A/N: I'm back! Sort of. Hope you guys enjoy this two-shot based on a prompt on the castleficpromoter tumblr page. I'll post the prompt at the end of the next chapter. Thank you Trish for the beta despite real life being all too real sometimes.

Disclaimer: not mine.

Chapter 1:

Alexis knocks on the guest room door with three smart raps, trying her best to contain her excitement. Detective Beckett had been staying at their home for a few days now, and while Alexis hadn't seen much of the detective while she was busy trying to catch a killer with her dad, now that they've apprehended the right person, the adults had been spending more evenings at the loft. Alexis had been tentative and shy around the detective at first, but she has slowly been getting to see why her dad is so fascinated with the Detective.

Alexis hears Beckett asking her to come in followed by a soft thump and some muttering. Alexis slowly opens the door. "Detective Beckett? Is everything alright? Dad's just gotten the latest Disney movie and the trailer looks quite promising, so we were wondering if you'd like to join – oh." Alexis abruptly stops speaking when she catches sight of the detective.

Beckett is rubbing her shin and there are tears in her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Alexis asks instead, motioning for the detective to sit on the bed.

Beckett hobbles over, swiping at her tears as she sits on the corner of the bed. "I'm fine, just walked into the stupid vanity chair." Beckett sighs, then quickly looks up at Alexis. "I'm sorry, it's not a stupid chair. I'm not ungrateful or anything, I mean, I really appreciate your dad letting me stay here, and you guys have all been so welcoming. It's just unfamiliar and-" Beckett cut herself off once more, swiping at her tears again as she huffs.

Alexis spots some balled up tissue paper by the trash. If the detective had been secretly crying earlier it wasn't her place to pry. Alexis crosses to the vanity table and grabs the tissue box, offering it to Beckett.

"That's alright, it must be pretty overwhelming, having your home being, uh, blown up, and having to cope with that while living in an unfamiliar place. Is there anything I can do to help?"

Beckett dabs at her cheeks and quickly shakes her head. "No, no, your whole family has been so great and understanding about everything. I'm just being silly."

Alexis throws Beckett a questioning look, and the detective elaborates, "The insurance company is being difficult with damages and reimbursement, and the more I talk to them the more I realize the extent of everything – I think it's just begun to sink in just how much I've lost. It's not just the everyday things like running out of makeup or clothes to wear. My books and pictures are mostly unsalvageable, most of the trinkets I've been collecting for years are destroyed, for a while there I even thought I'd lost my dad's watch-" Beckett catches herself and breaks off, giving Alexis a wry look as she continues, "I'm probably talking your ears off, aren't I?"

"That's okay, Dad says I'm a good listener. I doubt you'd fit into my clothes, but I, I've got some makeup stuff that Mom got me, they're mostly sitting in a drawer and most of them are new. You, you can use them if you want to, I'll bring it over," Alexis offers shyly. She didn't really know how to put on makeup anyway. Mom was good at buying beauty products but never stuck around long enough to teach her how to use them and gram's makeup style was so loud Alexis didn't know if asking her for advice would be such a good idea.

"Thank you so much for the offer, but it's okay really, I'll just go out and buy a few basic things and I'll be all set. I should probably list all the things and get it done tomorrow since I'm off duty."

"Well, you're always welcome to borrow any of my things if you want. How about we make some comfort food instead? Dad always cooks up my favorite meals whenever I'm feeling down. My go to is apple crumble and it's like a big warm hug from the inside of your belly – sweet yet a bit spicy but very soothing on the whole. Is there anything you really like? I'm sure we can whip up something."

Alexis watches as Beckett gets a misty, far-off look in her eyes.

"What is it?" Alexis asks eagerly, "You've thought of something haven't you?"

Beckett gives her a sad smile. "My mom used to make the most incredible pumpkin soup but I haven't had it since she- I haven't eaten in for years now. But I don't know how to make it and the recipe… Well, the recipe has probably blown up along with the rest of my things." Beckett sniffles as her eyes begin welling up with tears again.

Oh dear, I didn't mean to make things worse for her. Scrambling to salvage the situation, Alexis quickly tells Beckett, "Don't worry, we'll figure it out. We'll make your pumpkin soup – Dad's pretty good at cooking when he's not experimenting actually. I'll Google a bunch of recipes and you can maybe try describing the flavors? We'll get it right, you'll see."

"Pumpkin, what's taking you so long- Beckett, is everything alright?" Castle asks, hovering by the door that had been left open.

Alexis looks up at her Dad in surprise. She didn't hear him coming up at all and judging by the surprise on Beckett's face, neither did the detective. Beckett quickly turns away and swipes at her tears, probably uncomfortable with having so many people see her crying.

Alexis quickly takes charge of the situation. "Pumpkins, Dad. We need pumpkins to recreate Beckett's mom's pumpkin soup."

"No, it's okay, Alexis. I was just being silly. I'm okay now. You should head down for your movie with Castle."

Alexis waves off her protest. "Now you're being silly. Just leave it to Dad and me. We'll sort it all out for you."

"But… Can you even find pumpkins in April?"

"Don't worry Beckett, I know a guy. I'll get you your pumpkins."

Alexis stands and heads over to join her dad, ushering him out of the room to give the detective some privacy. "I'll go send Dad out. Why don't you freshen up while I start searching for recipes and then you can come join me when you're ready? We can text the ingredients to Dad so he can buy whatever we don't have while he's out."

Alexis leaves the room with her dad, closing the door behind her. As they make their way down the stairs, he asks, "So are you going to tell me what's caused Beckett to turn on the waterworks?"

"Honestly Dad, Detective Beckett's lost everything! Her mementos and trinkets, her mom's things, her clothes – have you seen her wardrobe? I've only met her a couple of times and I'm already jealous of her wardrobe. And now she's lost all of it. Can you imagine replacing that? On top of it all, she doesn't even have a cozy, safe place to retreat to!"

"Our loft is cozy and safe," Castle grumbles, not expecting the passionate speech from his daughter.

"To us, yeah, but to Detective Beckett, it's an unfamiliar place. Plus her insurance company is being difficult with reimbursements and stuff. So be nice to her. You've always made me apple crumble whenever I'm feeling down so I offered to do the same for Detective Beckett. Apparently her comfort food is her mom's pumpkin soup. Unfortunately, the recipe probably blew up in her apartment and uh, bringing that up kinda brought on the waterworks. Again. She doesn't know how to make it but I promised her we'd try anyway and between the three of us I'm sure we'll be successful by dinnertime. Or maybe in time for supper?"

Castle pulls her in to drop a kiss onto her forehead. "I'm so proud of you and your big heart, Alexis. Let me contact my guy and get us a few pumpkins."

Castle returns a few hours later with three pumpkins and a full grocery bag. Who knew pumpkin soup called for so many ingredients? Alexis and Beckett greet him at the door to help with bringing the things over to the kitchen.

"I wasn't sure how many recipes we'd try so I hope this is enough?"

Alexis beams at the counter with all the ingredients laid out. "Don't worry Kate, we'll definitely have enough pumpkin to perfectly recreate your mom's recipe."

Castle smiles, feeling pleased to note that after an evening alone with his partner, Alexis has finally dropped Beckett's formal title and is now calling her by her name.

"Hello? Earth to Dad? Did you hear anything I've just said?"

Castle looks blankly at the two women across the counter. Alexis gives him a teasingly annoyed look whereas Beckett just looks amused. That's a pleasant change.

"Eh, nope." He must have spaced out for a bit there. Castle shrugs apologetically, causing Alexis to roll her eyes at him. He wonders if she picked that up from Beckett. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave the two of them alone. He doesn't need Alexis to pick up on Beckett's traits, namely the eye roll and the glare – which Alexis is currently doing a pretty good impression of – and grabbing his ear.

"Go change your clothes, Dad. I'll begin sorting out the ingredients with Kate's help. I've arranged the recipes already so we can begin when you're back."

Ten minutes later, Castle returns in full captain mode, brandishing a knife in one hand while holding onto his iPad with his other. "Alexis, why don't you begin chopping up the onions, Beckett if you could start cutting up the pumpkin, I'll just, supervise and generally be ruggedly good looking." He grins, proud of the little word play he did there.

Alexis scoffs at him but begins peeling the onions. Beckett looks over at Alexis longingly before turning to face Castle. She fidgets uncomfortably. "Castle, one of the reasons I've never tried my mom's pumpkin soup recipe is because… I've never cut a pumpkin."

Castle stops playing with his knife for a moment and looks up at her. "What? I honestly couldn't make out your mumbling actually."

Beckett drops her voice even lower and whispers harshly. "I don't know how, ok!"

"How to cut up a pumpkin?" Castle asks redundantly. There is definitely a red flush washing over Beckett. He didn't realize she was being serious. He would never put her on the spot if he had known. He's supposed to be nice to her, he wants to be nice to her, but instead he's made a mess of things now by making her embarrassed and uncomfortable.

"But what about Halloween? Surely you've carved up pumpkins for Halloween," Alexis pipes up, looking up from her onions for the first time, oblivious to how uncomfortable the detective had been.

Beckett takes a breath. "I've never actually done that. My mom always said it would make too much of a mess and wasn't worth the cleaning up after so we've always used plastic decorative ones."

Both Alexis and Castle stare at her in disbelief. It's as though someone's just broken the news that Santa isn't real.

Castle could fix this. "Okay, change of plans. We're having a Halloween party."

"In April?" Beckett asks, looking at him as though he's just sprouted another head.

"Yeah, we'll do the whole nine yards," he says, thinking on his feet. Remembering what Alexis said about Beckett's clothes – or lack thereof, he quickly adds, "Mother has drama costumes upstairs that you can borrow. We'll carve pumpkins and go trick or treating, decorate the loft and have a Halloween movies marathon. Hocus pocus, Halloweentown, whatever floats your boat!"

This is great actually; Castle is genuinely beginning to feel the excitement begin bubbling up inside of him. He's always good for a fun time.

"Trick or treating?" Beckett echoes. It seems his detective is still trailing a few steps behind.

"Yeah, we could give out candy to children-"

"Castle, I'm pretty sure actual Halloween is the only time of the year you won't get arrested for giving out candy to random kids."

"Fine," Castle relents, ploughing on ahead with his plans anyway. "We'll just carve pumpkins and dress up, decorate the loft and have a movie marathon if you want."

Castle looks over at his daughter to see Alexis nodding her head eagerly. Halloween has always been a big, fun thing at the Castle household. Finding out that Beckett has never carved a pumpkin is borderline blasphemy.

He gives Beckett his best puppy eyes and he sees Beckett's hesitation waver. He knows they're supposed to make Beckett comfort food and cheer her up, but there's no harm in having fun along the way.

Beckett looks over at Alexis' matching puppy eyes. She groans and Castle knows he's won her over.

Okay, they're going to celebrate Halloween in April.

A/N: Liked it? The next one's real fun!