164. Chapter 164

Chapter 164

Darrell pulled out smoothly into traffic and had them at the hospital as quickly as he could. He pulled up in the drivers' circle near the patient entrance and opened the car door for the couple he had watched fall in love and create a warm, loving family, and then he wished them well and told them he would look forward to meeting the newest Castle.

At the hospital, they went through the formalities for admission. All Kate's information, insurance, etc. had already been submitted to speed the process, and she was in a birthing room shortly after she arrived. Castle was still timing contractions, which were getting closer; and an examination confirmed that labor was moving along faster than the nurses had expected.

The nurses were attentive and helpful, and Dr. Holland was being updated regularly. Castle did what he could to keep his wife comfortable and encouraged at the times when she wasn't. They walked around, stopping for contractions, he wiped her face and shoulders with a cool cloth as she needed it, helped her change positions in the room periodically, rubbed her back, whatever she needed, until Dr. Holland arrived a few minutes before time for the birthing chair. About four hours after the first contraction, the doctor was placing a baby girl with obviously healthy lungs on Kate's chest and handing Castle scissors to cut the umbilical cord. He and Kate were both beaming as they checked to see that everything looked normal, and touched their daughter gently.

Kissing his wife's head, Castle said, "If we planned to have another child, I'd have us camping out on the hospital lawn the week before your due date. This one was here fast."

"I'm pretty sure it seemed faster to you than it did to me," Kate answered, stroking her daughter's shoulder and arm. "Isn't she going to be cold?" she asked, wrapping her arm and part of her hospital gown around her baby.

As one of the nurses came to take the baby, Dr. Holland commented, "I hope I can stay long enough to see Jamie's reaction to an in the flesh baby sister. He's been so excited about the pictures." The afterbirth was delivered, and the doctor made a couple of sutures as the nurses cleaned the baby up and took care of all the routine record keeping. Then they turned their attention to Kate, seeing that she was cleaned up, too, and in a clean gown.

When the doctor arrived, Castle had texted his mother, knowing she would contact the people in the phone tree they had set up, but he took time to also send a text to Jim, saying, "She's almost here." Then he went back to being there for whatever his wife and new daughter might need, so by the time the baby was in the world, the rest of the family was on the way to the hospital.

Just as Dr. Holland was about to leave, Martha brought Jamie into the room, and they saw Castle sitting on the bed beside Kate, who was holding a tiny little person wrapped in a pink blanket and wearing a little pink knit cap.

"Is that our baby?" Jamie asked excitedly.

"This is your sister," Castle answered softly. "You need to say things quietly, though. She's asleep right now."

He wiggled to get down into his father's arms and closer to the baby, and Kate patted the bed beside her. "You can sit here if you want, but you have to be gentle. She's really little, and she can't do much of anything by herself yet. We don't want to hurt her."

"I'll be careful," he promised. "Hi, Peanut. I'm your brother," he said softly. He reached over to touch her arm and stroked it gently then looked up at Kate and smiled the same beaming smile his father had. The baby opened her eyes and seemed to be looking at him.

"Touch your finger to her hand," Castle told him. He did, and his sister held on to it, delighting the little boy completely. "I think she's saying "Hi," his father told him.

"Can I hold her?" he asked.

"We can't let you hold her by yourself until you're both bigger, but one of us can help you hold her," Kate answered.

"Okay."

"Let me take Peanut, and Mommy can put her arm around you to help you hold her."

With all that accomplished, Castle put his new daughter carefully into her brother's arms, well supported by Kate's. "Grams, I'm holding her," he said, smiling and looking awed. Martha and John took pictures and asked Dr. Holland to stand with the family for the next one.

"What do you think of her, Jamie?" the doctor asked.

"I like her," he answered. "But she's really little."

Kate took the pink hat off and ran her hand through her baby's plentiful and now clean and soft hair, and Jamie smiled again. "She has brown hair like us."

By that time Jim and Meagan were there, and they were added to the picture. Alexis and JD were close behind and took pictures with all the grandparents before she convinced Jamie to let her hold their sister, which the little boy reluctantly allowed. Then the Grandparents insisted on pictures of all the siblings with Rick and Kate. In the next photo, JD was holding the baby; and Jamie was on his knees on the bed, peeking down at his little sister over JD's arm.

After enough pictures had been taken to fill a large album, Kate asked for a few minutes alone with her father, and as they went out to a waiting area, Castle assured the rest of the family that nothing was wrong. Kate just needed a few minutes with her dad.

"She looks just like you did," Jim told her. "May I hold her again?" Kate handed him the little bundle of pink and his eyes lit up. "Jamie is so big now, and I still love cuddling him, but I'd forgotten again how sweet a baby feels to hold…especially one who looks so much like my Katie. Does she have a name yet?"

"That's why I wanted to talk to you. I wanted to tell you first. We decided to name her Johanna Katherine and call her Jo. At first I was afraid I'd have trouble calling her by Mom's name, but then we thought of all the ways it would be used and how Mom would feel about it; and I liked the idea more. She would be named for her mother and her grandmother."

"It sounds like you're asking for my approval. You don't need my approval to name your own child, Katie. And your mother would have felt so honored. Maybe it's time we put that name back into everyday use…to be a living, breathing part of our lives again. We both loved her, and we'll both love this little one just as much."

Jim sat down on the side of the bed, facing his only child, his granddaughter tucked firmly in the crook of his arm on one side and the other arm extended to hold his daughter as tears fell for both of them.

"I miss her so much, Daddy."

He held his girls close with Kate's head on his shoulder and answered. "Me, too. Honey; but this baby is a part of her, just like you are. Let's try to look at this Jo and see all the joy we found in your mother. We know there's going to be some stubborn involved, too. She certainly passed it on to you, and I doubt it all stopped there," he teased, and she poked his ribs and gave him a sniffly little laugh.

"Would you like the honor of announcing her name?"

"Doesn't Rick want to do that?"

"Rick already told me it's okay if you want to."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She nodded against his shoulder.

"Can I have another minute to sit here and hold my girls first? It feels good to hold both of you."

She nodded again and wrapped one arm around his waist, stretching the other out to touch her daughter.

After a long moment, he said, "Let's bring everybody back and introduce this little girl to the world with a proper name. Peanut Castle just isn't going to work for long."

There was another laugh accompanied by another little sniffle, and she said, "Yeah, I think it's time."

By the time the family was called back in, Lanie was there to see her new niece, too; and Jim was standing beside the bed holding his granddaughter.

"Rick?" he asked, giving his son-in-law a chance to change his mind.

"Tell us who you have there, Jim," he answered.

"This is Johanna Katherine Castle," Jim said proudly. "This is your family, Jo. You're a lucky little girl."

Lanie walked over and asked to hold her, and Jim carefully placed her in Lanie's arms.

"Hello, Johanna Katherine," Lanie said with the sing-songy sound people often use for a small child. "I'm Aunt Lanie. You look so much like your mommy. And I have a feeling your big brother is going to take good care of you. He could hardly wait to get back to see you again." She looked up at Kate and Rick. "She's a beautiful baby, guys."

"Can I hold her again?" Jamie asked, and Kate patted the spot beside her on the bed, stretching her arm around her son to help him hold his sister.

"Okay, Lanie. Let's keep this sibling bonding thing going."

Lanie placed the baby girl carefully in her brother's well supported arms and took out her phone for a picture. "That's the most adorable thing I've ever seen," she said, framing the shot. Castle, get in there with them." Checking the picture, she said, "I don't think I've ever seen two more identical big, proud smiles than on you and your son, Castle. Where is my intern? You get in this one, too, Alexis. Now, I need one with the whole family."

After Lanie had finished ordering everybody into pictures, someone took her phone and got a picture of her with Kate and Jamie and Jo.

Jo had held out pretty well with all the commotion in her new surroundings, but she was getting fussy, and the grandparents took that as a sign to get the extra people out of the room.

"But I want to stay with Peanut," Jamie protested.

"Mommy and Daddy will be home with Jo tomorrow afternoon," Castle promised after lifting her out of her brother's arms, and Kate pulled her son close for a hug, holding him a little longer than usual.

"Wouldn't you like to spend the night in our new apartment tonight?" Martha asked her grandson. "There's a room ready for you to sleep in." He looked longingly at the rest of his family. "Come on," his grandmother encouraged. "We'll have fun tonight. Grandpa John and I will read you books, and we'll have happy face pancakes for breakfast in the morning; and by tomorrow afternoon, Mommy and Daddy and Johanna will be at the loft where you can see her all the time. Give Mommy and Daddy and your sister kisses and let's go."

Castle put Jo back in Kate's arms, picked his son up to hold him close, and told him softly, "Getting Jo born made Mommy really tired. She needs to get some sleep, and so does Jo. She's been inside Mommy, and now she's out here with us, where it's noisy and everybody wants to hold her. She has to get used to that. So go with Grams tonight, and when Mommy comes home tomorrow, she'll feel better. Give Mommy a snuggle and a kiss, and tell her you love her. She'll like that."

He did what Castle asked him to, and gently kissed his little sister's forehead as well, and then he waved to his parents over Martha's shoulder as they left.

"I feel guilty," Kate said. "You handled that well, but he looked sad."

"We'll make it up to him tomorrow. Do you need to feed her?"

"Probably. I'll see how it goes."

"It went pretty well before everybody got here. Both of you should be fine." He watched as Jo latched on to the source of her dinner, and asked, "Was your dad as okay with her name as he seemed to be?"

"Yeah. We both had a little cry and decided it was time for that name to bring us the same joy it used to…and that Mom would be proud." Leaning to kiss the top of Jo's tiny head, Kate told their daughter, "Your Grandma would have spoiled you rotten, Peanut." Castle sat on the bed beside her, stroking their child's arm and shoulders and the back of her head.

When the nurse came in to check on them, Castle had just changed a wet diaper and was talking to his daughter as he swaddled her. "Oh, hi," he said. "What do you need to do? Am I in the way?"

"Actually, you've already done some of it. Thank you."

"Long before I met Kate, I was a single dad to my first daughter. It's like riding a bike. You just fall back into it naturally."

"Your pediatrician should be here soon to check the baby."

"She's been fed, and it looks like she'll sleep if I stop jostling her around, but her diaper was wet. I might take advantage of that rocking chair to hold her a little longer if you don't need her right now."

The nurse, who was about Castle's age and rather motherly, said, "You do that. Sometimes fathers your age don't look this excited about a new baby. Some of the younger ones don't, either. She can sleep after the pediatrician looks her over. A little girl needs all the protective, loving Daddy time she can get, right, Jo?" She stroked the little cheek with one finger and then left, saying, "I'll be back later."

Castle sat down in the rocking chair next to his sleeping wife's bed. The pediatrician, Dr. Jerome Barrett, woke both mother and daughter when he came in, but he took care of the baby's well check quickly so they could get more sleep. As Castle went back to rocking his daughter a little longer, the doctor quietly informed him that Jo was just as strong and healthy as her brother. "I see no reason you can't take her home tomorrow," he concluded.

"Thanks, Jerome. I guess we'll be seeing you soon for her first checkup."

"She's a beautiful baby, Rick…looks a lot like your wife," he said softly.

"That's what I was hoping for," he answered with a smile. "That we would each have our own little clone."

"I keep telling him to be careful what he wishes for," they heard from a sleepy sounding Kate, and both men laughed.

"Well, you certainly got yours," the doctor answered. "That little boy looks just like you."

"Jamie didn't want to leave us. I might call him after all my girls are asleep again."

Jerome patted his shoulder before leaving, and Kate, who had been fighting drooping eyelids attempting to watch them, told him, "You should do that."

When Jo was settled, he put her in the bassinet and went to Kate. He took her hand and kissed it, saying, "I'm going to call Mother before Jamie is in bed. Try to get back to sleep."

"Don't think that's going to be a problem," she mumbled.

He kissed her head, went into the hall, and called his mother.

"He isn't here," she answered. "Alexis and JD hijacked him before we even got to the car."

"Then you can sleep late tomorrow morning," he answered. "We called you kind of early this morning, so that's probably good. Thank you for being so willing to help us out."

"Did you need something, Darling?"

"No. Both my girls are sleeping, and Jamie looked like he missed us before he had even left. I just thought I'd call him before he was in bed."

"That probably won't be too long. Better call Alexis."

"Thanks Mother."

Another phone call had Alexis on the line.

"I hear you hijacked your little brother on the way to the parking lot."

"Jamie looked sad, and Grams looked tired, and he has toys here, and a bed. JD and I just wanted to make him feel better. I didn't want to leave him any more than he wanted to leave you. He's okay now."

"Let me talk to him for a minute. He isn't in bed yet, is he?"

"Not yet, but soon." She lowered the phone and called, "Jamie, want to talk to Daddy?"

Castle reassured his son that Mommy and Jo were fine. "Mommy was really tired, and she fell asleep before I could call you, but we're all going to be home tomorrow. Are you having a good time with Alexis and JD?"

"Uh-huh. They were reading me books before bedtime."

"Well, I guess I'd better let you get back to your books. Love you, Buddy."

"Love you, too…and Mommy and Jo."

"I'll tell Mommy and Jo for you."

"'Night, Daddy."

"He just ran back to JD and the books," Alexis reported. "See you tomorrow. Call when you leave the hospital, and we'll bring him to the loft. I want to see my sister again."

"Thanks, Pumpkin."

"G'night, Dad. Gotta get back to the books."

xxxxx

The next couple of weeks were spent in getting into the routine of feedings, diaper changes, baby bathing, extra laundry, answering little boy questions and seeing that he didn't overstep his boundaries with his sister, and naps for everybody whenever they could manage it. Jo's bassinet was in the master bedroom, so she didn't wake Jamie during the night when she cried to be fed. However, it meant that Jamie made a beeline to the master bedroom every morning to be with everybody else. After waking the baby with his entrance a couple of times, they convinced him to make said entrances more quietly.

Every few days, Martha and John would knock on the door when she had a little time around her school schedule, tell the parents to take a nap, take the versatile stroller and both grandchildren, and go for a walk, sometimes including a trip to the park for Jamie. It was a godsend for parents whose newborn wasn't sleeping through the night yet.

Martha had given her son's "gym guys" access to the loft to deliver and set up equipment while they were in the Hamptons, but it hadn't seen much action after they got home. Rick noticed that Jamie seemed to feel left out when Jo was nursing and would snuggle next to his mother so close that it was probably a little uncomfortable for Kate, so he tried to help.

He started using the gym once a day, which he had decided he needed to do anyway; and he would take his son with him. Having the space of the entire second floor of a decent sized apartment, it was well equipped and more spacious than most home gyms; and other than standard gym equipment, there was a playset sized for a young child. It had a slide, a little cabin sort of space with walls and windows, steps to get up to the cabin, other steps going to the slide, and a climbing wall suitable for a small child. Castle thought Jamie would probably outgrow it by the time Jo grew into it. But the little boy obviously loved his sister and already tried to play with her, and he would probably help her learn to use it. There was also a toddler sized basketball net. The new play area kept Jamie busy while Castle worked out. He even bought some plastic, toy weights for his son, and sometimes Jamie would sit on a low bench and imitate what Daddy was doing with the real weights. To give Kate a little respite from a clingy little boy, Castle always timed his gym sessions with one of Jo's feedings.

The rocking chair that would eventually be in Jo's room was presently in the study. One afternoon as she was rocking Jo before putting her down for a nap, she noticed Jamie standing at the door, then he slipped into the room and sat down quietly near the rocking chair. He didn't look upset, but he looked a little sad. After Jo was tucked in, Kate took her son's hand, walked him to his own room, and sat down in the rocking chair there. That was still where they read books before bedtime.

"You know what?" she asked.

"What?"

"I know you're not a baby anymore. You're a big brother now, but sometimes Mommy misses having a baby boy. I haven't just sat here and rocked you in a long time. Do you think you could pretend to be my baby boy for just a little while and snuggle with me and let me rock you before your nap? It would make me happy."

Without a word, her little boy climbed into her lap and curled up against her with a contented sigh. For about twenty minutes, she held him close, kissed his head now and then, and softly sang some of his favorite lullabies while they rocked; and gradually his little body relaxed into sleep.

When she looked up, her husband was leaning against the door watching with a proud smile, and he whispered, "Is he asleep?"

After she nodded, he gently took his sleeping son and put him in his bed. Kate pulled the covers up around him, and they watched him for a long moment before they slipped out quietly.

"I think he really needed that," Castle told her.

"I didn't know until I was rocking him, but I think I needed it just as much."

"I still can't imagine how you ever thought you might not be a good mother."

"How long were you out there?"

"Since you took him to his room. I couldn't find him downstairs, so I came up to check on him. That was a good plan. Make him feel like he needed to be the baby again to make you feel better. I'm impressed. I just sat in the hallway leaning against the wall and closed my eyes and listened to the lullabies. It was nice."

"Can we lie down and snuggle while they're sleeping? We know it won't last long."

"Might as well take advantage." He put an arm around her shoulders as they walked to their room.

"You aren't getting much writing done, are you?"

"Not much, but that's okay for a little while yet. Things are falling into more of a routine now. It's going to get easier. I have two books coming out in time for the holidays, Nikki Heat and The Girl With Red Hair. That should keep the irritating editors from our door…and my email…and my phone. The next Heat book is outlined, so when things start to feel more normal again, it's going to be easy to get back to it."

"I don't know how you find all those words in your head and put them together so well. But I love that you do."

Castle squeezed her shoulder in appreciation, walked to his side of the bed and moved the covers back sharply enough to pull back both sides. They stripped to their underwear, pulled the covers over their shoulders, cuddled together, and closed their eyes, planning to stay there until one of their children demanded their attention.