A/N: THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for the reviews and the story alerts and the favorite stories and the favorite authors! seriously, that stuff makes my day!
since there's been a tiny bit of confusion, just thought i'd clarify -- Beckett meant visiting the cemetery where her mom is. i know some people talk about it like it's visiting the actual person, and figured she'd be one of them.
another disclaimer: all definitions courtesy of . some of them turn out to be very, very appropriate for their respective chapters. :D
yet another disclaimer: this story, up until about halfway through chapter four, has been finished for ages. so i swear up and down that any similarities to any other stories are PURELY COINCIDENTAL. (seriously, it's eerie. someone used the phrase "sinfully handsome" in a story? yeah, "sinfully" rears its head in a later chapter.)
i'll shut up now. :X
Chapter 2 – Twinkle Lights
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Twinkle (n) – the stars in someone's eyes that represent mischievousness, hatred, or love.
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Later that afternoon, Rick had scarcely closed the door to his apartment before he heard Alexis's footsteps on the stairs.
"So?" she asked as she appeared on the landing, "Are we going skating?"
Rick sighed dramatically as he took off his coat. "Yeah, we're going skating."
"Yay!" she exclaimed, jumping down the last few stairs and giving her dad a hug. "What convinced you?"
"You," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders, "have a very good friend at the precinct."
"What do you mean?"
"Detective Beckett plead your case for you."
Alexis grinned. "Ah, yes. I guess a detective would know how to present a better argument."
Rick laughed and turned to hang up his scarf. "Would you mind if she comes with us?"
She raised an eyebrow and gave him a knowing look. "You invited her already, didn't you?"
"Yep," he answered, heading towards the kitchen.
She followed. "Then why ask me if it's okay?"
He shrugged and opened the fridge. "It'd be rude not to?"
"Yeah, well, luckily for you, I approve of this one."
Rick poked his head out of the fridge to look at his daughter. "Oh, you approve, do you?" he asked sarcastically.
"Yes, I do," Alexis answered, looking at him pointedly, "just like you approve of Owen."
He sighed and re-immersed himself in the fridge. "Point taken."
"Speaking of, can he come with us too?"
"Who?"
"Owen."
"Nope."
She looked at him incredulously as he emerged from the fridge holding a grapefruit. "Why not?! You're bringing a date, why can't I?"
"Because Kate isn't my date, she's my friend."
Alexis rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you just keep telling yourself that."
"I will until it isn't true."
"Oh come on dad, can you honestly tell me that you ever thought of her as just a friend?"
Rick had already opened his mouth to answer before he realized he didn't know what he was going to say. He would readily admit to himself that he'd been attracted to Kate from the moment they met, and that that attraction had steadily grown over the last few months … but did he really want to admit that to his daughter?
Thankfully, he was spared the potentially treacherous task of talking about his romantic interest to his offspring by his mother.
"Hey!" Martha called, entering the kitchen and brandishing a finger in Rick's direction. "Put that down, I'm making dinner!"
"That's exactly why I was planning on eating it," he said with a smile. Martha rolled her eyes. "We're meeting Kate at Rockefeller Center at seven, so if dinner could be ready by 6:15, that would be great."
She raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything, just smiled and nodded.
"Well," he said, putting the grapefruit back in the fridge and ruffling Alexis's hair, "at least one of you knows when to leave well enough alone!"
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"Where is she?" Alexis asked, standing on tiptoe to try and see through the massive crowd filling the square.
"I don't know," Rick said, squinting through the flurrying snow and craning his neck around the man in front of him. "I told her to meet us at this corner. It's not like her to be late."
"She wasn't," came a voice from behind him.
He spun around to see Kate standing in front of him, looking both nervous and amused. He felt his breath catch in his chest, and thought that this site was one that he wanted to burn into his memory. Though she had a skate bag slung over one shoulder, she seemed oddly weightless, carefree, without the burden of work. She was wearing a black peacoat, form-fitting jeans, and slouchy black boots – flats, he noticed, rather than her usual heels. Around her neck was a green scarf he'd never seen before that perfectly complimented her eyes, which were currently reflecting thousands of twinkling Christmas lights. Her cheeks were flushed pink from the cold and her hair was slightly windswept. Snowflakes sparkled in her hair and eyelashes, and lightly dusted her shoulders. Rick thought he could stand there just looking at her forever, and it would be enough.
"Hey," he said, slightly breathlessly.
Alexis peeked her head around his arm. "Kate, hi!" She tried to step around her father but was rebuffed by a gaggle of tourists.
Kate grinned. "Hey Alexis." She placed a hand on Rick's arm and nodded towards her left. "Come on, the end of the line's over here."
Rick, being the good father that he was (or that he liked to believe he was), steered Alexis in front of him and followed Kate as she wove through the crowd, still at a loss for words. He knew that seeing Kate entirely away from the work environment would be different, but … crap. This was bad. Really, really bad. Bad in the best possible way, sure, but worse than he'd even imagined. The inherent magic of Christmastime probably played a part, but at the end of the day, what do snow and colored lights really mean? He could look at any woman in the same setting and appreciate the festiveness, but not become completely week-kneed and speechless. No, his sappy feelings were at least 90% caused by the woman who was currently leading him and his daughter through the crowd.
He took a deep breath. Control yourself, he thought. Let's not scare her away.
They stopped walking as they reached the end of the line. "Well," Rick said, peering towards the ice, "it doesn't look like we're too far back, it shouldn't take too long."
"Hate to burst your bubble," Kate said, extricating her arm with difficulty and pointing a gloved hand, "but it loops twice and merges after the stairs."
He made a face. "Awesome."
"Hey, I thought you wanted to spend that extra hour with me!" she said, poking his arm with a good-natured twinkle in her eye.
"Yeah. Skating. Not standing in line."
"Well, take it from me, who has to deal with you on a regular basis … patience is a virtue."
"I seem to be missing that gene."
Alexis laughed. "I think it skipped a generation."
Kate grinned. "So you don't mind if I tell him how annoying he is in front of you?"
"Are you kidding? Of course not! I think I know better than anybody!"
"Hey hey hey," Rick broke in. "Is this what I signed up for? A night of you two tag-teaming me?"
"Yep," they answered together.
"Awesome," he said again, sighing sarcastically.
"Oh come on, dad, you know you'd rather spar with us than with Gina."
He cringed. "Let's not even go there."
"Hm," Kate said, "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting ex-wife number two yet."
He looked at her seriously. "And you're so much better off."
"That bad, huh?"
"Does the phrase 'has no soul' mean anything to you?"
Kate chuckled and shifted her bag on her shoulder.
Rick noticed, and wanted to hit himself. "Here, let me hold that."
Alexis looked away, grinning.
"Oh, no, it's fine, I've got it," Kate said.
"Nope." He held out a hand. "Give it here."
She looked at him suspiciously for a moment, then handed him her bag. "Look at you, being all gentlemanly," she said as he swung it over his shoulder.
"I have my moments."
"You should try and have them more often, this is nice!"
He laughed. "I'm actually surprised you have skates. Do you use them much?"
"Not really," she replied. "My friend got them for me as sort of a gag."
"How are ice skates a gag gift?"
She chuckled. "Oh, you'll see."
His response was cut off by Alexis. "Owen, hi!"
Rick raised his eyebrows. "Owen?" He turned around to see Alexis hugging her boyfriend, who looked windswept and slightly red-faced. Rick tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to face him, and he leaned in to whisper in her ear. "I told you you couldn't bring him."
She pulled back enough to be able to look at him. "I didn't. He met me here. And it's rude to leave him hanging, right?" He looked at her, torn between being angry and nervous and the slightest bit grateful. She lowered her voice. "Trust me, I'm doing you a favor."
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Fine. Go, have fun, be careful."
"You know I will."
"Yeah, but I'm your dad, I have to say it."
She stepped back and smiled brightly. "Owen has a spot farther up on line, so I'll be up there. Call me when you're ready to leave!" With a wave, she and Owen disappeared into the crowd.
Rick watched her go, emotions warring for dominance. On one hand, he'd just watched his little girl walk away with a boy. But on the other hand, he'd finally achieved something he'd been hoping for for months; alone time with Kate Beckett, where the main focus of conversation was not murder, or anything else equally as serious.
"She's got a good head on her shoulders," Kate said, "She'll be fine."
He smiled slightly and turned back to face her. "I know. I'm more worried that now you're going to skip out on me."
She rolled her eyes and grinned. "I wasn't planning on it."
He shot her a surprised look.
She shrugged. "What can I say? I'm feeling festive."
He smiled, and said a silent 'thank you' to the giant Christmas tree standing above them.
A/N: i love that Castle's a writer, so i can write his thoughts all romantically and have it not be weird, because writers are naturally more descriptive. *happy sigh*
