A/N: This was inspired by Jack Hotchner in an episode of Criminal Minds and kind of took on a life of its own from there. Happy Halloween, everyone!

"El, baby, come on," Kate Beckett says, attempting to coax her daughter from where she's crouched behind the living room couch. "You have to put on your costume if you want to go trick-or-treating. Don't you want to go get some candy?"

The girl gives a small nod, but makes no move to come out. Kate doesn't even know why she's behind there to begin with, only that she'd left her with her Halloween costume for a few minutes and when she'd returned Ellie was nowhere to be found. Knowing she didn't leave the apartment, Kate had checked everywhere she could possibly squeeze and eventually found her where she is now, knees tucked into her chest.

"I don't want to be Wonder Woman."

Kate sighs. "Is that why you're behind there?" Ellie nods. "You're the one who helped pick out the costume."

"I know."

"But now you don't want to," she says slowly, and her daughter nods another confirmation. Kate holds out her hand. "Okay, sweets. Come out here; you don't have to be Wonder Woman."

At that, Ellie pushes from the floor and climbs from the space behind the couch, lets Kate tug her forward so she doesn't get stuck. Once she's free, Kate runs a hand down her clothes to get any residual dust off of her.

"What are you going to go as then? That's the only costume we have, El." But Ellie shakes her head, and Kate raises a brow. "No? We have another one?"

Ellie grins, nods. "Uh huh. Aunt Lanie helped me."

Kate rests one hand on her hip, bites her bottom lip. "Did she now? And what did Aunt Lanie help you come up with?"

"The real hero I wann'ed to be."

"Huh, and what real hero would this be? Isn't Wonder Woman a hero?"

Ellie nods, but then shakes her head. "Surprise!"

And with that her daughter is gone, running through the hallway and into her bedroom. Kate chuckles, shakes her head. This kid is something else. She debates calling Lanie to ask what costume she's conjured up for her kid that has her ditching Wonder Woman—a cute little zombie or something, perhaps, knowing her friend—but she figures she'll find out in a few when Ellie returns.

Until then, she should probably start putting on her costume. It's nothing elaborate, just a witch's costume she'd picked up when she bought Ellie's, but it's simple enough. It was also one of the only women's costumes that constituted more than a few pieces of fabric stitched together. She's done her share of the skimpy Halloween costumes in the past, but that's not exactly what she's going for while trick-or-treating with her five year old.

She's fully dressed in the black dress, black hat, and black heels when the sound of tiny feet on hardwood catches her attention.

Ellie emerges in...

A suit?

She's in a pair of black dress pants, a white button down shirt, and the tiniest little blazer she's ever seen. Ellie looks adorable, but she has no idea what she's supposed to be dressed as.

"You look so cute, baby," she says, smiling at that precious little face. "Who are you?"

"I'm you, Mommy!" Ellie beams.

"But you said... you were going as a real hero, kid?"

Her daughter nods. "Uh huh! You save people every day. Take down bad guys."

Oh. Her heart swells in her chest, emotion so overwhelming coursing through her system, catching so high in her throat she almost chokes with it.

"Oh, El, I love it," she breathes, watches the girl's face brighten. Tugging her gently by the wrist, she pulls Ellie into her chest, rests one hand at the base of her skull. "I love you, sweetheart."

"Love you," Ellie murmurs, almost inaudible since her face is pressed into Kate's dress.

When she pulls back, she notices the tiny "heels" Ellie's wearing. They're not heels at all, just black shoes with the slightest bit of height, but they really pull together the look; she has to say, Ellie does look just like her. She's pretty sure Lanie's picked out an exact replica of an outfit she has sitting in her closet right now.

Standing, Kate grabs her broom and the small orange pumpkin she has for Ellie to put her candy in.

Holding out her hand, she straightens up. "Okay, Detective Beckett, let's get Halloween started, shall we?"

Ellie gives a curt nod, a proud smile splitting her face as she hurries to grab her mother's hand and follow her out the door.

Richard Castle closes the white lab coat on his mad scientist costume and braces one hand on the railing. "Alexis, you almost ready?"

"Coming, Daddy!"

His little girl comes bouncing down the stairs in her Dorothy costume, fiery hair in two adorable braids that fall over her shoulders. She insisted on doing them herself this time, so they're a little messy and uneven, but he thinks they look perfect.

"You look great, Pumpkin," he says, pressing a kiss to her head. "You'll be the prettiest Dorothy out there tonight."

"Dad, I'm sure there are dozens of other Dorothys at least."

He shakes his head. "Doesn't matter. You, my child, will still be the best of them all."

Alexis laughs at her father and wanders around him, walks into the living room before circling back around. "Where's my Halloween bag?"

"What Halloween bag? I thought you were using Toto's basket," he says, gesturing towards the wicker basket with a stuffed dog resting in a blanket. "We didn't buy a bag this year."

His daughter's eyes widen. "I can't put candy in there! That's where Toto's sleeping, and it won't fit!"

"I'm only teasing, Pumpkin," Castle laughs. He passes her and goes into his study for a few moments before emerging with her trick-or-treating bag, a black pumpkin with a little owl painted the front. "Here you go."

"That wasn't very funny."

"I know, I'm sorry," he says, tugging her into his side, rubbing her shoulder. "What do you say we make up for it by getting extra candy?"

Alexis grins, his joke forgotten with the promise of more candy, and nearly sprints towards the front door.

His daughter's growing up but she's still his little girl, and he treasures these nights. Halloween has always been his favorite; normally he'd throw a huge Halloween bash, but this year he's decided to forego it in favor of a night alone with Alexis and a bunch of Disney's best Halloween movies.

"Dad, come on!"

Castle chuckles, fastening the insane wig and glasses back onto his face and joins his now impatient child at the door.

"After you, m'lady."

At each house, Kate watches on as her daughter proudly answers every "and what are you supposed to be?" with "my mommy!" She gets a chorus of aww's in response, the house owners looking to her with a smile.

Kate grabs hold of Ellie's hand, the girl skipping happily down the walkway of the house they just hit.

"You're making out like a bandit tonight, El," she says, glancing down at the orange pumpkin pail. It's nearly half full and they've only been out for about an hour.

Ellie beams. "So much chocolate!"

She knows how her daughter is on a sugar high; she runs all over the place, bounces instead of standing still, doesn't stop talking. It's a lot to handle, but Halloween is the one night she usually puts up with it. Ellie isn't allowed to eat too much candy in one sitting, of course, but her tiny body gets energized after a few pieces anyway.

"Can we go to that one, Mommy?" Ellie asks, pointing to a house across the way. Its lights are dark; not off, no, but the strings of lights chosen are black and white instead of the usual orange. There's an eerie red glow coming from the porch light, under which a basket of candy sits.

Cobwebs line the pillars out front and fake tombstones poke out from the lawn, fake zombie hands breaching the dirt.

Kate laughs. "You want to go to that one?"

She has a sneaking suspicion Ellie really only wants to go to the decked out house because she was too scared to last year. If she's anything like her mother (and she is, almost too much, Kate admits), she won't stop until she's conquered the fear.

Her daughter nods enthusiastically. "Please, Mommy. We gotta."

"You're crazy, you know that?"

"Yes. Can we go?"

Chuckling, she tightens her grip on Ellie's hand and tugs her into the street. "Let's go, dare devil."

The house is spookier close up, but Kate kind of loves it. The person went all out in a very simple way; there's an eerie, very Halloween feel to it without there being a ton of lights and flashing. Pretty neat.

A basket of candy sits in the middle of the porch, a small, gray welcome mat placed in front of it. Kate follows Ellie up the stairs and waits a foot behind while she moves forward to grab a few pieces of chocolate.

As soon as Ellie steps on the mat, a loud groaning noise emerges from somewhere and her daughter screams, takes a hurried step back and crashes into Kate's legs. Her hands brace on the little girl's shoulders and she can feel her heavy breathing.

Kate's gaze travels, searches their surroundings until she finds what she's looking for. With a small smile, she bends down, making sure she has Ellie's attention as she points off to the corner of the porch. "There's a speaker over there," she tells her quietly. Ellie follows her mother's gesturing. "That's all."

"That was scary."

"It is the scariest house on the street, you know."

Ellie nods. "I know," she says. Taking a step, Ellie walks around the welcome mat this time, reaches over until she's able to reach the candy without sounding the groan once more. Triumphantly, she turns to Kate with a grin. "Got it! To the next house!"

"Proud of you, El," Kate smiles, placing a palm between the girl's shoulder blades to guide her back down the steps.

"I think you're scaring the kids, Dad."

Castle huffs, adjusting the bloody lab coat adorned over his black top. "It's Halloween. They're supposed to be scared," he says, even as a few children give him odd looks in passing.

Okay, so maybe the bloody axe coming out of his head was a bit over the top, but again—it's Halloween! There's no way he wasn't going to go as far out as he possibly could. With no Halloween party this year, this is his only real chance to get into character.

He wraps an arm around his daughter, pulling her in the opposite direction. "Come on, Pumpkin, let's try the other end of the street where the kids appreciate artistry."

"Dad," she laughs, shaking her head. "If it makes you feel better, I like your costume."

Grinning, he pauses momentarily to kiss her head. "It does, thank you."

They dodge rowdy teenagers as they make their way down the street. They come out in full force during Halloween and Castle fears the years when Alexis will want to trick-or-treat without him and with friends instead. When she'll be a teenager roaming the streets. Not that he believes his sweet little girl will be anything like the kids he's seeing tonight, but the thought makes him shiver nonetheless.

As they near the end of the street, a loud wail pierces the air, catches his attention. The duo stop while he looks around for the source of the noise, coming up empty until his gaze trails to the sidewalk off to the left, up a ways.

There's a little girl on the ground, crying, and a woman he assumes to be her mother kneeling beside her.

He looks down at Alexis, who wears an expression of concern as she peers back up at him. She tugs at his hand, drags him towards the little girl and the woman. When they get closer, the girl's wails have turned into whimpers but her eyes are still red and there are little pieces of gravel covering her—pantsuit? Different, but she looks adorable.

"Is she okay?"

It's Alexis who speaks first, the question startling the woman who until now hadn't registered their presence. She looks up, and Castle can't take her eyes off of her. With smoky makeup to match her witches costume, she's beautiful.

She softens as she takes in Alexis's genuine concern. "Oh, yeah," she says, one hand brushing over her daughter's hair as she hiccups. "She was walking a few feet ahead of me when a group of teenagers barreled into her, knocked her down. But you're okay, aren't you, baby?"

Ellie doesn't answer, just continues to sniffle as tears stain her cheeks, and Castle's fists ball. The teenagers are annoying enough when they're rowdy and disruptive, but knocking over a little kid? And apparently just running away? Unacceptable.

Alexis kneels down next to the tiny brunette, a smile on her face. "Hi," she says, trying to get her attention. "My name's Alexis. What's yours?"

The tears slow as she blinks up at her. "El—Ellie."

"That's a really pretty name!"

Ellie gives a watery smile, sniffles. "Thank you," she says, taking one of her small fists to swipe at her eyes. She looks to her right and then up at her mother, her bottom lip trembling. "My candy."

When she was knocked over, she must have lost grip of her pumpkin basket. It's tossed on its side in the grass, candy strewn across the sidewalk and the surrounding area. Castle steps over the candy and grabs the pail, returns to hand it to Kate.

"Thank you," she murmurs, then turns back to Ellie. "It's all right, we can get some more, okay?"

Alexis holds out her own black pumpkin basket. "We can share mine," she offers, shaking it a little in encouragement. Ellie slowly reaches in and picks out a mini snickers.

Kate smiles over at the young girl. "That's very sweet of you, Alexis. What do you say, El?"

"Thank you!"

The woman helps Ellie to her feet, brushes the dirt from her back and behind. "Why don't we go do some more trick-or-treating, huh? So we don't steal all of Alexis's candy," she laughs.

"Oh, it's okay. We have plenty of candy at home," the redhead assures her. "We come trick-or-treating mainly because Daddy likes to dress up."

The woman snorts. For the second time since they walked over, Kate turns her attention to Castle. "Is that so?" she asks, amusement laced in her tone.

"That's not the only reason," he corrects, laughing as Alexis merely shrugs. "But she is right—we have more than enough candy at home. Probably more than we realistically need."

"Definitely more than we need."

Kate chews on her bottom lip. "How about a compromise? We all continue to trick-or-treat on this block together. You get to keep your candy, and Ellie can refill her stock."

She doesn't know these people, not at all, but for some reason she trusts the man. Maybe it's because he has a kid, too, and is taking her trick-or-treating just as she is with Ellie. There's just something about it that brings warmth to her skin. And Ellie seems to have taken a liking to his daughter, too, who appears to be a very sweet girl.

Alexis nods. "Yeah! Can we, daddy?"

Castle gestures in front of them. "Lead the way, kid."

The two kids start ahead, and Castle watches on as Alexis reaches into her bucket anyway, pours a handful of candy into Ellie's just to get her started. Kate falls into step with him as they follow, eyes briefly leaving the girls to look up at him.

"You have a really kind daughter," she says quietly. Underneath the crazy costume, she swears she recognizes him.

His smile is genuine when he glances over. "Thank you," he murmurs. "I think she's turned out pretty great, too."

"How old is she?"

"Nine going on thirty," he laughs, and she chuckles. "She's more mature than I am."

Kate looks at the two of them, chattering on about something as they walk. Alexis is a few years older than Ellie but seems to be speaking to her as if she's no different. It's sweet.

"What about Ellie?"

"She's five," Kate says, a small smile forming on her face as she watches Ellie wipe at the last of her tears. That's her girl.

"What's she dressed up as?" Castle finally asks. "It's adorable, but I mean, it's not your typical children's costume."

"No, that it's not," she agrees. She bites at the inside of her cheek. "She's uh... she's me actually."

He looks a bit harder; dress pants, suit jacket, button down. "FBI agent?"

"Close."

Castle hums. "Detective?"

Nodding, she peeks over at him. "Yup," she says, popping the p. "Homicide."

She tacks it on the end partly because watching the reactions when she tells people what she does is too hilarious to pass up, and partly just in case the man planned any funny business.

"That is... so cool."

He looks so impressed, so intrigued.

"It has its moments," Kate chuckles. "I'm Kate, by the way." It hadn't occurred to her that she's yet to introduce herself.

"Oh, right." He holds out a hand. "Rick."

With a name, the bright blue eyes and the stubble hidden beneath a pile of Halloween makeup click into place. Richard Castle.

At the end of the night, both girls make out pretty well. Ellie's candy stock is completely replenished and Alexis's bucket is just about overflowing.

They stop after the last house, strides coming to a halt.

"This was really nice," Castle says, tugging his daughter into his side. "Wasn't it, Alexis?"

She nods. "Yeah," she agrees immediately, hesitating for a moment before looking up at Kate. "Could Ellie maybe come over sometime? And hang out?"

Kate's a little taken aback by the question but when she glances down at her daughter, Ellie's beaming, bouncing on her toes as she looks up at her.

"Please Mommy? That'd be so much fun. Alexis said they have a bunch of games and laser tag and I've never played laser tag!"

The woman laughs. "No, no you haven't," she concurs. "If it's okay with Rick..." Looking to him, she tilts her head; she wants to make sure it's okay with him first. She's not sure if Alexis even asked him before asking her.

Truthfully, she normally wouldn't even think about agreeing. Allowing her daughter to go over someone's house after knowing them for a few hours? But spending the past few hours with the Castles, she's grown to like them. Her favorite author is quite the opposite of the man portrayed in Page Six, and his daughter is every bit as charming as he totes her to be.

If he's raised such a sweet kid, something's got to be going right.

Plus, she'll be there too, and getting to know him a little better wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

"Of course," he says, looking between the two Becketts. "You're welcome at our place anytime, Ellie. The both of you. You guys made Halloween even better this year."

Ellie smiles at the compliment, hides her face partway behind Kate's leg.

"That settles it then," Kate decides, brushing Ellie's hair from her face. Digging into her purse, she pulls out one of her business cards and scribbles her cell number onto the back. "Call me to set something up?"

Castle grins. "Definitely."

Kate looks down at Alexis then, offers a smile. "It was nice meeting you, Alexis," she says, watches the girl grin. "Thank you for cheering Ellie up."

She gives a bashful smile. "You're welcome."

"We'll both see you soon," Kate promises, cupping the back of Ellie's head in her palm. "Say goodbye to Rick and Alexis, baby. It's time to go home and check your loot." Her daughter gives her a questioning look but she just laughs, gestures to wave goodbye.

The little girl waves, smiling at her new friend. "Bye, Alexis!"

"Bye, Ellie!"

Kate exchanges one last glance with Rick, bites at her lip as she looks over her shoulder and gives a little wave. Turning around, she guides Ellie back in the opposite direction. This Halloween's definitely one for the books.

Pausing, she looks around the street. "You don't remember where we parked, do you, baby?"

In a move so utterly like herself it nearly gives her chills, Ellie rolls her eyes and tugs her mother by the hand.

The little girl points. "Over there."