A/N: This drabble started as a mood-lightener for a heavier piece I am still working out, but it quickly became the more favored by my brain, so it is finished first. It's placed sometime in the future after season four, probably more like season six or seven (and wouldn't it be fantastic if that happened in real life?).
Disclaimer: The genius god that is Andrew Marlowe owns Castle. I trust him with everything - I know I'd eventually screw something up. He won't.
"Kate! Slow down!"
She turned, still running ahead, and laughed. "You're just too slow!" But she bent down and hooked the black heels over her fingers and dashed off again. Her dress clung to her body, soaked by the torrential downpour that was dousing New York City. Her hair had long given up on staying in the pins she had painstakingly attended to before leaving for the night and now hung down her back and on her cheeks.
She reached out a hand, using the brick of the building to swing herself around to face back down the sidewalk. He was making his way toward her, huddled safely under the umbrella, shaking his head at her. When he got to her side, he moved to get her out of the rain by positioning the umbrella over her head.
And she knocked it out of his hands. "Stop it with that. How many times have you just walked in the rain?"
Without another word, she started down the block again at a full sprint. The apartment was at the corner, empty for the night. Martha was out of town doing summer stock in Los Angeles and Alexis was at a girls weekend with her friends.
When she ducked under the awning and swiveled around, she didn't expect to be met with Castle's solid chest. She giggled, looking up at him from under her wet hair. "Hi."
"Hey, beautiful," he murmured, brushing a strand of brown off of her cheek. Then he leaned down and brushed his lips over hers.
She pulled back, watched his eyes widen, then pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed him back.
Eduardo cleared his throat politely. "Welcome home."
"Oh, I certainly feel welcome." Castle winked at the doorman, looping his arm through Kate's before slipping the man a tip. "Keep dry, Eduardo."
They walked sedately through the lobby, calmly hit the 'up' button for the elevator, and stepped into the elevator.
Then the heat took over again. Castle pushed her against the elevator doors, tangling his hands in her hair. The heels dropped to the floor, her hands holding onto his shoulders. They nearly fell out when the doors opened. As Castle fumbled for his keys, Kate grabbed the shoes and pulled him toward the door.
The apartment was dark when they managed to get in, leaving a puddle of water outside where they had experienced trouble getting the key into the lock. Inside, though, they knew their way. He tossed her shoes across the room, watching them skitter under the coffee table and into hi study. She ran her hands under his suit jacket, pushing it off his shoulders. He walked forward, she backed up until her body hit the wall between the living room and kitchen. She tilted her head up, changing the angle of his kiss. And then, with a laugh, she ducked from under him, running toward the study and their room beyond that.
She heard him running up after her, his shoes squelching with the water from the rain. Rather than turn around, she held the doorframe of their room and ran in. Her dress clung to her as she wiggled it up over her head, tangling the deep blue silk into a ball.
His hands snaked around her waist, warm against the faint chill from the storm. He nudged her damp hair from her neck with his nose, placing kisses in the hollow behind her ear. When he pulled her back against him, she arched forward with a yelp.
"What?"
She jumped onto the bed, walking around it. "You're soaking wet!" As she sat against the headboard, he unbuttoned the white dress shirt, pulling it out of the top of the black pants. He kicked the shoes off, pulling his socks off in the same motion as the dress pants. Kneeling one knee on the bed, he kissed her, pushing her gently into the padded headboard. "Now I'm not."
She slid down the bed so he was on top of her. As he pressed his lips to hers once more, Kate pulled back, mumbling, "Wait." He raised a brow, holding himself above her with a mixture of frustration and worry across his face. "I need to tell you something."
"Now?" he asked, kissing her cheek lightly. "Can't it wait?"
She shook her head. "Not really, no."
They sat up. Kate pulled her legs up to her chest as Castle crossed his legs in front of her. "Castle, I…" When he reached a hand out, she hooked her pinky with his. With a deep breath, she looked up, meeting his eyes. "I'm late."
His brow did that adorable thing where it scrunched up as he tried to figure something out. Kate smiled; any girl would know what that meant immediately and she had assumed that he would as well, having lived all his life surrounded by women. So, she waited, watching him puzzle it out for himself.
Kate could tell the moment it hit him. His eyes lit up, his mouth fell open, and his finger tightened on hers. "Are you serious?"
"Would I joke about something like this?"
She wasn't prepared for his next move. He dove onto her, catching her wrists in his hands and holding them next to her head. With a tenderness she hadn't seen from him, he brushed his lips over hers, drawing a quiet moan from her. "I love you." Another kiss, another whispered proclamation of love. "Are you sure?"
Kate pushed her head up, pulling his earlobe between her teeth. "Lanie's running a blood test, but, yeah, I'm sure."
She watched as a range of emotions played out on his face. Passion forgotten, he jumped off the bed, running for the discarded pants, grabbing up his phone. "We need to tell people, Kate!"
"No!" she yelled, tumbling off the bed toward him. She placed her hand over the screen, halting his fingers as he typed out text messages. "Can she just be ours for now?"
The phone dropped onto the rug as he pulled her to him in a hug, his lips pressed to her hair. "Of course. Wait." Castle pushed her out to hold her at arm's length. "She?"
She shrugged. "I can hope, right?"
"So you want a girl?"
Kate turned away from him, sitting on the edge of the bed. "I want healthy. I want ours."
Castle placed a hand on either side of her hips, leaning over so that she fell onto her back. "Do you love me, Kate?"
"Always."
Lips met tenderly, urging a soft gasp from her. He placed butterfly kisses on her jaw, working his way down between her breasts, still covered by the fabric of her bra, and to her stomach.
Kate giggled when his lips moved against her skin, but she stopped to listen to what he was muttering against her. "Hello, little one. Before we get started, I have one request of you and it would make me very happy if you complied with it." Kate pushed herself up on one elbow, watching him with a smile. "Don't be too hard on your mother in the coming months. After that, you can be as difficult as you like. She'll hate it at first, but you'll be so much like her, she'll learn to love it.
"Just wait until you meet your older sister. She's so smart and beautiful. You'll be smart and beautiful, too. Just don't make Alexis too jealous, you know? And your grandmother, my mother, well, she'll teach you about living life in the moment. She's an actress, so she can be over-the-top, but you'll love her. And you'll have a host of aunts and uncles.
"Ryan and Jenny, they're Irish and one of the most adorable couples you'll ever see. Except for your parents," he said, angling his eyes up to look at Kate. "We win that prize, though I am a little biased. Then there's Esposito and Lanie. They're all spice and sass. Little one, you need to laugh, you go see them. Finally, there's your grandparents on your mother's side."
Kate, who had been holding it together for Castle's speech, felt the tears build up at the corners of her eyes. Without a word, she reached a hand down, twisting her fingers with his.
"Your grandmother died, but your mother solved that case. She didn't give up, she didn't back down. I'm sure your mother will tell you all about your grandmother. And your grandfather; he's the most perceptive person I've ever met. He'll tell you stories and watch movies with you and tuck you in at night when we can't be there."
"Castle."
He looked up. Kate was using her free hand to wipe tears from her face. He shook his head, holding a finger up. "I'm not done." He looked back down at her stomach with a roll of his eyes. "She can get grumpy when she's sleepy. Now, where was I? We finished talking about your grandparents. Okay. Your mother."
He paused, taking a deep breath and organizing his thoughts. "Your mother is the strongest woman in the world. Maybe not physically, but mentally she takes the award. She doesn't let a lot of people in, but once you wedge your way there, you'll find out how truly extraordinary she is. You won't have any trouble with that, though. She already loves you."
With a last kiss to the still-flat plane of her stomach, he inched up to kiss Kate's lips. "I love you."
"I love you, too." With a sigh, she rested her head on his shoulder, wiggling it under his chin.
He wrapped one arm around her shoulder, the other rested atop hers, covering the place where their child was growing.
A/N: Hopefully, I'll be posting more finished fics now that I'm back from my summer internship and can sit around, writing and re-watching Castle for hours instead of working. There's about ten started fics on my desktop now, so I'm going to start tackling them all one at a time.
Anyways, please review/comment! It seriously makes my day when I see e-mails letting me know that people care enough to drop a few words in a review for me!