Hey, sorry this chapter took so long. It's a long chapter and I wrote a one shot in the middle time. Real quick, I labeled the sections by the day of the week to help keep from confusion. Okay, I won't talk anymore. I know you waited a long time. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 16: Valerie's Weekend

Thursday

The warmth of the loft had rolled away with the sunset. Kate doesn't even remember how it came up or who mentioned what first but now, Lux is on the defense and she is unwillingly on offense. It had come up during clean up at some point. Lux and Kate were picking up the last of the dishes as Castle and Alexis had already started on them and Tasha was just putting her plate on the island for them, and then that was it. Somehow it had come up. Kate tries to sort it out in her head … Did I bring it up? No, I think Castle did. I should have told him it was a secret…maybe. It doesn't matter. What matters is Lux. Lux almost snaps at Kate, who is refocusing on her, "You went to Valerie's?

"Yes," she draws out, knowing that she regrets the truth.

"Why?"

"Because Tasha told me that you lived there around the time you had your stroke."

Lux's upset look Kate assumed would eventually turn into anger, as of right now, seems to be leaning more towards a distraught expression. Even some anxiety seems to seep into her voice as she asks, "And what did Valerie tell you?"

Kate presses her lips to one side giving a skeptical look. She barely believed anything Valerie said, which is why she didn't want this to come up in the first place. Lux is looking at her with such pleading eyes, so against her better judgment Kate answers the question anyways, "She said that she wanted you until you became violent…until you hit her husband."

"And you believed her," Lux finishes, taking a step back, adding distance between Kate and herself. Her eyes are magnified by tears. "You only knew her for like what two seconds."

"No, Lux, I don't believe her. I want to believe you."

"But you don't?"

She closes her eyes trying to gain perspective. She purses her lips, "I knew you lied to me, so no, not then."

Lux shakes her head, the anger starting to catch in her teeth, "Not just then, otherwise you would have come to me, but instead you went behind my back like I was some sort of helpless child." Kate glances at Castle for a second, as he stiffens at the sound of the words.

She looks back at Lux quickly and reasons, "I just wanted to know the truth… and I wish you felt like you could just tell me."

Lux frowns considering this, just for a second, before swallowing it all, "Well, it seems you already got the truth from Valerie." Lux turns around and quickly walks out the front door.

Kate turns around and looks at the kitchen's peanut gallery. She quickly makes eye contact with Tasha and without needing to say a single word Tasha chases after Lux. As soon as she is on Lux's heels she starts trying to calm down the situation, "Lux! Lux, wait."

Lux is about to hit the stairs, when she turns on Tasha. "You told Kate. You told her about Valerie."

"She already knew you had lived with her," She stops defending herself and changes gears, "Lux, Kate was worried about you. Okay? And I'm worried about you. And she knew you were hiding something. And you are, right? That's why you didn't want me living there."

Lux swallows her breath, trying to let Tasha off the hook. Tears start to roll down her cheeks as she explains what's really bothering her, "She told Kate it was me. That I was the one that hurt them, which is total crap, okay? They hurt me." She turns away from Tasha and heads down the stairs. "Valerie knows exactly happened."

Tasha gets a sick feeling. She hurries to try to catch up to Lux or at least be on her heels again. "Lux, wait. Wait, talk to me, please!"

This time Lux doesn't stop as she yells back, "Tasha, you either come with me or you let me go alone."

…

The whole ride there, Tasha tried to talk Lux down. She pleaded as Lux's tears turned to anger and armor. Tasha quickly saw this response and lost all fight. It was about a twenty-five minute drive, during which Tasha thought about all the scenarios that may happen, but she never accounted for the one that did.

When the cab pulls up to the Gilbert house, Tasha turns to Lux and starts, "Okay, Lux wait." But Lux jumps out and slams the door. "Dammit," Tasha mumbles as she gets out. Before closing the door, she pokes her head back into the cab and requests, "Can you please just- don't leave, okay?" She then closes the door and follows Lux up to the house. She stands about two steps down from the porch, still feeling very hesitant about how the scene might play out. As Lux's knocks on the door, Tasha looks over at the chained up dog barking at them. The dog, she forgot about the dog that's at least three more scenarios, one of which she realizes is ridiculous because it involves being fed to the dogs, even that small Miniature Pinscher looking one. She quickly clears that from her mind and turns back to her main focus, just as Valerie opens the door.

Valerie looks shocked as she quietly breaths, "Lux."

Lux grits her teeth, not caring to greet the woman kindly, "I'm the violent one? That's what you told Kate?"

"Lux…" Valerie sighs, not defensively but more like a warning. Tasha barely catches it and it worries her further. Her body shivers from the uncertainty and the lack of feeling safe.

Lux must not catch Valerie's tone, like Tasha, because she continues, "I can't even believe you. I finally have a real mom and what do you do? You-you sabotage it? God, you haven't screwed me enough already? You have to screw me over again?"

Valerie gets a bit closer, glancing over her shoulder, "You should go. This is the reason it didn't work out."

"Oh, I'm the reason? I'm the problem? Yeah, I hit your stupid ass husband, but what about what he did to me? I didn't just push myself down a flight of stairs! I didn't just punch myself in the chest!"

Valerie is still hushed as she raises her voice, "I think you're confused and you're troubled, just like you were when you lived here-"

She is interrupted by Trey coming to the door, yelling, "What the hell-" Tasha's fears are starting to be replaced by reality, so she looks to Lux, hoping they'll just leave now. Lux seems stunned. Her face slacked and her armor gone. He gets uncomfortably close to Lux as he snarls, "You think you can show up here and yell at my wife?"

"Trey…" Valerie tries to calm down.

Lux, who now appears younger, shakes her head, "This isn't about you."

"Get off my property," he growls. Lux doesn't budge. She doesn't want to leave because of him, not again.

"Get the hell off my property," He says stepping towards her.

Suddenly Trey grabs Lux's hair his fist against the back of her head. "Hey!" Tasha yells suddenly losing care for her all once fictional fears.

"Get out of here," he orders over Tasha and Lux's screams.

"Get off of her," Tasha tries to scream over him. She tries to shove him, but he shoves her back, knocking her to the ground. Still holding onto her hair, he holds Lux up like a scolded puppy and commands, "Stay away from me. Stay away from my family." Tasha looks up to see the dog next to her. He pays no attention to her and just keeps barking at Lux and Trey. If the dog is there then… She rolls to her side, grabs the shovel next to the dog house, and hits Trey over the head with it. Lux looks at her, she can her Valerie whimpering and the cab skidding away, but doesn't take her eyes off of Tasha. Tasha is still, before she suddenly starts gasping for air. She lets the shovel fall from her hands and gasps, "Lux, run." And without thinking Lux does exactly that. She soon can hear Tasha's feet running after her, so she doesn't look back, while Valerie checks on her husband. She just keeps running.

She's not athletic and she's not a good runner, but she runs at least fifteen blocks before slowing to a driven walk. Tasha is behind her still, she wouldn't be sure if she didn't hear Tasha softly repeating to herself, "We're okay, we're okay, we're okay."

It only takes about a block of this, before Lux can't handle the mantra anymore. She turns on Tasha, stopping her in her tracks, "Shut up, Natasha! We're not okay!" She almost feels bad for saying anything, because Tasha looks so alarmed, on several counts. Not being able to look at her very long she turns away from her and keeps walking.

Tasha huffs, standing still and trying to catch her breath, "Lux, I'm so sorry. What was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. Not hit him over the head with a shovel! I mean, he was moving right?"

"I know he was moving. He was fine," she reassures, as she starts to slowly walk.

"Right."

"He wouldn't let you go. He was hurting you," Tasha desperately tries to reason.

"Yeah, but no," Lux shakes her head. "What if they call the cops or what if you get sent back to juvie, Tasha?!" Her voice is so loud now it echoes through the neighborhood.

Tasha rubs her face, "I- I don't-" She stops walking again, when Lux pulls out her phone, "What are you doing?"

"Calling someone," Lux answers.

"Who?"

"I don't know Tasha, but we need to get out of here. Valerie's probably already called the police, and it's late, and we need to go home," Lux is almost whining by the end.

…

"They're probably just walking around the block," Castle repeats for the second time in the last forty minutes, as he leans across the counter of the island.

Kate looks up at him, from her folded arms, as if trying to scold him, but instead gives him puppy dog eyes. "It's been almost an hour."

"I'm sure they're fine," Castle reassures.

"I'm sure they're fine," she agrees, before correcting herself, "Well at least walking around the block." Kate sits up a bit straighter changing her posture and topic, "I'm back to square one. She actually hates me."

With consideration of the amount of time Lux and Tasha had been gone and of the likelihood of them walking through the door at any minute, Castle determines it is okay to tease her to make the mood more lighthearted, "It's hard to like someone you can't trust."

This time her glare is perfect. "I know," she snarks back, with a small grin on her face.

He gives her an asininely charming smile, "I know, you know."

Kate loosens her hands from her forearms, making Castle believe she is in fact getting some relief, from the teasing. She puts her hands as if to make him pause on what he just said. "That was weird, right?"

Castle agrees, nodding his head promptly, "Yeah."

Though the distraction was welcome, the sound of the door brings both of them back to reality. Alexis comes through the door so quietly it's as if spare them from hoping it was anyone more than just her. She softly leads the door shut, before walking towards them. They do deflate a little bit when they realize it's just her, so she holds up the drink carrier in her hands. "I didn't run into them, but I did get coffee.

Castle glances at his watch and hesitantly says, "It's going on 9:30."

Alexis sets the coffees on the counter. Alexis gets an amused look on her face as she asks, "So I can take yours then? Because all I got was tea."

He playfully scowls at her, "Drink your tea."

Kate takes hers, which is labeled with her last name, out of the carrier, as she says, "Thank you, Alexis."

Alexis turns to her, "So, no news?"

Kate shakes her head and just as she's about to say something, someone's phone starts ringing. "Is that me?" Kate asks, perking up at the sound.

Not recognizing the ringtone as his own, Castle adds, "Not mine."

Alexis puts her tea down, as she pulls her phone out of her pocket, "It's mine." When she looks at the screen, in a shocked tone she adds, "And it's Lux." She quickly answers it, as she watches Kate put her head in her hands out of relief. "Lux?" Alexis answers, then stumbles answering whatever Lux just asked with, "Yeah, of course. Where are you?" She pauses longer this time, before she says, "Just text me the next address you see." Shortly after she says, "I'll leave now, okay? Okay bye," before hanging up.

"Where are they?" Kate asks, as soon as Alexis is off the phone.

"I'm not sure," Alexis answers, "I'm just going to look it up?"

"Are you going to go get them?" Castle asks.

Alexis plugs the address into her phone just before he finishes, and looks to Kate, "Lux asked."

Kate hadn't seen Alexis seem so unsure in a long time. Kate squints wishing Lux would have called her, but understanding why she didn't. "Yeah, it's fine," she reassures Alexis.

Alexis smiles and looks down at her phone, "It's twenty five minutes away."

"Geez, they got far," Castle comments.

"You okay getting them?" Kate asks, double checking.

"Yeah, I just need a car."

"You can take mine," Castle says, grabbing the keys off of the other side of the counter and handing them to her.

"Thanks," Kate says. For the second time tonight Kate feels powerless and has had to just sit back and wait.

Alexis quickly turns around as she says, "I'll be back in an hour."

…

Alexis walks in first, propping the door open for Lux and Tasha to walk in. Castle and Kate look up at the sound of the door. Castle is surprised that Beckett is courteous enough to the neighbors to wait until the door is closed before asking, "Where were you?"

Lux's lips part like she wants to say something. Because she does, she wants to throw the question back at her, but doesn't have the fight in her, not tonight. Kate can almost feel it anyways, her own question echoing back at her. Lux tightens her jaw as she points her thumb at Tasha, who is standing behind her, "Is it okay if Tasha spends the night?"

Kate stuns at Lux for a second, before looking at her watch. Not only does Lux's posture suggest she isn't really asking, but it is also 10:30 at night on a Thursday, so Kate shakes her head but says, "Yeah, I guess." As soon as she gets her answer, Lux grabs Tasha's hand and drags her upstairs. Kate on the other hand recoils, slumping in her chair.

Castle is a little shocked, having never seen her back down from a fight with so little resistance. He looks to Alexis, who has still distanced herself from them. "Where did you find them?" He asks her.

"About thirty-five blocks from here."

Kate props her elbow on the counter. She looks defeated and annoyed at the same time. Alexis knows it has nothing to do with her, so when Kate asks, "How did they seem?" She isn't the slightest bit defensive.

Alexis sighs, walking over and putting her bag onto the counter, "I don't know… it almost seemed like they got into a fight. They were both pretty quiet, but Tasha, she wasn't just quiet she seemed… shaken."

"But then why would Lux have asked Tasha to spend the night?"

Castle scrunches his face into a wink, as he corrects Kate, "She didn't really ask."

Kate puts her head in her hands, as she says, "You know what I meant."

Alexis shrugs, "I don't know they didn't really talk much." Alexis yawns, which makes Castle smile.

"You're tired," Castle states, "You should go to bed."

"Yeah, of course," Kate agrees. Alexis smiles before turning around. She goes to walk up the stairs, but Kate stops her, "Alexis."

She turns around her bright eyes wide, showing her full (drowsy but full) attention is on Beckett. She asks, "Yeah?"

"Thanks again for picking them up."

"No problem," Alexis says, before turning around and heading back towards the stairs.

Kate watches her for a moment, before Castle lightly taps her on the shoulder. When she looks to him, he asks, "What about you? You ready for bed?"

She rubs her face, "No, I need to go back to the apartment-"

"Come on, Beckett. Lux and Tasha are asleep upstairs-"

"Not to sleep, I need to get some stuff. Clothes for them in the morning, things like that."

"You want me to come with you?"

"Castle, it's late. You don't have to do that."

When she reaches for the coffee Alexis got her, which has now been reheated and moved into a mug, he realizes her hand is shaking. He looks up at her and says, "I want to."

…

Friday

Castle comes home to Abby and no one else. She is sitting at the island, her seat somewhat crooked facing away from the entrance. "Hello," he cautiously greets.

She turns in her seat, then repeats, "Hello." She has a look on her face as if it is out of fashion to greet someone.

Castle squints, skeptically, "And you are?"

"Abby. Elle's occupational therapist."

"And Elle is?"

Abby seems to go into some sort of confusing thought process, before Lux appears on the stairs. Lux grumbles, "That's me."

"Oh," Castle murmurs. "Well it's nice to meet you Abby," Castle smiles.

Abby smiles, but doesn't return the compliment. Castle looks to Lux for an explanation, but she just glares at him in a very 'yeah I know' kind of way. "We're almost done here," Abby assures, "I just need to check Lux's creative writing homework."

After looking a couple of sheets over for a couple of minutes, she says to Lux, "You're doing well in terms of your grammar, and your punctuation is improving." In a softer tone, probably only meant for her own ears, she adds, "It helps that it's becoming legible as well." Lux gives a little bit of an angry pout. Even so, Abby smiles and hands the papers back to her. "Here you go." She gets off her seat and walks over to the door, only parting with a quick, "I will see you Monday."

The door shuts at almost the same time Lux reluctantly murmurs, "See you Monday."

Castle turns to Lux, "Wow."

"Yeah, she sucks."

Castle shakes his head clearing his thoughts, "Why does she call you Elle?"

"She insists she can't pronounce Lux," she says in a slow manner and with a glare that convinces him that almost anyone can pronounce her name.

He tries to reason, "Well she is helping you. Isn't she?"

Lux squints skeptically, "I guess?"

Castle frowns and asks, pointing at the papers, "Can I see?" He was actually kind of curious how bad it was or wasn't.

She shrugs and hands him the papers. She then climbs up onto a stool and pulls out her phone. He stifles through the two sheets worth of brainstormed essay ideas. Her punctuation and grammar are okay. And her handwriting really isn't too bad, it's just not girlish. It closer resembles a thirteen year old boy's handwriting than a sixteen year old girl's handwriting. Aside from those things, Castle can still see the problem areas Beckett has told him Lux has when it comes to writing. She is still prone to rambling, dropping ideas, and she has misspelled odd but simple words like distinguish and investigate. Just as he's about to say something, he hears someone approaching the door. It must be the sound of Beckett's heels that give her away, because Lux quickly gathers up her stuff, leaving the papers Castle is holding with him, and hurries up the stairs. By the time Kate comes in she only sees a glimpse of Lux running up the steps. Kate watches Lux finish the stairs and Castle watches Kate. As soon as they hear Lux's bedroom door close, she turns to Castle. She bites the corner of her lip, "Is she ever going to forgive me?"

"Eventually, I'm sure," Castle says with a sweet smile. He then frowns remembering the papers in his hands, have you looked at Lux's school work recently?"

"Honestly… no, why?"

"Here," he hands her the papers. "I don't know if that's better than before or-"

She takes the papers from him as she finishes his thought, "If she's not improving."

"Exactly," he agrees, as he watches her look over the papers.

She shakes her head after a minute or two. "It's not getting better, I mean her handwriting is improving, but other than that…"

"Grammar?" he asks. It didn't seem that bad to him and he's trying to get the bitter look off her face.

"No, it wasn't that bad to begin with." She sits down in her stool. She tosses the papers onto the counter, and then presses her fingertips to her temples. "I'm going to need to find someone new to help her."

"I don't think Abby will be missed," Castle counters, trying to pull a smile out of her.

It works, because she smiles back at him, "Did Lux tell you that?"

"Not exactly. When I came home Abby was here."

"Yeah, well she's the best-" she stops herself.

"The best…" he leans in and jokingly guesses, "Valley girl on the east coast, you could find?"

She glares at him and purses her lips, before sighing and leaning back in her chair, "I took two whole months off, which was great for me and for Lux, but then I had to take her to the doctor's twice, once because of the stroke and once because she hadn't been since eight grade. After that I had to take her to the dentist because she's only been twice in her life. And I had Tasha. And half of the therapists didn't want to take her because she's not five, because-"

Shock spreads across his face, but he quickly stops her spiraling, "Okay, wait- stop, Kate. Timeout, okay?" She stops, stares at him, and pout. "That's all bad, but what does it have to do with Abby?"

She wrinkles her forehead and sighs, "After all of that…"

He exhales, "She's the best you could afford."

She points at him and with a small smile says, "Bingo."

He can tell she is uncomfortable because she chooses now to take off her jacket, but he asks anyways. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Castle… you just got back and we weren't living together. Plus, Lux…" she takes a deep breath before continuing. "Lux is my kid. I can take care of her." At this Castle's jaw tightens and his forehead scrunches. She genuinely apologizes, "I'm sorry, Castle, I didn't mean it like that."

He softly says, "I know." He hadn't actually taken too much offense by it. He knew what she meant. He was more or less just trying to fix it without being responsible for fixing it. He squints questionably. "Okay, what if you fire Abby and I help Lux until you find someone else?"

She had perked up at the beginning of his solution, but by the end she looked skeptical. "Castle, she's not easy to do homework with, to do anything with. She doesn't want help."

"Reminds me of someone," He says, eyeing her. He waits until she smiles before he reasons, "It'll only be temporary and how hard can it be?"

She cocks her head to the side, now finding new amusement in the idea. She looks him up and down, before saying, "For the brilliant writer boy or the R.H.D.?"

He smirks, "Both."

"You know what, Castle? Fine, but as soon as you're sick of it tell me and I'll find someone new, okay?"

He almost finds it humorous how serious she seems. He puts his hand out to her, "Deal."

A relieved and joyful grin spreads across her face as she shakes his hand, so out of reflex he leans forward across the island and kisses her.

…

Saturday

"You're home late," Martha chimes in a questioning tone, as Kate walks in the door. It is late, not the next morning late, but it's about eleven. She used to hate not working, to not have something to stick her nose into and fight for. But ever since she started living with Castle, she has cherished her days off, especially traditional weekends. (It was nice to do something besides solve murders with him.) That being said she was almost relieved, when Friday morning she got a call that there had been a murder. She wasn't hiding as much as trying to give Lux space. Even so, it is late now and most everyone is asleep. She smiles a gentle smile at Martha, who is in the kitchen making tea. She can't help but feel slightly reprimanded by the greeting Martha used, but she kind of finds joy in it at the same time.

Kate approaches the kitchen and sweetly whispers, "Sorry to disappoint." Martha's smile grows, even though Kate's disappears.

Kate looks around scoping the viewable rooms for anyone else, but comes up empty. The quiet makes it seem much emptier than it is. "The girls are asleep," Martha says, knowing who Kate is looking for.

"Tasha?"

"Tasha's here too," Martha replies.

Kate looks to the bedroom. She can see a little light coming from it which answers her question as she asks it, "Is Castle awake?"

"Still up writing, I'm afraid."

Kate scratches her head, a little unsure of what to say now. She takes a step backwards towards the bedroom as she turns to face Martha again, "I should go to bed. I haven't seen to him all day."

Martha holds her mug up as she says, "To busy avoiding others."

Kate taps her tongue to her incisor as a smile spreads across her face. "It's that obvious?"

"You get in a fight with Lux one night and then are off working so much barely anyone sees you. Was it not supposed to be obvious?"

Kate loves how Martha talks to her. It's not condescending or obnoxious. It's caring and understanding. Kate takes a few steps back towards the kitchen. "I wanted to give her space."

Martha gives her a calm smile, before saying, "Might I make an observation."

Kate looks to the floor in replacement of a nod. She still has a hint of a smile on her face. "Lux is very much like you, but I haven't seen her have any true passions. So as you may go to your work as a… a hideout if you will. Lux doesn't."

"I'm confused," Kate confesses.

"The fact of the matter is when Lux got hurt she turned to the one person who has always been there for her."

"Tasha," Kate fills in.

"Exactly," Martha snaps her fingers. Her energy then softens, as she walks around the island to stand closer to Kate and then she says, "If you are truly doing this for her sake, you may want to rethink how Lux copes."

Kate bites her lip, once again lost for words. To which Martha takes as resentment, "Oh darling, I'm sorry if I over stepped."

Kate quickly reacts, by shaking her head. "Oh no, I get it and I'm glad you said something." She ends with a smile to really drive home that she took no offense.

Martha clasps Kate's hands in hers as she says, "Good, but I did want to talk to you about something else."

Kate scrunches her face, "What is it?"

Martha lets go of Kate's hands. Martha huffs a smile, "Well, I am glad you and Lux moved back in, I'm feeling it's getting a bit…"

"Crowded?" Kate finishes.

"Yes," Martha continues. "And with Tasha over all the time-"

"Tasha's not really living here," She hasn't slept at the apartment the last three nights, but still.

"I know, but I was thinking that maybe it's time that I start looking for a place of my own."

Kate's expression turns to worry, "Martha, I-"

"I know what you're going to say." As if to prove this, she continues, "You're going to say that you don't want me to feel pushed out of my own home, because that's exactly what my son said, but this isn't about you or anyone else, this is about me. Think of it as a… a kind of evolution. I'm starting to do very well for myself. And I think you and Richard's little family, however big that may be, deserves to have this place to yourselves."

Kate smirks a bit, but still says, "If you're sure."

"I'm sure. And I already talked to Richard about it and he seemed to agree."

Kate playfully frowns, "Really?"

She waves her off and says, "Well it won't be right away, of course, I mean it's going to take me a while to find exactly the right space."

Kate gesture to their surroundings, a few boxes scattered here and there, "Well when you find the place, I think we may have some boxes."

Martha smiles, "I will keep that in mind." She pours more hot water into her tea. After a quiet moment, she says, "Well I really should get to bed. I have a very early morning tomorrow."

Kate nods and agrees, "Yeah, I should go too."

They both start to walk in their opposite directions, but before getting to far Martha softly says, "Good night, Katherine."

"Night," Kate replies.

…

Sunday

When Kate walks in the door, she looks for a sign of anyone, but there is no one in sight. Better yet she hears no one, which is a rarity for the loft. She doesn't like the sound of emptiness, because that's what it is, not silence, not a stirring hum, it is emptiness. She shrugs off her coat as she frowns at the stairs, hoping to hear some sort of sound coming from up the second level. She walks into the bedroom, and with no sight of Castle, actually starts wondering where everyone must be. She takes off her shoes and dresses down into an oversized and comfortable sweater, well suited for the November weather outside, a pair of leggings, and a pair of big wool socks. She then grabs her book off the nightstand. She flips through the pages, as if quickly rereading the book, reliving the story. She walks out to Castle's office, her eyes still scanning the pages. In retrospect, she should have seen two things coming at that moment. One, five (five and a half? six?) people live there. She is never alone. Two, walking while reading and in silence is a scene destined for her to have the hell scared out of her. In fact, she jumps when a cough disrupts the silence. Freezing in her spot before her better judgment kicks in and she realizes is in no real danger. She looks through the bookcase at the living room, to where the cough had come from. Even though she knows someone is there she still can't see anyone. Her big socks allow her to pad quietly along the hardwood floor, into the living room.

Soon enough she sees that Lux is the culprit of the startling cough. She is lying across the couch, her headphones in and her eyes glued to her phone. Her feet are to Kate. She considers leaving her alone, but then she thinks about what Martha said. So she halfway sits on the arm of the couch, by Lux's feet and when Lux glances up for a second, she quickly rips her headphones out of her ears and yells, "Holy crap, Kate!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," Kate immediately apologizes.

"I thought I was the only one home- How long have you been here?"

"Ten minutes, maybe," Kate guesses.

Lux glares at her, sighing, then pulls up her headphones to start putting them back in her ears. Kate turns in her seat and puts her feet on the couch. When she does this Lux begins to pull her feet closer to herself, but Kate taps the side of her leg. Lux gives her another exasperated glare. Kate taps the sides of her jaw, so Lux pulls her headphones out, but doesn't say anything and just continues looking irritated. "I wanted to talk to you," Kate explains.

"Okay," Lux agrees, sounding a bit hesitant.

Kate huffs, before starting her unprepared speech. "Look Lux, you can be angry at me as long as you want, but sooner or later you have to realize that I did what I did, because I was worried about you. I am worried about you. You lied to me Lux, and not an 'I-slept-over-at-my-boyfriend's-not-my-friend's-like-I-said' kind of lie, but a lie that…I don't know." She pauses as Lux puts her phone down. She tucks a piece of hair behind her ear and glances back up at Lux, "I know what it's like to have someone dig into something you really don't want them to touch, so I'll leave your past alone. But you have to promise me that if whatever it is starts burying you, starts swallowing you whole, you have to let someone know." Kate shakes her head, "It doesn't have to be me, or Castle, or Alexis. Whoever you want, but you have to tell someone."

Lux pulls in half of her bottom lip and looks down for a second. She is considering what Kate said, trying to let it soak in. After a moment she looks up to Kate again and says, "Okay."

She says it in still a slightly annoyed tone, but it's obvious she heard it and thought about it, so Kate smiles and agrees, "Okay."

…

Monday

After Beckett starts the coffee pot, she walks over to the bedroom. Before quite getting there she stops and asks into the room, "Castle, you almost ready?" He hadn't worked with her in months, because he was kind of waiting to be invited. When she asked the night before, he immediately agreed. If he was enthusiastic then, he was ecstatic now. She smiles when he stands up fully dressed looking completely ready to walk out the door that moment. She huffs a laugh and leans her back against the doorway. "I was kind of thinking we could have a cup of coffee. Eat some breakfast maybe, before going. But if you're too excited…"

He gestures for her to leave the room first and then he follows her as she slowly walks back towards the kitchen. "Whatever you want," he starts.

"Castle," she warns.

"Come on, Beckett, he whines

"Castle, stop, okay, all I want is coffee," she pleads. "Good coffee," she specifies, "and you make better coffee than I do."

"Then coffee you shall have," She smiles and shakes her head at the ridiculousness and that's when she sees Alexis, who has now materialized at the bottom of the stairs. "Good morning Alexis," Kate chimes.

Castle turns to see his daughter, "Morning sweetheart."

"Morning," she returns, then turns to her dad. "You're gonna be with Beckett all day today, right?"

"Right," he reassures.

"So can I take your car to school today?"

"Uh, sure, but why today?"

"Lux and Tasha asked if I could drive them to school."

"Sure," Castle agrees, shrugging.

Kate butts in, "Alexis you don't have to do that."

"They just wanted a little extra time this morning, plus I don't have class until later today, so I have time to do it."

Kate looks at her watch and frowns, "Yeah, but they don't."

Then Lux appears and points out, "I'm ready to go, but Tasha didn't sleep well, so she might be another minute."

"Speaking of, do you know when Tasha plans on sleeping at the apartment again?" Lux scrunches her face, so Kate quickly repeals, "I don't mean to kick her out, just wondering if I should bother with rent."

"Last night, I promise," Lux says nodding.

Tasha quickly shuffles down the stairs. She stops about halfway down and asks, "Ready?"

Lux glares at her, "Are you?"

Tasha slowly nods, as if she is talking to a condescending sibling, "Yes, I'm ready."

Kate pulls on her ear, as she interrupts them, "Guys?" All three of them fall silent and turn to her, "You are running late."

Tasha turns to Lux, "We should go."

"Yeah," Lux agrees.

Alexis then proceeds to, in some manner, shuffle them out the door, as they chaotically and playfully argue about why they are running late and bid their goodbyes. Once all three girls have finally left and the door has behind them, Castle lets out an epiphany sounding, "Huh."

Kate turns to him, "What?"

"Oh nothing," he shakes off.

"Really?" She asks, knowing he has something on his mind.

"It's just the thing Doyle said-"

"Oh," she smiles, as she tries to hold back from rolling her eyes, "the three kids thing."

He shrugs, as a yes.

"That's assuming he was actually a time traveler," Beckett playfully rebuttals.

"First off, time travel is possible," Beckett pretends to hold back a laugh, but lets him continue. "Second off, there are three of them. I mean that's pretty compelling evidence."

She looks at the door the girls just left out of, and frowns a bit. When she turns back to Castle, he has his back to her. She takes a sip of coffee then says, "So you feel safe saying that Doyle was right and they are our three kids?"

He turns back to her, as he grabs the towel next to the sink to dry his hands. "It seems like it." She pouts a bit. He has only seen her pout that way once in all the time he has known her and it was the not-not-yes blunder of 2013. In short, her mind must be fighting logic. "What?" He asks referring to her pout.

"Well they're not really ours," she says trying not to sound harsh.

"Alexis is mine," Castle jokingly debates.

Kate swallows her coffee to add, "And Lux is definitely mine."

Castle finishes, "And then there's Tasha, which makes three."

Kate squints a bit, "Does Tasha count?"

"Why wouldn't-" He stops when he finally realizes she's not trying to debunk the time traveler, so she asks, "Do you want her to count?"

"Do you think she counts?"

"Well she's not technically either of ours," he lightly reassures.

"We didn't adopt her," Kate adds with less assurance than Castle.

"We aren't fostering her either," Castle continues.

They both temporarily ignore the fact that Tasha is over all the time, they support her, are legally responsible for her, they treat her like any other family member and have both come to truly adore her, and come to the conclusion that Tasha is not included in their three kids. "So for Doyle to be right we would need another kid," Kate nonchalantly concludes.

Castle smiles and kisses her forehead, "I guess so."

Castle goes back to doing the dishes. Kate sips some more coffee, before mischievously adding, "A boy would be nice."

He turns to her frowning and wrinkling his eyebrows, "A boy?"

"Well we already have two girls," Kate rebuttals. Three she debates in her head.

"Boys are just not as nice. They're mean and rough," Castle explains.

"How would you know? You have Alexis. The only boy on your side of the family is-" A playful smile spreads across her face. "You know you may have a point."

"Exactly," Castle agrees in a matter of fact manner, without a hint of a defensive attitude.

…

"Keep your eyes closed," Castle instructs.

Kate keeps her eyes squeezed shut. She is seated in the middle of the bed, legs crossed pretzel style. She's nervous. Surprises and Castle make her nervous. Granted she has gotten away with not celebrating her birthday all day, so Castle is probably about to explode. Still, keeping her eyes closed is making her antsy and… well nervous. "Okay…" he hums, rummaging around.

"Hold out your hands," Castle orders.

"I don't know about that, Castle," she hesitates.

"Oh come on, Beckett, it's a book. Hold out your hands, but keep your eyes shut."

"Why do I have to keep my eyes shut, if you told me what it is?"

He huffs a laugh, "It's a book, Beckett, I promise."

"You promise."

"I promise."

Still a bit reluctant, she holds out her hands. Even with her eyes closed she has a pretty good idea of what he places in them. It is a book. He didn't lie about that, but it is really heavy. She rubs her thumbs back and forth against the cover, feeling the rough plastic texture. Her right thumb runs across the plastic pages. As she is examining it with her hands, she can feel the bed shift. She suspects that when she opens her eyes Castle will be sitting in front of her. After getting a bit more settled, Castle permits, "Okay, open your eyes."

She opens her eyes to find that she's not only right about where Castle is, but also about what he placed in her hands. She immediately recognizes it from normally being under the bed. It's a light sea foam colored scrapbook and she knows exactly what it is and what it holds. She smiles at the thought of it and looks up at him, "Alexis' baby book." She never actually opened it, so forgetting completely what this may have to do with her; she opens it to the middle. The page is titled Coney Island and it's Alexis at about seven years old, showing the camera her ice cream covered hands. Kate marvels at it, "I don't think I've ever seen her smile that big."

"We were at Coney Island," he says as if that explains everything. She smiles at him before paging forward. She only gets to do this for a couple more minutes, before Castle interrupts her, "Well this," he pulls the book out of her hands, "book is great it's not the original."

Kate looks at him confused. Castle isn't sure if it's because of what he said or because he took the book away. "What do you mean?" She asks.

"Well when Meredith and I got divorced, I let her take the book. I didn't see the harm in it. I already got custody of Alexis, so why not."

"But you regretted it?"

"Yeah, it had all these pictures… memories of my only kid. So I made a new one." As he talks, she looks down at the book again. When he finishes talking, he realizes how quiet she has gotten, so he quickly gets back on track, "Alexis is cute, but this isn't your gift." He sets the book aside. He then hands her a present she hadn't even realized he had sat next to him. As soon as she gets the present in her hands, the weight of it alone, tells her why she was first given Alexis' baby book. "Can I open it?"
"Yeah, of course," he permits.

She has a huge smile on again as she delicately pulls apart the wrapping paper. It's a white department store box that she pulls open. Under some tissue paper is a peach scrapbook. She looks at him a little confused and in a reassuring tone he says, "Open it." She cautiously does just that. This time not skipping to the middle, but turning to the first page. The first page is a picture of a newborn baby. Kate immediately runs her fingers over the page and breathes, "Oh Castle." She turns to the next page, even though she doesn't expect much more because she had assumed the newborn picture was from inside her jewelry box (because it's the same one that has been behind her parents' picture for the last sixteen years) When she turns to the next page, she is overwhelmed by three pictures on each page. One labeled 'LUX' and the next labeled 'BECKETT.' All the pictures are Lux at various ages of infancy. They all seem to be taken at a hospital but all are of a happy Lux, two of which even looks like they were taken mid laugh. Kate lightly runs her fingers along these pictures to keep from smudging them. She follows with her eyes trying to soak in each one. Her forehead scrunches and looks up at Castle, "Where did you get these?"

She looks back down as he explains, "Through Fern. She was able to give me all the photos from Lux's file. There were a lot more up until she was three, she was in the hospital then." Castle lightly turns to the next page for Kate. There is only one picture on the left page. It's a woman with dark black hair and bright eyes holding Lux at about three years old. Castle points to the picture and says, "I also went to the hospital where Lux was treated, hoping to find more pictures and this woman knew exactly who I was talking about. She's the one that named Lux."

"And she just had the picture?"

"The hospital had one of those success story boards, so she let me take it."

Kate flips to the next page, which has two pictures. There is quite an age difference between this one and the last one. One is a school photo, so Kate assumes it is her first school photo meaning Lux is about six or seven. The other photo is Lux and Tasha, when they are about the same age. Kate points to it and looks up at Castle, "Look at how cute they are."

"Pretty cute," he softly agrees.

She flips through the rest of the book pretty quickly. Until this last year the only other photos are school photos, probably used to update her file every year. It starts being more crowded again with a photo strip of Lux and Tasha, next to her sophomore year photo. The last page in the only somewhat filled book has two photos. One is the one from Lux's birthday party, the one of Lux, Alexis, and Sarah Grace. The other is another of many that she hadn't seen. It's a picture of Lux, Tasha, and Alexis pretending to hear, speak, and see no evil.

When she's finished she looks up at Castle, who has been so quiet, patient, and attentive the whole time. She smiles at him, "It's-" She shyly looks away from him and to the book, "Really sweet, Castle." She glances back up at him, "The book and- everything is really sweet."

He lightly kisses her and then says, "I'm glad you like it."

"I do. I really do," her voice softens as she looks back at the last page.

She scrunches her face, so he worries that he upset her. "What's wrong?"

She shakes her head, knowing what is on her mind is ridiculous and knowing what he probably thinks is wrong. Not wanting him to think he is the reason for her mood changing, she quietly explains, "I don't see it."

Castle looks at her, unsure of what she's talking about, "What?"

"When people say Lux looks like me, I don't see it."

"I do," Castle says.

Kate smirks, softly closing the book, "Oh come on, Castle. She has bright blue eyes, blonde hair, and is a good half a foot shorter than I am."

"Beckett, she acts exactly like you," he playfully defends.

"Yeah, I know that, but people don't always know what I act like… Like, when you were in the hospital, a nurse said she looks like me, but I had never talked to her before then."

"It's smaller things than that. It's hard to explain," Castle says. He perks up a second later, obviously finding a way to try to explain it. "It's the way your smile comes across your face, or the way you tease people."

"You mean you," she teases. It is definitely a tease, but she says it so gentle that he can tell she is comforted by what he's saying.

"Exactly," he smiles. "It's the way that you can be so scared yet walk with so much confidence." He presses his lips together, "I promise, Kate, it's there." He doesn't think what he said was that meaningful, but the way she's looking at him is like she wanted him to go on. He even considers it, listing off some others, like how they both act with babies, have a hard time trusting others, or how they both squint their eyes and pout their lips when they're unsure of something, but he is interrupted by someone knocking on the front door. Both of their faces cork into confusion at the sound. "Were you expecting someone?" Castle asks.

She shakes her head no, so Castle gets out of the bed and goes to see who's there. Kate runs her palm over the scrapbook and quickly becomes blissfully unaware of her surroundings, until she hears Castle calling for her, "Beckett!"

She quickly pushes the book aside and hurries from the bedroom to the front door. She was already concerned by Castle's tone and she is more worried when she sees two police officers standing in their doorway. Castle is still standing there, holding the door open. Beckett on the other hand stops a few yards shy of the door and crosses her arms across her chest. She seems to have a loose and friendly posture, but Castle can't help but think of the stance and distance as being protective. "Can we help you?" Beckett asks, gently.

"We've been looking for a Natasha Siviac. Social Services said we may be able to find her here."

Beckett glances at Castle, as she says, "Um, I think she's here. Can I ask why you're looking for her?"

"We have a warrant out for her arrest."

"Wait what?" Castle immediately interrupts.

Kate calmly asks, "For what?"

"For assault."

Castle shakes his head, "That can't be right."

Kate agrees, "Are you sure?"

One of the officers says, "We're sure." As the other hands the warrant over to Castle.

"Ask Lux if Tasha's here," Castle sighs, turning to Kate.

Only with a little defensive reluctancy, Kate turns away and walks over to the stairs. She quietly yells up them, "Lux, can you come here?"

Soon enough Lux appears at the top of the stairs. The smile on her face, when she comes around, gives Tasha's presence away. Kate asks anyways, "Is Natasha here?"

Lux's smile falls at the sound of Tasha's full name. Lux looks off into the direction of her bedroom door, as she answers, "Yeah, why?"

Kate almost feels bad for asking, "Can the two of you come downstairs, please?"

Lux nods then disappears down the hall. Kate silently walks back, halfway between Castle and the bottom of the stairs. The officers step a few steps in which are uninvited, but at least Castle can now walk over to be by Beckett's side.

It isn't long before Lux and Tasha come down the stairs. They both stop a few steps from the bottom. When they see the officers, Lux asks, "What's going on?" Kate takes one look at Lux and thinks Lux should never play poker, because her expression and nervous voice gives her away.

"Which one of you is Natasha Siviac?" One of the officers asks.

Lux looks to Tasha, who steps down to the bottom. "That's me."

"We have to take you in for charges of assault."

"She's a minor," Castle counters.

"Yes," the other officer agrees. Kate can feel Tasha take a step back, wishing she can get further away, so Kate catches her hand. She squeezes it gently, just to support her, but she is surprised when Tasha squeezes it back way tighter than she thought she would. The officer looks between Castle and Beckett, as he continues, "You're Richard Castle and Katherine Beckett, right? You're her legal guardians, so you are going to have to come too."

Hope you enjoyed. I will try to get the next chapter done sooner than this last time. See you next time.