Kate Beckett's POV
I sat in my office and waited for the father to arrive for the little redheaded girl. I felt sorry for this girl, she didn't have a mother nearby who could teach her the things a mother should, things a father wouldn't be able to know anything about. The little redhead looked at me with a scared face and I tried to smile small at her, but as soon as she saw me looking at her she looked away, out the window. I tried not to take it personally, she was just a kid and she didn't know I was here to help her, not to put her into trouble, even if that might be the case this time. Suddenly someone knocked on the door and I told them to come in. In came a handsome man and I had to look down in my papers to gather my thoughts for a second before I looked up again.
"Hi, I'm Richard Castle" he said as he held out his hand.
I stood up and took his hand. There was a strange kind of feeling moving in my hand as our skin touched but I shook it off.
"Mr. Castle, I'm Kate Beckett, the principal" I said and I pulled out my hand from his.
"Please, call me Rick" he said and I nodded despite the fact that I, in my head, told myself not to go to that level.
I sat down again and gestured to the chair on the other side of my desk. He sat down and I looked at the redheaded girl.
"Alexis, will you please come here and tell your father what happened yourself?" I asked and she looked ashamed as she nodded and came to sit down in the chair beside her father.
"Pumpkin, what happened?" Mr. Castle said and she bit her lip looking at me.
Her eyes begging to not make her do this.
"I'm sorry Alexis but you have to tell him, either you or me, rules are rules" I said but for some reason I couldn't help but feel guilty for making her say it.
She sighed and looked down when she opened her mouth.
"I set a trap for our substitute teacher so his face became covered in blue when he opened the drawer" she mumbled and I looked at mr Castle to see his reaction.
To my surprise he lit up and laughed.
"Is there any way I can see his face? I bet he looked so surprised" he laughed and I was shocked at his reaction.
"Mr Castle! What are you doing? That is not good behavior" I said in a sharp tone and he looked at me trying to keep himself from laughing.
"You're right, it's not" he said and I felt relieved. "It's hilarious though" he added and chuckled.
I shot a deadly glare at him and he shut up.
"Alexis, could you please wait outside" I asked and she looked between her father and me.
"Daddy's in trouble, as usual" she said before she giggled and jumped out of the chair and ran out the door, closing it after her.
"Come on Kate, it's a little funny, I mean come on! A substitute smurf teacher? That must have made the kids's day!" he said in a complete serious voice and I stared at him.
"That is not the way to handle a kid when they do something wrong, they need to know they can't do that kind of stuff, that it's wrong and that they can't do it again" I said and he shook his head.
"You have kids?" he asked and I was taken back by his question.
"That has nothing to do with this, she needs to learn she can't set traps for people" I said and he shook his head.
"No kids then, that explains why you take this so serious" he said and I glared at him.
"Mr. Castle, this is not funny. Don't you get how difficult she could get it as she gets older if she doesn't learn right and wrong now?" I said harsh and he looked at me with puppy eyes.
"And don't you see what wonderful memories and fantasies she will miss out if she can't be creative?" he asked and I dropped my jaw.
I couldn't stand him! How could he take this so lightly? And how could he get custody for this little girl? She had told me before her mom didn't live with them anymore cause she was always out shopping and acting, so I get how but that didn't explain how he could keep it.
"Mr. Castle..." I said rubbing my forehead.
"You know, you look cute when you wrinkle your forehead like that" he said and I shot a glare at him.
"What?" I questioned confused and he smiled.
"You have a wrinkle when you think, it's cute, suits your pretty face" he said and I widened my eyes as I stood up and walked towards the door.
"I need you to leave... now" I said and he smirked at me.
I opened the door and he raised from his chair, never dropping his smirk.
"And you have gorgeous eyes too principal" he said low to me and kissed my cheek before he walked out the door.
I held my breath and once the door closed I let it go. What the hell just happened? Did he just flirt with me? I touched the spot were his lips had been placed for just a millisecond. I walked back to my table and sat down in my chair. I looked down in my papers and glanced up a little now and then at the chair he had been seated in. I shook my head and tried to gather my thoughts, he was... a junior's father. Plus he seemed to be a child himself. I sighed deep and tried to imagine how the little redhead must have it at home, never quite being around an adult. I took a deep breath and continued filling out the papers for when some of the teachers wanted to have vacation for a few days.
Rick Castle's POV
When I walked out the door I had done what I had told myself not to do. I kissed the principal's cheek, and then I walked out like nothing had happened. She was just so... I don't know, attractive? Smart? She seemed like a great person, though I knew she needed to soften up a bit. She was too tense and I could swear she probably hadn't been out for a while.
"Maybe I should ask her to dinner" the thought circled around my head for a minute before I realized what I had just thought and stopped myself. "She's Alexis's principal, get yourself together!"
I went home alone since Alexis should be in school for another two hours before ending school. I could see why she had been in trouble but I knew for a fact that she would never do it again now, not even after my reaction. She was too smart for that, and she was so mature for her age so I knew that all she had needed to not doing it again was really just for the teacher to tell her that wasn't a good thing to do to people. They wouldn't have had to send her into the principal but now she would, for sure, not do it again. Once I got home I decided to continue writing on my latest novel, so I went into my office and sat in my chair. I opened the laptop and my fingers started moving across the keyboard. This would be my last book in the Derrick Storm series, I was so done with this character. He had become so predictable and I always knew what was going to happen. I knew how to get rid of him too, I had dreamt about how I could get this serie out of my way for ever. I knew my fans couldn't like it, and I was positive my publisher, and ex-wife, would be critical about it. They would probably ask why I didn't just retire the man, but I knew what to tell them. If I had retired them I would've still been able to go back to writing about him, and that's something I was determined not to do. This was the only way and if some fans were going to be angry with me then fine, they'll get over it. While I was writing I went into the world of Derrick Storm, I became Derrick and lived his life through the screen while writing his actions.
"Darling, what did the principal want?" a voice said and I jumped at the sound.
"Mother!?" I exclaimed and put my hand on my heart. "How many times do I have to tell you not to scare me like that?" I asked and wiped my face with my right hand.
"Sorry, kiddo, I forgot how jumpy you get when you're writing" she said and I sighed.
"What was it?" I asked and she smiled again.
"How did it go at the principal?" she asked and I shrugged my shoulders.
"Alexis had done a prank on one of the substitute teachers" I said and started chuckling. "She apparently made him look like a smurf" I added and mother looked at me.
"Richard... you need to teach her she can't do that, you can't laugh at it like it's a good thing" she complained and I rolled my eyes.
"She won't do it again, she won't ever want to put her foot in the principal's office again, that's who she is" I said and mother looked at me with a disapproving look.
"You can't be the kid Richard, you need to be the adult here, you need to..." I cut her off before she managed to continue.
"Don't you have a class to teach?" I asked and she got a blank face before she looked at her clock.
"Oh shoot!" she exclaimed as she rushed off in a hurry.
She called out a dramatical goodbye before I heard the door closing. I chuckled and shook my head, she was so easily distracted. Thank god she had a class or I would've gotten another lecture by the 'great Martha Rodgers'. I started typing away on my computer again and got lost in time and space. I woke out of the alternative universe when my phone rang and when I looked at it I saw it was the alarm telling me it was soon time to pick up Alexis. I closed the laptop and got up to go for the car keys and then walk down to the car. Since I was a little early I decided to drive into the candy store and buy some of Alexis's favorite, I knew she was going to say she was sorry so I thought I better be prepared.