'Alexis Martina Castle!'
Castle stood in the doorway of his apartment, eyes wheeling in desperation at the sight that met him upon arriving home. Furniture had been shoved willy-nilly; in place of his leather living room suite were five round tables, each one layered with a different combination of green and white linens. Jammed underneath the staircase was another four rectangular tables covered in plain white linens. Scattered in between were boxes of more linens - were they multiplying like rabbits now? - and what appeared to be green coffee mugs.
'Alexis Mar-'
'In the kitchen, Dad, no need to middle name me!'
Picking his way through the mishigas, he found his beloved daughter in jeans and an oversized Mets jersey, red hair tied up in a messy bun, through which was jammed two pencils and a marker. On the island counter-top was what appeared to be a mutant version of Clue, with little colour-coded flags in various positions.
'How was your day?'
'Busy' Alexis gave her father a quick kiss on the cheek before turning back to her board. 'I spent all of lunch and study hall on the phone with the party supply companies. It's amazing how dropping your name gets things done so quickly. All this was here by the time I got home.'
'You didn't think you should spend study hall, oh, I don't know, studying?'
'Dad, please.' Alexis gave her father a bland look, reached into a bowl for some almonds and crunched loudly. 'First week study hall is basically like private-school happy hour. Everyone wants to know all the embarrassing summer vacations details they didn't post on Facebook or tweet about. Since the majority of my friends are now in university, I had plenty of time to get work done for the reception Saturday.'
'Are those push-pin flags stuck in mini-marshmallows?'
'Easy to move around the seating chart that way. I need a finalized guest list. Drink?'
Castle sat down wearily; he'd created a monster. 'A fifth of scotch would be nice.'
'We have milk, apple juice, something called Wassup-Wasabi Tomato Cocktail and water.'
'Apple, then.' Castle watched as Alexis zipped through the kitchen like a bee on speed, finding glasses, pouring one for each of them. 'If I didn't know better, I swear it was you planning your own wedding.'
'I like Ryan, I like Honey-Milk and they deserve to have a better party for their wedding than a hospital cafeteria soup-and-sandwich combo.'
Since she was one-hundred-percent right, Castle had a tough time arguing with her. It was one of her more annoying features she'd picked up from her grandmother. 'I'll have a guest list by tomorrow, since Esposito isn't sure if he'll bring a date.'
'Speaking of which, do you mind if Patrick comes? I kind of already invited him.'
Castle spluttered in his juice; he'd forgotten about Patrick, the 'nice boy' Alexis had begun to - God help him - date over the summer when they'd met at her Princeton mini-course. He'd wanted to run a full background check on the guy, but Beckett had put her foot down, reminding him the last time Alexis had kept a secret from him, she'd eventually told him in her own way anyways. 'Sure, I suppose. He knows the room will be filled with cops, right?'
'Dad!'
'I'm just saying...' He trailed off when he saw that Alexis had added his name to the table with Beckett and they had little matching-coloured flags. 'Lex, sweetcheeks, why do you have me paired up on your board with Beckett the same way you have the captain and his wife colour-coded?'
Alexis hid her grin by drinking her juice. 'Call it a hunch. I figured the way you ditched Gina at the Hamptons to come back and work weekends with Beckett, there was something going on you were choosing to keep private.'
Castle gritted his teeth, remembering the disbelieving nods and winks from Ry-Sposito (his favourite two-headed monster) during the Nikki Heat-inspired murder cases when they'd learned he'd stayed the night at Beckett's apartment. He didn't think that Alexis would be taking a page from their book, too. 'You are my child, so I know you are very nosy like me too, but I am asking you to please let it go. Beckett isn't going to be your new mommy any time soon, Lex.'
'Really? Then how come I see little hearts in her eyes when she looks at you?'
R&R&Enjoy.
