711. Chapter 711

After TIme Will Tell

Episode 6.05

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you? I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Hi there. Remember me?"

Rick and Kate looked up from the breakfast they were enjoying on the porch of their home in the Hamptons. Rick smiled and Kate frowned as they recognized their visitor.

"Simon Doyle." They said in unison.

"How long have you two been doing that? It's really entertaining."

"Skip the small talk, Doyle. What do you want?" Kate said sharply.

"I need your help."

"I can spare a few bucks and give you some food." Rick said reaching for his wallet.

"No, I need you to come with me."

"No way." Kate reached for her phone. "I'm calling the police."

Doyle pulled a device from his pocket. "Stay right there and…"

Rick and Kaye looked around in shock. Their house and changed. The shingle siding had been replaced with some warm, brown tiles and the windows had a gold tint. There was a large tree between them and the ocean and a hedge along the side and front of their back porch.

"What did you do to our house?" Kate demanded.

"Nothing. You did all of this. This is still your house, by the way."

"You mean it belongs to Rick Castle, writer of serious literature and Senator Beckett?" Rick asked.

Doyle shook his head. "No. I was right. I was sent back in time to get close to Garret Ward and I did. I found out all about all of the people who were behind him and the neo-fascists were defeated before they even got started. And Paul Deschile was able to build the tachyon generator when I told him one was possible. Talk about your circular reasoning. He built a tachyon generator because I knew he could build one because he'd already built one in my timeline. I even was able to give him a few hints on how to do it."

"Fine. Now can we go home?" Kate snapped.

"Um, I'm afraid we need you here."

"Why?" Kate was not happy about this.

"Garret Ward is up for parole. His lawyers are saying that keeping him in jail for over twenty years is cruel and unusual punishment. We suspect that a few mid level neo-fascists who escaped the round-up of their bosses are behind this."

"And?" Kate's eyes narrowed.

"We need you to testify. Some of the old NYPD records have been lost or destroyed in the floods of '22 and Ward's lawyers are trying to portray Malcolm Whitfield as some violent pro-science fanatic who wanted to destroy the environment in the name of progress and Shauna Taylor was some kind of man hating gun nut. We need you to testify to the truth."

"Is there some reason we can't, I mean our current selves, the ones that….You know what I mean." Kate said angrily.

"They can't."

Rick and Kate looked at each other in horror. "You mean we're dead? How? When? You have to tell us!" Rick yelled.

"No. That's not what I meant. You're both alive and well. But, Rick, do you remember the property you bought on the Moon?"

"You mean I own land on the moon?" He enthused.

"No. The deed was worthless. No one owned any of the Moon. But, you two did rent a condo on the far side of the Moon for a month. You turned off all of your communications and are relaxing. To get you back, we'd have to send a ship to the Moon, land on the near side, where the only space port is, then take the monorail to Grissom City and then hire a vehicle to drive to your condo and then do the reverse to get you back. It would take a couple of weeks. We don't have the time."

"Can't you just go back in time and get us…."Castle began.

"That's what I just did." Doyle said. "Look, there are a lot of technical reasons why we had to take you at the time that we did, and if I tried to explain that to you, I'd just get me confused. I'm an anthropologist, remember? I don't understand the details of time travel. Now, can we go? I've booked you into the Presidential Suite at the Widmark. But you can't have any newspapers or watch TV since you might learn something that you shouldn't know. But you can watch old movies."

Rick and Kate exchanged glances. "Okay." He said. "Let's go."

Doyle led them to a car that had a clear dome in place of a roof.

"Cool." Castle said. We can look in any direction." Then he noticed two rows of bench seats down the side of the car. "Where does the driver sit?"

"In a computer in New York City Metroplex. Get in please."

As soon as they did, the dome became opaque and the car started. "Hey!" Castle said.

"Sorry. We can't allow you to see anything that might help you alter the future."

"I thought you said the time stream was self-correcting?"

"Up to a point, Mr. Castle. If you were to see something here that might have a huge impact on your own timeline…."Doyle shrugged. "We can't tell, so we're being safe by letting you see as little as possible."

Castle did get one look at the future. When they arrived at the underground garage at the Widmark, he saw a young man wearing a tee shirt with a holographic logo that read, "World Champion Cubs."

"Hey! The Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series." He said with a smile.

The kid whirled around. "Asshole!" He screamed and came at Castle with his fists raised.

Some kind of a drone suddenly appeared between them. "Don't try it, son. I'll take you down in minute." the drone said in a voice that sound a lot like Clint Eastwood.

The man gave Castle the finger and ran off.

"What did I do?"

"The Cubs won the last World Series, but it was as the Havana Cubs. Cubs fans in Chicago rioted for two days when Havana won. Chicago fans, like that kid, apparently, have taken a lot of grief over that."

They spent the night in the Presidential suite and in the morning, the same car with the same opaque dome took them to the parole board hearing. Rick and Kate sat while Ward's lawyers portrayed the two deceased as being something like the villains in a splatter movie while Ward was described in terms that made Gandhi look like an outlaw biker by comparison.

Then Ward's lawyer asked that he be allowed to speak in his own behalf. He was brought into the court wearing an impossibly bright shirt that somehow projected a 3D message, "Prisoner". But as soon as Ward saw Kate, his eyes locked on her and he stopped. Then he head butted his guard and leaped for Kate, but landed on a woman sitting in front of her. He reached out with his manacled hands and grabbed at Kate, missing her by inches. As he gathered himself to move towards her, Kate put her hands together and clubbed Ward in the face, breaking his nose. That stunned the man long enough for two guards to grab Ward and drag him away.

The rest of the parole hearing was anticlimactic. His lawyers tried to put the best possible spin on the attack and failed. Ward was denied parole and the next parole hearing would be in five years. Certainly by that time, the older Rick and Kate would be back.

Doyle returned them to the Hamptons. "That turned out well."

"My wife got attacked. You call that well?" Rick snarled.

"Ward won't get another parole hearing for five years and by that time the police will have found the neo-fascists who are behind this. Ward won't get out of prison. Ever."

"Can you just…." And they were back where they started.

They looked carefully around to make sure that the house and everything was the same. It was.

"I'd like a drink." Castle said. "Would you like a drink?"

Kate nodded. "We learned one thing."

"What's that?" Castle said, heading inside for a bottle of wine and some glasses.

"The future will be a lot like the present."