A/N: There was this picture I saw on tumblr a few days ago and this is the result of that. Please forgive any mistakes made, I don't have a beta and having to write in a child's voice is harder than you think! Enjoy reading, and please review if you can.
It's rare that she gets to enjoy time like this.
Rare that she has time to watch the sun fade away, throwing shades of pink and purple across the sky, both of which melt into the blue grey of the ocean rolling in waves onto the shore. It was hard to stop and look at the beauty in the world while she was so busy trying not to notice the world around her.
These moments she fully takes in how much her life has changed. It's taken years to get here but it seems like not that long ago she was alone, drowning in an ocean all her own. An ocean filled with work and plans that were never made, full of sadness and emptiness. Everything filling the void left in her from one cold January night.
He changed all that.
He changed her. Made her the person she was supposed to be. She let him change her, she doesn't know why she fought so hard to keep him from changing her.
"Momma?" she hears a small tired voice say from the doorway behind her.
Most of all, he turned her into something she never even knew she wanted to be.
"Yes, baby," she says answering her daughter, turning to watch as she crosses the patio to get to her.
She had left them both asleep on the couch, Castle on his back with their daughter at his side, head on his chest. Castle's arm wrapped tightly around her with the TV on the background, their nightly viewing of The Little Mermaid playing softly, the sound of their even breathing leaving Kate with more joy than she thought possible.
"Momma, I sweep."
Kate lifts the girl into her arms kissing her chubby cheeks. She can't help but smile as she watches her baby rub the sleep from her eyes; she knows she will be up all night with the girl. She really shouldn't have let her nap with Castle so late in the day. But after everyone left, heading back to the city, she could see the exhaustion her little girl felt. It had been a fun weekend with everyone. The entire gang, their makeshift family coming to enjoy the Labor Day weekend, the official end of summer and they came to help them put it to rest.
"I know. Did you have a good nap?"
Kate watches as the white bow, now loose in her daughter's hair, moves with each nod of her head.
"Good nap," she answers. "We play now, me and momma? We play now, da' sand?"
"I don't know sweetness; I think it's getting a little late to play in the sand. Don't you think so?" Kate asks, watching as the girl looks around notices the darkness creeping in.
"We go to da' ocean? We go say goodnight to da ocean, momma?"
Kate giggles at her little girls words. She is so her fathers' daughter.
"Don't waugh, momma. We have to say goodnight."
"And why is that, baby? Who are we saying goodnight to?" she asks.
"We say good night to all of it…like da' fishes and da' whales, and Ariel and Founder!"
God, how she loves her, she sometimes realizes just how much she loves her child, she aches with the love. It's quite a feeling. It's that lightening Castle told her about, but it is all the time. It is every single time she looks at her, hears her laugh, and every time the word 'momma' falls from her lips. It is all the time.
She never wants her daughter to lose that innocence. Wants her to always want to say goodnight to the ocean and fictional characters that she believes exists beneath the cool blue waters of the Atlantic.
"Let's go say good night to the ocean, we don't want Ariel to wait around for us do we?"
"Nope, she needs sweep too."
She puts the girl on her feet, her chubby legs already carrying her from the grass to sand, Kate right on her heels. She gets to the edge, right where sand meets water, her little footprints already washed away when Kate gets to her.
"Otay momma, you go first," she says.
"Alright, momma goes first," she feels completely ridiculous, she's only here with her two and a half-year old, but it doesn't stop the feeling. "It's bedtime for sea creatures, big and small. Time for bed starfish and clams, dolphins and sharks, goodnight to all the ocean," she says, laughter in her words. "How was that, was that good?"
"You missed some," she tells her, her face serious.
"Okay sweetness, you fix it. You show momma how it's done."
The tide is coming up higher now, Kate watches as it dampens the white dress her little girl has on.
"Awright. Goodnight, to da' fish, wike Nemo and Dory, and da' whales, sea monkeys and da' sea weed. Even the scary fish and Ariel and Founder, da' crab, and king, goodnight and don't wet da' bed bugs bite."
Kate watches as she kisses her hand and then leans down to touch the water covering her feet.
"See momma, dats how you say goodnight!" she tells her, a smile from ear to ear.
It's a strange feeling to be proud of something like this. But she is. She is proud that her daughter has an imagination and she uses it. She is proud of the kindness she sees every day coming from her baby. Every day there is something new that completely takes her by surprise reminding her of her childhood long gone, something every day that reminds her of who her father is.
She and Castle made this little person. The same man that she didn't even want in the same room with her in the beginning, she shares a life with that man, has a child with him.
Her smile only widens at the thought.
"You did great baby girl," she says reaching her hand toward her daughter, "let's go back in and get this little sea monkey a bath!"
Her little girl takes her hand and they walk back to the house, the sand and salt drying on their skin.