250. Chapter 250

After The Lives of Others, Again

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: No others would believe I own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above

Kate stood in their bedroom, looking out over Long Island Sound. To the left and the right she could see the twinkling lights of the towns along Long Island's shore. Before her she could see the lights of several small boats, but nothing further out into the Sound because of fog. No stars were visible, but a full moon shown down, wearing a halo from the fog. She loved this view, although she had to admit that all of the views were spectacular.

Hearing a noise behind her, she turned to another spectacular view, Rick wearing only his boxers. Smiling, she took off her robe and tossed it gently on a chair. She wore only a silk shorty nightgown.

"Is Jo all tucked in?" She asked.

Rick smiled at her. "Mommy did a perfect job of tucking her in, as she always does, but she likes to have Daddy drop by, too."

"She is Daddy's little girl, isn't she?"

Rick shook his head. "No, she's definitely her Mommy's girl. Gorgeous, and smart, and determined, and hard working…"

"And imaginative." Kate added.

"That, too."

"Did she get to sleep all right?"

Rick laughed. "Are you kidding? After today, it was all she could do to keep her eyes open until Daddy told her good night."

"After the birthday party she had, I'm not surprised."

The got into bed and slid to the center of the bed so they could hold on to each other. Kate nuzzled Rick's neck and he kissed the top of her head. "I didn't go overboard on the birthday party, did I, Kate?"

"Rick Castle go overboard on Johanna's fifth birthday? I can't imagine such a thing."

"Honey, I'm serious. Even though I know that Alexis was the most perfect daughter on the planet, and we'll never tell Johanna that, I worried from the time she was old enough to walk until she was out of college."

"Worried? About Alexis? Surely, you can't be serious?"

Rick smiled. "I love it when you hand me a straight line. I am serious and don't call me Shirley." He kissed her forehead. "And I am serious. When I went to boarding schools there were always some young, wealthy, entitled thugs that thought that their money meant that the rules that applied to other people didn't apply to them. And they got away with that, too. A lot."

"Then there were people like my friend Damian Westlake. He was my role model for a while when I was a kid and he turned out to be a killer and a cheater. Then there was that psycho Brandon and his posse of enablers." Rick stopped and thought. "We've run across so many people who thought that money was the end all be all of existence and acted that way. I was always afraid that somehow Alexis would end up one of those people. Especially when you told me about how good girls were the worst when they had their wild child phase."

"Rick, I never meant to make you worry."

"You didn't, actually. Well, I worried a lot. But if you'd told me that there was no chance that Alexis would ever go wild child on me, I still would have worried. So, tell me the truth, honey. Did I go overboard on Jo's party?"

Kate kissed him. "You did not. You got her nice gifts, but didn't go overboard with any ten foot tall robotic teddy bears, no complete collections of all of the Barbie dolls ever made, no toddler sized electric Ferrari, and no trips to the moon. All in all, a very nice selection of presents. And you didn't try to outshine Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jenny, Uncle Javi and Auntie Lanie, Grandma Martha or Big Sis Alexis' presents. And the gift bags we got for Jo's little friends were cute, but not overdone."

"The food was excellent, but no kid cares that you had the ice cream flown in from a little shop in San Francisco. They just want ice cream that's cold and sweet. The cake was nice, even if you did spend the entire afternoon at the baker's "supervising" him."

"That might have been a bit too much?"

Kate nodded seriously. "More than a bit too much. But Jo has no idea you did that, so no harm, no foul."

"So, no real problems?" Rick asked, relieved.

"Except for the clown." Kate replied.

"The clown! The clown was great. The clown was epic! The clown was world class."

"Ricko the Clown?" Kate said, rolling her eyes. "You spent two hours on your clown makeup and as soon as you walked out, she screamed, "Daddy!"

"She loved my act." Rick said with as much dignity as he could muster.

"She couldn't stop laughing when your wig caught fire. And when Uncle Javi hit you in the head with the fire extinguisher, and you both collapsed in a heap, I thought we were all going to wet our pants."

"Ricko the Clown needs work. I'll do better next year."

Kate ran her hand over his cheek. "All in all, I'd say Daddy gets an A for the birthday party."

Rick smiled. "I am the birthday party go to guy, after all."

"Oh! May I remind you that not all of your birthday parties have been successful?"

"Not successful?" Castle grabbed his chest theatrically. "Name one."

"My birthday surprise just before Johanna was born, for one."

"What was wrong with our trip to the Bahamas?"

"I was seven months pregnant and was airsick the whole flight down to the Bahamas. Have you ever tried to bend over to vomit with a seven month old fetus inside you?"

"But once we got there you had a good time, right?"

"Once I spent two days recovering from being airsick."

"Well, you did need a long rest after the grind of the murder cases."

"And the only swim suits I had were bikinis and you teased me unmercifully about how big I was."

"Unmercifully?" Rick stared thoughtfully at the ceiling. "I don't remember unmercifully. I think I may have told you that you were glowing on occasion. Besides, you got me back."

"I admit that swimming in our private pool with no bikini on attracted your attention."

"You have attracted my attention, and more, since the first day I met you."

"I suppose that the Bahamas trip wasn't that bad." Kate admitted. "But my birthday present to you just before we were married pretty much set the bar too high for you to beat."

"Possibly." He conceded. "But I intend to spend the rest of our lives giving you the very best birthdays I can manage."

"And you have."

"So I am the birthday go to guy?" He asked, quite satisfied.

"And you'll get a chance at organizing another birthday soon." She took his hand and placed it gently on her stomach.