A/N: I do not own anything related to Castle. All places that I mention are made up by me and if they do exist it is strictly coincidental. I am a huge Castle fan and love the interaction Castle has with his daughter so I decided to create a story where Alexis is younger and can see Rick in more 'parental moments'. Also thought it would be interesting to see him juggling the life of single father of young infant, being a writer with all that entails as well as attempting to have a romantic life as well. Hope you all enjoy!

Chapter 1:

It felt like hours since her dad had begun talking to the owner of "Copy That" bookstore. He had been asked to do a book signing for his newest book Stormy Shadows and had to discuss arrangements. Minutes felt like hours for 4 year old Alexis Castle who just wanted to explore the store in search of the science kit he promised to purchase for her afterwards.

"Dad, please, I want to look, please, puh-lease!" she said while tugging at his dark grey suit jacket.

"Alexis, not now" he quickly said barely glancing at her.

She crossed her arms and tried to pout but it was no use, he was already back in deep discussion with the balding man. Her eyes began to wander the store until a large brightly colored science kit caught her attention merely 5 feet away. Well I'll just take a quick look. She looked back at her dad and saw he was deep in thought and inched slowly away and headed to the science kit.

It was more amazing than she could have ever imagined, "Everything you need to know about science for beginners". I have to have this. Her dad and her loved to try out different experiments at home and he had promised to get one after his meeting today for the two of them to work on that evening. She wandered down the aisle looking at what else they had, but only this one had interactive material inside, all the rest were just plain books. This one came with flasks and everything!

With her excitement growing rapidly she took one down carefully and ran back over to where her dad had been sitting, only he wasn't there. She scanned the store from where she stood and couldn't see him or the balding guy anywhere. The science kit tumbled out of her hand making a loud crash on the floor, and she took off at a run in search for her father, he had to be somewhere in the store.

When she finished her 4th tour, tears began to well up in her eyes and fear took over, she was lost. She headed to the front of the store and looked out the store window. She remembered her dad always saying, "if you are ever in danger, or lost, seek out an adult for help." Right away two police officers caught her attention crossing the street, who better of an adult than a police officer to help, she thought to herself.

XoXoXoXoXoXoXoX

Katherine Beckett was tired and frustrated. Only her 2nd day on the job and already she'd arrived late, driven her cruiser into a pole smashing a tail light, and poured coffee all down her shirt. She'd been in training and everything had gone so smoothly, but ever since she was officially called a "cop", everything had gone down the drain.

Captain Montgomery had given her another case, and told her to not mess this one up, he saw great potential in her. She was ready to do this, she took a deep breath and opened the file to scan it once again. She rested the file on the steering wheel of her loaner car, while her partner, Tallie, went inside a cafe to pick up a coffee.

"Seems like a B and E. Suspect entered the home from rear window, fingerprints found and connected to suspect. Witness also spotted suspect running towards a 96' camero." She said slowly to herself making sure it was clear cut in her head. Her plan of action was to talk to the witness who currently was on shift at a jewellery store. She turned her head as she heard the passenger door open to Tallie retrieving his seat. "You ready?" He asked.

"Yep, I feel ready for this, let's do this" she said with a sigh and got out of the car.

"You know it's normal, to be stressed, being a new cop and all" Tallie said.

"Yeah, except that I graduated ahead of my class, and never even flinched during all my training, why now can't anything go right?"

"Stress, you're pushing yourself too hard to be perfect. My first day on the job I accidently signed release papers to a killer instead of an arrest warrant. That put me in a lot of hot water. So trust me, you are doing fine." He smiled at her with a little laugh and continued walking.

Movement in a store window caught her attention, a big sign was being hung up saying "Come meet Richard Castle here tomorrow at 2pm". Her heart missed a beat. She was in love with his books and had read them all. They were what kept her sane through all the finals, training and daily ordeals. His writing took her away to another place, where she felt safe, free and like nothing else mattered. She'd once hitchhiked to Brooklyn to meet him at one of his readings, only to arrive in time to see his car driving away. Her parents had been mad! That was one of the only times she'd ever truly seen her father shout at her. She also got lectured about the dangers of getting in a car with a stranger every day for nearly a year.

Her mind started wandering to what her schedule was the next day at 2, and if she could make it. She was supposed to be working a double today and should be off shift by 4 am which would give her plenty of time for sleep, shower, food and a book signing.

"What's on your mind?" She heard Tallie ask. That's when she realized she was smiling like a two year old hyped up on chocolate.

"Oh, nothing"

His eyes followed where she had been looking, "Richard Castle, you a fan?"

"I read them from time to time". Well actually I have read them all several times and can quote nearly any passage. But she thought it best to leave that to herself.

While she was still lost in thoughts of meeting the handsome Richard Castle in person she felt something come bounding at her legs and latch on. At first she thought it was a dog until she looked down and saw a little red headed girl with tears running down her face.

"Ple-ea-s-se, -he..ll...p...muh...me" she stuttered through her tears.

Kate pulled the little girl back at bit and knelt down to be level with her face. "What's wrong sweetheart, where are your parents?"

"I...I...was wi...with my daddy...I wanted...to see the ...the...science kit..he's gone.." Alexis managed through her tears.

"What's your name?" Kate asked calmly.

"Alexis".

Kate turned to Tallie unsure what to do. "I'll call the station for missing children reports, in the mean time listen if you are radioed in, and walk around the area. Chances are the father hasn't gone far and is in a frantic search as well." Tallie said calmly as if he was used to this kind of experience. Then again he was going on 22 years with the force, he was much more used to all this than she was.

She nodded at him and quickly turned her attention to the little red headed girl. As her eyes scanned the area, everything seemed calm, no one stood out to her that may have been her father. She felt at a loss for how to calm the girl down in order to ask her some more questions. Then she saw a little ice cream truck not too far away and held the little girls hand while she picked up a cherry slush, Alexis took a few sips and her tears began to slow down. They then set off in search of her family.

"Where do you last remember seeing him?"

"In the bookstore, he was talking to a big bald guy, and I wanted to see the science kit but he was taking forever, so I went to see it, I didn't think he would notice" she said sheepishly looking at the ground.

"It's very dangerous to leave your father without his permission, but don't worry, we will find him, okay?" Kate did not have any kids of her own or had ever really been around them so she was a little unsure of how to talk to her. Part of her felt a parental side growing wanting to tell her off for walking off, but the other part just wanted to buy her a bunch of goodies because she was so adorable!

From what she could remember there was only one bookstore within this area, the one which was going to host the author who resided in many of her dreams. She began heading back towards the store to see if one of the employees would remember seeing this little one.

"ALEXIS!" She heard a man shout from further away. Before she had a chance to turn to see where it was coming from Alexis had let go of her hand and set off at a run.

"DADDY!" By the time Kate had turned around all she could see was a very happy Alexis in the arms of a talk dark haired man. She could tell how worried the man had been by the way he would not let go of her, his head buried in the little girl's neck, and she swore she heard some tears.

Seeing this vision was what made her happy to do what she does. Being a cop has its up and downs, but being able to witness a moment like this is definitely what makes the job right for her. The negative moments that had bothered her less than fifteen minutes ago now felt so meaningless.

"Daddy I found a cop just like you said to do and she's really really nice, she bought me this slush, and she's really pretty". Alexis said trying to wiggle from her father's grip to take another sip.

"I'm glad you were able to find..." Kate began but then choked back on the rest of her words when Alexis' father raised his head to thank her. "Oh my god, you're Richard Castle!" She spurt out then quickly bit her lip trying to suppress how much she sounded like a crazed fan.

Castle just laughed and reached out his right hand to her, "please, call me Rick."

"Wow, I..I..mean Hi." Smooth Kate, smooth. She felt like hitting herself in the head, she finally gets to meet her idol and she can't stop making a fool of herself. She took out her hand and shook his. His skin was smooth and warm, she felt a tingling in her fingertips. She felt like she was about to faint, she was close enough to get a whiff of him, and he smelt incredible.

"Umm, is that important?" Rick asked.

"What?" he motioned to her left side, where she realized her radio had been going off. "Oh, that, umm, yeah I should probably get that". Once again, smooth Kate, really looking like a great cop. However, she was also considering wanting to kill whoever was radioing her that interrupted her moment.

"This is Beckett" She said into her radio.

"Tallie here, any word on the kid? No reports at the precinct"

"Yep, father was found, I'll head back to the cruiser in a minute"

"Righty-oh" Kate felt her eyes roll as her partner signed off.

"What do I owe you for the slush?" Castle was asking with his wallet out.

"Oh, nothing, please, it's on me."

"Daddy buy her a coffee, the other cop she was with was having one, maybe she wants one too" Alexis cut in while tugging once again at his suit jacket.

"Oh no, please, my pleasure, I'm just happy you are reunited". Kate said, knowing that if he were to buy her a coffee she would never be able to throw away that cup in this life time.

"Well then, thank you again, very much..uhh?"

"Oh, Kate, it's Katherine Beckett, but Kate is great" She felt her last bit of pride fade away when she realized how stupid that unintentional rhyme was.

A smile played across his lips as he once again took out his right hand in which she accepted. "Have a great evening Kate, until we meet again" he gave her a wink that made her heart melt. To avoid any further embarrassment she just gave a nod and little smile, then quickly hightailed it back to her car.