Thank you all for your continued support and enthusiasm for this story. All will be revealed regarding Esposito's father, and I won't drag it out for a very long time.


An early riser by habit since his time in basic training in the Army, Javier slowly came awake before the sun rose. He was in Alexis's bed, in her arms, his head resting in the crook of her neck. She was a sound sleeper, which he already knew, but he was especially grateful for it now. He carefully disentangled himself from her arms, noiselessly crossed the room to the chair to retrieve his phone from his pants pocket, and, once he was sure the phone was on (and saw that it was charged to 92%), he texted Captain Karpowski to let her know that he still had time on the books and asking if he could have today as a personal day. Karpowski texted back within ten minutes to tell him that was fine, but that she expected him back at the precinct tomorrow. He replied by thanking her and assuring her he would be back at work tomorrow morning as usual.

Then he sent a quick text to Ryan, letting him know that he wouldn't be coming into work today, and adding that he'd catch him later.

Without waiting for Ryan's reply, he set the phone on the bedside table and climbed back into bed with Alexis, who turned her head, opened her eyes, and asked, "Are you okay?" Before he could answer, she said, "That was stupid of me. Of course you're not okay."

"Hey, nobody calls my girlfriend stupid, especially my girlfriend," Javier replied, brushing a kiss across her forehead before resting his head on the pillow beside hers and meeting her gaze. "I'm sorry I woke you. I just...I had to text the Captain. I gotta get my head around this as best I can today, and he knows I work there, so before I have to see him again, since he'll probably be hanging around outside the 12th trying to catch me off guard again, I have to come up with some kind of game plan for dealing with him. And I also texted Ryan to let him know I wouldn't be in today, but that I'd catch up with him later."

"You don't have to face him alone, you know," Alexis said gently. "I'll go down there and give him a piece of my mind."

"Whoa, tiger, easy there," Javier said. "We can put this off for a little while longer. The sun's not even up yet. And we have the whole day. And a whole team of people."

"So we'll work something out by the end of the day," Alexis said.

"Somehow, yeah," Javier said. "We have to."

Alexis shifted slightly to give Javier more room. "Sorry the bed's so small," she said.

"You don't hear me complaining, do you?" he countered.

"No, I don't," she realized with a smile.

They kissed before settling back down to sleep for a few more hours.


Rick, Kate, and Lily were up and dressed for the day, and all of them had already had breakfast, when Kevin Ryan arrived at their front door shortly after 7:30 in the morning, a messenger bag slung over one shoulder, and casually dressed in jeans and a green t-shirt. "I got a text from Javi that he got Captain Karpowski's okay to take today off," Ryan said when Rick opened the front door to him. He ran a hand through his hair and walked into the loft, clearly agitated.

"He's here," Kate said as she picked Lily up off the blanket on the living room floor where they had been playing and stood up.

"He's here?" Kevin repeated, surprised.

"He's still sleeping," Rick replied. "So is Alexis. At least, that's what we believe, and we're sticking with that."

"Javi would never… Not with you and Beckett and Lily under the same roof." Kevin felt compelled to defend his best friend. "Anyway, I had no idea he was here, but there's something he needs to know, and Alexis, and you guys, and it's easier to tell you guys first."

Kate realized what it was. "You know about Javi's father?" she asked.

Kevin was surprised again. "You know about Javi's father?" he parroted Kate's question back to her. "How?"

"The more important question is, how do you know about my father, Ryan?" The three adults, and even Lily, turned their heads at the sound of Javier's voice, tightly controlled anger in every syllable. Sure enough, he was standing on the stairs, Alexis behind him with her hand on his shoulder.

"I was going to tell you, Javi," Ryan began.

"How long have you known?" Esposito asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"Since last week," Ryan said, looking distinctly uncomfortable now.

"Since last week?" Esposito repeated, shouting. "What the hell?"

"Don't curse in front of our baby," Kate interjected sternly.

Esposito ignored Kate, but didn't let loose with any more swear words. "You've known since last week, and you didn't think that maybe I should have known, before the jerk ambushed me on the sidewalk outside the precinct last night?"

"It was the car, okay?" Ryan said defensively. "The black Honda Accord that's been parked down the block from the precinct for the past couple of weeks. I snapped a picture of the license plate when I was leaving one night last week, and then when I ran it, I found out it was a rental car, registered to one Matias Esposito of Miami, Florida. I was gonna tell you, but you came in that morning all happy about your 4th of July weekend with Alexis, and I didn't have the heart to drop this bomb in your lap and ruin it for you, Javi. I was going to tell you this morning, but after you texted me before daybreak that you'd gotten the Captain's okay to take the day off, I did the same thing. You never answered me back, and so I came here because I wanted to run this by Castle and Beckett before I told you. I didn't know you were here."

"You should have told me!" Esposito exclaimed.

"You're right. I should have," Ryan replied. "You're mad, I get that. I'm sorry. I should have handled this better." He slid the messenger bag off his shoulder and pulled his personal laptop out of it. "With the whole gang here, though...I mean, if you don't mind us imposing, Beckett, Castle...I thought we could research Matias Esposito, find out why he's here, maybe get some clue as to what he wants from you, Javi."

"It's not an imposition," Kate said.

"Not at all," Rick added.

"We were already planning to help you find out what's really going on and why your father is really back, and to get Kevin in on it, starting today," Kate said, looking at Javi. "As long as that's okay with you, of course, Javi. You don't have to go through any of this, whatever it is, alone. We're all here for you...if you'll let us be."

Javier scrubbed his hands over his face. "Thanks," he said, looking from Beckett to Castle to Ryan. He frowned slightly at Ryan, but then shook it off, since there were more important things to do at the moment.

Alexis squeezed Javi's shoulder, part reassurance, part silent message to give Kevin a break. He really did mean well, and he was trying, in his way, to look after his best friend. Alexis understood both sides here, and seeing the looks on her parents' faces, she was certain they did too.

"I'll go and get my tablet," Kate said, shifting Lily in her arms in preparation for handing her off to Rick.

"Hold that thought," Rick replied. "There may be something else you'd rather do, Kate. I'll be right back." He disappeared into his office, returning a moment later with his own laptop, which he set on the coffee table, and then he left the loft.

"Where is Castle going?" Ryan asked.

Kate and Alexis exchanged a look. "I have no idea," Alexis admitted, "but I'll run upstairs and get my laptop too."

"I'm not sure either," Kate admitted. She set Lily in her swing, buckled her in, and cranked it up to medium speed. Lily loved the swing, and she gurgled happily as she swung back and forth.

Alexis was back with her laptop before Rick returned, wheeling a large, blank, free-standing dry-erase board. Everyone's jaws dropped at the sight of the board except Alexis and Lily. "Where did you-?" Kate began.

"I'm sentimental," Rick replied as he wheeled the board into the living room and positioned it in front of the TV.

"I know," Kate said. "I just...Wow. I never thought we'd use one of these again."

"You didn't sneak that out of the 12th, did you?" Ryan asked.

"Of course not," Rick said in a mock affronted voice. He looked at Kate now. "But we used these over a hundred times. I know those days are behind us, and I don't regret that they are, because I like where we are now, and whatever happens with the election, wherever we go from November, it's gonna be great because it's gonna be us. But...well...like I said, I'm sentimental. And at least there's no dead body this time. And I thought it might come in handy to keep track of whatever we find out about Esposito's father." He headed back into his office, returning a moment later with a handful of dry-erase markers in black and red. He held the markers out to Kate.

Her fingers brushed his as she took the markers from him, and she kissed his cheek. Then she stepped over to the dry-erase board, setting the black marker on its ledge and uncapping the red one. "Timeline," she said.

Rick looked from Lily to Alexis, silently thrilling at the fact that they were going to get a glimpse of Kate at her Detective Beckett best, even though Lily wouldn't remember it.

"1982," Esposito said. "The year my parents got married, and the year I was born." He sat down on the couch. Alexis took the seat next to him and fired up her laptop. Rick sat down in the chair next to Lily's swing and logged on to his own laptop. Ryan sat in the chair opposite Castle's across the coffee table and was also logging in to his own laptop.

Kate dutifully wrote "1982" on the board.

"He left when I was 5, and they got divorced," Esposito said. "Moved to Florida. Got remarried almost as soon as the divorce was final."

Under "1982" Kate wrote "Parents' marriage + Javi's birth." She drew a short line, then wrote "1987," and under that she wrote, "Parents' divorce; Esposito Sr. remarries, moves to FL."

"And except for one phone call and one postcard, I didn't see or hear anything from him until last week," Esposito said. "That's it. That's all I got."

Kate drew a much longer line and wrote "2017," and under that she wrote "Esposito Sr. returns to NYC, makes contact w/ Javi. WHY?"

She capped the red marker, set it on the ledge, picked up the black marker, and uncapped it. "30 years," she said. "That is a long time not to have any contact with your own child."

"23 years of sporadic contact when it's only convenient for you isn't much better," Alexis mumbled. "Okay, so where do we start?"

They heard the wireless printer in Rick's office whir to life. "I have a name," he said, "and a driver's license photo." He set his laptop on the coffee table and rushed into his office, returning several seconds later with an 8x11 piece of paper with an enlargement of a Florida driver's license on it. "Matias Esposito," he said. He used one of the clip magnets on the dry-erase board to pin the piece of paper up so everyone could see it. "Age 74. Primary residence: Miami, Florida."

Esposito looked at the piece of paper on the board and his face contorted like he had just sucked a whole bag of lemons. "That's him," he said, his voice clipped.

"I'm running his financials right now," Ryan reported as he tapped away at his own laptop.

"The wife!" Alexis exclaimed. "We should look for her. Maybe they got divorced, or she died. Or they might have had kids."

"I don't know her name," Esposito said. "And I really don't care if they had kids or not. Any kids they may have had are no relatives of mine. I highly doubt the old man mentioned to his new kids, if he had any, that he abandoned a son back in New York City."

"We don't need her name, we've got his," Kate said. "I highly doubt there are two Matias Espositos who are 74 years old and living in Miami, and even if there are, we have his address from his driver's license."

"Is there coffee?" Esposito asked. "Anybody else want some?"

Rick looked at Alexis. "We didn't get you guys any breakfast," he said. "You should eat something."

"I couldn't eat a bite," Esposito said. "Just coffee, like I said. But Lex, you absolutely need breakfast." He got up then, headed into the kitchen, and poured himself a cup of coffee. Alexis set her laptop aside and followed him. She found a box of frosted chocolate fudge Pop-Tarts in one of the kitchen cupboards, opened it, ripped open one of the silver foil packages that contained two Pop-Tarts, and popped one in the toaster, pushing down the lever before replacing the remaining Pop-Tart in its package in the box, returning it to the cupboard, and then grabbed a mug of her own. Javier was still holding the carafe and he poured coffee into Alexis's mug. After she added her favorite fixings to it (two sugars and a splash of cream), she took a sip before biting into the Pop-Tart.

Javier took a long, bracing drink of his own coffee. "This is harder than I thought it would be," he admitted so only she could hear him. "The man is nothing to me. He's a sperm donor. So why is he pushing all of my buttons?"

"The same reason the mere mention of Meredith pushes all of mine," Alexis replied. "No matter how little they were actually in our lives, they still installed those buttons."

"I get it now," Javier said. At Alexis's confused look, he added, "Why you told Meredith off at the hospital that day." He didn't need to specify which "that day" it was. They would both remember it for the rest of their lives.

"I know this isn't going to be any real consolation," Alexis said, "but I feel like I should say it anyway." She paused, then said, "For a long time, Meredith yo-yo-ed in and out of my life. I never knew when she'd show up, because she wasn't the type to make promises. She didn't put a lot of stock in words that weren't on a page that she could memorize and say in front of a camera. When I was in high school and she showed up out of nowhere for a visit, she had me called out of class and she lied to the Headmaster to get me out of school so she could take me shopping. She didn't know how important school was to me, and even if she had known, she wouldn't have cared. And then she brought me down to the police station and told Dad that she wanted to get a look at Detective Beckett—because I, like an idiot, had told her about Kate, since Gram and I had already met her—and because she had a dinner to go to that night, she was dropping me off with Dad so she didn't have to schlep all the way downtown to take me home herself."

"I remember that case," Javier said. "The knockoff Sarah Jessica Parker purse." He shook his head. "I remember thinking Meredith was obviously a woman who didn't have a lot going on upstairs."

"I only went with her because I figured it was easier and a lot less embarrassing than making a scene, and if I had told the Headmaster the truth, and that I wanted to stay at school, believe me, Meredith would have made a scene," Alexis said. "So she takes me shopping—again, making it all about her; oh sure, she bought me things, but she spent most of that time telling me to go find something nice for myself, and she must have asked me if this dress or that skirt looked good on her, if those shoes made her legs look longer, how many pairs of Spanx I thought she needed. And then she drops me off with Dad because she has dinner plans and can't be bothered to make sure I get home first. I was never a priority with her. Not the way I have always been a priority with Dad and Gram, and also with Kate, even though our relationship wasn't the best for the first several years she and Dad were working together, and I could have...unbent, I guess is the word...a lot sooner than I did towards her. Because she really is the best thing that ever could have happened to my dad, and to me.

"I guess the point I'm trying to make is, yes, your father is back in your life now, and you don't know why, and based on my own experiences, I'm inclined to think he's only back because there's something he wants from you now. So I'm not unbiased. But it took me a long time to get up the nerve to finally cut Meredith out of my life once and for all, to finally tell her what I really thought of her, and I've been lucky so far in that she hasn't tried to contact me since that day. I don't know why your father is here now, or what he wants from you, but whatever it is, and how ever you decide to handle it, I will support you, and I will be right there by your side, no matter what."

Javier set his coffee down and carefully hugged Alexis tightly, making sure he didn't crumble her Pop-Tart or make her spill her coffee. "I love you," he said.

"I love you too," Alexis said in his ear, so only he could hear her.

The soft clearing of a throat broke the moment for them. "I'm sorry to interrupt," Kate said, and she genuinely did look sorry, "but we've found some information on Matias."

Javier and Alexis returned to the living room then. Alexis quickly finished her Pop-Tart, and she and Javier continued sipping their coffee. "What have we got?" Javier asked.

"Financials show he's living on a fixed income," Ryan reported. "Social Security. He worked at a union factory long enough to get a pension, but he never got off the assembly line or got promoted to a supervisory or management position, so it's not much. Address is a retirement community."

"That's not surprising. It's Miami. Retirement communities have to be a dime a dozen down there," Rick said. "I found out that you are an only child, Espo. Marriage number two didn't work out either. They were married seven years, and then I guess one of them must have gotten the seven-year itch, because they divorced. Grounds were that oldie but goodie, 'irreconcilable differences,' and she filed first, but he counterfiled, her on August 14, 1989, him on August 16, 1989. Took a while to sort it all out, but the final divorce decree was granted in Miami-Dade County on Friday, April 13, 1990. No other marriage records have come up in his name, so presumably, he's single."

"He does have a cell phone, but he's only made a handful of calls—three to a Walter Albertson, age 80, same address, so definitely neighbors, possibly friends," Ryan continued. "One to a motel in the Bronx, presumably where he's staying. I figure I'll go out there this afternoon and check it out. And one to a 24-hour pharmacy four blocks from this motel in the Bronx."

Kate had made notes on everything on the board. "It's not a lot to go on, but we've started with less before and gotten the answers we needed," she said. "We'll build on this." She looked at Esposito. "That is, if you'll let us help you, Javi. All of us, I mean, not just Alexis."

Javier swallowed hard and nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Yeah. I don't know what he wants, or why he wants it, but I'm not facing him without backup, and you guys are the best backup anyone could ever have. Thank you. All of you." He looked from Beckett to Castle to Ryan. "And I'm sorry about earlier, Ryan. I just-"

"I get it, Javi. I'm sorry too. I should have told you right away," Ryan replied, his expression one of genuine contrition. "There's, um, something else I should tell you, though, in the interest of full disclosure. Jenny knows. I had to tell someone, and-"

"Jenny's family," Javier interruped. "It's okay that she knows." Ryan breathed an audible sigh of relief, and his expression morphed into one of relief as well.

"Whatever this is about," Kate said, "whatever we find out, we're all here for you, Javi."

"And whatever you decide to do about him," Rick added, "you have our full support. The decision is yours, and whatever course of action you take, we're all on your side."

Javier nodded. "That's good to know," he said.

Alexis took Javier's empty coffee mug and, along with her own, went to return it to the kitchen. She passed by Kevin's chair on her way to the kitchen and noted the name of the motel in the Bronx on his laptop screen, committing it to memory so that she could pay her own visit out there at the first opportunity.

While Alexis was in the kitchen, Rick caught a whiff of the telltale smell from the direction of the swing, signaling that Lily was in need of a diaper change. Kate headed toward the swing, but Rick was closer. "I've got her," he said. He turned off the swing, unbuckled Lily, picked her up, and as he headed toward the stairs to carry Lily to the nursery to change her, he too looked at Ryan's laptop screen long enough to note the name of that Bronx motel where Matias Esposito was allegedly staying. As a son abandoned by the man who had fathered him, who then put his firstborn child in mortal danger and used himself and his wife as a means to an end, Rick had very strong thoughts and feelings about what Matias Esposito was up to, and he was ready to have some very strong words with the man as soon as he could.