Disclaimer: It's Castle night on ABC. Keyword there being ABC. I don't own ABC or any part of it.
Notes: Don't hate me. You all are going to have to wait for chapter ten for the big reveal. This chapter is going to be all ESPLANIE! Well, almost all Esplanie. Mostly because Esplanie makes fics better, and they are serving to further the plot a wee bit. So, you can forgive me right? Of course you can. Please? Since I came seem to find any reference to Beckett's middle name, we're just going to borrow the one that wiki and IMDB all told us was Stana's, but hen she told us all it wasn't.
Here is the English version of the lullaby: What a pretty little hand have I, how pretty and white this that God gave me. What pretty little eyes have I, how pretty and black these that God gave me. What a pretty little mouth have I, how pretty and red this that God gave me. What pretty little feet have I, how pretty and chubby these that God gave me.
Javier Esposito had finally torn himself away from the nursery window long enough to go get a coffee and a paper. He paused briefly to give his little girl one more adoring glance before making his way up the hall to Lanie. He quietly re-entered the room, and pulled his chair close to Lanie.
"Where've you been?" she asked sleepily.
"Admiring," he replied sheepishly he placed it on her bedside table, "I did go get you a paper to flip through, though. I can also be looking out the window and not noticing you stealing my coffee if you want some."
She smiled and picked the paper up, "Anything good?"
"I just looked at the front page," he sat in his chair and placed his coffee in the same spot he had set the paper, "Pass me the sports section when you get to it."
She pulled it out and tossed it to him before settling back with the rest of it. She worked her way to the end of page two when the door opened. It was her doctor, "Good morning, Dr. West."
"Brought you some company," the genial older woman winked and wheeled the bassinet over by Lanie, "They'll want to weigh her again around lunch time, but your beautiful little girl is yours until then."
Esposito dropped the sports page in his seat and was over there before the doctor even got the door shut, "Hola, princessa." He waved at the sleeping baby and then went to wash his hands. He picked her up and made one of this stupidly-happy dad faces.
Lanie smiled at them, "You are a lost cause."
"You know it," he grinned, "scoot over." Lanie shifted over a few inches and he sat down next to her.
"Good morning, Natalia," Lanie placed a feather light kiss on her head. She tossed her paper up on to the tray table.
Espoito quietly sang a Spanish lullaby, "Qué linda manita que tengo yo, qué linda y blanquita que Dios me dio. Qué lindos ojitos que tengo yo, qué lindos y negritos que Dios me dio. Qué linda boquita que tengo yo, qué linda y rojita que Dios me dio. Qué lindas patitas que tengo yo, qué lindas y gorditas que Dios me dio."
Lanie just smiled and snuggled into Esposito's side, "I love it when you speak Spanish."
"I know, chica! I think the Spanish is how we ended up here," he gave her a teasing wink.
"Don't make me smack you."
"I'll be looking forward to it," he kissed her forehead and went back to singing his lullaby.
Lanie dozed on and off for another thirty minutes before finally taking the baby from Esposito, "My turn."
"I didn't know it was so easy to love."
"I know," she ran a finger over the baby's cheek.
Esposito picked up the rest of Lanie's paper and began flipping sections until he found the comic pages, "I'm gonna get you started on all the good ones now," he spoke to the baby, "then later, when we get home, you can learn about the great ones. Papi has some classics from Stan Lee and Will Eisner and he can't wait to share them with you."
Lanie closed her eyes and listened as he read the comics out loud; she decided that sometimes the joke just wasn't there without seeing the picture. When the baby started squirming Lanie opened her eyes and shifted around, "Time for you to get up."
"Huh?" He put the paper down and looked at her.
"She's hungry," she waited for him to get up and hand her the blanket. She settled back against the bed and tried nursing again. The last few attempts had been painful and awkward learning curves.
"I like this part," he flirted.
"Is that all you think about?"
"Yes."
Lanie rolled her eyes, and went back to silently feeding their baby. Once the baby was finished and she was decent again Lanie made room for him to sit again, "Get back over here."
He dutifully sat down, and folded the paper back up to place on the tray, "She's so perfect."
"And..."
"And... that means she is just like her mama," he gave Lanie a kiss.
"I shouldn't have to drag that out of you," she narrowed her eyes at him before leaning in to kiss him back.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he tried to sneakily take the baby back, "I'll have to remember that, I know."
She let him take Natalia, "If I have learned anything in the last 12 hours it's that you are never going to put her down."
"Only for you, chica," he kissed her one more time before once again singing his lullaby to her.
Lanie watched a while and then went back to her page in the paper, she skipped her favorite section, and moved along until the only thing left was her secret pleasure. She had once tried to fool herself into thinking she only read page six to keep tabs on Castle for her friend, but she knew she was just a sucker for all the gossip.
She opened the paper up to the society pages, and almost immediately went pale, "Give me your phone."
"What?" he tried to get in the right position to pull it from his pocket, "Why? What is it?"
Lanie mumbled and immediately began dialing. She impatiently waited. One ring. Two. Finally on the third her friend picked up.
"Katherine Jacqueline Castle," she hissed, "you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do."
Espositio was immediately interested, and tried to listen in to the conversation. Having failed that he peered at the paper, hoping he maybe see what had set Lanie off in the first place. She had it at just enough of an angle that he couldn't see what she was looking at.
"What do you mean, what do I mean?" Lanie exhaled slowly, remembering that her best friend could sometimes be a brick wall, "Have you seen the paper this morning... No? Oh boy... You're on your way up now? Good."
Lanie threw her head back against the pillow, and dropped the paper into her lap, "I'm getting too old for this," she finally said.
The second the paper hit her lap Esposito leaned over to read. He was frozen. Never the kinds of words you want to hear for anyone, let alone your friends, "Dios mio, Lanie. Is it..."
"I don't know. She said they were just coming into the hospital when I called. We can ask them when they get up here.
"That's..." he trailed off again and looked down at his baby girl, "I hope to hell that ain't true, and if that theory holds true I'm going to hurt someone for printing that."
"Okay, Lanie, why the 911?" Kate asked when she finally entered the room. Alexis and Castle made a beeline straight for Natalia. Lanie tossed the paper to the end of the bed. Kate picked it up and skimmed page six until she saw what Lanie so pissed.
There in black-and-white were the words: Castle's rumored to be seeking surrogate. Unable to conceive. Right above was a still from Lenny's video of them walking across the parking lot.
"Well?" Lanie was intimidating, even laying in a hospital bed.
