73. Chapter 73

Chapter 73

It was early September, and Kate was entering her second trimester of pregnancy. Work had been going well, and she and Castle had finally begun to relax and consider the possibility that Jordan may have been right about their safety. They had announced her pregnancy at the precinct the week before and were still receiving random congratulations as the news spread beyond the homicide floor.

On their way home after being stopped twice by well-wishers on their way out of the precinct, Castle said appreciatively, "Everybody seems to be genuinely happy for us."

"It surprises me that's gone so far beyond the homicide floor."

"It shouldn't. There are always going to be people who are jealous of success, but everybody has to respect your abilities and contributions here. The ones who know you stand up for you…and are happy for you when good things happen."

Kate shrugged. "It's just nice to know that so many people care."

Castle was in a meeting at Black Pawn all afternoon and had picked Kate up after work, so he was driving for a change. Their conversation paused longer than he expected, and when he looked over at his wife, she seemed to be on the verge of dozing off. He decided to let her fall asleep, thinking she must need it if it she was drooping that quickly.

When they drove into the parking garage, he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "We're home."

"Sorry," she answered, straightening up. "Didn't mean to desert you. I kept nodding off."

Castle walked around the car and opened her door as she roused herself, and held his hand out for her. "You must be tired."

"I didn't think I was when we left, but I guess I was wrong," she admitted as she took his hand and got out of the car. He wrapped his arm around her and nuzzled her hair as they rode the elevator up to the loft, and she willingly leaned into him.

"We have that charity event on Friday, and you're on call on Sunday, but you have next weekend off," he mentioned as he unlocked the door and ushered her in. "Why don't we plan another weekend in the Hamptons? Maybe Alexis and JD would like to go while it's still warm enough to enjoy the beach. And you can take a nap any time…outside next to the pool or the ocean if you want."

"I'd love that."

"And maybe we can drag Mother away from all those rehearsals for a day or two. She's going to wear herself out."

"It's the first big, invite-the-general-public-and-everything production at her school. She just wants it to be perfect. We can ask her tonight." After a little pause, Kate added, "I miss Alexis."

"Me, too."

"Order in tonight?" she asked.

"Sure. Your choice, pregnant lady. Pick a place, and I'll call it in."

As she looked through the menus, she said, "I guess I should wear something for the charity gala that lets me enjoy a dress that fits close…before I start showing and gradually get as big as a house."

"Speaking of the charity gala, we're going to have to answer baby questions before long anyway. Rumors have already started on my fan site. Maybe we should pick out a couple of reporters we trust and mention it to them there. At least we'll know the first announcements will reflect what we actually said."

"I guess we might as well. Since my slacks are feeling a little tighter than normal sometimes, it's probably going to be hard to hide it before long anyway. Lanie's going to be dragging me off on a shopping trip if I mention it to her."

"I can't wait until you're showing. It makes it more real."

"You just want to be able to point and say, "Look what I did."

"There's always that, too," he answered with a teasing grin.

Grinning back, she handed him a menu. "Here. Order our usual. Baby wants pizza tonight. I'm gonna go change and maybe pick out a dress for Friday."

"Consider that black one with the silver trim down one side…the one you wore to that party given for Patterson. You did wonders for that dress," he said, briefly drifting off into the memory. "Or you could just buy a new one."

"No time to go shopping," she said thoughtfully. "You know, I successfully avoided cameras that night, so no one here has seen that dress. And it should be perfect. Good call, Babe."

"Always got your back," he answered, catching her arm and pulling her over for a quick kiss before she left the room.

Kate went to change, and Castle called for pizza. When his wife didn't return as quickly as he expected her to, he went to check on her; and he found her asleep across the width of the bed, a beautiful black dress laid out carefully not far away.

He smiled. She had done that a couple of times recently…allowed her tough Detective Beckett persona to become sleepy, pregnant Kate as soon as they were home. Castle put the dress back in the closet. Then he covered her with a light blanket, intending to sneak out quietly; but she turned as he was indulging himself in tucking her in.

"Mmmf…fell asleep again," she grumbled.

"Yeah," he answered. "It's okay. Rest a little while."

"Pizza's here?" she asked, her eyes closing again.

"Not yet. Any minute, though."

"Wake me up, okay? Little power nap until it's here?" Her eyes opened to look at him.

"Just rest. We can heat it up later. Want to get your head on the pillows?"

She shook her head and closed her eyes, looking perfectly content face down right where she was.

He smiled again and trailed a hand down her arm before he left the room. Kate was carrying his baby. She could sleep as much as she needed. He heard the pizza guy at the door and checked to see if it woke his wife, huffing a little laugh when he saw there was no sign she had noticed anything at all. Then he went to answer the door. After tipping the teenager who delivered it, he took their pizza to the kitchen, put a couple of slices on a plate, and sat down on the sofa to look for entertainment on television.

A little over an hour later, Kate emerged from their bedroom, still a bit bleary eyed from her nap, heated a piece of pizza, and went to join her husband on the sofa.

"Sorry," she said as she plopped down beside him.

"Don't be," he answered. "Aren't you supposed to be sleepy now? Peanut's about to start growing…a lot. Your body is probably charging up to handle that."

"But we've gone to bed early three times lately," she reminded him. "To do nothing but sleep," she added with a little smirk.

"But all three times you woke up later in the night all seductive and frisky," he answered with wiggling eyebrows, his own smirk leaning in the direction of leering. "That's always a nice surprise."

"Yeah, that's fun," she answered, bumping his shoulder. "Doesn't take much to have you awake and willing. Better enjoy it now, though, before I'm so big you won't even be interested."

"Not gonna happen, Kate. I'll never not be interested." He swung one arm over the back of the sofa and draped it around her shoulders. "My movie just ended. You want to pick one?"

xxxxx

In the elevator on the way up to the homicide floor, they encountered another detective using crutches. Ann Hastings, who had recently made detective, was now assigned to fill the empty spot on Lupinski's team.

"We heard the chase didn't end well," Castle told her. "Sorry you caught the bad end of it. Rough way to start your promotion."

"Yeah, well, the suspect tripped over something trying to throw alley junk at me and landed on me. He has a broken leg. I got away with a bad sprain and a few sore muscles. Small blessings, you know."

"So desk duty for a while," Beckett observed.

"Looks like it. Probably a couple of weeks. You gonna show me your video system? I always did hate feeling left out."

"Sure. Come and see us later," Beckett answered.

Half an hour later, Beckett's team was leaving for a crime scene, and she went to Lupinski's desk and invited his team to watch when the videos came in. "Since you have somebody on desk duty, too, I thought you might be interested in how we're handling it."

"Might as well. Looks like Hastings here is already broken," Lupinski teased.

"Hey, I got him, didn't I?" Hastings shot back.

"Good work, too, from what I hear," Beckett answered.

"Thanks Beckett. These guys haven't heard of positive reinforcement yet," she said jokingly, looking over her shoulder at her team.

Beckett opened the first video as it came in, and they all watched with her, agreeing it should work for them, too, complimenting Castle's commentary and adding some of their own. Then Lupinski's team was called to their own crime scene, and they went back to their desks deciding who would send the videos, etc. Later Beckett went to watch the other videos with Hastings, giving herself time to watch Hasting's responses to the initial information on the videos and to point out a few things to the new detective...a good training opportunity.

Gates stopped by Beckett's desk later and asked, "How is Hastings doing? I saw you working with her this morning."

"Other than still in a little bit of pain?" Beckett asked with a smile. "She caught most of the right things, and understood why the things she missed could be important. She's eager to learn. I think she's going to be a good detective."

Gates nodded. "You're good at this…the training."

"It feels right somehow…to share what you know. Other people did that for me. Just passing it on."

Gates smiled and returned to her office. Her homicide detectives and officers were in good hands.

When the rest of her team returned this time, Beckett was still setting up the white board.

"Getting lazy on us, Beckett?" Esposito teased. "You usually have the board ready to go when we get back."

"Hastings has desk duty...bad sprained ankle; so I showed Lupinski's team how we do this before they got another call. She's setting up their board now. Doing my job, Espo. And there. The board is ready for whatever else you brought."

The four of them went through witness statements, etc. and finished up around lunch time. Castle and Beckett went to lunch at Remy's and sat talking in their favorite booth in a quiet corner as they waited to be served.

"Esposito said he finally decided to get in touch with the transit cop he met during that subway incident," Castle reported. "He's supposed to see her this weekend. He invited her to bring her little boy, but she said she won't do that unless she feels like it's somebody who's going to stay around. He only met him that once because they were both already there and it wasn't at all like a date. Anything new with Lanie?"

"She finally mentioned to Frank Stokes that she broke up with her boyfriend. He had the courtesy to ask how long it had been and asked if it was too soon to invite her to dinner; and she was impressed that he was that thoughtful. They're going out this weekend, too. She's nervous, though, knowing they still have to work together if it doesn't go well."

"So I guess we just stand back and watch now?" he said with a smile.

"That's about all we can do…or help them pick up the pieces if it doesn't go well. Lanie did that for us."

"And look at what her efforts accomplished." He stopped and chuckled. "I don't remember if I ever told you how frantic I was to get back into the precinct when Lanie texted to tell me you broke up with Demming to go with me. I threw Gina the car keys so she could have air conditioning and music, and then I tried not to run while she could still see me. When I was inside, I took the stairs two at a time…only slowed down at your floor so I could catch my breath. After I talked to you, I took the stairs back down to give myself time to get the lovesick smile off my face. I couldn't afford to let Gina think it was for her. I've never talked anybody out of something so fast in my life. Somehow I even managed to make it make sense. She was livid…snarled, and griped, and called me names all the way back to her apartment. But I wasn't about to miss the chance to prove to you that we should be together."

"I was so angry when you left with Gina, but Lanie verbally slapped me in the face with the fact that it was my own fault. I was getting ready to go home and have a pity party when she told me the captain wanted to see me in the conference room. Before that, she had made me promise that if I had another chance with you I'd take it." She reached out across the table and took his hand. "I'm so glad you came back for me. I thought I might have ruined our chances forever."

"Water under the bridge. We have the rest of our lives to spend together…with Alexis and Mother, and Jim," He spoke quietly but excitedly then to keep it between them. "And baby Castle. Please tell me you want to know if it's a boy or a girl as soon as we can find out. I don't think I can wait until it's born to know."

"I know you, Babe; and I already guessed that. We'll invite Alexis for that visit, too. As excited as she was just to hear the heartbeat, she's probably going to be as antsy about it as you are." She chuckled. "'When do we find out?' That was one of the first questions she asked, wasn't it?"

Castle grinned, remembering. "I think it was. Yeah, we need to let her come with us. We'll know at about twenty weeks, right? That's around the end of next month." Suddenly his face lit up. "Oh my god, we'll know by Halloween," he sort of squeaked quietly.

Kate laughed, her eyes twinkling. "Well, how appropriate for Richard Castle's baby. Making its first big announcement at Halloween."

"I really want to know whether to say 'he' or 'she'."

"I know you do, but there's nothing we can do about it yet. I don't think you have a guy for that."

"Let's go back to the baby store while we're in the Hamptons. We can pick out furniture without knowing a gender. And we'll need furniture in both places."

"That would be fun. I'll bet Alexis would like to go, too."

"I'll bet she would. JD might feel like a fish out of water, though," Castle responded.

"The sales people might even think it's for Alexis and JD," his wife answered answered with an evil smirk And Castle claimed the need for brain bleach.

Kate was chuckling when their food was delivered, and they had to eat quickly to get back in time to avoid having Esposito call Beckett lazy again. They worked through the afternoon and went home on time, relatively unstressed, and prepared dinner together without Kate wandering off and falling asleep.

xxxxx

They enjoyed the gala on Friday night. Kate wore her long, black dress, the silver, asymmetrical beading, lending it a glamorous touch. The top fit closely and the fabric fell gracefully into a slightly flared skirt…a very feminine and sexy look.

"I'll never understand how you could have avoided the cameras last time you wore that dress," Castle remarked as he watched a second photographer practically shove him out of the way while trying to take Kate's picture. When the photographer left, he told her, "It's all I can do not to spirit you away to some deserted room and take it off you."

"Later, Stud," she whispered with the tongue-peeking-from-between-her-teeth smile that he loved.

"I'll hold you to that," he answered. "Uh-oh. Reporters we don't trust approaching at three o'clock. Veer left. I see Jeff, who we do trust, over there. Let's get to him before the others get to us." As they walked, he said, "We've been here long enough to satisfy social obligations. Let's tell him about the baby, I'll give the charity people their check, and then we can go home so I can collect on that promise you made."

"Sometimes you have a one track mind, Mr. Castle."

"Well, Mrs. Castle, with you in that dress, it's hard not to."

They spoke to Jeff, who immediately asked about the baby rumors; and they confirmed that the rumors were true and that Kate and the baby were doing well…and that yes, the entire family was excited about it in spite of the fact that his first child had just left for college.

That job done, he delivered the check, called for their car, and took his wife home.

xxxxx

They managed to catch Alexis approaching a week without tests or major assignments due, and she and JD said they'd love to meet them at the beach house. The days were still warm enough to enjoy, but the nights next to the water felt more like fall.

The first night they were there, they put on hoodies and built a fire on the beach, cooked hot dogs, made s'mores, and caught up on what everybody was doing. Alexis and JD took a walk on the beach. Martha took her script and notes for the play her students were rehearsing and retired to her room to think through the possibility of some minor revisions in the staging, and Kate and Rick went to bed.

Kate was lying on her back, and Rick was propped on one elbow, his head resting on his hand as he ran the other hand across her middle as they talked."

"Jordan called this afternoon to see how I'm doing. She said she had to speak to Gates and thought about us." He just smiled at her. "She also said that both Bracken and Simmons asked why I hadn't gone to see them to gloat. I told her to tell both of them that they were where they belonged now and weren't worth my time."

"That should surpri…" Suddenly he stopped talking and looked excited. "Kate," he said, some awe creeping into his voice. I think there's the tiniest beginning of a baby bump. Nobody else would know, and it's barely there, but…"

Kate replaced his hand with hers and smiled. "You might be right. It's almost like we're still imagining it, though. My slacks have been a little bit tighter, but not much, and I keep looking but can't see anything yet. I'm in good shape, and the doctor says everything is normal, that it might not be too obvious for another month or so. But I think it's about the right time to start seeing something." Looking down toward her belly, she asked, "Is that you, Peanut, or did Mommy just eat too much?"

"Tonight I'm gonna believe it's our baby; and we'll see if it's still there tomorrow," Castle answered. "'Night Little One," he said, kissing Kate's possible baby bump.

She kissed him when his head was on the pillow and cuddled against him with a smile on her lips. And he was sure she could feel his smile when he nuzzled her hair and kissed her head before they both fell asleep.