A/N: Usual disclaimer applies. Un-beta'd. READ ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM. TRUST THE AUTHOR.
Chapter 14: Irregularity
Rick spends the day learning the ins and outs of the CIA, playing with all their toys and shadowing Sophia and Jimmy, learning some of the tools of the trade. Up top, once they're back in the city, he is back in the same sedan again, though this time he's in the front passenger seat, and Sophia's driving.
"Thanks, Sophia," Rick says. "I really appreciate you letting me shadow you."
"I'm flattered really," she smiles back at him. "I guess all it takes for someone to make it into your book are a bunch of stories about their work."
"Well…" he drags out the silence deliberately, and grins cockily. "Not every woman I know has half an interesting story as yours."
She glances at him briefly, taking her eyes off the road for a moment, smiling softly. "And you don't even know all of it."
"I don't have to," he replies, and on a hunch, squeezes her hand, still on the driving wheel. "My imagination can fill in the gaps… and of course, not every woman would give up her life for her country."
Sophia hums in response, and grins mischievously. "Well, what else can your imagination do?"
Rick's mouth is suddenly dry. "Uhhh…" he stutters.
"Not so smooth, are you, Mr. Castle," Sophia purrs, her dark eyes sultry.
"Errrr…" he looks up, and they've stopped in front of their building. "Oh, we're here."
"Yes." Rick hears some disappointment in her voice, and before he can stop himself, he finds himself asking, "Would you like to go to dinner?"
The rest of the evening passes by in a pleasant but hazy blur, in the honeymoon suite in a nearby five-star hotel.
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"You…" Rick can't even speak, his mind thoroughly blown. "Wow. You're amazing."
Sophia gently runs her finger down his chest, and reaching upwards, kisses him deeply. "Mmm. I can say the same for you, Rick."
He gazes at her affectionately, and gently kisses each of her fingers. "I enjoy spending time with you, Sophia Turner."
She hums in response, smiling shyly. "And I with you." Gathering the sheets around her, leaving the blanket to Rick, she saunters off the bed and returns with two glasses of champagne. "To new things."
He clinks her glass, "To new things." Taking a sip of the glass, he smirks at her. "So is this what you do in your off hours?"
She laughs. It's a beautiful, deep sound. "Sleep with hot, sexy authors? All the time."
Rick pretends to be offended. "Oh, ouch. You wound me."
Sophia only smiles in return, before her gaze turns thoughtful. "You know, I don't very often get to see this side of you."
"Post-coitus?" He jokes.
"I'm being serious, Rick," she chides him half-heartedly. "Sometimes…" her eyes cloud with something he can't quite grasp onto. "You aren't always this light-hearted – it feels forced and I don't know that you know that."
He laughs; it rings false. "Hmm… But I'm not the only one with walls."
Sophia looks away. "That's true. Though cloak and dagger are part of my job description; what's your excuse?"
This time his laugh is bitter, and he turns over to stare at the ceiling, as his arms lift up to cradle his head. He considers for a moment whether he should tell her what's been happening over the past few weeks. He settles for, "Life's… complicated. And hard. I know that what I have to deal with is nowhere near the level of the things you're confronted with on a daily basis, but," he shrugs. "I'm very human. That's what I've learned, if nothing, over the course of the past few months."
He's surprised as he finds lips lightly grazing his cheek. He turns, and sees understanding eyes looking back at him.
"I didn't mean to pry," she replies.
Rick shrugs again. "It's nothing." Abruptly, he brightens. "Sophia. How would you feel about accompanying me to Cannell's party?"
"Oh, I don't know." Her mood is cheerful and mischievous again. "What do I have to wear?"
"Erm," Rick can't seem to find the right words. "Well…"
"Or I could wear nothing at all…"
His eyes darken with desire as he leans in to kiss her, taking their breaths away.
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"Sir, it's done. I've got it." A pause. "Yes, sir. He's asleep. I'll get him home in the morning first, and then I'll hand in my report straight to you as soon as I'm in the office." Another pause. "Very good, sir. Have a good night."
The cell phone snaps with a flourish, as Sophia takes a look at a sleeping Rick, her face a cold mask juxtaposed to his relaxed indifference.
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Sophia drops Rick off at home shortly before his house awakens. Still tired from the night, he crashes into his bed for a couple hours' sleep – hoping that Alexis will not awaken so early on a Sunday morning.
He's wrong, of course.
By 8 a.m., she's snuggled in his arms along with Peter Rabbit. Her long hair lightly tickles his nostrils, awakening him. He grunts once, then twice as his mind wraps around the fact that there's a tiny bundle in his arms.
"Morning, pumpkin," his voice gravelly. He tips his head down to lightly kiss hers.
"Morning, Papa," comes the sleepy reply, as she snuggles in deeper into his arms under the blankets. She's getting bigger, Rick observes. Pretty soon, she'll be too big to snuggle.
It isn't long, however, before he hears his stomach grumbling, and he carefully extricates his daughter without awaking her, and putting on slippers, walks down the hall and into his kitchen. His mother must still be asleep, he thinks, or else he'd have heard her already. He rummages his fridge for ingredients for an omelette, and pops bread into the toaster, humming all the while.
Eventually he hears little footsteps and the sound of a little stuffed bunny rabbit being dragged behind those footsteps.
"Papa!" And there she is, his daughter, her face lit up in admiration for her father.
"Come here, sweetheart." He swoops her up into his arms, and kisses her soundly on her forehead. "And how is my little Alexis today?"
She giggles in reply, burying her head in his shoulder. "Good," comes the muffled reply. "Sooooo good."
Those two words fill his whole being with joy, and his heart squeezes at the sensation. They don't often get days like these, he thinks.
"Well," he looks at his daughter mock-seriously, "We've got omelettes and toast this morning. Can I trust you to get the Nutella okay?"
(It is her job to get the Nutella every morning; Rick has placed it in the lower shelf, easy for Alexis to access.)
"Of course, Papa," she says dismissively, as if to say, Who you talking to?
Rick sets her down gently, as she walks quickly to her shelf, and grabs the Nutella. Setting the jar on the table, she herself climbs into a chair, waiting for her father to bring the food to the table.
His omelettes are a work of art today, if he does say so himself. The toast is perfect; not too crunchy, nor too soft. He quickly smears a healthy amount of Nutella onto Alexis' toast, before giving her a quarter of his omelette.
"Yum!" Alexis exclaims, and bounces up and down on her chair in anticipation.
"Shhh," Rick warns. "Your Grams is still sleeping."
"Ohh, shhh," Alexis copies, grinning cheekily. "Shhhh."
Rick smiles in response. Actually, where is Mother? He ponders. She's usually up and about at this hour. Aloud, he asks Alexis, "Alexis, do you know where Grams is?"
Alexis shrugs, unsure.
"You keep eating," Rick says, getting up from the table. "I'm going to see if Grams is still sleeping."
He walks up the stairs to his mother's room, but he pauses upon hearing a low murmur coming from her room. He steps right to the door, and raises his hand to knock. But before he can, he hears an ear-splitting shriek downstairs.
Alexis.
He rushes back down the stairs, his heart pounding. "Alexis? Alexis?!"
The shrieks continue, and he can't get there fast enough.
"Pumpkin?!" He calls. "Talk to me!"
His heart nearly stops as he crashes to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, to find that his daughter is huddled underneath the table. Thank God. No intruders.
"Sweetheart?" he crawls under with her, wincing as the sudden momentum of her body propelled into him knocks his head against the top of the table. "Shh… Shhh…"
The etchings on his windows suck the air out of his lungs, and as he holds his daughter, he closes his eyes furiously, hoping to erase the horrendous image out of his mind.
His trembling hands can barely dial 9-1-1, they're shaking so hard.
He blinks a couple times, hoping that whatever it is on his windows is just a dream.
It's not.
And not two minutes later, he hears screaming… from the apartment downstairs.
A/N: So... who survived that? And NO, RICK WILL NOT STAY WITH SOPHIA.Unfortunately, you'll have to put up with her a little longer, because guess what? I've mapped all the way to Chapter 35 and I'm only halfway. This story will deal with my own non-canon Dragon, Rick's father, and honest-to-goodness Caskett. And because the rest of the team will be in the story... well, Kate's only in police academy right now, if that puts things in perspective. Please, please, please trust that I know what I'm doing.
What did y'all think? Where do you think this is going? One other thing: Is this length okay with you? I feel tempted to write longer chapters, but I shan't unless enough of you are all right with that. As always, if there's a scene you want to see in this universe, send me a shout-out! And... the next update should be in a week, week and a half (depending on my assignments). Would love to hear from you (: Cheers, Ce'Nelenia
