114. Chapter 114

AN: This chapter is a big ol' bucket of Halloween fluff, which I apologize didn't reach you for Halloween. I'll get the story moving again from here.

Chapter 114

The Halloween party started at six; so, late on Saturday afternoon, all three Castles were in their costumes and ready to go. Jamie said "'Duardo" and pulled his mother toward the lobby when they started toward the parking garage, so his parents followed and spent a couple of minutes therebefore heading for the SUV.

"Oh, my!" Eduardo exclaimed excitedly, obviously playing it up for Jamie's benefit. "It's Batman and Robin, right here in my building!"

Jamie giggled and hugged the doorman's leg…which was all he could reach, and said, "It's Daddy and me."

"Master Jamie?!" he asked as if really surprised. "I didn't even know you in your costume. And what is Mommy's costume?"

"Vicky."

"Vicky Vale?"

Castle confirmed that and said, "I didn't know you were a Batman fan, Eduardo."

"From childhood, Sir."

Turning to Kate," Castle said, "Kindred spirits. I knew there was a reason we got along so well." Giving his attention back to Eduardo, he explained, "We're going to a Halloween party, but Jamie apparently wanted you to see his costume. He's reeeeeeeally excited about his costume. I hope we didn't interrupt anything you needed to be doing."

"Nothing at the moment. And I understand," he said, stroking Jamie's hair where Robin was still leaning against his leg. "I remember my own children feeling the same way."

Kate mouthed "Thank you" to the older man and then said, "Come on, Jamie. Time to go. The other children at the party will have on their costumes, too." Holding her hand out for him to take it, she encouraged, "Let's go and see what they're wearing."

Jamie bounced away with her, stopping briefly to turn and wave at a smiling Eduardo.

"Thanks for helping him be excited," Castle told the doorman before catching up with his family.

"My pleasure, Mr. Castle. Just as his sister has always been, he's like a dose of sunshine."

Castle parked their SUV near the children's center in the Bronx; and when all of them got out, Castle put on the Batman helmet and cape he had draped over a back seat as he drove.

"I think I'm a little nervous," Kate said as they walked the half block distance to the door.

"I have the feeling Miss Ada enjoyed meeting you as much as you enjoyed meeting her. And if she has as much influence as it sounds like she does, that gives you an instant in around here."

Sure enough, Miss Ada spotted Kate when she came in the front door and called out with a big smile. "Lieutenant Beckett! You came…and brought Batman and Robin, I see."

"My husband, Rick and my son, Jamie," Beckett answered.

"Hello, Jamie," Miss Ada said, leaning over to shake his hand. "It's nice to meet you. There are some other boys and girls in the next room, and they have on their costumes, too. They'd love to have somebody new to play with. I'll take you to them in a minute." Standing, she rose to her full five feet two inches and shook Castle's hand. And you must be Mr. Castle. I googled our new precinct captain, and your name came up. It isn't every day we have a famous author among us. Both of you are rather impressive."

"Thank you. But if you don't mind, I'll just be Rick tonight."

"In that outfit, I'm pretty sure your name will be Batman tonight," she said with a chortle. Holding out her hand to their son, she said, "Come on, Jamie. Let's find you somebody to play with."

Jamie looked at his parents before taking her hand.

"It's okay, Buddy," Castle told him. "We're right behind you." Jamie took Miss Ada's hand and they went into to the party room. Parents were in costumes, and the children were playing in groups, mostly in groups of the same general age.

When all six feet two inches, plus bat ears, of wide shouldered, muscular armed, broad chested Castle and his costume followed them into the room, eyes were riveted in his direction.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Miss Ada announced. "I'd like you to meet Lieutenant Kate Beckett, acting captain at the fifty-first precinct. Apparently she married Batman here," pointing a thumb toward Rick, "and brought Robin along…aka Rick and Jamie…to meet us, so let's make them feel welcome. I think we've already met several others from the fifty-first tonight. Security should be good."

There were sounds of welcome for a moment before the party noise started again, and individuals randomly stopped to talk to them.

Gabe came over to see Jamie and looked up at Castle. "Uncle Rick?"

"Yeah?" He dropped to a crouch to meet the boy at his eye level.

"You look just like Batman," he said. "That's awesome."

Giving the boy a hug, he said, "Thank you, Gabe. I'm glad you like it. Where's Javi?" he asked with one arm still around the boy.

"Over there." He pointed to a grinning pirate standing with a small woman in a renaissance dress. "He was going to be a soldier, but my mom found out that was the only costume he ever wore…and it wasn't even a costume. It was his old uniform. So she made him be a pirate," he confided with a giggle."

Castle laughed and stood as he saw Esposito, and a few others walking toward him. The pirate reached him first, followed closely by the others.

"Bro', I can't believe you wore that."

"Well, you've known me long enough to know I have no shame." Castle grinned back.

"That's pretty obvious." Ryan snickered in their standard heckling of one another.

"Yeah," Washington chimed in. "They told me you'd do it, but I didn't believe it until now." He shook his head in disbelief. "Tights, man?"

"Batman, Superman, The Flash, Captain America," Castle pointed out. "Tights. Superheroes." Flexing his biceps, he said, "I will not be mocked."

"Where have you been hiding those arms, Castle?" Maria asked. "How do you have time to work out when you're being Mr. Mom and writing?"

"I have weights at the loft." From there conversation turned to gyms and preferred workout methods and then wandered off to other things.

Beckett talked to others in the room, meeting a couple of people she had spoken to during earlier investigations as well as a number of others. Some of them were anxious to bring up community concerns, others wanted more details on why Bronson was gone, but most just carried on brief non-specific conversations. The overall atmosphere was friendly, and the general response to her presence was positive, even though she avoided Bronson questions as much as possible.

She made good use of Vicky Vale's reporter's notebook, jotting down various points of interest or concern that were mentioned to her and adding her own thoughts and impressions and names of possible contacts.

Castle wandered around, too, just being himself, interested in a little of everything and enjoying the new personalities. He saw a couple of them as possible minor characters in his books. All the time Castle and Beckett were connecting with the crowd, they were keeping an eye on their son, one or the other of them stopping to brush a hand over his hair or his shoulder now and then in passing. The age appropriate games and stories for the children and having others his age to play with were keeping Jamie well entertained.

Miss Ada was constantly on the move, seeing to it that her staff and volunteers kept things running smoothly and occasionally announcing new activities for various groups.

Periodically Castle and Beckett would find themselves together again and have time to enjoy each other's company for a few minutes. Jamie seemed to be content with their brief contacts, but he would look around for them once in a while, seem to reassure himself that they were there, and smile back when they waved at him.

"He looks like he's having fun," Kate observed.

"Yeah. So am I," he answered, draping one arm around her shoulder.

"Thanks for doing this. I really want to kiss you right now," she said softly, facing his chest where hopefully no one would hear or notice.

"But no PDA here, right?"

"Right."

"So I should move my arm?"

With a sigh, she answered, "Probably. But I 'd rather it stayed where it is."

He gave her shoulder a little squeeze and removed his arm, whispering, "Bat kisses later tonight, Vicky Vale."

"I'll hold you to that."

"Please do."

They exchanged smiles and turned to check on Jamie again, a much more public appropriate activity than what they both wanted. To distract themselves, they moved to where Griffith was manning the refreshments table and helped themselves.

"Looking good, Batman," Griffith offered with a grin.

Castle smiled back and thanked her before a few of the children came to get a closer look at his costume. As always, he played up to the kids, who loved it.

They had been at the party for a little more than half an hour when it was announced that it was time for the costume walk.

Miss Ada had told Beckett that there was a lot of showmanship involved in the costume walk. There were no prizes given, but most of those who dressed in costume did a lot of strutting or showing off their costumes in various ways. When she mentioned that to Castle, it was obvious that he was already considering the possibilities.

Before they left home for the party, he told his wife that he and Jamie had been practicing, but he wouldn't tell her what they had planned…well, what he had planned, he admitted to himself. But Jamie was up for just about anything that involved his costume, and Castle was taking advantage of that for lots of practice, aka playing. He thought that Jamie's costume fixation must be the Martha Rodgers genes showing themselves…and remembering the costume collection in the back corner of his closet, he realized he had inherited the same genes. The end result of getting a twenty month old to follow through on a plan in front of an audience was something of a toss-up, but he nevertheless assured his wife. "Don't worry. We won't embarrass you."

She didn't look entirely convinced, and Castle thought she looked a little twitchy when the costume walk was announced. He smiled at her confidently anyway and went to pick up their boy when all the children were asked to go back to their parents or the adults assigned to them. Castle took Jamie to the area assigned for those who would take part in the walk; but before he left Beckett, he asked her to get pictures. "If this works, my mother would be devastated if she didn't get to see it."

One of the first few costumes was one of the parents, who hadn't worn it for long after he arrived. It was a well-crafted toilet that hung from his shoulders with his face peeking out from a giant roll of toilet paper sitting on top of the tank. As he confidently strutted past them on the designated diagonal path across the room, Jamie said, "Daddy. It's a potty." That brought a few more giggles from those who could hear him and a grin from the face in the roll of toilet paper. Then the man stopped and asked someone to push the handle, then he played a long flushing sound from some device that was hidden under the costume and obviously amplified. The responses ranged from laughter to grossed out. Everyone who walked was applauded. Esposito was right before Castle and Jamie, and he strutted his stuff to more applause.

"You ready, to do what they did?" Castle asked when it was their turn, and reminded his son of how they had played at home. "We can do that." Jamie nodded and grinned, and Kate got into place where she would have a good view of the two of them.

Batman ran in slow motion so Robin could run as fast as he could beside him and keep up. When they reached the end, Castle said, "Now turn around." They both turned around and put their hands on their hips in a superhero stance, and the applause that was already there increased with added laughter. It wasn't perfectly timed, but it wasn't too bad, and Jamie seemed to like the applause. Martha genes at work again. Castle scooped him up and tickled his tummy before he hugged him and said, "Good job, Buddy." Jamie belly laughed at the tickling as Castle got them out of the way for the next walk.

"Ohmygod, your mother is going to love this." Beckett was still laughing as they turned to watch the next performance, a clown who turned somersaults and cartwheels down the path and finished with a backflip. They added to the applause for the child, who looked about ten years old and waited for the next one.

After all the good will of people supporting each other's antics, Miss Ada called all the children to come and get their plastic pumpkins for the trick or treat line. She had asked some of the adults to stand in the line and hand out different kinds of candy and other treats. Batman was an obvious choice, and members of the police force were pressed into service, too. The children excitedly held out their pumpkins and gathered Halloween goodies. That had become the traditional end of the party, and families were getting together to go home. Before they left, some of the adults stopped to thank Beckett for coming and bringing her family. As the party wound down, Miss Ada came over to the Castle family.

My receptionist/jack-of-all-trades tells me we had a call this morning asking if there was anything we needed for the party tonight. She said it was a man and she told him we were pretty well stocked. In conversation, it came up that we wished more of our donations included some healthy treats and that we might not have the plastic pumpkins but that we had paper bags for the kids. Then, this afternoon we had a couple of deliveries. A boatload of orange frosted cupcakes with spider rings stuck in the top, enough plastic trick or treat pumpkins that we can store some for next year, some healthy treats to go with the candy, and some silly but safe little toys. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Batman?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Castle responded.

"Maybe not, but in case you're lying, thank you, Bruce Wayne. The cupcakes were a big hit. Before you go, can I meet the man behind the mask?"

Castle took off the bat headgear and threw it over one arm. He smoothed his fingers through his hair to tame it, and gave the woman a winning smile. "Miss Ada, I've enjoyed your party."

"Well, don't think you're getting out of here without a hug. Thank you for coming with your wife. I have the feeling there were several families here because of her." She gave all three family members a hug and told them they were welcome to visit any time.

As they walked back to their car, Castle said, "That was fun. Let's find Jamie a couple of those little packages of dried fruit. He likes those. We can parcel the candy out tomorrow."

"He'll probably be asleep by the time we get home," Kate said quietly, rubbing Jamie's back as Castle turned to put him in his car seat.

When they were at home, she and Castle settled for washing Jamie's face and hands and the two of them talked him out of his Robin costume by offering him his Superman pajamas with a promise of the cape they could Velcro on the next morning. It was late; and after only one book, he was falling asleep. Kate kissed his head and left Castle to rock him a few more minutes, saying there was something she needed to do.

Castle, still wearing his costume, minus gloves and headgear, stayed a few minutes longer than necessary enjoying holding his little boy. Then he carefully tucked him in and went back downstairs. When he picked up the cape and gloves from the back of the sofa and looked up, he found Catwoman leaning in a sultry pose against the doorway to his study, and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Wow!"

"Is that the best you've got for me, man of words?" she asked.

"It's all I've got left. You struck me speechless."

She rolled her eyes side to side and looked as if she were thinking. "Cheesy, but appreciative. I'll take it," she answered with a smile.

"You know, you look a little out of breath there, Catwoman," he said with a predatory move in her direction.

From the same sultry position against the door frame, she grinned mischievously and answered, "You have no idea how hard I had to work to get myself into this clingy costume on such a short deadline."

He laughed as he pulled her into his arms.

She pushed him back slightly with her palm to his chest. "I don't know about this, Batman. Two women in one night? I heard you promise Vicky Vale bat kisses tonight."

"Ah, but that was because I knew it was you dressed as Vicky Vale for Halloween."

"Oh. Well, since you're on to me, you want to put the mask back on and give me my bat kisses?"

The mask and gloves were back in place in a flash, and he quickly had her in his arms in a deep kiss.

"Wow!"

"Is that the best you've got for me, Catwoman?" he asked playfully.

His answer was in the form of the throaty growl of the Eartha Kitt version of Catwoman, the one from the old TV show, and Catwoman's fingers clawing gently down his chest; and a responding baritone growl followed before his enthusiastic and emphatically placed words. "Did not. Know. You could do. That." The next kiss involved two sets of wandering hands.

Enjoying the new feel of touches with clothing and gloves between them, they explored and played…part role play that included a lot of their standard silliness and laughing and bantering, with some teasing, adult fun built around loving and trusting one another. When the need for exposed skin took over, the gloves and masks came off and they helped each other out of the formfitting costumes and into their room and their bed.

xxxxx

After a quiet Sunday at home, a content Beckett entered the precinct on Monday morning to smiles from a couple of the men from Narcotics who had taken their families to the Halloween party.

"I can't believe you let your husband out of the house in that Batman get-up," one of them said with a teasing grin.

"Hey, it was a great costume; and you have to admit, it takes guts to wear it in public."

"Whatever lets you sleep, Beckett," the other man joked.

She laughed and continued to her floor where her team was in the process of showing some of the other homicide detectives pictures they had taken at the party.

"Hey, it's Mrs. Batman," Sully said when he saw her.

Beckett looked at them and stated, "Yes, my husband wore a Batman costume Saturday night…and he looked damned good in it. Now all of you get over it and get some work done." The sound of her Beckett voice was softened by a smirky smile as she turned to go to her office.

She took out the notebook she had used at the party and started separating the notes into categories, preparing short lists of things in her personal notes as well as those that had been mentioned to her as community interests, wishes, and concerns.

Later in the week, Chief Dawson took his turn at visiting the precinct, and was as complimentary as Deputy Chief Alvarez had been.

"Morale looks good here, Lieutenant. There's quite a change in that respect from our first interviews. Is there anything you need from us at this point?"

"If it's possible, I'd like the Friday before Thanksgiving off. My father is getting married that evening, and I…it would be nice to be available if he needs me for anything."

"Not a problem. I assume you've planned to have someone to cover for you. And you know you'd still be on call in case of an emergency."

"Understood, Sir."

"Anything else?"

"The lieutenant who went to the twelfth in my place, Lieutenant Paul Stiles, I believe. May I have him back here at the fifty-first a week or so before Christmas? I'd like to see him wade into the changes that have happened since he left. He's going to be the homicide lieutenant again, but with more freedom to do the job the way I was allowed to do at the twelfth. I can send someone from my team to work with his at the twelfth. And, when the dust settles after this mess is finished, I expect we'll need a lieutenant in Vice to replace the one who left when Bronson did. Things there seem to be going well, though."

"I'll take those concerns under advisement and let you know. I think you can plan on being here until the end of December. IA is firming up its evidence, and we expect to see at least Bronson's case resolved by then. The assigned captaincy needs to be established here."

Beckett nodded her understanding.

As he shook her hand before leaving, he said, "You're off to an impressive start, Beckett. Keep up the good work."