177. Chapter 177

Chapter 177

"Jo's awake," Jamie told his parents sleepily as he reached the landing holding Bear by one paw. Jamie not only looked like his father, he woke up the same way…slowly; and when waking up, his sense of fun and humor was still intact, just more subdued. By the time he finished his breakfast, he was usually alert, though.

"Thanks, Munchkin," Kate answered. "I'll go get her. Breakfast is almost ready. Go and wash your hands."

It was Saturday, so nobody had to be anywhere that day. Rick and Kate were putting together a big family breakfast, so Rick took over while Kate went to get their daughter. She was greeted with "Mama! Mama! Mama!" Jo pulled herself up to stand holding on to the crib rails and she had a big smile on her face waiting for her mother to pick her up.

"Good morning, Sweet Girl," Kate said, lifting her over the rail and planting a big, noisy kiss on her wiggly daughter's cheek and giving her a hug. "Ready for breakfast?" She talked to Jo on the way down the stairs, washed her hands, and put her in her high chair.

"Want to go to the park this morning before it gets too hot outside?" Rick asked his son.

"Yeah. The slide burns when it's hot," he answered, still sounding sleepy. Then he perked up a little bit when his father put another plate on the table. "Mmmmmm! Lots of bacon."

"Don't try to eat all of it. I want some, too," Rick teased, pulling the plate farther away from Jamie and making his little boy grin mischievously and try to reach it.

They finished breakfast, got everybody dressed, and then went to the park. After playing for a while, Jamie asked as they walked home, "When we get home, can I see the pictures again?"

"The ones we looked at last night?" Kate asked him.

"Yeah. Those."

"I'll get them for you when we get back," Rick promised. He had a feeling about what was coming. Just then his phone rang and he saw that he had an incoming call from Alexis. "It's Alexis. Can you take Jamie for a minute?" he asked his wife. "Hold on to the side of the stroller, Son. Walk with Mommy for a little while."

"Hey, Dad. Is it okay if we use the beach house this weekend? We haven't had a totally free weekend in a while now, and it sounds like a nice place to enjoy it."

"Sure does, and yes it's available. You have your key, right?"

"Yeah. What's up? You sound a little distracted."

"A little bit, oh observant one," he admitted. Rick dropped back a little farther behind the rest of the family and talked to Alexis more quietly, After the talk last night about Jamie and Jo looking so much like us, Jamie wanted to see pictures of me at his age and of Kate at Jo's. He went into one of his thinking spells, and we suspect there will be more questions this morning. He's already asked to see the pictures again. I'm not too concerned about explaining a half-sister and a brother-in-law, but I suspect I'm going to have to explain an ex-wife, too. Not excited about that topic turning up."

"Want some backup?"

"You don't have to do that. I'm the parent. I need to take care of it."

"We're already packed. We can swing by before we leave town. You know. Let him know how much we love him before we go. If he doesn't bring it up, you have a reprieve and another chance to hug your daughter and son-in-law."

"Well, when you put it that way…"

"We'll see you soon, Dad."

"We'll be looking for you."

Once they were back at home, Jamie asked "Can I see the pictures again?"

"Come with me," Castle told him. He took out the same pictures from the night before.

Then his son asked, "Can I see your grown-up pictures, too…and Alexis when she was little?"

Castle found a picture of Kate standing beside him, one of Alexis when she was Jo's age, one when she was Jamie's age, and another one of Alexis and JD from Memorial Day earlier in the summer.

Jamie looked hard at the pictures he had seen the night before, then looked at the pictures of Alexis when she was those ages. Then he looked at the pictures of his parents and Alexis and JD now, finally dropping the question they all suspected was on his mind. "Why doesn't Alexis look like any of us? JD doesn't look like us, either."

"There was a knock on the door, and their backup had arrived. Jamie came to meet his siblings, and Alexis picked him up, the two of them sharing a big hug. "I just looked at our pictures and Mommy and Daddy's pictures. Why don't you and JD look like us?"

"I look a little bit like Dad, but not nearly as much as you do. And I look a little bit like Grams…and a little bit like my mother."

"But Mommy doesn't have orange hair or blue eyes. You don't look like her."

"You and I have the same Daddy, but I have a different mother."

"Mommy isn't your mother?" The little boy looked shocked.

Castle decided Alexis had taken enough of the pressure for him, that it was his mess, and he had to take ownership of it. He gestured for Alexis to put Jamie down, and then knelt to talk to him. "Jamie, a long time ago I was married to Alexis's mother. Her name is Meredith."

"But you're married to Mommy." His little boy didn't look happy at all.

"That was before I knew Mommy. And Meredith and I had Alexis like Mommy and I had you and Jo. After a while, we didn't love each other anymore, and Meredith wanted to go somewhere else without us; so she left and we got a divorce."

"Bailey's mommy and daddy got a divorce, and he was sad. He said he wouldn't get to see his daddy anymore. He was so sad that Mrs. Roberts let him sit in her lap and hugged him while she read our story. "Lexis's mommy left her and didn't come back?"

"She didn't come back very much," Alexis answered, and Jamie turned around to listen to his sister. "She only came now and then; so when I was little like you, it was just Dad and me. You and Jo and I have the best daddy in the world." She sat down on the sofa with Jamie standing on the floor in front of her.

"But mommies are supposed to stay and take care of their little girls," Jamie said, looking both sad and outraged on his sister's behalf.

"Well mine wasn't very good at being a mother. As long as I've known Kate, she's taken better care of me than my real mother ever did. That's why I asked her if I could call her Mom."

Kate was standing next to Alexis, and she interrupted then. "Do you know what the word 'adopted' means, Jamie?"

Her son nodded. "Mina said her parents 'dopted her a little brother. He isn't a baby, though. He can already talk a little bit."

"That's how Alexis and I are. I loved your daddy, and I loved Alexis. She didn't have a mommy at home, and I didn't have a daughter, so we adopted each other, and she calls me Mom."

Looking back at Alexis sadly, he asked his sister, "You didn't have a mommy until Daddy married my mommy?"

"Well, I sort of had a mom for a little while when Dad married Gina, but…" Castle's frantic motions behind Jamie were too late to stop Alexis from opening that brand shiny new can of worms.

With a gesture that Martha Rodgers would surely have been proud to witness, Jamie dramatically held his hands palms out in front of him and said, sounding beyond shocked, "Wait. Daddy married Miss Gina, too?"

Castle hung his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Turning to his father, complete with the adorable little twist of his hand, Jamie spread his arms in question and demanded, "Why?!"

There was quiet muttering from his father that the adults in the room understood as, "I'm still asking myself the same thing." Castle felt as if he were in the box at the twelfth.

"But Mommy loves you. She's nice to you. Miss Gina is mean…and she yells at you," Jamie continued, looking totally bumfuzzled and expressing his opinion with the complete honesty of a small child. "Were you married to Mommy then, too?"

Everyone else in the room was biting their lips trying not to laugh out loud.

"No, Buddy. I still didn't know your mom when I married Gina. She didn't yell at me so much then. We weren't married very long. Then we didn't love each other anymore either, and then the yelling started. And I yelled some of the time myself. We got a divorce, too. A couple of years after that, I met your mom and then we got married."

Then there were tears building in the little boy's eyes. "Are you and Mommy going to not love each other and get a divorce, too?"

Castle pulled his son into his arms. "I will never stop loving your mother, Son. Never. When I got divorces before, it was because I married the wrong people. Mommy and I are right together. We'll never get a divorce. Ever. Don't worry. When you're as old as I am, your mommy and I will still be married and still love each other."

Kate came to join them and knelt next to them to add to the reassurance. "I'll never stop loving your daddy, either. And I'll never ever leave you and Jo."

"Does JD have a different mommy, too?"

By this time, Alexis was holding Jo in her lap, and Jo was paying close attention to the back and forth between her brother and her parents. She didn't seem upset yet, but she did seem a little tense.

"Come here, Little Brother," JD said. "Let me answer that question." He helped Jamie into his lap and said, "Alexis told you her mommy left her here with your dad and went far away, right? Well, my parents were there when I was growing up, but they didn't pay much attention to me. My grandfather did, though. He played with me and hugged me and took good care of me when my parents didn't. Then right after I met Alexis, my parents moved far away like Alexis's mother, and they never call me or come to see me anymore. When I came to see Alexis before we were married, I met your parents and liked them a lot and they liked me a lot; so we adopted each other, too. I didn't start out being your brother, but when I married your sister, that made me your brother-in-law. So the law says I'm your brother as long as I'm married to your sister. And before you ask, Alexis and I won't ever stop loving each other either. No divorce is gonna happen in this family."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Know what? I knew you before you were born. Sometimes your mommy let me put my hand on her tummy when you were kicking like Jo did, and I really wanted to be your brother then. I still do."

"Did we 'dopt your grandfather, too?"

"Grandpa John is my grandfather, so yeah, you did. You're sharing your mom and dad with me, and I shared my granddad with you. Then Grandpa John married your Grams, so now he's your step grandfather."

Jamie slumped against JD's chest, looking overwhelmed, and said, "I'm confused."

"I know it's confusing, Little Guy," JD said, giving him a gentle squeeze. "The important thing to remember is that all of us love you and Jo a whole lot, so it's all going to be okay. Alexis is still your sister, I'm still your brother…in-law, and I'm going to always going to think you're my little brother. Nobody is going to get a divorce, so nothing really changes."

"That's right," Alexis told him. "You still have your own bed at our apartment, we'll still take you and Jo to the park and the movies, and we'll still play silly games with you and read you stories. Does that sound okay?"

Jamie just nodded, looking like he had finally reached his official overload of unexpected information.

"You guys are great backup," Castle told Alexis and JD. "Thank you."

"He's important." "No problem," The two separate answers came from them simultaneously.

JD was goofing around, playing with Jamie's head to try to get a laugh, or at least a smile, and he finally succeeded.

"We have to go," JD told him, but we'll come and get you and Jo sometime in the next few days and go to the park."

Jamie nodded again and Kate took him from JD. Hugs and 'thank yous' from both parents were given; and as they were leaving, Jamie was asking his father rather sternly, "Did you marry anybody else before you knew Mommy?" And the two older children could be heard laughing loudly in the hall after the door closed.

Castle assured him he hadn't married anybody else. Kate had Jamie, and Castle had Jo, and they looked at each other, both looking a bit tired.

"Am I going to have to do this again when Jo is a little older?" he asked. "That was tougher than the first time you interrogated me."

"Time will tell. But I'll be right here if you do. I promise."

"I love you, Mrs. Castle."

"Love you back, Mr. Castle."

As the day went on, Jamie was clingier than usual, so when it was time for bed, they had story time, tucked Jo in first, and offered Jamie an extra story. Their son eagerly looked at his bookshelf and put a few back, saying, "Not that one. I can read that by myself."

"You're getting to be such a big boy," Kate said. "You can already read some of your books without us."

"But you'll still read me stories, won't you?" he looked concerned.

"Of course we'll keep reading you stories," Castle assured him. "We'll read you stories until you read so well that you want us to stop and let you read them yourself."

Castle sat down in the rocking chair and held an arm out to bring Kate into his lap, then he helped Jamie up with them. Their son was getting taller again, so sitting with all of them in the rocking chair was getting a little more awkward; but that night it was what they all needed. Kate held the book, Jamie turned the pages, and Castle read to him, his arms around both of them. When the book was finished, they sat with their son and rocked a little longer. He had heard some things that were hard for him to understand that day, and it was obvious that he was still processing the new overload of information as well as a four year old mind was able to.

When they both knelt on the floor next to his bed to kiss him goodnight, he held onto Kate and said, "I don't like Daddy married somebody else before you."

"But if he hadn't married Meredith, we wouldn't have Alexis," she pointed out. "You wouldn't have your big sister…or JD."

"And Daddy would have been lonely if he didn't have Alexis. He wouldn't have had a little girl to love," Castle told him.

"You promise you won't stop loving Mommy?"

"I promise. I will never stop loving your mommy. You know how we say 'always'? That means forever, and I never said that to anybody except your mommy. She's my always."

"And you're her always?"

"He is," Kate promised.

"Okay," Jamie answered, obviously sleepy but still fighting to stay awake for reassurance.

Castle rubbed his back for a little while, and his eyes finally closed, his little body relaxing into sleep.

xxxxx

Walking through the bullpen with her coffee Monday morning Beckett asked, "Lorins, did your husband get the verdict on his transfer?"

"Looks like the numbers worked out and we're staying here, so you're stuck with me."

"Worse things could happen," the captain answered with a smile and continued to her office. Later in the day, Lorins came in to say she'd like to be included in the mentoring, and Beckett promised to send her the same schedule information she sent Malicot, and then they'd talk about it.

Over the next few weeks, the two candidates for captain were in and out of the captain's office being introduced to the requirements of the job that might escape notice when the main focus of someone's day is crime scenes and gathering evidence to identify criminals. They began to see the important but not necessarily exciting areas of the job like budgets, schedules, maintenance, discipline, evaluations, a wide variety of reports, meetings, etc.

In a random moment that had both lieutenants in her office, Beckett asked after a couple of weeks of introducing the wide span of work involved in the job, "Have I completely discouraged you from wanting to be captains yet?"

"I'm waiting until you tell us we've seen everything before I pass judgment," Malicot answered. "But if you talked to us about all this first, I might have had second thoughts about considering it at all."

"Well, tomorrow and next week I have meetings with a couple of community groups. You're welcome to sit in with the community outreach officer and community leaders if you want. That's a part of the job that has some appeal…for me, anyway."

"I might be looking forward to that, as long as I can work around whatever case we have right then," Lorins answered.

"If either of you have to miss it, it happens every month; so it won't be your last chance. You might want to walk with me to get some lunch now and then, too. It's another way to get into the community. You never know when an opportunity to meet somebody who can make a difference might turn up…or somebody you can make a difference for. It's well worth the effort."

"You stay pretty busy, don't you?"

"There's a lot to do that absolutely has to be done and a lot more that absolutely should be done. You do your best to cover as many of the 'should be's' as you can."

"I knew there was way more to this job than meets the eye," Malicot said. "But the last few weeks have been eye opening."

"I remember that feeling," Beckett told them, and I still had things to learn on the job. I should let you get back to your teams. You have my meeting schedule if you can get to the community outreach meetings."

xxxxx

The last weekend before Labor Day, Castle and the two little ones again met Kate at the precinct to get a head start on the weekend, and Alexis and JD joined their parents and siblings at the beach. "Are we getting in the ocean in our clothes again?" Jamie asked as they drove up to the house.

"What do you think, Kate? Is this a now and then thing, or have we started a new tradition?"

"What's a tradition," their son asked, trying out the new word.

"It's something you do regularly like having turkey at Thanksgiving, or a Christmas tree for Christmas, or cake for your birthday." Castle explained enthusiastically.

Following his father's example, Jamie said just as excitedly, "And going in the water in our clothes when we get to the beach?"

"What do you think, Mommy?" Castle asked mischievously.

"I think we have a new tradition."

A big, "Yaaaaaay! Sounded from the little boy in the back seat, and Jo added her voice to his. They knew she had no idea what they were so excited about, but apparently the enthusiasm was contagious enough she needed to join in.

Alexis and JD pulled in next to them and were just as excited as the little ones.

"We're gonna have a new tr…tra…" Jamie looked to his father for help.

"Tradition," Castle prompted.

"Tradition," Jamie repeated as JD helped him out of his car seat. "We're gonna play in the ocean in our clothes and take a walk."

After taking Jo out of her car seat, Castle locked the SUV while Kate opened the front door.

"Let's go," JD said, taking Jamie's hand.

Castle was already heading to the house with Jo, when the rest of his children nearly mowed them down to get into the house and leave their shoes behind on the back porch. "Hey, you can't go without us," their father called out, picking up his pace.

The six of them exploded out of the house and made a run for the beach, plowing into the shallow waves and getting as wet as possible as quickly as possible.

"Why didn't we do this when I was little?" Alexis asked her dad.

"We just never thought of it, I guess…or we probably would have," Castle answered.

"Well, from what I hear, it's gonna happen again," JD shouted above the sound of the waves. "It's a tradition now."

All of them had big grins on their faces at their silliness. They played for a while and then took their walk to dry off a little bit.

Jo wasn't walking on her own yet, but she was getting close, pulling up on the furniture and holding on as she walked around the edges, Now and then they would stop for the children, of whatever age, to look for shells or something that had washed up on the beach, and someone would hold Jo's hands and let her try to walk on the sand. She enjoyed it while the exploration was happening and then someone would pick her up and carry her for a while. She was adding to her vocabulary, too. It wasn't a big one yet, but some of it was becoming more recognizable, and the water was now "wawa". Not a perfect word, but definitely recognizable enough to communicate a thought, and she had several others connected to some of her books. The whole family encouraged her to try saying simple words, and she was responsive, always looking happy when they answered as if her sounds made sense.

When they returned to the house, Kate brought towels, and they all sat on the porch and enjoyed resting in the aftermath of the excitement.

Kate finally told the two little ones, "Bathtime." And Alexis offered to help.

Castle and JD sat on the porch a while longer watching the vast expanse of water before them disappear from the late twilight into the dark of a nearly moonless night.

"I love this place," JD said.

"I'm glad you and Alexis decided to stay a few extra days before you have to get back to the rat race of more classes.

"Thank you for 'dopting me into your family," the younger man said quietly, reminiscent of his little brother's conversation a few weeks before.

"It's been my pleasure. I kind of can't remember when you weren't my older son. And you shared your grandfather with me, too. He treats me like a son…he and Jim both. Now that we got Jamie over the first hurdle, explaining aunts and uncles should be a little easier."

"Yeah. When do you think he's going to notice that Lanie and Frank and Javi and Maria and Gabe don't look much like you guys, either…and Uncle Kevin looks more like me than you…and Aunt Jenny and Sarah Grace are blond?"

Castle chuckled. "It's probably simmering in the back of his mind just waiting for an 'Aha!' moment." There was a pause in conversation before he added, "At least he won't have to ask why I married one of them."

JD laughed outright.

"Thanks for the sympathy," Castle answered sarcastically.

"Anytime, Dad," JD answered with a grin Castle could barely see in the dark. "He's okay with it now, isn't he?"

"Seems to be, but that little mind comes up with questions when we least expect them. I love it, though."

"Jo is going to be asking questions before too long, too. I think she's going to be as smart as her mother," JD answered.

"I know. I love watching them grow into themselves. It's an incredible journey watching these tiny little beings we created from parts of ourselves turn into real, independent people with their own personalities and abilities."

"So, when Alexis and I get around to that, what do you want our little miracle beings to call you?"

"Is this an announcement?"

"No. Just a question. Alexis has enough to do for the next few years. Summer classes all the way through her undergrad time has her ahead timewise. We've agreed she'll take classes in the summers but plan to allow enough time some vacation for at least half of the summer. She needs some down time."

"I'm glad you've helped her realize that. She's always pushed herself hard."

"Babies will wait a little while. At least that's the plan."

"You'll be good parents. As for the question, I think I want to be Granddaddy until they're old enough to think they want to shorten it to Grandad. Are you trying to make me feel old?"

"Not yet," JD teased. "But I'll get there."

"Time for books, Daddy." Jamie came out of the house in his pajamas, looking squeaky clean.

Jo was in Kates arms and wasn't going to be left out, saying "Book, book!"

"Well, let's go in where there's light so we can see the books."

They all went in for story time and bedtime; and afterward, the adults finally got around to their own showers and bedtimes. They had the rest of the weekend ahead of them to relax.