Winter slowly turns into Spring, and the last remnants of snow continue to melt away around them. The sky is no longer a dull gray masked by impending rain and blizzards but a light blue, the sun poking out from behind billowy white clouds. There's still a slight chill to the air but it's becoming more and more acceptable to make due without a jacket, and shorts and dresses are finally being picked out from the closet, set aside for the near future.
With the brightening weather, a similar change is taking place within Kate too.
She wakes with a smile, rays from the sun hitting her nicely, not enough to make her sweat but just enough to keep her comfortable and warm. Her legs peek out from under the edges of the blanket where they've ridden up at some point in the night and she stretches, extending her arms above her head until she hears the satisfying cracks of her bones. She's always been told not to do that—you'll get arthritis, Katie—but she'll take her chances.
The alarm on the bedside table lights up, informing her that it's just after ten.
Not too bad. It feels later, but she's actually glad that it isn't.
She swings her legs out of the bed and stands, making her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth and freshen up before she heads downstairs. As suspected, she's greeted with the sweet smell of strawberries and waffles as soon as she hits the stairs, and a smile blossoms on her face.
Castle's in his own world, swaying rhythmically as he works on the batter, completely unaware that she's now padding into the kitchen.
"Morning, Castle," she says, stifling her laugh when he jumps and spins around, whisk held up in defense.
His eyes soften as soon as he sees her. "Kate," he breathes, and he follows her gaze to the whisk. "Oh. Sorry."
She lets out a chuckle, brows raised as he lowers it. "You always use your kitchen utensils as weapons?" she teases, opening the fridge to gab the filtered water.
"Only when I don't have my light saber handy."
She stops mid-pour and looks at him. "You have a light saber. A real light saber."
"Of course I do," he says, nodding. "One doesn't joke about these things. It was a necessity! I need something to protect us all." He pulls one perfect waffle out of the maker and puts it onto a plate. "Besides, it was either that or a simple bat after I was denied a gun permit."
She snorts. "They won't let you have a gun? Wow, shocking," she deadpans as she puts the water back. "A bat would suffice, you know. Not that you'd need it. This place has better security than most."
He shakes his head. "A bat is too boring, Kate," he sighs disapprovingly before he shoves the plate her way. "Now here, eat your waffle." She laughs but takes it from him. "Syrup, butter, and strawberries are on the island."
"Thanks," she says, rounding the counter to take a seat.
She covers her waffle in syrup and pops a strawberry into her mouth, her face scrunching up for a few seconds. Something's missing. She can't put her finger on it, but it's on the tip of her tongue. There's something—
Ha! She's got it.
She grins, leaning up on her elbows. "Castle, do you have—"
He swivels towards her, takes one look at her waffle and lifts a finger into the air. "Whipped cream!" he finishes for her, spinning immediately to go to the fridge. "How could we forget? Shameful."
She laughs as he grabs it from a shelf and slides it towards her, smiling himself as he watches her put it onto her waffle and then top it all off with a few more cut strawberries. She just rolls her eyes at him, mostly so she won't blush. He's been pretty open about how good she's been looking lately, how healthy, and she's since—almost—gotten used to these gazes. Happiness, pride, everything wrapped into one as he looks at her.
Since their last talk, she's managed to put on a solid eight pounds—still seven away from her goal, but she's not really thinking about that. She feels better, she looks better, and she knows that Castle feels the same. There's something about finally not being able to stab herself on her hip bones that's so satisfying.
"Hey, where's Alexis?" she asks a few minutes later. "I didn't see her upstairs."
Castle finishes up his own waffle and puts it onto a plate, placing it onto the island while he grabs a coffee. "Want one?" he asks, gesturing to the mug. She nods appreciatively. "She was picked up earlier, had plans with her friend Paige for the morning. She'll be back a little after noon, I believe."
She hums, taking her coffee from Castle. "Thank you," she says before she takes a sip. Her lips curl up around the rim, both the scent and the taste just too good. His coffee is undoubtedly some of the best she's ever had.
Castle opens his mouth but is cut off by his phone, and he grins when he looks at the caller. "Speak of the little devil," he jokes, eliciting a small laugh and a head shake out of Kate. "Hey, Pumpkin. Having fun with Paige?"
She's watching him as he talks to Alexis and can't help but smile at the joy in his voice, in his posture just by hearing her voice. It's still one of the sweetest things about him; it takes her back to the first time he told her that he had a daughter, back in Michigan, and the way his eyes lit up at the mere mention of her.
"Yes, Kate's right here." Her eyes pop up at the mention of her name. "Yes, right next to me," he laughs, turning to look at her. Her brows crinkle. "You'd have to ask her, Alexis." Kate tilts her head. Ask her what? "You'll be home soon, you could—all right, all right. Here, I'll give you to Kate, okay?"
He hands the phone over to her, covering the receiver with the palm of his hand as he whispers, "Alexis has something she'd like to ask you."
Confusion is written all over her face but she grabs the phone from him, raising it up so she can talk. "Alexis?"
"Hi, Kate!" the girl beams happily in her ear.
She smiles. "Hi, Alexis," she laughs at the enthusiasm. It's sweet. "Your dad said you had something you wanted to ask me?"
"Yes!" Alexis pauses. "Well, we were supposed to go to the museum a few months ago..." she trails off, and Kate suddenly thinks she knows where this is going. "And I wanted to go this weekend because it's the ending of the exhibit we saw last time—"
"Alexis."
"And dad already said he'd be okay with going but I wanted to see if you would come too because I think it'd be fun," Alexis continues quickly. "But he said I had to ask you if—"
Kate's shaking her head, a small smile on her lips. "Alexis," she says again, a little louder, hoping to stall the girl's nervous rambling. "Alexis!"
The talking in her ear stops. "Yeah?"
"You want to go to the museum?"
She thinks Alexis is nodding because she's quiet for a few seconds before she hears, "oh, yes!"
"I'd love to go," she nods, taking note of the tiny grin on Castle's face.
"Really?!" Alexis beams, loud and excited, almost loud enough that she has to pull the phone away.
Kate laughs. "Yes really."
She hears a small noise of joy from the girl. "Thank you, Kate!"
"No problem," she tells her, smiling as she rests her chin on her hand. "I'm gonna give you back to your dad now, okay?"
The phone is returned to Castle, and he talks to his daughter for a few more minutes before he says goodbye, promising that they'll be ready to head out to the museum by the time she gets back so they'll have enough time to see all of the pieces she hasn't yet gotten to.
"You don't have to go if you don't want to," he says immediately, giving her an out. "She'd understand."
Kate shakes her head. "I want to go, Castle," she assures him. "I love museums, remember? And plus, it is kind of my fault she didn't get to go when she was supposed to months ago."
"That wasn't your fault," he protests. "That was on me."
She shrugs. "Whoever's fault it was, doesn't change the fact that she wants me to go to the museum and I want to go."
He grins, wide and bright in front of her. "You're incredible, you know that?"
Her head dips, chestnut curls falling to hide her face. She looks up at him through her lashes, rolling her eyes.
"I have to get dressed," she says before hopping off the stool and bounding upstairs.
She doesn't turn around to notice Castle still grinning at her, watching her as she goes.
"Alexis, slow down," Castle laughs, halting his energetic child in her strides. "The exhibit isn't going anywhere."
She stops and turns. "I know," she says matter-of-factly. "But we were here for three hours last time and barely got through half of the exhibit. We have to start as soon as possible!"
Kate's trailing next to him, shaking her head at what's happening before her. Alexis ran ahead as soon as they got out of the car, excitement pouring out of her small body as she made her way into the doors. The second she got into the loft she ran into Castle's legs, looked up at him, and the first words out of her mouth were, "are you ready to go?"
It was hilarious watching the awed, amused look on his face at that.
She thinks her excitement is adorable though. Alexis is exactly how she was as a child, running into the museum ahead of her parents, exasperated at how slow they seemed to be moving even though in reality she was moving at a speed far too fast for the adults. The energizer bunny is the first thing that comes to mind.
"This is usually how she is when we come here," Castle says once he's in step with her again, keeping an eye on the redhead a few feet ahead. "She gets so into it. Especially this exhibit, it seems."
"I love how excited she is," she smiles. "I was the same way."
He grins at this new piece of information. "Tell me, were you tall? Short? I bet you were short. Did you have glasses?" he asks at rapid speed. These are the questions he had in mind so long ago, and now seems like an appropriate time as any to ask.
She quirks a brow. "What does that have to do with anything?"
He huffs. "Because, Kate, it'll help me complete the mental image. You said you behaved the same way, so therefore it'd only be fair to know how to imagine the mini you."
She just rolls her eyes. "I think you're just trying to get me to divulge some more details about my oh so exciting childhood," she teases. He just looks at her, a maybe in his eyes, and she laughs. "Fine. I was short," she confirms. "No glasses. I was small though, way too much energy."
He grins triumphantly. "I knew it!" She looks at him curiously, a brow raised. "It's not important," he waves her off. "What is important, is that I was right. I'm sure you were adorable."
She snorts. "I'm not sure adorable would be the right word."
"What would be the right word?"
Kate pauses, considers it. "Awkward. That typical childhood-too-thin phase," she says finally. "My arms were like little chopsticks. I still have my chicken legs."
"You do not have chicken legs," he disagrees, trailing his eyes along her skinny jean clad legs. Okay, so right now maybe her legs are thinner, but he still wouldn't use the phrase chicken legs.
"Point proven," she huffs, doing a sweeping gesture to the lower half of her body.
They're brought out of their conversation when Alexis calls them over from where she's finally reached the gate to the desired exhibit and she's practically bouncing in place.
"Come on, guys!"
They both laugh and nod, making their way over to her. "We're here, Pumpkin," he says, nodding towards the entrance. "Let's go in."
Two hours in and they're still going strong.
They've managed to cover a decent portion of the unseen exhibit in that period of time, and they continue to do so now. Castle's beaming at Alexis, as he had last time, and Kate finds herself mimicking him in that respect, standing a bit further back but still completely in awe of the pure enamored look in the girl's face. It's truly a sight to watch—Alexis reading all of the plaques that sit next to the paintings so intently, internally detailing what exactly it is that they're looking at. After she reads the blurb about the paintings she'll stand there for a few more minutes, taking in the art for what it is now that she knows the meanings behind it.
"Kate!"
She turns at the sound of her voice until she notices Alexis at the other end of the room, standing by a glass shelf with a bunch of pictures on it and waving her over. Smiling, she takes a look over her shoulder at Castle—who's still reading one of the previous plaques—and makes her way over.
"You enjoying it here?" she asks once she's next to the girl.
Alexis nods enthusiastically. "I love it! Everything here is so interesting," she says, bringing her gaze to one of the photographs in front of her. "We've moved past our section on Ancient Egypt in school but I still want to learn as much as I can."
Kate takes her own look at the photograph. "I think it's great you like this stuff," she says, admiring the photo of the Pyramids from different time periods. "Ancient Egypt was one of my favorite things to learn about in school too."
"Really? That's so cool!" she beams, and Kate can't suppress her own grin at how happy Alexis is. "But look over here, it's what I wanted to show you."
Kate follows Alexis a few feet away until the girl comes to a stop and points to a photo—it almost looks like it doesn't belong in this exhibit—of two girls, one significantly older than the other, and taller, but their arms are wrapped around each other. She reads the tiny detail message next to it and realizes it doesn't belong in this exhibit; not in the same sense anyway, since it's a picture of the children of one of their most generous donors. Apparently they've donated specifically to the creation of this exhibit.
But she's not really sure why Alexis wants to show her this.
"So they're related to one of the donors?" she asks slowly, still trying to understand its significance.
Alexis nods. "It reminded me of you," she says quietly but simply. "You're the older one, obviously, and I'm the younger one." She shrugs, looking shyly up at Kate. "It looks like the one picture we took last week."
Oh. It kind of does.
This one is black and white so it's harder to discern any hair colors, and they don't exactly look alike, but the pose is the same, as is the height difference. Last week Alexis had wanted to take some pictures around the loft, said she needed to put some in a photo album. Kate took some for her of just the girl, of her and Castle, of the loft in general—Alexis had said she wanted to remember how things looked, if they ever changed—but then she asked if she could take one with Kate.
It caught her off guard but she was flattered all the same. Castle took a few, and one of them resembles that of the one on the wall right now.
"It does," she agrees after a minute, putting her hand on Alexis's shoulder.
Castle stumbles over then, walking in on a small moment that he's unaware of, and smiles at the two of them.
"So, you tired yet?" he asks Alexis, laughing when she just shakes her head.
She almost looks offended. "Not yet, dad," she sighs. "I still have more to look at!"
And with that she's off, giving one last small smile to Kate before she wanders to her next target.
"She'll be worn out eventually," he says with a laugh.
Kate just nods, gives him a small grin. She's still thinking about how Alexis thought of her when she saw that picture.
They get back to the loft a few hours later. Alexis finally gave in after a total of four hours in the exhibit, though it was unwilling—they both had to practically drag her out of there even though she was dead on her feet, and Castle even bribed her with some burgers for the way home.
Now the girl is upstairs working on some more homework she still has to finish and Castle's in the kitchen, getting two more mugs of coffee ready for him and Kate. She's sitting on the couch, one leg curled under her and the other stretched out, foot propped on the small table in front of her.
"Here you go," he says as he hands her the coffee and sits next to her. "And I brought in some snacks."
She laughs as he straightens his arms and bags of candy fall out, toppling onto the glass surface. Reeses, gummy bears, gummy worms, sour patch kids, and a few more things she can see hidden underneath the rest.
"Jeez, what'd you do, raid a candy store?"
He smirks. "I don't raid and tell, Kate."
She bites her lip. "Of course not, my apologies." She leans forward to put her mug down and grab at one of the packages. "You should raid some more often," she decides, tossing a gummy bear into her mouth with a grin.
"I think that can be arranged," he says seriously, grabbing at the bag of sour patch kids.
Kate leans back, getting more comfortable against the cushions as she uncurls her bottom leg. She lengthens both of them, stretching before she tucks them back up against her chest.
There's a silence and she thinks this is probably the best time to do this. She takes a shaky, hesitant breath before speaking, letting out something she's been going back and forth about for the past week or so.
"Castle?" she says quietly, bringing her head up so she's looking at him.
"Hmm?"
A beat.
"I think I want to find my dad."
I almost feel like a broken record saying this all the time, but thank you all for your sweet comments! I love reading them, and I look forward to hearing what you think.