A/N: Yay! Castle returned this week from their summer hiatus! And here's a new chapter update. Castle is just everywhere this week. ;)

Once again, thank you to all those who've been following and reviewing my story. I'm sorry I haven't had the time and won't tonight to reply to your reivews or private messages, but I promise to do that as soon as I can. :) And lv2bnsb1, I'm sorry it took me so long but I finally got around to fulfilling your request.

I hope you all enjoy this chapter. ^^

Chapter 13

It was a Friday afternoon and Alex was feeling pretty good about himself. He just helped the police break a case wide open. And that thrill. That rush of working with Kate to build theories and bounce ideas off each other. It was one thing to write about the fast thinking his characters engage in, but completely another when he had the opportunity to participate in the repartee himself. It was exciting.

The rest of the afternoon after the precinct actually found Alex in front of a computer screen typing furiously away before he had to get ready for his afternoon seminar with his graduate students. Never did he expect to get back into the groove so soon after the death of Derrick Storm—he hasn't even had the time to mourn his passing!—but after his encounters with Detective Beckett, he found the threads of a story kept weaving together in his head. And given his little taste of police procedure and conjecture? Well, let's just say his interest was most definitely piqued.

Alex was still working away at his potentially new novel when a sound at his door interrupted his rapid thoughts and halted his speeding fingers. Without looking up, he shouted out permission for his visitor to enter his tiny corner office deep in the English department slightly off the main campus at NYU.

"Hey Dad,"

Upon hearing the voice of his little girl, did he finally raise his head. Though his head was still spinning with plot lines and dialogues yet unspoken, for his daughter he would always lay them aside for a moment with her.

"Alexis! What a surprise. What are you doing here?" Alex exclaimed as he closed his laptop, and sat straighter to give his daughter his full attention.

"I wanted to see how you were doing?" Alexis replied, from her place by his door, before shyly adding, "And maybe ask about how your lunch with Detective Beckett went."

"Ahaha, well come on in honey. I have a class to head towards soon but that won't stop me from seeing my favorite daughter."

At that, Alexis scoffed a bit but still smiled as she turned to shut the door before walking over to the seat placed in front of her father's desk.

"Come on, Dad. I'm your only daughter."

"Be that as it may, my statement still stands. But hey, why aren't you in school missy?"

"Dad, stop avoiding my questions. It's already 4. Classes finished at least an hour ago."

"There's no getting around you, is there?" Alex chuckled. Sometimes, he wondered how his daughter ever got to be so much more serious and mature than he. There was no getting around her. "Okay okay. Uhhh, lunch didn't happen with Kate."

"What? Why?"

"Honey, please don't be mad?"

"Dad! Please tell me you didn't do something stupid. Murder investigation aside, I kind of like her!"

"Really, sweetie? You do?"

"Yeah, Dad, I do. She's different. Not like the other women you've dated before, and definitely not like your ever popular female fans who ask for 'signed chests.'"

"Never letting me live that one down huh? It was only in a fan letter!" When his daughter didn't seem to buy his offence, he just rolled with the punches. "Haha, fine, yeah, that one I didn't mind so much. But Kate, she's definitely something. For once, I've actually found someone who can come up to me and say something new."

"So, Dad, what happened with lun—"

Alexis was cut off by the sound of another knock on the door. Unlike his daughter however, this intruder into Alex's office didn't wait to hear him shout back, "come in," before entering. Nor did said person wait to check if he was occupied or not, for his new visitor spoke without pretense.

"Professor Rodgers? Your class is about to start soon and one of your graduates students mentioned they—"

Out of respect to his daughter, Alex decided to cut off the teaching assistant to his seminar that evidently, he must be late to. "Jane? Thank you. I understand. I'll leave momentarily."

"But Professor—"

The swift glance Alex gave towards his daughter finally registered in his TA that he had company. Blushing slightly but recovering quickly, the cute 20-something brunette apologized sincerely before leaving with the promise to ready the class for his appearance.

Looking back at his daughter, Alex gave her a look of apology of his own as he stood to gather his things, laptop and papers all jammed into one bag. "Alexis, honey, I'm sorry. Looks like I have to go, but hey, thanks for stopping by. I don't want to keep you waiting so why don't you go on home first and I'll see you then?"

"Sure, Dad, but don't think you were saved by the 'bell!'"

"Oh I wouldn't dream of it." Alex laughed as he shouldered his bag with one hand and wrapped his arm around his daughter with the other. He kissed his daughter's head before sending her off down the hall towards home. Locking his office door quickly after Alexis walked away, Alex proceeded to his graduate seminar to discuss the fine workings of Austen and her revolutionary contribution to English literature.

"Turn to page 394—I mean, 194. Sorry."

As Alex waited for his students to take out their copies of Pride and Prejudice, he put on the reading glasses that he rarely used. But after typing furiously away at his computer since he returned from the precinct, his eyes needed a little more help given all their previous strain from staring at a computer screen.

Alex gathered his materials and went to sit within the circle of his students, facing them as they all faced each other. With a class of only ten or so students, Alex was lucky enough to be able to run his classes as he liked, full of discussion and analysis while just sitting around and talking.

"So class, what do you think is the importance of social class in this novel, especially as it impacts the relationship between Elizabeth and Darcy. By this point in the novel, do you believe he is truly a changed man?"

"I think social class is of the utmost importance in this novel but of course that's a given, professor," replied one of Alex's students, a boy by the name of Nathan. "It's built into the very first sentence of the novel: 'it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.'"

"Alright then, Nathan, since you pointed that out, let's deconstruct that first sentence. We all know how important a first sentence is to a novel. It's the first thing a reader will read and if the reader abandons the work even a page in, it'll be the only thing they ever read. 'Call me Ishmael,' 'it was the best of times, it was the worst of times,' or even the ever popular. 'it was a dark and stormy night"-all these quotes, you know of them, correct?" Alex didn't bother to wait for agreement before he continued with his point, "Whether or not you recognize that first quote from Moby Dick or the second one from Dicken's Tale of Two Cities, those words have stuck with us long after the rest of the book has been devoured. What about Austen's first sentence strikes a chord with her audience that it repeats itself in modern time today?"

Alex didn't have to wait long before another one of his students spoke up. Unlike discussions with undergraduate students, his grad students aren't taking his classes to simply fulfill a GE requirement or because they feign an interest in the matter. These students actually enjoy the English language and literature and all combinations thereof.

"Well, Austen's first sentence, though a comment on social class, also indirectly touches on gender roles and how women (versus men) are viewed," spoke a girl by the name of Molly. At Alex's silent attention, she continued, "A successful women back then was someone who could find a husband. She would move from her father's home into her husband's—always under the jurisdiction of a male."

"I agree," another student, Susan, jumped in. "Which is interesting, because even though Austen was such a revolutionary woman for her time, providing for her own means through her writing, she still had to play by the rules of society and it shows in her writing."

It's like the floodgates opened because soon, everyone was just jumping in, moving from one topic to the next.

"Mhmm, yeah, Susan, you definitely have a point there. It's funny that even though she writes of satires regarding her society, she was still a victim of its machinations. She couldn't even publish her first novel under her name for fear of the reception she would receive," another student, Seamus, mentioned.

"Oh, come on Seamus. That could've just been a publicity ploy," rebutted a boy by the name of Jon. "Take that Richard Castle fella. I bet you his books wouldn't be half as popular as they are if we knew who the man behind the book is."

"Jon, you're comparing modern society to early 19th century England. That's not a fair comparison and you know it," Molly argued back. "It actually is acceptable for women to work for a living now, but even so, it's still a male dominated culture. Take JK Rowling for example. Her publisher told her she shouldn't use her real name because the Harry Potter series wouldn't be as popular with the boys if it was penned by a woman. So she took on 'JK,' even though she doesn't have a middle name, to make it more ambiguous to a casual reader."

Alex was so caught up in the discussion his students were having, moving from his original question yet somehow still retaining the essence of it, that he failed to hear the buzzing of his phone in his shoulder bag. It always fascinated him when his students brought up his alter ego, especially when the novel in discussion was so far from modern murder mysteries. However, if he was less involved in his students, like any careless professor, he would have noticed that was the fifth missed call in a row he was receiving from his publisher. Gina had just got off the phone with that Detective Ryan where he mandated she tell him the true identity of Richard Castle and against her better wishes, she finally had to give up that knowledge.

If only Alex had looked into his bag for just a moment, and found his phone, Gina would have told him that the police are on their way to pick him up. Instead of having discussions whereby his students were defending his alter ego, he's about to face a very real interrogation where he must defend his alter ego himself.

So, imagine Alex's surprise when the doors to his seminar room opened up to a Detective Beckett, flanked by the Irish and Hispanic detective he recognized from the precinct. The two detectives stayed by the doorway, probably to block his escape if he attempted one, but his mind was so far away from that conclusion. All he could focus on was Detective Beckett—Kate—who kept her determined stride towards him. Did she look a little angry?

The room had already hushed down at the sight of the detectives filling the entryway; all eyes were directed towards the detective that continued to walk purposefully towards the professor in charge of the seminar.

Kate stopped immediately before Alex and coldly uttered the very words he never wanted to hear, especially not in front of his students, "Alexander Rodgers? We need to ask you some questions about Richard Castle and a murder that took place earlier this week."