Chapter Three

The morning she left again, her father leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"Be safe, Katie," he said.

She marveled at the irony of his words. Be safe. They knew better than anyone that intentional avoidance of danger didn't make any significant difference in the end. Case in point: her mother. Johanna hadn't lived particularly on the edge, yet she was currently buried six feet under the ground. They hadn't even been able to pinpoint the sort of danger that had gotten her. Or at least, the police hadn't. Not satisfactorily, anyway.

Kate nodded, "I will."

Soon enough, she was in on the highway. She had always enjoyed driving alone; the peaceful cruising behind the wheel gave her time to dwell in her thoughts. Simultaneously, she felt thousands of emotions and numbness; it was an odd juxtaposition, and if she were not experiencing it herself she likely would not have believed it to be possible. But there it was. She had an explosion of feelings related to her mother's death, and at the same time she felt blank. Empty.

She didn't quite know what to do with herself.

The relationships in her life were adding to her collection of contradictions. She had moved back to New York state to be closer to her family, her father specifically, but emotionally, she could feel the both of them pulling away from one another. It was as if they wanted to deal with her mother's death apart from one another. They both wanted space to grieve alone – space that did not involve the other. In spite of this, she was still glad to be closer, if solely in the geographical sense for the time being. It somehow made it easier.

And then there was Rick Castle. She wondered if it were possible to be simultaneously drawn to someone while disliking him. Dislike was probably too strong of a word, but she saw things in him she wasn't crazy about. He was insanely full of himself. She already knew that was very likely going to drive her insane. He'd also managed to break at a wall she'd put up around herself – with the possible exception of Laine, she didn't particularly want to be around people for extensive periods of time right now, but she'd agreed to live with him. He was so…lighthearted. It was something she'd been drawn to when they'd met, particularly with her current emotional state. It had been a hell of a past few months. Sometimes she fell in love with the idea of forgetting, of embracing some sort of innocence rather than doubting its existence all together. From what she'd seen of Rick, he seemed to be along that path.

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"You sure you don't want me to help you unpack?" Rick asked her again. He'd been hovering over her ever since she'd stepped into her new room.

"How am I going to know where my stuff is if I let you do that?"

"I dunno. I'm sure you'd manage. Hey, what's that?" he inquired suddenly, picking up something that sat on one of her boxes of things.

"Don't you have eyes, Castle? It's an elephant."

"When did I become Castle and not Rick?"

"Are you insinuating that you changed your name to something that you'd rather not be called?"

"It's cool," he said as he handled the figurine.

"Thanks."

"Where'd you get it?" he asked.

She shrugged, "I've had it for a while."

Her mother had given it to her a few years ago. There had been a shop that sold those kinds of things near her firm.

Rick had turned his attention elsewhere.

"This your family?" he asked, picking up a framed picture Kate had of herself with her parents.

She nodded.

"Tell me about them," he said.

"What?"

"Tell me about your parents. I like to hear people's stories."

She closed her eyes. He just had to hit where it hurt the most, didn't he?

"I don't really want to talk about it," she said.

"C'mon Kate."

"Castle…"

"I'm sure there's something you can say. Fact, quirk. What do they do for a living?"

"Look," she snapped, "Just drop it."

His face clouded, "You're just some spoiled rich kid who's too above herself to talk about mommy and daddy, aren't you?"

And before she could yell otherwise in reply, he left. She shut the door behind him.

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Several hours later, she tentatively entered the living room, where he seemed to be brooding.

"Hey," she said quietly.

He looked up, "Hi. Guess you're finished."

"For the most part."

He smiled slightly, "I'm not gonna bite you. You can sit if you want."

She took a spot on the couch, "Look, Rick, about earlier –"

"It was none of my business –"

"No, I mean, I snapped at you, and there's no way you could have known…"

"Known what?" he asked cautiously

"I'm not mad at them, or above speaking to them, or anything like that, but they're just a really rough topic right now."

"Ok," he replied. His curiously – and concern – was peaked now, but he bit back his tongue.

"So…could we just not…talk about that stuff?"

"If that's what you want, and you seem the type of girl who knows what she wants, so I won't bring up the subject."

"Thanks," she said. She stood up to go back to organizing her room. She paused, thinking about his earlier wish.

"Hey Rick?"

"Yeah?"

"My dad's a lawyer."