Beckett wandered around to the side of the porch that face the driveway, chewing her thumbnail impatiently. What was keeping Alexis and Shane? She knew how much Alexis was looking forward to the break away from books and studying after her midterms.

Her worries abated when she saw the red convertible pull in, and were replaced with new ones when she saw Shane pop out of the driver's seat and go around to help Alexis out of the car. Beckett rushed off the porch, saw Alexis hobbling towards her; the light breeze off the water lifted Alexis' skirt just enough for her to see a tensor bandage wrapped around the middle of her right leg.

'What the hell happened?' she asked worriedly. 'Alexis, are you okay?'

'Yeah, just took a fall outside the cafe where I was meeting Shane,' she replied dully, swinging her right leg like it was made of wood. 'Four stitches later, I have to keep it clean, straight and wrapped which means I'll be on my ass the entire weekend.'

'Oh, sweetie I'm so sorry.' Beckett gave her a hug, felt how tense she was and couldn't blame her. 'You have any pills for it?'

'Just standard Tylenol. I really want to sit down.'

'You can hang on the porch. Meredeth and the kids are already here, as are Honey-Milk and her babies. The rest are coming up tonight in time for later dinner.'

'Oh, boy, will I get to make something for dinner? No, let's make it tonight's midnight dessert,' Alexis decided. 'Right now, I really do need to sit down.'

'I've got the luggage sweetie, our usual room?' Shane asked her and Alexis nodded, which had him disappearing into the house while she batted away Beckett's hand on her elbow.

'I'll be fine, Mom, really.'

Beckett held up her hands in surrender and watched as Alexis walked with a pirate's gait around the corner; the bench was occupied by Mallory, RJ and Trini playing a spirited game of Go Fish and Alexis lowered herself into a chair opposite Honey-Milk.

'Oh, man, Lex, what happened?' she asked, noting the bandage. Her voice had the other little ones looking over, RJ's eyes going wide.

'Alessis, you hur'? Wha' happen?'

'I tripped over my feet and fell very hard, and needed some stitches to get my knee closed up,' Alexis replied as her little brother came over to inspect. 'And I have to wear this bandage on my knee to keep the dirt out so my cut can heal.'

'Wan' me kiss it bettah?'

'Sure.'

RJ bent down, gave her knee a little kiss. 'Mwah. There, bettah.'

'Thank you.' She grinned at him, fought the urge to scratch at the spot she knew where her stitches were. 'What are you guys up to?'

'We are puh-layin' car's,' Mallory told her proudly. 'I winnin'.'

'Uh-huh, she muy goo',' Trini chipped in. 'Alessis, you wanna juicy?'

'I'd love a drink.'

'I geddit!' RJ jabbed himself in the chest with his thumb. 'I the buh-ro, I do it!'

'Easy, RJ,' Beckett chuckled, sat down in the chair between Honey-Milk and Alexis. 'How was the rest of your day, aside from the whole knee shredding thing?'

'Fine, good, had my last exam. Well, it wasn't really an exam, it was the final evaluation of my clinical placement.'

'Oh I remember those, those were such a pain,' Honey-Milk nodded in sympathy. 'What about the wedding planning? How's everything going there?'

'Lots done, but lots still to do,' Shane replied, coming through the door with a glass of iced tea in his hand which he gave to Alexis. 'I have orders from RJ to give this to you.'

'Thanks, baby.'

'Oh, hey Beckett, before I forget, I have to tell you about that seminar for mothers and shift work at the hospital. It's open to the community now for sign-ups,' Honey-Milk said to Beckett, talking around Alexis; not wanting to be a conversational pylon, she got up and moved to the swing. Shane adjusted his position so that he could accommodate her, took her hand in his.

'Don't worry, Lex, it's not going to be like that the whole weekend.'

'Won't it? I'll get three questions, just you watch - how's my knee, how's the wedding going, how's school. And then it's on to everyone they see all the time. I'm the bride, I'm the one who lives away most of the time for school, and I'm injured. Shouldn't I get a little extra TLC?'

'I would hope so, but if that's not the case, just remember, we are getting married and your knee will heal.'


As the night wore on Shane could see that Alexis was indeed trying her hardest not to simply freak the fuck out on everyone asking her about school and the wedding. He wondered if they knew how mechanical their interest sounded, that they were asking for form's sake and not for genuine interest, even though both of them knew there was no on in the world who cared more about Alexis' well being than the people in this house.

By the time the kids were all tucked in, and they were ready for midnight dessert, Shane could see Alexis had reached the end of her tether and knew that it would only be a matter of time before she snapped completely.

The final straw came when everyone was sprawled around the living room making yummy noises about her frozen lemonade torte. Only, they hadn't realized who was doing the cooking.

'Mere, this is so good,' Andrea sighed, licking her spoon in delight. 'God, if it wasn't so rude, I'd lick my plate clean.'

'You're among friends,' Dave agreed, then elbowed Lanie. 'This give me ideas.'

'David,' she giggled. 'Seriously Mere, what did you put in this?'

'I don't know,' Meredeth shrugged, scooping up more for herself.

'Oh come on, Mere, none of that chef's secrets thing,' Castle chided her.

'Seriously, I don't know, I didn't make it. Alexis did.'

Everyone looked around, saw Alexis sitting with her leg elevated and her back ramrod straight. 'I made it,' she agreed, then rose stiffly. 'Not that any one of you ever give a damn about the hard work I do. That's the way it always goes, right? I make the dessert, Meredeth gets the compliment. I'm busting my ass at medical school, everyone tells Shane and Dad they should be so proud of me. I'm planning a wedding with my fiance, and Andrea gets the credit for being the heroic maid of honour.'

'Alexis,' Andrea started, but Daniel laid a hand on her arm, shook his head.

'That's about right, isn't it? Let's see, while I was in charge of planning my wedding, the rabbi died, we couldn't find a replacement and had to ask Dad to call in a marker. Then, when Daniel tried to do the Internet rabbi thing, he was mailed a box of porn. What else, oh yeah!' Alexis playfully put a fingertip to her chin, shrugged jerkily. 'I had to cancel on the florist because Shane had strep throat and we couldn't go together, my bridesmaid Theresa dropped out leaving me to look like an idiot and ask someone to fill in which is so damn insulting, the tailor tried to sell Shane and the men the wrong tuxedos and this just in, I will have a nice fresh scar for my honeymoon thanks to my stitches.'

'Oh, that's all?' Lili waved it off. 'Honey, that's nothing.'

'Ix-nay, Lucita,' Esposito murmured, elbowing his sister sharply as Alexis' eyes narrowed at the woman.

'And that's your reaction. It's nothing. Well news flash, it's not nothing to me, Lili,' she snapped ferociously. 'It's my wedding day. I am a third year medical student trying to plan her wedding while studying and keeping her grades up. I am in the top twenty of my class and still have some how managed to find the time to come to New York almost every weekend to plan my dream day. Does that sound like nothing to you? Oh, wait, I forgot, I'm Richard Castle's perfect daughter Alexis!'

No one said anything, as Alexis had built up such a head of steam, she barely noticed no one else was talking and that all eyes were on her.

'I'm not supposed to get stressed or hurt or upset or express any negative emotion, right? I'm just supposed to smile because I'm a super-human freak of nature! I'm not allowed to be worried all these things going wrong means my dream day with Shane is going to be a fucking disaster, that maybe during a fitting I get my period and ruin my beautiful white dress or that the wrong cake will be delivered and some busty stripper will pop out! No, I don't get to think about those things at two in the morning when I can't sleep because I'm Alexis Harper Castle and what the fuck does she know about stress?'

Hot tears poured down her cheeks as Alexis glared at them all. 'So thank you all so much for the loving support I've gotten from my so-called family. I hope you enjoy your dessert.'

With as much dignity as she could muster, she turned on her good heel and went to limp out of the room but Shane caught her arm before she could go anywhere.

'Alexis,' he murmured, pulling her close. He kissed her temple, and with that simple gesture, Alexis' last line of defense was shattered. She began to cry against his shoulder, softly at first, then great big body-wracking sobs that surprised no one in the room.

'I just want to be happy about planning my wedding,' she wept.

'I know, me too, Lex. Why don't we go talk?'