915. Chapter 915

After Hollander's Woods

Episode 7.23

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I had no idea I'd never own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

Captain Nikki Heat came back from her precinct to the apartment she shared with her husband, the ruggedly handsome, two time Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, Jameson Rook.

"Rook, are you home?" She looked around and found Rook's jacket tossed onto the couch. She put it in the closet where it belonged and searched for him. He wasn't in the kitchen and he wasn't in their bedroom. Approaching the master bath, she heard a groaning sound. She slowly opened the door to find Rook on the bathroom floor in the fetal position with his thumb in his mouth.

"Rook! What is it?" She gasped. "Are you okay?"

Rook looked blankly at her.

"It's me, Nikki. Your wife. Rook, what happened?"

"Nikki? Oh, thank God it's you. I thought it was….." Rook shook his head, as if to clear it.

Nikki managed to get Rook up and sitting on their bed. "Can you tell me what happened?"

"It was awful. I can still remember it like it was yesterday." Rook mumbled.

"Something in your past?"

Rook nodded. "Have you ever wondered why I write?"

"You're a reporter. Reporters write?" Nikki replied, somewhat puzzled by the question.

"Not why I write as a reporter, but… the other things."

Nikki nodded. Very few people knew it, but to support his lifestyle, Rook wrote romance novels under the pen name of Victoria St. Clair. Nikki even thought that a wild Gypsy girl who stole the heart of a wealthy eighteenth century English aristocrat in Wild Gypsy was based on her. However, she'd never asked Rook about it. "I thought you wrote because you needed the money."

He nodded. "There's more to it that than." Rook took a deep breath. "I was eleven years old. My mother, Margaret, was appearing on a play on Broadway. I went to one of the rehearsals and somehow I got left behind. I was all alone in the theater. I went on stage and looked out into the seats and began to sing. I was singing Sugar, Sugar…."

"Really, Rook? Bubblegum rock?" Nikki said, frowning.

"Hey, at my age then that was a golden oldie. Anyway, I was singing and all of a sudden there was someone clapping. I looked and there he was. It was a clown. He had on huge, bright yellow shoes that must have been three feet long, and orange and green and yellow and black plaid pants and a huge fake stomach. He had an orange and purple polka dot coat with tails and his face….His face was white with red streaks on it. It looked like he was crying blood. He never said a word to me, but he walked over and pointed to the flower in his lapel and bent down. I stood on my tip toes to smell the flower and it squirted ice water on me. And then he grabbed me and….."Rook couldn't go on.

Nikki was horrified. "Rook…..did he molest you?"

Rook shook his head. "He hit me with a baseball bat." He quickly added, "Made out of foam rubber. Then he squirted me with a seltzer bottle. And then….He'd set up a whoopee cushion behind me and it made this noise like a fart and there was this awful smell and he held his big, red bulbous nose."

"Rook, that was awful for a little boy, but…"

Rook kept on talking. "I ran out of the theater and to a book store across the street. The first thing I saw when I ran in was a book jacket of this big, strong man, protecting a beautiful woman with a ripped bodice from some evil man in a dark cloak and a mask. I knew I wanted to be that kind of man when I grew up. Someone who wouldn't be afraid of some oddly dressed stranger. Someone who could protect the woman I love."

"And you've done that, Rook. What do you say we do a little bodice ripping tonight? I've sewn up the bodice from the last time."

Rook shook his head. "Nikki, I saw him today. He was right outside our place. He looked right at me and I froze. He knows it's me, the little boy he saw in the theater."

"That was thirty years ago, babe. It can't be the same clown."

"Clowns copyright their facial makeup so no other clown can use it. It's the same clown, Nikki. Why has he come back?"

Nikki sat with Rook for an hour, until she convinced him he had nothing to worry about. Some clown, a long time ago, had been very nasty to a little boy, but Rook was an adult and his wife was a police captain. If any clown tried to attack Rook, they'd be ready for him.

As they were enjoying some wine after dinner, Nikki's niece, Alexandra, dropped by. The first thing Alexandra said was, "Guess what Aunt Nikki. The circus is coming to town."

Rook screamed and ran to the bathroom.

The next day, Rook went to the precinct with Nikki, not feeling safe if he was all alone. He explained his predicament, except for the part about being a romance novelist, to Roach, Detectives, Raley and Ochoa.

Raley was sympathetic." Clowns have always creeped me out. I wouldn't go near one for anything."

Ochoa was more macho. "A clown? If one of those punks tried to squirt me with water, I'd bust his ass for assault."

Detective Dan Rhymer interrupted. "What did you say that clown looked like?"

Rook described him.

"Funny, but there's a clown just like that at the park just across the street. I'm sure he looks the same."

Nikki quickly headed for the park with Rook. Roach also tagged along. When they confronted the clown, Rook stopped and started shaking. Then, the clown squirted water from a fake flower onto Ochoa. As he'd said he'd do, Ochoa busted him for assault on a police officer.

Once back at the precinct, Nikki had some bad news for Rook. "He isn't the one, babe. His name if Charles Grey and he's only nineteen. He wasn't born when you saw the clown. And he wasn't the clown you saw yesterday. He was entertaining children at a charity event for the police over in Jersey. A bunch of cops saw him there without his makeup. I told him not to squirt anymore cops and let him go."

Rook nodded sadly. "He's still out there, waiting for me with a fake flower in his buttonhole and a whoopee cushion. I know it."

Nikki checked her watch. "Well, we have to be on our way. Your mother's new play, the revival of Hellzapoppin, opens tonight and you always go her opening night. And now I get to go, too."

The play was a hit, of course, but Rook couldn't get into a festive mood. He was still worried about the clown. Sensing her son's discomfort, Margaret Rook asked Nikki what was wrong. Nikki explained the problem.

"Oh, my god!" Margaret exclaimed, grabbing both Nikki and Rook and taking them to her dressing room. She opened up her wardrobe and brought out the clown suit. The clown suit.

"Jameson, you weren't left alone in the theater. I was trying out a costume for another play that I eventually turned down. I'm sorry if I upset you."

"That was you?" Rook was shocked. "But I saw him yesterday outside out place."

"I was coming over to see you. I had found the old costume and thought we could do a bit with it in Hellzapoppin. I paid off the cab and just then, I got a phone call and had to come back to the theater."

Rook felt very embarrassed.

Later that night, Nikki snuggled up to Rook. "I'm actually glad that your mother scared you. You are so good at ripping bodices."

"And what comes after the ripping?" Rook asked.

Nikki just smiled.