Captain Kate Beckett-Castle sat at her desk filling out paper work for various requests and finished case files. She glances to her left and catches the family photo of her, Castle, and the three kids all at the park. The harsh ringing of her cell phone interrupted Kates flashback of that wonderful summer day. "Beckett." She answered in a clipped tone.
A high-pitched voice answered. "Hi. This is Kim Andrews from Marlowe Prep. I'm calling about your daughter, Lily Castle. There was an altercation between your daughter and another student and we'd like you to come in to talk with the principle."
Kate took a deep breath while rubbing her eyes with her thumb and forefinger. Letting out the breath she answered, "Ok. Let me call my husband and we'll be down there shortly." Kate didn't give the women a chance to answer before hanging up. She sat that there for a minute thinking about how the next hour was going to go. She knew Lily would never start a fight or even antagonize someone to the point of starting a fight. Kate just shook her head and dialed Castles number.
He answered on the fourth ring. "Missing me already Beckett? It's only been a few hours since I…"
"Finish that sentence Castle and I promise you'll be sleeping on the couch for the next few days." She jokingly told him. Her threat only made him chuckle in response.
"Like you could spend that many nights away from your ruggedly handsome husband. Now before I dig myself in deeper, the only reasons for your call would be you got an interesting case, or something happened at the kid's school. Which one was it? Lily, Jake, or Reece?" Kate just smiled and told him that Lily had gotten into a fight and they needed to go talk with the principle. He told her he'd meet her there and hung up the phone. She gathered up her stuff and walked out of the door and straight to the boy's desks.
"Lily got into a fight at school. I'm meeting Castle up there to talk with the principle. Espo you're in charge till I get back. If it's something important, call me."
"We got it. Tell the pequeña luchadora I said good job, the kid probably deserved it!" Esposito says in his tough guy voice. Both Kate and Ryan laugh as she heads towards the elevator.
Fifteen minutes later, Kates cruiser was pulling up outside of Marlowe Prep just as Castle was stepping out of his cab. They just smiled at each other and started walking towards the main building. The stone walls of the building were very familiar and guided them straight to the office.
They both walked up to the first desk where a woman in her late forties sat typing away at her computer. Kate cleared her throat, "I'm Lily Castles mom. I was told there was an altercation and the principle would like to speak to me."
The woman looked up and smiled "I probably shouldn't say this but I'd be proud of my daughter if she did what Lily did. Let me take you to Principle Elis' room. She pushed a lock of blonde hair from her eyes and got up to lead Castle and Beckett to the back part of the office before turning down a small hallway. She stopped outside the second door to the right and knocks. The voice that responds is very clipped and almost harsh. "Come in."
The woman opens the door and looks at Beckett and Castle. "Good luck!" She whispers as they walk into the office. She closes the door behind them and they take a seat on either side of Lily.
Kate looks to her left so she can she Lily. She can tell that Lily is not happy that her parents are there. She looks up at Castle and sees him glance at Lily before turning his attention to the principle. "I'm assuming you're the one to tell me exactly what my daughter did." Rick said with a smile.
The woman had short blonde hair with dull gray eyes. She was dressed in a faded yellow pants suit with a white shirt under the jacket. Kate eyed her like she would any suspect behind her table. Her tone was cold and clipped, "Yes. It seems Ms. Castle took it upon herself to start a fight with an upper classman."
"Damn right I did. That guy had it coming, he wouldn't take no for an answer and I got tired of using my words. If he wasn't on the football team my parents wouldn't even be here." Lily was mad now and Kate could sense she was only a few more seconds from really laying into the principle.
"Wait a second. You mean to tell me my daughter got into a fight with a football player and won?" Castle questioned with amusement dripping from every word. He looked like a kid in a candy store and Kate was having trouble keeping the smile off her face as well. She turned to the principle and could instantly see the disdain on the woman's face. Knowing that the situation was about to get out of hand Kate quickly stepped in.
"Principle Elis, what my husband was trying to get at was why are daughter would be fighting in the first place. She knows that she is only allowed to fight if it is self-defense."
The principle turned her head towards Kate and glared. "Your daughter gave Mr. Davidson a black eye and broke his nose. According to him, all he did was ask Lily to the winter formal." Both Kate and Castle were taken aback by the tone she had used, like she had already convicted Lily and wouldn't believe anything else that she heard. Both Rick and Kate looked at Lily and saw the smirk on her face. Intrigued by why her daughter all of a sudden seemed pleased with herself, Kate questioned her. "Lily? Can you tell me what happened?"
Lily continued to smile and answered, "Sure can. Tommy Davidson is the quarterback and he's been after me since day one, all because I won't fall for his playboy charm. Apparently, he wasn't taking no for an answer today because he tried to corner me between him and the lockers. I told him to back off and to leave me alone, but he kept pushing. I gave him a final warning when he put his hand on my waist. When he didn't remove his hand, I grabbed his wrist and shoved him forward. Then I stepped to the side and twisted his arm behind his back and slammed him into the lockers." Lily looked almost smug while she talked and not once did she take her eyes off the principle. Before anyone else could say something, Lily continued.
"I told him once again, to leave me alone because I wasn't interested. When I let him go he turned around and started to yell at me. He called me a bitch and talked about how any girl would want to be asked out by him, to which I just laughed and started to walk away. He didn't like that either. He grabbed my shoulder and tried to turn me around, but I spun around and punched him in the nose. I figured that would get my message across and I could just leave, I wasn't that lucky. He started to yell even louder and came at me with his right hand raised in a fist. He swung at me and I spun out of the way and threw a right hook at his head. He staggered backwards, holding his face and I walked away with a smile on mine."
When Lily had finished her story, both Kate and Castle were a strange mix of proud and mad. They looked at Lily and noticed that the smirk hadn't left her face and she still looked incredibly smug. Castle turned to Elis, "So what I just heard was a boy was harassing my daughter and she defended herself. Why are we here? What are the consequences for the boy?"
Principle Elis looked almost shocked at the questions Castle had asked her. That was when it occurred to Kate why Lily looked so smug. She thought they would just go along with what she told them and they would be mad that Lily had gotten into a fight. She just assumed that Lily was going to be in trouble and that would be the end of it. Boy was she in for a surprise.