"Rook was still closing his backseat door when she reached Columbus and hit the siren." She closed Heat Wave, the Nikki Heat book she had just stared reading to their 5 year old daughter, censoring it so it was appropriate for a girl that age. When she looked down at her, she had a very serious look on her face. "What are you thinking about, Hailey?"

Castle had been waiting for Beckett to come back downstairs for almost an hour now. He knew she read a chapter of Nikki Heat to Hailey before she went to sleep but an hour for one chapter? He went up the stairs to investigate but stopped just shy of the door when he hear his daughter ask a question.

She looked up at her mom, the same serious look on her face. "Is it true that you're the real Nikki Heat?"

Kate had to stifle a laugh. "What?"

"Liam at school said his mommy told him that my mommy was in her favorite book, so that's you right? You can't be Rook or Ochoa or Raley cause they're boys and Lauren Parry is a doctor so you have to be Nikki Heat right, cause she's a detective like you?"

Man, her daughter was smart for a 5 year old, using process of elimination to decide which character was supposed to be her mom. "You remember how daddy and I met?"

She nodded. "He had to help you find a bad guy that hurt people."

"Yeah. Well, daddy was having a hard time writing, he didn't want to write Derek Storm anymore so he had to find something else to write about. After he met me and we got the bad guy, he thought I would make a good character in one of his books. So he got the Mayor to let him follow me for a while."

"And then he wrote Nikki Heat?"

"Yeah."

"So Nikki Heat is you just with a different name?"

"Not exactly. Sometimes the things Nikki does, I did but for the most part, daddy just got the idea from watching me and seeing how I work."

"But if daddy just had to work with you to write a book, why does he still work with you when he doesn't write Nikki Heat anymore?"

Kate laid down, snuggling closer to her daughter. "Want me to tell you a secret?" Hailey smiled and nodded her head, she loved having just Mommy and Hailey secrets. "Daddy really only needed to follow me for maybe a year or two to get all the information he needed for Nikki Heat. But we wanted to still work together so we just pretended it was for his books."

"But it was really because you wanted to marry each other?"

Kate laughed. "It was a little more than that but I did love him and I wanted to keep him around. I think he stayed because he liked acting like a cop."

Hailey laughed back at her. "No. He loves you too, silly."

"That I do." They both turned to look at the door where Castle was standing with a smug grin on his face.

Hailey let out a big yawn. Hearing this, Kate looked back at her. "Looks like someone should go to sleep."

"Can you read just one more chapter?"

"I already read two. I'll read you more tomorrow. I love you." She leaned down to kiss her forehead.

"I love you too mommy."

She then stood up and headed for the door as Castle made his way toward Hailey to do the same.

Castle left their daughter's room and found Kate leaning against the wall, arms crossed over her chest. "You gonna gloat now that you know you're right?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He started walking past her to go back downstairs, the same smug grin on his face.

She lightheartedly slapped his chest and followed him. "Yeah right."