Fic: The Long Surprise
Challenge for gameofcards to write a fic using two randomly chosen prompts from a list of events and themes. Mine were One or more characters wake up with superpowers (event), and Jealousy (theme). I always think of Castle when it comes to this kind of thing.
Event and Theme Used: One or more characters wake up with superpowers (event), and Jealousy (theme)
Fandom: Castle
Word Count: 1751
Prologue: "C'mon, guys, it'll be fun!" Castle wheedled as he shepherded the somewhat reluctant group across the street from the pub to the park, where a decidedly rag-tag looking carnival was set up. "It's not even 8 pm! Let's keep the party going! Nothing is too much for my beloved's birthday," he added, as he put his arm around Beckett's waist.
Lanie gazed at the two of them. "A run-down scary fair after a beer at the same old place with the same old people you see every day--except you ladies," with a nod to Alexis and Martha, who were looking more (Alexis) or less (Martha) enthusiastic about having joined the NYPD crew for this expedition. "That's not what I call pulling out all the stops. Some dude tells me nothing is too much for me, I'm expecting a five-course meal topped with something sparkly."
"Later, later," assured Castle as he stopped in front of a faded tent with a peeling painted sign declaring "Get Yer Superpower!" and a warped mirror by the entrance. "Look, we can take funny photos of ourselves as The Invisible Man or Rubberoto or X-Ray Spex. Memories to last a lifetime!"
Martha groaned and patted her coiffure. "Just what I need at my age, funny photos," she grumbled as Castle herded her into the tent behind Ryan and Esposito. "Cheer up, Mother!" he crowed. "It's just a funhouse. What could go wrong?"
...The next morning.
Beckett winced at the sunlight beaming through her eyelids, stretched in bed, and, holding a hand over her eyes, stumbled toward the bathroom. Despite a slight headache, she had to smile at the memory of the night before--champagne and good loving from her devoted husband, quite nice. She squinted at herself in the bathroom mirror, grimaced at the taste in her mouth, and reached for her toothbrush.
Which was just a bit out of reach. As she stretched, she suddenly felt an weird, numbing sensation in her arm as her reach lengthed and--she yelped at the sight of her elongated forearm and fingers, jumped in the air, and ran back into the bedroom. "Castle! Castle! Wake up, I think I'm having a dizzy spell or hallucination or something, maybe something I ate..." She paused at the foot of the empty bed and looked desperately around the room. "Castle! Where are you?"
"Whaaaaaa--" her husband's voice mumbled from the direction of the bed. Blinking, she stared down at where the sheets were rumpling and creasing. "Beckett, ow, what's wrong?"
"Castle, where the hell are you? Under the damn bed?" In a panic, she dropped to her knees to gaze around the floor.
"Kate. I"m right here. What's the matter with you?" Still the disembodied voice, moving closer to her. Still the bedclothes shifting as if....
"Whoa!" Now it was Castle's turn to yelp. "What the hell! Where...where...where am I?" She heard a thud as if two feet were landing on the floor next to her. "Kate, holy f*ck! I'm invisible!"
Staring at the air in front of her, Kate dropped onto the bed. "Then either I am hallucinating, or I'm not," she said, as she knitted her brows and reached out her arm...and reached, and reached, and reached, until her arm stretched itself across the length of the room.
"Whoa!" yelped Castle again. She felt the bed bounce as he presumably dropped down next to her. "What the hell is happening?"
Suddenly there came a scream from the kitchen. Pulling her limbs back together, Kate ran out of the bedroom, followed by the muffled sound of Castle's footsteps right behind. She pulled up in shock at the sight before her. Alexis was backed up against the refrigerator, with a terrified look in her eye, and a coffee cup suspended in the air in front of her, hovering over the counter, steaming and tipping. She barely had time to take in this scene when there was a loud whoooosh from the outer hallway, the front door rattled open, and Martha half-fell into the entryway, grasping the doorjamb with a wild look in her eye and hair disheveled. At this interruption Alexis screamed again, the cup of coffee dropped down onto the counter and shattered, and Martha, still wild-eyed, straightened herself up and said, with a deep breath, "My darlings. You'll never believe what's happened to me."
As Beckett opened her mouth to try to form words that might make sense of the situation, the phones began to ring.
...That evening...
It was a very different group clustered in the Castle loft than the reluctantly happy crew that had browsed the scary carnival the night before. Kate stood in the center of the circle, nervously rubbing her fingers then stopping with a jolt. Martha sat clutching the armrests of the lounge chair as though holding herself down. Alexis hovered in the kitchen, nervously juggling a pitcher of water and a tray of cups. Ryan held one hand shading his eyes; Espo blinked around the room, avoiding eye contact. Lanie occasionally stared at one or the other of her companions and then looked away. Castle was only apparent by the dent in the couch cushion, though occasionally he would yelp "Ow!" when one of the others passed too close or presumably stepped on his toes.
"Okay, so we've just got to figure out what to do here," said Beckett, trying for a soothing leadership tone, which was belied by her anxious hand movements.
"Easy for you to say, your stretching only comes when you want it," grumbled Espo. As Beckett started to protest, he went on. "Not like this damn mind-reading thing. I can't shut it out. I look at a person--BAM! I can instantly hear their thoughts. In the squad room, it was killing me. You can't believe what some of our fellow officers are thinking all the time." He glared at Ryan, who looked aggrieved. "You think that's bad, what about me? Sure, x-ray vision seems like fun when you're a kid watching I Dream of Jeannie. But in everyday life? Being able to see through people's clothes? I had to walk around all day with my eyes half closed. And besides," he added, "maybe it's good for you, hearing what people are thinking. Make you more sensitive to other people's feelings."
"What, you think insensitive? Me?" Espo stared at Ryan and his mouth fell open. "You DO! You do think that! Well, screw you, buddy." Espo leapt to his feet and turned his back on his partner, arms crossed. Ryan looked at the standing man, eyes traveling up and down, then quickly looked away with a grimace.
"Speaking of vision, I'd trade yours for mine any day," Lanie put in. "It would be a big help if I could see into people's bodies. It would make my work whizz by. No cutting, no fluids, damn. But this?" she gestured toward her head. "This being able to see flashes of the future? It's for the birds. This morning on the way to work, I saw a taxi accident before it happened, a person trip into a fountain, a kid fall off a swing. And I couldn't do a thing about it. It's horrible." She sat back in her chair with a huff.
"Yeah, but still. If you could learn to use it, think how great precognition would be in our line of work," Beckett said with a glint in her eye. "But this rubbery stretchy thing is just gross." She shivered.
"Now if you were my age, you might not pooh-pooh that ability," drawled Martha. "Being able to reach for anything? Not having to get up on a step stool? That would be marvelous. Not like this damn speeding around everywhere. I swear, no matter how much I tried to sit still, whenever I started to move, it was ZOOM! I almost cracked my head a hundred times today. Talk about horrible!"
"I don't know, Gran," said Alexis, coming in to put the tray on the coffee table. "I could make some good use of that ability. Getting to class, heading home, going out at night--no waiting for the subway, no taxis, no scary walks home. That could be cool. This telekinesis thing, though, I can't think of anything practical for that." She stared at the tray of glasses, and when it began to rattle, she looked away.
"Now that's where you're wrong," her father's voice said admonishingly. "Telekinesis would be AWESOME. Think of the party tricks, think of the bar bets. Think of the poker table, wafting certain cards your way. It's a money maker! But this being invisible blows. I hate not being seen!"
"Of course you would, Castle. You gotta be the center of attention. Me, I can think of a lot of uses for invisibility. And not all of them practical." Espo turned back to the room, grinning at the thought.
"Well, if we're going to get out of this, we're going to have to do something. That carnival's disappeared, and we haven't been able to find any leads on it." Espo and Ryan shook their heads in confirmation. "So we might have to learn to harness these powers, as long as we've got them."
"Hmmm, there's a thought," said Alexis consideringly, as she took a glass of water from the tray and headed back to the kitchen.
As if in agreement, the mantel clock began to chime eight o'clock. Suddenly the room seemed to shimmer, as though a heat wave was passing through. The group looked at each other in alarm and a few clutched themselves or shivered. There was a crash from the kitchen as a glass of water dropped onto the counter. And with a yell, in the corner of the couch, Castle reappeared.
"Wait, what was...." Beckett looked around as realization dawned. She stretched out her arm and furrowed her brow, but nothing happened. Ryan stared at Beckett and shook his head. Espo stared and Ryan's head and shrugged. Martha released her grip on her chair and focused on Castle. "Richard, my dear. It's nice to see you...but so much of you?" All eyes turned to Castle, who was patting himself all over his mostly bare skin. "Oh yeah, right, sorry. I mean, I woke up this morning invisible, and it didn't seem worth it to put on...never mind." He hopped up and scampered toward the bedroom.
"Yeah, please, I've seen enough bare behinds today to last a lifetime," groaned Ryan, as he went to the bar to make himself a drink.