She has to tell the captain.

She's gone a week so far without mentioning the pregnancy, mostly because she doesn't know quite how the captain will react. Just when she thinks she's mustered up the courage to head to her office, a call comes in and she's off to catch a criminal.

But tonight she's decided she will tell the captain. No excuses. She's just finished a case, paperwork piled nice and neat on her desk, ready to turn in, and she's off the clock. It's gone on too long, and she must give notification immediately to receive maternity leave when the time comes.

She closes her eyes for a moment and takes a deep breath. Her head falls into her hands, and she surrounds her sight with darkness. She moves to massage her temples, draining the tension from a hard day's work, slowly making its way out of her system. Finally, she opens her eyes and pushes off her desk to stand, and begins the short walk to the office.

The door is open, so she walks directly in. The captain is at her desk, glasses on, typing away at her computer, but looks up when she sees her lead detective enter the room.

"Detective Beckett," she starts, "can I help you? I thought you finished the Transin case."

"Yes, sir, I did, the paperwork's all filled out."

"Then what are you still doing here? It's late, you're off call..."

"Sir," she interrupts, "I actually came to talk to you."

The captain gives her a questioning look, unsure of where she's going with the conversation. Her hands move away from the keyboard and to her face, where she removes her glasses and places them on her desk. "Is something wrong, Detective?"

"No, sir, um, there's nothing wrong. I just wanted to notify you that I'll be needing some time off in the near future."

"What, you and your husband going on some fancy Caribbean cruise?" She smiles as she says it, genuine about the question. She wasn't too fond of her husband at first, before they were even together, but she, as everyone else does, warmed up to him, and was even incredibly supportive of their marriage. He doesn't come to the precinct as often as he used to, mostly because his publisher's trying to get him a new deal, and he has to attend meetings that weren't there before. Maybe the distance has the captain liking him more. But she can tell that, as the captain asks the reason for her time off, she's just curious as to where their lives have taken them.

"Actually, sir…I'm pregnant."

She lets out the breath she'd been holding and looks directly at her boss. There's a quick gasp before a small smile appears on the captain's face. "It was only a matter of time. These things tend to follow marriages." She looks at her detective, the faint smile still on her face. "I'll notify Human Resources, but they'll call you in the morning to set up a meeting, hash out the details and what not." She turns her head back to her desk as she begins to pull a file off the stack resting beside her.

"Erm, thank you, sir." She turns to exit the room, and begins heading out.

"Oh, and Detective Beckett?"

She looks back to the captain, who's looking at her once again, but with a slightly bigger smile than before. "Congratulations."

She smiles at her boss, head looking down, a blush starting to rise to her cheeks. "Thank you, sir," she replies, and then heads back to her desk.

She grabs her blazer from the back of her chair, and opens the bottom draw to take out her purse. With both in hand, she heads for the elevator, taking note of the silence that has fallen over the precinct. She pushes the down button and looks around as she waits. At times it can be hectic, draining, tiring, and angering to be in this place for many hours at a time, but it's times like this, when nothing is really going on, when cases have been put to rest until morning, when the only loud noise is the copier down the hall, that she remembers how much this place is home. Just as much as the loft. How, even though it's crazy, and can drag her to her worse, it's forever a part of her life.

As the elevator dings to indicate its arrival, she grins to herself, planning on enjoying every moment here until she's forced to stay home for a while, because she knows that she'll go crazy without it.


She arrives home around eleven, expecting complete darkness and her husband tucked away in bed for the night. But when she opens the door to the loft, it's lit up just as it was when she left, and the television on, the sound barely audible.

She drops her purse and her keys on the table next to the door and looks around. "Castle?" she calls out.

"In here!" a voice calls from the den, and she follows it to find him sitting behind his desk, feet up, laptop resting on his legs as he types away. "Just one second…" he says, as he presumably finishes his thought, than looks up and smiles at her. "Okay. Chapter done." His smile turns to an inquisitive look. "You're home early."

Her eyes widened and her jaws slightly drop. "You can't be serious," she says.

"Well, yeah," he replies. "You said you weren't going to be home until late, and it's only…"he looks at his laptop, and confusion sets in. He looks to his watch, hoping that technology has failed him and it is not as late as he sees it to be. "But…I…I just sat down…"

She laughs, far too used to her husband losing track of time when he works. "This is what happens when you actually do your job, writer boy." She walks over to him and wraps her arms around his neck from behind, kissing his cheek. "It's late, and you have that meeting in the morning with some head honcho, right? You should get some sleep."

He takes down his feet and puts his laptop on the desk, turning his chair around to face her and pulls her closer, her arms stilled draped around him. "Hey, if one of us needs the sleep, it's definitely you. You're working crazy hours, running on decaf nonetheless, and that can't be healthy. For either of you." He nods his head towards her stomach. "I should be the one telling you to go to bed."

She smiles and pulls her legs up onto his lap, and he adjusts by wrapping his arms around her back. She moves a hand to play with his hair, smoothing it down in places it's started to stick up, most likely from his hands running through it when he was writing.

"Look at you," she coos, "getting all protective. You know, it's actually kind of hot."

He looks at her in surprise. "It is?"

"Mhmm," she replies. "'Papa Bear' is a really good look on you." Her smile turns seductive as she twirls his hair in her hands.

"Actually," he corrects, "the mother bear is far more protective of the family than the father. He usually doesn't stick around."

Her smile quickly turns to a frown, eyebrows glaring downward into her "are you kidding me" look, reserved only for the man in front of her.

She sighs and begins to get up, but he still holds on. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I'm hungry, so I'm making myself a sandwich. I haven't eaten in hours."

He looks confused by her claim. "Bu-wha- I thought we were…"

"Nope. Not anymore. You ruined that one all on your own, bud." She pulls back from his grip and heads to the kitchen.

"You know," he argues, "studies have shown that sex during pregnancy can actually be beneficial to all parties."

"Castle, I've been pregnant for only a little over month. I'm pretty sure it won't have any-"

She stops talking as a sickening feeling takes over. She suddenly feels nauseous, very nauseous, and heads for the bathroom at a quickened pace.

"Kate?" she hears her husband call, concern clear in his voice. But she's too focused on making it to the toilet before the inevitable occurs.

She reaches it just in time and bends over, throwing up into the clean porcelain bowl.

She feels a pair of hands pull back her hair and holding it in a ponytail, and then one move to her back, slowly rubbing between her shoulder blades.

She's made her way onto her knees, and grips the bowl with both hands, but it passes almost as quickly as it arrived. She leans back from the toilet and breaths, grabbing some toilet paper to wipe across her mouth.

"You okay?" her husband asks. She looks up at him, worry lining his eyes.

"Yeah, I think I'm good."

She flushes the toilet and he pulls her up to him, instantly embracing her. She grabs onto him and hides her face in his chest, breathing in his scent that calms her down. He kisses the top of her forehead and sighs. "So, it begins."

She snorts, not sure if he's trying to be funny or not, but finds the statement amusing. Maybe it's because it's late at night, and she's exhausted. Maybe it's because of hormones. She pulls back and looks at him, smiling sleepily as he pushes her hair back from where it fell onto her face. "Thank you for holding my hair back."

He grins at her comment. "Always."

He leans down to kiss her, but she quickly puts a finger to his lips. "I just puked in the toilet. You really want to kiss this mouth?"

He tilts his head in acknowledgement and steps back to let her clean up. "You still want that sandwich?"

She shakes her head. "No, definitely not. I can't even talk about food right now."

"Alrighty, then. I have, like, five more paragraphs to write on this chapter, and then I'll be done for the night, I swear."

"Go, finish your silly chapter. I'm gonna get ready for bed and hit the sack."

He steps towards her once more, grabbing her shoulders as he leans over to kiss her forehead, then looks back at her. "You sure you're alright?"

She gives him a reassuring smile. "Yes, I'm fine. I'll have to get used to it for a while, though."

"Well don't worry," he starts as he begins to leave, "I'll always be here to hold your hair!"

Her smile stays on as he heads into the den, glad to have a husband who can make every situation more bearable, even if it is with a joke. She places a hand on her stomach and looks down, thinking of what it'll be like when the new addition to their family arrives. He'll probably act even sillier, most likely becoming fluent in baby talk and Sesame Street lingo, as a start.

She knows it's not going to be easy getting there. It'll be painful, and tiring, and long. But the most important thing she knows, what matters more than anything else, is one thing only:

It's completely worth it.