Title: Lemon Lime Syrup

Summary: Castle makes breakfast for his daughter and new girlfriend. Post Always Oneshot

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, nor do I profit from this work of fiction. 'Cause if I could make a living writing fanfic, I think I would drive a better car.

A/N: Just a semi-fluffy morning after fic. If I acknowledge that this has been done already (by a lot of talented people), will you read it anyway? Reviews are great, too. Like blueberries on pancakes.

I think if they want to defy expectations on the show, Castle and Beckett should wake up and go out for breakfast tacos or something.

While the pancakes were cooking on the skillet, Castle went to the refrigerator and pulled out an assortment of items.

First were the syrups. Three different kinds - maple, butter pecan, and coconut.

"You have coconut flavored syrup?" Kate asked, incredulous.

"It's delicious! Especially with the lemon lime flavored syrup, but we ran out of that a few weeks ago and I haven't bought more yet."

Kate made a face. "Lemon lime?"

"You've never had pina colada pancakes?"

Shaking her head as she reached for the maple syrup, she said decisively, "I'll just stick with a classic flavor."

Castle shrugged, as if to acknowledge that it was her loss. After flipping the pancake in the skillet, he returned to the refrigerator. "For butter, we have regular butter, margarine, if you're counting your calories - which you really don't need to be - apple butter, which Alexis likes, and my personal favorite, honey butter."

Laughing at him as he listed the options, Kate stated firmly, "Margarine is fine."

"Oh, but you should really try the honey butter. Or even the apple butter."

He seemed so earnest in his recommendation that she acceded and took the honey butter.

"Now for toppings!" he announced gleefully.

"Castle, the pancakes are going to burn!" she pointed out, but he was already ahead of her, flipping the small crispy disks onto a plate before pouring more batter onto the skillet.

He returned to the counter where she was seated on a barstool with a variety of fresh fruit, coconut shavings (because she didn't pick the coconut syrup) and chocolate chips. The strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries looked appetizing, although the bananas, grapes, mango, and pineapple were overkill.

"What, no cherries?" she quipped.

He looked momentarily stricken until he lit up and responded, "Yes, I have a jar of maraschino cherries somewhere..."

"I was kidding! Seriously, Castle, we do not need this many options for pancakes."

"This is just the bare minimum. I was going easy on you because it's your first time." She raised an eyebrow and shot him a teasing look, so he amended his statement to, "Your first time having pancakes at Casa de Castle."

He was correct - while Kate had eaten several meals at the loft before, and he had even attempted to make her pancakes once at her apartment, never had she eaten pancakes there at the loft. And more specifically, never had she eaten post-mind blowing sex pancakes at the loft before - the kind she seemed to remember overhearing Esposito once refer to as 'Thank you for last night' pancakes.

"First time for a lot of things," she pointed out.

First time they had kissed - well, not really the first time, but yeah, really the first time. The first time she'd seen his bedroom. The first time they'd seen each other naked - she steadfastly refused to count that time after her apartment exploded when Castle had promised not to look as he helped her out of the tub. The first time they'd made love. The first time they'd woken up together - except, no, definitely not really a first time on that one, what with the case with the handcuffs and the tiger. So, first time they'd woken up together without handcuffs. The first time she'd worn his clothes (a worn t-shirt and sweatpants that were way too big) as hers were in the dryer after her walk through the rain last night. He had offered to let her borrow something of Alexis' but she refused, not wanting to do anything that might potentially offend Castle's daughter.

Alexis.

She was due home from her graduation over-night any minute and the butterflies in Kate's stomach were not only fluttering, they were practically flying tricks in formation. Would she approve? Would she understand? What would they do if she didn't approve? She couldn't very well carry on a relationship with Castle if his daughter was against it.

As if conjured from Kate's tortured imagination, the front door of the loft opened and Alexis bounded inside. She was saying something about having a great time when she stopped dead at the sight of Kate sitting at the bar.

"Detective Beckett..."

There was surprise in the girl's eyes as well as wariness and something else Kate could not identify.

"Hey, Alexis," she said lightly, not bothering to correct her about the 'detective' part. That explanation could wait until later.

"You're wearing my dad's shirt," the teenager observed bluntly, although not unkindly. Realizing how it may have sounded, she quickly added, "I mean I recognize it. He used to wear it a lot, but not so much in the last few years..."

Finally, Castle joined the conversation. "Kate stayed the night," he explained as he walked around the bar and enveloped the girl in a hug. "And how is my little graduate? Did you have fun?"

And like a switch had been flicked, the awkwardness was gone. At least, it was mostly gone. Alexis settled onto a bar stool next to Kate and as she picked out her own pancake toppings proceeded to fill them in on everything that had happened at her overnight, including details about who had gotten into which colleges or had received which scholarships and a bit of gossip as to which of her classmates had broken up with their boyfriends or girlfriends. By the time she was done, the pancakes were ready and she and her father were happily drowning theirs in an assortment of sugar-rich accoutrements.

"What, no lemon lime syrup?" Alexis asked, and Castle shot Kate an 'I told you so!' look.

For her part, Kate stuck with the basics - maple syrup and the honey butter Castle had talked her into - but upon seeing Castle's hurt expression, she sprinkled some blueberries and raspberries on as well. He had gone to all the trouble, after all.

The flavor exploded in her mouth - not just the toppings, which were great (he was right about that honey butter) - but the pancakes themselves were fantastic, quite possibly the best she'd ever tasted.

"These are really good," Kate observed.

Castle and Alexis grinned at each other as though they had a shared secret.

"I'm serious. These are the best pancakes I've ever had. Did you do something special?"

Castle shrugged. "A little of this, a little of that…"

"Secret recipe," Alexis emphasized, giving her father a mock glare.

"I don't know, I think we can trust Kate," he said.

Alexis' gaze turned towards the former detective, discerning and playful both. "I'm not sure yet. We'll have to have her over for pancakes a few more times before I'll know if she's ready."

It was code, surely, this dialogue between father and daughter, although Kate could not quite break it. Was Alexis angry about her being there? Accepting? Was she distrustful or was she letting Kate into the club?

"I'd like that," she said, hoping that she would have occasion to enjoy many more breakfasts at the Castle loft.

Conversation quickly turned back to Alexis and her preparations for Columbia. However, after that, it circled back around to her and Castle's summer plans to stay at the house in the Hamptons.

"The house is fantastic, Kate. Two story, close to the water, with its own pool. And in the morning, you can go out on the balcony and watch the sunrise."

She smiled at his description. "It sounds lovely."

"You should come out," Alexis put in. When her suggestion was met by silence from the two adults, she looked back and forth between them as though she had missed something. "Aren't you two together now?"

Castle looked to Kate for an answer, and the uncertainty in his eyes hurt. She answered with a firm voice, keeping her eyes locked on his. "Yes. Yes, Alexis, we're together now."

"Then you should come out. Not for the whole summer, of course, since you have to work, but at least for a weekend."

While Kate had told Castle about resigning from the NYPD, it was not yet a discussion she was ready to have with his teenage daughter. "Actually, that sounds wonderful, Alexis. Thank you for the invitation. I'd really like to go."

Castle's expression changed from careful and deliberate caution to sheer happiness at her response. Castle was many things, but a subtle man he was not. "You're going to love it there, Kate…"

Later, after Kate had finished her pancakes and Castle had begun the clean-up process, she found herself in the living room with Alexis. The young woman regarded her with a mixture of suspicion and guarded friendliness. Hoping to head off whatever of the former emotion she might be feeling, Kate immediately plunged in, saying to the teenager in a low voice, "I won't hurt him."

"You've already hurt him," Alexis pointed out, not unkindly but more as a statement of fact.

Nodding an acknowledgment of the pain she had already caused, Kate responded, "I will do everything I can not to hurt him again."

"Do you love him?"

"I do love him."

The teenager seemed pensive but accepting. "He's the most important person in my life, detective."

Kate was going to have to address this whole 'detective' thing.

"Alexis, I'm not a detective anymore. I resigned from the force yesterday. That means you can call me Kate now, if you wouldn't mind. And it means that your dad is also the most important person in my life."

More important than Gates or Ryan and Esposito. More important than a victim or a victim's family member. Probably even more important than her mother, she realized, whose murder she would likely never solve.

Perhaps sensing Kate's need to keep some things to herself, Alexis did not ask about the resignation. She simply took in the words, especially Kate's declaration regarding her father, and regarded the former detective for a moment.

"He loves you."

The words were simple, but the sentiment was fraught with complication, expectation, and responsibility. The unspoken meanings were there. Don't hurt him. Don't leave him. Put him first. Love him back.

"I know," Kate stated solemnly. "And Alexis, I will do everything possible to be worthy of that love."

She meant it, too. Nine months of putting in the work with Dr. Burke had taught her a lot of things, including when to be honest and open with others. It was difficult, especially since she had so little experience talking about her feelings, but it was also important.

Their conversation ended as Castle walked into the room. He shot Kate a questioning look, and she answered with a smile and a slight shrug.

"Well, I guess I better get out of here and let you spend some time with the graduate," she told him, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. She had no wish to leave, would have gladly stayed with him all day, but as a father, he had other obligations. Turning back to Alexis, she said, "Congratulations again."

Castle did not argue with her decision to go, but he walked her to the front door. "Dinner tonight?" he suggested as they stepped outside, the door mostly shut behind him to give them a little privacy.

"If it's okay with Alexis," Kate hedged, not wanting to undo what progress she had built with the young woman.

"It'll be fine." He pulled her forward for another kiss, deep and passionate, before speaking. "Besides, I don't think I can go longer than that without seeing you again."

"Then I'll be back for dinner," Kate promised. "As long as it doesn't involve lemon lime syrup."

Chuckling, Castle agreed, "No lemon lime syrup. Got it."

"And about going to the Hamptons..."

"You shouldn't feel obligated, Kate-"

"No, that's not... I would like to go. I mean, I don't have any reason to stay in the city. But I think you should talk to Alexis first, make sure she's okay with everything. This is your last summer together before she goes to college."

"I'll talk to her, but Kate, you should know that while Alexis is my daughter and I value her opinions, I'm a grown man. She doesn't dictate who I can and cannot date."

"I know, I just... She's your daughter, Castle. I want her to be okay with this. With us."

"She seemed okay to me," Castle pointed out.

"Yeah..."

She knew from her conversation with Alexis that she would need to prove herself, even if she was given the benefit of the doubt in the beginning. And part of that test would be for Kate to make sure she did not disturb or interrupt the remarkable father-daughter relationship the two of them shared.

"Lots of changes and uncertainty right now," Kate said. "Just make sure she knows that she's the most important thing."

Castle nodded but said, "You are important, too, Kate."

"But she is more important," she said. It was a statement, firm and beyond argument. "Your relationship with Alexis is one of the things I love most about you." Taking a deep breath, she went on, "Which is why I am going to head home and let you two have some time together. I'll see you later, Castle."

She kissed him goodbye before turning to go. As the elevator doors closed between them, she added, "Castle - thanks for the pancakes."

"Thanks for last night," he returned, and it was clear he meant more than the physical intimacy they had shared.