CH2
Martha had thanked them both for lunch just before she went up to her room.
"Want to watch a movie with me?" Alexis asked Kate.
"Sure you select one while I go wash lunch off my hands and I'll be right back." Kate headed for the master bedroom on suite. The entire room had Castle written all over it. As she passed by the bed Kate suddenly felt she was going to be lonely sleeping in that big bed without Castle being in it.
Kate had never been clingy before and had never really wanted the men she had slept with to spend the night and wake up next to them the next day. Now all she wanted was Castle next to her.
Kate started to blush when she suddenly found herself hoping that the bed smelled like Castle. She wanted him close and was going to miss him the entire week he was going to be gone.
After washing Kate strode back thru the bedroom and out into the living room finding Alexis sitting on the sofa waiting for her.
Kate sat down near Alexis just not directly next to her. "So what are we watching?" Wondering what Alexis was thinking.
"Is Forbidden Planet ok?" Alexis asks softly not sure what kind of movies Kate likes.
Kate suddenly perked up. "I LOVE that movie!" Kate was suddenly glad she had said yes.
Alexis started grinning. "It's one of my dads and I's favorites. We've watched it countless times." Alexis was glad her choice met with Kate's approval.
"Oh really?" Kate was going to kill Castle when he got back. She had taken him to see the movie thinking he had never seen it before. Now she is finding out he knew all about the movie all along.
Then Kate was grinning, remembering how much fun her and Castle had, had watching the movie. Eating popcorn and letting Castle eat all that sugar candy he had bought.
"Is there popcorn?" Kate suddenly asks remembering when her and Castle had watched it together.
"Yup I can make some." And Alexis hopped up and squeezed out some oil into the popper, then turning it on to heat it up. Then pouring in the popcorn and popcorn salt out of the packaged popcorn pre-measured packet.
"You want some kettle corn, cajun or cheese topping? Or maybe some extra melted butter?" Alexis calls from the kitchen.
"Extra butter would be great thanks." Kate calls back.
Alexis has poured on the extra butter. "Soda or water?" Alexis calls from the kitchen again.
"Soda would be great." Kate started to feel guilty that Alexis was doing all the work.
Alexis was soon back with a large bowl of popcorn and two 12oz cans of soda's with cooling sleeves to help keep it cold.
Kate scooted over to sit right next to Alexis shoulder to shoulder to help share the bowl of popcorn.
"The United Planets Cruiser C57-D travels to the planet Altair IV, 16 light-years from Earth." Kate comments just as the UFO looking space ship approaches the planet.
"And here comes Robby the Robot." Alexis comments.
"Who do you like more Robby the Robot or Robot from Lost in Space?" Kate suddenly asks Alexis.
"You mean the first one? Class M-3 Model B9, General Utility Non-Theorizing Environmental Control Robot? Or the second one?" Alexis asks.
Kate was suddenly impressed. Even she didn't know it beyond it being called robot. "The first one is the only one." Kate was not impressed with the second one.
"I'll take Robby the Robot any day." Alexis answers.
Alexis suddenly starts flapping her arms. "Danger Will Robinson. …. Seriously?" Alexis was not impressed.
Kate starts laughing and pops some popcorn in her mouth.
"What was the name of the ship they came here on?" Alexis suddenly asks.
"That's easy, the Bellerophon." Kate tells her.
"What did Robby make using up all the crewman had left?" Kate suddenly asks.
"60 gallons of Kentucky Bourbon that doesn't leave you with a hangover." Alexis answers thinking that was an easy question.
"How long ago did the Krell die off?" Alexis asks.
"Easy, 200,000 years." Kate answers, having fun watching the movie and sharing trivia questions with Alexis.
The movie was over, the popcorn was all gone and Kate and Alexis were still sitting next to each other.
"Thanks Kate that was fun." Alexis tells her meaning it.
"Yes it was. Try this again tomorrow provided I don't catch a case?" Kate offers.
"Sure, you can pick next time." Alexis starts to clean up.
"No, no. You made it you can let me clean up. Battlestar Gallactica next time?" Kate offers.
"The old one or the new one?" Alexis asks knowing which one she likes.
"The first one of course. Human robots? Seriously?" Kate was not impressed, even if the first one was a little too cheap Hollywood.
"Deal!" Alexis approved of Kate's taste in movies. "Help me with my homework?" Alexis wonders if Kate was still interested.
"Of course, let me clean up and use the bathroom and I'll be right up." Kate had every intention of helping her. Today, tomorrow and every day she was here.
Alexis smiled happy Kate was interested in her and left Kate to clean up and went upstairs to get her homework out.
It only took Kate a few minutes to clean up and she was upstairs knocking on the door frame looking in.
Kate liked it. It was bigger than any of the rooms she had when growing up and it wasn't a pretty pink or bright purple. It was actually a little understated in color. It seemed to fit Alexis's personality quite nicely. The bed looked to be queen size, lots of floor space, a reading desk with a laptop sitting on it.
There was one of those old fashioned bean bags on one wall, and even the walls had pictures. And just like Alexis they were not of some punk rock group like Kate had on her walls when she was about this age.
Alexis was definitely NOT a rebellious teenager type.
"So what's first?" Kate asks, curious how this was going to work.
"Here is the class book." And Alexis hands over a big fat class book.
"This is a medical text book." Kate is shocked.
Yea, Dr. Parrish gave it to me. She accepted me as a training apprentice starting Monday. She gave me that last week so I could study up on what to expect so I could help her." Alexis explains.
"You're going to be at the 12th starting Monday?" Kate wasn't sure what she thought about this.
"My motto is to try and expand and challenge myself. Dr. Parrish is willing to help me decide if medical is what I want to do." Alexis explains.
"Does your father know you are going to be working with Lanie?" Kate figures Castle was going to lose his mind if he didn't know. And if he didn't Kate was going to help Alexis even more than she was already willing to. Just to see Castle's face.
"No, you're not going to tell him are you?" Alexis fears if her dad knew he would stop her.
"And miss watching Castle lose his mind? Not a chance." Kate was grinning while chuckling at the same time.
Alexis was glad she was safe. She was counting on once she was in her father couldn't throw her out and send her home.
"Just pick a section and start asking me questions based on what you find to read to me, and hopefully I know the answer." Alexis tells her.
Kate and Alexis did that for the next three hours only stopping to go down to the kitchen for some water.
Alexis had, had enough and was willing to stop for the day. "Thanks Kate, you've been a big help."
"I'm glad to have helped Alexis. It'll be nice to have another Castle to talk to during the day. … You sure you want to work with dead bodies?" Kate was a little worried about her, especially if she went out to crime scenes with Lanie.
"Dr. Parrish has already been helping me with that, it's just really cool." Alexis didn't see a problem.
"Well I'm going to go start dinner." Kate tells her getting up to leave.
"We can order in, you don't have to cook." Alexis was used to ordering take-out when her father was gone, since grams cooking was got good.
"It's not a problem Alexis, I know how to cook. My mother taught me, I just don't have an excuse to cook very often. With Castle being gone I have an excuse, so you are going to get a meal ala Kate Beckett. … Although to be honest it's going to be my mother's recipe." Kate had to give her mother credit.
"You want some help?" Alexis helps her dad so she can help Kate.
"Sure, my mom taught me so I can teach you." Kate was willing to pass on her mothers recipe. It meant something of her mother would last into the next generation.
Alexis had an instant smile. Kate may be willing to do it for her mother, however Alexis heard Kate kinda refer to her as her daughter.
Alexis had a mother but she was one weird lady who only seemed to want to make things worse. Alexis wanted to like her since she was her mother, but was always sad when she did show up. And she was tired of trying to make nice with her.
Alexis liked Kate and was learning to like her more, just not as a mother. Yet.
Kate and Alexis were in the kitchen when Martha came down and found them working together.
"You two are cooking?" Martha was a little shocked, she was expecting to come downstairs and ask what they were ordering in.
"Kate knows how to cook grams." Alexis had been impressed so far and was sucking up everything Kate was telling her like a sponge.
"It's no big deal Martha, it's actually kinda fun cooking what my mother taught me." Kate really was enjoying herself.
"Richard told us your mother is gone, but not much more. Did she die in an accident?" Martha knew a little more than that actually, she was just testing to see how much Kate was willing to share now.
Kate shook her head. "She was murdered in an alley somewhere. I was 19 and home from college for a little while. Dad and I were waiting for her at a restaurant that we had agreed to meet her at, only she never showed after two hours.
When we got home there was a detective waiting for us, a detective Raglan. They had found her stabbed in an alley not overly far from where we were waiting for her." Alexis didn't really like reliving it, but they were Castle's family and she was falling in love with Castle, big time.
"Mugging?" Martha guesses. New York can be a dangerous city for anyone.
Kate shakes her head. "No, she still had her purse, money, credit cards and jewelry. They never found anyone and wrote it off as a random gang killing. Wrong place at the wrong time." Kate tells them.
Martha got up off the breakfast bar stool and walked around to hug Katherine. "I'm so sorry Katherine." Martha lets go of her. "I know it is a weak word to be using. Maybe Richard knows of a better one, but no one should lose their mother. … Were you two close?" Meaning better than Meredith who Martha disliked.
"We were very close, she was my best friend. We talked about everything." Kate stopped when Alexis suddenly hugged her.
Alexis didn't have a mother either. At least not one that was her best friend. Alexis's best friend was her dad, whom she told everything. Still he wasn't a mother no matter how much she loved him.
Kate didn't know what the jug was for but decided to hug Alexis back. Amazingly she felt some of the pain of the memory fade away. Was this what you gained when you had a family to support you? Kate hadn't had a family to help her in years.
Problem was it was causing something else too, something that Kate called weakness and her tears were starting.
Kate let go of Alexis and ran for the master bedroom closing the door as she went.
"Grams?" Alexis stood there confused. She thought they were making progress.
"You just stay here dear and keep the food warm, let me handle this." Martha tells Alexis and heads for the master bedroom.
Martha knocks but doesn't wait for a reply and opens the door. Inside she finds Kate sitting on the bed up against the headboard with her knees against her chest and her arms wrapped around them holding them tight, and crying.
Martha closes the door in case Alexis didn't listen and walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge. "What is it Katherine?" Martha just wanted to help.
Kate however shakes her head. "Go away Martha." Kate was going to handle this on her own, like she always had.
"No dear, not this time. Losing your mother was painful and I can understand that. I may not know what it feels like, but I understand it. But hiding from the pain isn't going to make it go away.
Talk to me Katherine. I may not be your mother but I am Richards's mother. I bet I can help if you will let me." Kate was hurting Martha could see that much, just not why so much still after all this time.
"It's, … complicated Martha." Kate would handle it alone, hopefully without hurting Martha's feelings in the process.
"No dear, it's not. It's only complicated if you let it be that way. You're hurting, but I'm a mother. Tell me what's wrong dear, or dinner and my wine are going to be very late." Martha wasn't leaving until she got answers and had helped Kate heal the pain.
Kate took a big breath and decided that if she loved Castle, Martha deserved to know. Besides if her and Castle stayed together she would have to explain eventually. "I was 19 and mom was dead, and all these people were in our home. Most I had never even heard of before, telling me and my dad how sorry they were.
I withdrew from the world and dad started drinking. I'd come home and find him passed out on the floor, sometimes in his own pool of vomit. …. I'd lift him up and get him into bed and clean up the mess and dump all the alcohol I could find down the drain.
But he would just find more somehow. I even had to take him to the hospital a couple of times since I couldn't get him to wake up. Only to be told later that he had almost died and that his heart had actually stopped a couple of times.
It never seemed to stop. And all those nameless people at the funeral weren't there to help me.
I quit Stanford and stopped trying to become a lawyer, just like my parents. I was going to become a Supreme Court Justice. But all that was gone.
I went to the police academy to learn to be a detective. I was going to find out who killed my mother even if no one else was.
I learned to do everything for myself without anyone's help." Kate wiped away a few tears that had never actually stopped. Still not sure why she was baring her soul to Martha. Castle knew most of this, maybe not everything. Even now Kate hadn't laid out an entire picture of the last 15 or so years.
Now Martha understood. No family to support her, no one tell help her. Katherine was the parent starting at 19 years old.
"Oh Katherine." Martha moved across the bed to wrap her arms around her. Martha couldn't undo the past, she could only be there for Kate now. Martha started rubbing circles on Kate's back and cooing in her ear.
It was all just too much for Kate, she had never had anyone to mother her for so long. She wrapped her arms around Martha and just started crying. Kate had 15 or so years of crying on a mothers shoulder to get out of her system.
Martha never moved an inch except to hold onto Katherine and not let go, occasionally wiping away some of her own tears. Families were there to support you when you needed it. Kate had lost hers years ago and Martha was going to give her one. Or at least some motherly love and advice when Martha thought she needed it or when Kate came to her.
After Kate started to calm down. "You're with us now dear." Martha pulled back but didn't let go of Kate so she could look at her. "We, Alexis, Richard and I are here to help you dear. Families don't judge, we just help each other.
Let us help you dear. There is no need to run off and try to handle things alone. Not this or anything else that may come up in the future. You have us now. You can come to us, don't shut us out dear." Martha looks deep into Kate's eyes to see if she is getting through to her.
Kate sniffles and wipes away a few tears with the back of her hand, like a child would do. "Why Martha? We're not family." Kate's was pretty much busted and her and Castle weren't that close. At least not yet. Which was something else for Kate to think about. Did they have a future together? Did Castle want to have one?
"Katherine, that's easy, you're a detective. My son loves you and I've never seen him this happy his entire life. You've brought out a side of him that has been hidden for a long time. And I'm pretty sure you feel the same way, or you wouldn't have been spending that last few weeks, … or months with us.
Tell me I'm wrong dear,." Martha challenges Kate. Let's see if Kate can admit it to herself.
Kate starts blushing and wipes away more tears with her fingers this time, smiles and nods her head, then shakes it since Martha was right.
"Good! … Now let's get up and get you into the bathroom so you can wash away those tears and meet us in the dining room. I for one am hungry and I'm dying to find out how good a cook you are since your mother taught you. … Let's see what you have learned, shall we." Martha gets up and holds out her hands to help Katherine up.
Kate takes her hands and climbs out of bed and lets Martha push her towards the on-suite bathroom while Martha heads for the kitchen, satisfied that her motherly duties are over and accomplished the desired result.
Kate may not have a mother, but Martha was going to do what she could. Katherine was good for her son and she wanted it to stay that way.