53. Stones in the road

X~~~X

Castle sat at his desk, musing about a new story line when he heard a persistent knock on his front door. With a frown he got up, he wasn't expecting anyone. Alexis and Jamie were playing upstairs, his mother was out with Stewart and Kate was still at work, plus she wouldn't knock - she had a key.

The thought made him smile, since he had given it to her about two weeks ago she had let herself in countless times and it always made his heart skip a beat when he heard her key turn in the lock.

He pulled open the door still thinking of Kate, but the smile quickly fell from his lips when he saw who actually was on the other side.

"Gina?" He gasped, shocked, watching his publisher brush past him into the living room. "What are you doing here?"

"What is this?" She asked, sounding pissed and not answering his question, instead pushing the New York Ledger into his chest.

He took the paper and stared at it before looking back up at Gina not sure what she expected from him.

"Page Six," she instructed, when he didn't move to open the paper, keeping her eyes on him while she sat down on one of the barstools at the kitchen counter.

With a shaky breath and the growing clarity that nothing on Page Six could mean anything good for him, Castle opened it.

What he saw was worse than he'd expected.

One of New York's most eligible bachelors off the market?

The article not only dealt with musings about his current relationship status but also with the possible love triangle between him, his publisher Gina Cowell and Kate Beckett, a NYPD officer who also seemed to be the mother of his - so far - unknown second child.

What made things even worse was the fact that the whole article was peppered with pictures - pictures of him, Kate, Jamie and Alexis and of him and Gina having lunch, looking very intimate as he leant across the table to whisper something in her ear.

His wide, shocked eyes lifted from the article and met Gina's across the room.

"It's tomorrow's Ledger," she informed him. "I have a friend who's working in the editorial department and she gave me the heads up. Is this true? Is the girl your daughter?"

He stared at Gina, his heart hammering in his chest and he didn't know what else to tell her but the truth. There was no other way, not anymore.

"Kate," he started, letting the newspaper drop on the coffee table and sitting down on the couch, looking very much in distress, "She's – I'm the father of her daughter and we're together, yes."

"And you're filing for shared custody for the girl?" Gina asked, a fact that had also been discussed in the article.

"Jamie, her name is Jamie and yes, we are." He said with a sigh, trying to figure out how someone could have found out. They had a court appointment in two weeks and hoped to have everything settled before Christmas but his lawyer had told them that it wouldn't be made public.

"We?" Gina raised her eyebrows, moving closer to him. "Her mother is okay with it?"

"I just told you we're together," he said agitated, not understanding why Gina was questioning Kate's approval or commitment in this, or why she felt she had the right to ask at all.

"That you did," she said quietly, eying him carefully for a moment. "How long have you known?"

"We ran into each other in August," he told her, "I hadn't seen Kate in over two years and there she was with that little girl who looked so much like me. We had a rocky start but -," he paused, a small smile playing around his lips, "she's great you know."

"You're serious about her, aren't you?" Gina asked surprised. She had to admit she had never pictured Castle to be the one-and-done type. Not after the failed marriage with Meredith.

"Yes," he affirmed, "I am."

"I see," she nodded slowly and moved off the barstool to sit down on the couch opposite him. "Then why all the flirting when we had lunch?"

"I," he sighed. He knew that one was on him, "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. I wasn't sure I could tell you about me and Kate and I thought flirting with you would throw you off course." He admitted, suddenly very much ashamed of his behavior.

A small smile played around Gina's lips as she looked at him, "I knew something was up."

"You did?" Castle asked surprise, his eyebrows shooting up.

"You were way too eager," she chuckled. "I knew you didn't mean it."

"I'm sorry Gina," he apologized, "it wasn't right to treat you like that."

"You know, you could have just told me you're not interested," she said with a shrug, staring nervously at her hands, folded in her lap, "despite what you might think of me, I'm not a bitch."

"I don't think that," he immediately shot back, but knew it was exactly what he had been thinking back then. Now, he wasn't so sure anymore, "You're a bit intimidating." He admitted carefully.

"Good to know," Gina laughed and then stared at him for a moment before she asked, "What do you want to do now?"

Castle let his hand run over his face, "I have to talk to Kate. We haven't really discussed going public and I have to admit I wasn't prepared for this." He pointed at Page Six. "And I should have."

"I called Paula," Gina said carefully, knowing Castle wouldn't be thrilled about it, "because one thing is sure, we have to do something. This story doesn't look good for any of us."

"She's on her way?" Castle asked. The last thing he wanted to deal with right now was Paula. He needed to talk to Kate first. He couldn't make any decisions without her.

But it was already too late, because the sharp, hysteric knock on the door could only belong to his agent.

Kate opened the door to the loft, half expecting to run into the girls and Castle transforming the living room into a space ship or whatever they had come up with this time, but instead she was met with an unusual silence. The living room looked deserted and she wondered if Castle and the girls were not home at all. She was about to call out for them when her eyes caught sight of the open newspaper on the coffee table.

The familiar looking faces caught her attention and when she stepped closer, she realized who she was looking at and reached for the paper with shaking hands.

Her heart stopped when she saw the pictures of herself and Jamie, of Castle and Alexis and the ones of Castle and a blond woman she hadn't seen before but whom Castle seemed to be very familiar with. It was Gina Cowell, his publisher.

The picture was taken earlier this month and Kate suddenly had a dark apprehension. It had been taken on the day Castle had had a business meeting and hadn't called her all day. He had never mentioned that he had dinner with his publisher. A beautiful, blond woman that looked so much more sophisticated than herself. Looking like a woman that belonged on the side of a bestselling author.

Her heart fell and her hand which was still holding the newspaper sank down to her side. She noticed Castle's closed office door through which she could hear muffled voices, one of them without any doubt belonging to Castle, the other to a woman.

"Rick, I always warned you that this would happen one day," the woman said.

"It's not like that," she heard Castle's angry reply.

"Rick don't be stupid, open your eyes," the woman tried to convince him.

Kate stared at the closed door and then she saw it swing open, Castle rushing out, Gina Cowell on his toes.

"Kate," Castle stopped dead in his track staring at her while she was still holding page six in her hands.

Kate was looking from Castle to Gina and back, the paper slipping out of her fingers as she turned on her heels and stormed out the door.

"Kate!" Castle called after her, sprinting toward his front door and down the hall, before he remembered that he couldn't leave Alexis and Jamie alone. He turned back, rushing back into his living room, "Paula, you have to stay with the girls for a moment."

He didn't wait for his agent to answer, knowing she would object and just hurried out the door again and toward the stairs, but when he hit the pavement Kate was gone. He looked left and right, but she was nowhere to be found. He pulled out his phone, trying to call her but she didn't answer.

Defeated he returned to his apartment with his head hanging down only to be met with Paula's shrill voice. At least it seemed as if the girls hadn't noticed anything.

"Rick, what do you want to do about that article?" Paula asked impatiently, not caring in the least what happened to the woman Castle had gone after. For all she knew, that Kate was simply a gold-digger.

"I have to talk to Kate first," he growled, grabbing for the phone to call his mother.

"So you've been telling me for the past fifteen minutes, but she just stormed out the door and we are running out of time here. If we want to have a statement out by tomorrow I gotta get on it now," she told him.

He just ignored her while he waited for his mother to pick up the phone, praying she was home.

"Hello," she greeted him a few seconds later.

"Mother I need you to come over and watch Alexis and Jamie for me," he more or less barked into the phone.

"Richard? What's going on?" Martha asked, immediately concerned by her son's tone.

"It's an emergency, Kate -," he stopped, "I have no time for this right now. Can you just come over asap."

Sensing her son's distress Martha decided it was best to just tell him what he needed to hear. There was time for explanations later, "I'm on my way."

"Thank you," he sighed, relieved before hanging up and starting to pace the room as he dialled Kate's mobile phone again. This time it went straight to voice mail.

"Rick," Paula tried to get his attention again, but he kept ignoring her. He couldn't deal with her right now. He knew in her own special way she was only looking out for him, but he needed Kate.

"Paula," Gina stepped in, touching the other woman's shoulder, "Let him sort this out and then he can call you. Tell you what he wants to do."

Paula swirled around, "Shouldn't you have an interest in getting this story out of the papers as soon as possible as well?"

"I do," Gina agreed, "but there's nothing we can do to stop this. The Ledger will print it tomorrow, no matter if we have a statement ready or not."

Paula was still foaming but she had to realize that Gina was right, "Okay, but you call me tonight Rick. Do you hear me?"

He nodded, sending her a scolding look. He couldn't care less about the Ledger, all he wanted was to find Kate and talk to her.

Paula grabbed her purse and headed out the door without as much as a goodbye to either Rick or Gina and the last thing they heard was the door shutting behind her with a loud bang.

Gina grabbed her coat from the back of the couch as well, approaching Castle who was still pacing the living room like a caged animal, only stopping when her hand came to rest on his arm.

"Good luck, Rick," she said, leaning up and placing a soft kiss on his cheek. "I'm sure you'll work it out."

He swallowed, knowing he owed Gina an apology, but he didn't know what to say. She had every right to be angry with him.

"It's okay," she let him off the hook. "I'm a big girl. No hard feelings."

"Thank you," he sighed.

She nodded and with one last squeeze of his arm she headed for the door.

Castle was still pacing the living room, having tried to call Kate numerous times but only reaching her voice mail, when his mother came rushing through the front door.

His head shot up, their eyes meeting across the room as Castle came toward her.

"What on earth happened, Richard?" Martha demanded to know and Castle wordlessly grabbed for tomorrow's paper, handing it over to her.

"Did Kate read this?" She asked after skipping through the article and the tortured look on her son's face was answer enough. "Richard what happened between you and your publisher?"

"Nothing!" He exclaimed, frustrated that his mother would even ask, "It was just lunch."

"This doesn't look like just lunch," she said tapping the picture of him and Gina, sitting very close, laughing about something and looking very intimate.

He ran a hand over his frustrated face, he knew what it looked like, "It's not like that. Look I need to talk to Kate first, I don't have time for this right now."

"Where is she now?" Martha asked, putting the paper down, having seen enough.

"I don't know," he growled. "She ran out, I ran after her but she was already gone. I just need to explain everything to her. And then we have to decide how we want to deal with this shit."

"Do you think it will be this easy?" Martha frowned, but he didn't get to answer.

"Daddy?" Both adults shot around when they heard Alexis' small voice, finding her watching them from the top of the stairs. "Is Kate gone?"

"No, Pumpkin," Castle vehemently shook his head, knowing what kind of memories the situation must bring back to her, "No, everything is fine. I promise."

He could see she didn't believe him, her eyes filling with tears and Martha quickly made her way up the stairs to gather the girl in her arms.

"Let's go back upstairs and see what your sister is up to, come on." Martha shot her son a look that told him he'd better fix this fast and the minute Martha and Alexis disappeared upstairs he grabbed his coat and was out of the door.

X~~~X

AN: Thought it was time to shake things up a bit. Don't want you to get bored.