A/N: AH BABIES. I was going to include a paragraph where Alexis tells Castle that she's pregnant too, but eh. I preferred leaving it where it was. Just know that Alexis is now pregnant. Yay!

Disclaimer: three hours and forty four minutes until Significant Others. I'M WAITING.


As soon as Alexis has stepped in through Mary's bedroom door, the young girl is clamouring for her attention and she steps around her, mindful to not step on Latte's toes, and closes the door. Mary clings to her hand and Alexis tugs her over to the bed, Latte following obediently. Mary climbs onto the bed, her arms finding Latte automatically. Alexis rifles through the collection of CD's that Mary has stashed away up here, film soundtracks and Disney and a mix of music that Alexis suspects their father has put up here in the hope that she'd try and listen to it. She knows Mary's favourite music though, and it's not long before the Tangled soundtrack is blasting out, drowning out any noise that comes from downstairs. It's not long before Mary is bopping her head in time, singing along only slightly out of tune. She doesn't seem too bothered about whatever may be happening downstairs, and Latte hasn't seemed to notice that anything is going on, so Alexis picks up her bag, rooting through them for a textbook.


James isn't as small as Castle expected him to be, and he's thankful that the two weeks that his son missed in the womb don't seem to be that essential. He's not as much of a crier, not like Mary, but he's not as quiet as Alexis, but unlike his daughters, he just won't stay still. He's barely an hour old, but he's still got the talent of kicking the palm of Castle's hand with his foot, punching the other with the flat of his hand. His head is covered in a soft brown-blonde fuzz, and he knows that it will grow darker by the day, he was the same when he was a baby, and Mary too.

"You should go and get Mary and Alexis." Kate mumbles, tilting her head towards him.

She's tired, and he's tempted to just leave the room and let her sleep, take James with him and sit in Mary's room for a while. But he knows Mary wants to see her mother, knows that she'd be worried. "In a minute," he answers, still completely lost his newborn son, "don't wanna let him go."

"You've had long enough. Let me have a go. You can have him back when you go and get Mary and Alexis. And bring Latte, too."

Castle gives in, sits back so Kate can reach up to take James from him. He doesn't whine, just shifts his attention from him to his mother. He swallows past the lump in his throat, the image of Kate with James in her arms, his head already tipped against her chest, the thump of her heartbeat relaxing him. Kate's attention is lost, too enamoured by the tiny human that she's just bought to life. He sniffs and shakes himself, he'll be back again in five minutes, with his whole family.


"Daddy!" Mary leaps over Alexis's legs, stumbles over Latte's prone form and is only saved from landing face first by Castle's quick thinking. He catches her in his arms, pulls her up so he can rest her on his hip. "Daddy, is Mommy okay?"

"Mommy's good. She's fine. You want to go meet your brother?"

Mary's face lights up and she gasps. "I got a brother! Lexis we got a brother!"

Alexis stands up and walks over to Castle, wraps her arms around his neck and kisses his cheek. "Congratulations, Dad. You guys got a name?"

"James Alexander Castle. Has a ring to it, don't you think?"

Mary knees him not so gently in the stomach, but he doesn't have the heart to chastise her for it. "I wanna go see Mommy!"

"Alright, alright. We're going to go see Mommy. Now you have to be careful, okay? Mommy's tired and James is only little. Be gentle with both of them."

"Gentle. I can do gentle!"

"He's so small." Mary whispers, kneeling next to Kate in bed. "He's tiny!"

Kate nudges her with her free elbow. "You were that small once. Smaller, actually. He's bigger than you."

Mary frowns at Kate, and then at James, and then back at Kate. "But… I'm bigger."

"Now you're bigger. But when you were born, you were smaller than James. And you took a lot longer to come out, but you grew fast."

"Can I hold him?"

"You have to be careful, okay?" Kate patted the bed next to her, waited until Mary had settled herself, legs stretched out in front of her, eyes still on James. "Keep still, and no wriggling around." Kate shifts slightly, moves James until she can put him securely in Mary's arms.

James lets out a slight noise of discomfort, but he quietens down again once he's settled. Castle settles in on Kate's other side, an arm around her shoulders. It doesn't take long for her to sink against him, head on his shoulder, eyes closed. Alexis lifts Latte up and sits cross legged at the bottom of the bed, Latte in her lap. The dog doesn't squirm, just sits there happily, tongue out. They're not worried about Latte's reaction to James, she accepted Mary with ease only stuck her nose in the carry seat once (and only then it was because a diaper needed changing) and she's never been violent towards anybody. Alexis scratched the top of the dog's head, grinned at her as she tipped her head back.

"Hey, hey, Mommy? I think James is asleep." Mary lifted her gaze from her brother, turned it towards Kate. "Oh. Mommy's asleep too."