Kate Beckett's words stopped Alexis' growing embarrassment cold, and she stared. For a moment, Kate had sounded exactly like her dad. With the same calm, unwavering care.

She looked from one adult to the other, then busied herself poking at her spaghetti, swirling up a forkful, as she tried to find the words past the rising lump in her throat. The pain of her absent dad flared. "I'd... I'd like that." She couldn't say outright that she wanted to be taken care of, because as much as she did she wasn't quite ready to take that particular responsibility away from her dad and transfer it to someone else. "But would it be okay to study across the hall? So you can have some space too?"

That was a much less embarrassing better way of putting things, Alexis.