A/N: This is a belated birthday fic for Brookemopolitan. Very belated. Incredibly belated. I-should-be-kicked-in-the-butt belated. Her birthday was last May. So, my dear, please accept this with the most sincere of apologies, and with deep affection. You're a star, and I'm honored to count you as a friend.
Special thanks to Jo (honeyandvodka) for beta-ing and for inspiring me when I had no idea where this was going. Set in Season Two, although there are mild spoilers for Still.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing. Don't sue.
"Castle," he all but barked as he answered the phone. Her eyebrows shot up. He usually answered her calls with a certain level of glee in his voice.
"Dad, NO! Either stop flinching or let me get an instructor," Alexis' harassed voice reached her as a car horn beeped in the background.
"Is now a bad time, Castle?" she asked, finding herself automatically sliding into that low, throaty, teasing voice she seemed to have perfected since he began shadowing her. This time, though, there was no audible gulp at her use of the tone, no pregnant pause to let her know she was getting to him.
"Driving lesson," he ground out curtly, before crying "Look out!"
"DAD!" Alexis' frustration was evident.
"I take it this means you aren't available for a body drop?" Kate managed to keep her tone light, but couldn't help the twinge of disappointment in her gut. What was that about?
"Pull over there! CAREFUL!" the panic in Castle's voice was comical. A few moments later, the sound of the engine stopped. "Sorry, Detective. Yes, a murder sounds great right about now. Otherwise one might happen in this vehicle," he quipped. She could picture his daughter glaring at him.
"New York City isn't exactly the easiest place to learn how to drive, Castle," she hummed soothingly.
"I learned here. I've taught others here. My daughter, though, seems to have inherited her traffic awareness from her mother," there was just a hint of teasing leaking in under his grumbling, and Kate clearly heard an indignant "Hey!" from Alexis.
"That bad, huh?" Kate asked.
"Worse. And I don't dare ask anyone else to put their lives in their hands and take over," he sighed.
"My dad tried to teach me," she offered. "He wound up asking a family friend to take over. It caused too many arguments."
"Was that you offering, Detective Beckett?" She could tell he was only joking, but Alexis' voice sounded in the background.
"Is she really? That would be amazing! At least she won't yell at me," the girl babbled excitedly.
"Alexis…" he began, but Kate cut him off.
"No, it's OK, Castle. Tell her I'll do it, if that's what she wants," Kate found herself saying.
"You don't have to," Castle said seriously.
"Do you trust me with Alexis?" she asked, equally serious.
There wasn't even a pause. "Yes."
"Then let me do this, Castle."
He sighed. "OK."
"Great," Kate smiled, knowing what a big deal this was to him. "Now let me give you the address…"
ONE MONTH LATER
"OK, check your blind spots, indicate, and when you're ready, ease out into the traffic," Kate said in her calmest voice. Alexis nodded, and carefully, carefully did as she was bid, with only the tiniest bunny hop. "Great! Now, in about three blocks you're going to want to be in the other lane. What do you do?"
Alexis bit her lip. "I wait for a gap, indicate, and then move," she answered.
"Very good. Just remember to check your blind spot, too," Kate instructed. Alexis did, the steering wheel wobbling as she glanced over her shoulder. "Careful," Kate murmured as Alexis inelegantly completed the maneuver.
A cab behind them honked loudly. Alexis jumped, radiating tension.
"Ignore it, Alexis. You're doing fine. We just need to work on keeping in your lane while you check your blind spot, that's all."
"How did you get so good at this?" Alexis asked suddenly as she carefully slowed for a red light.
"Great! You can afford to be a little bit closer when you stop, though. A good rule of thumb is stopping where you can see the next vehicle's tires touch the ground. Get good at teaching, do you mean?" Kate asked.
"At being so calm and patient. Dad usually is, but he was a nightmare at this," Alexis replied as the lights turned green.
"Easy on the following distance there. I guess part of it's the cop training- we have to be able to be calm in life threatening situations. I think your Dad's taught me a thing or two about patience, though. Don't forget to indicate," she prompted as Alexis completed her next maneuver.
"You've taught Dad a lot, too," the girl mumbled, brow furrowed in concentration.
"I have?" The words slipped out accidentally. She certainly hadn't meant to say them out loud- she didn't mean to put Alexis in the position of telling on her father.
Alexis nodded. "Since he's been working with you, he hasn't gone off the rails like he normally would. It hasn't been like it was after either of his divorces. He hasn't been on any rebound dates, didn't take any weekend trips to Vegas- nothing. He has just kept working."
"That's how he used to deal with breakups?" Kate couldn't stop herself from asking.
Alexis wrinkled her nose, pausing her side of the dialog as Kate directed her to change lanes and take the next turn, before resuming the conversation. "Gram told me he's only been arrested once, though- before he met you, that is. I'm not sure how much of the story is true- it had something to do with stealing a police horse and riding it naked? -but I know that was when he found out Mom cheated on him. He didn't do anything like that when Gina broke up with him, just dated around like it was going out of fashion, playing up to his image to get back at Gina because that's what she thought she married."
Kate didn't respond aloud to that, simply switched the subject back to the driving lesson, but her mind was active. She had been learning for a while now that Castle's playboy persona didn't run more than surface deep, and that there was a lot more to the author than she had originally been led to believe. Somehow, she had always assumed that his marriages failing had been his fault- given that there was more than one, it seemed a reasonable assumption- but Alexis' words suggested otherwise. If what the girl said was true, and the playboy image really was just a front, and his failed marriages really weren't his fault- she had done him a grave disservice.
Eventually, they pulled up in front of the loft, and Alexis carefully put the car into park. "Thank you for taking me driving, Detective!"
"No problem. You're still keeping this from your Dad?"
Alexis nodded. "How long until I'm ready?"
"One step at a time. Don't worry. When you're ready, I'll help you with your plan. He won't suspect a thing!" Kate reassured her as they both exited the vehicle. Alexis waylaid Kate before she could slip into the driver's seat, throwing her arms around Kate's neck in an unexpected but not unwelcome hug.
"You're the best," Alexis murmured before flying into her building, red hair streaking out behind her in her exuberance. Kate watched her go, musing that maybe Castle's daughter was not so unlike her father in after all.
At least in the ways that counted.
A COUPLE OF MONTHS AFTER THAT
"You promised not to peek!"
"Come on, Beckett! You really expect me not to try?"
"I expect you to keep your word. Here's the car. Get in." She guided him into the rear passenger seat carefully, ensuring he didn't bump his head on the door jam.
"I still say the cuffs as well as the blindfold are a little excessive."
"Really? And here I was thinking you'd be jumping at the chance."
"Oh, if we were in the bedroom, I'd be all for it, Detective."
A strange choking sound came to his ears, a little like a subdued cough.
He wriggled a little. "Um... Beckett? Why am I not in my seat?"
"You have a seat now?"
"Yes. The passenger seat."
"I put you in the back."
"Why?"
"Because you're handcuffed, and when people are handcuffed in this vehicle, they ride in the back seat."
"Normally I'd like where this is going."
"I'm suddenly regretting not gagging you while I had the chance."
The engine started and the car pulled smoothly into traffic.
"So where are you taking me? What's the surprise?"
"It's a surprise, Castle. You really think I'm going to tell you?"
"Kidnapping is a felony, Detective. We wouldn't want you to get in trouble with the law."
"That would imply I was taking you against your will."
"This is true. You can take me any time, in any way you want."
That choking cough again.
"Uh- Beckett? Are we alone in here?"
"If this is you hitting on me again, Castle, you can stop that train of thought right there."
"No, seriously! I'm sure I heard something."
"We're in a police cruiser in the middle of Manhattan. I'd be more worried if you didn't hear something."
"Oh, God, your car is haunted, isn't it? I bet you had two suspects in here once, and one of them stabbed the other and now his ghost haunts the back seat."
"The only stabbing to ever occur in this vehicle is imminent."
"You wound me, Detective!"
"I will if you don't zip it."
Castle clamped his mouth shut, allowing his head to fall back onto the head rest. Maybe if he wiggled really surreptitiously he might get the blindfold up enough to see where they were-
"Stop trying to peek, Castle!"
"I'm not! I'm just... getting comfortable."
"You do realize I'm watching your every movement, don't you?"
"Why, Beckett, I didn't know you cared."
"I don't."
"Shouldn't your eyes be on the road?"
"Why?"
"Why? Because you're driving!"
"No, I'm not."
"You're not?"
"Nope!"
"You could have told me we weren't alone!"
"That's part of the surprise."
"Who's there?! SHOW YOURSELF!"
Beckett laughed. "She was never hiding."
"She?! So it's not Ryan or Espo... unless there's something one of them isn't telling me..."
That choking cough again, this time sounding just a little giggly. Almost like...
"ALEXIS?!"
Another giggle. Definitely his daughter.
The car pulled up to the curb and came to such a perfectly gentle stop, Castle didn't even notice it had happened until after the event.
"We're here," Kate said casually.
Castle's door opened, and a moment later he felt the blindfold being tugged off. He blinked a couple of times as his eyes adjusted to the light, but the first thing he saw was one of his favorite sights in the world- his daughter's beaming, proud smile as she watched him from the driver's seat.
"You were driving?"
She nodded. "Detective Beckett's been teaching me."
"In such a short amount of time?" He looked up at Kate, who was still patiently holding the door open for him.
"She knew what she was doing already, Castle. She just needed someone to take her out and give her a few pointers without yelling at her."
He stared at her, dazed that anyone would care enough to do that for his daughter. She jerked her head impatiently, and he scrambled inelegantly out of the car, turning so she could unlock the cuffs.
As soon as he was free, he wrapped her in a warm, enthusiastic embrace, breathing "Thank you," into her ear, before releasing her just as suddenly. He then whirled around the car and helped Alexis out of the driver's seat, pulling her into a bone crushing hug and whispering how proud he was of her into her hair.
Alexis returned the hug with equal ferocity, before taking his hand and pulling him onto the sidewalk.
"The best part is, that was only half your surprise," Alexis said beguilingly, watching her father's face as he went from confusion to delight when he recognized the shop she had led him to.
"You're taking me out for ice cream?! BEST. SURPRISE. EVER!" he enthused, holding open the door for his daughter, before looking back at Beckett.
She hesitated a moment, a faraway look in her eye, before snapping back to the present and following his daughter into the store, hips swinging just that little bit more than usual as she passed by the author.
FOUR YEARS LATER
It had been a hell of a day. Kate collapsed into bed that night with a groan, her muscles tired from standing all day, her emotions still fraught from thinking she was going to die as she had stood on that plate for hours upon hours.
A small smile twitched at her lips, though. She had managed to keep her little secret, no matter how hard Castle had pestered her to keep her distracted.
The truth was, she had fallen in love with him while she had been teaching his daughter to drive.
Thoughts?