who was renamed Buddha, or the Enlightened One, lived and taught sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries, BCE in what is now India. For some four hundred years his teachings were taught by oral history alone until they were finally written down. In the second century AD, a group of monks travelled to China at the behest of the Emperor of China to teach. They had Buddha's teachings engraved on solid gold plates. But, somewhere in the wilds of Szechuan the monks caught the plague and one by one they died. The last monk buried the plates with his brother monks and managed to find his way back to India. But the golden plates were never recovered."

Kate shook her head. "Professor Royce. I've heard that tale a thousand times over the years. It's just a myth, like Genghis Khan's treasure."

Royce shook his head. "No, I have a map and a report written by the only surviving monk. I know exactly where it is. I've spent years translating the ancient Indian, but I have it now."

"And…?" Castle asked.

"And, I'm getting old, Mr. Castle. I need the help of younger, stronger people. Naturally, I thought of my best student."

Castle nodded. "We could sail up the Yangtze River all the way to Szechuan."

Royce nodded in return. "The treasure is in the southernmost region. Almost to Tibet."

Kate could see that neither her fiancé nor her old professor would be deflected from this adventure. "Fine, we can get three first class cabins on one of the Jardine-Matheson ships going up river."

"Three cabins?" Castle asked, with a pained expression on his face.

"I'm a respectable woman. I won't be staying in the cabin of a man I'm not married to." Then Kate smiled. "So there had better be a door going between our cabins."

Three days later, the three archeologists boarded the ship that would carry them on the start of their adventure. As they came aboard, a woman called to Castle.

"Yoo hoo! Ricky! It's me, Jacinda." The blonde woman ran to Castle and began to kiss him, but he was able to fend her off.

"Jacinda, I'd like you to meet my fiancé, Dr. Katherine Beckett." He said, glancing at Beckett, who seemed disinclined to do any physical damage. Yet.

"Oh. Your fiancé? I hadn't heard." She winked at Rick and walked away, rolling her hips as she did.

"That was…Um, she and I…A long time ago….We…"

Kate glared at him. "I'm sure you did."

After dinner, Kate and Rick were relaxing in his cabin when the door opened and Jacinda, wearing only a thin and short silk robe walked in. "Oh, Ricky. How silly of me. This isn't my cabin." She giggled and walked toward Rick, not having seen Kate.

"I can help you find your cabin, I'm sure." Kate growled. Kate, who was quite strong, easily threw Jacinda over her shoulder and carried her out of the cabin. She put Jacinda down at the rail, whipped off her robe and threw her into the river. Kate sighed unhappily as she saw Jacinda's blonde head surface in the wake of the ship and a small Chinese fishing boat rush to rescue her.

Kate walked back to the cabin.

Rick stared at her. "Wow. People do not want to see you get jealous."

Kate smiled at him. "Jealous? I wasn't jealous, lover. That was me being mildly peeved. You do not want to see me if I get jealous. Now, why don't we go to bed?"

A month later, the trio was riding through the mountainous country near the border with Tibet. Accompanying them were a dozen heavily armed Tibetans who managed their pack train and provided labor for their expedition. Dorje, their leader, rode ahead a bit and then came back. He and Kate had a short conversation.

"What did he say?" Royce asked.

"He says the waterfall on the map is just ahead. We're close now." Castle answered.

"At last." Royce muttered to himself, pulling out a flask of gin and taking a long swig.

Across the narrow stream was a high embankment. If the map was correct, the golden plates should be buried there.

They crossed the stream and managed to find their way up to the top of the embankment. Royce took out the ancient manuscript and checked the landmarks. "Here!" He said, stomping on the ground. "Dig here."

At once, the Tibetans began digging. After they had dug down some five feet, the found something. "An iron chest! Haul it up." Cried Royce.

When the chest was pulled up, Kate and Rick examined it. Everyone's attention was on the chest.

"Just stay where you are, mates, and no one gets hurt, see?"

They turned around to see they were covered by a dozen or so men with submachine guns.

"Who are you?" Kate demanded.

"Names Runt. Colin Runt. Glad to meet you, Missy."

Castle frowned. "Runt? You were with the Municipal Police of the Shanghai International Settlement until you were fired. Stealing from the Triads? The Chinese gangs. I'd imagine you'd have to get out of town so the Triads didn't catch up with you."

"Looks like I did, mate. And I'm about to get rich. Now move away from it."

They backed away and Runt knelt and smashed open the lock. When he looked inside his expression changed from glee to rage. "It's just bloody parchment! Where's the gold?"

Castle laughed. "I guess everyone who said this was just a myth was right. They didn't write Buddha's teachings on gold, the used parchment."

Runt swore and stood up. As he did so, his men began to yell at him. As near as Castle could tell, they were angry that there would be no payday for them. Eventually, Runt got his men under control, and rode off.

They made camp that night and got ready for the long trip back. After breakfast, which Royce drank, he began to saddle his horse.

"Don't you think we should dig up the golden plates before we leave?" Kate asked.

"What?" Royce said. "What do you mean?"

"You made a mistake in your translation. The treasure is over close to the waterfall."

Once back in Shanghai, Rick and Kate checked into the best hotel in town and started to make the arrangements for their marriage. Once that was done, they would share their discovery with the world.

Kate was getting ready for bed, without Rick, as it was considered bad luck for the bride and groom to see each other the night before the wedding, when she heard someone trying to pick the lock. She tiptoed over and whipped the door over. It was von Von with Jacinda who had a gun pressed to Royce's side. She slammed the door and ran to the phone. It was dead! Seeing nowhere to hide in the room, she opened the window and stepped out onto the small ledge dressed in just her underwear.

"Really, Dr. Beckett. You could catch your death of cold out there." Drawled a familiar, but unwelcome voice.

She cursed to herself. "It's summer. I'll be fine. Why don't you just go away?"

Her only answer was sarcastic laughter. "I'm afraid that if you don't come in, I'll be compelled to send Professor Royce out after you. With a bullet in his head."

Kate groaned and went back inside.

"Now, tell us where the gold is?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Rick handled that."

Von Von shook his head. "I don't believe you. But luckily, while Jacinda here was unable to get anything from Castle, I'm sure Serena will have better luck extracting the truth from him. Among other things."

While von Von was laughing, Kate pulled her bra up, exposing her boobs. As von Von gaped, she punched Jacinda, breaking her nose, then grabbed her gun. She knocked two of the blonde's teeth out, but felt von Von's hands grab her. She stamped on his foot using a technique she had learned from the Shao Lin monks and von Von screamed in pain. She grabbed Jacinda by the hair and rammed her bodily into von Von. Then she pushed both of them out of the window. Luckily for the two of them, they landed in a night soil cart and survived the fall.

Kate turned to Mike Royce. "Why? Why did you sell us out?"

"What are you talking about?" Royce said, shocked.

"Only you, Castle and I knew we had found the treasure. You told von Von about it. Confess! Why?"

"My drinking. I got fired from Stanford. This was my only chance. I knew you'd just give the gold to some museum."

Kate shook her head. "I have to go save Castle. Don't leave."

She found Castle in his room, tied naked to the bed with a naked blonde running her hands over him. "I don't understand, Mr. Castle. Nothing that I do aroused you. Why not?"

"I'm just imagining what you'll look like when Beckett gets through with you. " Castle said with a grin. "That picture is so horrifying that nothing you do will excite me."

"I'm not worried about that." The blonde scoffed, opening a bag of sex toys.

"You should be!" Beckett screamed and rushed at the blonde. Beckett broke her nose, blackened her eyes, pulled out all of her hair, yes, all of her hair, knocked out all of her teeth and then went to work on her body, damaging it severely. She then carried the unconscious blonde to the window and dropped her into the night soil cart, knocking von Von and Jacinda back in. She called down for someone to call the police.

Then she untied Castle. "That's what I'm like when I get jealous."

Castle laughed. "Are you ready to get married tomorrow even though we've seen each other?"

"Of course."

"Is there some reason you're showing me your boobs?"

"Of course."

Kate was distracted for a bit and by the time she got back to her room, Michael Royce was gone. She wasn't all that unhappy.

But Michael Royce would enter the lives of Mr. and Mrs. Castle again. But, that's another story.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year, or a Merry and Happy whatever it is you celebrate, to all fans of Castle, Her Hotness, Stana Katic, and that guy she hangs around with on TV.