Post 6X07, "Like Father, Like Daughter".
Disclaimer: I do not own the show or any characters.
"You're not going to tell me?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "No." She shook her head. "I'm not going to tell you, so just give it a rest."
"Whyyyyy?" he whined.
"Castle, you have a grown daughter. That's weird enough for me, but I've gotten used to it. And Alexis is ... a pretty good kid. Sure, she has some growing up to do, but she's already a good kid. I like her. And this whole thing with you and me ... I know it hasn't been easy on her. But I think we're good now. And I'd like to keep it that way." She gave him a pointed look.
"And you won't tell me anything about a conversation that you had with my daughter? Why? It's unnatural, Beckett. We're getting married and you want to drag me to wedding venues. She's my daughter and I need to know what's going on in her life. So therefore you have to tell me, he said in his most reasonable tone. "I'm the common link," he reasoned. "I have to know what's going on, especially between the two of you," he reasoned.
She stepped over to him, putting a hand on his face. "No, you don't. You just have to trust that we're okay." She smiled sweetly at him, but she didn't say anymore.
"You're okay?" he questioned.
"Yeah. We are." She reached up and gave him a light kiss. "We're okay. We're all okay."
He let that thought settle for a just a moment as he held her and relished her closeness. And then he realized that she wasn't giving him any more information. "But why can't I know what she said to you? Remember, I was praised in book reviews for my insight into the feelings of my female characters." She knew he liked to spout that particular piece of Castle trivia, but she wasn't going to let it sway her now.
"Yes, I know you were praised ... for your insight into characters that you created in your own head." She rolled her eyes before getting serious. "Castle, Alexis wanted to explain a few things to me. Things that just have to deal with a 19 year old girl and how she's processing all of the changes in her life. I was a 19 year old girl once, so I can sort of understand. And believe me, it wouldn't do any good to rehash it all with you. You're already overreacting to a simple, private conversation I had with her, and if I tell you any more I know you're just going to overanalyze, and then you're going to overcompensate."
"Overanalyze? Overcompensate? Me? Never!" he told her, trying to sound innocent.
"Says the man who was just a short time ago trying to convince me to get married in outer space." She shook her head. "Yes, you. Drop it, Castle."
He got a wounded look on his face. "I have to drop it?" It was clear that he really did not want to drop it.
"Yes."
"You're not going to tell me what she said?"
"No. You don't need to know."
"I beg to differ on that point," he countered. "But is it really okay?"
"It's okay."
"Are you sure?"
She sighed. "Do you trust me, Castle?"
With no hesitation, he replied, "Of course."
"Then when I say that everything is okay, believe it."
"I suppose."
"Good. So drop it. It's all good."
"Really?"
"Castle ..." she warned in a stern voice.
"Okay, okay ..." he relented. "It's dropped. It's dropped so much that it just went boom on the ground. There. Good enough?"
She pursed her lips and eyed him curiously. "Sure," she told him cautiously before deciding that changing the subject was probably the best course of action right now. "So can we just go to bed now? I'm tired."
He nodded amiably and followed her into the bedroom. He was the perfect model of obedience with not talking about what Alexis may have said to Beckett.
For about 15 minutes.
Then, as Kate settled into slumber, she was just about fully asleep when she heard a very soothing-sounding Castle voice murmuring softly, "So what did Alexis say to you?"
Instantly, she was awake. And that little sneak...he was trying to get her to talk when she was in a somewhat compromised state! Of course, she should have figured he would NEVER fully let it drop, but she also didn't expect a sleep-ambush-interrogation quite this quickly. But being the pro she was at hiding her reactions, she just sighed, still with her eyes closed, and let him think he was going to get some information. "Mmm...she jus' tol' me about the nose. An' the couch." Her voice was little more than a murmuring whisper to give credence to the fact that she was pretty much in a sleep-state, but it was enough so he could hear her.
Even though she didn't have her eyes open, she could almost feel his confusion at her words. It was all she could do to not laugh. "What nose, Kate? And which couch?" She knew he was desperately trying to figure out her words, and he was still trying to phrase his questions so gently so as to not fully wake her. But she could hear the underlying urgency with which he had to know.
She shifted in the bed a bit and gave him some garbled murmuring that she knew would frustrate him to no end.
"Was it something about Pi's nose? Or do they want my couch that's in storage?" His voice was still soft and caressing, but his inquisitiveness was getting the better of him
She decided it was time. No sense in dragging things out; she'd then run the risk of losing the element of surprise if she gave him more of a chance to figure things out.
"Mmm...the couch..." she said as she stretched in the bed.
When she didn't say anymore, she could hear the soft but eager prompting, "The couch?"
"Mmm...yeah. Because..." she trailed off.
When he was paying rapt attention to what she was saying, she'd been subtly grasping the pillow that was lying side of her.
And then she struck.
She quickly swung the pillow and whacked him in the head with it as she sat up and sprang to life. "The couch is where you're going to be sleeping for trying to trick me like that!" She heaved out a couple of breaths. "You are so low, Castle!" she chastised him as he fell over to the other side of the bed, his eyes large and his hair disheveled from where the pillow had hit him. "Trying to get me to tell you what Alexis said when I was all but asleep! After you agreed to drop it!"
He was still obviously stunned by the pillow attack when he simply said, "But what about the nose?" he questioned.
"It's yours, you doofus."
"I have Pi's nose?" He was still confused.
She rolled her eyes. "No. I just mentioned the nose because you are way too nosy for your own good, and you're going to sleep on the couch if you keep this up."
"So she doesn't want my couch from storage?"
"Castle!" she exclaimed, flopping back on the bed. "I'm not going to tell you. So knock it off. I want to go to sleep now, and so help me, if you try any other sneaky tactics, me wielding a renegade pillow will be the least of your worries!"
He flopped back on his own pillows, now obviously fully awake. "I'm sorry. I just ... we were always so close. And now she has ... him. The fruit guy with a math symbol for a name. Pi goes to infinity, you know. Because he's infinitely annoying."
"Castle..."
"I know, I know," he told her, rolling over and draping an arm around her. "But he's her number one now, and then I see her talking to you, and you won't tell me, and ... I'm just trying to get my daughter back, Kate. Help me out here, huh?"
"Castle, she's not gone so you don't have to get her back, okay? But she is growing up, and she's ... branching out, with interests and with new people. And since she's not a child, I want to respect what she told me, as an adult, and not go running off to her father with every little thing." She leaned over and gave him a little kiss of reassurance. "Trust me that it's okay. I would tell you if it was anything bad. So trust me."
"I do. But I just want to know so badly!" he admitted.
Kate knew he did. He'd always been so close with Alexis, and they shared a lot. But Alexis was an adult, and she wanted to try to help him accept that and everything that went along with that, even if it meant some tough love.
Maybe it was time for some of that tough love now.
She bit her bottom lip before saying tentatively, "Castle, did you ever stop to think that maybe you really don't want to know what we talked about?"
His mind was blank, and his confused expression indicated that. "What do you mean? Of course I want to know! Are you going to tell me now?" he finished excitedly.
She ignored the last question. "Castle ..." she hesitated. "Okay, when girls get together, they generally talk about one thing in particular. Guys."
"So she talked to you about the Fruit Loop. Did she have a new papaya recipe that she wanted to share?" he asked sarcastically.
"No ... Castle, women don't talk about recipes that they've shared with guys. They talk about guys and ... certain ... possibly intimate moments ..." she trailed off, letting him draw his conclusions from her veiled words.
And she saw when those conclusions were fully drawn. His head reared back and his eyes got big, and he started subtly shaking his head from side to side. "No. You are not going to tell me that ... you and Alexis ... Alexis said ... No." Then, when Beckett didn't say anything, he got an even slightly more shocked look on his face and prompted, "Right?"
She let the silence sit for just a few moments longer, moments that she knew were infinitely longer for him that they were for her. Then she finally replied, "No. I'm not going to tell you that." She saw him visibly relax, but she had to finish what she started. "I'm not going to tell you that, because I've already told you that I'm not going to tell you what she said. I've already told you too much as it is. But just think about it ... do you really, actually want to know more about that particular topic? About Alexis?"
He looked thoughtful for a second before he got a pained look on his face and shook his head rapidly. "No. God, no. It was bad enough trying to forget seeing her in that getup she wore for SuperNovaCon, but if you ... and she was ... No. Just no." As if in a trance, he got up out of the bed and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I'll be back in a minute," he said in a monotone, as if his mind was not fully on their conversation. "I'm just going to get a stiff drink to hopefully burn those thoughts out of my brain." And with that, he was out of the room.
Kate sat back against the pillows. Poor Castle. He never did well with obvious signs that Alexis was growing up, and she felt for him, for the way he must be feeling right now.
And she felt just a little bit guilty, because she knew full well that her conversation with Alexis was nothing but G rated.
She wanted to respect the fact that Alexis came to her, and was able to be forthright with her about what she'd been feeling, and about her thoughts on her dad's relationship with Kate. The engagement. Kate's job in DC. Well, Kate's former job in DC. The girl had thought enough to ask for a private conversation with Kate, and Kate was astute enough to catch the underlying tone that Alexis wanted to keep the conversation between the two of them. It was a mature thing for the girl to do, and Kate wanted to honor what Alexis had done by not blabbing everything to the girl's father and have him try to dissect it to death.
Kate knew this was a big thing. Alexis was an adult, and Kate wanted to treat her as one, just like she'd told Castle, and forge her own relationship with her. But she knew her fiance, and she knew he'd never let up on trying to get her to tell him what his daughter had said. He'd cajole. He'd prompt. And he'd probably pout. And he'd drive them both insane. And the fact of the matter was that even though her conversation with Alexis wasn't about Pi or guys or anything like that, she still didn't want to tell him and she gleaned that Alexis felt the same way. So this way was much better, for everyone, even though she might have been misleading him a tiny bit.
He came back in the room then, looking somewhat forlorn. She felt a wave of tenderness wash over her. She loved him, and she knew he was feeling some sort of a strange low after finally reconnecting with Alexis and making peace with her. And because she loved him, she wanted to make him feel better.
After he plopped back down on the bed, she sidled up to him. "Ready to go to sleep?"
"I suppose," he told her absently.
"Oh. Too bad," she remarked, somewhat coyly. "I just can't get the thought out of my head."
"Please don't tell me that you're thinking about Pi too?"
She let his hand roam over his chest. "No, I'm thinking about Maggie and Frank."
That was enough to get his full attention, and he turned to look at her. "What? Why? He's free now. They can be together now."
She got a gleam in her eye and a small smile curved her lips before she said, "Exactly." And then as she pressed a little closer to him, her hand continued its roaming on his chest, until her fingers found his neck before moving around to run teasingly through the hair at the nape of his neck.
His eyes were now riveted on her, and they were beginning to take on that glassy look that they got when she surprised him in this particular way, when he wasn't expecting it. "You...uh..." Alexis was now forgotten, as was her conversation with Kate.
Kate picked up as if he'd actually uttered a coherent thought. "Frank was in prison for a long time, and now he's free, and ... I was just thinking about if we'd been separated for that long," she gave him a little kiss, "and what we would do afterward ..."
She let the thought trail off, but the implication was clear. She watched as the glassy look changed to the hungry look that she loved. "I know what I'd do," he said huskily, before he leaned over to show her exactly what he would do.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
And for years, Kate was amazed that he never again brought up the conversation between her and Alexis. Her relationship with Alexis grew after that, and really solidified after she and Castle were married and Alexis was officially her stepdaughter. Kate wondered sometimes why he never again mentioned it, but she would have really laughed if she'd known that her attempt at diversion was on that long-ago fall night was so successful that the conversation was merely now a deep footnote in his brain; now, his mind would skip over everything else and immediately go to the memory of their just-got-out-of-prison role play interlude.
I know it was kind of light on plot, but I saw the episode and immediately thought that as soon as they were done talking, he would drive everyone insane trying to find out what had been said during that conversation.
Thanks for reading!