Later that night Kate awoke with a start for some reason.

"He probably kicked." She thought to herself.

She looked at the clock on the nightstand beside her. 3:19 A.M. She sighed. She put her hand on her belly and rubbed slow gentle circles, trying to sooth her son so she could go back to sleep. A little while later she felt something and it wasn't him kicking. But the feeling painful and was in her abdomen and her lower back.

"Oh my God! It's a contraction! Thank God Gina was able to reschedule the event. I need to remind myself to send her a thank you card or something." She thought as she realized what it was that she was feeling. It wasn't painful; however she could feel her muscles contracting, which she hadn't noticed until she realized she was having contractions. She knew that the hospital wouldn't admit her until her contractions were no more than seven minutes apart, or until her water broke, whichever came first, and besides, they didn't even hurt yet. Knowing that Castle would flip out if she woke him up, she decided not to wake him up yet.

After a while, she realized that the contractions were not at all consistent, which meant she probably wasn't actually in labor yet. The doctor told her that this might happen. He called them Braxton Hicks contractions. Some women suffer from them for weeks before they actually go into labor. Kate relaxed a little knowing this and somehow managed to go back to sleep.

But when she woke up again around 5 A.M., the contractions were ten minutes apart and weren't that painful, but they were starting to hurt, whereas before she could feel the muscles contracting but they didn't hurt at all. As she started to try to get comfortable again she suddenly felt her water break.

"Oh boy! Here we go."

"Castle!" she whispered.

"Castle!" she said louder, shaking him.

"Hmm?" he mumbled.

"My water just broke."

"Mmm. That's nice." He mumbled, about to go back to sleep. But after about thirty seconds he registered what he had heard and bolted upright in bed so fast he fell off the bed.

Even though she was in a little bit of pain she laughed. When he got up she was still smiling, but then her smile turned into a grimace and she squeezed her eyes shut, breathing through the pain, silently for now, but not for long. She let out a deep breath and opened her eyes Castle was still standing there with a pained look on his face, his heart hurt seeing her in any amount of pain. Since she was stubborn she had decided not to get and epidural or any other pain medicine. She had told him she wanted to do this naturally, and although he didn't tell her, he didn't like that because it meant he would have to see her in excruciating pain and wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"Castle, I think we need to go." Kate said calmly.

Castle snapped back into reality, and panicked a little.

"Oh! Right! Uhhh… Oh! Okay! So how apart are they?" He asked her, as he regained his composure slowly and taking charge.

"I stopped keeping track a while ago, but ten minutes or something, but it doesn't matter anymore because my water broke." She said as she felt another contraction coming.

"Uh, right! Okay… so let's go." He said absent mindedly putting on his shoes, and he was only wearing his boxers.

"I'll go get Alexis and you get dressed or at least put shoes on." He said, running out of the room to get Alexis.

Alexis wasn't really surprised when her dad came barreling into her room at 5 A.M. Practically yelling, "Get up! We're taking Kate to the hospital!" What she was surprised by, well she really wasn't that surprised, by the fact that he was wearing nothing but shoes and his boxers.

Alexis laughed, and Castle got upset. "Why are you laughing? She's in pain and we need to go!"

She laughed again as she said, "Dad, look what you're wearing. I think you forgot something, or something's." She said.

He looked down and blushed, running back to his room.

"I forgot to put clothes on." He told Kate casually as if it wouldn't have been a big a deal if he had forgotten and went out in public wearing only his shoes and boxers.

Kate started to laugh, but it turned into another silent grimace as another wave of pain came over her. In the middle of the contraction Alexis walked in and when she saw Kate face she turned around to leave, but not before Kate saw her.

"Alexis I'm fine." Kate told her. She saw tears forming in Alexis' eyes. "

Kate got up and walked over to her.

She wrapped her arms around her and said, "Alexis I know you don't like seeing me in pain, but I am fine. I just think about the moment Dylan gets here and all this pain will be worth it. The moment I hear his first cry I'll forget all the pain and my focus be on him. Okay?"

Alexis nodded and she really did look like her nerves had been calmed at least a little bit.

Castle found the bag he had packed a month before and then they hit the road.

As soon as they were rolling Kate called Lanie, whom she had on speed dial.

"Hello?" Lanie answered, her voice made it obvious that she had been asleep. Kate had forgotten how early it was. It was 5:43 A.M. and still dark out.

"Hey Lanie. Its Kate and…" Lanie cut her off.

"I'm on my way to the hospital and meet you there." Was all she said before hanging up.

"Oookayyy." Kate said, looking at Castle. "All she said was "I'm on my way to the hospital and I'll meet you there." And then she hung up.

Castle laughed. Kate was about to laugh too but all of a sudden another contraction came, the worst so far and she cried out in pain.

Castle held out his hand for her to hold while he drove with his left.

"They're getting worse Castle." She said in pain.

"I know baby. I'm going as fast I can." He told her.

"Keep the speed limit Castle. They're not that bad yet." She said.

Another wave of pain came.

Castle said "We're almost there."

"Thank God." She said.