Truth
Spoilers: 3x06 3XK
This is the first new thing I have written in quite a long time, and is also my first Castle fic. Written for the Castleland "Before and After" challenge.
Richard Castle had always prided himself on being truthful with Alexis about the cases he took part in, but this time it was different. Usually, the cases were resolved successfully and he was able to assure his daughter that justice had been served. He felt that he had somehow helped to make her world a little safer, even though he didn't kid himself that he did all that much to help. It was his friends at the 12th precinct that did all the hard yards. Detective Beckett and her team.
This time however, the killer was still out there. The Triple Killer, or 3XK as he was known, would kill again. 3XK wasn't someone that killed once in the heat of the moment in jealousy or rage. He was a serial killer who planned meticulously. One that changed his M.O. He was also someone who took his time. In the case of Linda Russo he had waited four years. As Beckett had said, that took a special kind of ruthlessness. Castle was worried that if he told Alexis about this, she would be looking over her shoulder for years. Heck, he might be doing that himself.
After all, it was one thing to assume that there were bad people out there in the world somewhere, but to specifically know someone was out there, someone that had a connection to him in some way. He couldn't tell her that. So when he got home that night and Alexis had asked if they had solved the case... for the first time Richard Castle lied.