A/N: Thank you for the continued support, I can't convey properly how much your kind words and enthusiasm mean to me even when I haven't been able to respond to you all individually. Also, I warned you this story was angsty, what is revealed in this chapter happens in order to bring Castle & Beckett back together, there had to be a catalyst, so I ask you to trust me.
Chapter Seven: It never rains but it pours.
It's been a nightmare for Alexis to get there. The power is down for ten blocks around her father's loft and the streets are in worse than usual morning chaos with traffic lights out and everyone in their cars reduced to moving at a snails pace. .
She's been trying for over an hour to call her Dad, his cell phone must either be off or totally out of power because it doesn't even ring – it just goes instantly to his messaging service and the loft's hard line must be out because of the power cut because it just doesn't ring at all. Entering the lobby Alexis notes the building's own emergency generator has the lights up and running, but that's all – and as she takes the stairs she can't help but think that her Dad probably hasn't even noticed that nothing else is functional -that of course if he's even up yet.
She's shaking as she slips her key into the lock, she's got to find him quickly and let him know what's going on, but she's got no idea how she can possibly break more bad news to a man who's already lost so much in the last year. She's been trying to find the words since the moment the phone call woke her up at 6am this morning and she listened in a bleary daze to words that seemed to make no sense at all.
Devastating words that wrapped around her heart like a vice and had her instantly wishing she could just be a child again so she wouldn't have to face this like a grown-up.
Words that should have spoken to her father directly – but since no-one could get a hold of him. Dammit Dad.
The young red-head shakes her head, shakes the fleeting annoyance away. It doesn't matter, and it doesn't change anything except that she's going to have to find strength enough for both of them as she tries to steer him through this latest catastrophe. Strength that's already exhausted because the truth is Alexis is scared out her mind and desperately needs her father to lean on but with him already being so fragile . . .
Scanning the loft with already tear-filled eyes the author's daughter hears soft noises of movement coming from her father's bedroom and she's about to call out to him when she's rendered mute by the emergence of her step-mother in the bedroom doorway.
Kate doesn't notice her at first, she just passes into the main room looking pale and red-eyed and like she's been sleeping in her clothes, and Alexis wavers between angry and utterly relieved to see her.
The feeling of relief comes as a complete surprise, and for an instant it freezes the writer's daughter to the spot. What the hell? She thinks. But then the urgency of the current crisis reasserts itself and Alexis knows that she's relieved mainly because Kate's still a cop.
She has no idea what's finally brought Kate home or why. No idea what this means or how her father has reacted or whether the older woman is just here to collect some stuff. All Alexis knows is that the dizzying swirl of emotions inside her suddenly lands on thankful, thankful that just maybe Kate being here might make this easier - might make answers easier to come by.
The detective finally spots her and what little color was there completely drains from the older woman's lovely face. Guilt and shame flood the cop's hazel eyes and she opens her mouth to offer an explanation for her presence, "Alexis I-"
But Alexis is already moving, she can't contain it, she's carrying around this awful, terrifying news that she has to break and she doesn't know how and Kate is here, Kate is here and Kate will know – won't she? It has to be a sign that she's here, here when Alexis needs her. Kate will know what to do and Alexis just needs someone's arms around her, someone to tell her everything is going to turn out okay, that she isn't going to lose another person that she loves or see anymore devastation in her father's beloved face.
She may still be blindingly angry at all this woman for all she's put her father through, but right now, right now she just needs Kate's support and so Alexis finds herself slamming into her father's wife and wrapping shaking slender arms around her.
"Oh Kate, thank God."
Alexis is holding on to her so tightly, and it takes Kate a moment to gather herself both from the shock of having to confront Alexis right now, and from this completely unexpected reaction. She'd have put every penny she has on Alexis hating the sight of her – and she wouldn't blame the girl for a second if that was her reaction, but instead Alexis is hugging her and as the initial shock wears off Kate finds her arms wrapping themselves around Castle's grown daughter and squeezing her back.
The cop is about to let loose the litany of apologies and promises that are sitting on her tongue when it dawns on her that Alexis isn't just hugging, she's shaking, in fact she's shaking all over and Kate realizes the young woman is crying.
That realization immediately halts the words she was going to say.
"Alexis? Alexis, what is it?"
The author's daughter just breaks down harder and Kate's thoughts scramble for purchase. What on earth is the matter? Oh, God – no it can't be . . .
"Is Rick okay? Alexis? Please, sweetheart – just tell me your father's okay?"
Pushing the young woman back slightly the brunette detective grasps her firmly by the shoulders and forces the younger woman to look at her.
"Alexis, please. What's going on? What's happened? God, Alexis you have to tell me Castle's okay? Please, just tell me he's okay?"
Alexis nods.
"It's not Dad, Kate. It's Grams. It's Grams."
Kate's heart almost stops in her chest, it stutters, the beats erratic for moment before it starts beating so hard the sound of it feels like the only thing she can hear. Her mouth goes dry and when she opens it to speak no sound escapes – until she swallows heavily and makes herself try again.
"What's happened to Martha?"
Alexis closes her eyes and bites her lip hard in an effort to gather her wits about her.
"She's been shot." The words are quiet and small but they sound like a thunderclap in the expansive room surrounding them.
"Oh my God," Kate breathes. Wrapping Alexis up in her arms again she rests her head atop the girl's soft hair. "I'm so sorry," she murmurs. "Where is she? What can I do? Just tell me what you need Alexis. I'll go, I'll stay, just tell me okay – tell me what I can do to help you, if there is anything at all?"
Alexis sniffs.
"I have to tell Dad. Kate, I have to tell Dad and I don't know what to say. He's been through so much and I'm scared . . . I'm so scared to tell him."
Kate takes a deep breath, her heart is still racing and her legs feel strange beneath her. Grief, an emotion she's intimately acquainted with tears through her, as does doubt. She's been concentrating on how she can reach Castle through all his walls, how she can get him to 'see' her again and now this. She has to put aside everything she wants right now and do only what's best for this family.
She steers Alexis over to the couch and tugs her down to sit beside her, keeping a tight grip on her step-daughter's slight hands.
"What do you know?" she asks. "Do you know how it happened? What her condition is?"
Alexis nods, and the look on her face is beyond scared. Kate recognizes it, she's seen it in the mirror – it's a mix of rage and sorrow.
"There was a home invasion at the Hamptons' house in the early hours of this morning. The man Grams has been seeing is dead, Kate. I got a call from a nurse in the hospital she's been airlifted to, she's critical but alive and they were taking her into surgery, something about bleeding into her brain. They've been trying to reach Dad for several hours this morning, but the power is out and I guess the phone line must be down too. His cell isn't picking up either. Is he here?"
Kate shrugs.
"I'm not sure. I completely surprised him when I turned up here and we didn't really talk all that much last night. I can't blame him, he really didn't want me here and well I guess I cried myself to sleep and he left me to it. I woke up this morning in my clothes and I was just going to check the guest room and see if I could talk to him before I left when I ran into you."
The author's daughter nods, her eyes immediately seeking the stairs to the loft's upper floor where the spare room is located.
"How am I supposed to tell him Grams might die, Kate? First Jack-"the young woman's voice breaks on her brother's name and she just stares at Kate helplessly, still the cop hears everything Alexis cannot say.
First Jack, then you Kate, and now his only parent. How much more is he supposed to handle before he can't handle it anymore?
"I'll go up with you." Kate offers. "And if he's here then I'll stay with you while you tell him. If this happened in the Hamptons Alexis, then I can call Chief Brady. I can find out what's being done to hunt down the person who did this. I promise you - and I know my promises don't mean much under the circumstances - but please at least believe that I love your grandmother. And I will make sure that the person who did this to her is caught – I swear it. You can leave that part to me, okay sweetheart? And you just get your father to Martha's side as quickly as you can."
Alexis tugs on Kate's hand.
"He's going to need us both," she says urgently, not quite knowing why the words are coming from her mouth or why she believes in them. "He's going to need you," she adds.
Kate shakes her head softly, but the conflicting emotions she's feeling are clearly rampaging across her face and through her eyes. Alexis can tell that Kate wants nothing from her father right now – nothing other than to be there for him.
"I don't want to cause him anymore stress." Kate says softly but firmly. "I can't make this any harder on him by forcing him into dealing with me right now. I'll stay of course while you need me to, but then I have to do whatever it is that he wants Alexis. You can't know how I wish that it could be me, but it isn't going to be me that he needs."
There is real sincerity all over the older woman's face, and Alexis doesn't know why she believes when Kate wasn't there the last time she was needed, but maybe its just the simple fact that Kate is making no excuses for her behavior and that's why it allows Alexis to believe her now. Because it must surely have taken a lot of courage for this woman to face up to everything she's done, all the hurt she added to, and finally come back here. Alexis doesn't know how exactly this is going to work, but she can't shake the feeling that Kate's presence will help and that the last thing she's going to do is fail this family again.
The thoughts do rock Alexis though. She's been so serious in encouraging her father to finally move on. It was even her gentle suggestion that he should think about filing for divorce, because Alexis knew he'd never start living again while he was still on-hold for Kate in his mind.
There is so much that needs to happen, and there really is no way that Kate could ever deserve her Dad, his heart or his devotion again, but she knows beyond a shadow of doubt that this woman is the love of her father's life regardless. And right now, right now he's going to need every tiny bit of support that Alexis can muster for him, and hell Alexis needs that support too.
Kate is here. She's here, and Alexis believes nothing so much as that her presence right now is the universe trying to tell her something.
She increases the pressure on Kate's hand.
"Kate," she pleads, "I don't care about who did this right now, I just care about breaking the news to Dad and getting to Gran. Just be here, for me if not for him – I don't want to face this on my own, please. You know what this news is going to do to him – you better than anybody."
Kate holds her step-daughter's gaze but it's her own mother's face she sees.
"Okay," she agrees. 'I'll stay with you whatever happens. I'll be here Alexis, this time you can count on me."
They head for the stairs together, and Alexis doesn't let go of Kate's hand for a moment.