Sorry for the wait, the dialogue had been written but the rest took a while. I meant to post this two weeks ago but my computer went a bit funny so was stuck with 'Together'. I hope that you read that as well, it is basically lots of family fluff.


Chapter 7: Decisions

It had been two days since James was born, both mother and baby doing well. They had been told that it would likely be a couple of weeks at the earliest before they would be able to take James home. Something that had Rick's mind in overdrive, their son still had no place to sleep in the long term. He had hopes that Kate would return to the loft upon discharge from the hospital.

Kate had been down to see her son the day before demanding that she be taken to see her own son. The nurses eventually agreed so Rick found her a wheelchair and took her down being careful as he was aware of the pain she was still in. Upon first sight she cried, overwhelmed with emotion but glad to see that James was doing well. She put her hand on the incubator trying to get as close to him as possible longing for the day that she would be able to hold him in her arms.

Rick sat by her side the whole time watching the rise and fall of James' chest while keeping an eye on Kate who was still vulnerable. He could tell that she was tiring so took her back to her room without much fight. He was still exhausted having been at the hospital for more than three days and not having had more than two hours sleep at any time. People tried to persuade him to go home but nothing came of it.

Martha, Alexis, and Jim had all been back to the hospital to visit and to bring the couple some supplies. Their friends had been informed of James' birth and Kate's hospitalisation but no more.

"Hello once again my darlings." Martha announced as she walked into Kate's room.

"Hello, Mother and Jim" Rick replied.

"How're you doing?" Jim asked the new parents.

"We're okay, glad to know that James is doing well as indeed is Kate here; so much so that I'm getting the boot tonight." He was not impressed about that having tried anything to persuade the nurses but to no avail.

"How so?"

"Neither are in any immediate danger so looks like I'm going home." He said with a voice that made his disappointment known to anyone that would listen. His back hurt because all he had slept in was the chair next to Kate's bed and it wasn't the most comfy, however, he would much prefer being here than anywhere else.

"Oh darling, are you sure there's nothing you can do." Martha asked knowing that her son wanted to be here.

"I tried, apart from sneaking back in here there seems to be nothing."

"I'm fine, Martha. I can be on my own for one night."

"Are you sure, Katie, if it is just Rick that they want rid of then I'm happy to stay in his place." Jim said light heartedly. He hated the thought of Kate being on her own just as much as anyone else.

"Hey, I'm right here." Rick replied in defence.

"Really, Dad, I'm fine and they just want people gone after visiting hours are over." Kate paused for a moment, "actually, Martha and Rick, do you mind if I have a few minutes with my Dad?"

"Sure, we'll wait outside." Martha said dragging her son outside leaving the two Becketts alone.

"How are you holding up then?" Jim asked his daughter as he took the seat beside her bed. The seat nice and warm as Rick had been sat there a long time.

"I'm not bad considering, every day I get a bit more strength back which makes me feel better. How about you? It must have been scary not knowing." Kate said fiddling with the edge of the blanket avoiding the gaze of her father. She knew how he hated what happened after the shooting or anything where she would be in the smallest amount of danger.

"You give me new reasons all the time to be scared this time was worse though. I could have lost both my daughter and grandson."

"Dad, what do you think about Rick?" Kate asked, changing the subject. It was something that she had been wondering about for the past couple of days. What would happen when she was discharged, which the doctor had hinted wouldn't be far away.

"I'm sorry, I don't quite understand."

"Since the day I got put on bed rest he came round he's been like the old Rick, the one that I fell in love with we've barely been apart since. I want him to be that man again but what if he's only like this until we go home then he's back to the Rick that he has been for the past four months? Do you think he's back for good?" Raising her concerns to someone made it feel somewhat easier, the thought had been bugging her and soon she would have to make a decision to where she was going to live once discharged. This time there was more to think about than just herself.

"Katie, what that man has been through this week tests the bounds of anyone. If he couldn't handle it or didn't want to then he would have been out of here when you were taken to surgery. I can't promise you that he won't leave but my guess is that he wouldn't." Nobody knows what the future holds but Jim's perspective helped. He was sort of on the outside but knew what had been happening.

"You really think so?"

"Yes, Katie, I do." He told her, taking her hand and rubbing his thumb along her knuckles. He looked her in the eye the whole time. He had his daughter's best interests at heart and believed that Rick would take care of her in the right way. What has happened, has happened and Rick had clearly been trying to fix it.

"They've said that I can probably be discharged in a couple of days, I just don't know where home is going to be. Am I going back to the loft or my place?"

"I can't make that decision for you." Jim told her straight out, this had to be his daughter's decision not his. While they all wanted the best and had their opinions it was Kate's that mattered.

"I don't want to go to one place only to have to go to the other when I bring James home."

"Kate, he's going to be here at least another week of which I imagine you'll be back here each day sitting with him."

"I know, it is just…in an ideal world I would go back to the loft where everything would be ready, Rick and I would be the normal new parents who are continually tired but it isn't going to be like that."

"Why not?"

"Nothing is ready, okay not nothing but it isn't like it should be." Her voice quavering as the realisation hit her once more. Sure they had stuff but none of it was organised or sorted. It wasn't a place that a baby should be brought into.

"Katie, I will support you wherever you want to go. Whether that is to the loft, your old place or even my place I will be there with you. As I am sure that Rick would be." Jim said. He wanted her to go back to the loft, like everyone did. He wasn't going to let her be on her own and didn't like the thought of her trying to be superwoman, the summer after she was shot was hard enough. She tried to everything to soon which quite often resulted in further setbacks.

The two of them continued to talk moving on to other topics that weren't related to the current situation. Jim explained how his work had been going and of course how the baseball was fairing. He filled her in on all the gossip making sure that she was up to date.

Soon he could see his daughter tiring once more, Kate had been struggling to stay awake for more than a few hours at any one time so he decided to let her be promising to come back tomorrow. He gave he a quick kiss to the cheek and a slightly awkward hug before leaving her. He told her that he would send Rick back in to which she thanked him.

As Jim exited Kate's room he immediately saw Rick who was leaning against the door. Rick stood up straight as soon as he saw Jim. "Hey, Jim, could I speak with you for a moment?"

"Sure, what's up, lad?"

"It's about the baby." Jim's face fell as he feared the worst. "No, it is nothing bad. I just want him to have his own room and at the minute he hasn't got one. I hoped that you would be able to get some things for me. I don't intend to leave Kate until I have to, by which time most of the stores will be shut."

"What sort of things?" Jim asked, he had an idea but he wanted to know what Rick actually wanted.

"I want to do a nursery for him at the loft and I want to get started on it tonight."

"This is an awful lot to do in one night."

"When Kate gets discharged I want it to be ready for her to come home to. I don't know for sure if she's coming back to the loft yet but I hope so and even if she doesn't I want him to have a room. If I had acted like myself rather than whatever happened then this would have been done ages ago, Kate and I would have done the whole thing not paying a decorator to do it."

"I take it that you've got a list?"

"Yep, here it is." Castle said handing Jim the piece of paper. "There's another thing."

"Yes?"

"Would you be prepared to help me?" Rick asked somewhat nervously, he thought Jim would agree.

"Yes, I'd love that. Although I might need a nap at some point."

"Thank you." Rick gets his wallet out to give Jim some money. "I'm sorry this is all that I've got on me."

"Don't worry about it, let's get the nursery done. I just want my family to be happy." With that Rick went back to join the rapidly fading Kate and Jim left to go collect Martha who would accompany him for the first hour or so before leaving to attend classes at her studio. He could then get on and finish organising what would be needed for the task in hand. It was going to be a long day.


So the next chapter just needs a bit more editing because I swapped the end chapter a bit. Hopefully it won't be too long. I've only got one more exam before the Christmas holidays but then got 4 massive end of unit ones in January. To make it worse, they're all in 3 days.