Exculpatory

Chapter seven

"Castle."

"Hi," her voice was shy and she hated how she knew he could hear it, "can you talk?"

"Yes! Of course! What's wrong Kate?" she heard his voice immediately filled with concern and blushed at the care he so obviously had for her.

She'd phoned him after putting her daughter to bed, sitting in the couch knowing her little girl should not wake to her talking. There had been many times she'd spoken to her colleagues after hours while her daughter was asleep so she knew for a fact that so long as she didn't yell, or talk louder than in her normal voice, Elisabeth would not wake up.

"Nothing," she immediately said, mostly out of habit, before she bit her lip. He was patiently waiting her out, probably knowing she needed time to collect herself before saying more. They had only known each other for about a month and he already knew her so well it was absolutely crazy! "It's Elisabeth," she admitted with a small voice.

"Something happened? She okay?" he immediately asked, the concern only increasing.

"Yeah, she's okay, don't worry," she sighed, and once again he was waiting for her to explain, something she wasn't exactly used to doing. "She keeps asking about her father, and it just tears up some wounds that's all."

"Her father?" she could hear him gulp and she wondered why. "He's not in the picture at all? You've never told me about him," he said with a careful tone, as if he was trying his best not to be intrusive.

She bit her lip again, this time hard enough to draw blood which had her curse under her breath. "No, he's not... and he never will be," she whispered, not bearing to speak the words louder in case her daughter would, despite all, wake up.

She could almost hear the way he was trying to figure out how to ask his next question, and so this time she waited him out.

"Do..." he cleared his throat, "Do you want to talk about it?" He was most likely swallowing, trying his best not to invade her privacy, and she wondered if it was because of how well he already knew her or their it being to early with such intimate question in their newly-found friendship.

"Not really," Kate sighed. "I've never really told anyone, except for my mom, and I wasn't exactly planning on it."

If she was to be honest with herself she didn't even expect to give that information out, hadn't plan on even hinting on there being something to tell at all. But it was different with him, had been from the start. He had made her spill secrets and information she shouldn't and hadn't in the past, and they'd only known each other for around a month! It was crazy.

"Well," he said in a hesitating tone, "if you ever do want to talk about it, I'm here for you."

Kate only mumbled her thanks, feeling her cheeks go warm with the shyness she felt. "How's the book going?" she decided to change subject, didn't want to talk about anything related to the father of her baby, and she knew he'd started writing a new book after their first interview.

"O-oh," he chuckled teasingly. "Wouldn't you wanna know."

She rolled her eyes, immediately feeling a smile enter her lips and all her agony disappearing. "Come on!" she half-whined. "You have told me nothing about it! I deserve to know considering you use my expertise in homicide to write it," she complained and he only chuckled at the other end of the phone. "I'm serious! Tell me," she demanded, but the smile on her lips kept getting bigger and bigger.

"I'm not gonna tell you, you'll leak the information," he mocked and she gasped with fake hurt.

"I am not," she argued, "come on, tell me why Derrick Storm needs to have more accuracy about homicide crimes when you've done a great job so far."