"You're awfully quiet, dad…"
And there it was again, that deeply rooted intuition, the sixth sense his daughter possessed when it came to detecting his troubled thoughts hidden beneath a thick layer of smiles and pleasant conversation.
Unwilling to glance up from his strawberry sundae for fear of admittance, he let the ice cream melt on his tongue for a moment, contemplating how to reply or whether it was even worth trying to deny the obvious.
"I am just thinking of that…serial killer going around town murdering city workers and cops."
Relishing the sweet aftertaste, he glanced back up, meeting those curious green eyes that had become the center of his world just over two decades ago.
"Normally you get excited about killers. You spout your theories. And you'd be with Beckett."
"Yeah, I know.", he answered too fast, one hand nervously stirring the thick mixture of fruit and vanilla ice cream that could use a shot of something right about now.
"You don't want to be around her?", Alexis hypothesized, completely ignoring her dessert for a chance to shamelessly interrogate her father.
"No, no…definitely no. That's not it."
She had him on the defense now, throwing questions at him like powerful darts, seeing how he'd react, letting that female instinct to pounce on innocent prey taking over.
At least that's what it felt like right at the moment.
"I just thought that…that getting away from the precinct might help clear my perspective. Perhaps that's what's been holding me back from coming up with a good theory for our killer. Maybe I have been looking down that tunnel for too long."
"You? Tunnel vision?", Alexis replied laughingly, her bright red hair gleaming in the late-morning sun, "I am having a hard time believing that all these years of working with the police would be enough for you to lose your perspective…or your overactive imagination, especially when it comes to murders."
"Well, I appreciate the pep talk but as of right now, I am drawing a complete blank on this guy. And every day that we don't come up with an answer increases the chances of another murder. This is getting too close for comfort."
"You don't…you don't think the killer is after Beckett next, do you?"
He'd waited a beat too long for an answer, enough for Alexis to see his doubts, her eyes widening with worry.
"I have no concrete proof or anything suggesting it. But after…well, after everything that's been going on these past few years, I think I have grown a bit…paranoid when it comes to her safety and well-being. And it seems that it gets worse when I am around her. It's like I am the…the conduit of hurt and destruction. I feel that she might be safer when I am not around."
Struggling with the concerning thoughts he'd so carelessly put out into the open, Alexis bit her lip, that bright mind working overtime to help him with the situation. Eventually, she shook her head confidently.
"If the last few years have proven anything, it is that Beckett is extremely capable of taking care of herself. She has been through more than anyone should ever go through, and she just will not quit. I don't think you should be too worried about her unless…"
There was a change in Alexis' tone of voice, followed by a faint crease appearing on her forehead as she hesitated, then narrowed her eyes.
"Unless you're not really worried about that and you're just using it as an excuse to keep your distance to her, see if she stays around this time before you lower those walls again to let her in. Perhaps the real reason you are having such a hard time with this case is because your mind is trying to keep you away from anything that has to do with her, disassociating yourself from the investigation in a desperate attempt to protect your broken heart from any more pain."
Biting the inside of his cheek, Castle frantically tried to come up with something to rebut his daughter's argument, but for the first time in a long time, the words escaped him.