A/N: Former readers from here may have noticed most of my stories have disappeared. They are all publicly available on "archive of our own dot org (slash) users (slash) Nynaeve" (remove the spaces). I don't know if I'll be as faithful updating here, but I'm putting up some of my T or lower rated stories and just recommend you check my complete collection on AO3. Peace out.
Original Pub Date: 8/13/2012
A/N2: So I started this right after "Always" aired, but just got around to finishing it, so obviously not canon anymore LOL. Many thanks to a_loquita for beta reading :) This is my first Castle fic, so I appreciated her pair of eyes on it!
1.
Her father is standing in front of the open fridge wearing only his boxers, when Alexis shows up. It's nine o'clock in the morning, earlier than she'd originally planned, but she's exhausted and really, really wants to crawl into bed. Her dad pokes his head around the brushed chrome door and stares at her with wide eyes.
"You're back."
He sounds surprised and Alexis feels as though she's walked in on him with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Yeah, I…" she starts, her brows furrowed as she tries to make sense of the elusive pieces filtering into her tired mind. Suddenly she's aware of another person in the room. The puzzle is coming together, slowly and painfully, and she's not entirely certain she wants to see the bigger picture.
"Castle, where's the…coffee…" Kate Beckett's words fall off into nothing and she's wearing about as much as she's saying. Her dad's shirt barely covers the bits that Alexis could live without seeing and an awkward tension permeates the room. Beckett tugs the shirt down a little and clears her throat. "Alexis. Um. Hi."
She's heard stories from friends about walking in on parents during sex and she immediately regrets any inner judgments that she may have cast with regards to her friends' maturity. Right now she's mentally trying to back up and not let her train of thought stop at the very obvious conclusion. Her father was supposed to have been watching movies all night and that's what she wants to believe right now despite evidence to the contrary. She knows her father doesn't live like a monk, but there are some thoughts better left unanalyzed. Like the idea of her father and Beckett…
"I'm going to go upstairs," Alexis informs them, cutting off her own inner dialogue, and she makes a beeline up to her room. As she lays her head down, she tells herself the rolling in her stomach is the result of too much sugar and not enough rest.
2.
Two days pass and Alexis hasn't seen hide nor hair of the detective, but Beckett has been an undercurrent in every interaction she's had so far with her father. When Alexis finally decides they need to deal with it, she finds him on the sofa, idly flipping channels. She sits down next to him and fixes her gaze on the screen. Castle settles on a sci-fi B-movie and they watch as a woman begins to shriek before being devoured by a poorly rendered CGI bug-thing.
"I would have called first, you know," she broaches. "If I'd known you were seeing… her."
He shifts uncomfortably and clears his throat. "There was nothing to know. It kind of just happened," he replies, his finger hovering over the channel button.
"No it didn't. Not really." Alexis turns her body to face him and swallows hard. Castle mutes the movie and puts down the remote. This is harder than she imagined, although she hasn't been very keen on imagining this particular conversation. "You've liked her for a long time."
"You knew?"
"Kind of. I mean, I knew you liked her, but I didn't know it was, you know…" She half-heartedly waves her hand at him. It had been one of those things she hadn't wanted to acknowledge. Sub-consciously she knows it was because she picked up on the bond between Beckett and her dad. It's the kind that changes a person's life. Her dad's life. Her life.
"I'm sorry."
His apology takes her aback, "You are?"
"I always said I'd never bring anyone home without first talking with you. I always wanted you to feel safe, stable," he explains. "After Gina…"
"That lasted six months and I was three," she interrupts.
"Well, you may not remember, but I do," he retorts. "I'm your old man, remember?"
"I wasn't going to say anything…" she teases. Alexis pretends to pick at some lint off her dad's shirt. "Give me some time, okay?"
"I'll give you all the time in the world."
3.
Nothing notable with regards to 'the Beckett incident' occurs the rest of the week. Alexis knows there are phone calls and that he's going off to see her when he leaves the house. She's undecided as to how she feels about knowing but not entirely accepting. Her grandmother isn't due back for another few weeks, so she could theoretically wait to let herself fully feel the brunt of the changing winds in her home. Maybe her problem, she muses, is that she expected to have the summer to deal with the final shift from child to adult. Alexis likes Detective Beckett, so she knows that's not what's holding her back, but if she's honest, her dad with Beckett feels a bit like he's already picking out wall colors for her room before she's even moved out.
She finds herself hiding behind a bookshelf on that Friday afternoon. Her dad is due home any minute, as he foolishly texted her to let her know, so she's planted the vest by the door and she's waiting. Alexis isn't ready to let go of her father yet, of that much she's sure. She keeps waiting, even after she gets a cramp in her lower back, but she's rewarded when the front door opens. With agility she jumps out and fires.
"You've got one minute, go!" she shouts.
Her dad looks askance at the vest. "I knew I shouldn't have texted you."
"Giving away your position to your enemy is a rookie move!" she gloats. It feels like it always does, the banter and humor. It doesn't last though.
"I was actually just coming home to change. Kate and I were…"
Alexis is beginning to comprehend that change isn't controllable or even quantifiable at times. Is this what her father felt like every time she talked about college? She drops her gun and pulls off her goggles. "Oh."
"No, I'll cancel."
"You don't…"
He's already texting though and just as she's about to protest his decision again, he grabs his gun and shoots her, her pack going dim. He's grinning at her. She smiles back.
"Got you," he jabs before grabbing his vest.
4.
Getting Beckett's address wasn't hard, but getting up the nerve to knock on the door is. Alexis fidgets for a second. She's not a child anymore, she has to come to terms with that, and besides, her father deserves to be happy. It's not like he divorced her mother to be with Beckett and all things considered, having the detective around wouldn't be so bad. Her heart thuds in her ears as she raps her knuckles against the wood.
The door opens. "Alexis, hi," Beckett greets her. There's confusion for a second, but then she steps back. "Come on in."
Alexis takes a moment to study the apartment, and for a moment she worries she might see something lying around that she would rather have not. Like her dad's boxers. Or a bra. The place, however, while definitely lived in, is basically tidy. She leans against Beckett's counter. "I wanted to see if you wanted to have dinner with us tomorrow night. With my dad and me."
There's a silence between them. Beckett's a detective; she's trained to watch body language, to read between the lines. Alexis tries to relax her muscles, but is unsuccessful. Kate presses her lips together and finally replies, "Dinner sounds great."
"Good," Alexis responds with a forced smile. "Good."
"Look, Alexis, if you're not ready…"
"No, I am. Really," she replies, feeling flustered and out of place. "I, um… This is all new. There's a lot of 'new' lately." Her stomach flips because she doesn't like admitting her weaknesses and because deep down, she respects Kate Beckett.
"Then I'll see you tomorrow night," Kate confirms.
"Great. Dad will be glad to hear it. I better go; I'm actually just out running errands. College stuff." It's a half-truth. Coming here was her primary goal, but staying was never an option. She'd planned a few other activities so that she could make a clean getaway. Beckett walks her to the door and they pause at the threshold.
"You're still the number one woman in his life. That's never going to change," Kate reassures, her brown eyes boring into Alexis, as though trying to anchor this truth inside her.
She nods. "I know, but there's plenty of room for both of us."
5.
Dinner turns out to be way more fun than Alexis had anticipated. Beckett shows up with wine, and even convinces her dad to pour her a half of a glass; the conversations from the very start feel organic, and Alexis discovers that as long as she doesn't think about her dad in boxers and Beckett in his shirt, it feels a lot like it always has. Kate fits in naturally with their weird sense of humor and off-the-wall topics.
Beckett escapes to the restroom for a moment and Castle turns to her with an expression of fatherly concern covering his face. "You okay?"
"Yeah, Dad," she replies. "I'm fine."
"And with Kate?"
"And with Kate," she confirms.
He doesn't appear completely satisfied. Her dad looks in the direction of the bathroom before pressing further. "You know that I'd give her up in a heartbeat if you thought…" His words are deliberate and she can see in his eyes that the offer cuts him straight to the core.
"Don't," Alexis warns him. "I'd never ask you to do that. You're my dad and I want you to be happy. Just like you want me to be happy."
"Still…" Castle is pushing because despite his often childish antics, he has always taken his role as her father very seriously.
She holds up a hand. "Besides, someone has to look after you while I'm gone." Her light-hearted tone puts him at ease.
"About what happened after graduation," he starts, but is quickly interrupted by Alexis shaking her head.
"Let's agree to never discuss that again. I'll just make sure to call…as a warning."
"So then, truce with regards to ambushing unsuspecting victims innocently on their way home?" he tosses her direction.
A smile plays at the corner of her mouth. "Truce." They link pinkies and shake, and with that, Alexis knows that some things are as steady as the sun.