It's a Castle Monday with no Castle, so I hope this chapter will be a welcome surprise for some of you and will help to get you over some Castle withdrawl. And it's not a short chapter either-it's now my longest, even longer than 24-so I hope everyone enjoys it.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, but boy, would I love to visit 'their' NYPD sometime! Wouldn't it be the greatest thing to see the sets and all of that? Wow... (Googie gets lost in dreams here...)

Lemon meringue and pecan. And then there was some concoction that wasn't a pie, but was instead some sort of brownie explosion with chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, oreos and something else that made the whole mess gooey as sin, but it tasted absolutely decadent. It took a few hours, and by the end of the time, Kate was really wondering what in the world he was making. But as she watched him quietly assemble the brownie concoction, she realized that she couldn't wait to taste it. And with good reason. Castle insisted that there wasn't a recipe, but it tasted so good that Kate surmised that there had to be a recipe, and it contained some secret ingredient that he didn't want her to know so he'd told her a fib about there being no recipe. Kate sat on one of the few clean and clutter-free portions of the kitchen counter as pies baked in the oven and she slowly savored a piece of the brownie concoction that was already done.

"Fine," Kate told him, pointing her finger at him. "Don't give me the recipe. You'll just have to make me some of these whenever I feel like chocolate goo overload. Like my own personal chef. And let me warn you, there are many, many times when I feel like getting overloaded by chocolate goo. So it would be much easier for you to just give me the recipe, but oh, if you don't want to...prepare to bake, Castle." And she took the last bite of the piece she was eating, smiling as it hit her tastebuds.

"Kate, there really is no recipe! Honest! I invented it! And it could hardly even be called baking...it's just throwing a bunch of already-done stuff together. Like when you put chunks of cookie dough in ice cream and voila! You have a new flavor of ice cream. But there isn't really a recipe for it...it's just a bunch of stuff thrown together."

"Reawwy Casso, do I 'ook 'ike I zhus feww off da oh'ip wuck?" she asked, or tried to, while still savoring the last bite.

He looked at her and then just gave a big "Fell off the what?" with a shake of his head.

She swallowed the remaining piece in her mouth in a big gulp, and then said "Fell of the turnip truck."

He didn't say anything, but leaned in toward her and braced his hands on either side of her legs as she sat on the counter. "You do things like that, and it's just so hot," he told her softly, with a sly grin on his face.

"Like what? Talk with my mouth full?"

"No. Use an idiomatic expression like that. And considering that you grew up in the city, where you aren't even likely to think about a turnip truck, or any other sort of vegetable truck, it makes it even more amazing."

She rolled her eyes. "Are you just amazed by anything even remotely literary that comes out of my mouth? First apostrophes and now idioms?"

"Well, those are hot by themselves, but when they're combined with that little dollop of marshmallow creme by the side of your mouth, the whole package is irresistible," he told her as he leaned in even closer. At the mention of the marshmallow creme, her hand shot up to wipe it off, but he caught it before it could clean away the glob. "Allow me," he said as he leaned the rest of the way forward to let his lips clean the food from her. He sucked at it lightly, and then let his tongue snake out and lightly licked the rest of it off. Then his lips moved over a bit so they were fully over hers, and lightly pressed against them in a light kiss. Of its own accord, her hand moved up to rest on the back of his neck, not really pulling him any closer, but not letting him back away either.

They shared a few light kisses, just enjoying the contact. He especially enjoyed the contact, the lightness, the ease, the intimacy of it, because after the earlier incident in the library, when they'd both been frustrated and somewhat angry-for their own reasons-he'd been so worried that they'd crossed some sort of bridge in their tentative new relationship that they wouldn't be able to return back across. It was relief. And it was proof that they'd regained that ground that he'd thought they might have lost during that little altercation. And, well, he just liked it. And he liked it so much that he tried to deepen the kiss a bit, stepping a bit closer to her, and was almost giddy to find that when he did that, he could feel that hand on the back of his neck pull him a little closer to her. But giddiness soon left his mind as he wrapped his arms around her and stepped in between her knees, pulling her even closer to him as the kiss grew more passionate.

"Hey, is anything done ye...oh, geez...sorry...I'll just...yeah...consider me gone. I was never here." Alexis had bounded into the kitchen, probably looking for treats, but then caught sight of her father and Kate having an intimate moment, effectively making the intimate moment between two into an uncomfortable moment between three. The two adults pulled away from each other when they registered her voice, and Kate turned around in time to see Alexis stammer the end of her words before retreating back out the way she came. Kate, her lips still tingling from the pleasurable assault, looked back at Rick, but for once, the look on his face was perfectly blank. So she figured the ball was in her court and, after taking a deep breath, said loudly enough to carry to the next room, "Alexis, come on back in here."

A red head peeked through the doorway several seconds later, discomfort evident on her face. Sure, she had seen them kiss before, a few days ago while they were making the snowman, and then in the pictures that her Grams had texted to her while she was at Julia's house. But actually interrupting them, with them knowing that she'd seen them, was an entirely different thing. A kind of embarrassing thing.

"Come back in here, Alexis," Kate instructed again gently. When the girl still seemed unsure, Kate added, "Vite!", which, to Rick's amazement, resulted in his daughter coming the rest of the way back into the room, somewhat quickly even, but still with the strange look on her face.

"Look, it's no problem, really. I don't need to be in here now if you two..." she trailed off, her mind filling with all of the ways she could have said what she was trying to say, but none of which seemed appropriate. This was her dad! There was just no good way to put anything like that into words, about your father, when you're talking to that father, especially with the other half of the equation sitting right there. Maybe alone with him, but definitely not like this, with Kate there, when she had just interrupted them. She remembered the conversation with her Grams after the snowman incident. Tonsil hockey...the words popped unbidden into her brain and suddenly, she looked at the floor, unable to look at them anymore.

"Alexis," Kate started, but then Rick put a hand on her leg as he pushed away from the counter and walked over to where his daughter was still standing, now looking at the floor.

"Pumpkin, you've seen me kiss women before. Why is it so weird for you now?"

Alexis glanced over at Kate, who said, "Do you want me to leave so you guys can have this conversation in private?"

"No! No...Kate, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt, and I'm not going to chase you out of here. Especially when you can't move very well." She looked at her father. "Sorry, Dad, it's just...different. I mean, you've-we've all-known Kate for a long time. And I didn't know you two were...you know."

"We never were...you know...before this trip."

"Oh. Ohhhh!" Alexis said, as the implication of more intimate activities-in this house, recently-was suddenly realized by all of those in the room.

"No, it's not-" Rick started.

"We didn't-" Kate stuttered.

When they each heard the other ones protests, they looked at each other, and then back at Alexis, who still had a look on her face that said that she wanted to be anywhere than where she was right now. Thinking about her father's love life. "You know what? I don't even want to know," the girl said. "Dad, you have to realize how squicky it is to imagine one of your parents...like that. It's totally bad enough with mom. What about when you walked in on Grams that one time? Remember how you told me you wanted to wash off your retinas with lye soap?" She waited for two beats as Rick thought back, and then he gave an involuntary shudder as he remembered interrupting one of his mother's amorous moments as she was wrapped up with an old costar on the couch in his living room.

Kate realized that the two of them were caught up in thoughts about their respective parents that made most people want to have a sudden case of memory loss. Nobody wanted to think of their parents like that, even with each other, let alone with someone else. So she decided to ease the awkwardness herself, or at least try to.

"Alexis." She waited for the girl to turn to her. "We...I..." Oh, brother, this was harder than she thought it would be. She took a deep breath. "This...whatever it is between your father and me...it's really new. And there's none of that really uncomfortable stuff for you to imagine, because none of that has happened." Did she imagine that the girl relaxed just a little bit after that statement? "I mean, when I was a little kid, I used to get so embarrassed when I saw my parents even kiss. And they were married! And in time I could watch the hugs or the quick little pecks on the lips, but anything more than that was just a little much, especially when I got to be your age. Because by then I had a pretty good idea of what went on behind closed doors...and, I mean, my parents? Ugh. They loved each other, very much, but I still didn't want to think of...any more than that." She paused and studied the girl again, and now she did look a bit more relaxed, so Kate continued. "But I have to know...or we should know..." she said, looking at Rick to include him in her statement, "is the discomfort that you're feeling now related to witnessing something of a somewhat more intimate nature regarding your father, or because I was the other party involved?"

Alexis looked at her questioningly. "I...huh?"

Kate held up a hand. "Sorry. I'm spending too much time around your father and now I'm getting verbose-"

"Hey!" Rick protested, looking indignant at her descriptor.

"Shut up, Castle. I'm talking to your daughter." She turned back to Alexis. "You're obviously uncomfortable. So is it because you saw your father kiss me, or is it because you saw your father kiss me?"

The girl stared at Kate for about another two seconds, and then it showed dramatically on her face when she realized what Kate was asking. "Am I wor...you? No, it's not you! You're good. You're fine. That's great. It's him," she said, all but ignoring her father as she stepped around him a little more in Kate's direction, crooking her thumb toward him. "It's that whole fatherly romance thing that I prefer not to witness, you know? And then there's that playboy stuff that floats around..."

Kate nodded in sympathy, while Rick said "I am right here, you know."

Then Alexis realized that what she said could be misconstrued, and she didn't want to perpetuate that idea. "Sorry...I should clarify...he's not really a playboy, well not too much anyway-"

"Still right here, you know," Rick reminded, but she continued without really acknowledging him.

"But you know how the press is, and they make him out to be a certain way, and I know he does sign women's chests, but I just don't really like to see that part of things. With anyone. It's not you," she finished, repeating what she'd said before.

"Your father is your father and he shouldn't kiss people?" Kate prompted.

"Kind of. It's just...weird. I mean...yeah. I know he does. Kiss people. Women. And other...oh, I really don't want to go there." She closed her eyes and shook her head, giving a shudder that was almost identical to the one her father just gave when imagining his own mother's romantic entanglements, and Kate had to stifle a grin. "Really weird," she finished off after the shudder.

"But Alexis?" Kate continued. "I'm sorry if I...we...made you uncomfortable. This is your house, and I wouldn't want to do that. And I don't even know if we're...your dad and I aren't really...I don't even know exactly what we're doing here."

Alexis looked a little puzzled. "Well, from what I saw, it looked like you guys are going out. You know, dating or something. Involved. Or whatever it's called for you guys. And that's cool." She remembered what she'd told her grandmother a few days ago, and she then leaned forward and said to Kate in a stage whisper, "You're a definite improvement over some of those other women he's dated, so that's a good thing." Rick narrowed his eyes at his daughter, but he couldn't really find anything to say, because hey, his kid was right. Kate was an improvement. But even then, the two females still didn't really even acknowledge him. Alexis continued on in a normal voice again. "And really, it's about time. Just...I don't have any lye soap along to burn any images off of the retinas, so if you guys," she finally acknowledged her father again as she looked at both of them, "could keep the PDAs somewhat in check, I'll be sure to announce myself before I enter a room. How's that?"

Kate nodded, still a little non-plussed by the 'it's about time' comment, especially after the matter-of-fact way the girl announced that she and Castle were dating or involved. But she could think about that later. Then she asked, "Alexis?"

"Yeah?"

"I really did just come along to help you with your french. Nothing else...I didn't plan for anything to happen with your dad. Really. It was kind of a...shock, actually. Like a really big shock. But I don't want you to think..." she trailed off.

"I don't. Believe me, I know when someone is using me to try to get to my dad. Considering how long you've worked together already, I suppose that you planned to get involved with my dad on this trip about as much as you planned to sprain your ankle."

Kate smiled. "Probably less."

Just then, Castle stepped forward again, looking from Kate to Alexis and then back to Kate. "Are you two done so I can actually join the conversation again? Because, you know, I'm still here." He looked a little dejected as he finished talking.

"What's the matter, dad? Feeling left out? Wanna learn some french with me?" Alexis joked.

"I already know some french. Kate is a very good teacher." When he said that, Kate could feel her face heat up a little as she thought of all of Castle's references to 'french lessons', which was his euphemism for french kissing. Which was something that should not be mentioned in front of his daughter, especially when the poor girl had just said she was uncomfortable with that topic.

She was ready to start protesting, to try to change the subject, or even just shove something edible (or non-edible) in his mouth so he couldn't talk anymore, but then he reached to the side of Kate and grabbed the pan of brownies. Turning around, he presented the pan to his daughter with a flourish and proclaimed, "Voila! See? Kate did teach me some french!"

Kate breathed a sigh of relief that Castle wasn't going to do something moritfying, as Alexis exclaimed, "Five-layer brownies? Really? Hand one over. Now!" But the girl didn't really wait for her father, she grabbed the pan and started lifting a piece out. "Oh, it's been forever since you've made these, dad!"

"Five-layer brownies, huh?" Kate asked with a raised eyebrow. "Sounds like a dessert name, Castle. And usually if there's a name, there's a recipe."

"You're still on the recipe kick?" He turned to his daughter. "Pumpkin, will you please tell the good detective the story of the brownies? She wants a recipe, but she won't believe me when I tell her that there isn't one."

Alexis, not being able to wait a moment longer when she'd seen what was in the pan, had just taken a bite, so her words were a bit muffled. "He's wite. No weal wesh-pe. Zhus stuff. Weally good doe. 'Owwy." She shrugged the last part of her explanation and apology to Kate as she savored the treat.

"See?" Castle asked, obviously feeling vindicated. "But if you're extra nice to me, I'll tell you how to make them, even though it's not really a recipe, per se."

Kate, not able to resist when Alexis was chomping away next to her, reached into the pan for another one. "I suppose I could earn it by trying to teach you some more french..."

Rick got a crooked smile on his face. "I think that would be a very good idea. It's a deal." But while his words conjured nothing out of the ordinary in the mind of his daughter, Kate knew from the tone of his voice that his words were a double entendre, and the more risque meaning was meant for her. And she'd walked right into it. From the look on his face, she knew he was now not being quite as innocent as he had been before, when he'd shown off his 'voila' to Alexis. She knew that he was referring to their previous innuendo of 'french lessons', and even if she had still had any doubt, it would have been confirmed by the roguish tilt of his eyebrow, which was so quick-and luckily facing away from Alexis-that she almost missed it.

She quickly shoved the brownie into her mouth, before her mouth said something else that got him going. He just grinned at her, and she was so tempted to roll her eyes, although she didn't. She just fixed him with a glare, and, infuriating man that he was, it only made him grin more widely.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

After the pies had baked, after copious amounts of five-layer brownies had been consumed, and after the attempt had been made to have a 'proper' dinner despite the previous consumption of the copious amounts of five-layer brownies, they all found that the evening was stretched out in front of them, with no concrete plans. It felt like it was later than it really was because the winter days were still pretty short, and a lot had already transpired. Rick had made good on his promise not to hover over Kate, and actually asked her to help with some things-simple things, like getting an oven mitt out of a drawer-and although she knew that she wasn't 'really' helping a lot, she appreciated the effort he was making. Alexis helped the two of them make dinner, while Martha had retired to her room for a bit to call some friends. During the time spent milling around the kitchen, Kate had quizzed Alexis on the names of various food items. The girl had already had a 'food' unit in her class, so she wanted to see how much she could remember.

Castle had to try his hand at the words too, to keep up with his earlier proclamation about french lessons, and he still murdered the pronunciation. And of course, whenever Alexis had her back turned, he gave Kate a seductive look, an air kiss, or a raised eyebrow, often whispering 'french lessons' in her ear as he moved near enough to her, letting her know that he still was thinking about the other type of 'french lessons'. After about the sixth or seventh time, she swatted him on the arm. He just grinned at her and went on preparing a salad. After the next time, she was careful not to give any outward reaction, but when she went to move across the room, she positioned the tip of her crutch directly on his big toe and put some weight on the handle. Not a lot of weight, but enough to cause some discomfort. When she heard his squeak, she smiled sweetly at him as he pointed to his foot. "Geez, Beckett, foot!" he managed to say as she kept the weight and the smile constant.

"Oh, oops! Sorry, Castle!" she said with mock sincerity as she eased the pressure on the crutch and moved it off his foot and back the floor. "Je suis désolée! Mais non, Castle. Le mot est pied," she said in french. "Since you're so insistent on french lessons," she explained, giving special emphasis to the words, "the french word for foot is 'pied'. You should really try harder, Castle, otherwise Alexis is going to get a bad impression of your work ethic at learning a new language. Right, Alexis?"

At her father's exclamation, the teenager had turned to see what was wrong with him this time, and she watched the little exchange between the two adults with interest. There was obviously some inside joke or hidden meaning for what was going on, but she couldn't figure out what it was. But whatever it was, she was sure that her dad was doing something annoying and that Kate had just gotten back at him at him for it. And it was definitely fun to watch, so with the opening from Kate, she got in on the game, even though she still didn't know exactly what the full game was. "Oh, definitely. I need a good role model, you know. So let's hear it dad...foot. Pied."

"Beckett's your role model," he protested.

"Dad!"

"Fine. How do you spell it?"

"Why do you always need to know how things are spelled?" Alexis asked. "The sounds are different anyway, so most of the time it's not going to make sense by english standards anyway."

"Humor me, okay?"

"Fine. P-I-E-D," she spelled.

"What? Like the word pie, only with a 'd' on the end? Like if I throw a pie at you, I've pie-d you? It shouldn't mean foot! Shouldn't that word have to do with the face or something? Something to do with a pie, like eating it or getting it thrown in your face? And it should be a verb, not a noun!"

Kate and Alexis gave him twin eye rolls. Alexis looked at Kate and said "Il est difficile."

"Très difficile," Kate agreed.

o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o

So after dinner, for lack of anything better to do, they decided to watch a movie. Kate, once again, was the last to sit down, and she was again unsure of where to sit, not because she was uncomfortable sitting next to Castle like she had been several nights ago, but because she was conscious of making Alexis uncomfortable after what she had witnessed in the kitchen earlier. So Kate positioned herself to sit down in a rather uncomfortable looking end chair, but she looked up when she heard Alexis say her name.

"Why are you sitting way over there? Sit by dad! I mean, I know I asked you to go easy on the PDAs, so don't, like, make out or something, but you can sit by us...him. I mean, if you guys are dating now, you should at least sit together to watch a movie!"

Kate froze. Dating? They weren't dating! That whole discussion was tabled until after they got home. There were the rules, which they spectacularly kept almost-breaking. Dating? She knew that's what Alexis had said earlier, but it was in the middle of that other conversation and she was trying to just talk to the girl and ease her discomfort at seeing her and Castle going at it in the kitchen, so she just let the comment pass at the time, for the most part anyway. Kate did tell Alexis that she didn't know what she and Castle were doing, but the teenager apparently wasn't remembering that part of it. And now, she had both Little Castle and Big Castle staring at her, wondering where she was going to sit. Dating Castle? And suddenly, Kate had the feeling that something as simple as deciding where to sit to watch a movie had almost morphed into a life-changing event. If she sat next to Castle, she would essentially be admitting that they were dating, that they were involved, that she was going to give 'them' a chance. She knew from the look on his face that he would take it like that. But she didn't know if she was ready to go down that road quite yet; they still had time left here, and she had to think about things. She needed time so she could rationalize if getting involved with him was a good decision. She had to figure out how it would work. And all of that was supposed to take place when she got home, damn it, not here with two sets of Castle baby blues staring at her!

She locked eyes with Castle, and she could see his one eyebrow raise ever so slightly, silently asking her the question: 'So are we dating?' She couldn't hold his gaze for any longer, and she looked down at the floor for a moment, weighing her options. And when she looked back up at him, she knew where she was going to have to sit.

The 'brownie explosion' mentioned throughout the first part of the story? That's my own creation. I made it on a whim for a family reunion once. It went over pretty well so I made it here and there, and now, years later, it has morphed into the preferred school treat for whichever of my children is having a birthday. I haven't made cupcakes or even a cake in I don't know how long, but we certainly go through a lot of brownies.

As I was writing this, my kiddo wanted to watch some Castle, so we watched 'The Third Man'. There was a nice little Alexis/Dad conversation in there when he was getting ready for the date with Bachelorette #3, and it fit in perfectly with this chapter. So I went back and tweaked a bit of the Alexis conversation and reaction in this chapter. I hope it's believable.

I'm going to date myself here, but does anyone remember the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" commercials with that older lady (Clara Peller?) In my French class, we had a food unit (like I mentioned in the story) and we had to do a skit, like ordering something at a restaurant. So this one group gets up in front of the class, and they go through their skit, and then this one girl says loudly "Ou est le bif?" The entire class died laughing b/c it was the Wendy's commercial...in french! Well, maybe not so funny now, but it was hysterical then.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter. Several people have asked for more Alexis, AND wanted her to do a little matchmaking, so I trust this chapter satisfied both of those requests? Although, I tried to do it so the matchmaking wasn't terribly blatant. She doesn't know about the rules or Kate's apprehension about committing to even try a relationship with Castle. She just knows that they know each other really well, and they were playing tonsil hockey a lot lately, so it's a given that they're dating, right? She's used to women throwing themselves at her father, so it's not even really in her thought processes that maybe Kate wouldn't want a relationship with him, especially with the aforementioned recent tonsil hockey pastime. So I tried to have that attitude/perception come into play a bit here.

And those who reviewed the last chapter...thank you! I so enjoyed reading your comments after my little hiatus (and it is SO nice to have no stitches anymore. I love showers with no garbage bags!). One of the best comments (for my ego)...LittleLizzieZentara described this as her 'favorite fan fic ever'...way cool! And thank you! And another one from Valerie S. Morse...I'm apparently so famous for my stories! Not sure where, but if you say so, I'll believe you b/c hey, why would I not want to believe that.

So...read, check. Enjoy...hopefully check. Review...you know what to do. Let me know what you think.

And after what is probably the longest ending author's note in the history of fanfiction, I will now sign off.