AN: This Chapter is brought to you by random chaperoning. However, next week's schedule really blows, so I'm going to try and get another chapter up before Monday.I didn't edit this much, so I apologize for the mistakes.

Let me know what you think about this chapter. It motivates me. Hint Hint.

Don't Own it.

"Hi Dad." She answered the phone.

"Katie!" He replied, sounding refreshed. "How are you, sweetheart?"

"I'm good, Dad" She lied and Castle glared at her from across the room. "When are you headed home?"

"Three Days…" He paused. "you knew that, though."

"Right, three days." She replied, "I remember now."

The truth was, she didn't remember. She was totally clueless as to when his trip ended. She barely knew what time it was due to the amount of time she spent sleeping these days. She sat on Castle's couch and leaned back, eyes closed, listening to her Dad gushing about his fishing trip.

She wanted to absorb every single word, but she was severely distracted. She couldn't stop thinking about the kiss that she and Castle had just shared. It was, in a word, magnificent. She wasn't necessarily a "sappy" type, but she was a closet romantic and she had never felt so much romance in her life. She wished that she could trust him enough to let him in completely; she just didn't want to risk it.

"Katie? Kate..." Her Dad asked on deaf ears. "KATHERINE!."

"What?" she asked surprised, "Oh, I'm sorry, Dad."

"What's going on, Katie?" he asked her, concerned. "You don't sound like yourself."

"Well…" She paused. "Promise me you won't freak out?"

"That is NOT a good way to start a conversation, Katherine." Her Dad responded quickly, his voice rising.

"Yeah… Well, just remember that I'm okay, Dad, all right?" She cringed as she heard his breath hitch on the other end of the phone.

"Tell me."

Castle was standing behind his kitchen island sipping a Vitamin Water and watching Kate try to explain the last few days to her father via phone. From the looks of her side, it wasn't going too terribly well. She was trying to soothe the panic that was obviously being conveyed on the other end. She started by explaining about Raglan, only leaving out details that would scare her father. She was just about through the part where she would tell him that she had been shot when he started to hear Jim Beckett's through the receiver across the room.

Castle cringed and made a face at her that told her that he sympathized and she looked back at him with a small smile and continued her story.

"No, Dad." She said into the phone. "They tried to contact you… I told them not to."

Castle could hear the "YOU WHAT?" across the room and gave her the "I told you so," look. The strong Beckett glare was in full force as she responded to his arrogance.

It was his time to step up. She didn't believe he'd changed? He would prove it. Hell, he already had. He knew Jim Beckett would call eventually. He closed the distance between them and held out his hand. She looked at him confused for a second before he said. "Phone." and made the "gimme" gesture with his hand.

Her looks of confusion turned to a look of "are you crazy?" She shook her head no and he persisted.

"Umm… Dad?" She asked. "Someone wants to talk to you." She covered the microphone with her hand and whispered at him angrily. "You better know what you are doing."

He gave her his charm-smile and grabbed the phone, putting it up to his ear.

"Mr. Beckett?" He asked.

"Yes." The disembodied voice on the other end answered. "Who is this?"

"My name is Richard Castle, sir." He answered. "I'm—"

"I know who you are."

"Right." He gulped; maybe he didn't know what he was doing. "Sir, I understand what you must be thinking, right now…"

"I beg your pardon, Mr. Castle but you have no idea what I'm thinking."

Beckett was looking at him with a defeated glance. He father was pissed and she was worried about him. Castle knew he had to fix it.

"Sir, I'm a father." He replied, as Beckett's eyes widened. "The first person I tried to call was you, but I couldn't track you down and when Kate woke up, she insisted that you needed this vacation."

"From what I hear, Mr. Castle, you never listen to my daughter. Why start now?" Jim Beckett asked him.

"That's a good question." Castle responded. "I should have never let her talk us out of it. I know if it were my own daughter, I would have wanted to know either way." He sighed. "But I promise you, Mr. Beckett, we are all taking very good care of your daughter. I know she's stubborn but I assure you she is taking excellent care of herself and will be as good as new in no time."

"Well, that's a relief, Mr. Castle." He replied, somewhat laced with sarcasm.

"It's Rick, if you will." He responded.

"Fair enough, Rick." He answered. "It's Jim then."

"No, sir." He replied. "Let me earn that, privilege." He was met with silence. "Listen, I know as soon as I get off of this phone, your daughter is going to shoot me, so you should know that there is a ticket to New York waiting at the airport with your name on it for whatever flight you want to take. It's been there for a few days and it will continue to be there as an open ticket, if you choose to return early."

Beckett's head popped up and stared at him. She hadn't known about that little gem. She figured that he would just try to diffuse her father with his own fatherly musings, not like this.

"Thank you, Rick." Jim Beckett replied. "I'm taking the next flight."

"I figured you would. There is also a car service that will pick you up and bring you here to see your daughter as soon as you activate that ticket." He said. "We'll see you soon. Here's Kate back."

"Wait, Rick." Jim said, quickly. "Really, thank you."

"Don't thank me." Castle replied. "She would do that, and more, for me if I needed to get to my daughter. And, I owe your daughter… more than she knows."

He handed the receiver back to Beckett as she stared into his eyes, intently. He smiled and walked into his office and shut the door halfway.

He slammed down into his desk chair and sighed. She was going to kill him, but it would be worth it. This was just one step in showing her that he really had changed and he owed it all to her.

The memory of the look of shook across her features made him chuckle to himself. He could hear her still talking in the living room and he heard her disconnect the call.

The silence scared him. It meant that she was planning. It meant that she was thinking. Hopefully, she wasn't thinking of ways to maim and kill him for his intrusion. He sat back in his chair and there was a small tap on his office door before it was pushed open.

"Hi." He smiled as she gingerly sat in the couch facing his desk.

"Hi, Castle."

They studied each other for a few moments before Beckett finally broke the eye contact and the silence, simultaneously.

"My Dad's coming home today."

"Yeah, he said."

"You shouldn't have done that, Castle." She scolded.

"Done what?"

"Any of it." She exclaimed "The open ticket; the car service; any of it. You don't have to do these things for me."

"You're right. I don't have to." He admitted. "But I'm quickly becoming the type of person that does anything for the people they care about; I learned it from a good friend of mine; a cop."

"Castle…" She warned, glaring at him.

"Listen, I know you didn't want to worry him and that's why you begged us not to call," He explained, "But I also know that one of the first things I did when I was in the waiting room of the hospital was call my Mom. It's our default setting as someone's child; we run to our parents. We need that comfort and wisdom – even if it is questionable at times, in my case - and I wanted that comfort for you. I knew he would call you eventually and he would get out of you what happened. I didn't want him to have to worry about getting home quickly and worry about you. It would have been too much."

"Castle, I still don't understand why you went to all of this trouble." She looked at him intently.

"When we were…" he gulped, "in the diner... you asked me to take care of your Dad. Do you remember that?"

"Yeah," She nodded, looking sadly at him.

"Well, I sat in that waiting room trying to call him and track him down with Esposito and Ryan. I wanted to do more. I felt like I wasn't keeping my promise; that I was being weak by allowing them to do most of the heavily lifting." He sighed. "The guilt was killing me. When we found out where he was, I did the only thing I could think of. I used my money and fame to insure that he would get to you as quick as possible had anything… gone wrong."

She studied him for a moment and, had it been anyone else, he would have sworn that he saw a mist over her eyes. She stood up and walked over to him. He swiveled in his chair to look up at her. She offered her hand silently and he grabbed it and stood up.

They were nearly touching as they faced each other. He didn't know what she was doing; part of him was still afraid that she was getting into position to inflict bodily harm on him. Instead, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and gave him a strong hug.

Castle sighed as her body pressed against his and he heard her sigh too.

"It's been a long time, Castle." She said, head falling on his shoulder. "It's been a long time since someone, beyond me, was so thoughtful towards my dad. When he went through what he did, he burned a lot of bridges that haven't been rebuilt. It's been the two of us since then. I can't thank you enough for taking care of both of us, Rick."

"I would do anything for you." He whispered into her hair. "Anything. Always."

"I know." She replied, nodding. "I know that and I wish I could give you what you want. I just can't yet."

"I'll wait, you know." He leaned back to look at her.

"I didn't know," She admitted. "But now I do."

He grabbed her this time, hugging her gently, as to not hurt her. He never wanted to let go, and he desperately wanted to tell her that, but he held back, he didn't want to scare her away.

Kate took a breath and inhaled the scent of his cologne and aftershave. I could get used to this, She thought. Maybe, just maybe, she was more ready that she thought. The coming hours were going to be interesting and she was starting to feel exhausted.

"You look tired, Kate." Castle said, looking at her with concern.

"Yeah, I'm getting there." She smiled.

"How about we go watch some TV and if you fall asleep, you fall asleep?" He recommended.

"That's sounds good."

They both left his office and walked into the living room. Castle grabbed two blankets and the remote as Beckett settled in on the couch. He covered her with the softer of the two blankets and he sat down next to her, but not close enough to frighten her.

They both sat in comfortable silence as the television flickered on.

CLICK IT