Chapter One

August 19th, 2012

Alexis Castle stood in the middle of a sea of boxes. Though she had tried to get them to let her do this herself, Dad and Kate had insisted on coming along (though Kate had, to her credit, tried in vain to talk him out of it, too) to help her unpack her things and settle into her new furnished campus run apartment near the Columbia University campus.

Dad had pulled some strings, and in exchange for a guest lecture appearance for the creative writing program, the college had allowed her to move in a week early to avoid the hubbub that the presence of "Richard freaking Castle" with "Nikki Heat" in tow would surely create. Even so, dad had been stopped several times for autographs while they were checking in and getting her room assignment and keys, as obviously some of the campus faculty and staff were fans. She'd wanted to avoid this kind of exposure, but that plan had gone right out the window. As her room began to look more like a home away from home, and less like an empty hotel room, Rick and Kate had begun to settle down.

"Are you sure you'll be okay in here all by yourself?" her father asked, with genuine concern, "Your roommate won't be here for another week." as he nodded to the unoccupied room across from hers .

"I'll be fine, dad," Alexis replied, "I'll probably spend most of the week getting to know the campus before classes start."

She knew that her father was sincere in his concern, given her ordeal this past spring, but she could also sense that he was trying to delay the moment of his departure, and they left her there, leaving him and Kate in an empty house. She knew all of his moves by heart.

"Alexis, if you need anything, anything at all, you know where to reach me, day or night."

"Me too." Kate chimed in, with a warm smile on her face as she took Rick's arm, trying to guide him through the moment.

She looked good, Alexis thought, in the loose fitting sundress she wore which hid the baby bump from her month old pregnancy. She seemed much smaller in the sensible flats she wore instead of the power heels she preferred at work. She liked this look on her, it made her seem more down to earth and approachable. She had a lot more free time as well, now that Captain Gates had put her on a regular schedule and desk duty. Which would be good for her dad's peace of mind.

"Dad, Kate, I'll be fine, really," Alexis said emphatically, "I just need to settle in and get my bearings is all."

Her father swallowed her up in a massive bear hug, and said wistfully, "My little girl, off to college." then tried to slip the four one hundred dollar bills into her back pocket which he had tried to give to her earlier, but she had refused.

"Daaaad!" she squealed in the same tone she used when he called her "pumpkin" at the morgue. And gave him disapproving daughter scowl #6.

"I insist," he said, "It's only money, I got the advance for the last "Nikki Heat" novel. Where better to spend it than on my baby bird? You should pick up something nice to brighten this place up a bit."

Finally, Rick and Kate (mostly Rick) couldn't put off the moment any longer. Rick gave Alexis another hug, then Kate did the same. After which Kate slipped two NYPD issue business cards into her hand.

"Ryan and Espo wanted me to give these to you," she said, "If something happens and you don't feel comfortable calling your father or me, then you can call them. Their home numbers and personal cell phones are written on the back."

"Uncle Kevin, and Uncle Javi to the rescue, huh?" Alexis said, as an amused grin lit up her face, "It has a nice ring to it." and winked at her father.

Rick jumped for a moment as he remembered something important. "Oh...Right, your grandfather wanted me to give this to you," he said with a mix of childish wonder and dark foreboding, as he pulled a nondescript looking black flip phone out of his jacket pocket. "His contact number and Smith's are on the speed dial, He said that even if he's on an inspection tour of the Seventh Fleet in Japan, he'll still get the call."

Alexis had to smile about that. The cool factor of having a US Navy rear admiral and the Deputy Director of Operations for the CIA on speed dial just couldn't be ignored. Though she hoped things were never so dire that she actually needed to use the thing. Grams had told her about the one she had, and what it took to get her to use it the first time, the memory still gave her cold chills.

….

As Rick and Kate Castle walked back to the minivan he had bought, when he knew he was going to be a dad again, he said with a sigh,

"My baby bird is finally leaving the nest. Things will never be the same again." He looked up and saw Alexis in the window, waving goodbye, and the two of them waved back. When he turned back toward the minivan, he slumped his shoulders dejectedly and Kate leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

"Come on, we need to get back." Kate said with a warm smile, "We promised Lanie that we'd meet her, Espo and the Ryans for dinner and I need time to change. If it will cheer you up a little I'll even let you drive." and winked at him.

As they climbed into the minivan, Rick started the engine, gave his wife a loving kiss on the cheek, and then they pulled away.

….

One week later

Alexis had spent the majority of the week finding the quickest and most well lit routes to the library and the science labs on campus. The campus was incredibly quiet, but she was okay with that, she really wasn't ready for crowds yet. It was difficult enough to be in this unfamiliar place and keep her nerves under control, she'd needed get her bearings so she could function.

She had only called her father once. She was on her way back from the library and thought someone had been following her. She ran the two blocks home and locked herself in the apartment in an absolute panic. He must have broken the land speed record getting here in the Ferrari. He sat next to her on her bed and read to her until she fell asleep and sat with her all night. He only went home the next morning after making her breakfast . Dad was the one person in her life she knew would never let her down. Espo and Ryan showed up at her door a few days later to look in on her and took her to dinner. They were incredibly sweet, but Alexis could read subtext every bit as well as her dad, and could sense the subtle hand of her stepmother. It warmed her heart to know the two of them could support her without crowding her.

Today, however, she was getting ready to meet her new roommate. She had spent the entire day cleaning, trying to take her mind off of her anxiety. She had never been this anxious about meeting a new people before the...incident last spring. Dr. Burke said that this was a perfectly normal to feel this way but that didn't mean she had to like it.

The knock on the door startled her. She took a few deep breaths to get her heart rate under control, and opened the door. In waled a tall, thin man with graying hair and sad eyes, but his looked like an older sadness than the one her father had displayed when he'd helped her move in a week ago. Behind him was a willowy dark haired girl, whose manner spoke of a similar shred pain, but also of remarkable strength of spirit. She kind of reminded her of Kate in a way.

"Hi, my name's Rose, Rose Freeman," she said.

"I'm Alexis Castle." Alexis replied.

"You wouldn't perhaps be related to Richard Castle, the author?" her father said.

"He's my dad." she said, but thinking. "Here we go again."

"It's not what you think," Mr. Freeman said, "Your father and a Detective Beckett solved the case of my son, and my first wife's murders a few years ago, around Halloween."

"Kate is my stepmother now," Alexis said, "They got married just this year."

"Congratulations," Rose said, trying to be cheerful without hurting her father's feelings.

Once all of Rose's belongings were safely stowed in her room, Mr Freeman hugged her and said his goodbyes. This left the two of them alone. It would seem she had been paired with a kindred spirit of sorts. "We should get along just fine then." Alexis thought to herself.

"There's a really nice Chinese place that delivers," Alexis offered "how about we order some dinner?"

From then on the two were nearly inseparable.