And now it's time to fix that 'boys suck' attitude Alexis has had since Ashley left. (Honestly, I never liked him – he was always too wimpy for my tastes. You gotta be tough to handle a lady like Alexis Castle!)
Castle sat down heavily on the sofa, a glass of scotch in his hand. Beckett slipped in next to him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"Now it's my turn to ask if you're okay." She said ruefully.
He chuckled. "I don't know." He admitted. "Sophia threw me for a loop a couple of times during that mission, but… I always assumed she was lying, trying to hurt me."
Neither of them needed to say that the truth could hurt even more.
"You know what I think?"
Castle looked at her, and Beckett smiled, taking the glass from his hand and setting it on the coffee table so that she could straddle his lap. "I think," She said, "That it doesn't matter. Whether Sophia was right or wrong, whether she knew a little something and was bluffing, or if she was just repeating a rumor… it doesn't matter. What matters is how you feel about it. Are you taking in this girl just because of what Deep Throat told her? Or are you taking her in because it's the right thing to do?"
Castle wrapped his arms around Beckett's waist, making her scoot farther onto his lap. "Now you sound like me," He grinned. "Talking to you."
"Well, maybe I listened to you. Not as much as I should have, but something stuck." Beckett leaned forward, brushing their noses together. "So… no fretting about this, right?"
"Right. We'll focus on getting Viola Baker justice." Castle assured her.
"Can we focus on it a little later?" Beckett asked.
"Um, sure. Why?"
She leaned in even more, putting her mouth right by his ear. "Because I'm not wearing any underwear and I have been waiting all day for you to figure it out."
Castle stood up so fast that he nearly knocked her to the floor – and he would have, if he hadn't also hauled her up into his arms. Beckett laughed the entire way to the bedroom.
::::::::::::::::::::
"So this will be your room." Alexis said, gesturing to the guest room. Eddie looked around, blinking slowly like she was taking pictures with her mind.
"It's…" She shrugged. "It's really… well, nice."
"I'm sure it's a little overwhelming." Alexis said, trying to be sympathetic.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Eddie asked.
Alexis froze. "I, uh, I just meant… no, nothing, forget it."
Eddie leveled her gaze at the other girl. "You know, I'm not some delinquent your parents found on the streets."
"Oh, Kate's not my mother."
"Could've fooled me." Eddie grumbled before raising her voice to a normal pitch again. "The point is, yeah, I'm used to twin beds and cramped spaces. Doesn't mean I grew up in a cardboard box. I still remember…" She trailed off.
"You still remember what?" Alexis asked.
Eddie shrugged. That was definitely a habit of hers. "I was five when we started moving around but I still remember what it was like before, when Dad was still alive. Our house wasn't anything to brag about but it was… nice. I had a lot of stuffed animals, like this big pink bunny that was larger than I was. And our kitchen was bigger than the entire apartment I was living in this morning."
Alexis started to say something, but Eddie cut her off. "That was not an invitation for pity. It taught me a lot, and I wouldn't trade it."
Alexis resisted the urge to snort. "And what kind of stuff did it teach you?" She asked, admittedly a little challengingly.
Eddie flung her backpack onto the bed. "Surviving on my own, how to hide, how to run, how to survive when you have nothing, no money to your name, how to observe, how to learn stuff…"
"Did you ever go to school?" Alexis asked.
"And give people a way to trace me? No." Eddie really did snort. Alexis folded her arms and stood firmly. Eddie rolled her eyes. "I was homeschooled. I studied what I wanted to study, and I would write about it or talk about it with my mom."
"Did you actually study anything? Or did you just fool around on the computer all day?" Alexis asked.
Eddie glared at her. "I studied. The past couple of years it's been mostly chess."
"Chess?"
Eddie opened her backpack and pulled out a sweater, a roll of cash, a laptop, and a well worn but carefully boxed up chess set.
"My mom got it at a garage sale. I begged and begged her for it. Cost her twenty bucks, which was two weeks' worth of food to us, but she just said I could think of it as my birthday and Christmas present for the next two years." The blonde girl said.
"Are you any good?" Alexis asked, sitting down on the bed.
"I've never met a person I didn't beat." Eddie shrugged. "When my mom was working days, I'd sneak out of the house and go to this park where these chess buffs would all meet. She didn't know, of course, because I wouldn't be standing here on account of being dead, and I told the others not to ever mention me. I beat 'em all. They didn't mind keeping quiet about me after that, 'cause no fifty-year-old chess master wants to admit he got his ass beat by a teen."
Alexis bit her lip. It was a little funny.
"I also play online, too. They have websites and stuff where you play chess competitively. I'm the Grand Master of every site I'm on."
"So how does one spend two years studying chess?"
Eddie raised her eyebrows. "I'm surprised that someone with your caliber of education doesn't know."
Alexis glared. "My education was more than adequate, thank you." She said.
That led to a stare down that lasted a good two minutes. Eddie was the one who broke it.
"Look, chess can be applied a lot of things in life – relationships, politics, history – and it's fascinating to study those things and find a way to use chess to predict things or see how things are going.
"There was this one guy in the chess group in the park, older, never said his name… he would do the craziest things like sacrifice his queen. No tricks, no hidden motive, he just fed her to the wolves and sat back to watch. I asked him about it and he said that he wanted to see how events played out. He wanted to know, if so-and-so did this or that, what would the outcome be? How would it affect everything else?
"That's how chess is. It's like a way to see the world; a way to look at things. If you look at a situation the way you look at a chessboard, you can figure out where people are, and even realize what would happen if people did certain things, or know the options available even if you don't know which option they'll choose."
The entire time that she spoke, Eddie arranged the pieces on the board. When she'd finished, with both her little speech and setting up the board, she looked up at Alexis.
"You wanna play?"
Alexis scrutinized the other girl for a bit.
"Okay."
::::::::::::::::::::
"No! For fuck's sake, Alexis…"
Eddie moved the piece Alexis had just placed back into its former position.
"What did you do that for?" Alexis demanded. "That's my piece, my decision."
"Yeah, well, it's a bad decision."
"And why is that?"
"Because you're not taking any risks! Look – you could have moved your bishop to take out my rook…"
"…which would have left him wide open to be stolen by my knight…"
"…which would have then allowed your pawn to take my queen!" Eddie pointed. "You have to think several steps ahead of each move, and then several steps ahead of that! If you don't take risks you're never going to win a game."
Alexis rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine." She moved her bishop to capture the rook.
"Of course, now that you've done that, I'm not actually going to move my knight – I'm going to place this pawn here and…" Eddie grinned. "Checkmate!"
Alexis gaped at the board. Sure enough, her king was trapped. "But… but you said…"
"Hey, you're the one who assumed that I would use my knight to take your bishop. And if I were like you, thinking about the instant consequences, then I would have. But chess isn't like that. It's not about what move you make immediately afterwards; it's about the endgame."
Alexis glared at Eddie, who just sat there with a smile that would put the cat that ate the canary to shame.
"Okay." Alexis said, beginning to set up the board again. "You want a war? You got it. Round two."
Eddie rubbed her hands together. "Oh, this'll be fun…"
:::::::::::::::::::::
It was only 2:00 pm, but Alexis was exhausted. She wanted to close her eyes and take a nap right there in the office. But napping on the job is a pretty good way to lose your spot as a pre-law assistant, so she stifled her urge to yawn and pressed on, walking quickly down the hall with a pile of folders in her arms.
The need to yawn came again, and this time she couldn't hold it in. Of course, to yawn, she had to close her eyes, which was why she didn't see the person also hurrying down the hall towards her, and they bumped into each other hard enough to send Alexis crashing to the floor.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?"
Alexis had always maintained that 'meet cutes' do not happen. They do not exist. They are nothing but a fabrication cooked up by romantic comedy writers to give the audience a sense of fate and destiny. They are meant to up the adorableness factor, nothing more.
And yet now, staring up at the guy she'd just knocked heads with, Alexis was thinking she might have to revise that statement.
The boy staring down at her in concern was nothing short of yummy. He was built, although not like a bodybuilder or anything spectacular but still… definitely well built. He had brown hair that was on the dark side and despite being short it managed to stick up every which way and looked completely unmanageable. He had the warmest, most soulful brown eyes that Alexis had ever been fortunate enough to see, and he had a slow, easy little smile that made his eyes light up.
"You okay?" He repeated, holding out a hand to help her up.
"Yeah." Alexis allowed him to help her to her feet. "Yeah, uh, I'm, uh, fine. Yup. Totally okay. You?"
"I'm good, thanks." He replied. "You must be one of the new assistants."
"Yes. I'm Alexis." She stuck out her hand.
"Oliver." He had a good, firm handshake. Alexis had once listened to a thirty-minute lecture from her dad about the importance of a guy's handshake. "I started as an assistant in March."
"Is it a part of your degree?" Alexis asked.
"No, actually. My dad insisted I get a good job and he has connections, so…" Oliver shrugged.
"Yeah, my dad girlfriend helped me to get this. Her mom was a lawyer." Alexis smiled.
"Nice." Oliver's smile grew. "Hey, uh… have you had your lunch break yet?"
:::::::::::::::::
"And then what happened?"
Eddie was perched on Alexis' bed, practically bouncing with every question she asked. The girl was still annoying the hell out of the youngest Castle but things had gotten better after staying up all night playing chess.
"We had lunch." Alexis shrugged. She was sitting at her desk, looking at various papers. "Should I visit The Brewery or Syren next?"
"What are you talking about? And where did you have lunch? What did he say?" Eddie asked.
"I visit hole-in-the-wall restaurants and review them. I have a whole blog about it." Alexis explained. "And we got sandwiches from a food cart."
"That brings the total to… what, ten blogs? And what did he say?"
"Twelve. You forgot the ones about interior design and urban art. And I don't remember – we discussed work, and my volunteer jobs and stuff."
"You mentioned the wildlife rescue center, right? Guys love pythons and stuff like that. And by urban art, I'm assuming you mean graffiti with flair. What did he look like? What was he wearing?"
Alexis sighed. "Eddie, I am trying to design a website for a client here."
"And I'm trying to get information." Eddie replied. "You know, it's thanks to me that you met him. If I hadn't kept you up all night playing chess, you wouldn't have been tired, and if you weren't tired, you wouldn't have yawned, and if you hadn't yawned, you wouldn't have run into him and you wouldn't have gone to lunch with him, and you wouldn't marry him and have his babies and make me the Maid of Honor at your humongous overdone wedding."
Alexis gave her a look. Eddie just flopped back onto the bed, glaring at the pink walls. "You have got to repaint your room. Seriously. I want to vomit."
Alexis ignored her in favor of scribbling something on one of the pieces of paper.
"So did he ask you out?"
Alexis sighed and looked over at Eddie. "What if he did?"
Eddie jumped up. "Did he?" She asked.
"No." Alexis said. "And I wouldn't accept even if he did."
Eddie rolled her eyes. "And why not? You said he's hot, and he bought you a sandwich."
"It's a long story." Alexis said warily.
Eddie stared at her, waiting expectantly. Alexis groaned. "You're going to be annoying until I tell you, aren't you?"
"Let me think… first girl my age I've talked to in, like, ever?" Eddie pretended to ponder that for a moment. "Yeah. I think I'm going to annoy you until I get every juicy piece of info."
Alexis rolled her eyes and quickly told her about Ashley, and the disappointing boys she'd met since then. Eddie made a face when she was finished.
"Ashley? His name was Ashley and you went out with him? What is wrong with you?"
"And you say this because you have so much experience with guys."
"No, I say it because Ashley is a girl's name, except for in Gone With the Wind, and that boy Ashley was a wimp, too. It's a guarantee."
"So you think I should, I don't know… go after him?"
Eddie shrugged. "Like you pointed out, I have zero guy experience. None. Zip. Zilch. So I don't know. But it can't hurt to have lunch with him a couple more times. I mean, at the least you get a friend, right? And in the meantime you can decide if you want to take things further or not. See if he's a real… oh, I don't know… man? If that makes any sense?"
"It makes no sense." Alexis assured her.
"What I'm saying is that you're tough. Yeah, you sleep in a pink room, and yes, your private school attitude and overdrive work ethic annoy the hell out of me but seriously, you've got a backbone. And you're not half bad at chess. So you need a tough guy, a guy who knows how to handle himself. Someone who's smart, and capable, and not some nerd who spends all of his time studying bloody economics. Who like economics, anyway?"
"I like economics."
"Yes, well, we've already established that you are a freak of nature." Eddie waved that off.
"Says the girl who spent two years studying a board game and has herself admitted she has had no peer interaction." Alexis shot back.
Eddie made a face. "You speak way too proper for someone your age."
"Properly." Alexis said automatically.
"See? See? The point is, you need someone who can handle you. And so you need to see if this Oliver can do that. By going out to lunch with him. As coworkers."
Alexis arched her eyebrows. Eddie shrugged and gave her a shit-eating grin. "And hey, if it doesn't work out, you can always introduce him to your genius blonde semi-roommate."
"Sure, because I want to torture the guy." Alexis rolled her eyes and went back to her papers.
"Just tell me one thing." Eddie said. "Did seeing him give you butterflies?"
Alexis pictured Oliver's face and a tiny thrill went through her.
"Maybe." She said.
:::::::::::::::::::::::
"Hey, guys!" Ryan happily burst into the precinct. "Guess what?"
Becket, who was staring at Viola Baker's murder board, only said dryly, "You found the murder?"
Castle and Esposito were a lot more animated with their guesses.
"You won the lottery."
"You have a long-lost twin."
"You found a new hot-dog stand we can go to?"
"You found proof of aliens!"
"Aliens? Again, Castle, really?" Beckett said, giving him her incredulously amused smile.
"Hey, we never found any evidence against aliens." Castle reminded her.
"But we never found any evidence supporting them, either." Beckett said.
"Maybe if you'd tell me what that mysterious FBI or whatever guy told you…"
"Um, guys?"
Everyone turned back to Ryan. He took a deep breath, and then grinned a little nervously.
"Jenny's pregnant."
"Oh, wow, Ryan, congratulations!" Beckett said, smiling. "That's fantastic!"
"Yeah, man, now there will be two of you. I'm scared." Espo clapped him on the back, grinning.
"You are about to become very, very lucky." Castle assured the junior detective. He opened his mouth to deliver a long speech about the joys of fatherhood, but caught Beckett's eye and shut his mouth. "It's going to be fun." He assured the slightly overwhelmed looking Ryan.
Beckett looked at Castle's face as he congratulated his friend, and she could easily imagine what he must have looked like when he'd found out about Alexis. She had never really thought about children before – she had, but always as a someday sort of thing. It would happen, just… later; sometime, at some point in the future.
But now she was wondering, if she and Castle were to have kids…
She mentally shook herself and went back to Viola Baker's murder board.
:::::::::::::::::::
Eddie examined the chessboard carefully. She looked at the files spread over the bed in the guest room. The packet of files was the one other thing she'd taken from the apartment upon leaving. Like the burner phone, still nestled safely in her pocket, she had found it in her mother's underwear drawer.
Somehow, the notes and receipts and lists in this packet connected these people. Her mother the former campaign managing assistant, the mystery author, and the detective. Three people who would otherwise never cross paths and had nothing to do with each other were somehow all connected because of these files.
But how? And why?
Eddie stared at the chessboard, and picked up one of the files. There was a pattern here – there was always a pattern; always a sequence of moves, like an invisible trail, to be followed. There was a linchpin, a spider's web of connections, and they were all there, just waiting to be found. All she had to do was find the pieces and trace it the game back to the starting point, and she would find the connection.
Eddie began to rearrange the chessboard.
Picture your favorite actor with brown hair and brown eyes. There you go – Oliver! Ta-da! Ain't imagination great? Now we don't have to fight over which actor would be perfect for the role, because frankly, my fist is still recovering from the last person I hit. Never punch someone with a closed fist, people. Although it is rather hilarious…