Disclaimer: Well I'm not seeing any secret lair on by bedroom and I'm not receiving any check in the mail, so nope. I don't own Castle.
A/N: All mistakes, typos and weird sentences are mine, only mine and exclusively mine and I'm truly sorry for them.
Kate got to the lobby of the loft and immediately sensed that something was wrong. She looked around trying to figure out what was it.
She heard the elevator ding and saw Castle looking around with a desperate face. He got out and started looking around with such concentration that he didn't even saw her.
Wait. If Castle was here, where was Nathan?
"Castle!" she called out. His face turned to look at her, and she could see it. The panic in his eyes.
Oh, god. No. No, no, no. This wasn't happening right now.
Kate felt something inside of her twist. She felt sick.
Where the hell was her little boy?!
"Castle..." this time her voice wasn't so strong. She was afraid.
Castle sensed her fear and walked towards her, hugging her tight against him.
"It's okay. Everything is gonna be alright."
She pushed him away and looked him in the eye.
"What happened?" she asked, almost afraid of the answer.
"I went to the kitchen to prepare him a snack and when I turned around the front door was open and I couldn't find him." Kate got a sinking feeling of panic down in her stomach. She just had to breath and calm down. She would find him. They would find him and it was going to be alright.
"We're wasting time! You take the top floors and I'll see down here, the pool and the gym. Go!" she was using her cop voice now. The authority and barely contained panic appearing.
Castle nodded and took the elevator up. Kate took a deep breath to calm herself and keep the tears from spilling. She had to hold on and find her son. She wouldn't lose him.
The doorman was behind his desk with all the security camera's monitors, looking at her with a worried look.
"Mars. Have you seen Nathan?"
"Yes m'am. I saw him for a minute. He was in the elevator. He didn't got out. He just pressed all the buttons and got out in one of the floors."
"You saw in which floor he got out?"
"No m'am. I didn't."
"Thank you Mars." she turned on her heels and started towards the elevator. Before she pressed the button she got an idea and turned around again. "Mars. If you see my son in the vigilance cameras, please call me." the elevator dinged announcing its arrival and Kate got in.
"Yes, m'am."
They had been looking for half a hour, now. Thirty minutes that felt like eternity without knowing where their son was. Being a cop and a writer the worst case scenarios were running wild trough Castle and Kate's minds.
They met on their floor, after finishing looking trough the entire building. Kate was on tears and Castle was an inch away of having a panic attack.
"Really?! Wow. And you fought the dragons all by yourself?" they heard from near their door. The voice was foreign. Neither of them knew who that voice belonged to.
"Yes. With daddy's sword." But that voice they both knew by heart. It was Nathan's voice. They both rushed to the place where the voices came from.
"You're really brave. I'm impressed. You're like a knight in a shiny armor."
They heard Nathan giggling.
Castle and Beckett stopped to absorb the sight. A girl was sitting on the floor with their son and seemed totally caught up with the story that Nathan was telling her.
The girl looked up and saw them, then she looked at Nathan and smiled.
"Hey Nathan, look who I found." she said pointing at them.
Nathan turned his little head and saw both his parents standing there with very upset faces. He got to his feet and rushed to them, hugging their legs.
"Mommy, daddy. Look!" he pointed at the girl that was slowly getting to her feet "I found my new sitter!"
Kate blinked away the tears and scooted Nathan up.
"Nathan Alexander Castle, what did I told you about leaving the loft without mommy or daddy with you. Don't do that ever again. Do you hear me?!" Kate admonished, hugging her son close to her chest.
"Sorry mommy."
"Okay- It's- just don't do that ever again."
Castle was shaking. The kid was okay. He was okay. It had been like Alexis in the mall all over again. It was terrifying. Right now the only thing he wanted to do was to sit with his little boy in his lap and breath. He ran a hand trough his hair, breathing deeply.
"What's your name?" he heard Kate ask the girl.
"Lyra. And you must be Nathan's mother. Detective Beckett." the girl turned to Castle "And you're Mr. Castle, I suppose. The writer." she gave them a smile. "Pleasure to meet you both. You have a son with a great imagination. He's quite the charmer."
Castle and Beckett were both raising their eyebrows, looking at the girl who was giving them a smile and an unworried look.
"And you know that because..." Castle hinted.
"Oh, detective Ryan told me. I'm the babysitter. He told me about detective Beckett and I've read some of Mr. Castle's novels." she admitted "And Nathan told me. You have nothing to worry. I found him in the elevator playing with the buttons. I was told that if you're lost you should stay in the same place. So we sat here and waited for you."
Kate nudged Castle. "Open the door, Rick. Let's take this inside."
They all sat on the couch somewhat awkwardly.
Kate and Castle had forced Nathan into seating between the two of them in the couch while Lyra sat in one of the armchairs.
Nathan was squirming on his seat, trying to get rid of his parents hands that wouldn't let him move.
"Mommy! Daddy! Let go of me!" he whined.
"Nathan," the girl in front of them started in her most calming voice, looking solely at Nathan and completely ignoring both adults that seemed on the verge of a breakdown "have you ever lost your favorite stuffed animal?"
The little boy nodded.
"And when you found it the only thing you wanted was to hold him close because you missed it so bad and were so scared, right?"
Another nod.
"Well, that's how mommy and daddy are feeling right now. You have to let them hold you close, okay? Just like like you did with your favorite stuffed animal."
The boy nodded seriously and held both his parents' hands. Smiling the girl relaxed into the big armchair and looked at them. Her hair framing her face. Blue hair.
With the relief that their little boy was okay, neither of them noticed that the girl had locks of blue hair. The majority of her hair was a light brown, but she had some locks dyed blue. That was interesting. She should be about sixteen. Castle wondered how her parents had let her do something like that.
The girl was still looking at them, probably expecting them to start talking.
Castle looked closely at the girl and saw it. He immediately recognized the troublesome eyes. The smile that didn't quite reach them. The way that she carried herself. Like she was ready to flee at any sign of danger. Expecting something bad to happen.
The grey eyes that stared back at him, told him a story of a distraught girl that had seen more violence than an average teenage girl ever should.
"So, Lyra. Detective Ryan told me that you were a great babysitter. You babysat his son, am I right?"
"Yes. Jake. So smart. They're a lovely family. Very sweet too."
Kate quirked an eyebrow and gave Castle a pointed look.
"Did you had any other babysitting jobs besides Jake."
"Yes. Do you think a detective would let me watch over his child if I didn't gave him all my habilitation? I'm impressed how detective Ryan didn't run a background check on me." Lyra looked at the two quirked eyebrows looking at her and decided changing strategies "But to answer your question. I babysit since I was fifteen. Angela Candela, Mary White, Jerry Dickson, Hally O'Donald and Mary O'Donald- their twins -Mike Karpwoski, Kevin White- Mary White's little brother -Emily, Cecilia, Hugo and Mark- their two set of twins, I helped when things got a little out of hand -Lola Black and Jake Ryan. I babysit all this kids whenever they need me. Some of them I don't babysit anymore, because either they grew up, moved or the families decided that it was cheaper to ask the retired granny to watch over them. Sometimes that doesn't go so well." she took a deep breath and smiled.
"Did you said Angela Candela?" Kate asked, remembering the little girl that had been kidnapped by her own mother. There was no way they were talking about the same girl.
"And Mike Karpowski?" Castle questioned.
"Yes. Angela lives with her father. He's an artist and needs help with her. And Mike is an adorable little boy. I think her mother's a detective too. Yes. She worked at the 12th precinct before she got transferred. Do you know them."
"Yeah. You could say that."
Lyra turned her head to the writer. "Small world."
"Do you play with all those boys and girls?" All heads turned to Nathan.
"I do." she answered with a kind smile.
"But, if you play with all of them, how is you gonna get time to play with me?"
The girl smiled sweetly while the parents traded a surprised and a little amused look.
"Well, I'll fix time."
Nathan frowned in confusion.
"Time is broken?"
"No. I meant that I would save some of my time just for you. So we could play." she answered with a chuckle.
"Just for playing with me?!"
"Yes, just for you. If your daddy and mommy let me."
The little boy's eyes went wide while he got to his feet on the couch. He started bouncing up and down and looking from his dad, to his mom, back to his dad. Not quite knowing who or how to ask. He decided to turn to his dad, pulling his best puppy dog face, his blue eyes shining.
"Can Lyra came and play with me daddy. Can she? She's loads of fun. Like this much." the little boy extended his little arms as much as he could, obtaining a laugh from his parents.
The girl cleared her throat, making the little family look at her. A little notebook was extended in their direction.
"What's that?" Kate asked, eyeing the object.
"I know that my word is probably not enough for you to believe me. So, this is a notebook where I keep all the families I've ever babysat for. Phone numbers included. Their work phone numbers. I'm not giving personal information. You can call this numbers to check that what I said was true." seeing the hesitance in the detective's eyes, Lyra gently placed the notebook in the coffee table. "You can give it back to me. Any further questions?"
"Hmmm, what's your phone number, if we want to call you?" the girl gave them a bright smile, although Castle could see it didn't quite reach her eyes, and pointed to the green notebook with a dinosaur on the cover "It's there. I use that like a agenda."
She glanced at her watch and grimaced.
"Well, if you don't have any further questions I'm late. Jerry's dads are celebrating ten years together, so I'll go babysit him. Probably stay over if they come home a bit tipsy." the girl quickly shot up from the chair and offered her hand for the three on the couch to shake.
When they noticed it, Lyra was out the door in a flash of quick moves and blue hair.
"Did she said dads?" Rick questioned to nobody in particular.
A/N: I can't even start saying how sorry I am for the delay. I've written this chapter about six times. I'm not even kidding. Couldn't make it sound right. So I just have to say that I'm truly, truly sorry and I'll try make the chapters come quicker. I hope you enjoyed it...
So review?! Pretty please with a cherry on top?