Disclaimer: They're not mine.

A/N: This idea came from a post by CMcCord25 on twitter. I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it. I'm not a writer but I had to give life to that post. I hope you like this story as much as I loved the idea of it. Not been beta'd either so I am sorry for the mistakes. Thank you again CMcCord25 for letting me use the idea, all credit goes to you for this! One of three chapters...hopefully :)

She's crying on the couch when she hears the keys in the lock, Kate's laughter slightly muffled coming through the thick wood. Facing away from the door keeps them from seeing the tears streaming down her face and the redness and puffy skin around her eyes.

"Meet me in the bedroom and I can prove it to…" her father's voice trails off and she wishes she could erase that statement from her memory.

"Alexis?" She hears him ask when the door closes behind them.

Of course they seem surprised to see her there. She hasn't texted or called them tonight to say she would be stopping by…even more she hasn't been by the loft in close to a month.

The whole 'getting serious with the boyfriend' thing takes up a lot of time.

And they had got serious.

Very.

She loved Ashley, her high school sweetheart, her first love. But what she had felt for Max was something entirely different.

Now it's over.

So she came here, to her child hood home, the place she feels safe and whole. Finding no one home when she arrived, Gran was at the theatre watching as one of her former students wowed on Broadway, her dad and Kate still at the precinct at seven-thirty on a Friday night, she stayed anyway wrapped up on the couch in a cashmere throw. She may be grown, but sometimes even now, she needs the comfort of home and someone to tell her everything would be all right.

He kneels down beside the couch, hand light on her back. "Are you okay?"

She gives it to him, he's calmed down a little since she'd been kidnapped, but his words are still laced with worry.

Her face crumbles when she starts to speak, "Max and I…we broke up."

She can actually feel the tension leave his body.

"Oh, pumpkin…what happened?"

There are times when she needs her dad. Actually, he's really all she ever has needed growing up. But here are some things that shouldn't be talked about with your father.

This is one of those times.

"Actually…I'd really rather talk to Kate," she tells him, turning to see him deflate just a little.

"Sure, Kate…You're up," he says, glance up at Kate who's been busying herself in the kitchen. Hot chocolate he thinks.

Kate made her way to the couch where the two are waiting for her. She'd heard what Alexis had told Castle so she'd reached out and rubbed Alexis' arm that laid along the back of the sofa.

"You don't mind?" Alexis asked her. Granted they'd gotten much closer since her father started dating Kate, but she wasn't sure if Kate would feel comfortable talking to her about this. Because Alexis herself was having a problem with it.

"Of course not, sweetie, I've told you before. You need me, I'm here."

And she had been. Kate had really never let her down.

"Upstairs?" Alexis looked at Kate, hoping she would understand what she was trying to say.

And with that Castle watched as his daughter and his girlfriend made their way up the stairs to the room still full of Alexis' things.

He wasn't jealous…Not at all. Not jealous.

No.

Except he was a little.

But he was happy too. Seeing the two most important people in his life, his daughter tucked under Kate's arm on their way to have a conversation that he wasn't a part of. Sharing secrets together, secrets he wasn't allowed to hear.

No he's not jealous.

She comes back down the stairs after close to an hour; there had been tears, anger and then more tears. Kate had told Alexis she would eventually find her way back to herself and then proceeded to tell her about her first adult relationship…granted hers had not lasted or been as serious as Alexis had been with Max but it seemed to help all the same.

She'd left the girl for the night promising if she needed anything, she would be there for her.

Walking into the bedroom she found Castle in bed with his laptop. Hopefully finishing the final edits of "Deadly Heat" that were overdue.

"Alright Mr. Castle, if I remember correctly you have something to prove to me," she says to him breaking him out of his concentration.

He's been waiting for her for almost an hour, the scene he'd been editing just happened to be a Nikki and Rook scene, that may or may not be based on a Thursday night spent in Kate's claw foot tub. That he's ready to prove something to her is the least that can be said.

He wants her. But there are things he needs to know first. He's torn.

"I know that look on your face writer man. Go ahead, ask me."

He smiles softly at her as she finds her way to his side of the bed. Makes him scoot over while she takes his laptop from him and sits it on the night stand, sits by his hip facing him she kisses him lightly once she's settled.

"How is she?" He asks, taking one of her hands in his.

"It's her first real relationship Castle…She's heartbroken"

She watches as his face falls a bit.

"Castle, you can't protect her from everything. This is just part of the growing up process."

"Yeah, I get that but…Why didn't…why couldn't she talk to both of us," he decides to stop with where he's going, "What I mean is, I am so happy that she can talk to you."

"Oh, wait you're jealous."

"No, I'm not!" He says cutting her off.

"Yes, you are," she says, humor behind her words.

"No…Okay, maybe a little. But I am also happy that she feels close enough to you that she would want to share her heartbreak with you, trusts you enough for that," he tells her grasping one of her hands in his pulling her to him until she's practically sprawled over him.

"Castle, I'm happy about that too. Of course there are just some things a girl can't talk to her dad about…I understand that." She lays her head on his chest as his hands start to make small circles on her back.

Of course she understood that. It hadn't even crossed his mind until this moment.

"I'm sorry, Kate. I never thought of it like that."

"It's okay, really. I am thankful I had her for times like this though. When the first boy I felt something for, the first boy I gave everything to dumped me for someone else, she was there."

It's moments like this when she's reminded that her mother will never get to meet the most important person in her life. This amazing man who, in spite of everything she threw at him, loved her. This man who could break down whole walls and fight dragons, her mother would never know she found him.

She rises up to kiss the underside of his jaw, her lips making their way to his. "I love you," she tells him before she reaches her destination. Just before she gets there she feels him stiffen, he uses the hand that's been combing through her hair to stop her.

"Wait. Back up, what do you mean by the boy that you 'gave everything to'?"

"I mean the boy I gave everything to, Castle."

"You don't mean…"

"Yes, Castle, the boy I ever had sex with," she can tell he's working out some type of puzzle in his own mind.

"You're telling me…You're saying Alexis and Max..." he's lost all words, he's lost all thought, he's just gone.

Oh shit. She wasn't thinking when she had spoken before. With one conversation she's broke a confidence and broke Castle, apparently. She lifts herself from him to sit up completely.

"Castle, you can't have thought that nothing was going on with them…Not after how serious you've seen them getting?" She said her voice low hoping that wherever he's gone in his mind he can hear her.

"I guess on some level I knew but…I don't know..."

"Well, discussing your daughters' sex life is something we should definitely not be doing."

"Oh see, you said it again, don't do that," he tells her covering his face with his hand.

She does her best to hide her smile. Of course this is how he would react; his baby girl is not really the baby he tries to pretend she still is.

"Castle, listen, she's a grown woman. She's mature and responsible enough to make the right decisions and she loved Max enough to want to experience that with him."

The rational part of his brain knows this but really never wanted to know the truth in any way.

"Can we just pretend that this never happened that you never said anything, that I never heard anything?"

"Sounds good to me," she tells him leaning down to kiss him again.

She does her best to help him forget it too.