149. Chapter 149

Chapter 149

All three Castles went to the grocer's that morning to stock up on things they needed after two weeks away. Jamie wheedled them into a less than healthy looking cereal, probably because it was something his father would enjoy, too; but most of their shopping was healthy.

After they put everything away, Castle took a deep breath and returned Gina's phone calls. She had left two messages, one about his new book, and the other about a European tour…that one left on his answering machine before he had even returned from the West Coast tour.

"It's about time you called," she complained. You've been back for two days."

He hung up. In about fifteen seconds his cell phone rang.

"You hung up on me!" Gina said angrily.

"And I'll do it again if you speak to me like I haven't just spent two weeks doing exactly what you asked me to. I'm still tired from the last book tour, and I have no intention of being verbally abused while I'm in my own home. We got home night before last. Yesterday we made a stab at getting over jet lag and spent some time with Alexis and JD. Now, if you're ready to sound more like a publishing professional and less like an annoyed ex-wife, I'll discuss whatever business you need to take care of."

There was a deep breath at the other end of the call, as if a conscious effort were being made, and a much more polite voice said, "I called to schedule a meeting. Paula will be here, too."

"I assume this is the two of you ganging up on me to insist on the European tour you mentioned in your phone message. You couldn't have waited to leave that message until I was home from the last tour?"

"You've been on a European tour every few years since you started writing. It's been five years since the last one. Five, Richard. And our foreign affiliates are insisting. We need to work something out soon."

"When do you want to do this?"

"On Friday?"

"I'm free all day. What time?"

"Ten-thirty."

"I'll be there."

"Fine. See you Friday."

He went to talk to Kate as soon as he ended the call.

"That was Gina."

"I gathered that. I heard most of your end of the conversation, so I assume there's a meeting at Black Pawn soon."

"Friday morning at ten-thirty. Do you want to go and be my backup?"

"Sure. If you think you need me."

"Suppose I just want you?"

"That, too." She pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed him, then went back to making lunch. "Your backup will be available."

"She and Paula are going to expect me to go on a European tour for at least a month. That's even more of what we just did for the last two weeks. I don't want to leave you, especially not for that long; but I hate to ask you to do that again for twice as long. I don't know how Jamie would hold up to that much more time either."

"Rick, I'm on leave of absence, I feel fine, and planes fly in both directions. If we wear down Jamie's patience, he and I can come back home early. If we're going to do the tour, though, I'd rather it be before I'm too far along. I realized this morning I'm at the end of my first trimester…if we're counting according to our version of events. We're six months away from our new baby, so it would have to be sometime soon.

"You'd really be willing to do another tour with me…a longer one, so soon after the last one?"

"To name a few things you've tolerated for my job, you've been shot at, almost drowned, and nearly blown up being my backup. Another book tour in return seems like pretty tame stuff. I'm not ready to leave again right away, but I'm willing. I guess this means we should get our tiny traveler a passport to go with that little suitcase he's so proud of. And Alexis and JD are only taking classes during the last summer session. Maybe they could join us for a week or two…and Martha."

"Ooooo. And your dad and Meagan…and John. We could drive Gina and Paula insane. We could all get together and figure out how to make them feel like they're herding cats."

"Every now and then, you show a real evil streak, Writer-Man," she answered with a chuckle. Although I must admit a few days ago that would have held some appeal."

He wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her neck, reaching in front of her to sneak a piece of the ham she was putting in their salads.

"Jamie is awfully quiet in his room. Would you check on him and bring him down for lunch?"

Castle went up the stairs and returned with his arm wrapped around the middle of a laughing little boy carried at his side under one arm and bouncing floppily like a ragdoll. He plopped his son in his high chair, and they all had lunch together.

xxxxx

On Friday morning, the Castles dropped Jamie off with Grandpa John and went to meet Gina and Paula in the conference room at Black Pawn. They had decided ahead of time that they would need to tell the two women about the pregnancy but they weren't ready for it to go public quite yet.

"Is she planning to stay?" Gina asked Castle, looking at Kate.

"You could have asked Kate, you know. She's standing right in front of you," Castle stated. "The tour, which I assume is the lion's share of this morning's business, affects her, too; so yes, she'll be staying."

"That is definitely the business for this morning. You're going to have to agree to this tour…and sooner rather than later would be best," Gina insisted.

"Okay."

"You can't put it off again, Richard. It has to be…" Stopping suddenly, she said, "Wait. What? Did you just agree…just like that? No arguments?"

"There are some limitations and requirements we'll insist on, though. The window of opportunity is a small one…and sooner rather than later, as requested, is best. If you can take care of that for us, I won't argue about it."

Both of the women who called the meeting leaned back in their chairs looking shocked.

"I assume there's a reason for all that. What do you need from us, and why?" Paula asked.

Alexis graduates from college the third week in May, and we will be there. That's non-negotiable, so I can't leave before the fourth week in May. Taking Kate's hand lovingly, he smiled at her and added, "Kate and I are expecting another child the latter half of September, so we'll need to work around that. And, Paula, we're not ready to go public with it yet. Probably the end of next month."

Both of the other women offered congratulations and then asked what working around that would look like.

"I'm at the end of my first trimester right now, and I'd like to do whatever travelling I do with Rick for another tour before I start feeling too pregnant. That probably means finishing by the third week of July," Kate explained.

"Late July begins the third trimester," Castle told them. I will neither leave Kate alone nor ask her to travel that far from home during the third trimester, so your window of opportunity will be from the fourth week in May to the third week of July. I'd prefer to hold it to no more than a month. Jamie will be with us again, and we'd like to have the rest of the family meet us somewhere in Europe for part of the trip. I'll cover the expense for the rest of the family, and we should have the same arrangements for Kate and Jamie as we did for the West Coast tour."

"How many people constitute the rest of the family these days," Paula asked, taking notes.

"Nine if they can all be there," Kate answered.

"Nine?! There aren't nine people in your family," Gina answered a little more harshly than Castle appreciated.

"We know who we consider our family, and there are nine, Gina," Castle insisted.

"And where the hell did you find that many family members?" she asked.

"There would actually be ten, Rick," Kate said with a little smile and a hand on her middle.

"That's right," he said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pointing a finger back and forth between Kate and himself. "The three of us, Jamie, Alexis and JD, Mother, Jim and Meagan Beckett, and JD's grandfather…not that we really need to explain our family."

"So to recap, we need to put this together to be completed between the end of the third week of May and the beginning of the third week of July, plan suites for the two of you and your son, and plan it to accommodate up to nine people sometime during the trip if they can all be there?" Gina asked.

"That sounds about right. And if you could add asking the European affiliates for recommendations for good OB/Gyn's in case of an emergency, that would be even better." Castle agreed.

"And we can start making phone calls this morning?" Gina asked.

"As long as we have an agreement that I'll have a little time free to enjoy having my family around."

"And you're okay with all this, Kate? You really feel up to that much travelling?" Paula asked.

"Thanks for the concern, but I feel fine. I'm scheduled to see my doctor again on Tuesday next week, and I'll ask about the travelling to be sure there's no reason to stay home; but I don't foresee a problem. Both of you might want to hold off on tickets or hotel arrangements until after I see the doctor, though."

Gina and Paula both nodded their agreement, and Kate added, "And I'll expect consideration for my husband's well-being in planning his appearances. We'll want some say in the scheduling."

"We can negotiate that," Paula told them, shooting a pointed, warning look at Gina.

"How is it that you can take your family along again?" Gina asked. "Isn't Kate supposed to be working?"

Kate quickly answered for herself again. "I'm taking extended maternity leave and won't be going back to work until January."

"If we confine the actual publicity events to one month, can you give us a couple of days on each end of the trip for travel time?" Paula asked.

"We can negotiate that, too," Castle agreed after looking to Kate for approval. "Make your phone calls and see what's possible, but call me before you finalize anything." Turning to Gina, he asked, "When do you want me here for the next meeting?"

"Tuesday?" Gina asked.

"That's okay, as long as it's in the afternoon. I'll be at the doctor's appointment with Kate that morning."

Gina consulted her calendar and asked, "Two-thirty okay?"

"I'll be here."

"Well, that was easier than we expected," Paula declared. "You talk to your family and see who may want to spend a little time in Europe this summer, and Gina can speak to Black Pawn's overseas affiliates. Then we can get to our scheduling."

"Are we done?" Castle asked.

"I guess we are. Neither of us expected you to agree so quickly," Gina answered.

"Then I'll see you next week," he said as he stood with Kate. "You ready?" he asked her. She nodded, and they left.

Watching them go, Gina said, glaring at the door, "I really want to hate her."

"Why?" Paula asked, "It's not like she stole him from you. You'd been divorced for a couple of years before they even met."

"It's just… The way he looks at her. I never saw him look at me like that, even on our wedding day. He seemed as happy as I expected him to be back then, but it wasn't ever like…" She paused and wiggled her finger at the door. "Whatever that is between them. It's like his entire soul is happy now…content. It hurts a little bit, you know…that it took finding somebody else for him to be that happy. I doubt I'll ever have that."

"I doubt most of us will ever have that, and I'm a little envious, too. But you know you don't want him back, Gina. The two of you drove each other insane. You didn't see eye to eye on much of anything, and you didn't want the same things out of life. Before it was over, it was like the two of you were consciously looking for things to argue about. I had a ringside seat, remember? You'd both be miserable if you'd stayed together."

"For heaven's sake, Paula, I know it's stupid," Gina answered impatiently. "I don't really hate her, and I know Richard and I would never work. Everybody needs a good pout now and then, though; and I'm venting. But Kate…she's just so capable…a police captain, holds a command and a lot of respect in a mostly male department, she's solved real, high profile murders, not just made up ones like Richard's books, and then she can give a police news conference and keep control of the press, can speak a few other languages, can wrestle a large man to the ground and cuff him,…and then she can look at Richard and their family and be so soft and loving, and a good mother. And she's willing to risk that perfect figure to have the babies he's always wanted. I didn't want babies. I really tried with Alexis, though. She was a sweet kid. I'm just not a natural mother; and Kate, she's good at that, too. And she makes him so happy just being her. She makes me feel…inadequate. But I know she isn't trying to. She's just being who she is."

"If it makes you feel any better, I know they had to work at putting their worlds together. They had to work hard to have what they do, but they loved each other enough to keep making the effort. I guess I can see why you'd want to hate her, though. I've never seen you look like you feel inadequate about anything. And you shouldn't start now because it isn't true. Kate would tell you the same thing. So let's start putting together this European tour to make all of us happy and let you show how capable you are."

"Before he changes his mind?" Gina asked with a little smile.

"Yeah. It's hardly ever been this easy to get him to agree to these things."

"Wonder how we could get Kate to retire after the baby? We could send them all over the world."

They both laughed, and Gina took out her list of suggestions from their European affiliates so they could get to work.

Before they got to the work at hand, Paula said, "I need to tell you about a talk I had with Kate. Well, I guess it was more like a talk Kate had with me. We need to give our scheduling more consideration." She explained the conversation and her own experiment; and when the publisher looked doubtful, she dared Gina to try it herself.

"How hard can it be to sign books and smile," Gina asked.

"At the risk of throwing you back into that pout, Kate had it figured out within the first few times she was around a book signing, and I didn't believe it either. But toward the end of this last tour she laid out the details of her reasoning and laid down the law. You and I have been doing this with Rick for how long before she even knew him, and we never realized."

"I'll have to see it first to believe it," Gina answered skeptically.

"Kate sees things, details that we might miss, and she's used to thinking in terms of security. If you can get past wanting to hate her, she's a valuable asset."

"I know…as much as it pains me to admit it," Gina agreed.

"And I wish Rick would let us have his children in the publicity pictures. Both Alexis and that little boy of his have inherited the full Castle charm, and Kate is no slouch in that department, either. They all play off each other like pros, but it's just their natural state of being."

Paula told Castle's ex-wife about the evening Kate brought Jamie to the bookstore intending to find a place to sit until he was finished. "The fans heard Jamie tell Kate that Daddy was being bad. He was writing in the books. The fans at the back of the line thought it was cute and started talking to Kate and Jamie, then Rick started bantering with them about stealing his thunder and introduced them to the rest of the fans. Those people loved them. The family was quite a hit."

"Did he let them take pictures of his son?" Gina asked.

"No. He explained the security angle, and all the good will and understanding…it was like they were protecting one of their own. It was the last signing of the trip and the best one we had while we were gone. Great group of fans. And Rick's energy picked up for the rest of the night. He gave them the full picture of the family man he wants his image to be from now on." She paused for a moment and said, "You'll excuse me if I give in to a little pout of my own now. We've got that kind of publicity gold available and can't use it." She sighed. "It was fun while it lasted, though…and generated a lot of talk on his website."

Gina handed Paula the list of cities and bookstores their affiliates had suggested and had added a few more that she had dealt with in the past.

"You realize he isn't going to agree to anything else until after Kate gets the word from her doctor on Tuesday." Gina pointed out.

"That's a no brainer at this point. But we can talk through some of this, at least put together a tentative list of stops where he can work his magic."

They spent another half an hour talking through a tentative organization of appearances through western Europe and then called it a day, agreeing to meet again the following Wednesday when they were certain of Kate's involvement in the tour.

xxxxx

John answered his door with Jamie sitting on his shoulders and holding onto his head. "Look who's here. I think they've come to take you home."

"Yep," Castle answered. "We came to take our boy back. Can we take you to lunch at that little deli on the next block? We're planning to go anyway."

"Sure. I love that place. Let me get this kid off my shoulders so I can put on a coat. It's still a little nippy out there." He lifted Jamie over his head and let him dangle in front of him while he said, "Remember where we put your coat?" Jamie nodded yes, and John put him down and said, "Well, go put it on. I'm hungry as a bear." He completed his statement with a roar and bear posture, and gave Jamie a little swat to his bottom as he pointed in the right direction. Jamie laughed as he went to get his coat.

"Do men ever grow up?" Kate asked, laughing along with them.

"In this family? Not that I've noticed," John answered with a grin. "Where would the fun be in that. We just get serious when we have to."

"I'm good with that," Kate answered, leaning into her husband.

"It's a good thing you are. 'Cause you're stuck with me now," Castle answered.

"Me, too," John added. "Lucky you." Turning to help Jamie with his coat, he asked, "You ready Sport? Want to ride there on my shoulders?"

"Uh-huh," Jamie answered and held his arms up.

"We'll wait until we get outside. Wouldn't want to bonk your head on the elevator door." John picked him up and perched him on his arm until they reached the street, then lifted him up on his shoulders again, holding on to Jamie's legs.

"What can you see from up there?" Castle asked.

Then Kate asked something, and John caught on right away and threw out some questions of his own. All three adults asked questions designed to have Jamie looking for things and to describe them in a three year old's terms, all of them having fun with it.

The four of them enjoyed their lunches, and the Castles took Jamie home by way of the park not far from the loft to let him burn off some energy. While Jamie took his afternoon nap, Kate reminded Castle, "Your birthday is next Friday. Save the evening before it for me."

He gave her a suggestive smile and asked, "And what do you have planned for us that evening?"

"Well, that, too, if it's your pre-birthday wish; but that isn't the main event. I'm going to take you out for dinner, and then we have tickets for something afterward. Just the two of us. It's a surprise, and Martha has already said she can babysit. Then you get the party on your birthday."

"One: That's always a wish, birthday or not. And two: What do I wear to dinner? Have you arranged to get another eyeful of my rugged handsomeness in a tux, or are we going more casual?"

"More casual this time. A button down and a blazer, maybe. You don't even need a tie."

"No pants?" he asked mischievously.

"Of course pants…and before you ask, shoes and socks, too. Not that I wouldn't enjoy the no pants view, but that view is all mine," she said, gently squeezing the prime part in the aforementioned view. "And I don't intend to share it."

"Possessive of your man. I like it." He paused and asked innocently, "And where are we going after dinner?"

"Nice try, Sherlock. I'm sure I mentioned it's a surprise."

"I still have a week. I'll wear you down before then." Changing the subject suddenly, he suggested, "Why don't you call your dad about Europe this summer? I'll call Alexis; she should be out of class by now. John already agreed that if the rest of the family is there, he's in. That just leaves Mother."

"We can talk to her tonight."

"When is the last time you were in Europe?" he asked.

"Getting to Kiev and back."

"That long? We should be insistent on some time for sight-seeing, maybe a couple of short side-trips."

"I'd like that, too. And I guess I'll need to research some kid's activities to keep Jamie occupied while you're busy."

"Save some of the good ones for when I can come with you."

"I will." She wrapped her arms around him, and he put his arms around her and kissed the crown of her head. They stood with their arms loosely wrapped around each other's waists and talked.

"How long do you think Jamie can hold up on a longer trip than the last one?"

Looking up at him, she answered, "I don't know. He got a little cranky a couple of times, or restless; but overall, I thought he handled it pretty well. Except for his ears popping when we landed, he seemed to love seeing the different kinds of planes."

"And there are trains there. He likes trains. Maybe we could take one overnight so we can sleep in a sleeper compartment."

"I'll bet he'd love that."

"I'll do some research this weekend and offer some suggestions before too much is already planned," Castle promised.

"I think I'm looking forward to it," Kate answered. Even if I have to take the munchkin home early, I'm still looking forward to it. And if some of the family will come for a few days or a week, that would be even better. The Girl With Red Hair and Little Brother in Europe. Sounds like a new book to me. New languages, everybody is a stranger, all kinds of places to lose things or hide. You could write one for Jamie."

"That's not a bad idea. Or I could write Rook and Nikki trying to have a two week vacation in romantic places, trouble following them from country to country, working with Interpol... Maybe I'll come home inspired."

"Maybe you will," she answered, giving him a sweet kiss and resting her head back on his chest. "I'm kind of tired. Let's make our phone calls later. I remember sleeping a lot during the fourth month with Jamie. I think that might be starting, so I'm feeling inspired to take a nap while Jamie is asleep. Want to come and keep me warm?"

"Always." He turned her toward the bedroom for an afternoon nap and a good snuggle with the mother of his children.