The Coming Future (A Castle Fanfiction)

Part Four: Issues and Secrets

"Maddie, sweetheart, why don't I take you upstairs so that you can change out of those damp clothes. I'm sure Alexis has something that you could barrow," Martha offered to the distressed child who'd now found herself intertwined in Beckett's arms as they cocooned her. Nothing was getting this girl away from the cop, and from the looks of it, Kate was willing to be her safe haven.

When Maddie refused the offer with as much politeness as she could afford, Beckett caught on to the fact that sitting in bloody clothes with opened wounds was not a good idea. Seeing as how Maddie wouldn't leave with Martha, Kate offered, "Maddie, why don't I take you up to get cleaned up, alright?"

Looking into Beckett's eyes, she insisted, "You can't leave me. He could be anywhere." She was being driven mad by the fears that encased her. Even though the tears had stopped in the last ten minutes, she never eased up and would quite possibly never settle. "Please."

"I wouldn't. I won't. I promise you, Maddie, I won't leave you," Kate said as she held Maddie close to her. As close as she possibly could. The distraught child agreed to the cop's offer and the two made it up the stairs slowly, never leaving each other's side.

When they were gone, far from sight, Castle felt no need to remain silent. He simply spoke with his daughter and mother without reluctance as he explained the situation of the case to them. That alone would have been enouh to scare them away, but when he recapped the story in his writer's description, the two nearly ran through the door and broke it down. Just as he said his goodbyes, Alexis made one request of him. "Have Beckett call me some time tomorrow? I'd really like to talk to her about something and I want to be sure I'm not catching her at a bad time."

Although this was a somewhat odd request, he was delighted to oblige since this showed that Alexis and Kate were getting along very well. "Absolutely," Rick replied with a smile, hugging his daughter and watching her leave with her grandmother. He then slowly took to the staircase in the footsteps of the two women he was off to see.

Not wanting to just barge in on the two, as it would probably frighten the child and Kate would quite possibly pull her gun on him, he timidly tapped on the door and replayed their names with a questioning tone. Beckett's voice ushered him into the area with the softest, sweetest form of admittance he'd ever heard. Nearly instantly, he pushed the door opened to Maddie wearing a pair of light blue PJ pants and the same white T-shirt with the long, hot pink sleeves Alexis used to wear when she was fifteen. The thought of someone being so young and having been through as much as she had, knowing that this could very well be something she never gets over bothered Rick more than he cared to admit to anyone but himself.

"Kate, is there any way I could steal you away for a moment?" There were several things he needed to talk about with the future Mrs. Castle, but the biggest and most pressing issue was still vibrating in his back pocket. The twelfth precinct must have gotten his text message from her phone.

Maddie, who'd been standing in front of and away from Kate, turned around and looked into Kate's eyes with an even more desperate plea than the one she'd given her downstairs. "Please don't leave me alone. Please. He'll find me."

Looking between the child and her fiancé, feeling the two forces of her being tearing her apart, the cop in her knowing that she needed to talk to Castle about this because she'd seen him text the precinct and judging from the low buzzing sound, someone got the message, as her mothering instinct told her to protect Maddie no matter what, even if it meant putting the job aside, she bent down to Maddie's level, holding her shaking hands as she looked her in the eyes, having plotted out her exact next steps. "Maddie, listen, we're going to go back downstairs and Rick and I will talk in the kitchen, alright? If you sit on the couch you'll be able to see us and we'll be able to see you. But I want you to know that you are absolutely safe here. Nothing and no one is going to hurt you while you stay with us. I swear to it."