Horror Night

The holiday weekend at the Hamptons came and went. Memorial Day ended. The family had gone to an array of barbeques; they had gone to the beach a few times and even rang in the holiday with the Memorial Day parade which ended Memorial Day night with fireworks going off in the distance.

Now they were back home. Embracing one of his middle names; Castle suggested that they gather around a lantern that would act as their "camp fire" and tell scary stories. At first Beckett was against the scary stories since the kids were as young as they are.

"They'll be fine; Kate. Alexis and I told scary stories all the time. She was perfectly fine after told them."

In the back of Beckett's mind her response was different than the one that she would give Castle.

There's a difference between Alexis and the kids; Alexis is only yours, she's mine by marriage. Johanna Martha, Kat, JJ and James Royce are mine. They came from me. Alexis didn't come from me.

"Fine."

"Alexis is coming over."

Beckett figured that she would give Castle this one thing. She hoped that this one thing would hold Castle over for a while. And the fact that Alexis was coming for the scary story night made it a bit easier for Beckett.

So with the go ahead from Beckett; Castle pulled out the Coleman camping lantern. He then ran to pull some bedding out. It was obvious what Castle had up his sleeve. As Castle put some chairs in the empty places in the living room; after he placed the pillows and some blankets on the floor around the camping lantern, Castle draped the rest of the blankets over the chairs.

"Kate; can you run to corner store and grab the stuff to make s'mores and some sodas."

"Yeah."

With that Beckett left to run the errand; while Castle put the finishing touches on the fort. Once the fort was done it was time to tell the kids what he had planned. Alexis came into the loft shortly after Jake had dropped her off and after Castle had went to tell the kids.

"Dad!" Alexis called.

Alexis had seen Beckett come out of the building so she knew that her dad was home with the kids.

"We're in the twins' room; Alexis."

Alexis made her way to her sister's and brother's room.

"Nice f – o – r –t; Dad."

"Thanks."

Castle smiled as he recalled something from years past.

"And you will go off to school."

"But I as just helpful."

"Yes, but if I let you out of class every time you were helpful, you'd never go."

"But I won't be able to focus on school today. I just can't concentrate."

"Which will make you just like all the other kids in the class."

"Dad."

"I am serious, or I will call the truant officer. Do you still have truant officers?"

"Budget cuts."

"You're so lucky."

"Found your stalker. Franco Marquez, aka Frankie Markie. Hayley filed half a dozen complaints against him. It says here that he even tried to break into her apartment. And when she filed against him, he showed up in court and called her a…"

"B – I –T – C – H."

"She can spell, Detective."

"Probably better than you."

"I was thinking the same thing." Alexis said.

It wasn't long after that, that Beckett came back. The scary stories got underway. Castle took the lead with the storytelling. Beckett and Alexis would jump in tell a story themselves; Castle told more stories. The entire time; the kids hung onto every word as they sat on the edge of their cushioned floor seats with gooey s'mores hands.

As the story telling progressed Beckett hoped the kids wouldn't have nightmares once they went to sleep but she knew the chances of that were slim.