A/N: I see a lot of comments questioning what Kate is doing/whether or not they'll break up. All I have to say is you're going to have to trust me; I promise you'll see some concrete answers to your questions within a few chapters. Thanks for reading :)

Fifteen

Saturday, two days after hurricane Meredith blew into town, Kate was back at her desk at the precinct. Technically, she was not on duty that day, but as it was nearing holiday time, more and more people were taking vacation and being short staffed meant less time to catch up on her favorite things: emails and paperwork. As she had no other commitments that day, Kate felt putting in a few hours at her desk would be the best use of her time.

Some days—okay most days—she loathed coming in when she didn't technically have to be there, but the planner in her appreciated this diligence. She never knew when a tough case would come up that would monopolize all of her time. Or, god forbid, an interesting social outing arose. If she didn't have her paperwork completed, she couldn't participate, so she liked to get it done when she could, even if that did make her a slave to her desk on occasion.

That Saturday, shortly before eleven a.m. Kate sat at her desk, earbuds in her ears. The playlist on her phone was shuffling in Christmas tunes: instrumental as well as vocal. She hummed along to some of her favorites and skipped over others. Just as she was passing over the third version of "Silent Night" she heard that hour, she looked up and was surprised to see a red-head approaching. At least this time it was the one she preferred.

Plucking the headphones from her ears, Kate smiled. "Alexis, what are you doing here?"

The girl stopped beside Kate's desk. "Is my dad here? I heard him getting ready for work this morning."

Kate turned her chair to face the girl directly. "Actually, he's not here. He's at a training seminar today." Training seminar…refresher course in police protocols to avoid disciplinary action for excessive force—that was the same thing, right? In truth, she couldn't blame her partner for giving that particular perp a bloody nose. He was a child rapist and murderer who made Kate's skin crawl. In her mind, he was the lowest form of human being and, quite frankly, she was glad Castle had punched him out after the man had described his six-year-old victim as "delicious." But the young girl didn't need to know about any of that.

Upon hearing this news, Alexis's face fell. "Oh. Okay then."

Her heart breaking from the girl's crestfallen expression, Kate asked, "Is…is there something I can help you with?"

Alexis sighed heavily. "Well, see…my mom…my mom was supposed to take me ice skating today, but something came up and she had to go, so she dropped me off here because I told her my dad was working. I guess…I guess I'll just go home."

Kate dragged her teeth across her bottom lip as she watched the girl turn to walk away. She had never seen anyone so crushed. Though she had no reason to, she felt irrationally guilty for not stepping in to assist the child. Meredith, as she well knew, was not the most spectacular parent; this was far from her first disappointment, but it was the first Kate directly knew about.

"Alexis, ah, wait," she said. The girl turned back to her, though she still wore a frown. "I don't…I don't suppose you'd want me to take you ice skating?"

The younger girl's face brightened immediately. "Really? I mean, don't you have to work?"

"Actually, no. I mean, I'm just about finished."

"Great!" Alexis proclaimed, rushing forward to pick up Kate's hand. "Let's go!"

"Whoa wait," Kate said, digging in her feet to stop the girl. She looked back, wounded. "I just need a few more minutes to finish up, okay?"

The red-head beamed. "Okay! I'll wait!" And then, she climbed up in Kate's guest chair swinging her feet wildly and smiling around the room.

"I have to tell you," Kate began her confession as they arrived at the outdoor rink in Central Park. "I haven't been ice skating since I went with my mom."

Alexis looked up at her. "How long ago was that?"

"Over ten years," Kate replied. Ten years. A decade. Some days, she felt as though she'd heard her mother's laughter just hours earlier. Others, she felt as though she could barely remember the woman's face without looking at pictures. Those were the days that scared her the most; she never wanted to lose those memories.

"Wow!" Alexis proclaimed. "That's long! Doesn't your mom want to go anymore?"

Kate's expression saddened as she looked at the girl. "My mother died ten years ago."

Alexis's mouth formed a large O-shape and she clapped her hands on her cheeks. "Oh my gosh—I'm so sorry!"

Kate shook her head and patted the girl's shoulder. "It's okay; you didn't know." Then, turning towards the rink full of ice she asked, "So, should we rent our skates?"

Though it was just barely noon, the rink was already heavily crowded, mostly with families: mothers and daughters, parents with a teetering child between them, fathers and sons roughhousing. A few teen boys with a too-cool-for-school look in their eyes wore skates but stood on the exterior of the rink pointing and laughing at everyone who fell. Two girls Kate guessed to be around eight stayed towards the center of the rink practicing turns and other figure skating moves. All of them seemed to be happy and having a good time.

When they got up to the skate rental window, Kate put her hand in her back pocket to pull out the folded wad of money she stuck there, but Alexis surprised her but thrusting a twenty dollar bill clutched in her mitten-covered hand through the rental window. Kate stammered out that the girl did not have to pay for her skate rental, but Alexis insisted saying, "You're the one spending your Saturday with me; there's probably something else you'd rather be doing."

"There isn't," Kate promised, brushing back a chunk of her orange hair from her face. "Trust me, if it wasn't this, I'd be at home—cleaning my bathroom."

Alexis mirrored the scrunched-nose expression Kate gave her and proclaimed, "Eww!"

They took their skates to one of the open benches and sat to put them on. Before she finished lacing hers, Kate dipped her hand in her coat pocket to check her cell phone. Just before they left the precinct, she had texted Castle to inform him that Meredith had bailed on plans with their daughter and she was taking the girl skating instead. Cell phones weren't allowed in Castle's training seminar, but she thought he might check his messages over his lunch break. Upon seeing she had no missed messages, Kate tucked the phone back in her pocket and leaned over to lace up her skates.

Once they were both ready to go, Kate walked with Alexis to the ice and stepped on gingerly. She attempted to glide forward, but felt her ankles wobbling. Okay, it was definitely going to take a little while to get used to skating again.

"So, ah, do you come skating a lot?" Kate asked as they made their first loop around the rink.

"Not a lot. I like to come at least a few times during the winter—to the outdoor rink. And then sometimes the summer camps I go to will take us to a rink once or twice. I usually have to go by myself, though. I mean, dad comes with me, but he prefers to watch from the sidelines; he's not very good at skating."

Kate chuckled lightly at the girl's tone. Given Castle's large stature and his bumbling, klutzy tendencies, this did not surprise her. "What about your grandmother?"

"Gran always says she's much too old to do things like skating, except she doesn't call herself old—she calls herself classic or experienced," Alexis explained. "She also told me, 'Kid, when you get to be my age you can pick and choose what you want to do and I don't choose to do this.'"

"That sounds like something my father would say," Kate told her with a laugh, recalling several similar statements from her father during a conversation about his last vacation.

"Is your dad the same age as my gran?" Alexis asked.

"I don't know. Possibly. He might be a few years younger, though," Kate rationalized knowing the ten year age gap between her and her partner.

They skated another lap before Alexis asked, "Do you have a big family, Kate?"

"Oh no, not really. I'm an only child and I don't really have any cousins I'm close to. My dad has a sister I usually see at holidays, but that's about it," she explained to the girl.

"Me too," Alexis said. "It's just Dad, Gran and I. And my mom…kind of."

Though the girl mumbled the last two words, Kate heard them and she couldn't help but feel a mixture of emotions. On one hand, perhaps for the first time, she truly understood Castle's anger. Alexis was a great kid—how could her mother, who saw her not nearly enough, not want to spend time with her when she could? It just seemed so absurd. Not to mention the simple standpoint of breaking plans. There was nothing Kate hated more than people who backed out on plans at the last minute for no reason other than their own selfish interests.

Oh the other hand, Kate wasn't sure she could fully relate to the girl. Growing up, she had two parents that loved her very much, and did everything they could for her. She couldn't even fathom her mother or her father not being around, especially during her formative years.

"You know, Alexis," she said, "I'm very sorry your mother couldn't be here with you today."

Alexis shrugged. "'s okay. I mean, I did just visit her in California, so it's not like I haven't seen her." Alexis slowed her skating so she was almost at a standstill. Not wanting to disrupt the other skaters, Kate guided them over to the side of the rink where they wouldn't be run into.

"It's just," Alexis continued. "Sometimes, I feel like she doesn't actually want to hang out with me—like she's doing stuff with me only because she feels like she has to."

"I'm sure that isn't true. In fact, when I met her the other day she was very excited to see you—it's all she talked about."

The red-head lifted her eyes to look at Kate. "You met my mom?"

The elder woman nodded. "Mmmhm, when she came to the twelfth looking for your dad."

Alexis's expression fell. "Oh. That was the first day she was here. Her enthusiasm usually drops off after that."

Kate wasn't sure what else to say to that, so she decided the best course of action would be to change the subject. "How about we talk about something else, okay? Why don't…why don't you tell me a story about your dad?"

"What kind of story?" Alexis asked as they began skating again.

"I dunno. A funny one? I bet you have a bunch of those."

To say that Alexis had a bunch of funny stories about Castle was a large understatement. Within just a few minutes, Kate was laughing so hard that she could hardly continue skating. All of the qualities her partner possessed—endearing, crazy, or otherwise—were magnified to hilarious levels through the eyes of his child.

They skated and talked for half an hour more before Alexis announced she was getting tired and hungry. Kate's aching feet and ankles were eternally grateful for this. They returned their skates and put back on their regular shoes, though Kate found herself limping for the first few minutes of walking in her boots once more.

On their way to find food, Kate checked her phone and found Castle had replied to her message, thanking her for what she had done and telling her he expected to be home from his seminar at four and she could return Alexis to his apartment at any time that afternoon. Once again, Kate's irrational guilt would not let her abandon the girl so, after they ate, they walked around the city until three thirty when they made their way back towards lower Manhattan. They arrived back at the Castle apartment just minutes before Alexis's father did.

"Hi pumpkin!" the detective said, pulling his daughter into a crushing bear hug. "How was your day?"

"Really fun! Kate took me skating and then we had lunch and went shopping—it was great!"

Castle smiled at his daughter before glancing over to his partner, who was leaning against the kitchen doorway. Her hair was a bit messier than usual and she looked exhausted, but she was smiling, so that was probably a good sign. "I'm glad to hear that. Now, why don't you go get washed up so you can help me with dinner?"

"Okay!"

She took off at lightning speed towards her room, but Castle stopped her by calling out her name. Alexis skidded to a halt and turned back to face the adults. "What do you say to Kate?"

Alexis ran back to the female detective and nearly plowed into her. She used her arms like lobster claws around Kate's waist and pulled the older woman into a hug. "Thank you! Thank you so much!" With that, she ran back to her room.

Kate and Castle shared a soft laugh once she was gone. "How was it, really?" he asked her.

"It was fine," Kate assured him.

"You didn't have to, you know. Take her skating and then to lunch…" Truthfully, he couldn't believe she had done any of it. It wasn't as though he viewed her as an uncaring person—quite the opposite in fact. But being kind and caring and willingly spending the day with someone else's twelve-year-old completely unprompted were two different things.

"I know, but it was kind of fun. Plus, she just looked so sad when she told me Meredith bailed on her," Kate confessed.

Castle nodded with a knowing smile. "Ah yes. My daughter knows how to work the sad puppy face, doesn't she?"

"That she does." Kate was silent for a moment, wringing her hands together, before she continued. "It's just…she told me she doesn't think Meredith actually likes spending time with her and she only does it out of obligation."

Castle sighed and slid his hands down into his pockets. "That doesn't surprise me. She's always been the idea person—'Oh, this will be fun; let's do this,' but she has no idea how to follow through. Her attention span is gone like that," Castle said, snapping his fingers, "but Alexis doesn't work that way. If you say you want to take her skating, and you go, and then five minutes later you want to leave but Alexis doesn't want to it just…it doesn't work. Course, I guess in this scenario they never even made it that far."

Kate gave him a soft smile and then, unsure of what to say to make it better, she stepped forward and slipped her arms around his waist.

Castle hugged her back and dropped a kiss onto her head. "You kind of saved the day, you know that?"

She let out an embarrassed laugh into his shoulder. "I didn't."

"You did. And," Castle pulled back, resting his hands on her shoulders, "I think that means you deserve an extra special thank you." He wiggled his eyebrows in a naughty manner at her.

Kate laughed. "Well, as interesting as that sounds, I don't know if I can. I'm kind of exhausted."

Castle stroked her arms. Though he wouldn't say it out loud, he didn't disagree that was exactly how she looked. "Not really used to kids, are you?"

Kate shook her head and skimmed her hands across her face. She hadn't felt it while she was alone with Alexis, but now that they were back at her home and it was quieter, exhaustion was pouring over her like a bucket of water dousing her head. "She talks. A lot."

Castle laughed loudly. "That she does. She kind of gets it from me."

"I noticed," she said with a playful smile. Then, she took two steps towards the door. "I guess I'll be-"

"Wait," Castle said, grabbing onto her hand. "Don't you want to stay for dinner?"

"Oh, no, really, Castle I'm beat," she assured him.

Nodding, he followed her to the door. Just as she was stepping out, he said, "Kate—I really do owe you for this one."

She smiled back at him. "Please tell Alexis I said goodbye." He nodded. "Okay…g'night Castle."

"Goodnight, Kate."