The elevator doors had barely started to open when Esposito and Ryan strode through them, the latter with his head down in his notepad.
"I got the locations of some cameras that may have useful angles. I'm going to start making calls to get the footage."
"Okay, bro, I'll start the board." Esposito dragged a clean whiteboard to stand beside his and Ryan's desks and pulled his jacket off while he searched for dry erase markers that weren't dried out.
"Here," Beckett appeared to his left, holding a new packet of markers up to Esposito.
"Thanks, Cap'. Wanna hear about it?"
"Definitely." Castle came out of Beckett's office with a coffee each for the boys. Esposito nodded his thanks, taking a slurp before putting the mug down on the desk to begin writing.
"Nana Gussie was murdered last night between 10:00 pm and 12:00 am. Blunt force trauma to the head, we believe with a brass wall clock. Just waiting on Lanie to confirm the blood and hair that was found on the clock matches the victim." Esposito scribbled as he went along the timeline. "The Boulevard Café closes at 8:00 pm, so those two hours before the murder window are currently unaccounted for, but Ryan is pulling up cameras to see what he and Vikram can find."
Castle raised his hand to pause the stream of Esposito's report, and Esposito gestured for him to continue with a roll of his eyes. "Had the clock stopped?"
Ryan put his desk phone receiver down and joined them. "What, on a specific time?"
"Yes," Castle replied. "It may show the time of the murder."
"Huh." Ryan stepped away from his desk and flipped through his notebook. "Yeah, I wrote it down. Stopped at 10:38, though it's not a 24-hour clock, so that could just be a coincidence."
Castle shrugged, "Could be, but… I'm hopeful."
Esposito laughed as he finished marking up the board. "So, I spoke to the manager of the café this morning, Penny Yang. She was hired from the Starbucks up the block eight months ago by Nana Gussie and Desmond Olsen, partners in the business."
Ryan put a photo of the victim on the board as Esposito continued. "She told me she arrived at 6:25 this morning to open the café, the same time as she always opens. She went through her usual routine, opened the front door to enter then locked it behind her, headed through to the back to open all the staff doors and the door to the alley. She noticed the office door was slightly ajar, which was – in her words – totally not the norm. So she opened the door, found the body, and dialed 911."
"Who else works there?" Beckett asked.
Esposito pointed to the list of names on the board. "Desmond is not only the business partner, he's also the cook; then we have Fernando Thorne, a barista and waiter; and until two days ago, Jack Lopez, also a waiter, who was fired by Nana. Penny was very careful to point that out."
At Beckett's raised eyebrow he continued, "It seems that none of the staff have been paid for the last six weeks. Penny didn't know why. She wasn't too bothered about it, though; told me she had enough savings to pay rent and stuff. She didn't sound like she had much else in her life other than the job."
Beckett nodded and mouthed a silent "Oh…"
Esposito shrugged and carried on. "CSU won't be finished till after lunch, the scene was a mess, right, Castle?" Ryan laughed at Esposito's sudden switch from giving a report to the Captain, to trying to wind Castle up. "Bailey looked like she wished she could bust your ass to traffic for standing on evidence."
"You stood on evidence at the crime scene?!"
"Hey, to be fair, the whole floor was covered in bills and glass and all kinds of crap, Beckett! I only misstepped once." The panic began to disappear from his face when Beckett gave him an indulgent smile as he explained. "And I promised Bailey I'd fix her a great coffee as a thanks for giving me those flashy blue booties. I'm going to get some for Mother."
They all laughed and Castle glanced at his watch, "Ooh, baby time!" The laughter stopped and all three of them were staring at him "…to go. Time to go!" He grimaced at Beckett, "Sorry, the nickname slipped out… Won't happen again, honey, I promise."
He hustled Beckett to her office, with her glaring at him the whole time as he helped her into her coat and she grabbed her purse. They were out of the elevator and into the bullpen before either Ryan or Esposito could blink.
Vikram arrived at their desks, "That was weird." Esposito and Ryan turned as one to him, identical skeptical glares on their faces. "I mean, for a given definition of weird, such as you might describe Castle."
Ryan and Esposito looked at each other and shrugged, and Ryan began to run through the camera footage possibilities with Vikram.
"I know you're excited, babe, but you seriously need to keep a lid on it at the precinct," Kate was in full flow as she and Rick stepped through the door of the obstetrician's office. "If Lanie found out about the baby from Esposito she would make the next few months a living hell for both of us, so, please…"
"I know, Kate, I am so sorry, I just can't help myself!" Rick gave her a beseeching look and she couldn't bring herself to be mad at him anymore. Those damn puppy dog eyes.
They stopped side-by-side in front of the desk and Kate leaned into Rick's space, her shoulder pressed to his. "Okay, I forgive you." She kissed him, the lightest feather of her lips to his and he pressed his palm to her lower back. The sound of someone clearing their throat broke their bubble and Kate turned to the receptionist with a blush on her cheeks.
"Hi. Kate Beckett, here for Dr. Kowalewski?" The receptionist smiled at her and nodded as she looked something up on the computer.
"Okay, you can take a seat, Ms. Beckett." The receptionist handed her a clipboard with a form and pen attached. "Could you please update this with your current information?"
"Sure, thanks." Kate moved over to the seating area and sat beside Rick, absorbing herself in checking over the form, making sure her details were correct. When she was done, Rick returned it to the receptionist, and he came back with a mischievous grin on his face.
"What?" Kate enquired.
"Nothing. I'm just looking forward to seeing Dr. Kowalewski again, is all," he reined the grin back to a cheeky smile.
"I told you, you can't put her in any books. She's the babusya I never had. It makes me shudder thinking that she reads books that are loosely related to my own private life."
"Come on, she loved me when I came to that appointment with you before!"
"Only because she loved teasing you."
A nurse came into the waiting room and called, "Ms. Beckett?" The nurse looked at the notes in front of her. "Oh, sorry, Mrs. Beckett?"
Kate had already stood up and grabbed Rick's hand to pull him up with her. They followed the nurse through a short corridor to one of the clinic rooms, and Rick admired the artsy photos of slices of delicious-looking pies that adorned the walls every few feet on both sides. "Why are there so many pictures of pie?" Rick asked from behind her. "Bit strange for a doctor's office…"
"Our new doctor has a thing for pie," The nurse informed him, a soft Southern twang to her voice. "Dr. Pomatter told me he used to practice in a small town in the Midwest, and there was a lady who brought him a different kind of pie every time she had an appointment."
The couple smiled and Kate turned to Rick as they entered the clinic room, "Well, I know what I'm having for lunch after this…"
"Another patient inspired by the new decor, I see!" Kate smiled and shrugged as Dr. Kowalewski followed them, bustling in the room.
"There's just something about pie, Dr. Kowalewski, you can't deny it," Rick exclaimed, already enjoying his second meeting with the Ukrainian doctor. Kate had brought him along when she wanted to talk to her OB/GYN the last time she refilled her birth control prescription, and he had told Kate afterward that he'd loved every second with the grandmotherly doctor. She'd responded by banning him from writing about her.
"Give me varenyky any day," the doctor riposted. "No contest."
"Ohh, now I'm starving, dumplings would be so great right now…"
"Well, sorry Kate, but we do scan first. I hope you drank enough water, I want a good picture for you to give your father. If I had a dollar for every woman who comes for scan but not drink enough…" Dr. Kowalewski laughed, "I would donate it all to children's hospital, of course."
Kate smiled fondly as she got up onto the examination couch as directed by Dr. Kowalewski's ushering hand gestures. "Lift your shirt and undo pants please," the doctor requested. "I see from the dates you provided, you should be about nine weeks along, Kate, so let's take a look with the scan and see what we find."
The nurse hit the light switch and the doctor settled on a stool by the bed, while Kate grabbed Rick's hand. "This will be cold, but will warm up. Here we go."
Dr. Kowalewski pressed the wand of the scanner to Kate's belly and wiggled it around a few times until she found what she wanted. The screen beside them showed a bean-shaped blob that was only distinct from the rest by the virtue of being white and gray on the black background.
"Here is baby, Kate and Rick."
Kate's eyes were fixed on the screen, wide in astonishment, and she heard a gasp from beside her. Rick lifted Kate's hand and pressed a kiss to the back of it. She felt a wetness on her fingers and glanced at her husband. He was crying, and it just set her off. They were both sniffling and laughing at each other, both enthralled by what was happening.
"Everything looks good, we can see heart beating on screen, here." The doctor pointed to the little moving part of the screen. "And is strong too, very good. Now let's listen for heartbeat," the doctor said to them, flicking three switches on the console. A whooshing noise filled the room and Dr. Kowalewski nodded in approval. "Sounds good too."
"Congratulations, y'all," Susan said warmly, as she pressed some buttons on the machine and printed a few copies of the screen capture.
"Ah, Susan, you take my line!" Dr. Kowalewski joked. "Vitayemo, Kate and Rick," she congratulated them again.
"Spasybi, Doktor," Kate thanked her, as Dr. Kowalewski squeezed her free hand with a big smile.
Rick kissed Kate's cheek as he left her outside Café Orlin in the East Village. He whispered, "Love you, Mommy," in her ear, and didn't get out of the way quickly enough not to get a slap to the chest. He just laughed and gathered Kate in for a proper goodbye, and she rose onto her tiptoes, sliding her hands around his neck as he gripped her hips and lowered his lips to hers.
"Castle, put her down!" Rick nearly dropped Kate as Lanie's voice startled him. "Get outta here, it's girl time now!" Lanie stood tapping her toe on the sidewalk with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.
"Yes, Lanie. Sorry, Lanie. Bye, Lanie," he grinned. "Bye, Kate."
The women responded in tandem, "Goodbye, Writer Boy!" - "Bye, Rick."
"Now come on inside, I'm starving, girl!" Kate laughed and followed Lanie into the diner. They grabbed a table, and Lanie left her purse with Kate as she went to the restroom, calling, "I'll have whatever you have," over her shoulder.
A server came to the table and took their order of two grilled halloumi salads with a sweet chili dressing and glasses of water. Kate waited for her to disappear to the kitchen before she pulled the envelope of her scan pictures from her own purse and placed a copy on Lanie's side of the table. She put the envelope back and sat on her hands to calm her nervous excitement.
"Okay, what's going on that we needed to have lunch today when I have a cold one waiting for me on the sla-…" Lanie stopped mid-flow as she sat and looked at the picture on her place setting. "Oh my God!" Kate couldn't stop the grin that illuminated her face as Lanie looked from the picture up to her and then back at the picture again.
"Is this… is this what I think it is?" Lanie stood and moved over to give Kate a hug.
"Yep. Congratulations, Aunt Lanie." Kate stood, too, and the two friends embraced.
"Aah!" Lanie squealed, "I'm so happy for you!" Kate laughed and they sat down again. "Come on, tell me everything! When, what, how?"
"Lanie," Kate was still laughing, "Do I really need to explain the birds and the bees to you?" Lanie gave her a half-hearted glare as the waitress arrived with their meals.