A/N: Hey guys, I'm really happy with how this chapter turned out, hope you guys enjoy it too! Beta credits go to Anika and Iris :)

Ps. Wasn't the season premier AMAZING?! Can't wait for Dreamworld and Paley on Monday!

Pps. I'm trying to stay spoiler free this season, and that includes sneak peeks, so I'd appreciate it if you guys could respect that and refrain from mentioning spoilers to me...

Disclaimer: Not Mine.

Chapter 4

Kate returned to the room that she and Anthea had been using for their prep, struggling to keep a straight face and remain professional when she saw Ryan and Esposito trying to cheer up the defense lawyer whose spark had dimmed a little.

"All right boys, we need to get back to work," she said, gesturing to herself and Anthea, "Why don't you boys head to the break room?"

The boys trailed out, giving her a quick wink while calling out over their shoulders, "See ya later, Beckett."

Beckett headed for the desk, pitying the defense lawyer who looked longingly after the boys, probably pining after her husband.

"I didn't know you were a fan of my husband's works," Beckett started conversationally, gesturing for Anthea to take a seat in a friendly manner, feeling only a tiny twinge of guilt for throwing that word out.

Husband.

Because he is her husband. And even though Beckett sympathized and pitied the girl – she used to be like that years and years ago as well, a fangirl head over heels in love with the larger-than-life author – Castle was hers now. And she had the ring to prove it. She was entitled to mark her territory, and Castle was now off limits to everyone else.

"Yeah, I probably made a fool out of myself huh?" Anthea dropped onto the chair, blushing furiously. She continued, "I mean, I know that he's your husband – it was all over the papers – and there was a small part of me that was hoping I'd be able to meet him while we worked together, but I didn't actually think that I would get to meet him. Oh God, this is so embarrassing, I must have come off as so unprofessional."

Giving the young woman a small smile, Kate took pity on her. "Don't worry about it, Castle has that effect on a lot of women."

"Do you think he'll sign my– "

"Book?" Kate supplied, cutting in before Anthea could finish her sentence. Nodding eagerly, Anthea pulled out the latest Nikki Heat book from her bag. Kate gave a small sigh of relief.

Despite being in a stable relationship for twenty months and recently married, a lot of Castle's fans still offer him marker pens to sign their chests. And that irked Kate because he was a married man now. Not that he'd sign their chests – Castle always charmed his way out of those offers, signing photos or books for the fans instead.

"He'll drop in again before leaving the precinct, so why don't you ask him then?" Kate suggested politely. "Now, where were we?" she continued, tactfully steering them back to work.

An hour later Castle dropped by to let Kate know he was heading off. Anthea took that opportunity to ask him to sign her book, which he obliged, before leaving Kate a quick departing kiss on her cheek.

He caught a cab in front of the precinct, getting to Arriana's school with time to spare. Lingering in front of the gates, Castle struck up a few conversations with the other parents – mostly moms or nannies – who were waiting for their kids as well.

He garnered quite a bit of attention, after all, dads hardly picked up their children from school, but Castle was used to it. Besides, he's already gone through the phase with Alexis, and back then, the single father had to ward of quite a few unwanted approaches from lonely moms.

Out of the corner of his eye, Castle caught a few paparazzi snapping some test shots. Ignoring them, he patiently waited for the bell to ring, signaling the end of school. Soon enough, the gates opened and parents headed in to collect their kids.

Rick spotted the large colorful sign that read "2nd Graders" and headed there. Signing off on the sheet held by the teacher in charge, Rick and Arriana left hand in hand.

"What happened to your hairclip?" Rick asked as they passed the school gates, noticing how one of them was much lower than the other.

"It's that stupid Evans boy," Arriana complained, "He's always pulling on my hair."

"We don't call people by mean names, remember," Rick chastised, kneeling to be the same level as her. "Here, let me fix it for you."

Arriana patiently stood still, waving goodbye to some of her classmates as Rick took out her hairclip and pinned it level with the other.

"So where are we going, Unc- err, daddy?"

Rick smiled, feeling overly pleased with how that noun sounded, coming out of her mouth. "Well, Alexis is coming over tomorrow, so I was thinking we could go get some groceries together."

"Okay daddy," the seven year old happily replied, swinging their arms freely as she skipped along, jumping from one colored brick to another.

"What are you doing there, kiddo? Is that a new game?" Rick asked curiously when she tugged on his hand a little too hard trying to get to one of the bricks.

"Mmhmm," she vocalized, standing completely still within her brick before looking back up at him. She quickly explained, "The sidewalk is a lava river, and only the brown bricks are safe to step on."

Looking down at the relatively free-of-pedestrians mosaic sidewalk that composed of red, brown and grey bricks, he made an unmanly squeak and hopped onto the brown brick nearby. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? I almost burned off my shoes!" he said to Arriana, who broke into a grin and stretched her hand out to hold his once more.

The continued their little game for a short while, ending it when they made a turn onto another sidewalk that was composed of only grey bricks.

The cool air that greeted them at the grocery store was more than welcomed, after all, Arriana had worked herself into a flushed faced, sweaty little girl. Castle pushed the trolley along slowly, ambling through the aisles with his daughter as they picked out items.

From there they took a cab back to the loft. Rick busied himself putting things away while Arriana took a shower and changed into something more comfortable. He checked in with her, content to leave her with her homework while he went over the adoption notes from that morning.

Kate left the precinct at five, and that afforded her plenty of time to get home and spend time with her family. They enjoyed a simple dinner together and shared the details of their day. When it was time to put Arriana to bed, she sleepily told them, "Good night, Mommy and Daddy."

The proud parents lingered quietly in the doorway, watching as she gave one last yawn and dozed off. Rick and Kate retired to their bedroom downstairs, and amidst the Egyptian-cotton sheets and fluffy down pillows, he explained to her what Mark had told him about the adoption process.

Kate got called in for a fresh case the next day, leaving early in the morning while Arriana lay asleep in bed. Rick joined her at the precinct after he dropped off Arriana at school, handing her a latte from Starbucks as the team recapped the crime scene for him. The four of them fell back to their pattern easily, bouncing theories and running down leads as a well-oiled, cohesive unit.

Castle left half an hour earlier than Beckett, to go pick up Arriana from aftercare and start on dinner. She tied up things as best as she could, before sending the boys home as well.

Alexis got to the loft right as Kate finished showering; greeting her dad with a quick peck to the cheek and giving Kate a one-handed hug. Upon seeing her younger sister coming down the stairs, Alexis flung her arms wide open and the younger girl barreled into her sister's arms.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe it's been four whole days since I last saw you! I missed you so much, Arri. Wait a minute, did you grow taller? Let me see," Alexis fussed, lavishing her attention on her younger sister.

Arriana giggled, saying, "I missed you too, Lexi! And daddy said that if I eat all my vegetables I'll be tall like you and mommy."

Alexis raised her eyebrows discretely at how easily Arriana called their dad "daddy", but she wisely didn't comment in case the younger girl felt embarrassed or uncomfortable.

The newlyweds looked on happily at their daughters while they set up the table for dinner. Alexis and Arriana headed over, helping with the drinks and cutlery. "Arri, why don't you tell Alexis about Show and Tell yesterday?" Kate suggested, laying out the plates.

"Mommy and Daddy said that I was great! And I used the word dormitory, just like how you taught me," Arriana said proudly.

Over dinner, Alexis talked about college and returning to her dorm after two weeks of staying at the loft – she was enjoying second year, but the workload was getting heavier.

Halfway through the meal, Kate exchanged a look with Rick, cueing him to ease into the conversation about the adoption. Rick put down his fork and took a sip of wine before asking Arriana, "So, Arri, do you know what adoption means?"

"Is it like adopting stray dogs from the shelters? Mrs. Brown says we should try adopting a pet before buying them from the pet store."

"Err, yeah, you can adopt a pet, but that's not my point. Arriana, I'd like to adopt you," Rick told her.

"But you already brought mommy and I home, right?" she asked.

"Arri, if Rick adopts you, then he'd be like your real dad, just like how he's Alexis' dad as well," Kate explained.

The little girl began to frown. "But isn't he my daddy already? I've been calling him daddy."

"Can I?" Alexis asked Kate, offering to talk to Arriana. "Hey, Arri, of course Rick's your daddy. He takes care of you and loves you, right? And I'm your sister, aren't I? So my dad's your dad as well. The adoption… it's more like... like your mom's paperwork. You know how sometimes she has to write things down and make it official to record it? The adoption is something like that as well. Its just paperwork to let other people know that Rick's your dad as well, and that we're all part of this family even though we're not born into it."

"So Rick really is my daddy?"

Alexis looked to Kate with wide eyes; unsure of how much Arriana knew about her biological father. Besides, things were confusing enough for the seven year old as it is.

"Hey, Arri," Rick coaxed, getting her to look at him. "I'm always going to be your daddy, okay?" he reassured her. "We're a family, forever and always, and no one can take that away. The adoption is like Alexis said, just paperwork to make sure other people know that I'm your dad. So in case anything happens to your mom,"

"Not that you need to worry about anything happening to me," Kate cut in gently, sharing a look with Rick.

He nodded, continuing quickly, "The adoption makes sure that no one else can take you away from me or our family."

After letting his words sink in, Arriana asked softly, "So nothing's going to change? No one's going to hurt mommy or you and I won't have to go away or get a new daddy?"

"Nothing's going to change," Kate emphasized, looking at her daughter straight in the eye. "No one's going to hurt me or Rick, and you won't have to go away or get a new dad."

"Okay, but what about Lexi?"

"Well, Lexi's much older than you, she's an adult now, so she doesn't need to be adopted because she can make her own decisions. But, we're still a family," Kate explained.

"So I'm the only one being adopted?"

This time, Rick answered her question. "Well, yes, because you're still young, so we'll need to go through with the adoption so that it's officially recorded that we're a family."

Satisfied at last, Arriana asked her final question. "So what do we do for this adoption thing?"

Rick and Kate sighed in relief, glad that the hard questions were over. He gave her a simple rundown of the adoption process and let her know that she might be getting a new family name before they moved on to another topic of conversation.

Later that evening, as Alexis was loading the dishwasher, Kate approached, offering her help.

"Hey Alexis, you're okay with your dad adopting Arriana, right?" she asked, putting the last plate into the dishwasher and shutting the door. Turning so that she and Alexis were facing each other, she continued, "You're not jealous or anything, are you?"

Alexis let out a string of laughter. "Jealous? Did dad put you up to this?"

Kate shrugged, telling her, "Well, it's common for older siblings to be slightly unreceptive to the adoption of a new sibling."

"Kate, don't be ridiculous. Of course I'm fine with sharing dad with Arri! We've been a family for almost two years. I meant what I said, you know, about being a family without having to be born into it." Shyly, the young woman added, "Just like how you're my mom even though you didn't give birth to me."

Enveloping Alexis in a hug, Kate told her, "I'd be ecstatic if Arriana could grow up to be even half as wonderful as you are."

A/N: So, what did you guys think? I've put in a lot of thought and planning for Charm, so it would be really nice to get some feedback from you guys, and I promise to try my best to reply every single one of you.

Anyway, I've got a busy month up ahead, and I'm going to focus most of my energy on my other fic, so Charm won't be my first priority unless I can get sufficiently motivated to continue writing. That said, please leave a review or pm, okay? You can also find me on twitter at amandaOtweets.