The Mayor's Gala Epilogue Revised, Re edited and complete
A/N: So sorry about all the confusion trying to get this posted on Friday and the partial posting earlier. Still have no idea what went wrong, but this is it, finally. Thank you all for your love and support I have received here on ff.
To Guest Reviewer Bob: While I appreciate you taking time to read and comment on my fics, I don't appreciate your comments I don't want to be rude or ungrateful, but I've seen your comments on other author's reviews and not once have you offered a kind word of support or advice, just rude comments. You are entitled to your opinion, but nobody is forcing you to read.
You have no idea of the thought, the effort and the time we put into these to try to bring you entertainment and fill the void that Castle's ending brought to us. We are all heart broken and missing the show badly. I'm sorry if you're not. That is your problem, not ours. If you do not like our fics, you may say so, but please, keep your comments kind and if you cannot do that then it's best to say nothing at all. I can't help but think of Nathan's quote here. "It costs nothing to say something kind and even less to say nothing at all"
Relief swept over her as they entered the bullpen and she noticed Ryan and Esposito perched in front of the murder board, Esposito with his ass perched on the corner of her desk. Lanie was sitting in an office chair in between the two guys..
"Hey, Castles. What are you doing here?" Ryan asked.
"Beckett? You're supposed to be on maternity leave. What brings you two here?"
"Kate? Hey, girl." Lanie said, leaning around Ryan. "You guys look nice."
"Thank you, Lanie. We were invited to the Mayor's Gala this evening and we thought we'd drop by and see what's happening and get your fat ass off of my desk, Espo." Kate groused.
Rick arched an eyebrow and looked at his wife. Hmmm. This was unusual. Considering that they'd had a pleasant evening and under normal circumstances she would not be so snarky with Espo. Him and Kevin on the other hand... Well, that was debatable.
"What? I don't know what you are talking about, girl. My ass is NOT fat!" Espo groused back.
"Fat or not, please remove it from my desk. NOW!"
"Okay. Okay. I don't know what's gotten into you, but you don't have to get so huffy about it." Espo said, pulling his office chair in front of the board.
"Don't take it personally, 'Sito. She's not feeling well, that's all. The Braxton Hicks is giving her trouble." Castle stated.
"Ahhh. I remember those days well with Jenny. You think this is bad, you should have tried living with Jenny when she was pregnant and horomonal and we spent so much time in the ER with Braxton Hicks." Ryan added.
'So, what are you two doing here?" Esposito asked.
"Oh, we were at the Mayor's Gala and Kate being pregnant and anxious was worried that something was wrong up here and insisted that we stop by to check it out."
Another contraction hit Kate and she clutched at her abdomen, bending her frame double. "Owww!" she gritted out as she panted out the contraction.
"You let her come up here in this condition? Not cool, bro" Espo said, scowling at Rick.
"She's been having them all night. I wanted to take her to the hospital, but she wanted to come here first. She promised we'd just come in and check things out and then we'd go."
Lanie narrowed her gaze at Kate, concern etching her features as she studied her best friend. "When did this start?" she asked Kate.
"This morning I awoke with a backache. Owww! Didn't think too much of it." Kate panted out. "Then Braxton Hicks. Owww!"
Esposito's phone rang on his desk and he sauntered off to answer it.
About that time, water tinged with pink gushed from between Kate's legs and puddled at her feet.
Aghast, Kate looked up at Lanie with panic filled eyes. "Oh no! It's too early! Not yet! Please, God! Not yet! OWW!" her voice filled with panic.
"Okay, girl. You listen to me. Everything is going to be fine, but we need to get you to the hospital."
"I tried to tell her that, but she wouldn't listen to me." Rick said.
Lanie looked at Kate, "I love you, but girl, you can be as stubborn as a century old ass sometimes. I'm going to help Castle get you downstairs and I'll follow you to the hospital in my car. Call her doctor and tell them to meet us at the hospital."
Rick and Lanie got on each side of Kate and looped each of her arms around their neck and started for the exit.
"Not the elevator, Lanie. It's not working." Rick advised.
"Wait! What? It was working fine when I brought the boys dinner earlier."
"Well, it's not now. That's why we took the stairs."
"Wait!" cried Ryan as he ran up to them. "That was Captain Gates on the phone with Javi. It seems that a terroristic threat has been made against the 12th. It seems that someone, or a group of someone's parked a van with enough C-4 on it to level the precinct and 4 city blocks surrounding it. All 3 letter agencies are all over this, but we have been ordered to stay put."
"We can't stay put! Kate's about to have our baby and she needs a hospital. NOW!" Rick cried.
Ryan nodded his head. " Captain Gates has been advised and there is an ambulance on standby ready to roll, but until the bomb has been located and disarmed their hands are tied. On the upside of this, they are scouring street cams to locate the van, but the best we can do is make Beckett as comfortable as possible. There's a couch in Conference Room One that folds out into a bed. Let's get her there,"
Rick nodded and swooped Kate into his arms, carrying Kate with Lanie trailing close behind.
At the door to the Conference Room, Lanie issued both boys orders. "Ryan, I need every clean sheet and towel you can round up."
At his nod, she turned to Javi who had joined them at the door. "Javi, I need gloves, the newspapers from your desk and some sharp, sterilized scissors. I'd prefer that the scissors be boiled in hot water, but if I need them before that can happen, take a full bottle of alcohol from First Aid and soak them in that, then bring them to me."
He nodded to her. "As you wish." and scurried off to do her bidding.
Rick settled Kate in a chair while he and Lanie pulled the couch into a bed.
Ryan returned with some sheets and some pillows and hurried off to find towels.
While both boys were off carrying out her orders, Lanie made the bed up while Rick pulled the blinds and closed the door, undressed Kate and wrapped her in a clean sheet and settled her in the bed.
"I'm so sorry, babe." Kate panted tearfully
"Sorry for what?" Rick asked, brushing some stray hair that had escaped the pins of her updo away from her face.
"For not listening to you and going to the hospital."
"Shhh! There's nothing to be sorry for. Let's try not to worry about that now. I love you, Kate."
"I love you, too." Kate replied, squeezing his hand tightly as another contraction hit.
"I can see his head." Lanie said, looking up from in between Kate's legs.
"OH NO! It's too early, Lanie. He isn't supposed to be coming yet. I'm so scared, Lanie."
"Well, two weeks isn't so early that it's cause for alarm. Besides, you may well be full term."
"What? I don't get it. Dr. Clay said two weeks." Rick said.
"Doctors are flesh and blood, just like you, Castle. Determining a woman's due date isn't an EXACT science. We can only go by what a woman tells us according to her last menstrual cycle, which could be off. Kate, honey. I need for you to try to remain calm. Kate, you're the bravest person I know. You can do this. Look, I know that this isn't the best of circumstances and this isn't my area of expertise, but I need you both to trust me on this."
"We do. Unconditionally. You did deliver Sarah Grace, after all."
"Yes, I did and now it looks like I'm about to deliver my second godchild. And I'm so excited and happy for you both. Now Kate, with the next contraction, I need you to push as hard as you can."
There was a knock at the door and Rick went to answer it, blocking Kate from view, using his body in the 12 to 15 inches of open space in the open doorway.
Ryan stood there holding the towels Lanie had asked him to find. "It's going to be okay, Castle. We'll all get out of here safely and you'll have the newest member of your family when we do. I don't know if Lanie will need them or not, but I also found some light weight blankets. They are a bit scratchy in feel, but would work if she needed them. I also found a video camera in the Property Room."
"Ryan! You lifted a video cam for us?" Rick exclaimed, trying and failing to smother his mirth.
"NO! I didn't lift ANYTHING! I simply borrowed, Castle. The things in the Property Room are items that have been confiscated during drug raids and what not. They will go on sale during an online Police Auction. Anyway, from one father to another, I thought you may want a video of the birth and giving birth here is a far cry from doing it in a hospital where they video it for you."
"Gee, Ryan. Thanks! We're touched. And I'll buy the cam when all is said and done."
"Not a problem, man. I just know how I felt with SG being born in the back of an ambulance and I wasn't able to be there until afterwards and we didn't get this. Not that I'm not grateful."
"I get it, man. Thanks, Ryan. It means a lot to me."
"Yo! I got the things Lanie needs." Espo said, as he joined them.
Javi, I need you to go to the ladies bathroom and bring me some of the products from the machine on the wall."
"Wait! NO! I am NOT going to the ladies bathroom! Are you kidding me?"
"Javi, I wouldn't ask if it weren't necessary. You're so good at kicking in doors, I figured you'd be my best candidate. Besides, what's more important here, Kate and the baby or you and your pride?" Lanie stated snidely.
Rick smiled jubilantly at Espo. "And while you're at it, could you bring me that large mirror hanging on the wall?"
Espo glared at him. "And how would YOU know what's on the wall in the ladies bathroom?"
"Javi, he's right. Now go! And when you're done, I need you two to pull up chairs outside this door and be ready when I need some warm water."
"You mean we have to give up our investigation, too?" Espo complained.
"Your investigation is NOT what I am worried about at this time, Javier! Besides, it's not like your victim is going anywhere. He can't get any deader and you can't chase down suspects right now, anyway. And I repeat my question as to what or whom is more important here."
"Okay. FINE!" Espo replied, vehemently. "But you owe me, Castle"
"Come on, bro. I'll go help you." Ryan added.
Lanie cast Rick an understanding look over her shoulder and added, "And don't forget the mirror."
Rick turned, smiling broadly at Lanie and mouthed a thank you at her.
She nodded curtly back at him. "Mmmmm hmmmm"
A few minutes later, the boys returned with all the requests and were allowed entry after Lanie made sure Kate was modestly covered.
Keeping their eyes cast down toward the floor, they set the huge mirror behind Lanie and made a hasty reteat.
Once the boys had pulled up their chairs and taken their post outside the door to Conference Room One, Ryan turned to Espo and said, "Man, I never expected to be a part of this, but it sure is an honor."
"Yeah. For me too, bro." Espo admitted, as they listened to Beckett's moans and groans and Lanie's instructions to Kate through the door behind them.
"So, you're not going to hold Castle to that debt?"
"Nah. Just messin' with him."
"Woah! This is FASCINATING! Can you imagine trying to push something the size of a watermelon through..." came from Castle behind the door.
The boys laughed and could only imagine the glare Lanie would be giving Castle.
"Finish that sentence and you won't have to wait for Kate to kill you. I'll do it for her." Lanie huffed back at Castle.
"Understood." Castle replied.
"Hey, guys! I'm going to need some warm water in a few minutes." Lanie called out to them and they scurried off to do her bidding
"Okay, Kate. With the next contraction, push with all of your might."
A few minutes later, the boys delivered some warm water and Castle opened the door just a bit to take it from them and the door was quickly shut again.
They smiled and fist bumped as the sounds of a crying newborn came to them from the closed door behind them a few minutes later.
At approximately 2:30 am, Montgomery James Castle slipped into Lanie's capable hands
"He's not crying! Is he okay? Please, Lanie, tell me he's okay!" A panicked Kate cried.
"He'll be fine, honey. Just try and stay calm." Rick assured her, hoping his assurances weren't in vain.
Kate and Rick watched as Lanie held Monty upside down and flicked the soles of his tiny feet with her fingers, causing Monty to wail.
" Oh girl, he's perfect! So beautiful! Welcome to the world!" Lanie exclaimed as she bathed the new infant, and then placed the infant at Kate's breast' "He's probably hungry, though."
Rick and Kate breathed a huge sigh of relief as tears of joy coursed down their cheeks.
Kate brought her hand up to pull the sheet covering her down and gently turned Monty to her breast and she gently stroked the soft, pink flesh of his cheeks and he instinctively began to suckle.
A thrill of love ran down her spine and she shivered. "I've always known I'd love him, but this is…"
"Indescribable? It's amazing, isn't it?" Rick said.
She looked up at him from beneath her lashes to find him, lifting the towel covering Monty as she examined their son, the love and joy, and pride shining brightly in his eyes. "Yeah." she replied, nodding.
"That inexplicable love you can only have for your child." he said, stroking the soft, light brown fuzz on Monty's head.
"I love you." she said, raising her head to brush a soft kiss to his lips.
"I love you, too. And Kate, you've always been beautiful in my eyes and always will be, but you couldn't be more so and I couldn't love you any more than I do right now. And you've made me the happiest I've ever been."
"Me too," she acknowledged, beaming that mega-watt smile that he loved so much at him..
"Okay, Kate. I now have to manipulate your uterus to help you expel the afterbirth and I'm sorry, but it will be painful." Lanie said, rolling her chair to the other side of the bed to work on Kate.
Once the afterbirth was expelled, Lanie used her shoe laces to tie off the umbilical cord and extended the scissors to Rick. "You want to do the honors, Castle?"
"Of course, I do. Thank you."
She handed him the scissors and instructed him where to cut and after it was severed, she collected the after birth in newspaper, put it in a plastic bag so it could be transported to the hospital where Kate's OB/ GYN could examine it for any abnormalities.
"Okay guys. I am going to leave you alone with your baby now and I'll be right outside if you need me. Castle, if Kate or Monty goes into any distress, you call me in here ASAP!"
After instructing him on the signs of distress, she turned for the door.
"Lanie, thank you. I owe you for this." Kate's voice had her turning to face her.
"Girl, please. You don't owe me a thing. Castle, on the other hand, owes me a week at my favorite spa."
Rick grinned at her. "Done! Just let me know which one."
"Just kidding, Castle. But I better damned well be named as his godmother at his christening."
"That was the plan all along, Lanie" Kate assured her.
At 7:00 am, Espo got the all clear call from Captain Gates. The bomb had been located and disarmed by the Bomb Squad. The suspects were still on the loose, but all three agencies were still on the lookout and the FBI had some good, solid leads they were chasing down.
Gates was updated on the birth of the newest Castle family member and apprised that all had gone well. "That's great. Congratulate them for me. Good work, Detectives! And tell Dr. Parrish thank you for me. In the meantime, an ambulance is en route and boys, I think you can take the rest of the day off. Go home and get some much needed rest."
"Yes, sir." Ryan and Espo chorused together.
"Hell of a day." Espo said, as he placed the phone back in it's cradle."
"Hell of a day and who knew when we woke up this morning that there would be a terroristic threat against the 12th AND Castle and Beckett's baby would be born here and we would be instrumental in that?"
"Yeah. I could have done without that threat, but Castle and Beckett's baby, that's just awesome, bro and I couldn't be happier for them."
"Me either. Let's go tell them the news and get a peek at the little guy."
After a brief but light knock, Lanie pushed the Conference Room door open.
"Alright you two. Deliver your news, get your peek at the baby and leave so I can prepare Kate for transport. And hurry the hell up. That bus will be here any second."
The boys had no sooner offered their congratulations and informed them of the latest developments on the threat than the EMT's arrived to whisk Kate and Rick and Monty to the hospital.
Three days later, after receiving a clean bill of health for both baby and mother, Montgomery James Castle made the journey home to 525 Broome Street. Home. So much more than just a secure building. Home was where family was. Family that loved you totally, unconditionally, unequivocally without doubt. Where love and laughter, hopes and dreams and possibilities existed with lots of support. With plenty of hugs and kisses in abundance.
He would reside there until he left for college. He'd learn how to walk and talk there, learn how to be a big brother to his siblings that would come later. He would learn his family's morals, values, and traditions
His dad, who was an already famous Mystery Crime Novelist, would even write Children's books for him, his siblings and his cousins. He would tell Monty endless bedtime stories of Princess Kate and Prince Richard and how they slayed dragons together and were always victorious. From his dad, he'd also learn that anyone can be a writer and so much more. Dad would teach him how to be a man and to always be respectful to women.
Grams would introduce him to the world of theater, take him to plays her acting school produced and even have Monty cast in some of them. He'd later star in her production as Oliver Twist from the play authored many years ago by some guy named Charles Dickens who died way beyond even Gram's age.
His older sister Alexis doted on Monty and would often babysit him when his parents went out for date night or one of dad's book parties. She was cool, often teaching him magic tricks she learned while she was growing up and more importantly she was always there for him when he needed advice or emotional support.
His very loving and grandpa Jim would tell him stories of his grandmother Johanna and would tell him how much she would have loved him and proud she would be of him, but grandma Jo lived with the angels now but was still very proud and loved him and she was watching over and protecting him from heaven. He also would tell Monty cool stories of his mom when she was growing up.
Grandpa Jim would take him to many baseball games and would take him to the park and teach him how to pitch and run bases as well as how to catch. In later years, Grandpa Jim would also teach him hunting and fishing. He would be present at each of Monty's baseball games cheering him on.
His mother, the epitome of motherly love would cuddle him close, kiss away his bumps, scrapes, and bruises, smooth his brow when he was sick, sing songs to him at bedtime, snuggle with him under blankets at movie night at home., who cried at having to leave him when she returned to work.
His mother encouraged him telling him that he could grow up and be whatever he wanted to be.
After his birth, his mother went back to work st the 12th precinct and take her Captain's exam, passing with flying colors, replacing Captain Gates when she became Deputy Chief to the commissioner at One Police Plaza. His dad would take him to visit her at work, often taking her, Espo, and Ryan lunch until Monty started school.
By the time Monty was four, his parents gave birth to Fraternal twins, giving Monty both a brother and sister. When Monty was nine, he discovered his dad's passion for writing and would write his own graphic novels and then he and his siblings with the help of Sarah Grace and Nicholas Ryan would act them out for their families.
His mother continued to climb the ladder of success, eventually becoming the Mayor of the great state of New York.
Through the years, Monty would attend Columbia majoring in Criminal Justice and during that time fell hopelessly in love with Sarah Grace, much to the joy of both parents and they would eventually marry and have children of their own. Through his childhood whenever he was sad or disappointed, his mother would recite a mantra in his ear. "Even on the worse days, there's a possibility for joy" and it became a mantra to his children. A mantra that would be instilled in Castle children through many years.
The End