Big thank you to Annem57 for making my worker even better.
Mya, for Skypeing with me and pretty much sitting and listening because I don't let you get a word in.
And My Aussie Castle Family, for always having my back.
All you need is Pi
By
Natalie Elizabeth
Alexis heard a knock at the door and groaned. She knew her father was a glutton for punishment, but was he really coming back for round two? If he had returned with her favourite gourmet ice-cream, she was going to find it hard to resist him. Maybe she could just grab the tub and shut the door on him. Accepting the ice-cream wouldn't mean she had forgiven him for his bad behaviour. No. It would simply mean that her favourite ice cream was expensive. Who knew? It's not that she couldn't afford to indulge, she could. Albeit not on a regular basis, but the fact was there were more important things to spend money on. Or not spend money. She wanted to prove that she could do this on her own, both to her father and to herself. So no, she wouldn't accept the ice-cream, but she would at least listen to him again. Unlike her father, she would give him the benefit of the doubt. Putting an unamused look on her face, Alexis opened the door.
"Detective Beckett."
The woman in front of her smiled. "Alexis. Hi. Sorry for just stopping in like this. I wasn't planning to, but it was on my way and I wanted to bring you a housewarming gift."
Alexis looked down at the fire extinguisher with a pink bow on it.
"Did Dad put you up to this?"
Beckett frowned. "Umm. No."
Alexis took a step forward and looked outside her apartment door for any signs of her father.
"There isn't a listening device hidden in the present is there? You're not wearing a wire?"
Beckett laughed. "Umm, no. Why?"
Alexis shrugged. "Oh, I just figured it's not like Dad to back down. I thought maybe he sent you here to do recon or something. I didn't let him in before, so now I'm wondering if his plan was to get inside and plant a bug."
Beckett frowned. "He was here tonight?"
Alexis nodded. "Yeah. He came to apologize, and even says he accepts Pi as part of my life. I know he doesn't, though. He just said it to appease me. I was a kid once, too. I know when an 'I'm sorry' is forced. Then, he tried to take me out for ice-cream as if that will make it all better."
Beckett shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I can't believe he came here. He said he was going to go straight home and eat something healthy. I guess his stomach was no longer sore after indulging in a whole bag of candy he found tucked under the seat in the squad car."
Alexis eyes narrowed. "He really didn't send you here?"
Beckett shook her head. "No. I just wanted to give you your gift," Beckett then extended the gift to Alexis.
Alexis took the gift and looked at it warily. "Grams already got us a housewarming gift. It was a plant. The card said it was from the three of you, but I got the feeling it was just from her."
Beckett shrugged. "No, it was. Well, at least from your Gram and I. You know the way your father has been acting lately. I just wanted to give you a gift, too. I'm sorry I couldn't be here for the dinner but work came up. I still feel like I'm on probation or something, and I don't want to rock the boat just yet. I promise if you ever invite your father and I back again, I'll do my best to be here."
Alexis bit her lip and looked down at the present. A fire extinguisher. Well, they didn't have one, and it really was a nice gesture.
"Do you want to come in?"
Beckett smiled. "Only if you're sure I'm not interrupting. I hate it when people turn up to my place unannounced."
Alexis took a step back and allowed the detective to enter. "And yet you're still marrying my dad."
Beckett laughed as she entered the apartment. "Yes, I am."
Alexis watched as Kate looked over her apartment. Not frowning or turning up her nose, just looking. Her dad wanted to marry this woman and she had simply accepted it. She accepted it because Kate made her dad happy. The truth was he could have done so much worse and had.
Kate had turned up unannounced, but apologised for that. She had brought a gift as a way of apologising for not being at an informal dinner. So far Kate had two points in her favour whereas her father was minus 100.
"Nice place," Kate told her.
Alexis smiled. Kate was actually telling the truth. "Dad wasn't impressed with it."
Beckett nodded as she turned and looked around. "Well ,that might have something to do with telling your father where you got some of these items."
Alexis shrugged. "Well, the truth hurts sometimes."
Beckett nodded while still looking around. "Yes, the truth hurts, but so does lying."
"What do you mean?"
Beckett scanned the apartment once more before looking at Alexis. "I have no doubt that you got some of these things because people were throwing them away. I also know you got the idea for the door table out of a magazine. The same magazine that lamp was in for $100."
Alexis froze.
"Where did you get the money for the lamp, Alexis? Not to mention the rug and a few other items."
Alexis bit her lip and looked down. "How did you know?"
Beckett took a few steps closer to the guilty looking teen. "Well, I was running late one morning. I slipped on a magazine on the floor next to couch Pi was using as a bed. I remember seeing the lamp and was thinking it would make a nice replacement for the one your father broke when he was trying too... well you don't need to know what he was trying to do."
Alexis slammed her eyes shut and nodded.
"So where did you get the money from?" Beckett asked again.
Alexis sighed and opened her eyes. "Grams. But it was only a loan," she added hastily. "I just thought if we had the place looking really nice then Dad couldn't judge."
Beckett laughed. "Alexis, there isn't enough money in the world to make this place look nice enough for your dad not to judge. He is a dad: it's what they do."
Alexis shrugged. "I didn't know what else to do."
Beckett sat on the couch and Alexis followed her. "Well, you didn't need to mention that you got some of this stuff from the street."
Alexis nodded. "I know, but he was already judging before he got in, and I couldn't help myself. I'm proud of what I have created here."
"And you should be. It feels like a home in here, a real home. My apartment was decked out with some expensive things, yet it never felt like home."
Alexis sighed. "Why can't Dad see that?"
Beckett ran a hand through her hair. "Because you're his baby girl."
Alexis sat up straight. "I'm an adult."
Beckett nodded. "Yes, you're an adult, but you will always be his child. Just as the rest of the world thinks your Dad is an adult ,but we all know he's a child."
Alexis laughed. That made three points to Kate.
"Alexis, I don't want to take sides here, but I want you to know I've been doing my best to control your father."
Alexis frowned. "Why? Won't that get you on Dad's bad side?"
"Yeah it has, a few times. I know what it's like to be a teenager and have your dad not understand. My dad was exactly the same. The thing is, you need to understand where he is coming from."
"Why he doesn't see where I am coming from?"
Beckett nodded. "Exactly, and I have been working on that, but one of you needs to be the bigger person here. I wasn't joking when I said your dad was a child, although that is a bit of an understatement. At times, he's a spoiled brat who doesn't like to share and always gets what he wants. Even though there have been a parade of stepfathers, for most of his life he's had his mother all to himself. Then he had you, and again for most of the time it has been you and him. Now, suddenly some guy he doesn't know comes into your life, and he has to share you."
Alexis sat back on the couch and frowned. She never really saw it that way. It had been the two of them for so long. Even when Gram had moved in, their relationship hadn't changed. It had been the same with Gina, too. They were married, but Gina always seemed to be on the sidelines.
"But Dad hasn't even made the effort to get to know Pi."
Beckett shook her head. "No, he hasn't, and he probably isn't going to be all that eager to, either. The truth is no one is ever going to be good enough for his baby girl."
Alexis crossed her arms. "But your dad likes my dad."
Beckett rolled her eyes. "Well, yes. He does now."
Alexis frowned. "He didn't like him before?"
Beckett shook her head. "No, what I mean is if I had turned up on my father's doorstep with Rick ten years ago, my Dad probably would have reached for his shot gun."
Alexis smiled. "I am so thankful you put a stop to Dad getting a gun at home."
"And that was my main reason. I knew he would try to use it to scare beaus away. I wasn't joking about my dad and the shot gun, either. He really did point it at one of my boyfriends. The fact is, it takes parents a long time to realise that their kids are grown up and have their own lives. It's hard for them to accept, but eventually they do. Well, hopefully they do. Most still try and meddle in their kids' lives. Apparently that's a prerequisite of parents. I'm not quite sure when it was that my dad switched from him not wanting me to date to him asking me why I wasn't out dating."
Alexis bit her lip and smiled. "Really, your dad was asking that?"
Beckett nodded. "Oh, yeah. I think the main reason my dad likes Rick is simply because Rick has a job and only a small criminal record."
This time Alexis couldn't help but burst out laughing. "Does Dad know this?"
Beckett shook her head. "No, he thinks it's because he's charming."
Alexis rolled her eyes at that. Her dad wasn't being very charming at the moment. She shrugged her shoulders. "It's not fair. It's not like I've been a problem child or anything. He was the one who got into trouble in my teenage years."
Beckett shook her head. "Alexis, just because you have been the perfect child doesn't give you the right to go off and be wild, and expect your father not to say anything."
Alexis scoffed. "Please, I'm not perfect."
Beckett shrugged. "Your father thinks you are. You should hear they way he goes on about you at the precinct. He even insulted my intelligence once when Stanford rejected you the first time."
"How do you mean?"
"When Stanford rejected you, he was so angry and shocked."
Alexis frowned. That didn't make any sense. "But Dad didn't want me to go to Stanford."
"Maybe not, but he was mortified that they didn't see how amazing you are. I told him it was a hard school to get into and he fired back with 'Well you got in.'"
Alexis was shocked. Detective Beckett was a smart woman. She had to be in order to do her job. The fact that her father thought she was smarter was a surprise. Sure parents liked to brag about their daughters, but not to the extent of putting down a friend.
" I understood he was just upset, but it shows how much he thinks of you."
Alexis sighed. She never doubted that her father cared for her. Some of her friends had parents who were divorced. Most lived with the mother and barely saw their father. Those few who did live with their father were mainly raised by nannies. Not her, though. She may not have had the most traditional of upbringings, but it had always been filled with love.
"So what do you think I should do?" Alexis asked wearily, unsure on whether or not she wanted to know the answer
Beckett bit her lip. "Not be so hard on him."
"But,"
Beckett held her hand up to halt her. "I know he is being a bit of a jerk at the moment, but bear with him. I'm not saying to put up with his behaviour: I'm just saying to try and understand where he's coming from. He feels like he is being abandoned."
Alexis scoffed. "He's feeling abandoned? What about me? He proposes to you and doesn't tell me, then he makes the decision to move to DC without telling me either. If anyone should feel abandoned, it's me. "
Beckett's eyes darkened. "What? He didn't tell you?"
"Grams told me he proposed while I was away."
Beckett balked. "He said he was going to call you."
Alexis shrugged trying to hold back tears. "Yeah well, I guess he forgot."
Beckett rubbed a hand over her face. "I'm sorry, Alexis. I didn't know."
"Hey, it's no big deal. I was like 2000 miles away."
"It is a big deal. Your father made a big life decision that affects you. I'm so sorry, Alexis."
Alexis shrugged. "It's not your fault. Actually, it's how I got to met Pi. I was shocked and a little bit annoyed, and he made a joke to make me smile. That's what I like about Pi. He makes me smile and he makes me happy. Why can't Dad see that? I was annoyed at first that Dad didn't tell me about the two of you, but you make Dad happy. Pi made me realise that. He got me to talk over your relationship, and helped me see you were good for Dad. I'm glad the two of you are getting married."
Beckett bit her lip and then smiled. "Thanks, Alexis. It means a lot to hear you say that. We've never really talked about how you feel about our relationship."
"Whatever my feelings are, I respect that Dad chose you, and I choose Pi. I know he's different: so different from the image I had in my head about what the perfect boyfriend would be. Yet, there is something so intriguing about him. I've lived a sheltered life, and then I was kidnapped. I had a lot of time to think. Life's short, you should know that. I'm looking at the world so differently because of Pi. I don't know if Pi and I will be together in six months or six years. I'm not picking out the colour for my bridesmaids' dresses or anything. Pi makes me feel free, and that's what I need in my life right now."
Beckett smiled. "I know what you mean."
Alexis narrowed her eyes. "You do?"
Kate nodded. "Oh yeah. Do you honestly think your father is the image I had of a dream husband?"
"Well yeah. Most women would jump at the chance to marry him. He is rich and handsome."
"And extremely possessive when it comes to people he loves."
Alexis nodded. "That's both a good and a bad thing. Right now, it's bad."
"Alexis, did you ever have those cardboard doll things? You know, they came in a book, and you pressed them out of the pages. There was usually a man and a woman, sometimes a kid and an animal too. The humans were usually in their underwear, and then you pressed out different clothes and used the tabs to fold over the body."
Alexis nodded. "Oh yeah, those things were cool. You could make them wear a ball gown or a tutu."
"Well, the men in my life before your dad were kind of like that. The men were the same, the cardboard clothes just changed slightly. There was a lawyer and a cop. FBI and a doctor. Then your dad came along, and flipped my world upside down. Suddenly in my cardboard world there was this wannabe action figure. I started seeing the world differently, and at first I didn't like it. I was living in my own little box and I didn't want to come out of it. I resisted your father; I commend you for taking a chance with Pi."
"Really."
Beckett nodded. "You're daring to live a life other than what's expected of you. I know it's not easy, and there will be times when you will be thinking what am I doing? Whether you have made the right decision or the wrong one, you will always be glad that it was your decision to make. No one forced you."
Alexis smiled. Kate really did know what she was going through. Alexis remembered her father telling her how Kate had bucked convention, and became a cop instead of being a lawyer. At face value, based on their background and the fact that one was a cop and the other was a writer, probably her father and Kate weren't a conventional couple. Alexis knew that what you see isn't what you get however. Anyone could plainly see that Kate Beckett and Richard Castle were a match, once they got to know them. Sure, they were different in a lot of ways, but there were also similarities too.
Alexis had no delusion about Kate being an actual mother to her. However after this talk, Alexis realised she had a comrade in Kate. Someone who understood that her dad wasn't perfect.
Beckett stood up. "Anyway, I have taken up a lot of your time already. I better go and see your father. Have a few words with him."
Alexis smiled as she escorted Kate out.
"Thank you for coming Kate. It was nice it talk to someone who understands."
Kate smiled. "Yeah, me too. Alexis, I want you to know I'm not going to try and force a relationship with you. I know technically I'm going to be your step mother and it might be easier to explain to people who I am that way. All technicalities aside, I am whatever you want me to be. You have a mother and friends already, so I understand you don't need more of those."
Alexis smiled. She knew exactly what Kate was asking. She wanted to have a place in her life, but she wasn't sure what that place was.
"Can you just be Kate?"
Kate laughed. "And who exactly is that?"
Alexis shrugged. " She is so many good things. She is the person who puts up with my dad's antics, but loves him despite that. Kate who turns up to my grandmother's plays' knowing full well how outlandish they will be. The person who risked her job by allowing my father to torture a suspect when I was taken."
Beckett bit her lip. "I didn't know you knew that?"
Alexis nodded. "Yeah, Dad told me. We talked a lot that night waiting for our flight home."
Beckett shrugged. "It was you."
Alexis nodded. "I know. You cared for me when I didn't exactly give you any reason to. That's Kate. She cares for me and my grandmother as if we were blood. She loves my father. She is someone who is sometimes a mother to me and other times a friend. At least that's what I want her to be."
Kate laughed. "Well, I'm not sure exactly how to be a mother but I'll do my best."
"You're already doing it by being here, Kate. That's all I ask. You're here when I need you."
Kate winced. "I'm sorry again that I wasn't here for your housewarming."
"You're here now."
"Okay. I still need to go home and rake your father over hot coals."
Alexis rolled her eyes. "Well, if you take your own advice you need to go easy on him."
Kate frowned.
"He was happy and in love Kate. You were foremost in his mind. That's a good thing." Alexis told her.
Kate stood there awkwardly. She opened her arms hesitantly before taking a step towards Alexis. Alexis joined her half way and they hugged.
"Thank you, Alexis. If you ever need to talk, if you want to keep it just between us, that's okay too. I'll only tell your father if you start doing drugs or reading Patterson."
Alexis laughed as she withdrew from the hug.
"Okay, Kate. Deal."
