Disclaimer: I do not own Castle

Chapter 30

After Avril went into her bedroom to retire for the night, Kate peeked into Alexis' room to wish her a goodnights sleep, and then she wandered off to check on her little angels. Both of them were fast asleep. She kissed their sleeping faces and whispered a "Good night, mommy loves you" and then went in search of their very upset father.

When she entered their bedroom, he was nowhere to be seen. But she heard the sound of water. He was having a shower. She changed into her night t-shirt and took of her jeans and kept them aside. And then she sat on the side of the bed that was facing the bathroom door and waited.

He was out soon enough, his hair wet form the shower, he wore his robe open and only a pair of boxers to cover the essentials. He stopped in the doorway of the bathroom when he saw her, and then just walked towards the other side of the bed and sat down. He used the small towel in his hand to wipe his hair. She crawled on the bed towards him, and when she was behind him, she knelt and took the towel from his hand, and began to softly ruffle the towel through his hair, drying it for him.

"So when are you two leaving?" he asked bitterly. And Kate stopped for a moment, wondering if she had heard right.

"What?"

"You heard me, when are you two leaving?"

"Rick, no one's leaving. What gave you that stupid idea?"

"I don't know. But it was pretty clear you wanted to keep me out of the loop tonight, and for all I know, you three were scheming up against me"

"I think you're getting old Castle, you sound like an old grumpy man who suspects his wife his cheating on him"

Castle had to admit. He was making a mountain of a mole hill. So he kept quiet. He felt Kate shift behind him and then she was in front of him, and sitting on his left thigh. Her one arm around his neck.

"Avril asked me to allow her to talk to Will by herself. She didn't want you or me to say anything, as this was her opportunity to properly tell him just how much he had hurt us"

Rick looked at his wife, who was so comfortably sitting on his lap.

"Rick, that first instance, I knew you were itching to say something to him, when he tried to reach out to Avril"

"I was. He was making her feel uncomfortable"

"Exactly, that's why I had to get you out of there, before it turned into a fight between you and him, when it was supposed to be just a talk between her and him"

Rick nodded.

"You know, the entire time though, I kept wishing you were there to hear her."

Rick looked at her.

"Why? What did she say?"

"She told him that he has no place in her life, that the only one man she's ever believed is her father is you. That she's proud to have your name behind hers and not his. That she wouldn't want her life to be any other way than it is now. She told him, that even though he is her biological father, you have been more of a father to her than him…."

Rick was listening intently.

"Rick, she's so grateful to have you, I could hear it in her voice, and I wish you could have heard it instead of letting yourself have all these stupid insecurities. She's your daughter, and there's no place else she'd rather be. You're stuck with us"

He smiled, proudly. And Kate leaned in to kiss him, slowly and passionately, letting her kiss erase every single doubt he may have had in this past hour. He pulled away and said

"I'm still a little mad at you, for sending me away"

"Can I make it up to you? will you forgive me then?" she said with a wicked smile on her face, as her hands slipped under the robe on his shoulders and pushed it off to fall behind him on the bed he was seated on.

"I think I can be convinced, what did you have in mind?"

She began to kiss his neck, starting from that tough spot on his neck that made him groan.

Her voice fell a few pitches lower, more seductive. "It's not about what I have in mind, it's about what I want in my mouth"

And with that, she moved lower down, her lips leaving a long trail of kisses down his hot chest, his abs and he fell back on the bed. She had reached her destination

Kate Castle was the best thing to have ever happened to him.

The next morning when Kate woke up, she was sweating. She felt like she was in a furnace. Why was she suddenly feeling so hot? And that's when she felt it. Rick. His body was heating up. She slowly turned in his arms, she could feel all of him, they hadn't put their clothes back on after their little session last night, and his body heat showed her he clearly had a fever. She leaned up on her elbow and ran her hand through his hair slowly, waking him up

"Rick, babe, wake up…"

He groaned and slowly opened his eyes only to close them again, the light in the room too harsh for his eyes.

He was sick alright, she could make out. "You're burning up Rick. Any idea what time in the night you started getting a fever?"

"I don't know… I don't want to get up just yet." he mumbled and snuggled closer to her, resting his face closer to her breasts. She smiled and played in his hair. He could really be a kid sometimes.

She kissed his head. "Let me put some clothes on and call the precinct, I'll ask them for the day off so that I can stay at home with you, alright?"

"You don't need to put clothes on to make a call" he grumbled into her skin.

She laughed "no I don't, but eventually I'll have to. And I think you should at least put your boxers back on too" she reached out for her phone and called the precinct while playing in his hair. He was falling back to sleep.

By the time she was done with the call, he was snoring softly. She kissed his nose, and got out of bed, making her way to the bathroom first to get ready for the day, and then she walked out into the kitchen.

She would wake him up in a while, he was probably just feeling really tired with the fever an all. Soon enough Alexis and Avril were up, and they noticed their dad's absence immediately.

"He's running a fever. I woke up feeling like my body was on fire, but apparently, it was the one next to mine."

"So you're at home today?" Alexis asked

"Yup, sick Castle is not an easy task to handle" she joked.

"Tell me about it" Alexis rolled her eyes.

Castle was a fussy, cranky man when he was sick, and they all knew it.

"I'm glad you took leave today then" Avril smiled. Then she looked towards her dad's room and thought for a moment. She needed to talk to him about last evening. She got up from her stool and began to walk towards the door to the study

"Where are you going?" Kate asked.

"To see dad, I want to talk to him about last evening"

"Uhhh… he's still asleep." Kate said.

Avril looked at her phone, it was time he woke up anyway. "I'll wake him"

"No!" Kate said, her tone sounding panicked,

Avril stared at her mom. Why was she acting so nervous?

"Mom, it's okay, I'm just going to talk to him, he'll probably feel better"

"Yea but... don't go in just yet"

Avril and Alexis both looked at her with confused looks. She finally admitted

"He's not decent."

It took them a moment to realize what she was saying and then Alexis laughed and Avril shut her eyes tight.

"Oh my god! When am I ever going to be able to get away from all of this?"

She made her way back to her seat.

Kate laughed to herself, Avril was an over dramatic teen.

"Don't worry, I have to wake him up now anyway, I'll let you know when you can go talk to him"

Avril nodded and continued with her cereal.

Her phone then beeped with a message. It was from Alexis. Avril looked sideways at her sister who had just put her phone down and then looked back at her own phone to read the message.

"I spoke to grandma Johanna last night. She thinks it's a great plan."

Avril smiled at the message, their plan for their parents' anniversary was going to work out just great. She immediately texted back a reply.

"You think dad will be alright until then?" Avril sent the message and laid her phone back on the table

Alexis picked her phone up and smiled and sent a reply immediately

"Can't say, for all we know he's just pretending to be sick to get mom to stay at home ;). But even if he's sick, I think he'll pull through before their anniversary. He'd want to be alright that day. I mean, just look at mom! Which man would not want to make that day special for her?"

Avril laughed at the reply, and Alexis smirked. And they were suddenly caught when they heard Kate's voice

"Are you two texting each other again? Because clearly you two seem to be sharing a joke among yourselves. Care to share it with me?" she asked while sipping on her coffee.

"Nope" Avril said "go wake your husband up." she said and then put all her attention into finishing up her cereal. Kate just smiled and walked around the counter and disappeared into the bedroom.

After she was gone, Alexis and Avril laughed openly. They felt good, being able to plan something special for their parents' happy day. They especially liked the idea of going behind their backs and doing this.

It was going to be a memorable one this year.