She awakes at 7 hitting the snooze and cursing the fates that interrupted her dream. She was flying through the hills of Austria while Julie Andrews sang to her. It was an odd dream to say the least, but come on, Julie Andrews. She only lets the alarm beep once more before she turns it off. She throws back the covers and lets the warm summer air in her bedroom waft over her before stretching and letting out a slight moan. She stumbles groggily out of her bedroom and into the kitchen where a cup of coffee with the perfect amount of cream and sugar is waiting for her next to a warm muffin. Chuckling to herself and wondering why it's there – somehow she knows that it's going to end in her coughing up money for something, but that can wait. For now she just chomps down on her little slice of banana-ey heaven and drinks a cup of joe. She hears the footsteps before she sees who owns them pretending not to notice until she speaks up at the last second,

"What do you want."

"Why must I want something? Can't I just make you breakfast to show you how much I love you?" the voice replies without hesitation.

"Well you certainly could, just from previous experiences I don't think you ever have."

As she finishes her muffin she turns her head around to take in the full sight of her chipper red-headed daughter. My God she was turning into a beautiful young woman. She raises one eyebrow at the girl and sees her resolve beginning to crumble. If she has learned one thing (and she certainly has) in her years as a cop, it's the ability to see through even the toughest armour. The girl knows her mask is crumbling so, like always, she gives in and admits it.

" Well…as you probably know, tomorrow is a teachers retreat so we don't have school… and a bunch of my friends want to go shopping in the village… so I was wondering if –"

"You can borrow my credit card." she interrupts, already knowing where this is headed. She knows that she should probably just tell her to get a job, but she remembers how much she hated working as a teenager and figures she'll get a job soon enough. Besides, she kind of is the perfect daughter so rewarding her from time to time isn't a very big deal.

The girl jumps and shrieks so loud that she is glad she has already had the coffee. It occurs to her that there is a way to make this work in her favour.

"But." She adds, "I want coffee every morning for the rest of my life"

The girl lets out shallow giggle, "really? The rest of your life Mom?"

"Yes!" she replies enthusiastically standing and putting her mug in the sink. "You have to stay with me forever and ever! Muahahah!" She says while twirling around until she reaches the girl where she begins to tickle her sides

"MUHAAHAHAHAHAH!" she taunts

"Okay!" the girl replies between fits of laughter as she tries to squirm away, "I will stay with you forever and make you coffee and love you but pleeeeeease let me go!"

With that Kate Beckett drops her arms to her sides and dances away in victory singing "The hills are alive...with the sound of music…"

Alexis chuckles to herself and wonders if everyone's parents are as crazy as her Mom.

-] [ { } ] [ { } ] [-

On the other side of town, he has been up for 2 hours. He went for a long run down by the docks, and then came home and proceeded to do sit-ups and chin-ups for the next hour. "Today is the day", he told himself, "Today is the day I'm going to find myself some inspiration." Tonight was the book launch party for his newest and final Derrick Storm novel, and the pestering from his agent and publisher about what he was going to do now had already begun. He hadn't killed off Derrick because he was done being a writer, no he loved what he did, he just didn't like writing him anymore. He used to enjoy writing for him but the last book had been like pulling teeth.

He was a dedicated man, his parents had been Lawyers so he grew up with a strict sense of discipline – now that's not to say he didn't have some great times back in his day – so he was able to write the last book and finish it, but the decision to kill his main character had been made for him by the time he and written his second chapter. It was time for a new beginning, but Richard Castle just wasn't sure what it was yet.

Little did he know that the fates knew exactly what it was, and it was only a matter of hours before he would too.

-] [ { } ] [ { } [-

AN: What do you think? I'm trying a new style and a new genre. I realized the other day that AU's are my favourite to read so I decided to write my own. I know this is short but if I added the next bit to this chapter it'd just be weird. Stay Tuned!

-KB