A/N: Woohoo! This chapter puts me over the 15,000 words for the mini ficathon! And we're halfway through the fic. I'm going to try to hit 30,000 by Feb. 1, but we'll see how it goes.

This chapter got long, but I like where it went. I'm really enjoying writing this story, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

An explosion had hit the loft. There was no damage, but it seemed that someone (most likely Martha and/or Alexis) had shot off a cannon filled with baby clothes.

Blue was everywhere.

Castle grinned. Flash still had three months to go, but this little guy was making a big impression already.

Kate had surprised him over the last couple of weeks since finding out Flash's gender. (A boy! They're having a boy! Every time he thought about it he got giddy.) She hadn't done a whole lot of shopping herself, yet, but Rick had assumed she would – not completely put the kibosh on going nuts with the shopping – but maybe request to tone it down a bit and not spoil him before he gets here.

But she hadn't. She'd told him she was going to let Martha, Alexis and Lanie have their fun buying Flash everything he needed, clothes-wise.

"It makes them happy, Castle," she had told him. "I'm excited, you're excited, they're excited. I don't want to dampen anyone's enthusiasm."

Thus the explosion of blue in the living room.

Kate came out of the bedroom, fastening her watch. She looked up, and stopped short.

"Wow."

"I know, right?" He eyed her closely, wondering what else she would say.

She picked up an adorable striped shirt and shorts set and looked at the tags.

"9 months?" she raised her eyebrow at Castle.

"Well, to be fair, Alexis didn't fit into newborn sizes when she was born. So it is good to have a variety."

He looked around the chaos again.

"On the other hand, Flash might have a complete lifetime wardrobe before he gets here."

Kate laughed.

"When did they bring it all over? It wasn't here last night, was it?"

Rick shrugged.

"I don't know. It might have been. It was late when we got home last night and we left the bedroom light on so we wouldn't have to turn on the living room lights. But it could have been early this morning, as dead to the world as we were. But if it was, that would mean it was Alexis. There's no way Mother would have been awake before us – let alone coming over before we were up."

She smacked his arm softly.

"Be nice." She looked around again. "What are we going to do with all of it?"

"Go through it all, I guess." The task looked daunting. "Find out what we like and donate the rest?"

Kate nodded and pecked his lips.

"Darn it, I'm running late for a meeting or we could go through it together."

"We still can, Kate," he told her. "I'm not doing this without you. I will put it all into neater piles. Other than that the most I'll do is sort everything by shades of blue."

Kate laughed again as she walked out the door.

XXXXXX

Kate did have a meeting, but it wasn't work related. A few days after Kate discovered she was pregnant, she had thought of something to give to Rick for Father's Day. This meeting was to look over the final artwork and make any changes if necessary.

"I've got to be honest, Captain Beckett," the man from Marvel Comics confided. "I'm kind of surprised Rick hasn't asked us to do this himself."

Kate smiled at the use of her title.

"I kind of am too," she laughed, taking a sip of the water he had offered her when she arrived. "He's the kind of guy who would absolutely fangirl over finding a super suit."

The Marvel rep let out a hearty laugh at that.

"That definitely sounds like Rick." He sobered. "So, pending your final approval of the story we've come up with, we have a five issue arc for him, to be delivered monthly through October…"

Kate broke in.

"The first issue needs to be sent to me before Father's Day, if that's feasible."

He looked up.

"Oh?"

"It's my gift to him," she shrugged.

"Of course. I don't see any problem with that, we have the artwork as well as the synopsis of the storyline to show you," he handed her a portfolio. "It's all in there for you to look at."

They sat quietly for a few minutes while Kate perused the file.

Mild mannered writer Richard Castle walks down one of the seedier streets in New York City on what his editor calls a 'research crawl'. He's dressed for the part – grungy jeans, hoodie hiding his face. He doesn't really want to be there, but he has no choice. His editor will fire him if he doesn't come up with something exciting and dangerous. He walks into an alley, figuring his epitaph will be something along the lines of 'this exciting and dangerous enough for ya?' He finds a mysterious box and opens it.

Kate continued reading then nodded her approval of the story and said, "I think I'm looking forward to reading this myself."

She looked over the art, again nodding her assent. The artist had captured Castle very well.

"The storyline is fairly Peter Parker-y, but without the spiders, and with a smattering of Greatest American Hero. I think we can pull off something Rick will enjoy."

"Well, I think what you've come up with is great so far," she handed the portfolio back.

"Excellent," the representative replied, taking the folder and placing it on his desk. "We'll get started on this immediately.

They both stood and shook hands.

"Thank you so much for doing this for Rick," Kate stated.

"It's our pleasure. I hope we can do another adaption of one of his Storm novels soon as well."

"I'm sure he'd love that. Thanks again."

XXXXXX

The afternoon before Father's Day, Kate began making plans with Alexis.

"Is this weird for you?" Kate inquired.

"What do you mean, Kate? You've celebrated the day with us."

"Yeah, but now there's someone else to call him 'Daddy', even though he's not quite here yet."

Alexis gave Kate a passable version of Lanie's glare.

"I'm being stupid, aren't I?" she winced.

"Little bit," replied Alexis. "But maybe I'll give you a pass since you're pregnant…with my brother."

Kate smiled.

"Kate, do you realize how long I've wanted a co-conspirator to play pranks on Dad? Someone to blame when I've knocked over a lamp and broken it when he wasn't home?"

She laughed at the look on Kate's face.

"I know we're past that. Technically I'm old enough to be Flash's mother – don't tell Dad that, he'll have a conniption – but believe me Kate, I'm just as excited to have a brother as you are to be a mother, even with the age difference. I've shared Dad with you for years, and that's a good thing. And it'll be a good thing to share him with Flash too."

A weight lifted off Kate's shoulders that she hadn't realized was there. Rick had reassured her countless times about her place in the Castle family and Alexis' reaction to her, but for whatever reason, she had needed to hear it from Alexis herself.

She gave Alexis a relieved smile.

"I know all this, of course. But lately it seems I need more reassurances than I should."

"Maybe you should talk to Gram, I mean, you can always talk to me, but she's at least had a kid and knows what it's like."

Kate nodded.

"I have and I will talk to her. She's been so helpful with all this mother stuff. I don't know what I'd do without her – you too."

Alexis smiled.

"That's what we're here for," she pulled Kate in for a hug. "Now back to Father's Day. I like to make breakfast in bed for him…"

"I know you do. Would you like me to help make it this time?"

"No, if that's all right. It's one of my gifts every year. I've been doing it since I was 4 and the only thing I was allowed to do in the kitchen was make toast. Gram supervised, but I did it myself. Dad said it was the best jam with a little bit of toast he'd ever had."

That made Kate laugh.

Alexis grinned.

"I guess I went a little overboard on the jam," she continued, laughing. "He had to use a spoon to eat it. So, anyway, even though I've gotten a little better at cooking breakfast, I would like your help with something."

Kate leaned forward listening.

"Anything I can do."

"I don't want him to wake up too early. He's usually pretty good about staying in bed until I get there with the food, but just once I'd like to wake him up."

Kate was a little confused.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked warily.

"I don't want you to drug him or anything like that," Alexis quickly replied.

"Well, that's a relief," joked Kate, "but I'm a little bewildered."

Alexis blushed bright red. All the cliché's applied.

Red as a tomato, red as a beet. The young woman was turning purple.

Then Kate understood what she was getting at and felt her own cheeks warm.

"I – um – I'm planning on spending the night, of course," Alexis stammered. "So I can get up early. I want to have an epic laser tag battle tonight to kind of wear him out. Do you want to play?"

Kate was caught between being dejected and happy when she answered.

"I'd love to, but my vest won't fit around me anymore.

"Flash is making himself known," Alexis smiled. "He is kinda poking out there."

Kate smiled and rubbed her belly.

"He certainly is growing," she huffed a little ruefully. Lanie said I was waddling yesterday."

Alexis laughed out loud at that.

"What did you say to her?"

"I didn't really say anything, just gave her a death glare," she smirked. "Truth be told though, I feel like I've been waddling for a week."

"It must have only just started being really noticeable, then. Or maybe it's because Lanie's a doctor. I haven't noticed, and you know very well that Dad would have said something if he'd noticed."

"That's true," Kate became thoughtful. "But going back to wearing him out," she blushed again. "Your dad likes to sleep in. You know, sometimes he's up half the night writing."

"True, but…" Alexis countered. "Remember you told me he got up early for Mother's Day."

"Yeah," Kate conceded. "But that was a little different. He was cooking breakfast for me. But I admit he did get up early on his birthday. He was already up and in the shower before I woke up."

"That's Dad. Whenever something good for him has the potential to happen in the morning, he'll wake up. Even if he's been up writing. Birthday, Christmas, even you calling him for a case before you made Captain. Just once I'd like to actually wake him up. Even though he knows I make him breakfast every year and it's not much of a surprise."

Kate nodded.

"Well, I'll do my best to exhaust him, but if he smells what you're cooking, I can't promise he won't wake up anyway."

"Just keep him in the bedroom, that's all I ask."

XXXXXX

Father's Day dawned on a beautiful morning. Kate awoke hearing Alexis in the kitchen, puttering about as quietly as she could. It must have been Alexis trying to sneak around that woke her. Cop instincts kicking in and all that.

She looked over at Rick. Her ministrations last night seemed to have done the trick. He was lying on his stomach with one arm hanging over the edge of the bed, face mashed into the pillow, snoring blissfully.

Kate wanted nothing more than to brush his hair back from his forehead and caress the small scar above his eye, but she didn't want to wake him. He looked so young when he was asleep.

Rick's eyes cracked open.

"I can hear the gears rolling around in your head," he yawned. "It's really loud."

Kate smiled.

"Sorry I woke you."

She gave in to her earlier temptation and pushed his hair back. She could imagine doing this with Flash.

Leaning in for a kiss, she said; "Happy Father's Day."

"Mmmm. Thank you," he replied sleepily. "Alexis making breakfast?"

Kate opened her mouth, then closed it. She should have known he'd know. It's not as if it was a real surprise since Alexis did this every year. But she decided to play dumb anyway.

"I don't know. Does she usually do that?"

Rick sat up and gave her a smacking kiss on the lips.

"You know she does. You're just trying to keep me from heading out there."

"Well, yeah, I am. She did want to wake you up with breakfast."

A sizzle was heard coming from the vicinity of the kitchen.

"And there's the bacon!" Rick exclaimed, rubbing his hands together.

Kate laughed. He was such a kid. That 9 year old on a sugar rush had never completely gone away.

"What? I'm hungry!"

"I'm sure it won't be much longer, Babe. Try and go back to sleep – or at least pretend to – Alexis really wanted to wake you up with food."

"I guess I could do that," Rick mumbled, dropping his head back on the pillow and closing his eyes. "Anything for my little girl."

To Kate's surprise, he was sound asleep again.

XXXXXX

Fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the bedroom door. Alexis came in carrying a tray with three plates of food, three glasses of juice and two cups of coffee. Placing the tray on the side table she whispered in his ear; "Happy Father's Day, Dad."

Castle jolted awake and eyed Alexis wearily.

"Thanks, Pumpkin," he mumbled, then sat up.

"Alexis, you didn't have to make me anything," Kate protested.

Alexis waved away her objection.

"Of course I did, Kate. Oh, Dad, Gram called me and told me to tell you she'll be over this afternoon to give you her gift."

"Thanks, Honey."

"This looks fantastic, Alexis."

They ate in silence for a few minutes, then Alexis asked, "How far did you guys get with sorting through all those baby clothes?"

He glared at her good naturedly, and she smiled at him.

"Did you and your grandmother buy out every baby store in the city?" he asked.

"Well, no…we only bought boy stuff. We'll hold off on the girl stuff for the next one."

Kate blanched.

"Can I at least get through this pregnancy first?" she pleaded. "And maybe a year or two?"

Alexis smirked at both Kate and Rick, who also had a deer in the headlights look. It was always fun to harass her dad, but she'd never realized how much enjoyment she would get teasing her stepmother. Then she relented.

"All right, fine," she declared. "Dad, you've had my gift…"

"And a delicious gift it was," he interrupted.

Alexis nodded her thanks.

"…So it's time for Kate's gift."

The word 'time' made Kate glance at the clock on her bedside table.

"Ooh, and I've got to get ready. I'm taking my dad out to lunch this afternoon."

She stood and rushed to the closet, bringing out two boxes, both fairly flat, one wide and one narrow.

Sitting back on the bed, she handed Rick the narrow box.

He raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't this a little cliché?" he asked. "For Father's Day? It's obvious what it is."

"Watch it, bub," Kate countered. "That box is from your son."

Castle looked up at Kate with a big beaming smile. He leaned down and placed a kiss on her protruding belly.

"I love this already, Flash! It's the best tie in the world, and I'm going to wear it to every meeting at Black Pawn from now on."

Kate let out a loud snort.

"I have no doubt you will, Castle," she replied. "But you might want to do it quietly."

Rick looked at Alexis, who shrugged. She looked just as confused by that as he felt.

"How does one wear a necktie quietly?" he asked.

Kate flashed him her full on knockout smile.

"Open it and see."

He sat dazed for a moment. He loved it when Kate was playful.

Turning his attention back to the box in his hands, he quickly unwrapped it and lifted the lid.

He gasped.

"Bubble wrap?" he squealed as both Kate and Alexis winced a little at his high pitched voice.

He looked up at Kate.

"You got me…I mean…Flash got me a bubble wrap tie?"

Kate beamed.

"Yeah, we thought you'd like that one," she laughed.

He leaned to kiss her belly again.

"I am SO going to wear this to my next meeting! Best Father's Day ever!" he exclaimed as he gave Alexis a squeeze.

"Now open the other one," Kate urged, handing him the wide box excitedly.

"I know you'll like this, Rick; I want it after you. I've seen parts of it, but I didn't peek at the completed version. Alexis, I think you'll enjoy it too."

It was rare that Kate got so excited. It fed into Rick's enthusiasm and he ripped off the wrapper.

It was a comic book – The Invisible Dart – and on the cover was a superhero who looked very much like Rick.

He looked at Kate with awe.

"You made me a comic book? I've always wanted to be a superhero! Wow!"

She leaned in and kissed him.

"I know."

The kiss continued until Alexis broke in.

"You know, I can't wait until Flash is here and then we can be grossed out by you two together," she groused in mock disgust.

"One of the most fun things about being a parent," Castle replied. "Is embarrassing your kids. It's nice to know I haven't lost my touch."

Alexis rolled her eyes and hugged him.

"I hope you never do."

Castle pulled Kate into the hug.

"Definitely the best Father's Day ever."

A/N: I was looking online for cheesy Father's Day ties for this story and I found a site that sells bubble wrap neckties. I saw that and it screamed Castle to me. :) One disclaimer on the comic book – I have NO clue how comic book publishing works and all I could find online was stuff about submitting your own work. So if what Kate did in having a 5 issue series seems unrealistic, (and I have no doubt it does) please just suspend your disbelief and go with it. :) I picked Marvel because Castle does have a relationship with them through the Derrick Storm graphic novels.

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