"Don't you have school?" Alexis asks as she walks into the kitchen Friday morning and finds Addison slumped over a bowl of cereal.
"Don't you have class?" she retorts, without looking up.
"I don't have classes on Fridays. What's your excuse?"
"You didn't hear?" Addison sighs. "I got suspended for punching someone in the face."
Alexis laughs, pulling down her own bowl for cereal. "Like mother like daughter."
"What? Does Kate get in fights a lot?"
Alexis sits down next to her at the kitchen island and pours her own bowl of Cheerios. "I just meant the whole cop thing. Dad makes it sound like she's quite the badass, and the couple of times I've seen her in action, I'd have to agree."
"What, you think punching some girl makes me a badass?"
"Well, why'd you punch her?"
"She was badmouthing Kate," Addison says, scooping up a spoonful of now soggy Cheerios and letting them fall back into the bowl. "And she's been my sworn enemy since like 4th grade."
"Then yeah, I think you're a badass."
"I sure don't feel like one."
They fall into silence as Alexis starts eating. Addison gets up and dumps out her soggy cereal before putting her dishes in the dishwasher.
"Alexis, can I ask you something?"
She swallows her spoonful of cereal. "Sure, go for it."
"It's just, ever since I got here, I feel like all people do is compare me to Kate."
"Does that bother you?"
"No, not really. It's just, I feel like people expect a lot from me because of who she is. My parents, as great as they were, they weren't anyone to live up to. They were just…average. And I was this dance prodigy and that was it. But Kate – she seems like this amazing person that so many people depend on and –"
"No one said you had to be her," Alexis interrupts. "You're allowed to be your own person, Addie. You don't have to be your mother."
"But maybe I want to be. You know I didn't just Google your dad after Kate came and found me, I Googled her too. All these articles came up about the criminals she caught, and the bombs she's stopped, and how she was shot in the heart and lived to tell about it. I just, I understand why she had to give me up, I do, but a part me wishes that she hadn't so I could have been there for all of that."
"No," Alexis sighs, shaking her head. "You don't."
"And why not?"
"Because my dad has been there. He was trapped in a bank, being held hostage, when the place blew up. He was standing next to her the day she got shot, and tried to push her out of the way He could've gotten shot instead. One of those bombs she stopped? It was my dad. He pulled some wires and the thing just stopped working. Just earlier this year, he got exposed to this deadly chemical agent and we all thought he was going to die. It terrifies me every day that he goes out into the field with her. He's not a cop; he doesn't know what he's doing."
She shakes her head again, standing up from the island and moving over to Addison.
"Don't wish that you had gone through that with your mother. It's awful, that worry, that your parent might die."
"I don't need a lecture on what it feels like. I found my parents' dead bodies, remember?" Addison tells her sharply. But then her face softens and she continues. "I just wanted to be there so I could hear the stories when she came home. So I could be there for her, in the hospital, after she got shot. I used to complain that nothing exciting ever happened in my life. And now suddenly, so much has changed that I'd gladly take normal back in a heartbeat. But that doesn't stop me from wishing that I had known her. That all this time I could have been walking around claiming this incredible person is my mom. And at the same time, I feel terrible for thinking that, because the woman who raised me loved me and did nothing to make me wish someone else was my mother."
Alexis guides her over to the couch and hands her a tissue after she notices the tears forming in her eyes.
"Did you know that Kate is going to be my dad's third wife?"
"I uh, might have," Addison sniffs.
"My mother, his first wife, she's never really seemed to care about me. My dad and Grams raised me all by themselves. He was my nanny while she was off doing who knows what with who knows who. I used to wish that I had a different mom. Someone who would actually pick me up from school and not show up on a whim thinking she could just whisk me away to Paris whenever she felt like it. Someone who actually knew about my life instead of someone who tried to buy my love with extravagant gifts. Then my dad married Gina. And I thought, maybe she'll be an actual mother to me. She still wasn't, not really. So I was really weary of Kate when they first started dating."
"Why? How old were you?"
"I had just graduated high school, so it's not like I was still looking for someone to be my mom. But I had known her since I was a freshman. I knew how much she meant to my dad and I knew how she was totally capable of crushing him if things went south with this relationship. But I haven't seen him this happy in a long time. She makes him so happy, and I'm grateful for that."
"Where are you going with this?"
She sighs, a soft smile gracing her lips. "You can't choose your family, or how you got there, or who you end up with. I don't doubt that your parents were great people who loved you very much. But it's okay to love Kate too. I still love my mother, despite her glaring absence in my life. But I'm so glad he's with your mother now instead."
Addison sighs. "I just want to make everyone happy."
"I think the only person who's happiness you need to be focusing on right now is yours."
She sighs again, letting her head fall back on the couch. "You know, I've always wanted a big sister. And now I see why."
Kate hovers in her doorway, watching as she does her homework with her headphones in. Addison gets caught up in the chorus, starts using her pencil as a drumstick, and starts singing out loud. She tries to hold her laughter back, but ultimately the girl notices and looks up embarrassed.
"Don't stop on my account," Kate laughs, wandering further into her room.
"How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough."
"You should have said something."
"I tried. You didn't hear me over your music."
"Sorry," Addison mumbles, pulling her headphones out.
"I was just coming up to see if you wanted dinner."
Addison shakes her head, sitting back on her heels. "Alexis and I went out for lunch. I'm still full from that."
"I'm glad you two are getting along so well."
She shrugs, swinging her legs over the side of the bed.
"Well Castle and I are going out, so I was going to let you know there's a frozen pizza in the freezer if you get hungry later."
"I probably won't, but thanks."
Kate nods and starts to leave the room when Addison stops her. "Hey, Kate?"
She turns back around. "Do you think we could talk sometime? Just like really talk about…you know heavy stuff."
"Of course. Is everything okay?"
"No, no it's fine, I'm fine. I just have some things I want to ask you about."
"Tomorrow work for you?"
Addison nods. "Yeah, yeah that's fine. Now go have fun on your date."
Kate smiles as she turns to leave again. "Oh we always do."
"She wants to talk about 'heavy' things, what do you think that means?"
Castle puts his hand over hers in an attempt to calm her down. "Probably sex. Now should we go with the red or the white tonight? Ooo maybe their champagne."
"Sex? Castle –"
"Kate, we promised we weren't going to talk about work or the kids tonight. It's supposed to be about us."
"I know, but she just dropped this bombshell on me. Do you really think she wants to talk about sex? I'm not prepared to give that talk yet."
"Why not? You have enough experience."
She slaps his arm, and he laughs pulling it away.
"Of course it has been a couple of weeks since you've had any experience," he keeps teasing, his fingers now dancing at her elbow. "I know you've had a lot on your mind and everything, but –"
"Don't even think about it."
"Think about what?" he pouts.
"I can tell by the way you're looking at me that you want to move to same side of the table and stick your hand down my pants."
Castle drops his voice to a whisper. "But you love getting off in public. It turns you on even more."
She narrows her eyes at him, slipping her fingers in between his. "I do, on occasion, enjoy that. However, the police commissioner is sitting right over there and I have no plans to embarrass myself in front of him tonight."
"But Kate," he starts to whine.
"When we get home, you can get me off however you like in the comfort of our own bedroom."
He lips twitch upwards in a mischievous grin. "Anyway I like?"
"That's what I said, isn't it?"
Castle clears his throat and looks back down at the menu. "So I'm thinking we just get some side salads and get out of here."
"Not so fast, mister," she says, squeezing his hand. "You promised me a date, not a dine and dash."
He sighs, squeezing her hand back. "Fine. But then we're definitely going with the champagne."
AN: I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. I'll be sure to make up for it with the length of ch. 8.
