Disclaimer: I do not own Castle nor do I own Kate Beckett. These characters are currently owned by ABC and Andrew W. Marlowe. Thanks
Well this was it. This was one of the final moments of his high school career. All that stood between him and the freedom of summer was this final assignment. So why was it so hard to finish. Wait, why was it so hard to even start.
The prompt was simple: Where do you see yourself in 15 years?
He could simply just make something up, I mean he already had an A in his AP Lit class, he passed the AP exam too so there was nothing to fear. All he had to do was write a clear and concise answer and be done with high school assignments forever, but that wouldn't be right and that wouldn't be how Ethan Rodgers ended this part of his life.
I guess he had to blame both his parents for his work ethic. I mean, it's pretty hard to be a screw up who didn't care about academics when you had Kate Beckett and Richard Castle genetics.
Lost in his thoughts he didn't even hear his bedroom door open. It wasn't until he felt cold fingers on his shoulders did he even look away from his computer. He smiled when he saw her. His mother was always a beautiful woman, but when he looked at her this time he saw something different in her eyes. His father was the one who taught him to look people in the eyes; he would tell Ethan, "Look them in the eyes kid. The eyes have two parts: the pupil is the brain while the iris is the heart."
Leave it to the writer to create an analogy out of body parts.
So when he looked in his mother's eyes tonight he knew either her heart or her brain was hurting. He decided it was her heart after the tears started forming.
He stood up immediately and hugged her. She wrapped her arms around him and he felt a silent smile and quiet laugh.
"I'm so proud of you," he heard his mother say.
"Then why are you so upset?" Ethan shot back and turned his head to look at his mom.
She smiled softly and said, "Because you're my first born and it's just hard to see you grow up."
Ethan turned his head and hugged his mother harder. He always knew that he was loved. It was hard not to be loved by his parents. Love, again was in his genetics. I mean his dad wrote an entire book series on his parent's love story. And even though Ethan couldn't handle reading fictional sex scenes between his parents, the girls at his school would kindly ask him if he was as sweet as his father.
His mother noticed his mind drifting again and squeezed him harder before looking at him and asked, "You okay bud?"
Ethan smiled and said, "I love you too mom," before setting his head back on her shoulder. Being 6'2" wasn't always a perk when he was trying to comfort someone, but he made it work.
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When Kate left her son's room and wandered to her second born she felt it all come crashing down. Her babies were growing up. She took a deep breath and knocked on her daughter's door before entering.
Emilia was sitting on her window bench with headphones on and a book in her hand. Kate smiled at the sight and slowly made her way to her daughter and gave her a light pat on the knee.
Emilia jumped at her touch and turned to her mother and said, "Jeez ma, maybe you should knock next time!"
Kate just laughed and looked at her little rebel daughter. The teen had shoulder length dark brown locks that twirled ever so lightly, bright green eyes and cheekbones that could walk runways. Emilia looked just like her mother 20 years ago, and even had the mouth of teenage Kate too.
"I did knock you little shit, but you would have known that if you didn't blast your music 24/7," Kate rebutted back at her kid.
Emilia just rolled her eyes and asked what her mother wanted.
Kate kindly smiled and asked, "How are you doing?"
"I'm fine mom. I finished my homework so you can stop checking up on me. Really, I'm okay," Emilia said.
Ethan and Emilia were twins, but at times it seemed like the two of them came from different backgrounds. Throughout her entire pregnancy Kate had this horrible feeling. She knew that everything was fine medically, but it didn't stop the dreams or fears she had about her little babies. It wasn't until they were born that November evening that Kate would soon face her fears. Her and Castle decided to try and have a natural birth, something uncommon when dealing with twins, but they were always up for a challenge.
Ethan was born first and came out a healthy little boy, weighing in just under 7 lbs. Emilia was a different situation though. She somehow became breached after her brother came out and Kate was rushed into surgery to get her daughter born. Emilia came out fine though, weighing just under 6 lbs, but the nightmare was far from over.
When Emilia was 4 she caught a nasty flu virus and was admitted to the hospital for a week when the doctors found the cancer. She had leukemia. So there Kate and Castle were with a sick kid and one on the way.
The fight was hard. Emilia was in and out of hospitals for just over 3 years. The worse of the disease came early causing her to miss out on kindergarten with her brother. But she bounced back and has been healthy ever since. She caught up academically and was now only a year behind her twin brother's grade.
Kate stopped drifting back to the past and gave her daughter a quick hug before getting off the bench.
"I love you kid, don't ever forget that," Kate said before exiting the room.
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Charlotte was rounding the hallway when she nearly ran into her father.
"Woah kid, you can't just run into an old man like that. I might break!" Castle said.
Charlotte laughed and quickly said sorry before heading back into the kitchen.
The feisty blonde was a spitting image of her mother. Well, other than the blue eyes that her father passed down. No one knew where the perfect platinum blonde hair came from, but someone somewhere in the family tree must have had Targaryen blood in them. Or that's what Castle liked to think.
The writer continued down the hall where he passed his youngest daughter's room and knocked on his son's door. The teen quickly opened the door and let his father in.
Now Ethan was what Castle always thought his son would look like if he ever had one and here he was, all 6 feet of him. He had light brown curly hair that was currently cut short, striking blue eyes and Castle was pretty sure that Ethan could easily out bench him and his mother combined.
The teen went back to his desk while his father came and sat on his bed. The same twin bed frame he had ever since he was 11.
"How's it going bud?" Castle asked.
"It's alright dad. I'm having a bit of writers block trying to figure out an angle on his last AP lit assignment, but nothing I can't handle," Ethan said.
Castle just nodded and looked at his boy.
"You know when I have writers block I like to eat ice cream and I'm pretty sure I just saw Charlotte head that way a minute ago," Castle offered.
"Oh sweet! Family sundaes," Ethan shouted.
"Yeah, family sundaes it is then," Castle repeated, "Go grab Em and I'll meet you out there in a minute."
Ethan got up and left while Castle waited and looked over his son's room. It was different this time compared to Alexis graduating. He knew that his son was fully capable of succeeding in life, but this was his baby boy. This was his first born with the love of his life. This was his and Kate's son graduating from high school in two weeks and then shortly moving to California to attend Stanford in the fall.
Castle let a quick tear fall onto his cheek before he wiped it away and reached into his pocket. He pulled out an envelope and placed it under his son's keyboard. Afterall he was a writer and it just seemed right to write to his son about his graduation and his future. He also hoped that a little bit of the detective his wife had to offer had rubbed off on his kid and Ethan was able to actually find the note before summer ended.
"He'll figure it out Castle," he heard his wife say, "Now come on stud, I heard that we're having family sundaes."
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