Serpent's Kiss Vol II: Sapphire Ice

Chapter Twelve: Here Comes the B...ell...

Alexis yawned rubbing her eyes sleepily; she looked up to see her dad glaring at his laptop screen with a particular vendetta as if it had offended him, after coming to life.

"Dad, I'm pretty sure Pandora's secrets aren't going to come spilling out of the laptop, even if you glare the device to death", she stated as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Ugh! You're probably right, do you know how many legends there are circling around the concept of Pandora?" he whined.

"Nope. And I am not interested in knowing, I'm trying to wake up so I can be on time for my internship", she muttered sipping the putrid black espresso, a horrible habit she picked up from Aaliya and Kevin and Fatima—the Middle Eastern wench!

"Right, lemme know how it goes", he picked up and apple and crunched into it.

"Yup", she nodded, giving up on the black concoction and adding creamer and sugar, chasing away the burnt taste of cocoa.

"I don't know why you thought you could swallow it black", Rick chuckled watching her proceed to dump the entire content down the sink, after the doctored version had her grimacing violently.

"I'm blaming Kevin and Aaliya", she muttered savagely taking a bite of banana and glaring at her cup as if it had sassed at her.

Chuckling Rick walked up to the fridge, "Here scoot over, lemme make us a good breakfast, you go get ready, I'll have it ready when you get back", he kissed her forehead and she nodded, tossing the peel into the kitchen bin.

"Okay", she agreed and went up to take a shower.

Castle smirked as Alexis yelled from upstairs, cursing like a bloody pirate when the water temperature failed to be warm enough.

Silly girl practically grew up in the building, but still failed to grasp the imminent pain of dealing with the water pressure so early in the morning, the first person who showered always ended up getting hit with a blast of frigid water, before the steady warmth trickled in. And Rick had yet to actually take a shower, since last night had been a pretty late night.

By the time Alexis returned she was freshly showered and dressed in a cool blue sweater and black tight jeans, tucked into leather boots knee high.

"You look quite classy", he hummed dishing up a healthy serving of fried eggs, with bacon strips, toast and a cup of cinnamon mocha flavored coffee.

"Thanks dad", she took a bite of toast, dipped in warm yolk, and chewed quickly, "Oh", she paused, mid bite, "The girls and I are going shopping", she paused again, "And I was hoping Grams could come with", she asked softly.

"That's okay, but shopping for what?" he asked as he made his own egg sandwich.

"Oh. I told you about Madison's Cotillion right?" she asked.

"Oh yeah, isn't that somewhere in the hills?" Rick asked.

"Not The Hills, this isn't a horror movie dad!" she shook her head and gobbled up her breakfast in seconds.

"How are you that thin and eat like I'm starving you", he sighed shocked at the clean porcelain plate, "More importantly, didn't Grams just buy you a dress?" he asked curiously.

"Oh My God! Dad, you can't wear an old dress to the most important High School Party of The Year. I am your daughter; my clothes are pretty much on Google, at this point. 'This Just in: ALEXIS LOOKS STUNNING IN THIS LONG RUFFLED DRESS BY SHELLI SEGAL LONDON'!" she sassed, "Hell I'm not even that high on the list, now a days it's more about you and Detective Becket", she sighed, "But that's beside the point", she muttered at his exasperation.