Genre: Crime, Drama, Family, Romance, Humor
Rating: M for violence, language and sexual situations
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC, and the others who do own them.
A/N #1: Want to make a note here that I am not a medical doctor. And what happens here I myself have never gone through; my sister did, but a long time ago so I might not have things exactly right in that regard, so will have to call artistic license with that!
A/N #2: The title of this story is the name of a song by Paul and Linda McCartney, from the Paul McCartney and Wings album Band on the Run. The title of this story is a lyric from the song Beautiful Night by Paul McCartney, from his album Flaming Pie.
There With You
Staring at his reflection in the elevator doors, he wished he would have taken the stairs, though he reminded himself he hadn't known there was going to be anyone else going up to a different floor with him. Finally he made it to the sixth floor, and nearly ran through the doors before he could even pass through them sideways. But he managed to get out without hitting anything, and ran down to the left after seeing the arrow pointing where he needed to go. When he was close enough to see her sitting on the edge of a chair, he was dismayed to see her holding the doll under her chin and he called out breathlessly, "Kate."
Looking up, Beckett stood hurriedly when she saw it was her fiancée, and would have run into Castle's arms if he hadn't been only a step away from her. She held onto him tightly, not letting go of the doll as she whispered, "They just took her in."
"Here, sit down and tell me what happened," Castle said gently as he moved to help her back to the chair she'd been in. He held her hand tightly, their fingers entwined and waited for her to let him know why she'd called him at almost two in the morning, sounding incredibly upset.
"I woke up about an hour ago," Beckett said, looking at her watch before shaking her head. "It doesn't matter how long it was. I just felt something was wrong." She saw Castle nodding in understanding at that; relieved that he didn't try to question it; and continued. "I went to her room and Julia was sitting up in bed, crying but not making a sound which scared me. When I put her to bed last night she had a little bit of a fever, so I gave her some medicine. But when I touched her forehead earlier she was burning up. And when I asked her if she wanted something to drink she spoke and her voice was…" she trailed off, shaking her head as Castle squeezed her hand. "So I brought her here, because I didn't think I could do much to help her. Luckily they saw her quickly and she's in surgery right now to get her tonsils out."
"And the fever is from that right?" Castle asked, relieved it wasn't more serious, but still worried for their daughter.
"Yeah, it'll go away after, just…" Beckett trailed off again, shaking briefly before they looked up at someone calling her name.
"Katie, where is she?" Jim Beckett asked as he hurried to his daughter as she met him in the middle of the waiting room.
"In surgery," Beckett replied, hugging her father tightly. "It's her tonsils," she said, before telling him the same story she'd told Castle.
Sighing as his daughter finished speaking; Jim joined them at the chairs nearest the door, and said, "What are you going to do?"
"Well of course I can't go to work," Beckett said. "So I'll just stay home and take care of her." She looked down at Julia's Stitch doll that the little girl had been carrying but hadn't been allowed to take into surgery. "She looked so scared," she commented after they'd been sitting in silence for a while. "When I had to leave her, I tried to tell her to be brave, but I almost choked on the words," she nearly whispered.
"Why don't we get some coffee?" Castle asked, knowing she was struggling with her emotions. "Jim, would you like any?"
"Sure," Beckett's dad replied as his daughter and her fiancé stood to go and she handed him Julia's doll. He was worried about her, but knew Castle would take care of her if he needed to, so he sat back, watching the door to the wing, trying not to worry too much about his granddaughter.
"You know she's pretty brave," Castle said as they got some coffee at a vending machine. He knew it was going to taste terrible, but had decided to risk it to try and get her to talk before she broke.
"Yeah, but… she's only five Castle, she doesn't understand what's going on," Beckett sighed, taking a sip of coffee before making a face and walking over to the trashcan in the room. She threw the cup down into it as hard as she could before she kicked at it, pushing it back fully against the corner of the room. "Nothing I could do," she said, her voice angry. "I'm her mother and I couldn't even help her."
"You did," Castle said, grabbing her as she stalked by him to leave the room. He pulled her in front of him and saw her jaw was working as she closed her eyes. "You're her mother Kate, and you have every right to want to help her. And bringing her here as soon as you could, instead of trying to fix things yourself was the best you could do. If she could understand what was going on, she would appreciate that I know." He pulled her into his arms as she pressed her cheek to his shoulder, and felt her shake once, relieved she'd finally let go of some of her pent up emotions.
"I didn't want to do this for just her needing to get her tonsils out, but seeing her crying like that I couldn't…" Beckett said, pulling away from him and dashing the tears from her cheeks.
"I know, the first time Alexis got sick when she was a toddler and she was begging me to make her throat stop burning… when she begged for water at night," Castle said, shuddering at the memory as he could suddenly see in his mind how Julia had looked to Beckett. "That's the hardest thing a parent can see. And if you'd been completely unemotional right now then you would not be her mother. You'd be Julia's caregiver."
Nodding as he was right, Beckett sighed and said, "I'm just glad the boys can't see me like this."
"I really don't think they'd think less of you if they did," Castle said, putting his arm around her. "They know you love Julia and I doubt they expect you to have a heart of stone concerning her. What?" he asked at her slight smile.
"Heart of stone? That's a horrible cliché Castle," Beckett replied. She then grew serious and said, "We should go back, I want to be there the second we can see our little girl. I want her to see we're here."
"Right," Castle said before he paused. "The coffee though… well, since it's garbage, literally, would your dad mind hot chocolate?" When Beckett shook her head he got three cups before they headed back.
"Anyone come out while we were gone?" Beckett asked her dad as soon as she was close enough for him to hear.
"Not yet," Jim said, taking the cup that his daughter handed him.
"It's hot chocolate, I don't think you want to try their coffee," Castle said as he sat next to Beckett; who was in between them. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders as she leaned towards him, and they were quiet, watching the door and trying to stay awake as time slid into the hour mark since he himself had gotten to the waiting room. At one point he felt Beckett relax against him, and looked to her to see that she was asleep.
"How is she?" Jim asked, looking over and seeing his daughter's face had lost its stressed expression.
"Worried, incredibly worried, and angry at herself for not being able to do anything else for Julia besides bring her here," Castle commented, rubbing her upper arm gently. "Hopefully once she sees Julia she'll stop thinking that." Beckett's dad nodded, but as he looked down into his empty cup, he couldn't help but understand what she was feeling, since he had started going through something similar in his own mind. At one point Jim excused himself and when they were alone he groaned slightly in frustration, inadvertently waking up his fiancée. "Oh, sorry Kate, go back to sleep," he said when she sat up.
"No, I'm fine," Beckett said, looking at her watch. She stood up and walked around in a circle to stretch her legs before she looked at Castle, seeing he was looking at his hands. "What is it?" she asked him as she stopped in front of him.
"I…" Castle started to say. He was going to say nothing, but then decided it was a little unfair to her to do that so he sighed and said, "I should have been there."
"We're not living together Castle," Beckett said, knowing as soon as he'd said that that he was feeling guilty. "And there wouldn't have been anything you could have done either. The best thing you did was answer my call and come here as soon as you could."
"Like I would have stayed home," Castle said, standing up himself. "You think I would have just let you handle this on your own?"
"No, which is why I am glad you came. But you don't need to feel guilty about not being at my place tonight," Beckett said.
"I plan on moving in you know," Castle said. "While she needs to recover."
"I know," Beckett said. "But is that because you want to be with us or you're procrastinating with your writing again?"
Castle didn't answer that, and instead said, "We'll need to watch out though, I'm sure the boys and Lanie are going to want to see her."
"I want to see her," Beckett said, looking at her watch again.
"Nothing yet?" Jim asked as he approached the two.
Before Castle or Beckett could respond to that, the door to the wing opened, and a doctor stepped out asking for her.
"I'm Julia's mother," Beckett said quickly, rushing to him. "Is she okay?"
"She's doing fine, she's still out from the anesthesia, but the surgery went well and she should recover," the doctor said. He then told Beckett what she needed to feed her daughter while she was recovering and the medicines that were next to Julia's bed already since the pharmacy was closed. "And it's best to let her rest as long as possible once you get her home. We'll expect her back for a follow up of course."
"Of course, can we see her?" Beckett asked.
Looking at Castle, the doctor then nodded and said, "I'll release her into your care once she's awake so you'll need to wait."
"That's fine," Castle said as he followed Beckett and Jim through the door. They walked down a long line of empty beds before they came to one that was closed off with curtains. When he stepped inside the makeshift room, he saw Julia; tiny in the bed; her eyes closed and looking peaceful.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Beckett didn't bother to fight the tears in her eyes, and she ran her hand over her daughter's hair, kissing her forehead tenderly. She was surprised to feel the fever had already started to go down, and she let out a little sigh of relief before whispering, "I love you so much sweetie," though she knew Julia couldn't hear her.
Leaning over on the other side of the bed, Jim kissed the top of his granddaughter's head, and watched Beckett, seeing she seemed to be a lot more relieved. He looked over to Castle, and saw he was going to the other side of the bed.
Taking Julia's little hand that was over the sheets covering her, Castle leaned over when Beckett moved over a little to let him do so. He kissed her forehead as Beckett had done, but didn't say anything, squeezing her hand before he let his fiancée sit as she'd been before. He sat on the edge of the bed with her as Jim took the chair next to the other side, and they began their vigil, none of them even thinking about sleep as they waited for her to open her eyes.
At one point, Beckett suddenly shook herself, and she stood, reaching into her pocket, pulling out Julia's emerald necklace. "Here," she told Castle softly. "She couldn't wear this into surgery."
Castle carefully put the necklace back around the little girl's neck and as he pulled away, realized she was moving her legs a little. "Kate," he said, getting out of the way for her to lean over Julia.
It took another couple of seconds, but when Julia opened her eyes slowly, she saw her mother, Castle and grandfather peering down at her and she smiled slightly before trying to speak before she grabbed her throat at the pain that caused.
"It's okay sweetie," Beckett said quickly. "You're not really going to be able to speak for a little bit. So you don't have to say anything okay? Are you feeling better at all?"
Julia didn't reply to that with a gesture, only held her arms out to her mother.
"Can you get the doctor?" Beckett said as she picked her daughter up carefully and held her in her arms.
"I'll get him," Jim said, seeing Castle looked to be a little torn at the request.
Kissing the side of Julia's head, Castle smiled when she looked at him, her eyes looking huge in her slightly withdrawn face. "Pretty late for you I think," he said as he pulled some of her hair over her shoulder. He and Beckett looked up as the doctor came in, and they had to step back once Julia was back in the bed, watching as he looked her over.
"You can take her home now. Rest is the most important thing," the doctor told them. "She'll be groggy for now, but will recover soon. Remember, minimal talking, ask her yes or no questions if at all possible."
"Thank you," Beckett said, taking Julia's jacket that had been next to her medicine. She helped the little girl into it as best she could before carrying her out of the wing with Castle and her dad following her. Down on the ground floor, she stopped by the sliding doors and turned to the two men. "Are you going with us or heading home?" she asked her dad.
"I'll go home, but I'll be by sometime tomorrow to check on how Julia's doing," Jim said, leaning over and kissing his granddaughter's cheek. "Get some sleep Julia, you'll feel better."
Julia waved to him before he left, and then looked up at Castle, starting to wave to him before he stopped her hand.
"I'm staying with you and your mom while you're sick okay?" he told her, kissing her fingers as she smiled for a second. "Let's get her home," he said to Beckett when Julia pressed closer to her mother, holding her as tightly as her body allowed her to. He walked out to the street and hailed a cab, which luckily stopped quickly for them. On the ride to Beckett's he reached over for Julia, and took her in his arms, holding her like he'd done for Alexis when she was a little girl and sick.
Beckett ran her hand up and down Castle's arm as she watched him murmuring to the little girl, who was soon fast asleep, leaning against him. She paid for the ride before he could say anything, and led him into her building. When they stepped into the hall on her floor, she could feel her exhaustion starting to work on her, and she felt almost like she was dreaming as a door opened and a man leaned out.
Looking at the man, Castle saw him looking at him, and then hurriedly duck back inside the apartment. He wanted to comment about that since the look on the guy's face made him think he was either trying to sneak an escort in or out of his apartment and had found them there instead of an empty hallway, but they had turned the corner and were at her door before he could say a word. "She doesn't need anything now right?" he asked her in a whisper as he carried Julia into her room.
"Not until morning," Beckett said, taking Julia's jacket off as he held the little girl so she could do so. She stood back as he laid their daughter on the bed once she'd straightened out the covers, and then leaned over, kissing her lips gently whispering, "I love you Julia, sweet, sweet dreams."
"Sweet dreams Julia, I love you too," Castle said, running his hand over her hair and kissing her forehead and then lips before stepping back. He wasn't surprised when Beckett stayed where she was, and he came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her as they watched their daughter sleep before he finally whispered to her, "We should go Kate, we need some rest too."
Nodding, Beckett turned and they left the room, going into hers. "A little weird to think when I first got into bed tonight I had no idea what was going to happen," she commented as she changed back into her pajamas as Castle changed into the ones he kept there.
"Are you okay?" he asked, watching her closely.
"Pretty much, tired and wondering what I'll do while she recovers," Beckett said. She climbed into bed and turned her back to Castle, relieved when he lay behind her as soon as he had joined her. "You're sure you want to move in?" she asked him after he'd reached over her to turn the light off on her nightstand.
"I'll go crazy not making sure she's okay," Castle said simply. "And you too."
"Don't remind me," Beckett sighed, shivering as he kissed the skin under her ear. "I was tired though and-"
"Just being a mother," Castle told her soothingly. "There's nothing wrong with showing emotion Kate, don't try and fight it."
"It worries me though that you weren't really-" Beckett began.
"I was concerned about you too," Castle said quickly. "So I had to bury what I was feeling to make sure you were okay."
"Hmm, except for the guilt," Beckett said, turning to face him. "That's why you're staying? And please answer this time."
"Not really, I just want to make sure she gets better," Castle said. "Speaking of mothers, Mother's Day is coming up; this Sunday."
"As you've insisted on reminding me," Beckett said.
"What, you don't want to be reminded? It's the first time you're celebrating," Castle commented, reminding her that she hadn't celebrated it the year before since she'd been getting used to having a daughter.
Sighing, as she also remembered with that that it had been a year since Julia had come into their lives, Beckett said, "I know, but as far as Julia knows, we've celebrated it before. So…"
"Don't think I'm going to keep saying it's your first. But are you sure there's nothing special you want to do?" Castle asked.
"All I want is to spend the day with my daughter," Beckett said. "And if your mom will let you, you too."
"I'm sure she'll want to do something on her own," Castle said. "But you know, I was thinking of something."
"Stop saying something, what's your idea?" Beckett asked, shaking herself from falling asleep.
"We can take Julia out to a museum, I was thinking the art museum," Castle said. "If she's feeling better of course. And from there we head into the park and have a picnic lunch."
"From Bernoulli's?" Beckett asked with a slight smile since that was a favorite café of hers.
"Of course, it's right across the street from the park," Castle said. "So what do you think? I mean, the art museum is an idea, it's going to be Mother's Day, so you can decide in the end."
"I'll have to agree, Julia's been asking me to take her there again," Beckett said. "I'm going to guess you too?"
"Yep, she tried to get me to promise I'd take you both that way she goes, but I said I'd suggest it to you," Castle said. "I don't need her thinking she can use me to get around what you say."
"We'll have to watch her on that," Beckett said, smiling slightly since he looked a little bemused that Julia had done that. "But that's the first time right?"
"Yeah, we're very lucky," Castle said exaggeratedly. "But I made sure when she asked me to do that that she understood you and I both needed to agree, not just one of us."
"Did you ever need to do that with Alexis?" Beckett asked.
"No, because apparently I really didn't let Gina be much of a stepmother to her," Castle said. "And Alexis was older so it's not really the same situation."
"Since you're Julia's father, I'll agree," Beckett said. "Was your mom awake before you left?"
"No, I'll have to call her in the morning, Alexis too," Castle said. "She's going to hate not being able to see her."
"I know, but we do have Skype," Beckett reminded him. She saw him yawn and then reached up, cupping his face in her hand. "Thank you for coming to the hospital so quickly."
"There was never a question of me taking my time," Castle said firmly, taking her hand in his. He kissed the palm before saying, "Thanks for calling me."
"I don't know if we need to thank each other actually," Beckett said. "She is our daughter." She was a little surprised when Castle exhaled loudly and asked, "What?"
"No just… I kind of wish we were living together, it would make it more… I guess the word I want to use is real, or legit, either one," he explained.
"I know, but as it is, it's real enough to me," Beckett said. "Get some sleep Castle."
Nodding, to both things she'd said, he leaned down then and kissed her, pleased when she quickly responded to him. Castle held her tightly against his body until they finally stopped kissing one another; parting and kissing again a number of times; and he fixed the covers around them.
"I love you," Beckett said in the darkness as he held her to him.
"I love you too," Castle replied, kissing her lips tenderly.
Closing her eyes, Beckett couldn't lose the tension from knowing her daughter was still unwell, but the exhaustion of the night took over and she was asleep. In the second she had before she nodded off she had to wonder how things were going to go, and what would happen with her and Castle acting very much the worried parents to their daughter, together.
