A/N1: Hello peoples and WELCOME to the tenth Chapter of Absolution titled 'Alex's Birthday' I really hope you enjoy this chappie I sure liked writing it!
"Oh what a mad day!" Rick declared later that night once Alexis had gone to bed. "I think I'm still deafened from Lanie's screams, we arrived right in the middle of an autopsy you know."
Kate laughed and accepted the glass of wine her partner handed her.
"Thanks," she said as she tucked her legs under herself. "You actually got her to stop what she was doing?"
"Oh yeah, she left the body right then and there dumped her scrubs and gloves in a bin and picked Alexis up and spun her around. Then straight away she began trying to convince Alexis to go to the medical school at Princeton where she went. But Alexis is set on forensic psychology and behavioural science. She likes working in the morgue with Lanie but I'm not sure she likes it enough to make it her living. Then Lanie offered her a job as a lab hand. And of course my daughter immediately accepted. It's been a big day in the Castle household."
"And how are you feeling?" Kate asked softly, brushing his cheek gently with the pad of her thumb. "Your little girl is growing up."
"Yeah she is," the Writer replied thickly. "God Kate it only seems five minutes ago she was in diapers falling asleep on my lap as I sat on the lounge writing and now she's been accepted into all seven Ivy League colleges and been offered three scholarships, this is my little Lexie, my little girl. The cherry cheeked pigtailed cherub that used to call me Daddy!"
And a single tear ran down Rick's cheek.
Kate put down her glass and scooted closer to the Writer, enveloping his muscular frame with her arms.
"She's still your little girl Rick. She's just a bigger version," she said comfortingly. "And believe it or not there will be times in the future where she will still call you Daddy. I'm thirty two and there are times when I still call my father, Daddy. I did it all the time just after the shooting when Dad and I went up to stay in his cabin in the Catskills. I was in so much physical pain often during the night and I would call out to him. Sometimes all that helped me feel better was his arms around me stroking my hair like when I was a little girl. You haven't lost Alexis, Rick. She's always going to need you. Especially in ten years time when she's married and has her own kids. She'll be the one ringing you at two o'clock in the morning when her baby won't sleep and asking for advice."
"God, don't make me imagine Lex with kids, the hair's already going grey." Rick said dryly, scrubbing at his eyes with the cuff of his sleeve. "I haven't finished having kids of my own yet."
"You want more kids?" Kate asked softly. "I would've thought-"
"That at my age I'd have finished sewing my wild oats?" Rick asked with an ever so slight smirk. "Nah I love kids, being a father is the best thing I've ever done and I want to do it again and again. But Meredith cheated on me when Alexis was three months old and we divorced when she was six months old so more kids with her was out of the question. She doesn't have a maternal bone in her body anyway. You know what Gina's like, she's more married to her job than anything else and kids weren't on the radar for her at all. Plus I think it would be nice for Alexis to have siblings, even though she's on the eve of being an adult herself."
Kate's insides totally melted at the Writer's revelation and for a moment he allowed herself to imagine a time in ten years time when she and Rick were surrounded by a swarm of children with her brunette tresses and his baby blue eyes.
"Don't let Kevin and Javi know that, they'll peg you as a softie and you'll never see the end of it," she said in amusement, stroking his face with the pad of her thumb. "You know what the boys are like, they love teasing you."
Rick chuckled.
"Yeah but they're good men," he said. "So how about you?"
"How about me, what?" Kate asked tucking a couple of the cushions into the small of her back and putting her legs over his lap.
"Do you what kids?" Rick asked. "You don't have to answer. I know it's kind of a personal question."
"Nah it's not," Kate answered, picking up her glass again and taking a sip. "I never used to, you know, because of the nature of my job. I didn't want to leave a kid behind should I die on the job but something Burke said to me during our sessions made me realise something. I shouldn't stop myself from one of the basic instincts of life. I shouldn't do something just because I'm afraid something might happen. I can't be afraid of anything anymore Rick. If I was I'd make a shit cop and I'd hand in my badge and Glock. In the past I never met anyone who I wanted kids with, I'd love a whole brood."
"Have you met the right person now?" Rick asked, massaging her left foot as his baby blues bored into her seemingly reading her soul.
Kate blushed and looked at him coyly through her long brown lashes.
"Yeah I think I have," she replied.
Early the next morning just as the sky over Manhattan began to lighten, Kate felt herself being shaken awake.
"Kate, wake up," Rick told her shaking her shoulder. "Tulip, wake up."
"Mmph," Kate murmured, snuggling into her pillow and turning away from the Writer a frown creasing her brow.
Rick shook the female detective's shoulder harder.
"Kate, wake up," he repeated, reaching under the covers and running his fingers up her inner thigh the most ticklish of her sensitive spots.
"Fuck you Rick, I'm ticklish!" Kate grumped, waking up and flipping over to shoot the Writer the stink eye. "What the hell do you want? It's six o'clock in the freaking morning."
He grinned. "I know and it's Alexis' birthday," he said brightly. "I need your help with something."
"Right now?" Kate groaned, yawning sleepily. "God Rick, you can be an asshole sometimes."
And with that Kate flopped back onto the bed pulling the quilt over her head with a huff.
"It's for Alexis," Rick pleaded. "Not me."
Kate peeked out from under the quilt.
"What do you want, Rick?" she asked. "Don't try guilt tripping me. I'm a cop and I don't fly with that shit."
Rick laughed. "If you didn't fly with that shit you, would've hit me." He replied cheekily, pulling down the quilt.
Kate rolled over and sat up with a sigh. "What?" she asked half pissed off, half amused.
"I need a drummer," Rick announced.
"Pardon?"
"I need a drummer," the Writer repeated, getting off the bed and pulling on his black silk pyjama bottoms. "Well someone who's good with a saucepan and wooden spoon anyway."
"Rick, are you on drugs?" Kate asked in confusion as she wiped the sleep from her eyes.
"No I am not on drugs," Rick assured her as he pulled on his robe "C'mon, get up and put some PJ's on. I need your help."
"What for?"
"It's been tradition for the previous seventeen years to wake Alexis up with a happy birthday song," Rick explained, pulling on his dressing gown and tying the belt. "Remember the episode of the Simpsons where that guy who thought he was Michael Jackson and Bart sang Lisa a Happy Birthday song?"
"Yeah, go on."
"Well I've tinkered with the lyrics and want to wake her up with the song," Rick explained, throwing Kate's claret coloured silk pyjamas onto the bed. "I need you to set a rhythm with a saucepan and wooden spoon and do-de doos while I sing and tap this tambourine I bought a few days ago. I promised Alexis when she became a teenager and started complaining she was grown up and 'too big for that anymore' I would only do it up to her eighteenth birthday. And that's today."
"Don't you want to keep it a tradition between you and her then?" Kate asked sleepily, pulling on her pyjama top and running her fingers through her mussed up hair.
"No because I love you, Alexis loves you and I want you to join in," Rick replied. "You're the first person I've ever been with since I've started this tradition that I've wanted to join in. Come on Kate, for me?"
Kate rolled her eyes.
"Let's just make this one thing very clear," she said, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and shimmying into her pyjama bottoms. "I am doing this because I love Alexis. I think you're a shit for waking me up at six o'clock in the morning on my weekend off."
Rick's face broke into the widest grin Kate had ever seen.
"Awesome, thanks Tulip," he said opening the bedroom door. 'C'mon."
Kate pulled on her dressing down and slipped her feet into her chicken feet slippers before following Rick out into the darkened loft.
"Don't you think she'll be awake and expecting this?" she whispered, following him into the kitchen.
"Nah, you may have noticed but my daughter likes to sleep in, especially on the weekends," he replied, opening a cupboard next to the dishwasher and taking out a small saucepan used for heating milk. "She'll be dead to the world."
"Do you normally wake her up with a saucepan?" Kate enquired as Rick gave her the saucepan and a wooden spoon.
"Nah, last year it was drumsticks on the frame of her bed and when she turned fourteen it was a pair of plastic maracas," he replied with a grin reaching into a high cupboard and pulling out a cheap plastic tambourine. "She went through a phase of liking trance music when she was fifteen so I spent all day on the computer arranging this nightclub remix of Happy Birthday that I put on a CD and played full blast in her stereo system."
"I bet the neighbours liked that at six in the morning," Kate replied dryly as she padded across the floor after Rick and up the steps to the second floor where Alexis' bedroom was.
"Ready?" Rick whispered.
"Yup."
Rick led the way, making his way into Alexis' room and over to the edge of her bed.
"Lexie," he called employing Alexis' childhood nickname. "Wake up pumpkin."
Alexis creased her brow and snuggled into her pillow in her sleep.
"I can't believe you're doing this to her!" Kate hissed half mortified half amused as the Writer grasped his daughter's shoulder and shook it. "Oh Rick, this is mean!"
"Isn't it?" Rick replied with a chuckle. "Lex come on sweetheart up and at 'em rise and shine you have an exam today."
"Oh Richard Castle, that is mean!" Kate hissed with a snigger of laughter as Alexis began to wake.
"Whaat Daaaaad?" Alexis groaned.
Rick stood up and with a grin began tapping a rhythm on the dresser with his tambourine
"`Lexis, it's your birthday God bless you this day, you gave me the gift of a baby daughter and I'm proud of you today..."
Kate started up with a beat on the saucepan and spoon and threw in a few 'Doo de doos' for good measure. Rick grinned and continued singing.
"`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis
`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis.
I wish you love and good will, I wish you peace and jooooy!
I wish you better than your heart desires and your first kiss from a boy."
"I've already had my first kiss from a boy," Alexis pointed out with a sleepy giggle.
"Not the point!" Rick declared with a grin as he really got into the performance. "Work with me Lex!"
"`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis
`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis
Yeah!"
Kate had gotten the gist of the lyrics, remembering the Simpsons episode form which the original song came and bravely began to sing all the while banging away on the saucepan and spoon.
"`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis
`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis."
I wish you love and good will I wish you peace and joy, I wish you better than your heart desires and your first kiss from a boy.
`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis
`Lexis, it's your birthday Happy birthday, `Lexis. "
"Take it away, Kate!"
With a great snort of laughter Rick watched as Kate began dancing and playing the saucepan and spoon solo. The female detective beckoned to him and together they danced and played their way toward the end of the song.
"`Lexis, it's your birthday, happy birthday, `Lexiiiiiiiiis!"
"Daaaaaaaaaaaad you goof!" Alexis groaned sleepily but the biggest of smiles upon her face. "I've been saying for years I'm too old for this!"
Rick sat upon the edge of Alexis's bed and engulfed her in a hug.
"Happy Birthday Pumpkin," he murmured, his voice muffled by Alexis's long red tresses. "Ah my little girl is now a big girl. I'm going to miss this."
Kate leaned against the frame of the bedroom and smiled as Alexis returned her father's hug
"I'm going to miss it too Dad," she informed him. "Can I go back to sleep now?"
Rick laughed. "Nope it's breakfast time!" he declared cheerfully. "Last year of singing and last year of chocolate smiley face pancakes. You've got to eat now. Remember Paige and Kelsey are coming to pick you up for a day on the town at eleven. If you eat now, you'll have the time to go back to bed for a couple of hours. Logic! You're the one always confusing me with yours!"
Kate let out an amused snort of laughter.
"He's got you there Alexis," she said. "Happy Birthday. I hope you have a great day. Eighteen is a great age to be. It was for me."
"Thanks, Kate. Thanks a lot," Alexis replied with a smile. "Awesome work on the saucepan and spoon. You ought to join the percussion section of the NYPD band."
Rick roared with laughter.
"Ha ha," Kate said rolling her eyes. "You're Dad and I will see you downstairs alright?"
"Yup!"
Kate and Rick left Alexis's room and made their way downstairs where they began gathering the ingredients for chocolate smiley face pancakes.
"So chocolate smiley face pancakes are a birthday tradition?" Kate inquired.
"Oh yeah every birthday morning since she was three," Rick replied with a whimsical sigh. "A three stack plate with the smiley face made out of chocolate buttons topped with maple syrup and two scoops of chocolate ripple ice cream, a squirt of hot fudge sauce and a decorative squirt of cream. When she was small I would only make pikelets and make the smiley face with chocolate sauce. But when she started school she moved onto pancakes and the smiley face made from chocolate buttons. We have pancakes all the time but it's only on her birthday we have chocolate smiley face ones."
"God it's a wonder your pancreases haven't had a fit and burst!" Kate exclaimed in disbelief.
"Ah it's only once a year," Rick replied cheerfully, measuring flour into a mixing bowl. "You should try it, it's an orgiastic feast for the senses."
"My diet before we started dating was boring I swear it was," Kate said dryly, fetching a container of chocolate buttons from the pantry. "I don't think I've eaten normally since Halloween."
"Aw but its good fun isn't it?" Rick countered with a grin as Alexis padded down the stairs clad in a dressing down and horse hoof slippers her iPhone in hand. "I promise after today we'll go back to muffins or cereal for breakfast whenever you're over, okay?"
"Okay."
"I've already got a hundred and fifty birthday messages on Facebook," Alexis said, sliding into one of the barstools as she flicked around on Facebook.
"Do you even know a hundred and fifty people?" Rick asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No of course not but that's not the point of Facebook," Alexis replied with a grin as she set her phone down. "I only know maybe thirty. You don't know most of the people on Facebook either and you get more than a hundred and fifty messages every birthday."
"She's confusing you with logic again," Kate told the Writer with a giggle as he made a 'you got me' face. "Nice one Lex"
And the two women slapped a high five.
"So what are you, Paige and Kelsey up to today?" Rick asked as he cracked an egg into the mixing bowl. "Or don't I want to know?"
"Don't worry Dad, we're not doing anything stupid," Alexis assured her father. "We're catching a matinee session of Wicked at twelve thirty, then after that we're going to hit Bloomingdales, Barneys and Macy's and the spa before coming back her to get ready for dinner at Spice Market tonight with you, Kate and Grams. I invited Grams to come along to the Spa but she said something about taking one of her students to an audition for the new production of Phantom starting at the end of summer."
Rick and Kate shared a covert look, knowing that Martha's excuse was only a cover so she could finish decorating the main studio room for Alexis' surprise party later that night.
"So have you thought about what College you're going to pick?" Kate asked, pouring Alexis a glass or orange juice. "You've got nine to choose from."
"I knoooooooooow!" Alexis groaned. "My second choice after Stanford was Harvard and I'm really leaning toward that. Yale and Princeton second and third because of the Scholarships, but then Dartmouth has a great mental health studies faculty and so does Cornell. Gaaaah the deciding sucks!"
"Well if it's any consolation pumpkin, deciding which College to go to with so much choice is not going to be the hardest decision you ever make in your life," Rick advised his daughter, sagely. "You've got til mid August to decide. Don't sweat, you'll come to the right decision for you in time."
"Mmm, listen to you be all sensible now, Writer Man. Don't let that get out or the hoards will drop off," Kate teased furtively, brushing her hand over the Writer's backside as she made her way over to the refrigerator. "And we wouldn't want that would we?"
"Yeah, just imagine if word got out that you were sensible Dad all your Twitter followers would disappear." Alexis piped up as Rick vigorously mixed the pancake batter.
"My two favourite girls are mean to me," he grumbled, the hint of a smile upon his lips.
"Aw, we know you love it," Kate teased, getting up on her toes and dropping a kiss on his lips. "If you didn't, you wouldn't leave yourself open for so much teasing."
"Hmmm."
"So when are you going to pick up Alexis' car?" Kate asked a few hours later once Alexis had departed for midtown with Kelsey and Paige.
"I have to be at the car yard at two thirty," Rick replied, accepting a mug of coffee from the female detective. "Then I'm going to La Guardia to pick up Meredith. That'll be fun."
"I thought you and Meredith got on?" Kate asked in surprise. "I mean a few years ago you were occasionally hooked up when she came to town."
"Oh that only happened once or twice after Gina and I divorced and around the time I started at the precinct," Rick replied. "It's just this is the first of Alexis' birthdays she's actually attended. The first one in eighteen years. All the previous ones she's just sent a present and card and rung on the day. A little bit of me is suspicious as to why now she's decided to come up."
"Well maybe she's regretting not being there for Alexis as much as she could've been in the past," Kate suggested. "Her daughter is turning eighteen and is officially an adult and she won't have anymore 'little girl' moments with her. Maybe she's regretting what happened all those years ago. Maybe she regrets cheating on you, maybe she regrets not actually being a Mom."
"Well if that's the case I just wish she realised it sooner than now," Rick said with a sigh. "I mean I don't regret bringing Alexis up on my own, as I told you last night being a Dad is the best thing I've ever done and ever will do but I can't help wonder how things would've turned out if she'd had a strong steady mother figure in her life. She certainly didn't get it from her own mother and definitely not from Gina, from when we met to when we divorced was three years total."
"Yet she's turned out to be a wonderful, mature, kind, funny and caring young woman," Kate said sitting next to Rick on the sofa and running her fingers through his hair "you've done a wonderful job of bringing Alexis up Rick despite what's happened in your own personal life. You don't need to wonder about what might have happened because in the end it doesn't matter. Alexis has turned out to be someone you're proud of, and who Martha's proud of."
"Yeah I know, I just can't help but wonder 'what if'," Rick replied with a smile. "Like how things would've turned out if I'd met you ten years ago and married you instead of Gina."
"Eh, we probably would've ended up divorced. It's only been since Kevin and Jenny's wedding that I'd thought it'd be nice to get married myself," Kate replied. "I was a handful when I was in my twenties."
"Ah, you're a handful now," Rick teased. "You know you are Little Miss Independent."
"Oh shut up," Kate retorted rolling her eyes. "I meant that back when I was in my early twenties and I had a lot of unresolved emotional issues that I've only just started to deal with since I was shot. If we were meant to have met before we actually did, we would have. It was meant to be the way we met and ultimately ended up together."
"Katherine Beckett, you ol' romantic." Rick teased as he put an arm around the female detective and pulled her close.
"That stays within the walls of this loft, Writer Boy," Kate scolded, slapping his broad chest playfully. "Got it?"
"Oooh Writer Boy, you haven't brought that one out for a while," Rick said with a chuckle, dipping his head to kiss Kate on the neck. "Care to say it again?"
Kate shivered as the Writer rested his coffee mug on the side table and slipped a hand under her shirt.
"Convince me," she whispered.
"If I hadn't promised Meredith I'd pick her up, I'd spend the rest of the day in bed with you," Rick told Kate as he pulled on his shirt after an athletic two hours of making love. "Damn my sense of morality."
Kate giggled and snuggled into the bedcovers, the sheets still alluringly twisted around her naked form.
"We'll have a couple of hours after you get back from dropping the car off at the school," she said, poking her foot out from under the covers and nudging Rick in the thigh. "Maybe we can continue along this line of entertainment before Alexis gets home?"
Rick lunged at Kate and smashed his lips down upon hers. "Maybe, if you're a good girl," he growled against her neck. "Stay naked."
Kate twisted and let out a shriek of laughter as Rick blew a loud wet raspberry on her neck.
"You shit!" she yelped, twisting away from him. "Go on, go and pick up Alexis' car. Pull that crap again and you're not getting any til her nineteenth birthday!"
Rick chuckled.
"I love you Kate Beckett," He murmured in her ear.
"I love you too Richard Castle, now go, the sooner you leave the sooner you get back and help keep me warm."
Two and a half hours later Rick returned to the loft to find Kate pottering around the kitchen just wearing her purple satin robe, her latest purchase from Victoria Secret.
"Hey, how did it go?" The female detective asked as he hung his jacket up on the coat stand by the door.
"As I expected," Rick said dryly, entering the kitchen and wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. "Meredith is and always will be a tornado. She whirls into town, caused shitloads of mayhem then leaves leaving those behind to deal with the fall out. I took her to the Waldorf to drop off her bags then over to Mother's acting school where she tried to assume the role of chief party planner til Mother put her in her place in a way only Martha Rodgers can."
"And how did Meredith react?" Kate asked, switching on the kettle.
"All she managed to get out was 'I am Alexis' Mom' before I stepped in and pulled her out of the room, then on the ride back to the Waldorf I told her in no uncertain terms that she may be Alexis's mother but never at any point as she been her Mom. A present, card and a phone call on her birthday and a flying visit for a shopping spree once in a while does not constitute parenting. I then went on to say the organising of her party was totally the responsibility of Mother, Kelsey, Paige and you. She bristled when I brought you up. Evidently Gina isn't the only one of my ex wives that still want to be Mrs Castle."
"Great, so I'm going to have to deal with the stink eye form her tonight?" Kate asked dryly.
Rick lowered his lips to Kate's neck and kissed along the line of her clavicle.
"Nah, I think you'll be alright," he murmured, undoing the belt of her robe and cupping her breasts in his hands. "I stuck up for you big time. I told her that you were my soul mate and third and final time lucky and I had told Gina the same thing. I had no intention of going back to either of them and that I'm a different person now than I was when I was married to her. Then she shut it up."
Kate squirmed as Rick squeezed her nipples playfully
"So I don't need to be kissing you like a randy teenager within her eye shot at the party?"
"Nah, Meredith is not the challenging type. She may be jealous that you're my girl but she hasn't got the balls to do anything about it."
"Good."
"But she did finish off by telling me she's landed the 'role of her career' and filming starts in L.A on Monday," Rick went on. "And I think you'll enjoy the irony of it."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, she's landed on a role in CSI Miami as a homicide detective in the MDPD," Rick revealed with a snort of laughter. "Detective Sarah Manning."
Kate couldn't help it and fell about laughing.
"Interesting," she replied with a giggle. "God, the gossip media are going to find out and there'll be comparisons in the papers, I bet ya."
"Yeah, most likely but you're an expert at dealing with the gossip media and paparazzi, your performance at Weldon's New Year's Eve party was a testament to that," Rick replied. "And you've never been bothered on the job so I think whatever happens you'll sail through it."
Kate leaned back into her Writer's embrace with a happy sigh.
"I hope you're not too worked up," she purred, putting her hands over his. "I was bored while you were out and resorted to playing the cow milking app on my cell."
Rick chucked.
"And what was your best time?" he asked softly, sweeping aside her messy brunette tresses and pressing a kiss to the nape of her neck.
"I can't remember," Kate answered in a sultry voice. "My phone is in the bedroom, want to help me find it?"
And before the Writer could answer Kate turned around and kissed him.
"Daaaaaaaaad, I'm hooooooome!" Alexis called in a sing song voice as she arrived home two hours later a little after 6PM. "Sorry I'm late the traffic in Midtown is foul!"
"Shit!" Rick hissed from the bedroom as he lay over Kate poised to suckle upon the enormous hickey on the left side of her neck. "Alright honey, I'll be out soon Kate and I are getting ready for tonight."
"No problem, take your time!" Alexis answered cheerfully, her travelling voice indicating she was heading up the stairs to her bedroom.
Kate giggled.
"Her timing sucks," she said, running her fingers through Rick's hair and kissing him languidly.
"MmMmmm, no, it isn't we just got carried away with each other and forgot what time it was," Rick replied, rolling off the female detective and landing on the messed up covers of the bed with a soft flump. "One of these days I'm taking you up to the Hamptons just for the weekend so we don't have to hide and can do it where we want, when we want and not have to worry about anyone interrupting us."
"I'm not working next weekend either, how about then?" Kate asked cheerfully. "We can get to the precinct early, finish early and drive up at the end of shift. We'll get there well after dark but we can take turns driving and go to bed as soon as we get there."
Rick grinned.
"Sounds good," he said, sitting up with a sigh. "We actually better start getting ready or Alexis will definitely know what we've been up to. I don't like to be obvious."
"Could've fooled me."
"Ha ha."
"Alright Pumpkin, you ready to head off?" Rick called up the stairs an hour later. "Come on we have to head off and go get your Grams."
"Coming!" she called.
A moment later Alexis came floating down the stairs in a navy blue wrap around dress that matched perfectly with her eyes. She had put her hair up in a braided bun and several long wispy bangs hung down framing her round face perfectly. She had also applied a light touch of makeup and wore a spectacular pair of nosebleed high silver glitter platform pumps.
"So?" she asked, pausing at the top of the stairs hand on hip. "How do I look?"
"Wow, sweetheart you look beautiful!" Rick exclaimed, going all misty eyed as the auburn haired teen-no young woman descended the steps "oh this sucks, you're definitely not my little girl anymore."
Alexis allowed her father to hug her fiercely and leaned into the act of affection.
"Thanks Dad," she replied, flashing him a mega-watt smile. "Shall we go?"
"Hang on I want to take a picture of you two first!" Kate announced as she took her purse out of her clutch purse and opened the camera app. "One of you alone Alexis then one of you and your Dad together, so he can post on Twitter."
"Thought you'd posted one on Twitter already?" Alexis asked the Writer as he stepped away and Kate adjusted the settings on her phone.
"I have but it was a picture of you as an infant with 'my baby girl turns eighteen today' I want one of you a grown up on the day."
Alexis smiled and posed as Kate began snapping photos of her.
"I hope it wasn't the one of me when I was two and in diapers and rummaging around in the saucepan cupboard!" she exclaimed.
"No, actually it was the one if you on the day your Mom and I brought you home from the hospital," Rick revealed with a reminiscent smile. "The one where you're wearing a Tweety Bird onesie and looked like a punk because your red hear was sticking through the holes in the bonnet your Grams gifted you."
"Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!" Alexis groaned.
"Ah give me this one kiddo, it's the last time I can treat you like a little girl," Rick told the teenager with a smile as Kate snapped away. "After today, whatever you do in life is going to be as an independent young woman not hanging off my coat tails. Confucius was right, growing up does suck."
"Oh Confucius did not say that," Kate exclaimed dryly, swiftly putting all the solo pictures of Alexis into a folder and emailing them to Rick's private email address. "That pearl of wisdom is purely your own."
"Growing up doesn't suck, Dad. Its awesome!" Alexis declared brightly as Rick stood by her side and put an arm around her waist.
"I'll remind you of that statement in twenty years time when your first child is grown up and heading off to College," Rick told his daughter. "Yes growing up is fun but it sucks for the parents."
"Okay you two smile!" Kate called. "Say cheese!"
"Fromage!"
Kate took several silly and serious pictures of Rick and Alexis then sent them as an email attachment to the pair before putting her phone back in her own clutch purse.
'Hang on I want to get a picture of my two favourite girls together before we go" Rick piped up retreiving his own iPhone from within his jacket pocket "I need a new laptop desktop background."
"Dad you must have hundreds of pics of me and Kate can't you pic one of those?" Alexi asked going pink as Kate walked up to her and slipped a slander arm around her waist.
"I could but I love you two ladies so much I want to document every minute of my time with you," rick told Alexis "especially now you're almost off at college your time here is going to come to an end soon. I'm your father do I need an excuse to take you picture?" he added with a cheesy grin.
"You're a clown Dad." The rehead told the Writer dryly.
"Yeah but you love me," Rick replied snapping several pictures of his two favourite women "alright that's it, shall we head off?" he added holding his arm out to Alexis. "Let's get your Grams and hit the town, The Spice Market is expecting us."
Only half an hour later Kate, Rick and Alexis arrived at the 'Martha Rodgers School of Acting' to 'pick up' Martha. Rick cut the engine of the Ferrari out the front of the modest SoHo building and made his way through a pin secured door which revealed a set of steps leading up to the apartment Martha lived in. He lifted a fist and knocked smartly bouncing on the balls of his feet.
A moment later the door swung open and Martha appeared. She opened her arms and greeted her son in her ever present enthusiastic manner.
"Richard darling!" she declared kissing him on each cheek. "You scrub up well kiddo."
"Thanks, you should see Lex, she really does look like a grown up," Rick informed his mother as she strode through the door and turned to lock it. "I almost cried as she came down the stairs. My little girl is all grown up."
"It's tough seeing your only child grow up darling," Martha confessed. "I went through the same thing when you graduated from Edgewick. And it was worse when Alexis was born. When your baby has his own baby, you know your job is done and that's hard to come to terms with."
"Well I hope Alexis waits longer than I did to have kids," Rick replied as they began descending the stairs. "I'm not ready to be a grandfather yet. I haven't finished having kids yet."
"Have you told Kate this?" Martha asked, her whole visage lighting up like Broadway.
"Yeah, it came up in conversation the other night," Rick revealed. "It came up that I wasn't dealing with Lex growing up as well as I thought and then it moved on to her changing her mind to wanting kids. And you know I couldn't help but imagine having kids with Kate, Mother. I have never daydreamed like that before in my life but that night when she fell asleep before me, I lay watching her breathe and imagined her being pregnant. God why did that, of all things happen?"
"It happened because Kate is your soul mate, darling," Martha informed her son. "And when you're with your soul mate, you think about things like having children with them. And I've always been of the opinion you are not meant to be a father to just one, you're meant to be the father to many and I knew once you met Kate she would be the person you could be that person with."
"Really? And you never said anything?"
"It wasn't my place sweetheart, back then Kate wasn't ready to be in a relationship with anyone, let alone you and it had only been six months since you and Gina divorced. You weren't ready for anything either. Now I can foresee a future where you and Kate are surrounded by Caskett mini me's."
Rick stopped in his tracks halfway down the staircase.
"Alright one, I cannot believe you just used the paparazzi couple name the press have given Kate and I and two, I can't believe you used the phrase 'Caskett mini me's' Kate would pass out laughing on hearing that."
"Eh so sue me, I'm a Caskett shipper." Martha replied with a grin giving him a little shove.
"Okay, Kate would pass out, wake up then hyperventilate and pass out laughing again on hearing that!" Rick exclaimed.
"Maybe, but there are a lot of Caskett shippers out there darling, you're just too busy giving Kate goo goo eyes to notice."
"Hmph, alright so everyone's inside?"
"They are, and I have the perfect plan to get Alexis inside, just go with it okay?"
"Sure."
Rick followed Martha down the remaining steps and out onto the sidewalk. Alexis lit up and gave her grandmother a wave.
"Hey Grams!" she said brightly.
"Hey kiddo Happy Birthday you look gorgeous," Martha said airily. "I have a couple of things for your father inside and I need a bit of a hand with the load in the trunk, can you give me a hand? You too Kate. My back is a bit sore and I can't lift anything."
Kate caught Rick's eyes and wordlessly he tried to give her a 'just go with it' look. The female detective nodded surreptitiously and got out of the car following Alexis onto the sidewalk and over to the main entrance of the school. Martha retrieved a set of keys from her purse and stuck it into the brass deadlock turning it fluidly.
"There are three boxes just inside the main hall door, darling," Martha informed Alexis as the teen made her way through the darkened foyer. "They're not big but they're a bit heavy for me at the moment.
"No problem Grams."
Alexis took her iPhone out of her purse and turned on the flashlight app using the thin stream of light to guide her way along the hallway to the one room in the whole building where Martha's students gave their theatrical performances. Martha, Kate and Rick stayed behind a little and watched their collective breaths held as the youngest Castle got to the door of the theatre room and reached inside the ajar door to flick the light on...
A/N2: There you go peoples a little cliffie for you! Remember love is reviews (I only got one review last chappie **Sad Face**)