181. Chapter 181

AN: I don't know if you folks needed a fluff break after the Trent saga or not, but I did, so it's Jo's first birthday.

Chapter 181

It was Jo's first birthday, and Castle had invited the entire extended family as he did for Jamie and as Ryan had done for Sarah Grace. The Ryans didn't have as much room indoors as Castle did, and they had bigger families of their own, but between the house and their back yard, they had a big cookout for all the family that would be important to Sarah Grace. Everyone expected to be there for first birthdays, Those were landmarks. Javi's little Ana would be next, and then Ryan's new one.

The birthday cake had arrived, as well as another cake to congratulate Ryan and Esposito on passing the Lieutenant's exam. Without having any idea why, Jo would love the attention she would get; so sharing her celebration wouldn't be a problem. There were balloons everywhere, a Happy First Birthday banner on one wall, and a variety of mostly pink and purple decorations amply scattered all over the open first floor of the loft. With the exception of a couple of things that were Castle family specialties and expected at his parties, he had ordered food catered to cover the tastes of his friends and family.

Jamie was as excited about Jo's party as he had ever been about his own, running along with whoever answered the door to greet each new set of guests and announce animatedly that it was Jo's birthday.

The family hadn't seen Victoria and Ray Gates for a while, and when Castle opened the door to them, Jamie called out, "Aunt Captain, it's Jo's birthday!" and Gates leaned down and picked him up, telling him how big he was getting and adding that Jo must be getting bigger, too.

"Hi, Uncle Ray," he said, waving over Gates' shoulder with his arms around her neck.

Kate came to meet them, holding Jo, as Castle held the door to invite them in. "I'm glad you could come. It's been too long," she said.

Ray Gates' personality was enough like Castle's that Jamie had always felt at ease with him, and Ray grabbed him by the waist to take him from his wife. My turn for a hug, Kid," he teased, and lifted Jamie up to sit on one of his arms. Then he started talking to him about the party and asked him to show him everything, which set off another round of excited little boy talk…lots of pointing and explaining. Ray laughed now and then at the steady stream of chatter. Kate and Gates talked for a few minutes, looking up to watch them when they heard Ray laugh.

"Our children are so lucky to have so many people who love them." Kate said. "When we met, Castle and I both had such tiny little families, and to have this now… Sometimes it seems too good to be true."

"Both of our daughters went to college outside of New York, and the one who's graduated stayed there; so we don't see them too often. It feels good to be part of all this," Gates admitted. "My parents and Ray's father have passed. His mother is a couple of states away living near his sister, and I'm perfectly happy for her to stay right where she is."

"I do remember a conversation about ignoring any murder reports from your address when she was visiting once," Beckett answered with a smile. "We haven't met your daughters. Maybe sometime when they're home?"

"Ray and I have mentioned you often enough, and I gave each of them the first Nikki Heat book. They both went and bought the rest for themselves. I think they'd love to meet the two of you." There was a little pause with a hint of amusement, and Gates added, "I'm not a captain anymore. I should tell Jamie to call me Aunt Victoria…or Aunt Vicky; but I just melted the first time the little guy called me Aunt Cap'en. Even now that he can say the word correctly, I still hate to give it up."

There was another knock at the door, and Jamie looked at Ray, saying, "Somebody else is here," and scrambled to get down, running to catch up with his father when Castle opened the door. "Uncle Javi, it's Jo's birthday! Hi Gabe. Can I see Ana?"

"You excited or something, Little Man?" Javi asked with a grin.

Maria laughed and walked inside where she held their five month old daughter so Jamie could play with her hand and talk to her for a moment or two.

"That's one excited little boy," Ray said with a chuckle, joining his wife and Kate.

"I saw him wiggling around to get down," Kate answered. "You were very patient with his non-stop conversation. I'm not sure what's gotten into him, but he's been like that all day."

"It was entertaining," Ray answered, "but when he knew somebody else was at the door, he just needed to be there. I had to release him into the wild."

"I'm pretty sure that right now he's the wild. I may have to take him in the study before too long and see if I can settle him down," Kate answered."

It wasn't long before everyone was there, wandering around the loft talking and catching up with the people they hadn't seen recently. What used to be a tight knit work family who saw one another on an almost daily basis was now scattered among several departments or precincts and had to make a conscious effort to stay in touch. Small conversation groups grew and diminished as people moved to talk with Castle's family as well as other police employees.

As the groups changed, Jamie played with the other children, although Gabe was now ten and leaning toward wanting to spend some time with the men now and then. Jamie would sometimes wander over to adults who took time to talk to him and carry on short conversations.

Eventually Jo, Jamie, and Sarah Grace ended up sitting on the floor near the coffee table, the older two playing with Jo.

Castle walked over to the sofa and grabbed Jamie, hauling him over his shoulder and saying, "Come on, Buddy. Time to get the celebration on the road and give Jo the attention."

"And Uncle Kevin and Uncle Javi?" his son asked from where his face hung behind Castle's shoulder.

"Yeah. Them, too." Turning to Kate, he said, "I need you to clear the rest of the breakfast bar."

Kate moved to do that, and Alexis picked Jo up.

"What was that about uncles?" Ryan asked.

Taking it from one of the ovens where it had been kept out of sight, Castle took a cake and placed it on the breakfast bar. "Ladies and gentlemen, we're here for the birthday girl, but we have something else to celebrate, too. Kevin and Javier have both passed their Lieutenant's exams, so we have an extra cake for them. Congratulations to Lieutenant Ryan and Lieutenant Esposito."

The entire room went up in cheers and applause, and the two honored guests had words of appreciation for including them in the celebration.

"Well, when else are we likely to have everybody in one place to make this much noise for you?" Castle asked. "This cake is chocolate. Jo's is yellow cake with buttercream frosting. Take your pick or try both. There's plenty. Whoever is closest to the fridge, get out all the ice cream. There are choices there, too." Opening the other oven, he took out Jo's cake, which was a grouping of cupcakes put together in the form of a light purple butterfly.

Kate put their daughter, appropriately adorned in her lovely, and at the moment still pink, party dress, and Castle took out the other cake and held it where Jo could see it.

Jo immediately looked delighted and used one of her new "almost words". "Buh-fy," she said excitedly and bounced in her sister's arms. Jamie was smiling ear to ear. Castle put the butterfly cake on the dining room table and Kate organized the ice cream around the lieutenants' cake on the breakfast bar. Alexis put Jo in her high chair, and Martha came over with a large, frilly, girly looking bib that almost completely covered Jo's birthday dress and put it on her.

"Thank you, Martha. I didn't even think of that," Kate said, walking over to join them.. "I don't know why."

"Well, there's party left after you give her that messy purple cupcake. Might as well save the dress. I've done my part, though. You're on your own with getting the frosting out of those adorable brunette curls."

Kate laughed and kissed her daughter's head. All the Castle siblings were gathered around the high chair with Jo, and several people were taking pictures of the family, the two cakes and the people related to the two cakes. Finally the activity began to settle, and everybody sang the happy birthday song to the birthday girl. Castle lit the one candle on the cupcake he took from the edge of the butterfly's wing and held it for Jo.

"Blow at it, Jo," Jamie instructed and showed her what to do. Jo huffed some air as Castle held it at a safe distance, and the flame wiggled. She looked happy and intrigued by the flame, but it came nowhere close to going out. After a couple more tries, Jamie said, "I'll help you," and blew at it along with her, extinguishing the tiny fire. There were cheers and then everyone helped themselves to cake and ice cream and sat down in the living room and at the dining table as Jo happily made a mess trying to eat her cupcake all by herself. Multiple pictures were made of her purple icing covered smile…and fingers, and a little bit of hair. The dress almost escaped but cleaned up without too much purple left.

After cake and ice cream and clean-up, there were presents…a baby doll, new clothes, books, and toys; and it didn't take Jo long, especially with encouragement from her brother and sister to get the idea of ripping paper and finding goodies inside. Alexis sat her in one of the arm chairs and she and Jamie and JD passed her gifts to her one by one, placing the unwrapped gifts on the coffee table where she could reach them later. She was getting adept at pulling up and getting around the low table on her own. The last gift she opened was Lanie's…a soft, gray plush elephant, and she squealed another of her new almost words. "Eh-funt!"

"Did she just say elephant?" Lanie asked, looking surprised.

"Not quite, but almost," Alexis answered proudly.

"But that's what she meant," Jamie clarified.

Lanie insisted on a picture of the Castle family with Jo. Kate and Castle stood behind her chair, Alexis knelt next to the chair beside her, and JD mirrored her position on the other side with one arm around a standing Jamie.

"I just sent them to you, Kate," Lanie said after taking hers. "They're really good of everybody."

Then Castle made sure to get pictures with grandparents and aunts and uncles.

Jamie watched as the various groups were taking pictures. Suddenly, he asked, loud enough everybody could hear, "Daddy, my aunts and uncles don't look like us, either. Did we 'dopt them, too?"

There were looks of amusement among the adults as Kate and Castle explained that aunts and uncles are your parents' brothers and sisters. Since neither Kate nor Rick had any brothers or sisters of their own, they adopted some good friends as brothers and sisters. "And our friends wanted our children to have aunts and uncles, so they adopted you, too," Castle finished.

Ryan picked Jamie up, "So what do you think, Kid? Can I still be your Uncle Kevin?"

Jamie grinned, saying, "Yeah." and gave him a big hug. Looking around the room, he observed, "We 'dopted a lot of people."

"Yeah, we did," Castle agreed. "Thanks for 'dopting us, too," he added to the group in general.

After that the adults went back to conversation and Alexis and JD were telling Lanie, Gates, and Ryan and Jenny about when Jamie realized Alexis and JD didn't look like the rest of the family. The laughter grew incrementally as the story developed from the initial question through Alexis having a different mother and their adopting JD and Grandpa John and Jamie's reaction to Castle having married two other people before Kate, one being Gina. "Dad looked like he'd been through the Inquisition," Alexis reported.

Jamie, and Sarah Grace, helped Jo play with her new toys. Gabe even came and sat with them for a little while off and on. Then Jamie was moving around the room again, talking to adults as well as children.

"Your little guy is getting to be a pretty good schmoozer," Esposito said to Castle, nodding toward where Jamie was hanging out with Alexis, JD, Lanie, and Frank. Lanie was sitting next to Frank on the sofa, Alexis was sitting next to her on the other side, JD was sitting beside his wife, and Jamie was standing in front of them holding up his end of their conversation. "He doesn't just look like you, he's starting to act just like you, too.

"I was noticing the same thing," Gates agreed, and Castle smiled with pride, not caring whether they had meant it as a compliment or not. All of them were listening in on Jamie's conversation with the adults, catching mention of their new beach tradition.

Lanie asked if Jamie liked the pictures she took of Kate in the shower in her clothes, and the little boy grinned and answered, "It was funny."

"Wait…in her clothes?" Frank asked, looking amused. "When was this, and why?" Lanie explained and Frank laughed and shook his head. "You didn't show me those. One day we're going to have to be there for that." Lanie found the pictures on her phone and showed him."

"Hey, those are supposed to be only on my phone," Kate interrupted.

"Girl, how long have you known me?" Lanie shot back. "Did you really think I didn't send them to myself?" Turning back to the little boy in front of her, she asked, "So, Mr. Jamie, what did all of you do at the beach while your mommy was here being silly in the shower with her clothes on?" Lanie asked.

"Grandpa John ran in the ocean with us when we got there, then we walked on the beach. And after we put on dry clothes, we came downstairs and Daddy said Grams was playing show tunes again. Then he heard a song and started clapping his hands up high and moving around and singing, 'Tradition'. Then Grandpa John did it, too, then JD and Granddaddy, so I tried it, too…and Grams said, 'Stand tall when you dance, James,' and pointed at me, so I did. It looked more like stomping and clapping than dancing, but it was fun. And all of us sang, 'Tradition' when we were supposed to."

Suddenly Martha was at the piano playing the introduction for the song from Fiddler on the Roof, and all the men who had been at the beach moved into their song and dance, including Jamie…who was standing tall, as instructed. The men were in a line that snaked around the room. None of them tried to sing a verse. They all just chimed in on the chorus. It didn't go on for too long. Martha knew just how much it took to give their audience the impact of the impromptu performance without taxing their patience. The others in the room applauded and whistled and laughed.

But Jamie wasn't finished. "Then we saw a movie, and there was a dance and some men put bottles on their heads and balanced them and walked across the floor on their knees, so we tried that…but Daddy said no bottles. He said we didn't want broken glass in our knees if they fell. Then Grandpa John called Grams Golde and sang to her 'Do you love me?'" He sang it perfectly in tune and then stopped to giggle. "And Grams sang back, 'Do I what?!" That part he sang with an excellent imitation of the mild shriek of surprise Martha had used when she played the part on stage.

The others in the room had given their attention to Jamie after the men's dance, and Lanie and the others had been admirably contained, holding in their laughter at the child's nonstop description of the first night of their weekend at the beach. However, after Jamie's well executed version of Martha's musical answer to her husband, Lanie completely lost it, falling over on Frank laughing loud and long. That set everybody else off, and Jamie was laughing with them.

Through her laughter, as she leaned on Frank, Lanie managed to squeak out, "Jamie, I will always be so glad you guys 'dopted me."

"Daddy says it's adopted, but I keep forgetting," he answered through his own giggles.

"I think we need to calm him down a little bit," Kate told her husband.

"Only a little bit?" Castle answered, still chuckling. "Maybe we need to remind him his sister is supposed to be getting the attention today. I'll go snatch him out of the limelight and we can talk to him."

"Good idea."

Castle walked over to the sofa and grabbed Jamie, hauling him over his shoulder again and saying, "Come on, Buddy. Time to calm down."

"Man, I thought you could go on for a while without taking a breath," Ryan teased Castle. "I think you've just been out-Castled by a little kid."

Castle grabbed his son's ankles and held him high and upside down, looking him in the face. "This one? Is that who you're talking about?" he asked as he dangled his giggling son.

"That's the one." Esposito reached out and tickled Jamie's tummy, bringing on squeals and more wiggling.

"I thought you were going to calm him down, not wind him up more," Kate said, walking over to them and looking amused.

"Oh, yeah. Is that what I was supposed to do?" he answered and grinned. After Kate helped turn their son upright again, he asked, "What has you so wound up today? You've been overexcited all day long. Why?"

"It's Jo's birthday."

"What is it about her birthday that has you this excited?"

"She never had one before."

Kate and Castle looked at each other. "Well, we thought about the fact that it's her very first birthday, but that's a little different twist on the perspective," Kate answered.

"Well, we're glad you're excited for your sister, but you do need to settle down a little bit," Castle insisted. "Why don't you find one of her quiet toys and help her play with it."

Lanie had gone to get some water, and Frank slid over into her place on the sofa to talk to JD, so when she returned, she was at the far end of the sofa, a couple of feet or so from the end of the coffee table. As she passed the table, she picked up the elephant she had brought for Jo and said, "I love this thing. He's so soft." Then she sat down and hugged the stuffed animal to her as she joined the conversation.

Jamie, Jo, and Sarah Grace were sitting at the other end of the coffee table playing with Jo's new stacking toy. When Jo was apparently tired of it, she pulled up on the table and side stepped around it toward the other end.

"Hey there, Baby Girl," Lanie said, wiggling the elephant back and forth at her.

Jo grinned and said, "Eh-funt." That sent Lanie into silliness, making the elephant dance and playing peekaboo from behind it. Then suddenly, Jo let go of the table and walked toward Lanie on her own.

"Castle, look! Please somebody be making a video. I don't know where my phone is." Kate said frantically. Castle was phoneless as well, but he saw why she wanted one so badly.

"Mommy, Jo walked all by herself!" Jamie announced.

"You walked like a big girl, Lanie said excitedly, picking Jo up and giving her the elephant. Did everybody see that?" she asked, looking at Kate and Castle.

"Yes," they answered in sync as they walked over to their daughter to tell her they were proud of her.

"You're in trouble now," Esposito told them. She's on her feet."

"You're not that far behind," Castle answered. "It seems like this one was five months old about two weeks ago. Before you know what hits you, you'll be chasing one around."

Martha stood watching her son's family gathering around its smallest member and announced, "I think I might finally have another actor in the family. This one already knows how to time her big performance to reach her maximum audience." The others laughed. Martha had been wishing for someone to follow in her footsteps for years.

It was getting close to all the young children's bedtimes, and the party was winding down by then, so a few at a time, the guests started leaving.

When the loft was occupied by only the immediate family members, Jim said, "I can't believe she took her first steps. Katie was walking early, and Martha says Rick was, too; but she doesn't look big enough to be taking her first steps."

"Thanks for the video, Dad," Kate said.

"I'm a proud grandfather. Of course I had the camera on."

"And I guarantee he's going to watch that video at least ten more times before he goes to bed," Meagan added, then she smiled and said. "Oh, and he has Jamie's spiel about the beach trip, too, and I got the men 'stomping and clapping'. Did you send her those, Jim?"

"No. He didn't even tell me he had it. Send them, too, Dad."

"Just did, Katie Bug. We're going home now. I think we've had enough excitement for one day."

"You looked good dancing around the room." Kate told her father with a little smirk.

"This family gets to you after a while. Who knows? One of these days before I get too old, I might run into the ocean with you."

"Just be sure I'm there to see it." Kate laughed as she hugged him before he and Meagan left.

Martha and John said goodnight next, and Kate thanked her again for the saving grace that the frilly bib had proven to be and thanked John for his help getting things ready for the party.

"This was fun," Alexis said. "Dad used to have to throw one of his big parties to have this many people in the house. The rest of the time it was just the two of us…and maybe one or two of my friends for a little while." She was already holding Jo and gave her a big hug. "And my baby sister walked on her own. We're proud of her, aren't we, Jamie?"

Jamie smiled and nodded.

Looking down at Jamie and ruffling his hair, JD chuckled and said, "He ought to sleep well tonight."

Kate and Castle just looked at their son and nodded. "I'm pretty sure we will, too," Castle answered.