So, apparently I lied. Sorry, guys. Although I don't think you'll be too upset when I tell you what I lied about (at least I hope not!). I said this was probably going to be the last chapter, but as I wrote it I realized that it had other ideas. So, as I think you'll be able to tell when you get to the end of this, it's not the last chapter, and I seriously doubt that the next chapter will be the last. I've also started another Castle story that I'm actually really proud of, and I wanted to wait until I finished this to start posting chapters, but depending on how long this wants to keep going and how impatient I get, I might end up posting updates to two stories at one time...ish. It would probably be alternating days or something. We shall see. But that's a little bit unrelated.

Reviewers: you make my life happy. I've said this before, but I'm so glad you like the way this is going, and I so appreciate all of your feedback. I didn't think I'd get another chapter done today, or even this weekend, but I got a little tiny bit distracted from the paper I really need to be writing tonight and this happened. Distraction has its benefits. I don't know how soon the next update will be, since I'm going into the most stressful finals week of my college career thus far (I'm only a sophomore, but still...), but I'll try to keep the updates coming as much as I can. In the meantime, getting lots of reviews would definitely improve my busy weekend! (Hint, hint?)

"Kate!" Martha greeted her, smiling as she glided into the kitchen. "So it was you at the door earlier. Good to see you. I certainly hope you're feeling better."

"Good to see you too, Martha," she responded politely. "And yeah, I'm feeling a lot better. But I guess I passed it on to… him."

Castle smirked, and she guessed he noticed her half-second's hesitation about what to call him while talking to his mother. At work she almost always called him Castle, but that didn't seem right when talking to his family. "Richard" was too formal, and "Rick"… not formal enough. With Alexis she usually went with the noncommittal "your dad," but calling him "your son" to Martha seemed unnecessarily awkward.

Martha waved her hand dismissively. "He deserves it. Staying at your apartment all night the way he did? He was asking for it."

Kate shrugged. "Oh, I don't know about that. He was actually really helpful."

Castle smiled, but there was something more behind it than pride or gloating. Something she couldn't quite place.

"Oh really?" Martha asked, raising her eyebrows.

Beckett nodded. "Yeah. Really."

"I see." She made a show of looking around the room and the turned to Castle. "Richard, where did Alexis go?"

He pointed vaguely upward.

"Ah." Without another word, Martha took her leave, apparently following Alexis.

When she was out of earshot, Beckett twitched her eyebrow down a little, not really making it to a full frown. "That was weird."

Castle shook his head, almost rolling his eyes. "That's Martha Rogers," he jotted.

Beckett nodded. "You know, I should go. You need your rest, and I need to be getting home."

He shook his head, putting a hand on her shoulder to keep her from getting up. He raised his eyebrows at her, nonverbally telling her to stay put. She sighed but nodded. When she'd made the decision to come here, she hadn't counted on not being allowed to leave. This was the third time she'd tried now. But when she had satisfied him that she wasn't going to move just yet he turned back to his tablet, writing again. It took him longer than anything had yet, and she wondered what he was writing that was filling so much of the tiny page.

Finally, he handed it to her. "You should stay," he'd written. "Have dinner with us. I know you don't have plans tonight, and I know I'm not going to get you sick. My mom's cooking, so you're taking your life into your hands there, but she always makes too much so we'll have plenty." A little further down the page, almost as a side note, a little something further to persuade her, he'd written, "Alexis would be thrilled. Don't tell her I told you this, but she really looks up to you."

She genuinely smiled when she read the last part. "Better shred this, then," she joked, holding up the page where he'd written.

He smiled and gave a little nod.

"Thanks Castle, that's nice, but I couldn't."

He started to say something but then remembered and sighed, motioning for her to give the notepad back. She slid it down the counter and he wrote something quickly, and then held it up for her to see. "Why not?" it said.

"Because you need to get some rest and I don't want to bug your family."

"Bug them?" he wrote. "Please. They like you more than they like me."

"What about Gina? Alexis told me she's staying away, but how would she feel about me being here?"

"What she doesn't know won't hurt her."

She rolled her eyes as she read it. "What if your mom tells her, or Alexis?"

"Alexis won't," he wrote, "and if my mother does she'll be out of a place to live."

"No. Sorry Castle, but I'm not comfortable with that." She stood up to go, officially for the third time since she'd gotten there.

Castle shook his head vigorously, writing. "I stayed at your place last night when you told me not to go," he wrote, dealing from the bottom of the deck, a mock-threatening look on his face as she read. "Won't you do the same for me?"

She sighed, realizing he'd won. "You're really gonna play that?"

"If it'll get you to stay, absolutely."

"Why do you want me to stay so badly?"

He shrugged, smiling gently. Apparently that was all she was going to get, but she understood. She hadn't told him she'd had plans wish Josh tonight, but he'd guessed it, and he didn't want her to have to spend the evening alone.

"Fine, I'll stay," she finally conceded. "But only if you promise to stop looking at me like that."

He nodded and tried to put on a more casual expression, but wound up leaning on the counter with his head resting on his hand, looking utterly miserable.

"Hey," she said, putting her hand on his arm to get his attention, something that, from the new look on his face, apparently startled him. "You don't have to entertain me. You look exhausted. Why don't you go get some sleep?"

"Tried," he rasped, apparently ignoring his notepad, possibly because he'd closed his eyes. "Can't. Pain."

She remembered that feeling all too well. "Head? Throat?"

He nodded.

"'Kay. Go to bed. I'll have Alexis bring you something."

She watched as he dragged himself up the stairs, once again feeling responsible. She followed him once he was out of sight, in search of his daughter. But Martha found her first, stopping her in the hallway with an odd sort of urgency. "Kate, good," she greeted her. "I need your help. I have an audition tomorrow and I cannot be sick, so I'm checking myself into the Plaza."

Beckett raised an eyebrow, a trace of a smile crossing her lips. "And you just decided this now?"

"Well I thought I could avoid it, but now Alexis is starting to get sick, and living here with the both of them I don't think I stand much of a chance."

Her heart leapt. "Oh God, Martha, I'm so sorry…"

But Martha stopped her. "No, my dear. These things happen. No one's holding you responsible. But what I need is for you to stay here and take care of them, just for this evening, if you don't mind. I know that there's no risk of you getting what they have."

She nodded. "Of course. Try to stop me."

Martha visibly relaxed. "Thank God for you, Kate Beckett. I'm sorry for any inconvenience."

"I'm sure it'll be fine. Castle's more… subdued, than usual, and I'm sure Alexis will be easy."

Martha smiled as though she knew something that Kate didn't. But she simply said, "Wonderful," and scurried past her, evidently to pack some of her things.

"Martha?" Kate asked, causing her to pause.

"What, dear?"

"Where can I find Alexis? And something to give Castle for a headache?"

"Alexis's room is the last door on your left, Richard's is that one," she said, pointing to the closed door they stood in front of. "And there should be Advil or Tylenol or something of that nature in the box Richard keeps in the closet. Second door on your right."

"Thanks, Martha," she said, trying to memorize all the information she'd just been given. She'd been in Castle's apartment a few times before, but she'd never been upstairs, so she was feeling a little lost in the large space.

Deciding that finding Alexis was still her first priority, she followed Martha's directions down the hall. There was a little hanging sign that said "Alexis," which Martha had failed to mention, but made the room easy enough to find. She knocked.

"Gram?" Alexis called from inside. "I thought you were leaving. You can just come in."

"No, Alexis, it's me. Kate." Alexis had only ever called her Detective Beckett out of respect and the fact that they didn't know each other all that well, but announcing herself that way felt entirely too much like she did at work when she went to someone's place to question them, and this was not the feeling she wanted to give Alexis.

"Oh." The way Martha had been acting, she'd almost expected to find the teenager in bed wrapped in blankets, but when she answered her door she didn't look any different than she had before she'd left the kitchen. "Hi."

"Hi. Uh, I talked to your grandma, and I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I'm fine," Alexis assured her with a roll of her eyes. "Gram's just overreacting. Shocker."

Beckett's extensive experience as a detective kept her from being completely able to believe Alexis. "So why does she think you're getting sick?"

"I sneezed, once, and she wigged out. People sneeze. I feel fine, I just have a really big test on Monday and I'm a little stressed."

"Oh. Well don't worry, you always do great in school, don't you?"

"Yeah, I always do great in school because I always study like crazy."

Kate nodded. "Okay. Carry on. But first, could you show me where I can find something to give you dad for his headache?"

Alexis nodded, led her out to the closet Martha must've been talking about, and got out a plastic box covered with stickers depicting teddy bears dressed as doctors. "Everything you'll need will be in here," Alexis said, setting the box on a little end table.

Kate smiled at the decorating job that had been done on the box. "Did you do this?"

"My dad did," Alexis said. "Years ago. We've had it since I was little."

"Really?" She couldn't help but laugh, picturing Castle at the card store picking out teddy bear doctor stickers, and then arranging them on this box. Castle as the father of a young child wasn't something she could easily picture. She almost wished she'd known him back then.

"Yeah. Originally it was just for me, when I got sick, but it's sort of become just the general medicine box. Our medicine cabinet is more for toothbrushes, curling irons… things you'd actually use in the bathroom."

"Makes sense. Okay, go ahead and go back to studying, I've got your dad."

"Thank you so much, Detective," Alexis said with an audible sigh of relief, turning back toward her room in a hurry.

"No problem. Oh, Alexis?" she said, making the girl turn back around.

"What?"

"I'm not at work. Call me Kate."

Alexis smiled a little and nodded once, wrapping her mind around it. "Kate."