A/N: Please see disclaimer in Chapter 1. Beta'd by the lovely NinaK.05 and a dear friend.

Chapter 10: Ace-to-Fives

Rick isn't sure what to think. His mother, arrested - sure, he could believe that. But Jim! On-the-straight-and-narrow-path Jim?

"I'll be right there, Mother. Which police station are you at?"

A muffled conversation on the other side, before Martha quickly rattles off the location of the 12th Precinct - Rick mutters tersely back that he'll be there as soon as he can.

He looks down at Alexis. It's too late to find a sitter, but he can't possibly bring her into the station. But there's no one he can call, and he obviously can't leave her home alone. He sighs, and his daughter looks at him questioningly.

"Papa?"

Damn it! He curses, and almost indulges in his childish urge to kick his couch. Of course he can't bring her to the police station. What am I thinking!

He sighs. He might as well try the sitter. After promising to pay triple the usual going rate, the sitter finally agrees, and arrives at the loft not ten minutes later, dressed inappropriately for babysitting his daughter (though he can't bring himself to care at the moment, and Alexis is already tired, so he doubts she'll be up for more than half an hour after he's gone). He kisses his daughter goodnight, promising to be back in the morning in time to send her off to school. She takes the news that he is going out with unusual aplomb. He isn't sure if he should feel proud or guilty.

It's a wet night, and the traffic moves unbearably slow, especially for Rick. The inching of the taxi does nothing for his stress, and he can feel the beginnings of a headache coming on. He remembers to call his lawyer in the cab, but that's all his nervous state allows.

It's a surprisingly short ride from his loft to the precinct, though the information itself holds no comfort for Rick.

Upon arrival, he springs on the desk sergeant. "I'm looking for Martha Rodgers and Jim Beckett?"

The other man is clearly bored and falling asleep; he grunts a little bit before directing him towards someone who can tell him anything – a deadbeat detective, by the looks of it. "Detective John Raglan."

He offers his hand, but Rick has no wish to shake it, not with the amount of sheer greasiness the man oozes. He does it anyway. "You are…?"

"Rick Castle, here for Martha Rodgers and Jim Beckett. My lawyer will be with me soon," Rick says, tension rolling off of him in waves. "Why on earth were my mother and Jim arrested?"

"Not arrested, we're just asking them some questions in an ongoing investigation," Raglan answers smoothly. Rick still doesn't like the guy, and likes him even less when Raglan offers him a seat on a rickety chair, one that is likely to fall apart the minute he sits on it.

"I'm good, thanks. I'll just wait here for my lawyer," Rick replies. Almost as soon as the words are out of his mouth, his lawyer walks out of the elevator.

"Rick, m'boy!" Yes, it's a little awkward that his lawyer is his mother's ex-boyfriend, but Rick mentally shrugs – his mother can deal with it, especially if he's the one saving her butt. "Bob, thanks for coming down."

"Not a problem, Ricky," Bob replies. "Let's see what trouble your mother's gotten into." He turns to Raglan, who is actually twiddling his thumbs (who does that? Rick thinks incredulously to himself). "Robert Weldon, attorney-at-law, here for Martha Rodgers and James Beckett. Lead the way, detective."

Rick is offered coffee by another detective – Montgomery, or something like that – but immediately wants to spit it out. If this is coffee, he doesn't want to know what battery acid tastes like.

Finally, an hour later, Bob, Martha, and Jim, are out of interrogation. Rick can just see the exhaustion on his mother and Jim's faces.

Raglan pulls Jim aside and whispers something in his ear, something that makes Jim's face darken – not a good sign.

They walk out the door together, and Bob pats Rick on the shoulder. "I'll just send you my bill along with everything else, Ricky. Goodnight, now."

"Thanks, Bob," Rick replies. "You have a good night, too."

As soon as Bob gets into a cab, he turns to the other two. "Let's go home."

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Jim ends up coming back to the loft with them, Rick having offered his spare bedroom. Jim refuses at first, of course, but Martha manages to wheedle him into staying with hyperbolic descriptions of Jim's empty old house.

When they arrive, the three of them enter into the loft quietly. Rick quickly pays the sitter, and pours his mother and Jim both cups of hot cocoa, before checking up on Alexis.

She's sleeping, clutching onto her blanket, with a little smile gracing her face. Rick, though tired
and feeling grouchy, smiles, and closes the door gently.

He joins the others at the table. "I have spare sheets and blankets already set up in the guest bedroom, if you want to head to bed now, Jim."

Jim shakes his head. "I don't think I'll be able to sleep tonight, but thank you, Rick." The gentle man's eyes look more than a bit haunted.

Martha squeezes his hand gently, "I don't think I will, either, tonight. Not after what's happened."

"What did happen, Mother?"

"Martha and I, we were just on our way to pick up Jerry and Anne for our night out to the opera," Jim says, his cocoa trembling in his hand. He gives up trying to drink from it and sets it on the table. "We were just discussing whether or not I should try to get Katie to come home – it's been four months since she moved out – when we saw the open door at Jerry's place."

"You have to know, darling, that the Dunlops' never leave their door open," adds Martha. "The suspicious of everyone type." And then she's in tears, genuine ones, not the fake crocodile tears Rick is used to seeing. Rick offers her a Kleenex. "I'm sorry, kiddo. It's just hard to realize that we'll never see Jerry and Anne again."

"What happened?"Rick prods again.

"We found them in the living room," replies Jim grimly. "Just…dead, on the sofas, with the most horrible expressions on their faces. It was awful."

"We immediately called 911, of course," Martha continues, wringing her hands. "And then that awful Detective Raglan showed up."

"I didn't think I'd have enough bad luck to see that man twice," Jim mutters, shaking his head.

"Twice?" asks Martha.

"…He wouldn't have been the one investigating Johanna's death, would he?" Rick adds on to his mother's question.

"Yes, he was," Jim replies. "That man…there's something about him that rubs me the wrong way."

Rick nods. "I agree... But I don't understand. If you weren't suspects…how did you end up in the precinct?"

"We thought we could leave, when they asked us to come down to the station with them to give them a statement," replies Martha. "And then they shove us into that awful interrogation room! As if we hadn't been through enough!"

"That's odd," muses Rick.

"Odd is right!" exclaims Martha. "Luckily for me, I've read enough of your books to know that I had a phone call. So then we called you, and that we weren't saying another word until we had a lawyer."

Jim is playing with his cocoa, clearly still ill at ease.

"Jim?" inquires Rick. "What did that detective say to you as we were leaving?"

Jim's face turns ashen. "N-N-Nothing."

Rick doesn't push, knowing that both of them are probably still in shock more than anything. The rest of the night is spent in front of the television, as sleep seems to be impossible, at least in the near future.

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Rick tucks blankets around Jim and his mother as soon as they fall asleep; he then retreats quietly into his study. There's a story here, something he's missing. Is it too much to chalk up the same man looking into the same family twice as a coincidence?

He's exhausted. Maybe he's turning paranoid, seeing conspiracies where there are none. He hasn't been sleeping well the last while, and his daughter tells him he has funny bags under his eyes every morning. He isn't even sure he recognizes himself in the mirror anymore.

On a whim, he pulls out his makeshift murder board and starts to put up both the Dunlops' and Johanna's murder. Seeing her picture on his board reminds him briefly of his grief, and he is conscious of the fact that though the pain might ease, it would not ever disappear completely, even after all these months.

But for once, he is fine with the realization, and acknowledges that he's finally been able to move on without dismissing the blessing Johanna had been in his life.

His focus snaps back onto the murder board. While he doesn't like Raglan, he also doesn't have proof that he's involved - maybe it just is a coincidence.

Wait. Why was the detective in the 12th? Johanna's murder... wasn't anywhere near this area of town! Either he didn't belong in the 12th, or he didn't belong in the other precinct in charge of investigating Johanna's murder. Rick sits on his desk, trying to wrap his mind around the bigger picture. And what was it that he said that made Jim react the way he did?

His mind begins whirring, his imagination trying to fill in the blanks. What had Kate said that night? They said it was just a random mugging.

And finally, Even if I do figure out what's going on, where am I going to take this?

He decides to go to bed and resolves to talk to Jim in the morning.

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He wakes up to an armful of Alexis in the morning; sometime during the night she must have crawled into his bed without waking him up. Dr. Connors had told him that though he should try to keep Alexis in her own bed, it was all right if she slept in his bedroom on occasion, but he shouldn't make a habit of it. He extricated his daughter from himself, and began to prep for the day. Usually, he would sleep in, but the occurrences of the day before had lit his curiosity on fire.

He's the first person awake in the house. Jim and his mother are still on the sofa, and he tiptoes into the kitchen quietly to begin breakfast.

Soon, the smells are enough to wake the entire household from their slumber.

He pretends not to see his mother and Jim looking awkwardly at each other and then at him, but he can't ignore his daughter's crying.

He doesn't even make it halfway up the stairs before a little tiny mass propels towards him, nearly sending them both tumbling down the stairs. He can't bring himself to yell, instead, he picks up his daughter, and holds her. "Shhh… I'm still here. Your Papa is here..."

He carries her down the stairs, where fortunately his mother has taken care of the cooking. "Look, Alexis, Grams has your favourite Bunny pancakes for you!"

She peeks her tiny face from out of her hiding place in his chest, and sniffles loudly. Eventually, she nods her agreement to sitting at the table, and Rick wants to tell her she doesn't have school today – but this would probably be entirely counterproductive towards the work Alexis has been doing with Dr. Connors.

The doorbell suddenly goes off, insistently. Rick glances at the clock; barely passed seven – who could it be, at this hour? He peers out the peephole, and is surprised at what he sees.

Kate.

He opens the door. "What do you want?"

She pushes past him. "Dad!"

Jim's face lets Rick know that he has no idea she would come, which placates Rick's brief anger.

She throws himself into her father's arms. "Dad, I was so worried when I heard your voice mail! I'm so sorry I wasn't there last night…"

"There, there, Katie-bug." Jim is openly weeping. "It's all right now. Rick got us out of there."

She turns reluctantly towards Rick. "I guess I owe you thanks – again."

He doesn't really hear the words she's spoken, his attention occupied by his daughter, who has by now scooted behind him, hiding. The anger that had been quietened swells again by the tears rolling down his daughter's face.

That's it, he thinks, She's not going to school today. He cradles his daughter, and casts a baleful look at Kate's direction, before leaving dramatically to his daughter's room.

His daughter is trembling from head to toe. The sheer panic in her eyes is enough to undo him, and her hyperventilation sends him into near panic.

"Breathe, Alexis, breathe," he pleads. "C'mon Pumpkin, breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out." As she hiccups slowly back into normal breathing, he lets out a sigh of relief, "That's it, Pumpkin, that's it."

She won't let go of him, which is probably better for Kate, because he really wants to kill her right now, he thinks.

They sit there for a while, until gradually Alexis falls asleep, exhausted from her ordeal. He tucks her in again, and leaves a kiss on her forehead.

He quietly leaves the room.

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She's still there when he comes back into the kitchen.

She's still here.

Clenching his fists tightly, he – literally – stalks up to her. "What. The. Hell. Have you done to my daughter?!"

She's afraid. He can see it in her eyes. In the background he can see his mother coming to calm the situation, but surprisingly, it is Jim who pulls her back. Rick's grateful.

"You walk out of her life without so much as a by-your-leave, and then you just come waltzing back in! As if she isn't in enough pain. You know what her therapist said? She's suffering from Abandoned Child Syndrome, and she's named you as one of the people who's hurt her. Maybe it's my fault," for letting you near her. He pauses, leaving those words unsaid – though it hangs in the air for a bit – but pushes further as a twisted part of him crows at the tears welling in her eyes. "And even if you don't care… Have you seen your father lately? Oh, right, because then you'd know that your little disappearing act has hurt the person who least deserves it. As if your father isn't in enough pain," Rick sneers. "You selfish little – " He shakes his head. "No, you know what? I'm not even going to go there."

She doesn't back down, though her eyes are downcast. "Y-y-you don't know what I've been through."

"No, I don't," Rick says. "And frankly, maybe I would if you had been around – my mother is with your father enough. My daughter loved you. She looked up to you. She trusted you. Your father loves you. You walked away from everything because you wouldn't deal with your grief. Because you were selfish enough to think that you were the only one in your grief."

He should feel guilty about tearing into a teenager. Maybe he's too harsh; she's young. What does she know? He certainly didn't know a thing until everything in his life fell apart.

"Have you even told your father about joining the police academy?" He asks, fully exploiting every weak spot. He knows she hasn't told him.

Now she's furious, he can tell. "You have no right – !"

"I didn't think so," he taunts.

"Richard," his mother warns. "That's enough."

"Why, Mother?" he flings back, childishly. "It's all true." But the look on Jim's face makes him want to take it all back.

"Katie…is this true?" Jim is clearly shocked. "Is this true?"

Defeated, Kate hangs her head. "It's true, Daddy. I'm entering the police academy next month."

"Why – " The words won't come out of Jim's mouth.

"So I can find Mom's killer," Kate pleads. "Daddy, just listen, please…"

"… Katie…"

At this point, his mother drags Rick out of the room to give Kate and Jim space, and closes the door to his office firmly behind them.

"Richard Alexander Rodgers." Rick visibly gulps. His mother is definitelynot happy with him. "I am, very, very disappointed in you."

"Mother…" He feels like a nine year old who has just been dragged off the playground for being naughty. "Did you see Alexis?"

"Yes," she replies, "But I also saw Kate. She's still a child, Richard."

"No, she's an adult," he replies petulantly.

"As are you," she says patiently, tapping a finger on Rick's chest. "And I didn't see two adults in the room back there."

Luckily for Rick, the phone rings right then, saving him from thinking or responding to his mother. He shouldn't answer it, but he does. "Castle household, Rick speaking."

"Richard! It's Stephen," he hears on the other side. "I was wondering if you'd like to play a little poker with us? It'll be a small group, just Patterson, Connelly, and Connelly's new protégé, Walters."

"Sure," replies Rick. "Just let me know when and where."

"Tonight, my place?"

"Sounds great." Anything to get away from this drama. "See you tonight."

He hangs up the phone, and looks at his mother guiltily.

"Just think about it, Richard. What if you had lost me when you were nineteen and only starting to find your way around in the world?"

For a writer, he finds himself at a loss for words quite a bit lately.

A/N: Can you believe it's the tenth chapter already? I honestly thought - when I first began this - that I wouldn't make it this far; and we still have a ways to go! I hope you enjoyed this chapter (especially given the extra thousand words this time around!). Unfortunately, due to real life things, I will not be posting for another three weeks (two for my assignments and things, and another week to write Chapter 11). If I have time, I will be posting up the out-takes I promised two chapters ago. All mistakes you find here are mine - I've done some major re-working after receiving the advice my betas gave.

This chapter is dedicated to all of the lovely reviewers I have - I honestly enjoy talking with my reviewers and answering whatever questions you have. And RobinKate? An especial thank you goes to you for making my day...honestly, when I received your PM, I may have jumped up and down for joy. So, thank you for your kind words; they are so much appreciated.

As always, please leave me a review. I would love to know what you thought of this chapter, and where you think this story is headed.

Until next time, Ce'Nelenia