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Kate looked up and grinned as she saw Castle making his way towards her. "Hey." She greeted him as he dropped a cup of coffee onto her desk. "How are you?"

"Are you busy right now?" He asked, nervously running his fingers through his hair. Immediately, Kate grew worried.

"No, why what's up?" She asked, trying to appear casual.

"I...can I get your opinion on something?"

"Of course Castle, what's going on?"

He plopped down into his seat and sighed deeply. Kate waited – rather impatiently – for him to continue. He was silent a moment or two, trying to figure out how to explain himself, then finally decided to just jump in. "So I'm thinking of fostering Emily for a while and wondered what you thought of that." He said quickly, then turned and stared at Kate.

She was completely shocked. Of all the things he could have said...that was not what she had been expecting.

"I'm sorry, what?" She asked.

He sighed again and leaned forward. "She's a good kid Kate, and she doesn't have anyone. I've been over to visit her a couple of times..."

She interrupted him. "A couple? I thought you just went the one time?"

"No, I went back to give her the rest of the Harry Potter books and we went out for ice cream twice."

"Oh." Kate had no idea he had grown so attached. "Okay, go on." She prompted once she realized he was waiting for her to process things.

He nodded and got excited. She couldn't help but smile at him. His excitement and enthusiasm was infectious. She bit her lip as he continued, wanting to actually hear him out.

"Well, that place is horrible. She shares a room with four other girls, she's stuffed into this tiny corner and they're all older than her and they take her stuff and pick on her and...its just not a good place to live. Her social worker hasn't been able to find a placement yet and I figure...I've got plenty of money and plenty of room and I'm a writer, I can do that anywhere so I've got plenty of time. I mean, she'll be in school for another month or so, and once summer rolls around, I can cut back my time here a little if I need to." He lowered his voice as he said that and Kate had to forcibly work on keeping her face neutral. She didn't want him to cut back on anything. She wanted him here all the time; but she simply bit her lip harder and nodded for him to go on. "Well, I...I think I could help her. She tries really hard to act tough and like she doesn't care, but I can tell she does." He glanced away and sipped his coffee. "She actually reminds me a lot of you..." He said softly. Kate's eyes widened and she bit down on her lip even harder. If she didn't cut it out she would draw blood. Castle wanted to take in a little girl who reminded him of her? Christ. He was silent for a few minutes, Kate just watched him, waiting to see if he was done or not. "I...what do you think?" He asked after a while.

It was Kate's turn to sigh. "I think...I think its a big responsibility Castle. She's...she's not a normal little kid. She's had a really rough life, including recently watching her mother being murdered..."

"Yeah, but I figured maybe you could help with that part." He said with a small smile on his face.

"Me?"

"Well, yeah, you're my partner." He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I'm not doing this if you don't think its a good idea. I've only talked to the social worker, Alexis and Mother. I haven't mentioned anything to Emily yet or even hinted at it. I don't want to get her hopes up and not deliver. I want your opinion."

Kate wasn't sure if she heard him correctly. "What?"

"They only let single people foster kids if they've got enough money, time and a good support system, you're my support system. It actually works to my advantage that you're a cop." He said with a grin.

"You talked about me to the social worker?"

"Of course." He shrugged. Kate leaned back in her chair in shock. She had no idea how to respond to that. "So...?" He asked after a minute.

"Humm?" Kate looked up at his waiting face. "Oh..sorry." She sat up straight and looked at him. "I...Rick, I think you might get really attached and she might break your heart." She said honestly.

"Then I get a broken heart and hers gets fixed." He shrugged.

Kate knew her face looked astonished. She couldn't hide that. How could he be so amazing? Not trusting herself to say anything else right now, she shifted his attention off of herself. "What do Martha and Alexis think?" She choked out.

"Ah, Mother is not so enthralled by the idea, I think she's thinking the same as you." He frowned. "Also, I think she's afraid Emily will make off with her valuables...but Alexis is surprisingly very on board with the whole thing. She's says she's always wanted a little sister and it will be fun. But, I want to know what you thought." He reached out and almost grabbed Kate's hand, but stopped himself, something Kate took notice of. "I'm not stupid enough to think this is going to be easy, I know she's got a lot of very real problems and I know its temporary, but...but I need to do this. I don't quite know why, but I want to help her and I'd love for you to help me."

Desperately needing the whole situation to be a hell of a lot lighter than it was, Kate joked. "What, is this some weird proposal to adopt a kid together Castle? You gonna get her than make me take care of her while you go out and do idiotic things?" She laughed. It worked, Castle beamed and she melted just a little bit.

"I assure you Katherine Beckett, when I ask you to start a family with me, you'll know." He said with a causal smirk. Before Kate had the chance to even move or contemplate the meaning in that sentence his joking quickly went back to serious. "Honestly though, what do you think?"

Kate wasn't sure she could think right now. If she heard everything correctly, he had basically said they would have a family together one day and that...that brought on a whole lot more than she could handle at this particular moment. Knowing...knowing that he loved her, that he had no idea she felt the same way...it was a little too much to be talking about children. She bit her lip, this time, tasting blood. "I think you are already an amazing father and she would be lucky to have you in her life for any amount of time." She said genuinely. "It sounds like you've already seriously thought about it and your not just impulsively jumping into things. I think its a good idea." She smiled at him and his face exploded into a grin.

"I shall expect you to babysit from time to time." He said pointing his finger at her as he jumped up and began to run down the hall. "Call me if we get a case!" And with that, he was in the elevator and gone, leaving a very stunned Kate sitting at her desk.

Ryan and Esposito chose that particular moment to walk in. "What's with him?" Esposito asked.

"He's going to be a father." Kate murmured into her coffee.

Ryan choked on his own cup and Kate glanced up at him with a frown. "You're pregnant?" He sputtered.

Kate just stared at him while Esposito's jaw dropped. "NO!" She screamed. "He's fostering Emily, what would I have to do with anything? Why would you..." Kate couldn't keep talking, she shot him her worst glare and stormed out of the bullpen.

Esposito kicked Ryan. "You dumb shit." He said while Ryan wiped the spilt coffee off his tie. "Man, what is wrong with you?"

"I didn't...I mean I just...god, she's going to murder me isn't she?"

"Yeah man, it was nice knowing ya." Esposito clapped him on the back and walked away chuckling to himself.

"But, she won't really kill me." Ryan nervously laughed. "Right? Esposito? Wait!" Ryan ran after him. "She won't really!"

"Why?"

"Cause it will be way better than living here." Castle said with a soft smile. Emily didn't look up at him. Her gaze had been directed at her shoes since he and her social worker, Tony, had begun talking to her that afternoon. Somehow, he had imagined this part would be easier. "And we're friends right? Friends do nice things for each other."

"This is pity." Emily said through gritted teeth as she finally looked up at him. She was pissed.

"No. This is not pity." He said firmly. "Do you like living here?" He asked. She shook her head, he knew she couldn't deny that one. "My loft is huge, you can have your own room, I've got a huge tv, tons of books and laser tag. My daughter, Alexis, can't wait to meet you; neither can my mother. I'd love for you to come stay with us."

Emily picked at the chipping green nail polish on her thumb and bit her lip. Castle almost laughed out loud but stopped himself. She looked a lot like Beckett in that moment. Finally, after what felt like hours to Castle, she looked up. "Fine." She muttered quietly.

"This is gonna be awesome." Castle grinned and clapped his hands together. "I vote ice cream for lunch. Get your things!"

Everything was so new and expensive looking. Emily didn't want to touch anything in fear she would break something. Her mom's place had been a dump. Rick was bouncing on his toes in excitement, showing her everything in sight. Emily had smiled shyly and curtsied at his mother. She thought it was polite. The older woman had cackled and pulled her into a hug.

"You and I are gonna get along just fine." She had said. "Call me Martha."

Emily pulled away the second Martha had released her. Rick's daughter seemed really nice. Nothing like the older girls at East Side, or the ones who had lived on her block. She took her upstairs and showed Emily her room. It felt bigger to her than her whole old apartment ever had.

"We can get you anything you want. If you want different sheets or something, or a different color on the wall. In fact, I'll bet Dad's hoping you do, he loves to paint and do stuff like that. My room's been seven different colors." Alexis said with a smile. She sat down on what was apparently going to be Emily's bed. "You're eleven right?" She asked. Emily nodded. "Are you in sixth grade?"

"No. Fifth. I'll be in sixth in the fall." Emily whispered.

"Oh, that's right, I think I turned eleven in fifth grade too."

"What grade are you in?" Emily asked. Unsure of what else to say. She had never been very good at talking to older kids unless she was yelling at them to fuck off and leave her stuff alone. Otherwise she always felt really little and dumb.

"I'm almost done. College in the fall." Alexis said happily. "And you'll be in middle school!"

"Yeah." Emily said unenthusiastically. She hated school, she skipped most days when she could get away with it.

There was a bit of an awkward silence. "Well, I'll let you unpack your stuff and get settled in. Just yell or come find me when you're done. My room's right down the hall. Then we'll find something fun to do, sound good?" Alexis asked.

"Sure." Emily whispered. Alexis left the room and Emily shut the door. The walls were white and mostly bare. This had clearly been a guest bedroom. Emily set her beat up suitcase down on the ground and shoved her clothes into the drawers. They only took up one drawer. She sighed and pulled the books Rick had given her out and stacked them on top of the dresser. Then pulled out her raggedy stuffed koala bear and set him on the bed. She sat down herself and looked around the room. It was weird thinking this was hers for a while. She didn't really know what to make of it. She didn't know why this nice family wanted her here bothering them. Her own mother always told her to get lost, why did strangers suddenly want her around?

Thinking about her mother only made her begin to cry and angrily she wiped the tears away. Virginia Donnelley didn't deserve her tears. She had been a shit mom anyway. Emily stood up and walked out of the room, in search of a bathroom. Finding one, she quickly splashed some cold water on her face to make sure no one could tell she had been crying, then unsure of what else to do, went to find Alexis.

The redhead was laying on her bed reading a book. She looked up and grinned at Emily as she stood in the doorway. "Hey!" She said, spinning around and sitting upright. "Did you find everything okay?"

Emily nodded.

"Well, I vote we go shopping or something tomorrow, Gram would love to take us. We can get you a whole new wardrobe!"

Emily shrugged. She hated shopping but it was Alexis' house if that's what she wanted to do then fine.

"You hungry?" Alexis asked. Emily shrugged again. She was starving, the food at East Side sucked. "I'm starving, we can order in, what kind of food do you like?" Alexis hopped off the bed and walked over to Emily, surprising the brunette as she took her hand and continued on downstairs. "Pizza? Chinese? Tai? Subs? Italian? Whatever you want, I'm in the mood for anything so long as I get to eat." Alexis laughed. Emily marveled in the fact that the older girl was still holding her hand. No one had ever held her hand 'just because' that she could remember. It was weird, but kind of nice.

"I like pizza." Emily whispered as they entered the kitchen. Rick was sitting on one of the island stools and grinned at the sight of them.

"Pizza! Brilliant, you'll fit right in. Half pepperoni, half cheese?" He asked the pair of them. Alexis nodded and looked down to Emily. Apparently that was their usual, she nodded as well. Sounded fine to her. "Great, I'll call it in."

"Want to watch a movie?" Alexis asked. Emily shrugged. Alexis took that as a yes and led her into the living room. Emily stood awkwardly in the middle of the room while Alexis went through the hundreds of dvds. They ended up settling on the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie and sat together on the couch.

"Good choice." Rick said as he plopped down in between them and rested his feet on the table. Emily sat very stiff and remained quiet, barely watching the movie until the pizza arrived. She had been so little the last two times she had foster families. She didn't remember the first one at all and only remembered bits and pieces of the second. Mostly, she remembered how much she had felt safe and wanted and then suddenly, it had all gone away and she was back with her mom, who never wanted her around. Now, Virginia was dead, so when this was over, who knew where she was gonna have to go?

The pizza arrived and with it, Detective Beckett. Emily was a little shocked to see the older woman but was surprised when she realized she was happy to see her. She didn't quite know why, but she really liked her, felt safe around her. Probably because she was a cop, really pretty, and could beat up a boy if she wanted. Also, because she was nothing like Virginia.

"Hi Emily." She said with a smile.

"Hello Detective Beckett." Emily said shyly as she sat down on the opposite side of her.

"Call me Kate."

"Hi Kate." Emily whispered and stuffed some pizza into her mouth. Rick and Kate joked around throughout the rest of the movie, Alexis joining in from time to time. Emily mostly ate her pizza and watched them, rather than the movie. They acted like a real family like on tv, especially once Martha came down and joined in. Emily watched Rick and Kate closely and realized that they totally wanted to kiss each other naked. Kate laughed at all the funny things Rick said and he looked at her like boys in the movies look at girls they are in love with. That must be why Kate was here, they were dating. Emily wondered if that meant Kate stayed here sometimes. She didn't think she would mind that too much.