a.n. Here's the next chapter. Thanks for the great response to this fic. Again I'll say that any romance in this fic will take quite a while.

Disclaimerthingy: I don't own Castle. I miss Castle. I wish it were still on. Anyone know of any TV shows that are as good as Castle that are still on?

-:::-

"Dad."

Rick was sitting in his office staring at a blank Word document when he heard his son's voice. It was the day after Halloween, and it was time for him to do some writing. He had not, however, written one single word in the last three hours of trying. All he could think about was Kate Beckett. Damn her.

"Yeah, buddy?" Rick asked, looking up from his laptop.

Alex came into his father's office and sat down on the couch that sat opposite the big oak desk. "Who was that lady last night? The one you said you knew?"

Rick was silent for a moment before he asked, "She didn't look familiar to you at all?"

Alex shook his head.

"I'm a little surprised. You've seen pictures of her, but she does look quite a bit different than she did at 19. Her hair is shorter and highlighted red." Rick stood up and walked around the desk and knelt in front of his son. "That was your mom."

Rick watched as his son's eyes went wide with shock. He'd done his best to make sure that Alex knew things about his mother, despite having never met her. He showed him pictures from their childhood together, and of them after they'd started dating. He even had a couple of Kate after Johanna had died and Kate was well into her pregnancy. He wouldn't let his son go through life wondering who his other parent was. Rick himself suffered through that life, and he didn't wan that for his son. The one thing he couldn't do was give Alex his mom back. Kate had made it plainly clear before Alex's birth that she wanted nothing to do with motherhood. The ten years of complete silence after that only served to underline that point.

"M-my mom?"

"Yeah. I didn't know she lived there."

"What about Gram?"

"You know your grandmother. If she knew something like that, she would have never kept it to herself." Alex laughed softly.

"Why...why didn't she say anything?"

Rick sighed. "Well, I think she was just shocked. Kate was never good at dealing with shock, so she did all she could."

"W-what happened to the two of you? Why didn't she want me?"

"Oh, buddy. I know you've asked that before. I'm sorry, you know? In all honesty, the reason your mom wasn't around had little to do with you. You see, shortly after we found out she was pregnant with you, Kate's mom was murdered. The killer wasn't found, and it hurt your mom real bad. It changed her. She...uh…decided that she couldn't be a good mother for you and went to be a cop to try and find her mother's killer."

Alex stared at his father with wide, watery eyes.

"Hey, buddy, come here." Rick leaned forward and pulled Alex into his arms. "I'm sorry I couldn't give you a mother, bud, but you'll always have me."

Rick held the brokenhearted young boy, cursing Kate Beckett for making their boy cry.

-:::-

She'd told Will everything. He hadn't known she'd had a child, and he hadn't taken it all that well. She didn't really understand his position. He wasn't disgusted with her choice, but instead seemed jealous that she'd had another man's baby. Which was just stupid, as he had once told her that he didn't have any interest in children at all. That was one of the things she liked about him. He was just as invested in his career as she was.

They hadn't really fought, but she could tell that he was upset about it. She'd never told any of her other boyfriends about her past with Rick. Not that she'd dated a lot since her mom had died. She'd had a few one night stands, and had dated another cop briefly right before she had passed the exam to become a detective. Her relationship with Will was the longest relationship she'd had since she'd ended her engagement with Rick. Their relationship was comfortable, and she'd considered marriage, but knew they weren't there yet.

For days after Halloween, she'd been overwhelmed with thoughts about how her life had played out. She had been successful for almost a decade at burying her feelings about the child she had given up. The only times she had thought about her baby boy was when her father brought it up in the months after she'd given birth. It was one of the reasons she had distanced herself from him (along with the fact that he had forbidden her from joining the Police Academy). Every time they had met up he had brought up Rick and their child, and she just couldn't take it any longer. She didn't want to think about it, so she didn't.

Now she couldn't stop.

Would it be so bad if she got to know her own child? Could she? Would Rick even let her be a part of her kid's life ten years later? Her heart ached with the need to be close to her child. It was something that she hadn't felt before. She'd been so focused after her mom's death that she hadn't even felt a connection to her own child after his birth.

But she longed for that connection now. All it had taken was a single encounter. She wanted so badly to get to know Alex. Alex. It was a nice name. It wouldn't have been her first choice. James, at the time, would have been her choice. She'd loved her dad so much that naming her first born after him was something she had dreamed about since she was a teenager.

The question she had to answer now was if she had the courage to talk to Rick again. Did she?

In the end, it was almost decided for her. She was in the lobby of her apartment building retrieving her mail when she came face to face with Martha Rodgers.

"Katherine, darling! Rick told me you lived in my building! How are you, dear?"

Kate stared at the older woman, her eyes wide. She hadn't even thought about why Rick and Alex had been trick-or-treating in her building of all places. Now she knew. Martha lived here too. What were the odds?

"Martha?" Kate stuttered out. She continued to stare on in shock as Rick's mother engulfed her in a tight hug. The hug was both awkward and not. She'd known Martha Rodgers since she was 4 years old when she and her son Rick had moved into the house next door to her parents home. She and Rick had been best friends almost from first sight. They'd been inseparable all throughout elementary school, middle school, and most of high school. They'd started dating when she turned 14. Martha was there through all of it, so much so that Kate spent almost as much of her childhood at Rick's house as she did her own. Martha had always been a hugger, and Kate was astonished to find that she had missed being in the older woman's arms.

Martha pulled back, holding back her smug smile. It had been insanely easy to fluster the young woman.

"So how are you?"

"I-I'm fine. I didn't know you lived in this building."

"Yeah. For a couple years now. And you?"

"About a year, actually. My...uh...boyfriend and I chose the apartment together." Kate didn't understand, really, why she mentioned that she had a boyfriend. Her brain was still trying to catch up with running into yet another person from her past.

"Ah. So I hear you saw Rick and Alex?"

"Uh...yeah. I did."

"That's it, Katie?" Martha asked, finally losing her patience for this awkward conversation. "You met your son for the first time in his life, and that's all you have to say?"

Kate's eyes widened. She'd never heard Martha be so blunt before. "I..."

Martha sighed. "Listen. I'm not expecting anything, and for sure Rick isn't. But maybe you should talk about it. I'm sure you have regrets. Maybe it's time to make amends?" With that Martha handed Kate a piece of paper and walked towards the elevator.

Kate looked down at the paper in her hands, trying to keep her fingers from shaking. The entire encounter had only lasted about five minutes, but Kate felt that it had changed everything. The paper had a telephone number on it. Kate knew what Martha wanted her to do.

The question was, could she do it?

-:::-

Thoughts? Reviews are welcome.