For a while the following day, as Alexis played with her dolls on the floor in the front room and Henry and Kate napped in the bedroom, Rick was left to sit alone and ponder the world. He didn't really know what he was supposed to do about Jim. If it had been up to him, Jim would have been left in a prison cell to rot for the rest of his life for hurting Kate and Henry. For causing all of the damage he caused, though the doctors seemed fairly certain that nothing done would be permanent damage, the writer felt like the man deserved nothing less than a ten year sentence.

Still, seeing her father in prison for any stint of time would likely kill Kate, and she was his primary victim. Sure, the cab driver had to put up with a little bit of shoving, but- Kate had been the one who suffered major injuries. If she was able to testify on her father's behalf, that would likely sway the jury to, at very least, a lesser sentence. If she showed the judge that her father was a good man, perhaps this could even just be a chance for another round of rehab. He would just have to fess up to what happened to make his drink again. That had to be a condition of the writer's help.

Therefore, Rick wrote a note for his love and left it on the dresser beside their son's spit-up rag. He knew Kate would find it there. He then lifted Alexis from the ground, dressed her, and strapped her into the car as they started down the road. His first stop was at the one person's house who he knew would also not be working. Maddie had offered her assistance time and time again since her job fell through, and he felt it was finally time to take her up on that offer. He knocked, waited a moment, and then heard the girl on the other side call, "Who is it?"

"It's Rick. I'm here with Alexis."

"It's open," she replied, and the writer took that as a welcome in. When he walked through the door, Maddie was standing around the corner in the kitchen, and was completely out of sight. He managed to walk ten feet before getting startled and doing a one-eighty jump spin with his daughter in his arms when she scared him by asking, "What's up, writer?"

"I need you to watch Alexis and I need you to never tell Kate I was here," Rick said sternly, after regaining a strong stance.

The young woman look at him strangely. "Why weren't you here?"

"Because you were out walking Central Park, doing whatever it is that you would do there, and you happened to see us and we spent the afternoon there, you, me, and Alexis."

Maddie once again gave him an untrusting look as she came around the bar from her small kitchen and began to approach the writer. "That didn't answer my question, Rick. Why are you hiding from Kate that you brought this one here, dropped her off, and are going to disappear for what I would assume is going to be a lengthy stint of time. Are you cheating on her? Do you have some secret business? Are you hiding an alternate life from her? Are you in the mob?"

"What," Rick asked in thorough confusion. "No, none of that. I mean, do I look like I could be in the mob?"

Maddie shrugged, "You're tall enough, and for just a writer, you've got a lot of cash."

"Well, I'm not. I don't even know what mob would accept me. The only form of weaponry I'm familiar with is a sward." This sparked a strange look from the woman as the writer continued on, "I should really get certified with a gun though. Like, I'm pretty decent with a laser tag gun and Kate's going into the police academy. Maybe being a decent gunman wouldn't be the worst thing in the world."

"Ok," she interrupted, "I get it. You're not in the mob. Just-... why didn't any of this happen?"

Rick then looked at her very sternly in the eyes, taking one step toward her, put his daughter on the ground, covered her ears, and he insisted, "Because Kate wants to help her father, and that's great, but I'm not going to give him any kind of help until I have some answers. I don't want Kate to think that I am going behind her back, but I absolutely have to talk to him one on one, man to man, and find out how he could break his sobriety that I know he worked extremely hard to get and that he was more than happy to finally have cleaned up for Kate and the baby. I have to understand some things before I even begin to help him, and- I can't have Kate there to watch me go at her father hard if that's how it has to be."

Maddie then breathed in understanding as Alexis wrestled her way completely out of her father's hands. She then looked up at her father as she insisted, "Daddy, you mean."

"You're going to help him," Maddie questioned, "after everything he did to her? After everything that happened to your fiance and your son?"

Castle sighed, "Believe me, I don't want to anymore than you want me to, but Kate can't bear to see him in prison. He only hurt her because of what happened to her mom, and she understands that. I think leaving him there might actually destroy her, and that's the last thing I want for her. I just- I need answers, and I need to know that if I get him help, he's not just going to break again. So... will you help me?"

To this, Maddie sighed, and told him, "Yeah, I will. Just-... don't do anything stupid, alright? By now, he's probably been cut cold turkey and gone through withdrawal. He's a different guy, I'm sure, and- given the guilt I'm sure he's felt for the last few days, he's not going to be... he's going to likely be a shell of himself, Rick. He's probably really fragile."

"Yeah, well, that's not going to stop me from getting the answers I'm looking for. He's either going to talk to me, or he's going to rot in a cell because he's lost leniency. He lost that the moment he laid his hand on her for the second time, and I hope he never forgets that."

This was not a side of Rick that Maddie had ever seen. This was not a side of anyone that Maddie had ever come in contact with. The man looked like he regarded Jim as an animal. Still, she couldn't blame him for this. She couldn't blame him for being so completely irate. After what Kate's father had done, she didn't have much tolerance for him either. So, she agreed to watch Alexis and spent the entire afternoon with her at the park.

When Rick met them there nearly four hours later, his eyes seemed far less furious, and now seemed to have a discomfort and wiped exhaustion about them. She asked nothing more than, "How did it go?"

At his reply of a swallow in guilt or remorse or some negative sensation, followed by, "I- I have to... talk to Kate," Maddie was stilled in her desire for further answers. She didn't dare wonder what the writer had said to the man on the inside, and she refused to even think about what he could have possibly said back to spark this reaction in the writer. She simply handed Alexis back to her father and wished the man luck.

By the time he got home, his mind felt hallowed, and his face expressed it. Without looking for more than a second's worth of a glance, as she continued to prepare supper, she asked with distraction in her voice, "Welcome back, babe. How was the park?"

"Kate," he said severely, drawing her attention, "We need to talk."