I hope everyone has had a lovely Christmas and a happy New Year. Or at least one that was better than mine. Also, cookies for you if you can guess what the film Kate and Harry are watching. I know this is short, but the next few chapters will be fairly immense, I promise.

Disclaimer: does anybody else understand how weird it is writing fanfic about a person called Kate WHEN YOU ARE CALLED KATE.

He waits a week before he approaches Esposito. The ex-soldier is still a little wary of him, and Castle catches him giving him a sideways look at least five times a day, but out of Ryan and him, Esposito is the one more likely to do him a favour. He waits until Beckett is away, filing away the charges against the murderer that they have just successfully caught. Angry at the prospect of her roommate leaving her to move with her boyfriend, she'd smothered her and then tied her up in the park, covered in caramel sauce and then handcuffed to a climbing frame. He'd found a lot of pleasure in making Beckett squirm with her apparent knowledge of bondage shops in New York, but now, it's over, and with the Detective out of the way, he can ask Esposito without worrying that he's going to have his head chopped off.

"You want me to what?"

"I just want a look. I have contacts, I might be able to help!"

"Help? She shot the guy who killed her mother."

"Yes, but there's more behind it, isn't there? He was only a hired killer.

"You honestly think you could help?" Esposito is sceptical, and probably right to be, he is only a writer, after all.

"I don't know! That's why I'm asking to have a look. Just a peek. You know."

Esposito fixes him with a steely glare but Castle can tell that he's wavering slightly, and he adds his most charming grin, just to seal the deal. He's not entirely sure what it means when it works, he's never had to try it on a male before. "Fine, but if Beckett finds out that I did this, I will kick your ass so hard your mother will feel it."

He shouldn't find it quite so frankly awesome to be sneaking the file out of the precinct, right from under her nose, and under all the other officers and detectives and the Captain. It's like his own personal Mission Impossible, and he's practically giddy with it, bouncing on the balls of his feet because he just can't stay still. So much so that Beckett is constantly giving him sideward's looks as they step out of the precinct. He grins back, the same grin he used on Esposito not two hours ago, only it doesn't seem to work that well on her. It's usually met with a furrowed brow and a look that wishes him the most painful death. But right now he couldn't care, is too busy with keeping his arm tucked securely around his coat, pressing the file against his chest. Maybe she's a little suspicious, but that's okay because she's going to go her way, and he's going to go his, and as soon as he's in the cab he can be gleeful and giddy and pretend to be Ethan Hunt all he wants, and she won't be there to glare at him or tell him off. He won't see her tomorrow, she's only on call, and she's hoping to go out for the morning with Harry, some mother/daughter bonding time, and she point blank refuses to tell him what. It's not like he's going to accidentally on purpose plan on going there too, just so he gets time with her. No, not at all. Besides, if she does get a murder, she'd be bringing Harry straight to him. And that means she'd have to pick her up again. And maybe if it's late then maybe he could persuade her to stay over. If he just made Harry fall asleep again… get her in a bed… she could be persuaded. He shouldn't get his hopes up, shouldn't really be working quite so hard on getting her to be around more. He doesn't even know what he wants from her, he just needs to knowher. To get behind those walls that she's carefully built up over the years, tear them down brick by brick if he needs to. See the person who isn't NYPD Detective Kate Beckett, but just Kate.

Harry, and her father, are already waiting at home for them when she gets back, and Kate closes the door with a quiet click and leans back against it with a sigh. Jim Beckett's head appears from the kitchen, drying his hands on a towel. "Katie, just in time. Dinner is almost ready."

"You made dinner?"

"For you two, yes. I have other plans."

Kate drops her bag on the table and raises an eyebrow at her father. "Other plans?"

"Grandpa is going on a date." Harry coo's, leaning over the back of the sofa. "She's called Helen."

"We're just going to a baseball game. Nothing serious. We knew each other from AA, bumped into each other at the bank. Thought it would be nice to catch up."

"So it's not an actual date?" Kate questions, crosses to the sink for a glass of water. "It's just… a baseball game?"

"You don't mind, do you?" Jim asks, turning to Kate with a worried expression.

Kate laughed, wrapped her arms around her father's shoulder. "I don't mind at all. Go on, have fun. Thank you for picking Harry up, and for making dinner."

"Anytime, Katie." He kisses her cheek, ruffles Harry's hair as he passes, and is out of the door with a goodbye wave.

Kate lets Harry stay up an extra half an hour, just so she can catch the last part of a movie, and the girl is sprawled out across her, knees between her legs and head pillowed on her chest. Kate's head is pillowed on a folded arm, head tilted towards the TV screen and absent minded playing with the ends of Harry's hair, twisting them around with her fingers. She couldn't tell you what the film is actually about, something based on a book and set in England, mainly London and some tiny fishing village in a place called Cornwall, complete with some blonde youth and MI5 or 6 or 2, she doesn't know. She wouldn't normally let Harry watch this kind of movie, but it's only a PG, and Harry has seen her gun more often than not, and any concerns about the giant jellyfish were immediately vanquished when Harry claimed she wanted one as a pet. Maybe she could get the books for a birthday present. Maybe they're better than the movie.

"I want to ride a horse through London," Harry says quietly, twisting her head so she can look at Kate. "Can I go ride a horse through London?"

"If you can pay for it." Kate replies.

Harry is silent for a moment, her attention drawn momentarily back towards the TV. "What if I could just go ride a horse?"

"You want to learn how to ride?"

Harry nods eagerly. "And I want my own pony, called Frodo, and I'm going to feed it apples and sugar and I'll take really good care of it, I promise, Mommy."

"Woah, hold on, hold on. Maybe we can look into the horse riding, but there's no way we could afford to keep a horse. Where on earth would you put it?"

"He can sleep with me! I'm small! I can fit!"

Kate laughs, gives Harry's hair a tweak. "I don't think that'd work, baby. But I'll look into lessons, I promise."

Harry accepts this easily, surprisingly, drops her head down against her chest again, squeezing hard around Kate's ribs. "Not a baby."

Castle uses the file to make his own storyboard, adding all the details on that he has onto it, much like the storyboard that he uses for his novels, and a lot like the murder boards at the precinct. He can't keep the file, knows that he has to have it back with Esposito as soon as is physically possible. And so what if that calls for a trip to the precinct tomorrow morning, Alexis in tow. He can call in on the way to… somewhere. He'll think of somewhere. A fun day out, just him and Alexis, with the possibility of Harry. And he supposes he has to live with that. He can't expect Kate to be around constantly, can't expect her to automatically think of her when she needs someone to look after Harry. She trusts her father and Maddie a lot more than she trusts him, that much is obvious. Plus, Castle thinks, she'd probably go to the former two just so she wouldn't have to see him because lord knows she see's enough of him as it is. Not that he thinks that, obviously. He'd quite happily spend every day with her if he could (and when did he get quite so sappy?) and oh, he is so over his head with this woman. Being a best selling author, most people would assume that he's out of a lot of people's league, but with Kate Beckett, she is way, way, way out of his league. And it's ridiculous, really, how he could be so completely hooked on one person. He always thought Meredith was this magical woman sent from heaven, and he worshipped her. Bought her everything that she ever wanted. And then it imploded, and it took him a while, but he knows know that what they had was never really a relationship. It wasn't love, and there was lust, oh there was a lot of lust, because he couldn't deny, and he still can't, that Meredith is hot and with that fiery red hair, oh he was doomed from the start. But he never should have married her. They should have been more careful with birth control, and he loves Alexis, would do absolutely anything for her, but really, she should never have happened.