Rick takes in a breath, looking himself in the ill-lit bathroom since the lightbulb on the right side of the vanity burnt out while he was in the shower. He can't say to himself he should work out more. His jaw is more defined, his chest is more muscular, all the things that he loved to brag about are just clearer. He feels more healthy, sleeps better, has more energy than he ever remembers having since before Alexis was born, and now that he feels at his peak, it's been easy for him to keep it that way.

As he gives his bare chest one last once over, letting out all of his breath to make sure that the definition and result of almost ten months of intense weight lifting and even more intense cardio isn't just him sucking in his gut, he runs his palm down his jaw to make sure it feels smooth enough, smacks the lightswitch on his way out, and moves over to his closet where he grabs a dark blue silk polo shirt and snags a thin white t-shirt to wear underneath, pulls them both on, then grabs a black sportcoat with white and grey pinstripes.

After he slips on his shoes, he peaks back into the bathroom and flicks at his hair to haphazardly style part of his cowlick. He decides that he's finally finished getting ready, knowing that anything beyond this is stalling, and quickly makes for the door to head downstairs until his eyes find the top surface of the dresser. His heart clenches for only a moment but he stops the feeling quickly by reaching over, slapping his hand on top of the dresser, opens up his coat and slips the picture in the inside pocket.

Once he decides that there's not much more he can do, he decides to head downstairs to head out for his date. He gallops down the stairs, trying to force himself to feel excited about it all, even going as far as to push a smile halfway onto his face. He comes into the living room, where Alexis is sitting on the couch with Sasha in a large ball cuddled up next to her, Alexis on her phone.

"Hey, E?" She says, shortening her boyfriend's name down to a letter, smiling softly into her phone, "I'll call you back in a minute, okay? Thanks." She brings her phone back down to her lap before standing up and letting her phone fall into the crease of the cushions.

"So?" He asks, lifting his arms, presenting himself to his daughter for inspection. "Do I look okay?"

Alexis's smile seems to fade for a minute, but it's still there. "You look great, Dad." Rick smiles and nods, moving to the side table next to the door to grab his car keys. "You nervous?" She asks after a pause between them.

Rick chuckles under his breath, looking over his shoulder with a crooked brow. "I've been on first dates before, Alexis. I'm not nervous."

"Yeah," she mutters, craning her neck and looking down at the floor. "I know you have." Her voice is barely a murmur.

When Rick slides his keys into the pocket of his jeans, he looks back over to his daughter, noticing her behavior. "Alexis, I thought we settled this." He says on a sigh.

Alexis shakes her head and shrugs her shoulders in one short motion. "I want you to be happy, Dad." She says with an honest lift in her voice as she looks back up to him. He softens toward her, his defenses made up of both his smirk and fatherly domination over the situation ready to tell her to drop it. "I just know that I never saw you happier than when you were with Beckett."

Rick feels his heart want to sink into his stomach at her comment, but he shores him his emotional armor, feeling proud in the moment for being able to do it so quickly, and gives her a short motioned nod. "I was also more miserable than ever before when she left." He points out truthfully as he quickly moves passed her to wake up Sasha so he can feed her before he leaves. "Knowing her like I do, Alexis, she'll leave once she gets a better offer," just like everyone else usually does, he thinks to himself as he ruffles the top of Sasha's head to wake her up.

He can hear Alexis sigh deeply, hearing a slight edge of frustration in her breath, as he waits for Sasha to pull her head up from in between the cushions, which she's slow to do. "You know her better than I do, Dad, but," she says as he mods his head to gesture Sasha into the kitchen, "as long as your being honest."

"Don't worry, pumpkin." He says with a lightness in his tone, trying to reassure her as Sasha eagerly jumps off the couch once she realizes why she was woken up. "Besides, if I want my date with Sierra to go better than my first date with Beckett, I'm already late."

"I can feed her, Dad. Go ahead."

Rick smiles, deciding not to put up a fight, and quickly strides through the living room, placing a kiss on his daughter's cheek as he darts out the front door.


He remembers his first real date with her.

God, he was so nervous. He thought in the taxi that it would be the date that they'd both talk about forever because of how perfect and romantic it was. He'd brought her flowers before, she loved them every time. But he was so worried that she'd hate them, just because they were supposed to be keeping a low profile, and a bouquet of flowers wasn't exactly low profile. They got to the restaurant and it was just so awkward, sitting in complete, awkward silence with each other. It was just so awkward and wierd between them, knowing that they had an entire relationship to explore while forgetting they had an entire partnership to build off of.

They still ended up making love that night, but only after they dropped the pretense and just decided to share a laugh about it.

But as Rick pulls to a stop outside of her house just after six o'clock, right as the streetlights flick on, he just feels what he can only think of as emptiness. He's felt it before a lot, but wasn't as conscious of it as he is tonight. Sierra's a gorgeous, bright, easy-going, happy-go-lucky type of person. Not even like any of the women he used to let float around him in New York. She's not that smokey, sultry, seduction type that would be perfectly happy to be another notch on his bedpost just so they can say they were bedded by Richard Castle.

Maybe he's just overthinking things. Maybe that's his new vice, overthinking things, over analyzing things.

Shaking the cobwebbing clouding up his thoughts, he pushes open the door, grabs the flowers off the passenger seat, takes in a big breath of the cool air, rolls his shoulders back, smirks, and makes for the front door of the small one-story home painted white, a dark blue front door and blue shutters, a pair of shrubs on either side of the walkway that parallels the driveway that has a dark green sedan parked at the end. He can hear the TV as he approaches the front door and when he knocks, he can hear the faint sound of a bell start to ring.

"Coming!" A voice hollers from inside. "Coming, I'm coming, I'm..." Sierra's voice dies down as she approaches the door. The knob turns and the door starts to crack, and Rick can hear the high-pithced ringing of a small bell sound at the entrance. "No, no, Persius, no!" She says from behind the door. Rick looks down and sees a Siamese cat poking its head through to the outside. "We went over this, Persius." She says as the door opens.

Rick looks from the cat being taken up by its ribcage and looks at Sierra, who's in a simply designed red dress that comes about halfway down her shapely, athletically toned thighs, with a pair of red, open-toed two-inch heels on her feet. She has a thin, black half-sleeved sweater over her shoulders, her naturally wavy blond hair put back with a bobby pin, giving her already attractive face a model-esque glow that seems to show off her cheekbones and eyes.

Sierra holds her cat by its ribcage, holding him as far away from her as she can. "Siamese don't really shed that much," Rick points out, the flowers hanging by his side.

"I-I uh..." Sierra starts, turning around and taking a few steps with her cat still hanging from her hands, "I know, but why take a chance?" She says in a bright, happy, breathy voice. "Oh!" Sierra exclaims as the cat escapes from her grasp and climbs up her chest, looking over her shoulder and extending its neck out toward him, sniffing the air.

Rick smiles as the cat seems to want to inspect him, only because he's imagining Sasha casually walking up to the cat and push him over with her nose, sniffing her like its one of her new toys.

"Go!" She says, tossing the cat out through the living room. Sierra finally turns around and gives him a bright, nervous, face-splitting smile. "Hi."

Rick looks at her, wanting to drink in how she looks, because she looks beautiful. Her toned, slender, healthy figure, her attractive features, her light blue eyes and naturally happy looking smile, he just can't seem to muster up even faking feeling something for his own sake. "Hi," he says with a wave in his tone, handing her the bouquet while he speaks.

"Oohhh," Sierra almost coos as she reaches out and takes the pink and red flowers in her arms. "They're beautiful. You didn't have to do that." She says with a smile and an arched brow, turning back inside to set the flowers down.

Rick smiles, shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans. He takes a few steps inside and stops, deciding to look around her simple yet tasteful decor while she disappears in the kitchen.

She returns a few minutes later, shaking her hands dry. "I can't remember the last time someone gave me flowers."

Rick meets her eyes and smirks. "I hope you weren't happy about that. Taking them back won't exactly make you forget about it." He quips casually.

"Oh, no!" She says happily. "I love them. They're beautiful." She waves behind her. "And," she starts with a shakey voice, her eyes hungrily roving over him, "you look..." she trails off with a deep sigh before she catches herself, clears her throat broadly, and shakes her head, smiling at him nervously. "You look great."

Rick smiles softly, understanding the pressure completely. "So do you."

Another smile engulfs Sierra's features, letting out a tight sigh that half resembles a laugh. "Thanks."

Rick gives her a moment. "Shall we go?"


"You don't really seem the type to have a divorce under their belt, Sierra." Rick says over a piece of chicken.

Sierra smiles softly, her nervousness and tension having slowly faded as their date went on. She shakes her head and waves her fork in front of herself. "Why, do I really give off that much of a 'house on a hill' vibe to you?"

Rick smiles, chuckling as he chews his food. "No, not at all. It's just you seem more of a..." he trails off, thinking of the right words, "one and done type of woman, that's all." He says, feeling his heart flutter when he feels his words on his tongue.

Sierra smiles heavily and leans against the edge of the table, picking at her meal with the tip of her fork. "No, it was my fault mostly." Rick stops, honestly at a loss, leaning back and letting his shoulders fall as he looks over to her. Sierra seems to notice and flicks her eyes over to him. "What?" She asks with a smile.

"No, it's nothing," he shakes his head. "It's just I've been divorced twice and both of my ex-wives still blame me."

She smiles again, giving him a few nods and sets her fork down. "Well, I was the one that said yes when he asked me. I..." she trails off, looking away and moving her hands off the table and to her lap, "I wanted that big fantasy wedding and he... well, he just figured that that's what we were supposed to do after being together for as long as we were. Cut to... eloping to a courthouse in Eugene and spending our honeymoon the nearest motel we could find." She says in a heavy voice.

Rick nods, understanding the temptation. "Why'd it end?" He asks sincerely.

Sierra shrugs her shoulders and leans back in the booth. "I realized I agreed to marry someone I didn't really know."

Rick nods, having heard it before. The old 'he just changed' routine. "So, he changed?" He asks, testing the waters.

But she surprises him by shaking her head. "No, he didn't change." She says, looking him in the eye. "That's kind of why I said it was my fault." She says with a soft yet heavy smile. "He was the same person he was when we were dating, I just... didn't want to see it at the time. I didn't put in the effort to really get to know him I should have."

Rick nods, getting a thick sense of guilt slide through his system for having made the assumption. "It sounds like you take too much of it on yourself."

She nods back, her smile never leaving her features fully, just changing in degree. "That almost sounds like experience talking."

"Well, please don't think I asked you to dinner to give you divorce tips."

"No, I didn't mean to bring you down or anything." She says apologetically, sitting upright and leaning in over the table.

"No, it's alright." Rick says casually, shrugging his shoulders as he reaches for his glass of water. "It's just you're..." he lets his words fall, looking over to her and catching her eye.

Her eyes seem to sparkle with excitement and her smile pulls at the corners of her lips again. "I'm... what? It's nothing bad is it?"

Rick takes a pause, leaning back against the booth and smiling softly. It's not too often that he has a conversation with someone where he doesn't have to worry about being judged or studied. It feels like a different experience talking with her. He can't tell if it's just her naturally exuberant personality or just how nothing she says is laced with something that's meant to get him. "You're easy to talk to."


After they'd left the restaurant, Rick decided to steer them away from ending the night by offering to just walk through the park nearby. "So," Sierra starts after a few more feet of silence, the conversation having faded after she'd said all she had to about herself, "how do you like it here so far?"

Rick slowly strolls next to her, his hands hanging from his pockets. "I like it." He starts, looking over to her. She raises her brow, gesturing for him to continue. "Everybody here's just a lot more..." he trails off, looking around the mostly empty park and quiet streets of Crestfield, eventually looking back over to her, "human."

"New York really lives up to the whole mouse utopia experiment thing then, huh?"

Rick laughs under his breath, "You don't like the city?"

She shakes her head naively, "It's never really appealed to me. When you grow up in a cul-de-sac in a small town like Crestfield, a place like New York just seems too... crowded."

"Hmm," Rick hums on another chuckle, "It was a little weird whenever I first moved out here and a total stranger waved to me as I drove by."

"Ha," she laughs brightly, "yeah, I bet that was weird." She agrees, Rick soon feeling another pause in the conversation. "But uh," she seems to catch it, "not as weird as being considered the town celebrity must be, I bet."

He looks over to her with a casual smirk and quirk in his brow. "Town celebrity?"

"Oh, yeah!" She exclaims, leaning over and bumping his shoulder. "I mean, you're the Richard Castle!" She waves at him. "It was all I could do to contain myself when Cece told me that she saw you move in across the street." Rick's soft smile suddenly feels weighted. "And here I am," she continues in the same amazed tone, "out on a date with you, the Richard Castle."

Rick nods with her, mostly out of courtesy. That's what drew him to her. In a sea of women that just fell and fawned over him, who faked and feigned their way to his side, she stood back and challenged him, didn't care who or what he was. He couldn't just wave a marker in the air as an offer to sign anywhere or anything she had on her to get what he wanted. It's not that she demanded something more real from him, it's that he made himself into something more real for her, that she challenged him to take a more real look at the world and treat it like something that he can't just make better in his books, treat himself as someone who can't just skate through things by making himself into another version of himself by writing it.

To himself, Rick breathes a hard breath that almost resembles a chuckle. "I guess I'm not really used to making that much of an impact."

"Well, believe me, you do." Sierra continues on, only making Rick withdraw into his thoughts even further. "You should just hear how Beth and Barb..." she stops, seeming to swallow her words suddenly. He catches it and pulls his eyes off the sidewalk, looking over to her and seeing she's eyeing him widely, her shoulders tight and tense.

"Who's Beth?" He asks, trying not to sound overbearing or threatening, but he stops and turns to face her with his hands still hanging from his pockets.

Her eyes dart back and forth, eventually landing on him as her brow arches again. "Beth and Barbra, we grew up together." She quickly explains with one of her nervous smiles. "They run the coffee shop just a few blocks over and..." Rick lets her continue, staying silent and deciding that saying anything would just press her too far. "I... may have went in a few days ago and I may have gloated a bit about you asking me out and they..." she takes a pause, drawing in a long breath and letting her shoulders deflate, "may have explained that your ex-girlfriend and partner from the NYPD moved to town to get you back and that she still has feelings for you and I may have looked it up and saw that she inspired Nikki Heat and that you dedicated books to her and I just-"

Rick takes his hand out of his pocket to motion for her to stop so he can explain, but she's already off.

"Oh, Rick, I'm sorry!" She practically pleads, hanging her arms low and slouching her shoulders. "I should have broken the date when Beth told me how serious you two were and that she brings you coffee every morning, but you're just such a great guy and- oh, I'm a terrible, awful, selfish, self-centered, cold, shallow, heartless, thoughtless, terrible person, aren't I? I'm sorry. You're just..." she lets out a sigh, looking back up to him, "you're the Richard Castle!" She exclaims again, pausing before she meets his eyes again. "I hope you can forgive me."

"No, no," he lifts his hand finally, shaking his head and giving her a soft expression. "It's not you're fault, Sierra." He says, taking a step forward and putting his hand back in his pocket. "If anything, you should probably blame me."

"No, Rick, when I heard about her, I-"

"Look," he stops her, his heart feeling heavy. "The truth is, Sierra," he tells her in as heavy a voice as his heart feels, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders, "when I asked you to dinner, it was..."

She clasps her hands together in front of her, eyeing him for the first time all night without a smile. "It was... what?"

He swallows his regret and knows there's no other way he can tell her. "I moved out here to get over her after she'd stood me up when I was going to ask her to marry me." He says quickly, his tone heavy. When he looks back over to her, he sees that she doesn't look hurt or betrayed. She's just looking at him, almost as if she's just waiting to understand. "Suffice it to say, she..."

"Broke your heart," she finishes for him.

Rick nods, giving her a soft, thankful smile for saving him from saying it. "I thought I was over her and thought I was ready to forget about that part of my life. I thought that I'd moved on." He shrugs his shoulders, Sierra's natural softness and nonjudgemental nature getting the better of him. "But she showed up and I felt..."

She gives him a reassuring nod, her soft natural smile reappearing on her face. "You felt the need to prove it to her."

He looks away from her, feeling his heart clench in his throat as the picture in his breast pocket starts to feel like it's burning a hole through the fabric. He slowly takes his hand out of the pocket of his jeans and reaches in, taking out the picture she'd given him that morning, and feels his throat close and a smile want to sneak around his defenses when he sees her bright, beautiful, face-engulfing smile that she has in the picture. Only taking a second to look, he can't help but notice the tightening of his stomach and the intense flutter and the electrifying of his blood when he sees her smile.

It's just something that's starkly absent here, despite how beautiful and understanding Sierra is.

Rick can feel Sierra's eyes on him as he looks away again and hands her the picture. He watches out of the corner of his eye guiltily, seeing her look at the picture. "It was more to prove it to myself, actually."

Surprisingly, he notices that she doesn't look hurt as she looks at the photo. She just starts smiling happily. "You two look adorable."

"Sierra, I'm so sorry." He says as honestly as he can, earning her gaze back from the picture. "I'm sorry I lead you on like this. Please, don't get me wrong, you're..." he motions to her, "you're really beautiful, you're really easy to talk to-"

"I'm just," she shrugs, letting the picture down, "not her, right?"

He can't answer that. He wanted to move on. He wanted to not have to be so deadset on it being her. He doesn't want to admit that he's so weak that he can't muster up the courage to just let her go.

"Rick," she calls over to him, trying to get him to look back over to her. When he does, she's just smiling softly. "If you asked me out to prove to yourself that you don't love her anymore, it's not going to work, I can tell you that." She says, her tone shifting, but still holding an undertone of understanding.

Being stubborn, Rick clenches his jaw. "What makes you say that?" He asks, short of just being childish and asking 'says who?'.

Sierra just smiles and lifts the photo up to him. "You want to prove to yourself that you moved on from her by going out on a date, but you bring a picture of you kissing her along with you?"

"Sierra, she left me for a job." He lets escape, Sierra's nature pulling it out of him. "I just..." he decides to cut himself off, closing his mouth and craning his neck. He just doesn't want to go back to being in last place.

"Listen, Rick," Sierra starts again, "I'm not going to say that I totally understand what you two had or what happened between you, but there is one thing I can tell you. It's something I found out when I saw you look at this picture and... you're probably not going to like hearing it."

He tries his damndest to harden himself, to shore up his emotional armor as he looks back up, stiffens his neck, and holds his breath. "And what's that?"

Sierra smiles again, lifts up the picture to show it to him before handing it to him, waiting for him to take it. "You're still in love with her."


A/N: Not sure how I feel about this chapter. Tone seems off to me. Let me know what you think. Next chapter will have a lot more Castle and Beckett in it though.