Perspectives

The crime scene was in front of them, an apartment in a nice, but not high brow part of Manhattan. Lanie was kneeling next to the body of a woman in her late forties, Alexis standing at her side taking notes as the ME relayed details. The speed with which Alexis had adapted to the sights found at crime scenes had surprised both Alexis and Castle, and she seemed to be happy with her part in the work.

Beckett and Castle were all business now, taking stock of the surroundings, having already looked and questioned and gleaned as much information as Lanie's brief examination of the body could give them. They were in the midst of speculations about where the shooter was standing when, after finding an additional area of blood spatter, Castle pointed out a flaw in their first observation. They then shifted the focus of their attention to another area, theorizing as they side-stepped around the CSU team which was just arriving.

"My dad is really good at this, isn't he?"

"Lanie was intent on her job, and her first instinct was to answer with the word 'focus'; but seeing the look on the teenager's face as she watched her father interacting with Beckett, she decided to go with the moment. "Yeah, he is, honey. He could easily have been a detective. You put those two together, and then add Ryan and Javi, and if it's possible to find the truth, it's gonna be found. You know the solve rate for the twelfth has gone up since he's been there? And it fell a hair the summer he was gone – and way more than a hair last summer when they were both gone."

"Really?"

"Yeah, really. What? You didn't know he had it in him?"

"I don't know. I guess I hadn't realized that he made that much of a difference. I've seen him work on his books. He procrastinates, but he's thorough. He researches, makes sure every fact is in place…everything in every scene works. He's meticulous about creating all the pieces to craft a story where every single detail fits with every other detail to make sense. Seeing him do this is like watching the whole process in reverse. He has to find all the pieces that need to fit together to make sense so he can figure out what the story was. It's like…a whole new side of him. And actual police listen to what he says. When he points something out, Detective Beckett gives it value…and everybody says how good she is at her job. The way they work together… I'm beginning to understand why this is so important to him. And in spite of an embarrassingly goofy remark out of him now and then…I think I'm impressed."

"Lanie looked up at Alexis with her eyes narrowed. "Girl, are you sure you're barely 18? I know 55 year olds who couldn't make that much sense."

Alexis grinned and said, "But I digress. Sorry. What's next? Did I miss anything while my mind wandered?"

"Nah," Lanie answered, still looking up, "and if I played some small part in getting a teenager to appreciate a parent, it was well worth the delay." Lanie turned back to the body, swatting Alexis lightly on the shin and added, "Now let's get back to Mrs. Bertram, here."

"Thanks, Dr. Parrish," Alexis answered appreciatively.

"No problem," Lanie answered, and went back to feeding facts to Alexis.

"We'll check with you later, Lanie. Ryan says they're bringing in the suspect from yesterday morning's case. We're going back to talk to him now," Beckett announced.

"See you later, then," Lanie answered absently.

"Bye, Dad."

"Bye, Pumpkin," he answered without thinking.

"Daaaad!" Alexis whispered harshly, embarrassed at the use of his pet name for her. "Please don't use that name here…where I'm working."

"Hey, you invade my territory, I invade yours," he answered mischievously as he grabbed her head, pulling it to him and kissing the shiny red hair he loved.

"Well, you and Detective Beckett should have your arguments someplace where the world can't hear them, and I wouldn't seem to be so far into your territory."

"I guess I'd have to take responsibility for that one. I am truly sorry, Alexis," Beckett interrupted.

"How about you do this on your own time?" Lanie demanded, glaring at Castle and Beckett. "We're almost done here. I'd like to get this body back to the morgue sometime today, and the two of you are distracting my intern."

"Leaving," Beckett answered answered with a smile, and she walked out the door. "Come on, Castle. The suspect from the last case is at the precinct."

xxxxx

In the car on the way back to the precinct, Castle told Beckett, "I think you owe me an apology, too."

"I didn't know she was there, okay? I'm not used to having your daughter show up at work."

"It's more than that, and you know it," he insisted. "Alexis is right, though. That sort of argument has no business at the precinct. It just fuels the speculations and bets that are already around, and it isn't anybody else's business. And now my daughter could also be around when we least expect. Can we keep it between us from now on?

Grudgingly Beckett could see his point, and she already knew how unreasonable she was being, though far be it from her to admit to such a thing. "You're right. I'll try to be more careful."

"Other than that, although I'll admit to a certain pleasure in seeing you jealous…"

"What makes you think I'm jealous," she asked, already in defense mode.

"Because I don't understand why else you'd get this angry about someone I was with only briefly when Alexis was about four years old.

Busted. She knew she didn't have a real argument. She knew she wasn't allowing him the satisfaction of knowing she was already his, but she still expected him to unquestioningly behave as if he were hers. How much more irrational could she get? She knew this man well enough to know that, if she would allow him to make a commitment, he wouldn't disappoint her. And she knew it wasn't fair to him. She suddenly swerved the car and silently almost thanked the other driver, who came close to hitting them, for distracting them from the conversation long enough for her to pull into the parking area at the precinct and claim it was the wrong place for such discussions. She needed time to think this exchange through before it went any farther.

"Don't assume this conversation is over simply because you'd like it to go away," he warned before they got out of the car.

Great. She'd put it off long enough that he's tired of waiting, and she can see he's going to press her a little harder this time. It isn't like he doesn't have every right, but…" They rode the elevator up to their floor in a silence broken only by their breathing.