898. Chapter 898

After The Time of Our Lives

Episode 7.06

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: So maybe in some universe I do own Castle? Rating: K Time: See above.

"Castle, Beckett. Over here." Ryan called from the front of Remy's, right by the windows.

Esposito shoved a chair out for Beckett. "So, did you get him to do any paperwork?"

Kate laughed. "Married life hasn't changed him that much. At least not in a bit less than a month."

"Maybe he'll love paperwork someday." Lanie said, with a smile.

"For Kate, the love of my life, if the future of the human race depended on it, I'd do paperwork. But not until then."

Kate shook her head. "I think the human race is doomed if we have to depend on Castle doing paperwork." Everyone laughed.

Ryan stood up slightly and looked around. "Where is everybody? There are no other customers here and I haven't seen a waitress yet."

"It's the flu season." Lanie informed him. "It's bad. Half the NYPD is out with it. But I saw Nancy in back. She'll be out soon."

Kate nodded and took Rick's hand. "I'll bet the night shift went straight home after the days we've been having."

They sat there looking at their menus, although they had memorized them after all the years of eating here.

Then everything changed. The night instantly changed to day and Remy's changed. The windows were shattered, the tables and chairs were scarred and broken and the partitions were broken down. Then they heard it.

"That's automatic weapons fire." Espo said. "And lots of it. Was there a terrorist attack?"

"And we sat here at Remy's and didn't notice the place being trashed around us?" Kate asked. "Not likely."

"If there's gunfire, we should move to the back." Castle said, taking Kate's arm.

As they moved back, a young white man with a scraggly beard, wearing patched camouflage pants and a dirty white tee shirt stopped in front of Remy's and fired a burst from some kind of submachine gun.

Espo stepped forward. "Hey, bro. What's happening?"

"What's happening? What the hell do you think is happening? The damned Regulars are landing by chopper all over the city, mostly on rooftops and sending in the Auxiliaries to clean us up on the ground. You gotta go, brother. Run." He fired another burst and then ran.

They all looked at each other, trying to decide what to do. Then an eight wheeled armored vehicle pulled up in front of Remy's and began shooting with both a cannon and a machine gun. The vehicle brought a hail of fire towards it as well as Molotov cocktails thrown from the upper stories of buildings. As the first vehicle swept the street level with fire, a second vehicle came up. Its weapons had enough elevation to sweep the upper floors of the block. The rain of Molotov cocktails stopped.

As they huddled on the floor, two soldiers, in camouflage, body armor and helmets dived through the shattered windows and inside. One, a tall, thin Black man saw them and covered them with his weapon, a long, heavy barreled rifle. His partner was firing some sort of repeating grenade launcher down the street.

"Who ah ye?" The rifleman asked.

"New York Police." Ryan yelled, holding up his badge.

"Poh-lice? What you do heah? Why you no go headquarters?"

"In case you missed it, there's a war. Did you expect us to just stroll along?" Kate said angrily, not having any idea what was going on.

Surprisingly, the Black man laughed. "You right. No stroll." He laughed again. He moved next to his partner who had stopped to reload while the rifleman fired.

The other man, an Asian by the look of him, turned to them. "Wait until the assault troops go by and head back the way we came and report to headquarters." The man looked out the window. "The Nationalists are starting to surrender. We'll be moving soon."

"What headquarters should we report to?" Castle asked.

The grenadier shook his head and muttered "Dumb ass." Then looked at Castle and the rest. "Fifty Five Commando, Auxiliary Forces, Africa Command. And hold your badges up so you don't get your fool heads blown off."

Then more soldiers were running past Remy's and the two soldiers ran out and were gone.

Suddenly another soldier was standing outside, looking in at them. "You're the police?" The man demanded.

They all showed their badges.

"Report to the Field Police Headquarters down the block. They'll give you uniforms, armor and proper weapons. You can start looking for Nationalist hold outs and…"

And just as quickly, they were back in the familiar Remy's they had been sitting in minutes before. They were standing in the middle of the room and they heard the waitress calling to them.

"Be there in just a bit, Detective Beckett."

They sat down, much shaken.

"What did we see?" Ryan asked.

"Some kind of a civil war in the US. The Regular Army and Auxiliaries against the Nationalists, whoever they are." Esposito said.

"Like Rome." Castle said. Everyone looked at him. "The Romans manned their legions from citizens and raised auxiliary forces from conquered peoples and other non-citizens. I'll bet that in some future or alternate America, some Julius Caesar has decided to overthrow the republic and become an emperor."

"Castle, that's absurd." Kate said, not really believing it was absurd.

"What can I get you folks?"

Things had changed again.

Instead of Nancy, the waitress was a tall, busty blonde wearing only bikini bottoms.

"What can I get you folks?" She asked again. "Out of towners, I bet. Come here to sample the evils of the big city? Well, for starters, I'd suggest some West Virginia Green. Those hillbillies can grow okay weed and it's cheap. If you're really looking for something to set you off, maybe some Maui Wowie or some Colorado Mountains High."

They all looked at each other. Kate spoke. "Maybe we should just leave now."

A familiar voice spoke. "Not a good idea, pretty Mama. Look outside, those are the narcs. You're okay as long as you're in a licensed premises, but once outside, even if you just have a whiff of the ganja on you, you're busted. You'll need to stay here until dawn, then they go away and you can go home."

Kate was shocked. "Roy Montgomery?"

He nodded and smiled. "I know you. You're that model, Katie Beckett. Out for a little fun with some friends?"

Kate nodded weakly. "Nice to see you again. Um, we'll make our decision in a bit. Look over the menu."

"Okay. Anything you want, Katie, just ask. Roy's Higher and Higher is here to serve you." Montgomery wandered off, talking to his customers and making sure they were happy. Most were very happy. Very happy.

"I am not going to get stoned at some place an alternate Roy Montgomery runs." She whispered fiercely. "We should go." She started to get up, but Castle stopped her.

"There are cops outside and they're looking in. And I don't like the way they look at us. Like we're fresh meat."

"We're cops." Kate said, glaring at Castle.

"Not here. You're a model, but you have an NYPD badge and two guns. What if we get separated? Suppose only one of us gets back to…..where ever?"

Castle felt a heavy hand on his shoulder. "Mind if I borrow your lady for a little of the old in and out?"

Castle looked up into another familiar face. "Doctor Motorcycle Boy?" He said without thinking. "Um, Josh Davidson?"

"Righteous, brother. How about your old lady?"

Kate was about to unload on Josh, but Rick put his hand on her arm. "Sorry, this is my wife."

Josh smiled. "So I'll lend you mine." He turned around. "Hey, sweet thing, come over and meet your new old man."

She was younger, slinkier and sexier, but it was Victoria Gates all right, smoking a huge hand rolled joint. Dressed, almost, in an off the shoulder mini dress that left nothing to the imagination, she smiled at him. "Hello, lover."

"Victoria?" Castle said, shocked.

"You know me, Sugar?"

Castle nodded. "Yeah, at that party. You dumped me for another guy."

"Another guy?" Josh said angrily, shoving his face into Castle's. "Was it that Demming?"

Castle nodded.

"I'll kill him." Josh headed for the back of Roy's with Victoria following, claiming that Tom Demming meant nothing to her.

"That was so weird." Castle said.

"And Josh isn't the only person that we know that's here." Kate said, pointing across the room.

Everyone's eyes followed and Ryan shot to his feet, only to be pulled down by Esposito.

"Let me go, Javi." He growled.

"We don't know any of them. Not really."

Sitting at the far side of the room were Roz Karpowski, Tori Ellis, Ann Hastings and Jenny Ryan, but probably still Jenny O'Malley in this world. All were dressed only in hot pants and sitting in the middle of them, wearing a shaved mink coat, a fedora and enough bling to start a jewelry store was Kevin Ryan. As they watched, a man walked up to Ryan and handed him some money and then took off with Ellis.

"I'm a pimp!" Ryan wailed.

"No you're not." Said a familiar voice.

They were back in Remy's, but a very quiet Remy's and facing then was another Rick Castle and Kate Beckett.

The new Castle continued. "You're Kevin Ryan, a good cop and a great family man."

"We're sorry about the changes. We were trying to get the….."The new Kate stopped. "We can't really tell you what we were doing. Need to know. But we've fixed it, and you'll never come unstuck in alternate realities again. The two disappeared and they were suddenly back in Remy's.

Nancy walked to them. "Now, what can I get you folks?"

"Beers!" Castle said. "Beers all around."

It took three beers apiece before they were settled down enough to talk about it.

"That wasn't a hallucination you had just before we got married then?" Kate asked.

"No."

"And somewhere there is a civil war in the US, and drugs and prostitution is legal someplace else?"

"And you're a model." Castle said, winking at his wife.

"There's no place like home." Kate finally said.