The Beginning (a Castle Beckett story)

Chapter 5

"Rick, come on wake up" After about 5 attempts Kate put her plan into action. She went into the bathroom and got one of the cups that was near the basin and filled it up. She went back into the bedroom and carefully tipped the cool water on top of him, making sure she didn't get it all over the mattress. Castle wasn't expecting it.

He jumped up from the bed with amazing speed and also with a girly scream. "AHHHH Kate what was that for?" He asked as she slowly stepped away from him.

"Well you wouldn't get up, so I had to use other methods."

"Well I'm sure you could have come up with something other than that." He said as he got off the bed and was inching towards her. "You realise I'm going to get you back for that now right?" Sadly Kate did know that was true, she really hadn't thought of that when she was pouring the water on his face. Castle ran straight towards Kate but of course she was faster, her being NYPD and all. Kate moved quickly down the stairs and into the kitchen, she hide under the kitchen island. Castle didn't notice her for a full 5 minutes. He looked in his study, laundry and anywhere else he could think of. By the time he was on his second look through of the bottom half of the loft Kate couldn't help but burst out laughing. Her laughing was uncontrollable, so much so that she doubled over. This gave her position away to Rick and by the time he got her, he didn't even bother trying to get her back. He just stood there watching her. She was so beautiful when she laughed, she didn't laugh enough and he was grateful that he was one of the only people that got to see her truly laugh.

When she stopped, he looked up at him with one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen on her face. She slowly got to her feet and made her way to Rick. Rick wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her towards him. Kate put her arms around his neck and the both towards a kiss but Kate couldn't she just burst out laughing again.

"How could you not see me, it was such an obvious place?"

"Well you have ninja skills of hiding." He replied, "You know you have a really beautiful smile? Right." Kate really didn't know, she blushed and smiled at the floor. He lifted her chin up with one of his fingers, "You're beautiful and I love you for that and everything else that you do."

"And I love you too." This time they were able to kiss without Kate bursting out into laughter, but it only lasted for a full 5 minutes. Alexis choose this time to walk through the front door.

Alexis walked in and was immediately greeted with the sight of her dad and Kate making out in the kitchen. "I…Um… will go back out the door" Alexis spoke quickly and went to move back out the door.

"Alexis, you don't need to. It's fine, you can come back. I'm sorry." Kate said, trying to get her to come back into the loft. This worked and she moved back in through the door and towards the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, I should have knocked." She moved closer towards the pair, she stood in front of them. Kate could tell she was nervous, she was moving from one foot to the other and playing with her hands in front of her.

"No Alexis, its fine. It's your house too." She replied slowly because she wanted her to get the point. She never wanted her to feel like she wasn't welcome in her own home. Rick however in all this discussion managed to slip away in all this, leaving Kate with Alexis. "However you dad isn't." Kate was only a little bit angry with him for going, but she probably would of if she had the chance. "Have you had lunch?"
"Nope"

"Well okay neither have we, so just let me find your dad and then I can make us something." Kate went to go find Rick, the first place she looked was in the study. If you knew Rick that was probably the place he went when he escaped. She found him at his computer typing. Kate liked it when he was writing; he got a different look on his face, one only reserved for this. Kate got a little distracted and forgot what she was in there for, and then she heard Alexis. Kate decided that she would just leave Rick to his writing. Kate walked back out to the kitchen and found Alexis sitting on one of the stools, "I thought I would leave your dad to write, because evidently that's what he went away to do."

"Yeah, I noticed he hasn't really been writing that much." She got of the stool she was sitting on and went to go look in the fridge to see if there was anything they could eat. "There is some left over pizza, is that okay?" There was other food in the fried but for some reason Alexis had the sudden urge for pizza.

"Yeah, that's fine with me." Kate came over to her, got the pizza and put it in the microwave to heat up. After the 3 minutes, the pizza was done. Kate got it out and put in in front of Alexis; they both sat on the stools and shared lunch. "So how is school going?"

"Well it's pretty boring right now, nearing the end of school. Just lots of study until final exams."

"So have you chosen which university you are going to?"

"I got my acceptance letters a while ago now, and I got in everywhere so my choices aren't limited."

"Where do you want to go?"

"My first choice was always Princeton but after last summer when I got the rejection letter, I don't think I want to go there anymore. I also want to be some want to be somewhere close to you and dad but I also don't want to be too close that dad we come and distract me or I come here. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I do. Before my mum died I didn't want to be close, I just wanted to start my life, but I didn't want to be extremely far away."

"I'm thinking Harvard, Columbia is just a little bit too close. I would come back here all the time. Now that I think about it Princeton is on the other side of the country, so I don't want to go there anymore. So my choice now is Harvard, I hope dad is okay with it. I think it will be because it's closer than Princeton, so now I just have to send my acceptance."

"It's good you have made up your mind now. All you have to do now is tell your dad, speaking of him we should probably get him." Kate got up and Alexis followed her into his office. Kate went up to Rick and tapped him on the shoulder "You going to stop writing and come get something to eat?"

"Yeah sure, just let me save what I have done and I will meet you two in the kitchen." Rick quickly saved the pages that he had written and walked into the kitchen to going the others.

"There is a slice of pizza for you." Kate explained when he sat down on the kitchen stool. "Alexis has something to tell you."

"Well… I have chosen to go to Harvard." Alexis waited for her dad's reaction

"Oh sweetie, that's wonderful." Rick got up and hugged her. "I'm so glad you didn't choose to go to Princeton."

"Rick, that's not a very nice thing to say." Kate pretended to be mad but really she was glad that Alexis was staying closer to home, she felt like the daughter she never had. Hopefully one day she would feel the same way, Kate knew that Rick was going to ask to marry her someday. She hoped that wouldn't be too far away as well. For now she just had to wait it out.

Rick looked over to Kate; she had a smile on her face. Rick knew that Kate cared for Alexis as if she was her own. He was going to ask her to marry him someday; he knew that she knew that he was going to. Little did she know it was going to be very soon.