Back to Where We Have Never Been

A/N: Thank you to all of you who have been reading this, for your continuing support and enthusiasm. You really are amazing. To those of you who are just catching up, thank you for taking your time to plow through this. I would say that I am amazed that some of you have read this in a day but I have totally done the same thing with stories so I know it can be done. lol. I am just humbled that you think my story is good enough to warrant it.

Anyway, here is chapter 22. Enjoy! :)

Chapter 22

Monday night Alexis knocked on the door to her father's office. The sound reverberating from her fist beating against the wood was much stronger than her courage. When she didn't get an answer she pushed open the door slowly to find her father sitting in his chair, hair sticking up in every direction, tumbler of scotch by his side and laptop sitting in his lap. He was typing furiously, pausing every couple of seconds to curse and pound the delete button.

"Dad?" She asked quietly.

Castle grunted in reply, his eyes never looking up.

"Dad? Are you okay?" She tried again, taking a hesitant step into the room.

"Oh, yeah, fine," he mumbled but still didn't look up.

She let out an exasperated sigh and straightened up, walking into the room until she was standing directly in front of him. She bent down, picked up the laptop and placed it on the desk, turning back to her father with her hands on her hips.

"Hey! What? Alexis, why would you…" He stuttered, eyes wide, fingers still in typing position.

"Get your ass out of that chair and go talk to her!" Alexis ordered. "But take a shower first because you stink!"

With that the girl whirled around and stomped out of the office, the door slamming shut behind her.

On Tuesday, she waited for her father to make a move.

On Wednesday she got tired and decided to bring in reinforcements.

Alexis looked again at the piece of paper in her hand before pulling open the large glass door of the office building. It was heavy, and people in suits were bustling in and out around her. A man on a cell phone glared at her, looking over her jeans and Columbia t-shirt with distain. She glared back, a fire in her blue eyes. She made her way past the front desk with a nod at security and stopped in front of the directory, tracing a finger down the listing until she found the right name.

Fifteenth floor.

She crowded her way into the elevator, wedging herself awkwardly between a man texting furiously on his cell phone held and a woman alternately talking on hers and attempting to put on lipstick with a small compact mirror held at a precarious angle.

She shook her head. She was never becoming a lawyer. It was too stressful just watching them. She couldn't imagine actually being one.

She knocked on the door softly as she shifted from side to side; her leather backpack slung over one shoulder.

"Come in," the woman on the other side called and Alexis paused at the similarity.

She pushed the door open slowly and stuck her head in. The woman's eyes darted up to see her. Her hair was peppered grey and brown, her eyes bright green. Except for the thirty-year age difference and a couple of inches in height they could be twins.

"Can I help you?" She asked putting her pen down and flipping closed the file she had been writing in.

Alexis steeled up her courage and took a step into the office, reaching out her hand in greeting. "Mrs. Beckett? I'm Alexis Castle, Rick's daughter. We need to talk."

Wednesday evening there was an insistent pounding on Castle's front door, one he was forced to stumble out of his office to answer since no one else was home.

He swung the door open without bothering to look through the peephole first and was greeted with the whirlwind that was Johanna Beckett.

"Sit down," she ordered the moment she stepped through the doorway and Rick immediately led her to the couch, plopping down without a sound as she perched primly on one of the armchairs. "What did you do?"

His eyes grew wide as he straightened up to argue, defend himself. To tell her that it wasn't his fault. He did nothing wrong, but he deflated with a sigh. Melting into the cushion, a hand coming up to run through his greasy hair.

When he didn't answer, Johanna continued. "I know it had to be something bad, because my source tells me, while you have been holed up here, drinking, throwing things and writing, Kate has been crying. And my daughter doesn't cry. She gets angry, she gets silent, she throws a fit but she rarely cries. Whatever you did must have been bad for that to happen."

Rick sighed again, running his hand down his face, scratching at his four-day-old beard. "I had a friend pull that case file that you told me about. The Pulgatti/Anderson case? She found out and went ballistic. I don't even really know what happened."

Johanna sighed and slumped back in her chair. "Why the hell would you do that, Rick?"

Castle's head shot up, the question evident in his eyes. What was the big deal?

"I don't understand why it's so bad? It's a cold case, right? Thirteen years is a long time."

Johanna shook her head. "To you maybe, but to someone who wants to keep something buried, thirteen years is a drop in the bucket."

She leaned forward, her hands clasped together, elbows resting on her knees. "I didn't tell you everything."

She paused again, taking in a sigh as she ran a hand around her neck, needing the tight muscles on the sides. "I received threats because of that case. Before he died Pulgatti told me who he thought was involved. Dirty cops. Trust me, Rick, this is something you don't want to even get close to. She's upset because she's scared you're going to end up dead and you know what, it's not an irrational fear. Like I said before, some things are meant to stay buried. Let this one lie."

He nodded his head gently as she leaned forward and patted his knee. "You're a good man and you love my daughter. I know that. Just try not to screw it up anymore, okay?"

He let out a startled laugh. "I'm trying, I promise."

"Yes, I know. She's a spitfire, always has been. Just be patient with her, she has a tendency to yell first and think later."

Rick nodded again as Johanna pushed herself out of her chair and made her way back towards the door, pausing to turn around as Rick continued to talk, walking up behind her. "I never used you for my books. I just wanted to let you know, you or Kate. I didn't want you to think that's why I like talking with you."

"Oh, I know." Johanna nodded her head. "Your daughter is lovely by the way. You raised her well."

She paused in the doorway, turning around once again with a raised finger. "One more thing. I'm going to go talk to my mule of a daughter, now. Before you speak to her, I would recommend you take a shower. I didn't believe her when she told me, but Alexis was right. You really do smell."

Castle let out a chuckle as he nodded at the older woman. "Yes, ma'am."

"And, Richard, don't call me ma'am. It makes me feel old."

Castle closed the door as Johanna made her way down the hall and turned back towards his room, stripping off his robe and shirt as he made his way towards the shower. He shook his head. He really did have his hands full with the Beckett women.

Johanna looked her daughter up and down as she sat on a stool at the kitchen island: a pint of ice cream in one hand, a large spoon in the other. There was a half empty bottle of wine on the counter beside her.

"Well aren't you a walking cliché," Johanna quipped as she pulled out her own glass and set about pouring herself a liberal amount of wine.

"Well, technically, I'm sitting," Kate retorted.

Johanna shot her a look and Kate rolled her eyes. "I hear your date didn't go well."

Kate groaned as she stuck the spoon back into her tub of ice cream and set the entire container on the counter top, bringing her hands up to run through her hair.

"The date itself went fine. Very fine actually. Better than fine…" her voice trailed off as a small smile flickered across her face. She shook her head suddenly, returning to reality. She let out a sigh. "It was the call he got in the morning that was the problem."

"The case," Johanna sighed.

Kate's head snapped up to look at her mother, betrayal etched on her face. "You knew?"

Johanna shook her head, her hand reaching out to grasp Kate's. "No, sweetie. I didn't know he would try to get the case file. I did tell him about the case though."

"He shouldn't have done it. He should have just left it alone. He…" Kate's voice trailed off again and she took a sip of wine in an attempt to calm her nerves.

"He didn't know, Katie. I only told him the basics, I didn't tell him about the threats and how Pulgatti told me that there were dirty cops involved before I handed off the case. He didn't know how dangerous it was. He wasn't trying to be malicious or calculating, he's just curious and he made a mistake."

Johanna paused and sighed, debating her next words before deciding to dive in. Subtlety was not the best tactic with her daughter. "Rick isn't Mark. He doesn't do everything with a plan. He doesn't manipulate people. He wasn't trying to use you; he made a mistake."

They sat in silence for another minute, Kate jabbing the spoon repeatedly into the ice cream, Johanna sipping on her wine, watching her daughter.

"So," Johanna prompted. "What are you going to do?"

Kate snorted. "I was considering a convent or lesbianism. Probably the latter, I don't think I could handle being a nun."

Johanna let out a small laugh. "Well my friend Julie's daughter, Beth, is available. She's a doctor, pretty girl, has a motorcycle also. I could give you her number."

Kate couldn't contain the startled laugh that bubbled out of her as she leaned over and bumped her mother's shoulder with her own, swaying to the side slightly before she leaned back over and rested her head on her mother's shoulder. "I love you."

Johanna let out a content sigh and rested her head on top of her daughter's. "I love you too, Katie."

"So, you want Beth's number?"

Kate laughed again, sitting back up so that she could look at her mother, shaking her head. "No, not yet. I'll let you know, though."

Johanna pushed herself off of her stool and leaned over to give Kate a kiss on her head. "Just hear him out, Katie."

Kate nodded as she stood also, walking her mother to the door.

The door clicked shut softly and she leaned back against it as she stared at her empty apartment. Her eyes drifted across the random pieces of furniture and artwork she had collected: the overstuffed couch and the distressed coffee table. Her gaze landed on the bookshelf and she pushed herself off of the wall as she slowly padded her way across the room, her hand reaching out to pull the book off of the shelf before she could stop herself.

She flipped it open slowly, running her hand over the cover as she smoothed it back, flipping he first inside page gently, followed by the second. It was already creased, broke in from where she had read it, but she still wanted to be careful. Her finger traced along the simply written, yet oh, so complicated words of the dedication.

Her eyes flickered down to the words he had scribbled days before.

But it wasn't words; it was only one.

Always.

Simple. Complicated. Just like them.

Kate's head was bent over her desk Thursday morning. There was a small black zip drive set on her desk beside her that kept drawing her attention. It held the files he had saved on her computer days before, chapters of his latest novel that he had written while she slept. She hadn't read them. It wasn't her place. Not yet, anyway. But she could bring them to him as a peace offering. That was her plan. She would head over to his place after work, give him the drive, allow him the chance to tell her his side of the story and offer her apology for jumping to conclusions. It had been late when her mother had left the night before and she had wanted a chance to get her thoughts in order before facing him anyway.

She nodded to herself as she replayed the plan in her head. That would work. She could do that.

She tapped the end of her pen against the top of the wood desk a few times as she stared out the small window, her chin propped in her hand. Now, she just had to make it through the rest of her day. Fortunately, she didn't have any classes on Thursdays so she just had to make it through the rest of the tests and papers she had to grade. Fun. She let out another sigh. The midterms from her Comparative Lit class had been less than stellar. There had been a few A's, and more than enough B's and Cs to make the bell curve, but she had been hoping for better. They were all smart kids. They had gotten into Columbia after all.

With a sigh she went back to grading, her red pen making marks on the pages with more enthusiasm than she felt.

A knock on her door startled her and she called for the person to come in, distracted as she attempted to decipher the sentence on the page in front of her.

"Kate," a voice called and Kate's head shot up, remembering that someone was there.

"Oh, hey, Rebecca. Sorry, what's up?" Kate put down her pen, lifting her coffee cup to her lips as she gestured for her colleague to sit in one of the visitor chairs on the other side of her desk.

Rebecca nodded in greeting as she sat, smoothing her skirt down before lifting her clasped hands to rest on top of the desk.

"Kate, we have a problem," Rebecca started. "A couple of students came to talk to me and the dean yesterday about the midterm."

Kate's jaw dropped open as she listened to the other woman talk, laying out the situation for her.

Kate's hand knocked stiffly on the door. It felt like it weighed a hundred pounds as she forced the repetitive motion. The small thumb drive was grasped in her other hand, her briefcase slung over her shoulder.

Her hand was still raised when the door swung open and her gaze snapped up when the greeting, which sounded like it was coming through a tunnel, made it's way to her ear.

"Kate, hi, I am so glad you're here. I was going to call you later tonight. Come in."

She didn't move and a hand clasped on her shoulder causing her to jump.

"Castle?" She started, glancing around, trying to figure out where she was.

"Yeah, " he responded slowly. "You are at my apartment, so it's kind of logical that I would be here. Kate? What's wrong?"

She took a slow step forward, dropping her briefcase on the ground as she held out the drive to him, pushing it into his palm. "I brought you your chapters."

He looked down at the small piece of computer equipment before looking back up at her, watching her make her way across the apartment to the kitchen, searching the cabinets for a wine glass.

"I, um, I wanted to apologize for what I did. I called Ryan back, told him to forget about the file. I wasn't trying to hurt you…" he started and she held up a hand, waving him off.

"Don't worry about it. I don't care. You didn't know."

He stopped in his tracks, watching her curiously as she emptied the remaining contents of a bottle of merlot into a glass and took a long sip. His eyes drifted to the clock. It was two in the afternoon.

"Kate? What's going on? Why aren't you at work?"

She let out a startled laugh, bringing a hand up to run through her hair. "I'm not at work because I am up for review."

She pushed herself off of the counter, wine glass cradled in one hand, the other gesturing out in front of her wildly.

"Rebecca came to see me today, it turns out that the other two girls who were here the other night, Becky and Amanda? Well, they told some of their friends what happened. Overall, not a big deal, except for the fact that Becky, Amanda, Andrew and Alexis were four of the few who actually got A's on the exam. The other girls, who were not too happy with their C and D, went to the dean and told them that I gave Alexis and her friends the answers to the exam in exchange for their silence the other night. So, now, I am looking at getting fired and I have no way of fighting it."

She let out a small disbelieving laugh and Castle took a set towards her, placing a gentle hand on her arm. "I can go and tell them what happened. Alexis, Andrew— they would back you up."

Kate shook her head. "It doesn't matter. No one would believe them. They would think they are covering for me in order to protect themselves. I didn't do anything wrong, Rick, and I'm screwed."

He let out a deep sigh and pulled the wine glass out of her hand, placing it on the counter so he could pull her into his arms, holding her tightly as she wound her arms around his middle and buried her face in his neck.

"It's okay," he whispered gently. "It's going to be okay."