Author's Notes: So, this happened. I didn't actually intend to write Ava again and then after an outing yesterday at Alice's Tea Cup on the Upper West Side I found that I had no choice. This will be an open ended story; little tales of the life of Ava that do not connect, but will be written when I feel the need to obsess over a Beckett/Castle child.

Nancy, thank you for taking me here although I feel this was somewhat your plan all along and thank you to both you and Heather for forcing me to post this (I hate you both) as well as Laura whose flail emails always make me happy and encourage me. Also thanks to everyone who supported and loved Ava to begin with!

Please look up Alice's Tea Party in Manhattan, chapter 1 (location wise) to see the restaurant. It's awesome!

Chapter 1: A Mad Tea-Party

"Oh, Daddy, look!" Castle glances up to where his daughter is pointing, noticing the brightly colored fairy wings tacked onto a door. Ava is mesmerized by them, the swirls of sparkles in different colors, the soft feathers that rest in the middle. She kneels on the large chair in the waiting area, her tutu splaying out around her, and her tiny fingers reach out, her mouth parted in an 'o' as she touches it. "So pretty. Can I wear one? Please?"

"Which color?" He stands, unfastening a pair of blue wings. "How's this one?"

She shakes her head, tendrils of dark hair spilling from the bun on top of her head. She's just come from dance practice, and she's dressed like a ballerina, all pink leotard and tulle skirt; she's the spitting image of her mother on those lazy - and too few and far between - days where Kate wants nothing but to lay around with her hair up, casual clothes on. He smiles at her, and reaches for the band in her hair, unraveling it before she spends the rest of the afternoon blowing her bangs out of her face.

"No, the purple. Mommy is coming and she'll wanna see it cause that's her favorite!" Light filters into Ava's eyes and he knows she's formulating an idea, conceiving a plot as his wife calls it. It's apparently the same look he gets when a novel starts to come together in his brain. "Daddy, how about I wear the blue and you can wear the purple!"

"You want me to wear wings? I'm not so sure they'd fit, AJ."

Yeah. They definitely will not fit. Not unless he loses about-

"No, they will! I know it." She takes them from him, tapping his back. "Turn around."

"Turn around what?"

"Please! Turn around please, Daddy."

He does and in the mirror in front of him he can see the sheer determination on her face, the way she bites down on her lip as she concentrates. He should tell her to stop - surely the elastic is going to snap - but she looks so excited that he can't bear to do it. He'll buy the restaurant new ones if need be, but he can't resist that look on her face. To Ava's credit, she has one band pulled up over his arm, and she's working on the other one and the harder she tries the more excited she gets and he really wishes Kate would get here already so she can see this.

"Done!" Her nose twitches and she lifts her shoulders in a small shrug. "Your arms are too big. It doesn't look okay, but you should still wear them until Mommy comes cause she'll like it. I can wear the purple ones now!"

Castle looks in the mirror and laughs because doesn't look okay is an understatement to say the least. The wings are dwarfed on his back but his daughter is happy and has so much pride that he kisses her forehead, reaching for the pair of purple ones. She settles on his lap and he places them over her, the perfect addition to her costume.

"You look like Tinkerbell."

She twists her body, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Mommy says you're like Peter Pan! That means we are best friends right?"

Of course Kate thinks he's like Peter Pan; she's yelled it at him during arguments when his childishness was an issue, loved him for it on those nights after hard cases when all she wanted was to forget. But he'll never remember those reasons now, just the flecks of green and gold in his youngest daughter's eyes, the excitement she has at the prospect of them being the closest of friends. It reminds him of Alexis when she was growing up and how she's in Europe now, living a life on her own and no longer his baby.

"Yeah, AJ," he murmurs, squeezing her gently. "That's what it means."

"And what does the first bottle say?" Castle asks, buttering a scone for Ava.

There's a tower of pastries and sandwiches in front of them, as well as tiny cups of tea, and he can't believe he never knew about this place until recently. The walls have passages of Alice in Wonderland scrawled across them, paintings of the table with the key and the bottle that Alice drinks from. It's quaint and quiet, and the book sits in front of his daughter as she turns the pages back and forth, working more from memory than the novel in front of her. He and Kate have been reading it to her for a couple of years now – one of Kate's favorites – and their daughter has his brain; can memorize things after hearing them once or twice, loves to learn and ask questions and breathe in the words like they're a lifeline.

He hands over the pumpkin scone and she rips into it, hands now a mess with butter and jelly. "Drink me! And then the second says eat me and she grows so big and tall and Alice can't fit through the door anymore!" She chews on the pastry, looking at the pictures, eyes wide. "I don't like that she gets so sad, though, Daddy."

Castle leans back against the booth, cutting off the crusts off his ham and cheese sandwich. He places half of it on Ava's plate, careful to leave enough space between the different foods. (Daddy, foods can't touch cause they taste funny!) "Do you know who else gets sad when she's away from home?"

"Dorothy, but I don't like that one cause it's scary. The witch is so mean to her!" She licks the jam off her finger before turning the page and Castle winces at the stains she leaves; looks like they're about to own another copy of the book. "What happens after Alice is sad? I don't 'member."

"She sees the mouse-"

Her eyes light up and she nearly bounces in her chair. Her hair falls down her back in waves and he should have pulled it back before it becomes filled with raspberry jelly or the ends soaked in the tea she keeps leaning down to blow on. "Oh yes and she tries to talk to him in French. What does she say?"

"Ou est ma chatte?" Castle startles at the sound of Kate's voice, the smooth cadence of the foreign words slipping off her tongue like silk. He looks up and she's at the end of the table, already peeling off her leather coat, gorgeous and smiling. She bends down to kiss their daughter hello, stained fingers now around her neck, but he's come to realize that Kate Beckett has never minded a mess when it comes to their child. She kisses her and Kate grins, licking her lips. "Mmm, tastes good."

Not that it's ever news to him, but he really really loves his wife.

Kate sits down next to him, squeezes his thigh with a smile. "Hey."

"Hey."

"What does that mean, Mommy? I forgot."

"Where is my cat?"

"Like the treasure cat!"

Kate laughs. "Cheshire cat." She looks away from their daughter, her eyebrow lifting at the thing on his back that nearly snaps every time he moves. Her eyes sparkle, and work must be light today because she seems happy, carefree, not at all stressed like she has been for the past few days. "Nice wings, Castle. It looks good on you."

"I know, right?"

"We're having a tea party like Alice did!" Ava exclaims, never one to have the attention off of her for long, especially with her parents. She takes another bite of her scone, drinks her tea before she's done swallowing. He's warned her about it before, but he sees the slight shake of Kate's head. He gets the message loud and clear. She's fine. Let me relish in this for a little while.

"I can see that." Kate reaches for the kettle, pouring some into the tea cup. "How much food did you guys order?"

"Daddy got the – the what's it called?"

"Jabberwocky."

Ava giggles. "That's a funny word. We got lots cause then you can bring some to Uncle Kevin and Uncle Javi and also to Cap! That's nice, right mommy?"

"Very nice, Ave. Thank you. I'm sure they'll love it."

Castle leans into her, feels the heat pressed against him. He can smell the lingering scent of perfume, reminds him of mornings when he wakes up and she's already gone. It makes him ache with the longing of not working with her every day, but it's good like this, it is. She meets them for lunches when she can and Ava's not in school, and he brings her to the precinct to see Kate and the boys when it's not too hectic. "How long do you have?"

"About an hour."

"Mommy, you know what we passed on our way here?"

"What did you pass? How was dance?"

"It was fun, I stood on my tip toes to do a – a dance move but I forgot what it's called. But that's not my story!" Castle can't help the laugh that rumbles through his throat, the enthusiastic way in which his child delivers a tale.

"I'm sorry, baby. What did you pass?"

"Nikki Heat's police station! You work at the 12th but she's at the 20th, and it's right around the corner! I didn't know it was real cause Nikki isn't but it's so cool! It looks different than yours, but oh, on the street there's this poster! It has a uni – a unicorn on it!"

Kate looks at him, and she's smiling, amused. "That poster is still there?"

They had found the first one when he had taken her to the 20th for the first time what seems like a million years ago, showed her the lay of her fictional counterpart's land. It had been taped to a nearby brownstone's doorway and he had snuck up the stairs, snapped a picture because it was out of place and hilarious and something that he wanted to use one day. (Nikki Heat and the Tale of the Unicorn!, he had suggested. With an eye roll, she had started to walk away, but he heard it out of her mouth seconds later, the smirk resting there like she was the keeper of all the secrets in the world. Nikki Heat vs. The Long, One Horned Creature. It was an entire walk around the city with silly names, and even sillier stories.)

"Different one. It's in another language now."

She nearly snorts in response. "In case the person who found it was foreign?"

"Beckett, it's a unicorn! Maybe the unicorn doesn't speak English!"

She squeezes his leg again and she probably should stop doing that in front of their daughter and this adorable little tea shop. "You're ridiculous."

"He is, Mommy. Daddy is so ridiculous."

Castle gasps. "Hey!"

"Ave, do you know what that means?" Kate asks, taking a sip of tea.

"It means laughingable!"

Okay, he thought she was just repeating Kate, but she actually knows it and his daughter is smart, but he never taught her that. "Laughable. AJ, how did you know that?"

"Patty told me. He said it was ridiculous that Mommy let you win at poker." She scrunches her little nose and he doesn't know if it's something she's picked up from Kate or if it's somehow genetic. "But I forgot why that's laughable."

He's going to kill Patterson (and thank him for teaching his daughter new words.) "You let me win?" he asks Kate.

She doesn't pretend, just smiles and it's so much better. "I knew I always liked James and I don't always let you win. Sometimes."

"You are a wily woman, Detective."

She kisses his cheek, lips lingering seconds too long. "Just keeping you on your toes, Castle."

"Mean."

"Daddy, are you gonna cry and be sad like Alice?" Ava looks around, peeking under the table. "Do you think they have mice here?"

Castle groans. "Let's hope not. Mice are good in stories, not in restaurants. AJ, there's this one time when Mommy and I were working and a mouse crawled on Mom's shoulder. And you know what she did?"

"Talked to it in French?"

Kate laughs. "I should have thought of that. I just threw it off of me. Daddy was more scared than I was." She gives him a look, remembers the years of haunted houses and too many cases, adventures and nine lives. He still hasn't told Ava the story about the tiger, but one day when she's older. Maybe he can use it when she's older and dating, tell the boys that he wrestled a tiger with his bare hands-

"Can I tell you more about Alice now?"

Castle nods while Kate answers with "of course", holding up the pot. "Want more tea, Ave?"

"Yes! Okay, so after the mouse-"

Kate leans into him, her words merely a breath in his ear. "And down the rabbit hole we go."