Title: Stuck
Summary: Tumblr prompt: "Young Kate is pregnant after a one night stand with Castle. She tried to contact him but with no success (book tours, Gina blocking her attempts). They meet again in an elevator. They are stuck inside alone and Kate is in labor."
Disclaimer: What I know about labor is from the time I wanted to be a midwife, so it's all very basic knowledge. Don't hold me to the inaccuracies, but I thank webmd for help.
A/N: Occasionally I write small short fics like this on sinisterfanfic tumblr when. Unfortunately Saving Mr Rodgers is nowhere near done, and won't be for a while as I'll be busy with work, school, moving, visit family, and friends the coming weeks...
It was an old elevator, and she probably should have known better than to take it. New elevators would automatically go down to the bottom floor in case of a power outage, but this wasn't a new elevator. The fact that he, Richard Castle, best-selling author and the father of her baby (a baby which appeared to want to make its entrance into the world soon, because those stomach cramps didn't seem to be false contractions anymore), was in the elevator was another thing that had prevented her from making the proper inspection of it before stepping inside.
She would blame it on him.
"Kate?" he had said as the elevator door shut behind her. It was uttered in a confused breath, as if he was surprised to see her, and not annoyed and angry as his manager Gina had eluded to the past months. She distinctly remembers the sentence 'you need to stop calling, e-mailing, and sending letters about your delusional fantasy, Richard Castle does not know you, and he will put a restraining order on you if you do not stop immediately' having been yelled down the phone as she had called the umpteenth time trying to inform the author of the predicament she was in.
That conversation had left her furious enough to swear off any contact with him, and had almost (almost) sold his books as well. Swearing off men in general had been easy too, but she but that down to the fact that she was twenty-two and pregnant (she did not get the glow, she got the shiny oily skin and pimples, and sweaty armpits). Sex and men were far from her mind when she felt about as attractive as a walrus in a bikini.
"Mr. Castle." She tried to use her cool and distant voice, but failed miserably when she instead of giving him a sneer ended up doubled over.
"Are you in labor?" The panic in his voice nearly matched the panic in her head (she was after all going to have to push something the size of a water melon out of her vagina, so panic wasn't enough to cover what she felt).
"That's really none of your business." As if by cosmic intervention the elevator jerked to a halt as she said it. The universe would not have her attitude it seemed, but that did nothing to improve upon it.
"It is now," he said, and looked around the elevator in which the lights were luckily still on, "because we appear to be stuck in here together."
The contraction had passed, so she rummaged through her bag and skipped past the saltine crackers and found the black Nokia phone tucked into a pocket specifically designed for mobile phones.
"I'm calling maintenance," she said, copying the number off of the sticker above the buttons for the floors and under the emergency button which had a note plastered beside it that read 'attention! emergency button is out of function!. Kate was sure that the fact that this elevator was even in function was highly illegal. "Hello! We're stuck in an elevator," she said as a man picked up, and rattled off the address. "What do you mean you're not in charge of this building anymore? We're stuck here and you need to get us out!"
Another contraction cut her off, and she didn't hear the reply. Castle took the phone out of her hand.
"Listen there is a pregnant woman in here and she's in labor, so you need to get your asses – call 911? No listen-" He removed the phone from his ear and looked at in confusion. "He hung up."
"Awesome," Kate panted, smoothing the top over her stomach out, trying to draw deep breaths to calm down. The contractions were definitely getting painful, and there was no doubt that they were the real thing anymore.
"How long have you been in labor?" he asked.
"Why the hell do you care?" She was pissed off because he was not supposed to be here now, and he sure as hell wasn't supposed to be there when her child was born, not after how he had treated her. They had spent one night together after bumping into each other at a club, and they had talked about books and crime solving for ages before ending up in his hotel room with a bottle of wine and a very comfortable bed. She had just finished her training at the academy, and it was the end of her first week at the job. The intention had not to get pregnant, yet that's what happened.
"Why are you so angry?" She would have blown up on him had not another contraction tensed up her stomach and doubled her over. "I'm calling 911." He picked up his phone and dialed, and he was nearly shouting down the phone as they picked up on the other side. "How far apart are the contractions Kate?"
"The fuck do I know, a couple of minutes?" The contraction was still tightening her stomach, and she saw stars prickle the backside of her eyelids as she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Uh the contraction she's having now has been going for like fifty seconds, I don't know?" Fifty seconds, she screamed in her head, it felt about as long as five minutes. "Kate… Kate." He brushed the hair out of her face and looked into her eyes. "The dispatcher says it sounds like you're going to be needing to push soon, so you're going to have to take off your pants."
"I'm not taking off my pants with you ever again!" She growled. "You're an asshole you know that right, Richard Castle?" She taunted his name, and pushed his hand off of her face.
"Unless you want to give birth with your pants on I don't think you have a choice." She narrowed her eyes at him, but before she could retort another contraction hit her.
"She's having another one now," she heard him say down the phone. "They're five minutes out Kate, but it might take a while for them to get the elevator to a floor." She couldn't speak, she only nodded her head as she moaned and leaned heavily against the elevator door. This was not a part of her birth plan. On the advice of her doctor, and the people in her prenatal class, she had written a birth plan. It was ridiculous, nothing ever went to plan anyway. She could feel that her water had broken now, and the liquid was seeping through her pants and down her legs.
As the pain started to fade she looked at him from her position against the wall.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked, rocking herself back and forth in a futile attempt to alleviate the pressure on her back.
"What do you mean?" He should be an actor she thought, he played the confusion well.
"I called you and told you, and you threatened a restraining order against me!" Labor did nothing to restrain her anger, it only amplified it.
"You never called me," he yelled back, and then as if he had been hit by something he stumbled back and looked at her, his eyes falling to her stomach. "It's mine?"
"Of course it's yours!" She furrowed her eyebrows at him. "I called you, I sent e-mails, and even a couple of letters." She shook her head.
"I never got any of them." She didn't respond, she could already feel another contraction coming, and she dropped her head and tried to remember the breathing techniques she learnt in prenatal class.
"She's having another contraction now… I'll ask when it's over." She tried not to listen in to what he was saying, but it was hard not to strain her ears despite the pain she was in. When the contraction was over what felt like ages later she propped her head against her arm and looked at him. "The dispatcher says that I should look… down there." She rolled her eyes at him. It wouldn't be the first time he'd have his head down there.
"Fine." She didn't care anymore, she had heard of prude women not caring about being naked in front of people during labor, but she hadn't actually thought she would be able to let that go, but that awkwardness didn't even cross her mind at that point. Besides there was an enormous pressure that was building between her legs, and she had to (she really needed desperately) get her pants of quick. "There's… ah a lot of pressure Ri-Rick."
"She says there's pressure." She was down on her hands and knees at this point, after her jeans had been taken off she had somehow ended up like this. "The dispatcher thinks that it means you're ready to push?"
"You think!?" There was nothing to do but push, even if she wanted to stop it her body wouldn't have it any other way. He did the best to help guide her through it, but as soon as he went to touch her she sent him a death glare. What felt like hours later, but was probably not more than five or ten minutes, their baby had been born, and she was screaming bloody murder in dissatisfaction at how she had been treated.
"Here, my jacket," he said, shrugging it off and wrapping the baby girl in it. "Wow she's beautiful Kate." The baby looked so much like his daughter Alexis when she was born it was incredible. Alexis would love to be a big sister, in fact she had been nagging about it for two years, demanding that he got out get her a sibling. Now she had one.
"She is," Kate said, stroking the baby's cheek and marveling at the light blue eyes.
"Kate… I didn't know you were pregnant, no one ever told me that you were trying to get in contact with me," he said then. He was stroking one of the feet that was sticking out of his jacket, and the toes curled against his hand. Wow, he had another daughter he thought, looking between Kate and the baby.
"I thought you did," she said, and she couldn't fight off the tears anymore. "I thought you didn't want us."
"Oh Kate, I do, I do want both of you!"
And as if the universe had decided that they had learnt what they needed to know the elevator started moving again, down towards the first floor and the rest of their lives.
Reviews (constructive as well) are welcome and appreciated. I hope you all have a great weekend/week!