"I miss you." She hangs up before either of them can prolong the goodbye, and heads back inside.

Will looks like he's waiting for her, and she smiles wryly at him. "Boyfriend?" he asks, nodding at the phone still in her hand.

Kate nods. "Yeah."

"Too bad," Will tells her, smiling back nevertheless. Before Kate can say anything else, Lanie appears at her side, and pulls her onto the dance floor, and later in the evening, she sees Will and Hunter sitting pressed close to one another. Huh. She guesses she didn't break any hearts there.


On Saturday morning Kate has a splitting headache. Not fair, after only two martinis, she thinks, but she pops some Tylenol and heads into the precinct, her headache fading by the time she's got a coffee in hand. They get a call around eleven and she's searching for evidence within the hour, picking through a dingy apartment with a couple of other uniforms. She's sorry to see Perlmutter- well, everyone's always sorry to see Perlmutter- because she'd rather chat to Lanie and without her friend there, and neither Jones or Mackenzie running point on this investigation, she's relegated to grunt work.

It's not all bad though. When Veronica Hunter arrives, the Officer points at her eyes. "I had to ask to be reassigned from Vice today. And I'm relieved, I tell you," she assures Kate as they tuck cigarette butts into evidence bags. "I swear to God I am allergic to all that make up and those cheap clothes they make you wear in Vice."

"Your eyes do look a little tired," she agrees, figuring it's her turn to mess with Hunter. "Late night?"

Hunter smirks. "Wouldn't you like to know, Beckett?" Kate raises her eyebrows, but says nothing, and Hunter giggles.

During the afternoon Hunter and Beckett both find themselves burning through paperwork for the detectives. At some point MacKenzie swings into the bullpen, and she joins him in interrogation for a while. Hunter shoots her a dirty look, but there's not really any malice in it, so Beckett doesn't take it to heart the way she once might have.

Once she's back at her desk beside Hunter she takes her cell phone from the drawer. "That your boyfriend, Beckett?"

"What?" She glances at the grinning woman beside her.

Hunter shakes her head in mock disgust. "Seriously. I thought that thing was never going to stop buzzing."

Kate checks the phone. Well, texts from Castle make a nice change from the litany of voicemails from her father in the weeks before he went into rehab. He's left four messages, each recounting his day of shopping with Meredith and Alexis, finished with the assurance that he misses her. She frowns.

Hunter frowns at her. "Everything okay?"

"I'm fine." She turns from Hunter as if regrouping to throw herself into her paperwork. For the first time Kate feels a pang of discomfort. He says he misses her, and she believes him, and it's not that she doesn't trust Rick, because she does. But she doesn't know Meredith and he's across the country visiting with his ex-wife. Maybe she shouldn't have messed with him last night, telling him some guy was hitting on her. It's not the most comfortable of situations. She sighs, and heads into the break room to call him back.

At four thirty, they're both officially off duty, and Hunter dashes off. Reading between the lines of the few snippets Hunter's given her today, she thinks the other Officer has a date with Will. Well, she's happy for them both, and she feels better now she's spoken to Castle, but since he's in L.A. she doesn't have plans tonight. Instead of leaving when her shift ends, Kate ends up staying at the precinct running theory with both MacKenzie and Montgomery until the early hours of the morning.


Kate had told Rick she would meet him at the airport when he spoke to her on Saturday afternoon, but he insisted she should just meet him at his apartment, . Now he and Alexis are nearly back to the loft after a turbulent flight, he lets himself relax. Alexis had slept cuddled up with Monkey Bunkey in the car from the airport back to his place, wiped out from the weekend and the flight. She'd thrown up during the flight, then cried, mortified, poor thing, and he wishes Meredith had come to New York and saved him the trouble of dragging his daughter across the country.

Meredith had mostly been okay, but she'd kicked up a fuss when he'd told her at dinner on Friday night that he and Alexis were staying at a hotel. Alexis had gone to the bathroom and Rick had brought it up. She'd protested, and he'd relented, to a point. "Look, Alexis can stay with you," he told her. "And I'll just stay at the hotel by myself."

She'd pouted. "No- both of you." He had sighed. Even Alexis on her rare sulky days wasn't this childish. "Come on, Rick, it'll be like old times." Meredith had leaned forward and whispered in his ear. "We used to have so much fun!" She'd rested her hand on his shoulder in move he found unpleasantly possessive, and cocked her head as though he would surely give in, and he'd shaken his head again, figuring he should just be straight with her.

"Meredith, I'm seeing someone. Back home. In New York."

And at that, Meredith had just giggled. "So I gather, Rick. Kate, am I right?" He'd looked at her, open mouthed in shock. "Oh, come on! Alexis hasn't stopped talking about her- this- cop?" And winking at him, she'd laughed again. "Really, Rick? A cop?"

He'd closed his eyes, briefly. "Yes. She's a cop." He'd shrugged. Like it mattered what Meredith thought.

Meredith had shrugged too, entirely unconcerned. "Listen, Rick. I'm sure she's great- but we both know you and I both have been seeing people before, and it never gets in the way of us having some fun."

He'd scratched his head. She wasn't wrong. "It's different, this time, okay? It's serious."

"Yes, it must be, for Alexis to have met her-" Meredith's biting tone had been interrupted when Alexis returned to the table. Rick had taken the opportunity to pick up the bill, and he'd whisked Alexis out of there, practically pushing Meredith into a cab instead of driving her back to her place in the car he had hired.

When the elevator doors open, Rick's got a backpack on his back, a shoulder bag across his body, a suitcase behind him and is propelling a sleepy nine year old ahead of him. And his girlfriend is standing in the hall, leaning back against his door. Damn. He's kicking himself for not insisting that she take a key. At the sight of Kate, Alexis lights up and rushes forward, throwing her arms around the surprised cop. "I missed you so much, Kate," she exclaims, all bubbles and light and nothing like the crying child he'd had to contend with on the plane.

Kate grins and hugs the girl back. "I missed you too, sweetie," she tells the girl, kissing her hair before turning to Rick and folding herself into him.

He kisses her mouth, briefly, before wrapping his arms around her and burying his face in her hair. He inhales deeply and he feels her relax. "Missed you," he whispers, before stepping back and digging his apartment keys out of his pocket, and letting them into the loft. God, he thinks, coming home feels good.


"I tried to be brave," Alexis tells her.

"Oh yeah?" Kate meets Rick's eyes over Alexis' head, and he nods.

"What happened?" she asks the girl.

"I held Dad's hand, and hugged Monkey Bunkey and tried to think good thoughts-"

"It was really bumpy, Alexis," Rick interrupts. Kate looks up at him, really seeing him this time. He looks as tired as his daughter.

"-But I threw up," Alexis finishes.

Kate shrugs and hugs the red head. "It happens, Alexis." She looks helplessly at Rick.

"Have you eaten?" he asks her, instead.

She nods. "Uh-huh. Real food and everything. You?"

"Yeah. On the plane." He looks at his daughter. "What about you, pumpkin? Do you want something to eat yet?"

Alexis shakes her head. "No."

"Well then." Rick wiggles his eyebrows at Alexis, and she giggles. Kate watches, feeling like she's missing something. He stands up and heads back to the door where he has left the bags. "Presents! Or, rather- present!" Kate's eyes widen. Is he kidding? "Don't look so worried, Beckett! Alexis and I just got you a little something while we were shopping."

"We did a lot of shopping," Alexis tells her seriously. She is nodding along enthusiastically with her father, still enveloped in Kate's arms. Kate finds herself wondering what she's done to deserve this. It should freak her out- she's twenty four, so being in a relationship with a thirty four year old who has a nine year old- that's almost too much. Yet, somehow it doesn't.

Rick unzips the suitcase dramatically, and pulls out a bag, presenting it to her with a flourish. Alexis scoots over, giving Kate the use of her arms again so she can open the bag and unwrap the tissue paper, revealing a jacket. A nice jacket. Wow. It's leather, and red, and butter soft- and she loves it. "Oh- wow- Rick- Alexis-" Great. She's lost for words again. This is too much. Her mind flashes back to the night she met Castle. Willyousignmybook she'd squeaked. Okay. Now she's freaking out. Kate shakes her head slowly, smiling, trying to push the jacket back towards Rick. "I can't- it's too much-"

Rick seems to read her mind- "You can and you will, and it's not."

"Try it on!" Alexis claps her hands together, altogether a different kid to the sleepy girl who'd been so miserable when she'd recounted her story about throwing up on the plane. "I chose the colour!" So Kate wrinkles her nose at Rick and stands up and tries on the red leather jacket. There's no mirror, but she can tell by the way it feels that it fits perfectly, and she can tell by the way Rick is looking at her that it looks good.

"Can't wear this with my uniform," she teases them.

"Good Detective jacket though, right?" Castle's grinning, and she bites her lip. Damn. If he keeps being this charming she'll probably end up inviting him on a ride along when she actually makes Detective in spite of herself. He leans in to her and whispers in her ear. "You look hot, Detective."

She rolls her eyes at him, and kisses him, grateful again to be part of this. 'Thank you," she tells him seriously. She turns to Alexis. "Thank you too, Alexis."


A/N: Thanks everyone- we've got four or five chapters to go!