Part 2

Kate stepped up in front of the penthouse loft and knocked confidently. She then clasped both hands around the handles of the shopping bag she held and waited patiently for her partner to open the door. When a full minute had passed and she heard nothing, she knocked again and wondered if there might be a moment of crisis happening behind the door. From what she was hearing, there had been a lot of those lately.

The prior day, Kate had hit the ground running from when she arrived at the precinct at seven-thirty that Monday morning. She answered emails, prepared for a court appearance later that week, and consulted on another team's case. It was noon before she realized she had not yet heard from Castle, which was odd, but not unheard of, so she simply moved on with her day.

When she left for the evening without hearing from him, Kate found herself more curious than concerned. For the prior few months, rarely had a work day gone by without her hearing from him in some capacity, whether that was showing up at the precinct with a cup of coffee, showing up at a crime scene he was invited to, or calling or texting her asking about any open cases. The last communication type usually happened if they were between cases for more than a few days. Considering they were coming up on a week between murders, the fact that she had not heard from him was definitely odd.

By noon that day, Castle's radio-silence had officially begun to concern her, so Kate texted him to ask if everything was okay. As it turned out, it was not. Just an hour later, he called her to inform her that two days earlier, on Sunday, he had taken Charlotte to a park to play when she had a rather unfortunate—and serious—fall. Her elbow had been dislocated and she required several stitches in the palm of her hand where it had been cut open.

Hearing this story, Kate was immediately horror-struck and asked if there was anything she could do. He said there wasn't. Charlotte was healing as best as could be expected, she was just slightly miserable and thus very cranky. Hearing the weariness in her partner's voice, Kate offered to bring them dinner, but he politely refused. When she asked if she could stop by anyway, thinking she might bring a toy or something to cheer up the little girl, he agreed and thus her evening plans were set.

Before she left the twelfth, Kate searched the internet for the closest stores at which to purchase gifts for small children. As she was generally unfamiliar with kids Charlotte's age Kate hoped that perhaps a store clerk would be able to help her. Or, at the very least, she would simply by her a stuffed cat or dog; Charlotte seemed to enjoy both equally. Then, on the way to the first toy store, she passed a book shop instead and one of the window displays caught her eye and shortly thereafter Charlotte's gift was securely in her possession.

Kate was not sure if she could verbalize the connection she felt with Castle's youngest daughter. She had never before had the strong desire to hang out with any of her friends' kids (which, admittedly, was a short list of candidates), but she genuinely liked Charlotte. With each interaction, the girl seemed progressively chattier and more interested in her, which Kate believed came both from familiarity and age, as five months in toddler-time was certainly more dramatic then in adulthood. They had tea parties, talked to her stuffed animals, and even once played a board game at Castle's suggestion. Each time she visited, her partner thanked her profusely for her time and her kindness, which she appreciated, but found unnecessary. Interacting with Charlotte was strangely fun, and a welcome departure from the murderers she arrested on a weekly basis.

Just as Kate was about to knock again, two minutes after her arrival, the door whipped open and Castle huffed out, "Sorry. It's…sorry."

"Don't worry about it," she said as she stepped inside the apartment. The writer was certainly as frazzled and disheveled as she'd ever see him. His hair was far messier than usual, his black t-shirt stained with an unknown substance on the bottom, and the bags under his eyes were quite dramatic. "How are things?" He gave her a pointed look and she cringed. "That good, huh?"

"Well that depends: how do you think your skills are on the battlefield?"

She chuckled softly and held up the tote bag she carried. "I brought books."

Castle looked momentarily surprised, then relieved. "Oh, um, wow. Thank you. That's very sweet—you didn't have to do that."

Kate merely shrugged and said, "I wanted to." Then, after shrugging off her coat and hanging it up, she walked into the main living area to find Charlotte seated on the couch, her right arm in a purple sling. Kate felt her heart clench at the sight of her; the poor thing!

"Hi Charlotte," she said as she dropped down to a crouch in front of the sofa. "How are you feeling?"

"Okay."

"I bet your arm hurts, doesn't it?"

"Yeah," came her sad reply.

Kate offered a smile. "Well I brought something that will hopefully make you feel better." She paused to retrieve the first book from the bag—the one she had seen from the street and knew would be perfect—and held it up to her."

The girl's eyes lit up immediately and she proclaimed, "Califor'na!"

"Yes, that's California," Kate said, tapping her finger against the oversized cartoon drawing of the Golden State. "This book is actually about a little boy and his family going for a long drive."

Charlotte scooted off the couch and grasped for the book with her left hand, commanding to Kate, "Read! Read!"

"Charlotte," her father reminded patiently, "what do you say to Miss Kate?"

"Read pweese!"

Kate smiled and said, "Sure I'll read it to you." She sat down on the couch beside where Charlotte had been sitting and waited for the girl to return. Much to her surprise, Charlotte did not return to her cushion, but instead shoved Kate's arms out of the way as best she could and climbed into her lap. "Oh—I…"

"Char," Castle jumped in before Kate could say any more, "Why don't you give Miss Kate some space?"

"Read," was Charlotte's only response as she pushed the book into Kate's hand.

Kate gave Castle a pleasant smile and assured him, "It's okay." Then, she opened the first page of the book, and began the story. "Okay, see this kid here? His name is Tim, and he and his family are about to go on a very long drive…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

When she heard Castle descending the stairs, Kate quickly stood up from where she had been sitting on the couch and turned to him asking, "Did she fall asleep?"

"Yes. Thankfully, though if the prior two nights are any indication, she won't stay asleep for long."

"Well here's hoping she does."

Castle held up his index and middle finger crossed then flopped down on the couch. Gazing up at her she said, "Thank you—thank you so much for tonight. You really have no idea how much I appreciate it."

"What are partners for?" she quipped as she sat down beside him. In truth, she had not intended to spend the entire evening there, if for no other reason than she did not want to intrude, but by the time she read Charlotte her new book twice (per Charlotte's request) their ordered dinner had arrived, and Charlotte had begged her to stay. Then Charlotte asked her to read another book after they ate, and by that time it was basically time for her to go to bed. Castle had requested that Kate stay if she could, and she agreed, sensing the writer might need a bit of adult company after his forty-eight hour seclusion with a fussy toddler and a teen girl, who was helpful, but busy with a school project.

"Not reading the same story multiple times and helping to clean up dinner, I imagine."

She merely shrugged and said, "Seriously, it's no big deal. I just felt so bad for Charlotte when I heard about what happened that I wanted to help. And I'm glad I came over, because you look completely exhausted. Is there anything else I can do?"

"No, no; you've done enough."

"I don't mind. Here—at least let me put these away." She hopped up off the couch, picked up Charlotte two new books from where they lay on the coffee table, and carried them over to what she knew to be the little girl's section of her father's bookcase walls. On her way back to the couch, she scooped up a few more toys and other little things that lay strewn about on the floor and began to pile them beside one of her toy bins on the opposite side of the couch.

When she returned to the couch, the writer gave her a weary, but appreciative look. "Thanks—really. It's been a long two days." He pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "I know it's not her fault, because she was scared and in pain, but I'm not as young as I used to be, and not getting more than half an hour of sleep at a time is really wearing on me."

Kate reached out and rubbed her hand up and down Castle's shoulder, truly sympathizing with his situation. If she knew one thing indisputably true about him, it was that he was an incredible father. He clearly loved parenthood and dedicated himself to it above all else. Though he hadn't said, Kate could only imagine the anguish he felt at the time of Charlotte's initial injury, even if it had been a total accident. She was certain in the time since he had dedicated himself to answering her every cry and fulfilling her every need as best he could, which was why he appeared so exhausted in that moment.

"Isn't your mom around to help out?"

He shook her head. "She's at an acting retreat this week."

Kate pressed her lips together for a moment, considering another option. He had always been fairly open with her about his familial situation. She knew he had two ex-wives and grew up without a father, but never recalled him specifically mentioning Charlotte's mother, which led her to guess it was a touchy subject. Still, it was the only other obvious option, so she decided to ask the question. "And…what about Charlotte's mother?"

Castle looked over to her with notable surprise. "Oh—I didn't? Oh. Sorry. Charlotte doesn't have a mother."

Kate blinked at him as this information did not compute in her brain. "What?"

"I had Charlotte through a suggogate; she doesn't have a mother."

"Really?" Kate replied, genuinely shocked by the situation, as she had never heard of a single man having a child that way before. Adopting one, sure, but not through a surrogate.

He hummed, folded his hands together, and rested them on his belly while reclining back against the sofa. "Mmhm. After my marriage with Gina went up in flames I was really, really devastated at the prospect of not having another child. I always wanted a lot of kids…I'm crazy, I know—well I'm sure you're aware of how crazy I am. I grew up with virtually no family and I always felt…incomplete somehow. Even when I was in my teens I knew I wanted kids, and then after Alexis I was certain I wanted several, because I loved being a father. But after my second marriage failed, and with Alexis getting older…I guess I had a midlife crisis of sorts, but I decided I wanted another child, even if it wouldn't be the exact family I'd dreamed of."

"That's…so sweet."

He gave her a sideways gaze. "Don't sound so surprised."

"No, no; I'm sorry," she said quickly, giving his arm a squeeze. "You're a great dad, Castle—that much is clear. I guess I'm just a bit caught off guard since I did not expect you to say that."

When she really thought about it, the fact that Castle wanted a large family was not surprising. He clearly loved children and interacted well with them if they ever came across them during a case. He was kind and surprisingly patient with them. Always the jokester, he usually drew a laugh from their lips and genuinely made them feel at ease.

One of Kate's biggest regrets from the early days of their partnership was how terribly she'd misjudged him. She had him pegged as a playboy who liked to flirt and flash around the keys to his Ferrari. She found him annoying, overzealous, and a downright pain in the ass—and he could definitely be all those things, but that wasn't who he was. Richard Castle was kind, thoughtful, and smart. He valued his family above all else and had been nothing but a loyal friend and partner to her ever since they started working together and she'd let go of her stubbornness and pride enough to see it. More than anything, he was a very good father, and had two incredible girls to prove it.

"Hmm yes our path was untraditional for sure. I did consider adoption—both domestic and international—but…I don't know." He gave a little shrug and said, "I really wanted my own child, so I found a way to make that happen."

As she was not overly familiar with the surrogacy process, Kate thought for a moment and then asked, "So, how—I mean, sorry, I don't mean to be overly nosy but-"

"Please. Like I don't meddle in your life," he interjected with an easy smile.

She smiled back. "I'm just curious about how that all works. I mean, does the woman that had the baby ever interact with Charlotte?"

"She sent us breastmilk for three months, but that was the last I heard of her."

Kate immediately found herself uncomfortable with the idea of having a child and then never seeing it again. "Really?"

"Yeah. She had done this before. I kind of got the impression it was just a regular job for her."

"Before?"

"Mm yeah. She had two of her own then Char was he second surrogate baby."

His words made Kate realize her incorrect assumption and she gasped slightly. "Oh! Oh I'm sorry—I was thinking that woman was the biological mother."

Castle sat up and rested his hands in his lap. "Oh no; no. She was just the, ah, womb. Charlotte came from an egg bank—a donated egg."

"I see."

"Yeah. It's actually—oh." Castle yawned and quickly covered his mouth before muttering out, "Sorry."

"No, no I should go. Leave you be." Without waiting for another word, Kate stood from the couch so that her partner could get some much-needed rest.

He followed her into the entry way saying, "Thanks again, Kate; I really appreciate it."

"Of course. Let me know how she's doing tomorrow okay?" she asked. He confirmed with a nod, and then Kate bid him a final goodbye before walking out the door.

Kate paced the small space between the kitchen counter island and the main dining table while chewing on her bottom lip. Back and forth she walked, over and over again even though a single lap took no more than ten steps. She had to keep moving had to keep trying to get the nervous energy out. She rehearsed what she was going to say to him repeatedly in her mind, changing some of the words now and then, but somehow none of them seemed right; any and all iterations made her feel like a crazy person. He was going to laugh at her. Worse, he was going to be mad at her. That was the last thing she wanted—and it was the exact reason it had taken her nearly a week to get to this place, but she had to tell him. She had to. Keeping him in the dark any longer simply wasn't fair.

When she arrived at the Castle loft that evening Kate's belly had been so full of nerves that she was convinced she would not be able to eat the dinner Castle was preparing. Then, just inside the door, Charlotte had bounded over to her, shown off the braid her father put in her hair, and then pulled Kate over to pile of toys so they could play. By the time Castle announced dinner was ready, Kate was too busy smiling to really be nervous.

During their meal, Kate watched with no small amount of amusement as Castle struggled to get his daughter to eat anything other than broccoli. Despite the roasted potatoes, pulled pork, and fruit selection offered to her, Charlotte was only interested in eating the tiny trees as she called them. Kate and Alexis both suppressed a laugh when Charlotte began to chant for more broccoli while turning her head away from the potato her father was attempting to get her to try. In the end, she ate one single slice of apple and more broccoli than any of them.

Despite that amusing distraction, Kate's nerves returned as soon as Castle went upstairs to put Charlotte to bed. The skittish, heart-protecting side of her wanted to sprint out the apartment door, but she refused to let herself. She would have the conversation she needed to have with Castle, even while knowing everything from that point forward would be very, very different.

"Okay—the munchkin is falling asleep as we speak," Castle announced several minutes later when he jogged down the stairs.

Kate let out a nervous chuckle. "Glad to hear it."

Castle hummed, grabbed his empty wine glass from the table, carried it into the kitchen and poured himself a little more. He offered more wine to Kate and she accepted, if for no other reason than to have something to hold and hopefully draw away some of her nervous energy while she spoke.

"So what is it you wanted to talk about? You seem a little…I don't know. Out of sorts? I hope there isn't something wrong." Castle leaned his forearms against the island as he gazed at her, curious.

She shook her head and leaned against the counter as well. "No, not wrong. I don't think. I…well, before I get into all this, I want to preface it by saying I was not trying to keep any of this from you—I promise. I just…well, I forgot, as insane as that sounds. It's…it's from a part of my life I don't generally think about a lot."

His brow knitted together as he commented, "Well, that certainly is an intriguing beginning."

"Well, it's from back when my father was still pretty deep in his alcoholism. Specifically, during my last year in college." Kate drummed her fingers against her wine goblet and shut her eyes, trying to collect what she was about to say. During their nearly eight-month partnership, Kate had shared a great deal with her partner. Far more than she had with any other man, as it happened. He knew about her father's alcoholism, her mother's murder, and her subsequent struggles to solve that case. The finer details of that time period weren't just things she kept from him, but from everyone. In fact, she had never before told anyone what she was about to say to him.

"Because of my father's disease and everything surrounding it we…well, there was a point in time where our family had a lot of debt. My father wasn't working, his savings were dwindling, so he took out some loans and…" She huffed out a breath and shook her head. "The point is: he tried to hide it from me, but I knew it was an issue as soon as I had to take over paying our utility bills. Coincidentally, around that same time, I saw some flyers on campus of a quick and easy way to make over ten thousand dollars. And I…I just saw the money. That's all I could think about. I'd already planned to graduate and go to the police academy, but how could I leave my father the way he…I thought it would be the best way to fix what was wrong without even realizing the co-consequen…shit. Sorry." She quickly apologized as several tears slipped down her cheeks without her permission. She wanted to get through her story without crying, but the tighter her chest became she knew that would be impossible.

While she tried to wipe the tears away quickly, Castle seemed to grow even more concerned while watching her. His voice soft, he stepped in closer and said, "Hey, whoa, Kate—it's okay. Whatever it is it's-"

"I sold my eggs!" she blurted out before she lost the nerve.

"What?"

"My eggs." Kate moved her left hand down to settle on her lower belly in case there was any question of what she meant. "I enrolled in a program that would pay me money to let them harvest my eggs. I…I was told that they could end up at a medical facility for research or if…If they were of a high enough quality, they could end up being used for couples who wanted to have children through a fertility clinic. I didn't care about any of that and barely read the paperwork they gave me. We just needed the money, so I signed every document they put in front of me, took the check, and never looked back. Until…" She squeezed her eyes shut and two more tears dripped out. She opened them again and spoke in a tone just above a whisper. "Until a few nights ago when I was dreaming about being here with you and with Charlotte."

Kate did not recall the beginning of the dream, or how she ended up in the Castle loft, but she vaguely remembered walking through a space that resembled the kitchen while hearing someone call out her name. The further she walked, she realized the voice belong to Charlotte, who was playing in her usual spot behind the piano. In the dream, Kate hurried over to her, but found her progress thwarted by the fact that she was suddenly pregnant. Her large belly hindered her movement and she could not get down on the floor to play with the toddler girl. Instead, Charlotte stood and started patting her stomach saying, "Baby, baby, baby."

Shortly thereafter, Kate awoke and wondered what would have caused such a peculiar dream. She rolled over in bed and tried to fall back asleep, and that's when she remembered the extraction of her eggs and the possibility that they could have gone to infertile couples or, as it happened, a single man in search of an egg to match with his sperm in order to create a child. Once that realization hit her, Kate did not sleep any more than night—or much of the following one.

"I'm not crazy—at least, I don't think I am. I don't know, maybe I am. I felt crazy until I saw the pictures and then, I just-"

"What—what pictures?" Castle asked, his eyes searching her face for more explanation in an almost frantic manner.

Kate quickly walked over to her purse and retrieved the small envelope she'd tucked inside. Walking back to the kitchen she explained, "I have a box of pictures under my bed. It's mostly full of ones of my mom and me—ones I can't look at because it makes me miss her so bad it hurts, but…but I knew that box had some pictures of me when I was younger, so I dug these out." She paused to pull two pictures from the envelope and hold them out to him. She felt the hairs at the back of her neck prickle as she pointed to the photos and explained, "I'm five in that one, and probably about three in this one."

"Oh." Came the writer's croaked reply, for even a novice could have seen the similarities, but to Charlotte's father they must have been positively screaming.

"I look just like her," Kate whispered. Practically from the moment she met the Castle family, occasional comments about her resemblance to Charlotte had been made. It was Castle himself who mentioned their similar hair color and brow-wrinkling. Castle's mother also commented on the similar shape of their eyes and cheekbones. Once, a woman on the sidewalk mistake them for mother-and-daughter. Kate brushed off all those incidents at the time thinking that Charlotte's biological mother was Castle's ex-partner. Even after she learned that to be untrue, she truly had not made the potential connection until her dream a week earlier. Ever since, she'd studied the photos and talked herself in an out of the possibility several doesn't times, but when it came right down to it, the evidence was clear.

Castle stared down at the photos for over thirty seconds before clearing his throat, looking up to her and saying, "Wow, um… I…I actually think you've rendered me speechless."

Feeling the need to break the tension in the room, Kate quipped, "I'll make note of the date." They were silent for another half minute before she began, "It could, you know, be a total coincidence, I guess. I'm sure plenty of people look similar and obviously the odds are astronomical. I—I don't even know if you have any information about the egg donor…"

"Um…not much." As his voice was hoarse, he cleared his throat and continued. "Mostly physical stuff: Caucasian, brown hair, brown eyes. She listed one of her hobbies as reading and her favorite sport was baseball. I figured at least we had those two things in common."

Kate nodded, took a small sip of her wine, and continued with, "Look I know I really sprung this on you and I'm sorry if it's too shocking or too upsetting, I just… well, I didn't really know how to tell you, but I knew I did have to tell you sooner than later because you deserved to know. If you want me to go so that you can process then-"

"No." He stepped forward and placed his hand gently on her forearm. Shaking his head he said, "No please; don't go. I just…I'm thinking."

She cracked a small smile. "Sure. Take your time."

He was silent for another few moments before he put the photos on the counter and leaned heavily against it with his forearms. "The thing is…when I decided to have a second child, it was only after months of thought and consideration. I wanted another child, I wanted to love them and take care of them, to give them a great life, but I also feared that choice would be a selfish one, since that child would never know their mother. By that point I'd been through my divorce with Meredith and seen how her absence stressed Alexis, but at the end of the day Alexis could still call her mother, could still see her. This child would be like me. I never knew or met my father just as he or she would never know or meet their mother. It was a really, really difficult choice, but I made it knowing that I would do everything in my power to make sure that child had everything he or she wanted or needed…and with the hope that someday I would meet a woman and marry again so that there would be a maternal figure in that child's life."

He took a deep breath, gazed down at the photos for a few seconds, and then back up to her. He straightened his spine, reached out his hand and held onto hers while he spoke. "This is… Please believe me when I tell you that as a writer, I have imagined many scenarios in my head. Some quite realistic, others so fantastical I knew they would never come true, but I never once thought about Charlotte finding her biological mother. Not once. The fact that you might be that person is … truly extraordinary."

Kate felt her cheeks flush from his kind statement. "Thanks, Castle."

He stared at her for another second, then dropped her hand and took a step back. Skimming his hand over his jaw he asked, "So what are you thinking here? You've obviously had a bit more time to consider this than I have."

"Yes, but, uh, it's still quite a shock. And…it's, you know, it might not be…I only have the pictures and the similar stories, but now that I've told you it all feels a lot more real and I—shit." She cursed again when the tears returned to her eyes. "Sorry—I'm sorry I don't know why I'm so-"

"Hey." He swooped in and wrapped his arms around her with ease. "It's okay. We're in this together, right?"

She hugged him for a minute and then pulled back, swiping at her cheeks with her fingertips. "I always thought my eggs went to science, you know? I never once thought they could have become children, and for the past few days my head has been spinning wondering if I have other kids and if they would ever want to meet me and…I don't know. I was twenty-one when I made that choice and I'd surely make a different one now, but I can't change it and…and if it's how you got Charlotte..." Her voice drifted off and she looked towards the stairs in the loft. She felt her heart clench at the memory of the girl's bright smile and heart-warming laugh. Looking back to him she said, "I suppose I can't be too upset about it either, because she's really, really amazing."

Castle smiled broadly. "I'm kind of a fan myself. So, you want to do a DNA test then?"

She nodded, seeing no other way forward for them. "Yeah, I do."

He agreed with a nod, then pulled her in for another quick hug. "Okay. We'll look into it tomorrow."

"Okay." Kate sighed and rested her cheek against his shoulder knowing that the coming days could be filled with a large amount of uncertainty, but somehow knowing with him at her side it was all going to be okay.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading & reviewing

Final part will be up on Saturday!