Here it is, the first one-shot in the continuing universe I created in "This Changes Everything." I hope you enjoy it.

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Chaos reigned at the Castle loft on Broome Street, though only three of the people present—Lily, Reece and Jake—and one dog—a brown, black, and white beagle named Cosmo—were actual Castles. Rick and Kate, along with Martha, Kevin and Jenny, were at the hospital, because Alexis and Javier were there. Alexis had been in labor since the night before, approaching 19 hours now, and would be giving birth to her and Javier's first child. True to their word, they had not learned the gender of their baby-to-be, so no one else knew either, although battle lines had been drawn early, especially among the kids, with Lily and Sarah Grace all but demanding a girl (which Javier was secretly rooting for as well), while Nick rallied Reece, Jake, and the Parish-Master boys behind him in insisting that another boy would be added to their ranks.

This left Jim, Earl, Lanie and Alan to corral not only the younger Castle trio, but also Sarah Grace and Nick Ryan, and Lanie and Alan's three boys, Will, Robbie, and Drew. Sarah Grace was the oldest at 9, her tenth birthday coming up in January; Drew Masters was the youngest, since he wouldn't be turning two until March.

The combination of Christmas's rapid approach—the loft was completely decked out per Castle family tradition with all manner of decorations, highlighted by the gigantic Christmas tree loaded with lights and ornaments and tinsel, and stockings hung by the chimney with care, including a tiny white stocking with a smiling baby elf in a red-and-green-striped onesie, just waiting for the name of the baby to be added—with its attendant excitement, the unfortunate choice Jim and Earl had made when they temporarily had care of all the kids and the dog while Lanie and Alan went to pick up lunch for everyone from the diner, and everyone but Cosmo ate way too many sugar cookies from the family's favorite neighborhood bakery, along with the excitement of especially Lily and Sarah Grace, who had made it clear throughout Alexis's pregnancy that they wanted another girl to help counter the overabundance of boys among their brothers and (honorary) cousins, over the fact that the baby was coming today, the loft was a madhouse.

The loft was a madhouse...until all of the adults' phones chirped, binged, or rang within three seconds' of one another. All of the kids immediately froze exactly where they were, and Cosmo even plopped down at the feet of Reece and Jake, who were closest to the dining table, where Lanie and Alan were trying to organize lunch for the kids.

Lily rushed to her Grandpa Jim's side, figuring he must be talking to one of her parents. As soon as he said, "Hi, Rick," she knew she was right. Kate had called Lanie, Martha had called Earl, and Kevin had texted Alan.

"IT'S A GIRL!" Lanie announced after getting the news from Kate. Lily and Sarah Grace immediately began a loud celebration, jumping up and down with their hands on one another's arms and shrieking happily, both overjoyed that they had gotten the girl they had been wishing and hoping and rooting for.

Nick shrugged as he watched his sister and Lily jump up and down and happy dance, and when he caught the looks on Reece's, Jake's, and Will Masters' faces, he gently propelled Will over to Reece and Jake, and said, "Girls."

"Girls," Will repeated.

"Yeah," Reece said. Reece was the little ham in the family. He was already learning the piano from his Gram, and he loved to sing. Jake was very observant, but only spoke when he really had something to say. Robbie and Drew, still being so young, didn't have much of an opinion of the latest addition to the extended family, and stuck close to their dad, who had texted Kevin back to give his and Lanie's love and congratulations to everyone.

When the adults had all finished with their respective conversations and put away their phones, Lily and Sarah Grace asked, nearly in unison, "What's her name? Did they send a picture of her? When can we see her?"

"All you kids sit down at the table right now," Lanie said firmly, scooping up Drew to deposit him in the booster seat while the rest of the boys followed after Lily and Sarah Grace, "and we'll talk about it while you eat."

The boys all knew that you didn't mess with Mom/Aunt Lanie when she used that tone of voice, any more than you messed with Mommy/Aunt Kate when she went what Daddy/Uncle Rick called "Beckett in the box" on them (which led to an amusing for Kate, discomfiting for Rick explanation of the difference between "Beckett in the box" and a jack-in-the-box after Lily, Reece, and Jake saw pictures of a jack-in-the-box in a book on vintage toys that Rick had bought).

"The baby doesn't have a name yet. Or if she does, we don't know what it is yet," Jim explained.

Sarah Grace visibly deflated, but Lily just asked, "When can we see her? Did Mom or Dad send pictures?" At age 7, she had begun referring to Kate and Rick as 'Mom' and 'Dad,' while Reece and Jake, at 3, still called them 'Mommy' and 'Daddy.'

"No pictures yet," Earl said, "but your Gram promised we'd get pictures soon."

"When do we get to see her?" Lily persisted.

"Well, they don't usually let kids come to the hospital unless they're older," Lanie explained, "so you'll probably have to wait until Alexis and Javi bring her home."

"But I got to go to the hospital when Reece and Jake were born!" Lily exclaimed.

"If Lily gets to go, I should get to go! I'm the oldest out of all us kids!" Sarah Grace chimed in.

"Eat your lunch," Jim directed, "and I'll call your mother, Lily, and see if I can take you and Sarah Grace over to the hospital later this afternoon."

While the kids finally settled down to lunch, Alexis and Javier, with their new baby daughter, were settling into their regular hospital room. The delivery was uncomplicated but as painful as natural childbirth always is, and the baby aced her Apgars, but the new family would be spending the night at the hospital, since Alexis, after a 19-hour labor, had given birth at 12:57 PM.

Alexis had the baby in her arms, Javier sitting on the edge of her hospital bed with his arms around both of them, when they heard the knock at the door. "Come on in!" Javier called.

The door opened, revealing Rick, Kate, Martha, Kevin, and Jenny all five crammed in the doorway as if it were a phone booth. "Are you guys up for some visitors?" Kevin asked.

"Get in here and meet your granddaughter/great-granddaughter/goddaughter already," Alexis said. She was exhausted and disheveled, heavy bags under her eyes, which showed how tired she was, and Javier was similarly disheveled but they both looked very happy.

The quintet approached the bed quietly in one big gaggle, which almost made Alexis laugh. Kevin had a handful of balloons, a mixture of solid pink and Mylar balloons proclaiming "IT'S A GIRL!" Jenny bore a large stuffed teddy bear that was bigger than the baby, and Rick and Martha both had tears in their eyes. Kate was smiling widely and carrying a pizza from the pizzeria down the street from the hospital.

"Food!" Alexis exclaimed quietly so as not to wake her daughter. "Thank God, Mom, I'm starving! I haven't eaten anything but ice chips in almost 20 hours!"

"You guys aren't going to fight over who gets to hold her first, are you?" Javier asked. "And you're all going to use the hand sanitizer over there, right?" He gestured to the dispenser of hand sanitizer on the wall across the room. The visitors exchanged amused looks, and Rick didn't even mind that he was out 20 bucks to Kevin, who had claimed for the duration of Alexis's pregnancy that once the baby was actually here, Javi would be the world's most overprotective father.

"We had time to fight this out," Kevin replied as he let the balloons float to the ceiling above Alexis's hospital bed, "and Jenny and I figured that grandparents and Great-Grandmother outrank godparents."

Everyone looked down at the tiny, blanket-wrapped bundle sleeping in Alexis's arms. She wasn't wearing her hospital-issue cap, so her full head of hair, a shade of brown somewhere between Alexis's red mane and Javier's dark thatch of hair, was on display. Since she was asleep, her eyes were closed, but when she awoke, she would reveal that she had inherited her father's eyes. Her nose was a miniature carbon copy of her mother's. She weighed seven pounds, seven ounces, and measured 20 inches long.

"She's beautiful," Martha said in a hushed voice. "Not that I'm surprised. She had excellent genes to pull from."

Martha was the first to hold the baby. Rick was hanging over one of her shoulders, staring besottedly at his first grandchild, and Kevin was hanging over Martha's other shoulder, looking down at the baby before looking up at Javi, who was sharing the pizza Kate had brought with Alexis.

"So, does she have a name?" Kevin asked.

"She does," Alexis said. She looked at Javier, who smiled back at her. Martha had just handed the baby carefully to Rick when Alexis said, "Everyone, meet Ava Katherine Esposito."

Five heads snapped up in unison to look at Alexis and Javier. Kate covered her mouth with one hand, then, after several seconds, swallowed hard, uncovered her mouth, and said, "Katherine?"

Alexis and Javier both smiled at Kate. "We actually picked her middle name first," Javier replied. "We were both in agreement. Never considered any other middle name. I knew if we had a girl, there was no one else I'd rather name her after than you, Beckett...Kate. You're one of the most important people in my life, and exactly the kind of role model I want my daughter to have, next to her incredible mother, and along with her unique great-grandmother, kind-hearted godmother, and two strong honorary aunts in Gates and Lanie."

"Before you came into my life, and I outgrew being an obnoxious teenager and young adult and really built a relationship with you, I didn't think I needed a mom," Alexis said. "You proved me wrong. And you proved that you would keep showing up and keep being there for me as well as for Dad, and that you would let me come to my own conclusions about you. You're the mom I never knew I wanted and needed, but that I'll always be grateful to have found, and it's sort of a family tradition, since Lily has your mom's name for her middle name. I—well...It's okay that we named her after you, isn't it, Mom?" Alexis couldn't conceal the slight undercurrent of anxiety in her voice.

Rick, cradling the baby in his arms now after introducing himself to her, had been staring at Ava in wonder, completely in awe of the fact that his first baby now had a baby of her own, and seeing similarities between the newborn Alexis and newborn Ava, but now he was looking from Alexis to Kate. Kevin and Jenny exchanged a look and smiled, and Kate looked to find that the arm around her shoulders belonged to Martha, who wore a watery smile on her face.

Kate blinked away a sheen of moisture as she nodded. "It's very okay. I'm very honored," she said thickly.

Rick carefully transferred Ava into Kate's arms. "Ava Katherine Esposito," he said as he settled her in Kate's hold, "meet your Grandma Kate."

Ava opened her eyes and looked up at Kate, not really seeing her, since she was just a little over an hour old, and the bond between grandmother and granddaughter was born in that moment. Ava would be close to her whole family as she grew up, and she would one day follow in her grandmother's, father's, and Uncle Kevin's footsteps and become an NYPD homicide detective.

In that moment, though, on the day that she was born, Ava Katherine Esposito was welcomed with love by everyone in that hospital room, including, a few hours later, her great-grandpa Jim, and Lily and Sarah Grace, and once she and her parents were home from the hospital, she would meet the rest of her family, including her Aunt Victoria and Uncle Gerald, who had been out of town on the day she was born but who got the news from Kate via text message, although only Nick would be politely interested in briefly seeing the baby. Reece and Jake registered that Ava was part of their family, and once assured Ava wouldn't be coming to live at their house, they moved on to play. Drew Masters was floored to see a smaller person than him, and learned a new word that day: baby. His brothers Will and Robbie looked at Ava, asleep in her swing, and all the adults and Sarah Grace and Lily and even Nick, sort of, watching her and talking to her and talking about her...and promptly went to join Reece and Jake in building a giant tower of blocks near Alexis and Javier's Christmas tree.

And so the first chapter in the life of Ava Katherine Esposito, a life in which she would be loved and looked out for by everyone in her big, crazy, wonderful family, even the boys who weren't interested in her now, and her two future best friends Lily and Sarah Grace, began, and the Castle family trees, both immediate and extended, added their next branch.