283. Chapter 283

After Limelight

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'm not in the limelight because I do not own Castle. Rating: T Time: See above.

"Your turn." Rick Castle said, coming out of his bathroom, freshly showered and shaved.

"Thanks, babe." Kate said, heading into the bathroom.

Castle swatted her lightly on her bare ass as she walked by.

"I will so get you for that." She said over her shoulder.

"Promises, promises." He said as the door closed behind her. "I'll make you your coffee." He said in a louder voice as she'd turned the shower on.

Walking out into the kitchen, he smelled the unmistakable aroma of coffee brewing. Had Kate brewed a pot while he was in the shower?

"Hi, Dad." Alexis said, her head popping up from behind the kitchen island. "I figured you and Beckett would like your morning coffee. Are you going to the precinct today?"

"No. She's just on call today." Castle smiled at his daughter. "And to what do we owe the pleasure of your company his morning?"

Alexis looked down at the floor instead of looking at her dad.

"Is something wrong, Pumpkin?"

Alexis didn't say anything and Rick was just about to ask again when she finally did. "I broke up with Pi last night."

Rick took a deep breath. Don't gloat. Don't gloat. He thought. "I see."

"I came here last night because it's a little complicated having your ex-boyfriend as your roommate. Especially since there's only one bed and the futon is broken. I slept in my old room last night. I hope you don't mind."

"No, no. Not at all. Feel free to stay as long as you want. As long as you need to." Don't gloat. Don't act as ecstatic as you feel.

"I won't be that long. Pi was sure he'd get the grant and he has a friend he can stay with. It'll just be a few days until Pi moves out. I told him he can take as much of the furniture as he needs, but he says if he gets the job, he won't need the furniture."

"You can stay as long as you want, you know." Don't push.

Alexis frowned. "I have a lease, Dad. I've already checked with my part time job and I can pick up a few more hours and I can do some paid tutoring, too."

"Yeah, but…" Rick began.

"Dad! Don't say anything else." Alexis decided it would be best to change the subject. "I see that you and Beckett have made it official. There was an article in the Ledger."

"And, Alexis, you don't have to worry about that. Absolutely nothing is going to change, I promise that…"

"Dad!" Alexis said again, more loudly this time. "I am not worried about you and Beckett, in fact…." She stopped. "I shouldn't do that." She said, frowning.

"What? What" Rick asked, suddenly worried.

"I shouldn't call her Beckett. She's basically family now and will be officially family before we know it. I should call her Kate. I never called Gina, Cowan, did I? And even now she'd think I was mad at her if I called her by her last name. No, I should call her Kate. She's going to be my step mom. Family."

"You're right, Pumpkin. I can still call you Pumpkin, right?"

"Sure, Dad. I was just thinking about Beck…Kate. Mom is Mom, and she always well be. But Mom is…"

"Flaky?" Castle suggested. "Self-centered? Crazy?"

"Whatever she is, she hasn't exactly been there for me. And Gina, is okay, but we never really had that mother-daughter vibe, did we?" Alexis frowned. "Okay, I'll admit, for a while I didn't like Kate. I thought she was using you. You were willing to do anything, absolutely anything, for her and she didn't seem to care at all about you. I'm still kind of surprised at how much she shows she cares for you and how much she lets people see that she needs you. That she loves you. It's like she's a different person."

"She's a very different person than from when I first met her. You know what happened to her and how she responded to it, Alexis."

"I do. And I really like Kate. It's just…" Alexis stopped.

"Just?" Castle prompted.

"When I was in middle school and high school, I had friends who couldn't talk to their moms about anything. That was a lot like how it was with Mom, because she was hardly ever there, and when she was, all she talked about was how she almost got a part on some cop show, or the great little place she'd found on Rodeo Drive, or something else. We never talked about me. But I had other friends who could talk to their moms about anything. Clothes, makeup, boys, dating, friends, everything. They could talk to their moms about college and careers. I never had that."

"That's not exactly true, Alexis." Rick said, just a bit hurt.

"We did talk about clothes. I'd want to wear something and you'd say it was too tight or too low cut or too short or too sexy. Our talks about make up went, "Alexis, why do you want to use make up? You're so beautiful without it. And boys and dating? Really, Dad?"

"Okay, maybe, just maybe…"

"And I feel I can talk to Kate about a lot of those things, but I don't need to now. I know what styles I like and what suits me. I don't need help with make-up. Or boys. I picked my own college and my own major. I feel like this is all happening too late."

Castle nodded. "I know the feeling, but it is happening."

"And she makes you happy, doesn't she?"

"More than anyone I've ever met. There's no one like Kate."

Alexis looked at Rick for a long time, until he felt he had said something wrong. Finally, she spoke. "That's how I felt about Pi. He was different."

Castle managed to hold his tongue. Was he ever different!

"Look at the guys I dated in high school. All nice, clean cut, hard-working over achievers. They worried about getting into any college they wanted to go to. Their activities were built around what would look good on their college applications. They were all the male versions of me. And Pi wasn't like that. Pi was fun. I wanted fun."

Castle took a deep breath and considered his words before he spoke. "There's nothing wrong with fun. You just can't build a whole life around it, even though I tried very hard. I get more satisfaction out of working with Kate and her team than I did with any of the crazy things I used to do. I wish I had met Kate earlier. I wish I had met when she was a uniform, just out of the academy. I wish I had met her while she was in college. I don't wish I had met her when she was in high school, because that would be too creepy. But I couldn't be happier now that we are together."

Alexis looked at her watch. "Oh. I have to run. I have to get to class." Alexis kissed her dad, grabbed her things and was gone.

"You can come out now."

Sheepishly, Kate came out of the bedroom. She walked over to Rick and put her arms around him. "Rick, I'm sorry it took so long. If I could change…."

He put a finger over her lips. "Shhh. Enough. We've been over this. We're together now and we'll be together always."

"Good. Always is good." She held him for a while. "You and me when I was a rookie cop? Mike Royce would have never let you near me, Writer Man. He was very protective of the Hot Rookie."

"I'd have won him over. I did eventually, didn't I?"

"But would you have won me over?"

"The Universe demands that I would have."

"The Universe again?"

"Of course. Don't you respect the Universe?"

"And you wouldn't have dated me in high school?"

"Your lawyer parents would have had me arrested."

"Only if they found out. Remember I was the Rebel Becks back then."

"You're still the Rebel Becks. Wait, did you finish your shower?"

"No, you used the last of the body lotion and I was looking for more when I smelled the coffee, and I knew you hadn't had time to…"

"So what you're saying is that you need help in the shower."

"Exactly."