AN: Happy Holidays!

Like always, please read and review xx


Chapter 6: Happiness


This time he wouldn't let Alexis down. He had arrived early at her school and still had 10 minutes to spare until Alexis' last class would end.

He made his way through the school corridors in search of Alexis classroom, he wanted to surprise her by waiting right outside of her room. He meant it, he wouldn't make Alexis doubt him ever again. His precious little girl deserved happiness and a father who would make her his first priority. Castle was still angry with himself for being that late on Alexis' first day of school. She had needed him and he had let her down. 'Damn you, Gina...'

On his way towards the classroom, he walked passed the room of a certain young teacher who's been invading his thoughts ever since their first encounter the day before.

Before he could even think about whether he should go back or not, his feet carried him back to her classroom.

He quietly leaned against her doorframe and watched her.

She seemed to be deep in thoughts and hadn't recognized him yet. He was mesmerized by her, she would smile or frown while looking through her students work. Her left hand absently stroked over her shirt-covered collarbone. He had a strong urge to move closer and brush the hair, that had fallen out of her ponytail, behind her ear.

Where did that come from? He barely knew that woman and was already feeling things that he hadn't felt before for any other woman.

How was that possible?

"Depending on the amount you are smiling and then frowning you must be looking at some pretty good stuff".

Kate jumped up from her chair and let her pen fall to the ground. As soon as she recognized it was Richard Castle, who was talking her, she started smiling and felt her cheeks heat up.

'Smooth, Kate, smooth… It's just your favorite author who happens to be the father of the girl who you are getting way too attached to and who happens to look even more handsome in real life than on the photos. No. Big. Deal!'

"Oh hi! Yeah, they are… something else", she smiled while insecurely brushing one strand of hair behind her ear.

"Can I come in? I don't have to pick up Alexis for another 10 minutes. And I wanted to thank you... again", he looked down, "... for taking care of my daughter and for comforting her when she needed it the most."

Kate was surprised by his honesty. Never had she thought that he would still feel guilty about the incident that happened the previous day.

"You don't have to thank me all over again. She needed someone and I happened to be there at the right place at the right time", she said while smiling at him. He still looked a bit guilty about his mistake, so she kept going. „You don't have to put the whole blame on you. I'm sure you had appropriate reasons for your delay. And even if this wasn't the case, Alexis loves her Daddy so much, she has already forgiven you. You have a great little girl.

"Thank you, she is a special girl who makes my life way better, she completes me. I'm the lucky one, who gets to call her my daughter."

He could go on and on about his little girl. She was his Everything and even though she hadn't been created out of love, he tried to make sure that she would feel his love for her in every second of every day.

"Sometimes I wonder where she got her kind heart from, definitely not from me", he grins while watching her. "But her cute looks… she definitely got that from me". He saw Kate flinching but couldn't explain her reaction. Most women liked this playful side of him. But he immediately changed the subject.

"So how is your job treating you? Alexis might have mentioned yesterday's been your first day of school too".

"It's pretty good, I'm slowly starting to get along with my students. Some of them can be quite a handful, and I'm saying this already on my second day here", she said and started laughing.

Her laugh was as sweet as honey to his ears. He wished one day he could be the one making her laugh.

"Oh, I'm sure that..."

Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a really excited little girl.

"Daddy, you came!", she exclaimed and threw herself and Monkey-Bunkey into his open arms. He lifted her up and placed small kisses onto both of her cheeks while holding her close to him.

"Don't forgot about Monkey-Bunkey, Daddy. He had a tough day today. I think math exhausted him", she whispered quietly and lifted her stuffed animal towards Rick's face. He immediately kissed the fur-covered head of her favorite animal.

"Is he feeling better now?", he asked gently and Alexis just nodded while smiling and snuggling into her dad.

"Are we getting some ice cream, Daddy? You promised!"

"Oh did I? If that's the case, I can't break my promise, can I?"

He smiled at her and gently put her back on the ground. Immediately Alexis ran towards Kate and threw her arms around her waist.

"Math is so much fun, Miss Kate"

"I'm glad to hear that, sweetheart. Now you can teach your Daddy all about math. I'm sure he could use some math lessons", she teasingly said while carefully watching Castle.

"Yeah Daddy has a lot to learn", Alexis said in the cutest of ways, which made Kate grin at Castle.

"And I'm happy that I got you to teach me. What would I do without my Alexis-Pumpkin?"

He moved right behind Alexis and gently tickled her sides while never letting his eyes move from Kate.

"Daddy, stop", Alexis said in between giggles, "Miss...Kate.. please help me".

Kate was simply watching the scene in front of her. Her heart was melting. But she needed to get her crush under control. This might mean that Richard Castle loved his daughter very much, but it definitely did not mean that he wasn't the playboy he was portrayed as on Page Six.

As much as she seemed to like him, she couldn't let herself get too attached to him. He was a playboy after all. He most likely knew that he was a good-looking man that could have any woman he desired. Like all playboys, he would lose interest in her pretty fast and she would just be another notch on his belt. Assuming he even liked her the way she liked him.

"Miss Kate, do you want to join us? Daddy knows the best ice cream place in the whole wide world. He said so himself"

Kate raised her eyebrow and looked at him amused.

"I might have exaggerated a little bit…. but the ice cream there is to die for. You can convince yourself."

He smiled and hoped that Kate would agree to come with them. He would love to get to know her some more. He knew he had to be careful when it came to his metaphorical heart but he could already see himself falling in love with this beautiful and stunning woman. She was different than any other woman he recently had gotten to know and she sure was no gold-digger who was desperate for her hour of fame.

Both, Alexis and him, were looking at her expectantly.

Kate was debating with herself about what to do. On one hand she wanted to spend as much time with them as possible, it would give her the perfect opportunity to get to know Richard Castle better and maybe convince herself that he wasn't the playboy from Page Six.

On the other hand, she was scared. Scared to get too attached and lose them at the end anyways. Everyone she had loved had left her… she might have told herself that she would let herself be happy again and fall in love but would Richard Castle even feel the same? Would he be the right person to move on with?

"Sweetheart, I feel honored that you asked me to join you but I don't think that I should and you probably want to spend some alone time with your Daddy.

"But Daddy wants you to come to, don't you, Daddy?"

She looked disappointed at Castle.

"I wouldn't mind if Kate joined us but she might have other plans already, Pumpkin. We can't force her to go out with us."

"I'm sorry, Alexis… but I can't come with you today", she said, already regretting her decision watching Alexis' face fall.

"It's okay…Dad, can we go now? I'm hungry", she moved towards her dad. Gone was the happy girl who was excited about teaching her Dad about math.

Kate felt horrible for letting that girl down. But she couldn't meet with them outside of school, could she?

"It was nice meeting you again, Kate. Until next time."

Castle smiled at her and took Alexis hand into his big one, leading her out. They were almost out of the room when Kate called out for Alexis again. Alexis turned around but wouldn't meet her gaze.

"Hmm, I'm free on Friday after school… We could grab some ice cream then. If that's alright with your dad of course."

Alexis ran back towards her and hugged her.

"Really?"

"Sure, I would love to spend some time with my new friend."

"We're going to have so much fun, ." Alexis kept looking up at her and couldn't stop smiling. Her smile could light up the darkest of places. " Oh, I forgot… Daddy and I are doing a movie night every Friday… but you can join. It'll be more fun. Daddy, can Kate come to?"

"That's up to Kate. I wouldn't mind." He smiled and Kate had two pairs of ocean-blue eyes staring at her and waiting for an answer.

"Oh… uhm sure, we can do that."

Alexis jumped happily back towards her dad.

"Until Friday, I guess!", Castle exclaimed happily and left her classroom.

As soon as they were gone, Kate leaned her body forward and propped up her elbows on her desk, slowly letting her head sink into her waiting hands.

What had she done?


AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Uhhh the next chapter will be about their playDATE hehe. Will Kate see that Rick isn't the playboy he is protrayed is or will this movie night just confirm her suspicions and end disastrously? And what about Alexis?

Thats's for me to know and for you to find out. Until next week!