TWO

Kate Beckett pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand as she and her daughter stepped into the subway car that particularly busy Friday afternoon. God, her head was throbbing. As if being clobbered in the face by a resisting suspect's floundering arms hadn't been bad enough that day, she'd had an unpleasant encounter with the usually well-tempered babysitter, and the strap on her messenger bag had ripped. Because the universe decided that level of suffering wasn't quite enough, she still had Johnny to contend with and, at the rate they were going, they'd be late for their meetup which surely would put him in an even more disagreeable mood than normal.

Perfect.

As a small win that evening, she was able to find two side-by-side seats on the subway and settled herself and Abby into them. Once the car was moving, the young girl reached over and took her mother's hand, petting the back of it as tenderly as she would a fluff-covered kitten. "It's okay, Mommy; next year I can stay by myself."

The pulsating throb behind her eyes distracting her a bit too much, Kate had absolutely no idea as to what her daughter could be referring. "Wha…What are you talking about Abs?"

"I heard that lady say you were short on payment so next year I can stay home by myself."

Oh, perfect—she hadn't been too distracted with putting on her coat and shoes to hear like Kate had hoped; the evening was getting better. Letting out a heavy breath Kate pressed her lips together and prepared herself to answer. Not only was this not the conversation she wanted to have that evening, but the little girl had inadvertently received the wrong impression. Well, mostly the wrong impression.

Short-paying the babysitter by a little over a hundred dollars was absolutely not intentional. She honestly wasn't sure how it had happened since she always paid from the invoice provided, but she must have been distracted (there's a shock) and written the wrong amount on the check. It was an honest mistake that she couldn't fix until the following week owing to the fact that she didn't carry her checkbook with her—nor did she have enough cash on hand to make up the difference.

Really, she thought Mrs. Quinn was being a bit unreasonable. She had never before short paid or even been late with her payments so having such an aggressive reaction to something accidental seemed uncalled for in her opinion, but she also understood; Mrs. Quinn was trying to make ends meet as well.

Unfortunately from the bit of their conversation she overheard, Abby seemed to have picked up the impression that Kate could not afford her childcare, which was not entirely truthful. Yes, the fact that she had to pay for after-school, weekend, and, on rare occasion, even over-night childcare was certainly a strain on her budget, but they had finally climbed out of the paycheck-to-paycheck hole they'd fallen into earlier that year after he father's third stint in rehab. It just so happened that this payment fell at the roughest portion of her month, but Johnny's child support would appear in her bank account on Monday, so they would be fine; everything would be fine.

"Abby." Kate breathed out, reopening her eyes. "You absolutely cannot stay in the apartment by yourself while I'm at work next year."

The little girl shrugged as if her suggestion was the most obvious and helpful in the world. "Sure I can."

The elder woman arched her eyebrow. "Yeah? And how will you get home from school?"

Abby swung her feet as they dangled from her seat and smiled up at her mother. "The subway; I'm good at the subway."

Kate turned her head away so she could roll her eyes without the little girl seeing. Yes, she had thoroughly explained the subway system and their routes to-and-from important landmarks before Abby was even able to speak, but that did not mean the girl was ready for her own card—she didn't even meet the height requirements (yet)! Traveling by herself on the subway at her age would be incredibly unsafe—not to mention illegal. But, naturally, her stubborn little one did not want to believe that, so she simply had to hope Abby forgot about the suggestion by the time the next school year rolled around.

"Look Mommy!"

Kate hummed and looked towards her daughter's extended right index finger as the subway car emptied and filled in its usual hustle-and-bustle fashion, further heightened by the fact that it was a Friday night—and it was raining outside. Much to her surprise, she recognized the man towards whom Abby pointed. Before she could even process his presence, the young girl chirped, "It's the gerbil man!"

Abby immediately stood from her seat, but Kate clawed at the sleeve of her jacket, holding her back. "What are you doing?"

She glanced over at her mother with an isn't-it-obvious expression. "Going to say hi; he's our friend."

"Wha—no. No." They had just had this conversation two days earlier and Kate thought Abby understood. She was, under no circumstances, supposed to leave her mother's side on the subway without express permission. That included going over to say hello to mystery writers who probably didn't even—oh. Oh, he caught her eye and gave her a small wave. Damn.

"Abby." Kate began, speaking directly into her daughter's ear as the car began to move once more. "Mr. Castle is just another man on the subway and you shouldn't-"

"Well, if it isn't my friends Abby and Kate." The writer grinned at them as he gripped onto the handlebar over their head with both hands.

The smile Abby shot Kate over her shoulder could not have more loudly screamed "I told you so" and it caused Kate to immediately fear for the young brunette's teenage years. "Hi! Come sit by us!"

Without even asking for permission, Abby clambered up into Kate's lap, vacating her seat for the writer, who thanked her and sat beside them, tucking his folded hands between his knees. "So how are you ladies this fine evening?"

"Good! How's your gerbil?"

"Hamlet," he emphasized the pet's name, "is a biter, but Alexis seems amused with him."

"Is she your daughter? Is she my age?"

"Abby," Kate said warningly, giving the girl's side a squeeze. She honestly was not sure what Abby's future career path would be—as she was only in kindergarten, it was far too early to decide, plus her interests seemed to shift too rapidly—however, with the number of questions she liked to throw at people, she wouldn't make a half-bad investigator.

The writer flashed Kate a smile that assured her he was fine with the question, and then he looked back to her daughter. "I think she's a little older than you—she just turned twelve."

"I'm six! Almost!"

"Almost!" The writer echoed both the word and enthusiasm level. "When's your birthday?"

"November."

"But it is November! It must be very soon."

Abby craned her neck upwards so she could gaze at her parent. "Mommy?"

"The twentieth." Kate breathed out her answer while silently adding, three days after mine. Not that her birthday mattered much those days—even if it was a milestone one.

"What?!" Castle proclaimed, his excitement growing. "That's in…" He made a dramatic show of counting on his fingers before proclaiming fifteen days! Or just about two weeks."

"Soon!" Abby proclaimed.

He poked her knee. "Very soon. What do you want for your birthday?"

"I asked Mommy for a gerbil!"

The writer grimaced up at Kate and dramatically mouthed the word, "Sorry."

She shrugged her shoulders and patted her daughter's hip. "I told Abby she's still a little too young for pets."

The man nodded. "So what else did you ask for?"

"A magnifying glass."


"Ah…huh." Castle hummed at the mention of the gift request he never would have expected coming from a six-year-old. The way she nodded and smiled made her seem as though she was quite convinced with her gift choice, which led him to believe that there was more to the story, so he gazed up at the lovely mother for an explanation. Thankfully, she gave him one.

"Abby has informed me she wants to be a scientist and scientists need magnifying glasses."

"Ah, yes; right!" He proclaimed turning back to the nodding little girl. "You will make an awesome scientist, I'm sure of it. What field do you want to focus on?"

"Science!"

He couldn't help but laugh. Okay, as advanced as Abby seemed for her age—reminiscent of his own daughter's bursting curiosity in her early years—perhaps the question was a bit over her head, but he went with it. "Well, sure—you can do a little of all the sciences to make it interesting for yourself."

"Right."

Leaning back in his seat, Castle took in the duo who strongly resembled each other both in the shape of their forehead and eyes. The only difference in that area being that the mother's eyes were more honey-brown, but the daughters were decidedly darker. Both, however, were beautiful. Though it was only his second run-in with them, he continually found himself more and more intrigued. Kate wore no wedding ring, which led him to conclude she was a single mother working to make a life for them both. He hoped he would continue to run into them over the next several weeks so that he could learn more about them. If nothing else, he hoped to make Abby smile a few more times, for she was certainly adorable when she smiled.

As the subway car slowed on approach of its next stop, he watched Kate gather up the messenger bag she wore, and the pink-and-purple backpack that had slid to the crook of her daughter's left arm. "Our stop's next, bug; say goodbye to Mr. Castle."

"Please—call me Rick." He interjected.

Abby hopped off her mother's lap and gave him more of a salute than a wave. "Bye Rick!"

"Bye Abby."

As the car's breaks began to squeal, the writer stood along with the female duo, which conveniently enabled the mother to lean closer to him to speak. "Thank you for being so nice to her, but you really don't have to."

He shook off her statement which he found to be absurd. "But I want to; I always love hearing the interesting things little kids have to say." As the car doors opened, he nodded to them and added, "Have a good evening, Kate."

She gave him a rather uncertain expression. "Thanks, ah, you too."


"DADDY!"

Abby squealed the exact moment they stepped out of the elevator and rounded the corner towards the Giannotti apartment, where Johnny loitered in the doorway. He crouched down to pull her into his arms as she ran at him. "Abby, Abby, never-crabby! Good to see you, kiddo. Go on—Nonna's got dinner all ready for you."

Unlike her child, Kate did not share the enthusiasm for the five-foot-ten, dark-haired man now folding his arms over his chest in disgust. In fact, the mere sight of him made her want to vomit, but she bit down the bile for the sake of her daughter. She knew what it was like to be without a parent and—god help her—her child would not suffer the same fate.

"You're late."

"Yeah, well; it's raining. We got here as fast as we could." Her tone was exhausted as she handed over the messenger bag that contained enough of Abby's belongings to last the weekend. Johnny took the bag and tossed it carelessly into the apartment hallway.

"Ma's had dinner ready for over half an hour."

She shrugged. "Sorry."

With whip-quick reflexes, Johnny's left hand snapped towards her and closed agonizingly tight around her right bicep. Kate went immediately ridged, as though she were a misbehaving puppy snatched by the scruff of her neck. "I would think," Johnny began, his voice as nasty as ever, "you wouldn't want your little girl to be hungry longer than she had to be."

"Sh-she didn't say anything to me." Kate replied, sucking in a fresh gulp of oxygen in hopes of keeping herself upright while anxiety and terror coursed through her.

Johnny's right hand clamped down on her left bicep and he drew close enough to her that she could feel his spittle on her nose as he spoke. "'cause she's too polite. She doesn't want to upset her mother." The nails of his thumb and index finger dug deeper into her flesh, enough to draw blood were she not wearing a coat. "Don't do it again."

He shoved her aside as carelessly as one would toss a used napkin, turned, and shut the apartment door behind him without another word. Kate stumbled back towards the elevator, using her right hand against the wall for support, but she did not breathe again until she was inside the car descending back to the lobby.

Seeing him never got easier, even if it was only four times a month—less if she was lucky enough to have Mrs. Giannotti return Abby to her. Kate hated Johnny both for the way he acted towards her and for the way he made her feel—helpless. She hated feeling helpless ever since the night over a decade earlier when she'd learned she'd never see her mother alive again.

Johnny was, without question, one of the worst men she'd ever met. He proved that with the first strike of his hand, and reaffirmed with every backhand, harsh grab, and vile word thereafter. He also was Abby's father, and the little girl was fortunate to be the apple of her father's eye—not to mention adored by her only living grandmother. Kate wouldn't take that from her daughter even if each interaction rattled her for days after. Not until she was eighteen, anyway; then, Abby could make her own decisions about her father. Until then, Kate would do as the courts demanded, even if it did make her feel like the worst mother on the planet.


A/N: Words really do not begin to express my gratitude for the positive outpouring I received from the first chapter of this story. It's so nice to hear how many people still enjoy and appreciate Castle fanfic, even a year after the show has been off the air. As i said, I haven't made a final decision yet, but I very much appreciate your support and kind words and I hope you all continue to enjoy this fic.