Hello dear readers! This is the first chapter of my new story, and I hope you'll enjoy the "ride!" This is a rather short introduction, but bear with it, it'll get better. I've decided to dive into the world of names, a writer's paradise. So sit up tall, look where you're going, keep your heels down, and hold those reins properly!

It was not really much of a shock, the news that Kate Castle received on a slightly warmer than average day in April. Okay, she had to admit it still surprised her a little bit. She had hoped that it was true; she had thought through it logically and concluded it was true; she had tested it and found her own results to be true; but now she had professional evidence, visual evidence, evidence that would floor her husband when he got home from trip to the set of Heat Rises that evening. Oh yes, revenge for all the surprises he had put her through was sweet.

At five o'clock in the afternoon, Richard Castle walked into the waiting area of JFK International Airport a bit tentatively. It was by no means because he was not looking forward to seeing his wife (he truly was, it was hard enough to leave her for a minute let alone three days, especially when she had not been feeling well), he was just worried about the news he had to break to her. Nothing was wrong, not by any stretch; something had just… come up.

When he looked to see her standing behind the ropes, though, he forgot any worries he had been having. She smiled and waved and his grin could have lit up the skyline.

"Hey, stranger," she greeted him once they had reached one another.

"Hey yourself," he replied, staring into her eyes and absorbing all the emotion they shared with him.

Without warning, he dropped his bags and pulled her in for a kiss. After they got married two years earlier, the couple stopped really caring who saw them kissing in public ("They want to photograph everything about you," Kate had reasoned, "Why not throw them at least a splinter of a bone?").

Remaining in the embrace for what felt like an eon, Kate reacquainted herself with everything about her husband: his distinct smell, the way his shirt felt, his height, the rhythm of his breathing, the feeling of his lips pressed against her own… She stopped herself before going any further in the public area. Even now, there were certain lines she drew. She looked at him and smiled radiantly, then picked up the smaller of his bags and hoisted it over her shoulder.

"You comin', Castle?" she threw back over her shoulder and she walked away from him. On cue, he picked up his other bag and followed her, faithful as ever.

"So how was L.A.?" Kate asked as they sat side-by-side on the floor of their living room eating Chinese off the coffee table.

Castle shrugged. "Would've been better if you came along," he told her, "But I played poker with Jerry Moss last night. I hadn't seen him in ages."

Kate cocked her head. "The name sounds familiar but I don't know from where," she remarked.

"Well," Castle said, putting down his container of food, "Jerry actually brings me to my next point. I have some news."

Smiling and putting down her food as well, Kate said, "Great! I do too."

"You do?" Castle asked.

"Mhmm."

In an attempt to put off his news further, Castle turned to her. "You go first. I want to hear all about what the extraordinary Kate Castle has to say."

Fixing her eyes in a famous stare, Kate asked, "Are you sure you want to hear this?"

"You saying that makes me want to hear even more," he told her with a grin.

Kate returned the smile, pulled out a small envelope from under her thigh, and gave it to Castle. "Open it," she told him.

He wiggled his eyebrows in a mischievous way and set to work on the envelope, eventually pulling out a small black and white photo of what looked like a stretched-out cone with an abstract sketch inside it.

It took Castle all of two seconds to realize what his wife had just given him.

"Is this what I think it is?" he asked her, his voice a little hoarse from surprise. He turned to Kate and saw that she had taken her bottom lip in her teeth and was nodding slowly. For once in his life, Castle was lost for words.

"You-you-we-you…" he struggled to make a coherent sentence.

"We," Kate told him softly, snuggling closer, "made a baby." She tapped the photo.

"You're pregnant?" Castle asked for verification.

"Yes, Castle, I am. I hope that's all right," she said, nervousness creeping into her voice for the first time.

"Of course it is!" he exclaimed, "We both wanted this. Kate, Kate this is fantastic!"

Kate laughed at the childlike excitement in his voice. "I think so too. I really do."

"This is the best news ever!" Castle continued, "It's amazing!"

Kate raised her head from the shoulder she was currently resting it on. "Speaking of which, what news were you going to tell me?"

"Oh," Castle responded, beginning to clam up, "Oh, it can wait until tomorrow."

With this, his wife sat back and fixed her eyes on him in that penetrating, interrogation room way.

"Richard Castle, what did you do?" she asked him sternly.

Castle stood up and helped her up as well. He raised his hands to show innocence. "Now don't get mad, Kate," he began, "Jerry wouldn't let me out of it."

"Out of what?" she pressed.

"He just didn't have any money left and didn't know what he was saying."

"What did he say, Castle?"

"Well, like you, Zenyatta is pregnant too," he started.

"Zenyatta?" Kate cut in.

"And Jerry wouldn't let me out of the deal. He said it wouldn't be honorable. So now we haven't got one new baby on the way, we've got two," Castle tried to explain.

"He offered up a child for poker?" Kate hissed.

"No, no! Not a child! A…a…horse," Castle stuttered.

Kate stumbled back a step and took a breath. "A what?"

Uh-oh, looks like Castle is in trouble!

Reviews are much appreciated!