Disclaimers: No. Enough said.
Summary: Alexis spends the day with Kate and Ariel as the two women bond further.
A/N #1: I thought that before I bring Castle back home from his book tour that I'd write a chapter about the growing relationship between Alexis and Kate.
Chapter 9: More Bonding
October
It was a beautiful fall afternoon. Alexis was sitting in a coffee shop near Columbia awaiting the arrival of her two best friends, Taylor and Paige. She smiled at Ariel, who was propped up in a high chair by the table. Ariel grinned back, slamming her hands down on the toys that decorated the cushion that propped her up in the high chair. "Oh, your baby is sooo cute," a woman walking by the table stopped to comment.
"Ah, she's not my baby. She's my sister," Alexis corrected the woman. Since the birth of her sister, Alexis had gotten used to the comments from strangers who automatically assumed that Ariel was her daughter and not her half-sister. "Well, I guess it could be worse, Ariel. At least I'm not 14 and having people assume that."
At that moment her two friends entered the coffee shop, smiling and waving at Alexis as they made their way over to the table. "Oh, I didn't know that you were bringing your little sister," Paige was somewhat disappointed as the two young women took seats at the table.
"Kate had stuff that she needed to do today, so I offered to take care of Ariel. We can still have a girls' day out," Alexis reminded her friends.
"When's your dad coming back from his trip?" Taylor asked as a waitress came over to get their orders.
"Next week."
"So, he'll be staying home and taking care of her like he took care of you?" Paige asked.
"Yeah. But, I already told him and Kate that I want to take care of Ariel sometimes. We have fun together."
"Alexis, how can you have fun with her? She doesn't do anything," Taylor pointed out.
Alexis had noticed that her friends had changed since Ariel's birth. They didn't understand why she was so excited about being a big sister. "Paige, weren't you excited when your mom had your little brother?"
"Yeah, for about five minutes. After that, all he did was cry and poop. It just got annoying."
After coffee, the three friends did some shopping, but Paige and Taylor made excuses to end the afternoon early. After they went their separate ways, Alexis rolled Ariel's stroller to the park across from the loft and parked them by the duck pond. She unbuckled her from her stroller and put her in her lap. "Daddy brought me here all of the time when I was little. A few times I almost fell in. I don't know why my friends don't get it, Ariel. I was always so lonely when I was little. I mean, I had daddy and gram, but I wanted someone close to my own age to play with. I know that your mommy and daddy will probably give you lots of brothers and sisters. But, daddy's like a really big kid. We had a lot of fun when I was little."
Ariel grinned and made a grab for Alexis' long red locks. She was fascinated by her older sister's hair. "No, you can't pull on my hair," Alexis carefully removed the baby's tiny fist from it. "It's getting chilly. I'd better be getting you back home to mommy."
Kate was sitting at the dining room table filling out forms when Alexis walked in, pushing the stroller in front of her. "Hi," she smiled. "How was your day out with Paige and Taylor?"
"It kind of sucked," Alexis admitted as she removed Ariel from her stroller and brought her over to Kate. "They were upset because I had Ariel with me. It didn't take away from our day out. We were still able to go shopping and hang out. They're not the same since I became a big sister." Alexis sat down in one of the dining room chairs.
"I think it's because they don't understand how excited you are about something that they both experienced when they were younger," Kate smiled as she pulled her hair from Ari's grasp.
"Do you think my dad was upset because I was an only child?"
"I don't know. He's never talked about it. There are a lot of things he doesn't talk about."
"I know from my mom that I wasn't exactly supposed to have happened."
"Alexis, don't get me wrong. I like your mother, but I feel that there are some things that you should never divulge to your children. And I think that one of those things is letting them know that they weren't planned."
"The first memory I have of my mother was when I was three or four. I just remember this red-haired lady who smelled nice and was always bringing me things from FAO Schwartz and Neiman-Marcus. I think that she made daddy nervous. I remember her taking me somewhere one time and him coming to get me. He was so angry. I'd never seen him angry before. After that, he wouldn't let her take me out of the apartment."
Kate knew the story that Alexis was talking about. Rick had told her that Meredith was supposed to have taken Alexis just for the day and instead had whisked her off to Paris on a whim. He'd told Kate he wasn't even sure how she'd managed to obtain a passport for her, since he kept her passport locked up in his office safe. "Your dad told me that he wouldn't let her take you anywhere until you were old enough to decide if you wanted to go or not."
"I was eight the next time I went with her. She took me to Los Angeles where she was shooting a movie. That was fun," Alexis smiled. "Although she left me with a lot of babysitters."
"When you got kidnapped," Kate looked at Alexis, whose eyes opened wide, "your dad told me about the first time that he ever held you. He said that he felt like he'd gotten struck by lightning. He said that was when he realized the love that you could only feel for your child."
"Is that how you felt when you held Ariel for the first time?"
"Yeah," Kate smiled down at the baby, who'd nestled against her breast and fallen asleep. "Let me put her in her crib."
Alexis followed Kate up the stairs to the nursery, pausing to look at the pictures that lined the wall. There were a lot of pictures of her with her dad and gram, the maternity pictures of Kate, her dad and her before Ariel's birth, and the ones that had been taken when Ariel was just a few days old. That was when Alexis noticed that her dad had removed the ones of her mother with her. "Kate, where are the pictures of me with my mom?" Alexis asked when Kate came out of the nursery.
"Your dad put them in an album for you. Come on," Kate walked downstairs as Alexis followed her.
Alexis followed Kate into her dad's office where Kate handed her a photo album. "Sometimes I think that I was just a photo op to her," Alexis traced over the pictures in the album. "It was like, 'Oh look at the actress with her baby.' She didn't even fight for custody."
"Alexis, where is this all coming from?"
"Kate, did dad call her when I got kidnapped?"
"Yeah, he did."
"And let me guess? She couldn't be bothered," Alexis stormed from the room.
"No. Alexis, listen to me. Your dad called her as soon as he learned that you'd been taken also. We all decided that it was better for her to remain in Los Angeles until we knew more. The last thing your dad wanted or needed was to have to worry about another person. It was everything he could do to take care of himself and your gram."
"Every time that I try to talk about it with her, she shuts me down. She tells me that it's in the past and that I should just forget about it."
"Some people are uncomfortable talking about traumatic experiences," Kate told her.
"Are you uncomfortable talking about when you got shot?"
"No, not anymore. Alexis, do you want to talk about Paris? Do you feel like you're ready?"
"I still don't remember much after Sara and I came out of the lecture. When I woke up in that room, I remember thinking how mad dad was going to be."
"Alexis, why would your dad be upset?"
"He'd warned me about that blog. He'd warned me about how dangerous it was."
"Believe me; he never said a word about that. He was so scared. I've never seen him so scared. Not even when Tyson was trying to frame him for murder. He just wanted his little girl home."
"Kate, why won't he talk to me about any of it?"
"Oh sweetie, he doesn't talk to me about it, either. I didn't understand it until we had to take Ari to the ER that night. As a parent, you don't want to see your children in danger or being hurt. It's still too painful for him."
"I remember after he rescued me, that man Hunt directed us to the embassy. When we got to the embassy and told them who we were, dad explained to me who Hunt was and how he'd been involved in all of it. We joked one time about how his father could've been anybody. I still can't believe that he's retired CIA. When we were sitting there waiting for them to get me a passport, he held onto him so tight. It was like he never wanted to let me go."
"That's because he didn't. When he called and told us that he'd found you, I was so relieved. I was so happy that he'd found you without getting you or himself killed. I didn't learn about Hunt's involvement until after the two of you got home."
"Can you tell me about the parts that he won't talk to me about?"
Kate thought about those horrible few days. Rick had been a wreck and she hadn't been much better, but she'd forced herself to keep it together for him. When he'd brought Alexis home, he'd insisted that she stay at the loft instead of returning to the dorm. At night when his daughter would go to sleep, Castle would sit in her room and watch her for hours. Kate would have to almost literally drag him away from her. She decided that Alexis never needed to know about the parts of her ordeal that Castle wouldn't talk about. She never needed to know about the van with the huge pool of blood in the back, or the man her father had tortured for information while she, Ryan, and Esposito had turned a deaf ear. No, she never needed to know about any of that. She didn't need to know that side of her father existed. Until that night, Kate hadn't even known that Castle had that side to him.
"Alexis, the only thing that you need to remember about Paris and your father rescuing you is that your father loves you very much and he'd do anything for you."
"Kate?" Alexis looked at her stepmother. "I'm glad that we get to have these talks."
"So am I," Kate smiled as she hugged her tightly.
A/N #2: Castle comes home in the next chapter. Please read and review.
I can be found on Twitter Caskett1960.
