144. Chapter 144

Chapter 144

"And why should Darrell drive faster? Can't wait to get your hands on your ruggedly handsome husband again?" Rick teased, wearing his signature lopsided smile.

"Well, that's a consideration," she flirted back, "but it's not the first priority right now."

"Then what?"

"Just tell him to hurry…say that I forgot to stop at the restroom or something."

"You could tell him yourself, you know. He would do anything for you…right from the beginning," he answered and then saw something in her expression that gave him pause. "We'll just tell him to get us home faster. He knows us, and it wouldn't be the first time. Besides, we've been respectably legal for a long time now." Realizing that she was a bit edgy, Rick began to be concerned. "What's on your mind, Kate? It's something that wasn't there when we left the restaurant. Is anything wrong?"

"No, no. Nothing's wrong," she assured him.

She seemed both exuberant and anxious, and something told him it was important.

She looked up at him and smiled. "It's just… It's a big maybe right now…but it might not have been just the two of us tonight."

"Not just the two of us? What…" Suddenly his face reflected his understanding and lit up with excitement. "Not just the two of us? Does that mean? Are you late?"

She became visibly more animated. "You mentioned our anniversary, and that was before Christmas…and I realized it's been since before that...and now it's the middle of February…and I have some test kits at home." She grabbed his hand and squeezed. "And I want us to know…now."

Rick immediately activated the intercom. "Darrell, get us home as fast as you can without hurting anyone. Everybody is fine, but we have a minor emergency."

"Yes, sir."

Feeling the car turn a corner and pick up speed, Rick put his arm around his wife and pulled her close, and she leaned into him willingly.

"Jamie happened without our even trying, but we've tried so long for another baby. I'm afraid to hope too much," she said softly. Then, more excitedly, she added, "But I can't help it."

"Me, too…and me either," he answered with his own smile and kissed her head. "How many tests do you have at home?"

"Three. I bought them a few months ago, just in case."

"Good. That's like having a second and third opinion. I hope Mother is already in bed when we get home. Oh wait. John is there. Maybe I don't hope... I just hope nothing interferes. Right now, this is for us...nobody else."

The car finally came to a complete stop, and Darrell opened the door for them and wished them well with their emergency.

"I'm sure everything will be fine," Rick assured him as he gave him a generous tip. Then he hurried his wife into the building, both he and Kate giving a quick greeting to the doorman on the way to the elevator.

When they entered the loft, no one was in sight; so they closed the door quietly and hurried to their bedroom before they were seen.

"Where are they?" he asked, closing the bedroom door.

Kate removed the boxes from a dresser drawer, and they checked the directions, looking for the waiting times on each of them. Then she took them in the bathroom with her. Rick started to follow, but she stopped him at the door. "No, no, no. You don't get to watch me pee on the sticks; but we'll do everything else together, I promise."

As she left the bathroom and set the timer on her phone, she told him, "I left them on the edge of the sink. I don't think I can look until the timer goes off."

"It won't really be long, but it's going to seem like forever. Come and lie down with me," he insisted. They stretched out on the bed and held each other while they waited impatiently until the timer finally sounded.

"You ready?" he asked, reaching for her hand. She nodded and they went to look.

Finding three positives, he whooped and lifted her off the floor, spinning them around in the confines of the bathroom. Kate was alternately laughing and crying as he carried her back to their bedroom, planting little kisses on her lips as he tried to avoid bumping into door frames and furniture.

When he finally put her down, she said, "We won't know for a couple of months if it's your little girl or not, but it's happened, and it's ours, and…"

"And we already love whoever it is?"

"Yeah, we do," she answered, taking his hand and placing it where their baby was growing. "And I love you so much."

"I love you, too. And I love you, Baby Castle." Holding her tight, he said, "I want to check on Jamie before we go to bed."

"Me, too," she agreed, and they went upstairs together to look in on their firstborn.

Martha came out of her room, claiming it was just to be sure it was them. "I didn't hear the front door, but I heard you on the stairs," she explained. "Was your Valentine's night out everything you'd hoped?"

Rick smiled. "It was the best."

"I sense something more in the air."

"Maybe tomorrow, Mother. Let us have Valentine's Day without questions…please."

Martha looked from one of them to the other with undisguised curiosity, but she nodded.

Kate hugged her tight and said, "Thank you so much for staying with Jamie."

"He was a splendid Valentine's date," Martha answered. "And John wasn't bad, either. He surprised us and brought flowers and chocolate and his charming sense of humor. You must have just missed him, probably passed his car when the service dropped you off."

Both parents ran a hand gently over their son's back before they left the room, and Martha retreated toward her own, saying, "I was just reading until you got home. I'll go back and work on my beauty sleep now. Enjoy what's left of your Valentine's Day."

Rick leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Thank you, Mother."

"I can't wait until tomorrow to find out what's going on with the two of you. It must be something good."

"Tomorrow," her son repeated. "Goodnight."

Martha smiled indulgently and turned to watch them walk downstairs.

The couple engaged in another giggling, excited celebratory embrace before going to bed and making love slowly and tenderly to celebrate the new life they had created.

Morning found them still in each other's arms, basking in the feelings of love, joy, and magic from the night before.

"We didn't dream last night, did we?" Rick asked.

"I don't think so," Kate answered. "If we did, in my dream, we left the test sticks on the bathroom vanity. We could go and check."

With a big grin, Rick walked quickly to the other side of the bed, took her hand to pull her out of bed, and took her with him to the bathroom vanity." "Yes!" he said energetically. "Not dreaming!"

"Your mother is onto us," Kate said from the embrace they were now in. "She may not know what it is we didn't tell her, but she knows something is going on. And you promised tomorrow. We have to tell her."

"I really want to tell the world; but at the same time, I want to keep it for us for a little while longer."

"Me, too, but we do have to tell her. As often as your hand has found its way to my stomach since we checked the little lines on the sticks, you'd give us away in five minutes or less anyway."

"I won't even argue with that. Too happy to argue."

"I hate that I need to be at work today."

"Me, too. Take your shower and get dressed. I'm going to put together a pregnant lady breakfast."

By the time Kate was dressed and checking out the breakfast that was waiting for her, Martha was coming down the stairs saying, "Something smells good. I dragged myself out of my bed in hopes that some of it is for me."

"Is now okay…before you leave?" Kate nodded, and Rick put his arms around her from behind, his hands resting one on the other at her waist. "We have something to tell you, Mother. We realized it last night and wanted some time to savor the feeling between the two of us. You're going to have another grandchild."

Kate was immediately drawn into a warm, scented, enthusiastic maternal hug. "Oh, darlings, I'm so happy for you. Was this another surprise?"

"Yes and no. We've been trying for a while, and we'd had a few moments of feeling discouraged. So last night felt…"

"No need to explain." She kissed Kate's forehead.

"I'm hoping for a mini Beckett," he said.

"And I'm thinking he's crazy," Kate told her mother-in-law.

They talked over breakfast and Kate left for work after Rick followed her to the door for "just one more" kiss.

Touching his cheek lovingly, she said, "I'll call today for an appointment with the doctor, and we'll talk tonight. I love you." There was one more kiss and she was gone.

"You got it right this time, Kiddo. You couldn't have done better than that woman," Martha told Castle. "It does a mother's heart good to see her son so happy. Will Katherine keep working after the baby?"

"Probably." He turned to look at her. "Mother, she's so good at what she does. And you've seen the difference she can make. NYPD has already benefitted from having her there, and I won't ask her to leave that until she's ready to. We haven't had time to talk about it yet, but we will."

xxxxx

Beckett was working, but not as efficiently as usual. Her mind kept wandering to Castle and their unborn child. And she kept smiling randomly. At times, to remain appropriate to her interaction with others at the precinct, she had to hide it behind her hand or a coffee cup, or both.

Around lunchtime, she sent Castle a text. "We're gonna have another baby." This was followed by an emoji with a big grin and more text. "Kiss Jamie for me."

Castle answered immediately. "Yes, we are!" His text showed another grinning emoji, a balloon, a party horn, a thumbs up, two hearts, a rainbow, and fireworks; and his wife laughed loud enough there was the possibility someone in the bullpen could have heard her through her closed door. His next text said, "Kiss delivered. I can't wait for the two of you to get home."

"Appointment early Thursday morning. Want to go with me?" she answered.

"Always."

"I love you, Writer-Man."

"Love you, too, Captain Pregnant Lady."

With a great deal of effort and determination, Beckett made the rest of her work day productive, but there was no lingering at her desk at the end of the day.

xxxxx

When she arrived at home, Alexis was there. There were photo albums on the coffee table, several books that looked like children's books stacked beside them, and the three occupants at the loft were just sitting down on the sofa. All three of them looked up to greet her.

"Hi, Alexis. What a nice surprise," Kate said as she closed the door.

"JD had a meeting with his counselor this afternoon, so I came by for hot chocolate and hugs."

"Well, come here. I don't want to be left out of that."

Alexis went to meet Kate for a hug and whispered, "Is Dad okay? He was kind of clingy when I got here…keeps calling me his baby girl."

Kate whispered, "He's fine. We'll talk later." Then at her normal volume, she asked, "What's going on?"

"Lexis was little, like me," Jamie said with a touch of awe. "She has pictures."

"So that accounts for the albums."

"Yeah," Castle answered. "We haven't started yet. Come on. We'll make room for you."

Kate picked Jamie up and sat him in her lap where they could both see everything.

"Remember the first time you saw Sarah Grace?" Castle asked Jamie.

He nodded. "She was little." He held his hands close together to demonstrate.

Castle opened both albums. "This is Alexis when she was that little."

"That's Alexis?" Jamie looked at the picture and then at his sister and back. The baby in the picture had red hair, but Jamie still looked skeptical.

"And this is you when you were a brand new baby," Kate told him.

"That's me?"

"That's you," Kate confirmed, hugging him tighter and kissing his cheek. "And we loved on you all the time, just like we do now."

"And you loved on Alexis, too?"

"I loved on Alexis, too," Castle answered, glancing over at Kate. Unless he asked unavoidable questions, Castle didn't intend to explain to Jamie that the "mean lady" at the restaurant was Alexis's real mommy. That was a conversation for later when the boy would understand more, not for now, when he was just realizing that everybody starts out as babies.

Castle turned a couple of pages in each book. "This is Alexis when she was the size Sarah Grace is now. And this is you when you were that size."

"And this is Alexis when she first started walking," Castle showed his son.

Kate turned a page in the other book and told Jamie, "This is when you were learning to walk."

They saw pictures of both children at different stages of development up to Jamie's present age, and then saw pictures of Alexis in pre-school through high school.

"See?" Alexis said to her brother. "Everybody starts little and gets bigger. I was little, but I grew bigger. And you were little but you've already grown bigger."

"Will I get big like you?"

"You might be bigger than me…like JD or Daddy."

He looked up at Kate, and she assured him he would get big like Daddy. "But it takes a long time."

"Can I see when you and Daddy were little?"

"Another day. What are these other books?"

"Daddy wrote Alexis books. She's going to read me one," he said enthusiastically. "It has a little brother."

"May I listen, too?" Kate asked.

By the end of the story, Kate looked as interested as Jamie. "Rick, that was amazing. It was so well balanced with characters children can relate to, things they're familiar with, vocabulary they'd understand with a few words here and there to challenge them, relationships, and a lesson to be learned."

"She's right, Dad," Alexis agreed. "All I remembered is that I loved them and they were special because you wrote them for me, but I didn't realize until now how good they were…or how you sneaked in those little lessons while I was just loving my bedtime stories. Are all of them like this?"

"We haven't seen them in a long time, but I tried."

"Another one?" Jamie asked.

"I want another one, too," Kate admitted.

Alexis read another one, and she and Kate both declared it as good as the first one. "Dad, you should publish these," Alexis told him.

"No. Those were just for you...just for us."

"But so many kids would love them, and I wouldn't mind sharing. I'd be proud for everybody to know that my dad is such a good writer and that he wrote books just for me."

"I had them professionally bound for us," he explained to Kate. "Even if Alexis didn't see them that way as she grew up, I knew they'd always be special to me. Alexis's drawings were the illustrations. We eventually called them The Girl with Red Hair Mysteries. Alexis never gave the character a name, and the little brother was always called Little Brother. I never figured out her reasoning; but it made her happy, so that's what we did. When she was four, she started telling me which characters to use from among her teddy bears and dolls and so on and suggesting little pieces of the story. We both enjoyed the collaboration. That's all it was supposed to be."

"But they're really good books. Does Black Pawn have a children's division?" Alexis asked.

"You're serious about this, aren't you?" he asked. When she nodded, he said, "They do, just a small part of their operation. But I never considered it."

"You should. Think about it. Patterson has books aimed at teenagers. You could have a mystery series for little kids. It would help with your new image as a family man, to show it was in you that long ago."

"This is scary. You're beginning to sound like Paula."

"Well, as annoying as she is sometimes, you've always said she's good at her job. Just think about it, Dad. Maybe you could run it past Gina. The books are already written, so it's not like it's going to steal you away from Nikki Heat." Turning to Kate, she said, "I have to go; but I still have a few minutes, and we were going to talk."

"We should tell her," Kate said quietly to Castle as Jamie looked longingly at the other books; and Castle nodded and smiled.

"Jamie, why don't you go and put these books on your bookshelf in Dad's office? I'll read the others to you next time I'm here." Alexis handed him the stack of six books and watched as he took them to his bookshelf. Then she turned to her parents and said, "He plopped down on his little bottom with the books and started turning pages, so we're good for a while. What were you going to tell me?"

"There's going to be a third book collaborator," Castle answered.

"You're going to be a big sister to two," Kate explained. "I have the first appointment with the doctor on Thursday morning."

As her grandmother had done, Alexis grabbed Kate and hugged her. "I don't care if it's a girl or a boy. I'm just happy that Jamie gets to grow up with another child in the house…and two parents who are happy together." Turning to her father, she said, "So that's the reason for all hugging and reminiscing?"

"Well, Kate was at work, so I couldn't dote on her, and then you stopped by." He flashed her his best smile. "It was like an answered prayer…an outlet for all the new baby energy."

Alexis laughed. "Well, I'm glad I was able to help, even if it was a little overwhelming."

"I can't help it. We just realized last night. Best Valentine's present ever."

Kate pulled up Castle's text with the long string of emoji's and told her, "My text said, 'We're gonna have another baby, and this was the answer. He's a little excited. Your timing today was perfect."

Alexis laughed as loud as Kate did. "Is it okay to tell JD?"

"It is. We'll tell my dad and Meagan, and you can tell Grandpa John; but we want to keep it quiet for just a little while. Right now it's new, and it's ours…just for family. We'll have to tell a few other people sooner than we want, but it won't be a public thing."

"Moving to Castle, his daughter wrapped him in a hug and said, "I'm happy for you, Dad. I know this is the family you always wanted for us. It was good, just the two of us; but sometimes, I dreamed about this, too."

He hugged her a little tighter. "I wish I could have given it to you before you were ready for college."

"Well, at least I got Kate before then. I love you, Dad."

"Love you, too, Pumpkin."

"Gotta go now," she said, backing away to go and say goodbye to her brother, who was finally putting the books on his shelf.

"I did some thinking today," Kate told her husband after Alexis was gone. "It was so hard to make myself concentrate on work. There are a lot of if's involved. We need to talk tonight when things quiet down."

"I'll be right here," he answered, running the back of his hand lovingly over her middle.

Jamie came back after Alexis was gone, and they ordered dinner, which arrived about the same time Martha did.

As Jamie jumped around the room, seeming to play some kind of game only he was aware of, Martha watched and asked, "When do you plan to tell our boy?"

"Probably not until Kate is showing enough he can see when we talk about it," Castle answered. "That should give us enough months to talk him through the fact that he won't be the only child anymore. He's a loving little guy, and he certainly has good examples of a brother and sister loving him. We're hoping that works for us. We haven't had time yet to think it out."

"Alexis stopped by, and we told her this afternoon," Kate reported. "I'll call my dad and arrange to see him tomorrow, so he and Meagan will know. And we said Alexis could tell JD and John, so that takes care of the family. And very soon, I'll have to tell HR and any other necessary powers that be. But otherwise, we're keeping it as quiet as we can for a little while.

"Then I'll confine my excitement to family," Martha answered. "Do I smell dinner?"

"Good, healthy dinner for the mother of my children," Castle answered, looking content as he slid his arms around Kate's waist from behind her.

Martha looked misty eyed and told him, "Richard, I'm so happy for you…for both of you."

When the day wound down and they were settled in their own room, Castle and Kate got ready for bed and put pillows behind them to lean against the headboard and talk.

"How is this going to affect your temporary assignment?" he asked.

"I think it's a problem. If this happened when I think it did, I'm about two months pregnant. That means my due date is probably the last half of September. If the six month assignment starts the last week of March, it also ends the last week of September, so not the best timing. And then I'd need maternity leave to recover and be with the baby."

"Are you thinking of asking if there's a shorter assignment?"

"Like I said, I did a lot of thinking today. I asked you once what you missed most about having to live with my work schedule, and you said it was mostly being able to travel any time we wanted to. I'm finished at the fifteenth in a couple of weeks. Instead of a little break before a new assignment, how would you feel about taking on sugar daddy status for the rest of this year? Is the option still open?"

"Really?!" Castle all but squealed.

"What do you think? We could take some short trips before I shouldn't be flying…or don't want to be. And we could take Jamie on adventures any time the spirit moves us, and…"

"Sweetheart, I was sold before you got to the travelling."

"And by the time it's uncomfortable for me to travel that much, it would be late summer. That's the perfect time to move to the Hamptons for a month or so."

"It just keeps getting better. And we'll come back in September and have our baby…all within our plan…our window of opportunity…before your thirty-seventh birthday…with maternity leave time built in."

"I do want to work again after that. I have a lot invested in NYPD, and they have a lot invested in me. I think I have enough to offer that I should use it, and I think I've done some good."

"I understand that. And if cases come up that warrant it, I hope I can still consult now and then, too. But what if the department doesn't want to let you take almost a year of leave, even if it is an unpaid leave of absence, and then have you come back expecting to take over the command they promised?"

"They've already had to renege on what they let me expect. Hopefully, since I'll be pregnant most of that time and it will relieve them of having to find something to occupy my time until the other job is open, it might give me a little bargaining chip to still be up for the same job."

"I would understand if you needed to work part of the year to hold on to your own precinct."

"I know you would, but you shouldn't have to. If it doesn't work out, I'll either take a different position or resign. I love my job, but not as much as I love you. There won't be any offering you this year and then backing out if something doesn't work out. I wouldn't offer you a year of freedom from my schedule if I weren't willing to accept the consequences if there's a problem. You deserve so much more than that."

"God, Kate. I don't know how to answer that…but I do know how much it means to me.

"So you're okay with the idea…almost a year off?"

"I'm ecstatic at the idea."

"Then I'll call HR after the doctor's visit."

"I'm not sure I'll sleep tonight. I'll be imagining all the things we can do while we wait for our new little Castle baby."

"If you can't sleep, wake me up and we can make some plans." She accompanied that statement with the smile she saves just for him.

"Best wife in the world," he declared as he pulled her close and moved the pillows down for sleeping…and dreaming.