A/N: I'm glad you guys enjoyed the first chapter, and so many of you are reading this sequel. Special thanks go to alwayscastle2, hfce, Moochiecat, jellybean96, htbuzz, TORONTOSUN and Malakiva for reviewing! I hope you all enjoy this chapter too.
She was so exhausted she was practically falling asleep at her desk while she waited for Castle to get out of the men's room so they could return home. In the cab back to the loft, she genuinely drifted off and had to be shaken awake by Rick when they had pulled up outside their SoHo building. He fared little better though. After being coaxed out of sleep by Kate when he fell asleep in his chair, he had to admit he had dozed for a moment when he was stood at the urinal and every few minutes his eyes would drift closed in the cab. In the elevator, it was only the sound of the car travelling up the rails and the feeling of the floor vibrating under their feet that kept them both awake.
The sound of deep laughter coming from within the loft as he opened up the front door stunned them both and caused them to freeze in the entry. Frowning, Rick sidestepped the haphazardly positioned bags that Kate had literally thrown through the door before heading off with Lanie for coffee and a catchup and continued into his apartment.
"Stop, stop!" Alexis giggled desperately from within the living room, popping up red-faced while the obviously male laughter continued.
"Alexis?!"
"Dad, you're back!" she exclaimed, leaping off the couch and running around it to hug him.
He stood stockstill, his arms eventually folding around his daughter after a few seconds in a jerking movement, until a second head popped up from the couch, this one topped with dark, tangled hair and a beard, and scared him half to death.
"Hey, Mr C!"
"What's going on?"
"Dad," Alexis cautioned before making the necessary introductions. "This is Pi, I met him in Costa Rica."
"And he's here now because…" Rick trailed off, waiting for his daughter to explain the presence of her holiday fling in his loft. In the back of his mind he wondered how long he'd been staying. If the numerous articles of men's clothing strewn through the kitchen, living room and dining room were a sign, he had guess that Pi had been living in his home with Alexis since he left for his and Kate's honeymoon.
Alexis dragged him away, her fingers digging into his elbow to tow him into the kitchen, where Pi couldn't hear her mutter, "He surprised me, Dad. He's here on a research project."
"A research project," he parroted, unable to do much else in his tired state.
Alexis nodded. "He's counting New York's bee population to see whether urbanisation and pollution have had any effect in the last five years. And, you know, he didn't have anywhere to stay."
He was still processing the development as he stood at the kitchen counter after finishing dinner and washing their dishes, leaning heavily on his hands grip against the edge of the work surface. Kate was leaning against him, simultaneously trying to remain upright and comfort him with feather-light touches and mumbled words.
"I need ice cream," he said suddenly, pulling away from her to go to the freezer.
"Oh, sorry, Dad," came Alexis' voice from the living room. "Pi and I finished that last night."
"Great," he muttered sarcastically. "Cookies it is then." He pulled the Death Star cookie jar out of one of the cupboards and took out a stack of chocolate chip cookies, definitely far too many than he was hungry for. He took a great big bite out of the first, munching away as Kate silently regarded him.
"You know, I didn't have you pegged as an emotional eater," she joked, trying to lighten his mood.
The smile he gave her was half-hearted, not quite reaching his eyes, while his laugh was little more than a quick exhale of air through his nose. Still, he was grateful to her for trying at least.
"You wanna help me unpack?" she asked, thinking maybe the task might help him take his mind off the way Alexis was sat in Pi's lap, and how blindsided he was by the whole thing.
"Sure," he replied, despite knowing he was going to end up just sitting on the bed when he grew bored of lobbing their dirty laundry in the direction of the clothes bin and most often falling short of his intended target.
She grabbed the two rolling suitcases, leaving him to pick up both of their carry ons and the bag of collected mementoes. Practically everything in the two suitcases, except the toiletries bag and the luxurious soaps and body washes Castle had somehow managed to steal from their hotel without her noticing, went straight into a pile to be shoved into the washing machines. While she worked through their suitcases, he opened their hand luggage, placing his copy of Live and Let Die on his bedside table and her copy of In a Hail of Bullets on the table on her side of the bed. He left Kate's small make up bag on the bed, along with her iPod and camera, which he then took out into his study to attach to his laptop so he could start downloading their photos. He stored their passports back in his desk drawer for safekeeping, before retrieving his iPad so he could charge it. It surprised him how such a boring, menial task kept his mind occupied. It was only when he started on their bag of mementoes and came across Alexis' gifts that he sat on the bed, holding onto the beautiful necklace made of strung together Tahitian pearls with the sarong Kate had picked out for her laid out on the bed beside him. He sighed before setting them aside. He could still hear Alexis out in the living room with Pi and didn't really want to disturb that; her present could wait till the morning.
Kate could feel his eyes boring into her back as she sorted through the final pieces of clothes from their suitcases before piling all of them on top of the laundry basket. When she finally turned and looked back at him with her hands on her hips, he was still staring, sitting dejectedly on the foot of the bed.
"Come on," she said, beckoning him towards her. As soon as he was within reach, her fingers slid around his hand, palms melding together, so she could drag him into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
It was an early night for them, falling into bed just before nine o'clock, but the jet lag had hit them hard and in their eyes it was an achievement that they had managed to stay awake for so long.
"So, we finally get to investigate Rachel's murder," he murmured, nuzzling his nose against juncture of her shoulder and neck.
"Yeah, we're solving this one," she said with determination, "so we're up bright and early, Castle."
He nodded, nose brushing against her skin again. "Night."
She turned her head, neck muscles straining so she could meet his lips and mutter against them, "Night, Rick."
He jerked awake at the urgent trill of his alarm clock, more startled than when they had come face to face with a tiger because he'd been so deeply asleep and enjoying a particularly pleasant dream. Seeing Kate sat upright against the headboard staring down at him, obviously having woken up before the alarm sounded, he frowned as he realised that what he had seen in his dream had no possibility of occurring.
"What?" she asked, noticing the downturn of the left corner of his mouth.
"Nothing," he yawned, stretching out his body before pushing the duvet aside and moving his legs around so he was sat in the middle of the mattress, elbows resting on his bare knees as another yawn took over his body. Looking back at Kate, he asked what was probably the most unnecessary question of their entire relationship. "Coffee?"
He was already on his feet and halfway into the kitchen when she called out, "With extra vanilla please."
When he opened the fridge to take out the milk and saw the carton of orange juice on the shelf inside the door, he couldn't help remembering the smiling face of the adorable little girl with Beckett's eyes, the one who'd thanked him when he handed her a sippy cup filled with the citrus drink before pushing her one the swings, their swings. He started again when Kate exited the bedroom, hurrying to shut the fridge and make their coffees before the brewed ground beans got cold.
Alexis and Pi wandered out and joined them whilst they were still drinking their coffees, Kate briefly disappearing into the bedroom to retrieve the sarong and necklace and give them to Alexis.
"Kate picked out the sarong," Rick muttered, briefly glancing up from the solid glare he had affixed on his hands curled around his coffee cup to direct his gaze at his daughter. He had still yet to acknowledge her boyfriend's presence at the breakfast bar.
"It's great," Alexis promised. "I love it. Thanks, Kate."
Kate smiled, pleased that she'd chosen okay, but shrugged off the praise, simply saying, "No problem. I'm just glad you like it."
As soon as they were done, they had to leave though, rushing into the shower. That morning Kate spent longer than usual applying her makeup, trying to cover the dark circles under her eyes from waking up too early – too used to the early sunrises of Bora Bora. Unlike her husband, she didn't have the ability to sleep indefinitely. Somehow, she was still ready before him though.
She was just double checking she had everything when he walked out of the bedroom, buttoning his shirt cuffs.
"Got your gun?" he called out, not noticing a hidden bulge at her hip like there usually was.
She patted her sides, not even finding the empty holster attached to the waistband of her trousers. "Gun, gun, where did I leave my gun?" she muttered to herself, trying to think backwards through her routine that morning.
"Is it still in the safe?"
"No," she replied, though it was too late because he had already backtracked into his study and pulled open the safe he kept hidden behind the spiral staircase picture adorning the wall behind his desk. "I definitely took it out of the safe."
"Nope, it's not in here," he confirmed, shutting the safe again and recentering the frame over it.
Sighing, Kate checked through the plain black bag she usually slung over her shoulder and took to work, finding only the manila folder containing all the details of Rachel Winters' case that she'd finally finished reading earlier that morning whilst she waited for Castle to wake up, as well as her badge, cell phone, purse and latex gloves reserved for handling evidence at crime scenes.
"Can you check the bedroom for me in case I left it in there?" she requested. "I'm just going to have a quick look around out here."
Finally, after retrieving her gun and holster from under the duvet – a situation created by Rick making the bed up whilst she was in the shower – they were on their way down to the precinct, ready to get to work on solving Rachel's murder.
"I think we should call in Rachel's friends – Violet, Henry, anyone else she knew from college – and see if they knew anything about Madeline."
"Makes sense," Rick nodded. "I wonder when she had Madeline. Wait, hang on, that was a stupid question," he added, as he presumably did the math and worked out that Rachel must have had her four year old daughter while she was still at college. Kate repressed her smirk and refocused on navigating around New York City's outrageously bad cab drivers. "Why do you reckon she gave Madeline up for adoption then?"
Kate shrugged. It didn't feel right to her to guess at Rachel's motives. In any regard, they were surely going to find out. It could be that Madeline had been the missing piece from Esposito and Ryan's initial investigation.
She could tell he was lost in his own little world, probably captivated by a new idea for Nikki, while she was busy dialling new phone numbers every few minutes, trying to organise getting in Rachel Winters' closest friends and family for interviews.
Instead though, he was thinking again about his dream, and how adorable Kate had been when she'd started teaching the small girl the rules of baseball, progressing through to playing catch with her, the both of them wearing mitts though their little girl's dwarfed her hand.
"You've got to grip it like this," Kate had said, placing her daughter's fingers over the seams of the ball.
Just remembering it, how proud they'd both been when their daughter had tossed the ball harder, more smoothly, gave him a sappy grin.
"Castle," Kate repeated, staring at him with a frown.
He almost toppled out of his chair as Kate nudged his leg under the table with her booted foot. "Huh?"
She nodded towards the interview room. "The social worker's here, you coming?"
"Oh yeah," he replied, jumping it and quickly checking his pockets to make sure his phone was still there, lest Gina call him. She and Paula were still planning to pull him away for the second half of his book tour sometime over the next two weeks, whittling down the fine details through long distance conference calls, the results of which his ex-wife then passed onto him. Earlier that morning, he'd been told that the second half of his book tour had actually been extended; taking him further west, since there was such high demand for him. Both he and Kate were hot in the media still in the aftermath of their wedding. "I'm right behind you." He motioned for her to lead, and followed as she crossed the bullpen and entered Interrogation room 1, taking the seat nearest the door opposite the social worker who had taken Madeline to her new foster home just the day before.
"How's Maddie?" Kate asked as soon as he was seated beside her, surprising him since the reason Olivia Dawson had been called for interview was to find out about Rachel's reasons for giving up Madeline Cleaver for adoption.
"Madeline is fine," Olivia assured Kate. "I dropped her off with a reliable foster family we're very familiar with last night and I'll be checking in with her over the next few days to see how she's settling in."
Kate nodded, smiling a little more.
"That's good. Were you familiar with the Cleavers, Ms Dawson?"
"I was the social worker who organised their adoption of Madeline, yes."
"So you also dealt with Rachel Winters, the biological mother?"
Olivia nodded. "I'm not sure what that has to do with the Cleavers' murder though…"
"So you were aware that Rachel Winters was murdered earlier this year in June?" Kate asked, keeping her tone professional, just to be sure that it did not come across that she was insinuating anything. At the beginning of their investigation, they couldn't afford to make such accusations.
"You don't think this was the same person?" the social worker gasped.
"It's possible," Castle said, before receiving a sharp look from Kate as he disclosed details of their investigative route.
Dragging her gaze off Castle and back to the prim woman sitting across from her in a tightly fitting skirted suit, she began speaking again. "Ms Dawson, if you could just tell us everything you know concerning the circumstances of Rachel Winter's decision to give up her daughter for adoption, you'd really be helping the case."
Olivia Dawson nodded. "I was the social worker assigned to pick Madeline up from the hospital after Ms Winter's doctor got in contact when the biological mother decided she couldn't keep the baby."
"Do you know why Rachel Winters decided to give Maddie up for adoption?"
"I'm afraid not. All I know is that she had requested an adoption. I picked up Madeline and took her back to a temporary home, I can't remember which one, and then when the Cleavers' file was tossed onto my desk, I set Madeline up with them."
"Rick, maybe you should just go home. You're obviously distracted," Kate finally said after he confused two of their interviewees and given her the wrong messages again when she'd been away from her desk for just the smallest moment.
He sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face, conceding internally that he'd hadn't been entirely with it. That dream was just playing on his mind too much. Nodding, he replied, "Okay, I'll see you at home," and pressed a kiss to the top of her head as he stood up from his chair and grabbed his coat.
He took a short cab ride, still caught up imagining what the little girl of his dream might have looked like when she'd first been born, whether her eyes would have been blue before turning hazel, whether she'd have had a small tuft of light brown hair or a whole head of it or nothing at all. He grimaced as he pictured her tiny face with his nose. Whatever she looked like though, he knew she was still perfect.
Exiting the cab, paying the driver, entering his building; he did it all on autopilot. He didn't even stop to think about taking the mail from the locker registered to their apartment; he just did it. It was only when he entered the loft and saw Alexis lounging on the couch with Pi again that he was jarred out of his imagination.
"Don't you have classes?" he blurted, shutting the door quietly behind him.
"I've been given the week off to do all the reading for them," she replied, raising her voice because she had no intention of turning around.
"Well, shouldn't you be reading then?"
She shrugged. "I'll start tomorrow."
Forsaking the entrance, he stepped into the kitchen and dropped the small pile of post he'd yet to even start looking through onto the counter top, leaving his hands free to make a drink. Normally the scotch wouldn't come out until the evening, but he needed something strong and stiff if he was expected to tolerate the presence of Alexis' new boyfriend, who they'd learned after breakfast was a fruitarian and wouldn't let him anywhere near the rashers of bacon he'd intended on frying up to eat with pancakes. He just hoped that once Alexis moved back to the college dorms, he'd find someplace else to stay; or better yet, Alexis would move on from her holiday fling.
He placed the glass of scotch down on the counter after one large swig before turning to his mail and sifting out the junk to be thrown straight into the trash, coming to a stop shortly after beginning when he came across a large, thick brown envelope addressed to him and Kate.
He stopped and grinned, pulling out his phone to snap a picture of the front and send it to Kate.
Mr and Mrs Castle! First piece of mail!
As soon as the message had gone through he tore open the top of the envelope and pulled out a stack of printed photos, the first of which showed Kate having her hair and makeup done, while Alexis and Lanie looked on. She was beautiful. For the next three hours he lost himself in slowly flipping through the stack, studying every tiny detail. He didn't realise he'd been sat on one of the uncomfortable backless stools at the breakfast bar, or how much time had passed while he'd been completely absorbed until the front door opened and Kate walked through, dropping her bag on the sidetable along with her keys.
"Hey," she greeted, coming straight over to kiss him. "What have we got then?" He could hear the building excitement in her voice, pleased like him at their first piece of mail addressed to them as a married couple.
"The wedding photos," he answered with a grin, showing her the one that happened to be held by his fingertips at that very moment.
"You looked so handsome," she murmured, looking at the picture of him standing at the end of the aisle, watching her make her ascent towards him, over his shoulder.
"Ruggedly handsome, you mean?" he quipped with a smirk and a quirked eyebrow that earned him an elbow in the ribs.
He quietly flicked through a few more photos, the both of them silent until she suddenly said, "It was such a great day, wasn't it?"
"Well, I still think a space wedding would have been cooler-" he broke off as she raised a disbelieving eyebrow at him, quickly tacking onto the end, "but I'd say it was pretty perfect." He pressed his lips to her cheek quickly, hoping to pacify her before she slapped his arm. Really he wasn't lying. In his eyes, they had definitely had a wedding he would remember fondly for the rest of his life.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Let me know what you thought.
And Happy Valentine's Day!
