89. Chapter 89

Chapter 89

Jamie was six weeks old. He was a happy baby, understandably fussy when he was tired or needed something, but most of the time agreeable. He was easily engaged, responsive, active, and snuggly, and his family thought they saw the beginnings of curiosity as well in his tendency to watch things closely.

"Richard watched things that way when he was a baby. People would comment on it now and then," Martha remarked as she watched her grandson one evening. "So we don't know yet if that's good or bad," she teased.

"I think it's good," Kate said in defense of her husband. "His father is interested in so many things…one of the things that impress me about him.

She had to go back to work the next day, and she had barely put Jamie down or let him out of her clutches since he woke up that afternoon. She had tucked him in the Ring Sling, and her goals were being accomplished while periodically rubbing his back, patting his little bottom, kissing his head, or nuzzling his soft brown hair. She went about her preparations while talking to him animatedly about her to-do list, her wardrobe choices for her first few days back at work, the box of things she needed to return to her desk, and reassuring him/herself that she would be home early all week and would spend lots of time with him when she came home. The other two residents of the loft left her to her coping mechanisms and didn't try to separate Jamie from her attentions.

"He's hungry," Kate told them eventually when the little one began to cry. "I think I'll take him to his room and rock him while he's nursing."

Castle kissed her head and then Jamie's and told her, "I'll start dinner and come up and check on you later."

"And I'll come back and help once he's sleeping." She released a sigh. "I know I've kind of monopolized him this afternoon."

"Take your time. I know you're anticipating missing him already. Understandable."

She leaned her head against Castle's shoulder as she soothed her complaining son and answered, "I love you so much. You…"

"I know, and I love you, too. No explanations needed. Go take care of our boy before he gets too worked up. Dinner is mostly leftovers, so I'll be up before long to see if you need anything." He leaned and pecked a little kiss on her lips and swatted her backside gently pushing her toward the stairs, and she smiled over her shoulder before going up to the nursery.

They had dinner while Jamie slept, then Castle enticed his wife to share a long, warm bath with him.

"You're going to smell like a girl again," she said, holding up the bubble bath he had used because he knew she liked it.

"If smelling like you is the worst thing that ever happens to me, I won't complain," he answered as he stepped into the half-filled tub. Now get in with me. I've been looking forward to this. We should have at least another hour of quiet.

After Jamie's late feeding, they went to bed; and, as he had promised, Castle did his best to make Kate forget for a while that there would be another new change in their lives come morning.

xxxxx

"Time to go back and be Beckett again," Kate said after Jamie was fed and she had gathered what she needed to take with her that morning. She put her things on the coffee table and, with a mist of tears in her eyes, took her little boy from Castle and held him close. "I'll miss both of you," she said softly.

"We'll miss you, too" her husband answered and placed a soft, slow kiss on her lips.

She planted a longer than usual kiss on Jamie's forehead before giving him back to Castle and picking up her things. Castle opened the door for her, and stole another kiss for himself before she left, looking much more like a mom than the tough detective he had met several years before.

He went upstairs to get Jamie into fresh clothes for the day, and Kate had Eduardo hail her a taxi to take her back to her job.

xxxxx

Beckett arrived early to reorient before most of the other detectives were in. The night shift folks were on their way out, and the early birds on her shift were sitting at their desks in various parts of the bullpen. There were scattered greetings from both shifts welcoming her back, and she acknowledged them with smiles on the way to her desk. Her desk was spotless everywhere she looked, as was her computer. The desk next to her, not so much; but at least there were none of the used food wrappers and empty cups she remembered from the only time she had met Detective Sully.

Not long after she put the box she'd brought from home on the corner of her desk and turned on her computer, Ryan and Esposito left the elevator and moved straight toward her.

"Hey, boss," Esposito greeted. "Ready to get back to work?"

"Ready as I'll get, I guess."

"Aaawwww, you didn't miss us, Beckett?" Ryan teased.

"You're here early," she answered. "Are we in the middle of a case? What are you working on?"

"Sorry. Finished paperwork on the last one yesterday. Next one, you're in from the get-go," Esposito answered.

Ryan hesitated briefly and said, "We kind of wanted to get here before Sully."

Beckett had a look of annoyance on her face at the mention of Sully's name.

"See, that's why we wanted to talk to you," Esposito started. "He's done a good job, Beckett, and he works hard. Try to give him a chance. He's a good guy…cares about what he's doing. And the captain did say it's non-negotiable."

Ryan chimed in then. "We know you don't want a partner. Hell, we're still getting over the fact that you let Castle stay all this time; and we'd rather have Castle, too. But this isn't Sully's fault any more than it's yours."

Beckett rolled her eyes but didn't look quite as harsh as she did before.

"Sully's desk was moved in yesterday. He was about to go home last night after he moved all his stuff out of yours, and we mentioned that you always kept your desk looking better than that. He looked at it; and when we left, he was getting things from the break room to clean it up."

Esposito chuckled as he took a better look at the desk. "Looks like he spit shined it for you before he left. It kinda glows. He might have been a little scared, to tell the truth."

"Good," Beckett answered. "'Cause I need my car keys back. That's non-negotiable, too."

The elevator dinged, and the next face they saw was Sully's. He looked a bit less than confident about approaching the seasoned team, but he plowed ahead anyway.

"'Morning, Lieutenant Beckett," he said extending his hand in greeting. "Detective Ron Sully, in case you don't remember me. I've been assigned as your partner, and it's an honor for me; but I was told you didn't want a partner. The captain said neither of us has a choice, though. So, sorry, I guess. I'll do my best."

Shaking his hand, Beckett said, "Thanks for the desk. It almost looks new. The guys said you cleaned it up." Beckett seemed to be holding out at least a small olive branch.

"Needed a little work. Neat isn't exactly my strongest point," he said, rubbing one hand across the back of his neck and looking uncomfortable.

The boys fist bumped, and went back to their desks looking satisfied.

"I'm gonna put these things away," Beckett told them, indicating the box on her desk as she started moving things to the drawers. There weren't too many things in the box, so the first layer was gone quickly, and there was something wrapped in tissue paper under it, something that she hadn't put there. In the tissue, there were four delicately painted elephants in four different sizes, standing together on a dark, polished wood base, the two smaller elephants in front of the larger ones. The trunks of the two larger elephants were around the two smaller ones. The note with them read, "We love you. Rick, Alexis, and Jamie". A new elephant family to replace her mother's, which had once occupied a place of honor. "Be right back, guys," she said, and made a bee line to the rest room where she called her husband and worked on getting her tears under control.

"Hey, Beckett. Miss us already?"

"You know I missed you before I even left this morning. Thank you for the elephants. I love them. Not thanking you for making me almost cry in front of the boys and Sully, though."

"So, where are you?"

"Hiding out in the restroom until I get myself together."

"I was hoping to make you smile, not cry."

"I'm smiling, too," she sniffled. "Damn hormones haven't all moved on yet."

Castle laughed. "No more surprises, I promise. Go on back and smile at your elephants and reclaim your desk. We love you."

"I love you, too." She ended the call and took some deep breaths to pull herself together. "Thank goodness for waterproof mascara," she muttered to herself. After assessing, she doctored the rest of her eye makeup the best she could, pulled herself to her full height plus heels, and strode back to the bullpen in full Beckett-in-control mode.

"Who's going to catch me up on the last couple of cases, so I'm in the loop if anybody asks me something."

"Umm…I could do that, Sully offered. "If that's okay."

"Looks like we're going to be working together. Might as well start. But first I want the car keys back because I do the driving. Then I need to know what's been going on."

Sully quickly found the keys and handed them to her, and Beckett accepted them with a slightly friendlier look than before. Apparently the elephants had softened her up. "I'm listening, I'm just going to finish emptying this box."

Ryan was back again and looking in the box as she uncovered the bottom layer. Why do you need a camera, Beckett?"

"Camera?" she asked, looking in the box. And there was Castle's camera, the one he had used to record the crime scenes. "The camera. That's it!"

"That's what?" Esposito asked, but Beckett was already calling Castle.

"Hey, Castle."

"Two calls in less than twenty minutes? You must miss me more than I thought," he answered mischievously.

"Yeah, well that, too. But I'm calling to see how you'd feel about being on desk duty?"

"Desk duty?"

"Yeah. I just got to the bottom of the box and found the camera. I had forgotten it was there."

"Maybe you should do the first couple of cases without me…unless it's too interesting to pass up, of course. You're going to have to work with Sully, no choice, and it might not be a good idea to start by making him feel replaced before he even has a chance to show you what he has to offer. And I kind of need a few days to fall into a routine here."

"But you're interested?"

"Definitely. Talk to Gates. Let's do this right…stay out of trouble as long as we can."

"Okay."

"Love you."

"Same here."

"What just happened?" Esposito asked.

"I'm talking to the captain. In a couple of weeks, Castle's on desk duty," she answered, wiggling the camera at them. "Explain to Detective Sully. I'll talk to Captain Gates."

Gates had just walked into her office, coffee in hand, when Beckett knocked on the door casing. "Could I take a minute of your time, Sir?"

Gates appeared to be on the offensive. "If this is about having a partner, I've…"

"No, Sir. It's about having two."

"Now you want two partners?" Holding her coffee in one hand, Gates bowed her head slightly and pinched the bridge of her nose with two fingers of the other and sighed before looking up. "It's early, Lieutenant. State your purpose more clearly."

"When I was on desk duty and couldn't go to the crime scenes, Castle recorded them, and…"

"I remember. Go on."

"I'd like Castle to work with us on desk duty from home, starting in approximately two weeks."

"With all this enthusiasm, I'm surprised you're not asking to start now."

"Castle suggested it might be bad form to make Sully feel replaced before he's had a chance to do more than introduce himself."

Gates smiled and shook her head. "Seems Mr. Castle is trying to set a good example for that adorable little boy of yours. As long as your team agrees, that's fine. Use your good judgment and let him begin whenever it seems appropriate."

"Thank you, Captain."

Gates raised her coffee cup in parting, and sat down at her desk; and Beckett returned to her team, saying, "He can start whenever we think it's a good time."

"So I'll be working with both of you?" Sully asked. "That's great. I've heard stories."

"You don't mind?"

"Not at all. I want to see how it all works. The camera is a great idea. Where did you see that?"

"She thought of it herself because she couldn't stand to be left out," Ryan told him. "Then when Hastings was out of commission, we showed Lupinski's team how we handled it. A couple of other teams have used it since then…even one down in robbery. They've started calling it The Beckett System."

"Really?" she asked. "Did not know that."

"You can take this woman out of the field," Ryan added, "but then she just finds herself a pair of binoculars and spies on you."

Sully laughed, Beckett finished emptying her box, and with a little input from Ryan and Esposito, Sully filled her in on the most recent cases. About nine, they got a call, and Beckett was there in person for the initial investigation at a crime scene for the first time in months.

It was an easy case, a street shooting after an argument. There were a number of witnesses. The victim's friends had nothing to say, but one woman recognized both the shooter and the victim as customers from the nearby restaurant where she worked. And she identified three of the other witnesses as friends of both. She agreed to work with a sketch artist and returned to the precinct with them. As it turned out, she was a college art student and sketched the man herself on the way to the precinct. Since the sketch artist already had a head start, they refined the facial features and handed over copies of a sketch quickly. Then, copies of the sketch in hand, the homicide team split up like compass points and canvassed the area around the restaurant where the young woman worked; and two of them found people who knew him. Beckett was a few minutes later getting home than she intended, and she had to apologize for nearly knocking someone down as she left the elevator in the precinct's lobby in her haste to get home. However, when she left, her team had a name, an address, and plans to bring the man in for questioning as soon as they found him.

When Beckett arrived at home, Castle heard the door open and met her there almost by the time she was inside the loft. After wrapping his arms around her and bestowing her with a mind-rattling kiss, he declared, "I missed you."

She returned the same sort of kiss and answered, "I missed you, too. Where's my baby?"

"Well, at least you kissed me…enthusiastically, I have to admit…before I was completely upstaged by the young whippersnapper."

"Is he asleep?"

"Not for long. I just checked, and he was moving a little bit and making little sounds." He left his arms around her loosely as they talked, and she didn't remove her arms from around his neck.

"I missed being able to hold him. And I love his little sounds."

"Wait until he starts asking 'Why?' every time you say something. There might be a period of time there when you want to reconsider. Anything interesting happen today, other than figuring out a way to keep me involved? I can't believe we didn't already think of that."

"I can't, either. But we've been distracted lately by the young whippersnapper and his groupies." She told him about her morning and the case. "So, as soon as we find him, the case should be closed pretty fast. What about you? Did you get any writing done around taking care of Jamie?"

I wrote from when he slept until you got home. I got Nikki into a fine mess. Now I have to write her out of it. And then she and Rook can have a little fun." He wiggled his eyebrows, and she laughed.

Their son made enough noise that they knew he was awake, and Kate said, "Be right back," and left the room. She returned shortly with a clean and dry but hungry baby and was wearing one of her nursing shirts instead of the button down she had worn to work. When she moved the opening to feed the baby, her husband pointed out that those shirts didn't need to be retired when she didn't need them for Jamie anymore.

"Something about that feels intrinsically wrong, but I can't argue with the interesting possibilities," she answered with a mischievous grin.

Jamie was fed and held and played with and happy; and Kate felt much better about her day. They took him for a walk, enjoyed the feeling of spring in the air, and stopped for coffee on their way home.

Jim and Meagan visited that night, and Meagan told them she had decided she was taking some time off from everything for a while. She planned to have some freedom in her newish apartment, which she hadn't had much time to enjoy since she got it. And she offered to babysit if Castle wanted or needed to go in to the precinct.

xxxxx

During the next few months, Castle got a lot of writing done. Gina and Paula were happy, and it felt good to him, too, to have so much of his book finished in what now seemed like so little time. He consulted mostly from home, and went in to be involved with the case more personally at times. That isn't to say he wasn't at the precinct a couple of times a week. He and Jamie were regular visitors, taking coffee for Beckett, coffee and pastries for the entire team, or picking Beckett up to take her to lunch.

Alexis was still maintaining her outstanding school record and was dating again. The current boyfriend had lasted longer than the other few and seemed to be a nice young man, but she didn't bring him home often, and the family hadn't warmed up to him yet.

Lanie had finally decided to try a more serious relationship with Dr. Stokes, and at least from what the Castles could tell, it seemed to be progressing well. Kate didn't tire of teasing her friend about listening to her own advice when Lanie had periodic doubts, though.

Jamie was growing fast, and developing his own personality. He was steadily gaining better control of his appendages, the process providing frequent entertainment for his family. As new sounds were gradually being added to his "vocabulary", he seemed to love trying to use them to communicate; and everybody in the family responded to him as if he were actually talking to them. With the exception of his first bout with teething, he was still easygoing and responsive. He began to laugh, which delighted everyone who heard it; and by six months old, he was trying to sit up. It involved a lot of keeling over to one side or the other, but with some support and a little help from his friends, he could manage to sit up for short spells. He was curious, searching out things within his reach, grabbing at his toys, and watching things with some intensity…and with more focus than before. And finding a babysitter from among their family and adopted family was rarely a problem when his parents now and then needed some time away on their own.

Castle saw that the house in the Hamptons was ready for use all summer, but he reserved most of the family visits for the times when Kate could go with them, spending their time there when she had a couple of days off. His mother spent time there during semester breaks at her school, and he and Alexis and Jamie visited the beach during Alexis's free time before and after her study trip to Costa Rica. Kate took a couple of days to add to her weekend off so she could have a long weekend before Alexis had to go back to school at the end of the summer.

At the end of August, they had a low key celebratory family get together at the loft when Jamie was six months old and enjoyed the evening together; and the next morning, Alexis went back into the dorm at Columbia.

The next afternoon, they got a phone call from JD.

"Mr. Castle?" His voice wasn't as steady as Castle was used to hearing it.

"JD? What's wrong?"

"It's my grandfather."