Thanks everyone for the reviews, favorites, and follows! Everything will make a lot more sense with this chapter, though I don't intend to go into much detail about Castle's time missing.
When she wakes the room is cloaked in darkness, the only light coming in from the small square window of the hospital room door. It casts an eerie glow, a fluorescent beam shining directly onto a man in a wheelchair. Half his face is cast in shadow, but she would recognize the slope of his shoulders, the set of his jaw anywhere; such details are engrained in her memory, etched on her soul.
Yet what she sees cannot be real, what she hears cannot be true. He is gone, he is missing, he is not here. How can he be?
He whispers to the small blue bundle cradled so gently, so reverently, in his hands. She hears promises and apologies, hopes and dreams, the beginnings of a new and precious relationship being forged in the dark.
She blinks and blinks and blinks but he doesn't disappear, he remains. It is only her vision that gets less clear as tears cloud her eyes. It cannot be, it cannot be. But it is.
"So it wasn't a dream, then?" she whispers hesitantly.
He turns toward her voice, the light finally catching his face, and she exhales, releases the breath she's been holding for months.
"Castle."
He grins, that soft sideways smile he saves just for her, and his blue eyes shine like beacons calling her home. He tucks the blue bundle safely, so carefully, in one arm and maneuvers his way to her with the other.
Suddenly he is so near, he is right there, he is real, he is alive.
Her eyes roam over him, unable to settle on any one spot. She drinks him in, a sight for sore eyes if there ever was one, a balm to soothe her aching soul. And still she cannot believe it, still she doubts it, because how many times did she dream and imagine this scene, how many times did she disappear into her mind and conjure him up, try to will him back into existence?
It seems to happen in slow motion.
He reaches for her, cups her cheek in his warm and solid palm, runs the pad of his thumb under her eye to catch her tears. She's not sure which one of them is trembling, perhaps they both are. But it's his touch that convinces her, makes her start to believe.
And then he speaks, and oh, if this is a dream, if this is all in her mind, please don't let it end. Please don't take him away.
"Kate. Kate, my love, my heart. I'm here. I'm here. It's me. Don't cry. This is no dream. This is us, together again."
She lifts her own hand to his face, ghosts her fingers along his jaw, watches as he closes his eyes and leans into her touch. But touching him is not enough, so she cants forward, tugs him across the remaining distance until their lips meet, and now she is home. The missing piece slips back into place, her world realigns as their lips slide together.
It's nothing like any kiss they've shared before. It's two people who've been drowning for so long finally finding air. It's two lives becoming one again. It's hello and I've missed you and I need you and you're here and don't leave me and thank you and I love you, I love you, I love you, always.
They pull apart, their foreheads still touching, when a small whimper breaks through the comfortable blanket of silence that surrounds them.
"Little guy wants his mom, I think," he breathes, grinning widely at her before glancing down to the tiny scrunched up face of their son.
Her heart does funny flips in her chest as she watches him run his finger down the baby's cheek.
"Hey buddy, it's all right. Mommy's right here and I've got you. Probably want your first meal though, huh? That whole coming into the world thing made ya hungry, I bet. Well, good news, your mom can help you out with that. I'm gonna hand you over, she's been dying to hold you, I can tell."
The baby stills when he begins to speak, twinkling blue eyes meeting lighter, smaller, more serious ones. Her heart races when he falls silent, looks to her and lifts their son, one hand under his small body and the other cupping his blue-capped head. She meets him halfway, accepts the tiny warm body into her arms, settles her son against her chest.
And oh, she falls in love, fast and hard and completely, with this perfect little person they've created. Their son.
She opens her hospital gown and guides the baby to her breast, lets nature and maternal instincts take over. She can't help the smile that blooms across her face when her son wraps his little hand around her finger and won't let go.
"My sweet boy," she murmurs. "My beautiful boy. I'm so glad you're finally here with me and your daddy."
She raises her eyes to her other boy, her man, who's been quiet for far longer than is normal for him. He's crying, silent tears filling his big blue eyes and rolling down his cheeks. She doesn't need to ask why, because she's thinking the same thing. They almost didn't have this. This moment and the thousands to come after it very nearly didn't exist. Their son could've been fatherless. She could've spent the rest of her life without him, missing him every day, living with a gaping hole in her chest worse than what any bullet could do.
She reaches for him, grasps his hand in her own and squeezes tight.
"You're here, babe. You're with me and our son. We're not going anywhere and neither are you. We're all safe now."
"I know. I know. But I...I almost lost this and I had no idea, Kate. And I would've left you to do this alone, and we said we'd do it together. We promised. And I wasn't there for you for - "
"No, Rick. You will not beat yourself up over something that didn't happen, something you had no control over. You're here now and that's what matters. I will take going through pregnancy without you but having you come back to us over having you for none of it every time. It was not your fault, okay?"
He nods, reluctantly agrees with her and takes in a few deep breaths.
"Besides," she starts, shooting him a sly grin, "you'll be there for next time."
A laugh bubbles out of her when out of the corner of her eye she sees his mouth drop open in a delayed reaction.
"Next time?" he splutters, adorably caught off-guard.
"'Course, Castle," she throws back casually like it's the most obvious thing in the world. "We end up with three kids, don't we?"
"Right, three. Wouldn't want to mess with destiny."
She shifts the baby to her other arm, rocks him gently as his little eyelids flutter shut.
"I could do with a little less drama next time around, but I think we came out all right in the end."
"Yeah," he breathes in response, his eyes shifting from her to their son. "Yeah, we did."
There you have it! I hope I did the two of them justice. I'm not sure if this two-shot warrants continuing, but I could be persuaded.
Thanks for reading!