There was little that Beckett was unwilling to put up with in terms of her pregnancy. She had fought through her morning sickness all through her first trimester, refusing to let it get the better of her. It had made all the time spent hurling in the precinct bathroom tolerable, if not altogether pleasant.
She had begun showing around sixteen weeks into her pregnancy, well into her second trimester. And yet, it wasn't until she couldn't fit her bulletproof vest around her growing stomach that she admitted that perhaps she should perhaps take a less active role in the arrests.
Still, her pride took a hit as she watched the boys make the arrests while she sat in the safety of her car. This time, it had been Castle that had reminded her that it was for the baby's sake, their unborn child that was growing in her belly. That and how at least she hadn't been physically cuffed to the car like she had done to him, once upon a time.
On the twenty-eighth week of her pregnancy, Captain Gates herself had ordered Beckett to remain on desk duty. Beckett had protested of course, but Gates had been unmoveable on the subject. She had lasted exactly a month before she decided to begin her maternity leave. It wasn't that she was feeling sick or anything, but rather she couldn't face the relative prison sentence that had been issued.
There had been an unexpected upside to it all though; she was eight months in and everything as going as well as could be expected. Better, even. Her morning sickness was long over, her tests had all come back normal, and she had gotten her cravings under control. She had even long given up the battle to fit into her regular clothes and purchased comfortable maternity clothing.
Seriously, elastic waistbands were magical.
The extra time off had given Castle and Beckett time to prepare the nursery, to pick out names, to simply spend time together in a way that wasn't possible when she was on call. And she couldn't help but think, it would be a while until they would have time like this to themselves again, at least eighteen years if their child was anything like Alexis.
It was with this in mind that Beckett had proposed the walk in the park, and after glancing quizzically at her for a brief second Castle had agreed. It was a beautiful spring day to say the least and Beckett couldn't help but smile as she intertwined her fingers with Castles.
That was, until the woman stepped before them and caused the two to stop in their tracks.
There was something about her eyes, something a bit off that caused Kate to cover her stomach in a protective way even as Castle stepped forward to shield his wife. "Hi there, can I help you with something?" he asked, his tone ever so polite despite the wary look in his eyes.
"You're Richard Castle, aren't you?" came the inevitable question, almost reverent in the way she said it.
"Yes, I-"
"And that must make you Katherine Beckett, the inspiration for Nikki Heat and your wife?" she asked, attempting to peer around Castle's bulk to inspect the woman he was shielding.
"Yes-"
"Can I just say what a gorgeous couple you two are?"
"Well, thank you-"
"And I'm sure your child will be just as lovely as the two of you." She added, her eyes darting between Beckett and Castle's faces.
Beckett found herself reaching for her gun, something she had done a thousand times before. But unlike those times, her fingers met the elasticized waistband of her pants this time around. She had left her gun at home, in the safe of Castle's office and she found herself thoroughly regretting that decision now.
"Well, thank you ma'am. If you'd excuse us however, we have somewhere to be-"
"How much?"
Castle hesitated, glancing backwards at Beckett as his expression turned to one of pure confusion. "I'm sorry, what?"
"How much for your baby?"
This time, Beckett was the one who spoke. "Excuse me? Who the hell-"
"I want to raise your baby. I want to raise Richard Castle's baby and I'm willing to pay as much as it takes."
Beckett found herself gaping at the woman, wondering if this was some sort of prank that Castle had set up. The whole situation was absolutely absurd, so crazy that she was half expecting somebody to pop out from behind a tree and announce that they had just been punked.
"Well, I'm sure we could come to an agreement of some sort-"
This time, she was certain she was dreaming. She could have sworn that was Castle's voice, but there was no way Castle would say something like that.
"If you could just write down your name, number, and address here I'll get in contact with you later today?"
Gobsmacked, Beckett watched as Castle passed over the notebook he carried around everywhere, the one he used to jot down notes and plot ideas as they came to him. The unknown woman took it eagerly, scribbling down her contact information as Beckett tried to meet Castle's eyes. What the hell was he doing?
Accepting the notepad back from the woman, Castle briefly glanced down before nodding and bidding the woman a good day, quickly ushering Beckett past her and further down the gravel path that they had been following.
It took a moment, but when Beckett finally regained posesssion of her voice she whirled around, pushing Castle's hand off her arm. "What the hell Castle,"
"I can explain-"
"Did you just fucking sell our baby?"
"Beckett-"
"What the hell were you thinking?"
"If you'd just let me explain-"
"You are so lucky I don't have my gun right now!"
"Beckett, listen to me." Grabbing her forearms with his hands, Castle waited until she was looking right at him before he continued. "I'm not selling our baby, I want our baby."
"Then what the hell was that?"
"I needed her contact information to file a restraining order, I thought you'd see that."
It took a moment to process it, what he had said. "A restraining order," she repeated, finding herself sinking against Castle's chest as she did so.
"Yes Kate, a restraining order. I've done it with a few... crazier fans before, getting their contact information that way. I didn't think it'd freak you out so much-"
"God, Castle. I could kill you right now." she muttered against the front of his shirt as his arms wrapped themselves around her.
Castle couldn't help himself; he began chuckling. "You really thought I was going to sell our baby?"
"I- I don't know what I thought. I thought we were being punked at first." she started, her grumbles turning into chuckles of her own before moving in the direction of full blown laughter.
The two of them stayed that way for a moment as they fought to contain the laughter that kept bubbling up just when they thought it was over.
"C'mon Mrs Castle, let's get out of here before she comes back." Castle finally said, shaking his head as he extended his hand out to her. "And you thought we'd become one of those boring married couples."
"Shut up, Castle."
۰ ۰ ۰
Tumblr Prompt: When Castle and pregnant Beckett are walking through the park, a strange fan runs up to them saying she wants to buy and raise "Richard Castle's baby"