A/N: I am sorry, my dear readers – I abandoned this fic for weeks. I had really crazy busy weeks. First of all, I had vacation and I spent it with my parents' house. Moms are like this – they never let you rest and think – so I had really no time to sit down and write. Then I had my b-day, which had to be celebrated. (It was a must!). Last week I updated my second fic (Sunsets in the Park) – it was a long, long chapter and after I got it done, I had no time to finish up this chapter. After spending a weekend in the forest, away from civilization, I am back with a full force. I really do hope that the next updates will be quicker. You can kick me if I don't update it soon. LOL
P.S: Reading that chapter, you have to imagine that the scene in „Undead Again" – when they were in the hospital and they talked about „keeping secrets" – ya have to pretend that it didn't happen for my fic's sake.
Castle's loft
He opens the door with a soft creak. He finds his daughter is sitting in the sofa, clicking nervously through the hundreds of channels on the TV. He walks to her silently and greets her with a soft "Hey." She jumps up from her seat and holds one of her hands on her chest.
"Jeez, dad!" she exclaims. "You scared the hell out of me!"
"Sorry, Pumpkin," he smiles, but his smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. "I came as quick as I could."
She calms down a bit and gives a good look to her dad, focusing on his face. Her eyes grow bigger for a second. She raises her hand from chest to mouth and lets a soft giggle loose.
"What the hell is on your face?" she asks, giggling.
He furrows his brows for a second, not understanding her for a moment. Then, he smiles. He had forgotten about the whiskers already. Damn, those whiskers. No wonder the taxi driver was giving him strange looks when he entered the cab.
"I had an accident." he tries to explain, a mischievous grin on his face.
"An accident?" she asks, laughing. "What, a sharpie flew out from your pocket and attacked your face like a shark?"
He snorts. "Yeah, something like that."
She gives an odd look to Castle, waiting him to continue. But he doesn't. He remains silent.
"Dad?" she tries to get attention. He looks down to his redhead.
"Yes," he answers. Smiling.
"Are you gonna tell me where you got your new look?" she asks again.
"Nope," he winks at her.
"Daaad..." she says.
"Soon, I promise," is all he says.
"It better be good," she points finger at his whiskered dad.
"Oh, it will be," he continues and hooks his arms around his daughter. "So, how's things?"
"Crazy;" she says. "But I appreciate you coming home so fast though," she continues, "I don't know what to do with her." she sighs.
His lips form a weak smile and he softly says, hugging her daughter "You know, I still don't know either. After all this time."
Alexis chuckles in his chest and raises her head to look into the eyes of his father. "I hope we can figure something out, before I turn into a mad lunatic..."
"Doesn't the word "lunatic" mean mad by definition?" he asks after a small pause.
Alexis shoves her fingers to his chest, making his dad squirm in pain. "Smartass." she says.
"Ow, owww, alright, I give up," he responds, raising his hands, a wide smile in his face. Their movements tune down a bit and Alexis moves away from her father, sitting down on the sofa. Castle takes few steps and sits next to his daughter.
"What did she do now?" he inquires.
She takes a deep breath and shakes her head. She has a little smile on her face, just like the whole situation is amusing to her.
"Mom wants to come to my graduation, as you gathered." she starts.
Castle nods, urging her to go forward with her story.
She looks up to his eyes and continues. "The deal is, she wants to stay in the loft."
"What?" he asks. "Really? Why?"
"I don't really know," she sighs. "The whole situation she created with coming here is too over the top. I won't even be here, I am off to celebrate with my friends. What she is going to do over here? Entertain you?"
He snorts. No way is he going to let his ex-wife stay in here. Especially when all things are starting to straighten out with Beckett.
"No, she is not staying here" he states, caressing her knee with one hand, trying to comfort her. "I will figure something out. You go and write your speech and deal with your dresses... and I don't know what you girls do before your graduation... And don't worry. I will try to convince her to stay at the hotel or something."
Suddenly there is a shock on her face, blood draining away, leaving the white skin visible. "Oh my god!" she exclaims, while holding onto her dad. "The speech! I haven't finished it yet. I have so much work to do. Oh god, oh god, oh god! I need to see over some of the books and …. " she stops her rambling and taking a breath.
"Easy, easy, easy," he tries to calm the redhead down. He tries to smiles at his little girl. "You have time, pumpkin. You have few days. Plus, it's still early hours."
Alexis stares at him and he gulps. Apparently Alexis has taken some master classes of staring from Beckett, because this was frighteningly close to her intense stares.
"Really, dad?" she asks.
"What?"
"It's almost midnight, dad. Where have you been. In the precinct?" she asks, now looking him quizzically.
He ponders a bit, making her daughter bore her eyes to him.
"Yes," he finally answers.
"You liar." Alexis laughs. "Where have you really been?"
"Here and there" he tries to get her interest off the topic. He doesn't want to share his success with Beckett yet. It's too early. Everything is still uncertain. Will the detective be at the same state of mind tomorrow too as she was today?
"Fine, be like that." she manages to create a pouty face, while her lips are slightly trembling, holding back laughter. "Don't tell me anything."
"I won't" he laughs, grabbing his daughter's hand. "Come on, let's get some ice cream for you and after that, I am going to call your crazy mother." he finishes, patting her hand.
He gets up from the sofa and walks to the kitchen area, heading to the freezer. "Which one do you want, vanilla, or chocolate chip?"
"Maple syrup, please" she answers, while coming to the kitchen too.
"Excellent choice, my minion, excellent choice."
Evening, the next day
"You know, just keep it, my Zombie-walking days are over," Kyle says, looking down a bit. "I just want to put this behind me." He starts to walk away. Both Castle and Beckett nod and wave to him. Castle, dressed in the zombie outfit and matched with makeup, steps in front of her.
"How does somebody put something like that behind them?" he sighed. "He is going to need therapy."
She nods and provides him agreement "It helps."
He nods and manages to bring a small smile up to his lips. It is still a touchy subject. Neither of them had mentioned the things that happened last night. They do things as they usually do, they don't talk about them. Although, he can feel the things are different now. He has annoyed her the whole day and she is just brushing him off, smiling and smirking. She lets him do his thing... and she likes it! He is so grateful that things are changing. She is opening herself up more and more, like a little butterfly who is coming out of her protective cocoon.
She continues "First you won't be able to deal with it, it's gonna take everything that he's got to just put one foot in front of the other and get through the day."
He shifts a bit, listening her intently. She said she was seeing a therapist, but she didn't elaborate how much had it changed her. He remains silent, letting her continue.
"I didn't tell you about it. Because I didn't want to make any excuses. I just wanted to put in the time, do the work. I think I am in the place where I want to be now."
He is happy that she shared so much. He lowers his voice a bit. "And, where is that?" he asks.
She smiles to him. She knows that he knows it already. But she says it still, for him. To making it clear. "In a place where I can accept everything that happened that day. Everything" There, it's out. Oh, that woman. Stubborn, crazy woman. She worked through it all alone, pushing him away. And now she is here. She is in "the place". She is inviting him in.
He steps closer. He doesn't care that they are in the precinct. The implications of what she just said are too strong. He needs to do something, feel her close, touch her.
"I think, I understand," he simply says, before he puts his hands to her cheeks, bends his head down and kisses her. On her lips. With full Zombie makeup.
She thanks the universe that "the boys" are downstairs at the moment and the homicide floor seems pretty deserted. She sinks into him and responds to the kiss with the same kind of eagerness. Opening her mouth, she lets him in. His tongue makes her groan out loud, but the sound doesn't travel further, because he swallows it. He releases her face and puts his hands around her, tugging her body closer to him. She steps into him and the kiss deepens, as she sneaks her arms around him.
It takes a while for them to end the kiss. He releases her mouth with a soft pop and they both breathe in air, because they neglected to breathe before. She smiles to him and brings up her hand to his cheek.
"I think the zombie make-up suits you, Castle" she says, her voice still sounding breathy.
He chuckles, looking down at her. Seeing the remnants of his make-up on her face and her now black lips he can't resist saying, "I think it suits you too."
She chuckles too. Of course she has got his make up all over her face now. She steps out from his embrace, distancing herself a bit.
"Tomorrow?" she asks.
"Tomorrow," he agrees. "Today, I need to plan a payback to Alexis," he smiles. He can't resist placing a last kiss to her lips, before he needs to go.
Fooxoo and PenguinOfTroy – THANK you both for being such an awesome friends and keeping me edited and in line. Yer awesome, chickas.
I had some really really really awesome reviews for my last chapter. I was blown away. Thank you so much darlings. They mean a world for me. *HUGS* to all who reviewed. I am so glad you liked it. Honestly! Aaand, this fic has more than 120 followers – THAT is even more awesome. I am really glad you are liking my crazy ficlet. Thanks!
Reviews are like an air, I can't live without them...