282. Chapter 282

After Child's Play

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Even a child knows I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"No matter what you say, I think I do have competition, Mr. Castle."

"Oh?' Castle said with a smile. "Do I have you worried, Detective Beckett?"

"Not you. It's Emily. I saw the look in her eyes. She wants you, Castle. I know that look."

Castle tried, with some success, to keep from laughing out loud. "And how do you know that look?"

"Because it's my look. The look that says, "Stay away. He's mine, and mine alone."

This time Castle did laugh. "I don't think that an eight year old girl is going to be any competition to you. In fact, I know it. After all, you're remarkable."

Kate shrugged and looked at Castle through her eyelashes. "Maybe so, but you've never invited me to a tea party. " Kate ended the sentence with a deep and dramatic sigh.

"Why Katherine Houghton Beckett, you are so right. I never have. That can be corrected at once." Castle stood up from the couch in the loft and bowed deeply to Kate. "Princess Kate, will you have tea with me?"

Kate rose as well and curtseyed. "Why Prince Richard, I would love to have tea with you. What kind do you have, if I may ask?"

"Potato chip fudge ice cream." He replied, smiling. "And I have some Punjana Irish breakfast tea, as well. It has a lot of caffeine in it, so it'll be like drinking coffee, sort of."

"Sounds delightful, Prince Richard. I approve."

"I recommend both milk and sugar with the tea."

Kate nodded. "I heartily approve."

Castle put a blanket on the floor for the tea party and bade Princess Kate to sit down, which she did. He then busied himself in the kitchen getting the tea started. Once the tea kettle was on the stove, Rick ran upstairs and was quickly back down again.

"And who is joining us, Prince Richard?" Kate asked. Now she was the one who was having trouble not laughing.

Rick put three teddy bears down across from Kate. "May I introduce our other guests? This is Chaucer who is all the way from Oxford in England. He's a very learned bear. Next is Max. He's a New York City bear. You can tell from the patched ear that he's a very rough, tough city bear." Rick blushed as he set the next bear down. "This is Kate Bear. She's a police bear from Los Angeles. A gift from a fan."

"Kate Bear?" Kate managed to ask, even though she was laughing. "How did you ever come up with that name, if I may ask?"

"It just seemed fitting."

"How long have you had Kate Bear?"

"Um, almost four years." Castle smiled nervously. "You don't mind, do you?"

Kate picked up Kate Bear and stroked her soft fur. "I'm happy to meet all of my new bear friends, but I think Kate Bear and I will be special friends." She took Castle by the hand and pulled him down for a kiss, broken only by the whistle of the teapot.

Rick served Kate her tea and ice cream and they sat and ate, drank and talked while the bears silently observed.

"See? You have no reason to be worried about Emily." Castle said as he finished his ice cream.

"You'd think so, but I'm still quite jealous of Emily."

"Really?" Rick was smiling, but he was just a bit nervous.

"I'm jealous of any female that shows an interest in you. I always have and I always will be. Except for Kate Bear here. We cops stick together. If you take an interest in any lady bears, she'll let me know."

"I have no interest in any ladies other than Princess Kate. And I have been equally jealous of every man who's ever showed an interest in you."

Kate nodded, but looked away from Rick. "I know." She was silent for a moment. "We really did this the hard way, didn't we, babe?"

"It was worth it."

"So was the undercover school thing."

"Yeah, we caught the bad guy. You were remarkable, as always, you know. Fighting with Polkovnik like that."

"Thanks, but that's now what I meant. I enjoyed seeing you with those little kids. And I know that you'll be a great father. Not that you haven't proved that already with Alexis."

"And you'll be a great mom." Rick said quickly.

"I hope so. I kind of worried about that when we had little Bennie to take care of."

"You mean Cosmo?"

"Castle, never say that name to me again, or your chances to have a child with me will be few and far between."

"You know you can't resist me." He said, waggling his eyebrows.

"And you can't resist me." She said, managing a very respectable eyebrow waggle herself.

"Best I never mention the C name again." He conceded.

"Anyway, it was a lot of work getting Bennie fed and diapered and dressed and everything else. I was just afraid that that was what parenting was all about. I mean, I told you I've never been a baby person. But our little one…"

"Or ones." Castle quickly added.

"Or little ones, will be little people before we know it. For a lot of reasons I've been remembering my mom a lot these days. I can remember coming home with my report card when I was in, maybe, third or fourth grade and how proud she was when I got all A's. She told me that I couldn't slack off. That I had to work hard because I could have anything in life that I wanted if I just worked hard enough for it."

Castle nodded. "I remember coming home with my report cards and how pleased Martha was that I hadn't gotten kicked out of another school. She was really afraid there for a while that we'd run out of schools that would take me."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I'll definitely will be raising more than one child."

"No you won't. I may be ninety per cent child myself, but there is that ten percent of me that knows how important good parenting is. Alexis may be the world's most adult child, but she didn't get that way all by herself. Okay, mostly, but not entirely. You'll have me as a partner, and parent, right there with you, every step of the way. I promise."

"I know you will. And we'll have three furry little friends to help us, too." Kate reached over and patted each bear on the head.

"They promise to help as much as they can." Rick said solemnly.

"They do?"

"Princess Kate! I speak fluent teddy bear, you know."

"Of course you do. How could I have not known that?"

"And we'll be a happy family? Always?"

"Always."

And the three bears said, in teddy bear, of course. "Yes! Always."