Castle Fic: Girls Night In (1/1)
Title: Girls Night In
Author: nytel
Fandom: Castle
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Characters/Pairing: Kate, Alexis, Castle, (hints of Castle/Beckett)
Word Count: 2,974
Prompt: Castle; Alexis & Kate; girls night out - from i_am_girlfriday (Yes, this ended up changing to girls night in. Lol.)
Summary: “Oh, really? The only way that I’m letting you pass on this, is if you have other plans tonight.”
Disclaimer: They're not mine, I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Beta: i_am_girlfriday
A/N:Comments are ♥♥♥
Girls Night In
It came as somewhat of a surprise to Kate how much she missed Castle when he wasn’t there. She’d known for a long time that she had grown accustomed to his presence at each and every crime scene. Not to mention that hearing his crazy, though more often than not, correct explanations for motive and opportunity had just become another standard part of her day.
He was only gone for two weeks, doing a small tour of talk shows to promote his second Nikki Heat novel, but she felt his lack of presence more than she would ever care to admit. Ryan and Esposito were good company, but there was just that little extra something special missing from her days. She wondered if the other two detectives felt the same.
By the time Friday rolled around, nearly a full week without her nine year old on a sugar rush, she contemplated calling him. Their case had closed early and she had just finished signing off on the paper work. Her hand was halfway to the phone when she was interrupted by Lanie.
The medical examiner stopped next to her desk. Kate’s hand paused, hovering above the phone for a brief second before she settled for grabbing the stapler next to it. As she pretended that had been her intention all along, and stapled together a set of notes that were already bound together, Lanie threw her a smirk.
“Didn’t interrupt you, did I?”
Kate shook her head as she straightened the piles of paper on her desk. “No, not at all.”
“Uh huh…” Lanie obviously didn’t believe her. “So you weren’t about to call a certain novelist just to check in?”
Kate felt her cheeks heat slightly, but refused to let the embarrassment slip into her voice as well. “No. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Oh honey, if anyone is being ridiculous here, it’s you.”
Kate’s eyes widened and she leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms across her chest instinctively. “And what does that mean?”
Lanie sighed. “You miss him. It’s okay. He’s…”
“I do not miss him.”
“Oh shut it,” Lanie said, her voice forceful yet sympathetic.
Kate wisely kept her mouth shut. She’d learned that with Lanie that it was sometimes better to just sit back and listen to what she said. She was quite the determined woman when it came down to it.
“Listen, Kate, he’s your friend. Your co-worker. Your something more if you’d let him be.” It was only a stern look from the medical examiner as she said the last few words that kept Kate from butting in. “You haven’t seen him in a week when you’re used to seeing him for nearly eight hours a day. Of course you miss him. But that is not why I came by here.”
Kate looked at Lanie questioningly, more than willing to move past the topic of Castle.
“Listen, it’s Friday night, and I know that your case wrapped up early. Now some of the girls and I are heading down to the new lounge on 5th that opened last week. We’re going to get dressed up, have a few drinks, and unwind... a girl’s night out. You should join us. It’d be good for you.”
Kate smiled politely. ‘The girls’ as Lanie called them were her core group of friends from college. Kate had met most of them before, and as nice as they were, Kate found them to be the opposite of low-key. She didn’t doubt they were a fun group, but it just wasn’t something she felt up to most nights.
“Thanks for the offer, Lanie, but I think I’ll pass.”
“Oh, really? The only way that I’m letting you pass on this, is if you have other plans tonight.” She paused for a moment. “Well, do you?”
Kate smiled widely as an idea popped into her head. “You know what, I think I might.”
***
Alexis made it home around six that night, later than usual because of the impromptu French Club meeting they’d had at the end of the day. They were trying to organize a bake sale, but it wasn’t going too well. She’d volunteered to be in charge of all the fundraising this year, so it was up to her to make sure that everyone got done what they were supposed to before next week. Although she never had trouble getting things done in time, it turned out that for most of her fellow students it was a different story.
Entering into the loft, she couldn’t help but notice how empty it felt. Her dad was gone for two weeks and Grams was rehearsing late at the theatre, as she had most other nights this week. It meant the place was practically hers alone. Most teenage girls would dream about this sort of thing, but Alexis wasn’t most teenage girls.
She sighed as she dropped her book bag onto one of the chairs at the kitchen island. Paige had invited her out to a party tonight, but she didn’t want to go. All the getting drunk, and playing spin the bottle… it just wasn’t her. Alexis wasn’t under any allusions, she knew she was an atypical high school student and it generally didn’t bother her much. Most of the time she was having too much fun hanging out with her dad, or being immersed in extra-curricular activities to care. But sometimes, like tonight, it did bug her. Just a little bit.
Pulling open the fridge, Alexis quickly scanned the shelves for anything that could possibly resemble dinner, but it looked like Grams had forgotten to go to the store again. So instead she headed for the kitchen drawer that was stocked full of takeout menus from every restaurant imaginable, a collection purely of her father’s making. He’d also left her an envelope full of cash on the fridge, knowing full well how forgetful Martha Rodgers could be.
Alexis grabbed a stack of different coloured, tri-folded papers from the drawer and began to flip through them. Thai, Chinese, Italian, more Chinese, Chinese again, sushi, pizza… Before she was anywhere near reaching a decision, her phone rang, making her jump. It rang once more as she fumbled to free it from the confines of her jeans. “Hello?”
***
If Kate was missing Castle as much as she was, she couldn’t imagine how Alexis must feel. They were the closest father and daughter pair she’d ever seen, and Kate knew Alexis wasn’t used to Castle being away. He may be famous, but being a famous writer had the perk of allowing him to be at home the majority of his time. Not to mention that Martha’s play had entered into the final stages of rehearsal before their opening show in two weeks, which meant she was at the theatre more often than not these days.
As Kate turned off her desk lamp and headed towards the elevator of the precinct, she pulled her cell from her pocket and scrolled through her contact list until she found the number she was looking for, and pressed call. After two rings she heard the familiar voice she’d been hoping to find.
“Alexis, hi.”
***
“Okay, that sounds great. I’ll see you then.” Alexis grinned widely as she pushed end on her phone, and placed it back in her pocket.
Well, that had definitely been unexpected. Detective Beckett had asked Alexis what her plans were for the night. When Alexis had told her she didn’t really have any, Kate sounded pleased. She asked Alexis if she wanted to have a girls night in, inviting Alexis over to her place to watch movies, eat take out and stay over. To be honest, it sounded like the perfect Friday night to Alexis. She eagerly accepted the invitation, and Kate told her that she’d be over in about an hour to pick her up.
Alexis quickly threw the takeout menus back in the drawer and rushed upstairs to pack a bag, as well as raid her movie collection. She also decided at the last minute to grab her box of nail polish and the home pedicure set she’d gotten for her last birthday. Once that was done she wrote a note for Grams, leaving it next to the unopened bottle of wine on the counter, knowing she’d see it. Then she waited for Detective Beckett to arrive.
***
Kate waited in the car downstairs after she had called Alexis a second time, telling her she’d arrived. In less than three minutes Alexis was exiting the building. She was wearing a backpack as well as carrying a small duffel bag over her shoulder. Kate stepped out of her car and helped Alexis load it into the back seat.
“You look like you come well prepared,” Kate joked.
Alexis smiled. “I had a hard time deciding on which movies to bring, so I brought a lot.”
Kate smiled back. “Sounds good.” She shut the back door and inclined her head towards the passenger seat. “Hop in.”
Alexis opened the passenger side door and attempted to sit, only to find a giant bag of takeout on the seat.
"Sorry about that." Kate got in the car and held the bag so Alexis could get in and buckled before she handed her the food to hold on her lap.
Alexis smiled. “Don’t worry about it.” Then she added, “It smells good, what did you get?”
Kate shrugged as she put the car into drive and headed back into the thick of Friday evening traffic. “I didn’t know what you wanted, so I got a little bit of everything. Some sushi, Italian, Thai… I even picked up a couple of hot dogs.”
Alexis grinned widely at her. “You know what? My dad does the exact same thing.”
Kate smiled innocently, even though she knew full well she’d been pulling a Castle. “Oh, really?”
***
When they arrived at Kate’s, she showed Alexis the guest room. Alexis dropped off her duffel bag, and then headed to the living room with her backpack full of DVDs. Meanwhile Kate grabbed a couple plates from the kitchen for their mini feast.
They spread the food out in a multiethnic array that covered the coffee table. As they were loading up their plates, Alexis broke the silence. “Thanks for inviting me over, Detective Beckett.”
“Please,” she replied, “Call me Kate.”
Alexis smiled, “Alright, Kate.”
“And you know what? I really wanted to. There’s something immeasurably appealing about staying in on a Friday night. Lanie invited me out to a bar with all of her friends, but to me… this just sounds so much better.” Kate was about to say more, but stopped, realizing that this was after all a sixteen year old she was talking to.
Surprisingly though, Alexis nodded as she placed one last piece of a California roll on the top of her takeout mountain. “I know exactly what you mean. My friend Paige invited me to this party tonight. Her friend’s older brother bought two kegs for them. She kept telling me that I should come, that it’d be ‘a great time’,” Alexis used finger quotations to emphasize the last bit. “But I don’t know what’s so fun about it. All they do is sit around at someone’s house, listen to music, drink beer and then play spin the bottle. I mean… how is that fun? It just seems like such a waste of time to me.”
Kate couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sure you’ve heard this before, Alexis, but you are very grown up for you age.”
Alexis smiled back at her. “My dad tells me that all the time. But the way I see it, one of us needs a good solid head on our shoulders, and you and I both know that’s not my dad.”
Kate laughed. “You are so right.”
Alexis reached for her backpack and placed it between them on the couch, unzipping it and pulling out a huge stack of movies. “Alright, now what do we want to watch.”
“I don’t know, what do you have?”
“Well, mostly I brought chick flicks. I hope that’s okay…?”
“Of course,” Kate said happily. “What would a girl’s night in be without chick flicks?”
Alexis laughed. “Exactly.”
***
They settled on The Proposal, 27 Dresses and Runaway Bride. They were three of Alexis’ favourites, and although she’d forced her dad to watch them with her several times, she had to admit it was more fun to watch with a woman. By the time 1:00 AM rolled around, they were both lounging in pajamas and letting the nail polish on their toes dry. Alexis had insisted on painting Kate’s toes bright red, she’d told her it was what Nikki Heat would do. Alexis herself had settled for a deep blue, and she had to say, Kate was very good at doing nails. It wasn’t necessarily a skill she would have expected of the detective, but she was impressed.
Just as the last scene of Runaway Bride ended, and the credits began to roll, Alexis’ phone rang.
She reached forward and grabbed it from the coffee table, knowing full well there was only one person who would call her at this time. “Hi, Dad,” she said.
“Hey sweetie, how are you?”
“I’m good. How are you?”
“I’m good. I just got back from dinner with a German book executive; they want to sign a deal to translate the Nikki Heat novels.”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah, it is. So what are you up to tonight? Did you get a chance to watch my lovely guest appearance on The Late Late Show?”
“Oh god, Dad, I’m so sorry, I forgot.”
“Oh,” he said, sounding disappointed. “That’s okay.”
She felt a little bad; after all, she had promised him she’d watch it. “I promise I’ll watch it online tomorrow.”
“So what were you doing tonight then? Did you go see a movie or something?”
Alexis smiled. “No, not exactly.”
“Okay…”
“I’m at Kate’s. We’re having a girls night in.”
“Kate? Kate who?” He sounded so confused that Alexis had to hold back her laugh.
“Beckett…”
“Oh, that Kate!” He sounded shocked. “You’re hanging out with Detective Beckett?”
“Yeah, she called me and asked if I wanted to come over. We just finished watching Runaway Bride.”
“Ah, yes, one of your favourites.” He paused for a moment. “So are you having a good time?”
“Yeah, I really am.”
***
Kate pretended to look through Alexis’ DVDs as she talked with her dad on the phone. After a few minutes Alexis tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Here she is,” into the phone before passing it to her.
Surprised, Kate took the phone. Alexis told Kate she was going to go make some more hot cocoa and headed into the kitchen, leaving the detective alone in the living room with Castle on the phone.
“Hi,” she said, a little hesitantly as she put the phone to her ear.
“Well, good evening Detective Beckett, or should I say good morning?”
Kate laughed, feeling suddenly at ease. “I guess it technically is morning, yes.” She leaned back against the cushions of the couch and propped her feet up on the corner of the coffee table, careful not to smudge her nails. “How’s your trip going?”
“Oh good. There’s nothing like a little promotional tour, people just want me to be my charming self.” She could practically hear him smiling.
“Uh huh,” she replied. “And how’s that working out for you?”
“You sound a bit skeptical there, Detective.”
“I’ve seen your ‘charm’ at work, that’s good enough reason to be skeptical.”
“Ouch,” he replied, though he sounded as if he was about to start laughing. “That hurts.”
“Well, you know what they say about the truth.”
This time he did laugh. “Touché. But anyway… that was rather nice of you to invite Alexis over tonight. You didn’t have to do that you know.”
Even though she knew he couldn’t see her, she shrugged her shoulders. “I know. But I wanted to. I know how close you two are, and I figured that you being gone for two weeks might be a little hard on her. Not to mention Martha’s rehearsing most nights this week.”
“Well, that was very nice of you, Kate, thank you.”
“And she’s a good kid, Castle. She’s mature for her age, and… she’s just good company.”
“That she is.” He sounded proud of his daughter, as he should be.
“In fact… I don’t remember the last time I had this much fun.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I think Alexis feels the same way. I talked to her yesterday too, but she sounds much happier tonight. Thank you.”
“Like I said, not a problem.”
“You do realize I may have to take you to dinner in order to properly thank you.”
“No, Castle, that’s really not necessary…”
“Well, okay then. But the next time Alexis and I are having a movie night, you’re coming. End of story.”
She smiled. “I guess I could live with that.”
“Alright, it’s a date then.”
Just then Alexis walked back into the living room with two fresh mugs of cocoa and placed them on the coffee table. Kate mouthed ‘thanks’ to her, before turning her attention back to Castle. “Did you want to talk to Alexis again?”
“Sure, put her on. I’ll say goodnight and then let you two get back to your fun.”
“’Night Castle, I’ll see you next week.”
“Good night, Detective Beckett, and yes you will.”
She passed the phone off to Alexis and waited for a few minutes as she said goodnight to her father.
After she hung up the phone, Alexis smiled at her. “So what do you think? One more movie?”
Kate grinned. “Sure, why not.”
The End
Author: nytel
Fandom: Castle
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Characters/Pairing: Kate, Alexis, Castle, (hints of Castle/Beckett)
Word Count: 2,974
Prompt: Castle; Alexis & Kate; girls night out - from i_am_girlfriday (Yes, this ended up changing to girls night in. Lol.)
Summary: “Oh, really? The only way that I’m letting you pass on this, is if you have other plans tonight.”
Disclaimer: They're not mine, I'm just borrowing them for a while.
Beta: i_am_girlfriday
A/N:Comments are ♥♥♥
Girls Night In
It came as somewhat of a surprise to Kate how much she missed Castle when he wasn’t there. She’d known for a long time that she had grown accustomed to his presence at each and every crime scene. Not to mention that hearing his crazy, though more often than not, correct explanations for motive and opportunity had just become another standard part of her day.
He was only gone for two weeks, doing a small tour of talk shows to promote his second Nikki Heat novel, but she felt his lack of presence more than she would ever care to admit. Ryan and Esposito were good company, but there was just that little extra something special missing from her days. She wondered if the other two detectives felt the same.
By the time Friday rolled around, nearly a full week without her nine year old on a sugar rush, she contemplated calling him. Their case had closed early and she had just finished signing off on the paper work. Her hand was halfway to the phone when she was interrupted by Lanie.
The medical examiner stopped next to her desk. Kate’s hand paused, hovering above the phone for a brief second before she settled for grabbing the stapler next to it. As she pretended that had been her intention all along, and stapled together a set of notes that were already bound together, Lanie threw her a smirk.
“Didn’t interrupt you, did I?”
Kate shook her head as she straightened the piles of paper on her desk. “No, not at all.”
“Uh huh…” Lanie obviously didn’t believe her. “So you weren’t about to call a certain novelist just to check in?”
Kate felt her cheeks heat slightly, but refused to let the embarrassment slip into her voice as well. “No. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Oh honey, if anyone is being ridiculous here, it’s you.”
Kate’s eyes widened and she leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms across her chest instinctively. “And what does that mean?”
Lanie sighed. “You miss him. It’s okay. He’s…”
“I do not miss him.”
“Oh shut it,” Lanie said, her voice forceful yet sympathetic.
Kate wisely kept her mouth shut. She’d learned that with Lanie that it was sometimes better to just sit back and listen to what she said. She was quite the determined woman when it came down to it.
“Listen, Kate, he’s your friend. Your co-worker. Your something more if you’d let him be.” It was only a stern look from the medical examiner as she said the last few words that kept Kate from butting in. “You haven’t seen him in a week when you’re used to seeing him for nearly eight hours a day. Of course you miss him. But that is not why I came by here.”
Kate looked at Lanie questioningly, more than willing to move past the topic of Castle.
“Listen, it’s Friday night, and I know that your case wrapped up early. Now some of the girls and I are heading down to the new lounge on 5th that opened last week. We’re going to get dressed up, have a few drinks, and unwind... a girl’s night out. You should join us. It’d be good for you.”
Kate smiled politely. ‘The girls’ as Lanie called them were her core group of friends from college. Kate had met most of them before, and as nice as they were, Kate found them to be the opposite of low-key. She didn’t doubt they were a fun group, but it just wasn’t something she felt up to most nights.
“Thanks for the offer, Lanie, but I think I’ll pass.”
“Oh, really? The only way that I’m letting you pass on this, is if you have other plans tonight.” She paused for a moment. “Well, do you?”
Kate smiled widely as an idea popped into her head. “You know what, I think I might.”
***
Alexis made it home around six that night, later than usual because of the impromptu French Club meeting they’d had at the end of the day. They were trying to organize a bake sale, but it wasn’t going too well. She’d volunteered to be in charge of all the fundraising this year, so it was up to her to make sure that everyone got done what they were supposed to before next week. Although she never had trouble getting things done in time, it turned out that for most of her fellow students it was a different story.
Entering into the loft, she couldn’t help but notice how empty it felt. Her dad was gone for two weeks and Grams was rehearsing late at the theatre, as she had most other nights this week. It meant the place was practically hers alone. Most teenage girls would dream about this sort of thing, but Alexis wasn’t most teenage girls.
She sighed as she dropped her book bag onto one of the chairs at the kitchen island. Paige had invited her out to a party tonight, but she didn’t want to go. All the getting drunk, and playing spin the bottle… it just wasn’t her. Alexis wasn’t under any allusions, she knew she was an atypical high school student and it generally didn’t bother her much. Most of the time she was having too much fun hanging out with her dad, or being immersed in extra-curricular activities to care. But sometimes, like tonight, it did bug her. Just a little bit.
Pulling open the fridge, Alexis quickly scanned the shelves for anything that could possibly resemble dinner, but it looked like Grams had forgotten to go to the store again. So instead she headed for the kitchen drawer that was stocked full of takeout menus from every restaurant imaginable, a collection purely of her father’s making. He’d also left her an envelope full of cash on the fridge, knowing full well how forgetful Martha Rodgers could be.
Alexis grabbed a stack of different coloured, tri-folded papers from the drawer and began to flip through them. Thai, Chinese, Italian, more Chinese, Chinese again, sushi, pizza… Before she was anywhere near reaching a decision, her phone rang, making her jump. It rang once more as she fumbled to free it from the confines of her jeans. “Hello?”
***
If Kate was missing Castle as much as she was, she couldn’t imagine how Alexis must feel. They were the closest father and daughter pair she’d ever seen, and Kate knew Alexis wasn’t used to Castle being away. He may be famous, but being a famous writer had the perk of allowing him to be at home the majority of his time. Not to mention that Martha’s play had entered into the final stages of rehearsal before their opening show in two weeks, which meant she was at the theatre more often than not these days.
As Kate turned off her desk lamp and headed towards the elevator of the precinct, she pulled her cell from her pocket and scrolled through her contact list until she found the number she was looking for, and pressed call. After two rings she heard the familiar voice she’d been hoping to find.
“Alexis, hi.”
***
“Okay, that sounds great. I’ll see you then.” Alexis grinned widely as she pushed end on her phone, and placed it back in her pocket.
Well, that had definitely been unexpected. Detective Beckett had asked Alexis what her plans were for the night. When Alexis had told her she didn’t really have any, Kate sounded pleased. She asked Alexis if she wanted to have a girls night in, inviting Alexis over to her place to watch movies, eat take out and stay over. To be honest, it sounded like the perfect Friday night to Alexis. She eagerly accepted the invitation, and Kate told her that she’d be over in about an hour to pick her up.
Alexis quickly threw the takeout menus back in the drawer and rushed upstairs to pack a bag, as well as raid her movie collection. She also decided at the last minute to grab her box of nail polish and the home pedicure set she’d gotten for her last birthday. Once that was done she wrote a note for Grams, leaving it next to the unopened bottle of wine on the counter, knowing she’d see it. Then she waited for Detective Beckett to arrive.
***
Kate waited in the car downstairs after she had called Alexis a second time, telling her she’d arrived. In less than three minutes Alexis was exiting the building. She was wearing a backpack as well as carrying a small duffel bag over her shoulder. Kate stepped out of her car and helped Alexis load it into the back seat.
“You look like you come well prepared,” Kate joked.
Alexis smiled. “I had a hard time deciding on which movies to bring, so I brought a lot.”
Kate smiled back. “Sounds good.” She shut the back door and inclined her head towards the passenger seat. “Hop in.”
Alexis opened the passenger side door and attempted to sit, only to find a giant bag of takeout on the seat.
"Sorry about that." Kate got in the car and held the bag so Alexis could get in and buckled before she handed her the food to hold on her lap.
Alexis smiled. “Don’t worry about it.” Then she added, “It smells good, what did you get?”
Kate shrugged as she put the car into drive and headed back into the thick of Friday evening traffic. “I didn’t know what you wanted, so I got a little bit of everything. Some sushi, Italian, Thai… I even picked up a couple of hot dogs.”
Alexis grinned widely at her. “You know what? My dad does the exact same thing.”
Kate smiled innocently, even though she knew full well she’d been pulling a Castle. “Oh, really?”
***
When they arrived at Kate’s, she showed Alexis the guest room. Alexis dropped off her duffel bag, and then headed to the living room with her backpack full of DVDs. Meanwhile Kate grabbed a couple plates from the kitchen for their mini feast.
They spread the food out in a multiethnic array that covered the coffee table. As they were loading up their plates, Alexis broke the silence. “Thanks for inviting me over, Detective Beckett.”
“Please,” she replied, “Call me Kate.”
Alexis smiled, “Alright, Kate.”
“And you know what? I really wanted to. There’s something immeasurably appealing about staying in on a Friday night. Lanie invited me out to a bar with all of her friends, but to me… this just sounds so much better.” Kate was about to say more, but stopped, realizing that this was after all a sixteen year old she was talking to.
Surprisingly though, Alexis nodded as she placed one last piece of a California roll on the top of her takeout mountain. “I know exactly what you mean. My friend Paige invited me to this party tonight. Her friend’s older brother bought two kegs for them. She kept telling me that I should come, that it’d be ‘a great time’,” Alexis used finger quotations to emphasize the last bit. “But I don’t know what’s so fun about it. All they do is sit around at someone’s house, listen to music, drink beer and then play spin the bottle. I mean… how is that fun? It just seems like such a waste of time to me.”
Kate couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sure you’ve heard this before, Alexis, but you are very grown up for you age.”
Alexis smiled back at her. “My dad tells me that all the time. But the way I see it, one of us needs a good solid head on our shoulders, and you and I both know that’s not my dad.”
Kate laughed. “You are so right.”
Alexis reached for her backpack and placed it between them on the couch, unzipping it and pulling out a huge stack of movies. “Alright, now what do we want to watch.”
“I don’t know, what do you have?”
“Well, mostly I brought chick flicks. I hope that’s okay…?”
“Of course,” Kate said happily. “What would a girl’s night in be without chick flicks?”
Alexis laughed. “Exactly.”
***
They settled on The Proposal, 27 Dresses and Runaway Bride. They were three of Alexis’ favourites, and although she’d forced her dad to watch them with her several times, she had to admit it was more fun to watch with a woman. By the time 1:00 AM rolled around, they were both lounging in pajamas and letting the nail polish on their toes dry. Alexis had insisted on painting Kate’s toes bright red, she’d told her it was what Nikki Heat would do. Alexis herself had settled for a deep blue, and she had to say, Kate was very good at doing nails. It wasn’t necessarily a skill she would have expected of the detective, but she was impressed.
Just as the last scene of Runaway Bride ended, and the credits began to roll, Alexis’ phone rang.
She reached forward and grabbed it from the coffee table, knowing full well there was only one person who would call her at this time. “Hi, Dad,” she said.
“Hey sweetie, how are you?”
“I’m good. How are you?”
“I’m good. I just got back from dinner with a German book executive; they want to sign a deal to translate the Nikki Heat novels.”
“That’s great!”
“Yeah, it is. So what are you up to tonight? Did you get a chance to watch my lovely guest appearance on The Late Late Show?”
“Oh god, Dad, I’m so sorry, I forgot.”
“Oh,” he said, sounding disappointed. “That’s okay.”
She felt a little bad; after all, she had promised him she’d watch it. “I promise I’ll watch it online tomorrow.”
“So what were you doing tonight then? Did you go see a movie or something?”
Alexis smiled. “No, not exactly.”
“Okay…”
“I’m at Kate’s. We’re having a girls night in.”
“Kate? Kate who?” He sounded so confused that Alexis had to hold back her laugh.
“Beckett…”
“Oh, that Kate!” He sounded shocked. “You’re hanging out with Detective Beckett?”
“Yeah, she called me and asked if I wanted to come over. We just finished watching Runaway Bride.”
“Ah, yes, one of your favourites.” He paused for a moment. “So are you having a good time?”
“Yeah, I really am.”
***
Kate pretended to look through Alexis’ DVDs as she talked with her dad on the phone. After a few minutes Alexis tapped her on the shoulder and said, “Here she is,” into the phone before passing it to her.
Surprised, Kate took the phone. Alexis told Kate she was going to go make some more hot cocoa and headed into the kitchen, leaving the detective alone in the living room with Castle on the phone.
“Hi,” she said, a little hesitantly as she put the phone to her ear.
“Well, good evening Detective Beckett, or should I say good morning?”
Kate laughed, feeling suddenly at ease. “I guess it technically is morning, yes.” She leaned back against the cushions of the couch and propped her feet up on the corner of the coffee table, careful not to smudge her nails. “How’s your trip going?”
“Oh good. There’s nothing like a little promotional tour, people just want me to be my charming self.” She could practically hear him smiling.
“Uh huh,” she replied. “And how’s that working out for you?”
“You sound a bit skeptical there, Detective.”
“I’ve seen your ‘charm’ at work, that’s good enough reason to be skeptical.”
“Ouch,” he replied, though he sounded as if he was about to start laughing. “That hurts.”
“Well, you know what they say about the truth.”
This time he did laugh. “Touché. But anyway… that was rather nice of you to invite Alexis over tonight. You didn’t have to do that you know.”
Even though she knew he couldn’t see her, she shrugged her shoulders. “I know. But I wanted to. I know how close you two are, and I figured that you being gone for two weeks might be a little hard on her. Not to mention Martha’s rehearsing most nights this week.”
“Well, that was very nice of you, Kate, thank you.”
“And she’s a good kid, Castle. She’s mature for her age, and… she’s just good company.”
“That she is.” He sounded proud of his daughter, as he should be.
“In fact… I don’t remember the last time I had this much fun.”
“I’m glad to hear that. I think Alexis feels the same way. I talked to her yesterday too, but she sounds much happier tonight. Thank you.”
“Like I said, not a problem.”
“You do realize I may have to take you to dinner in order to properly thank you.”
“No, Castle, that’s really not necessary…”
“Well, okay then. But the next time Alexis and I are having a movie night, you’re coming. End of story.”
She smiled. “I guess I could live with that.”
“Alright, it’s a date then.”
Just then Alexis walked back into the living room with two fresh mugs of cocoa and placed them on the coffee table. Kate mouthed ‘thanks’ to her, before turning her attention back to Castle. “Did you want to talk to Alexis again?”
“Sure, put her on. I’ll say goodnight and then let you two get back to your fun.”
“’Night Castle, I’ll see you next week.”
“Good night, Detective Beckett, and yes you will.”
She passed the phone off to Alexis and waited for a few minutes as she said goodnight to her father.
After she hung up the phone, Alexis smiled at her. “So what do you think? One more movie?”
Kate grinned. “Sure, why not.”
The End