AN: sorry, sorry! this took forever . Apparently my boss thinks I'm her slave. But anyway, I updated this without even sending it to my beta because it had been so long that I didn't update. So all mistakes are mine.

Disclaimer: what do you think? :D

Rick made his way to the NICU once again. He felt useless. He couldn't do anything to help Kate and he couldn't do anything to help the babies. But still he tried. He constantly asked the Doctor of ways he could always told him the best thing he could do is wait. Wait for them to respond to treatment. Wait for Kate to wake got tired of waiting and it had only been two hours. Kate was suppose to be awake by now. But she wasn't. He decorated Kate's room with flowers & everybody wrote her a gretting card. He had left Kate's room after he had spend an hour talking to her in hopes that she would respond. But she didn't.
As he entered the NICU he asked the same question he had asked multiple times. "How can I help?" He had expected the same answer as always. "Just talk to them and keep them company." But this time, the nurse spoke different words.

"Look, Stella & Joseph are doing great. Superb actually." She smiled at the infants. Her look quickly changed as she turned to Alexander. "Alex is doing okay. But he needs a push, yaknow. He needs help. So, I was thinking you could carry him for a while. Sometimes it helps. I'm not guaranteeing that it will help him but it wouldn't hurt to try."

"What do you mean? I though it was better to leave them in the ventilator for a while." Rick replied.

"It is. His breathing is steady so taking him out won't harm him. He needs warmth. Babies need to feel connected to someone. Obviously the mother would provide that warmth but since she's unable to, I thought you could do it. It helps their heart and I wouldn't ask you if I was able to do it myself but I have to watch the others. So what do you say?"

Rick had this huge smiled on his face. "Are you kidding? I would love to. God knows how much I've wanted to help. Just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

The nurse looked at him with a smirk . "Take your shirt off."

Rick looked at her confused. "Take my shirt off? What does that have to do with carrying a baby?"

"He needs warmth. If you have your shirt on, you can't really help him much." She started laughing. "Don't worry Mr. Castle, I'll look away."

Rick felt silly. "Oh, yeah of course. I didn't mean..." The nurse cut him off.

"It's okay. I should've explained before asking you to take your shirt off." She gave him a warm smile. "I'll leave you alone with him." She walked away and left Castle staring at the tiny baby.

He removed his shirt & placed it on the small sofa behind him. "Okay little guy. Don't be frightened." He carefully lifted Alex into his arms.

"I'm gonna give you warmth so when mommy wakes up you'll be all better. You'll be strong just like mommy." He sat down on the sofa and placed the infant on his chest. He held on to his tiny fingers and softly spoke to him. "You know, mommy is basically a superhero. She's fast, strong,intelligent and a heck of a fighter. She's beautiful too. So you see, that makes you a superhero too. it makes all of you a superhero. Daddy is her partner. It's kind of like Batman and Robin. I'll explain that later. " He smiled down at him. "So you go on and absorb all this warmth so you can feel better. Mommy is going to wake up soon and I want her to see her strong baby boy." He squeezed his thumb softly.

He talked to Alex for an hour. He somehow never ran out of things to say to his son. Son. He had two sons now and two beautiful daughters. He was a father of four. That's when it hit him. He now understood why Kate chose them over her own life. He loved his kids so much that he couldn't imagine not having them around now And it only had been a few hours. But he wanted all of them. he wanted Kate and the kids. He looked up and silently spoke to God. He wasn't particularly religious but he figured that it wouldn't hurt.

"I don't normally do this but please, let me have this one. I've finally found what I've been looking for all these years. This is it. I want Kate and my babies. I want to leave this hospital with all of them healthy. So please, look out for them and help them through this. Amen." He wasn't sure if he was heard but it felt comforting to speak those words.

A few minutes later just as he was about to doze off, Dr. Khumbchandani entered the room. He immediately tensed up. He stood up and placed Alex in the ventilator. "Doctor, what's the matter? Is Kate okay?"

"Richard, I knew I could find you here. Great news! Kate woke up." She beamed.

Rick ran up to her and hugged her, almost knocking her over. "This is amazing! She's awake!"

"I'm happy for you guys. Truly. But Richard, you're crushing my bones." She smiled as he let her go.

"I'm sorry. I just... she's awake!" He placed his hand on her shoulders and shook her. "This is the greatest news. I have to call mother!" He pulled out his phone and told his mom and asked her to inform the rest.

"Can I see her?" He asked.

"Of course, she was asking for you. When you go in there, resist the urge to hug her like you just hugged me. she's a bit weaker than I right now." she laughed. The Doctor opened the door and walked to Kate's room.

"I'll be right there." He walked to the babies and reached inside to give each one of them a mini high five. "She made it! What did I tell you? Huh? Superhero. I'm going to see her but I'll be right back." With that he left the room.

AN: thoughts?