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Chloe wears her hair in a braid, now. It’s longer than before--not that you would know it, the way it’s always pulled back.
She remembers so long ago, when it would fall freely over her shoulders and down her back, bangs flying into her face.
She could probably read into it more, say that she was freer then, that she had no care in the world. She could, but it’s not really that meaningful. It’s just more practical this way.
(But she can’t help remembering the swing of it between her shoulder blades, brushing her cheek when she bent her head to read. She misses it, a little. Just a little.)
***
Her first day at the Academy, a girl with blinding red hair looks up at her with wide eyes and says, “Chloe? Chloe Woods?”
Chloe doesn’t wince, but it’s a near thing. “Yes?” she responds politely.
“Alexis,” the girl says, and yes, Chloe knows. “From school, remember? We were in middle school together.”
Chloe remembers Alexis, bubbly and brilliant. They went to school together for three years, before Chloe’s father moved her to Manhattan Prep.
“No, sorry,” Chloe says, “you must have me confused with someone else.”
“Another Chloe Woods?” Alexis says, a little dubiously.
“It’s not an uncommon name,” Chloe says.
“Right,” Alexis says, and drops the subject, but Chloe sees the steely glint in her eyes, and knows this isn’t over.
***
A year later, it still isn’t.
***
Alexis is as idealistic as she is savvy, as naive as she is intelligent, as infuriating as she is fascinating.
And evidently as dangerous as she is beautiful, because Chloe might be falling a little in love.
***
Alexis’s dad comes to visit her at the precinct frequently. The first time, some of the rookies (and even some of the senior detectives) stared at him a little wide-eyed. A couple even asked for his autograph, which he gave graciously.
Chloe generally tends to make a coffee run whenever she sees him, because he’s smart, she remembers, and she has enough smart people to deal with.
But this time she isn’t fast enough, because she bumps into him on her way out.
Chloe just smiles at him, and sees the sudden recognition across his face.
“Chloe Woods?” he asks, shakes her hand.
“Hi, Mr. Castle,” Chloe says.
“Call me Rick, please,” he says. “Alexis has told me a lot about you.”
“All good things, I hope, Mr. Castle,” Chloe says, grinning.
“Of course,” Alexis says, coming up to them. “Although you don’t seem too surprised as to who my dad is.”
“I’m a cop, Alexis,” Chloe says, which maybe (probably) wasn’t the answer Alexis was expecting.
Alexis frowns at her, and Chloe smiles back a little helplessly, a little apologetically. Not yet.
***
When Chloe gets a letter from her dad, she stares at the envelope and then puts it down on her desk. She closes her eyes.
Alexis sits down in the chair in front of her desk. When Chloe looks up, Alexis is leaning forward, face worried and hesitant for the first time Chloe has seen.
“My dad,” Chloe says, and that’s all Alexis (who always knew that Chloe was her own Chloe Woods, and who probably read about the FBI making a breakthrough in a private school embezzlement case) needs.
***
That night, Alexis sits her down and asks, finally, “What happened?”
“My dad was a criminal,” Chloe says, “and he got caught. That’s really all there is to it.”
“And after?” Alexis prods.
“I moved in with my Aunt Lucy in Chicago, finished school and college there, and then came back.”
“Where you joined the police force.” Alexis leans against her side, warm and reassuring.
“Yeah,” Chloe says.
“And met me,” Alexis says. “Again.”
“Yeah,” Chloe says again, smiling.
***
The next day, her day off, Chloe wears her hair down.