Disclaimer: Only in my dreams.

A/N: This chapter has been changed slightly, not the story just the fact that I took out the whole conversation with Gina.

2009

"Dad! C'mon, we're gonna be late. Gina already hates you, don't give her any more reasons to do so." Alexis Castle stood by the front door in her knee high red dress, sliding her long black coat over her narrow shoulders as she pulled her long pumpkin colored hair out of the collar.

"Alright, alright. Just give me a minute.." Alexis walked into her father's bedroom to find him struggling to pick which tie that would go best with his outfit for the evening. She shook her head at him and rolled her eyes. He watched her in the mirror and turned around.

"Which one?" He held two ties in front of his chest, a dark blue one and a black one.

"Neither. Just go open collared." She walked up to him and took the ties out of his hands, throwing them on his unmade bed before fixing his collar and pulling him along with her to the door.

"Thanks Pumpkin, you're a life saver." He kissed her cheek quickly before slipping into his black coat and called up the steps.

"Mother! Let's go we're going to be late." He grabbed his wallet and phone from the counter and quickly looked down the hallway into the mirror standing at the end of it to fix his hair, watching his mother stride down the modern staircase in the sparkly emerald green dress with a large open back.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, keep your pants on." She stopped by the island to grab her black clutch and then finally made her way to the door, grabbing her coat and, with the help of Richard, slid it on.

"Okay, everyone ready?" Castle asked. Both his mother and daughter nodded in return, he twisted the knob to the large door to his loft and guided his family out, leading them to the town car he had ordered for tonight.

They all arrived fashionably late as was expected for the Castle family. Castle kissed his two favorite ladies on the cheek and rushed off to find Gina, hopefully she wouldn't be as mad as the time he was forty seven minutes late to a signing and she threatened to cut off his hand and...other bits. He made it there just in time to reach for the sunglasses in his left pocket, slip them on and catch the ending of her little opening speech.

"...that keeps our bedside lamps burning into the wee hours of the morning?"

He was about to start walking towards the stage when a young and attractive blonde women tugged on his sleeve slightly and pulled a sharpie out of her small black bag, asking him to sign something of hers

"And where would this 'something' be?" Taking the black marker from her he smiled, knowing what girls like her wanted him to write.

The blonde pulled back her wine colored dress strap and smiled at him, confirming his suspicions. He leaned forward and quickly signed his name on the girl's milky chest, smiling cheekily as he finished and handed the pen back.

"Call me when you're ready to wash that off." The blonde giggled and leaned towards him slightly, putting the pen back where she got it from as he turned back towards his ex wife and publisher Gina.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the master of the macabre. Rick Castle." She turned towards his position in the audience and smiled at him, inviting him to join her on the stage.

Richard Castle stood by the bar after coming back from a long conversation with his ex-wife/publisher about main characters and why he decided to kill his off. He now stood beside his daughter, sipping a glass of champagne and talking with her about parties and such.

"I knew what was going to happen every moment of every scene, it's just like these parties, they've become so predictable.." Castle said, leaning against the counter speaking to his daughter. "I'm you're biggest fan. Where do you get your ideas?" He says, lightly mocking a portion of his fans.

"And the ever popular, will you sign my chest?" Alexis replies, putting up her hands to put quotation marks around the word chest.

He turns back towards the bar to have another sip of champagne, tipping the glass forward as a small acknowledgment to her statement. "That one I don't mind so much."

"Yeah, well. FYI, I do." She replies, looking up to father with a slight pleading look in her eyes.

"Just once, I'd like someone to come up to me and say something new."

"Mr. Castle?" He hears a female voice behind him and immediately reaches into his pocket to grab the black sharpie that's resided in there for the longest time now. Turning around he opens his mouth to say something before he realizes who it was that spoke to him.

"Kate?" He breathes, his mouth hanging open slightly as his fingers relax, leaving the pen clattering to the floor.