Rick Castle heard the sound of a key sliding into the lock of the door. He jogged over as it opened and gathered his daughter into a welcoming hug. Rick's joy in holding his daughter and knowing that Kate was sleeping safe and close by made it absolutely impossible for him not exude happiness. He hugged Alexis close and spun her around just like when she was a little girl.
"Well hello to you, Dad! Now can you please put me down…..is that Isabella's pizza I smell?"
"Yes it is, just for my favorite graduate." Alexis smiled at him in thanks but Rick noticed it did not reach her eyes. "Hey, sweetie what's wrong. You were so looking forward to the party last night. Didn't you have fun? Did something happen? Are you OK?"
"I'm OK. I don't know…the party was good and I was having a great time and then it hit me. I may never see any of my friends again. I have been so close to Paige, Lynn and Lenore for so long. I am the only one in my class going to Columbia. I'll have no one there I really know. What if I can't handle the classes and all the work? What if I made the wrong decision?"
Rick Castle was surprised by his daughter's words but then something Kate once told him when she left for college came into his memory and her words came out of his mouth. "It's exciting but scary to leave all the familiar people, places and all your comfortable routines behind, Pumpkin. You will make hundreds of decisions in the next year or two and yes, some of them will be wrong. You have the strength and smarts to fix what's wrong and move on. You're ready to fly solo, kiddo. I am so proud of you but do you think I can have just one last summer with you as my little girl."
"That sounds really good, Dad. Now let's have some pizza. After that, I want to sleep for a week." Sitting at the breakfast bar they each grabbed a piece from the warmer and ate in contented silence. After two slices Alexis turned to her father. "OK, now tell me why you are so happy. Last night when I left for the party you were so down I almost didn't go."
"I'm happy because you're home and I get to be with you all summer…not buying that, huh?"
"Dad, I know something bad happened between you and Kate. She is the only one that can hurt you, make you really mad or sad. You said you were done at the 12th precinct. That you were not going to follow her around anymore. Is that why you were so down last night? Was that your decision or hers?"
Rick sometimes forgot how well his daughter knew him, until he realized they really grew up together. When his first wife cheated on him, he took Alexis, left Meredith and LA behind for good. Raising his daughter alone had been the best time of Rick's life but that job was done. She wasn't a little girl anymore. Alexis was a smart, strong and perceptive young woman who would be leaving for college in six short weeks. Reaching over, he framed her face with his hands and gently kissed her forehead. "She is not the only one, my darling daughter!"
"I love you too, Dad but that distraction is not going to work. Tell me what happened, please?"
Rick took her hand and a deep breath. "We were working on the Orlando Costa case."
"I know, it was the last case I worked on for my internship with the NYPD and Dr. Parrish. Hello, Lanie is Kate's best friend and has eyes and ears all over the precinct."
"We discovered the man who killed Costa was the same man that shot Kate. His name is Cole Maddox. The night before your graduation I went over to beg Kate not to try to find Maddox and to let her mom's case go. That finding her mother's killer wasn't worth dying for...and we fought."
"And she wouldn't let him or her mom's case go."
Rick slowly shook his head. "I told her I couldn't watch her get...hurt again and left for good."
"I am so sorry, dad. I wish you had said something. I would have been here for you." Alexis was sad. So many times she was afraid that her father would be hurt or killed following Kate around on her cases. A part of her was happy that danger was over but a bigger part was sad because she knew her father was in love with Detective Beckett. She was angry that Kate led him on and then let her dad go.
"I know, Pumpkin." Rick kissed the hand he was holding. "Just after you called me from the party, Kate came over to see me. I was angry and was going to tell her go away…but I never got the chance. Kate …" He stopped and got up to pace, running his hand through his hair not sure how to explain what had happened, all that had happened last night. "Kate did go after Maddox, she wanted to go alone but Detective Esposito wouldn't let her."
"Oh my god Dad, she went after a killer with no backup! Did Kate or Detective Esposito get hurt?"
"Yeah, they both did. Maddox knocked out Esposito, gave him one big concussion. Then he attacked Kate, left her beaten and bruised hanging from the roof of a ten story building. If Kevin Ryan hadn't convinced Captain Gates to send a SWAT team, she would have died. Ryan got to Kate just in time, pulled her back onto the roof or she would have fallen."
"But she will be OK and Detective Esposito too?"
"Esposito will recover but he was suspended by Gates and Kate resigned from the NYPD."
"I….I don't know what to say….Wait, then why did Kate come here to see you?"
"To apologize to me, Kate decided she wants…to live. The last ten or twelve years of her life have been all about chasing her mother's killer. She wants more, she wants….."
"She wants you! Oh please, I'm not a little girl. I've watched you both for the last four years. Dad, I know my mom hurt you badly and for a long time you didn't want to care for anyone seriously, didn't want to get hurt again." Rick stopped pacing and stared at his daughter.
"Kate pretty much did the same thing, going out with men she didn't love because she was afraid of her feelings for you. Yes Dad, Lanie and I talked about you and Kate all the time. After I broke up with Ashley, I guess I understood those fears a little better but I hate that Kate hurt you, pushed you away and put you in danger."
Rick pulled her into his arms. "You amaze me sometimes, child of mine. I hurt her too, remember it was me that opened her mom's case again, against her wishes after she put it all behind her. She forgave me...so many times. Sweetie, listen to me, I forced my way into her life. I followed Kate, sometimes over her strenuous objections. She always tried to keep me safe; she always worried about the chance you might lose me because the loss of her mom changed her entire life. So I guess you could say I caused a lot of the danger that she is in."
"Dad please, I've watched you try so hard to make her happy. I've also seen your pain when she pulled away and when you thought that you lost her."
"I love her."
"You...wow!" Alexis in stunned silence for a minute. "YEAH! Lanie owes me a dollar. I said that you would be the first to actually say it out loud."
"You don't sound surprised."
"Duh, I've known it since the night Kate's apartment blew up. I've never seen you like that about anyone...and then you brought her home with you. Dad, I don't remember you and mom together but I've seen you with lots of women since. You're different with her; you don't even try to keep up that silly playboy image Gina created for you. You're you; the real you, Richard Rogers not "Rick Castle", my best friend and the best dad in the world."
"Thank you sweetie but pretty soon I am going to be a very unemployed dad with you off to college."
"You will always have a job as my dad and it's nice to know you will be here if I ever need you. Sometimes you do come up with some really good ideas."
"Sometimes, you wound me! I think you are hanging around Hurricane Martha too much."
"Come on Dad, you know that Grams only picks on you to keep you grounded, she loves you."
"With love like that is it any wonder I have to go out into the mean streets of New York to look for some kindness. Which of my brilliant ideas did you mean?"
"That you registered me for school and then college as Alexis Rogers. I met Nichols Spark's son at orientation, he is at Columbia and the paparazzi are always hounding him. You are my dad and I don't think of you as a celebrity but sometime it hits me, you are "Rick Castle". Your new book "Frozen Heat" was just released and it is already a best seller. The movie of "Heat Wave" will be hitting all the theaters soon. I'm not sure I could handle the press all over me for a sound bite on top of college jitters."
"No sweat kiddo, besides you are the best thing I have ever created. I kind of like that my masterpiece will have my real name. I made a promise to you, Alexis and I'll keep it. It will be hard for me not to drop in on you at Columbia, at least not every day. God, I love you but will miss you so much."
"I love you and will miss you too but with me away at college, you'll be alone. I don't want that. I want you to be happy and now that Kate is no longer a cop, maybe you can help her figure out what's next. Maybe you could begin a new life with her in it that doesn't involve car chases, guns and killers?"
"You would be OK with that?"
"If things are OK now with Kate, as long as your happy, I am happy." He hugged Alexis in happiness but did not see the worried look on her face.
"This is a time of change for all of us. I don't know if Kate can just walk away from her job and her old life, especially Lanie, Kevin and Javier. She needs some time to figure out where she goes next and what she does from here but at least she wants me to be a part of that new life."
"I'm glad for you Dad! However, I need to remind you that you already have another job, you are still a writer. Your job is to dream up all those wild stories and daring stunts for Nikki Heat but can you try to remember that it is fiction. Please, no more jumping in front of bullets, going after international spies or disarming bombs. In fact, I would consider it a huge relief if you could stay away from all danger and explosive devices of any type in the future."
"Well, now that Kate has resigned, I guess those types of adventures will just be in my head from now on but I think I have enough material stored up in four years for a few more books."
"Thank you! Hey, where is Kate now? How badly was she hurt?
"She is pretty badly bruised all over, I tried to talk her into going to the hospital but….."
Rick was just getting to the tricky part of their conversation, when he heard a scream from his bedroom. Alexis was so startled she did not immediately move but she watched as her father ran through his study into the bedroom just beyond it.