A/N: Inspired by Beckett's line in 6X16 'Your dad loves you, he worries about you.'
It's the third night since Alexis' dramatic exit from the loft when Kate wakes to the slight chill of late Autumn at her back. Even though it's well past 2 a.m., Manhattan and all of its noise bounces through the window - sirens, speeding taxis, the yells of late night explorers off to the next party or a 24-hour diner.
None of that phases Kate, its the sound of the city. Her city. It's as comforting as a lullaby or the sound of summer rainstorm. No, its the absence of sound, the lack of Castle's familiar warmth and soft snores at her back that stops her short and draws her out of the cocoon of blankets.
Her heart breaks a little when she finds him sitting on the stairs that lead to Alexis and Martha's bedrooms. He holds a large brown album in his hands that Kate can see has been well-loved through the years, and she knows without ever having peeked inside that the photos are of Alexis. Castle has remained quiet, pensive in his mood while he tries to accept the choices that his daughter has made.
And, in direct response, Kate has held her tongue with the benefit of having once been a teenage girl at odds with her father. But, even with that experience, it's an awkward position to be in. This 'no man's land' where she is to marry this man and become family, though a piece of it keeps her at arms length and there are more moments of feeling like an intruder than a part of the club.
Kate lives in a perpetual state of imbalance, desperate to worm her way into this quirky little family unit but so afraid of tipping the scale in the wrong direction.
So she treads carefully, tip-toeing across the line to gently push Castle when he needs it. Retreating for a safe distance on the occasions that Alexis is around, always making herself scarce, always giving them space to be a family.
But, now, that family is fractured and she's spent three days watching the man she loves suffer in quiet.
"Castle," she whispers his name, her fingers diving into the soft hair that curls against his neck. He doesn't lift his head from the album, though his shoulders hitch slightly with a shaking breath and the crown of his head falls forward to rest against the flat plane of her stomach. "You can't hold yourself responsible for Alexis leaving. It was her choice."
"I know that," Rick responds immediately, his voice cracking on the final word, "I do but I….she's my little girl, Kate. The one thing I've always depended on for twenty years and I don't…..I don't know what to do."
"You do what you've always done," her voice is soft, gentle in the way she approaches both the broken man in front of her and the situation she's been pushed into, "You act like her father. Let her get this out of her system, live with a boy in an awful apartment and be angry. I know it seems like it's the end of the world but, eventually, Alexis will come around. Pi won't be here forever, Castle. You will be."
The seconds tick by, only the steady rise and fall of their breaths marking the time but gradually he shifts, tugging Kate into the fold of his left arm, drawing her to him like a moth to a flame.
When he tilts his head up to kiss her, she can taste the salt on his lips and see the tear tracts but she doesn't comment. Instead she gives what he so desperately needs from her, comfort that this too shall pass and reassurance that he is, indeed, an incredible father.
That night is the first of many where Kate sits curled in the circle of his arms, listening to stories and perusing photos of Castle's life with Alexis. And with each photo and each word, Kate falls a little more in love with him.
