A Time to Heal

Chapter 3

Mother Knows Best

TRYING to ignore his daughters' squeal of delight and his mother's mumbled 'It's about time', Castle sat on the couch and waited.

"Alright, let's not get carried away, ladies. You act like I never take your advice."

"Rarely, Dad. You rarely take our advice."

"It's true, Richard. You tell us what is going on, listen to what we have to say and usually do the opposite."

"That's not true! Is it?"

"Do you want to argue, or learn Dad?"

He couldn't help but smile at Alexis' sassy response. "Okay. Teach me, oh wise one."

Alexis began pacing in front of the couch. "So what do we know so far? We know that she likes you. And you have chemistry together. Right? I mean when you guys were fooling around the other night, things were good?"

"Um, no offense sweetheart, but there are some things I don't feel comfortable talking about with you. But yes, there's chemistry."

"What about Josh?" Martha chimed in. "Why did she say she broke up with him?"

He frowned. "I don't know. We never got around to talking about Josh."

"Hmm. Well what does she say the problem is?" Martha asked.

"She doesn't say. We haven't talked about it."

Alexis looked pensive, trying to think of another question. "Oh. What about her scar? Is she self-conscious about it? Maybe she worries about how it looks. I know I would."

He looked surprised by the question. He thought about the dress she wore on their date. I was short. It was backless. And the front went all the way up to her neck. Covering her scar. He couldn't remember everything she had worn since she got out of the hospital, but he would have remembered if he had seen a scar. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen her wear anything that would show her scar. I never even thought about the scar." 'How could I not of thought of her scar?' he thought to himself.

His mother and Alexis looked at each other in disbelief before looking at him, obviously thinking the same thing. "Richard, how could you not have thought of something like that?"

"I-I don't know. It just never came up."

"Not even when you talked about the shooting?" Alexis asked.

"We haven't really talked about the shooting."

"Well what have you really talked about?"

"That's the problem. We don't really talk about anything. She never wants to talk. She walks away or changes the subject the minute I bring up anything remotely personal or uncomfortable. The small amount of information I have gotten from has been like pulling teeth. We did have one conversation where she finally opened up a little and I thought maybe things would be better. If she would just talk to me about her feelings, I think we would be okay, but she won't," he said sounding agitated.

Alexis nodded her head thoughtfully. "So when do you try to talk with her?"

"When?"

"Yes. When?" Martha asked.

"I don't know. Just whenever it comes up, I guess. Does the 'when' matter?"

"Well, of course it matters!" Alexis said. Her tone implied that this was something everyone should know. "If you try and talk to her when she is feeling vulnerable or upset, she's going to just shut down on you."

He thought about that. He hated to admit it, but they made sense. He did tend to say whatever came to his head, whenever it came to his head. He thought back to all of the serious conversations he had ever tried to have with her about their feelings and sure enough, they all occurred during a time of stress for her.

"Well," he said grudgingly. "I guess that makes sense. But it can't be that simple. What else have you got for me?"

Alexis was first to answer. "Try talking to her when nothing else is going on. You know, like casually."

"And if she does try to walk away or change the subject, try waiting without saying anything," Martha added. "Maybe she just needs time to think about what she wants to say."

"But don't let the silence go too long."

"And don't just let her drop it all together."

"On the other hand, don't push her."

"Well maybe you could push her a little."

He felt like he was watching a tennis match, he eyes darting back and forth between his mother and his daughter as they took turns shooting out advice. He was somewhat relieved when the familiar ring tone of Alexis' cell phone interrupted their interchange.

By the way her eyes lit up, he knew who it was before she said anything. "Hey, can I call you right back?" she said into the phone before putting it in her pocket.

"It's Ashley. He just got back from camping with his folks." She looked at him expectedly.

"You want to leave?" he asked, trying to sound serious. "Now? In the middle of my crisis?"

When she just continued to look at him, he smiled. "Don't worry. I can try and muddle through with just your mother telling me what to do. Tell Ashley I said hi."

"I will. Thanks Dad," she yelled over her shoulder.

As soon as the door shut, Martha sat down and said, "Okay. Now that she's gone, let's get to the good stuff."

"What do you mean 'good stuff'?"

"You know perfectly well what I mean. So talk to me. What happened the other night."

"Well, I told you about our disaster of a date. When we got back to her place, she invited me in. We were having wine. We talked about our date and what went wrong. Do you know she thought she ruined our date? She was even afraid to eat spaghetti in front of me. Anyway, one thing led to another and we ended up…". He stopped. Talking to his mom about his sex life, or lack thereof, was almost as uncomfortable as talking to his daughter.

"Getting busy?" his mother supplied.

He laughed at her choice of words. "Yes. We were 'getting busy'. She seemed just as into it as I was, but all of a sudden she just froze. The same thing happened before. Things get so far and she just freezes."

"What did you do?"

"What could I do? I stopped. Told her it was okay, no rush."

"That must be frustrating for you."

"You know, it's not. I mean, the part about her pulling back emotionally, yeah that's frustrating. But the other… I meant what I said. No rush. Does that surprise you?"

"Actually, yes it does. Does it surprise you?"

"Yes and no. With any other woman, I think it would. But it's different with Kate. She's different. It isn't just about sex with her. You know that. But I can tell that it's bothering her."

He looked at his mother and she could see the stress on his face. "I don't know what to do."

She laughed, causing him to frown. "What's so funny?"

"You are. Richard, think about it. After your dreadful date, Kate invited you in, right?"

"Right."

"Well there you go. The old Kate would never have invited you in. She would have jumped out of the car and ran. And changing her order just to avoid making a mess in front of you? That says how much your opinion means to her. Don't you think that maybe you are just expecting too much too fast?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe."

"Darling, be patient. You knew things weren't going to change overnight. It sounds to me that things are going as well as can be expected. Are you sure nothing else is bothering you? You said something earlier about her being mad at you?"

"This morning when I got to work, I tried to give her a kiss. Nothing big and no one was even around, but it made her mad. Turns out, she hasn't told anyone. Not even Lanie. She won't let me tell anyone either. She doesn't want anyone to know about us. She said it is because she wants to wait to make sure things 'work out' with us."

"Ahh. I see. That didn't sit well with you, did it?"

"No. I mean what does that say? She is expecting this to not work out?" He got up and started pacing. "I'm doing everything I can to do to make us work, and she's not even willing to admit to anyone that there is an us!"

"So what did you tell her? Are you going to keep it to yourself?"

"Of course I am. I told her it was fine."

"And she bought that? That you were fine with it?"

"I doubt it. She didn't say anything, but she quickly changed her attitude."

"That was when she went from being mad to flirting?"

"Yeah. I think she could tell I was upset, so she teased me about us being 'discreet'."

"Really? She said that? That you would have to be discreet? How fun!"

"Fun? I don't get it."

"You know, for a police profiler, you really are quite dense. Think about it. She's trying. She isn't ready to trust what you have, but she isn't willing to push you away either. That's why she was flirting. She can't give you what you want, but doesn't want you to be upset. Being 'discreet' at work could be fun. Keeps you connected without being too serious. It's perfect."

"I'm confused. Are you saying I should discreetly flirt with Kate? At work?"

"Why not? Doesn't that sound fun?"

"Isn't that exactly what you told me not to do just last month?"

"Yes. But it's different now."

He rubbed his forehead. He was feeling drained by this conversation. "Okay, I'll bite. How is it different?"

"Well, before you were manipulating her, trying to trick her. She had no idea what you were up to and it bothered her. This time it's her idea. Listen, it's late. You wanted my advice? Here it is. Stop being so serious. Give it time. And while you're waiting, enjoy it! Have fun! Don't you think Kate could use some fun?"

She went upstairs, leaving Castle sitting on the couch thinking about everything that had been said. Maybe she was right. He was tired of being so serious about his relationship with Kate. Grinning he picked up his phone and hit the text button.

Me: You want discreet? I can B discreet. See u 2morrow ;)

He hit the 'send' button and went to bed.