A/N – From this point onwards I'm going to consider the disclaimer given.

It's the showdown you've been waiting for. Alexis has her face to face with Lanie, Ryan and Esposito. And she is not feeling particularly cooperative.

Alexis took a deep breath as she stepped through the doors of the Old Haunt. As was her habit, she paused for a moment to take a quick glance over her surroundings. The bar was still relatively quiet but the Saturday night crowd was starting to pick up. Patterson spotted her and gave her a wave from his usual spot at the farthest corner of the bar. Alexis returned the wave and turned to make her way across to the bartender. She always loved coming here. Most of the renovations in the bar were her idea. It was something she and her father had worked on together after he had bought the bar, just one of the things that they did during their father-daughter quality time. Her Dad had basically given her a blank check and told her to take the lead. It was the biggest project she had worked on, and the feeling of seeing it come to life… she supposed it was something similar to how her father had felt after his first novel was published.

"The usual, Paco," she said to the bartender as she slid onto an empty barstool.

"One mango milkshake coming right up," the bartender said as he picked up an empty glass with one hand and a bottle of mango syrup with the other. "Your guests are waiting in the office," he added as he proceeded to pour the syrup with his customary flourish.

"Guests?" Alexis asked with a raised eyebrow, "as in plural?"

"Detectives Esposito and Ryan are in there too. Dr. Parish said that they were with her."

Not entirely unexpected, Alexis thought with grim amusement. In fact, the more, the merrier.

"Thanks, Paco," she said, sliding off the barstool, as she picked up the glass that the bartender slid towards her and walked toward the door leading to the office.

Lanie looked up with a start as the door to the office swung open suddenly, jolting her out of her musings. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ryan and Esposito turn around to watch Alexis as she strode briskly into the office as if it was her personal space and slid into the chair behind the desk.

"Nice to see you again," Alexis said in a pleasant voice, which was about as convincing as the sun rising in the west. "Thanks for coming."

Lanie turned slightly to catch Esposito's eye. The expression on his face mirrored her own.

Thanks for coming? She thought incredulously. She practically gave us an ultimatum.

"So, can I offer you something?" Alexis asked, waving towards the sidebar.

"Um, no thanks," Lanie said awkwardly. Ryan and Esposito declined as well. Alexis shrugged but didn't speak. An uncomfortable silence enveloped the group.

She's trying to throw us off balance, Esposito thought. And it's working. But why?

"So," Lanie began, in an attempt to break the ice, "Kate told me about your, uh, conversation."

"I figured as much," Alexis said calmly, sipping her milkshake. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

Lanie sighed. Esposito was right; Alexis had every intention of being difficult about this. "Listen, Alexis. I know how you feel about this, and I can understand that you're upset but…"

"No."

Lanie stopped in the middle of her sentence, startled by the sudden interruption. "Uh, excuse me?" she asked.

"No to both counts," Alexis said coolly, setting her glass down a bit harder than necessary. "Number one, no, you have absolutely no idea what I am going through. You might think that you do, but I assure you that you don't. It's not something you can fully understand unless it's happened to you. And if you've been through something like this, you wouldn't be here talking to me, you would be talking to Detective Beckett." She paused for a few moments to allow that to sink in. "And number two. I'm not upset, not at all."

Alexis' curt tone completely blindsided Lanie, which was why the second part of her statement took a few seconds to sink in.

"You're… not upset?' Lanie asked, feeling wrong footed.

Alexis gripped the edge of the table and leaned forward. "No Doctor, I'm not. Far from it," she said with an edge in her voice, and Lanie could hear the contempt in her voice coming through in every syllable. "Upset is how I am when I get a bad grade, or when I miss my favorite shows, or when Ashley is being a jerk. When someone hurts my family, when they do it deliberately, upset doesn't even begin to cover it. It makes me angry." She smiled humorlessly. "For some reason, folks don't seem to like me when I get angry."

"Kate didn't deliberately set out to…"

"Sure, she didn't," Alexis said sarcastically. Lanie fell silent at the sudden interruption, her eyes wide at the open disdain in Alexis' tone. Alexis took no notice as she leaned forward to look Lanie in the eye. "Every single day, for four fucking months, she had a chance to call dad and talk to him. Every time she chose not to, she was doing it all over again. Every single day for four months."

"Alexis, be reasonable," Lanie protested. "After everything she's been through, can you really blame her for wanting to get away from everything for a while?"

"You're still missing the point," Alexis said curtly. "I'm not mad at her for taking off for four months. I'm not even all that mad for taking off for four months without telling Dad." She paused for a moment, and when she spoke again, her voice had an edge as sharp as a razor blade. "You know what really gets me? She promises Dad that she'll call him, and then she disappears for four months. She didn't even have the decency to let him know. If she didn't have the guts to say it in person, she could at least have told him over the phone. All she had to do was to tell him that she was taking a long break to recover and that they would talk when she got back. Dad would've understood. He would've given her space. He would have given her as much time as she needed. He's waited for the better part of three years. He would have waited for another three months, not that he would have had any choice. Worst case, she could have just taken the coward's way out and left him an e-mail. That way she could have avoided speaking to him, and Dad wouldn't have spent the past few months moping. But no, she pulled off her disappearing act without any concern as to what Dad was feeling, while she expects him to put her feelings before his own. I mean, who the hell does that hypocritical bitch think she is?"

"Don't talk about her like that," Esposito said, sounding affronted.

Alexis rounded on to him and Esposito leaned away from her, visibly unsettled.

"I'll talk about her any way I like," Alexis hissed. "Who's going to stop me?"

A ringing silence fell around the table. Esposito and Ryan were staring at Alexis, still as statues, shock displayed clearly on their faces. Alexis stared right back, the expression on her face hard as gemstones.

So is that what this is all about? Lanie wondered, trying to clear the fog of incredulity that had settled in her head. It was vendetta. It explained a lot of things. Alexis' sudden aggression, the punch that she had dealt to Kate, all of it. It was Alexis' way of letting Kate know who was alpha female where Castle was concerned. Kate on her best day didn't have a hope of competing with Alexis on her worst, when it came to Castle's priorities. If Kate thought that she was the one who controlled the nature and pace of her partnership with Castle, she was dead wrong. Alexis was the one who had the power to determine what form Kate's and Castle's relationship would take and how fast, if at all, it would develop. Alexis had veto rights over any and every aspect of Castle's life. She had the power to bring him and Kate together, or to tear them apart permanently. She could bring about either outcome just as effortlessly. And Kate knew now that Castle was the one she wanted, that his absence left a hole in her heart that no one else could fill, and that put her in a position of vulnerability; the exact same position that Castle had been in for the entire duration of their partnership. And now that Alexis was the one in control, she had no intention of making the slightest compromise to accommodate Kate. Kate had no say in the matter, and there was nothing she could do about it. Any power she had over Castle was rendered meaningless in the face of Alexis' influence. If Kate wanted Castle in her life, it was either Alexis' way or the highway. There was no Option C.

So the bottom line was that Kate's relationship with Castle, the most important one that she had ever had, was subject to Alexis' whims. And she had no power over Alexis. The punch in the face had made all too clear, just how little regard Alexis had left for Kate. Kate now found herself in the exact same position that Castle been in for the entirety of their relationship, and that feeling, along with all the associated helplessness and feeling of injustice was exactly what Alexis wanted her to feel. There was no better way to cut a person down to size than to let them know that they were utterly powerless. Alexis was determined to give Kate a taste of her own medicine and to repay Kate for all the pain that she had caused her father with her own coin. Every single hurt, three years' worth of it, not a penny more and not a penny less.

And Lanie couldn't let her do that. Not now, when Kate needed Castle the most.

"Listen Alexis," she tried again, "I know that you may not believe me but Kate really cares about him."

"Yeah? Well she's got a great way of showing it." Alexis said throwing up her hands. "She was the one who told him to get out of her life, or have you conveniently forgotten that?"

"I…she…" Lanie shook her head in frustration. "Dammit Alexis, you know she didn't mean it."

"She said, and I quote, 'we're over'. Those were her exact words," Alexis replied curtly. "And in Modern English, it translates into 'I never want to have anything to do with you again'. So unless Detective Beckett was talking in some obscure English dialect where phrases mean the exact opposite of what they imply…"

"Alexis, she was upset," Ryan said speaking up for the first time. "She didn't mean what she said."

"Oh riiiiight," Alexis said sarcastically. "What she really meant was, 'stay out of my way until I need you, at which time you better be there for whatever it is that I need you for.'"

"Don't act as if you know everything there is to know about Beckett," Esposito said coldly.

"I know that she hurt my Dad. Hurt him in ways no one ever has," Alexis replied, her own voice as icy cold as liquid nitrogen. "That is really all I need to know." Esposito fell silent at her words. There was really no answer he could make to that statement.

"And while we're on the topic, just answer a couple of questions for me," Alexis said in a falsely casual tone. "Number one, after she kicked Dad out, if he had gone to see her for whatever reason, would she have listened to him?"

Lanie stayed silent. Ryan and Esposito shifted uncomfortably. It was a rhetorical question and they all knew the answer to that.

"And second," Alexis voice turned steely, "would she have been so quick to tell him to get lost if she knew that he wasn't coming back?"

There was no need to answer that either. Lanie, Esposito and Ryan all knew that Kate took liberties with Castle because she could get away with it. If she had known the consequences of her actions, she would have thought twice about sending Castle away. That only confirmed what Alexis had said, that Kate took Rick for granted far too often.

"Alexis, give her a break," Lanie pleaded. "Doesn't she have enough going on without you adding to it?"

"Without me adding to it," Alexis repeated sarcastically. "Nice try, Doctor. Shift the blame on me. Never mind the fact her actions are the cause of it."

"Okay, maybe you've got a beef with her for some things that she did, or didn't do. But don't you think you're overreacting a bit? I mean seriously," Esposito said, shaking his head. "I can't believe you actually hit her."

"You think I'm overreacting?" Alexis said coolly. She leaned forward, and there was a strange glitter in her eyes that Esposito did not at all like. "Let us consider a hypothetical situation, where their roles are reversed. If it was my Dad who was treating her this way, and if he ditched her for three months, don't tell me that you wouldn't have punched his lights out."

Esposito opened his mouth and closed it again, unable to come up with a reply. "That's different," he said at last, saying the first thing that came to his mind.

"Really?" Alexis said sarcastically, "And pray why is it okay for Beckett if it's not okay for someone else in the same position?"

"She needed time to heal…"

"So, she takes time off to heal while she leaves Dad to bleed," Alexis said, looking away. "If that's any indication of her priorities, I don't want her for a stepmother anyway."

And there it was, out in the open at last. Alexis had officially given her stamp of disapproval.

"Alexis, you have to understand, the loss of her mother hit Kate very hard," Lanie broke in. "She's never really recovered from it. Her mother's death has influenced every aspect about Kate, directly or indirectly. Her emotional scars run too deep and it is difficult for her to let other people in. I don't expect you to understand what that is like, but…"

"You're right, I don't know what that is like," Alexis said in a low voice. For a moment the anger and hostility in her voice dropped away, leaving only the tired vulnerable girl, forced to deal with too much too soon. "Just one second's difference and the bullet that hit Beckett would've hit my Dad." She squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face in her hands. "Just thinking about that has been giving me nightmares for days, and I can't begin to imagine what it must be like for Beckett."

For one moment Lanie thought that she had succeeded in getting through to Alexis, but then Alexis lifted her head, and the icy expression was back.

"But that doesn't change anything," Alexis said coolly.

Lanie's heart sank. She opened her mouth to speak, but Alexis overrode her. "Listen, I'm sorry for Beckett okay? I'm sorry that she had to go through all that she did, and I'd help her if I could. But I can't. I can't save them both, and if I have to pick one person to save, well…" she let the sentence hang and just shrugged.

Lanie couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're seriously gonna abandon Kate? Just like that?"

"If saving my Dad means cutting Beckett loose, and I don't see any other option at this point," Alexis said in a hard voice, "then make no mistake; that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

"Girl, I know you're hurting, but seriously," Lanie said, shaking her head in disbelief. "I cannot let you do that."

"I'm not asking for your permission," Alexis said coldly. "Listen I sympathize with her alright? But just because she's had tough breaks in life that doesn't give her the right to treat my Dad like excess baggage." She smiled humorlessly. "Ever stopped to consider that maybe treating her with kid gloves might be preventing her from getting over her issues?"

"Beckett wouldn't abandon you like that," Ryan said accusingly.

"She did," Alexis replied curtly. "Four months ago. She just up and left, and left me to deal with the fallout. It's taken me all this time to help my Dad get over her, and now you want me to send him back?" Her blue eyes flashed as if to say, go to hell.

"It doesn't have to be like… before," Esposito broke in.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Alexis said with a shrug.

"She's trying to make an effort, Alexis. She wants him back," Esposito tried to explain.

"Just like she wanted him when she broke up with Demming?" Alexis said with a raised eyebrow. Esposito opened his mouth and closed it again wordlessly, unable to come up with a rebuttal. "Why's it that the only time Beckett's willing to make an effort with my Dad is when she thinks that she's about to lose him?"

"That's not fair," Esposito said, managing to find his voice at last.

"Really? And just why not?"

"She was going to tell him," Esposito said defensively. "It was just … bad timing."

"Then why not tell him after he and Gina had broken up?" Alexis pointed out. "They didn't last long."

"She was with Josh at the time."

Alexis smiled thinly. "You're telling me that in the few months between the time that she met Josh and the time that Dad broke up with Gina, she had become so committed to the relationship that she couldn't pull away? Kate Beckett, the woman who has a policy of keeping one foot outside the door, was so fully committed in just a few months?" She laughed humorlessly. "Oh, I believe that. Tell me another story."

"Maybe she was committed to Josh," Ryan said coolly. "Maybe she managed to get over Rick while he was away having fun in the sun with ex-wife number two."

"And yet you expect him to put his own life on hold and hang around Beckett indefinitely, in addition to the past three years of waiting," Alexis replied, "when Beckett couldn't even wait three months." Ryan opened his mouth, but Alexis overrode him. "If Beckett was so over him, why didn't she just tell him that?"

"What?"

"You heard me," Alexis said steadily. "If she was so tight in her new relationship, why didn't she just tell Dad that she was in a committed relationship and that she couldn't return his feelings?"

"Just in case she…" Ryan began and then trailed off.

"Just in case she what, Detective?" Alexis said with a humorless smile. "Just in case she broke up with Josh, she would have him available, ready and waiting for her? So my Dad was supposed to be the fallback guy?" She snorted. "You're not exactly doing a stellar job of selling Beckett's greatness, Detective."

"The what guy?" Esposito asked, slightly confused.

"The fallback guy, also known as the backup plan," Alexis said airily, with a forced casualness that was not only fake, but was meant to be seen through. "In girl speak, the fallback guy is someone that a girl knows is into her, so she keeps him on a back burner while she scouts for better options. If nothing else pans out, she can always settle for the fallback guy because she knows that he isn't going anywhere." She made a great show of digging her phone out of her pocket. "Let's see what the internet has to say on the matter shall we?"

Lanie, Ryan and Esposito watched bemusedly as Alexis opened a web browser on her phone and began typing. Esposito turned slightly to look at Ryan out of the corner of his eye, feeling an irrational discomfort about making sudden movements. Ryan caught his look and shrugged slightly. Neither of them know how to deal with this curve ball.

"Oh look, here we are," Alexis pronounced. "There is a nice long article about it on IGN."

She cleared her throat dramatically and began reading excerpts from the article out loud, "The potential is the guy she keeps warming up on the side in case your relationship begins to go bad. His job is to be the relief pitcher when you break up. This way she doesn't have to be alone for very long. All she has to do is give him a call and she will probably have a place to stay and can pick right up where she left off.

In order for her to keep a "potential" she has to maintain just enough contact to keep him interested. It is not in the best interest of her plans if he gets frustrated and hooks up with someone else, so she has to be in his life enough to limit his activities to simple dates with other women. Depending on the type of guy, she may only need to contact him periodically through a social network, give him phone calls, or meet him at a few places to hang out. In some instances, she may have to engage in limited sexual contact (use your imagination). She has to be that really cool chick that will make him change his plans if she calls and wants to hang out.

...She keeps the potential hidden from her friends (male friends in particular) because they may reveal the situation for their own reasons..."

Alexis broke off and gave a cough that sounded suspiciously like "Josh" and continued.

"The potential is usually the guy she calls on weekends when her plans have fell through or when she's feeling damaged and needs a boost to her self-esteem. The problem with women establishing potential is they never take the guy's feelings into consideration. Some guys may lack social experience and assume the relationship is actually more than it truly is... These guys may attempt to push things farther than the woman is willing to go...This could be a disaster for everyone involved.

The placeholder is the worst situation for a man to be in; it means the woman is committed to the relationship until a better opportunity comes along. These relationships can last anywhere from a few months to several years... The guys aren't necessarily bad (they could be loyal, dependable, trustworthy, generous, etc), but the women do not consider them long-term relationship material (too nice, too sensitive, to permissive, etc)...

...If there is no marriage or children, women in placeholder relationships may want to keep the current guy in reserve if "Mr. Right" doesn't quite measure up to her expectations. They do this by telling the guy they need a break or they need time to figure things out..."

Here Alexis paused to roll her eyes.

"...This provides them with a safety net if the guy believes there's some hope of restoring the relationship. The real problems develop when women allow placeholder relationships to progress too far when it was never their intention to be in one that long...

...Women should consider the expectations of the individual she chooses as a placeholder; especially, if the guy has limited experience with relationships... In cases like this, women should be honest with the guy if he starts becoming clingy. Slow him down and let him know you if you don't feel the same way. This allows him to reconsider his actions and maintain his dignity before things go too far and he ends up heartbroken... Most guys are absolutely clueless, so you need to be very clear with your intentions. The average guy doesn't always take hints and cannot decipher code, so say what you mean. Painful or not, it's better that way."

Alexis turned off the phone and very gently put it down on the desk.

"Anything about that article sound familiar to you? Ring any bells maybe?" Alexis asked through gritted teeth. Any trace of casualness, fake or otherwise was gone from her voice. The expression on her face could have frozen a herd of stampeding rhinos in their path.

"Maybe … she didn't know that Castle still had feelings for her," Lanie said in a halfhearted attempt at defense.

"You knew it. I knew it. Half the tabloid readers in New York City knew it," Alexis said curtly. "Dad did everything but send up smoke signals to tell Beckett how he felt about her. And you expect me to believe that Beckett didn't know?" She snorted. "Get real."

"Maybe it would have helped if he had said it to her straight," Esposito said at last, apparently deciding that the best defense was an offence.

"My parents' marriage ended because my Mom cheated on Dad," Alexis replied. "The last thing he would've done is to make a move on Beckett while she was with someone else."

"He still should've said something," Esposito said stubbornly.

"He did," Alexis said, looking away. "In the cemetery. Right before she passed out, he … he told her that he loved her." She paused for a moment. "Apparently she didn't take it well."

"He told her what?"

Alexis glanced back to find all three of them staring at her with identical gobsmacked expressions. "I guess Beckett didn't tell you, huh?" she said with a thin smile. Her comment was followed by several seconds of shell shocked silence.

Esposito was the first to pull himself back together. "She says she doesn't remember anything about what happened in the cemetery. Maybe she just…"

"She lied," Alexis said curtly.

Esposito stared at her. "What makes you so sure?"

"Because I was able to force that much out of her," Alexis said with a shrug.

"Whoa… hold on," Ryan said, his head still spinning from the bomb that Alexis had just dropped on them. "So, basically, Castle told Beckett … and then…"

"And then when he went to visit her in the hospital, she told him that she would call him when she was ready to talk. Instead she vanished for four months. And without a word of explanation," Alexis finished.

A tense silence fell in the room.

"Wow," Ryan said finally. "No wonder you're mad at her." Alexis simply shrugged.

"But seriously," Esposito said sharply, "you actually hit Beckett? You have any idea how much trouble you could get into for assaulting a police officer?"

"Well, that kinda requires you to press charges," Alexis said looking him in the eye. "You wanna book me, go right ahead. The press will just eat it up, and I bet your new Captain will just love that. And Beckett will be right in the middle of it. The media vultures will tear her to shreds. And oh yeah, I'd really like to see you explain how you've been investigating the shooting against orders." The message in her gaze was clear. This is personal business. Let's just keep it that way. If you try to make it an official matter, you'll have more to lose than I do. It's your choice.

"Okay, hold on … just… " Lanie heaved an impatient sigh. "Listen Alexis, we can go over and over this stuff all night long and it's not gonna solve anything. What's done is done, okay? We need to figure out how we're going to move past this."

"There's no 'we' in this, Doctor," Alexis said curtly. "I'm not on your side. Get that through your head. You want to bring them back together. I don't." Her statement was followed by several seconds of silence.

"So…that's it?" Esposito said at last. "No second chance?"

"She's had a second chance, and a third," Alexis replied curtly. "She blew those too."

"Alexis, she needs help," Lanie said urgently.

"You can't save someone if they refuse to grab the lifeline, Doctor," Alexis said flatly. "I can understand you wanting what's best for Beckett. Unfortunately, in this case what you think is best for Beckett isn't what I think is best for my Dad."

"Alexis," Esposito said helplessly, "I can understand why you'd be angry, but it's not like you to be this…vindictive."

"You're still missing the point, Detective," Alexis said quietly. "I'm not doing this just to be mean. Though," she shrugged, "if it gives Beckett a taste of her own medicine, I'm not averse to that either."

"So what is this about?" Lanie said.

For the first time that evening Alexis hesitated, suddenly becoming very interested in picking her fingernails. "For most of my life, it's just been Dad and me," she said at last. "My Mom left us a long time ago. I can barely remember her before the divorce, and even with that, the memories I have of the three of us as a family are nothing much. For the past three years my grandmother's been there, but for the most part, it's always been Dad and me against the world."

"But you'll be leaving for college soon," Lanie said softly, understanding starting to dawn on her.

"And Grandma will be moving out," Alexis finished. "And after that Dad's going to be all by himself." She raised her head to look Lanie in the eye. "I don't want to leave him all alone. I want someone to be there for him, when I can't do it anymore. For a long time, I hoped that Beckett would be the one, but if she doesn't want the job…" she shrugged.

"If she doesn't want the job, you want your Dad to find someone who does," Lanie said quietly. "Before you leave for college."

Finally, she understood why Alexis would go to such lengths to keep Kate away from Castle. It was, quite simply, a daughter's instinct to shield her family from whatever turbulence that might be coming their way. Alexis, by her own admission, had always been a Daddy's Girl and that bond worked both ways.

"Alexis," Ryan sighed, "all these months…why didn't you say anything?"

"Dad wouldn't let me," she said in a low voice. "And I kinda wanted them to get through it on their own. It was their business after all, not mine."

"And now?"

"Now I'm making it my business," Alexis said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Enough is enough."

"So…where do we go from here?" Ryan said.

"You are going back to Beckett. Whatever it is that she needs, my Dad can't be a part of it anymore. Me, I'm going home. Whatever it is Dad needs, Beckett is not it."

"So, it has come to this, has it?" Esposito said quietly.

"It was always going to end this way," Alexis replied. "We should've seen this coming. That we didn't is, I guess, our fault. Yours and mine."

"So… that's it?" Esposito said uncertainly.

"That's it," Alexis replied, with an air of finality that indicated that their conversation was over.

"Guess we'll see you around then," Ryan said as he, Lanie and Esposito stood up to leave. "Take care, Alexis."

Alexis nodded, but didn't reply. She just sat impassive in her chair and watched them walk out of the office, listened to the sound of their footsteps fade away.

Finally the poker face she had been fighting to maintain for so long crumbled. She buried her face in her hands and cried as all the emotions she had been struggling to repress finally burst free.

"Well, that went just awesome," Esposito said darkly as he collapsed onto Lanie's couch with a beer in hand.

"I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that she punched Beckett in the face," Lanie said shaking her head.

"She must have known that she could get away with it," Esposito said as he took a swig of his beer.

"What?"

"There's no way we were going to press charges against her. Even if we did, taking the fact that she's not yet eighteen and the fact that Castle knows a lot of people at City Hall, she could get away fairly lightly. And then again, Beckett didn't visit him on police business. Not official police business anyway. It would raise questions about what she was doing there in the first place. We'd get in serious hot water ourselves, once Alexis spilled the beans on us. And the media stink that it would cause… Alexis was right. The 12th Precinct would become the drama central for the whole NYPD. There's no way Gates is gonna let that happen. What will most likely happen is that the department's lawyers will meet up with Castle's people and they'll quietly terminate the partnership. Castle goes his way, Beckett goes hers."

"Which is exactly what Alexis wants," Ryan finished. "Her rebuttal was straightforward, without pause or hesitation. It was practiced. She'd probably gone over the scenario and weighed her options. Maybe even before Beckett went to see Castle."

Lanie's eyes narrowed. "You think Alexis punched Beckett deliberately, just for this?"

Esposito shook his head. "I dunno," he sighed. "Maybe I'm still underestimating her, but I find it difficult to believe that Alexis could be that cold and calculating. I could read a lot of anger off her. A deliberate attack would require a cool head and a lot of nerve. Nah, most likely Beckett said something that set her off and when the impulse came over her she didn't try to rein it in. Everything else just fell into place."

"That doesn't solve our problem though," Lanie reminded him. "So what do we do now?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing," Esposito repeated. "Because that's all we can do. It's out of our hands now. Alexis' mind is made up. Even if we talked to Castle, if he had to choose between his partner and his daughter, no prizes for guessing whom he'll choose."

"But…"

"Lanie give it a rest," Ryan said heavily. "Alexis has got us cornered. She doesn't just control the chessboard, she's rewritten the whole goddam rulebook. Alexis was right. We should have seen this coming." He shook his head. "Alexis didn't call us to negotiate a ceasefire. She called us to spell out terms of surrender. To be specific, she called us to spell out her terms for our surrender. Its a take it or leave it scenario. She's holding all the cards, so whichever way it goes she gets what she wants. There are no moves left for us to make. There is nothing we can do that she can't counter. We're surrounded and pinned down. And the only way out of this mess is the way she wants us to go."

"But..."

"But nothing," Esposito said, rubbing his face tiredly. "We've all talked to Beckett, and it didn't have any effect. We just talked to Alexis and we probably made it worse. We certainly didn't make it any better. Beckett's just going to have to live with the consequences of her actions. Or inactions as the case may be. Either way, there's nothing more we can do. We've got no cards left to play and no moves left to make. Its checkmate. Game over."

Outside the half open front door, Kate stood rooted, her hand on the doorknob and her mind reeling with what she had just heard. Moments ago she had come over to Lanie on an impulse for an impromptu girls' night out. She had found the door ajar and had been about to call out when she heard her name being mentioned. She heard the whole conversation from her position in the doorway. A part of her wanted to storm inside and demand to know exactly what the three of them had done behind her back and why they had been talking to Alexis. Instead she hesitated for a moment and then turned and silently walked away.

Hold on, baby, you're losing it

The water's high, you're jumping into it

And letting go... and no one knows

That you cry, but you don't tell anyone

That you might not be the golden one

And you're tied together with a smile

But you're coming undone

Tied together with a Smile

Taylor Swift

Finally DONE. This chapter was the most difficult to write so far. I had to work on making every dialogue seem like a genuine emotional reaction. As before, constructive criticism are welcome.

The article about the fallback guy was taken from IGN. All due credit to the original writer militaryvetrangamer.

Next chapter, a chance meeting with an ex boyfriend causes Kate to reevaluate her life.

A review for your thoughts?