Chapter 4

After finding Allie asleep on the couch Rick and Kate both felt it would be best to try not to wake her, after all, she has had a rather big day for such a little girl. So instead of making her walk, Rick picked her up, one hand under her knees and one under her back, cradling the little girl like he did Alexis 8 years ago when she was around the same age.

"Are you ready to go, Beckett?" Rick whispered once he made sure he wasn't going to drop Allie.

"Yep, let's go" Kate replied, after she grabbed the DVD out of the TV unit to return to Alexis once they got back to the loft.

"Thank you again for this, Rick. It means a lot. I don't know why but I just feel a connection with this little girl. I want to try and help her or at least do what I can to make her better off" Kate admitted.

"Kate, I know there is something wrong. I'm not going to push, you can tell me when and if you want to but I know there is something off about you today. Ever since you saw Allie, you saw what I saw didn't you?" Rick whispered into Kate's ear, trying to keep Allie as still as possible in the back of the taxi.

"She looks like me. I know you saw it, I saw it too. And I bet if Dad stayed sober enough to look at her he would see it too." Kate admitted.

"Do you have a daughter in foster care, Kate?" Rick asked, prepared for an ear bashing from the Detective for prying into her personal life once again.

"No, I don't, Castle" Kate replied. "You can stop holding your breath, writer boy" she said forcing a smile onto her face but it didn't reach her eyes and Castle could see it, he wasn't fooled.

Knowing it wasn't the right time to press on with the matter of Kate's family life the writer decided to change subjects "What are our plans for this little one?"

"I honestly, don't know. I'm going to look through her file, see if I can find anything that'll lead to her birth parents. I just hope they've provided the adoption records in the file, if not I will ring CPS first thing Monday morning and request them, if I have to I will state they don't want me getting a court order because I will point out negligence on their part. If I can find them, you and I will go and see them, let them know their child would like to meet them, if they are interested we can set something up, if not I guess we'll have to break the news to Allie" Kate responded. "But I think tonight, we'll put her to bed and maybe you and I can get ready for bed and watch a movie, just to wind down"

"Sounds like a plan. But… But what if her parent died, how are we going to tell her that?" Rick asked looking a little sad that this could be a possibility.

"If it comes down to that, we will sit her down and explain to her that her parents are in heaven with the angels and they can't come back for her. But we can also tell her that they did want her they just couldn't stay on earth to look after her" Kate replied, thinking about her own mother and the secret she held closest to her heart. Rick knew there was something wrong, he knew she was thinking about her mother but there was something more, another depth to the shadows in her eyes.

Before Rick could ask the taxi had pulled up in front of Rick's building and the driver wanting to be paid. Rick handed over the money plus a 10% tip, once he got out he was able to reach in and pick Allie up without waking her and allowing Kate to step out behind him.

They started walking towards the door; Eduardo the doorman opened it for the trio murmuring greetings and how are you's. In the elevator Allie started to squirm and mutter things in her sleep but settled a minute later, so Kate and Rick didn't think anymore of it.

Kate yawned which caused Rick to yawn "You tired, sleepyhead?" Rick questioned "stop yawning, it's contagious" as they both let out another yawn.

Kate smiled "I'm just looking forward to putting her to bed and relaxing for a couple of hours then sinking myself into those very comfy mattresses of yours and sleeping til lunchtime tomorrow"

When Kate and Rick walked into the loft carrying a sleeping Allie, Alexis came running from the lounge to greet the trio.

"Dad!" she exclaimed stopping short of running into him like usual due to the little girl in his arms. Instead she pretty much jumped on the Detective "Kate! Hi, It's good to see you, it's been ages since you've been round here"

Kate laughed at the young girls enthusiasm, she was different from her father in many ways, sensible, poised, has a 'brain-mouth' filter but in this situation she really was her father's daughter, bouncy and bubbly.

"Hey kid, yeah it's been a while. You've grown taller in the last month and even more beautiful than the last time"

"Kate, you say that every time" Alexis huffed in fake exasperation.

Kate just laughed at the teen's dramatic flair, that she got from her grams "That's because it's true, Lex."

Rick cleared his throat letting the girls know he was still there with a now semi awake Allie.

"Hi, you must be Allie. My name's Alexis" the red head spoke after realizing the girl was awake. Allie just turned her head and buried her face into Rick's neck.

"Hey, it's okay munchkin" Kate stated moving behind Rick to look the little girl in the eyes "This is Rick's daughter"

"Remember, I told you about her earlier. The one who liked to read Nancy Drew when she was your age. I told you she was bigger now" Rick continued from Kate's explanation, bobbing the girl up and down on his hip. "She won't hurt you honey, if you say hello Lex might even play dolls with you or if you're very lucky she might even read you a Nancy Drew book before bed but after hot chocolate and mini marshmallows" Rick stated getting more excited and enthusiastic towards the end of his sentence.

Allie moved her head around to face the red headed teen "Hi" she said quietly "How old are you?" the little one asked.

"I'm 15, how old are you?" The teen replied.

"I'm 6, you won't hurt me like the old kids in the foster home did?" Allie cautiously asked and when Alexis shook her head the little girl smiled and asked to get down.

"Do you have the Nancy Drew movie instead of the books?" Allie asked Alexis as they walked into the living room hand in hand.

"Well, that went better than expected" Kate said to the writer as she walked over to the breakfast bar and sat on a stool "So where's this hot chocolate and marsh mallows, mister?"

"Cracking the whip much, Kate? I only mentioned it like two minutes ago" Rick answered with a smirk

"I can crack a whip in more places than the kitchen, writer boy" Kate flirted back causing Rick to gulp.

"Okay, hot chocolate with 5 mini marsh mallows in each cup coming right up" Rick smiled at his clever rhyme and walked to the fridge and pantry to get the ingredients.

30 minutes later the hot chocolate was finished, Kate and Rick were curled up on the sofa while Alexis was on the recliner with a sleeping Allie in her lap watching Nancy Drew. It was 6.30 and getting close to dinner time "Okay, obviously we're ordering in, who wants what?"

Kate and Alexis both said pizza, Alexis wanting Hawaiian, Kate wanting Pepperoni and Rick wanted BBQ Chicken and Bacon. With Allie still asleep Rick grabbed the phone off the coffee table and went into the kitchen to order. Kate followed closely behind, once Rick had finished the phone call the detective nervously stood on her tip toes and pecked Rick on the cheek.

"Thank you for doing this. You really didn't have to. I don't know what it is, why this girl. But there's something about her that, I don't know. I guess, I want to protect her like a mother would her own child. It's weird but Thank you, really."

"It's no problem, Kate, really. I'm enjoying the extra company and if you're happy I'm happy" The sincerity and love in Rick's made the already present butterflies present flutter inside her stomach that much more.

"Th-thank you" Kate stuttered "I really mean it"

"So do I" Rick answered gently.

~CASKETT~

An hour later pizza had been eaten by all, including Allie, the girls tucked up in bed – Allie choosing to sleep with Alexis – meaning the two were in the spare room with two beds, Kate was laying against the arm of the sofa with her feet up against Rick's thigh on the other end of the couch. Both had a glass of wine on the coffee table, Rick was typing on his laptop and Kate was reading Allie's file.

She was getting into the more 'official' documents now. Foster release papers, Birth Certificate and Kate was hoping somewhere the official adoption records.

Looking through she got to the birth certificate. Full Name: Allegra Johanna _. "Oh my god" Kate gasped loud enough to strike Rick's interest.

"What, What's the matter?" he asked.

"Nothing, I was just reading her birth certificate. Under full name it states Allegra Johanna but there's no last name. We can't even track the down by that"

"That's sweet, I thought her name was going to be Alexandra or something like that. I like Allegra and I guess Johanna is just a coincidence." Rick knew that the tone Beckett used when saying 'oh my god' was not a disappointed one like she was suggesting but a surprised one, but let it go. She will speak when and if she wants to. 'I need to see that file' Rick thought.

Kate continued reading through the file as Rick went back to writing more of his latest Nikki Heat novel. 'Allegra Johanna _ born 19 April 2005.' 'If I didn't know any better I would say that there is no way that this is just a coincidence' Kate thought 'Where are those bloody adoption papers' was the next thing to run through her brain as she tried to rifle through the documents to find the specific papers that will tell her what she has been wanting to know.

Finally Kate found them, upside down in the folder. Did she really want to know the truth, of course she did. 'There is no way in hell that it's her, it can't be.' But as Kate turned the paper over she couldn't believe what she was reading.

'I Katherine Beckett surrender any parental rights of Allegra Johanna Beckett on Wednesday 20th April 2005 at 8:15am. In giving up these rights I will not attempt to contact the child until the child in question is 18 years of age unless the child makes contact first.'

Kate couldn't believe what she was reading. The official transcript when on to describe more legalities but all that stuck was her daughter wasn't dead like she thought. Her child, her daughter survived the accident. But how and why was she not told. She remembers the moment she found out exactly what happened. Remembering this moment brought tears to Kate's eyes; it got harder and harder to read the document but she realized something on the dotted line, a hand written piece. That was not her signature… it looked more like… No, it can't be…. The first initial is different but that signature looks familiar.

Rick looked over when he heard a sniffle and saw his hard shell detective crying but couldn't work out why. She was now clutching the folder to her chest, looking towards him looking completely shattered. He reached out his arms to comfort her, expecting her to tell him to go away but instead she turned around, laid her head on his thigh, pulled her knees up and allowed the writer to stroke her hair with one hand, rub up and down arm with the other and coo at her, like you would when you calmed a crying child.

Hi guys; I know I'm slack. I will have another chapter up for you tomorrow afternoon and for KMMRA. Hopefully I'll get a fair bit of writing done before I have to go into hospital.

Please read and review and don't get angry because of the late updates

xx