#257 (Dash Universe)

Ferrari driving Ellery
-anonymous

She paces the kitchen. Makes a tight turn, comes back around again.

"You're like a tiger in a cage," Castle grins. "I can practically see your tail flicking at every stalk. You nervous or something?"

Kate Beckett is never nervous. She's a Deputy Commissioner for goodness sake. But this is her daughter. And only Ellery can make Kate's palms sweat like this.

She smooths out the invisible wrinkles in her grey slacks and her husband chuckles.

"You hush your mouth," she tells him, jabbing a finger his direction.

He has the knife though, slicing their bread for tonight's dinner, and he waggles it her direction. "Just delighted. Endlessly delighted."

She glares but her quelling looks have long since faded with time and proximity; Rick barely pretends to be cowed at all these days. She really loves him for that, for calling her on her bullshit and forgiving her for mistakes and just all around sticking this out with her when she started this such a complete mess and so often feels she must still be one.

"I really love you," she tells him, swinging back and wrapping her arms around his neck. "I really - oh. Is that new cologne?" She takes a lighter breath, lets the subtle tones drift to her consciousness. "Mm, faintly mint and sandalwood? Teak?"

"Shut up," he mutters. "It's aftershave. So I want to smell nice for my long-lost daughter. Don't tease me, Beckett. You said you really loved me."

She smiles against his neck, closing her eyes for a brief moment for all the ways she does really love him (he did just entirely put out of her mind how nervous she is to talk to her own daughter, and all with a little aftershave). "I do really love you, Rick Castle." But before she can make them maudlin with memory, the key scrapes in the lock.

She stiffens and shoves off her husband. "There she is, she's coming. Okay, oh no, Rick, the pasta was such a stupid idea-"

"It's fine, it's all fine. Leave it alone, Kate." He bats her hands away from spaghetti sauce and pushes her towards the front door. "Prodigal daughter returns!"

Ellery, caught halfway through the door with a laundry basket full of her and Nick's dirty clothes, rolls her eyes at her father. "Whatever, Daddy. You said we could laundry during dinner." She turns and hollers over her shoulder. "Nick! Hustle, babe, I smell spaghetti and it's my favorite."

Kate blinks, stunned stupid by it's my favorite and babe. When did her daughter start sounding so much-

"Wow, you're exactly your mother," Castle chuckles, reaching in to pluck the basket from her hands. "I'll start this. I'm the house expert. Have Nick carry his load into the laundry room and he can learn my secret ways."

"Oh, it's divide and conquer, is it?" Ellery muses, turning now to Kate. "Thought we'd buried the hatchet, mother."

Why is she sweating buckets at that superior look on her daughter's face? This girl she birthed and swaddled and potty trained and- "Ella," she releases with a rush. "No conquering, I promise. I just - have something for you."

Ellery lifts an eyebrow in silence as Nick finally makes it down the hall under the weight of two large duffel bags. She points, like the queen Kate has molded her to be (no, this is all Castle's fault, entirely a daddy's girl), and Nick pecks Ella's cheek and heads for the laundry room.

And then Ellery wrings her hands and shifts on her feet and she's not at all the accomplished twenty-something retiring at the peak of her capable and successful career. She's Kate's little girl.

"Come here, sweetheart," Kate sighs, holding out her arms but making that first step despite the command. She enfolds Ellery in her embrace and takes a long breath in, the scent of spring soap and leather, as always, like she can't leave cars alone. "I love you."

"Mama?" Ellery squeaks.

"I'm not dying," she mutters, laughing a little at how it sounds. She steps back and releases her daughter, crooks her fingers. "Kitchen. I have something for you."

Kate is nervous again, but it's a good kind, stomach full of butterflies and all the hope she carried around for these last few years made incarnate before her very eyes. Her daughter, content and even joyful. There were times Kate thought Ellery was too much like herself, and unable to let herself rest.

"So I was thinking," Kate starts slowly, laying her hands on top of a manilla folder. "You haven't found a job yet-"

"God, I'm trying, Mother. I just don't-"

"No, no." Kate has to check herself to keep from stepping back, so fast did they fall into old habits. "I didn't intend it to sound critical, Ella. I meant, it's still true you're... somewhat soul-searching?"

Ella sets her face, gives a guarded nod of assent.

"Well, I don't - want you to lose out just because you're agreeing to move back to the city with Nick."

"Lose out," Ellery repeats slowly, eyes narrowing. "I thought you liked Nick."

"I do," she firmly. "I love Nick for you. This isn't about Nick. This is about you. And I... I'm butchering this." Kate winces and shoves the manilla folder across the granite countertop. "Open it and see what you think. I don't have it in me to make the persuasive argument. Just pretend your dad is here."

Kate sinks down to her elbows on the counter and buries her head in her hands. She's really messed it all up, from the beginning. They were at odds the second Ellery walked through the door. Kate never gets this right. She's hopeless-

"You want me to work with you?"

Kate stiffens, but she lifts her head and straightens her spine to face her daughter's - whatever this is. Wrath. Disdain. Well, shock for right now. "I wouldn't be your direct superior," she says first, getting herself out of the way of things, hopefully. "You'd report to the head of Driver Education Training and it's a huge department." Kate has to bite back the term of endearment; baby wouldn't sound like she has confidence in her adult daughter's adult decisions. "I probably wouldn't even see you that often, because my offices aren't in that section of the campus."

"But... you're the Deputy Commissioner of Police Training," Ellery says. Her face is a mask that Kate knows she learned from herself. She has her own self to blame for it.

"Yes," Kate answers, though she felt like that was a given. "And I - Dad said you'd not be happy with me pulling strings, and I'm not. You'll have to be vetted by Deputy Shah; he's head of the Driver Training, but-"

"You want me to teach police training cadets to drive," Ellery says, her eyes boring into Kate's. "That's what this is."

"Y-yes." She resists the urge to wipe her damp palms on her dress pants. "More, I..." Might as well go for broke. "I want you to do what you love."

Oh, God, she's made Ellery cry.

Kate rounds the counter and gingerly gathers Ella into her arms, biting her bottom lip as she rocks the girl a little. But Ellery shoves back, pushes back on her and waves the letter of recommendation in her face, swiping at her tears. "Oh my God. Mom. Mom." Ella gives a choked noise and turns her face away from Kate, shaking her head.

"I know you hate to cry. I'll-"

"You're awesome."

Kate stops, arrested by the bar stool. "What?"

"This is amazing. I didn't - it never once occurred to me that you'd want me there, but oh God, Mom, I've been thinking about it. Remember when you sent me and Dash to train at the course with one of the guys and Dash wrecked the car? I loved that, my first taste of high performance driving, and it was - it's been in the back of my mind all this time."

Kate is floored. "You - want the job?"

"You don't mind me being there?"

"Mind?" Kate gasps, and she reaches out and drags Ellery back into her hug, not letting her go, tears be damned. "I know you hate to cary, but too bad. Do I mind. I'm so glad you'll be there." She won't cry; she won't. Rick will laugh. "And I sent you and Dashiell to the driving school because you two kept stealing the damn Ferrari."

Ellery gasps and then chokes on her surprise, laughing harder now but clinging to Kate.

Clinging.

It feels so good. "You thought I didn't know? At least one of you had the skills to not get yourselves killed."

"Yeah, and you scared Dash away from cars permanently," Ellery laughs. Kate can hear the eye-roll in her voice, and as Ella pulls back, she can see it. "You do know that's why he won't drive."

Kate shrugs. "Better safe than sorry - and don't tell your father I said that, because he thinks the opposite. Also, it's New York. And Dashiell has Shan, thank God for answered prayers."

Kate is about to turn away and call for Rick, tell him it's all clear, when suddenly Ellery is wrapping her in a tight embrace once more. A hug so fierce that Kate's ribs burn. "I love you, Mama. I'm sorry I'm such a brat. But I'm going to be the best instructor you've ever had, and then I'm going to run that department. I won't let you down. I'll make you proud."

Okay, maybe she's crying too. "You have never let me down, Ella Kate." She pulls back just enough to cup her daughter's face, so much like her own. "And I am voraciously proud of you."