Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

A/N The conclusion of a two-part story in which Eliot finds a way to use his mental agility in his favorite sport.

Mom dropped her bag on the floor, not even on the table the way she usually does. She ran into the kitchen and got down on her knees and put her hands on the sides of my face. "Oh, sweet pea, look at you. Oh, oh." And then she started to cry so there were two people crying like before only this time it was Mom and me instead of Abby and me.

She got on a kitchen stool and held me on her lap for a little while. She stopped crying and blew her nose and asked me if my nose and mouth hurt a lot. I said not too much because Doctor Lowe gave me medicine at the emergency room and then she asked why I was crying.

"I lost two teeth. Two ways. I lost them because they came out and I maybe lost them because we're not sure where they are or if Sarah found them after my accident."

"And?"

You can't ever fib to Mom because she can always tell. She always knows when I haven't really answered a question, too, so I had to keep going. "And I was crying because right before you got home Dad said the tooth fairy might not come."

"Mmhmm. Did he say why?"

"He said I was doing something I knew I wasn't supposed to and the tooth fairy is like Santa and knows if you're bad."

"Dad's right. You know, when I was the twins' age the Easter Bunny didn't bring me anything because I had done something wrong. I was really upset, but you know what?"

"What?"

"I learned an important lesson and the Easter Bunny came back the next year."

"So the tooth fairy will come the next time? Because I still have sixteen teeth to lose."

"If you've learned your lesson. And you're a smart boy, so I'd bet a lot of money—way more than the tooth fairy brings, even for sixteen teeth—that you have."

"Not to play ball in the house."

"That's right. And why?"

"Because it can be dangerous."

"Absolutely. Imagine if the ball had bounced a little bit differently and hit you in the eye? You might have lost your sight."

"I could have worn a cool eye patch like a pirate, right Dad?"

Dad was behind Mom and made a face like I shouldn't have said anything.

Mom made a different face. She looked straight at me, like her eyes were on fire. "Eliot."

Oh, boy, when she says my name that way I'm really in trouble. "I'm sorry, Mom. I know. It would terrible if I couldn't see out of my eye."

"Yes, it would." She looked over at the stove. "Now, I think Dad has finished making supper, so let's all go sit at the table. He put some ice cubes in your soup for a minute so it won't be too hot for you to eat."

We had supper and Mom wasn't yelling at me or anything. I think my repercussion is the tooth fairy not coming. When we finished Mom said it was time for me to go to bed and that she would be up in a minute to help me with some medicine for my mouth since I can't brush my teeth for a couple of days. I was almost in my room when I remembered my comforter. Oh, boy, I was really going to get it now. Mom would be so, so mad. She notices everything, so I couldn't even hide the comforter under the bed because she would ask where it is. I didn't know how much blood was on it but maybe I could cover up the spots with stuffed animals or something. I ran in to see how bad it was and you know what? It was fine. I couldn't believe it. It was like magic, but I knew it wasn't really magic.

I have a dachshund stuffed animal that Docky gave me for my third birthday and I always keep him right by my pillow. I named him Sidney, after Docky, and I saw that there was an envelope between his front paws. The envelope said "For EB-C," which is me, and inside there was a letter:

"Dear Eliot,

"I know that you must have been worried about the comforter because it's a family heirloom. Luckily I was able to get out the blood with some advice from my mother, and then I put it in the washing machine and dryer. It looks good as new now, which is amazing since it's about 70 years old!

"This will be our secret. I hope that you feel better soon.

"Love, Sarah"

I had just finished reading it when I heard Mom coming upstairs, so I shoved it in the drawer of my nightstand. She helped with the medicine in the bathroom and was tucking me in when Dad and Scrapple came through the door. Scrapple jumped on the bed with me and Mom and Dad kissed me good night.

The next day was Saturday and it rained all day and I didn't feel too great. Dad took the twins to the planetarium and to see the dinosaurs even though they've been there a thousand times (exaggerating!) and I stayed home with Mom. The Yankees game was called off because of the weather but Mom and I watched something called a Yankee classic from before I was born and she told me all about it because she had been at that game with Granddad. She could remember so many of the plays, it was amazing. It was before she knew Dad.

"I love watching baseball with you, Mom."

"I love watching with you, too, Eliot. I think you got the baseball gene from Granddad and me."

"I got blue eyes from Dad and long legs from you. That's genes, too."

"Yup. I just made up the baseball gene, but I like to think it exists."

"Me, too. You know what my favorite part of the game is?"

"Cracker Jacks?"

She made me laugh. "That's Dad's favorite. Mine is the numbers."

"The statistics."

"I love that part."

"I know you do. They make the game even more interesting to watch, don't they?"

"Yeah."

"I have a surprise for you. Docky's coming to brunch tomorrow. He wants to see you and I'd like for him to look at your nose and mouth, especially. You won't mind, will you?"

"Docky's my best friend, Mom. I would never mind."

At work Docky only looks at dead people and figures out how they died. He used to be a pediatrician before his wife and baby, Abby, died in a train crash. He is a great doctor for live people, too, even though he doesn't do that for anybody but me. We have a game he calls Two-Person School House. Lately he has been teaching me the names of all our bones, including teeth. Teeth aren't bones but they both need calcium. Anyway, that's how I knew about maxillary and mandibular central incisors. Those are my favorite teeth names except for canines which mean dog teeth even though they're for humans, too. Scrapple let me look at his. In Two-Person School House I've been teaching Docky about baseball. He's going to come to some games with us in the summer and says he will like it even more now that he knows rules and things.

When he was here for brunch on Sunday he told Mom and Dad that he was sure I'd be fine and he told me I had two very colorful shiners which is a funny word for black eyes because they're not shiny. After we ate Dad and the twins got out all the Legos to build something huge in the living room and Docky and Mom and I went to Dad's office to watch some of the ball game.

"Isn't that your favorite player at the plate, Eliot?" Docky said.

"Yup. Deshawn Robinson. He's the third baseman."

"Ohh, Deshawn, my man."

"Dad's your man, Mom."

"It's an expression, Eliot. I just mean he's the best."

"It he gets a hit his average will be four hundred."

Docky looked surprised. "How do you know that?"

"Cause it's three ninety-one right now. See next to his name? It says point three nine one. He's been up sixty-nine times so far this year, not counting walks, and he has twenty-seven hits, so that makes his average three hundred ninety one, see? You just divide twenty-seven by sixty nine. So if he gets a hit this time, it will be twenty-eight out of seventy, which is exactly four hundred."

"Huh," Docky said. "You think he'll get a hit?"

"Yeah, for one reason because it's cloudy. Ernie helped me to look up the weather for all the games last year and when Deshawn plays during the day and it's not sunny he hits a lot better."

"Aha, that's good thinking, Eliot." He looked over at Mom. "Did you know that Eliot and Ernie did that research, Kate?"

"No, I didn't. That's a great project, Eliot. What's another reason you think Deshawn is going to get a hit?"

"Wow, see, he just did! He just hit a double, did you see that? That's the other reason I had, because he's better against left-handers. That pitcher is a lefty like me. It's good I don't have to pitch against Deshawn Robinson. I wish I could, though."

"Maybe you will someday, Eliot," Dock said. "Not against him, but who knows? You might be a baseball player when you grow up."

"He's dying to play now, Sidney. His school has a terrific team."

"They won't let me play since I'm six. But I have some classes with a lot of guys who are on the team, physics and math. I even help one of them who doesn't get calculus very well. He's sixteen. I don't have a lot of stuff to talk about with them and if I could play baseball with them we could talk about that."

"I know, sweetheart, but you're not tall enough or strong enough to compete with them."

Sometimes Docky gets this expression on his face and you know he is about to have a big idea. His eyes scrunch up and so does his mouth. When I saw his face go like that I knew he was going to say something.

"I have an idea, Kate."

See! I told you!

"What?"

"Eliot is the prince of statistics, it seems to me."

"Oh, you have no idea."

See, Mom even says that to Docky sometimes.

"Well, couldn't that be useful to the team at his school? If he notices things like this boy hits better in sunshine, things like that?"

"You know what, Mom? That pitcher on our team named Dennis? Whose socks are always going down into his shoes? He doesn't throw very many curveballs but when he does he always wipes his nose on his glove first."

Mom laughed. "Eww, Eliot. That's kind of gross, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it's gross. Who would ever want to pick up his glove? Yech, it's all snotty."

"But it's valuable information for boys who are facing him, isn't it, Kate? They might have noticed, as Eliot has, and they'd be ready for the curveball. But if, what's his name?"

"Dennis."

"If Dennis could learn not to do that, batters wouldn't know what pitch to expect from him. So, my point is, couldn't Eliot sit in the dugout and give statistics and observations to the coach? Wouldn't he be a real asset?"

Mom sat up straight and clapped. "Sidney! You are a genius."

I leaned over and whispered to Docky. "Like me! I'm not supposed to say that but that's what some kids say to tease me. I don't care though. And it would be nice if we are both geniuses."

Docky whispered back, "Thank you, Eliot, but you're one of a kind."

"Are you two gentlemen finished exchanging secrets?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

"Good, because Castle made chocolate mousse and all six of us are going to have some. Not you, Scrapple, no chocolate for dogs. And when we finish, Eliot, I want you to help Otis and Abby with their building because Dad and Docky and I have to have a grown-ups' conversation."

I had fun with the twins. We made a Lego castle because that's part of our name and then we made crowns out of paper for everybody including Scrapple and Docky even though his last name is Perlmutter. It was a good day even if the tooth fairy didn't come.

And you what happened on Tuesday? Dad came to school to get me but instead of going right home we had a special meeting with the principal, Ms. O'Connor, and Coach Jackson. He asked me lots of questions about the team and then he asked if I would like to be the team statistician! I get to sit in the dugout at every practice and every game. I got to start doing that the next day and on Saturday, which was yesterday, we had our big game with the team that beat us last year in the semi-finals of the city championship. I have a uniform and everything. My number is 1/2 because Coach says I'm half the size of the other guys.

Everybody came to the game, even Gram who hates sports. We beat that other school five to four and at the end Dennis came up to me and said, "Hey, kid. You were right about my glove. You're a genius." And he high-fived me and I knew that he wasn't teasing me.

So everything worked out. If I hadn't thrown the ball indoors and knocked out my teeth then Docky wouldn't have come over and we would never have talked about statistics and he would never have had the idea for me.

Now I'm a member of the baseball team. I'm one of the guys.

A/N Thank you all for welcoming back Eliot.