A/N: Set around the time that Alexis has realized that she doesn't want to live with Pi, so she's still in college, but I'm moving her age up to around 21/22, so senior year. I'm also messing with other parts of the canon timeline, in my story, Ryan and Jenny have only been engaged for a couple months (no baby). Beckett and Castle are together, but not engaged yet. I haven't actually watched every episode for seasons 5-8, just a few episodes here and there, so I apologize if anything is grossly out of context.

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Alexis Castle was absolutely 100% sick of telling Pi to just put his dirty clothes in the laundry basket instead of on the floor. If she was being truly honest with herself, she would admit that absolutely everything about Pi was setting her off now. He seemed to have half his mind flying away in the wind with his bees at any given moment anyway, and she needed more than that. She was wasn't clingy or high-maintenance (that she thought), but still she needed more than what he could give her. And her father was right. Moving in with him was an absolutely terrible idea.

Alexis was contemplating her entire relationship with Pi as she stood outside their apartment building. It wasn't really in a good part of the city, but there were some semi-respectable apartment buildings nearby. And also, a bar just down the block. King Charlie's. Who knew why it was called that? It wasn't even a British or Irish pub; she'd asked the bartender once why it was called King Charlie's and he'd just shrugged and told her he figured there was someone named Charlie in the owner's life. May have been named after his dog. Pi had merely told Alexis to stop being so concerned with the things that already were, such as the names of bars that she didn't own. She asked too many questions, she was too curious, she needed to learn how to chill. Alexis rolled her eyes internally at herself, some day there would be a man who loved and accepted her exactly as she was. Clearly, that man was not Pi. She straightened her shoulders and turned herself around to walk to the bar. She didn't want to see his stupid face just yet, alcohol would help.

Walking into Charlie's, Alexis made a beeline for the barstool that had two empty ones on either side of it. She wasn't looking to flirt or get hit on tonight, she just wanted a couple drinks.

"Hey, Lex, how's it going tonight?" the bartender, Lenny, greeted her with a soft smile.

"Hey Len," Alexis tried to give him a smile back that was more contented than she felt. "Not bad, I'll just have a beer. Whatever's on tap."

"No Pi?" He asked, pulling a glass down from the shelf behind him.

"Nope," Alexis didn't bother to explain and instead glanced around to see what the overall situation of the bar was this Wednesday evening. She'd been in the bar plenty of times, mostly during the day when Pi was being obnoxiously loud with his music and she wanted to study. That was how she'd gotten to know Lenny. But there was the occasional night that she came here with Paige and Taylor or Pi had stalked her out. She recognized a couple of other student regulars, with their laptops out trying to fit in a last-minute cram session. She also recognized a few local regulars, halfway to their limit when Lenny would call them a cab. She turned her attention back to her companions on barstools facing the taps, one guy trying desperately to hook up with a girl who was paying him zero attention and. Wait. Was that?

"Detective Ryan?" Alexis frowned at the man closest to her, two stools away. The normally jovial cop had three empty shot glasses and a half-finished whiskey in front of him; his chin rested on arms folded on the bar as bright blue eyes dejectedly watched the ice melt in the whiskey. When Alexis spoke his name, a crease appeared on his forehead and he tilted the rest of his head in her direction.

"Hmm?" When he squinted at her, she noticed those baby blue eyes were rimmed with red and his whole demeanor seemed to sag. "Little Castle?"

"Yeah," she moved over a couple stools so that she was sitting next to him. "You ok?"

Rather than answer her, he downed the fresh shot of vodka that Lenny placed in front of him.

"Ryan?" Alexis tried again, carefully prodding his shoulder.

" 'M fine," he grumbled out, sitting up so that his shoulder was a little further from her reach. "Why are you here?"

"My apartment is just down the block," she replied, waiting for his eyes to realign on her.

"The Views?" He asked, referencing one of the nicer complexes on the other block. She shook her head.

"The Old Mill," she said, trying to force herself to not be overly embarrassed about her current squalor.

"Lots of drugs there," Ryan replied, pressing his lips together, and looking like he was debating between giving her a lecture about drug safety or puking.

"I know," she groaned, "It reeks, all the time. And Dad really wasn't happy, but it's the only thing I can afford without relying on his money."

The more she talked, the lower Ryan sank back onto the bar. As if it had suddenly become too much effort to hold himself up.

"Why are you here?" She asked, prodding him to get him to sit straight again while Lenny placed her beer in front of her.

Once again, he didn't bother responding to her question, just drank a large gulp of his whiskey, put his head back onto his arms, and grumbled something about rich kids. Alexis rolled her eyes and drank her own beer. She wasn't a stereotypical rich kid, she wanted to earn her own way as much as anyone else, so if that meant living in the dumps for a while, well, that was what she had to do. Even if she hated it. Even if it only contributed ever more to her realization that life and love were no fairy tale.

"You know him?" Lenny asked her as he set another shot in front of Ryan's folded arms.

"Yeah, Ryan works with my dad," Alexis said, giving Lenny a questioning glance. Lenny just snorted at her suspicious eyes, then jerked his head to the side and lowered his voice. Alexis moved in closer to hear him.

"He's a good guy, turns up every now and then for a late drink. Came home from work today to find that his fiancé moved out, left the ring on the kitchen counter. Asked me to get him smashed enough that he can't remember her, problem is, he's got the tolerance of a damn elephant."

"Jenny left?" Alexis's eyes widened and she snuck a glance at the man beside her, no wonder he was so out of it. She'd thought they were perfect together; two bright, optimistic people ready to settle down and start their white picket fence family. "Damn."

"Yeah," Lenny nodded. "If you're a friend, help him get home tonight? Or maybe call your dad? Someone close to him?"

"Yeah," Alexis sighed and drank more of her beer. Lenny squeezed her forearm in thanks before paying attention to someone else at the bar flagging him down.

Alexis pulled out her phone and scrolled through the contacts list. She could call her dad, but he and Beckett probably had plans tonight, and she really didn't want him to see her drowning her sorrows away and get into an I-told-you-so battle about Pi. She could call Esposito. Her thumb hovered over the name on her phone, if anyone was closest with Ryan in that department, of course it would be his partner.

She turned her head to look at the now five empty shot glasses in front of the short brunet. Why hadn't Ryan himself called Esposito? What if her calling him made something between them worse? Maybe there was a reason Ryan hadn't wanted to tell him. She had no doubts that if Esposito knew about Jenny leaving, he'd be here. So would her dad. And Beckett. Even Lanie. They cared about each other, looked out for one another. But he hadn't reached out. And as she sat there, finishing her beer, Esposito's phone number ready to be dialed, she thought maybe she knew why. Maybe it was the same reason she was determined to stick it out with her rental agreement with Pi. Sometimes you just had to deal with your own shit on your own. And sometimes your pride could only take so much of a hit in one day.

Alexis clicked her phone off and ordered two shots of vodka.

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Drinking does very funny things to you when you're upset. Sometimes it makes you feel more depressed and sometimes, if everything falls into place in just the right way, it makes you feel like you are on top of the world.

By the time Lenny practically shoved Alexis and Ryan out of the bar, they were both about three sheets to the wind.

"I sh-sh-should walk… you hommmme?" Ryan stuttered, arm wrapping around Alexis's shoulder and paying more attention to how his feet were planted on the ground than either where they were going or what he was saying.

"Don't wanna go home," Alexis grumbled back, leaning into Ryan pushing him to change his course from her apartment.

"Can't t-t-t-take you to Casssle like this," Ryan replied, giggling to himself as he righted their course leading away from the bar. Alexis giggled in response as she tripped over his feet while they turned. "Have a second bedroom. For the babies ah'll never have."

Alexis just grasped his waist for a little more balance and leverage to look him in the eyes. Sort of. Very blue eyes. "You will someday!"

"Nah, nope, nope. Don't want em with anyone else. No babies for me. An' no wife either. Alone again. Always alone. 'Sn't that a joke? Something 'm'..Memm. No! Meme. Forever alone. Should be my face on that."

If Alexis was thinking more clearly, she may have tried to argue more, as it was, she just needed to focus on keeping them both upright as he rambled, he'd started leaning precariously closely to the edge of the sidewalk. The last thing either of them needed was to be injured falling into the street and getting hit by a car or something.

"Shut up, Ryan. At least Jenny left," Alexis interrupted his diatribe. "I'd r'ther be alone than have a stupid, messy, bee-counting stalker for a boyfriend. But nooooo, boy won't leave me alone enough to let me study. My degree would need to support his stupid ass."

"Ooo, bad word," Ryan reeled back when she said 'ass', but he reeled too far and almost took them both down next to the entry stairs of an apartment building. "Casssle's gonna be mad."

Alexis clutched Ryan's waist tighter and Ryan's hold around her shoulders slipped squeezing her upper arm. They both giggled at each other as they tried to right themselves again. Eventually, they straightened out and Alexis made to keep moving, but Ryan held steady.

"My building," he said jerking his head towards the entry way. "Come up."

Alexis didn't question it, just followed him along as he got his keys out to unlock the door and they made their slow, wandering way up the stairs.

Ryan's apartment wasn't nearly the crap shack that Alexis was currently living in. It was a small, but clean, two-bedroom apartment, spotless kitchen, overstuffed old couch in front of a good-sized tv, bookshelf devoted to Castle's novels. Alexis lost control of her laughter when she saw that. She knew Ryan was a fan of his books, but man, that was every single thing Richard Castle had ever written.

Ryan closed the door behind them and then started pushing her towards one of the bedrooms. There was a bed, a nightstand, and a light in it, but not much else.

"Was more in it," Ryan sighed as Alexis tripped out of her shoes and threw her coat down on the bed. "Was Jenny's stuff."

" 'S perfect," Alexis murmured, shoving her nose into a clean pillow that did not have the lingering scent of weed or dirt. It just smelled fresh, like clean sheets. "Perfect."

Ryan snorted at the sight of her, acting like she hadn't seen a real bed in years.

"Night, Lil Casssle," he said, making his way out of the guest room/ex-nursery and into his own bedroom. Alexis didn't even bother to respond, just mumbled something unintelligible into her pillow.

Alexis must have been asleep for an hour or so before the increasingly urgent need to find a bathroom made itself known. She groaned as she rolled out of the perfectly clean bed, and felt her way along the walls until she found a small room that had a sink in it. Must be the bathroom. She peed, washed her hands, and drank some water straight from the tap, feeling ever so slightly less giggly-drunk and more need-to-crash-now drunk.

As she left the bathroom, she glanced around and realized she had no idea which direction she came from. She groaned, letting her head fall against the wall. Oh well, the next soft thing she found was just going to end up being her bed for the night.

Fortunately, the first door she pushed open did have a bed in it. An occupied bed. Alexis frowned at the figure collapsed on top of the sheets. He still had his shoes on. For some reason, that was the part that struck her as unacceptable. She stumbled her way into the room and sat down on the bed by his feet, struggled to slip the shoes off, and then crawled up the rest of the bed until her head hit clean pillows again. There was no lingering scent in them, Damn Jenny, couldn't let him have any little thing left of you, she thought, oddly sobered by the fact that Jenny must have washed even the pillowcases before she moved out.

Alexis shimmied around in the bed to get under some blankets and the fact that the body next to her started grumbling, moving with her didn't bother her nearly as much as it should have. Once they both finally got comfortable, Alexis found herself with the heavy weight of an arm across her back and her legs tangled between his. Her still drunk mind simply rationalized this as Pi being particularly clingy tonight, maybe he realized he was losing her.

" 'Night Pi," she muttered, tucking her head under his much-less-scruffy-than-normal chin. She was already asleep when the muffled response came from the face squished into a pillow.

" 'Night Jenny."

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As Alexis slowly came to her senses a few hours later, she realized two things. The first was that she was not sleeping in her own bed, neither the one she shared with Pi nor the one at her father's loft. The second was that the man she was tangled up next to was definitely not Pi.

Maybe if she just tried to slide her leg through that gap she could feel between his under the sheets, he wouldn't…. Shit, the snoring stopped. Alexis squeezed her eyes shut and wished as hard as humanly possible that she wasn't where she thought she was right now. When she remained in exactly the same position with the same person in the same bed, she gritted her teeth and opened her eyes. She found frowning blue eyes staring back at her, with a lack of comprehension in them.

"Alexis?" He asked, forming her name slowly with his lips, as if he wasn't at all sure why he was saying it. Then all of a sudden, his eyes dawned with understanding and widened dramatically in shock. He sat straight up, dislodging her from his arms. "We didn't..."

He pulled up the sheets covering them and looked underneath. Upon seeing that they were both still fully clothed, excepting shoes, he breathed a loud sigh of relief and let his head hit the wall behind the bed. Alexis let her breath go as well and slowly disentangled herself from him, her own head was going to start pounding soon, she knew from experience. Though at the moment, she was still feeling that mix between tipsy and sick. A glance back up at his face suggested he was feeling the same way.

"Sorry, Ryan, I got lost on the way back from the bathroom," Alexis said, half expecting him to be angry for either seeing him so vulnerable last night or just being in his bed that he had shared with Jenny. Instead he just looked at her and started laughing.

"I've never had a woman call me Ryan in bed," he said, through chuckles. "Call me by my first name."

Alexis chuckled nervously, still not sure if he was all there mentally at the moment, and then frowned. He was Detective Ryan to her, that was all she'd ever known him as. She must have heard someone use his first name at some point, but her half-drunk/half hungover brain was certainly not about to supply her with it. "Umm… this is even more awkward… What is it?"

Ryan started a fresh peal of laughter, tears leaking out from the corner of his eyes.

"Kevin," he finally managed to get out, lifting up his arm at an awkward angle so he could hold his hand out for a handshake. She grasped it and shook gently.

"Ok, Kevin," she smiled, his sudden change in mood was a little contagious. "No more 'Little Castle' then, only Alexis."

"Deal."

Alexis took her hand back from him and laid back into the pillows, it was still early, the clock next to the bed read 4:30am, and she wasn't entirely opposed to just going back to sleep. Ryan seemed equally content where he was, slowly sliding himself back down the wall to lay against his own pillow. Alexis watched him carefully for a minute and he turned his head when he felt her eyes on him.

"Why are you staring at me?" He asked after what felt like an eternity.

"Jenny left," Alexis said, ready to bolt if he took that the wrong way.

"Yeah," he replied softly, his eyes went sad and the lightness faded from his face. "We weren't doing too hot. She wanted me to leave Javi and the team; said the job was too dangerous if I was planning to be a good husband and father… I couldn't make that kind of choice. Figured she would either have to deal with it or leave me. An unspoken ultimatum. And she left."

"I'm sorry," Alexis said, she reached for his hand on top of the bedspread and squeezed it. After a moment, he squeezed hers back.

"What were you doing out last night?" He asked, turning his attention to her.

"I made a huge mistake with Pi," Alexis sighed, removing her hand from his and scrubbing at her face. "He's the messiest person I have ever seen and his job can't pay for half the rent, so he's been mooching off me. But he won't even do chores to make up for the pay difference! And he insists on playing music and smoking when I'm trying to study, so it's like he doesn't even want me to succeed, he just wants us to be happy living in filth until my dad decides to give me his money. I realized last night that I don't want to live like that, but also, this is exactly what my dad warned me about and we had a huge fight about it, so now I can't just go running home to him. I have to see it through."

"What an ass," Ryan responded, succinct and to the point. Then he reached over and ruffled her hair. "Castle would save the I-told-you-so's until you were feeling better about it though. He'll always let you go home."

"I know. But that's not the point," she said, swatting his hand away. "I just should have seen this coming; I don't know how I was so blind to it."

"You're what, 21, 22? Relationships are shit then. I mean, not that I can really say that they're any better in your 30's, but you'll figure it out. Plenty of time." With that said, he rolled off the other side of the bed and padded out the door. Alexis snuggled herself back down under the blankets. She knew she needed to get up and leave, go back to her place and try to talk to Pi. But the thing was, she was really comfortable here. And it wasn't quite 5am now, if she went back home, there was no way she'd actually get any more sleep. The sound of water running from the bathroom brought her mind out of it's wandering so she waited for Ryan to get back and likely ask her to leave.

Ryan came back into his bedroom, shedding his now wrinkled button-down shirt and slacks, revealing a short-sleeved undershirt and blue polka-dotted boxers. He rummaged in a drawer of the bureau to pull out a couple pairs of gym shorts and another t-shirt. He threw a pair of shorts and the shirt at Alexis, while putting on the other pair of shorts himself. Then he left the room again. Alexis watched him leave and looked down at the clothes. She quickly stripped off her tight, constricting skinny jeans and put on the shorts. As she took off her top, she had a brief internal debate about whether to leave her bra on or take it off, but the ache in her upper ribs quickly made that decision for her. She put the t-shirt on and then folded and stacked her clothes so that the bra was concealed between her jeans and top. She sat on the bed as she held the stack of clothes, a new debate starting about whether she was staying in this bed or going back to that guest bed.

She had pretty much decided that she was going back to the guest bed when Ryan came back into the room. He had two tall glasses of water and a bottle of aspirin. He set the water glasses on the night table and replaced the stack of clothes in her hands with the aspirin. He put her clothes on top of the bureau and she accepted that to mean she was staying in his bed. She unscrewed the bottle cap, pouring two little white pills into her hand and then another two into the hand that appeared next to hers. She swallowed the pills along with half her glass of water, then settled herself back under the sheets. Ryan took his glass to the other night stand and also got back into bed. But rather than getting under the sheets, he only pulled back the comforter, had to keep some modicum of decency she supposed.

"I can just go back to the guest bed," Alexis said hesitantly. It seemed almost wrong to talk, whatever routine he had seemed to be a silent one and she'd just been complying to it.

"Go back to sleep, Alexis," he replied, but there was a softness in his voice, almost the way it got when he would try to jokingly placate Esposito about women.

"Good night, Kevin," she responded, smiling even though his back was turned to her. She missed his answering smile.

The next time Alexis woke up, she was alone. Her water glass was full again and there was a note beside it:

Alexis,

Had to go to work, use the key hanging in the kitchen to lock up when you leave, I'll get it back from you at some point.

Thank you for last night. Whatever it was, I needed it.

Friends?

Kevin

The note gave her a goofy grin, despite the nagging hangover and the fact that she was going to be late for her 9am class, this tiny gesture made her happy. She dressed in record speed, put her borrowed clothes into the hamper and stopped in the kitchen to write a reply.

Kevin,

No thanks necessary, I'm glad I was there. Reach out to me whenever you need to, any excuse to get out of my apartment ?

Of course we're friends, I'm insulted you have to ask.

Alexis