586. Chapter 586

After Dead from New York

Episode 7.22

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Live, I'm not the owner of Castle! Rating: K Time: See above.

Kate Beckett had no idea how she was going to get out of this, but she knew one thing. She was going to get out of it. She smiled at Captain Gates. "Sir, I'm sure that Castle would be a wonderful representative of the NYPD, but I can't see myself being on the show, much less guest hosting it with Castle. I'm not a public figure like Rick is."

Captain Gates waved a contract at Kate. "Detective Beckett, you may not be an actress, but you certainly are a public figure. You do make the papers and TV news quite regularly, and you did take down a killer on Saturday Night Tonight, on national television. Whether you realize it or not, you are a public figure. This is not only an opportunity for the department to garner some much needed good publicity, but the producers of SNT are offering a substantial donation to the NYPD Benevolent Fund. With everything that's happened since 9/11, the Fund can certainly use the money."

"Sir, I'm not sure…."

"I am." Castle broke in. "Really, all Kate has to do is stand there and look gorgeous. The guest hosts that don't perform, such as sports figures, just have to introduce the other acts and the sketches. I can handle that and the NYPD gets good publicity and the Fund gets needed funds."

Feeling slightly betrayed by her husband, Kate nodded slightly. "I guess that…"

"Sign here." Gates handed her the contract and a pen. Kate signed. Gates took the contract back and smiled at the two of them. "And you don't have to worry about doing all the guest host work by yourself, Mr. Castle. Danny Valentine will be joining you as a co-host."

"What?" Castle said, suddenly unhappy.

While Rick was in his office writing, Kate was walking back and forth in the kitchen. In addition to walking, she poured a cup of coffee, drank some of it, put the cup down, walked some more, poured yet another cup, drink a sip of that, noticed that she had two cups now, poured one cup into the other, then shook her head and poured both cups down the drain.

She was walking back and forth when Martha came in. "Hello, dear. How are you?"

"Awful." Kate said honestly.

Martha quickly walked over to the younger woman, concern clear on her face. She put her hand to Kate's forehead. "You don't seem to have a fever, so what is it?"

"I agreed to co-host Saturday Night Tonight with Rick,"

"That's wonderful dear. The camera does love you, you know. You'll be fantastic."

Kate shook her head. "I won't be fantastic. I'll be a disaster. I'm not a singer or an actor or anything but a cop. I don't know what to do or how to do it. I'm not what they need."

Martha put her hand on Kate's shoulder. "Katherine, you're exactly what they need. You're not some actress who kicks down fake doors while carrying a prop gun to save some actor who's in absolutely no danger. You're real! And yes, it is nice to see actors and singers and such on TV, but SNT has always done more. They had an astronaut hosting once, and after 9/11 they had a FDNY Fire Captain. They had that pilot who landed his plane safely when birds hit it and knocked out all four engines. People want to see real heroes, Katherine. They want to see you."

Kate nodded uncertainly. "Do you really think so?"

"I know so."

Kate sat alone in her dressing room still wondering about whether what she was wearing was appropriate or not. Castle had offered to buy her any dress in any insanely expensive boutique in New York, but she had turned him down. She had talked to the cast and crew and they had decided that she would look best in what the public was used to seeing her in: A nice pair of pants, not too tight, a dark sweater that showed no cleavage and a suede leather jacket. As Kate looked at herself in the mirror, she was having second thoughts. In fact, she was having third, fourth, fifth and sixth thoughts. Perhaps I should have worn one of my nicer dresses? She thought. The blue one I wore to the Nikki Heat book launch? The red dress I wore on that date with the creepy fireman? The one I wore undercover to grab the drug dealer, Oz? Thinking about it, she remembered that all of them were dresses she'd worn when things went badly with Castle. We got into a fight about the book and that was the last thing I wanted to do that night. I should have been on a date with Rick, not with some creep who wanted to know if we'd be having sex that night. And I let Oz grope me while Castle had to stand there and watch. Maybe I should have let him buy me something.

She was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in."

She frowned as soon as she saw it was Danny Valentine. He'd been flirting with her ever since they'd gotten to the studio and he didn't seem to be able to take no for an answer. "Mr. Valentine, what do you want?"

"Mr. Valentine? Please I'm Danny, Kate."

"I'm Mrs. Castle. I'm married."

Valentine shrugged. "So am I." His hand reached out for Kate's boob, but never made it. Kate bent his arm behind his back and pushed it upwards. "Mr. Valentine, I'm not at all sure what having your arm broken by a cop who was arresting you for sexual assault would do to your career, but if you want to find out, I'll be happy to oblige you."

"Let me go, dammit!" He yelled.

She released him. "Get out, now."

He headed for the door, but muttered "Bitch," on his way out.

"And don't you ever forget it." Kate replied.

Castle was doing his opening monologue, which only required one or two word answers from Kate, when the Model Cop came on stage, dressed exactly like Kate.

"Who are you?" Kate asked.

"Detective Kate Beckett." The actress replied.

"No, I'm Detective Kate Beckett."

"You think so? Well, just watch this." The Model Cop did the Kate Beckett walk, the Kate Beckett hair toss and then kicked a prop door down.

Kate nodded. "Not bad, but can you do this?" She turned and kissed Rick passionately.

The Model Cop nodded and turned around. There, dressed like Rick and with a brown wig, was Danny Valentine. The Model Cop kissed him passionately and Valentine returned the kiss with equal passion. He broke he kiss and said, "And, live from New York, it's Saturday Night Tonight."

The audience cheered.

Back at the loft, Rick, Kate, Martha and Alexis finished watching the recording of the show they had just done.

"The camera does love you, Katherine."

"And you're not a bad actress, Beckett." Alexis added.

"We should actually see if we can work up a bit." Rick said. "We could become semi-regulars on SNT."

Gate gave him her very best glare.

"Or not." He said quickly.

"It was fun, but I'm really glad my days as an actor are over."

Castle leaned over and kissed her. "Oh, we can do a little cosplay later in bed." He whispered in her ear.

Kate just smiled.