Hey! This is just something that wouldn't leave my head and I decided to share it with you :) This is my first Castle fanfic, please be gentle. Hope you enjoy it!

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The morning light invades the bedroom, effectively waking him up. He opens his eyes, slowly coming to his senses. Taking a look at the other side of the bed, he finds it empty. His hand wanders over the sheets, her spot is still warm, his wife hasn't left the bed too long ago.

The silence in the bathroom and his office tells him she's probably in the living room or the kitchen, which makes him stay quiet and still to figure out what she's doing.

It's – he checks his phone – 9 in the morning on a Saturday, luckily she has some days off... So what is she doing out of bed when he's still there and they could really be enjoying the fact that she has an actual day off for the first time in the last three weeks?

Unless... Wait a minute...

Giggle. Someone just giggled in the living room. "Shh... You'll wake daddy, Hailey." And that's the voice of the second man in the Castle household, 7 year old James.

The soft sound of bare feet approaching the bedroom is enough for Rick to realize the kids will burst inside any second now and when he hears the doorknob turning he closes his eyes and lies very still, not wanting to spoil the "surprise".

In the meanwhile, outside of the bedroom Kate figures her husband must be awake with all the noise she and the kids were making around the house. So it's not a surprise when their 4 year old girl opens the door, Castle's "asleep" facing her side of the bed. He knows. He always knows. But he pretends he doesn't. The things you do for your babies, she thinks fondly as Hailey and James climbs their bed while Kate places Savannah, who just turned one, atop of the bed.

The little one crawls towards her father and sits in front of his face while the other two approach him. Kate stands at the foot of the bed with a huge grin on her face.

It's the beginning of August, the kids need to get out of the city for a while, plus Hailey's birthday is on the 8th. That's why she managed to get three well-deserved weeks off which they will spend up in the Hamptons.

So Kate's plan for this morning was to get up, get the kids, "surprise" Rick, have breakfast and get out of here as soon as possible. She can't wait to be on their pool, just lounging or watching Castle play with their children on the beach.

"Dada!" Savannah pokes his cheek, giggling when he doesn't react and her siblings watch silently as she goes to repeat her previous move. But just as she's about to touch him, Castle's large hand grabs her tiny little one and his other finds its way to her belly to tickle her.

The one year old giggles loudly as her father makes her roll on her back on Kate's side. Soon enough Hailey and James are onto him, defending their little sister by trying to tickle their dad. "Mom, come help us! Tickle dad too!" Kate laughs at the end of the bed but joins them anyway.

Not long after, Rick has stopped tickling Savannah and now his whole family is hovering him as he dissolves into fits of laughter. "Alright, alright, alright! You win, you win…you guys win!" He holds his hands up in defeat and all four of them take their hands off of him to let him breathe.

Once he recovers, Castle sits up, now in the middle of the bed, and picks up his youngest daughter, loudly kissing her cheek before he puts her back down as she giggles. Then he does the same with Hailey and James, the boy laughing and trying to run from his dad's grip altogether. And lastly he pulls his wife back to bed and draws her in for a slow, soft kiss.

"Good morning." He says charmingly once they pull back.

"Morning babe." Kate replies with a gorgeous smile before settling beside him to watch their children.

"So...is everyone excited about today?" Rick asks the little ones and they answer in unison a very resounding 'yes'. "You know, your sister called yesterday..." As expected, their eyes shine at the mention of their big sister.

Alexis took her role of big sister very well from the day she learned Kate was pregnant with James. She helped them a lot while she was still living in the loft and even after moving in with Liam 3 years ago, they still volunteer for the occasional babysitting on date nights.

This year, however, has been a great year for everyone, full of achievements and moments of celebration. Having been engaged for quite some time, Alexis and Liam got married in May. Just a month later, Savannah turned one, after she started talking back in March. Liam turned 7 in April and Hailey is about to turn 5! And although her heart is filled with pride, all Kate can think is that her children are growing up too fast. All four of them.

Alexis took the summer to travel around the country with her husband of 3 months now. Once she heard that her stepmother had some vacation days, she and Liam traveled to the Hamptons, saying they'd get the house ready for the family and reminded her father that Martha and Jim should go there too.

That was last week. Rick had called him mother and his father-in-law and they had gone together yesterday, getting there safe and sound just in time for dinner.

The only ones left were Rick, Kate and the little ones. "What did she say dad? Is she and Liam at the Hamptons too?" James really looks up to his big sister, ever since he was a baby. Although they have a huge age gap, whenever they're together, it's a pretty delightful sight to see.

"Yes, they are. And Gram is there and so is Grandpa Jim. And you know what they cleaned up this week for us too?" Castle asks the two expectant kids who were still paying attention to him, Savannah having crawled all the way to her mother's lap.

Once James realizes what his father's talking about, his blue eyes that match Rick's are so shiny and grin is so huge that Kate can't help but chuckle while she kisses her daughter's brown locks. "The pool?!" At Castle's nod, the boy throws his fist in the air while saying, "YEAH!"

Hailey, almost as excited as her brother, jumps to her feet and hugs her dad as the sweet daddy's girl she is. "Daddy, when are we going to the big house? Are we going now?" Her big hazel eyes that are so much like Kate's meet Rick's blue ones and his wife can see him practically melting but he couldn't care less.

Castle scoops Hailey up in his arms and smiles widely before kissing her cheek. "How about we all have breakfast and get dressed? I will ask Eduardo to help me put the suitcases in the car, then we'll be able to go and get there just in time for lunch."

"Yeah, but for now everyone to the kitchen!" Kate says as she gets up, Savannah still in her arms clinging to her neck. "Daddy's going to make us some of his infamous pancakes!" She grins when the kids jump off the bed and run away to the living room, playing and giggling.

Savannah looks up at her mother when she sees her siblings going away. "Mama, down!" She squeals.

When the baby is on the ground, she crawls towards James while Hailey encourages her and the proud parents follow them out. Kate watches her children interact when suddenly she feels her husband's strong arms around her waist bringing her closer to him. He's glad she has her hair up in a bun, which allows him to kiss her neck lazily, making her wish their kids were still quietly sleeping so she could have her way with him right then.

Once Castle stops torturing her, her turns her to him, showing her a warm smile when her arms go around his neck almost instantly. "Can you believe we made that?" He asks completely dazzled by the little ones in the middle of the living room.

He takes a peek at them and Kate can't bring herself not to look. And she's glad she can't because the scenery in front of them makes her smile even bigger. James is on his knees and Hailey is trying to get on his back while Savannah is sitting on the floor laughing and clapping at her brother and sister's antics.

When Kate turns back to Castle, he's grinning like a kid on Christmas morning and she feels the urge to kiss him. She steals a quick kiss from him and pulling back he leans his forehead on hers. Beckett drops a kiss to the tip of his nose and smiles. "I know... They're kind of perfect, aren't they?"

"They really are..." He whispers to her. "And so are you." Rick kisses her smile and then her forehead making Kate melt under his touch.

She leans forward and lays her head on his chest. "Thank you." She says and pulls back just a little to look him in the eyes.

"For what?"

"For everything..." Kate kisses Castle's chest over his t-shirt before continuing. "For this amazing life you've given me, for giving me the cutest kids in the world, for trusting me with Alexis even before we were together, for helping me bring justice for my mom. For being strong when I was weak and for supporting me even when I was just grasping at straws. I couldn't have done a lot of these things over the years without you. So, thank you babe." The sincere smile adorning her features is enough to make him fall in love all over again with this marvelous woman in his arms.

That's why he shows her a smile just as sincere as hers before kissing her softly but passionately. "Always." He says as he looks her in the eyes.

A few moments after, Rick untangles himself from her, takes her hand and guides her towards the kids. He picks up Hayley from James's back to avoid an accident while Kate picks up Savannah and stops for a second, with her baby in her arms, to just look at her other two babies interacting with her husband, completely mesmerized.

"Our family is kinda perfect, isn't it bug?" She whispers to the little girl while tickling her tummy.

Savannah nods with a huge grin on her little face and kisses Kate's cheek soundly. Kate's heart flutters at the gesture and she kisses the top of the girl's head.

Yeah...their life turned out pretty perfect. The best part, even after all these years, is that no matter how many killers they'd have to put behind bars, no matter how many psychos they'd have to face...they'd always try that tad bit harder. Because now they would always have people to come home to, people that needed them.

And all of that only happened because he was in love her too.

Always.

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Thanks for reading,

R*