AN: Here is the second chapter. Enjoyy and please review.
Chapter 2: You found me
"Daddy, daddy, wake up. It's time to get up, daddy! "
"Daaaaddyyyyy!", an excited voice called out from the other side of the door.
He heard the door open quietly and little footsteps made their way towards his bed. He immediately started smiling. Seconds later a pretty excited little girl stood at one side of his bed, looking at him.
"Daddy? Are you awake?", she whispered. Richard Castle laid in his bed and pretended to still be asleep.
The little girl climbed onto his bed and cuddled into him.
"Daddy, pleaseeeee. Wake up we gotta..."
Before she could even finish her sentence, Rick grabbed her and spun her around and started to tickle her.
"Daddy, noooo, stoooooop.", she giggled and started kicking her father lightly.
"This is not daddy, this is the tickle monster and he is going to torture this Pumpkin", Rick said in a deep voice while tickling her some more. After a while he ended the tickling and embraced her tightly.
The little girl laid her head on his chest and snuggled back into him.
"Daddy?", she whispered softly.
"What is it, Alexis Princess?"
"Do you think, they'll like me?", she asked timidly.
"Of course, Alexis. They'll love you as much as I love you and do you know how much I love you?", he made her laugh by tickling her behind her ears.
"You told me that you love me to the moon and back, right daddy? That's a pretty long distance, daddy!", Alexis smiled and snuggled even further into her father.
"To the moon and back, indeed! Alexis, you are my favorite person on the whole world and such a special girl. You make me so happy and you make everyone so happy. There is no way they won't like you. They're going to love you! You're going to be having friends there in no time, Pumpkin. Don't worry about that.", he tried to take away her fears.
She snuggled even further into Rick.
"Hmmm Daddy? I love you to the moon and back as well. You are the beeeesteeeeest Daddy in the world!"
They laid there for some time. Neither saying a word, just enjoying each other's embrace.
"Daddy?", Alexis whispered.
"Yeah pumpkin?"
"But what happens if they hate me? Just like Mommy does..."
Rick felt his heart breaking into pieces. Alexis still thought that her Mom hated her because she didn't want to care for her and had abandoned her as soon as she was born.
Rick had met Alexis' Mother years ago at a party. Meredith was fun and uncomplicated. Everything that he needed at that moment after the harsh break-up from his first love, Kyra Byrne.
Due to a high alcohol intake, they had slept together that night.
The day after, Meredith was gone and Rick had woken up alone in his apartment. He knew that this would happen and that she was just another one, who had wanted to sleep with the famous Richard Castle. And right in that moment that was all he needed. He didn't want to commit, he just wanted to have some fun.
9 Months later someone knocked on his door and as he opened the door, he saw a newborn baby in its infant carrier on his doorstep. Attached to its carrier was a letter. He was confused, grabbed the carrier and started running downstairs, in hope that he would catch the mysterious person who had just left a baby at his doorstep. But he had no such luck. After a while he returned to his apartment and carried the baby into it.
The baby had been perfectly silent all that time. He reached for the letter, slowly opened it and began reading it. The words he was reading surprised him but angered him simultaneously.
Meredith had given birth to their daughter one week ago. But she didn't want to have her and wanted to give her up for adoption. In her letter she emphasized various times that she didn't want to be a mother and wanted to focus on her career which she apparently couldn't do while raising a newborn. She told him that she immediately made an appointment for the abortion of the unborn fetus after she found out that she was pregnant. But while sitting there, in that cold room, waiting for her doctor to do the treatment, she just couldn't go through it. So she decided to give birth to their child and give her up for adoption.
Due to some circumstances the family, who wanted to take their daughter, couldn't do it anymore and that left Meredith with one other choice besides searching for a new adoption family: Giving their daughter to Rick and letting him handle it. She knew that it was egoistical but she emphasized that she had an audition for an important role in two days in another state that she had to get to.
Rick had to read that letter several times because he couldn't believe the words that were written in it. How could a mother just leave her newborn daughter alone and abandon her? A job shouldn't be more important than the own baby.
At that very moment the baby started crying and Rick went to her. He got her out of her carrier and took her into his arms. Immediately the baby girl stopped crying. With big blue eyes the baby started looking at Rick and Rick just looked back at her. Even though he couldn't be certain that this baby girl was his biological daughter, he recognized that the girl had his eyes, his ocean blue eyes.
While looking at her he couldn't hide the love for her, she was so beautiful and she didn't deserve to get passed around. She deserved a family, she deserved a person who would care for her and who would love her unconditionally.
He decided that he would do a paternity test, just to be sure that this was his child. But even if he wasn't the biological father, he would take care of this baby. He had just met this baby but she had already captured his heart.
2 weeks after finding his daughter at his doorstep, the paternity test results came and they confirmed that Alexis was indeed his daughter.
Even though this child was not made of love but in a simple one-night stand, he would still love her with all his heart. She was a part of him, he created a human being with someone.
"Pumpkin, Mommy didn't hate you. She just couldn't take care of you. But she wanted you to be loved and taken care of, she wanted all these things for you", he paused. "She loved you. She still loves you."
Rick was still angry at Meredith. She hadn't tried to contact him after dropping Alexis at this doorstep five years ago. For quite some time he tried to reach out to her but he just couldn't find her. After a while he gave up. Rick had never wanted his daughter to grow up with just a single parent like he had grown up. But he tried his best to be the best dad to her.
Alexis looked up and saw the sad expression on his face. She knew better than to ask about her mother again. Whenever she did so, Rick would get either angry or sad.
"Daddy, did I make you sad?", tears started to build up in her eyes and her lip started trembling.
"No, darling! You are the one who makes me happy all the time. What would I do without my sweet Alexis-Princess?!", he smiled and stroked her hair. "Alexis, no one will hate you, they'll love you so much. The first day of school is a special day and you'll do great. You'll make friends fast, little buttercup."
"Can't you go with me, Daddy?" Alexis whispered, "we could start school together... just you and me...together."
His heart broke for her once again. He didn't want her to feel uncomfortable but he knew she'd be fine once she saw that school wasn't a scary place.
"Alexis, I can't... I need to do some work on my own so that Gina won't be angry with me..."
"Because your books make others happy? And you want them to read them, right?"
"Yess, you are right, Pumpkin. Daddy needs to finish writing his book, so that a lot of people can be able to read it. But Princess, you'll be fine and if you need me, I'll be one phone call away, Princess."
"Okay, and they'll like me? Are you sure?"
"They will, Princess! But now let's get dressed and ready for breakfast. I'll make you pancakes with maple syrup, is that alright?"
"Lots of maple syrup?", she grinned and started getting out of the bed.
"Because today is a special day, you can have loooots of maple syrup on your pancakes. But just today!", he exclaimed. "I can even make you one of my delicious Smorelettes with extra chocolate?", he suggested excitedly.
"Ughh Daddy, nooo. That's disgusting.", Alexis made a twisted face of disgust.
"My own daughter, my progeny… how can she say that? I'm deeply disappointed that she can't see the tasty impact of a smorlette.", Rick pouted.
"Daddy get over it. Even Grams said that Smorelettes taste disgusting."
"Okay, okay, no more insulting the Smorelettes. Pancakes with maple syrup it is then, Pumpkin.", Rick smiled at his daughter.
"Yayy, I lovee pancakes! Daddy, get up, you need to make me pancakes!" Alexis pulled on her father's hand to get him out of bed and then she ran towards her room to get dressed. She was ball of energy when it came to food. Rick laughed and got up to take a quick shower and to get Alexis' breakfast done.
On their way to Alexis' new school, Alexis kept singing to the songs of her favorite Disney movies. After a ten minutes' drive, they got out of the car and went inside of the school.
"Daddy, I think I'm not ready... Can we go home? Let's run, daddy, no one will notice...", Alexis pleaded.
"Princess, you'll love school a lot. Let's search for your classroom first, okay?', he stroked her hair and smiled encouraging. 'Hmm, you're class teacher is called . She will be surely a great one and will teach you quite a lot of things. Let's get going, honey."
While they neared her classroom, Alexis' grip on her father's hand strengthened. She hold his hand as if her life depended on it. In front of the classroom an African-American woman, probably in her late twenties or early thirties, waited for her students to enter the room.
"Hey there, I'm Miss Parish. I'm your teacher and I'll promise you we'll have a lot fun in class.", Ms. Parish knelt down and put out her hand towards the little girl. "And who are you?", she smiled. Alexis shyly hid behind Rick's legs without loosening her grip on his hand. With her free hand she played with her long, red hair. Rick smiled at Alexis' new teacher and desperately waited for Alexis to make the first move and introduce herself to her new teacher.
"To let you know, everyone gets some cookies if they tell me their name", Ms. Parish smiled at her cheery.
"Chocolate chip cookies?", Alexis asked carefully, but her eyes were shining brightly. Rick had to suppress a grin. Food always got Alexis out of her shy behavior.
"I've got a lot of chocolate chip cookies." She laughed, "So what's your name, little one?"
"Alexis. I'm Alexis Castle. And that's my Daddy. He's the beeesteeest Daddy in the entire world.", Alexis smiled proudly while leaving her dad's side and finally taking her teacher's outstretched hand. Rick's heart melted away at her words. His daughter was a gift from heaven, and he couldn't stop smiling.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Alexis. You and I are going to have so much fun today and you will get to know all of your classmates and make a lot of friends." She told Alexis and smiled at her. Alexis simply smiled back at her. Her fears seemed to have vanished, luckily.
"I'll take good care of Alexis. It was a pleasure to have met you . You have a cute and polite little girl.", smiled at Rick while shaking his hand.
"Well, who wants some chocolate chip cookies now?"
"Meee!" Alexis jumped up and down. She had already warmed up to her teacher, which was a good sign. She turned around to look at her father and he pulled her into a tight hug.
"I love you, Alexis.", he whispered into her ear. She was growing up so fast.
"I love you too, Daddy. To the moon and back!", she whispered and hugged him even tighter.
"To the moon and back, Princess.", he repeated her words.
After they pulled away, Alexis followed her teacher into the classroom and Rick waved at her before he left the building to drive to his meeting with his publisher.
AN: So, this is it for now. Gotta love Alexis, right?
The good thing is that I'm nearly finished with Chapter 3. The bad thing is that I wont't post it right away cuz I want to begin writing Chapter 4 before posting Chapter 3. If you guys are lucky, I'll be back with a new Chapter in a few days tho.
Hopefully you like this story so far. Please review it, it motivates me to keep writing and I would love to hear your opinions and thoughts on it. Next Chapter Kate and Rick might meet *hehe*
See ya next week xx
