She wasn't a stupid individual, she knew conversations that started with we need to talk usually never turned out well. All at once she could feel the tears forming in her eyes, stinging and blurring her vision. So what she was thinking was true, they did know something. All of a sudden she wasn't sure she wanted to know anymore.

"Come sit down." Her father said, patting the couch again.

She made her way to the couch but moved to stand in front of it, refusing to sit down. "What happened three days ago?"

"It's my fault," Kate said sadly. "or at least partially."

Alexis let her eyes fall onto Kate. The older woman looked obviously upset. "Kate what did you do?" She couldn't keep the accusing tone out of her voice. She didn't want to treat Kate horribly but she herself stated she was at least part of the reason that Zero was avoiding her.

Kate sighed heavily, running her fingers over her face as if she were gathering her thoughts. "During dinner, I couldn't help but notice things." Kate began. "The way Zero looked at you, the way she smiled, just the overall look in her eyes."

Alexis nodded, she had noticed as well, how could she not. Fact of the matter is she had noticed these things a very long time ago. She hung her head for a moment, taking a breath before looking back up at Kate, knowing she wasn't done.

"While you and your father were…discussing which movie we were going to watch I went over to talk to her." Kate visibly looked away. "I stated more then asked that she was in love with you, but I had asked if she had said anything to you yet."

Alexis could feel her eyes bulge; she had never expected Kate to be that forward with a person she had just only met. "What did she say?" Alexis questioned, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"She freaked out." Kate replied honestly. "She had this very frightened and very scared look in her eyes. I have never seen a pair of eyes turn so scared over a simple question. That is when she left."

"You had no right!" Alexis felt as her voice started to rise. "You had no right to ask her something like that!"

"I know." Kate whispered in defeat, her head hung low.

The tears she felt earlier threatened to spill out, the sting in her eyes almost too much to bear. Was she really going to lose her best friend because of a stupid statement her set-mother had made?

"It was the way she looked at you." Kate started; Alexis knew she was now defending what she had done. "Never have I seen someone look you the way she did. I have seen boys lust after you, I have seen a few that looked at you as if they loved you, but I have never, NEVER seen someone in the short span of one dinner look at one person as if that person was their entire world, and that is how she looked at you Alexis."

Alexis could no longer stop the tears from spilling out of her crystal blue eyes. She knew all of this, how could she possibly not know? For the better part of a month she had been attempting to sort out her feelings for Zero. Her affections for the other girl went above friendship a good while ago. Several times in the past recent weeks she found Zero invading her dream. The first time it had happened she woke in total shock, and had attempted to put it out of her mind as nothing but a meaningless dream, but they kept coming.

Zero was very beautiful, she couldn't deny that. The way her chocolate brown hair sat just off of her shoulders, how it would gleam and dance in low light or the setting sun. Her beautiful copper brown eyes that always shone whenever they met up, making even Alexis' worst days better somehow. And then of course there was Zero's laugh, the most beautiful sound that there was.

"Alexis I am so sorry." Kate whispered, reaching her hand out and placing it on the younger girl's arm. Alexis wanted to jerk back, or to push Kate away, but she just couldn't find it in her to do it. "There is something else I need to show you." She said pulling her laptop that was sitting on the coffee table towards her.

"You are going to show her that?" Castle question.

"Rick she has the right to know." Kate flicked on her laptop before turning her attention back to Alexis. "Have you heard the name Kelly Rosenberg?"

Alexis frowned, the tears in her eyes drying up. "No who is that."

Kate sighed again. "That night before you came over to see if everything was alright I heard Zero mutter 'Kelly Rosenberg you should know better', and to be honest I don't even think she realizes she said it." Kate typed a short something on the laptops keyboard, probably her password. "I had text Ryan that night to see if he could look into the name for me."

Alexis moved to stand by Kate. "And what did he find?"

"Something horrible." Kate said honestly, clicking through a few things on her laptop before lowering the screen to half closed. "Zero is Kelly, and 5 years ago something horrible happened to her." The look she gave Alexis told her to brace herself. Kate dealt with murders, if she was saying it was horrible it must be really bad.

Kate opened the laptop screen again and turned it to her step-daughter, the first part of the police report showing on the screen. Alexis leaned closer to the screen, her eyes dancing back and forth as she read the report. She felt her stomach drop as she continued to read, as the tears in her eyes built once again.

"Oh my god!" Alexis choked out, her hand covering her mouth in shock. She could see that there were photos attached so she leaned forward to move touch pads mouse over to them, but Kate jerked the laptop away.

"Baby girl you don't want to see these." Castle stated once he noticed what it was she was attempting to do.

"You can't show me part of this and not show me the whole thing." Alexis stated. Kate and Castle glanced at each other for a moment before Kate pushed the laptop back to Alexis.

Alexis let out an audible gasp at the first picture, unaware they got worse as they went. The tears started to flow again on the second picture and by the third or fourth she was on her knees. She attempted to glance through a few others but discovered she could not handle it. She closed the laptop herself and pushed it away.

"At least we think we discovered why she was so afraid." Kate suddenly said softly hoping to not startle the younger girl who was already in such a state. "She was probably afraid that the same thing would happen again."

"How could anyone…?" Alexis choked on a sob, unable to finish her sentence.

"We don't understand either sweetie."

Alexis looked over to her father. The wonderful man who had raised her alone since her mother decided her career was more important. The man who doted on her and spoiled her, the man who gave her everything she wanted as a child, but still managed to raise a child with a fairly good head on her shoulders. She could never see him raising his hand to her or to anyone else really, not unless it was total self-defense.

She glanced back down at the closed laptop that was now concealing so much hurt, so much pain. It did make sense to her now though, the last time an adult figure found out she was homosexual she nearly lost her life. Alexis knew her father wasn't like that, he wasn't that kind of a man, but Zero didn't know this.

Her mind was now reeling with this new information. Zero wasn't avoiding her because she was mad at her or anything, she was quite simply afraid. Now that she had that figured out her heart felt both lighter and heavier at the same time. Lighter because she knew she had the chance to get Zero to talk to her again, and heavier because no one should ever have to go through what Zero already had.

"Now I just need to find a way to get in touch with Zero." Alexis said with a sigh. "I have gone to her apartment over the past three days and she has never been at home. I haven't been able to find her at school or at any of the places we hang out together; I am almost at a total loss of how to find her."

Kate smiled at that. "Good, I can help you there." She handed Alexis a piece of paper. "This is her aunts address and phone number." She couldn't help the small chuckle at the confusion on Alexis' face.

"After what happened, it was Zero's aunt that took her in. I got in touch with her this morning and she confirmed to me that Zero had been coming back to her place since our family dinner three nights ago."

"Thank you Kate."

Kate chuckled again. "Don't thank me, I was the one who made a mess out of everything, I just had to do something to at the very least set everything back on the right tracks, it's going to be up to you to talk to her. She trusts you more than anyone she knows."

Alexis unfolded the paper in her hand and looked down at the address; she knew roughly where this was and knew she would have no real trouble finding the place. She let her eyes glance over at the phone number and knew she should probably give Zero's aunt a call first.

Whether Zero wanted it or not they were going to sit down and have a long conversation. No more secrets and no more hiding things, especially things of this caliber. Even though she still felt some lingering fear in her heart something told her things were going to work out. Smiling at her parents, she gave them a quick hug and kiss goodbye before heading off to do what she needed.

A/N: Kinda a short chapter, but I wanted to get this done. I have the next part all set up in my head so with any luck I will have the next chapter up before my next work week starts (so hopefully within 3 days). Zero will be coming back in the next chapter, and hopefully after their upcoming conversation most questions will be answered. Thanks for the follows and reviews. Love you all! :-D