4. Four: Wednesday

Four

by chezchuckles

"I just feel safe here," she says, shrugging her shoulders at him.

"Hey, I'm not complaining." Castle grins at her, reaches out to take her hand as he opens his front door. "Just wish you didn't feel . . .not safe? at your place."

She ignores that though, moves past him into the entry. Alexis is at the bar eating lunch, her fork dangling from two fingers. He heads for her first; Castle hasn't seen his daughter since yesterday afternoon and now she turns at his approach, hugging him with one arm.

He kisses her cheek. "What've you got?"

"I made enough for all of us," Alexis says, lifting hesitant, hopeful eyes to him. "It's just chicken and pasta."

Castle glances back at Kate; she's still standing in the living room, her bag in her hand. She drops it by the couch at his look, comes over to them at the counter.

"Looks good. I'm starved." Kate gives Alexis a smile and then shifts around him towards the kitchen. Evidently, she remembers where everything is, because she opens up the cabinet and gets down two more plates, hands one back to him.

"Close your mouth, Dad," Alexis says softly, nudging his side with her elbow. Castle drops his gaze back down to his daughter, gives her a rough laugh.

"Yeah. I - Yeah." Kate just - she's in his kitchen and getting down plates and - okay. She's at home here; she's going to sit down and eat with him and Alexis. That's good. That's really good.

"It's in the oven, Kate." His daughter hops up from the stool and comes around to open the oven door. "I was keeping it warm."

Castle watches them together, Kate quiet but calm, Alexis peeling back the aluminum foil on the casserole dish. Kate scoops some out with a serving spoon and then glances back at him.

"You gonna eat or just stand there, Castle?"

He jolts forward, holding his plate out to her so she can dish it out. Before he can think better of it, he leans in and presses a kiss to the corner of her mouth, lifting his eyes to see hers.

She gives him a half-smile, her hand curling at his forearm, and then she turns back to their lunch like it happens every day, like it's nothing.

He still hasn't gotten used to this.

She laughs and turns her head against the pillow to look at him. "What are you doing?"

Castle does grin back at her, but he looks reluctant to share, as if he's embarrassed by it. Still, his fingertips stroke the line of her neck, his eyes soft in the late afternoon light. She reaches up and catches his hand, brings it to her lips to kiss him.

"We should get up," she murmurs. Lunch was good, after-lunch was even better, but-

"Why?"

She drops his hand and moves to brush the hair off his forehead, his eyes studying her. "Alexis has to know what we're-

"Ew."

Laughter bubbles up again and she curls onto her side to look at him, both arms pulled up to her chest against the softness of his sheets. He's lost the thread of their conversation, she can tell, because he's back to staring at her. His fingers skate past her chin and slide to her neck again, stroking.

"Okay, what is it?" she says, grinning. The afternoon light spilling in the windows behind him puts his face in shadows, but she can tell he's still half-awed and hesitant. "Tell me."

"Your skin is so soft," he says, the adoration in his voice nearly too much.

Kate feels his fingers running over and over the line of her neck, curling up at her ear, stroking back down. She takes his hand and threads their fingers together, then kisses his palm.

"You know, yours is too," she says quietly, smiling back at him. "Soft."

His breath puffs out on a laugh. "Is that some kind of remark about having a desk job?"

She laughs and shakes her head, scoots in closer to him on the bed. "No. Just in some places. Good places."

"Yeah?"

She nods even at the amusement on his face. "Like here," she murmurs and brings the inside of his forearm to her lips, brushing at the smooth skin over the veins in his wrist, a strip of soft strength.

His startled breath, the curl of his fingers up to her cheek makes her grin and lift her eyes to look at him.

"Where else?" he whispers.

"Here." She slides closer, her fingers drawing down his forearm until she can press her lips to the inside of his elbow, her kiss shaping around the angle of his arm.

"Yeah?" he breathes out, his fingers sliding into her hair as if to hold on.

She moves in under his arm so she can touch the ridge of his collarbone with her fingers. "Here," she says, putting her mouth against the hollow at the base of his throat, touching her tongue to it.

"Kate," he groans, his hand fisting in her hair.

"Here too," she continues, stroking her fingers down his chest to his waist, flirting with the ripple of his abdomen before sliding around to his back. She brushes against him with a light touch, stroking in the valley where his muscles line his spine.

She watches the darkness pool in his eyes until his body can't hold back any longer, and then she presses herself against him, pulling his hips in closer to hers and arching her neck to kiss him.

"And especially here," she murmurs against his mouth and then slides her tongue past the seam of his lips and into the soft, amazing heat of him.

"Have a good nap?" Alexis asks, smirking at them.

Castle hooks his arm around his daughter's neck, kissing the top of her head. "Shut it."

"No, no, I think that you're in a much better mood after a nap."

Kate laughs from behind him and he glances back at her. She shrugs at him, still smiling, her fingers against her lips as if remembering, and jeez, Kate, don't look at me like that.

"Is it too gross?" Kate asks, nudging his hip as she moves past him to lean against the kitchen counter.

"I'm sticking with nap, and I'm not thinking too far past that," Alexis says cheekily, grinning at them both.

Kate laughs again, sounding so at ease that Castle could kiss her, just wrap her up in his arms and devour her for it, but she tilts her head and glances at the stuff Alexis is going through on the counter.

"So what's all this?"

"Summer Experience packet for Columbia," Alexis answers, pushing it their way. "It's two weeks; you take some honors classes, get to meet professors, and have mixers with the other incoming freshman who'll be in the honors college with you."

"Hey, that's cool," Castle says, picking up the brochure and studying it. "Why didn't you tell me about this?"

"Telling you now aren't I?" Alexis says, and she sounds like she's rolling her eyes. When he glances up from the shiny color photo, he sees that - yeah - she is. The little imp.

"When is this?" Kate asks, her fingers brushing the activities schedule. He wonders if she's thinking what he is - that it sounds like two weeks of nonstop - uh - naps.

"In July. Mine is anyway. They have one in June too, but I want to chill out before I get back into it, you know?"

"Sounds good," he answers, handing her back the brochure. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just help me find my health insurance stuff?"

"I don't need to sign anything?"

Alexis gives him a smirking look. "Dad. I'm eighteen. I don't need you to sign for me anymore."

Oh.

Kate's fingers snake into the waistband of his jeans, tugging a little. He glances at her and she's regarding him with a tender expression. Because she knows him, and yeah, Alexis being gone is going to take some time getting used to as well.

Kate slides in closer and slips her arm around his waist, lifting on tiptoes to kiss his jaw.

Alexis laughs. "Looks like you'll be fine, Dad."

He glances back at his daughter, but there's nothing in her eyes but happiness for him. He reaches out to her and hugs her around her shoulders.

"But I'll still miss you, pumpkin. All the time."

When he pulls back from her, she pats his chest. "It won't be the same, Dad, but I think maybe it might be better."

At his side, Kate squeezes his hip as if in confirmation.

And she's right.

It's already better.