Neighbors

**A/N** Sorry for the interruption of my usual work but this grabbed me and wouldn't let go. This ficlet presupposes a Caskett meeting post "Boom." Their first meeting set up by Montgomery to keep her out of the precinct after two near death experiences back to back. Had a little fun with the whole "Gotham crew" idea, too. Montgomery and Castle seemed far too chummy far too early in season one not to have known each other before. Enjoy.

Kate Beckett, with Ryan and Espo's help had just moved the last set boxes into her new apartment at 535 Broome Street in SOHO. The single bedroom loft on the second floor looked like it would normally be very pricey, even with her inheritance from her grandmother and the renters insurance check she had received from the fiery destruction of her previous place.

The landlord was former NYPD from back in the 50's - mourning a son who'd died in the line of duty - and had given her a discount because he liked the idea of having a cop in the building. Even if said cop was "a dish who looked like she should be walking a runway instead of a beat"

He obviously hadn't realized he'd said that part out loud, and it took everything she'd had at the time not to fix her death glare on the man and show him just how scary this "dish" could be. She'd beaten a hasty retreat after signing the lease and getting her keys.

The Scott Dunn case had taken its toll on her before the son of a bitch had blown up her apartment with her in it. - nothing like having a serial killer fixating and perving on you to ramp up your anxiety level - If she hadn't been taking a hot bath at the time of the explosion, she'd have been killed. As it stood, everything in her living room - where the epicenter of the explosion had been - was a total loss. Including her books, most notably her complete collection of Richard Castle novels in hardcover.

Her mother's signed copy of In A Hail of Bulletsand her own signed copy of Deadly Stormhad survived only because they had been in her bedroom nightstand at the time, the rest were burned to ashes. The only book whose loss she mourned more was her first edition War and Peace in the original Russian that her mom had given her for Christmas her junior year in high school.

Her dad's watch had been wrecked, The face was cracked, the hands frozen at 9:35 P.M. - the moment the bomb had gone off. It had taken every shred of willpower she'd possessed not to burst into tears when she'd found it in the shattered remains of her jewelry box. It now resided in her desk at the precinct next to their stick man - she promised herself to get it fixed as soon as she could afford it after her immediate needs were met. She didn't know what she would have done had her mother's ring not survived undamaged.

Otherwise, only a few rather dated outfits and two pairs of shoes had been too smoke or water damaged to wear again. Including one of her favorite pairs of four-inch heeled boots, which she'd kicked off in the middle of the living room on her way to the bathroom that night, one of which had been nearly incinerated. The words in the recording shortly before the bomb went off were still echoing in her brain.

"Goodbye, Beckett"

Though she was loath to admit it to herself, she still felt violated and a little freaked out that Scott Dunn had been in her apartment, pawing through her things. The son of a bitch had nearly succeeded in killing her twice in a forty-eight hour span, which had her seriously rattled. Even though he was now residing in drawer number twelve in Lanie's morgue. Cause of death: Excedrin headache number .357 courtesy of Special Agent Jordan Shaw.

"That's how all my stories end, with someone else dead."

She could still see the barrel of her own service weapon pointed down at her head in Dunn's hand from where she lay on that warehouse floor (she had been more wounded by the explosion than she'd let on or admitted even to herself) every time she closed her eyes. Had it not been for Agent Shaw, she would be dead. Captain Montgomery had been right to put her on leave of absence. The rational part of her brain accepted that, but the fiercely independent side of her seethed at being benched.

Kate was startled from her reverie by a knock at the door.

When she opened it she was faced with a slender redheaded girl who looked to be no older than fifteen standing in her doorway with a rather large man standing protectively behind her. The girl had a basket of what looked like homemade brownies cradled in one arm. To leave the other free to knock she surmised.

In her socked feet. Kate had to turn her eyes up to take in the face of the man with her, only to find herself looking into the eyes of Richard Castle himself. Anything she was about to say was lost as her brain vapor locked.

Had Captain Montgomery known about this when he suggested this building?

The two of them looked each other up and down. Kate was in shock. Here she had been, sitting in her new apartment mourning the loss of almost her entire collection of his books, the very books that helped her escape then find focus for her life in the aftermath of her mother's senseless and as yet unsolved murder and now the man himself was standing at her door!

"Fangirl much?" a voice in the back of her brain, which sounded awfully reminiscent of Will Sorenson, chided.

"Dad!" The girl stage whispered, "Manners!"

"Dad?" Kate thought to herself. All she had known up to this point about Richard Castle was his reputation on Page Six. She knew he had a daughter from his about the author pages but knew next to nothing about her. Given the looks passing between the two of them, that was probably the point.

The protective way he stood behind the girl...a hand at her back and the warm looks passing between them Kate could tell they had a warm, loving family life. Something neither print nor social media ever noticed or cared nothing about. The majority of his rabid fan base seemed willing to ignore the fact that the girl existed.

"Hi" he finally said, his daughter's lighthearted rebuke galvanizing him into action, putting his hand out, which she shook in a daze, "Rick Castle, and this is my daughter Alexis, we live upstairs in 3-B."

There was none of the false charm or faked smiles that she had seen at the one book signing she had attended or the publicity events she had seen on television and in The New York Ledger. He seemed more genuine, more... real somehow with his daughter, in a way the media had never portrayed him.

She liked this version of him better than his reputation.

"When Roy called me to ask if the building had a vacancy for one of his detectives who'd lost their home in a fire, I never would have imagined somebody like you." He said.

"Roy did what now?" Kate thought to herself.

She would definitely be having a chat with Captain Montgomery in his office, with the door closed, about boundaries later. Mentor or not, two close calls or not, she was still a big girl and could take care of herself. She was about to shut down completely and politely send them both on their way, when the younger Castle spoke up and once again sent her mind spinning.

"We came down to ask if you would like to join us for dinner tonight?" the girl asked.

Though Alexis' voice sounded confident and controlled, Kate could see in the girl's eyes that she was preparing herself for immediate rejection and wondered who had ever put such self-doubt into her.

"Will your mother be joining us?" Kate asked, and instantly regretted it when both sets of blue eyes clouded over, Alexis with hurt and Castle with a flash of repressed anger, neither of which seemed to be directed at her. Alexis seemed to bounce back before her father did, however, having quickly pushed her hurt deep in a practiced way Kate recognized from her own experience almost immediately,

"Oh no Detective Beckett," Alexis stated almost too politely, "it's just Dad, my Grams and me."

"Oh dear God, no," Kate thought to herself, the girl looked wounded, but not that wounded.

Thankfully, the elder Castle found his voice.

"Her mother and I divorced when Alexis was little and I got sole custody. Meredith lives in Los Angeles...we don't see her much."

"Oh," Kate thought sympathetically, "in a way that's even worse... a mother who doesn't give a damn."

"What time is dinner?" She asked in response, causing Alexis to stop short for a moment, then brighten when she realized she'd heard correctly then seemed to bounce on the balls of her feet. Castle mouthed "Thank you,"over his daughter's red hair, his eyes brimming over with gratitude, leaving Kate to wonder what bad news the girl had gotten recently that had made the Castles so desperate for the distraction that the company of a complete stranger might bring.

"We generally have dinner at six, you don't have to dress up or anything." Alexis said excitedly.

"Just give me some time to change out of these dirty clothes and I'll be there." Kate replied.

"Not to mention a phone call to Montgomery, about what the hell he's gotten me into." she thought to herself, "Did Lanie put him up to this?"

After changing and freshening up (along with her phone call to Montgomery) Kate found herself standing at the door to 3-B, dressed in a pair of comfortable jeans, a loose flowing top and her favorite pair of non-work heeled boots. She'd felt uneasy being at such a height disadvantage in front of Castle, one she didn't have with Ryan or Espo.

She felt she needed the confidence boost, considering she now saw this as unofficial police business. Montgomery had confided to her that Alexis had received some creepy letters lately, they weren't blatant or threatening enough to put official police resources on and might end up being nothing, but he was hoping to kill two birds with one stone, provided that Montgomery was being completely honest with his intentions. Kate wasn't blind to the possibility that Montgomery was doing a bit of matchmaking though. Something she would be discussing with him later.

She did need a more secure place to live, and Richard Castle needed to be able to keep his daughter safe, short of wrapping her in cotton and not letting her leave his sight anyway.

Kate had barely knocked on the door when it swung open and in spite of Alexis' assurance that she could dress casually, she suddenly felt under-dressed as Richard freaking Castle, dressed in a cobalt blue button down with black slacks ushered her into his home! She forced her mouth shut as she looked around.

She could not believe how large the place really was. She knew he had to be loaded, but to be able to afford such a large place...was that a staircase? Two floors? This place likely cost more than her salary and Montgomery's combined. Not to mention Ryan and Esposito.

Her unbridled internal fangirling was interrupted, however when an older redhead walked into view. Is that...no...Martha Rodgers? The Broadway Diva? Suddenly her internal fangirling began anew.

"Darling? Are we entertaining?" Martha stated without preamble, her irrepressible presence, not to mention her loud, leopard print outfit, loomed larger than life.

Kate definitely began to feel like a little girl wearing her mother's clothes. She was about thirty seconds from bolting out the door, when Alexis appeared at the bottom of the stairs and somehow chaos became order.

For whatever reason, the youngest member of the household seemed to have a stabilizing effect, her more reserved demeanor pulling the two outrageous personalities into a more stable orbit, making them seem more human... more relatable. Kate didn't have to think hard about it to know where the heart of this family resided, dysfunctional as it may be. A small part of her even wondered what it would be like to be part of that dynamic.

"Kate...hi...Dad and Grams haven't been talking your ear off, have they? It's not often we have company for dinner...at least not since dad divorced Gina, and that was usually just some suit she was trying to impress."

"Yeah," Castle said, his eyes softening as he regarded Alexis, "I kinda like to keep my home life private. The paparazzi can say or print what they like about myself or mother, we're used to it, but they've learned the hard way to leave Alexis alone. If not, I sick Paula, my publicist on them."

As Alexis seated Kate for dinner, all serious topics ceased. No mention was made of creepy fan mail, the explosion at her former apartment complex, or even her job at homicide, for which she was grateful, but she could tell by Castle's demeanor he was dying to ask her about the latter.

"So, how do you know Captain Montgomery?" Kate asked innocuously, trying to sound blase' about the whole thing – hoping not to give away how badly she really wanted to know.

"Roy, has been part of my Gotham poker crew for years, along with Rob Weldon and Bill Markaway. Alexis had babysat his youngest since she was old enough for her own Metro pass.

"Judge Markaway, Mayor Weldon and Captain Montgomery?" Kate sputtered out loud. She almost choked on her garlic bread, Alexis patted her back while she coughed.

The rest of the meal went well enough, the dinner conversation remained congenial and some of the stories both Alexis and Martha told of Castle's exploits had her biting her lower lip to keep from laughing at his utter shamelessness when it came to publicity stunts. Having the mayor, a criminal court judge, and a police captain on speed dial certainly made a lot more sense if even half of those stories were true.

Stealing a police horse... in the nude... seriously?

As dinner moved on to desert, the more she interacted with the Castles, the more it dawned on her that she might not have been the only one to be fed a line by Roy Montgomery.

Richard Castle fangirl or not, Kate Beckett was a trained, experienced detective. She'd spent enough time interrogating suspects to know how to read people. From casual conversation with Rick and his family she knew how central Alexis was to his and his mother's lives.

Castle didn't have the hooded eyes or concerned expression that a caring father would have if his daughter was being stalked, nor did his or his mother's expressions seem to hold the outrage at her being harassed. Something didn't add up. Like Rick had said, he had people to solve these sorts of problems. He didn't need a wounded police detective on mandatory leave to handle it.

When Martha suggested that she and Alexis do the dishes and nearly dragged the teenage girl into the kitchen - which she could tell from Castle's shocked expression was not a regular occurrence in the Castle household. They both looked each other in the eye across the table and at exactly the same time - as if they shared a brain for a split second - said:

"I think we've both been had."