And to think, in the beginning, I was going to add Baze to this…That series finale, though! I'm not really ready to end this story quite yet, so sorry if this bursts the pink bubble you've been in since last Monday. Also, I don't own Castle or Life Unexpected… that's right, I forgot to say that until now. Oh and one last thing, I'm leaving Minnesota out of this, so if you loved him, I'm sorry.

Chapter 14: Fool Me Once...

Kate rubs the heels of her palms around the sides of her face. Lux sees her on the couch and decides to sneak over to her. She suddenly leans against the back of the couch. "Relaxing?" she asks with an amused smirk plastered on her face.

Kate grimaces back at her, teeth gritted, "Jesus, Lux, you scared me. You know I have a gun, right? I could shot you on accident."

"First off, you are on vacation, so you're gun is locked up somewhere. Secondly, you should really get used to living with someone else," Lux rationalizes, her smirk not wavering.

For a second, Kate ponders the understatement of Lux's 'secondly.' She then turns in her seat, "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Lux cocks her head to the side, "I could go, if you'd like."

"I meant school, Lux," Kate quickly corrects.

Lux leans most of her body against the couch's back. She is still smirking, but takes the question seriously, "We got out early for parent teacher night."

"Parent teacher night?" Kate asks in amusement.

"Yeah," Lux says, in a tone that tells Kate that Lux is trying to avoid the topic.

"Am I supposed to be at parent teacher night?"

"Well most upperclassman's parents don't go since they know the basic gist and how their kids do in scho…" Kate turns her head to the side and raises her eyebrows, as Lux trails off. "Of course that doesn't apply to you."

…

Okay, so maybe she should have visited the school before sending Lux here. It was a nice school, like playboy private school nice. Kate had seen a few of the parents, of the other students, walk past her and she felt a bit inferior, but in a good way. All these other parents were dressed in nice clothes. Clothes that Kate only sees normal people wear for special occasions or what she supposed they would wear for Hampton yacht parties. All the fathers had on suits (jacket optional) and either a phone clipped to their belt and/or a Bluetooth in their ear. All the mothers had tight dresses with floral patterns or pencil skirts with dress shirts tucked into them. These accompanied with heels Kate is sure cost more than her apartment. Seriously, when she left the house in a long sleeve shirt, a blazer, dress pants, and four inch heels she didn't know she was dressing casual for a parent teacher night. She didn't hate that Lux was going here, but she could see how she (and Tasha) could feel like they stuck out like a sore thumb. Hell, she's sticking out like a sore thumb. She's pretty convinced that all these parents think she is a little too rough around the edge. They would probably dislike her more if they got to know her better. They probably thought her job was quant. In fact, they probably thought Castle's job was quant, even though he would fit in much better here.

She stretches against the chair making sure to sit up a little straighter. She would have left by now with most of the parents, to the next class discussion on her play schedule, but the next class was art, which Kate knew Lux hated and was not doing well in, but when Lux's English teacher stopped her and an annoyingly perfect couple, so that she could talk to them individually about their kids, Kate had to make a detour. So now Kate is sitting outside one of the classrooms waiting for the teacher to finish with Mr. and Mrs. Perfection.

Only a few more minutes pass, before that teacher opens the door, letting the couple leave. She smiles, "Other than the assignments Sam is doing well."

Both the parents smile and in unison say, "Thank you." Then they each shake her hand, before leaving.

Kate doesn't realize she had scrunched her nose at them, until the teacher says her name, "Ms. Beckett, sorry to keep you waiting."

"No, it's fine," Kate says, standing to shake hands with her.

When they get in the room, the teacher offers Kate a seat across from her desk. Kate sits in it, taking just a few seconds to get settled. The teacher is a short frail woman, that if Kate didn't know better, she would assume was a preschool teacher. Kate reads the name above the woman's head, written on the whiteboard, Mrs. St. Paul. Her attention changes when the teacher begins talking. "Ms. Beckett, I wanted to talk to you about Lux, because- well she's a wonderful student, but-"

"Really?" Kate interrupts, asking in a joking manner.

Mrs. St. Paul lets out a smile, before saying, "Yes, really. Lux has an amazing mind and great ideas, but I'm worried about her writing skills. In fact, I believe Lux may have this condition called dysgraphia."

Kate straightens, "Which is?"

"It's a neurological condition that doesn't allow Lux to be able to convert her thoughts into writing." She pulls out a paper from the folder on her desk, "This is a writing assignment Lux was supposed do, which she finished, but if you take a look…" She hands the paper to Kate.

Kate looks at it for a moment. At first, she was going to ask if these writing problems could just be a result from a poor education, but now looking at the assignment she can see that Mrs. St. Paul may be right. Lux barely finishes any of her sentences, stops one thought in the middle of explaining it and starts another, and most of the words are near illegible and/or misspelled. "How did she get this far without anyone noticing?" Kate asks considering how she hadn't noticed. Has she really never seen Lux write something down?

"Well, I was able to contact some of Lux's old teachers and it seems she didn't have any problems in her writing until seventh grade." She pulls out another paper and hands it to Kate, "Here." On this paper, Lux's writing is unfragmented and clean.

"So something must have changed," Kate concludes.

Mrs. St. Paul nods, "Exactly, but I can't really tell what that is, but I can recommend Lux go see a neurophysiologist. I know one personally that does same day appointments, so you can take Lux whenever you get a chance." She then writes down a name and number onto a Post It and hands that to Kate, who trades the papers for the Post It.

Kate scowls at the small paper, then looks back at the woman, "That's nice, but what can I do for Lux now. She can't write."

The woman smiles at the remark, "As far as the neuro test goes, I just want to make sure that there isn't anything else going on, but it isn't necessary. In the meantime, you may want to look into getting her an occupational therapist, that specializes in this kind of thing and also we can have Lux do assignments electronically instead of handwritten for now on."

"Okay," Kate says, appearing calmer than she is.

Mrs. St. Paul smiles back at her, "Okay."

…

Kate unlocks the door to the apartment and sees Lux staring down a paper on the coffee table in front of her. She pulls her feet out of her heels and walks into the living room. As she approaches she asks, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm doing my science homework," Lux answers, in a less than happy tone, without looking up from her paper. Kate kneels down on the floor next to the coffee table. She lightly puts her fingertips on the top of Lux's science worksheet. Lux looks up at her. Kate pulls the paper a few inches away, "We need to talk."

"Is it something one of my teachers said?"

"Yes," she says, cautiously. She pauses, before going on, "Your English teacher is worried about your writing skills."

"Yeah, well I've never been that great at writing," she says with a laugh.

Kate presses her lips together and wrinkles her forehead, "She thinks you have a condition called dysgraphia."

Lux asks, quickly getting flustered. "No-no, I don't have that- whatever that is. I don't have that. I-I feel fine."

Kate frowns, giving Lux a moment. "I know you're fine," she says, lying but in this context she thinks Lux is, for some reason, afraid that she wants her to be untarnished.

"What exactly is it?" Lux asks.

"It's this condition where you struggle to put your ideas into writing. It's like a communication block between thinking and writing."

At some point, Lux had looked away from Kate and had fixated on the kitchen. "So…" Lux drags out, waiting for Kate to pick up the end of the phrase.

"So, I made an appointment for you to get an MRI tomorrow and we need to get you an occupational therapist."

"An MRI and a therapist?!" Lux smiles a defensive smile, "But nothing's wrong with me?"

Kate winces and shakes her head, "Yes, but they want to make sure that there's no underlying issue."

Lux takes a moment biting her lip for a second. She looks back at Kate, "Can I finish my homework?"

Kate pushes the paper back in front of her, without saying a word. Lux looks down at the paper, as if to start back up immediately. Kate slowly gets up, off the floor, and walks to the bedroom to change, and give Lux some space. That is until there is a sound. The sound of the little crash a pen makes when being thrown across the room. Kate slowly turns around to face Lux, who has laid her head down on the coffee table.

"Lux…" Kate breathes.

Lux turns to face Kate, clearly upset, "It's just so typical of me. I suck at everything. I have to go tomorrow to get my head examined because I can't do something as elementary as writing."

"Lux, I get it. It seems like the whole world is crashing down, but that is what is going you stronger in the end."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, I know it sounds stupid, but it's-"

"What? Going to get better? How exactly has that theory been working for you lately?"

Kate smiles at her. Surely the pity face she had recently learned to despise. She can't help but just look at the sixteen year old girl standing before her and say, "Honestly, not great."

…

Castle bangs his fist harshly against her door. He had the ten minute drive to go from 'Maybe Beckett slept through the thirteen missed phone calls. Of course that's what happened. It is in fact eleven at night' to 'Oh my God, what if she got kidnapped… or worse killed?' He called her twelve times, until he decided to get in a taxi and ride over, and Fern had to have called at least once. At this point, if she's not dead he's going to kill her. "Beckett!" He yells. "Beckett, if you don't open the door, I'm-"

Kate swings open the door with a perplexed look on her face, then smiles coyly, "You're going to what, Castle?"

His face relaxes, but not even with the littlest bit of a smile, "Why didn't you answer your phone?"

Her smile washes from her face, "I need a new charger. I was going to get one tomorrow. Wait-you couldn't tell it was dead?"

He gives her a grim look and then says in a very soft voice, "Fern called me, because you weren't answering. Lux and Tasha got arrested." He says it in such a calm tone, that it becomes obvious that this was not what had him worried.

Kate sees it and shakes her head, trying to shake off the guilt she feels. "Wait-they what?"

He cocks his head to the side with amusement, "I didn't get a lot of information after I realized you weren't answering your phone."

"I said I'm sorry, Castle."

"No, you didn't," He says with the slightest bit of a smirk.

She smiles, "I'm sorry, I didn't answer my phone, Castle." She opens the door wider, welcoming him in. As soon as she closes the door, she comments to her large dress shirt (which he just realized is his and her pajama shorts, "I need to get dressed, first."

"I don't know what you're talking about. You look great," he counters, partially joking and partially being completely honest.

She smiles and turns to go into her bedroom, "You stay right there, Castle."

…

"You didn't have to come with," Kate says, taking her eyes off of the road for a moment to look over at Castle.

"It seems wrong to let you go to a police station alone," He says, smirking.

She smiles a quick smile, "I'm serious."

He softly says, "I wanted to." He then frowns a bit. His gaze glides down her arms to the steering wheel. It would have continued to out the window but it gets caught on her hands, specifically, her left hand. "You're not wearing your ring."

Thankfully there's a stoplight, because this catches Kate really off guard. Still she breaks harshly and turns to him eyes wide. "Oh God, Castle. No. It's on my necklace." She quickly pulls her necklace out from under her shirt. Both rings dangling from the chain. She checks to see if the light has changed, which it has, so she glances at him for a second before turning her attention back to the road. "You don't remember?" She asks softly.

"Remember what?" He asks, obviously more relaxed.

She opens her mouth a couple of times without any words coming out, trying to get a grasp on at least one. "I-I put it on my necklace a while ago, to keep from it getting in the way at work."

"I made a joke about it," he says with a very little amount of assurance.

She looks at him. She still seems openly worried, "Yeah, you said it seemed like a metaphor for our entire relationship." She pulls over in front of the police station. As soon as she parks the car, she reaches over and runs her fingers through his hair. She moves her hand down to cup his face. His face seems so warm from being flustered. She rubs her thumb against his cheek, "It's okay. You just forgot. That's all."

He takes her hand and lightly kisses the top of it. "I miss you so much, Kate."

She pouts for moment and then pulls away. She didn't mean to hurt Castle's feelings by doing this, but it seems to do it anyways. She quickly unbuckles and leans across the console and grabbing the sides of his face, she presses her lips to his. He twists against the resistance of his seatbelt. He holds her face in his hand. She pulls her lips away, pressing her forehead to his. "I've missed you more." She pulls away only an inch or two to look more clearly into his eyes. She smiles a sad smile and when he returns it she falls back into her seat, opens her door, and gets out of the car. He follows her shortly after.

When Castle and Beckett enter the police station, they almost instantaneously see Lux and Tasha sitting in some waiting chairs. Both of them look rather anxious. Lux is twisting her hands, clenching them tightly together, in her lap. Her feet are turned inward so her toes are touching and the tops of her feet are facing each other. She is looking forward, but it looks like she is completely lost in her thoughts. Tasha, who Kate would have guessed would be calmer in these kinds of situations, actually looks more stressed. She is bent over, her elbows on her knees, and her fingers combed in her hair. She is looking down into her lap. Kate is immediately more worried about her. Fern is sitting next to them.

Lux and Tasha both look up, when Fern stands to greet Kate and Castle, but Fern puts her hand out, gesturing for them to stay seated. Fern comes up to them, "Valerie-"

Castle peers at the two teenagers seated behind Fern, his memory may be off, but not that off, "Who's Valerie?"

"Valerie and Trey is the couple that was fostering Natasha."

"Was?" Kate asks.

"They vandalized their house with graffiti," Fern informs.

Kate asks, "Really?" At the same time Castle asks, "Why?" Kate shoots him a glare for a moment, Him and his stories.

Answering Castle's question Fern says, "You'd have to ask them that, but just for the record Valerie and Trey dropped the charges pretty quickly. They apparently knew Lux from fostering her a few years back."

"So I can take Lux home?" Kate asks.

"Well that's the thing. It's late at night and though Valerie and Trey were nice enough to drop the charges, they have no interest in taking Natasha back."

Castle looks at Kate understanding full well what Fern is asking. Kate tries not to roll her eyes thinking she knows the answer to Castle's 'Why?' now. But when she looks at Tasha again, she can still see the stress in her posture. If this was the girls' plan, Tasha wasn't confident in it. Kate answers, looking more at Tasha, "Just for a little while?"

"As long as you or Tasha wants," Fern says with a smile.

She smirks. That was the deal I had with Castle and here he is, standing next to me six years later.

Tasha perks up, "Seriously?"

Kate smiles tiredly, "Yeah, well it's supposed to be your apartment anyways."

…

Beckett comes out of the bedroom now dressed for the day. Tasha is in the kitchen, standing next to the stove, presumably making lunch. When Kate gets closer, she realizes that Tasha is making not one but two peanut butter and jellies. "Oh," Kate says, moving around Tasha to make coffee.

Tasha looks very worried, "I'm sorry did you want one?"

Kate smile, "Oh no, it's just- Lux isn't going to school today because I'm taking her to a doctor's appointment, so-"

"So, she doesn't need lunch," Tasha says, in an understanding tone.

Seeing Tasha's disappointment Kate adds, "Well, she'll still need lunch. We can just bring it with us." Tasha gives her a pitiful smile as if to thank her for trying.

"Are you still going to pick meup from school?"

"Yeah, of course, I'm going to take Lux to the doctor's appointment, then pick you up from school, and then go to Castle's for dinner." Tasha nods along with the list, but Kate hears herself and questions when she became soccer mom.

Once Kate gets herself a cup of coffee, she walks over to the other side of the counter to be across from Tasha. She takes a quick glance towards the bathroom, listening for Lux's shower still running. When she still hears it she looks back at Tasha, "Can I ask you a question?"

Tasha looks up at her with a glare. "Is it about yesterday?"

She nods, "Yeah."

Tasha pairs off the sandwiches and walks back, to one of the cabinets, to get some plastic bags. In the silence she looks at Kate from the cabinet, "You might as well. You're going to ask anyways."

"Why did you guys do it? I get that you guys are best friends, but why now? You've been apart for this long and you're going to the same school, it couldn't have been that necessary."

Now, Tasha's the one that seems to be listening for Lux. She slowly closes the cabinet, fiddling the Ziploc bags with uncertainty. "Okay, all I know is, when Lux was about twelve she lived with Valerie and something happened, I'm just not sure what, but two days ago when she saw that I lived there she got totally spooked and convinced me to get kicked out." They both turn at the sound of the water turning off.

"That's all?" Kate asks now rushing the conversation.

"That's it," She finishes with a half smile, then hands one of the sandwiches to Kate. "Here."

…

"Yes, Castle, I'm still coming over for dinner," Kate says into her phone. Lux shyly comes out of the door into the waiting room. She is followed by a nurse, who seems much happier than Lux does. "I've gotta go." She quickly hangs up the phone and turns her attention to them. "What's up?" She asks, still with a smile on her face.

The nurse smiles, "She did great. The neurophysiologist and the technician are examining the scans now." Although the nurse seems happy Kate's own smile fades, when she looks at Lux. She seems unnerved. "You can stay if you'd like to wait for the results or we can schedule that for another time."

Kate looks at her watch, still a little out of the conversation, "Yeah, we have time."

"Okay," the nurse says, smiling even bigger, "I'll tell Dr. Christensen to come and find you when they're done." Kate smiles, as the nurse turns and walks away, leaving Lux behind with Kate.

Lux quietly sits down next to Kate. She pulls at her sleeves nervously. Kate squints, "You okay?"

Lux stops and rolls up her sleeves, realizing her own tell. "Yeah, I just haven't had a doctor's appointment in a while."

Even though, she doesn't really believe that is the problem, Kate asks, "When was the last time you went to the doctor's?"

"Freshman year…"

"Two years ago?" Kate asks, wide eyed.

Lux smiles, which concretes Kate's theory, that this is nowhere near what's bothering her. "You know I am a foster kid, right."

Kate shakes her head and smiles back at her, "Yes, I'm aware. I just- I don't know anything about you."

Lux gives a less than charming smile, "If it makes you feel any better, I know way more than I would like to about you."

Kate playfully purses her lips, "Because of the books."

"Because of the books," Lux says, with a laugh.

Kate sucks in a breath through gritted teeth, "Yeah, that doesn't make me feel better."

They go on, discussing simple things, the kind of things that people use as discussion starters at parties. What other books they liked. Beckett enjoyed mystery over romance novels and Lux didn't care for reading over movies. What food they hated and loved. After living together for months, they already had a pretty good grasp on those. They had just about grown quiet, when a doctor approaches them. They both look up at her, when it becomes evident she is looking for them.

"Lux Beckett?" She asks with a smile, standing only a couple feet away.

"That's me," Lux says.

"Hi, Lux, I'm Dr. Christensen," The doctor smiles at her, before turning to Kate and saying, "You must be her mom."

Kate resituates in her seat and smiles, "Yeah."

"Well we've finished evaluating Lux's scans, so if you're ready, I can take the two of you back and we can talk about them together."

Lux agrees, "Okay" and subconsciously pulls her sleeves back down, as she gets up. They both follow her back to a small, dark blue room, decorated with scans. There is just the right amount of chairs for the three of them. Two of the chairs are similar to the ones in the waiting room and the other is a nicer rolling chair, which is on the opposite side of the room. The scans of Lux's brain are already pulled up on a large screened computer, so they can all easily see. They all take their appropriate seats and as soon as they are settled Dr. Christensen starts, "Okay, these are Lux's scans and you see this tiny spot." She points with the computer cursor at a small black dot on the scan. She looks back as if to check to see if they're paying attention, but not so much to get an answer from them. "It's evidence that at some point, that small part of the brain lost blood flow." Lux's jaw loosens and she stops pulling on her sleeves. The doctor looks only at her when she explains, "You suffered a stroke."

Kate looks at Lux, who now appeared to have gone into shock and slightly on the edge of a breakdown. Kate tightens her eyebrows, "Did she have a stroke, because of her past health issues?"

"Yes, I do believe that her previous heart condition was the cause of the stroke."

"But I thought that was fixed," Lux says. She sounds worried and Kate can't help, but think about when Lux said, a baby on the operating table isn't exactly a selling point to perspective parents.

"It was, but I still believe this is related. Sometimes, after cardiac surgery, a blood clot can develop in the heart. And if there was trauma, that clot could have broken off and traveled up to the brain, causing a stroke. The pronounced change in Lux's writing in junior high, makes me believe that this is when this happened." She turns to Lux again, "Do you remember anything specific from that time."

Lux smiles one of her signature snarky smiles, but this time it seems to take more effort than usual, "Besides, government cheese and some minor shoplifting, no." Kate watches her newly found discomfort carefully.

The doctor continues, "Did you play any sports where you may have been knocked in the chest? Do you recall any injuries?"

Lux looks away from her as if to think, but shortly afterwards shakes her head. She looks down at her hands and with a more serious tone she says, "Uh, no, no, nothing."

Dr. Christensen, seemingly more convinced by Lux's answers then turns to Kate. Kate has to use a lot of effort to tear her attention from Lux to the doctor. "Do you remember anything? Perhaps a call from the school nurse?"

Kate sits up off the back of her seat, "Um, no, she was in foster care then."

"Sunnyvale," Lux corrects, quickly enough and defensively enough to bring Kate's attention back on her.

…

Castle looks at her with a calm, sweet smile. He had stopped eating just to do this. He had noticed she had been distracted most of the time she had been there. He had intended to ask what was wrong, but just by stopping to look at her, he couldn't help but smile.

She looks up at him, only with her eyes. She smiles, "Yes, Castle?"

"You seem distracted."

She smiles down at her plate, "I'm sorry."

"What's wrong, Beckett?"

"It's nothing, really, Castle, I'm fine."

He raises his eyebrows and his grin grows mischievously crooked. She looks back at him while a similar smile spreads across her face. She puts her fork down and sits back in her chair. She puts her interlaced fingers on the table in front of her. She looks at him for a long time, before saying, "I think Lux lied to me."

He huffs a laugh. Her jaw drops and, in a very humorous way, she says, "It's not funny."

"For years, I came to you with all my Alexis issues and you always had these annoyingly simple ways of fixing it and now…"

"And now I'm the one with the teenager," She says, letting out a laugh. She relaxes and with an elbow firmly on the table, puts her head in her hand. And with one deep breath her smile fades away.

"Kate…" he says, now serious.

"I don't think it's a simple issue with a simple fix."

He presses his lips together, "How's that?"

"She lied about something, that didn't need a lie." He scrunches his face, trying to understand. She sits up straighter, so she can use her hands to try to explain. "I think she's lying about where she was living when she had the- stroke," she scrunches her face ad she says it, knowing that she hadn't told him about that.

"She had a stroke? Teenagers don't just have strokes."

"Teenagers with heart conditions have strokes," she says, pouting into a sad smile.

His lips part to a bit of a pout. She looks completely heartbroken. "I'm sorry," he says, so sincerely it almost heals everything.

She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear, putting on a 'walls up' face, "Either way, she lied about where she had the stroke." She looks up at him with big eyes. The same look she gave him eight months ago outside the courthouse. He hated this new lack of assurance in her, because she probably had no idea what to do with that feeling. She may have never felt it before. And honestly, this time he doesn't know what to tell her. Instead he stands up and tells her to do the same, "Stand up."

"Castle, I-"

He gently repeats with a soft smile, "Just stand up."

She slowly stands up. He then hugs her and that's it. He just holds her there. He doesn't say anything. She eventually cuddles into him, melting into his arms and chest. He then places his chin on top of her head. She smiles after awhile thinking about it. She has been frustrated beyond belief by his disappearance, but she believes in him and therefore can't help but soften into his embrace and just stand there as long as he's willing to the same.

Yes I listened to the song "Home" by Sebastian Kole on repeat to write that last scene and yes, I love that quote from Waitress. Hope you enjoyed and as always leave a review.