Different kind of comfort

Chapter 1 - Meeting

Kate Beckett's POV

I sat in my office and waited for the father to arrive for the little redheaded girl. I felt sorry for this girl, she didn't have a mother nearby who could teach her the things a mother should, things a father wouldn't be able to know anything about. The little redhead looked at me with a scared face and I tried to smile small at her, but as soon as she saw me looking at her she looked away, out the window. I tried not to take it personally, she was just a kid and she didn't know I was here to help her, not to put her into trouble, even if that might be the case this time. Suddenly someone knocked on the door and I told them to come in. In came a handsome man and I had to look down in my papers to gather my thoughts for a second before I looked up again.

"Hi, I'm Richard Castle" he said as he held out his hand.

I stood up and took his hand. There was a strange kind of feeling moving in my hand as our skin touched but I shook it off.

"Mr. Castle, I'm Kate Beckett, the principal" I said and I pulled out my hand from his.

"Please, call me Rick" he said and I nodded despite the fact that I, in my head, told myself not to go to that level.

I sat down again and gestured to the chair on the other side of my desk. He sat down and I looked at the redheaded girl.

"Alexis, will you please come here and tell your father what happened yourself?" I asked and she looked ashamed as she nodded and came to sit down in the chair beside her father.

"Pumpkin, what happened?" Mr. Castle said and she bit her lip looking at me.

Her eyes begging to not make her do this.

"I'm sorry Alexis but you have to tell him, either you or me, rules are rules" I said but for some reason I couldn't help but feel guilty for making her say it.

She sighed and looked down when she opened her mouth.

"I set a trap for our substitute teacher so his face became covered in blue when he opened the drawer" she mumbled and I looked at mr Castle to see his reaction.

To my surprise he lit up and laughed.

"Is there any way I can see his face? I bet he looked so surprised" he laughed and I was shocked at his reaction.

"Mr Castle! What are you doing? That is not good behavior" I said in a sharp tone and he looked at me trying to keep himself from laughing.

"You're right, it's not" he said and I felt relieved. "It's hilarious though" he added and chuckled.

I shot a deadly glare at him and he shut up.

"Alexis, could you please wait outside" I asked and she looked between her father and me.

"Daddy's in trouble, as usual" she said before she giggled and jumped out of the chair and ran out the door, closing it after her.

"Come on Kate, it's a little funny, I mean come on! A substitute smurf teacher? That must have made the kids's day!" he said in a complete serious voice and I stared at him.

"That is not the way to handle a kid when they do something wrong, they need to know they can't do that kind of stuff, that it's wrong and that they can't do it again" I said and he shook his head.

"You have kids?" he asked and I was taken back by his question.

"That has nothing to do with this, she needs to learn she can't set traps for people" I said and he shook his head.

"No kids then, that explains why you take this so serious" he said and I glared at him.

"Mr. Castle, this is not funny. Don't you get how difficult she could get it as she gets older if she doesn't learn right and wrong now?" I said harsh and he looked at me with puppy eyes.