Sorry about the wait. It's been awhile since I updated this. I got a little distracted, which was probably particularly annoying because I left you on a cliffhanger. But at long last, Chapter 12 is done. Enjoy! And review, please? :) Thanks!

So many thoughts and emotions had been whirling in his head all morning that it almost made him physically dizzy. Worry about Alexis. Guilt that she was sick. Happiness that Kate was here, in his house. Immeasurable pleasure that she and Alexis were getting along so well. Confusion over the new developments in his relationship with Kate, what they meant and what he was supposed to do next. Annoyance that he was still dating Gina, and concern about how best, most nobly and most efficiently, to break it off, and whether he should at all. Was his relationship with Gina really the only thing that was holding Kate back? What if he ended things with her and Kate changed her mind? Or what if he'd gotten the wrong idea, and she wasn't interested in any sort of a romantic relationship with him after all?

Apparently his overwhelm had caused him to withdraw a little, not something he was known for doing. He'd been so preoccupied with his own thoughts that he'd distanced himself from everything going on around him, and of course Kate had noticed. He should've expected that. He hadn't, but he should've. But her little rant… that he had not expected, would not have expected. It was only the second time he'd ever heard her make such a blatant admission that she cared about him, the first being the night before, right before they kissed. It had nothing to do with work, with Alexis, or with anything else for that matter. She was concerned about him, just him, about what it was that had him so distracted.

He realized that he hadn't actually told her anything as he closed the door to his study, and he felt a little guilty about it. Her speech had been very un-Beckett, and he knew it must have taken a lot for her to even make it, yet he still hadn't answered her. In his defense, it wasn't like there was one clear answer anyway. It was just that he had a lot on his mind, and he couldn't have really explained all of it to her even if he'd tried. Richard Castle was nothing if not impulsive, and when the brainwave came, he had to act on it. And he had to act on it now.

The thought that had caused the impulse had gone something like this. Here was Beckett. She was gorgeous, she was brilliant, and she was in his kitchen. He cared about her, and was willing to do most anything for her. In the last day or so, she'd done so much for him and for Alexis. If she really felt about him even remotely similarly to the way he felt about her, which it was beginning to seem as though she might… then what business did he have being with any other woman?

Even as the thought flashed through his mind, it seemed to clear away a lot of the cobwebs. He felt like he had more air, more space to move. And without giving it another second of consideration, he picked up his phone and dialed.

"Oh hey Rick," she answered, "Are you feeling better?"

"Yeah, much better, thanks. But listen, Gina. We need to talk…"

"Okay, what's for breakfast?" he asked, bouncing back into the kitchen. Yes, that was exactly the word for what he was doing. Bouncing.

She looked at him blankly. She would've been annoyed if she wasn't so relieved, but the two feelings seemed to cancel each other out and she found that she couldn't respond at all right away. She popped the toast in for a few more seconds to warm it before turning back to face him. "Where the hell did you go?"

"My office. You're making toast? Huh. Less ambitious than the last time you cooked here."

"What were you doing?" she asked, ignoring his comment about her breakfast choice.

"Don't worry about it."

Did he really think she was going to go for that? "Castle. Come on. You're weirdly quiet all morning, then you disappear into your office for fifteen minutes and all of a sudden everything's back to normal. What changed?"

"What difference does it make? Let's eat, I'm hungry."

Part of her could see what he was saying. She'd wanted her annoying, ten-year-old Castle back, and here he was. She could feel the familiar exasperation building inside of her, but honestly, it wasn't a bad feeling. It was actually kind of refreshing. He had become a sort of escape for her. When things were getting too heavy at work, when she was a little too aware of the realities of the world around her, he reminded her not to take everything so seriously. He'd shown her that a well-placed quip could almost always lighten the mood without disrespecting the situation, and while his placement was sometimes a bit off, most of the time he kept her grounded in a way that nothing or no one else could. Sure she got frustrated with him, but it wasn't a bad kind of frustration. It was just… Castle.

But this morning, everything seemed to have gotten flipped around, and it was a little disconcerting. She didn't know the reason that he'd been so off in the first place, and now she didn't know why he was back to his carefree self, but shouldn't she just be satisfied that he was?

No, she decided. She shouldn't. He was her friend, and she wanted real answers. If he were in her shoes, he would keep pushing until she gave in and told him. And eventually, she would. But she was not Castle, and he was not her. She could wait. She might not exactly describe herself as patient, but her attention span was much longer than that of the average cocker spaniel, something that could not have been said for Castle. Rather than trying to push him until he broke, she would employ another strategy. She would wait. Maybe poke him occasionally, when the circumstances were right. Observe. Investigate. Eventually, either he would tell her what had happened, or she would figure it out for herself. Either outcome would be fine with her.

So instead of pushing, she put out two plates. "Okay, fine," she conceded, dropping the subject altogether, aware that if she acted like she didn't care it would throw him off and make him more willing to tell her. For someone who put so much thought into the workings of the minds of others, basic reverse psychology often worked surprisingly well on Castle.

He looked a little taken aback by her lack of a response, which was what she'd been hoping for, but didn't directly say anything about it. "You could've eaten, you know," he told her instead. "You didn't have to wait for me."

"I wasn't waiting for you," she lied. "It just… wasn't done yet."

"Uh-huh. Because it takes so long to make toast and pour juice." He got a couple different kinds of jelly out of the fridge and set them on the counter.

She rolled her eyes and sat in one of the stools. He took the one beside her, pushing the two plates into position. All they were doing was eating breakfast, but there was something about it that felt strangely intimate. It was just the two of them, sharing a meal, making pointedly pointless conversation, not about work, not about Alexis, not about what had happened last night. Not about anything that mattered. But still, it was nice. She found herself wishing that they did this more often. Just talked, for talking's sake. Just spent time together, for no reason other than to spend time together.

They sat there talking long after they'd finished eating. Every time the conversation lagged and one of them was about to get up, the other would think of something else to say that would keep it going, dragging the moment on for as long as possible.

But eventually the moment did have to end, and it did when Rick announced that he wanted to go check on Alexis.

Kate nodded. It had been well over an hour, approaching two. She was surprised he'd made it this long, to be honest. "You know, I should go anyway. I need to change." She looked at Alexis's sweats, a little too short for her despite that Rick had said they were long on his daughter. "Into something that's actually mine."

"No, you can't," he protested. "Alexis—"

She smiled, rolling her eyes, and interrupted him. "Alexis will be fine, and you're more than capable of taking care of her by yourself. I'm positive you've done it before."

Grudgingly, he nodded. "I know. But you have to admit, we do make a good team. And not just with solving murders, evidently. We had the whole parenting thing down pretty well, there."

She blushed at the thought of "parenting" with Castle. It was too soon, much too soon, for her to even remotely begin to think on those terms. He wasn't wrong, though. "We do make a good team," she admitted with a stiff nod.

"You're gonna say goodbye to her before you leave." It wasn't a question. It was a statement, almost a command. He'd actually said it with a surprising amount of force, his expression dead serious.

She was a little surprised, a little unsure where this had come from, but she wondered if it had something to do with what he'd told her last night, about her being one of the few women in his life he'd allowed to get close to his daughter. She also wondered if it was related at all to his preoccupation earlier, but this didn't seem like the time to ask. "Yeah, of course I will." She hadn't been planning on leaving without saying goodbye in the first place. "My stuff's upstairs anyway."

"Good," he said, his face suddenly softening. "Okay. I'm gonna go check on her now, then."

"I'll just go with you," she offered, "I'll say bye to her now."

"Good," he repeated, making his way upstairs.

She followed him, and when they got to Alexis's bedroom she was at her desk with a textbook in front of her.

"Is this why you sent us away?" Castle practically demanded. "So you could study without us bothering you?"

"Dad, I need to study," she rasped. "I have a test tomorrow."

"What you need to do is relax and focus on getting better so you can go to school tomorrow."

"I'm not just gonna lay here and do nothing all day. I have stuff I need to get done. That can't all just stop."

"Yes, it can. You can relax today, watch some TV, drink that tea you like, eat soup, and start to feel better. Then tomorrow you can skip school and get caught up on your work."

"It doesn't work like that!" She grimaced. Apparently her attempted yell had hurt her throat. She continued in a loud whisper. "If I miss a day of school, I'll just be even more behind tomorrow. And no way am I skipping school if I'm better. But if I don't study and I do get better and I go to school tomorrow, I'll fail my history test."

"I'm sure you won't fail."

The panic in Alexis's eyes still building, she turned to Kate for support. She swallowed carefully as if she was preparing to say something, but Kate stepped forward, stopping her. "Hey, Alexis, don't try to talk if it hurts," she told her gently. Then she turned to the girl's father, tone just a little sharper. "Rick, get her more tea." He started to protest, but she gave him a look and he left the room without a word. Alexis gave her a smile of gratitude, which Kate returned with a roll of her eyes. "He loves you, he just gets a little carried away sometimes."

Alexis nodded. She knew this.

"I don't see any reason why you can't study, but your dad's right, you do need to relax." She remembered the promise she'd made the girl the night before, almost forgotten. "Do you still want me to help you?"

She hesitated, but then gave a tiny nod.

Kate smiled. Alexis was a sweet girl, even if she had been a little crabby lately, and it was nice to be looked up to. "That's fine, I'm happy to do it. And don't worry about your dad, I'll talk to him."

Alexis got up from her desk and went to Kate, wrapping her arms around the detective. She wasn't sure how to react at first, but it was only a second before she gave in, returning the hug. It looked like she wasn't going home right away after all.

Adding this note at the last possible second because I wanted to mention it but forgot. About the scene at the beginning from Castle's POV... I thought about writing it this way briefly, but then decided I wasn't going to because I wanted to keep it consistent, and this whole story has primarily been from Beckett's POV. I guess not so much in the first few chapters... but lately it has been. Anyway. But then a reviewer suggested that they'd like to see something from Castle's viewpoint, so I started thinking about it again, and I thought it might work, so I started writing the scene just to see how it went... and I liked how it turned out. So here you have it. :) So, see? Sometimes reviewing pays off. I mean, it always pays off as far as leading to a very happy author, but I always seriously think about all of your suggestions, and sometimes I use them. And sometimes it turns out pretty well. :) So thanks! And yeah, I did kind of work in a shameless plea for reviews there... which wasn't my original intention, believe it or not.