A/N: Heads up! One, Here's the last "bump" they encounter in this story, and then I'll be tying things up for the end in just a few more chapters. Two, Kate might have came off as a little OOC in the previous chapter, but in my opinion she'd be a pretty strict mom, plus she did kinda give Arriana a chance to explain herself in the car, but Arriana just kept quiet. Three, some of you guys kinda guessed where I'd head with this chapter. What can I say, great minds think alike ;p On to the story now...

Disclaimer: Castle's not mine

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Go shower and do your homework," Kate told her daughter tiredly when they got back. "Then it's dinner and straight off to bed."

The little girl trudged into her room, dragging her bag behind her. Kate sighed and went to put her things away before heading into the kitchen to prepare dinner. It wasn't like Arriana to get into trouble. And why wouldn't she explain herself? At least then Kate would understand the reasoning behind her behavior.

She got a text from Rick saying the guy they caught turned out to be innocent after all. He was heading over to her place, and she invited him to join them for dinner since she was already cooking.

He arrived at her place a short while later and she let him in. He helped with the finishing touches for dinner and they set the table. "Arriana, dinner," Kate called out.

"Hi Uncle Rick," she greeted upon seeing him and made her way to the dining table.

"Have you finished your homework?" Kate asked. Arriana nodded, picking up her fork and poked at her food.

Kate exchanged a look with Rick. Apparently her daughter was still mad at her. Fine, let her simmer away, and when she was cool-headed once more, she could come talk to Kate.

The adults picked up their spoons as well and began to eat, Rick telling her how the interrogation went down. "We probably need to recheck the brother tomorrow," Kate told him, as he chewed on the food.

"Arriana stop playing with your food," Kate ordered her daughter who was barely nibbling on her food. Instead, Arriana was pushing it from one side of her plate to the other.

"I don't like it," she whined.

"Oh yeah, well I don't like getting interrupted at work either, but I don't get to choose, do I? If you don't want it, then don't eat it. Go, bed," Kate bit out, still slightly on the edge with her daughter.

Arriana threw down her fork that clattered noisily against her plate. "Fine! I hate you! You're so mean! Jacob was right, you're a slut!" she yelled angrily, running to her room and slamming her door shut.

Both adults sat shock still. Kate clambered to her feet and hurried over to Arriana's room. If her daughter thought that she could just say things like that and leave then she had another thing coming.

"Arriana Harley Beckett, you come here and explain yourself to me now!" she hollered, opening the door that had just been slammed shut moments ago. Rick trailed behind her, looking on worriedly.

"Get out! I hate you, I don't want to see you! Leave me alone!" Arriana shouted, seeing her mother in the doorway.

"No! You get your ass over here right now!"

"Get out! Leave me Alone!" Arriana continued shouting hysterically, not letting up.

"Kate, why don't –" Rick paused mid sentence, intimidated by the glare she was throwing him. Damn, flaming mad Mama Beckett was scary as hell! But, they needed an intervention before things got even more out of hand. Looking back at her a little scared, Rick began again. "Kate, why don't the both of you take a breather from each other. Let me try talking to her, Kate. Please? You've been all bad cop on her today, let me try the good cop routine on her."

Breathing heavily, Kate looked at her daughter. Arriana was throwing a full out tantrum and her face and neck were already red, her voice beginning to get hoarse. Rick was right. Maybe they both needed to cool down first. She shot him a look that said 'I trust you' and nodded curtly, turning around and heading out to the living room.

"Arri, Arriana, hey, hey, look, your mom's gone," he said, trying to get her attention. Arriana faltered for a bit, and looking around, noticed her mother was indeed gone. Her wailing died down into sniffles and hiccups.

"Can I stay?" Rick asked tentatively, telling her, "I won't make you talk or do anything you don't want. It's just – I care for you, and I'm worried."

Using the back of her hand to wipe her face, Arriana nodded at him, still hiccuping occasionally. Rick slowly walked over to her, pulling out some tissues on the cupboard.

"Here, let's try to clean you up a bit, okay?" he said softly, wiping some of her tears and snot away. "You wanna go wash your face? Yeah, let's go wash your face."

Rick guided her into the bathroom, washing her face gently and wiping her dry with a small towel. "There, you look so much better. Come on, let me carry you back in," he said, picking her up.

"You know, the first step to feeling better is to make yourself look better. That's what my mom told me anyway, and I think sometimes it helps a little. Do you want to tell Uncle Rick what happened?

"No?" he asked when she remained silent. "That's alright, I'll tell you something instead. But first, let's get comfortable. Can we sit on your bed? Yes? Okay, great. Here you go."

He picked up her strewn pillows and laid them on the bed once more before settling Arriana against it. Then, he sat next to her on the bed, draping one hand over her shoulder reassuringly.

"I know your mom was quite mean to you today, both at the precinct and just now at dinner," he started in his low voice and Arriana began nodding as tears leaked from her eyes once more.

"Hey, hey, no more tears, we just got you all nice and cleaned up," he said, dabbing at the tears with a fresh tissue.

"As I was saying, your mom was being mean to you today, but do you know why? It's because she was so worried about you," he continued in his soothing voice.

"You know, your mom loves you so much, so very much, that she's afraid of anything ever hurting you. And when she doesn't know how to help you or protect you, she gets all worried. And sometimes when we're so scared and worried, we may be mean to other people. It's not very nice, but it still happens sometimes even though we try so hard not to be mean, you know?

"See your mom still doesn't know what happened today, that's why she's so worried, She doesn't understand why you won't tell her what happened – "

"It's not that I wont, I can't," Arriana interrupted him.

"What? Why? Okay, if you can't tell her, can you tell Uncle Rick?" he asked softly.

"But, what if there might be bad words?"

"Well, just this once, you can tell me, and I won't scold you or anything, okay?"

Arriana thought for a while before she nodded.

"Well it was for arts and crafts, see, Ms Julie brought us outside to collect leaves. And then Jacob comes over and asks me why my name is Beckett, like my mommy, but other kids follow their daddy. I say I not know, and he asks where is my daddy.

"Then I tells him it's just me and mommy, that daddy is with grammy in heaven. But Jacob don't believe me, and he laughs at me. I was so mad but mommy told me to walk away when I'm angry. So I walk away, but Jacob follows me and he says I not know who my daddy is, so my mommy is a slut.

"I not knowing what that means, so I ask him what that is. Then he laughs and me and say I'm a stupid slut for not knowing. And then he takes my leaves, and he tears them! They were so pretty, and he tears them to little pieces and pushes me to the ground.

"I was so mad, so I push him back and we fought. Then Ms Julie breaks us apart, and brings us to the office. He says if I tell the adults what happened, then I'm a snitch and I will get extra scoldings for saying the word slut.

"I'm not a snitch, Uncle Rick! I tells the truth, but I not know what is slut, and it might be a bad word, and mommy don't let me use bad words, so I can't do anything, and mommy was being so mean to me," she finishes her narrating sadly.

"Oh Arriana, you poor dear. You're right, slut is a bad word, and you shouldn't ever use it again, okay? Never ever," Rick told her.

"Not even at Jacob?"

"No, never ever, not even at your mom ever again, even if she's being super mean to you. I'll let her tell you what it means one day if she wants, but you really hurt her feelings just now when you used that word at her."

"Even more than when she was mean to me?" Arriana asks sadly in a soft voice.

"You hurt her ten times more than the meanest she could be to you," Rick tells her softly, "so you have to apologize to her, because you were wrong."

"Oh no, I didn't mean to hurt her so bad. I'll go apologize to mommy, but she's so mad at me."

"Well, why don't we go look for your mom and you can apologize to her and explain what happened? I'm sure she'll be less mad when she understands what happened."

"But she gonna be so mad, Uncle Rick. And I can't tell her the story because of the bad word," she tells him dejectedly, back to her original dilemma.

"Well, why don't we go apologize first, and then you tell your mom the story, just leave out the S – word. Is that okay?"

Nodding slowly, Arriana climbed out of bed, and took his hand, heading out to where her mommy was.

Kate was sitting on the window seat, leaning her forehead against the cool glass and staring out. "Mommy?" Arriana called out. Kate's head whipped over to look at her daughter. It seems that both Becketts had done some crying of their own.

"I'm so sorry, mommy," Arriana apologized. Kate opened her arms and Arriana ran into her mother's embrace. Hugging her mom tightly, Arriana reiterated, "I'm so very sorry, mommy."

"I'm sorry too," Kate said into her hair, kissing the top of her head as Rick watched on.

"So Arriana told me what happened, and she wants to try telling you what happened," Rick conveyed, playing the peace broker.

"Okay, let's go over to the couches and you can tell me what happened today," Kate told her daughter, shooting Rick a grateful look for everything he's done.

The three of them sat on the couch, and Arriana slowly told Kate what had happened. When she got to the derogatory term, she looked hesitantly at Rick, who supplied on her behalf, "Kate, this Jacob kid said the S – word in regards to you."

Kate's eyes hardened and Arriana softly asked, "Mommy are you mad at me again?"

"No, no, its not you. I'd like to go see Jacob's mother and give her a piece of my mind. Continue with your story, Arri."

She continued with her story, ending it by explaining how she thought the S – word might be a bad word, hence she didn't know if she could tell her mom the story. Kate hugged her tightly as understanding dawned.

"I'm so sorry, Arri. I'm so, so sorry for being so mean to you," Kate apologized.

"I'm so sorry too. Uncle Rick says I hurt you very bad when I called you that word. What's it mean, mommy? I still not know."

"It's a very bad, very rude word to call a girl, and you should never ever use it ever again, okay? Jacob was wrong to start picking at you, but you still shouldn't have pushed him and begin fighting. Next time, I want you to go straight to your teacher and tell her what is going on, okay?"

"But I not want to be a snitch, mommy."

"There's a difference between being a snitch and telling an adult when you're being bullied. And the next time you have a word that you don't know the meaning, I want you to ask me, okay? Even if you think it might be a bad word, you come to me and ask me before you ever repeat that word, okay? I promise I won't scold you."

"I'm sorry, mommy, and I love you. I know just now I say I hate you, but I love you, mommy."

"I know, sweetheart. And even when I'm super angry at you, I still love you too. You know that right? Come on, you wanna eat something? We can even order in if you want," Kate suggested.

"No, 's okay mommy, we just need to heat up the food."

Kate reheated the dinner and after a second and proper sitting of dinner, they put Arriana to bed. Lying in her own bed with Rick, Kate mused to him, "I need to have a word with her teacher tomorrow, see if I can talk to this Jacob kid's mom or something."

He hummed noncommittally next to her, wrapping an arm around her to spoon. "I was so horrible to her Rick, and she couldn't even come to me to tell me what happened. I couldn't have done it without you, Rick."

Placing a kiss at the base of her neck, he mumbled, "You would have found a way around it, Kate. Hey, you're a great mom, okay, so stop worrying and go to sleep."

"You okay there? You seemed quiet today."

"Hmm, oh yeah, I'm fine, Kate. We're fine, I just miss my girlfriend and want to enjoy cuddling with her for a bit."

Turning in his arms so she could face him, Kate cupped his cheek gently with one hand and leaned forward a little to place a soft kiss on his lips. "She misses you too, you know."

Smiling back at her, Rick returned her kiss. Tucking her head into the crook of his neck, Kate quietly lay there, enjoying the solitude with her boyfriend until they both drifted off to sleep.

A/N: Pretty please review :)