#chezchuckles

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This sounds like the Close Encounters (link to the first story) series by chezchuckles (@writingwell)

A Bookish Year in Review - 53 Books (I don't count books I put down, nor do I list them here, but I do write them down as having been attempted so I'll know what and when that happened.)

Resuscitation by mysterymuse & chezchuckles (me) (here's the AO3 version)

Linchpin AU. What if Beckett confesses her secret? Two-shot. A co-authored story by @mysterymuseffn and @writingwell

My notes: A few months ago I was messaged by mysterymuse who asked if I would like to do a collaboration. Since I'm kind of out of the Castle world, she basically had everything set: different options, a couple of drafts, some outlines. All I had to do was pick.

What an interesting and revealing journey! I haven't collabed in a while, and it was good to get back to Castle, to remember why I loved them so much. But also, it was good to run up against another writer with definite opinions on these characters and the strength to have a conversation about the choices she was making. I respect that. What it means is that this story is something I'd never have written alone--just as any good collaboration always is.

Deepest thanks to @mysterymuseffn for having the guts to ask, but also the really incredible flexibility to roll with my 'hey so is it okay if we don't do any outlines and just see what happens?' Lol.

Try this (please note, I did not go back and watch the episode again; this is quite off the top of my head):

---

Beckett pushed her hands deeper into her pockets, her eyes fixed on the river.

On a narrow escape.

Narrow as a strangled breath breaking the surface of the water. Wise as the river itself.

Blue lights swept across her face, red again, icy blue. Damp at the back of her neck, a shudder she couldn't suppress. The dredging crew was looking for her submerged unit; Beckett watched numbly.

Wide as the river itself.

Wide. And dark. And deep.

And so damn cold.

He scared the shit out of her when the coffee was pushed into her field of vision—a split second's terror for no good reason (and then she heard I guess the good thing about having your daughter at a crime scene—). Her hands were already taking it, fingers burning painfully as heat transferred from the cup. "Thanks," she tried, her voice cracking.

He was staring at her. She found herself staring back at him. Whatever he'd been about to say, whatever she'd thought to say in thanks—the gratitude seemed all off, disproportionate to the enormity of that wide and deep and dark river.

"Cold," she said stupidly, her lips tangling on the word.

He nodded to the coffee; she took a reflexive sip and gasped, fire down her esophagus.

He made a startled move towards her; stopped. Backed off as she waved him away, choking on heat, pure flames of heat.

Good. Necessary. It had knocked the trembling out of her body, the muscles firing indiscriminately with the aftereffects of adrenaline and near-death.

Her heart jerked. He stared at her.

"What," she said, curling the coffee cup to her chest. That moment. That moment with the water rising and rising and ris—

"Your hair," he blurted out.

She stared back at him.

He looked down, back up; his face was sober soft lines and eyes that asked her questions she had no answer for. She swiped at a trickle of water at her neck and he reached out and grasped the edge of the jacket, pulled it up her shoulder, tighter.

---

By the time Sophia had kicked them out of CIA central, escorted by the lowest man on the totem pole no doubt, her spirits had bounced back while his, it seemed, had drowned.

When the hoods came off, they were outside of the precinct. She looked up as she got out of the car, borrowed clothes loose and ill-fitting, but she no longer felt like she was swimming.

Castle, hands in his pockets, looked at the sidewalk. She side-eyed him and gave a chin nod towards the precinct. "You coming?"

He didn't look at her. Cleared his throat.

"Castle," she insisted. Her toes were still not yet thawed, as if the cold of the river hadn't yet dissipated from her veins. "Don't let her get to you."

He made a desultory noise and looked up at her, finally, only to go still.

Completely, utterly still.

"What," she said, the staring thing somehow extra creepy when he was so arrested doing it. (Pun not intended, what the hell was wrong with him?)

"Your hair."

Her arms dropped to her sides. Her mouth opened. Closed again.

"It dries... curly like that?"

She felt the heat bloom from her belly up, prickling at the back of her neck, her scalp. "It... has a mind of its own," she found herself murmuring. The heat suffused her face and she rallied. "It was dry by the time they drove us into her lair and you didn't seem to notice it then."

"Her lair," he scoffed. But the awkwardness fell over him again, his body held stiffly, his hands flexing into fists, his eyes roving. "I never thought to find you like this."

"What?" she croaked. "No. We're not doing—this." She twisted on her heel and headed for the precinct, every inch of her body burning, spikes of heat even down to her once-numb toes.

"Beckett," he called after her, hurrying to catch up. "In the car, I thought I wouldn't—find you."

All the heat dropped out. The wash of chills down her spine made his face fall slack; neither looked at each other as they went inside.

Narrow an escape, wide as the river.

She bobbed to the surface in the elevator, breaking the suffocating silence. "So... you slept with her."

He sighed. "Yeah."

Thanks to @randomfoggytiger for the tag. I didn’t do all of them, just the pertinent ones, and I modified those just to include ffnet as well. 

1. How many works do you have? 26 on AO3 (for my mature rated Spy Castle stuff); fanfiction.net has 278 Castle fics;and about 300ish archived at Gossamer for X-Files.

4. What are your top fics by kudos/reviews? The Return of Vulcan Simmons, Tempest (not a spy work!) on AO3; ffnet would be One Hundred Days of Summer (co-authored with SandianeCarter) and Dash It All.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yeah, I think if you take the time to contact me, you deserve the respect of hearing from me. It might not be a full-blown conversation, but I’ll do what I can with a full-time profession and a writing one as well. Also, suuuuper sorry, just discovered AO3 has an inbox. 300 days ago, some of you messaged me and I am just now seeing those. Lol. 

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I have a spy fic where the two of them are just so at odds, so grieving with and over each other… okay that’s most of them. But I try not to end on angst, as it’s supposed to be the journey not the destination. (Angst is a twisting of the heart, not a place where you stay. According to me.)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Dash series has the ‘happiest’ endings. Not because life is happy, but because they figured out how to create contentment within what they’d been given/dealt in life. And in ways other versions of the Castle characters hadn’t accomplished. They did the work.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Oh definitely. A while back, I turned off comments on tumblr for about a year as I processed and healed from some targeted attacks, and I can say that I came out more certain of myself and my writing. But I was also an adult who had not been forced to weather these attacks as a vulnerable 13 y-o on social media (as so many of you are unfortunately dealing with). I was able to detach, center myself once more, and rise above because I’d grown up IRL, so to speak. I have a faith in something bigger than me which, while it doesn’t look like what it did, has sustained me and given me the confidence to know my worth even as it spurs me to be/do better. 

9. Do you write smut. If so what kind? Oh definitely, lol. It’s on AO3. Usually I like to explore M/F with a third in there for kicks, as the concept of generosity and giving within the sexual relationship/experience is intriguing to me.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? I objected to the term ‘stolen.’ I’ve had my fics, without my knowledge, posted elsewhere, translated without my knowledge, and changed to other fandom characters to be posted elsewhere. However! I’ve had loads of people ask me too, and I really appreciate being able to go visit them. (Stolen would indicate I somehow own these fanfictions, and I do not, as that would be a legally difficult hill to stand on. I also do not perceive collective fan art in this manner, because the world is all of ours.)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Oh there’s a co-written story that me, carto, and muppet47 started and have NEVER finished. We all know Castle has to go to jail, but we can’t write it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Writing it the first time. Correctly. As in, it comes out the way it should or ought to or how I am seeing it in the moment. I have the right rhythm, I can spell and I have the grammar skills. My first draft is fast and good enough for submission. Of course, I go back and edit, and I have to, but I’m very blessed in not ever going through anything like writer’s block.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Secondary characters. I have a tendency for tunnel vision, where all I want to do is talk about and to and for the main characters. If they have friends or family, I barely include them. I can’t manage to care that they exist. But all of us live in a complex web of relationships and community; no one is alone. My last novel, Taste of Salt, was an concentrated effort to include as many other perspectives as possible, so it was told through the POVs of the two main characters and interspersed with flashback chapters from the POVs of their friends, family, coworkers, chance encounters, medical personnel, kids, support networks… there you go.You have to do the thing that’s hard. Write it out, over and over, keep practicing.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Yeah, sometimes it becomes necessary for the character. But please keep it to a minimum (imo) as it detracts from the reader’s understanding and experience of reading. It ought to be rather easy to understand what the person is saying due to context or just the flow of the scene. If you’re writing in English, and you have a character visiting France, then obviously some of that ought to be in French, but after a while, you can indicate that the language is being used while writing it in English. I say this because most of you are fandom writers who are not writing for literary audiences; therefore, don’t ruin everyone’s fun my making it incomprehensible or inaccessible. Please.

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Don’t ask me to choose between my children! I can tell you that Dash holds a special place in my heart due to the amount of readers who said it gave them understanding of their own sensory issues or their child’s autism, etc. Spy gave me one of my greatest friends, carto, who continues to love and support me and my writing.