A/N: thank you for all your reviews, here's your reward - another update :)
"Well." Castle said, looking at Kate. "Do you want to tell her or should I?"
Beckett looked from Rick to Alexis and back again a few times. She felt as if she was watching a tennis match. "Alexis, I understand you want answers but will you do one thing for me?" She asked.
"Why would I do anything for you?" Alexis sneered.
"Alexis Harper Castle you do not speak to guests in this house like that!" Castle reprimanded, upset and angry at his daughters tone of voice. He knew she was confused and wanted answers, and she deserved them, but that didn't give her the right to speak to Kate like that, especially as Kate had pretty much just single handedly saved all of their lives.
"It's fine, Rick, she's angry." Beckett soothed, she wasn't expecting a welcome party from Alexis.
Alexis sighed. Her father was right, she might be angry at what they'd done and what had just happened but she had been brought up better than that. "No, Detective, it isn't fine. My father is right, I shouldn't have spoken to you like that and I apologise."
"Apology accepted." Kate replied quickly. Jesus, did Castle have the perfect kid or what? As much as he would say she was her own spirit and nothing like either of her parents, Kate knew Alexis had been brought up well, she could tell Castle was a brilliant father. "Now, I understand that you're angry and you want to speak with your father but can you please give me two minutes alone with him? And then he's all yours, I swear." Kate said.
Alexis hesitated. She desperately wanted answers but she felt by letting Detective Beckett speak with her dad first, he would be more likely to answer her questions. "Okay, fine. I'll be in my room and I'll be down in five minutes." She said, getting up and walking over to the stairs, trying as hard as she could to ignore the bodies scattered on the floor. How would they explain those to Gram?
"You're a brilliant father, Rick."
"Uh, thank you. But I'm guessing you didn't ask Alexis to give us a minute to tell me that?"
"No. I wanted to know how much you're planning on telling her?" Beckett asked. "I mean, I know it isn't really any of my business and you have every right to tell your daughter exactly what you want but I was kinda hoping for a heads up." She said, giving him a wide-eyed look.
God that look did things to him - she did things to him, things he couldn't even begin to explain. "Sweetheart you keep looking at me like that and I'll tell you the PIN number to my credit card."
Kate bit her bottom lip.
"No, you're right, you have as much of a say in this as I do. I'm sure we've both been told the same thing - this has to stay a secret, even family can't know." Kate nodded. "But I don't see what choice we have now except to tell Alexis. But I'm happy to leave you out of it, say you're just a cop if you want?"
"No, I don't want you to lie to her because of me. Just..just can you not mention Montgomery if possible? I haven't had a chance to see his wife and daughters yet and Espo and Ryan aren't helping.."
"Is that what was wrong earlier?" He asked.
She nodded again. "Yeah, they got funny with me for still being MIA. I mean I know they're upset over Montgomery too but they need to let me do this. I'm even debating whether it would be worth telling them the whole story, just so they stop hating me." She said, tears springing to her eyes again. Espo and Ryan meant way more to her than she'd ever admit, she hated them not talking to her.
"Well, whatever you decide, I'll be there every step of the way." Castle said, pulling her into a tight embrace.
"Thank you." She whispered and he kissed the top of her head. "Erm, do you want me to give you and Alexis some privacy? I mean I'd leave, but Gina said I shouldn't so..
"No, I want you here too so you can stop me if I say too much. And I don't know how she's going to react so you being here might help."
Kate laughed. Somehow she couldn't see Alexis acting too badly. The kid was practically a saint. Just then, Alexis came back downstairs.
"Okay, you've had five minutes, now I want answers."
"And we're going to give them to you." Kate said. "But uh, if you want..I can go..leave you and your dad to talk.."
"Kate, I already told you I want you here."
"Yes I know you did, Castle, but considering this is Alexis' house too and you're her father, I was checking to make sure Alexis was happy with me being here." Kate knew what it was like having a close relationship with your father, the last thing she wanted was to come between Rick and Alexis.
Alexis watched them with interest. It wasn't very often she met a woman who could keep her father on her toes like Detective Beckett did. "No, it's fine. I'd like you here too." She said.
Kate smiled at her. "Okay, so where would you like to start? I mean we could explain the bodies on the floor but maybe we should start at the beginning?"
"Yeah, the beginning sounds good." Alexis said.
"Great, well your father can start, I'll make some tea." Kate said, standing up and heading to the kitchen. "Oh god, I'm so sorry..this is your house and I'm making tea."
Alexis let out a small laugh. "It's fine, tea would be great, thank you, Dtective."
"Alexis, please, call me Kate."
Castle was happy the two of them were getting on. He was crazy about Kate and it meant a lot that his daughter liked her too. "Okay, pumpkin, I'll start while Kate makes tea." He took a deep breath, suddenly realising he didn't know where to start. "Okay..well you know Gina is my publisher?" Alexis nodded. "Well she also runs an undercover organisation of trained assassins."
Alexis' eyes widened. "So..so you're telling me you..kill people?" She said in a small voice.
Castle knew this would be the hardest bit, getting Alexis to understand. However, right now, honesty was the best policy. "Yes." He said simply, taking a mug of raspberry tea from Kate.
Alexis took her tea too, with a quiet thanks to Kate. "And..you do too?" She asked, her question directed at Kate.
"Yeah, I do." She replied. "Your dad and I work for separate organisations, but we both do the same thing. We eliminate those who deserve it - no one we intentionally kill is innocent. They're murderers, traitors and the worst people you could imagine."
"She's right. We don't go around killing whoever we like, it's a planned operation and it's only for the safety of everyone else. If these people weren't taken out, they'd continue to ruin the lives of others and possibly put the country as a whole at risk."
Alexis took all this in before asking her next question. "So..you're not a cop?" She asked Kate, and directed "or a writer?" Towards her father.
"Oh yeah, I'm still a cop. I was a cop first, before I got recruited by my-" she broke off, not wanting to bring Montgomery into it. "By someone at work. I do this undercover when I need to and I'm a cop the rest of the time."
"And I'm still a writer. Gina said my books insinuated I'd be good at killing people for real - I believe she meant it as a compliment - and so she recruited me undercover. But I'm still a writer sweetie, that's still what I love doing."
"So um, how did the two of you meet?"
"Ha, funny story actually." Kate smiled. "I was given a new assignment and your father was given the same one."
"Yeah, there was a mix up and we both turned up."
"So, there I was, two and a half hours early to set up and your father rocks up half an hour before the target was due to arrive and sits there on his laptop!"
"Hey, I was finishing that book for Gina!"
Kate rolled her eyes. "Anyway, we both shot at the same time and that's when we realised we weren't alone." She stopped, not sure how she should continue to tell the story of how she was supposed to kill Alexis' father.
Castle seemed to sense her discomfort and continued the story himself. "So I told Gina I saw her and we both get a new assignment - to kill each other."
"Wait..if you're supposed to be trying to kill each other then why are we here, like this with you two all...loved up like teenagers?"
Rick looked at Kate. "You know, sometimes I forget that I'm the parent and she's the teenager."
"Yeah well, maybe you should start acting less like a teenager sometimes Castle." Kate said.
Alexis laughed. "Two against one, you're not winning this one dad."
Castle pouted. He wasn't sure he was going to like this, Kate and Alexis ganging up on him. "Hmm, well back to the story. After a few..less than serious attempts, shall we say, at taking each other out, we both realised we couldn't do it. It wasn't right, we're both on the same team after all."
Alexis nodded in agreement. "So why are there four dead bodies on the floor?"
"Ah, yeah. Well you see..when Kate and I called a truce, the person behind all this sent these guys after us..we aren't allowed to leave the apartment yet and it's not safe. Gina's working on it, but I'm not sure how much she can do."
"Well what about your boss?" Alexis asked Kate.
Kate looked at Castle. Seems she was bringing Montgomery into this after all. "Erm, he was killed..last night." She said quietly.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry.."
"It's fine. But uh, the person behind it is now after us and we need to find a way to get out of this.."
The girl was quiet for a few minutes and Castle send worrying looks in her direction. "Look," Alexis began, "this is a huge amount for me to take in and um, I'm still angry you only told me now because you had to but at the same time I can see it would have made it more difficult if I knew what you were up to. But..maybe I should go to Paige's for the day or something? Let you two figure this out..I need to let all this sink in and uh, you don't need to be worrying about me on top of all that." Alexis suggested.
"Sweetheart, I know this is a lot to take in but please don't be angry. I didn't tell you because I knew how much you'd worry and that would kill me. If you want, this can be it, I'll tell Gina I quit and I'll just be a writer and your dad, but I need to help Kate with this one first."
"That's fine, dad." Alexis said, getting up to give him hug. "I'll stay at Paige's for now and we can talk more when it's sunk in properly. I'll probably have a million and one questions once I've thought about it!"
"And I'll answer them all. But you can't tell Paige about this.."
"Yeah, I figured that much." Alexis laughed. "But thank you, both of you, for being honest with me. It's not what I expected but it's pretty cool, too."
Castle chuckled. That was his daughter alright.
"Okay, I'm gonna go upstairs and grab some stuff and call Paige." Alexis said, jumping up and kissing her father on the cheek. Turning back, she walked over and gave a surprised Kate a hug too. "Look after him." Alexis whispered in Kate's ear. The squeeze she got in return let her know that Beckett would do whatever she could to keep Castle safe.
"Well," Kate said as Alexis disappeared upstairs to her room, "it's official. You have the best kid in the universe."
Castle laughed. He was pretty lucky. "I know, right. I still can't believe she took all that so calmly." He was waiting for the shouting and the crying, the accusations that he was putting himself before her by putting himself into dangerous situations, but it seemed he was safe from that for now.
"Now, we need to get these guys moved.." He said, motioning to the bodies on the floor.
Thirty minutes later and Gina had sent over other agents to remove the bodies from Castle's apartment. Now they just had to clean up the mess.
Alexis had just left, giving both her father and Kate another hug and saying she'd call him later.
Which left Kate and Castle alone in the apartment again. Moving closer to her, Castle grabbed her by the hips and planted his mouth on hers, kissing her deeply. "So, what shall we do now?" He asked, raising his eyebrows.
Kate laughed at him. He was adorable. "Well, as much as I'd love to take you to bed, we can't." He pouted. "Don't do that Castle, we still have no idea how to get out of this mess."
Rick sighed, she was right. "I know, I know. It's just now that I've had you I don't want to let you go."
"I'm not going anywhere, Castle." She replied, kissing him softly. "But we really need a plan."
"Well, Gina isn't being much help." Castle grumbled.
"I know..um..I think we need to go to the precinct.." She suggested.
"But we aren't supposed to leave, it's too dangerous.
"Castle, in case you had forgotten, four men just broke into your home and tried to kill us, I don't think it's safe here, either."
"Okay, point taken. But why the precinct?"
"I wanna know what Espo and Ryan have so far on Montgomery's murder. They might have something that can help us."
"Okay, if that's what you want, we'll go."
Ten minutes later and they were climbing into a cab outside Castle's apartment. Castle could tell Kate was nervous, she wouldn't stop jiggling her leg.
"Hey," he whispered, "it'll be fine, I promise."
She gave him half a smile in return. She wasn't much looking forward to seeing Espo and Ryan, especially when she couldn't tell them a lot.
They rode the elevator up to the right floor hand in hand, Kate gripping on for dear life. Stepping out, they walked over to Esposito and Ryan, who were both sat around Esposito's desk.
Jumping up when they spotted Castle and Beckett, it was Esposito who spoke first.
"What the hell are you doing here Beckett? You didn't care enough to come in when I told you about Montgomery so why are you here now?" He said, clearly angry with her.
"Espo-"
"Leave it, Beckett." Ryan said, equally as angry. "He's right, we don't need you here so you might as well go home with your new boyfriend."
Castle was flabbergasted, he could tell how much these two meant to Kate and he couldn't believe they were treating her like this. Looking to Kate, he tried to offer words of comfort, but she shook her head.
"You're right." She told them. "I don't deserve to be here. But we need help."
"And we're going to help you why, exactly?" Espo asked.
"Because otherwise Castle and I are both dead."
A/N: so this chapter didn't really go as planned but I think it's okay? Let me know what you think!
