'Richard!'

'What?'

'Get in here!'

Panicked, Castle rushed in from the bathroom, half-dressed and mouth full of toothpaste foam. 'Wuzzit?' he mumbled, then ducked back into the ensuite to spit it into the sink. 'What is it?'

'Look at this!'

Beckett was standing by her dresser; she'd pulled on a pair of soft-looking spring weight pants, and was tugging at the front flaps where they would normally have zipped together over her flat belly, but there was a little someone getting in the way now. 'I'm starting to show!' she said with a goofy, very non-Beckett grin on her face.

'You are.' Castle shared her smile, but could still sense a little hesitation in her tone. 'But?'

'But...it still just feels like I'm getting fat. And how am I going to look in a bikini this weekend?'

'As hot as you always do, but you need to make sure you're staying well sun-screened and shaded.'

'Castle-'

'I don't want a barbecued baby,' he said firmly and for the first time in awhile, Beckett saw the nerves of an expectant daddy in his eyes. 'Humour the anxious husband.'

'Fine, I'll play with Tessi and Dell under that big umbrella on the beach.'

'Good enough for me.' Castle gave her a kiss. 'You're still driving up with Meredeth and Javier?'

'Yeah, I'll see you when we're off shift. We will see you after we're off shift,' she self-corrected, patting her little bump.

Because it was the Friday before a long weekend, they were able to work mostly on paperwork, with a trip here and there thrown in to CSU or the morgue. Surprisingly, Memorial Day weekend was one of the quietest times they faced. The R.I.D.E. guys on the other hand, this was their Hallowe'en, and would take bets on who would pull in the biggest lush off patrol.

Beckett was at her desk, focused on preparing notes for the captain to brief him when he was back from City Hall when a little shadow came into view on her desk. Flicking her glance over, she saw it was a bottle of opaque red-brown liquid.

'Meredeth says hi and wants your opinion.'

'Oh?' Pausing as much for the break as for interest, Beckett looked up into Esposito's smiling face. 'She's doing another cookbook?'

'No, actually, she's in the works on the seventh Lady Hawk with Kristof and they're also in talks to make a second miniseries with CBS. This is just for fun.'

'What is it?'

'Decaf oolong with gingered peaches.'

'Let's give it a try.'

Beckett took one sip and nearly spit it back out, but her body had taught her better to swallow and pass than spit and choke. 'No.'

'No?'

'No.'

'Hey, Beckett, got you a vanilla steamer-' Ryan cut himself off when Beckett yanked her coffee mug from his hand with the sweetened milk and despite its near-scalding temperature, swallowed half down in a single gulp. 'With two-percent milk,' he finished, then traded a grin with Esposito. 'Wanna catch me up?'

'Meredeth made some iced tea and Miss Picky Preggo here didn't like it.'

'You wanted my opinion, I gave it to you.' Beckett leaned back in her chair and instinctively rubbed her belly. 'And besides, it wasn't exactly my opinion alone, right?'

'You are starting to pop, Detective,' Esposito commented, remembering fondly when Meredeth had sprouted up like that when Tessi was still a bump. 'Speaking of pop, let me be a daddy for two minutes?'

'The floor is yours, Detective.'

'Tessi is starting to talk in tiny sentences.' He straightened up a little with pride as he did so. 'Last night when I got in, she says 'Da-dy home!' when I walked the kitchen. And this morning, she was trying to imitate Meredeth scolding Artie, she scrunches up her little face and said 'Aah-tie no!' She's going to be a chatty one like Dell.'

'Okay two minutes are up.' Ryan cleared his throat, nodding over Beckett's shoulder. She turned and saw the captain there, buttoning his suit jacket as he approached their desks. 'Afternoon, sir.'

'Detectives. You're already planning the midnight beach party in the Hamptons?'

'Conferencing on the Cupid case notes before the preliminary hearing next Thursday,' Beckett said; it wasn't a total lie as that was what she had been doing before being distracted by everyone's favourite two-headed monster. 'We're all set sir.'

'Glad to hear it. How are you feeling, Detective?'

'Fine, I guess, a little more tired than usual.' She jerked a shoulder. 'Nausea's mostly gone and I just want to eat everything insight.' And the hormones make me wanna use every available second for banging my hubby like a jackhammer, she added silently.

'Okay. We'll talk more when you get back after your vacation.'

Beckett watched him go, his words making the others look at her in concern.

'What do you need to talk about after the weekend?'

'Oh, just about my hours and stuff.' Beckett smiled. 'Along with no more high heels, I have to be careful about who I interview.'

'We got your back,' Esposito responded immediately, unconsciously and subtly throwing his chest out in an effort to appear more masculine. 'We won't let anything happen to you.'

'You also have your own careers and case loads. You're not going to babysit me.'

Ryan shifted a little. 'Not babysit, Kate, just...keep an eye on. Castle's bigger than both of us-' he gestured between himself and Esposito '-and he could easily turn either one of us into a sock puppet.'

'You're even the same size,' Esposito quipped, and got an elbow in the ribs for it.

'Look, all this concern is very touching, and I'm very glad to have my big brothers looking out for me,' Beckett smiled at them both, 'but Javier, we're going to be in a car for about an hour and a half together to drive up to the summer place so how about we, oh I don't know, pretend we're murder cops and do that job, and play nicey-nice on the drive up?'

'You got it, boss.'

Ryan shook his head as he went back to his own desk, pushing paperwork through for warrants that wouldn't be active until Tuesday because most of the city's judges were already on vacation themselves, as well as loose ends on cases that were either wrapped or being passed off to clear his board for the next week in anticipation of the Cupid case's preliminary hearing for Axel Schuern, a small time loan shark whose offer of getting Shawna Prince a 'rushed passport' was too good to be true and his boss had sent his best hitman to stage an elaborate crime scene to throw the cops off the trail as Shawna Prince was also known to have a boyfriend with a very short fuse and darkly creative side.

By the time the last of the folders had gotten Beckett's signature, Ryan capped his pen and stretched skyward. Cops occasionally got reps as complainers amongst the civilians that they were cranky having to deal with people and wanted to get their paperwork done, then when there was no fresh corpse to deal with and nothing but a few forests of documents awaiting attention they would consider suicide by a thousand papercuts for a change of scenery. Today was one of those Kobayashi Maru no-win type deals until this moment here, when he was ready to shut down his computer and say farewell to being a cop for three days.

The elevator dinged and he heard it instantly - his son's babbling chatter undercut with his wife's smooth and sweet voice.

'Where is Daddy, he catchin' a bad guy?'

'No, I don't think so honey but we'll ask.'

'Can we see a bad guy?'

'They're all in the Holding tanks.'

'Hey!' Ryan shoved back from his desk but stayed sitting down, eyes shining as he saw his boy run up to him and all but jump into his lap. 'Oh, careful with the old man!'

'You not old, Daddy.' Dell batted his blue eyes at his father, then waved brightly at Esposito. 'Hi Javi, where my Tessi?'

'She's with her mommy and Artie and they're meeting me and Kate here soon.'

'Hi Kate.' Dell squirmed out of his father's grip and rounded the desks to give Beckett a squeezing around the knees and reached out his hand to hover it an inch above her belly. 'I can say hi?'

'Of course.'

The little boy's eyes were shining and he put his hands on Beckett's tiny bump, leaned in to talk to the unborn one. 'Hi in there,' he whispered loudly, so everyone around him heard it. 'You gotta suh-tay in there til Chuh-rist-mas, okay? Then you be ready like my new buh-rother or sister.'

'What a charmer,' Beckett murmured in a small voice so she wouldn't break into emotional tears in the middle of her bullpen. That would just be too much. 'Why don't you tell the baby your name?'

'My name is Dell Ryan and I am the biggest. Then Rosie and Carey and Kelley and Tessi, and Tessi is my girl.'

'Possessive much, Delaney?' Honey-Milk giggled as Ryan stood up, took her by the hand. 'Dell, time to go, we'll see everyone soon.'

'Okay.' Dell kissed Beckett's bump and gave it one last pat. 'See you soon, baby.'

Beckett swallowed thickly as she watched the little boy, like a pint-sized version of Ryan, take his dad's hand and they walked to the elevator, down to presumably the garage level.

'Alright, you ready to go there Beckett?' Esposito appeared and being a gentleman, offered his arm to his friend. 'There's a lobster po-boy waiting with my name on it.'

'I thought we can't have seafood because Lanie's allergic?'

'Lanie called Mere this morning, Carey has a check up this afternoon and Dave's working until ten so they're driving up early tomorrow morning, so we're having a gen-u-ine clambake tonight. Something involving tasty treats that would put her in the hospital and they only reason we want her there is because that next baby is ready to pop out.'

Beckett laughed as the elevator dinged open, evacuated its passengers. 'How did that phrase ever become popular? It's not like this is a balloon I'm sticking with a pin and then you have a baby after a very loud bang.'

'Oh, I don't know about that,' Esposito said conversationally, making her laugh. 'I'm guessing the bang to get the baby inside in the first place was good and loud.'

'I'm fifteen weeks pregnant, Esposito, and I'm armed, you think that's a wise comment to make?'

'Fifteen weeks, wow. That was when Meredeth's hormones really kicked in, she couldn't keep her hands off me.'

'Seriously, there is a SIG P226 in the holster on my hip.' But Beckett relented a little. 'I couldn't do up my pants this morning. I had to dip into the maternity wear Meredeth sent over for these. And Castle, every morning he's been...oh shit.' Beckett swiped at her eyes that had welled up all of a sudden and were spilling over. 'Was Meredeth like this?'

'Big time.' Esposito patted his pockets, came up with a wrinkled Starbucks napkin. 'Here.'

'Thanks.'

'No worries.'

The elevator doors opened and they nearly walked into Meredeth, who carried Tessi on her hip. 'Hi,' Esposito said brightly, the fatigue of the nothing-but-paperwork day vanishing when he saw his two jewels. 'How are my gorgeous girls?'

'Gull.' Tessi stabbed her index finger into her chest. 'I gull.'

'And a very pretty one you are.' Meredeth gave her husband a kiss, then adjusted her purse on her shoulder as all four walked towards the Nissan. 'We're good, packed and ready to go, and Artie's excited because we're in the car and that means a trip.'

'How is this going to work?' Beckett asked.

'Artie will ride shotgun and the ladies get the back seat.'

A few minutes later, they were leaving the Twelfth's garage and off for their weekend at the shore.

R&R&Enjoy.