Author's Note: Apologies again for not being able to post last week but I'm back and will be resuming my usual posting schedule, I promise!

The Best-Laid Plans

Chapter 17

By the time Sunday rolled around three days later, Kate had still not had the conversation she had decided she should have with Castle. Although, in her defense, it wasn't all her fault. Castle had not come into the precinct on Friday, claiming a need to finish his book, and anyway, the precinct was hardly the place for such a conversation. She was on call that weekend but no new case had come up on Saturday so she hadn't gone into the precinct and she didn't normally see Castle on weekends either. She had considered stopping by the loft but had reasoned herself out of it, telling herself she didn't want to disturb his writing and, of course, Alexis and Martha would likely be around. Alexis, she knew, would be studying for her finals next week so would almost certainly be at home.

And now, on Sunday, she was meeting up with her dad for lunch, at Remy's, as this morning, she'd decided she felt like having one of their milkshakes and her dad had agreed.

She arrived at Remy's early but found her dad had beat her there, not surprisingly, since her dad was always punctual. One of the earliest signs she'd had of how far and how fast he'd been sinking into the bottle had been when he'd started to show up late for their meetings and then sometimes had not shown up at all. She shoved the memories aside. No, no, she wasn't going to think about it because it was over now. Her dad was fine, was himself again. And he would stay that way.

Her dad stood up as she entered. "Katie."

"Hi, Dad." She stepped into his embrace, shutting her eyes for a moment. Yes, he was his usual self again and even now, she could not take that for granted.

"How are you, Katie?" he asked as he released her.

"I'm fine, good," she assured him with a smile. She always told him that but she did mean it today. "We solved a case involving a friend of the Mayor so he actually called to thank me personally on Friday." Technically, the Mayor had called up the Captain and then had the Captain call her into his office but it amounted to the same thing.

"The Mayor, huh. I guess you're moving up in the world," her dad joked as they were seated at a booth towards the back of the restaurant.

She let out a little laugh. "Hardly, but the Mayor does know who I am, thanks to Castle and all the Nikki Heat stuff."

"Well, that still sounds pretty important to me. Not everyone in this city can claim the Mayor could even pick them out of a lineup."

"I think you're overestimating my importance," she chided mildly.

Her dad feigned surprise. "You mean you're not the most important cop in the city? I'm shocked."

She shook her head but couldn't entirely hide her smile. "Oh, stop it, Dad. Anyway, you might have read about the case in the papers. The victim was the CFO of Briggs Morris, the financial company."

"Oh, yes, that. I just read the news that he was found dead under suspicious circumstances but I don't remember seeing an article announcing he'd been murdered."

Perhaps he hadn't. Briggs Morris had been very cagey in the statement they had issued and obviously, the NYPD generally had a policy of not commenting on cases unless it was necessary, in case it might affect a trial later.

"Yeah, they tried pretty hard to keep it quiet, didn't want to shake up the market." And she suspected the Mayor had probably helped on that end too.

"So he was murdered, then? What happened, Katie?"

She gave her dad the brief summary of what had happened, starting with how she'd been sent to look over the scene of death and clear it as an accident or not, and then moving through the case itself. "In the end, I admit that it was really Castle who figured it out because he noticed that Eve, the Deputy CFO's secretary, was in love with the Deputy and that turned out to be the crucial fact, gave her motive."

Her dad sighed, shaking his head a little. "People do end up doing all kinds of crazy things in the name of love. And you think the Deputy really didn't know about it?"

"I wondered that and certainly, both Castle and I fully expected he'd been involved but I'm pretty sure he really was innocent. He looked so shocked and disturbed. There were even some tears in his eyes and sure, they could be crocodile tears, but he also had gone pale and I don't think anyone can fake pallor like that."

"If he could, it would probably make him the best actor on the planet so you're right, it's highly unlikely."

A faint smile curved her lips. "Much to Castle's disappointment. He really didn't like the Deputy so he wanted the man to be guilty."

Her dad gave a wry little chuckle. "Unfortunately, not being likable is not synonymous with being a murderer."

"I told Castle that too. Admittedly, I didn't much like the Deputy either and I could almost pity Eve for how twisted she'd become. She really seemed to have convinced herself that doing such a thing to help the man she loved was even selfless in a way, made what she did okay."

It was hardly the first time Kate had encountered the mental contortions people used to justify their actions but somehow, she could still be surprised by it. And Eve had not seemed evil, more… deluded, almost tragic. Helped by the fact that Eve had firmly denied any involvement in the death of the former Deputy CFO, insisting that had just been an accident, and Kate tended to believe her since by the time they'd arrived at the precinct and taken down Eve's confession, she had no fight left, entirely demoralized by Determan's repudiation of her and what she'd done. Eve had seemed so broken that it was hard not to pity her, at least a little.

Kate paused and made a small face. "It would make the job easier if all murderers were unlikable. I always hate it when I have cases where the victim turns out to have been despicable and the killer is actually the more sympathetic one." Admittedly, it hadn't been the case here since by all accounts, Ben Wardlow had been a decent man but she'd had cases where her sympathy was more with the killer, like the one from a couple years ago when an abused wife had snapped and killed her husband when he'd turned on their child. That had possibly been the hardest arrest she'd ever made.

Her dad sobered. "I remember your mom used to struggle similarly. There were some cases where your mom would come home and admit to me that she almost wanted to lose because she was sure the defendant was guilty."

She blinked. "I can't imagine Mom saying she wanted to lose a case." Her mom had been determined, not to say stubborn, and had a competitive streak.

"I doubt she ever said as much to anyone else."

"No, she wouldn't have," she murmured, her heart clenching. The evidence of how deep the trust had run between her parents was not surprising but it made her heart hurt to think about her dad without that person (and she didn't kid herself she could come close to replacing her mom in that level of trust). And in a different way, it made her heart flinch a little because she could not imagine such a relationship herself, could not imagine opening herself up to another person so, could not imagine that kind of trust. And at the same time, some part of her couldn't help but want it, the kind of relationship her parents had had.

"Then there were the others that were the opposite. I used to worry about those sometimes, how personally your mom took some of these cases when she really championed the defendant as if they were personal friends of hers and threw herself into their cases for hours and days on end."

She remembered times when her dad had gone into the office of their home and coaxed or gently ordered her mom to take a break and eat something. "Mom could get really intense," she agreed.

Her dad eyed her with a soft sort-of smile. "You take after her in that."

"I suppose I do," she agreed, managing a smile that didn't even wobble. Talking about her mom like this was not exactly easy but she and her dad had reached a certain level of comfort with it so they could talk about her, remember her, without the sharp stab of pain, just the dull ache of grief.

"It's why I'm always rather glad I work in civil law, not criminal," her dad went on, trying to sound more casual. "My work is almost never a matter of life and death so it's easier to stay a little more detached."

"How is work going for you, Dad?" she asked, quite willing to change the subject.

"Oh, it's going well. Our new group of summer associates just started this past week and I've been assigned to mentor one of the associates." He shook his head, giving a little self-deprecating smile. "He's so young, he makes me feel as old as Methuselah in comparison."

"You're not that old, Dad," she spoke lightly but she couldn't help but think, notice, that for all that, her dad looked older than his years, the lines around his mouth deeply engraved, the toll taken by grief and years of drowning his sorrows. At least, he appeared to have gotten some sun over the last weekend out at the cabin fishing so he looked healthy, vital.

Her dad slanted a glance at her. "Thank you but that rather sounds like damning with faint praise. I notice you don't say that I am still relatively young."

"Dad…"

Her dad laughed. "Oh, don't give me that look, Katie. You know I'm only kidding."

"So, the associates?" she prompted.

Her dad gave her a look but obeyed the prompting. "We'll mostly just give them some grunt work to start with. We try not to overload them during the summers anyway."

"You mean you try not to scare them all off by showing them what the reality of working at a firm is like," she corrected dryly. She'd heard enough of her parents talking over the years to know that.

He laughed. "True enough but don't tell them that."

"And aside from the summer associates, how are things going? Any interesting cases?"

"Actually, yes, I was just put on a shareholder derivative suit that already looks like it'll get complicated."

Her dad started to expound on the subject of this new case of his while Kate only half-listened. She would never admit as much to her dad but her interest in the sort of work he did was limited, at best (at worst, she found it mind-numbingly boring). She understood on an intellectual level that her dad's kind of law was important, holding corporations accountable and that sort of thing, but when it came to the actual practice of it, not so much. But she always asked and made an effort to question him intelligently because it wasn't about the subject matter so much as it was seeing the way her dad's eyes and expression brightened, became focused. The signs of how engaged he was, how interested, because she remembered that during the bad years, her dad had also stopped caring about work. Had stopped caring about anything at all, really, so lost in his own devastating grief. Even now, she still liked the reassurance of seeing her dad as the intelligent, incisive, dedicated lawyer, just as he had always been when she was young.

Fortunately, her dad was also mindful of the fact that she was not a lawyer and didn't try her patience by going into any detail about the legal-ese and in any event, the arrival of their food provided a natural break in the conversation.

They ate in comfortable silence for a while and she asked him about his visit to the cabin over Memorial Day, which segued into a desultory chat about the Mets and how their season was going which quickly became more involved. An inevitability when it came to her dad and baseball.

He was talking about the upcoming start of a new rookie and his prospects when the door to Remy's opened and Kate glanced up automatically only for her dad's voice to abruptly fade from her awareness and she wasn't consciously aware of lowering her burger to her plate but realized later that she had.

Because it was Castle. Castle, who had walked into Remy's, greeting the welcoming server with his usual friendly smile. Something tugged inside her at the sight of his smile. And then as if he'd felt her gaze, his head immediately turned and he saw her.

"Katie?"

Her dad's voice called her back and she blinked. "Castle's here," she just had time to say before the man himself had walked over to the side of their table.

"Beckett, this is a surprise," he greeted.

His manner seemed entirely normal, nothing to indicate that he'd been hurt or that anything out of the ordinary at all had happened the last time he'd seen her and she wondered if she'd imagined the oddity of his reaction when he'd asked her about her lie about seeing someone.

"Hi, Castle. Dad, this is Rick Castle. Castle, my dad, Jim Beckett."

Her dad made a motion as if to stand up but Castle waved him back, holding a hand out to shake her dad's. "Mr. Beckett, it's an honor to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine," her dad greeted, smiling. "I must say I feel like I already know you. I've heard a lot of great things about you from Katie."

Her eyes flared. What?! "Dad!" she hissed as quietly as possible and wished she dared to kick her dad's ankle.

She resolutely did not meet Castle's quick glance at her. "Really? Well, that's nice, if a little surprising. Especially because I know Beckett too well not to be sure she was honest in what she said about me."

She made a mental note to buy a muzzle for her dad. And possibly for Castle too. "My dad's just being polite," she hurriedly interjected. "I have not been telling my dad a lot of good things about you." And then inwardly winced. That had sounded more rude than she would have liked.

Castle only shot her a smirk. "Somehow, Beckett, I have no difficulty believing that you've also mentioned my faults as well."

Her dad chuckled. "You're right that Katie's not one to flatter but you don't need to worry, Rick. I think she's given me a good sense of who you are."

Kate tried not to gape at her dad. Rick? Since when were her dad and Castle on first name terms? Especially because she knew her dad well enough to know that he wouldn't use Castle's first name so soon and without Castle's express permission unless he really did like Castle already. Not that she wanted her dad to dislike Castle or had even expected her dad to dislike Castle–she of all people knew how hard it was not to like Castle–but still, the rapidity of her dad's apparent befriending of Castle was a surprise.

She cleared her throat a little. "Anyway, what are you doing here, Castle?"

Castle slanted her a humorous look. "I came to buy a Christmas tree," he answered dryly. "What else would I be doing here?"

Her dad laughed again, traitor that he was. "He's got you there, Katie."

She narrowed her eyes at her dad. "That wasn't what I meant. It's just that Remy's is out of the way from where Castle lives so I'm surprised to see him here on a weekend," she clarified.

"Oh, I felt like treating myself to one of their burgers and their shakes because I finished the book yesterday and sent it to my publisher this morning. And Alexis is holed up studying for her finals so I promised her I'd bring lunch back for her. Brain food, you know." He turned to her dad. "Alexis is my daughter."

Her dad smiled. "Oh, I've heard plenty about Alexis. Katie told me that she's going to be spending the summer at Princeton. That's very impressive. You must be proud."

Castle beamed. "I definitely am."

"So proud I'm surprised you didn't hire a sky-writer to announce the news," Kate commented rather dryly.

Castle affected the look of a martyr. "I would have but I realized that Alexis would probably kill me if I did so I gave up the idea. Alas for me."

"Very wise," her dad smiled. "And your mother is Martha Rodgers. Katie's told me about her too. In fact, I feel like I know your entire family."

"I'm quite sure anything Beckett's said about my mother is untrue. If Beckett has a flaw in her judgment, it's that she's too charitable towards my mother."

"Castle, be nice!" she scolded. "Don't make me tell Alexis you said that. Martha's wonderful."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have to live with the woman," Castle returned.

She ignored him and turned to her dad. "Don't listen to a word he says about Martha. He talks a lot of nonsense."

Her dad shot Castle a teasing look. "Sorry, Rick, I'm afraid I'll have to defer to Katie in her opinion of people. Katie would never let me hear the end of it otherwise."

Castle grinned. "That, I can imagine. She's the bossy type."

Her quisling dad laughed.

"I'm sitting right here!" she interjected and then–thank the merciful fates–one of the servers called out, "Takeout order for Rick!"

"Sounds like your food's ready, Castle," she hurriedly added. "Wouldn't want Alexis's burger to get cold."

"I notice you don't seem concerned about my burger getting cold," he quipped. "But yes, you're right, as usual." He turned back to her dad. "Mr. Beckett–"

Her dad waved a hand. "Oh, please, call me Jim."

Castle's smile widened until he was practically beaming. "Jim, then, it was so nice to have met you."

"Same here, Rick. I was thinking of suggesting to Katie that she introduce us sometime soon as it was, so today was a stroke of good luck. In fact," her dad suggested, "you should join us sometime when Katie and I meet up. It would be nice to have a real conversation, get to know you better."

She tried not to gape at her dad. Now her dad was inviting Castle to join them for one of their shared meals? Her dad had never invited anyone else to join them before.

"I'll look forward to that," Castle agreed with alacrity. He glanced at her. "See you tomorrow at the precinct, Beckett."

"See you later. Wish Alexis good luck on her finals for me."

As always, his expression softened at the mention of his daughter and she fought a corresponding flicker of warmth inside her own chest at the sight. "Will do. Enjoy the rest of your meal, Beckett, Jim."

He raised a hand and then he turned away, returning to the front desk to pick up the takeout bag and address the server with a few words as he handed over his card. She wasn't sure she'd ever met anyone who was as invariably congenial to servers.

Castle glanced back and lifted a hand in a last wave, which she and her dad both returned, before he had pushed the door open and was gone.

Her dad turned back to her. "That was a pleasant surprise, wasn't it? I'm glad I finally got to meet Rick. I liked him."

"I could tell. You were practically waving a banner around announcing that you liked Castle," she observed rather sourly.

He raised his eyebrows at her tone. "Would you rather I had disliked him?"

She felt herself flush, annoyingly. "No, of course not. I was just surprised, that's all." Her dad wasn't the most outgoing of people so it usually took him a little while to properly warm up to someone. Certainly, he'd only been rather stiffly courteous when he'd been introduced to Will. or maybe that was just because her dad had been meeting Will as her boyfriend whereas Castle was, as far as her dad knew, just a platonic friend.

"And how could you tell Castle that I've told you lots of good things about him? I haven't been praising Castle!" She was sure of that. She knew she'd told her dad that Castle acted like a hyperactive puppy, talked too much, and was generally irritating when they'd first started working together. In the last months as she and Castle had become real friends and as she'd begun to admit that she liked having him around, well, she knew she'd complained less but she certainly would not have praised Castle. At least, not outside of mentioning that he was a good dad. It wasn't her way.

"No, that's true, you haven't been praising Castle in so many words," her dad conceded. "But you do talk about him quite a bit and I read between the lines."

"There are no lines to read between," she muttered in a disgruntled aside. "Castle and I work together and I admit he's helpful when it comes to solving cases. But it's like with me and the boys." And now, she was lying outright to her dad, which she tried not to do. Whatever else she and Castle were, their relationship was not at all like her relationship with the boys.

"Maybe," her dad conceded, almost too agreeably. "But I'll tell you one thing, Katie. Your Castle makes you smile, more and brighter than I've seen in a while. And if that's not enough reason for me to like him, I don't know what is."

"He's not my Castle, Dad," she responded, avoiding what her dad had said about Castle making her smile. She knew he did but that wasn't the point.

"Isn't he? I rather think he is–or if he isn't, he certainly wants to be. He's besotted with you, Katie."

She choked on air, blushing hotly. "He's–what? No, no, we're just friends, Dad!" Castle lusted for her, she knew that, and yes, that he thought of her as a friend but that wasn't what her dad meant. Jordan Shaw had said something similar, that Castle cared about her, but she had pushed it from her mind, dismissed it because, well, what did Jordan Shaw really know? Her dad's opinion was harder to dismiss just because of how much she trusted him, trusted his judgment. She ignored the silly flutter of something like hope in her chest.

Her dad only gave her an entirely too knowing smile. "You might just be friends now but take it from a man who's been there, he wants more than that. Your Castle looks at you the way I used to look at your mom before I got up the nerve to ask her out."

She coughed. Her dad was not–could not possibly be–equating what he'd felt for her mom with what Castle might feel for her. It was… impossible. "No, no, that's not–he can't–it's not like that between me and Castle," she finally managed a complete sentence.

Her dad eyed her with a faint smile. "It might not be like that between you and Rick yet but I saw the way you looked when he walked in and the way you talked to him."

"I was teasing him, that's all."

"You like him, Katie, don't even try to deny it. I'm your dad, remember. I know you."

She blushed so hotly she was half surprised her skin wasn't giving off steam and the idea of ducking under the table or just running was beginning to seem very appealing. Why couldn't a fire alarm go off when you needed it? "Maybe I do, as a friend," she hurriedly added. (Lying again.) "But that's all. Castle and I–it wouldn't work, Dad, not for long anyway. And why start something that's doomed to fail?"

"I don't see why you're so sure of that. You and Rick already know each other and you work together well. You're friends and make each other laugh and that seems as good a foundation for a relationship as any."

"He's–we're so different, Dad. He's outgoing, a people person, not to mention a celebrity multi-millionaire. I'm just a cop who works for a living."

"You might be a cop but you're hardly an ordinary one, Katie. You're the one the Mayor asks for by name when one of his friends is found dead and I have it on good authority that you're extraordinary, which, of course, I've always known."

The use of that word, extraordinary, seemed too pointed. "Are you–you read Heat Wave?"

Her dad gave her a look of surprise. "Of course I did. It's not every day that someone writes a book inspired by my own daughter. Did you really think I wouldn't read it?"

She flushed, remembering some parts of the book that she really could have done without her dad reading, even if at the time, they bore no resemblance to reality. "Oh, I just… you don't normally read that kind of book." Her dad had used to tease her mom for reading Castle's books, in fact.

"I had to make an exception for a book about you, didn't I?"

"I just never thought about it," she managed rather lamely. "And I'm really not Nikki Heat. The book is just a product of Castle's overactive imagination."

"Oh, I don't know if I'd say that. I could see the similarities. You're both smart, determined, and dedicated." Her dad paused and then added, "And it was obvious from the book too that Rick thinks you're amazing."

"It's not–that's not the point, Dad. I just don't think it would be smart to get involved with Castle when I don't think it will end well and I think being friends is just… safer."

To her surprise, her dad actually laughed a little and she frowned. "What's so funny?"

Her dad sobered. "Sorry, Katie, I was just thinking that you really are my daughter, aren't you."

She blinked but didn't bother responding to the clearly rhetorical question, waiting for him to explain himself.

"I told myself the same thing about your mom all those years ago, you know, that we were better off staying as colleagues and friends because I didn't want to risk losing that."

"I didn't know that," she managed softly. She knew her parents had been colleagues and friends for a couple years before getting together but to her, it had always seemed like a natural and inevitable progression with about as much suspense over whether her parents would end up together and happily married as there would be in the question of whether the sun would set in the west.

He managed a faint, somewhat shaky, smile that somehow seemed almost more poignant than tears. "Well, it's true. I hesitated, debated, worried about it for months. Told myself your mom was so beautiful and so bright and so vibrant that she would probably get bored with someone like me in a matter of months."

"But Dad, that's–"

"Silly?" her dad completed. "Perhaps it was but I thought I was being very realistic and smart about it."

She inwardly winced a little. That sounded rather too familiar.

He reached out and touched her hand briefly. "I'll tell you what I've learned, Katie-bug. You can never really know how a relationship will turn out and all relationships will have their challenges, that's inevitable. But that's no reason not to try. Sometimes life requires taking chances, going out of your comfort zone, and the potential rewards usually outweigh the risk." He stopped, looking down, visibly gathering himself, before he looked up, his eyes moist and his voice not entirely steady as he continued. "Even now, knowing what happened to your mom, if I could, I would go back and do it all again, go through losing her again to be able to have more time with her. And the only thing I regret is that I didn't try sooner so I could have had even one more day with your mom."

She choked on something like a sob. "Dad…"

He stopped again, blinking, and she saw him swallow. "I know it can be scary and yes, if a relationship doesn't work out, it hurts, but I don't want you to close yourself off to the possibility of it just because of fear. If you live life in fear, you'll miss out on so much and I hate to think of you living with regrets and wondering 'what if.' And remember, as scary as it might be, life never delivers any–"

"Anything that we can't handle," she finished with her dad in messy unison and managed a shaky little laugh at the echo of her mom's favorite saying.

Her dad smiled a little. "You've always been fearless, Katie-bug, from the time you were little and refused to have a nightlight."

She choked on another wobbly laugh. "I was just being stubborn." And proud, never wanting to admit to being afraid.

"You always have been. Stubborn and strong and brave, that's our Katie-bug." He paused and studied her for a moment. "I'm just going to say one more thing and then I'll stop. Make your own choices about who to be with or not to be with, it's always up to you. But I would hope that you look for someone who makes you laugh, who challenges you to see the world in a different way and makes you a better version of yourself." He paused and gave her a small smile. "Which will be hard for you because you're already so incredible."

She rolled her eyes a little but couldn't entirely keep a small smile from escaping. "Dad, stop."

Her dad sobered again. "And look for someone who will support you, in good times and in bad. And I hope that you make that choice based on what you really want, what you think will make you happy, not based on what you fear or your worries about a hypothetical future that no one can predict."

He stopped, giving her a small smile. "Okay, Katie, lecture over."

"You weren't lecturing, Dad."

"Pontificating then?" her dad joked.

"I wouldn't say that either."

"No? A disquisition?" her dad suggested.

She had to laugh. "Dad! It was odd but at that moment, she could see that her dad and Castle would get along entirely separate from any connection to her. She had never thought that her dad and Castle would have that much in common, their personalities were very different, but she was reminded that her dad, too, appreciated words, liked plays on words. He was the one who had taught her to play Scrabble and he played a daily crossword puzzle, both activities which she was sure Castle also loved, wordsmith that he was.

Her smile faded. "Thanks, Dad. I will think about it."

"That's all I ask, Katie-bug." Her dad paused and then went on, with a shift in tone and expression, "Now, what were we talking about before Rick interrupted us?"

"You were talking about Jose Morales, the new rookie pitcher who was just called up," she supplied.

"Oh, yes, of course. I've been reading up about him and it seems like he's got a lot of potential." Her dad went on in similar vein, telling her about the pitcher's career in the minor leagues, and talking about baseball took them through the end of the meal.

Afterwards, she excused herself to go to the restroom to wash her hands. When she returned, her dad had an odd, almost self-satisfied smile on his face.

She raised her eyebrows at him. "What is it?"

Her dad made a (bad) attempt at smoothing his expression into blandness. "Oh, I just asked the server to bring the check whenever it was convenient and was told that it's already been taken care of, along with a generous tip. Now who do you suppose would have done that?"

"Very funny, Dad. We both know it was Castle and stop smiling like that. I never denied that Castle is a nice guy."

Her dad feigned innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about. I just think it was a generous gesture."

"I have it on the best authority, by which I mean Alexis, that Castle likes to give people things."

"That seems accurate, beginning with the espresso machine at the precinct down to this lunch. Thank Rick for me and tell him I appreciate it."

"I will, Dad, when I see him at the precinct tomorrow," she added rather pointedly.

Her dad lifted his hands in mock surrender. "Okay, Katie, I'll stop. Now, are you ready to leave?"

"Sure, Dad. I can drive you home, if you like."

"That would be great, Katie," her dad agreed and wrapped his arm around her shoulders as they left Remy's. She leaned into him for a moment. It was weird to talk to her dad about things like relationships but she was so glad to have her dad around, glad their relationship had been repaired so they could have such conversations.

Now, if she could only decide what to do about said conversation–but that was something she could figure out later.

~To be continued…~

A/N 2: Thank you, as always, to all readers and reviewers.