Chapter 7
On Friday, two days after Alexis was released from the hospital, Kate stepped off the elevator of Castle's building quite exited for her visit with the father-daughter duo. As she had wanted to give them plenty of space to settle in—especially since Alexis was still sleeping a lot as part of her recovery—Kate had not yet intruded upon their hospitality, but in chatting with Castle she found that Alexis was anxious to see her, so their Friday play-date was scheduled. Since she worked the prior weekend, Kate had that weekday off and planned to go over to the Castle residence in the middle of the afternoon to play some card games before dinner.
As she walked down the hall towards the correct apartment, Kate's only thought was that she hoped Alexis was still in good spirits and not too exhausted from her ordeal, particularly since she heard from Castle that the girl would only be going back to school for half days the following week. Seeing as Alexis was one of those rare kids who loved school, this surprised her, but she understood that a healthy recovery needed to take precedence over everything else.
She had barely turned the corner to the last hallway on the floor when a small, red blur crashed into her legs. She gasped and jumped back only to realize it was Alexis with a frantic look in her eye. "What's going on?" she asked, immediately concerned.
"Kate! Kate! Don't let them! You won't let them take me, right Kate?"
"Wha…I…" The detective stammered, utterly confused as Alexis's locked her arms around her hips and began walking her way around behind Kate as though she was seeking protection from a monstrous adversary. Unsure if the Castle family was actually under attack or if Alexis was suffering some sort of paranoid reaction from her injury, Kate began calmly, "Alexis, I don't understand—what's happening?"
"Don't let them take me!"
Still confused, Kate attempted to peel Alexis's arms off her body while simultaneously crouching and turning so she could look the little girl in the eye. When at Alexis's level, she saw the girl wore a pink t-shirt and what looked like striped pajama bottoms. Her hair was half falling out of its ponytail and her feet were bare. Now slightly more concerned as she looked slightly disheveled, Kate said, "No one is taking you, Alexis, but I can't help if-"
"Alexis! Shit…where—Alexis!"
Kate was interrupted by Castle's voice calling out from down the hall. Just as she turned in that direction, she felt Alexis's arms lock around her neck.
"No! No!" the little girl cried.
Still confused, but no longer worried for their safety, Kate slid her arm beneath Alexis's bottom and hoisted her up as she stood from the ground, which was actually a bit more difficult than she'd anticipated since she had not accurately guessed how much Alexis weighed. After securing the girl on her hip, Kate began walking back towards the apartment. Castle spotted her and relief immediately filled his face.
"Alexis, you cannot run off like that! You know you're not allowed to leave the apartment by yourself and-"
"NO!" Alexis cried out when her father's hands circled her waist and he tried to pull her away from Kate. The young girl clung so tightly to the detective she actually began to feel rather choked.
"Alexis, c'mon," Kate said, while trying to loosen her grip. "Let's go back inside."
"No! Then they'll make me go!" She whined, though when Kate carried her into the apartment she did drop to the floor and scamper back towards the bedrooms where, a moment later, a door could be heard slamming shut.
Kate then turned back to her exhausted-looking partner and quirked her lips. "Is now a bad time?" she asked with slight jest.
While he gave her a pointed look, Kate heard from the other side of the room, "It's all bad, darling. Would you like some wine?"
Turning, she saw Castle's mother seated on the couch, glass of red wine in her hand. "Oh, um, hi Martha; I'm fine, thanks. Just, um, wondering what's going on?" she added as she turned back to Castle.
He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily. "Meredith is what's going on. She's…she's decided she wants to fight the custody agreement we have."
"Oh." Kate gasped when the true meaning of Alexis's "don't let them take me" comment hit her. Meredith was trying to obtain custody of Alexis and take her from her father; how awful! "She can't do that…can she?"
"No," he responded instantly, but then shook his head. "I don't know. But apparently when she came to have lunch with Alexis, she told her that her daddy was a bad man and so people were going to take her away from me."
Feeling her stomach clench with horror, Kate said, "Please tell me you're kidding."
He gave her a look that clearly expressed displeasure. "I wish I could."
She reached out and gave his arm a squeeze. "I'm so sorry, Castle. Is there anything I can do?"
"No, no I just… I'm hoping this all blows over when Meredith gets distracted by something else, but I don't know." He scrubbed his hands over his face and took a few steps away. "She's being more aggressive than she has been before. And of course now Alexis is scared and won't even talk either of us…"
Seeing an opportunity to assist, Kate asked, "Mind if I try."
"Not at all. Just…" He hesitated for a moment, gazed down to the floor, and looked back up at her cautiously. "Just don't promise that she can stay here with me. I…I don't know how all this is going to play out and I don't want her to be angry at us for breaking promises, too."
Kate's heart clenched in the reflection of her partner's clearly pained face. For him to make a comment like that, Meredith really must have rattled him—and how horrible! Just a few days earlier he'd been afraid for Alexis's life. Now, he feared losing her for a different, perhaps even more frustrating, reason.
After agreeing to his terms, Kate walked back to Alexis's bedroom, knocked on the door and announced herself asking, "Can I come in?"
She heard Alexis sniffle in response and opened the bedroom door to find the girl curled up, crying into her pillow. "Oh, Alexis," Kate sighed out, sitting on the edge of the bed near Alexis's feet. She landed her hand on the girl's arm, stroked it and said, "I'm so sorry to hear about everything that upset you this morning."
Still sniffling, Alexis lifted her head and asked, "Can I come live with you?"
"What?" Kate responded, having no idea where the little girl had come up with that idea.
Alexis pushed herself up and rubbed the back of her hand under her nose. "If the men take me away from Daddy can I live with you? Then I could stay here and see him, instead of going to California."
Upon hearing Alexis's logic, a fractured smile crossed Kate's face. She reached out to grab two tissues from a neighboring box and handed them to Alexis so she could mop up her leaking nose. Oh, that the world was as simple as it was through a child's eyes. Kate could not explain to Alexis that living with her, a non-relative, would never be an option in a custody battle, instead she merely patted the girl's knee. "On, sweetheart, as much as I'd love to hang out with you more, I'm sure it won't come to that. Your parents will work something out."
After wiping her face, Alexis sat up a bit straighter and set her jaw. "Mom kept telling me that Daddy's a bad man, but I know that's not true."
"No, it's not true," Kate said, because however strong Alexis was being in the moment, she knew the girl needed to hear it. "Your father is a very good man; one of the best I've ever met."
"Then why would she say that?"
"Well…" Kate began as a way to give herself a moment to consider a child-appropriate response. "You know…sometimes when people are very upset they get themselves all worked up and their anger sort of…jumps out in crazy ways. I think maybe your mom is just lashing out at your dad because she feels she needs to be mad at someone."
Alexis dipped her chin towards her chest. "She should be mad at me."
"What do you mean?"
Kate could see the girl's eyes welling with tears as she sniffed out, "It's my fault—it's my fault because I climbed on that bridge, but I don't remember doing it."
"No, no." Kate promised sliding closer to that she could put an arm around Alexis's shoulders. "It's not your fault. It was an accident and accidents just happen."
"But if I hadn't fallen off the bridge, Mommy wouldn't be mad at Dad."
"No, Alexis. You falling off the bridge has absolutely nothing to do with this, because it's about your parent's past relationship with each other. It…you know, they went through a lot together in the past and sometimes those things are hard to get over. I completely understand why you think it might be your fault, but you have to try and push those thoughts out of your mind because I promise you this is not your fault. Okay?"
Alexis nodded, though weakly.
"Okay, good, so did you maybe want to come play a game with your father, grandmother, and me?"
"Maybe in a few minutes."
Kate nodded, gave the girl a quick squeeze, and said, "Okay." Then, she walked out into the hall and nearly ran smack into Castle, who evidently had been listening by the door. She managed to swallow her yelp of surprise and drag Castle further down the hall before she asked him what he was doing.
"Um…listening," he said in an isn't-it-obvious-way.
"You didn't think I'd tell you what she said?"
"No…well, honestly I didn't think of that I just wanted to know what's going on with her and now…" He sighed and took two steps away, shaking her head. "She thinks all of this is on her—how am I supposed to fix that?"
As she wasn't a parent, Kate did not feel confident making a suggestion, so instead she just said, "Continue reassuring her that it's not, I would think."
"Yeah I know but…god." He grunted and combed his hands back through his hair, which now looked like an absolute mess. "How did this whole thing get so…"
"I know." She stepped up, wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a quick hug, and then stepped back. "Just let me know if I can do anything."
He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "You've already done more than enough, trust me."
Later that night, after Alexis was asleep and his mother and Kate had gone home, Castle finally had a chance to do the dishes waiting in the kitchen sink since the end of their meal. As much as he didn't feel like washing dishes some evenings, he didn't always mind such menial chores, as they often freed up his brain from other thoughts and let it focus instead of ideas for his writing or, as of late, working through the facts and clues in his cases.
Ever since Alexis's accident, he hadn't felt very creative at all, but that evening he did think about his developing character, Nikki Heat, probably because his partner—the woman he used for inspiration—had been with him that evening. He thought about the way he'd written Nikki—smart, strong, and tough—and the situations he put her in, or was trying to put her in, in her first novel. Though he'd sketched out several different scenarios, none of them seemed to fit, and thus his writing never flowed.
Nearly half a year earlier Castle had been inspired to write Nikki after he'd watched Kate disarm three (from his perspective) giant men in a shoot-out, hand-to-hand combat display of badassery. It truly had been one of the most impressive things he'd ever seen particularly since his only contribution to their safety had been to clip one man in the arm with a bullet (he'd been aiming for the chest) which distracted the assailant enough for Kate to knock him out cold with a roundhouse kick. Thus, over the next few days when he jotted down notes about Nikki, he had that version of his partner in mind: savvy, tough, take-no-prisoners, fighting her way through a man's world with wild success. Kate certainly had that side to her—and it impressed him beyond words whenever it came out—but Kate was also more than just that, which meant that his first mistake was writing Nikki so cold and one-sided.
Though he had seen it several times before as she interacted with victim's families and with his daughter, that week had served as a reminder of the other side of Kate. Not the steely, criminal-hunting badass, but the warm-hearted, kind, caring friend that she was. She had a huge capacity to love that was often overshadowed by her tough exterior, but, the more he thought about it, was the true reason she was one of the best detectives in the NYPD. She had a drive to solve cases not for the glory of the financial gain, but for the victim's families—to bring them the closure she so desired in her own life. That was the piece of her that made her extraordinary.
That evening he had watched Kate coax Alexis first out of her room and then into smiling and laughing during their game in a way that he, in his emotionally spent state, was not capable. For that, he was grateful, but the move served as a reminder that his partner had an incredibly capacity to love and to care for others.
That—that—was what Nikki Heat's story lacked. She needed more than her gritty exterior—not to the point where she wore her heart on her sleeve; that was too far in the other direction, but there needed to be something that softened her. A younger sibling? Possibly. A lover could work, but he couldn't be disposable. He had to be there for her, but she still needed to shine, for he didn't want the story to feel too much like a romance, but she needed someone…someone to challenge her, to drive her away from the darkness she saw every day… something.
As heavy as his eyelids had felt when he started washing dishes, Castle felt rejuvenated once they were done. He rushed to his desk, turned on his computer, cracked his knuckles and then set to work. Nikki Heat was going to get her story after all.