A/N: Happy 100th episode everyone! Thanks so much for following along with my story for all these weeks and months I've been putting it together. If you have any comments, I'd love a review!


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.


At lunch the next day, Rick's regaling Kate with stories of growing up with Martha. For all of Martha's dramatics, the dinner last night had gone well. Just as he hadn't expected Kate to become such a big part of Alexis' life so quickly, so too had he not intended her to have to meet his Mother so soon. "I just promised myself I wouldn't let the same thing happen to Alexis," he tells her. "I grew up not knowing how long we'd ever live in any one apartment, so I always wanted to be able to provide a stable home for Alexis."

Kate nods. Her bruises are already fading, and the cut on her forehead is showing signs of healing. "We always lived in the same place too. It was great. Plus my Dad has this cabin upstate, and it was always so much fun to go there in the summer. My Dad used to take me fishing."

"Sounds great." Rick wonders when he'll get the chance to take Kate to his place in the Hamptons- he hopes soon. He has got to get his head around her roster so he can start planning ahead.

A shadow falls across their table, and they both look up. Kate knows a lot of people here, it's kind of a cop place, he knows that, so he's not surprised by the flicker of recognition in her eyes. The cloud that falls across her face, even as she stands up and embraces the man- that surprises him.

"Hey kid, you keeping well? Been in the wars, I see?" His eyes flick to Castle- who wants to deck the guy.

"Sure, I'm good, Mike, really good." Kate blinks and shakes her head, like she's shaking off a memory. "Sorry. Sorry. This is Rick. Rick, this is Mike Royce, my training officer.

Right. A work guy. Right. Castle doesn't buy that for a second, but he stands up and shakes Royce's hand. "Nice to meet you," he nods, lying through his teeth.

"Well." Royce tilts his head at the door. "I'm in and out today, just waiting on my coffee. Nice to meet you, Rick." He leans back in to embrace Kate a second time. "See you round, kid, glad to see you're doing good."

A coffee is called, and Royce heads up to the counter to collect it.

"He was my training officer," Kate repeats, by way of explanation.

"I didn't ask." Well. He hadn't. Not yet.

"You didn't ask very loudly." Beckett grimaces. Something breaks in her voice and he looks up sharply.

"Were you two involved?" He doesn't want to know. So much for not asking.

"We-" She stops, starts again. "We- Yes. No. I don't know." She tales a breath, glancing toward the door as if to check he's really gone. Her voice still catches when she starts again. "He was my training officer, and I thought- I thought he was great." Damn. He broke her heart, Rick can hear it in her voice. "Yeah- involved. I guess so. I mean- we never- he wouldn't cross that line." That bitterness is in her voice again, that caustic edge something he wants to erase. "We spent the night together a couple of times. But we never- God. Why I am telling you this?"

Kate squeezes her eyes shut, like she's pushing back an image. "Kate-" Rick touches her arm, feather light, his finger tip tracing a line. He can feel the bones in her wrist. "Kate. Tell me or don't tell me, but don't hide it from me. Okay?" The image of another man's hands on Kate, her skin hot below someone else- the bite of jealousy is sudden and unpleasant. He pushes it back. This is about Kate, not his own issues.

She nods, eyes still closed, then opens her eyes. All the greener for the touch of red rimming them. God. All he wants is to kiss the tears away. And possibly beat the crap out of this Royce guy, who clearly didn't know how lucky he had it, to have Kate- Kate Beckett- in his orbit. Whatever. No. He should be down on bended knee thanking Royce, for leaving Kate the hell alone. "It doesn't matter," she tells him. "Seeing Royce just brought this up for me- when I told him about my mom, he was so angry on my behalf. There was just this time, this fantasy I had- that he would be there for me, right through it all."

Castle rubs his face. "We'll work it out, Kate- this thing with your Mom."

"This thing?"

"Poor word choice," Rick concedes. "I just meant- well-"

"You don't have to worry," Kate interjects. "I know what you mean. But this isn't your fight, Castle. It's not up to you to bury yourself in this. I'm the only one who should-"

"Hey-" he catches her wrist again. "Nothing about this is should, Kate. You shouldn't be doing this. You shouldn't have to either."

She nods, curtly, and shakes his hand off, standing up. "I think my lunch break is over," she tells him, and walks out before he can stop her.


Kate only gets a matter of steps from the diner before she dials Castle's number. "Still in the diner?" she asks, turning around.

"Yep. Trying to work out what happened."

"What do you think happened?"

"I think I scared my girl off."

She bites her lip. "Your girl's an idiot. Listen, Rick, I'm sorry. This isn't about you- it's not even about Mike, or my Mom." Kate opens the door to the diner, and walks back to the table she left Rick at. "I got another voicemail from my Dad this morning, and I'm kind of freaking out." She hangs up, and sits down.

Castle looks up at her. "Kate, do you trust me?"

Kate closes her eyes. "I want to, Rick. I really, really do. But- I don't trust anyone. This- this is new to me."

"I'm starting to get that."

Kate stares at him. "Mike and I were friends- and I trusted him." She shrugs, as if to say look where that got me but she doesn't voice it. Besides. It got her here, didn't it? If she and Royce had actually made it into some kind of relationship, she wouldn't be sitting here with Rick now.

"Kate- about your Dad. Do you want me to call some places- see if we can find somewhere he can go for rehab?"

She shakes her head slowly. "You'd do that?"

"Of course."

Of course. Of course he would. She spent the evening before enveloped in Rick's world, and she's starting to understand that his warmth and his generosity are very much inherited traits. Martha had been nothing but kind and loving, and she'd taken Kate's presence in her stride, all the while showering love and affection on her granddaughter. "I don't know, Rick. I just don't know." She looks at her watch. Shit. She actually is late now. "I think I actually do have to go- I'm sorry."

He nods, and stands up with her. "I'll walk you back."

Kate smiles at him, takes his hand when he offers it. "Thanks."


When Rick gets home he starts researching rehab- he doesn't know where to start looking to be honest, it's not really anything he's had to research before. But, he figures if he treats it like any other book groundwork, he'll get it right. He thinks on it a bit, then recalls Gina telling him her cousin was in rehab. Right. Asking and following and pestering has always been much more his style than researching on a computer so he picks up the phone.

He takes the names of the two places Gina knows, and she's given him another phone number, another contact she has, and once again he's grateful that he seems to have managed to escape her colder side. Naturally during the course of the phone call Gina casually mentions the guy she's been seeing, and he's nothing but happy for her.

Later, when he's cooking dinner for Alexis, his phone rings.

"Hey Beckett." He guesses she's probably not coming over.

"Hey. I'm just on my way home."

"Back to your place."

"Yeah-" She's silent for a moment. "Long day, you know?"

He finds himself nodding, while he stirs the pasta sauce, before he remembers she can't see him. "Mmm. Listen, I called a few places today- rehab places."

He hears her sigh, and a soft, "Thank you. But let's leave it for the moment, okay? I don't want to get into this now."

"Sure."

"I was in Vice again this afternoon." He can practically hear her roll her eyes over the phone as she changes the subject, but he's suddenly got a reason to put the spoon down and step away into his office for a moment.

"Oh yeah? What were you wearing?"

"Seriously, Castle. What do you think I was wearing?"

"Why Officer- you want to hear my fantasies?"

"Ugh! You're impossible. It was slutty. How can you possibly like slutty, Castle?"

"I don't like slutty, I like you. There's a big difference. Slutty Beckett, Pyjama Beckett- I want them all."

"Oh my God. Castle. I am not 32 favours of ice cream!"

"Oh! Good call. Ice Cream Beckett. That's going on my list. I want that one."

"Have a good night, Castle." She's fighting pretty hard to keep the laughter out of her voice and to maintain the facade of annoyance and he grins.

"Until tomorrow, Ice Cream Beckett." He hangs up with a smile on his face and sets the green phone back on its charger before heading back to the kitchen to make sure dinner isn't burning.


Kate's smiling as she walks up to her apartment. Her smile fades when she gets to her apartment door- the man slumped at the door is an all too familiar figure, though it's been a few years since she's found him on her doorstep. Royce and her father all in one day. She presses her fingertips to her eyelids. This is all too much.

She steps over him to unlock the door once she's ascertained that he's breathing, then shakes his arm to rouse him. He half comes to, allowing her to pull him inside. She's shaking her head sadly as he mumbles her name. "Katie?" What now? Kate wishes there was a manual for this, some kind of handbook. A how to deal with your alcoholic parent instruction booklet.

She takes the bottle that his hand has been tightly closed on, and walks to her kitchen sink, twisting open the lid and tipping the amber liquid down the sink. She looks around then, and finds a half empty bottle of wine on her counter, and most of a bottle of tequila. She tips those out too, but the decent unopened bottle of red that she has in a cupboard- she's saving that. She stalks into her bedroom, locking it in what she thinks of as her gun safe- it's not really a safe, just a locked drawer, but as long as the key is secure on her person she figures it will have to do.