Thunder crashed, lightening flashed. A little girl was curled up close to her father. The girl had an irrational fear of thunderstorms, and this one was the worst one of spring so far. She was clutching her favorite teddy bear and sat as close to her dad as she could without sitting in his lap.
Her dad was rubbing her neck and upper back trying to calm his daughter down.
"Shhh, Johanna. It's ok, it's all ok," he kept whispering over and over into the girl's ear.
"Daddy it's scary," she said. Her eyes were big. Almost as if she were to close them, a monster would get her.
"I kno you're scared baby. The storm will be over soon," Richard Castle didn't know what to do. Sure Alexis had been scared of storms when she was little, but never this bad.
A loud crack of thunder shook the loft and all at once the power went out and Johanna let out an ear splitting shriek.
"Castle, what are you doing?" Kate Beckett's voice filled the room as the lights returned.
"Well I-I just- I," Castle started to say suddenly lost for words.
"Mommy!" Johanna ran up to her mom grabbing her around her leg.
"Hi baby girl," Kate said picking up her daughter for a better hug. "How are you?"
"Mommy the thunder was scary. And then the lights were gone," The three year-old explained. "But daddy was very brave. He protected me from the monsters,"
Kate laughed at that last comment as she walked to the couch and sat down, her daughter on her lap.
"Well daddy is very good at the whole 'protecting' thing," she said.
Richard leaned over and kissed his wife on her cheek. He moved his kissed slowly inward towards her mouth. Once there he depend the kissed each one stronger and full of love. The little girl slid down from her seat and returned to the abandoned picture she had been coloring.
The couple didn't even notice that Richard's cell phone-which was sitting in the coffee table- was ringing. Johanna picked up the phone and answered it for her dad.
"Hello?" the little girl asked.
"Um is Richard Castle there?" the woman on the other side asked, obviously confused as to why a little girl was answering the phone belonging to the older man.
"Who is this?" Johanna asked, just the way her parents taught her to answer the phone when she didn't know who it was.
"It's Gina," the woman replied growing more and more impatient.
"Hold on," Johanna stood up and held the phone out to her dad. "Daddy, Ms. Gina in on the phone for you," she shouted trying to get her dad's attention. Rick pulled away from Kate, wiping his hand across his mouth.
He took the phone form the girl and held it against his shoulder to block his voice. "Thank you Jojo," he said kissing the tip of the girl's nose, which sent her into a fit of giggles.
Castle quickly rose and moved the conversation into his office. The door closed leaving both girls alone.
"Come on Johanna, time for bed," Kate said holding out her hand to the girl.
"But I'm not tired yet!" Johanna whined, her long hair bouncing.
"I know you're not, but it's late and time for bed," Kate said her voice becoming more serious. Finally the girl complied and followed her mother upstairs and into her pink walled bedroom.