144. Chapter 144

After The Wild Rover

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, and I never will play the wild rover again, and it's no, nay, never, no never no more... Rating: K Time: See above.

Kevin Ryan hadn't been so nervous walking into a precinct since his first day as a rookie cop. He got out of the elevator and self-consciously checked his reflection in the glass interior window. He looked down the length of the bullpen and decided he was in luck. His whole team was there, including Dr. Parish. She said something to Beckett, then turned away to go back to her office.

"Lanie, can you stay for a minute?" He asked as she approached him.

"Sure, Kevin. Problem with a case?"

He shook his head. They all gathered around Beckett's desk, looking at him expectantly.

He smiled at his friends and began. "I guess there's only one way to do this and that's to say, we're pregnant."

There was a moment of silence as his friends absorbed the news, then they all gathered around him, congratulating him and shaking his hand.

"You'll make a great dad, Kevin." Castle said, pumping his hand.

"Considering how well Alexis turned out, I may need some advice from you.

Beckett quickly checked to see that Gates's office was empty. "Don't do that, Ryan. I can tell you, he had nothing to do with Alexis and how she turned out."

"Hey! Who do you think was responsible?"

Lanie hugged Ryan. "Kevin, I'm so happy for you and Jenny. And Kate is right. On both counts."

Javi shook his hand, gripping his hand like a vice. "That's great, bro. We'll all have a little Ryan to raise. Uncle Javi and Uncle Castle and Aunt Beckett and Aunt Lanie. This is going to be great. I can't wait for the little guy to get here."

"Guy?" Beckett said, questioningly. "And how do you know it'll be a guy?"

"Yeah." Lanie added. "You do know that half of all babies are girls, right? You do know where little girls come from?"

"Of course I know, Lanie." Javi said defensively. "It's just, I thought…"He looked at the two women and decided that discretion was the better part of valor. "Boy or girl, I'll still be Uncle Javi."

Castle spoke up, saving Javi from any further embarrassment. "I'll buy you all drinks tonight at the Old Haunt." He smiled at Ryan. "Although just one for Ryan. He has to start being a responsible member of the community and getting home to his wife at a reasonable hour."

Everybody laughed, but then Beckett spoke up. "Okay, we're all happy for Kevin, but we do have work to do. Javi and Ryan, I need you to go over those phone and e-mail records with a fine tooth comb. Castle and I will check the financials, and Lanie, let me know when you have the reports from CSU, okay?"

The team dispersed to get back to work. While they all seemed to be working, all were thinking about Ryan.

Ryan's going to be a dad! Esposito thought. This has got to change things with us. I mean I love Ryan like a brother and I couldn't be happier that he's with Jenny and that he'll soon be a dad. But I'm going to have to watch out for him, more than I do now. Sure, he's a good cop. A damned good cop. But he hasn't had my military training. If things turn to shit, and they will somehow, I've got to step up my game. I'm not going to be the guy who tells Jenny and Little Ryan that I didn't stop Ryan from getting killed.

Espo stopped and thought. And how the hell am I going to do that? Kev's smart. If I take the lead every time, keeping in the background, he'll notice and he'll be pissed. He'll want to be the one to go through the damned doors first instead of me. Maybe I can have a little talk with Beckett. She doesn't want to see anything happen to Ryan. Hell! She doesn't want to see anything happen to any of us. She's not going to be happy with me being the one to take chances all the time. Damn! She'll probably want to go through doors first then. I can't take any chances with her, especially now that she's finally got her act together with Castle. Okay. I can figure this out. He looked over at Castle, sitting in his usual chair by Beckett. Maybe Castle can think if something. He's smart and he's kind of sneaky. I'll have to think of some way to bring the subject up.

Kate Beckett was also looking at Castle while trying to focus on the paperwork in front of her. If things had gone differently with Ryan, he'd be dead down at the docks now. She looked over at Castle. And that's not the first time that things have gone wrong with one of my team going undercover. She thought back to Castle's one undercover assignment. As soon as he'd gotten out of the truck and headed for the poker game, I knew things were going to go wrong. I knew he'd pay no attention to what I'd told him. I had to go in and get him, and just like with Ryan, I found him with a gun to his head. I was so damned angry at him.

She remembered hauling Castle into the break room once they were back at the precinct and chewing him out. "Castle, do you listen to anything I say?"

He had smiled at her. "Sure, I do. Why are you so angry? We got the guy, didn't we?"

She had exploded at him. "Do you realize you could have gotten killed? If that doesn't faze you, how about the fact that I could have gotten killed? I had to go in and get you out with no weapon and no backup. I was just lucky that Russian didn't think a woman could be any threat to him and I was able to disarm him. You will never, ever do something like that to me again! Do you understand? I don't care if you're the President's buddy, I will kick you to the curb if you ever do anything like that again."

She had stormed out of the break room, leaving Castle apologizing to her retreating back. It was only later, sitting at her desk after everyone had gone home that she realized she'd been afraid for Castle.

I was worried about him back when I thought I hated him. What would it be like now that I know we love each other? I'll never know because he's never going undercover again, or if he does, I'm going with him. No matter what anyone says.

I can talk to the boys about this. Let them know that if Castle, or anyone else, suggests his going undercover, they're to shoot the idea down at once. Good idea. I'll talk to them.

Castle stared at the pages in front of him without really seeing them. That's got to be weird for Ryan. Face death and then come home and face a new life. And that, naturally, leads me to Kate. So, everything seems to lead me to Kate these days. I'm starting to feel physically ill when she goes through a damned door and we have no idea what's on the other side. And I'm starting to think about a new life. Well. My life really. But one with Kate in it. It's been one damned thing after another with Kate. I love her, more than I ever loved Meredith or Gina, and as much as I love Alexis and Mom. I can't ask her to stop being a cop. She thought she could do that when we thought Smith could protect her, but now she's got Bracken gunning for her. The only protection she has is being a cop now. And I hate her having to be a cop. And I hate the idea of her not being a cop.

What the hell am I going to do? Maybe I should talk to Ryan or Esposito? Yeah! Espo. He's always given off a kind of a big brother vibe around Kate. I'll talk to him.

Lanie sat in her little office, shuffling some papers for no particular reason. Little Baby Ryan. She'll be so adorable and cute and with those two for parents, she, or maybe he, will be a good kid, too. No hell raiser for the Ryans. And I know who ought to be next. What the hell is wrong with those two? It's been obvious from the first year they were together that they should be together, permanently. How could anyone, especially them, miss it? And a little Castle baby? No, I'm sure they'll have more than one. If little Baby Ryan is cute and adorable, just think what a child of those two will be like! What a heart breaker. Oh my god! And how stubborn will those little ones be? And they'll be smart, too. Look at Alexis.

And after the Castles, and they'd better become the Castles pretty damned soon, there's me. What the hell is wrong with Espo? I think it's his damned father. He's afraid if he gets serious with me, and we have kids, he'll be like his own father, a loser.

Maybe I can talk to Ryan about Javi. Or maybe Castle. Castle is more likely to talk about Javi. That's it. I'll talk to Castle.