Found it a little tricky writing Castle recently. Had a few different ideas floating about my head, but none seemed end up going anywhere.

So I'm going to try my hand at something a little different. I'm going to write the ideas up and post them all under is title. A collection of random Castle based stories that don't have a home anywhere else. This won't be updated every week, but I'll try and keep this string going with new plots and ideas.

'Kate! I need...oh God... Kate!' Kate Beckett froze in the middle of the bullpen, her phone clamped to her ear as she fought the urge to panic at the sheer terror in the voice on the other end of the line.

'Alexis? Where are you? What's wrong?'

'It's a disaster!' Alexis Castle wailed, Kate's terror dropping slightly as she realised that the young woman wasn't in any danger, 'They... Kate!'

Hearing the tell tale gasps of a panic attack, Kate pushed open the nearest door and locked it behind her.

'Detective?' Captain Gates looked up from the report she was reading, annoyance and concern in the word. Her jaw dropped when Kate turned away and raised a finger towards the older woman.

'Take deep breaths Alexis,' Kate schooled her voice, keeping her worry behind the calm, soft tone she spoke in, 'Try and focus on my voice and breath. Whatever is wrong is going to be okay. Relax honey, everything's going to be okay.'

'But Kate...' Alexis hiccuped, 'Dad's going to kill me.'

'Honey,' Kate sent an apologetic wince towards her boss, 'There's nothing that you can do to make your father want to kill you, absolutely nothing. Where are you?'

'At... At home,' Alexis whimpered, 'I'm in the loft.'

'Let me talk to the Captain about having the afternoon off,' Kate sighed when Gates waggled her hand towards the door silently, 'and I'll be there in about twenty minutes or so.'

'Okay...' Alexis sniffled.

'I'm sorry Sir,' Kate pocketed the phone, 'I've never heard Alexis like that before and I panicked. I shouldn't have barged in like that.'

'Go, Detective,' Gates pointed to the door, 'Go help that young woman. Take tomorrow off as well and let me know if she is alright.'

'Thank you Sir!' Kate hurried out the office. Throwing a short excuse at Ryan and Esposito, Kate barrelled out of the building, the desire to throw out the gumball so tantalisingly great that Kate had to stop her hand as she reached over to the device.

Throwing the door of the loft open, Kate called out Alexis' name, relief dousing her terror when she received an answering voice.

'What's happened?' Kate dropped to her knees by the couch in Rick's office, the huddled shape of Alexis curled into the corner of the soft couch, 'honey, look at me. Tell me what happened?'

Alexis sniffled, puffy red eyes appearing from behind the curtain of her hair as she opened the laptop that sat before her. Kate frowned at the un-nerving silence and turned to look at the screen.

'Oh,' Kate's shoulders slumped when she read the headline on the low quality tabloid gossip blog that Alexis had open.

'You were in a strip club?' Kate blinked at the image on the screen.

'No,' Alexis winced, 'Yes. We were all out on a night out at a new club Dani had discovered and it started bucketing down. We had to take cover under the nearest shelter.'

'Which happened to be a doorway to a strip club,' Kate sighed, 'And her?'

Alexis let out a deep breath when Kate pointed at the image on the screen of a soaked Alexis grinning widely as a blonde head nuzzled her neck.

'Bec,' Alexis' shoulders slumped, 'That's Bec. She's one of the group. She's very much the type to speak her mind. First time I met her she told me that if I needed any help relieving... Tension, then give her a call as she'd happily help me relieve... Tension.'

Kate felt a giggle bubble up, 'I knew someone like that at Stanford. Ten minutes after meeting her Raq, I mean Raquel, had explicitly offered the use of her tongue if I ever needed a quick orgasm. What made it so bad is that she said it with my Dad standing in earshot a few feet away.

'Oh God!' Alexis gave a watery laugh.

'Yeah,' Kate shrugged, 'It was rather awkward.'

'Bec just decided to have a hug,' Alexis chuckled softly, 'she's a hugging person when drunk and I just happened to be within arms reach. I was laughing because she knows I'm ticklish and she'd blown a raspberry on my neck.'

'So someone caught it on film,' Kate sighed, moving up to sit next to Alexis and wrapping her arm around her, 'And they've twisted it to try and get a few extra hits for their site.'

'I don't care about the bloggers and the idiots,' Alexis leant into Kate, 'This is going to hurt Dad's image. The successful writer's wayward daughter screwing women in strip club doorways. Makes for quite a scandal and he's already had a few groups start issues with him including a gay main character in the last heat book.'

'You aren't going to cause him any trouble Alexis,' Kate pressed her lips into Alexis' hair, 'He's more than capable of doing it himself. This'll blow over before you know it. That Cyrus kid will do something insane and everyone will move onto the new story.'

Alexis twisted into Kate and hugged her tightly. The two women sat on the couch for a while in silence, Kate's fingers stroking along Alexis' back gently.

'It's a damn good photo if I'm honest,' Kate felt and heard the muttered response against her neck, 'I mean, the framing is pretty good, the lighting from the surrounding signage gives you two a bit of a cool glow and you've worn a dress that shows off your killer legs. You should get a copy of this for posterity.'

'Bec has already,' Alexis giggled, 'Said she's going to get a copy framed for me.'

'Kate?' Rick's voice called out from the front door, 'Are you here?'

'We're in the office,' Kate answered.

'Alexis as well?' Rick's clumsy feet thumped around the loft

'I'm here Dad!' Alexis grimaced, dropping her voice and giving Kate a quick kiss on the cheek, 'better get this over with.'

'I've got your back pumpkin,' Neither woman noticed the use of Rick's nickname for his daughter, 'Don't worry about a thing.'

'Ah,' Rick appeared in the doorway, 'Good, you're both here. I had a reporter call me up earlier about you Alexis. Something about a woman and a strip club?'

'It's all a big misunderstanding Dad,' Alexis felt Kate's palm on her back, the quiet reassurance sapping the worry out of her, 'just a trashing blog trying to score more hits.'

'Oh,' Rick visibly relaxed, 'Wanna tell me all about it as I make a tagliatelle?'

'With extra large mushrooms?' Alexis smirked, the redhead scrambling to her feet and making a bees line to the kitchen area.

'She's okay?' Rick bit his lip and gave Kate a long kiss, 'Mother told me I should get back here with some comfort food for her.'

'More concerned about you than herself I think,' Kate melted against her fiancé, 'But she was close to a panic attack when she rang. Gates gave me tomorrow off incase Alexis needed me.'

'Dad!' Alexis teasingly called out, 'You two can do that later, when I'm upstairs with my headphones on!'

'The wondrous leader commands me,' Rick pressed his lips against Kate's forehead, 'Thank you for being there for her. It means more than you can imagine.'

'Dad!' Alexis called, 'Where'd you put the chopping board?'

'In the dishwasher Pumpkin!' Rick answered.

'No it isn't!' Kate could hear the eye roll in the younger woman's voice.

'I should go help her,' Rick dropped his forehead against Kate's.

'Go,' Kate giggled when Alexis let out an annoyed bark, 'Before she decides to poison your food with extra spices again.'

'Oh God,' Rick grimaced and tore away from Kate. Leaning against the doorframe, Kate's face was filled with a warm smile as she watched the father and daughter bicker and banter as they worked in unison, the smell of their creation eventually reaching Kate's nose.

'Seeing as we've done al, the hard work,' Alexis grinned at Kate, 'It's your turn to set the table.'

'Of course it is,' Kate chuckled.