For the past three months she had been in a medicinally induced coma, and he had been comatose, to the point of not writing anymore. He spend everyday at the hospital, sitting by her side and reading to her from his own work, from the competition, anything he could find, anything to get her back.
It was Lanie Parish that changed it.
The one time their paths crossed after the funeral she physically threw him out of her best friends hospital room. Later that night she had talk with her boyfriend. Although Esposito would later confess that Lanie did all the talking and he did all the listening, so, how could he refuse?
One of the few rainy summer mornings that made the City of New York shine as brightly as usual Esposito found himself ringing the doorbell on Castle's loft. Alexis opened the door " Detective Eposito, you're here for dad, right?"
Esposito smiled the tales of little Castle her intelligence weren't fantasy at all. " Yeah, where is he?" Alexis pointed to her dad's office. In an usually determined pace he stalked of.
A brief touch of the door showed it was slightly ajar. " Castle?"
Esposito slowly entered the writing office of his longtime friend who seemed to the asleep near his laptop. Everywhere there was paper strewn about. Some were prints, others were scribbles of scenes as far as he could see and tell. The air in the office seemed more then a little stale. And there was the bottle. It wasn't the usual Chateau Neuf but the stronger stuff, and half of it was already gone. A number of bottles were strewn about the office
" How long has he been like this?" Esposito had heard the door creak and knew Alexis had followed him in.
" Every night since..." They both knew what she meant.
Alexis watched as the burly detective headed for the sleeping form of her father. He studied him briefly and then did something she didn't expect. He grabbed her dad by the left ear and twisted it.
" APPLES! APPLES! APPLES! APPLES!"
" So good to see you're awake Castle." the best selling writer could see a certain feral smile on the detective's face. "Now what's this I hear about you moping around?"