First of all, I'm so sorry this took so long to get posted! My life got kinda crazy there for a while. But, I'm here now! So that counts.

If anyone wants music to accompany the chapter, I listened to "Cold as You" by Taylor Swift (crazy, but it sounds great from Castle's perspective), "Unwell" by Matchbox 20 up until Beckett leaves, then "Fix It" by Psapp for the rest of it. Also, do you guys like when I post music to go along with it? Let me know.

And for my readers who follow "Grief" as well, I'm super sorry that that one's slow too. I've already rewritten in 4 times, so a 5th is kinda mocking me. It'll be up soon! Promise.

And to my readers who are HP fans as well...they used "Always." I almost died. (:

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle, Harry Potter, Taylor Swift, Matchbox 20, Psapp, or any of thier songs.

So without further ado...

Enjoy!

It had been five days when one afternoon a few hours after Alexis had left Castle strode into the 12th and stood in front of Beckett's desk, looking hurt and angry.

Beckett looked up at him, surprised and confused. "Castle? What are you – "

"Doing?" He interrupted coldly. "I was just about to ask you the same thing."

"What are you talking about?"

"Look." Castle said strongly. "I don't know what I did to make you hate me so much, but whatever it is, I'm sorry, alright? My bad. If you would tell me, I would fix it, but until then you have no right to launch World War three!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Beckett stated, her voice rising slightly in volume in response to feeling attacked.

"Yes you do!" Castle barked. "Don't try to sit there and tell me that you don't! I'm talking about Alexis! After you mysteriously dropped her off the other day, she's barely said a word to me. She leaves from school and acts like she just met me, and comes home from school and goes straight to her room. I don't know what you've done to my daughter, but it's going to stop!"

"I haven't done anything to her, Castle." Beckett lied calmly. The last thing she wanted was for Alexis to get in trouble. "I haven't seen Alexis since that day."

Castle shook his head slowly. "Why are you trying to turn my daughter against me?"

"I'm not." Beckett shrugged casually.

"What you're doing isn't fair!" Castle was louder and angrier than she had ever seen him. "Not to me, and especially not to Alexis! You know what, you can do whatever you want to me, alright? I don't care. But don't you dare bring my daughter into this!" He turned and started to walk away.

Beckett sighed and shook her head.

Castle stopped and turned back around. "One more thing." He said walking back up to her. "You are easily the coldest person I've ever met." He wasn't yelling anymore, but his facial expression and his new tone cut straight through Beckett. "I loved you so much...and for the life of me I thought you felt the same way. Wishful thinking, maybe. I got my act together for you. Started spending more time here than at signing parties. Why? Because I couldn't stand to be away from you. You were like…like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time. I didn't want to stop staring until I was blind again. I would have done anything for you." He shook his head.

Beckett stared up at him, speechless.

"Then you did this. And I don't want to play these sick little mind games with you, Kate! If this is what it's going to be like then you win. I forfeit." He chuckled coldly. "And hey, at least you get a great story out of the deal, right? Get to tell everyone in the precinct about how you suckered me in. Got me to get close to you, then just left me out on the streets? Maybe you're quite the storyteller yourself. You're certainly quite the liar."

Beckett opened her mouth to speak, but Castle spoke first.

"I've spent the last two weeks switching between trying to drink you away, thinking about you, and just being generally depressed." He took a few steps forward until he was able to lean forward on the desk. "And I'm done. With all of it. So, just do me a favor. If I don't get to be in your life, stay the hell out of mine." And with that, he stormed out.

Beckett let out a shaking breath and put her head in her hands, feeling the rest of the department (especially Ryan and Esposito) staring at her.

At least he's safe. She thought. At least he'll live the rest of his life in safety.

The next morning it took all of Beckett's strength to pull herself out of bed.

She felt…numb. She sailed through her routine, thoroughly unable to shake Castle from her thoughts and perfectly removed from everything.

It wasn't that she regretted her decision – regret was such a strong word – as much as she was just sorry. Sorry that she couldn't explain, sorry that he hated her, sorry that she had to keep up the act so that he didn't get hurt. She was sorry for so much. For all of it.

She was also something else. Sad in a way that she felt like breaking down and crying, but for some reason her body wouldn't let her stop. It was almost as if her legs kept moving, her hands kept doing, and her voice kept sounding all on their own.

She got her coffee and drove to the station, one thought repeatedly running through her mind.

She had successfully alienated the one person she had ever felt something real for.

When she walked into the precinct, Alexis was seated at her usual spot in front of Beckett's desk. "You look…"

"Don't say it." Beckett told her, sitting down at her desk and rubbing her hands over her face.

"I was going to say pretty." Alexis smiled at her and put her hands up in surrender. "I like that top."

Beckett looked down at it, having not bothered to look at whatever it was that she had thrown on. She looked back at Alexis skeptically. "It's inside out."

Alexis did her best to look innocent. "I didn't notice. You can't tell."

Beckett sighed and rubbed a hand over her tired face once more. She grabbed her coffee and brought it to her lips before looking quite annoyed and knocking it into the trash with a hit and putting her head in her hands, letting out a calming breath.

Alexis watched for a moment before quietly asking, "What happened?"

Beckett lifted her head and began logging onto her computer. "Nothing."

"You can tell me, Beckett." Alexis said sincerely.

Beckett looked at her, unsure as to how much she should reveal. Finally, she decided she had nothing to lose. "Your dad happened."

Alexis furrowed her brow. "Why? What'd he do?"

"He showed up here a couple of hours after you left yesterday and yelled at me." She shook her head. "He accused me of turning you against him, called me the coldest person he had ever met, told me he had loved me, called me a liar, then told me to stay out of his life."

Oh no. "What?" Alexis whispered in disbelief.

Beckett stood and grabbed a case file, beginning to walk away. "Why don't you go home, Alexis?" She stated more than suggested.

Alexis scrambled out of her chair and trotted after Beckett, hot on her heels. "Why would I do that?"

Beckett stopped outside of the file room door and looked at her seriously. "Because I don't want to hurt him or you or break the Castle household more than I already have."

Alexis crossed her arms and leaned against the wall by the door. This wasn't good at all. Her plan was doing the exact opposite of what she had intended. It wasn't complicated. She helped solve the case so that Beckett and her dad could reunite. Easy. Except she never factored in her dad snapping…

It wasn't like her dad to do something like that. Which meant he must still love her, right? People who don't care about each other don't fight like that.

She sighed and leaned her head back until the top of her head touched the wall behind her. This was going to be harder than she thought. Now she had to convince her dad that he still loved Beckett, while maintaining her – gosh this was so fun to say – cover, and practically torture Beckett by continuously reminding her of how much she missed her dad.

"Uh-oh. Baby Castle's thinking." Esposito's voice broke through her trance.

Alexis lifted her head to see Ryan and Esposito walking down the hall toward her, Esposito grinning, Ryan smirking.

"Furrowed brow and all. Must be serious." Ryan remarked.

Alexis couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, it kinda is."

Esposito and Ryan exchanged interested looks.

"Oh, really?" Esposito asked. "Care to share?'

Just then a thought occurred to Alexis. "That depends…can you keep a secret?"

Now Ryan furrowed his brow. "From who?'

"Beckett."

An uneasy look came over both men's faces.

"I don't know…" Ryan trailed off.

"I do." Esposito stated. "Can't do it. Sorry Baby Castle, but we're with Beckett all the way. Don't doubt it for a second."

Ryan nodded his agreement, and the duo began to walk away.

"It's to help her, not hurt her." Alexis called after them.

They stopped and turned.

Alexis glanced back at the file room door to make sure Beckett wasn't coming out, and then walked quickly to Esposito and Ryan. "Just hear me out, alright? I'm going to need your guys' help."

Esposito looked at Ryan, who shrugged, and then folded his arms. "We're listening."

"It's a plan." Alexis told them. When neither one objected, she continued. "I'm going to get my dad and Beckett back together."

"Good luck with that." Ryan said skeptically. "Beckett hates him, and he hates her."

"By that logic I wouldn't be here right now because Beckett would hate me by extension."

Neither man had a response for that.

"Can we take this discussion somewhere more private?" Alexis asked.

Esposito looked slightly amused and gestured in front of them. He led them to a small windowless conference room, and they each took a seat at a round table in the middle of the room. Esposito folded his hands on top of the table. "Speak."

"Well, first of all, Beckett definitely doesn't hate my dad. It's the opposite." Alexis began.

"She told us herself." Ryan said. "She said she got tired of him."

"That's her cover story!" Alexis said, bouncing slightly, her whole face lit up with excitement. "Her super secret case? The one that lead you guys to my house? It has do with my school. And apparently these guys are super dangerous, so she kicked my dad out because she knows that my dad would do anything to protect me and she didn't want him going rogue and getting hurt or killed!" When they said nothing she continued. "Don't you see? She loves him too much to even think about him not being here anymore, much less her have been able to prevent it. It's sweet!"

Esposito leaned forward on his elbows. "Did Beckett actually tell you all that?"

"Yes!" She nodded emphatically.

"So your plan is…?" Ryan asked.

She briefly explained her tasks at hand.

Esposito and Ryan shared yet another look.

"Alright, we're in." Esposito said.

"What do you want us to do?"

"I need you guys to bring up my dad around Beckett. A lot. Funny memories, inserting what he would have done in certain situations, quoting him – whatever." Alexis told them. "You have to make sure that he's almost constantly on her mind, and that she misses him."

Ryan nodded. "We can do that."

"Also, I need you guys to take my dad out to a bar or something. Start out casual – he'll figure out if you guys are up to something really quickly if you're not careful – but gradually lead the conversation to Beckett. Talk to him about her, and if you can, get him to remember all the good things about her and how much he cares about her." She locked eyes with each of them. "That's crucial for this to work. Almost more so than Beckett's half."

Esposito leaned back. "Done and done."

"You can count on us." Ryan added.

"Thanks guys." Alexis beamed at them. "I knew I could."

Review? Please?

I love you all. (: Thank you so much for reading.