Alexis Rodgers

Chapter 18

"Hi Dad, come on in." Kate stepped back from the door and let her dad enter the apartment.

"Something smells good, Katie." Maybe he was going to get one of his wife's home-cooked meals. This really was going to be a treat. His daughter had in fact listened as his wife tried to teach her.

"Thank you." Alexis was in the kitchen doing the cooking.

"Alexis, I think?" It was the hair color that was throwing him off. He had met her once or maybe twice but it had been a while. He had no idea how long she had looked like this. She didn't even look like a child any longer.

"Alexis is cooking this time, Dad. Gives us time to talk. I'll get the coffee." Jim didn't drink alcohol so options were limited for him.

Jim gladly took his coffee cup and sipped it since it was hot. "So why is Alexis doing the cooking?"

"That's what I got you over here to talk about. Please don't be upset or angry." Kate wasn't sure if her dad knew she swung both ways so this might be a big shock for him.

"Uh-oh." Whenever someone started a sentence with those words it was going to be bad. However, just how bad could this possibly be? Then Katie ran a hand down her face. So this was personal since getting her to open up after Jo was killed was near impossible.

"Alexis is cooking because she lives here." Nice work, Kate. You get him over here to tell him and you're already stumbling all over yourself.

"Why would I be upset that you have a roommate?" Then a thought struck him. "Where does she sleep?" This was a one bedroom place and he didn't think the sofa was a sleeper sofa and she wasn't hiding a Murphy bed.

"Um, with me. We're together." Okay, Kate, that was better but it still sucked. Just tell him already. Suck it up and talk to your dad.

"Together. As in girlfriend and girlfriend instead of boyfriend?" Jim asked since sleeping in the same bed would likely mean… "Interesting."

"I know it's a shock, Dad, trust me at first it was a bit of a shock to me too. But we've come pretty far." Like in love each other. Madly so, in fact.

"Hors d'oeuvres?" Alexis showed up with a plate filled with little things. One or two actually looked pretty good so Jim chose one and watched as Alexis put the plate down and retreated to the kitchen again.

"How far is pretty far?" Jim just wanted her happy and ever since Jo's death she hadn't even tried to be happy. She'd shut herself off from the world and part of that was his fault. So anything that made her happy was going to make him happy.

"I love her. I'm in love with her. I want to be in love with her. She makes me happy, Dad. Please don't be angry." Like in angry that it wasn't a guy like he was expecting. Granted she hadn't been looking to fall in love with a woman, but she had. It just so happened to be Alexis.

"Last I understood, Rick had pissed you off and you threw him out. So instead of him or someone else you choose his daughter, who is how old?" To him she was still just a kid.

"Alexis is 18, Dad. She's not a child any longer." What they had done in bed certainly proved that point. Not that she was going to discuss that with her dad.

"That makes you 12 years her senior and she's okay with this?" Jim queried since to him that was a big gap and as Kate got older it was only going to get bigger.

"Yes!" Alexis called from the kitchen. She hadn't wanted to try and listen in but she couldn't help it. "I love Kate a lot, now and years from now. Dinner in ten."

Kate was happy for the help but she was also a little put out. She'd wanted to break it to her dad and have Alexis talk later, but at least he didn't look upset.

"And you two are sure about this?" Jim studied her face.

"Very sure." Kate had no interest in ever giving Alexis up.

"If only your mother could see you now." Jim wasn't religious enough to think that she was watching, but he was willing to hedge his bets and try to believe that she was watching from wherever she was now.

"Mom would freak out." Kate thought she knew her well enough to think that this wouldn't go over so well with her.

"Not nearly as much as you might think, Katie. Even I'm more shocked that it's Alexis instead of a woman I've never even seen let alone met before," Jim told her. "Don't look at me like that. Your mother and I knew you were, what's the term, Bi, I think. Your mother caught you checking out other girls long ago. She was simply wondering how long it would take you to decide if you liked them better than boys. Then you started bringing home those boys." That had been the year from hell as far as Jim was concerned.

"I'm just in time." Alexis sat down so she could listen to this.

"Dad!" If he did she was thinking…well she would do something.

"Katie got into this phase. Your mother had worked out that Katie might have an interest in a woman as a partner, but then she started dating these boys –" Jim was interrupted.

"DAD!" Kate growled to intimidate him.

Jim was not fazed in the least. "There was this one." Jim's entire body shook since just remembering that guy gave him the willies. "He rode a motorcycle and he had tattoos nearly everywhere. Arms, legs and I'm assuming other parts of him. And loud! I thought sure he was intentionally trying to break windows with that damn bike of his." Jim could picture and hear it even today.

"Then Katie, wearing her grunge outfit that I swear made her look like she was half vampire, ran out. And without a helmet, hopped onto the back, wrapped her arms around him, and off they went." Jim shuddered yet again.

"I didn't look that bad. Okay, maybe he did, but not me." Kate didn't remember that part all that well.

"You had dyed your hair black. So black that it was almost blue. Black lipstick, black nails, black eye shadow. …Let me think. Black shirt, black mini skirt, ripped black hose, black combat boots and there was something in your hair." Jim was having trouble with that one.

"Enough, Dad." God she was so glad she had lived past that phase.

"No, no, keep going. I want to hear this." Alexis grinned and looked at Kate.

"Oh and then there was the time she came home scared out of her mind. Jo and I thought sure she was ready to die. She stopped eating, said she was sick so didn't go to school. Her grades started to suffer –" Jim was interrupted by Kate yet again.

"Dad, stop." Kate didn't need to relive this.

"Jo worked out that Katie was convinced that she might be pregnant and it scared her. Scared her straight, actually." He had been worried but it had at least gotten Katie to behave better.

"DAD! …Mom knew?! How did she know?" Kate was sure she had kept that hidden all this time.

"And this from the woman that walled herself off from life after Jo died. Of course she knew. Your mother searched the trash for the pregnancy tests that you bought at ten dollars a pop," Jim informed her.

"WHAT!?" Kate sat there and opened and closed her mouth like fish out of water until she finally closed it.

"Honestly, Katie. If you didn't want them found you should have thrown them in someone else's trash, not ours. At least one good thing came out of that scare. We never saw that biker guy or anyone like him ever again. Thank God!" Jim had thanked God for that for days if not weeks.

Kate turned to glare at Alexis who was sitting there laughing. "It's not funny, I was scared to death. I even…" Kate clapped a hand over her mouth before too much escaped from it.

"You even?" Alexis was enjoying this.

"Nothing!" Kate said through her hand.

"What I think she means is that she drank a little at home that time." Jim saw the look of shock on his daughter's face. "We only had the one bottle of Vodka and the amount was smaller than either of us could remember, so that only left you. Honestly, Katie." Jim shook his head.

"OH GOD!" Kate got up and hurried to the kitchen to get away.

"Dinner?" Alexis offered since it had likely been ten minutes. "And I want to hear everything." Alexis grinned at Jim.

###V##][##V###

"Thank you for the home-cooked meal. It was excellent. And she can cook, too." Jim was still impressed with Alexis.

"You're welcome. I think I'll go clean up now." Alexis made her exit and went into the kitchen.

"Well tonight was very enlightening," Jim said.

That was not the word Kate was thinking of. Not after her dad had spent half the evening embarrassing her. Now she just wanted the evening to be over with so she could lock herself in the bathroom.

Jim hugged her and got a hug in return. "She's good for you, Katie. Please don't screw this up. If you love her, really love her, and let her in. All the way in. So far in that you can't live without her. That will make me and your mother very happy." Jim caressed her cheek.

"I'm trying. I've already had one scare. I was scared to death that I had lost her," Kate admitted.

"At least I'm not the last to know about this." Jim was happy for that.

"Castle knows only because circumstance dictated it. Thanks for coming, Dad, and ruining my evening." She could have done without all of her dad's stories about her youth.

"That's what fathers are for. …Take care of her, Alexis. Katie can be a handful sometimes," Jim called out and left.

"Well that was fun." Alexis had enjoyed the evening immensely.

"Speak for yourself. I'm going to go take a shower and wash this evening off of me." Kate couldn't remember ever being so embarrassed in her entire life.

"Save some hot water for me," Alexis called after her.

"After tonight, you're on your own," Kate replied.

"I thought you loved me," Alexis teased.

"Not after tonight," Kate said and listened to Alexis laugh.

However after using the double headed dildo followed by a 69 session they both settled down into their usual position and went to sleep.

###V##][##V###

Kate took the time to show Eva everything before she settled into what had been Kate's old desk. It felt good to have an experienced homicide detective in charge. It didn't hurt that it was a woman and that she was gorgeous.

Then she watched as the three of them left which told her they had a body.

###V##][##V###

"Where's the body?" Eva saw a whole lot of blood but no body.

"That's an excellent question. Another good one is who are you?" Lanie was kneeling down and bagging what she could find for later.

"Eva Green. My first day at the 12th. I'm the new Lead Homicide Detective. So no body?" Eva tried again.

"You're replacing Kate. Welcome to the 12th. And nope, just lots of blood. With this much there's no way they survived," Lanie informed her.

"I think I know who moved it. I've got witnesses who say they saw an unmarked van fleeing the scene," Kevin reported.

"So all we need is one of twenty thousand unmarked white vans in the city." That at least narrowed it down a little. "Tire tracks. Maybe that will narrow the white van down to something easier to find."

Eva knelt down to look. "Two different footprints. So there were two of them. But why are there no tracks?" What she was seeing were smooth tracks.

"Booties," Lanie suggested.

"The killers that did this, they took the body and were wearing booties and probably gloves in an unmarked white van in an alley. Don't get this in Lyon," Eva commented.

"France, that explains the accent. Welcome to New York City," Lanie smiled.

Javi joined those two. "I've got gunshots. Neighbors heard a pair go off at 6:40 this morning."

"6:40? Yet Kevin has witnesses in a van leaving here at 7:00." Twenty minutes to kill him, bleed him out, then take the body with them. She had to admit this was a strange one.

###V##][##V###

Kate was up looking at the board. "No body?" This was new.

Eva joined her. "Just lots of blood. We have tire tracks and witnesses but all they saw was an unmarked white van and what might be where a briefcase was set down in the blood. Lanie tells me it was male, but it's still early. We only just started." Eva defended what little she had.

"Without a body we can't talk to family members, co-workers, get financials, or cell phone data. Don't know if it's gang-related, a robbery gone really wrong or… But you know all this already. Welcome to New York City, Eva. You'll figure it out." Kate retreated to her desk.

###V##][##V###

Eva walked into Kate's office after being called in. "The DA won't back us up on this one. They say the case law is murky. Nothing for them to stand on and make it stick. …Frozen." Kate shook her head. She'd never heard of such a thing.

"They claim they didn't kill him. Showed us the watch he was wearing that got them to the body. Took the body and froze it. We can't prove he's dead since we can't get access to the body. Might be the perfect crime. No one is dead." Eva knew better but right now she didn't have much.

"No such thing. Since we now have a name, go talk to the family and get them to release the body," Kate instructed her. "Unless they want his murderer to go free."

"This should be fun. Now I know why I came here. If your precinct is always like this, I'm staying." Eva was loving it. She left Kate's office.Kate could only grin, pleased that she had the right woman for the job.

###V##][##V###

"Cryo freeze?" Alexis was listening to Kate and her recent case with her new detective from France.

"You know much about it?" Kate could take all the help she could get.

"Quite a lot actually. Remember, knowledge of a lot but not a lot about one thing? It's meant as a life extension project. The theory is that you freeze the body then far into the future when medicine is advanced enough, you thaw him or her and fix whatever is wrong. You might not even need the body. Just the brain. Download what's in the brain into a cyborg body or a cloned body and he or she lives again." Alexis shrugged and drank her Coke.

"Brain." Kate had an idea. "So if I can get the DA to get them to release just the body I can use that to help me find out who killed him. You're a genius, Alexis!" Kate was all smiles.

"In that case I'm wearing the strap-on tonight. I want to fuck you," Alexis told Kate who felt that instantly as her blood went south and she started to get wet with anticipation. Alexis really was the best lover she had ever had.

###V##][##V###

Kate threw her pen up in the air and let it land wherever. "We have the body but Lanie says she needs the head which isn't part of our original deal." Kate saw Eva nod. "Fine, I'll make the call. Just go get that head." Kate picked up her phone and Eva walked out of her office.

###V##][##V###

"Stolen? Who steals a frozen head?" Kate questioned Eva who didn't have an answer, not that Kate was expecting her to have one. "Go find us a head and I don't mean the one in Young Frankenstein." Kate dismissed her.

"Young Frankenstein?" Eva asked Kevin since he was closest.

"Ooo, 3 years dead, 2 years dead, 6 months dead, freshly dead. It's a classic. Haven't you watched Young Frankenstein ?" Kevin inquired.

"Of course not, I'm French," Eva retorted.

"It's a Mel Brooks classic, you should watch it some day. It has Marty Feldman and those eyes of his." Kevin used his hands to make really big eyes.

"Frau Blucher," Javi mentioned and Kevin sounded like a horse.

"Americans." Eva shook her head, went to her desk, and looked up what it took to watch this movie.

###V##][##V###

"They stole the head?!" Alexis looked at Kate like she'd gone mad and Kate brought her up to date. "That makes absolutely no sense. You sure it didn't sprout legs like a spider and scurry away?" Alexis used her fingers on one hand to demonstrate. It was all Alexis had and saw the glare Kate was giving her. "It's all I've got."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Castle has contaminated you. Speaking of your dad, how's he doing?" He was Alexis's dad so he mattered to her now too. Just not nearly as much as he did to Alexis.

"Dad says he's trying to finish that Nikki Heat book he had started but hadn't finished. You know he's basing it off of you," Alexis said.

"Please don't remind me. He got the mayor to talk Roy into letting him follow me around. I don't think I want to know what Gates would have thought about that. It was bad enough when Castle wasn't around for that. I don't want to think what she would have done or said if he had been." Kate had long since tired of being insulted by her.

"So how is Eva working out?" Alexis asked her. "She has herself an interesting first case. A murder site with no body. Then it's a frozen body and now it's a stolen frozen head."

"Pretty good so far. I think her being French she's missing out on all the Young Frankenstein jokes going around the office." She felt bad since she was the one that had started it.

"What knockers! …Why thank you, Herr Doktor," Alexis grinned.

"Damn your eyes!" Kate added and was smiling wide.

"Too late." Alexis burst out laughing which soon had Kate laughing.

"See if you can find tickets to Forbidden Planet and invite her to a movie. I love that movie, but if you kiss her I'll shoot you," Alexis warned her.

"My lips and my body only belong to you." Kate wrapped her arms around Alexis and kissed her. "And your ass is mine tonight." Kate was going to put on the strap-on.

"Ooo, before or after you spank me?" Alexis smiled since she had something to look forward to tonight.

"Yes," Kate replied and kissed her again.