I know I said there would be one- shots involving my Close to Home story and now there is. However, it takes place after the Alternate ending.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle. It is owned by Andrew Marlowe and ABC. I do own Cassie, Lanie, and Corbin!

"Ready?" Castle asked the two girls in front of him. They nodded knowing how to play the game.

"On the count of three. One, two," he paused before saying, "three!" Out of nowhere, the three people came from behind the couch and started shooting at their opponents. The opponents came from behind the piano and went after the other three. As the game went on, the room was illuminated with lights as body packs died, the sounds the vests made emphasizing who had won.

"Ha!" The brunette screamed, "We won!" High- fiving the red- head beside her, the woman was unaware of someone behind her. Suddenly, both their vests made the noises that they had been hit.

"Guess who won now?" A male voice said in their ears. The brunette and red- head turned to see Castle grinning at them.

"You cheated Dad." The red- head pointed out.

"No, Alexis, I merely used decoys. You hit Cassie and Lanie. You never hit me." He said grinning at his daughter before looking at the brunette saying, "And you call yourself a detective."

"Can we play again?" Lanie questioned happily as she and her sister came up to the trio. Kate looked at Castle who shook his head.

"That's enough for today. I need to start making dinner and you two have to finish your homework." Castle told the girls.

"Come on you two, lets get these vests off." Kate told the girls as she led them out of the room. Cassie and Lanie sighed as they followed the woman.

Thirty minutes later, Castle and Kate were putting the finishing touches on dinner when Cassie and Lanie went up to the writer and detective asking for them to check the children's work. After looking it over, the adults signed the papers and handed them back to the girls. The children scampered off to put their work up. Kate looked up to see Castle looking at her.

"What?" She questioned.

Over the past few months, the Detective and Writer had gotten into a routine. Kate would come by after work or on her days off and stay with her surrogate family. Now, Castle seemed to find Kate leaving to be pointless. She was at the loft all the time anyway.

"I never expected something like this to happen." He told her not wanting to ask her the question he had buried in his mind for a while now. She smiled at him before saying, "Corbin's been really quiet. I'm going to see what he's up to." Castle nodded watching as the detective walked away. A few minutes later, Kate came downstairs with a messy Corbin. Castle's eyebrow went up as he waited for the response.

"Someone got into the supplies you set up for the girls to use on their project." Kate told the man in front of her.

"I'll clean him up. I'll have Alexis help you with the rest of this in a minute." Castle said as he reached for the baby. Kate smirked as she handed the child off to her partner. A few minutes later, Alexis came in to help the woman finish dinner.

"You two work well together." Alexis told the detective. Kate looked at the teen not sure how to answer the observation.

"If someone didn't know better, they'd think you two were married." The teen said.

"What are you hinting at?" Kate questioned as she set the salad on the table.

"I just wish I'd had something like that growing up." Alexis responded. Kate nodded deciding the answer she had been given was good enough.

An hour later, everyone had been fed and now were lounging in the living room.

"Alexis said something interesting." Kate told Rick as the kids watched a movie. Alexis had decided to go upstairs to finish school work.

"What did she say?" He asked.

"That we looked like a married couple." Kate told him. Castle looked over at her and smirked.

"I guess we do." He said. He paused a moment before saying, "Kate, I've been thinking you may wanna move in." Kate stared at him for a moment.

"Castle, we—" She was stopped by Castle.

"I know we aren't in a relationship, but since we're both taking care of the kids, it only seemed reasonable." He told her. She nodded knowing he was right.

"Okay." She told him smiling.

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