A/N: You guys are amazing! I am so completely overwhelmed with the amount of reviews and alerts and just the sheer support that you guys flooded my inbox with in the past 24 hours. Seriously, I have no words to thank you all. It means so much to me, you have no idea.

This idea was born out of playing the Harry Potter game on Wii last night and thinking that I needed to write something again. I honestly did not expect this.

Really, thank you so much.

Disclaimer: Castle is not mine.


Through The Looking Glass


Chapter 2

"My birthday party was here last year."

Kate heard the young girl's sigh and turned to her with a smile. She wasn't sure what it was about this kid, but there was just something about Alexis that seemed to draw her in. She wasn't usually a kids person, not having a whole lot of experience with them since she had been one herself. Being an only daughter with parents that had no siblings had that effect on you. That and all the kids she knew back then were obviously all grown up and probably with kids of their own.

Not that she would know. She hadn't seen anyone from her past life in five years. Not since that dreadful winter.

"Yeah? How was it?" She scooped another spoonful of ice cream, chancing a glance at the girl's father.

Richard Castle. Her favorite author. What were the odds of this moment right here ever happening again, she thought to herself.

"It was amazing. Dad dressed up as the Mad Hatter. It was so funny." Alexis giggled and Kate lifted an eyebrow in his direction.

"Is that so?" She teased him and he shrugged nonchalantly, even though she could see him blushing slightly.

"The things you do for the kids…" He sighed dramatically and Alexis rolled her eyes with a laugh.

"You enjoyed it, Daddy. Don't lie. I know you did." She threw a napkin playfully at him. He caught it and threw it back, making her laugh.

"I might have." He shrugged again and winked at Kate, making her chuckle.

"I had an Alice in Wonderland birthday party too, you know." She told Alexis conspiratorially.

"Really?" The redhead leaned forward on the table eagerly and Kate nodded.

"I think it was my eighth birthday. I dressed as Alice and my Dad gave me a white bunny as a birthday present."

She sighed at the memory. If she closed her eyes, she could still smell the cake her mother baked especially for her and hear her friends singing happy birthday to her. She knew there was a picture of her somewhere dressed in a blue dress, just like Alice.

"A real, live bunny?" Alexis asked, surprised.

"A real, live bunny. His name was Bert. I loved him so much." She smiled at the girl and turned to her father, only to find him watching her intently.

"That's so cool." The redhead marveled and Kate nodded, biting her lip. Rick looked at her so interestedly, like he was trying to figure her out. It unsettled her and made her feel appreciated at the same time.

This family gave her a lot of weird, contradictory feelings.

"Are you still close with your folks?" He asked, curiosity clear in his voice, and her heart froze for a second. She tried to school her features quickly, but he must have seen something because he started to reach for her hand and stopped halfway, unsure. "Kate?"

She swallowed hard, willed her heart rate to return to normal and for her voice to come out strong and even.

"Actually, no." She took a deep breath. It had been a while since she had last talked about this. She tended to forget how much it always hurt to remember. "My parents died a few years ago. It's just me now. And my grandma, but she lives in a cabin upstate."

This time he did reach for her hand, gave it a comforting squeeze. He looked so stricken, so guilty for having asked her.

"Kate, I'm so sorry. I-" He started, but she shook her head, squeezed his hand back and let it go.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't know." She offered a small smile, but she knew she still looked sad. She was usually so good at hiding her emotions, but this time it seemed like the switch had been turned off. "It was a long time ago."

"Do you miss them?" She heard Alexis ask quietly, and turned to her a little startled. For a moment, she had forgotten about her presence.

"Every single day." She nodded and reached out to tuck a loose strand of the girl's hair behind her ear. Her blue eyes looked so sad for her that Kate didn't know what to do with herself.

"I miss having a mom too. A real mom." She whispered mostly to herself and Kate turned back to Rick, eyebrows raised in question.

"Story for another day." He said quietly and Kate nodded, understandingly.

"You don't have to be by yourself, you know." Alexis commented, taking a sip of her chocolate milkshake. "You said it's just you now?" She added when Kate looked at her confused. "Well, it's just me and Dad. We can keep each other company." The girl gave her a small smile, suddenly shy and Kate felt her heart warm with her kindness.

"Oh, honey, that's really sweet of you. I appreciate it, but I'm okay. Really." She replied, touched by her gesture.

"Well, still."

Alexis shrugged and Kate really smiled now, chancing a glance at Rick. He was watching their conversation carefully and hadn't interrupted at all. She cocked her head to the side and really looked at him. He looked… grateful, it seemed. But she had no idea why.

She still couldn't even believe this day was really happening.

"You still haven't told me who your favorite character is, Kate." Alexis blurted out after a moment of silence, effectively breaking the tension.

Kate laughed quietly, grateful for the ice breaker, and engaged in an animated discussion with her new young friend. They talked for another half an hour, Rick pitching in every now and then about his favorite characters and his reasons for favoring them. Kate felt at ease with this little family; something she hadn't felt in a really long time now. It was baffling to her that two strangers – one of them a little kid – would be the ones who would give her this sense of comfort again, when she had thought she would never feel this way with anyone again.

Of course, it could be all in her head because she was having lunch with her favorite author and his adorable little girl and everything about this day felt surreal. When it was time to pay the check, she insisted on paying her share, but Rick would have none of it, claiming she could buy them lunch next time and they would be even. Her heart fluttered excitedly at that, but she couldn't allow herself to get her hopes up. He was probably just saying that to be nice. She was sure that the odds of her meeting them again were minimal and she should just chalk this encounter up to pure happenstance. And luck. Sheer, dumb luck.

"The offer still stands, by the way." He stopped her with a hand on her arm when they exited the restaurant a few minutes later. She turned to look back at him confused. "You don't have to be by yourself, like she said." He nodded at his daughter, who seemed lost in thought with her newly acquired stuffed white bunny.

"You don't have to do that, you know." She smiled, shaking her head, and he shrugged, gazing at her with a boyish look.

"Well, if you don't want to do it for you, do it for us, then. We could use some company." He quipped and she chuckled, biting her lip in thought for a moment. "And I, uh… I kind of want to see you again, so I'm using that as my excuse." He added with a grin.

"I'll think about it." She offered, trying to decide the wisdom of even considering going out with Richard Castle.

"That's progress." He grinned happily and fished his phone out of his jacket pocket. "Can I have your number?" He asked hopefully and handed her the device.

She narrowed her eyes at him playfully and programmed her number into his contacts list before giving it back to him. He quickly shot her a text and she heard her phone chirp in her pocket.

"There, now you have my number too." He winked at her and she rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Don't hesitate to use it."

"Guess that goes both ways." She told him and called out for a taxi that was passing by. "It was great meeting you guys."

"You too, Kate." He shook the hand she offered and brought it to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to her skin.

"Yeah, it was really great meeting you, Kate." Alexis chimed in with a happy smile. Kate nodded and waved as she got into the car. "Did you just ask her out?" The girl asked her dad suddenly and both adults looked at her surprised. Kate watched, amused, as he opened and closed his mouth a couple of times before nodding. "Daaaad, I'm right here!"

Kate gave the driver her address and laughed quietly to herself as the taxi drove away. Had that really just happened?


The next two days passed in a blur for Kate. She had dedicated her Sunday to clean her apartment and it had taken much longer than she expected, given how long it'd been since she had last gone on a cleaning spree. With that out of the way, she had to admit that the highlight of her day had been the text that Rick had sent her on Sunday night, asking how her day had been. She still didn't understand what exactly had happened – was happening? – between herself and this guy, who seemed to have suddenly parachuted into her life with his kid.

They texted back and forth for a little while about nothing important and he made her laugh several times with his ridiculous ideas. It was a little overwhelming to be texting a guy she never even thought she would ever meet personally, let alone have his phone number. Who would have thought that deciding on a whim to go check if her favorite bookstore still had the latest Harry Potter book would result in something like this.

The following day had been an insanely boring paperwork day and she was glad to be on patrol duty on Tuesday morning. It wasn't the most exciting of jobs, but at least she wasn't chained to a desk filling out endless forms about petty crimes. That morning she had been paired up with a rookie called Kevin Ryan. It was his first day and Kate was supposed to show him the ropes of patrol duty. Before starting out, they decided to stop for a cup of coffee. Ryan - so eager to please her - volunteered to go buy their first caffeine shot of the morning and she was waiting for him in the car when she heard a loud crash nearby.

Getting out of her unit quickly, she zipped up her NYPD jacket to protect her against the chill of the late winter and soon found out what had happened. A black sedan and an SUV had crashed in the intersection. With a sigh, she reported it in and called 911 for an ambulance. Both cars looked pretty banged up, so someone would probably need medical attention. She saw Ryan coming out of the coffee shop and signaled to him that she was going over to the crash site.

She headed to the Sedan first to check on the passengers and a gasp escaped her lips when she recognized Richard Castle and his daughter inside.


A/N: Thoughts?