A/N: Beta by Diana. Longer author's note at the bottom, but please read it.
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
Kate reemerged from the bedroom at eleven. Her hair was thrown into a messy bun, and she made straight for the pot of coffee in the kitchen. Her shift had ended at six in the morning, when Ryan and Esposito came to relieve her and Lee, but Beckett had stayed on until seven to get the update from her other team.
She had hastily scrawled what Agent Cooper had relayed onto a notepad before going to bed. After getting a few hours of sleep, it was now time to get back to work. Hopefully her handwriting had been legible to the others.
Turning around, she looked towards the living room, bringing the mug of coffee up to take a long sip. Castle, Lee, and Ryan were sitting around the table, Alexis was reading a book on one end of the couch, while Esposito fiddled with a deck of cards on the other end.
"Hey," she greeted, wandering over with her mug firmly clasped between her hands, the heat slowly seeping through to her fingers. "You guys gone through Cooper's update alright?"
She pulled out a chair, making to sit between Lee and Ryan. "Yeah, between the four of us, we managed to decipher your chicken scratch," he teased, slowing his speech towards the end as Castle abruptly stood and walked to the bedroom.
Unbelievable, Beckett thought in reference to his childish behavior. Instead, she replied, "Fine. Can I have the notes? I want to go over the update again."
Ryan quickly reached over to grab the notebook and handed it to Kate, telling her, "Ahh, I wouldn't mind going over it once more with you."
Kate didn't know if she should roll her eyes or smile at his sweet gesture of trying to smooth the awkward situation over.
"I'll talk to him," Alexis said, leaving her book behind as she headed after her dad.
A small smile emerged without Kate's consent. There were still mad at her, but she was incredibly lucky to have these people in her life.
"Okay, let's go over the notes."
Approximately half an hour had gone by before Alexis exited the guys' bedroom and went into the room she shared with Kate. For the rest of them in the living room, it had been thirty minutes of trying to ignore the elephant in the room.
The walls had muffled the raised voices, but the occupants in the living room could tell that the father and daughter duo were having an argument. After a moment of indecision, Kate stood and made her way over to their bedroom. She knocked on the door, giving Alexis some warning before she entered.
"Alexis? You alright there?"
The younger girl hurriedly swiped at her tears as Kate closed the door behind her.
"You don't have to talk to him on my behalf, you know. I mean, I appreciate the gesture, but I don't want to be the cause of friction between you and your dad."
"He's just-" Alexis broke off, groaning in frustration. Kate walked over and sat on the edge of the bed.
"I don't understand why he doesn't want to know the truth! Every time I try telling him what happened after he left last night, he shuts me down. I'm not on your side – my dad accuses me of being swayed over to your side so easily, said I was being a hypocrite – but I'm not taking sides!"
Alexis sniffled, throwing her hands down agitatedly as she faced Kate.
"I just want him to hear me out or hear you out, whatever, so that he'd have all the information he needed to make an informed decision. I just want him to get closure, so he can either move on or move forward, just make a choice and stick to it without regrets!"
"Alexis," Kate reached out a hand to cover Alexis' fist. "I can't force your dad to listen if he doesn't want to, and neither can you."
"He says he's moved on, and it may look like that, but I know my dad – he won't fully put this behind him until he gets closure, and he won't be able to get closure until he fully understands what happened!"
"Hey, breathe, okay? Just- take a few deep breaths. Don't get all worked up over this," Kate cut in when she could, breaking Alexis' little rant.
"I know you mean well, and you're just trying to protect your dad, but-" Kate broke off, sighing. She didn't know how to put this into words. "I'll try to talk to your dad, okay? We'll deal with this, your dad and I. I can't make promises, but I'll try my best," Kate promised.
Alexis sniffled, wiping at a few errant tears that made their way down her cheeks as she nodded at Kate.
"I'm just going to stay in here for a little bit more. I'm not exactly up for company right now."
Kate withdrew her hand, standing slowly while she gave Alexis a small smile.
"Sure, I understand. I'll be outside if you need anything."
As it was, both Castle and Alexis surfaced around lunchtime. The others gave them some privacy when they first saw each other, and after some whisperings, it seemed that the father-daughter duo had worked out their kinks. Neither of them had felt the need to retreat into their bedrooms or metaphorical shells after lunch.
Time crept by slowly as the occupants tried to keep cabin fever at bay. In this day and age with technology so integrated into everyone's lives, being stuck in a safe house without their personal electronic devices was a brand new circle of hell.
There really wasn't much else to do.
They took turns doing perimeter checks every few hours – any more frequent and their neighbors would start getting suspicious. However, there was always someone monitoring the camera feeds.
Ryan made a call to check in with Jenny but he had to keep it brief. He managed to get in a quick "Daddy loves you" before hanging up, so Kate deduced he must have been talking to his daughter. That was something else that Kate had missed out on.
One of her best friends had a child and she'd never even met this little girl. It was a sacrifice that she hadn't foreseen.
As he joined them, Kate asked, "Was that your daughter?"
A genuine smile lit the Irish detective's face. "Yeah, that was Elizabeth. She's about two and a half years old," the young father boasted. A pause, and then, "You want to see a picture of her?"
"Of course! Can I?" she asked, her curiosity authentic. Friends who had recently joined the young parents club and wanted to show off every picture of their kid surrounded most people her age. It wasn't hard to fathom why they wouldn't be interested in yet another picture of a kid.
But Kate didn't have that. Most of her colleagues were workaholics like herself, and even those that had already settled down and gotten married weren't ready to have children.
She wanted to listen to her friend boast about his daughter. Kate wanted to have little nieces and nephews to coo over and shower gifts upon. She could have had it, if only she hadn't left New York.
Ryan pulled out his wallet, opening it and reaching for a photo that had begun to curl at the edges. "It's the only picture I have on me right now," he apologized, "Most of them were on my phone, but I couldn't bring that along."
Kate reached for the photograph reverently. "She's beautiful," Kate breathed, looking at the little girl with her dad's blue eyes.
"This was taken on her second birthday," Ryan elaborated, happy to talk about his darling daughter. "It was a good thing Jenny and I took this picture earlier in the day. Jenny's father put her down for two seconds to play with her cousins and they somehow managed to find a puddle and get mud on all their clothes."
Kate chuckled, imagining what a handful the little two year old must have been.
"We wanted to change her dress, but Lizzie wouldn't keep still. She kept squirming and asking to be allowed to play with her older cousins. Jenny figured, since she's already dirtied the dress, why not let her continue playing, you know?"
"Sounds like a great birthday," Kate said, handing the photograph back with a wistful smile.
"You should come over one day, when the case is over. Jenny would love to have you over for dinner and I'm sure Lizzie would love to meet her aunt."
"Thanks, Ryan. I'd love that."
A/N: Gosh, where do I even begin. First off, I'd like to thank everyone who has stood up for me against some of the "guests". It meant the world to me! :)
I've decided to begin moderating reviews after what happened with the previous chapter, because some of you (a very small but vocal portion) were way out of line, going after other reviewers, and I will not tolerate all that hate and bashing toward innocent reviewers. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion, but please, try to keep it polite and free of profanity. I'm still trying to understand how moderating works, so please be patient and give it some time before you expect to see your review posted as I do not check the website on my laptop very often.
Normally I'd address issues by PM, but there are a few things I want to clarify here.
A lot of people were unhappy because nobody asked Kate about her FWB relationship with Dom in the previous chapter. I didn't include that part in my writing because I don't think it was Ryan's or Esposito's business asking after her personal life. Had Castle been present, he definitely would have brought it up (or maybe had a private conversation with her) because he had the right to ask about that aspect of her life. However, Ryan and Espo have no right asking Beckett to justify who she sleeps with. And Alexis didn't bring it up because her character does not know of it.
The next issue is Beckett's FWB arrangement with Dom, and how unprofessional it was etc. This was naivety on my part. I'm still studying in university and have never had to work in such a formal setting before, so I honestly hadn't known it would be such a big issue. However, I've written it into the story and I'm just going to leave it there. Some of you think the Dom thing spoiled story, but I'm not going to cry over split milk. That's on me, but please know that I have learnt my lesson for future purposes.
Most of you have been polite in voicing your disagreements and might be feeling frustrated because you do not think that I take them in or try to make changes. I'm open to constructive criticism, but please keep in mind that I have already finished writing this story a few weeks ago, so most of the characters' actions and decisions have been made. At this point i just want to be done with the story - post the last chapter and mark it as complete so I can put this behind me. I could probably do better, make changes and rewrite huge chunks, but I'm going to stay close to what I have originally written. I've tried to accommodate some of your suggestions, but there will only be minor changes in future chapters. I know that most of you meant well with your suggestions, so thank you for that.
I know that I have written flawed characters. Sometimes people make poor decisions and sometimes people forgive too easily, but it happens - that's real life (to me, anyway). I'm sticking with the choices I've made for my story so I guess you're stuck with that.
And while most of us think Kate deserves to suffer longer(she was in the wrong after all), I'd like to try and move forward with the story, which is why they're beginning to mend fences. The Castle/Beckett talk will be coming up soon.
Thank you for being patient and reading this lengthy author's note.