A/N: So, you're all amazing. Just so you know. Thanks so much for all the reviews! I will definitely be continuing this. As you've probably surmised by the fact that there's a second chapter now. I'm glad you like my crazy idea! :P

I know this chapter's a little on the short side, but no matter how much I tweak it, it doesn't seem to want to get much longer. So, it is what it is. Hope you like it. :)


Castle sighed heavily as he took his usual seat beside her desk the next day. Kate felt her heart rate increase just a little. This was not going to be an easy day to get through.

"What's up?" she asked him, trying to keep her tone light. She was certain he hadn't figured out Alexis's secret. It wasn't something he'd be able to guess, even with his imagination, and if Alexis had told him she doubted he'd even have been here.

"I don't know." She made a quick study of his face and determined that this was his frustrated look. "Something's going on with Alexis and she won't tell me what."

"How do you know?"

"She's my daughter. I know. She was being distant with me this morning, and it didn't look like she'd slept very well."

"It's probably nothing." She got up from her desk and started toward the break room. She hadn't gotten much sleep herself the previous night, and coffee was a surefire way to correct that. Fortunately Castle was caught up in his own concerns and didn't seem to notice.

"It's not nothing," he insisted, following her. "If it's something she feels like she has to keep from me, it must be something important. I don't know why she can't just tell me. She tells me everything."

"She doesn't tell you everything," Beckett reminded him as she filled two coffee cups. "If she did, I wouldn't get to listen to you whine every time she kept something from you."

He pondered this for a moment. "I do that, don't I?"

She nodded and handed him the coffee, smiling. She was doing quite well with the poker face this morning. It might actually work. "And it almost always turns out that you're completely freaked out over nothing. So chill. I'm sure she's fine." She felt a little guilty for even saying that, partly because she'd been a little too convincing. Surely she was the worst friend in the world for even telling him this when she knew the truth. When he did find out, if what Alexis's mother had told her was true, he'd be completely caught off guard.

But she reminded herself that what Meredith had said might not have been true, and in that case there was no reason to upset him. Still, that didn't account for the gnawing feeling in her gut.

"I'm not 'freaked out,'" he insisted, interrupting her thoughts. "That makes me sounds so un-manly."

She quirked an eyebrow at him. Worst friend ever, her mind told her. But she focused on holding her expression in that slightly mocking grin, and she managed it. If there was one thing she was accomplished at, it was not letting her feelings break through the surface.

He rolled his eyes. "Just give me the coffee."


Later that day she managed to leave Castle with Ryan and Esposito, and headed into the morgue with his coffee cup and the cheek swab Alexis had taken before she'd left her apartment the day before.

"Hey," she greeted Lanie when she spotted her. "Can you run paternity on these for me?"

"Ooh, juicy," the M.E. replied, taking the items with a grin. "What's the story?"

She rolled her eyes. Castle really had rubbed off on every single person around here. "No story, just do it."

"What's it, a top secret case or something?"

She shrugged. "Yeah, something like that."

Lanie studied the objects she was now holding. "You got a Q-tip and a coffee cup. Looks like one person knew what you were doing and the other didn't."

Beckett rolled her eyes impatiently. "Just do the test and let me know. And do it soon." She felt her resolve starting to slip a little. She'd had to act all day with Castle, and frankly it was exhausting. She didn't really want to have to pretend in front of Lanie too, but she didn't have a choice. It wasn't her business to tell.

"I'll have it for you before the end of the day," Lanie said, sensing her seriousness and frowning.

"Perfect."

"You okay, honey?"

"Yeah, I'm great." She forced a smile. "Quick as you can, okay?"

Lanie nodded, an annoying amount of concern showing on her face. But she didn't push, and Kate was thankful for that. "You got it," she said.

She let her eyes slide closed for an instant as she left the morgue. Her job had always been real to her. She'd always understood that the victims and their families had their own lives, and everything she did on the job affected them directly. It was a concept she had a very thorough grasp on, maybe more so than any other cop, and one that had an impact on everything she did every single day. But even given this, occasionally she got a case that threw her. One that she connected to on a more personal level, whether it reminded her of her mom's case, her own shooting, or something else in her life.

But none of that, no previous experience that she'd ever had, accounted for the way she felt now. Regardless of what she'd allowed Lanie to believe, this wasn't about a case at all. Looking at it logically, it wasn't about anything that should directly affect her. But the complete and total lack of ease she felt seemed to have other opinions. Case or not, the results of that test would forever impact the lives of two people who she knew personally. Two people who she cared about. And it would impact them in a huge way.

She texted Alexis on the way back up the elevator to Homicide. "Test is running," she typed. "I should have the results later today. Come to my place around 7? We'll get takeout." Whatever the results turned out to be, she really didn't want to share them with Alexis over the phone.

She'd reached her desk by the time she got a text back. "Sounds like a plan, see you tonight," it read.


It was nearing the end of the day and Lanie still hadn't called with the results. She was sitting at her desk trying to at least look like she was focused on the case they were working, but every thirty seconds or so she glanced at her phone, hoping it would light up.

She should've realized this wouldn't go unnoticed. "What's with you and your phone today?" Castle asked.

"Oh, nothing," she said, just a little too quickly. "I'm just… waiting for some information."

"What kind of information?"

"Just… information."

He sighed. "Come on, first Alexis and now you? When did I get so out of the loop?"

"I guess we just like to torture you," she joked, although she suspected that her tone wasn't as light as she'd meant for it to be. Although he hadn't exactly connected her vagueness to Alexis's, he'd come a little closer to doing so than made her comfortable.

"And you're both way too good at it," he murmured.

She was about to attempt some kind of quip back at him, but then her phone finally rang, and the caller I.D. told her that it was Lanie. "Finally," she muttered under her breath before picking it up. "Hey," she answered, "what'd you find?"

"It's negative," the M.E. said.

She let out a steady stream of air but kept her face expressionless. It was true. Meredith had been right. Castle was not Alexis's father. And he had no idea. He was right there, right beside her, watching her get the information that could change his life forever, and yet he had no idea it was about him. No one did. No one but her.

"That coffee cup," Lanie said, "I've seen it before. It looks like one of the ones you guys keep in your break room."

"Really?" she asked, careful to keep her voice even.

"It's Castle's, isn't it?"

Lanie was catching on, but she didn't respond. The M.E. wasn't really involved in this, and she didn't want her to get involved in it. And besides that, she wasn't at all confident that she could make any sort of reply without betraying some sort of emotion to Castle, who she was keenly aware was still watching her closely.

"And he's there with you, so you can't say anything," Lanie surmised.

"Could be."

"Sweetie, I don't know what's going on, but if you want to talk about anything I'm here, okay?"

"Yeah," she said. "Thanks." She hung up.

She must've been visibly shaken, as hard as she was trying not to be, because Castle frowned at her as she slipped her phone into her pocket. "You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she sighed. "I'm fine."

"Who were you talking to?"

"Lanie."

"About the case?"

"No." She stood up and made for the murder board, hoping to focus both herself and Castle on someone else's problems. "Come on," she told him.

"Wait."

Her stomach lurched, but she met his eyes, willing him not to ask. She hated lying to him, but she couldn't tell him now. Not here. And not before she talked to Alexis.

"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked.

She nodded, aware that he knew her too well to believe her, but hoping that he'd understand that he shouldn't ask again.

He didn't look satisfied, but he gave her a small nod and led the way to the murder board.


A/N: Questions? Comments? Critiques? Reactions? Random musings? My review box accepts all of the above. And anything else you want to put in there. :) Preferably story-related.