A vagueish sort of post-ep for Time Will Tell, vague references to things said/implied in said episode. No be reading if you haven't seen it/do not wish to be spoilt. If that is not the case, enjoy.

as you held me down, you said,

i'll see you in the future when we're older

and we are full of stories to be told.

cross my heart and hope to die

i'll see you with your laughter lines

-bastille, laughter lines

She hates being pregnant. Okay, no, she doesn't hate being pregnant. She just hates the migraines that come with being pregnant. Second time around and they seem to be two times as worse. Maybe it's because there's two of them this time. Twins. One boy and one girl that leave her piled under a heavy blanket and two pillows pressed over her head. Ugh.

"Momma?"

Kate lifts a corner of the blanket, squints the tiniest gap possible to get a decent look at her two year old son. Keane, with his tangled mess of brown unruly hair (inherited from yours truly), with his fathers eyes, stares straight back at her, his face suddenly lighting up with a brilliant smile that makes her heart pound in her chest. She's long been used to him gaining independence, and not having to rely on her for everything he needs, but she was still relieved to find that sometimes he just needs his mommy. Especially recently, when she's been confined to her bed for so many days and nights.

He's been walking for a good eight months by now, but with varying degrees of steadiness and today has been a day of holding onto anything he can. Right now his fat little fingers are curled around the edge of the mattress. "Momma, cuddles police."

He's not quite got the hang of the word please, and has instead latched onto a word that he recognises as vaguely similar. It's cute and endearing and infuriates Castle to no end, but it's not quit so cute or endearing when they're in the grocery store and he starts yelling police because he so badly wants the packet of strawberries. Security have been called on more than one occasion.

"You gotta be quiet, baby."

He nods, so completely solemn, her little man, so she lifts the covers up and shuffles sideways slightly. And that's hard to do when the room wants to spin when she so much as lifts her head, let alone when she's five months pregnant with double the trouble. "I be quiet momma. I be a mouse."

Kate closes her eyes, lets him settles himself down. His knees are pressing slightly into her ribcage, and his hair tickles her nose, but she likes it. And he's entertained enough with her shirt for her to be able to close her eyes again and sink back into a world of a half doze.

"Momma?"

"Mm, baby?"

"I hear me?"

That's another thing he's not quite understood. She still calls him baby, something she still does out of habit, and when they told him that there would soon be two new babies in the household he automatically thought they were just having two more of him. He'll get it eventually.

"They're not making much noise today. I think they're sleeping."

"I hear me, momma."

It can't do any harm for him to listen, he knows to be gentle, and she lifts her loose sleep shirt up, revealing the soft curve of her pregnancy. The twins have been quiet today, have decided to be nice to her for at least one day so she can get her bearings straight. Keane rests his head against her belly, eyes closed, the picture of serenity. "I sleep."

"They're asleep. Building up their energy, so when they're born they can run around with you."

"I play astronauts with me?"

"Yeah. Yeah, they'll – ow."

Keane's head jerks upwards, eyes big and wide and fearful. "Momma, I don't do nothing, it wasn't-"

"Shh, baby, I know. They woke up. One of them woke up."

"I hurt?"

"No, baby, no, it's –" she presses her hand to her abdomen, just above her belly button. "Give me your hand." Keane dutifully presses his hand in her hers, and she turns it over so his palm is pressed to her skin, her hand covering his. "Just give it a moment."

Keane sits there, as still as a stone, and if it wasn't for Kate being able to see him breathing she would insist he'd stopped doing that. It takes a while, at least another minute, but Keane is surprisingly patient. And then, when one of the twins kicks, the look on his face is priceless. He giggles, high and clear and completely enchanting. It makes the pain spike in her head, and there's an odd shuffle and clunk from Castle's study.

"Keane! I said if you were going to see Mommy you had to be quiet."

"No, Castle, it's fine. He's – it's okay."

"Daddy!" Keane shouts, slightly louder than necessary and it makes her wince. Keane wrinkles his nose. "Sorry, Momma. I a mouse."

"Kate, everything okay?"

"Daddy, I kick!"

"What?"

"I sleep, and I kick!"

Castle's voice is stern and reprimanding and slightly muffled, somewhere to her left. "Keane, if you've been kicking-"

"I no kick momma!" Keane shrieks, upset and angry that he'd even suggest such a thing.

"But you just…"

"He means the other I, Castle." Kate says with a hidden smile, suddenly feeling so completely blessed with her ridiculous family.

"Oh… oh, oh, really Kate?"

"Yeah, about five minutes ago. Come on, room in here for one more." She feels the dip of the mattress, the waft of cooler air as he lifts the blankets. Keane scrambles for him, ends up sandwiched between them, head pillowed on one of Castle's biceps. "Need your hand."

He's well practiced in this, turns his palm the right way up, lets Kate guide his hand to where it needs to be. Keane is watching with interest, his breath loud and harsh in their ears. The feeling is muffled for Kate, especially with Castle's larger hand, but she can still feel it. That slight pulse that makes her almost well up with happiness.

"Kate…"

"I know, Castle. I know."

He's sulking, and Kate's well aware of it. He's not exactly well at hiding it. But he thinks he's allowed, really, considering he's sending his last two children off to college. It's not like they're even staying anywhere close. Ria is heading off to Stanford to do pre-law, something Kate is stupidly proud of, because maybe she didn't get the chance to be the first female chief-justice, but there is always the possibility her daughter could fulfil the dream instead. And Ira? He's heading off to Scotland, and St Andrews to do Astrophysics. Keane never went to college, which was fine by all of them, but instead he's living in Africa, one of the lead carers in an elephant sanctuary. They're sent pictures almost every week of a sun tanned, happy twenty one year old occasionally riding on the back of an elephant, or pointing at an elephant, or a rhino, or in one point getting too up close and personal for Castle's comfort to a pride of lions.

"Dad, I'll be fine. Okay? You know how much I love Scotland. And physics."

"Ira, I am well aware of your love for both of those, I am just not entirely keen on the four hour plane ride, and the five hour time difference, and the many, many miles of distance between you and us."

"It's not like you can't afford to come and visit. I mean, how much did you get for your last book deal?"

"Well – I, well that's not even the point. You're my youngest and you're still supposed to be ten and playing pee wee soccor."

Ira rolls his eyes, and hitches his carry on further up onto his shoulder. "I'll be home for Christmas. I promise. Just as long as you pay for my flight."

"I'll pay for you to come home every weekend if you wanted me too."

"That is completely unfeasible and illogical and I am not travelling internationally every weekend. I love you all, but I have to draw a line somewhere."

"Ignore everything he says, Ira. He's being a grump."

"I think I'm allowed to, to be honest. All my children have upped and left me."

"Dad, you've still got Mom. Unless she's planning on running off with that guy from Temptation Lane…" Ria pipes up, looking up from her phone for the first time since they got to the airport. "Not that he's even cute."

"Well I keep trying to tell her that but she just doesn't listen."

Above them the tannoy announces a flight, and Ria jumps into action. "That's my plane. I gotta run." She flings her arms around her mother, squeezes her so tightly Castle thinks she'll break her mothers back. "Don't bully Dad too much Mom. You know how fragile his ego is."

Kate laughs, hugs her daughter back with just as much as ferocity. "Phone us when you're all settled in. Don't get in too much trouble, and no boys for at least a month. And I mean that."

It's Ria's turn to roll her eyes this time, moves onto her father, who is more than tempted to just bear hug her tight enough so that he can just take her back to the car and never let her leave. If he wasn't married to Miss-By-The-Book unlawful imprisonment is illegal here than maybe he would. But he lets her go because he knows deep down that letting her go is the best thing for her. Making her own way in life. First female chief justice. Though she does let him go long before he releases his arms. She and Ira have got their goodbye down to a fine art, some secret handshake that he can never get the hang of.

"See you later, dude."

And then, she's gone, marching through the crowds with all the grace and confidence of her mother. And even though he's still got another half an hour before his plane starts to board, Ira is looking at them like he's going to depart any minute. Castle tries to delay him, huffs a lot and sighs a lot and keeps him there for at least another five minutes by briefing him on Scottish etiquette. Not that he knows any of it himself, but he likes to pretend. But he has to go, and go he must, and five minutes of almost tears from Ira, he does. He ducks and weaves through the crowd, not like his sister, who just marches through and expects people to get out of the way. Of the two, he's by far the more compassionate and considerate one.

Castle isn't aware he's crying until Kate's pressing a tissue into his hand, leaning against his side, her head on his shoulder. "We have some amazing kids." She murmurs, and he can hear how proud she is of them.

"Yeah, but why can't they be amazing in New York?"

"They'll be back before you know it, clogging up the floor with suitcases and clothes, and you'll be whining there's no hot water, and it's too loud, and when is it you're going back to college?"

"No, I won't."

Kate snorts, pulls him backwards because there's no point in staying any more. "Okay, big guy."

"We could have another." He muses, keeping one pace behind her.

"You're about eight years too late for that. Besides, three kids. That's what he said."

"He also said you'd be senator."

His wife laughs, shakes her head at him, her ridiculous husband. "Futures change, you know that. Something we did, something someone said, it would have changed it. Besides, I took down a senator, and look at the uproar that caused. I'm hardly going to then go and become one."

"Does this mean you're admitting that you now believe in time travel?"

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