American Crime Stories
A/N: So, after finishing the first story arc in which Castle had to confront 3XK, I'm now ready to start with the second story arc. As I have stated at the end of Chapter 10, I'm going to incorporate more and more parts of TheBlackhandHand724 stories which function as the basis of this fic. However, I will alter some of them to make them fit my story.
Arc Two, Chapter eleven
CASTLE'S LOFT
Several days after Gina's funeral, Castle walked into his living room. It was early in the morning and the sun was shining through the windows. He saw Alexis sitting at the table. His daughter looked like she hadn't slept at all. She was surrounded by piles of books and was furiously scribbling at a piece of paper. He sat down across from her without her noting.
"Either this is the most boring dream I've ever had or you couldn't sleep either."
Alexis sighed. "It's not a dream. More like a nightmare."
"Is this about your valedictorian speech?"
"It's my chance to say something important, something worthy. I don't want to blow it but I feel like I have nothing to say."
"You mean nothing compared to the great sacred texts of mankind, or …" He looked at her papers. "Winston Churchill's speech to Harrow's or Steve Job's address to Stanford." Castle shook his head. He was barely able to keep the smile from his face. "You know, maybe you should pick some speeches a little less daunting to compare yours to. Like um … say anything. Or Twilight!"
"It's not supposed to be this hard," Alexis whined.
"You know, the most worthwhile things in life are often the most difficult."
"Yeah, I know."
"I'm sure you will find the right words, you'll always do."
"Thanks, dad."
"Listen, I wanted to talk to you about something. Do you have plans this week? I wanted to invite Agent Shaw and her family to thank her in believing me and helping me proof my innocence. If I remember correctly, her daughter is a few years younger than you. Therefore it would be nice if you could be here so that she wouldn't be bored with us old people."
"Hm, I think that's a great idea. I have some plans to meet with friends this week, but most of the time I'm going to work on my speech."
"Great. I'll let you know more after I have talked with her."
Later that day Castle called Shaw.
"Shaw."
"Hi Jordan, it's Castle."
"Hey, Castle."
"Say, are you working a case?"
"What have you done know, Castle?" Castle could hear the smirk over the phone.
"Funny, Agent Shaw. No, it's nothing like that. I wanted to invite you, your husband and daughter to dinner as a way to thank you for your help."
"That's not necessary, Castle."
"I know, but I want to. I think it would be nice and we could catch up a bit. We didn't have much time the last time. You know, between me trying to convince you not to arrest me on sight and a shootout with a crazed serial killer.
"You know what, that actually sounds like a good idea. And no, I'm not working a case, just doing paperwork. When did you want to meet up?"
"What about later this evening around seven?"
"That's alright. Lacey and I will be there."
Castle wanted to ask about her husband but he decided against it. He could ask her later.
"Okay, see you later."
Castle immediately called Alexis. "Hey, Pumpkin, I spoke to Agent Shaw. She and her daughter will be here later tonight."
"Great, what are we cooking?"
"Um, good question, I'm not sure. What do you think we should make?"
"Let's go with Italian, everyone likes it," Alexis suggested.
"I'll go to the store, bye pumpkin."
In the evening, Jordan Shaw drove up to the front of Castle's building in Soho and found a parking spot across the street. She and Lacey chose to wear something nice since it wasn't an everyday occurrence to be invited to dinner at a famous - and rich - author's home. The nearly fifteen year old Lacey had decided to wear a black skirt and green light sweater. Her mother on the other hand gone with a dark green dress that stopped just below the knee and had a deep neck line. Both women decided to wear heels to put them on the right side of the five and a half foot mark. They approached the front door and were intercepted by a hulking huge man in a black suit. The man looked like a linebacker and Jordan's trained eye's spotted a gun under his jacket. "May I help you?" he asked in a deep rumbling voice.
"Special Agent Jordan Shaw," Jordan said while flashing her badge, "we're here to see Richard Castle." She instantly realized that her introduction had sounded too official. "Uh, he's expecting us." She said with a smile and pointed to the bottle of red wine Lacey was carrying.
"A moment please." The man said and walked back to his security desk. There he looked through a book and nodded. "Yes, you're on the list. Sorry about that Agent Shaw, but this is a secure building."
"That's quite alright." Jordan said as the man walked them to the elevator.
"Mr. Castle's loft is on the 6th floor," he said and pressed the number six button. "Have a nice evening," he said as the doors closed.
During the same time Castle was standing in front of the stove watching his bowtie pasta cook, while stirring his cream sauce. Alexis was upstairs getting dressed. The radio was on and Rick was singing along to a song when he heard a knock at the front door. He moved his sauce off the burner and wiped his hands on a towel which hang off the front of his apron. He walked to the door to let his guests in. When he opened the door his jaw fell open. Jordan Shaw did look quite different in a dress than Special Agent Shaw in a power suit.
"You going to let us in or what?" Shaw asked with a smirk.
"Right! Sorry, got lost there for a second. Come on in." He turned to the younger Shaw and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm Rick Castle. It's nice to meet you."
"Hello, Mr. Castle, I'm Lacey." She said a bit nervously, but shook his hands. Then she handed Castle the bottle of wine.
"Ah, none of that Mr. Castle. That makes me feel old. I'm Rick." He turned to Jordan. "That's the same for you, too, Jordan." Both Shaw's nodded.
"Alright. Now, take a seat at the bar. Dinner is almost ready. I hope you guys like Italian." Castle said as he took Jordan's light jacket and hung it up. He went to the kitchen.
"Yes, we both like it." Lacey told him. They heard a noise and turned to see Alexis coming down the stairs in a black skirt and a red t-shirt. She confidently walked over to the two women and held out her hand and introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Alexis," she said with a smile, as she shook Jordan's and Lacey's hands. She then walked around the counter to look inside the oven. The smell of fresh garlic hit the two guests like a wall.
"Can I get you ladies anything to drink?" Rick asked.
"I'll take a glass of wine," Jordan said as she took a seat at the counter. Castle nodded and went to the bottle of wine he had chosen for the meal.
"What about you, Lacey?" Castle asked as he handed Jordan her glass.
"Um, what do you have?", she asked shyly.
Alexis pulled open the refrigerator to show her the shelves full of soft drinks and fruit juices. "Just about everything. Do you like orange juice?" Alexis asked.
"Yes."
"Then you have to try this one." Alexis said as she got out a glass bottle and a tall glass, and put them on the bar in front of Lacey. "It's all organic, made by a specialty company in California. It's one of my favorites." Alexis poured the juice into a glass and handed it over to the younger girl.
"WOW, this really is good. Thanks."
"You're welcome." Alexis said as she turned around to check her dad's pasta.
"So what are you cooking, Rick?" Jordan asked, smiling. Lacey had been quite nervous at meeting the Castle's and Jordan was happy to see her daughter relaxing. It seemed that Castle's daughter was a people person just like her dad. She watched as the father/daughter duo worked effortless hand-in-hand to pull together the meal. She could see that they had a lot a practice. For her as a profiler, it was quite interesting to see.
"We're making a fresh tossed salad for starter. Then garlic stuffed and baked chicken breast, over bowtie pasta with a broccoli cream sauce for the main course. For dessert I picked a chocolate cheese cake." Castle told them as he drained the noodles.
"Wow, you can actually cook all that?" Jordan asked impressed by the menu, even though she knew that his daughter had helped him.
"Yeah, cooking is one of my hobbies," Castle said.
"Do you cook often together?" Lacey asked Alexis.
"Yes. It's a bit difficult to work around school and all the appointments dad and grams have. Although we eat take-out food regularly, we try to eat cook as much as possible. Well, dad and I cook, grams not so much." Castle had to laugh at that comment.
"No, Martha Rodgers has a lot of talents - or so she claims. Cooking is definitely not one of them." Castle told his guests. "By the way, my mother is very sorry that she couldn't be here, but she is out of town this week."
"That's alright. Maybe we get to meet her some other times," Jordan said.
For the rest of the meal the conversation flowed smoothly between the four of them until Alexis asked Lacey about her school. That got a surprise reaction, when the younger Shaw answered with a growl. "Lacey!" Her mother admonished directly.
"Sorry, mum. Sorry, Rick and Alexis. I'm just frustrated." She apologized but didn't say anything else. Castle looked to Shaw for an explanation. "Yesterday, we had a meeting with the Dean of Admissions for one of the more prestigious prep schools in the city. The school has the most technologically advanced program that pushes students to be on the cutting edge of the digital world. They also have the most advanced placement classes available. That means that if the student is driven, he or she can a lot of college credits before they even leave high school. The Dean was very impressed with Lacey, her test scores and her GPA. However, he wasn't impressed enough to get her to admit immediately, but said he would put her high on the waiting list. He offered to talk with their partner schools in London and Paris, so that Lacey could study abroad."
"But that's not what I want." Lacey said stubbornly.
During the explanation, the Castle's had looked at each other and realized that they had the same thought.
"You're talking about Marlowe Prep, aren't you?" Castle asked.
Both Shaw's looked at him questioningly. "How do you know?" Jordan asked.
"You're looking at the Marlowe valedictorian of Class 2012." Castle said proudly and pointed to his daughter.
Jordan congratulated Alexis, but her daughter was full of questions. "Really? What is the school like? How are the teachers? Which courses do you like best?"
"Wow, Lacey. Give Alexis the chance to answer your questions." Jordan admonished her daughter, though rather half-heartedly.
"I have a better idea. Girls, why don't you grab some dessert and go upstairs and talk. Then Alexis can answer all your questions," Rick suggested. Lacey looked to the older girl so hopefully that Alexis had to chuckle. The other girl reminded her strongly about herself. "Sure, let's clean first, then we can go upstairs." Together they cleaned the table. The girls moved upstairs to Alexis' room and Rick and Jordan moved to the living room with their coffees.
Jordan turned to Rick. "Sorry about Lacey. She was really disappointed. It's her dream to become a FBI profiler like me. However, she wants to get her degree in criminology faster than I did and get one over her mother." Shaw explained and rolled her eye and Castle chuckled. "Don't worry. It's great to see someone so young so excited about school. And Marlowe Prep really is a good school."
"I know. I want her to attend Marlowe hoping that she'll be exposed to a vast range of subjects and maybe find something else to do with her life," Shaw explained.
"I wouldn't worry about that. Lacey is young, my mother told me that teenaged girls try on personalities like they do clothes. This week she wants to be a FBI agent, next week she wants to be a judge, the week after that a writer. Alexis was the same way, at least for a while. When she was younger she wanted to be an actress like her mother and grandmother. Then she saw a reportage on TV and decided that she wanted to be a civil liberties lawyer. Funnily enough, she never wanted to study literature and become an author. At the moment she hasn't decided what or where she wants to study, but she seems to have a very clear idea of which classes she wants to take," Rick told her. Jordan didn't get the feeling that he was bothered by the fact that his daughter didn't want to follow in his footsteps. "Were you like that as a kid, too?" Castle asked.
"Not quite. I've always been good at puzzles, and I wanted to help people. So I thought about becoming a doctor, a lawyer or a cop. When I got older I decided to major in criminology. One of my professors talked to me about joining the FBI. So, I applied and was lucky enough to get through all tests and requirements. Then I went through the 21-week training program at the FBI academy in Quantico. And the rest is, as they say, history," Jordan told him the abridged version of her becoming a FBI Agent. "What about you? Did you always become a writer? " Jordan asked taking a sip from her coffee cup.
That was a question Castle obviously had to answer countless times during his career and so had several prepared answers which he would normally use. However, this time he didn't want to fall back on those statements and decided to give Jordan a more personal answer.
"Kind of. I grew up watching a lot of TV, so I wanted to do the cool jobs like a firefighter. Then I wanted to be a doctor like the guys on the soap operas my nannies used to watch. That changed when I found out that I had to cut people open and that it would involve a lot of studying. Later I wanted to become a cop or P.I. like Jim Rockford or Magnum." Rick paused a moment and took a sip of his coffee. "Those nannies I mentioned, they used to spend most of their time watching daytime television. That and the scripts mother would bring home inspired me to write my own stories. I started to write several stories when I was young. Being exposed to so much cop shows on TV, I started out writing crime stories. They got a bit darker as I grew up. Sometimes I'd give my friends some stories to read. As time went by, and my stories got darker, I realized that my stories tended to scare my friends. I realized that I had a talent to effect human emotion as a good storyteller of thrillers. When I hit puberty and lost all interest in reading and stopped writing. Then I was transferred to Edgewyck Academy. Homesick and without friends, I turned back to writing. One of the older students, the literary magazine editor, saw me writing and one day asked to read one of stories. So I gave him one, and I guess, I impressed him. He took me under his wing, encouraged and mentored me." Castle stopped for a moment. Having had his image of Damian Westlake shattered still bothered him immensely. "Eventually, I decided to combine my interests and took courses in criminology and literature in college. I was lucky that Black Pawn decided to give me a chance, as other publishers had rejected 'In a Hail of Bullets' multiple times. During that time I had met Meredith, my first wife. After a short whirlwind romance she ended up pregnant and we decided to get married. When we split, I got sole custody of Alexis. At this point I realized two important things: First, I wanted to spend as much time as possible with my daughter. Second, I saw how much money I could make writing books. Therefore I decided to continue writing, and not pursue a career as a cop."
"That is what I hope will happen to Lacey, too. It's bad enough that I risk my life on a regular basis, the last thing I want is for my daughter to do the same."
"I think I understand." Castle paused, thought for a moment and then looked at Shaw. "Do you want me to talk to Walter?"
"Walter?" Shaw didn't know who he meant.
"Sorry. I mean Walter Parker, the Dean of Admissions of Marlowe Prep."
That left Shaw flabbergasted. "You would do that?"
"Sure. I mean, I can make you no promises but I am one of their better donors."
"Why?" Jordan Shaw couldn't help herself, a little suspicion crept into her voice. But whether Castle had recognized that or not, she couldn't tell. It didn't seem to bother.
"As I said, it is great to see someone so young so excited about school. And I owe you."
"No, you don't. I did my job." Shaw replied immediately which she really meant. Castle wanted to argue but decided against it. "So, do you want me to call Walter or not?"
Shaw considered that for a moment. Normally, she didn't like it when people took advantage of their connections. But in the end she decided that she rather be a hypocrite with a happy daughter than the other way around. What parents won't do for their children… "Alright, Rick. I would be grateful if you could give the Dean a call. Thank you."
"Okay, that's settled then." They sat in silence for a moment. "I hope, I'm not too forward, but I expected to meet your husband. Why didn't you bring him?" Castle asked and Shaw sighed.
"I didn't bring him because we're no longer married."
"Oh. I'm sorry, I asked."
"No, it's alright. You didn't know. It happened early last year. I finished up an investigation earlier than predicted. It was a bad one and I was looking forward to getting home to my husband and spend some quality time with him. So, I called Lacey and asked her to spend the night with some friends. However, when I got home, I saw my ex working on his young secretary, dotting her T's and making her eye's crossed. Lacey and I moved out the next day." She told him and he could hear the pain in her voice. Without saying anything, Castle stood up and went to the kitchen. There he grabbed a bottle of wine and two glasses. He went back, filled the glasses and silently handed on to Shaw.
Castle felt sorry for her, as he knew exactly how she was feeling. Because she had told him such personal information, Castle decided to share his experience. "You know, I know exactly how you feel." He didn't like to talk about the failures of his marriages, especially not the first one. She looked at him in surprise and waited for him to continue. "It wasn't too long after Alexis was born, that I found Meredith and her director rehearse a love scene from their show. Apparently, she needed to help with her 'under cover' work," he deadpanned. They sat in companionable silence.
Upstairs the girls had been talking about Marlowe Prep, its courses and teachers and then switched to other topics. Despite their age gap, Alexis took an instant liking to the younger girl. She always liked to meet other studious students. They were now talking about music. Alexis was sitting at her desk in front of her laptop showing Lacey the new songs she had downloaded.
"I love 'Weird Sisters'. They're just so much fun to listen to. All of their songs are upbeat and fun," said Alexis.
"I like them, but I prefer something a little more poppy, you know?" Lacey replied.
"I know what you mean. I also listen to a lot of different styles of music. Rock, pop. Sometimes a bit techno and even classics. The last one mostly because I play the violin," Alexis said and pointed at the case sitting on her bed.
"That's cool. I always wanted to play an instrument, but I could never find one that fit me," Lacey told the older girl.
"I was like that until I picked up a violin, it just fit. I love playing it, although I don't play as much as I used to."
"Why not?"
"Well, I just didn't have as much time as I used to. Besides playing the violin, I take fencing lessons, was in the cheer squad at school, served in a class advocate role in student government, and I even served as an assistant manager of the school play." Alexis listed her activities.
"Wow, that's a lot activities."
"Well, besides that I worked an internship at the precinct where dad worked and one at the M.E. office. And there was also actually school work to do."
"Did your dad make you take the internships?"
"No, my dad would never do that. I wanted to do them. In fact, I think I didn't even ask him until the last moment," Alexis said the last part wryly.
"Your father sounds nice." Alexis could hear a bit wistfulness in Lacey's tone.
"What about your father? Are you close?"
"Well, I thought so. Then my mum found dad cheating on her with his secretary. We left the next day. He hasn't tried to stay in contact much."
"I know what it's like to be a child of divorce. How was it before then?" Alexis asked.
"He was always working, but so was mom. I was mostly raised by my grandmother. Although my mum tried to minimize the times as much as possible, she had to leave the city for days on occasion.
My dad works as a lawyer in New York, so I spent more time with him. Looking back, I realize that he never really cared about how I was doing in school or helped me with my homework. Unlike mum who even while working a case called as much as she could. So, it's fair to say that I was always closer to my mom."
"My dad is the total opposite. He is super affectionate, and he loves to hear about my day and spent as much time with me as possible. Even as a child, he took me to the park all the time." Alexis had realized early on that she had lucked out with her father and was very thankful that her dad was so great.
The two girls talked for a while longer when Kelly yawned. "Sorry, but I'm tired."
Alexis looked down at her watch and saw it was approaching ten p.m. "Yeah, it's getting late anyway. Let's go down and see what our parents are doing?"
A few minutes later, the Shaw's said their goodbyes and drove home.