A/N: Thank you everyone for your response to this story; it's truly been inspiring and heart-warming! :') I think I've replied to everyone who dropped a note on my last two chapters so I should be caught up on my messages/review responses now. If I missed you though, I'm so sorry, it wasn't intentional! Odds are, I won't miss you twice in a row so I'll definitely get you next time. ;)

Chapter 20

"Young lady, you do not use that language with me."

Oh crap, had she actually said that out loud? And to her dad? Kate was so lost in her own world, she didn't realize her dad had already picked up her call, let alone that she had just sworn in front of him—and she rarely swore.

"Shoot, I'm sorry. But Dad? Hey, do you think we can meet up later today?"

Kate didn't know what prompted her to phone her father. She really didn't. But she did know that she needed the perspective of an experienced adult and well, a father. She needed her dad. She needed someone who could help her make sense of the mess going on in her head right now. Normally, Lanie would be her go-to person, but there was a time for girl talk and a time for some fatherly advice. Now would require the latter.

"Sure, Katie. Is everything alright?"

"No, yeah, everything is fine. I just—I …" Kate trailed off. What should she say?

"Okay, Katie. How about I meet you in an hour at that diner/cafe we always go to?"

"The one with the obnoxious name but sinfully comfortable red booth chairs?"

Jim Beckett laughed a quiet chuckle that somehow managed to calm Kate down a bit. "Yeah, Katie. The one and only: Quality Café."

"Great. I'll see you there."

Jim Beckett always knew best. He would help her sort everything out. He had to.

"Gina, I need you to cancel tomorrow's press conference."

Alex had barely cleared the open shelves that served as his office doors before he was on the phone with his publisher.

He thought he was ready. After his conversation with his boss at NYU and all his conversations with his mother, he so thought he was prepared for all this. He had a plan; he knew what was supposed to happen next. Not this. Not what happened today though. His daughter. They targeted his daughter. His sweet, innocent daughter who had nothing to do with his career and the choices he'd made regarding such.

"Alex, what are you talking about? I've been working all morning to suss out the details for the press conference you insisted on last night!"

"Then you're in luck, Gina; you can take the rest of the day off. I'm sorry, I can't go through with it!"

"Alex—"

"Gina, they attacked my daughter! I can't put her through any more of this!"

"Alex! I need you to calm down. You need to think about the long run. You and I both know that this press conference has been a long time coming and in the end, it WILL be for the better. I promise you." When Alex didn't say anything in response, Gina continued in her no-nonsense voice that spoke of the logic he suspected she expected him to employ. "I have Paula working on things and we almost have our location booked. Look, this is happening and you and I both know it's for the best. Let me take care of things here and you just work on smoothing things down on your end, okay? I'll call you tonight with the final run through."

Alex was still quiet on his end of the line. The reason and calm in Gina's words were indisputable. He recognized what she was asking of him and somewhere deep down, he knew her to be right, too. But the entire car ride home from his daughter's school, he could not relax the constant cycle of thoughts that absolutely refused to settle their loop. Was he making the right choice? No, he needed to protect his daughter. He can't let this happen to her, ever again.

"Alex. Get some rest. I saw on the news what happened at Alexis's school. Go spend some time with your daughter. As much as you could use her support, she needs yours too."

"I know, Gina. I know," he replied quietly.

"Good. Then let me go and do my job. I'll talk to you soon, Alex."

Gina hung up before he even had the chance to say anything further. Not that he had much of a follow-up. Tomorrow's press conference would change everything, regardless of how much he wanted to fight it. At first, it seemed like a brilliant idea—gather all the reporters in one place to update them on things that were technically none of their business but since they've made it their business, he might as well play at their game if he wanted to survive it. Now? He wasn't so sure. What if instead of laying his cards all out, they took it as an invitation to poke into every private corner of his life? He could probably survive it, but can his family? Of course, it was at that moment, his daughter decided to pop her head into his study.

"Hey Dad?" Alexis approached, tentatively.

"Yes pumpkin?"

"That was Gina, wasn't it?" she asked hesitantly, as she broached his desk to stand before him.

"Yeah."

"She wants you to do a press conference?"

"Didn't I teach you better than to eavesdrop?"

Alexis had the courtesy to blush slightly before she continued with a pointed stare. That's his daughter, always so stubborn and needing answers.

Alex gave a soft sigh before responding to her question anyways. "Yeah, honey. She and I planned for a press conference yesterday. I'm sorry I didn't tell you about it sooner."

"Dad, are you sure that's what you want to do?" Curious, so curious. He barely answered her question and she was already lobbying another at him.

"To be honest, I'm not so sure anymore. I don't want to do anything that will make yours or your grandmother's life any more difficult."

"Dad, you can't hold back on our accounts."

"But Alexis. What happened today—"

"Was a one time, novelty occurrence. I believe in you dad. I'm strong; I can take it. And so can Grams. You should do what you think is best—be it suing the NYPD, giving up on Richard Castle, or whatever—yes, Grams told me all about your various … considerations. The point is though, whatever you choose, it's not going to change how I look at you."

Oh Alexis. His sweet, innocent daughter. She was afraid he was holding back because of her? Well, he was, but not for the reasons she believed. How did he get so lucky to have a daughter like her?

"Listen to Gina, Dad. I promise you, I'm okay. Today was just a shock. Nothing I can't handle in the future." And just for his benefit, Alexis threw on the most reassuring smile he could expect from her.

"Well, if this daughter o' mine says so, who am I to say no? But really? Must I listen to Gina?" At that, he makes a face in response, to ease some of the tension. There had been one too many serious conversations in this study as of late.

"She's not half bad! Besides Grams and I, she's the only other person who can keep you on your toes."

"Hey, I only dance on my toes for you! Don't go announcing that to other people!"

"Dadddddd," Alexis whined, but the smile that continued to blossom on her face into something more genuine let Alex know that they were good. He knew what he had to do now. He had to continue on with the press conference. It was the right decision and after this gushing support from his daughter, there's no way he could let her down.

"Come on, princess. Since you're home now with the rest of the day off, how about some ice cream sundaes with nutella and gummy bears while we watch cheesy movie marathons till we want to gouge our eyes out?"

"Dad, I'm fourteen. Too old to be a princess."

"Does that mean you're also too old for ice cream and movie marathons?"

"You can never be too old for that," Alexis smirked before she sprinted out of his room screaming, "I'll pick the movie while you get started on the sundaes!"

His daughter, bless her. He doesn't even mind that she left him with the shorter end of the stick to make the sundaes himself. She'd helped him lift a weight off his shoulders and for that, he would do anything for her. Even if it means their lives may get slightly more complicated for a little while longer, he would do whatever it took to keep his daughter safe and eternally carefree as she is now. That's what a father does for their kid. They make sure their kid is happy and stays happy. Whatever it takes.

Jim Beckett sat in the small diner, on the corner of some slightly busy intersection, nursing a single cup of coffee. He arrived at the diner about fifteen minutes before he knew his daughter would come. Katie has always been punctual but as a lawyer, he liked to be prepared. He liked to walk into a location and feel familiar or comfortable with it, be it a courtroom or this diner he and his daughter often frequented. He liked the control of knowing his environment, like how every time he walked into this diner, he knew he can always find a seat in one of their homey red booths and the flowers on the table by the salt and pepper shaker will smell fresh even though they're fake.

He sat facing the door, not wanting to miss his daughter whenever she should enter. And he just waited. He knew it was important, whatever this was, if his little Katie was this adamant on meeting with him so last minute. The lawyer in him wanted to try and guess at all the possible reasons for their unplanned get together, but he knew it was useless to torment himself with unlikely scenarios just so he could practice employing the process of elimination.

Lucky for him, his daughter came earlier than usual so he didn't have to play devil's advocate with himself to debate the benefits of brainstorming worse case scenarios. Wow, she must have been really impatient. What on earth could have happened?

"Katie."

He was up and out of his seat the moment he spied his daughter through the door. Next thing he knew, his arms were only half raised when she already threw herself into his embrace. For a moment, they just stood there, with her head against his shoulders, and the world was still.

In reality though, he knew that hug didn't last more than a couple seconds, but for him, having his daughter in his arms always felt like an eternity. Every hug brought him back to her childhood when she clung to him with all the innocence of her youth.

"Hey Dad."

Katie's eyes were clear so that means she hadn't been crying, but the puffiness in her cheeks and her small sniffles signaled that it wasn't far off. It's a good thing he mentioned to the waitress when he arrived that they wouldn't need any further accommodations beyond the initial coffee he ordered. They've had long enough talks in this diner that the staff knew well to grant them their privacy whenever they asked for it.

"What's up Katie?"

"I was dating someone. Did you know that Dad?" she announced humorlessly.

"Oh, Katie, that's great!" The look his daughter gave him at his exclamation however made it seem like it was anything but. "You said 'was' didn't you? Why the past tense?"

"It was only for a week, but damn, Dad, I don't think I've ever connected to someone as much as him. And I think I screwed it up."

"What do you mean?"

"I … I … I arrested him and blew his cover but I was doing my job and I won't ever apologize for doing my job but I think in this case I should and I'm so confused because he looks so lost and scared and I think I hurt him and I didn't mean to but he hurt me too, because he lied to me, and I thought I could trust him, but he proved to be just like every other guy, except he's not like any other guy and—"

"Katie, honey, I need you to slow down. I'm not following."

Jim has never seen his daughter this flustered, and that word hardly does the moment justice. To say his Katie was flustered would be mean she's was only disorganized with her thoughts, but this Katie is lost, angry, confused, hurt, but most of all, unhappy. And that was not an emotion he was okay with. He needs to fix this. Somehow.

"Can you start from the beginning? Does this have anything to do what that NYPD lawsuit I've been hearing about?"

Kate took a deep breath before she spoke. "I met a guy earlier this week and we really hit it off. He works as a professor for NYU. Coincidentally, I caught a case this week where someone was killing people the way a certain mystery novelist did in his novels."

"Let me guess, Richard Castle?"

"The one and only. Anyways, our case kept hitting dead ends until, well, we had to find out who Richard Castle was since our case kept coming back to him."

"You found out who Richard Castle is?"

"I thought you said you've been keeping up with the news Dad?" she half-joked, but the smile in her voice didn't reach her eyes. "Yeah, I found out who Richard Castle is. Unfortunately, so did the rest of the world."

"I don't understand, what does this have to do with anything?"

"Turns out the guy I was dating? He's Richard Castle."

"Oh."

Why must the universe have such a twisted sense of humor? Isn't it enough that his wife and the mother of his child was taken away from them prematurely, but now it has to throw this in his daughter's face? And her job. Damn that job of hers. He's so proud of her, never a question of that, but he couldn't stand how much this job of hers has taken more from his child than he likes. When it didn't keep her too busy to date—not that she needed a man to be happy but she's not any happier now without one—it pulled her down a rabbit hole when it came to his late wife. And now? It ruined the one thing that helped her crawl out of that proverbial rabbit hole. It shattered the illusion that was Richard Castle and asked her to confront the author she idolized, as a potential murder suspect. How could life throw all that at his precious daughter?

"I feel like I'm standing at a crossroads and I have to choose between two possible futures."

"Why do you think you have to choose?" And what two futures?

"I could run to Alex—that's his name, his real name—I could run to him and tell him I'm sorry, for putting him in the mess that he's in. I could apologize for hurting him and his daughter in my quest for justice. That would definitely absolve my guilt and probably clear up the business with the NYPD lawsuit."

"But would that make you happy?"

Even though his daughter took a moment to think over her answer, he already knew what she was going to say before she said it.

"No."

"What's the other future?"

"I keep to my stubborn self, lose my job, Alex stays hurt, and so will I."

"Will that make you happy?"

"No."

His daughter wasn't happy with her options. How could she be when they asked her to choose between herself and her interests, two things so fundamental to who she is as a person? He doesn't know if what he plans on suggesting will work but maybe what she needs is another fork in the road, another outlook to consider.

"You know, I didn't sleep well that whole first year after you got out of the academy. I hear sirens in the night and imagine you off in the dark or some place … I had nightmares where it swallowed you whole."

"Dad, I don't—"

Jim Beckett continued on as if his daughter hadn't just interrupted him, "Your mother always said that life never delivers anything that we can't handle. I mean, she lived by that. Called it Johanna's immutable law of the universe. And for years I thought she was wrong. Because I couldn't handle losing her. Now? I can almost hear her whisper 'I told you so'."

"Four of mom's favorite words." A smile. He got a smile out of his somber Katie. So he kept at it.

"Look, she was a devout believer of the truth. And if she were here right now, she'd tell you the truth could never hurt you. And this may be your mother's way of reaching out to you, Katie, and reminding you that the truth is still your weapon to wield."

He gave her a hopeful look then. He's not sure if that advice did anything to help her but in the end, it had to be her decision to make, whatever fork she chose to follow. He could only be there to support her through it.

"The truth…"

Katie remained pensive for a few more moments, seeming to test out that word—"truth"—on her tongue. But "pensive"—that was a word he could tolerate. It was much more preferable to the "flustered" she was when this conversation began. Because pensive means she's on her way to a decision. It may not be one she agrees with, but hopefully it will be on that she can be happy with. And that's all he could ever hope for his daughter. For her to be happy. That's what every father wishes for their daughter.