192. Chapter 192

Chapter 192

In early October, Lieutenant Cain came to Beckett's office looking like he had something on his mind.

"Come in, Cain. What can I do for you?"

"I want your opinion. I was thinking about taking the captain's exam next time it comes up. I never thought about it until recently, but I wanted to ask if you think I've got what it takes."

"Cain, from everything I've heard from others, you were only a couple of steps short of captain for a lot of the past year and a half. If you're interested, I'll help you with whatever parts of the job you aren't already familiar with. So start with not second guessing yourself again. You would make a fine captain. Are Williams and Morrell interested? I'd be glad to do the same for them."

"No. I don't think they want to give up being in the field. We talked about it last week. The thing is, I've been seeing firsthand the difference a captain can make in a precinct, and I'd like to be in a position to make that difference. I think maybe I could do that."

"I think you could, too. The next exam is next year…sometime in the fall, I think. You'll need to know the deadline for your application. I'll see if I can work up my mentoring chops again, and we'll get to work on it."

"I didn't expect that, but I'd appreciate it."

"Roy Montgomery taught me to be a better detective, and Victoria Gates did the same to prepare me to be a captain. I've done that for a couple of lieutenants at the twelfth, and one of them just replaced the captain who transferred in to replace me. I'm just passing it on."

"Then I thank everybody in the chain," he answered, and went back to the bullpen looking encouraged.

That night Kate told Castle, "I get to mentor another good candidate for captain." She stopped and smiled. "It's Lieutenant Cain, the one our daughter has wrapped around her little finger."

"He seems like a good guy. You're making a difference, Kate. You're meeting your goals."

"I'm really proud of the progress we've made in the precinct. It feels good to see the pride they're rebuilding in what they do. We're still working on the closure rates, but we're getting there.

"Part of the reason for the progress is that you just said 'progress that we've made', not progress that I've made'. You put yourself in the process as part of the people you work with. They see that."

xxxxx

According to Sergeant Pittman, Ms. Ogden and the other community leaders had decided that Beckett was good for the community. There was more effort at positive interaction with the police. As Beckett arrived for one meeting with Sergeant Pittman and the community group, Ms. Ogden was just leaving a meeting with community leaders from other boroughs, and the room was emptying.

"Miss Ada, is that you?" Beckett called.

Miss Ada all but squealed like Lanie, and said, "Captain Beckett!" and hugged her with just short of a death grip. "How is that good looking husband of yours…and those adorable kids?"

"We'll be at your Halloween party next week and you can see for yourself."

"I take it you know each other," Ms. Ogden said dryly.

"This woman cleaned up the mess that disgusting Captain Bronson left behind a few years ago…made us feel like somebody cared again."

"We still take our children to the Halloween party at her Kid's Place every year," Beckett told Ogden. "It's so much fun. Some of the families from that precinct are there, too. Even when they've transferred out, a few still go for the party."

"I'm sure Mr. Castle's favorite part of the party is the costume walk. Her husband enjoyed us enough he'd bring Jamie and come in and read to the kids. Then he'd help me out and give his son time to sit in class with the toddlers for a little while. It surprised me, a big time writer plopping himself down to read to us and bringing his son to play at Kid's Place."

"Can you stay awhile, Ada? I want to hear about this Halloween party," Ms. Ogden said.

"Sure. Can I sit in on your meeting?"

"Glad to have you."

After the meeting with Beckett, Ms. Ogden asked Ada about how community action went after Beckett left the fifty-first. Hearing that a friend of Beckett's took it over, without losing momentum, and Beckett had mentored the one who just replaced him, Ms. Ogden seemed encouraged. "So they send her to fix things?" she asked.

"I haven't exactly heard that, but it's looking that way, isn't it?" Miss Ada answered. "With Captain Beckett…it just comes from her heart, but she worked her way up the ranks at the twelfth with Captain Roy Montgomery. He was always good about community work, too, and Captain Gates didn't let it suffer when she came in. Then Captain Beckett took over from her. No mess to clean up there."

"And now she's working with us." There was a little pause. "I thought I had a good handle on what's going on with the community action work in the city, Ada," Ms. Ogden said, "but you're out of my league. How do you know these things?"

"Curiosity, knowing a lot of people, big ears, and lots of questions," she answered playfully. "I know you can count on Captain Beckett. Now what did you want to know about the Halloween party?"

xxxxx

Halloween excitement was happening at the Castle household. Castle had infused his costume enthusiasm in both children, and they were talking about what they wanted, changing their minds often at first.

After watching 101 Dalmatians for the first time, Jo decided Mommy should be Cruella De Vil and she would be a Dalmatian. They worked out a little routine for the costume walk where Jo would growl and pretend to bite Cruella on the leg right above the ankle and then escape. The parents carefully emphasized that it would be a pretend bite and showed Jo how to do that. Martha had the perfect coat, long red gloves, and a long cigarette holder in her school's costume stock, and Castle immediately ordered a black and white Cruella wig from the place Martha recommended. "I have a black dress and red shoes," Kate said, breathing a sigh. "Looks like I'm set. Now we just need to costume our little Dalmatian. I can't believe my own child is making me be the bad guy."

Jo laughed and looked at Jamie. "Mommy's gonna be Cruella." Jamie laughed, too.

Jamie and his father decided on Peter Pan and his shadow. Castle would be Peter Pan, and Jamie would be the shadow, all in black, and they practiced coordinated movements for the costume walk.

At the party, Ryan and Esposito gave Castle a hard time about wearing tights again, but it didn't last long. Having grown up in theaters, he had watched quite serious Shakespearean actors parading across the stage unashamed in tights and tunics, and it didn't bother Richard Castle at all.

As the awaited Halloween party progressed, Castle and Jamie performed their way through the costume walk, and Castle went from just having his shadow mimic him as he walked, to making jerky movements, to going faster, and suddenly slower; but his shadow was well rehearsed and didn't miss a trick.

When everyone had watched her men and finished applauding, Kate, looking every inch the part of Cruella, angrily stalked in wearing the voluminous fake fur coat Martha provided, her red high heels, black dress, and Cruella wig, and struck a pose. After taking a puff from her cigarette holder, she demanded, "Where is that annoying little furball?" Jo ran in past her, and she grabbed her up and put her under one arm with Jo wiggling and barking. Then as Cruella walked triumphantly across the room, Jo wriggled and kicked and dropped to the floor, growled and gave her mother a faux bite on the ankle, and then ran the rest of the way out on her own. Cruella followed less triumphantly.

Out of sight of the crowd, Beckett scooped up her giggling little Dalmation and asked, "Was that fun?" sounding like her mommy again. Jo nodded and barked and snuggled into her mommy hug.

The men of the family came to say they were proud of them and collect their own pats on the back.

"Jamie, that was amazing. You and Daddy were perfectly together. I was so proud of you." Jamie beamed at the praise.

"The Castle/Rodgers genes explain some of the family theatrics," Castle said, then waved a hand in Kate's direction. "But some may have been picked up from environmental influences."

"There are certainly enough of them to absorb," Kate answered playfully.

The party was as much fun as ever. Miss Ada told Jamie how much she missed seeing him and told Jo she could come with her daddy any time she wanted.

xxxxx

As unlikely as it seemed, by Thanksgiving, the goals that 1PP wanted Kate to accomplish at the twenty-seventh were looking good. There was still work to be done, but with the exception of the occasional crises that happen now and then in a police precinct, Kate's time at the twenty-seventh was pretty calm now. The general calm had allowed her time for Jo's third birthday, and the winter holidays were looking good, too. One of the lieutenants who didn't have family in the area was going to cover Thanksgiving weekend for her; and a month ago she had already arranged enough time for him to visit his family out of state for Christmas. Another Lieutenant, was taking three days of Christmas week for her. She had already arranged equal holiday time for him.

She had taken precious little time off since she was assigned to the twenty-seventh, and her family was excited that she was free for the tree farm visit and to help start the decorating for Christmas.

Gates' daughters were going to be home for Thanksgiving; so the Castles asked if the Gates family would like to join theirs at the loft for the big feast, and the two daughters were excited about it. Lanie and Frank weren't able to get home to either of their families, and they would be there, too. So on Thanksgiving morning, the Castles were preparing a feast for sixteen. Every leaf available was added to the long table, bought during the time when Castle and Martha sometimes hosted large dinner parties, and it would barely seat them all, even with the children at the corners next to their parents. Family members were bringing food, the couple had prepared as much as possible beforehand, and they were up early working through the things that had to wait until that day.

The Gates' daughters, Jasmine and Cassandra, Cassie for short, blended into the group as easily as their parents. They were thrilled to meet Castle and Nikki Heat, although their mother had mentioned that Kate took exception to being called Nikki. Jamie and Jo enjoyed the extra attention, and the group enjoyed the day. During the late afternoon when everyone was talking in randomly changing groups, JD took Rick and Kate aside and told them he was worried about Alexis.

"What's wrong? Is she sick?" Rick asked, immediately jumping to the worst possible conclusion.

"Not now, but the way she's running herself down trying to keep her A average in all the classes she's taking, she could be before long. It's like she's set herself some kind of deadline nobody else has set for her and she's scared to death she won't make it."

"She's always been driven, but it's really getting that bad?" her father asked.

"Both of us take our classwork seriously, but she's always pushed herself a little bit harder. I used to be able to talk her through it and get her to ease up a little, but she's taking too many hours and there's lab time on top of the class hours and study time on the back of all that. I'm glad there are some holidays built into the rest of the year to give her a little break. I'm hoping to get her to take less on herself next semester. Medical school is pretty demanding, and overloading on classes is rough." He was quiet for a moment and finally said, "Mom, I was hoping you would talk to her. She kind of idolizes you. She's seen the kinds of things you've dealt with in your life and the kind of job you do, and she values your opinion. I'm not getting anywhere, and I doubt Dad would, either. She knows we worry about her too much, even though she's told me how good Dad was at talking her through things when she was growing up. She knows you worry about her, too; but she responds better to your style of discussing things."

"I'll do my best. Maybe Lanie could help, too. She knows the medical school experience firsthand…and she saw Alexis refuse to go easy on herself way more than once when she was interning at the morgue."

"Victoria is another strong, determined, clear headed female influence, and Meagan held her own as a Marine officer and in a military oriented security firm, then built her own personal training business," Castle offered. "Mother might fall into the category of worrying about her too much, but she's done well for herself, under some difficult conditions, too. This room is full of strong, successful women she should be willing to listen to."

"That's true," JD agreed.

"I'll talk to Lanie…see if we can formulate a plan," Beckett promised.

JD sighed, looking relieved, and said, "Thank you." Kate went to find Lanie to take her in the study, but Jasmine and Cassie Gates and Alexis were playing a game with Jo and Jamie.

Kate looked perplexed then suggested quietly, "The gym. The gym should be uninhabited."

As an excuse, she and Lanie went to Gates with the excuse of showing her the gym, which she actually hadn't seen, and invited Meagan, reasoning that she had helped plan it and would be a good guide to the gym's features. The four women decided on the best way to approach the discussion and found Alexis later when the study was clear of others. By then they had invited Martha to join them. Kate started by sitting next to Alexis on the sofa, saying she looked tired and asking if everything was okay. When Alexis admitted her class load was wearing her down, they asked if she wanted to join them in the study, and Lanie went into medical school experience mode, relating what she was dealing with at the same time in her own college years.

Gates pointed out that some students take heavy class loads so they can finish earlier, get into the job market, and start paying off their loans. "Ray and I started putting money into the girls' college funds when they started kindergarten, but college costs have skyrocketed so much since then that we've had to resort to student loans for the last two years for each of them. But you don't have that to worry about that, Alexis. Is there a reason you're taking so many classes?"

"Not really. I've always pushed myself, and I just want to be a doctor. Even my counselor and a couple of my teachers are asking that question lately, though."

"Maybe that should be a sign," Lanie told her, "From actual experience in medical school, I can tell you a lot of the classes aren't a walk in the park, and you need to pace yourself. With all the summer classes you've taken, you're already ahead of where I was at your age. I partied, but I was no slouch when it came to getting the work done. I didn't lag behind by any means. It won't do you any good to run yourself down to the point that you have to take time off to recover from hurting your health."

"JD has been telling me the same thing, but sometimes I seem to have tunnel vision and can only see the goal ahead of me."

"We've talked about my rabbit holes," Kate mentioned. "They aren't a healthy place to be. Don't go building your own."

"Maybe I'll try to cut back a little next semester," Alexis agreed, reluctantly admitting, "I might be at the edge of a rabbit hole."

"There are successful women in this room who got to where they are with a lot of hard work and determination, and we all know you're going to be another one. Don't wear yourself out before you get there," Gates cautioned. "Any job that carries a lot of responsibility will periodically give you enough opportunities to run yourself into the ground because there's no other choice. Finding a balance that gives you the strength to get through those times is worth learning early. All of us are speaking from experience in the trenches."

"And on top of that, girl, you have a wonderful man who loves you. Don't forget he's important, too."

"Yeah. He is." She smiled. "Thanks for talking to me. There isn't much I can do about the rest of this semester, but I'll cut back a little on the next one."

"Good. 'Cause you're still my beautiful, grown up little girl; but Honey, you do look exhausted," Kate said. Then she put an arm around Alexis' shoulders, pulled her over, and kissed the top of her head; and all of them laughed.

Martha had been sitting quietly as the extent of the support system for her granddaughter showed itself.

"And, my prodigy intern, before you register for next semester, call Aunt Lanie with the classes you're considering. I can help you decide how to balance them a little better."

At that point, Jasmine and Cassie piped up from the doorway, "Mom, you're sitting in on a strong woman group and didn't invite us?" Cassie asked with mock indignation.

"Yeah, Mom. Not sure we're forgiving you for that."

"Well, don't stand there at the door. Get in here and tell us what you're doing, too." Martha insisted. "Are you working too hard at school, too, Cassie?"

"Not like it sounds like Alexis is."

"I'm sorry, girls," Gates told her daughters. You need to know what all of these women have accomplished. Let me introduce them in a little more depth than I did earlier, and then you should ask them questions. I think you'll be impressed with every one of them."

After the new, more informative introductions, Jasmine started by asking Meagan about being a woman in combat and the response she got from men she outranked. All the women gave the younger women honest answers.

Jo wandered in early in their conversation, and Kate held her in her lap as their two newest additions to the extended family talked to women they could call good role models, women who seemed interested in them..

As they talked to Martha about her school, Meagan nodded lovingly toward Jo and asked Kate with a smile, "Do you think she understands any of this? She seemed to be listening to all of it."

"Maybe the tone of the conversation has caught her attention, or maybe it's that all of us are so involved in it. I don't know that she's understood more than a few words here and there," Kate answered. "But I'd settle for some strength by osmosis until she's old enough to understand."

There was a sudden burst of laughter and noisy conversation in the living room where all the men were, and Kate added, "I think osmosis of good men vibes has already worked into Jamie; and sadly, I have to admit he's old enough to begin to understand."

All the women talked for a while longer and rejoined the men before the guests started to head home.

Later, when everyone was gone…or tucked in, Rick asked Kate, "How did it go with Alexis?"

"She had five successful women talk to her as an equal, and I think she accepted what we said well. She said she'd cut back a little bit next semester. And Victoria's daughters joined us and talked to all of us. They were given the same respect as equals as Alexis. It was an amazing kind of conversation that I'd only experienced with my mother when I was a teenager…never a group of people as impressive as my mom."

"Your mom was there, too, you know. I'm absolutely certain some of her wisdom came from your lips."

"I probably did use some of her ideas here and there," she admitted.

"Let's lie down and talk there," Rick suggested. They collapsed on the bed, clothes and all, on top of the covers.

"I love being surrounded by family," he said, "and Cassie and Jasmine fit right in. Did I tell you Ray wants their family to go to the tree farm with us tomorrow?"

"That should be fun. Orin will help him with the fine points of tree felling. And I don't have to stay home this year."

"John is staying home with Mother this year. Ray can fill in for the tree felling." He turned toward Kate and kissed her forehead. "Today was fun, but I feel like we haven't slowed down much since about six-thirty this morning."

"That's probably because we haven't slowed down much since about six-thirty this morning," Kate answered matter-of-factly.

The talking gradually turned into mumbling a few words now and then, and before long, they were sound asleep.

xxxxx

The tree farm trip was more fun because the Gates family had never been there. The Castle contingent introduced them to the process of a flurry of finding and felling a tree, coffee, shopping, lunch, looking at displays, shopping, visiting reindeer pens, and visiting Santa.

Jasmine and Cassie had a picture taken with one of them on each of Santa's knees; and the Castle children took their traditional picture with Alexis and JD leaning on each side of Santa's chair, Jamie on one of his knees, and Jo on the other. Castle had extra prints made for everybody and distributed them to the Gates' and to his own family. One would go to Martha and John when they got home.

The highlight of the trip, though, happened as soon as they got there. The first order of business was finding the trees they wanted and tagging them, and then finding Orin to supervise the sawing. Orin laughed when he saw Ray.

"You keep bring me new ones to train," he told Castle. "Will you ever run out of new people to bring here?" he asked as he got the saw ready.

"I hope not. Half the fun in life is meeting new people. Orin, this is Ray. Ray, this is Orin. He's been here as long as I've been bringing Alexis…back when we were both a lot younger. Listen to him, and you and I can be sawing down a tree in a few minutes."

Orin gave Ray some instructions, and he listened carefully, and asked a couple of questions. Everyone having picked out their trees, The men took turns cutting them down in different combinations. Castle and Ray started with the one the Gates family had chosen, Then JD and Jim cut the one for Alexis and JD, and so on until there were bound trees ready for delivery to the appropriate homes in the city the next day, Ray asked for theirs to be tied to the top of his SUV so they would have it up in time for his daughters to help decorate before they had to go back to school or home.

xxxxx

The days at the precinct between Thanksgiving and Christmas went quickly. Her least favorite activity, scheduling, took some hits as several people wanted to change plans at the last minute, but she somehow managed to work it out. Muggings were more frequent than usual, and Robbery was a bit busier than usual, but it wasn't overwhelming.

Her phone rang with Castle's ringtone. "Hey, Beautiful. I'm with our children heading for Remy's. Any chance you'll be finished early enough to meet us for burgers? We haven't been in a while."

"I was here early this morning juggling schedules. I'm leaving now."

"Mommy's gonna meet us there." There was cheering from the back seat.

"Did you hear that, Mommy?"

"Yeah. On my way. See you there."

They all arrived about the same time and as usual, Ruby made a big thing about how much the children had grown and how they needed to come in more often. They joked with Jamie, made sure they kept Jo's ketchup fingers out of her hair, and laughed at what their old selves would have thought if anyone had told them this would happen. Then they all went home.

Later in the evening, Castle said, "Oh, I got a text from Bentley today. He's going to be in town to see Gina for Christmas and wants to take all ten of us out for dinner. We're supposed to decide if Baby Beckett is ready for a seven o'clock dinner in a restaurant yet. Knowing Gina, I suspect a nice one. That is if you want to go. You don't have to, you know."

"I don't think I'm ready to chance a nice dinner out with Gina when Jo is pushed past her bedtime in public. Gina isn't big on kids anyway. I'm pretty sure she won't appreciate getting dressed up for a nice restaurant and having to deal with a three year old, especially one who looks so much like me, being grumpy because she's sleepy. None of us need that pressure. We could see if Ryan and Jenny would have time to babysit."

"We can offer to babysit on a weekend to give them a day off for Christmas shopping. So you're okay going out with Bentley and Gina?"

"It's way better than having them at the loft for a family dinner again. Rick, they're both connected to your work, and I like Bentley as much as you do. Of course I'll go with you."

Bentley called a couple of days later, as promised. Castle told him they'd have to squeeze dinner in between the book signings Gina and Paula had him doing for holiday promotions of his latest books, for both adults and children. He had been on a few morning talk shows starting around Thanksgiving, offering the nationwide public a few words and dropping his particular brand of charm in front of the cameras.

"Gina has that schedule, so chose a day with her, and let us know. We'll arrange babysitting for dinner. Maybe you can come with me one afternoon to take my offspring to Central Park and help them run off some energy in the wide open spaces before Gina and Kate are home from work."

"I'd enjoy that. I'll bet they've grown a lot since last time I saw them."

"Jamie is almost seven, and I suspect he'll be able to legitimately sing that Christmas song about wanting two front teeth for Christmas this year. And Jo will be able to carry on a conversation with you this time. Of course, they're conversations from a three year old mind, but they're crystal clear."

Bentley laughed and said, "I'm looking forward to it. We'll wear them out."

"You're an optimistic man, Bentley Keane." See you next week."

"I'll call when I get there."

xxxxx

The Ryans couldn't babysit while the rest of the entire Castle clan was out for dinner. Kate mentioned it when Gates called on a business matter and they had a short conversation afterward. Then Gates volunteered, "Ray and I could come by and stay with them. We've had to get children to bed before," she offered."

"Ray wouldn't mind?"

"You know Ray. My husband is as much of a man-child as yours. He wouldn't mind."

"I wasn't asking you to babysit, I just…"

Gates laughed. "Don't look a gift house in the mouth, Kate. Just go with it. Aunt Captain volunteered."

Kate laughed, too. "Okay, then I'll text you the times. Thank you."

xxxxx

The children sounded thrilled to have their babysitters all to themselves. They had only seen them when there were a lot of other adults around for them to talk to, and they practically pushed their parents out the door to go out to dinner.

Rick and Kate shared a car with Martha and John and met Bentley and Gina at a very nice restaurant, the rest of the family getting there within a short time later. The staff had several tables put together in a big square when they arrived, and Bentley told them to order whatever they wanted. He seemed to be in a particularly good mood, and after everyone had ordered, conversation flowed freely. Even Gina seemed more open and friendly.

After the dinner dishes had been cleared, Bentley ordered champagne. Once everyone had been served, he took Gina's left hand, which had been in her lap through most of the meal, and held it where a large diamond could be seen. We have an announcement to make. We're engaged. It's going to be announced at Black Pawn's New Year's Eve party, but we wanted to tell you first."

Everyone at the table congratulated them, toasted their engagement with the champagne, and asked questions about the wedding and where they would live, whether Gina had started looking at dresses, etc. Then Bentley insisted they all have dessert while they talked about getting married.

When they were leaving, Kate took time to go to Gina and tell her, "Your ring is beautiful. But the best thing is that you look happy."

"Thank you. I am happy." She looked as if she were trying to make herself say something and made a couple of false starts before finally admitting, "When we were in Europe, I began to see why things didn't work out for Richard and me. I saw the way the two of you took care of each other. I'm trying to treat Bentley the way you treat Richard. And I'm trying to be as honest with him as Richard says you are with each other. That isn't my natural inclination, but I'm getting better at it."

"It wasn't natural for me to be that honest about relationships, either. Rick and I were both gun-shy about a new relationship. But pushing ourselves to be honest has paid off. And when you really love somebody, wanting to take care of them feels natural. Are you nervous about this?"

"A little bit, maybe. Richard and I started out okay; but it was never much more than just okay, and we ended up such a spectacular failure. I guess I'm a little gun-shy, too. Bentley hasn't been married before."

"Trust the two of you. If it's what you both want, you'll work it out."

"I can't believe I'm talking to you about this. You don't want to hear about Richard and…"

"No. Not really. But I do hope you and Bentley will be happy."

"Thank you."

Bentley came to Gina's side and put an arm around her waist. "I'm stealing my fiancé away from you," he said.

"Fiancé is such a nice word," Gina answered with a smile for him. "Goodnight, Kate."

"What was the talk with Gina about?" Castle asked, coming to offer her his arm.

"I'll tell you on the way home," she answered. She was smiling, so he assumed it wasn't bad.

A few days later, Bentley met Castle at the loft in time to re-introduce himself to Jo after her nap. Then the two men took her to meet Jamie at school and they all went to Central Park. Bentley had brought a soccer ball with him, and when they found an open space that wasn't overly inhabited, he asked Jamie, "Do you play football?"

He held up the ball, and Jamie smiled and said, "Not much, but I don't think that's a football."

"It is in England. Here I suppose it's a soccer ball. In England, that's what we call football. You don't play?"

"Sometimes we play at school, but I haven't played much."

"Want to kick the ball around with me?"

"Sure."

"Would you catch your sister, please," Castle asked him. "She's wandering off a little too far."

As Jamie herded his sister back to the fold, Castle told Bentley, "That's where his education is lacking. I've never played sports. Mother wasn't the least bit interested, and there wasn't a man, or even an athletic woman around to spark an interest. And as I got older, I seemed to have some appeal to the girls without it, so I saw no need to do something I wasn't interested in."

"Just to look at you, I'd think you might have played football…American football. You're in good shape."

"I did that to keep the girls interested. Now I do that to keep up with Kate. She's ten years younger than I am, and I don't want her to notice it too much before I've deteriorated to the point it can't be missed."

Bentley laughed, slapped him on the back, and called to Jamie, "Show me what you can do." He dropped the ball on the grass and kicked it to Jamie, who returned it reasonably well. Bentley showed him some of the basics and had him practice them, and Jo watched with interest. When Jamie and Bentley stopped for a little break, Jo went over to the ball and tried some of what they had been doing. "You should get her a smaller ball and let her try it. What she's doing isn't bad, but she's not that big yet."

"Will you show me some of those basics again so maybe I can do a little something with him and not feel totally humiliated?"

"Sure. Hey, Jamie. Want to see what Daddy can do?"

"Yeah." He sat down in the grass, and Jo plopped down beside him, and they watched as Castle tried what Bentley showed him, trying hard and putting on a show of making faces for the laughing children when he did something really badly. Then they chased Jo around and let her chase them around, and enjoyed the afternoon.

"So is there any hope for me?" Castle asked Bentley as he picked up the soccer ball and handed it to him.

"I wouldn't give up your day job and try to go pro, but for a guy with no interest in sports, that wasn't bad at all."

"Kate is better at these things. Her dad throws a baseball with Jamie sometimes and pitches for him to practice batting. He and Kate are big baseball fans, but they've convinced me I don't have to play ball to be a good dad."

"And you don't. I've never seen a better dad," Bentley assured him.

"I guess we'd better get back. It's getting dark, and Kate and Gina will both be leaving work soon. And you didn't fly to New York to see me…or my adorable children."

"I think I might take a cab back to Gina's place and be there when she gets home. I'm sure you have the rest of the trip under control without me."

"Yeah. We've done this a few times."

"Maybe we can do this again if we have another nice day before I go back home."

"We'd like that." The men shook hands and Bentley dropped to one knee to grab both children in hugs before he left.

It was closer to dark than Castle had realized, so he called for a car and identified the park entrance where they should meet them, and they were at the loft and had ordered a healthy dinner by the time Kate was home.

Then they gave her their reports on their afternoon with Bentley.