It was almost midnight and Esposito had had a very long and trying day, but he had a great big shiny carrot keeping him up tonight - Meredeth was back from L.A. and he always picked her up whenever she was flying home. This time, he'd brought Castle along for the ride, and the writer had been full of quips about his new look. By the time they were parked and exiting the car, Castle was at his fifteenth jibe; Esposito had been keeping count.

'Whoa!'

'What?'

'The glare off your head from those fluorescent lights, bro. I think I've been blinded.'

Esposito grinned, smoothed his hand over his scalp; he'd gotten it shaved off once again that morning, in time for Meredeth's homecoming that night. He peep-peeped the Nissan's locks shut with the remote as they made their way to the arrivals terminal of JFK airport. 'Thanks again, Rick, for coming with.'

'Well, considering that of our poker circle I'm the one without a young child to attend to, it usually means my schedule's the most flexible.' Castle jammed his hands in his pockets as they scanned the board of flight numbers. 'You got your costume picked out for Saturday night?'

'Oh yeah. It's a good one too.'

'You're not sharing?'

'Nope. She's on Delta Airlines Flight six-two-seven,' he added, going through the board numbers and finding her gate. 'Gate four, c'mon.'

'How's she feeling with her pregnancy?'

'Fantastic. She's looking forward to Hallowe'en, she's got a great costume. She says it makes her feel good, and it looks great on her too.'

'Javier, you'd say she looks hot in a wet paper bag.' Castle slapped his friend's shoulder, then pursed his lips when they stopped by the food court and he purchased some red tea for Meredeth and a coffee for himself. He was . 'But I'm not one to talk since I'd say the same thing about my wife.'

Esposito grinned, still impressed how he'd gone from being Beckett's great annoyance to her shadow-partner to her boyfriend and now her husband. 'Hey, next poker night, we should bust out that set of chips you got in Monte Carlo on your honeymoon.'

'Only if Kate's there. She'd shoot me if I used them first without her.'

'Fair enough.' Esposito sneered when he went past a poster advertising Las Picaduras: El Hombre Misterisio. 'Man, when is this whole vamp craze going to end? It's seriously annoying.'

'I know, they've got no style, they're just a bunch of emo-geeks with nasty big pointy teeth.' Castle did his feed-the-birds bro-dap with Esposito as they found a spot with the rest of the crowd waiting for their people to come home. He looked around and wished airport security wasn't so tight-assed anymore because this was a spectacular place to people watch. He'd been on a layover from New York to Honolulu and he'd watched a young couple embrace which gave him the idea to give Storm a love interest in the first place and her introductory story was the best-selling single book of the Storm series up to that point.

He was brought back to Earth when Esposito nudged his ribs with his elbow. 'There she is. Hold these,' he said, passing the coffee tray to Castle as Meredeth came through the sliding doors, tugging her suitcase behind her. He grinned when he saw the bump of her belly under her sweater. 'Hey, baby!'

'Javi!' Meredeth raced down the ramp, left her suitcase standing as she threw her arms around him. 'Oh we missed you!'

'Same here! Look at you!' He kissed her, put his hand on her stomach which had really puffed up in the few days since he'd seen her. 'My jelly-bean's sproutin' up!'

'Look at this hotness right here,' she exclaimed feathering her fingers over his shorn skull and felt her libido sing brightly. 'I'm all a-tingle.'

'Here, we brought you this.'

Meredeth's heart melted when she saw the take-away cup of tea Castle passed her. 'Such a sweetheart. I don't suppose this comes with a really honkin' large sandwich and some grape juice, does it? Maybe some pretzels with tzatziki?'

'All waiting for you at home.'

'How was your flight?' Castle asked, snagging her suitcase as they began to walk out.

'Bumpy, so-'

'Are you feeling okay?' Esposito felt a quick clench in his gut. He remembered the fall Lanie had taken when she'd been about twenty-one weeks pregnant with Carey and how scared they'd been that she might have lost him.

'Of course, Javi, why...oh, bumpy.' Meredeth mentally kicked herself at her word choice; she too remembered the close call Lanie had back in January and squeezed his hand tightly, rubbed her thumb over his wedding ring. 'No, Javi, not like that, not in the slightest.'

'You're sure?'

'Yeah.' But she kiss his cheek reassuringly, letting him know she was a-okay. 'Did you guys watch the show?'

Both the men knew which one she meant and Castle nodded. 'Hard to make a guy like Craig Ferguson go speechless but you did it,' he said loudly, raising his voice over the hiss of the sliding doors that led to the parking tower. 'Was he really cranky you didn't say anything to him before?'

'No, he knew I had news but he wasn't expecting that,' Meredeth laughed, then stopped dead in her tracks two feet from the Nissan. 'Oh. That's weird.'

'What?' Esposito looked her up and down, wondering what had happened, if she was feeling some sort of delayed aftershock of the turbulence during her flight from the coast. 'What it is?'

'It's like butterflies or something, like way down south.' Meredeth pressed a hand to the underside of her belly, pressed her finger tips in different spots as the feeling continued. 'It's like...oh. Oh, Javi.' Her eyes filled as she remembered the passage from her baby books. 'It's moving.'

Esposito's eyes went round. 'It is?' Immediately he pressed his palm to her belly just below her navel, moved it back and forth. 'I don't feel anything. Are you sure it isn't just gas?'

'The book says that it's actually been moving since about seven or eight weeks, but I'm only feeling it now because it was too small before. And it's not like a kick, it's like a fluttering, like a goldfish swimming around. It won't feel like a kick or a nudge for another four weeks or so. But I can feel it. It's really in there.' Meredeth pressed her knuckles to her cheeks so she wouldn't spill over, then found herself caught in a fiercely passionate kiss from her husband.

'I love you, Mere,' he murmured against her mouth.

'I love you too, Javi,' she replied, then giggled when she heard Castle's discreet cough. 'Even when we have an audience.'

Esposito looked over, blushed a little when he saw Castle's eyes glowing happily. 'Come on, man, you've been through the daddy thing before, you know this is a big deal.'

'Oh, not denying you that, just thought you'd like to get home for a little privacy. I don't wanna join the ranks of Kevin Ryan and have his nightmares.'

Because Meredeth was still trying to adjust to East Coast time, she was awake for another hour and ready for food; she watched fascinated from her spot at the kitchen table as he put together their late night snack - he made them turkey paninis with buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes and arugula, her grape juice and the requested pretzel nuggets with tzatziki.

'I remember how you made these last week and remembered you'd left turkey in the freezer, so ta-da.'

'I could eat my own foot if you dipped it in honey-mustard right now. The plane food was just blecch.' She saw him load up the coffee tray, making her a little confused. 'Where are we going?'

'Couch is more comfy and better for your back. You feel like watching an episode of Heroes while we chow?'

Meredeth could only stare at him, unable to hold back the giggle. 'Oh, baby, you must have really been missing me if you're willing to watch Heroes.' It was one of her favourite shows, and he couldn't stand it in the slightest, much in the way she couldn't wrap her head around the appeal of UFC Fight Night. But that was married life - compromising with your partner sometimes meant swallowing a hefty dose of personal preference. 'I'll play nice and make it something from season one.'

'With the Sailor dude.'

'Sylar, Javi, his name is Sylar.'

'Whatever, he's a good bad guy.'

Meredeth settled onto the couch as he popped in the disc, took his seat beside her. It felt so good to be home, with her husband beside her. She could smell him, the soap he used on his skin, the slight sweet-onion scent of his sweat. Taking his hand, she draped his arm over her shoulder, snuggling close to pillow her head on his shoulder.

'I missed you too.'

Esposito kissed her forehead, lips curving. 'Okay, Parasite or Point-Zero-Seven Percent? Ladies' choice.'

'The second one. Not as much grossness while I'm trying to eat.'

They watched the doomed Nathan make his Faustian deal with Linderman while the others tried to escape the holding cells of PrimaTech, and because she was his Meredeth and never gave up hope, she explained who everyone was to Esposito and what their power was; she did it every time they watched it together because by the time they watched an episode a few months had passed and all the details had flown right out of his head.

When they'd finished watching and eating, Esposito stretched his arms upward. 'Don't know how you love it, but I suppose there must be something redeeming in it somewhere if...' he trailed off when he heard a light whistling sound. Looking down, he saw Meredeth was dead asleep, one hand resting on his thigh and the other draped possessively over her belly. She looked so calm, so maternal already, her body language telling anyone who saw her they'd have to get through her to get at their baby.

With a smooth fluid motion, he rubbed her tummy; Esposito couldn't wait to feel the baby nudge and bump against her. That little bit of magic he'd help create waking up and moving around would only add to the experience of being a first-time father-to-be

'Hey in there,' he murmured, stroking his fingers over his beautiful Meredeth, 'I can't wait to see you tomorrow.'

'Harvey?'

'Yes, Meredeth.'

'Is there any way to make that stuff not feel like a camel just spat on me?'

Harvey laughed as he squeezed the cold blue gel onto Meredeth's waiting stomach. 'The day you figured that out you'll have a million mothers to be following you on Twitter thanking you for you genius idea. Okay family, here we go.'

From his seat on the other side of Meredeth's exam table, Esposito gripped her hand tightly in excitement. Meredeth's part of her check-up had gone like clockwork - her heart and lungs were in great shape, and her blood pressure was well within the normal range. She also was keeping her weight gain to a minimum - she'd only added two more pounds since her last check-in with Nicole - which Esposito knew was helping with Meredeth's mental state and their prediction she would only add six pounds per trimester was on target, it seemed. She had very little swelling in her hands and feet, and the added fluid in her legs was easily dealt with by massage while they flaked out after he'd gotten home from work. They'd also kept up their intimacy, even to the point where Esposito was a little tired for work the next morning once or twice as he wanted to make sure his baby mama was healthy and happy and satisfied, and if that meant even a quick pet after they'd made love twice that night, he wouldn't deny her. The looks he'd gotten from his co-workers, particularly those from Ryan, were totally worth it.

Now came the really fun part of the check-up. They watched and listened as first they heard the baby's heartbeat, good and strong and quick as is needed to be. Then Harvey moved the wand again over Meredeth and the image on screen changed again. 'Oh shit, Mere,' Esposito laughed, love for his wife strong and overwhelming. 'There's a tiny real human in there.'

'That's the little one making me feel all those flutterings.'

'Busy little bee in there,' Esposito said, watching the way the baby moved around like it was a synchronized swimmer. 'You were right, it's not just gas.'

Harvey laughed in a low voice; if there ever was a more sweetly comical pair of parents to be than these two, Harvey had yet to meet them. He paused so that the image on screen showed them the full size of their baby. 'There's the head, and it's on its back right now, there's the nose and its got a hand up by its face too. Yes, your baby's going to be a good and healthy size, probably in between seven and a half and eight and a half pounds. Are you hoping for a natural birth or-'

'No,' Meredeth cut Harvey off swiftly and efficiently. 'My pain tolerance isn't the greatest and I'm not about to be the wussy lady in the delivery room. Fly me to the moon.'

'Okay then.' Harvey made a note on Meredeth's chart for their next appointment to begin discussing the birth plan and a plan B. 'I'm also going to get you signed up for the mother aquarobics class, as you mentioned you really like swimming Meredeth, and it's a very low-impact form of exercise, and enroll you in the birthing classes starting in February.'

'That's like four months from now, though,' Esposito started to point out, but was cut off with the buzzing of his communicator. 'Crap,' he muttered, then picked up the call. 'Esposito. Yeah, we're almost done here. Okay, I'm closer to there than the precinct, I'll meet you.'

Meredeth craned her neck. 'Problem?'

'Warrant came through on a safety deposit box for a case we'd thought had gone cold. Took nearly a week of jumping over lawyers and finding a judge willing to sign it. We're almost done right?' Esposito looked to Harvey for verification. His job was important, but Meredeth was his priority.

'Yes, just need to get Meredeth cleaned up and print your copy of today's sonogram, so-'

'Wait, what's that?'

A little trickle of panic licked its way into Meredeth's voice as she saw the hitching on-screen of the baby's chest, like it had something wrong with its breathing. Harvey saw it too, and let out another chuckle.

'It appears your little miracle has the hiccups this morning.'

R&R&Enjoy.