This is an epilogue to Baby Blues, which a lot of you asked for, unless your name is Ris COUGH in which case you demanded it. A lot. Also, this is going to double as a Christmas present to all of you. I know I'm not the best when it comes to responding to reviews, nor updating regularly, but I do appreciate all of the reviews and the favourites and the follows. I really do. Lots of love to all of you, and I hope your holidays are merry and lovely and you all get Stana Katic or Nathan Fillion or whichever celebrity you are hunkering after this year.

Disclaimer: sat on my sofa (in rainy England) eating chocolate biscuits with my ninety six year old grandma. She won't let me watch Narnia. Boo hoo.

"This wasn't the plan." Castle says with a rueful smile.

"Well, it kinda was. It's just… early. And I'll be Mrs. Castle long before little Castle even makes an appearance. Bump won't even be noticeable."

Castle groans against Kate's shoulder, his arms tight against her waist. "You're so hot when you say things like that."

"You say that now." Kate huffed, nudging his rib cage with an elbow.

"Hmm, but I know what happens when you're pregnant." He breathed out, soft and slow, right into her ear. "You get very… needy." He grinned when Kate pushed back against him slightly. "I like it when you're needy."

"I've got to go to work, Castle. Shut up."

"I'll let you off then. What are you going to do about work, anyway? I'm not having you go off to bring down murderers and suspects at sixth months pregnant. No way. Not happening."

"Relax, Castle. I'll talk to Gates, and she'll probably put me on desk duty. I won't have to risk facing down the barrel of a gun, not while I'm pregnant. Okay?"

"I'd rather you not have to face down the barrel of a gun pregnant or not, but yeah. I can deal with that." He ran the pads of his fingers across her stomach, still soft and flat, but it's going to grow. She's going to grow and he's going to be able to watch, to talk to the tiny little human that's half him and half Kate. He's gonna feel them kick, try and find that tiny peanut shaped blob on the ultra-sound. "Are you sure you have to leave now? Just half an hour."

She turned in the circle of his arms, let her own wind around his neck and into the short hair at the nape of his neck. She reaches up on her tiptoes, nudges her mouth against the stubble that he's yet to get rid of. "And you're calling me the needy one…"

Truth be told, she's showing more than she thought she would be. But, it's okay. It's not uncomfortably tight, and she likes the feel running her hands across the embroidered front and feeling the evidence that there's someone growing there. Honestly, she always thought she'd freak out at the idea of being a parent, of being the one to bring a tiny human that's going to be so dependent on her into the world. But with Castle it's vague flutters of nervousness mixed with a huge bout of excitement.

"Hey, Katie."

She turns, her hands protective over her stomach. "Dad, hi."

He smiles at her, walks up and adjusts the lace sleeves against her shoulder. "You look just like your mother on our wedding day."

"Dad- don't make me cry. Please wait until after."

Jim laughed, cupped Kate's face with both his hands. "I'm sorry. But she'd be so proud of you. So, so proud."

"She'd be proud of you too, Dad. We've both come a long way."

"Yeah, yeah we have." He smiled, his own eyes starting to shine with unshed tears. "You and baby okay?"

"Baby and me are good. Nervous, but we're both… good."

"She's getting your eyes." He murmurs, leaning over the wooden railings. "Her eyes are changing colours. That's weird."

"It's natural, Castle. Nothing weird about it."

"I know, I know it's normal. Just…"

Kate comes up behind him, slipped her arms around his waist so she can rest her hands on his. "Few more days and they'll be nice and hazel, and you won't have to call Astrid weird any longer."

"Well, that depends. She might be the weirdest child ever. I might have to call her weird for every day of her life."

"Yeah, well, with a name like Astrid…"

"Oi! You like Astrid!"

Kate nudged her chin into his shoulder blade, trying to stifle a laugh. "You know I do. I'm teasing you. Jeez."

They stood in silence for a moment, Castle watching as Astrid's eyes flutter and close, her fist unclenching and clenching against the stark white sheets. Kate closed her eyes, pressed her cheek against Castle's shirt. He smells of soft skin and baby powder, overpowering the smell of leather and books and cinnamon. Kate thought she'd hate it if he smelt any different, if she rolled towards him in the middle of the night and buried her nose in the crook of his shoulder and smelt anything that wasn't fundamentally him. But she likes the baby powder. "So, you ready for the next eighteen years?"

"I am. Not sure if she is. But I've got eighteen years of being a parent, and that's I wanted."

"Just… don't be too strict, okay?"

"Alexis turned out alright, didn't she? And anyway, I've got you to help."

Kate laughed, stepping away from him and drawing the curtains across the curtains. "So you're going to be the easy going parent who they go to when I won't give them what they want. I'm going to have to do all the discipline."

"I can do discipline, I- wait. They? Them?"

Kate shook her head at him with a smile. "Next one's going to be a boy, Castle. And he's going to have your eyes."