Work Text:
Alexis does end up going to Stanford, her last two years of college. She would have wondered forever if she hadn’t.
It’s good in ways she hadn’t expected, and frustrating in ways she hadn’t let herself expect. And that’s why, after finishing those final two years and graduating, she is more than ready to go home.
***
And home is where she stays, home where she tries her hand at writing (“I told you, sweetheart, it runs in the blood,” Dad says when he reads her finished work); it started out fiction, but was quickly deleted and made into non-fiction.
So after that, Alexis dabbles a bit in journalism (“Want me to get you an internship?” Dad asks when she tells him. “No, Dad, that’s all right,” Alexis replies, “let me try first.”). But--and this is anything but unexpected--she finds herself getting too drawn into the world of investigative journalism, when that’s not even the type she’s supposed to be doing.
She’s not quitting, she tells herself when she starts to get frustrated (“You’re twenty-three,” Dad reassures her, “you don’t need a future just yet.” “No, Dad,” Alexis says ruefully, “but I’d like one.” and he just looks at her and says, softly, “That’s my girl.”)--she’s only tried two things, she’s allowed to be wrong sometimes.
But it still makes her teeth ache with the time she’s wasted, with how close she is to something, but she doesn’t know what it is.
***
The thing that makes it better is both shocking and so, so obvious.
She’s at dinner with Dad when he gets a phone call.
“Beckett!” he answers it, sounding honestly delighted, like he always. “Ooh, a murder, I’ll be there as soon as I can. I’m just finishing dinner with Alexis.” There’s a pause, then: “Oh, hey, that’s a good idea! Thanks, Kate.” He hangs up, grins across the table at Alexis, says, “How’d you like to go with me to a crime scene?”
***
“I feel like this isn’t allowed,” Alexis says again, as they reach the crime scene. The night air is cool against her skin, and she can still taste the wine they had for dinner. It’s an unsurprisingly intoxicating combination.
“I do it all the time,” Dad says, holding the crime scene tape up for her to duck under. He laughs when Alexis fixes him with a look.
“Alexis,” Beckett says standing at the head of the body, smiling. “Castle.”
“Thanks for letting me come, Detective Beckett,” Alexis says.
“Sure thing,” Beckett says, beckoning them over. She’s given up by now on getting Alexis to call her Kate.
“We’re training you early,” Ryan says, coming up to them and grinning as he puts on latex gloves.
***
It’s a joke, obviously, except for how a year later, it totally isn’t.
And Alexis has never been so happy in her life.