Chapter 23 - The girls

We quickly hid the papers with the list of the suspects and I closed the top of my laptop. The second we had put it away the girls was done taking off their shoes and came running into us. Molly through her arms around me while Alexis through hers around Castle.

"Heey sweeties!" me and Castle said at the same time, earning a surprised look from Lanie, me Castle.

After a few looks and seconds of silence I finally asked them what they had been doing, which quickly led to the two girls telling a long detailed story about everything they had done from playing with other kids at the park to Lanie dropping some of her ice cream on the ground which the girls couldn't stop laughing about.

"So, what did you do?" Alexis asked us after their story about the day.

"Well, not much" I said looking at Castle to see if he had a good explanation of what we had done today.

"We, uhm, mostly chilled, watched some movie and talked" he lied up, only hesitating in the beginning.

His hesitation could be the death for me though since I knew it wouldn't slip through Lanie's radar. When I looked at her I could confirm my thoughts since she had that special smirk she always had when she knew something that wouldn't do me any good, at all.

"I should probably go home to change" Castle tried to whisper to me but by the gasp Alexis let go of she had definitely heard.

"No! Dad, please don't go, please stay" she begged with tears in her eyes while she threw her arms around his neck to hold him tight.

"Don't worry Alexis, he'll be back" I promised and when I met his eyes I couldn't help but bite my lip to stop a smirk appearing.

"Please make him stay Kate" Alexis said looking at me.

"He needs a shower, don't you think he stinks?" I asked in a teasing tone and she wrinkled her nose.

"Maybe" she agreed.

"Hey!" Castle exclaimed and I chuckled.

"But he can shower here, you have a shower" Alexis suggested and I had to mentally give her applauses for her intelligence.

"How about this, he will go home, grab the stuff he needs such as clothes, a towel, etcetera and then he will come back here and shower here, does that sound good?" I asked and I saw Castle's eyes shine up.

Alexis looked at me before she turned to her father.

"You promise to come back tonight?" she questioned.

"Of course! I promise I will come back tonight" he said crossing his heart.

I looked over at Lanie who met my gaze. She made a nod upwards to show she wanted to talk with me. I raised and walked over to her. We went to stand against the wall to be able to talk low without Castle or the girls hearing. Castle started tickling his daughter and not soon after he added Molly in the equation, tickling both of them while they laughed.

"Okay, I see what you mean, there's no way in hell that man would do anything to take his girl away from him" Lanie admitted and I smiled.

"Yeah, we're trying to figure out who sent in the complaint, and if we got it right it's all linked to my mother's murder" I said, my smile slowly fading away.

"What?!" Lanie exclaimed in a whisper, shocked.

I nodded to let her know she had heard right.

"Have you found anything yet?" she asked and I shook my head.

"Not really, we have a list of people but we're not close at all" I didn't want to tell her more than that, didn't need her to be in danger in case it would come out to whoever was behind all of this.

"You should involve the boys, they could help" she suggested but I immediately shook my head.

"I don't want them to know about Castle just yet. Let us find more proof first, then I'll let them in on it" I said looking at Lanie, "promise you won't tell them."

She had her hands in the air in a surrendering matter.

"Okay, fine, I won't tell them" she said and I nodded.

We walked back to the tickle-party which had turned into a 'jump onto Castle and try hold him down while tickling him'-party. Once we joined them Castle raised and told the girls the game was over for now.

"I should probably get going so I can come here quicker" Castle said and I could see Alexis get sad again.

Castle saw it too and picked her up in his arms to hug her and whisper something in her ear. He then put her down and kissed her forehead before he said bye to Molly and Lanie then asked me to follow him just outside the door. I felt Lanie smirk behind me but followed without a word. We opened the door and I quickly stepped in front of him to check outside to make sure no one of my neighbors were around. Once I was sure there was none I stepped outside and so did Castle. To my surprise he closed the door after him and when I turned to him he put his hands on my cheeks before crashing his lips on mine almost making me swoon. I felt my knees go weak and my lips go numb. He slowed the kiss down and pecked my lips a few times before he slowly pulled away.

"I'll take a photo of my murder board, so we can continue the investigation once the girls are asleep tonight" he promised and I nodded.

"Good... see you later" I said closing into him, kissing his lips again.

Why was he so irresistible? The kiss got heated and he pushed me against the wall beside my door while I let my fingers tangle themselves in his hair. Suddenly I heard someone clearing their throat and I immediately pushed Castle away from me, just as fast as he pulled away from me to place himself partially behind me to cover himself from being recognized.

"Miss Beckett, who's the handsome man?" my neighbor mrs Dawson asked.

I didn't know what to say, I just prayed she wouldn't recognize him.

"Call me Richard" Castle introduced himself with a careful smile.

The old lady looked at us with a big smile.

"It's about time you get a man in your life" she said looking at me and I felt my cheeks go bright red.

I felt Castle's arm sneak around my waist while he put his nose in my hair. My neighbor smiled wide at the two of us. I took his hand which were at my waist and intertwined our fingers.

"I guess I should, uhm, go" Castle said after a couple of awkward minutes when my neighbor was just staring at us with that creepy smile.

"It was nice to meet you, Richard" mrs. Dawson said before she she added, "he looks like a keeper" to me while giving me a wink.

I blushed hard as she went into her apartment and disappeared out of our sight. I heard Castle let go of a relieved sigh before I felt his grip tighten around me as he crept his mouth close to my ear, sending shivers down my spine.

"That was close, I should go before someone younger who recognizes me catches us" he breathed into my ear.

I nodded. I hugged his arms around me before I let go and so did he. I turned around to quickly peck his lips.

"Don't take too long getting your stuffs, and if you want to you can borrow my shower, just make sure you get clothes and towels with you" I said before I pecked his lips twice.

His lips were drawn into a big growing smile for each peck I gave him.

"I'll come back asap" he promised giving me a lingering kiss before he disappeared towards the elevator.

I couldn't help but bite my lip as it continued to tingle, feeling the ghost of his lips on mine. I let go of a deep sigh trying to gather myself before I turned to my door and went inside again.

"Kate, you wanna draw with us?" Alexis asked and I smiled at her.

"Of course! Let's go get some papers and pens!" I suggested and before I could walk towards Alexis's room Lanie told us she needed to go.

I thanked her for her taking care of the kids and hugged her before I said goodbye. The kids gave her a tight hug as well before she finally got to leave. As soon as she was through the door we went to Alexis's room and searched for the pens and papers. When we found them we laid them out on the floor and along with them we laid down on our stomachs to be able to start drawing.

"Kate, do you think you, me and dad could be a family?" Alexis suddenly asked and I looked at her with wide eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked, not sure how to take the question.

"I don't want to leave you, but I want daddy back, for real" she said while she continued to draw, only glancing up at me a little now and then to make sure I was listening.

"Well, we'll see, I can't promise you anything" I told her with a sincere voice.

"You like him" Molly pointed out and I felt the blush on my lips.

"Why do you think that?" I asked her, trying to sneak around the question.

"'Cause you do" she said without looking up at me.

I didn't know what to answer. Well, I like him but I still didn't know if it was safe for Alexis to know that. If it was something Castle wanted her to know. We hadn't exactly known each other for very long, and we certainly hadn't been together long enough to be able to make any promises. So, why did I feel like I could? Why did it feel like I could promise to be with him forever? Why did the thought of him make me dizzy?

"Is Billy nice? Like him?" Molly suddenly asked, this time she looked up at me with a scared look.

I knew what to answer.

"Don't you worry Molly, he's going to be great, and I will keep track on you. If anything happens, I will make sure to be there in a second to help you, okay?" I promised her.

"Mom always pinky swear" she carefully mentioned and I smiled sincere at her.

"Pinky swear" I said holding out my finger for her to take and I couldn't help but feel a jump of joy in my belly when her eyes lit up as she intertwined our pinky fingers.

After a minute she let go of my finger and went back to her drawing with a happy smile set on her small lips. I took a piece of paper on my own and started drawing on it.

"Can we go to the Hamptons when dad can be with us for real?" Alexis asked and when I looked on her drawing I could see her drawing a house by the water.

"What's in the Hamptons?" I asked her as we continued to draw.

I continued to glance at her to see her expressions as she replied.

"Our summer house" she said carefree. "We go there every summer or whenever daddy needs time to write, sometimes he goes there while me and gram stays at home so that he can write without distractions."

I was shocked to hear that but before I could comment she looked at me and quickly opened her mouth.

"Not that he says I'm a distraction, but he loves spending time with me and especially when he has a writer's block which is often when he really needs a new chapter to be done" she explained, "he haven't exactly told me this but I notice things" she added with a proud smile.

I smiled at her, thinking about how Castle had played with her and Molly before. I had a feeling I would never get tired of seeing that side of him, and I really hoped I would see more of it.