Beatles 65
by RGoodfellow64
Chapter 8, She's A Woman
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Disclaimer: Nope, not saying it again. Go back and look at the first chapter to see how much I don't own.
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People tell me that she's only foolin'…
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She was so angry that she slammed the door. Well she tried to slam the door but when he was married to Gina he got tired of her slamming the doors whenever they argued and had new ones installed that closed softly. No matter how hard she tried, there were no doors in their home that would slam.
That angered her even more.
How can he be going back to that…that…Alexis couldn't even get a word out to describe how angry she was at Beckett. No longer Detective Beckett, oh no. There is no more respect in her for that woman! Not after what she did to her father.
He was going to go back to her! He was going back to the precinct where people could go after Beckett and shoot her! And maybe this time he'd be the one in the sights of the sniper, not Beckett.
Beckett! The very name was an obscenity to her. She used to look up to the detective. She used to trust the detective. She used to…care for the detective and wished that she would see her father for the wonderful man he really is.
Yet all she did was string him along. Held on to her doctor boyfriend, the same no good bas…no, she wasn't going to go there, but she really wished she got one good hit on him when he pushed her dad.
Just who did he think he was, pushing her father like that? What kind of a stupid, Neanderthal was he anyway, and what on earth did Beckett see in him? She wouldn't give him a second glance, and compared to her father Beckett's boyfriend was nothing.
Alexis sat in her room seething. She told her dad to stay away from Beckett. That she was only going to hurt him again. That Beckett was only using him, just as she did before. That she didn't care for him and could never love him the way he wanted.
She remembered the shocked look on his face when she told him that. Did he think she couldn't see? He wore his heart on his sleeve and Alexis doubted that anyone who knew them both, didn't know that Richard Castle was in love with Kate Beckett. If no one else did see that, Alexis knew that Beckett did. There was no way she could not know it.
Alexis watched as his hope dwindled day after day after day as the summer dragged on. Each day added to the list of days she never called seemed to also take some weight off him. She watched her dad waste away and stop caring for himself and even for her. He forced her to go to the Hamptons with her grandmother but after only a few weeks she came back and refused to leave him.
The change she saw in him when she returned was frightening. His face looked pasty, his features gaunt and he looked sickly. Exhaustion seemed to be one of his constant companions and she would find herself getting up at night to see if he was sleeping, only to hear him typing on the laptop.
Working at the precinct during the day, at least until the new Captain kicked him out, and working on the book at night left him so much less than she ever imagined. As the days turned into weeks with no word from Beckett he seemed to simply give up till finally, last month something happened and he started to take care of himself again.
He started to eat, wash, and live. He seemed to be starting to live again and she was so happy to see that and then Beckett showed up at that signing and now he was with her again.
"She's using you Dad, can't you see that? She needs you around to make herself look good. She builds herself up by putting you down and you refuse to see that! You refuse to see her for what she is! She left you hanging Dad! She walked out of your life and didn't give a damn about you at all. Everything was and is about her and her needs and wants and she doesn't even care that you could have been killed standing next to her!"
Recalling how the argument ended, with her father angry and telling her to leave it alone, Alexis closed her eyes and tried to stop the tears from falling. She was going to lose her father. Not to someone who loves him and wants to be with him, and not even to someone who only wants to use him to further their career, like Gina.
No, she was going to lose her father to a selfish, unfeeling and uncaring woman who only knows how to take. She wasn't going to lose just a little bit of him, she was going to lose all of him, because Kate Beckett was going to get him killed.
Because of Beckett he was going to die and there was nothing she could do about it. She was his daughter but now felt like an outsider.
Suddenly she thought of Ashley. How can she go to Stanford knowing that her father was going to be hurt again? If by some miracle he wasn't hurt physically, she knew…she knew that Beckett was going to crush him again emotionally.
How could Beckett do that to her father? What kind of a person does that to another, not just once but over and over? Just the thought of Beckett being around her dad made her feel sick. Physically sick.
She laid her head on her pillow and cried, muffling the sounds with the pillow and let out all the hurt, anger, frustration and pain she felt for her father and herself. "Oh, Daddy," she quietly spoke into the pillow. Or maybe it was a prayer.
Playing a cop, following real ones on their cases was fun for a while, but last year someone tried to blow her up and she stayed with them for a bit…just before she went out of her way to hurt him. And now he has to protect her, take care of her, well what about his family? He didn't do much to take care of us this summer, it's only been in the last few weeks that he's tried and now he's just going to stop caring for us while he takes care of Beckett. Beckett.
Slowly the tears stopped falling. She'll have to speak to him again. She can't stay angry with him, not when she knows he will need her when it all goes sour again. Because it will. It always does with Beckett.
It was only a matter of time.
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AUTHORS NOTE: The one person who really got short changed in Rise I believe was Alexis. Although she had her parts and they were good ones, I thought that the pain and frustration she felt because of Beckett didn't come out as forcefully as it could have. This is a girl becoming a woman. She's in that in-between state that can be confusing, exciting and scary all at once, who loves her father dearly and watched as he deteriorated before her eyes over the summer…all because of Kate. She is fiercely loyal to him and will do anything for him…except forgive Kate Beckett. No one treats her father that way. No one.
That's all folks, unfortunately the last Lennon / McCartney song doesn't have a line that goes along with what happened that summer…it's actually more in line with the Season 5 opener…I hope. I keep away from spoilers so I'll find out on Sept. 24th. Thanks to all who read and reviewed, it is very much appreciated, as are all of you.