"Grandpa, do you remember the first time you met Daddy?" Jim Beckett looked down at his five year old grandson James Castle. James was sitting between Jim and his Gram; his four year old sister Hannah was sitting on Jim's lap while three year old Alex sat on Martha's. Now that there were three Castle kids, there were usually at least two adults babysitting. Jim thought about Jamie's question for a moment and nodded yes.
"Yes, I do. I went to see Daddy to ask him to take care of Mommy." Jim internally shuddered when he thought about that visit. He had been convinced that Katie was going down a dark path, and only Rick could pull her off it. He hadn't known how right he was until Katie was shot. No need to go into that with a five year old. "And Daddy promised me he would – and he did."
Martha and Jim shared a look over the grandkids' heads. She remembered those days too. Thank goodness those two managed to overcome all the obstacles. But she didn't want to go there with the kids either, so she deftly changed the subject. "Jim, remember when we first really met? That was an interesting evening, huh?" They both laughed, and that made Hannah curious.
"What did you do? Did you go on an 'venture?" the four year old wanted to know.
"Well, we didn't go on an adventure because we weren't sure we liked each other!" Martha said with her usual dramatic flair. She laughed again. "Daddy and Mommy invited us to have dinner with them one night. Daddy cooked, but I made dessert – my famous "Death by Chocolate!"
Now it was Jim's turn to laugh. "And then Daddy teased her about her cooking skills – or her lack of them. And somehow, I ended up teasing Gram about being an actor, and she told me baseball is dull," he smiled as he remembered that dinner.
"I believe I called it "dreadfully" dull, darling," Martha corrected him with a grin.
"Gram! You said bad things about baseball!" baseball loving Jamie was shocked.
"Yes, darling, but that was before Grandpa and Mommy and you taught me that it isn't," Martha soothed her grandson. "I didn't know that then." She kissed the top of his head and he looked up at her and smiled. "But anyway, Grandpa and I weren't very nice to each other and Mommy and Daddy got a little worried. But then they had to go to work, and they left us there alone!"
Jim continued the story. He wasn't as dramatic as Martha, but he thought he could hold his own in telling stories – after all, he did like to fish. "So there we were, sitting at the dinner table after we weren't very nice to each other and our kids leave us there alone. We both felt kind of funny, and I remember just putting my head down and eating that dessert as quickly as I could."
"Did it taste otay?" Alex wanted to know.
"It did! Grandma makes good desserts. Maybe she can make that for us the next time we all have dinner together," Jim told his granddaughter. Martha smiled at him.
"So Grandpa finished eating, and he was nice enough to help me do the dishes. But then the phone rang, and it was Uncle Javier. Mommy and Daddy got lost helping to catch the bad guy, and he was wondering if they called me. They didn't, and Grandpa and I decided to go to the precinct to see what was happening." Martha remembered how worried they both had been that night.
"So we went there together, and Uncle Javi and Uncle Kevin still hadn't found them. So Grandma and I went to drink coffee and tried to make each other feel better," Jim told the kids.
"And we reminded each other how Daddy felt safe with Mommy, and how Mommy felt safe when Daddy was there. And we didn't know it, but Mommy and Daddy were doing everything they could to get home, and they found the bad guy and got back to the precinct. And after we talked, Grandpa and I realized we had one thing in common – we both loved our kids."
"And that was the most important thing. It didn't matter what I thought about acting or what Gram thought about baseball. And now we both love our grandkids! And I think it's time for those grandkids to start getting ready for bed," he told them with a smile. Yes, he thought to himself. He and Martha may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but that didn't matter. They were friends now, as well as family. That was all that mattered.
A/N: Yes, guest reviewer of another story, I have named one of their children Alexander. Yes, his big sister's name is Alexis. But I've always loved the name, and I love the significance of it for Kate and Rick, so I did it.