Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 14 – Making Music
Kate stood outside Castle's door. Her eyes were leveled to where she knew they'd meet his. She was unaware that her head was already tilted to receive the kiss he'd place at the hollow of her cheek, where her smile curved up when he greeted her. This was her favorite detail about coming to Castle's—and no small part of the reason she looked forward to arriving on her own rather than with Castle. He'd taken to greeting Kate with a kiss on the cheek when she entered his home. It afforded her a small measure of closeness with the man she wouldn't admit wanting to be close to.
It started a few months ago when she arrived with the boys, Lanie and Jenny for poker night. She allowed it because, she reasoned, he'd just done the same thing to Lanie and Jenny—in front of their other halves, no less. He was just being gentlemanly and gracious when greeting his guests. If his kiss on Kate's cheek lingered a little warmer, a little lower, they all pretended not to notice.
Kate knocked and dropped her head in surprise when her eyes found the space above Alexis' head rather than the expected blue of Rick's eyes. Except the one time she'd dropped by knowing Rick wasn't home, Castle had never not been the one standing on the other side of the door.
"Alexis, hey!" She stepped in, pulling the girl into a loose, one-armed hug. She'd have hugged her more fully, but Alexis was holding her violin off to her side.
"Practicing?"
"Yeah. Have to when Dad's not here."
"Where is your dad?"
"Soup kitchen. First Sunday of every month."
"Ah." Soup kitchen? Kate registered brief surprise figuring he'd have told her of his good deeds, but then immediately remembered Castle in tights at the Roger's Play Atrium. Always something new. And he thinks I'm an onion? Still a bit confused, Kate asked, "Why do you have to practice when he's not here? He loves to hear you play."
"I know. That's why I'm surprising him with an Alexis original for his birthday."
"Really? I didn't know you knew how to compose your own pieces! That's pretty advanced."
"Tell me about it. I thought it was a good idea at the time. I mean, what do you get for a man who bought himself property on the moon and already has every gadget from his own soda-making machine to laser tag?"
'I've been struggling with that myself." Kate grinned. "What do you do?"
"I know, right?" Kate laughed at Alexis' use of Rick's words. "I've gone the tie route, the make him dinner route...He has more than enough pictures of me…Hey, you could always give him a picture of you. He'd like that."
Kate laughed. "Alexis, I'm not giving your father a picture of me. He'd probably draw on a fake moustache or use it for target practice or somehow alter it and share it with the whole precinct just to embarrass me."
"Doubt it, Kate. Besides, if he wanted to do that, he'd have done it a long time ago." Kate dropped an eyebrow. "Photos on his phone."
"I told him not to take pictures at crime scenes."
Alexis smiled. If Kate thought the photos on her dad's phone were of crime scenes, she wasn't going to get him in trouble.
"So, do I get a sneak peek at your piece?"
"Uh, it's still a work in progress. And it's short—only like two minutes. A little longer, if I can figure out how to get passed the part I'm stuck at."
"I'd still love to hear it. I mean, if you want to. I won't judge, I promise."
"Actually, I could use a judge. Ash and Gram aren't exactly discriminating. All they say is how great I am."
"We'll they're right." She watched Alexis face drop. The girl was far too hard on herself. Kate stepped right in front of her and put her face right in front of Alexis', like she often did when she wanted a suspect to know she meant business in the interrogation room. "I promise to forget it's you playing and just listen to the composition."
Alexis exhaled a sigh of relief and moved to the stool she had pulled up near the music stand, positioned just off to the side of the piano. She sat facing the piano and the window, so Kate walked over to the piano bench. As she went, she ran her fingers, lovingly over the graceful bow of its shape. She admired it every time she walked into the room, but she'd never touched it. Her fingers had never floated over its keys. It was a parlor piano, a high-end Steinway. The rich mahogany reminded her of her grandmother's upright. She loved the way the ivory keys warmly contrasted with the dark wood, but still seemed perfectly paired. It appealed to her more than the black grand pianos with stark white keys ever had.
Forgetting for a moment, that Alexis was about to play for her, Kate's finger's found their way to the keys and launched into the first chords of Paganini-Liszt's Etude No. 2. It had always been one of her favorites.
Kate paused for a moment. She looked up to see Alexis staring at her. 'You play?" Kate didn't answer. She winked at the girl and let her fingers be her answer. She looked back to the piano and began to play Brahm's Lullabye.
Kate closed her eyes. She knew this piece by heart. It took her back another time. She felt the warmth of the lamp as it sat on the piano and reflected a soft glow around the room. Her grandmother beside her, coaching her. She saw her grandfather, reading in his chair. The cigar he barely touched, but always had to have, wasting away in the ashtray beside him. It was a beautiful memory.
When she heard Alexis hesitantly join in with a few notes on the violin, she smiled and nodded for the girl to continue. The song had never sounded better to her than it did in that moment. When the song ended, Kate knew her eyes were shining with emotion. They just sat for a moment, Kate not ready to speak and Alexis not wanting to ruin the moment for Kate.
When Kate did speak, it was lighthearted. "Remind me again…why are you still taking lessons?"
"Me?" the girl squealed. "I didn't even know you could play!"
"I haven't in years."
"Fooled me."
Let's just keep this between you and me, 'kay? If your dad finds out, I'll never have a moment's peace at the Old Haunt."
"Okay. But seriously, Kate. There's a story there, and I want to hear it."
"I'll tell you my little secret, but then you play and we get going—or we're going to be late getting the girls."
Alexis nodded.
Kate took a deep breath. "I used to dream of being master pianist, and sometimes a singer. You know, the female version of Harry Connick, Jr., but less…commercial. My grandmother—my dad's mom—was my first teacher. She started teaching me when I was three. I was eleven when she passed away, but I'd already begun taking lessons from other people by then. She didn't think she could teach me anything else, and I wanted to be great. After she died, I kept playing because I loved it and it made me feel close to her. I was even debating minoring in music composition in college. I was only a few credits shy before I changed my major altogether."
"Well, then. I'm not sure I want to play for you. Your schooled ears shouldn't be subjected to something so abrasive as what I'm about to do."
"I'm sure it's not that bad, Lex. Besides, I might actually be able to help. I do have some experience composing and modifying arrangements. I haven't done it on the piano in a while, but I never put my guitar away."
"Okay. But you've been warned."
Alexis adjusted herself on the stool, and paused to look at the sheet music in front of her. She started to play, and played flawlessly for about the first minute and a half. It really did sound pretty good. But then she stopped, and went back a few notes and started again. Only to stop in the same spot.
"Just play it all the way through—even if you make a mistake."
"It's not a mistake. Not really. I just don't know how to make it flow into the part. It never sounds right, no matter what I do."
"Then skip to the next part."
Alexis played the last part. Where the first part of her composition was low and slow and melodic, and the last part was upbeat, higher and staccato.
"Well, Alexis. It sounds really good. Especially the first part, it's so full of feeling. But I can see what you mean."
She asked a few questions and then asked Alexis to play the whole thing one more time. She knew what the problem was immediately, and how Alexis could make it better. But, it was her song, her composition. She wanted Alexis to come to it on her own.
She asked Alexis what she wanted to convey in the transition. She was surprised at the answer—she hadn't expected it to be so well thought out.
"Well. The first part of the song is a slow and steady, no surprises. It's just us, the way we were when I was growing up. But, the last part is us now. The back and forth, it's how he wants me to grow, be big, have experiences, but then how he pulls me back in because he doesn't want to let me go, how he's afraid of what those experiences will be. But, I want it to sound happier, or lighter than it does, because he's happier. Instead, it just sounds choppy."
"I don't want to tell you what I think you should do with it, but, uh, how 'bout I play something. Might give you an idea." Kate sat back at the piano. She began to play a piece that she'd played many times before, though she had no idea what it was called. She chose it because it went from low, melodic notes like Alexis's piece and ended on a more upbeat and happy note, also like Alexis' piece. The biggest difference was that during the transition, which was pretty much missing in Alexis', the notes dropped down low before peaking higher, and then it went back and forth in increments, until it stayed, finally, at the higher notes throughout the rest of the cadenza. The other main difference was that the notes throughout the end of the piece were longer, and flowed into one another, rather than being so clipped.
When it ended, she looked over at Alexis, who'd sat down beside her on the bench. "So, how'd that make you feel?" she asked, nudging her side.
"Inadequate." Alexis put her head on Kate's shoulder and let out an exaggerated sigh.
"Oh, Alexis. Don't say stuff like that. This was just to give you an idea, something to think about." She moved Alexis' hair off the girl's shoulder and back behind her ear. "I love your composition. You're just too close to it right now. As soon as you work through that rough spot, you'll see just how good it is."
"I know. Maybe I should have recorded you."
"Nah. Just mull it over. I'll bet you'll have that spot worked out in a few days.
"Actually, I might have an idea already." She leaned up and kissed Kate's cheek. "Just let me make a couple notes, then we can go."
Kate's heart swelled. That Castle is a lucky, lucky man.
So, what do you think so far? I'm having a hard time believing I'm 14 chapters in and I'm not even done covering the first two days in my version of Kate & Castle's coming together. Also, I'm about a week behind in my story timeline, so if you're expecting some Mother's day grief (as you should be), don't worry…it's coming.