Disclaimer: I don't own Castle

Rick hung up his phone as he walked out of his office, he spotted Jo sitting on the living room couch, doing her homework. "Good, you're home. I need you to babysit your brothers and sister Friday night. Gina set up an appearance for your mother and I at a charity event."

"School was fine, thanks for asking," Jo said, not looking away from her textbook. "I can't Friday. I have plans."

"Excuse me? Last I checked, you were grounded. You can't have plans."

"You said no TV, no computer. You never said anything about going out."

Rick opened his mouth then closed it again, sitting in the chair next to the couch. "It was implied. What are these plans?"

"Uh… I'm getting pizza with some kids from school."

"With Matt?"

Jo shrugged innocently. "He'll probably be there."

"Right," he said, nodding as he stood. "You're not going."

"What? That's not fair."

"Be happy we let out of your bedroom."

"I thought you were proud of me. I had a good reason…"

"I'm happy that you stood up for yourself but your mom was right, you can't just hit people. You're being punished because of what you did, not why you did it. Cancel your plans, you're babysitting."

Jo sighed. "Why can't Ricky watch Luke and Sara? Just make sure to leave food he can microwave and lock anything he can accidently blow up in Mom's gun safe."

Rick pinched the bridge of his nose. "Johanna, I'm not fighting with you about this. You are watching the kids on Friday. End of discussion."

"What about Aunt Lanie and Uncle Javi?" she asked as he walked away. "Sara can play with Mateo. Mom and Aunt Lanie are always saying how they need to take them to the park more often, joking about how someday they're gonna married. And the boys love hearing Uncle Javi's war stories."

"Jo," he said sternly. "I said no."

"Asshole," she muttered under her breath.

Rick paused for a moment before turning and going back to his daughter. "That's it. Give me your phone," he told her, holding his hand out.

"What?"

"Johanna, phone. Now."

"Fine, here." She pulled her cell phone out of the back pocket or her jeans and put it in her father's hand. "There's no texts from Matt, so don't bother looking."

"Cute. You can kiss this goodbye." He tossed the phone across the room, Jo jumped when she heard it hit the wall then the hardwood floor.

"Dad, what are you doing? Are you out of you mind?"

"You don't talk to me like that anymore. You think you're an adult, start acting like one and lose the attitude. No computer, you can hand write your homework from now on. Any research you need to do, you can use my computer with supervision."

"Dad…"

"I'm not done. You're not leaving this house except for school. I hope you see enough of Matt and your friends during the day because you're coming straight back here for the next three months."

"Three? What happened to two?"

"Let's see, you started talking back and disobeying us. Keep it up, Jo, we'll go for four."

Jo nodded silently while Rick, clearly fuming, took deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Take your homework, go to your room. I don't want to see you right now," he told her, going back to his office.

Rick was startled awake when Kate wrapped her arms around him from behind. He'd fallen asleep in his office, in his leather computer chair at his desk.

"It's been awhile since I found you sleeping in here," she whispered, then kissed his neck and squeezed his shoulders softly. "Jo called me at work."

"How? Her phone's lying in pieces on the living room floor."

"She told me that, she used Ricky's. Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Nope." He blinked and rubbed his eyes to clear the sleep out.

"I want to hear your side of things. She said she didn't do anything."

He shook his head. "You didn't hear what she said to me."

"Then tell me about it." She turned his chair around and sat in his lap. "What happened?"

He sighed softly, putting his arms around her waist. "She called me an asshole."

"Were you being one?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yes. Do you realize how many things of mine would have been broken if my parents decided to throw my stuff around every time I swore when I was her age?"

"I wasn't. I told her she had to babysit while we were out. Gina wants us to make an appearance at the fundraiser for the new community center. Jo wanted to go out that night."

"We can probably find another babysitter if she has plans."

"No, she doesn't have plans. She's grounded, she's been grounded. You were in the room, you remember."

"I do remember. You never said anything about her not being allowed out of the house."

He frowned. "Seriously? I have to say that specifically?"

She laughed softly, running a hand through his hair. "You're just bad at punishments. You're vague and then you go too far and start breaking things and, honestly, that's scary."

"She just got me so mad, Kate. Alexis never talked back to me, never."

"For the millionth time, Jo isn't Alexis. We're getting her a new phone. You can block all the numbers you want from contacting her but she needs a phone."

He released a breath. "I'm a horrible father."

"No, honey. No, you're not. It's been a long time since Alexis was a kid and the world is a different place. You're just… learning, we both are. Jo just happens to be a clone of me so I'm a step ahead of her most times."

"I should talk to her."

"Not tonight. You both need time to cool off. Besides, it's late and she has to be up for school in the morning."

He nodded. "Are we letting her go out on Friday?"

"Hell no, she's grounded. She was out of line with what happened today, I agree with you that she's not leaving the house. But we're paying her."

"Why? She already gets an allowance for doing nothing."

"I know she's been acting out but making her watch Luke and Ricky for a whole night is cruel and unusual punishment."

"Fine, but we're giving her half of what we give normal sitters. Not including the ones Ricky's set on fire."

AN: ok so… I don't really know where scary Hulk Castle came from in the first scene but like he said to Kate, dealing with a surly teen is new for him. That's just what the Castle in my head did. I have no control over him

AN2: and for those wondering about Lanie and Espo's son who was mentioned in the last few chapters, Mateo will have an official introduction, along with the Ryan kids. The Castle kids have more antics before that happens though.