I didn't have to say much to convince Laura to let me keep Molly in my custody. Especially not since Molly refused to let me go during the whole meeting. Laura probably figured it would be worse to try and bend the girl away from me. Just like I had when I had become a foster mother to Alexis I signed a few papers that legally bonded me to the girl, all while I still had her in my arms. As soon as I had gone around a couple corners from the social center I called Castle.
"How'd it go?" he immediately asked, not waiting for a hello.
"I got it, she's coming home with us" I told him with a small smile growing on my lips.
"Good" I heard the car start in the background. "Where do you want me to pick you up?"
I told him about the street I was heading for, far enough for him to pick us up without raising suspicion from someone who could contact the social workers and give us up. After we hung up I felt Molly pull away a little to be able to get eye contact with me.
"This mean I can stay with you?" she asked, it looked like she was afraid to ask.
"Yes, we'll get your own bed but I hope you don't mind sharing Alexis's bed" I told her and her small face lit up.
"I love it" she said with excitement in her voice and I wiped away the tears she still had on her small cheeks.
She smiled and I felt my heart warm up again after all the aching I'd gone through with the thought of loosing her. She snuggled closer into my neck and I continued the walk towards where Castle would be picking us up. Once I got us to the street we were heading for I stopped and looked around to make sure no one had been following us. Somehow it almost felt like someone was watching us. I looked at all the people, one by one, and no everyone was heading somewhere. A car pulled over beside me and when I looked there I saw my car with undercover Castle inside it. I quickly jumped into the back and told him to drive. This time, Molly let go of me and sat down beside me and I helped her put on the seat belt with a smile.
"How are you two?" Castle asked and I met his eyes for a quick second in the rearview mirror when he looked back at us before focusing on the road.
"I'm staying with Kate!" Molly said with a high tone, showing her happiness through her voice and the smile that grew on her lips.
"We're good, finally" I said before I added, "go for my dad's place, either we leave Molly there for the day or we take Alexis with us to the precinct" I told Castle and he nodded.
"Where?" Molly asked and she looked at me with a hint of fear in her eyes.
"Don't worry Molly, we'll stay for a few minutes, and then you'll decide if you want to go with us to the precinct or stay with Jim and Alexis. Jim is my dad and I've known him my whole life, you don't have to be afraid of him" I told her and took out my phone to show her a picture. "This is Jim" I pointed to my dad.
She looked at the picture, I'd taken it when my dad had Alexis on his shoulders and they both had big grins on their faces. I observed Molly while she was looking at the picture, trying to decide if she might be up for a day with my dad or if I should take her with us to work even though I knew there would be nothing fun for her to do there. Besides, I don't think she should be a part of everything me, Castle and my partners were going to discuss, could be too dangerous even if she was just a kid.
"Castle be there?" she asked and looked up at me.
"No, he'll have to come with me to the precinct, we need to work" I told her honestly.
I didn't want to lie to her, she'd had enough people lie to her in her small life-time. She looked unsure.
"How about this" I suggested, "we go there, me and Castle will be there with you and Alexis for half an hour and then you get to decide if you wanna stay there with Jim or if you feel like you wanna come with me and Castle to the precinct?" I asked and I saw her furrow her eyebrows in thought.
"Okay" she nodded.
I hugged her into my side and kissed the top of her head. I felt her arms go around me to hug me back. The car soon came to a stop and when I looked out I could see my dad's house.
"So, how do you wanna do this? Should I really go in there? Pretend to be Alex again?" Castle turned in his seat to look at me with questions in his eyes.
"Alex?" Molly looked at me.
"It's probably for the best" I told Castle before I turned to Molly, "it's important that if you need to call on Castle you say Alex, okay? When Jim's around Castle's name is Alex for now, when you get older we'll explain why" I tried to see if she followed and by the look on her face she got it but still didn't get it.
"Alex, okay" she said after a minute of silence.
I nodded with a smile and kissed the top of her head once more before we jumped out of the car and turned our steps towards my dad's house. I knocked on the door and waited for my dad to open up. When he did he looked surprised to find me on the other side and I could see that when his eyes went to Castle they changed into with both more surprise and also some suspicion.
"Hey dad, we thought we'd swing by for a few minutes, is that okay?" I asked, mostly to be polite, I already knew he would let us in.
"Sure, come in" he opened the door further to let us in and I heard running feet come down the stairs.
"Kate! Da...Alex!" the small redhead shouted with excitement and when she laid her eyes on Molly holding my hand she set off faster and yelled out "Molly!" with a lot more force than before.
Molly let go of my hand and ran towards Alexis, both embracing each other with open arms once they collided. I felt my eyes tear up but managed to wipe them before they ran over. I saw dad look at the girls with a confused expression but also satisfaction. He didn't really know who Molly was but he would soon enough. I walked inside and felt Castle follow behind me.
"Katie, could I talk to you for a second?" dad asked the second he had closed the door after Castle.
I turned to him with wonder filling my eyes, what would he want to talk to me about?
"Sure!" I said and he nodded towards the stairs.
"In private" he more ordered than suggested and I nodded, letting him lead the way.
He walked past me and before I followed him I saw Castle giving me a questioning look which I returned with a shrug of my shoulders.
"Watch the kids" I told him low and he nodded with a smile on his lips as he turned to the girls before us.
I quickly turned towards my dad and saw him waiting for me by the stairs. I followed him upstairs and he walked into my old bedroom so I just followed and once I was inside he closed the door.
"Who is he?" he asked and I looked at him with what I hoped was wide and confused eyes.
There could only be one person he meant but I needed to try keep it hidden. If he had figured out who Castle was I needed him to tell me, because there was no way I was going to expose it in case that wasn't what he meant.
"Who? You mean Molly?" I asked in a confused tone.
"Don't play with me Katie, I know you know who I'm talking about. Who is Alex, really?" he questioned and I tried to continue to play dumb.
"He's Alex, my boyfriend" I said and then added, "well, I'm sorry I didn't tell you about our relationship before. I wasn't sure of it when we talked earlier, I wan..."
"Stop it Katherine" the usage of my full name made me shut up immediately.
He never called me Katherine unless it was something really important, or if he was mad at me for some reason. I'd heard that a lot as a pretend-to-be-detective teenager.
"Now tell me who he really is. I can see in your eyes that you're not telling the whole truth, and once Alexis started with calling him something else and not Alex, I got it confirmed. Soo" he took a deep breath, "who is he?"
I just stared at my dad. How had he found out? I mean, I had heard Alexis's slip too but it felt so unreal that that would be able to convince my dad that I was lying to him. How could he know? I saw his patience starting to fail and I bit my lip before looking down.
"I'm sorry dad, it's better if you don't know for now" I mumbled without looking at him.
I couldn't face those eyes. I had already felt awful for lying to him and now, knowing he knew, it only hurt more.
"Kate, tell me" he said with a strong voice and I bit my lip harder.
I felt my dad come closer to me, he put his hands on my arms and I looked up at him. In his eyes I could see hurt, betrayal and disappointment that I hadn't told him about what was going on.
"Are you in some kind of danger?" he questioned and I felt my eyes widen.
"No, and neither is he if that's what you think" I answered truthfully.
"Then why won't you tell me the truth?" he asked and I took a deep breath.
"Because I don't think it would be good for you to know yet" I said, once again truthfully.
I was careful not to say anything about the actual situation. If I was convincing enough he might drop it, let me tell him when I was ready. But somehow I could see in his eyes that he wouldn't let this go that easy.
"Please tell me, Katie. If your mother was here she'd want you to open up as well" he said and I couldn't believe he went that low.
Bringing in mom, he knew he could get me to tell him my darkest of secrets with that one sentence. I couldn't believe he'd bring her into this. Sure, he was right. If she was here she would've told me to 'just tell the truth Katie, what is it that I always say?'. Vincit omnia veritas. Truth conquers all. My dad observed me and I had a feeling he knew he'd gotten under my skin. I could see he halfway regretted using the mom-card but I could also see he would do it again if I didn't give in and told him what he wanted to know. I groaned in agony. Why did he have to put me in this position?
"Fine!" I exclaimed after a few silent mintes of thinking. "His name isn't Alex. But before I tell you the truth I need you to promise me to not report this. He's not a criminal which I know you're thinking right now, but no one, and I mean no one, can know about him right now. So, I need you to promise me to let me tell you the whole story and to not say this to anyone. Understood?" I questioned and I could see him satisfied nodding his head.
I waited for the famous words. He sat down on my old bed and patted beside him. I sat down and looked at him with serious eyes.
"I promise" he said crossing over his heart.