Kate was not nervous walking into the loft that evening. She stood outside the door and smiled as she held her new key in her palm. Rick had slipped it onto her keychain when she was getting dressed that morning, right after he had asked her to move in. He had admitted to her that he made her the extra key the day after she met Alexis. He was just waiting for the right time to give it to her. At first it wasn't intended as a "move in with me" key, but rather a "you're welcome in our home any time" kind of key. She was glad he waited because this was simply perfect. Plus, he was really pleased with himself for sneaking it onto her keychain. Kate noticed the extra key as soon as she took her keys out to unlock her apartment door. He had tied a little gold ribbon onto it so it was pretty hard to miss. She had called him right away to tell him how much she loved it.

"Honey, I'm home!" Kate called out as she closed the door behind her. Rick was in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on dinner, which looked to be homemade pizza.

"You're just in time to choose your toppings." Rick called out. Alexis was perched on a barstool putting pepperoni onto her pizza. Kate slipped her shoes off and brought her bag into Rick's bedroom, their bedroom, before joining them in the kitchen. Her pizza dough was waiting for her on the counter next to Alexis.

"Hi Lex," Kate said as she put one arm around the girl and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Alexis turned so she could get both arms around Kate to give her a big hug.

"I'm so happy that you're going to be living with us, Kate. It's going to be just like having a mom again." There were tears in the little girl's eyes and Kate found herself choking up as well.

"I've never been a mom before, I could make a lot of mistakes you know."

"It's OK, I'll help you figure it out." Kate couldn't help but laugh as she pulled back so she could wipe the tears that had snuck out of the corners of her eyes. Rick was there in a heartbeat offering a tissue to each of his girls. He gave them a few seconds to blot their eyes before grabbing both into a big group hug.

"I love you both so much," he declared giving each girl a kiss. "This is going to be great." They stood there hugging for a good two minutes before Alexis wiggled out and announced that they needed to finish up their pizzas because she was starving.

Living with Rick and Alexis was going really well. Alexis loved doing her homework with Kate even though Kate's homework was a little more complex and she was often up past midnight working on her class outlines and lawyering papers. Alexis loved to read so she would curl up on the couch and read a book while Kate worked on her laptop nearby.

Rick and Kate's first argument was rather silly. Rick had a habit of taking his socks off just before he got into bed and he would just leave his socks on the floor. Sometimes he forgot to take the socks to the laundry hamper in the morning and his little pile of socks would grow for a few days. Kate was usually the one who ended up moving the pile of socks into the hamper.

The incident occurred about two weeks after Kate had moved in with the Castles. She was stressed out over one of her Civil Procedure assignments. Her 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss had been returned to her covered in red marks with REDO written in giant bold letters at the top.

Kate walked into the loft incredibly pissed off and in desperate need of a relaxing bath in their massive tub. Seeing that pile of dirty socks peeking out from under the bed as she passed through the bedroom was just the thing to push her over the edge. Luckily it was early afternoon and Alexis was still in school. Kate picked up what looked like three pairs of abandoned socks, marched into Rick's office where he was working hard on the next Derrick Storm novel, and threw the socks right in his face.

"What the hell, Kate?" Rick yelled in surprise as he stood up and brushed off the dirty socks.

"I am sick and tired of you leaving your socks on the floor every damn night! Why can't you put your fucking socks in the fucking hamper like a normal person?!"

"Are you seriously picking a fight with me over socks?" Kate stood her ground and stared at the writer with her arms crossed and her eyes shooting daggers. "You know there's a better way to tell me. You didn't have to throw them in my face." He picked up the offensive socks, gathered them into a ball in his hands and walked around his desk to stand next to Kate. "Is this really about the socks or is there something else that's bothering you?" He was standing really close to her and Kate felt her anger start to dissolve. Rick smelled really good and he had a good two days worth of stubble on his face that she found kind of sexy. But Kate wasn't ready to lose her bad mood yet.

"Of course it's about the socks! It's gross and I've had enough. I'm your girlfriend, not your maid!" Kate turned around and stomped out of his office leaving Rick confused and a little shell shocked. He waited a good twenty minutes before he went to check on her in the bathroom. He found her soaking in a tub full of vanilla scented bubbles, lying back with her eyes closed. Risking bodily injury, he shed his own clothes and slipped into the tub. He felt Kate's body tense as he slid around behind her, but she began to relax as he positioned himself behind her and pulled her back flush against his body between the vee of his legs.

"I'm really sorry about the socks, Kate," he said softly, his breath tickling her ear. He pulled back the wet strands of her hair and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck. She let her body relax futher into him. "I'll never leave them on the floor again, I promise." Rick continued to pepper kisses onto her neck. As his arms snaked around her body, Kate felt all her anger disappear.

"I'm sorry too," Kate finally admitted. She didn't need to say anything else, it was over. The make-up sex was amazing and it almost made Rick late for picking Alexis up at school. Later they would laugh about it, and the socks became a running inside joke. Rick would sometimes drop his socks on the floor and then make a big deal about rushing to pick them up as if they were a bomb ready to detonate if left on the ground for more than a second. Kate would playfully throw them at Rick if she found them by his bedside before she joined him in bed, but true to his word he never left them on the floor longer than overnight. He always put them in the laundry the following morning.

"One down, two to go!" Barbie exclaimed as she and Kate left Vanderbilt Hall after finishing their last final. It was a nice warm spring day towards the end of May and they had officially finished their first year of law school, which meant that they only had two more years left. A bunch of their classmates were planning on celebrating later that night at the Red Lion on Bleecker Street, but Kate needed the afternoon to clear out her D'Agostino apartment. Rick was already waiting for her with two large duffle bags when she arrived. All she really had left was the bedding and what little remained of her clothes in the tiny closet. As she started to pull back the comforter she wondered why she would ever need the twin sized sheets again.

"I don't think you're ever going to need this stuff again." Rick said, reading her mind.

"I was just thinking the same thing. I can't really leave them here so maybe we can donate them?" Kate remembered picking out the sheets less than a year earlier, not really caring what they looked like because she was still generally depressed and just going through the motions. The comforter was a soft lavender color and the coordinating sheets had a floral orchid design. They really were quite pretty and for some reason she was sad about the thought of giving them away so soon after getting them.

"Alexis has a full-sized bed, but the trundle underneath is twin sized. I think this matches her room pretty well. I bet she'd love using your sheets for sleepovers." Kate's face brightened at the suggestion and she answered by throwing her arms around her boyfriend and giving him a kiss. "So tell me, Kate," Rick said, still holding her close and playing with a loose strand of her hair, "are you nervous that you no longer have a place of your own to run off to?" He was joking, but there was a glint of apprehension hiding behind his twinkling eyes. Kate leaned up and gave him a more thorough kiss, full of love and tenderness.

"Not at all, Rick. Not even one tiny bit." She punctuated her statement with another kiss. "I've never been happier. I can't imagine my life without you and Alexis in it."

"We are so lucky to have you Kate. I love you so much." She let out a squeal as he scooped her up and unceremoniously tossed her onto the very bed they were supposed to be stripping. "I think we need to use these sheets just one last time. Say goodbye to them properly."

Less than an hour later Kate was downstairs dropping her keys off at the front desk. Rick's car service was waiting for them outside. Kate stared out the window as they pulled away from D'Agostino Hall for the last time. She couldn't believe how much had changed since she moved in just nine months earlier.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Rick was holding Kate's hand while she was lost in thought and she squeezed him back, momentarily breaking out of her reverie.

"It takes nine months to create a new life." Rick's eyes popped open like a deer caught in headlights.

"Oh my G-d, Kate, are you…?" He looked as if he was going to have a heart attack and Kate started laughing when she realized what he thought she was saying.

"Calm down, stud, I'm not pregnant." She gave him a moment to relax and wait, was that a hint of disappointment on his face? That's a conversation to be had at another time, she thought. "I was just thinking that I moved into that apartment nine months ago and so much has changed. I feel like I've started a new life. Nine months ago I was depressed, lonely and unsure of my future. I literally saw the entire city fall apart on the same day that I met the love of my life. Now I'm lucky enough to be living with you and Alexis and I'm just so proud to call you both my family. I finished my first year of law school and in a couple of weeks I'm starting my summer internship at the Manhattan District Attorney's office. It's just a lot to process."

"You're going to be great, Kate. I'm so proud of you. I can't wait to hear about all the cases that you'll be working on. It will be great inspiration for my books. Maybe I'll even base a new character on you."

"In one of your Derrick Storm books?" Kate's stomach did a tiny somersault as her inner fangirl tried to contain the excitement.

"I don't know if I want to share you with Derrick Storm. I think Nikki Heat might get her own book series."

"Excuse me, Nikki what now?" He already had a name picked out for her character? "We need to talk about this later." Kate narrowed her eyes at the writer as she tried her best to look intimidating while at the same time trying not to laugh. He was just so darn cute. The car stopped and Rick stepped out first so he could offer his hand to Kate. He pulled her out of the car straight into his arms and gave her a dramatic kiss right in front of their building.

"Don't worry, Kate, we have all the time in the world."

AN: This brings us to the end of my very first published fanfic! Thank you so much for sticking with me on this journey. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. At this point I'm undecided about writing an epilogue and/or more stories in this universe. I'm already a couple chapters into my next multi-chapter fic, but I might wait until I have more of it completed before I post it. My life is hectic and I feel bad about my inability to update with some predictability and regularity.