912. Chapter 912

After Sleeper

Episode 7.20

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I would never claim to own this episode of Castle, even if I did. Rating: K Time: See above.

Captain Nikki Heat woke up with a pounding head and a queasy stomach. Her mouth felt like a camel had given birth in it. She tried to sit up and promptly fell back down. She saw she was on some kind of a wooden floor. Then she realized the floor was bobbing gently up and down. She managed to raise her head and saw that she was on a small rowboat. She shook her head, which she quickly regretted, but her vision did clear. She was on a rowboat in Central Park Lake.

How the hell did I get here? She wondered.

The boat stopped, having run aground not five feet from shore. Nikki hopped off the boat and waded to shore. She looked around and saw a cop coming her way. She walked to meet him.

"I'm Captain Nikki Heat, 12th Precinct. I need you to give me a ride to my precinct."

The cop shook his head. "Yeah, and I'm Derek Jeter. Get your ass out of here, honey, before I run you in. You look like you've been partying way too hard. What happened? Did your John dump you on the boat so he didn't have to pay you?"

Nikki was about to explode until she looked down at what she was wearing. A very short and very tight red mini and a transparent blue top. And no underwear of any sort. Nikki tried to think of how she could have ended up like this and failed. By that time the cop was gone.

Nikki had to suffer the indignity of walking barefooted back to the 20th Precinct dressed in clothes that a cheap hooker would have scorned, attracting unwanted attention every step of the way. After threatening to castrate a particularly repellant biker who kept offering her twenty dollars, she found herself at the 20th Precinct.

"What do you want…?" Began Sergeant Cole, the desk sergeant. Then his eyes almost popped out of his head. "Captain Heat? What….What happened?"

"I have no idea, but I intend to find out."

As soon as she walked into the old homicide bullpen, deathly silence came over the place. Then Jameson Rook, her ruggedly handsome, two time Pulitzer Prize winning fiancé rushed to her and swept her into his arms. "Nikki! Are you all right? What happened? Where have you been?"

"I don't know." Nikki looked at the clock on the wall. It was just past four. "I guess it's too late to make it to the wedding, Rook."

Rook have her a shocked look. "Nikki….The wedding was supposed to be three weeks ago. Where have you been?"

Nikki told Rook and the rest of her team, who had gathered around, what she remembered. She had walked out of the apartment she shared with Rook on her way to the wedding and gotten in a cab. The next thing she knew, she was in a rowboat on Central Park Lake.

"We'll get right on it." Said Raley. "I'll check on the cab."

Ochoa nodded. "I'll take Opie and go to Central Park Lake. Someone must have seen something."

"I'll take Nikki home." Rook said. "She needs a shower and a change of clothes." He wrinkled his nose. "Especially a shower." Nikki blushed.

Once Nikki was home, showered and dressed, she knew she had to talk to Rook. "Rook, I have no idea what happened. Believe me, I'd love to know."

Rook looked embarrassed. "Um, look, Nikki, if you're having second thoughts or something, we can…."

Nikki stopped him at once. "No! Absolutely not! In fact, I want to get married to you as soon as we can. Today?"

Rook slowly shook his head. "It'll take a while notify everyone we want there and for them to make arrangements to come again, and to get a new venue and arrange everything. We can do it in two weeks I bet."

"On a weekend?" Nikki asked softly.

"Saturday?" Rook suggested.

Nikki nodded vigorously. "We're getting married two weeks from Saturday even if we have to do it in the precinct with just us there. I won't wait a day longer."

Rook smiled. "Deal."

"And I'd like Lauren Parry to look me over. Maybe find some evidence of where I was. I'll take the clothes I was found in to Lauren as well."

Lauren gave Nikki and her clothing an exhaustive examination. She sat with Nikki and Rook to discuss her findings. "Nikki, you now have a tattoo. The words Calle Ocho are tattooed on your left butt cheek. Does that mean anything to you?"

Nikki shook her head. "I know it means Eighth Street in Spanish, but that's it."

Rook spoke up. "Calle Ocho is in the heart of Miami's little Havana. I wrote a column about it a couple of years ago."

"Anything else?" Nikki asked.

"This key was sewn into your skirt. It's not numbered, but it looks like it goes to a locker of some kind."

Nikki took the key. "Lauren, can you help Rook set up the wedding for me? I'm going to Miami."

Rook took her hand. "We're going to Miami. I still have contacts in Miami, and I know a lot of good places to eat."

Hours later, they were in Miami and checked into a hotel in Little Havana. Rook suggested lunch and told Nikki about a place that sold the best Cuban sandwiches in all of Miami.

"You'll love it, Nikki. It has roast pork, glazed ham, Swiss cheese, thinly sliced pickles…."Rook was saying as they walked in.

They were interrupted by a smiling man behind the counter. "Buenos Dias, Senorita Nikki. Your usual?"

Nikki stopped dead in her tracks. "You know me?"

The man looked surprised. "Of course I know you. You've had lunch here every day for three weeks. Except yesterday, of course."

Nikki was embarrassed, but explained to the man, Carlos by name, what had happened to her.

"That is unbelievable." Said Carlos. "Not that I don't believe you, of course. Have you talked to Maria at El Carib?"

"Who? And what?"

"El Carib, the nightclub where you sang. Maria owns it. It's just across the street. But have a sandwich, it won't be open for another hour."

Although the sandwich was delicious, Nikki could hardly eat it, she felt so bad. "Rook, this is all my fault. I messed up our wedding. I feel terrible."

Rook shook his head. "It may not be your fault. Maybe you were kidnapped by aliens and your mind was programmed to come here."

Nikki smiled. "Maybe, but I'm going to make it up to you. Believe me, I will."

"Senorita Nikki. There's Maria now opening up El Carib."

Maria was a very attractive woman a few years older than Nikki. She was shocked when Nikki told her what had happened. "But you seemed so happy singing here."

"I sang here?"

"Yes. I did make an audio on my phone to show a friend. The quality is poor, I'm afraid." She took out her phone and Nikki could hear herself singing I Will Always Love You over the sound of dishes and glasses clattering, the customers talking and some drunk hitting on a waitress.

When she was done listening to it, Nikki took out the key that had been found on her. "Do you recognize this?"

"Of course. It's to your locker in your dressing room."

Maria took her back to the dressing rooms and the key opened a large locker, filled with clothes and, Nikki was happy to see, a photo of Rook.

"Your man is even handsomer than his picture, Nikki. Every time some man tried to hit on you, you told him that he couldn't compare to who you had." Maria said.

Nikki turned and gave Rook a hug and a kiss. "Nobody can compare to my man."

They flew back to New York, no closer to figuring out why Nikki had left than before, but feeling better about what she had done in the missing weeks.

With Nikki at work going over the paperwork that had piled up in her absence, Rook took Raley and Ochoa to a restaurant near the precinct, where they met up with Nikki's niece, Alexandra.

They all smiled at each other when they sat down.

"Everything went okay, Uncle Rook?" Alexandra asked.

"Thanks to the drug you concocted, she doesn't remember a thing. You deserve every penny of the ten thousand I gave you."

Rook turned to Roach. "Ochoa your relatives, Luis, the cab driver, Carlos and Maria were great. They really sold it."

"Always glad to help, bro."

"And Sean, the recording you put together of Nikki singing….First class. Absolutely first class."

Raley just smiled.

"Just remember, Nikki must never remember what she saw when she walked into my bachelor party."