Love's Gift

Chapter 28

Castle gazes at the stacks of boxes ready to be picked up by "Two Starving College Students with a Truck." Tomorrow will be the day he's been dreading; his little girl will be a college woman. It's not that she'll be that far away, only about 9 miles. She was thousands of miles away in Europe, but he always knew she would be coming back. She'll be home from Columbia on winter and spring breaks and possibly over the summer, but when she graduates, she'll be moving on to another chapter. That could be medical school, law school or some yet unanticipated career, but whatever she chooses, she'll be even more removed from his daily existence. He's proud of her and happy that she's taking the next step in her life, but he'll still miss her - a lot.

He'll be far from short of the responsibilities of fatherhood. Once the baby comes, the only thing he expects to be short of is sleep. Kate is planning to take maternity leave, but no more than a few months. Even then she'll be keeping abreast of the evidence uncovered by the task force. He really can't picture her doing otherwise. Even if Johanna's death was the original driving force in Kate's quest for justice, the obsession is now irretrievably ingrained. He loves his warrior wife for that. He's always loved her fighting spirit, but it may complicate child-rearing a bit. He doesn't expect Kate to abandon him and the child they now know will be a son, the way Meredith fluttered away from him and Alexis. Kate will put her heart into parenting as much as she does everything else, but Castle suspects that the everyday lost toys and banged up knee emergencies will fall primarily on him.

With Alexis leaving, there's comfort in that. The trips to the park where he picks up the rhythm of conversation and the wondrous views of the world through a child's eyes, will all be happening again. He's looking forward to them.

Kate's ring tone chimes from his phone. It's unusual for her to call him in the middle of the morning. Usually, she's meeting with her team. His mother has been arrested! She'd been picked up when the owner of a coffee shop complained that she was disturbing his customers by offering psychic readings. Kate had received a courtesy call from the desk sergeant at the 12th who knew that the collar was her mother-in-law.

Castle shakes his head. He was worried about Alexis growing up too fast. He should have been worrying about his mother not growing up at all. Well, Mother's bailed him out a time or two. He can return the favor.


Mother is more angry than repentant. As far as she's concerned, she was merely getting in character for her undercover role with the psychic syndicate. Apparently, the officers who arrested her were new transfers to the 12th and had no idea who she was. When she tried to explain, they joked about taking her to Bellevue instead of to booking.

Castle intends to have a little talk with Captain Gates about that. No matter how little the iron ruler of the precinct thinks of Castle, he knows that she won't countenance any less than respectful behavior from the cops under her command. She'd made that clear on numerous occasions. But any discussion with Kate's old boss can wait. He wants to get Martha back to the loft. He needs to call his lawyer about getting any charges dismissed. And there's the family dinner to celebrate Alexis' last night before moving to her dorm. He's reserved a table at Q3 - not an easy thing to do, even if he and Kate do have an in with the owner.

Mother's fury is receding as they walk back to the loft. She announces that she has committed every element of her reprehensible treatment at the hands of the N.Y.P.D. to her sense memory in her continuing efforts to perfect her craft. Castle inquires whether she still intends to follow through on working undercover for Kate. If anything his mother's enthusiasm has grown. She's planning to show the police how true investigatory work is accomplished. Castle is beginning to feel sorry for the criminals Hurricane Martha is determined to bust.


Maddie Queller's chef extraordinaire, Jennifer Wong, has gone all-out preparing the meal for Clan Castle. The amuse bouches are a tantalizing start to the meal. The salads are topped with meaty sautéed mushrooms, and the spicy roast is tender enough to fall apart at a whisper. Maddie has provided nonalcoholic wine for Kate and Alexis, while the robust red house wine has been poured for Castle and Martha.

Alexis is unusually subdued. When Castle asks her what's wrong, she protests that it's nothing. A skeptical look from her grandmother extracts the truth. She admits that she's feeling nervous about going to a school like Columbia. After she was rejected for early admission by Stanford, she began to realize that at Marlowe, she was a big fish in a small pond. She was the smartest kid in most of her classes, and when she wasn't the quickest, she was the hardest worker. At Columbia, every kid will have been the brightest. Every kid will have worked hard. There will be Merit Scholars and Intel Science Talent Search competitors. She's not sure she'll measure up.

More than that, many of the other students will be arriving with a full-blown passion, like her father has for writing, or her grandmother has for acting. She likes a lot of subjects. She's outstanding at a lot of subjects. But the only thing she was passionate about was getting into the college of her choice. Now that she's done that, she's not sure what her next step will be. She barely knows what classes she wants to take the first semester.

Castle opens his arms to his daughter, whispering into her hair. "You know, I may have known I wanted to be a writer, but it doesn't mean I'm the best at it. If it did, I'd have nothing more to learn. I can't imagine anything more boring than that. And look at your Gram. She's still working every day at being an actress. That's what got her arrested. And Kate's become a different kind of detective. In life, you have to keep growing, and you're going to make mistakes - especially if you take after me. It took me three tries to find the love of my life. You will find your passion. It may not be in your first semester at Columbia. It may not even be by your last semester. You may stumble into it in some internship you get after you graduate. But whenever and wherever you find it, I know you'll take hold of it with both hands, because that's what our family does. And when you do, the world will experience the full power of the amazing woman that is Alexis Castle.

Castle feels Alexis relax against his chest. This is what being a father is all about. No matter how mature and accomplished Alexis becomes, she will always be his little girl. He can't wait to find out what it will be like when he and Kate raise their son.