Kate arrived at the loft a little after 6pm, carrying enough pizzas to feed a small army.

Rick had called earlier on and assured her that Alexis was thrilled - his words - by the idea of another movie night. Her only stipulation: she wanted pizza for dinner. He hadn't specified what toppings Alexis liked, hence the slightly extravagant order.

Veggie supreme, pepperoni and sausage, chicken and bacon, and a classic cheese. Kate figured all her bases were covered. Still, her stomach twisted nervously as she elbowed the door buzzer. She hadn't been this nervous since, well, since their first movie night. Not that she had alluded to being nervous that night - at least, she had tried not to - because Rick had been tense enough for the both of them! Between Rick's frustration and Alexis's disappointment, all Kate had to do for that night to be a success was keep them both distracted enough to not wallow: the movies had done most of her job for her.

Tonight felt different, though. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had messed up during that short-lived conversation in the wee hours of the morning. She wasn't good at this expressing yourself thing that the Castle's seemed to be so keen on, especially when it came to Alexis. She'd never dated a man with a kid before, let alone an almost-grown kid with real problems and emotions and opinions. One wrong step with Alexis and-

The front door swung open, revealing a much brighter looking Alexis.

"Hey!" the girl greeted enthusiastically, taking Kate by surprise. "You made it!"

"And I come bearing gifts," Kate replied after a beat, holding up the stacked pizza boxes.

"Perfect. I'm starving." Alexis stepped aside, allowing a confused (and still very nervous) Kate to enter the loft. "Dad's just on the phone with Paula."

Kate followed Alexis toward the kitchen and placed the pizza boxes on the counter while Alexis pulled plates from the overhead cabinet. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes searching until they found Rick in his office: phone pressed to his ear, brows knitted in frustration.

She tore her eyes away from him, back to his daughter. "Is everything okay?"

Alexis shrugged. "Something about Late Night. Or Up Late. Maybe it was The Late Late Show? I'm not sure. All I know is there was a scheduling mishap and now there's an open slot that Dad does not wanna take."

"Why not?"

"Because-" Rick's voice startled her: she hadn't realised he had evidently ended his call to join them. "Terri Cohen isn't interested in promoting my stories," he explained. He stepped up beside Kate, placed his hand on her hip and pressed a kiss to her temple.

Her stomach fluttered - a mix of butterflies, nerves and self-consciousness - still not used to how easy Rick found this casual intimacy, especially in front of his family. He had told her that he kept this part of his life away from his daughter, that one of his greatest fears was allowing Alexis to grow close to someone, to love someone only for them to leave, leaving him to mend not only his own broken heart, but his daughter's as well. Yet, here they were, acting as though Kate were some permanent fixture in their lives. Acting as if there was no way this could end badly.

She's invested now, too, that wicked voice in her taunted. One wrong move and you're responsible for not one, not two, but three broken hearts.

Kate pushed the thought to the back of her mind, determined to not let it win.

She smiled at Rick but kept her focus on Alexis, who rolled her eyes at the mention of Terri Cohen.

"Terri has the hots for Dad," she explained casually, as if the information were some kind of open secret and not a bombshell that had Kate's chest tightening with yet another very unpleasant feeling she'd rather not address.

"Oh, does she?" Kate asked in a playful, teasing tone. She was surprised it came out so convincing, given the images of a certain dark-haired TV hostess her mind had conjured for her.

Alexis nodded but Rick - unsurprisingly - saw right through Kate's act. She could tell by the way the corners of his mouth turned up into a smug (poorly supressed) smirk. But his hand on her hip squeezed just the tiniest bit; a small, silent reassurance.

"Did you get out of it?" Alexis asked her father.

Rick schooled his expression as he looked at his daughter. "Uh, no. Unfortunately not."

"Oh." Alexis slumped. "What are you gonna tell her, then? About..."

The girls words trailed off and her eyes darted to Kate and then back to her father, silently completing the sentence she didn't say out loud.

Rick shrugged but, before he had a chance to say anything, Alexis started shooting off rapid-fire questions.

"Who is she? What does she do for a living? Where'd you meet? Is it serious? Oh, I know! Is she the one? Are you gonna get married?"

"Okay, Alexis, I get the point," Rick said with a sigh. "You can stop now."

Alexis sighed. "She's ruthless, Dad. You have to be ready. If you hesitate for even a second, she'll pick your entire relationship apart. Going on her show this early in-" She waved her hand through the air, gesturing between the adults. "whatever this is, isn't the best idea."

"Yeah, well, she and Paula are... friendly, I guess, so they both think it's a great idea. And, I don't know, I guess I'll just try to navigate the inevitable questions as well as possible."

"Why would they ask about me?" Kate asked.

"We were at Conrad's party together," Rick offered as explanation, but Kate still didn't understand. Why do they care?

"We weren't there for very long. And we barely even spoke to anyone."

"That's kind of the point," Rick responded.

"Dad's a notorious show off," Alexis clarified. "And, usually, the company he keeps is more the type to seek out the cameras, not hide from them," she added with just a hint of disapproval in her tone.

Rick glared at his daughter - to which she simply tilted her chin up defiantly - before turning his attention to Kate. The calm, easy expression on his face melted into something much more serious as he spoke.

"They've kind of made it into a game. Like a puzzle: who can solve it first?" he explained. "They want to know who it is that has me-" Rick tilted his head to the side, as if sorting through all the words in his head to find the correct ones. "withdrawing from my usual social life," he finally decided on.

"I never asked you to withdraw," was all she could think to say. It was defensive - and not at all the point he was trying to make - but she didn't know what else there was to say. He was going on TV, to apparently talk about her, and there was nothing she could do about it. "Can't you just say you're single? That I'm just a- a friend?"

Hurt flickered across Rick's face before he forced a smile, but Kate saw it and a quick glance at his daughter told her that the girl had seen it, too. Rick looked at Alexis and tilted his chin toward the living room in a silent request that the girl obeyed instantly. She picked up the pizza boxes and moved out of earshot.

"Is that what you want?" he asked quietly.

What she wanted was for this to be easier than what it was. She wanted to claim him, to tell Terri Cohen - and everyone else, for that matter - that he was hers. More than anything, she wanted to be able to put herself out there, to put her heart on the line like that, to love him loudly and fearlessly and publicly. She never thought she would describe herself as cowardly, but that was exactly how she felt. She would rather run and hide, to protect herself, than to take a risk.

She groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I don't know," she mumbled into her palms.

"It's okay." Rick tucked her hair behind her ear and pulled her into his chest. "It's a lot. I know it's a lot, I understand if it's too much. I wouldn't be putting you in this situation if I had a choice."

Kate pulled back, just enough to look into Rick's eyes. "I know."

"If you want me to deny everything, I will. I just didn't want to not talk to you about it first, you know? I didn't want you to watch it and think what the hell!" They both smiled. "I would like to say that I am seeing someone," he added softly. "I can ask people to respect your privacy but I'd be naïve to assume they actually would. The last thing I want is to bring more chaos into your life, more than I already have. I know you hate the pictures and I know that they give you hell for it at work-"

"It's a little workplace hazing: nothing I can't handle and definitely not your fault."

"Regardless," he said firmly, letting her know he was serious. "I'll play this in whatever way you are most comfortable. The segment is taped on Thursday so you don't have to make a decision right now."

She nodded. "Thank you."

Rick combed his fingers through her hair, then pulled her forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. Kate closed her eyes and allowed herself just a small moment to enjoy the warmth of his embrace before pulling away again.

"While I have you semi-alone," Rick whispered. "I wanted to thank you."

Kate arched her brow. "For what?"

"Alexis told me that you talked to her last night."

"Oh." Kate looked over to the girl who was sitting on the floor by the coffee table, smiling at something on her phone. She looked much happier, much lighter than she had earlier. "Is she okay?" she asked, turning back to Rick.

He nodded. "She's... getting there. We talked things out today," he explained. "Turns out there's a lot more to this break up than I originally thought. She's questioning everything right now. But she said that talking to you really helped her."

"Really?"

Rick shrugged. "Something about being able to get it all out and clear her head."

Kate couldn't help the smile that lit up her face as relief washed over her. "I thought I had screwed up," she confessed.

"Why?"

But she just shook her head and pressed a gentle kiss to his cheek. "It doesn't matter. Let's eat."

Movie roulette. This family had movie nights figured out: it was an art and they had perfected it.

Alexis connected her laptop to the projector and the screen before them (crafted from an 'old' shower curtain that looked like it had never actually seen the inside of a bathroom) came to life.

"This website is the best," the girl declared with a smile. "It has every movie ever made."

"That's impressive," Kate said as she stared at the screen.

Rick had piled up 'essentials' on the coffee table - water, soda, candies and popcorn - and was now busying himself with dragging out pillows and blankets for them all to ensure maximum comfort levels. It, apparently, didn't matter that it was still almost 80 degrees outside and they (even with the air conditioning on) definitely didn't need blankets.

"I've narrowed it down a little bit," Alexis continued. "Dad requested nothing too grotesque-"

"Not while I'm eating," Rick chimed in, absent-mindedly, as he set the blankets down on the couch.

"And I set the language to English only. I don't feel like spending my night reading subtitles."

Rick flopped down on the couch beside Kate and leaned close enough to quietly say, "Too hard to keep up with them with her head buried in her phone."

But his near-whisper wasn't quiet enough, given the girl shot him an unimpressed glare in response.

"No subtitles and nothing grotesque," Kate pressed on, trying to stifle her smile. "Sounds good to me."

"We get two vetos each," Rick informed her as Alexis pressed the randomiser button on her laptop screen.

Icons shuffled like a deck of cards until the first movie was chosen.

40 days and 40 nights.

"Veto!" Rick called without a second thought.

"Okay," Alexis said slowly, pressing the randomiser button again. "Moving on."

Lord of the Rings.

Kate used her first veto and both Rick and Alexis turned to her, mouths gaping and eyes narrowed, as if she had committed some horrendous crime.

"I'm sorry," she said with a casual shrug. "But Lord of the Rings isn't the kind of movie that you watch just one and then move on to something else," she defended.

Rick perked up. "So, what you're saying is that we should watch all of them tonight," he suggested.

Thankfully, Alexis interjected. "Dad, that's like ten hours."

He barely had a chance to glance at his watch before Kate spoke. "I am not watching ten hours of elves walking through some forest," she complained.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't just reduce one of the greatest films of our time to elves walking through some forest," Rick said before taking a long, slow breath. Kate stifled her amusement - barely. "But you're right," he said to Alexis. "It's not a realistic feat for tonight."

"Another time," Kate consoled Rick with a gentle hand on his knee. "Maybe."

Eventually, they created their movie line up for the night: Space Jam, The Princess Diaries and Final Destination. It was an odd mix of entertainment, but no one seemed to mind. Even if they had, they'd used all their vetos.

They managed to polish off an impressive amount of pizza within the first half of Space Jam. Alexis had dropped a half-eaten slice of pepperoni and sausage back into the box, releasing a heavy yet satisfied sigh before she eased herself from the couch onto the floor. She and Rick shuffled, as if on autopilot, and he began to comb his fingers through his daughters hair: just like last time. Hair-braiding was such an integral part of their movie nights the act itself was more habitual than intentional.

And just like last time, as soon as Alexis's braids were tied, the girl turned to Kate with a bright smile and softly asked, "May I?"

Kate didn't object.

When the movie ended, Kate cleared off the almost empty pizza boxes. She managed to condense the leftovers to one box, then tucked it away in the fridge.

Rick used those few minutes to set up the next movie while Alexis curled up on the end of the couch, frowning at her phone as she aggressively typed out what seemed to be a very long text message. She had been furiously typing away for most of the evening, groaning and rolling her eyes at whatever messages she had been receiving, but Rick's knowing smirks had reassured Kate that everything was alright. If he wasn't concerned, she shouldn't be either.

As the opening credits for the movie began, Kate made her way back from the kitchen and settled onto the couch beside Rick. Alexis tucked her phone away and straightened up, focusing her attention on the screen.

"I love this movie," the girl said quietly, to no one in particular.

It had been her pick for the night. The moment the title was drawn from the website's database she had warned her father not to use his remaining veto. He promised, of course I won't, before leaning further in to Kate's side and whispering a very daring you still have a veto to use in her ear. Kate had laughed with him, but her veto remained unused.

"I don't think I've ever seen it," Kate replied to the girl's musing and two sets of wide, blue eyes fell upon her. She shrugged. "I really don't watch that many movies," she explained.

Alexis and Rick exchanged a glance. "That simply won't do."

"We must educate her," Alexis said, seeming to agree with her father's conclusion.

Rick snaked his arm around Kate's shoulders, garnering her full attention. "I hope you're aware that you've just signed yourself up for a lifetime of movie nights."

She shifted her hand up to where Rick's was draped over her shoulder, and laced her fingers through his. "Let's just get through this one first, yeah?"

But as the credits rolled into the opening scene, she couldn't ignore that small voice in the back of her mind that told her that a lifetime of this was actually quite appealing. The casual hours spent bouncing back and forth between comfortable silence as they watched movies and ate, and the easy, playful bantering with one another. Each smile, each joke, each minute shared together; it was all working to strengthen this connection between them.

The wasted time, doing absolutely nothing: it wasn't actually wasted at all.

Kate had noticed, over the hours, how Alexis's frowns had turned to shy smiles as she continued to allow her phone to distract her. So, it was no surprise when she turned to her father and asked if a friend could join them for the final movie of the night.

"I really don't think Ashley wants to spend his Friday night watching movies with your old man," Rick stated teasingly and both the girls looked at him, their wide eyes asking the same question: how'd you know it was Ashley?

Confidence that he had correctly guessed exactly who Alexis was talking about showed in the way his lips curved into a smug grin.

Alexis's questioning look faded into an expression that mirrored Rick's. "He does if it means spending more time with me before he leaves."

"Does that mean-"

The girl rolled her eyes and cut her father off mid-question. "We're... discussing our options."

"And you think the best time to have such discussion is over Final Destination?" he probed.

Alexis's eyes darted toward Kate and then to her hands, fidgeting in her lap.

"Oh." Rick turned to Kate. "I think we've just been kicked out of movie night," he said with a feigned pout.

Kate's eyes met Alexis's. The girl looked to be both apologetic and pleading.

"It's okay," Kate said softly to Rick. "I was getting tired anyway."

He looked at his watch. "It's not even ten."

"Some of us were up before the sun," she reminded him.

"Touché." After a small pause, he continued. "I should probably be writing, anyway."

"So he can come over?" Alexis asked, a glimmer of hope on her face.

Rick sighed. "It's okay with his parents?" Alexis nodded. "Then, yes, he can come over."

She grabbed her phone and, with a smile on her face, began to type out a message, presumably to Ashley.

"Only for the movie, though," Rick added quickly. "And then I'll take him home."

"Of course," Alexis replied without looking up from her phone.

Ashley arrived promptly, twenty minutes later, and Kate pulled a very reluctant Rick into his office. The door remained open and he sat at his desk staring out at the teens sitting on the couch rather than doing that writing he had said he should be doing.

"You don't have to stare so insistently," Kate said from her spot on one of the armchairs. She was reading, hadn't even lifted her eyes from the page as she spoke, but she could feel his spying. "The occasional glance in their direction is more than enough." He grunted a response and she dropped the book to her lap, chuckled and said, "Blink, babe."

As if following a command, he blinked once - enough to break his trance - and his eyes shifted to her. Then, he smiled. "I like it when you call me that."

Kate smiled, a soft blush blooming on her cheeks. She opened her mouth to say something - she wasn't exactly sure what, though - but closed it again when she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She and Esposito were covering the weekend shift, but they weren't expected to be on call tonight, so she wasn't sure who would be contacting her at this time of night. Curious, she pulled her phone from her pocket and read the incoming message.

Her heart sunk.

"Everything okay?" Rick asked after a few silent seconds.

Her thumbs hovered over her phone screen as she tried to think of some response, but they remained frozen as she struggled to string her thoughts into a sentence.

"Kate?" Rick urged when she didn't answer him.

"I, uh-" She looked up from her phone. "I think I have to go."

The words had barely left her mouth before she was scrambling for her belongings.

Rick stood in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to stop for just a moment, just long enough to take a breath.

"It's Lanie," she offered reluctantly. "She needs me. She and Espo just broke up."