825. Chapter 825

After Head Case

Episode 4.03

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I only own Castle in my mind. Rating: K Time: See above.

Author's note: This is an….homage to the Star Trek: TOS episode Mirror, Mirror. Kirk, through a transporter malfunction is sent to a violent alternate universe where the Federation is a brutal empire and the crew of the Enterprise scheme to kill their superiors to take their places. Of course, we know Castle has no transporters….

Castle was leaving his loft when the elevator malfunctioned. He looked at the control panel and pushed a few buttons. He pulled out his phone, but got no bars. Frowning, he was about to start pounding on the door when the elevator began going down again.

As soon as he walked out of his building, he saw that something was wrong. There were few cars on the street but he did see two armored vehicles marked NYPD. He shook his head. Had there been some kind of terrorist event while I slept?

He also noticed that the people on the street he saw were more shabbily dressed than was usual and they kept their heads down and wouldn't make eye contact. The streets and sidewalks seemed dirtier as well.

Up ahead, he saw three people headed for him. They wore camouflaged fatigues with automatic rifles slung over their shoulders. He recognized one as Officer Ann Hastings.

"Hastings. What's going on here?"

Ann Hastings stopped and glared at him. "What the hell did you call me, slimeball? I'm Officer Hastings, do you understand that?"

"Look, there's no need…"

Hastings slammed her nightstick into his belly, doubling him over. She hit him again and this time his breakfast came up, fast.

"You bastard!" Screamed Hastings. "You got my boots dirty. That's it. We're going back to the precinct." The two cops with her laughed as Hastings put handcuffs on him tightly. She dragged him back to the 12th Precinct. Castle noticed through his pain that the street in front of the precinct was blocked off with concrete barriers manned by heavily armed police.

Hastings took his upstairs and he got off in what had been the homicide bullpen. The first person he saw was Esposito. But, he was a different Javier Esposito. He was more buff and Castle noticed he had dried blood on his tight tee shirt. "Got some fresh meat for me, Hastings?" He said with a cold laugh.

"I'm going to take this one myself. Look at what he did to my boots."

A slender brunette stood up and turned to face them, a cold smile on her face. Then the smile turned to shock. "Hastings! What the hell have you done? Jesus!"

"Is something wrong, Lieutenant?" Hastings asked, suddenly looking worried.

"Is something wrong? That's Mr. Richard Castle from the Ministry of Propaganda. Do you have any idea who he is? And what he can do to us? I mean to you?"

"What the hell is going on out here?" Demanded a deep voice. It was Captain Montgomery, but not the one Castle was familiar with. He was dressed in an expensive suit, wearing a Rolex and had a diamond pinkie ring. Standing beside him were Demming and LT, but not the ones he knew. They were big men in his world, but these two were huge and bulged with muscles.

"Officer Hastings arrested Mr. Richard Castle, sir. From the Ministry of Propaganda. I had no idea she'd done this, sir. I was disciplining her when you noticed. Sir, I had nothing to do with this, I think…"

Montgomery glared at her and she stopped talking. "Officer Hastings, I think my guards need to discipline you." He turned to the two men. "You can use my recreation room."

Hastings began to back up and cry. "Please, sir. I didn't know who he was. He never told me."

Espo grabbed her arm. "Sorry, Chica. It looks like it's play time for you." Espo laughed and pushed her to the two men. They grabbed her and pulled her into the captain's office. Castle noticed they had no expression on their faces, never said a word and their eyes were oddly blank. Her screams were cut off when the office door closed.

Montgomery glared at Beckett. "Since you're the senior officer in charge of Hastings, I think you should apologize to Mr. Castle. Do you understand, Beckett?"

Kate took Castle's hand and led him to what had been the interview room. Inside it was changed. There was a bed, with a mirror over it and a small refrigerator. As they entered, soft music began to play. When Castle turned around, Beckett had already taken off her tee shirt, her bra and was pushing her skinny jeans down as she sat on the bed. "You can do anything you want to, Mr. Castle, anything at all. You can be as aggressive as you want. I want you to be aggressive." She kicked her shoes off and pushed her jeans and panties down and off. "Anything. Just tell me."

Although on one level this was a dream come true for Castle, he couldn't possibly take advantage of Kate like this. Even if she was another Kate. For the first time he had time to think. I'm in some kind of awful alternate universe. And I have to get out of here. But how?

He noticed Kate looking up at him, fear in her eyes. "Sir, anything you want. Anything."

"Beckett, get dressed."

She began to cry and shake her head. "Please, sir. Not the Basement. Anything but that. Please. If you don't like me, I can get anyone. Another officer, a prisoner. Anyone you want. I'll do anything, sir. Please don't send me to the Basement."

"You're not going to the Basement. Just get dressed, okay?"

As Kate stood up, the door opened and Karpowski came in with a skinny young man. "We'll have some fun, you little revolutionary shit…." She stopped when she saw Beckett.

"Karpowski! Do you have any idea what a closed door means, you stupid slut?" Kate raged. "Who the hell is this punk?"

Karpowski came to attention. "My collar, Lieutenant. Spraying anti-unity graffiti. I caught him red handed."

"No you didn't." She turned to the boy. "Get out of here. Now!" The kid ran. She turned back to Karpowski. "Now that makes you seventeen busts short of your minimum and there are only five days left in the cycle. Keep this up and you'll be lucky to stay a detective, let alone make lieutenant and try to take my place. Now, you get out, too. I'm busy."

Kate looked at Castle. "Are you sure you don't…?"

"Just get dressed."

"Montgomery will wonder if we come out in less than a half an hour, sir."

Castle had an idea. "That's okay. I was headed for the precinct anyway."

"You were?" Beckett looked frightened again.

"Research. I have to take a look at how things work out in the real world. If I make sure the details are right, the whole story is right. Understand?"

Kate nodded. "You are brilliant, sir. Brilliant, just like everyone says."

Castle ego would have swollen up if he hadn't realized that here he was a brilliant propagandist for a violent, sadistic regime. "So, sit down and tell me about a typical day here."

Beckett relaxed a bit and started to talk. Montgomery was Commander Montgomery here and he had converted Demming and LT into two bodyguards who were loyal to the death. No one knew how he did it, and the people in the precinct were betting that Montgomery would take down someone at One PP and move up. People who got in Montgomery's way had a habit of just disappearing, but no one knew how it happened. Kate was positioning herself to take Montgomery's place.

"Ryan is our liaison with the gangs. They provide the drugs and girls that keep the scum stoned and happy. They don't cause trouble that way. Occasionally we have to remind them who's in charge. That's when we bring in Espo, our enforcer, and his boys. All ex-military and all cold blooded killers. Those that survive go to Lanie Parish. She'll handcuff them to one of her steel tables and see what they're made of, so to speak. She really loves her job. It makes even me sick sometimes."

"Most of the precinct are time serving head breakers. Occasionally we got one like Hastings. Smart enough, but too damned quick to break a head. She and Karpowoski think they're so damned smart, planning on taking me down." Beckett laughed. "I'll see those two in the Basement before I'm done with them."

Castle nodded. "You know, I was thinking of writing a new character, a tough, yet brainy police lieutenant. She could be you."

Beckett smiled at him. "Really, sir. You mean I'd have an ally among the elite? Really, sir." She lowered her voice. "I really would do anything for that. Can you come to my place tonight? I'll give you a key, sir."

Castle headed back to his loft, feeling awful. He got in his elevator and hoped that he'd get out back in his own world. He didn't. When he entered the loft he saw it was decorated in some sort of Fascist Realism décor. Paintings of muscular soldiers charging emaciated, ugly enemies and sculptures made from weapons parts. And sitting on the couch was Alexis with the boy Karpowski had arrested and Beckett had let go.

"Father? What are you doing home so early?"

"What's he doing here?" Castle blurted out.

"We were just leaving." Alexis said coldly. "Don't worry that your daughter's anti-social activities will cause you and your fascist friends any trouble. You've made it perfectly clear that you want nothing to do with me." Before Castle could say a word, Alexis and her friend left.

He walked into his office and saw his laptop open on his desk. The screen saver now said, "A Unified Society Demands That You Write." He looked at what the other Castle had been doing and wished he hadn't. It was violent pornography in comic book form. This Derrick Storm was beating up a teenaged girl who had rebelled against society. After that he tore her clothes off and the last panel he saw, Storm was taking of his clothes as the naked girl cried. He felt like throwing up.

In spite of the fact that Beckett had told him to come over at about nine, he decided he was hungry. It'd be a bit after six when he got there if he left now. He could take her to dinner. Maybe he'd get the damned elevator to work this time.

It didn't.

He took a cab to Beckett's and opened the door with the key she'd given him. He opened it and was surprised. There were Beckett, Alexis and the student she'd left his loft with. "Pumpkin? Do you know Beckett?"

Beckett was on him in a flash, driving her boot into his crotch, then something hit his head and he fell to the carpet and darkness.

He woke up with a pounding head and the sound of an argument.

"We can't let him live, Kate. He'd turn us in in a second. We'd all be dead or worse before we knew it. We'd be tortured for information. You know what Esposito is like. He could keep us alive until we'd spilled our guts. They'll wrap up the whole New York resistance."

"I know, Alexis. It's just that there's something odd about your father. I told you that he wouldn't screw me. Have you ever heard of Richard Castle turning down a woman? And I'm positive from the way we talked, half the time he had no idea what I was talking about."

"I can explain that. I don't belong here." Castle managed to get out.

"You sure as hell don't." Alexis said. "And you'll die because of it."

"No, I mean I don't belong on this world. Somehow I got sent here from someplace else. A world that's nothing like this.'

Alexis laughed. "You've always had a great imagination."

"Check my wallet."

Kate removed his wallet. "What the hell is this? You don't have a Security Service ID card, or a MinProp ID card. What the hell is this money? And the plastic cards? What are they for?"

Castle tried to explain as best as he could. Alexis didn't believe a word, but Beckett was weakening.

"I'll take him to the precinct after midnight and check him out."

"Kate we can't risk it. We need to kill him. Now." Alexis insisted.

But Kate got her way and later that night, Castle was taken to the precinct. As the elevator rose, it suddenly stopped. Castle blinked. He was alone in the elevator. The door opened and he was in the homicide bullpen. Kate Beckett and her two detectives were standing there.

"Where have you been, Castle? We have a body drop. I couldn't even get your voice mail. What happened?"

Castle shrugged. "I have no idea." And I have no desire to ever find out. I can only hope it was some sort of delusion.

Lieutenant Kate Becket was notified the next day that Richard Castle had failed to show up at his job at the Ministry of Propaganda that morning. She provided an alibi for Alexis Castle by saying she was watching the girl after meeting her father. In spite of a rigorous search, no trace of Castle was ever found. Shortly thereafter, the Deputy Chief for Operations also disappeared and Montgomery took her place. Lieutenant Beckett became Commander Beckett of the 12th Precinct. Karpowski and Hastings were sent to the Basement and came back as Beckett's devoted bodyguards.

Alexis and Kate often wondered what the world the other Rick Castle had come from was like.