Something Blue - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - Dr. Evil and the Time Traveling Aliens

Castle sat in his usual spot next to Kate's desk, sipping away at the coffee he brought back from The Old Haunt. He leaned back a little as he watched Beckett put up the new-found clues on to the murder board. To any untrained eye the board might have looked like an intricate web of chaos, but Rick knew how his fiance's mind worked. How she put the pieces together. In fact it much like how he put together clues in his novels. He smirks a little at the memory of Kate commenting on how his brainstorming web looked much like her murder board, except his wasn't real.

As Kate pulled back to lean against her desk, Castle could see the new pieces added to the web much more clearly now. Two more sketches of their suspect hung next to their original, all three slightly different but joined holding a more accurate description of this mysterious man. His face was rather angular with high cheekbones. One brow arched higher than the other hung over his wild expressive eyes, giving the man a constant look of curiosity and wonder. Side burns trailed down from his unkempt hair. One of the sketches shown a sprinkle of freckles dotted over his cheekbones.

“He still looks familiar. I'm sure I've seen this guy before.” Castle stated, breaking Kate's silent thoughts.

She looked down at him for a moment, a brow raised. “You keep saying that.”

“I know but I can't seem remember. No wait!” Castle gets up and walks to the board. He points his finger to one other recent sketches, his finger tapping the paper as he turned to face Kate. “Now I remember!” He waited for a dramatic pause that took too long for Kate's liking. She glared at him with her arms crossed. “Barty Crouch Jr.”

Kate was frozen in her spot as she stared back at her fiancé, completely dumbfounded. After a pause that didn't seem to wipe that stupid grin off his face, she finally spoke. “Barty Crouch Jr? From Harry Potter?”

“Yea! Doesn't he?” Castle grinned wider.

Kate hesitantly looked back at sketches. “And I suppose this,” she pulled down the sketch of the strange device witnesses said they saw him carrying and holds it up for Castle to see. “This is just his magic wand?” The device was long and thin, much like a large pen. Described as silver with a head that extended, it was topped with a blue light the lit up and made a strange whirring sound when on. Kate suspects it was the same sound she heard in the dress shop.

Before Castle could answer, he spotted Ryan walked up to them, holding a printed document. “Lanie says that our third victim had epilepsy and his tox screen came out the same as the first two. Also I check with HHS and it looks like there is one John Smith working on loan from overseas. But he has no medical field background at all.” He hands Kate the document after she returns the sketch of the silver 'pen' back on the murder board. “However there is no picture of him. The form they have on him does say he is from London.”

“He sounded British, that is for sure.” Kate attached the form next to the suspects sketches and then glared it. “But we don't know if this is our guy. John Smith is a common name. He could have gotten lucky.” She frowns. “Who are you, really?” She murmurs to the sketches, her gut telling her that who ever this guy his, his name is not John Smith.

“Let's look at what we've got.” Castle moved back to stand beside Kate, between her and Ryan. The other two could feel one of Castle’s theories coming on. “We have three murders of seemingly unrelated victims, all except that they all were diagnosed with epilepsy. They didn't even have the same doctor, yet somehow all three had the same levels of a sleep-inducing drug and some completely unknown chemical. And we now have a strange device implanted at the base of our victims' skulls. This can only mean one thing...” Castle paused yet again for dramatic effect. “Dr. Evil is trying to take over the world by slowly taking over our minds.”

“Dr. Evil?” Kate glared at him. “First he's Barty Crouch Jr. and now you are saying he is Dr. Evil. He looks nothing like him!” Exasperated, Kate had no time or patience for one of Castle's imaginative and completely idiot ideas. She had three murders to solve.

“No! Listen, our mystery man is not Dr. Evil. He's the misunderstood hero trying to stop Dr. Evil.”

Kate’s mind literally broke for a few minutes as she trying to wrap it around Castle completely insane theory. “Castle, we have three dead bodies and one strange device. For all we know our mystery guy could have removed the first two to hide any evidence implicating him.”

“I wouldn't be so sure.” Esposito walked up with what looked like a blow up of a fingerprint. “CSU just lifted this from the device we found. It's being run though, but I'm not even sure we would get a match.” He handed Kate the photo. Strange was not a strong enough word to describe the fingerprint. At first it appeared normal. It was loop print much like any other, save for one detail. There were also perfect circles imprinted in a pattern, layered in such a way that reminded Kate of the gears inside of a clock.

“This was on the device?” Kate looked up from the photo to Javier, who nodded in reply. She grabs a clip magnet and hangs the photo next to the sketches, letting Castle stare at the image like a child in a candy shop. “What about it? Did our techs find anything?”

“Laura has been trying to take it apart, but she hadn't had much luck. She was able to connect to it and said that whatever it is, it's way too advanced and doesn't seem to using a binary system. Whatever that means.”

“Of course you know what that means. Advance technology, way more advance than Earth technology and is written in a different code.” Castle started, ignoring Kate's protests. “Aliens!”

“Or it could be time travelers.” Ryan added to the insanity. Rick pointed a finger at Ryan with a smile, the mentor praising his pupil.

“Time traveling aliens.” Esposito grinned at Kate, going along with this nonsense like a big brother teasing his little sister. Both Castle and Ryan bow with their hands steepled in front of them in a sign of mocked respect to Javier, who then returns the mock bow.

“GUYS!” Kate shouted. “Seriously. There is no such thing as a time traveling alien. There is a perfectly normal explanation for all of this.” This was getting ridiculous. Was Detective Kathrine Beckett the only sensible one left in this group. Suddenly the phone at Kate's desk rings and she gets up to walk around to it.

The three men looked at each other. “Perhaps we went a little overboard,” Ryan stated as he glanced back at the Kate as she picked up the phone, who growled out her name as she answered it. “You know, stress. From the upcoming wedding.”

“Speaking of the wedding.” Javier looked back at Rick, his face rather serious.

“Nono! Guys, seriously. I haven't made up my mind.” Castle threw up his hands.

“Castle, it is just a few days off from the big day and you still have no Best Man.” It was true. Rick had been avoiding picking his Best Man, Javier Esposito or Kevin Ryan. The decision would have been easy if he had a brother, but Castle grew up as an only child.

“Yea, Castle, come on. Tell us, we can handle it.” Ryan insisted, his own face mimicking his partner's.

“We've got another one. Jeffery Simmons.” Kate interrupted, saving the novelist from the ambush, as she hung up the phone and finished writing an address on a post-it note. “Ryan. Esposito.” She hands them the note. “I'll meet you there later. Castle, with me.”

Rick grabbed his coat and followed Kate out before anyone could reply, following her to the elevator. “Um, so where are we going?”

“St. Mary's.” Kate pressed a finger to the down button of the elevator.

“The hospital? Why would we be going there?” Rick asked as the doors opened and they both stepped inside.

“Because this one,” Kate leaned forward to press the ground floor button and the doors to the elevator closed, “is still alive.”

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It was your average day at St. Mary's. Busy as usual with the injured and sick. Detective Becket walked up to the main counter and showed her badge to the nurse at the station, Castle following behind her. He looked around, seeing all the people sitting and waiting to be called in, his mind automatically taking in the details. There was a young couple sitting next to each other holding hands, the woman looking well over eight months due and ready to pop. A couple of chairs down was a fidgety man, his knee bobbing up and down as he waited for his next fix. A few of rows down was man with his mother and son, who was, at this moment, curled up on dad's lap cradling his arm. Possibly broke it when playing outside and grandma's. It was an occupational hazard. Everyone had a story.

The nurse glared at Kate as if she were intruding on something important but gave a curt, “Can I help you?”

“I'm Detective Beckett, this is my partner Castle. I'm here about a Jeffery Simmons who was admitted here.”

“Room 1051,” the nurse replies while shifting some files around. “Coma Ward.”

“Thank you and could you page his doctor as well? We will need to speak with him.” Kate glances to Castle before finding her way to room 1051. She weaved around the staff and patients walking through he corridors before she halts in front of the door to the room. Beckett reached her hand out to the door knob and opened it and walked in, Castle following suit and closing the door behind them. That was when Kate froze as she saw the man before her, standing over Mr. Simmons. His back turned to her, but she recognized that ruffled hair and light brown coat. He even wore the same pair of red converse.

“You!” She shrieked.

The man turned around. He was definitely the man from the sketches and was holding a long slender device in his hand that resembled the the one in the sketch made earlier that day. He had the same angular jawline and freckles dotted across his cheeks. Everything was the same saved he wore a pair of thick black glasses, the rims squared and narrow. He stared at Kate with such confusion on his face. “Me? What about-?” He pauses as he sees the police badge on her belt. “Oh wait! There are perfectly good and complicated reasons as to why I'm here.”

Kate quickly regained her bearings before she pulled out her handcuffs. “John Smith, if that is your name, you are under arrest for obstruction of justice and evading arrest. Turn around with your hands behind your head.” She lifted her hand and twirled her finger around.

“Okay, fine. I will do that. But first I need to stop this man's mind becoming overloaded in about,” he looked up to the ceiling and counted on his fingers, “thirty seconds? There is just a small window of opportunity before he burns.” The man stared at her, speaking in a low and serious tone.

“What makes you think I'd believe you? For all I know, you are here to collect the implicating evidence around the back of his neck. No, you are coming with me.” Kate walks up to the man, pulling her jacket back to reveal her holstered gun. Normally this act would scared a suspect into either giving up, or doing something foolish. This man however glanced down at her piece with an annoyed glare.

“You don't understand. He will die if I don't stop it.” 'Smith's' eyes narrowed in urgency. “I promise you after that I will go with you and tell you everything you need to know, but I have to save him. Please!”

“Kate, I think he really believes it. I think you really should let him.” Rick stepped forward to stop the detective, but before she could reply, all of the monitor alarms started going off. Jefferey Simmon's, the man lying in the hospital bed in a coma, was convulsing violently. 'Smith' went to quick work, pointing his device at the room door, which made a soft click and then quickly pocketed it before reaching down to the man.

“I'm warning you!” Kate had pulled out her gun and trained it on 'Smith', who turned back to her.

“Go ahead and shoot!” He yelled back at her. Pounding and shouting came from the other side of the door as doctors and nurses were trying to get it to open. “Don't let them in. Not yet,” he ordered as Kate moved to let them in. Castle however, his writer instincts telling him that it was best to listen to the mad man, grabbed his fiance's arm to stop her.

“I really think we should listen to him.” There was a strange tone in the writer's voice. Rick really believed it was the right course of action, and not in a geeky let's-see-what-happens kind of way. He was serious. This made Beckett pause. Her muscles relaxed some before both turned back to this mysterious 'Smith', who was now leaning over Mr. Simmons, his hands reaching for the comatose man's temples.

What happened next, Kate could not make any sense of it. As soon as she saw this man place his fingers on the sides of Jeffery Simmon's head, 'Smith' suddenly grew rigid as all his muscles seemed to tighten up. After a couple more seconds she could here him panting, like a man struggling to not scream or cry out of intense pain. Was he in pain? Was he taking on the stroke like some kind of sci-fi empath? Kate shook her head. She has been reading too many of Castle's comic books.
After what seems like an eternity, this scruffy man pulls back from the bed, nearly falling back, but he catches himself on on of the monitors. Simmons' vitals were all back to normal and his eyes seems to blink open as he woke from his coma. 'Smith' leans forward on the side railing of the bed and grins to the man.

“Good as new, Mr. Simmons.” Still panting, he then reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls that strange device back out, pointing it at the door, which was appeared to be locked and as now unlocked with a click, letting the angry and confused staff in. “Oh sorry about that, I think the door was jammed. Nothing to worry about though.” He pats the equipment around the bed. “Just a technical malfunction.” He grins before walking up to Kate with his hand lifted up to her, wrist side by side. “Alright. Now you can arrest me.” There was a wide cheek grin on his face. A grin that Kate felt she would have a hard time staying serious around in the future.