"Beckett- if you want to go, I'm not going to stop you- but stop worrying about being bad company. Just- come to bed, okay?"

Kate smiles in spite of herself and nods. "Thank you." She runs her hands through her hair, mentally clearing her head. She shouldn't even be thinking about this. She's at Castle's, about to curl up in bed. She needs a good night's sleep, and she needs her head in the case tomorrow.


Kate slips her necklace over her head, laying it on Rick's dresser with care.

"Your Mom's, right?"

Kate nods. "Yeah. Feels like all I have left of her now."

Rick holds himself still, stops himself from walking around to her side of the bed- her side of the bed- he finds he seriously thinks of it like that- and going to her, pulls his shirt off and puts on a sleep shirt. He wants to have this conversation, and he thinks he needs to be dressed for it.

Kate smirks at him. "What? You're seriously going to wear something to bed?"

"Oh yeah- have you got other ideas?"

She raises an eyebrow. "Well, maybe a few."

"Kate- first- can I ask you something?"

She nods, but he sees the caution in her eyes.

"You don't have to tell me," he assures her. "But- that box. Under your bed-"

"I know which box," she interrupts him, quietly.

"What did you want to be when you were little?" He changes tacks- he's so afraid of spooking her, and it occurs to him that he should give Kate more credit than he currently is.

Kate smiles wryly, like she knows what he's doing. "I was pre-law at Stanford."

"Wait- didn't you go to NYU?"

"I did, but only after my first year. I started at Stanford, and transferred. I came home after my Mom died because I needed to look after my Dad- although I guess I didn't do a very good job of that."

Rick shakes his head. "It shouldn't even be your job to look after him- he'll work it out."

Kate sighs. "I don't think so, Castle. It's been five years, and he hasn't worked it out- neither of us have, not really. We just don't know how to live without her."

"But you want to solve the case, don't you? That's why you have that box?"

"Yeah." The breath she lets out speaks volumes, and she sits down on her side of the bed. Rick finds himself walking around the bed, sitting next to her, and taking her hand. "They said- the detectives- Raglan- you know, I'd remember his name even if I hadn't looked at the file so many times- Raglan said, in the end, that it was gang violence. Just- random. And I guess I believed him, at the time, because you don't really have a choice. But when I went back to California, it all just kept nagging at me. Mom was a defence lawyer. People- someone out there might have done something, maybe she knew something. And the more I thought about it- I know I'm right, Castle. I know I am."

"And that's why you're a cop, not a lawyer," he says, unnecessarily.

"Castle- can we just forget about this. Just for now? Or, okay, maybe always. But mostly now- I want to sleep. Okay?"

He's helpless to refuse her, much as he wants to know more. Maybe he can help, he's got the money, the contacts, to do so, certainly. For now, though, he thinks it will have to wait, and he pulls her up, and leads her into the bathroom. "Shower?"


Kate's towelling off her hair, and taking her time running a comb through it- she wishes she had a hairbrush here, because the comb Rick produces for her is a nightmare. He's offered to go upstairs and find one of Alexis' brushes, but she doesn't want him to risk waking his daughter. At least her hair is only just shoulder length again- she's had it long before, but right now this choppy shoulder length bob is working for her. Her Mom always liked it longer and she kept it that way in college, but it's just not practical.

When she comes out of the bathroom Rick's already in bed, and she climbs in beside him. "Is Alexis okay?"

"Hmm?"

"About visiting her Mom?"

"Oh- yeah. Yeah, I think so." He scratches his head. "Honestly, I don't know. When I told her I was going to take her away for a weekend, all she wanted to know was whether we could go skiing like her friend Paige. I don't think her Mom really figures into Alexis' head, except for when she gets reminded of the situation, like the other day with that family tree."

Rick's been favouring his left hand all day, Kate realises. "How's your wrist, by the way? Montgomery was asking about you today?"

He has the good grace to look chastened. "Ah- well- you can tell Roy I'm fine."

"Exactly how many times have you played poker together?"

"Why? You want to be dealt in?"

She huffs. "Hardly. I'd kick your ass."

"Yeah, right." His eyes are twinkling. "Not many times- twice, maybe? I know the mayor, the mayor knows Roy- oh! I'll call the mayor and get permission to follow you around at work one day- you know, as research."

"Hell no." Her voice is sharp. "Don't even joke about it."

"Who says I'm joking," Rick grumbles, but he quiets and rolls onto his side and pulls Kate to him.


Kate slips out the next morning before Rick is awake. She feels good, much better for a good night's sleep. The day is going to be good, she promises herself, and she catches a cab home so she can change before she gets into the precinct. She checks her voicemail in the taxi on the way there, and is dismayed to find her Dad has left two messages overnight. She usually leaves her phone on overnight in case the precinct needs her, but last night she'd switched it to silent.

Her Dad's slurring voice brings her back to herself and wipes the smile off her face. Damn. Cop training has taught her so much, but when it comes to handling her father, she is ill equipped. She feels guilty that she missed it for so long. At first it was easy to ignore. Kate had gone back to California, finished the semester out at Stanford. Then she'd come back to New York, but not spent nearly enough time with her father. First she'd ditched the more serious pre-law courses. She'd found her escape in literature. For college credit it had been all Russian literature, a few language and linguistic classes, and a semester abroad. In her personal time it had been murder mysteries- the good guys always prevailed, there was always a clue that had been missed, and among it all Kate found her resolve, started herself on the trajectory to becoming a cop. She'll have to call her father, but God, she does not know what to say.

Once the cab leaves her at her building, and she gets into her own place, she texts Castle, promising him she'll find time for a lunch break if he can meet her today.


The days in the next few weeks fall into an easy pattern. Kate stays over more often than not, slipping out early each morning. He's always sorry to see her go, but the consolation of meeting her for coffee sometime during the day, and the fact he knows she'll be back most evenings, make it easier to take.

Rick spends his afternoons hanging out with Alexis. He takes her to her violin lessons, to his mother's delight. "She's an artist!" Martha cries theatrically, as though the creative gene had skipped a generation and his words are meaningless. Rick makes a face but says nothing. Alexis grins up at him, clumsy hands making awkward shapes as she struggles to put bow to strings. Martha, for her part, hasn't been a stranger, and he thinks she's finding reasons to hang around the loft so she can chance a meeting with Kate.

Meredith has postponed the weekend to L.A. like he knew she would, but Alexis didn't seem too concerned when he had told her, truth be told. A weekend in the Hamptons might be just the thing- a nice getaway from the city, but until he knows he can take Kate away for a full weekend, he's holding off mentioning it to her.

Gina sends mock covers for the last Storm and Rick easily gives his opinion, knowing full well that Gina will sort something out herself, nothing to do with his choice. That's okay. He's well past the days of believing he can truly claim ownership of all the facets of his books- the words are his, and that's it. He writes each day, easily finding a rhythm. He pesters Kate daily for details of her day and she looks reluctantly at Alexis if they're all eating dinner together, and gives him what he's sure is a watered down version of the cases she's been working on. Grilling Kate for tidbits from her work that he weaves into the storyline amuses him no end, and he vows that he'll get a ride along one day, although his comments are always shut down.

His wrist is better, and the stitches come out, leaving a scar that is much smaller than he expected- the gash on his wrist has been reduced to a small collection of shallow pucker marks, and the nurse removing the stitches gives him a scar cream that she assures him will fade them further. He tells Kate and Alexis about it when they're cooking dinner one evening. Kate laughs and shakes her head in disbelief at his description of how badass he was when they took the stitches out, and he catches Alexis rolling her eyes in an eerily accurate likeness of Kate's trademark look. It simultaneously warms his heart and scares him how attached his daughter has become in such a short time.


She comes to him one evening still in her uniform, covered in bruises, rumpled shirt. Martha had been leaving, about to step into the elevator when she'd collided with Kate stepping out. The second time she meets his mother, and it's like this, she thinks to herself desperately, looking for an escape route and for a full second considering stepping back into the lift and making a run for it.

Martha widens her eyes at the sight of Kate, and pulls her to her, instinctively. "Whatever happened to you?" She doesn't wait for an answer, just pulls Kate into Rick's loft, and Kate sees Rick's eyes widen in surprise as he takes in her dishevelled state. Martha sits Kate down at the counter, and disappears upstairs- to the bathroom, Kate guesses.

"What happened?" Alexis is crowding around too, and Castle's in her face, his fingers tracing the cut along her hairline, worry creasing his eyes.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She pushes Castle away, not roughly, just- enough- because she needs him to not be touching her right now, and she needs Alexis to stop looking at her with fear in her eyes. "Sorry-" She moves as though to get up, but Martha is back,

"Dear. Kate. Sit." To Castle, and even to Alexis, she says, "You two. Stop hovering. Make yourselves useful- Richard- I'm sure Kate could use a tea or a coffee." She winks at Kate- "Or something stronger, am I right?" In spite of herself, Kate giggles. It comes out something like a hiccup, and as Martha pours the disinfecting liquid onto a cotton wool ball and gently wipes at the cuts, Kate can't quite make herself believe that the tears springing to her eyes are from the sting of it sizzling against her skin. It's been a long time since a mother tended her wounds so lovingly. "Now, do you want to tell us what happened?" she asks, when Richard presses a coffee into Kate's shaky hands.

"Oh- it's nothing. It was nothing."

"It doesn't look like nothing, so set Richard's mind at ease, and ours too-" Martha hugs Alexis- "and tell us what happened."

Kate shakes her head. "I am really am fine, you know. I was chasing a suspect- got pulled off homicide, over to robbery," she says, looking at Rick as she tells them, because when she'd spoken to him at lunch she'd been filing paperwork on a homicide investigation. She looks back at Alexis and sets her coffee onto the counter, and reaches out and pulls the girl to her. "I really am fine, Alexis- don't look so worried." Kate finishes the story with her arms around Alexis. "I fell. It's that simple- we gave chase, and I fell." The guy had pulled a gun, too, and Kate, already in agony from falling hard onto her knee, had rolled behind a dumpster, earning herself the cuts on her forehead, before steadying herself and drawing her own weapon. But, guns drawn, regardless of whether they were fired or not, means she's not going to tell the whole story while a wide eyed Alexis is in her arms.

"Did you catch the guy? Oh! Did you shoot him?"

"Really, Richard!" Martha is chiding, and she shakes her head at Kate. "I can't imagine how you put up with him, my dear."

Kate just shakes her head and smiles back at the older woman, before turning to Rick and answering honestly. "No- I didn't shoot him. He came quietly once he realised he didn't have a choice." Of course, having two NYPD officers with their guns trained on you doesn't leave many choices, but people make stupid choices all the time. She shrugs.

"Well, Kate, why don't you go and change, and perhaps Richard can order in for us all?"

Kate sees the scowl on Rick's face and suppresses her own grin. "Mother, I thought you were leaving."

"Oh, well, I was, but how can I leave now- I need to know that Kate's in capable hands, and I'm not sure you won't harrass the poor girl until she's narrating the scene for you, so you can put it in your next novel."

"Good point." Rick tilts his head in acquiescence, evidently giving up on the idea of getting his mother to leave.

It's only when Kate walks into Rick's bedroom to take a quick shower in his bathroom, and pull on some jeans and a clean shirt that she blushes. Crap. She didn't come in with a bag, yet Martha knows she has clothes here? Just how serious has Castle told his Mother this relationship is?

For that matter, Kate knows she's kidding herself if she doesn't admit it's starting to look serious, when she looks at the facts. After all, she does have clothing in Rick's closet, and it really didn't occur to her to not come here to lick her wounds, even if meeting Martha for just the second time wasn't exactly in her game plan.