Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

So, this chapter is a little shorter than the last, but I hope you will enjoy it just as much.

I'm going to try to get the next chapter up later today as this one is so short.

Kate listened to the ringing while she waited for him to pick up. The conversation with Lanie had shaken her and now she needed the one thing all girls needed sometimes.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Dad,"

"Katie! How are you, honey?"

Her dad's voice comforted her instantly and Kate sighed into the phone.

"I don't know, Dad, but I think I'm in the middle of making a huge mistake…" Kate heard her own voice thicken and she knew that her Dad had heard it too.

"Kate, what's wrong?"

"I'm okay, Dad," Kate reassured, knowing her father's mind needed settling before she continued. "Well, physically I'm fine…"

From the sounds she could hear, she knew her dad had moved into his favourite chair, getting ready for what he must already know was going to be a much needed heart to heart for her.

"But emotionally?"

"Emotionally, not so much, Dad; Castle left…"

She could hear the grin in his voice as he spoke again. "And yet you've been trying to convince me for years that the day he did you'd throw a block party..."

"No, Dad, there's more to it than that…"

"Isn't there always? Talk to me, Katie," his voice was so calming, so mellow that Kate went back in time to when that voice helped soothe away the pain of skinned knees and bruises. This time, it wasn't as simple as a band-aid and a kiss better. So Kate took a deep breath and told the tale, all of it, from the very beginning. How they'd found Sophie, Castle's reaction, knowing as soon as she'd seen him with the baby what he was going to do and what that would mean for them – what it would mean for her. She didn't leave anything out, not even the less than personally edifying moments, this was her Dad and she needed him to know.

"…and then Lanie called me a coward if I let 'someday' stand between us," Kate said, not able to stop a small pout from creeping into her voice.

"I see."

When he didn't offer anything else, Kate frowned into the phone.

"What do you see, Dad? 'Cause I could really use some help right about now…"

"Ah, honey, what I see is that I wouldn't give back on single moment I had with your mother. Even knowing what was going to happen, I wouldn't trade a second of it for the entire world. Would you?"

Kate felt her eyes glisten and her throat constrict. "No, I wouldn't."

"And if I had known what was going to happen, honey, it would just have made me cherish the time we did have together even more."

Kate felt a tear trail down her cheek.

"Katie, if you are holding back because you don't feel something for him, or you don't feel enough for him to take the chance when there is a baby to consider, that's fine. But the truth is that none of us really know how long we have on this Earth, Katie and I've learned the hard way that you need to make every single second mean something and treasure it."

Kate listened to her Dad inhale a shaky breath before he continued. "Kate, when you needed me the most, when you really needed me, I was too buried under my own pain to be there for you. The biggest regret I have, and the one I shall remember to my dying day wasn't losing your mom, Katie, it was losing myself – and very nearly losing you in the process. Something tells me that Richard Castle is a stronger man than I was, honey; he's not going to let his own pain stop him from being there – for all of you. Don't let my weakness cloud your judgement now."

"Dad…" Kate sighed, not wanting her father to feel any more guilt, but also know how undeniably honest every word she had heard had been.

"Honey, listen to me, if he means as much to you as this conversation suggests, even if being with him means you have to take the package deal, and all the ifs, buts and maybes that comes along with that, don't walk, Katie. Run. "

Kate laughed at the same time that she wiped another tear away. "Daddy, I think maybe he's the one."

Kate knew that Jim Beckett was smiling brightly on the other end of the phone. "Good, because I've been hinting for a while now that I was ready to be a granddad."

TBC….

AN: Kate's relationship with her Dad has always been something I'd wanted to see explored more on the show. Sucker Punch gave us that lovely moment between them, but I couldn't write this fic without at least attempting to probe some of the issues that Kate must have as a result of her canon history.

I hope it reads true to what we know of Kate and Jim Beckett.

Thanks for reading and there will be another chapter later today if I get my butt in gear.

Callie.