A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews!

Tried to keep Kate's backstory as close to canon as possible in this chapter. And probably no more updates on this story until next week because I will be out of town.

Chapter 34: Distractions

While Castle was helping move Alexis into her new apartment-style dorm in Morningside Heights, Kate spent the day at her own apartment. They had invited her to come with them, of course, but she begged off, not wanting to interfere in that particular father/daughter experience.

Kate remembered when she herself went to college - packing up the car her parents had bought her senior year before setting out for California. It wasn't the first time she'd been away from home, but it was the first time she'd ever driven across the country by herself.

The independence had proved liberating. While Kate had several wild teenage years, going to college so far from her parents had been a challenge. She could no longer call her mom to pick her up from a party when she was too drunk to drive home. She could no longer ask her dad for an extra $20 to buy a CD she wanted. But she'd blossomed in the collegiate environment. While her focus was pre-law, she took classes in history, art, and literature while dabbling in all sorts of new hobbies. The future held such promise and purpose.

Of course, all of that came crashing down when her mother was murdered in early January of 1999. Kate was still on winter break from school, getting ready to fly back to Stanford for her spring semester, when the detective came to the door on that fateful evening.

She took a leave of absence at first, but within a month or two she knew there was no way she could go back to California again, so far from her father. He had extended his habit of a glass or two of wine a night to drinking himself into a stupor. By the end of what would have been the fall semester, she was already applying for a transfer to NYU.

Kate shook her head, amazed at how much one person's life could be changed by the evil act of a criminal. She hoped that Alexis would never experience her world being turned so utterly upside down. In fact, she intended to make that one of the goals in her life, to keep Castle safe.

However, that goal and the thought of returning to the NYPD had been warring with her all day. The two concepts continued to circle each other in her mind later that evening as Castle stopped by her apartment.

"Hey," she said as she answered the door, greeting him with a sympathetic smile. He looked so emotionally distraught.

Through pouty lips, he whined, "My little girl is all grown up."

She ushered him inside and sat down next to him as he slumped onto her couch dejectedly.

"She may be all grown up, but she'll always be your little girl," Kate told him.

"Just yesterday she was going down the slide at the playground and explaining to me why I couldn't have a pet dinosaur. Now she's in college." He took a deep breath before admitting, "It makes me feel old."

With a snort, she responded, "Castle, you aren't old."

"I have a teenager in college," he pointed out by way of evidence.

"So what?"

"So... she's in college. She's moved out."

Kate smirked. "Did she clean out her room at the loft?"

"Well... no."

Even when Kate was going to school in California, she had left a number of things at home. Not just furniture and the collection of childhood items, but her motorcycle.

"Then she isn't moved out. This is a process, Castle. And even if she is at college, she's just across town."

"But I'm not allowed to drop in on her unannounced. Or follow her to her classes. Or-"

Interrupting him, Kate summed up, "Or be a creepy dad? Of course not, Castle. She's going to need her space, but that doesn't mean that she isn't going to come home all the time, especially in the beginning."

Nodding to himself, Castle noted, "I did tell her that any time she wanted a home-cooked meal, she could come home."

"Or if she gets homesick. Or if she needs to do laundry. Or if she gets tired of her roommates."

Castle responded, "Actually, she has her own room. The dorm is 'apartment-style' with a common living room and kitchen."

Amused at his naivety, Kate responded sagely, "She's an only child who has lived at your loft almost her entire life. Trust me, she will have roommate issues. It's one of the constants of being a first-year college student."

As she spoke, Castle's eyes narrowed on hers. "How did your parents handle you going all the way to Stanford?" he asked.

"They were okay, supportive. My mom didn't even complain when I ran up my long distance bill calling her every day the first week."

"Ah, the joys of the modern age," Castle noted. "Today we have Skype."

"The modern age? Are you calling me 'old,' Castle?" she teased.

"No, not at all."

Changing the subject, she pursued a topic that she had been trying to bring up with him for several days, one he had deftly avoided.

"So when do I get to read your story?" she asked.

"What story?" he returned coyly, as if he had no idea what she was talking about.

With a roll of the eyes, she stated, "Your Pride and Prejudice and Murder story."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

With a look of both astonishment and annoyance, Kate poked him, probably a little harder than necessary. "You know exactly what I'm talking about!" she exclaimed, cutting off his whiny, "Ouch."

"You were sick," Castle responded. "I think you must have dreamed it."

"You are so full of it."

"No, seriously, you were delirious," he maintained.

"I was delirious?" she returned. "You were the one who insisted we were living the same day over and over again."

"You can blame Alexis for that one. She suggested I watch Groundhog Day while I was sick. All the crazy dreams I had, I don't think I can ever look at Bill Murray the same way again..."

"Castle," she said, cutting him off before he could once again describe to her his fever-induced dreams. One more rendition of how she'd saved him from jumping into a volcano only to be on a boat fighting against a giant shark and Kate was sure she'd scream. Why the flu-ridden writer had decided that a movie marathon would be a good idea, she would never know. At least he'd gotten to spend some time with his daughter before Alexis moved into the dorm.

"What?" he asked, giving an innocent but not-so-innocent smile.

He was arguing too much; she had to do it. Ignoring the part of herself that wanted to just laugh at his expressions and tease him into submission, Kate summoned her best female Look and nailed him with it. She'd used it on him before, of course, perfecting it when he first started shadowing him. And while she hadn't had a lot of cause to bring it out over the summer since this new facet of their relationship had begun, she didn't want it to get too rusty.

Castle resisted the look at first, staring back at her with equal force. But Kate had a great deal of experience with banishing emotion from her features and schooling her face to show nothing but calm indifference. She'd broken many grown men using that look during interrogations - murderers, thieves, all varieties of criminals.

So she wasn't terribly surprised when Castle caved under the weight of that look. He tried to take her down with him, his eyes growing wide and adorable like a two-month old puppy, his lip quivering like a child denied a piece of cake, and his head tilted innocently to the side. But Kate kept her eye on the prize; she was going to win this one.

Finally, after several long moments of shifting restlessly on his side of the couch, Castle relented. "Okay fine, you can read it."

Her calm facade breaking into a smile, Kate beamed at him.

"When it's finished," he added.

The smile fell into a frown as she struggled not to pout in response to his hasty caveat.

"When will it be done?" she questioned.

"Soon."

"How soon?"

"Soon enough."

Kate regarded him for a moment, unimpressed with his less than specific answer. She didn't break out the Look again, didn't think it was necessary. Besides, she had an even better idea of how to torture him.

"Maybe you need a little inspiration?" she suggested. To emphasize her point, she placed her hand on his knee.

Fire flashed in Castle's eyes as he answered with deliberate casualness, "Couldn't hurt."

"Maybe something to help with the dialogue...?" Kate added, letting her hand slide along his leg.

"Yeah, sure. Definitely."

"And the atmosphere...?"

He gulped, "Uh huh."

"Maybe a little romance?"

Speech abandoned him and Castle merely nodded. With a knowing smirk, Kate withdrew her hand and stood up from the couch. He watched her in confusion as she crossed the living room to a cabinet which housed her small DVD collection. Pulling out several of the thin boxes, she returned and handed them to Castle.

"What's this?" he asked dumbly.

"Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Emma," she informed him smugly. "You said you needed inspiration."

With a snort, he answered, "Not the kind of inspiration I was imagining."

"Oh, yeah?"

She knew she was teasing him, and she knew that he knew she was teasing him. And despite his expression of feigned annoyance, Kate could tell he didn't mind the teasing. In many ways, it reminded her of their relationship before - when they were merely coworkers and friends and not lovers.

"So where's your television?" Castle asked in resignation. Looking around, he seemed to realize for the first time that there was not one in her living room.

She hadn't actually intended to make him watch the films. Rather, Kate had already begun considering how much whining she would endure before relenting and suggesting something else. Chase scenes, explosions, and zombies were more up Castle's alley than 19th century romantic comedies. But he seemed willing enough, without a trace of whining...

With a coy smile she said pointedly, "In the bedroom."

He seemed confused for a few seconds before understanding dawned in his eyes. Needing no further invitation, he jumped up from the couch and followed her into the bedroom.

Kate gestured for him to relax on the bed while she opened her TV cabinet and put in one of the DVDs at random. A moment later, she joined him on the bed as the opening credits of Sense and Sensibility began to play.

"You know, they say it isn't good to have a television in the bedroom," Castle remarked.

With a roll of her eyes, she asked, "And why's that?"

"They say it's a distraction. The bedroom should be for sleeping. And for... other stuff."

"Sometimes I like to have it on when I fall asleep," she explained. "And besides, I would think 'other stuff' would be more of a distraction from sleeping than the television."

Castle considered this for a moment, nodding. "If you're doing it right," he conceded. He had scooted closer to her so that he was reclined against the pillows and most of her body was relaxed against him.

"And? Are we?" she asked with a laugh.

"I don't know," he responded thoughtfully as he touched the fabric of her shirt. "I think we'll need a demonstration to see if you're more distracting than the television."

Kate laughed at him. "This is a pretty good movie," she pointed out.

"Better than... other stuff?" Castle pressed, moving his hand lower.

She considered his question for a moment before answering decidedly, "Well, I have seen it before-"

As he cut her off with a kiss, Kate congratulated herself on completely distracting him from not only the television, but also the trauma of his only daughter going off to college.