Chapter 3

Alexis was there when he got home. Rick had spent maybe three hours walking around the city, unable to stay still. His mind was moving too quickly, and the only way he could think of to keep his sanity was to move along with it. He must have visited half a dozen coffee shops, twice as many news stands, and had even wandered into a bar, before deciding that drinking alcohol in the middle of the day was a level he wasn't going to stoop to.

However he looked at the situation, it always came back to the same place. Talk to Alexis. There was no way he was going to make a decision this big without knowing how she felt about it. Unfortunately, she wouldn't appreciate being dragged out of school, so he really had to just keep killing time until he could speak to her.

And now, here she was, curled up in an armchair, reading a book and seemingly oblivious to his return. As he moved closer to her, he saw the reason why. She was listening to her iPod, singing softly along with the song. Rick didn't know the tune, but it certainly sounded pretty.

He stopped, and stood watching her for a moment, quietly amazed, as he so often was, at how his little girl was growing into an intelligent, capable, beautiful young woman. That knowledge always brought with it a bitter-sweet mixture of pride and loss. Shaking himself out of his reverie, he strode up behind her and tapped the top of her head.

"Hey, kiddo. Keeping yourself out of trouble, I hope."

Alexis plucked the headphones from her ears and slanted a smile at him, "Of course, though I doubt the same could be said of you." Rick perched himself on the edge of the coffee table, taking her hands in his when she mirrored his position. "How did the thing with Paula go? Are you going to be a big Hollywood star?"

"That remains to be seen," Rick responded to her infectious good cheer. "But they do want me to adapt my little old book for them." He preened slightly, "I guess they couldn't find anyone else who could do it justice."

"Hmm, maybe. Or perhaps they just couldn't find anyone else who was interested." She cocked her head, those big blue eyes fixed on his. "I'm really proud of you, dad."

Rick grinned, and squeezed her hands slightly in gratitude. "Unfortunately, with great success comes great responsibility… or something. Anyway, the upshot is, they want me to fly out there on Sunday. Take some meetings, shakes some hands. I should only be gone a few days. I'll need to talk to your grandmother about keeping you company."

She nodded eagerly. "Yeah, that'll be great. We'll have a lot of catching up to do." Rick rolled his eyes at that, fully aware that Martha had spent the previous weekend helping his daughter spend his money at various ridiculously expensive retail establishments.

Alexis clambered over him to reach her cell phone on the table, presumably to take matters into her own hands and make sure Martha had no plans for next week. Rick caught her hand as she began to drift away from him. "There's more." This was tougher to broach. "The producers have said they want me to go back out there for the summer. The whole of it."

She stopped, frowning now in a manner he always found upsetting. "The whole summer? What for? What did you tell them? What about me?" The last was asked in a small, unsure voice that clawed at his heart.

"You would come with me," he answered quickly. "The idea is for us to wait until your summer vacation, and go to L.A together." He studied her face, watching fear turn into confusion. "I didn't agree to it yet. I told Paula I'd have to talk to you first. Alexis, if you don't want to, we won't go."

"No, dad." She was shaking her head vehemently. "This is important to you. You've wanted to do something like this for a long time. We should go."

Rick gazed at her for a long moment, troubled. Eventually he shook his head, "I'm not going to accept that answer yet. I still have to talk to your grandmother, and a couple of other people. I don't intend to make up my mind until after I've been out there and spoken to everyone involved. I don't expect you to decide any sooner. Take all the time you need."

Alexis smiled gratefully, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a big hug. "Ok, I'll think it over."

"That's my girl."

She let go and took a step back, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Hey, if you're out there for a few days, you should have time to see mom. I'll call her and let her know you're coming."

Rick's eyes widened, and his smile dissolved into a grimace. Meredith. I hadn't considered that. The thought of spending a few hours, or even a couple of days, in her provocative company should have been filling him with excitement. It wasn't. Instead he felt rather uncomfortable with the idea.

Covering, he fixed a grin onto his face, "Great." Alexis squinted at him with a wry smile, and he wondered how much of his misgivings had shown. "Go call your grandmother," he suggested. As she trotted off for the daily, hour-long gossip session, he turned his mind to the other women in his life. His mother would be fine with it, he reasoned, she was a pragmatist at heart, and would see that this was an opportunity he had to take.

Still, he couldn't help wondering what Beckett would say. She'll probably be relieved, he scowled at the empty space in front of his face. It'll give her time to go all in with Mr Wonderful. And he certainly won't waste any opportunity to get his feet under the table.

A sense of deep melancholy settled over him as he anticipated tearing off that particular band aid as quickly as possible. He'd lay the whole thing out for her the next time he saw her. The trouble was, he really wasn't sure he could do it. Every reaction he'd trained into his mind over the last 15 years was screaming at him to run, leave Beckett and his longing behind. Three thousand miles would be enough distance for the pull she exerted over him to weaken and fail, surely. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't imagine saying goodbye to her, even if it was only temporary.

Rick pottered about the loft for a while, not doing much of anything, until his guilt overtook him, and he forced himself to sit down at his desk and write. He must have managed a whole paragraph that evening. He was proud of himself. Of course, he ended up deleting most of it, after reading it through, but still, it was more than he'd accomplished on any other night in the last couple of weeks.

The next morning, he was actually up before Alexis had stirred, a rarity, but not one that he welcomed. He'd slept well enough for most of the night, but woke up around 5am, alert as if he'd downed a gallon of black coffee. He was still tormented over any number of issues. The screenplay offer and all it entailed, the book was not going well at all, what colour to paint the bathroom if he ever got around to having it redecorated. One worry bled into another, and after an hour of staring at the ceiling, he decided he might as well succumb to the inevitable, and haul himself up. He made breakfast for Alexis and himself, ushered her off to school, and by 9 he was back in his usual spot, staring futilely at his computer screen.

Through it all, he'd studiously avoided thinking about one thing, one person. He reasoned that if he could banish her from his thoughts for a whole day, then perhaps he'd be able to shake off this hold she seemed to have on him.

It was 11:30 when his phone rang. He knew, without having to look, who was calling. Taking a deep breath, he answered.

"Castle, we've got a murder." The words were clipped, direct as ever. Oh, what the Hell. Quitting cold turkey is never a good idea. He scribbled down the address, and told her he was on his way, before she rung off. Slapping his laptop closed, he hurried for the door.

Kate had enjoyed a thoroughly relaxing evening. Her promise of bath and book had come to fruition, and she'd managed to lose herself in the world of Derrick Storm, without preoccupying her thoughts with the character's creator. Ok, so the wine she'd drunk had been a gift from Castle, the Chateauneuf-du-Pape that he swore by. He'd given her several bottles to populate the wine rack of her new apartment, but this had been the first chance she'd had to sample it. One thing she had to admit about the man, he had good taste.

She'd awakened refreshed and surprisingly cheerful. Her grouchy behaviour of the previous day had her feeling a little sheepish, and she knew she should try to make amends to Ryan and Esposito. Taking her frustrations out on them wasn't something to be proud of, but she'd spent the last couple of hours of the day giving them every menial little job she could think of, as punishment for Esposito's crack in the break room. He took it all with remarkably good grace, but poor Ryan had been baffled, and clearly wondered what he'd done that was so terrible.

So far, she'd spent the morning being so pleasant and convivial to them both that within a couple of hours, they were darting hunted looks around the office, and tiptoeing around, their nerves frayed to pieces. Right now, she was sure they were breathing more easily. For the last twenty minutes, she'd been shuffling through open case files in the store room, looking for something to do now all her current paperwork was dealt with.

She finally picked an interesting looking case, a commercial banker who'd been found strangled with a silk cord on the edge of Central Park. Every lead had taken them to a dead end, and here it had sat, unsolved, for months. Feeling triumphant, Kate headed back to her desk. Before she could sit down, Karpowski bustled over to her. "A call came in. Dead body found in Spanish Harlem." She handed Kate a piece of notepad paper with the address hastily scrawled on it. "Ryan and Espo lit out of here the second it came in. Can't blame them, really. It's been quiet as the grave around here for the last couple of days."

Kate felt herself wanting to grin. A case! Finally something to do. It felt more than a little wrong to be excited or relieved that a possible murder report had come in, but this was what she was good at, and it would definitely keep her mind off any other worries she had. "Nice choice of simile there, Karpowski." Kate said, memorising the address and reaching for her phone. She hit speed dial 1 before she even registered what she was doing, and her breath caught in her throat as she waited for him to answer. Waited to see if he would answer.

"Beckett." He sounded subdued. "What's up?"

A warm feeling of comfort spread through her belly as that familiar voice reverberated in her ear. She paused for a moment, gathering herself. Be professional, she cautioned, don't get distracted. "Castle, we've got a murder."

Right, so that Beckett section really was too short. I originally planned to put the whole crime scene investigation in this chapter, but I thought that was a nice place to end it. She'll get more time devoted to her in the next chapter, I promise. I'll probably also put her and Castle in an actual scene together, too. Again, please review.