A Few Moments in a Day – Humble?
Richard Castle woke up in the wee hours of the morning with ideas for Nikki and Rook and had been writing most of the rest of the night. He woke up with his head pillowed on one arm on his laptop where he had dozed off again. Beckett had to be at work; and Alexis, after being home for the weekend, had to leave early to get to campus for her Monday college classes. After weighing his options, Castle decided he would dress to go to the precinct with Kate and then put together a good breakfast for all the ladies of the house. He had just started the coffee when he heard the shower in the master bath start, and it wasn't long before he heard hair dryers from both upstairs and down. He had heard Martha come in not long after he started writing, but he decided she could live with the wake-up call like everybody else. She had a school to run after all.
The playlists on his phone and iPod revealed his eclectic taste in music. There was a little of everything; and that morning, he had chosen country. He turned it up and hummed along as he put on one of his favorite manly aprons and pulled out a skillet, a griddle, and ingredients to start breakfast. When it was almost finished and he thought Kate and Alexis were probably ready for work and school, the next song started, and he chuckled and sang along…loud enough to be heard throughout the loft. The lyrics proclaimed that it's hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way. Alexis was at the top of the stairs with her weekend bag and backpack when he reached "I can't wait to look in the mirror, 'cause I get better looking each day." She rolled her eyes and laughed as he cooked and shuffled around to the music.
Kate stopped to watch at the door of the study, fully dressed for work, badge, gun and all. She leaned against the door frame and shared a loving, indulgent grin with Alexis in time to catch, "I must be a hell of a man." Castle caught Kate watching him as he belted out a little louder, "Oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble," then turned in her direction with his arms out as if asking for understanding and finished with, "But I'm doing the best that I can." Then he gave her his signature smirk, the picture being completed by the "Mr. Good Lookin' is Cookin'" apron she had given him on his last birthday; and she laughed and came to join him.
"A little full of yourself this morning, Dad?" Alexis asked with her own laugh as she left her bags next to the door.
"Hey. A little respect for the cook," he demanded.
"There's more respect if you don't burn the bacon," Kate told him, planting a kiss on his lips.
Martha was the last to show up, looking a bit bleary eyed. "What is this infernal caterwauling, Richard? It's too early in the morning…"
"The rest of us are ready to start the day, Mother. If you don't end yours until then, we can't be responsible," he answered cheerfully as he finished the scrambled eggs, moving to the music as he worked. By then, Kate and Alexis had set the table, poured the juice, and started putting the filled serving plates on the table. Martha grumbled her way to the table and sat down, eventually filling her plate and admitting it all looked and smelled delicious. Castle left his apron on the counter and sat down next to Kate.
"Your side of the bed was cold when I woke up," she said, helping herself to the eggs. "Were you writing last night?"
"Yeah. I finished the chapter I was working on and started another one. And the outline for the new one is done, so it should go pretty quickly when I get back to it."
You don't need to come in today. If everything goes the way we think it will, we should wrap the case up this morning, and the afternoon will just be paperwork. You must be tired. If you need to stay and write…"
"I'm wide awake right now. I'll go in with you, and if it works out that the afternoon is paperwork, I might come home and work on that chapter. It needs a little time to percolate, anyway."
They all loaded dishes into the dishwasher and picked up their things to leave…except for Martha, who now that she was awake again, admitted she needed to get dressed and go over lesson plans for her class at ten.
"Ready, Alexis? We'll walk you out," Kate offered.
Castle took his daughter's bags for her; and when they reached the lobby, their doorman asked if they needed one or two cabs. They decided there was time to drop Alexis off at her dorm before they went to the precinct, so they all shared a cab and the couple enjoyed a little extra time with her. Once they reached her dorm, they wished her luck on the test she had that morning and went to meet the rest of the team at the twelfth.
"'Morning," Ryan greeted them, coming out of the break room. "We have the lab work, and it confirms what we thought it would. LT and Vasquez are on the way to pick Nobles up, and Espo and I will give you and your boy there the opportunity to let him beg to confess."
"Thanks…I think." Kate sat down at her computer and pulled up the reports Ryan mentioned, and Castle read over her shoulder. The two of them gave their notes and reports from the day before another once over in preparation for an interrogation and later came back to the bullpen with a confession.
"He didn't exactly beg to give this," Castle informed the boys, "but when we backed him into a corner with all the lab results, he finally gave it up."
By that time, it was almost time for lunch, and Castle said he was going home to finish the new chapter he had started the night before. "Want me to make you a coffee before I go?" he asked Kate.
"Yeah. I'll come with you." As they walked to the break room, she suggested, "You might want to get a little sleep, too. I might have plans to keep you up late tonight."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah." Then she sang softly so it wouldn't leave the break room, "I know you're a hell of a man." That was accompanied by the detective discreetly grabbing a good handful of writer butt and squeezing a couple of times.
He handed Kate her coffee and smiled mischievously. After looking around to see if anyone was watching, he kissed her forehead and said quietly, "Then I'll write fast and look forward to tonight."
"Me, too," she answered.
The police paperwork was complete, as was Nikki's next chapter before Kate left work to fulfill her promises at home.
xxxxx
A few weeks later, Alexis was at the loft for the weekend again. On Saturday night, she and her dad and Kate had a movie marathon and talked back and forth about all of them, enjoying the insightful comments as well as the silly ones. Before going to bed, Alexis offered to make breakfast on Sunday morning.
"You don't have to do that," Kate insisted. "I can help your dad."
"No. I don't have to leave until Monday morning. Dad did all the work last time I was here, and I can always go back to bed later if I want to. It's my turn."
"Thanks Pumpkin. Be sure to let me know if you want some help," Castle answered.
"'Night, Dad. 'Night, Kate. It's nice to be home now and then," she told them with a smile as she went up the stairs.
The next morning, Alexis woke Martha up and volunteered her to help with breakfast, convincing her she needed time with her grandmother.
"Are they teaching you to be manipulative at that fancy college of yours?" Martha grumbled good naturedly as she put on her robe and followed Alexis downstairs.
The younger redhead chuckled as they walked toward the kitchen. "I kept thinking about Dad's musical moment from last time I was home. He's such a goofball sometimes. Do you think Kate was ready for the full dose of Richard Castle when they finally got together?" she asked as she handed Martha weekend breakfast staples from the fridge.
"I'm pretty sure she knew what she was getting into. Those two know each other pretty well."
"Do you think it's gonna last? I want it to. I don't think I've ever seen him this happy."
Martha smiled at Alexis and answered, "I think the last time he was this happy was when a nurse handed him a little pink wrapped bundle and the doctor said, 'Mr. Castle, meet your daughter. And I think Katherine is just as happy. It just took her longer to figure out how to get there again."
"I like having her here. They should hurry up and get married."
"I've heard that girls tend to marry people like their fathers. You could do worse, you know."
"Like Dad? Grams…"
"When you look at somebody as husband material, be sure he has a sense of humor…and some spontaneity. After living with your father all your life, you know you couldn't be with somebody who's constantly all proper and stuffy."
Alexis grinned and shook her head as they spread things out on the counter and started the routine they had used many times before. "Nope. That wouldn't even buy the guy a second date."
"But more than his sense of humor, you need to look for somebody who loves with his whole heart…like your father. I know there's never been a single day of your life that you haven't known you were loved unconditionally. And can Katherine say that she wasn't loved unconditionally…even when she didn't know how to accept it? That kind of love is healing. After that worthless twit of a husband left me with nothing, Richard could have bought me a new apartment and given me a generous allowance until I got back on my feet…somewhere other than in his home; but he insisted that I stay here. No matter how we talk to each other now and then, he wanted to know I was okay; and having that from him brought me back to myself. You've seen how he and Katherine take care of each other. He brought her back to herself, too…she's told me that.
At that point, a baritone singing voice belted out from the master bedroom, "To know me is to love me. I must be a hell of a man."
That was followed by a loud squeal they were sure was Kate, and Alexis said, "I don't want to know, do I?"
Martha kept working and said with an answering chuckle, "Maybe. Maybe not. Sounds more like he's just being silly again to me."
The singer then followed up with, "Oh, Lord, it's hard to be humble. But I'm doing the best that I can." That was followed by laughter from both occupants of the bedroom.
"Definitely don't want to know," Alexis stated firmly.
Martha laughed at Alexis, wrapping an arm around her granddaughter's shoulders, and told her, "You may not want to know all the details, but having a relationship like that one, my darling granddaughter? That should be at the very top of your bucket list."
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AN: I'm not fond of song fics, but this song wandered randomly across my path recently, got stuck in my head the way it did the couple of times I've heard it before, and this time it sounded like Castle. It's on YouTube if you haven't heard it. Mac Davis "It's hard to be Humble"