Here it is guys! chapter 3! yay!

Thanks for reviewing/foriting/subscribing! reallly means a lot!

Also, to PsychoticSax- thank you! and i know it is kind of OOC, but sometimes its the only was for me to get a certian point across...also, its not reallyl supposed to be MPD, but thats how it turned out i guess! Its suppoed to be the "sensible" side of Kate vs the side that wants to be with castle lol. i THINK you'll kind of figure it out in the end of the story. :) or I at least hope you do. that goes for everyone by the way!

Enjoy!

"Now I know what you meant when you said he was your 'partner'," Sophie giggled.

"Now she even sounds like mom!"

"Yeah, and she just called Castle your boyfriend..."

"What? No! No. No no no. Ha! NO. Unh-uh! Nope. No no no no no. Noooo. ….no!"

"Really? Could you have been MORE obvious?"

"Wow Kate. Fifteen "no.'s"? Seems to me like you're trying to convince yourself more than me..."

She giggled again, this time more. And louder.

"He's your boooyyyyfriiaaannnd!"

"Castle is NOT my 'boyyyfriaannd'!"

I laughed, not because she was acting immature, but, well, it was funny. Sophie was still giggling, with a twinkle in her eye. And that's when the singing started.

"You loooveee him, you want to huuuggg him, you want to kiiiiissss him and be his girlfriend, because you looovvee him."

That went on for about two more verses, until we got to my door. We were both laughing the entire ride home. When we calmed down, I realized that not only was she having fun, but she was acting like a sister. And I was completely comfortable with that, so I smiled at her,and even thought she returned that smile, her eyes showed pain.

…..

As soon as I opened the door Sophie ran to the couch and sat down, while I went to the fridge.

"Can I get you anything?"

"Do you have waffles? I would LOVE some waffles. Or maybe some bacon. Actually, no. Just waffles if you have them!"

"Umm...Yes!"

I triumphantly pulled some frozen waffles out of the freezer. Usually my house was pretty empty when it came to food, but Castle had come over last weekend. He had decided to go grocery shopping for me, and since I was almost never home, I still had a lot of food.

"Guess it came in handy, huh?"

"How many do you want?"

"Two, to start, please."

She could be so fun and informal one minute, and then turn around and be so grown up and polite the next. It actually reminded me of myself at her age. I popped the waffles in the toaster and grabbed a bottle of water for myself, and one for Sophie. She took a sip, but then started picking at the label, which I knew to be a nervous habit.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. Fine," she answered softly.

"You're not falling for that are you? There's obviously something wrong."

The waffles were finished, and Sophie didn't waste any time on them. She was done in about two minutes. Or less.

"Jeez, when's the last time you ate? You look like Castle after he skipped breakfast. Only less whiny."

She looked nervous again, like she had at the precinct. She got up and cleared her plate before answering.

"Breakfast."

"That's not too bad..."

"On Monday."

"Ok, that's pretty bad..."

I made sure she had enough to eat, and then gave her some of my old P.J.'s to change into after her shower. She was curled up on the couch, reading a book that she found, while I was on my computer. Sometimes I would look through news headlines from across the country, just to see what was going on out there. Then something caught my eye...

"Hey Sophie?"

"Yeah? What's up?"

"Oh, nothing much. I was just wondering where you live."

"Oh. Well, I lived in New york until I was seven, and then we moved to Washington."

"Ok."

"That's what I thought."

"But just because she lives in Washington doesn't mean anything."

"Look at the picture."

And there it was, a picture of Sophie, when she was about five or six, standing between her parents. Then it got worse. The headline read: "Washington man found dead in home, daughter still missing."

It said that Alan Friend died Monday morning from a clot in his brain, and his sixteen year old daughter was still unaccounted for.

"What are your adoptive parent's names?"

"Alan and Alyssa Friend, why?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask that..."

"Well...Honey, I don't know how to tell you this, which is weird considering all the practice I've had and-"

"Kate?"

"Oh, right. I'm sorry, sweetie, but...your dad died on Monday morning."

She stared at me blankly for about a minute before saying the words I least expected to come out of her mouth: "I know."

…..

"What do you mean "I know."? How could you possibly know?"

I was so surprised that I didn't even notice that I had raised my voice a little.

"I just...I just did, ok!"

"Did she just yell at me? I think she just yelled at me!"

"There's no need to yell, Sophie."

"Well you did! And why shouldn't I? Huh? Why shouldn't I yell?"

"Sophie, just relax. I'm not yelling, see? I'm just talking."

I put my hand in front of me, like I was telling her to stop, and stepped closer to her. As soon as I did, she flinched, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. I knew the look on her face. I had seen it countless time. Anybody who saw her face at that moment would know what it meant.

"Sophie. Sophie, it's ok. Open your eyes."

She slowly opened her eyes, and slightly relaxed when she saw me lower my hand. She had started crying, just a little, but just enough for me to know that she was scared.

"Did he hit you?"

All she did was nod. Those four little words opened the floodgates, and she started sobbing as she fell in to my arms. I was a little hesitant, because abused children don't usually like to be touched, but I held her close and let her cry, because that was all I could do to help.

…..

I made some tea after she had calmed down, and we sat together on the couch. We were quiet for a while, but eventually I needed her to talk to me.

"What happened to you, honey?"

"Where should I start?"

"The beginning."

"We were happy once. We were a normal family. We went to the beach. To the park. I went to school. My parents worked. But then my mom got sick. I was only six, but I knew it was bad. Cancer. She fought hard. She fought until a week after my seventh birthday. She was just too weak. My dad couldn't stand to be in the house anymore, so we moved to Washington. I knew something was different about my dad. He had gotten angry. He was always angry. One day, I walked in from school, and as I turned around to shut the door I knocked a picture over. He yelled. Called me names. And then...and then he slapped me. He slapped me in the face so hard that I fell over. "GET UP!" he yelled. "STOP CRYING!" But I didn't. I didn't get up. I didn't stop crying. So he hit me again. This time with his fist. After that he locked me in the basement for a full day. He said I needed to learn my lesson. I told him I had, so he slapped me and sent me to my room. The next time, after he hit me, he said "We never should have taken you. We should have left you with your real mother." That's when I went through all of that stuff trying to find my birth parents. When I got a job, and started saving my money, I also started taking karate classes. I was tire of being pushed around."

She stopped to take a sip of her tea and wipe away a couple of tears. I slowly put my hand on her knee, attempting to comfort her. She held my hand and continued.

"Anyways, that was a few years ago. I've gotten really good at defending myself. Monday morning, I made breakfast for the two of us. By the time he got to it, it had gotten cold. He got mad. So he uh...pushed me down, and kicked my side. See?"

She raised the hem of her shirt to expose her swollen and bruised ribcage.

"He went in for another kick, but I grabbed his leg and flipped him over. We got up at the same time, and he swung at me again, but I blocked it. I punched him and he...fell..I...I didn't..."

She was crying harder now, and having trouble finishing her sentences. I moved closer to her and put my arm around her shoulders.

"It's ok. Take your time."

I was trying to be supportive and helpful but this was all new to me. I've never had to take care of anyone like this before. I've never been a mother, and up until four hours ago, I had been an only child.

"I didn't mean to hurt him so badly. I just wanted him to stop. But he fell, and he wouldn't get up. He wouldn't wake up. I couldn't find a pulse. I killed him."

The poor thing started bawling, trying to get out more words.

"I killed my dad, Kate!"

She buried her head in my shoulder while she cried, just like before.

"Shh. Shh, it's ok. You didn't kill him sweetie. It's ok. It's not your fault. He had a blood clot in his brain. It wasn't you fault."

She mumbled a response, but kept crying. She cried for about an hour, until she finally fell asleep. I eased her onto the pillow as I got up. She fidgeted a little bit, but she didn't wake up. I covered he r with a blanket, turned out the light, and went to my room. Then, I did the only other thing I could think of. I called Castle.

…..

"Kate? It's one o'clock in the morning, are you ok? Are you hurt?"

"Castle, relax, I'm fine. But I need some help. With Sophie. Can you just...Can you please come over?"

"Of course, whatever you need. Do you need me to bring anything?"

"He really can be sweet sometimes.:

"No. Thank you."

In the next few chapters you'll see that i've tried to slowly take out the self arguement, kind of like kate's coming to terms with herself. I still left in a little bit, but mostly becasue it's fun to write it that way. and to show that she still has confliction thoughts on certian issues...*ahem* Castle...Plus i think that everyone, at one point or another, has aruged with themselves...at least, i hope it's not just me.

Also, i was going over it and realzied, at least in chpaters one and two, ii kind of failed at the underling kate's thoughts thing. i was gonna fix it, but then i realized that it's kind of insignificaant, as you can still tell kate's arguing with herself.

Thanks for reading!

Review? Pretty please? I'll give you a cookie.