Set between s6 and s7. Bare with.. This story is fun to play with. Hopefully this too will add an extra dimension.. Thank you again to those who have reviewed. I hope that you continue to enjoy. Reviews are ace!

#4 / The Garden

Alexis always had a thing for greenery. Perhaps it was living in a loft with no backyard, she was always fascinated with plants and they way they grew. Her shrubbery on the roof grew to a small garden that she was proud of. She knew her father was proud of it too, proud in the way he would bring her bulbs and have a backstory for each of the flowers growing, proud in that he brought them matching watering cans. It was just one more thing that tied them closely together. She could sit reading on the roof in her flower garden forever. She loved the colours and the smells. She loved the time of year when weeds would pop up but she had no idea how. She loved taking care of the bigger plants, keeping away the bugs and snails, marveling in the fact that they made it to the rooftop in the first place. Alexis took good care of her plants, and in a way they took good care of her.

When Kate and her father started dating, she didn't tell Kate about the rooftop, she assumed that it would just be something that her dad introduced, and would take Kate there for coffee and cake or whatever they did when she wasn't around. As the months passed, however, it didn't come up, and the garden remained her own secret. She knew her dad hadn't forgotten though. In his own way he reminded her to water and tend to it, with a plate of seeds or a leaf left on the table, she continued to cultivate the rooftop as she saw fit. As they drew into spring and the smell of roses and chrysanthemums filled the roof, she began to realise that this was not something that she would mind sharing. What started as her own little secret, that she wanted to stay as just hers and her fathers, she realised that perhaps it wouldn't be the worst thing to share with Kate.
There never seemed a good time though. She intrusted her grandmother with the upkeep when she left for college but on her weekends home, it was her home stay. Taking flowers and pressing them between the pages of her books, waiting for them to dry out so she could leave it in her dad's study for him to find.

And then he went missing. She came home and all of a sudden she couldn't bare to be in her garden. It wasn't the same place without him. Each flower, with it's cutesy backstory made her inconsolably sad. So she stayed away. She stuck mostly to her room, her dad's room and surprisingly on the couch with Kate, tucked under a blanket with a cup of something or other in hand. They talked, sometimes. Sometimes her grandmother talked. As time progressed, she missed the solace of her garden but just couldn't bring herself to go back up there.

One weekend, coming back from a particularly meaningless lecture, she noticed soil by the door. Moving into the room, she followed the trail, up to the roof. Opening the door, with the irrational hope that her father would be behind it, she saw the brown hair of her fathers fiancé and the wide brimmed hat of her grandmother. Her eyes immediately filled with tears. Her garden, far from being the desolate wasteland she expected after weeks of neglect, was ok.

"I couldn't let it die, darling," she hears her grandmother say.
"I enlisted Kate's help when I realised my knowledge of plants is very limited."
"I wanted to tell you," pipes up Kate.
"There just never seemed a good time, so I left it and waited for you to pick the time. I think today we were just clumsy."
She nods at all of this. Can't stop nodding. She drops her bag and goes to help Kate who seems to be in the process of pulling out some hardy weeds.
Kate pulls her into a half hug. "I'm sorry I'm here. I just wanted to help. I think that it would break your dad's heart, if, when he gets back your garden isn't here. He speaks so highly of it."
She turns her head. "You knew?"
Kate smiles. "Never came up here, but your dad showed me pictures. I figured one day, maybe you'd bring me up here."
Alexis looks down at the floor. Guilt hits her like a truck.
"I'm sorry I never asked."
"I'm sorry I invited myself up."
"Thanks. For all the work you've done."
"You're very welcome," Kate replies standing to get soil from the door.

The next few moments seem to happen in slow motion. Her grandmother pulls the hose, causing Kate to trip, awkwardly Kate tries to regain her balance but ends up on her backside. Alexis can't help but look alarmed. The squeak from Kate has her more concerned. As she rushes over she sees why. A nail from one of the flower beds has sunk into her palm. Her grandmother bustles at once. "Ambulance!" She proclaims.

Kate looks mortified. "No! It's ok Martha. Really."
Alexis, knowing her grandmother won't let up, tells her to go and get the car service. Kate has already pulled her hand away from the nail, and pulled up her sleeve to staunch the blood. As Martha leaves, Alexis bends over Kate.
"You ok?"
"Mmmm."
"You know you're gonna need a tetnus shot, right? Grams has gone to get the car service."
Kate has turned a shade of white that the doesn't ever remember seeing on the detective.
"I don't like hospitals. Or needles."
Alexis smiles. "You'll be ok, detective. I may not be as funny as Dad but I make a good hospital buddy."
Kate nods, climbing to her feet. Alexis chats to her all the way down stairs, to the hospital and through the shot. She convinces Her grandma to go home and cook or prepare something for them to eat, so she can sit with Kate without the overwhelming presence of her Grams. She talks about the garden and the flowers and the plants. She talks about the back stories of the plants and how they came to be a part of her garden. She talks as they jab Kate with a needle, and holds her hand, stroking her fingers and wedding ring. She talks as they ride home, about her dad and how he helped with the garden and how he helped her turn it from a pot plant into an area where she can go when she's feeling sad or sick or stressed. And offers Kate the same opportunity. She deposits Kate onto the couch, and gives her good hand a hot cup of tea. She goes to prepare hers when she hears a sniff. The "I'm-trying-not-to-cry" sniff that she knows oh so well, She moves towards Kate and takes the drink from her hand, embraces her in a half hug.
"It's ok. I miss him too."
They stay like that for what seems like forever.
When her dad returns, she can't bare to be away from him for long. She and Kate meet regularly in her garden.