146. Chapter 146

After The Fast and the Furriest

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Me own Castle? That's a complete myth. Rating: K+ Time: See above.

"There are times when I'm ashamed to be around you, bro."

Ryan looked up from his desk at his partner. "Me? What have I done, or should I say, what do you think I've done?"

"Bigfoot? Really? You believe that there are monsters out there? Great big, hairy boogeymen who are out to kill people?"

"How about that biker we brought in last week? Big, hairy and a killer, right?" Ryan said with a smile. "If that's not a boogeyman, what is?"

"Come on, Ryan. You know what I'm talking about."

"Okay. I read on line a couple of months ago about a fish that scientists had thought was extinct for millions of years being found."

"Sure. Thousands of feet underwater. Anything could be down there."

"Anything, Javi?" Ryan said with a smile. "That sounds like an admission of something."

"It's not an admission of anything. Sure, someone could find a new species of butterflies in the middle of nowhere. A huge, humanoid hanging around? Never happen. Too many humans around. Someone would see him."

Ryan's smile widened. "People have seen him. In remote parts of the world. The Himalayas. The Rockies. Places like that."

"Yeah, And in all those years, no one brought in a live one, or enough of a dead one to prove anything. Seeing's believing, bro. When I see a Bigfoot in the Bronx Zoo, or walking in Central park with Mrs. Bigfoot and their Littlefeet, I'll believe it. The same with all that other stuff that you and Castle believe in."

"So you don't believe in people coming back from the dead? Mysterious agents from beyond the grave? Things that are inexplicable by science?"

"You got it, bro. I don't believe in them."

"So you think Christianity is BS?"

"Wait! What? I never said that?"

"Jesus came back after being dead for three days. Angels, beings from Heaven, have come to people, and we have the Flood, the parting of the Red Sea and all of that?"

Esposito looked at his friend sternly. "You know what I believe in, bro?"

"What?"

"What Montgomery told us once. There's no percentage in messing with things you don't understand. And you know what else I believe in?"

"Tell me."

"We need a beer. And I'm buying the first round."

Ryan nodded. "And if Sasquatch drops in, we'll have him buy the second round."

"Damn straight. Bro."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kate poured Martha another glass of wine as they sat together at the kitchen island. "Martha, why does Rick believe so unquestioningly in virtually everything? He's never met a ghoul, or a zombie, or a unicorn, or a mermaid he didn't believe in. Okay, deep down I'm willing to believe that there are things we don't understand yet. That there may be mysteries that we haven't uncovered. I do try to keep an open mind, but I don't just accept everything like that without substantial proof. Look at the case we just closed. There was a human murderer with human motives. And one phony Bigfoot."

Martha took a sip of wine. "Didn't that young man…"

"Kurt Wilson." Kate supplied.

"Yes, Kurt Wilson. Didn't he say that there was something out there in the woods with him?"

"Yes!" Kate said firmly. "Of course there are things out in the woods. There are all kinds of animals, some dangerous, but that doesn't automatically make them Bigfeet. Bigfoots? What ever."

"Richard has a very vivid imagination. He does invent things that are highly unlikely, impossible even, for his books. He needs to think, and he needs his readers to believe, that Derrek Storm or Nikki Heat can do the impossible. He wants the impossible to happen. He needs the impossible to happen. Life would be too boring for him otherwise."

Kate slowly shook her head. "I believe in the possible. In everyday magic, as I told Rick. I believe in what I can see, feel, touch, hear, smell, and taste."

"Nothing else?" Martha asked slyly.

Kate's eyes narrowed, having caught something in Martha's voice. "Why do you ask?" She said suspiciously.

"I know for a fact that Richard thought he could take a lovely young woman, who had been hurt so badly that she walled herself off from any meaningful human contact for years and years, and that he could change her with nothing more than the power of love. Tell me, Katherine, have you ever seen, felt, heard, smelled or tasted love? And do you in any way doubt its power?"

Kate laughed. "Touche, Martha. You got me."

"Dear, it does no great harm to believe in the impossible, to want miracles and magic and fairy tale happy endings. And every once in a while, you'll be very pleasantly surprised."

Kate nodded. "More than surprised. You'll have your whole life changed."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kate slid onto bed next to Rick and gave him a quick kiss. He moved to kiss her back, but she moved away. "We need to talk."

"No!" He moaned. "What did I do now? I swear I didn't do it. If I did, I didn't mean it, and if I meant it, I'll never do it again, and if I've done it before, I'll never do it in the future. No matter what it was, I'll stop it. I'll do anything for you, Kate."

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"Then why did you make me go through all that?" He said with a pout.

"I just like to hear you being apologetic." She said slyly.

"You're a hard woman, Kate Beckett."

"Luckily, you're a hard man, Rick Castle." He grinned, but she frowned. "Which is not what we're going to talk about. I'm a cop. I have to prove my cases beyond a reasonable doubt to a skeptical jury, an impartial judge and a defense attorney who'll rip any flights of fancy in my case to shreds. I'm conditioned to want substantive proof before I act. That's who I am. It's what I am."

"Oh, I know that. Do I ever know that."

"But, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted the other night, I do believe in one wildly unexplained phenomenon, us." She kissed him, but pulled back. "We are two wildly different people. There's no rational way that we'd ever work, either as partners investigating murders, as friends, or as lovers. But we do."

Castle smiled at her. "We do, don't we?"

"So, I will confess that the impossible sometimes happens, miracles do occur, and there mysteries we can't explain. But, not each and every day."

Castle hugged her. "There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

"I agree."

"But, you're wrong. We make perfect sense. We work so well together because we are different. We complement each other perfectly. Yin and Yang."

"Male and female?" Kate said huskily.

"Always."