This story blindsided me the other day and began to write itself this afternoon. Please enjoy and leave a review!

Disclaimer: Nothing recognizable in this story is mine nor do I wish to make any profit from this venture.

The holding cell is empty save for the seventeen year old girl tugging at the handcuffs tethering her to the bench she was seated on. Her father had taught her how to escape handcuffs just after her fifth birthday when he'd been in the middle of crafting a junior spy novel but, somehow, she figured adding 'escaping arrest' would do little for her case at the moment. Still, tugging at the cuffs gave her something to do while she waited for one or both of her parents to collect her from the Brooklyn precinct. Her dark honey curls fell across her face and she let out a vodka flavored huff as she gave the metal chain a good yank before sinking back in frustrated defeat.

"Hanna James Castle," it was her father's voice from the doorway behind her. The way he crafted her name on his tongue was icy, controlled with layers of rage buried underneath – she had let him down, scared him, and broken his trust.

She tilted her head back to look at him and sighed at the sight of her twelve year old brother, Martin, fiddling with his Nintendo DS behind their father's back. "Yes daddy?"

"Underage drinking at a college party, Hanna? The officers said they took a kid to the hospital with an overdose of molly, that there was plenty of drug use going on! You had no business being there and you know it! You lied about it, Hanna, so you sure as hell knew it was wrong!" She had never seen her father this angry before, never seen him look at her with that much disgust.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Apology noted but not accepted at the moment." Richard Castle looked at his middle child and sighed. Alexis was never the problem child – even when she acted out, she tended to punish herself before he even had a chance – so he didn't quite know how to handle Hanna's rebellion. "I am going to pay your bail and then your mother and I will discuss your punishment with you in the morning."

"Yes sir." Hanna sank back against the bars. Things didn't use to be this way but lately all she wanted to do was cry and scream; the drinking helped mute the urges because if she were to tap into those feelings she would never make it out of bed in the morning. She knew she had no business being at that party but the offer of free booze and music so loud she couldn't hear herself think had been too good, too alluring to turn down. She hoped that kid in the hospital was okay, she truly did.

The police officer who came to undo her cuffs and escort her out of holding eyed her with contempt. "Your mother is a good captain."

"I know."

"She could be a great Chief of Police someday."

Hanna rolled her eyes but nodded. "I know."

"She'll never get the position with a daughter like you around."

"I'll be sure to give her your sympathies," Hanna promised curtly before making her way to the desk to collect her personal items.

Her brother practically danced on the toes of his Chuck Taylor's as she approached and he grinned up at her – their father's grin, the one that greeted her each morning in the mirror. "You've got to go to court."

"Martin Charles…" Castle's voice was tight with warning as he gave his son a light thump on the ear in correction. "Behave please."

"Yes sir." The twelve year old smiled as he turned back to his game.

Rick switched his focus back to his daughter who, in that very moment, reminded him so very much of his wife that it nearly bowled him over. Hannah was Kate all over again – personality and all, especially at seventeen, Jim Beckett had promised. She looked so small as she pulled on the worn leather jacket she had inherited from her mother on her thirteenth birthday and pulled her long dark locks from the collar before turning her eyes toward him – so very green, Kate's green. "Wednesday after school with Judge Mitchell – he's a juvenile court judge and pretty fair, according to Officer Pritchard, so hopefully things will go in your favor."

"Whatever," she muttered as she fumbled with the zipper on the coat.

"No, Hanna, not whatever. Do you realize what could have happened tonight? You could have gotten drugged, you could have gotten alcohol poisoning, and it could be you in that hospital. It could be you in the morgue, Hanna! It was a college party and you're just a kid! You could still have screwed yourself out of college opportunities and you could have royally screwed with your mother's chances of career advancement."

"Fine," Hanna interjected. "Can we please go home?"

"Go to the car."

She crossed her arms over her chest and lowered her head as she marched outside to the awaiting town car. Her dad's cell phone rang as Martin slid in next to her and she heard him answer it outside for a moment of privacy. She strained to hear the conversation over her brother's video games.

"Kate, she's fine." Rick comforted his wife. "If she was drunk, she's sober now. Her blood alcohol level was right at the legal limit but she has to go to court on Wednesday – Judge Mitchell. They picked her up at some college aged house party in Brooklyn, Kate. Some kid got taken to the hospital with a drug overdose." Hanna sighed. "I don't know what is going on with her anymore but this is not okay. Yeah. I love you too. See you when you get home."

Rick slid into the car then, flipping Martin's DS closed as he did. "No more 'til morning. You're already up way past bed time." Hanna is quiet as she sits in her seat, fiddling with the class ring that has been on her thumb for almost two years now. "Too bed when we get home, the both of you. Hanna, we will discuss everything with mom in the morning, okay?" Rick watches with a sad smile while she fiddles with the ring. "It's okay to miss him, honey."

"I'm fine." She pushes the hair back from her face and sets her jaw – so very Kate Beckett's daughter.

He shakes his head. "This isn't fine, Hanna James."

"Whatever," she echoes her earlier refrain.

It wasn't always like this; two years ago and Hanna had been the epitome of a daddy's girl, just like Alexis before her. She had been all about good grades (mostly because she liked school but partly because of competition with her sister) and trying to fit flute music into her beloved heavy metal. Then the spring of her freshman year came and Hanna had fallen victim to the allure of seventeen year old Mika. Mika hadn't been bad – Rick even considered him a great first boyfriend for his wild child. The teenagers had been swept away into a whirlwind romance as kids their age are apt to do. Then the previous Christmas break had found the Castles at their home in the Hamptons for the holiday and Mika had come to visit the day after Christmas because the two simply couldn't bear to go another day without seeing one another. They had spent a wonderful day together playing in the snow on the beach and exchanging Christmas presents by the fire but as the sun began to set, Mika was forced to head back into the city.

They had gotten the call three hours later from Mika's uncle. There had been an accident – Mika's car had hit a patch of black ice on one of coastal New York's more curve ridden roads. They had declared him brain dead not long after arrival to the hospital but it had taken several days before the family had removed the teenage boy from life support. Rick could still remember the look on his daughter's face the moment the heartbeat monitor had flatlined and the way she had sobbed in his arms in the stairwell where she finally allowed herself to breakdown. They had taken her to therapy for several months afterward only to be told she was fine and grieving normally. Now, almost a year later, nothing with his daughter seemed fine – it seemed as though she was running headlong toward death.

Kate was waiting for them when they got home and he was grateful. She kissed their son on his head before sending him on his way up the stairs. "Come here, sweetheart," Kate urged their daughter. "Hanna James Castle. Come here."

"I'm sorry," Hanna whispered as she fell into her mother's embrace. Rick watched from the foyer where he was hanging all their coats; Hanna seemed to relax under Kate's touch, her tough mother chasing away all the demons that plagued her. "I'm so sorry, mama."

"Stop, baby," Kate ordered. "I love you and I could have lost you tonight. Let me hold you for a minute, okay? There's time for yelling and apologies in the morning."

"Yes ma'am." Hanna sniffled and burrowed into her mother's chest for a moment. "I love you."

"To bed," Kate ordered with a kiss to her forehead.

Rick caught Hanna's arm as they met at the base of the staircase. "I do love you, Han."

"I love you, too, daddy." And then she was off, up the stairs, hiding away in her room once more. It felt like an entire ocean between them. She was so much like Kate when he first met her; walls up, shut off to anything that might dare hurt her again, and he was scared – petrified – that he wouldn't be able to save his daughter from herself.

Kate was at his side then, fingers curled at his arm. "She's going to be okay, Rick."

"She's so angry, Kate. She's closed herself off to the world and I'm not sure we can reach her." He spoke to his wife but stared up at his daughter's room, wishing for a sign from the cosmos that his daughter could be reached. "She's drinking, her grades are slipping, and now she's gotten arrested. It's like she's given up on everything."

"Grief does that," Kate promised. "She's still grieving, Castle. It might come in short bursts now but it's still something she has to battle and I can't promise that she'll ever really get over it but she'll learn to live with the grief. She's part you and part me, Richard Castle. She's not going to give up and we aren't either."

"I jus-"

"We can't fix it all tonight, Rick." She pulled at his hand. "It is time for bed. We'll work on it tomorrow."