"Can you stop sulking?" A sigh falls from Kate's lips as her and Castle ride the elevator up to the precinct floor.
"I'm not sulking." Castle says, a frown forming across his face as the elevator dings, the precinct floor being revealed to them, and the duo step out of the elevator, soon rounding the corner into the bullpen.
"Then what do you call this mood you're in? You've been like this since we left." She glances at him briefly before she's glancing around the bullpen in search of Esposito and Ryan.
"I just think you should be at home resting." His hands stuff into his pockets, shoulders shrugging as they continue towards the observation room – gathering the boys must already be interrogating their suspect – which Castle was hoping they were, and hoped this was the one time they'd get a confession early so he could take Kate back home.
"You're not still going on about that, are you?" She sighs once more, pushing open the door and glancing towards the one-way mirror to see Esposito and Ryan seated in front of who she presumes is their mystery guy before she's turning to face Castle, her arms coming to fold across her chest and rest atop of her stomach. "Castle, I told you, I'm fine. Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I'm incompetent. I'm more than capable of doing my job."
She can't help the irritation in her voice as her brows pull together; furrowing, at Castle as her body shifts, turning back to face the one-way mirror. She understood his concern, loved the fact that he was already so protective over her and Joseph, but it was starting to get on her nerves now. She only had a few days left out in the field before Montgomery was ordering her to be strictly desk ridden, and she was at least a month away from her due date – Castle had to stop worrying so much.
"I just don't want you to run yourself ragged, Kate. This morning was a lot, even for me – nobody would blame you if you opt out and went home to rest. The boys can take care of the case, seems to me like they're doing fine without us already." He cocks his head, gaze shifting to the room the boys are in, momentarily; watching as they rise from their seats and head towards the door.
"Castle! Just give it a rest, would you?" Her voice can't help but raise, frustration starting to seep through her veins, a groan threatening to slip from her lips as she shoots him a look.
The boys are soon entering, and they stop briefly, clearly noticing the tension in the room and the demeanour's from their fellow friends and colleagues.
"Uh… everything okay?" Esposito asks, brows pulled together and one beginning to raise slightly.
Kate stares at Castle a second longer before flicking her gaze to Espo and nodding her head. "Fine." Her arms unfold as she glances down to the file Esposito's holding. "So, what'd our mystery guy have to say?"
"Well, for one thing – he's not our killer." He hands the case file over to Kate who's brows quickly pull together as she scans down the new information written down.
"Are you sure? Because that would ruin a perfectly good theory." Castle glances up from glancing over Kate's shoulder to look at Esposito who starts explaining to him about a solid alibi their suspect has.
"He was with the Syrian Ambassador at a soccer game at Bennet Field. There are photos online to prove it."
"Which brings us back to square one." Kate sighs in frustration, head shaking in the slightest as she closes the file and heads out of the observation room, the boys following close behind her.
She moves through the bullpen and towards her desk before placing the file down on her desk as she leans against it, a hand coming to her hip as the other rests against her stomach.
The four of them begin to brainstorm in front of the murder board before they're piecing a few clues together, Castle throwing in a theory that the numbers they'd gathered earlier was an address, and after Ryan had put it in his computer; they discovered it indeed was – that it was a storage unit.
Though Castle hadn't been happy about Kate jumping to go check out the storage unit, he didn't fight her against it this time – he could already see the irritation and frustration that radiated off of her and he didn't want to stress her out anymore. All they had to do was check out this storage unit, and if it was a dead end then they'd be back at the precinct.
So, what was the worst that could happen checking out a storage unit?
Despite his mind focused on Kate and wanting her to take it slow, he was still giddy over their current case; never being able to not be fully invested in what they were solving. He was of course, a mystery writer after all, so no matter how distracted he was – he was still paying attention and eager for the story to unfold.
"Murder, political intrigue, cash payments, and now a mysterious storage locker? Oh, this is too good." He smirks as they head down the building, both looking out for the number C412 on a storage unit, which as soon as they came across it, has Castle's brows pulling together in confusion. "Wait, how're we gonna get it open?" His head tilts to the side as he examines the secure lock.
"Well, if all else fails…" Castle glances up to see Kate holding a pair of bolt cutters and striking a pose in his direction. From the image before him, Castle couldn't help but be extremely turned on and he swallowed the lump in his throat hard.
"For reasons… too disturbing to mention, I – I find that hot." His eyes roam up and down her body and he refrains from shifting – knowing it would only make him even more uncomfortable.
Kate's smirk can only grow wider, a slight warmth emerging across her cheeks before she's shaking her head and rolling her eyes and dropping the bolt cutters into the duffel bag she'd grabbed earlier and pulling out the keys to the storage. "Or, I grabbed Amir's keys from property. So, hopefully, this is his locker." She moves towards the lock, sliding the key into the hole.
"Which it is." Castle says as the lock unlocks. "What do you think's in there?"
"I don't know." Kate shrugs, brow kinking slightly as the smallest of smirks creases her lips. "Might be empty like Al Capone's vault."
"Oh, no. think of all the amazing things that are found in storage units at times like these." He moves to stand back, arms rising from his sides as he puts on a German accent. "Ark of the covenant, Dr. Jones."
Kate's brow only raises at him, before she's soon lifting the door to the unit and pulling out her torch and shining it around the empty storage unit. They move into it slowly as she shines the torch around, the crate at the back becoming more evident as they enter.
"Well, the ark of the Covenant was in a crate." Castle leans down to open the crate to reveal guns and packs of C4 lining both the bottom and top of it.
Kate steps closer, the packages seeming unusual to her and as she presses her finger against it, that's when she realises. "Plastic explosives."
Before she can say or do anything else, she's startled and jumping from the sound of a beeper going off, and it takes her a second to process the beeping is coming from her own beeper. She soon shines her torch down onto the beeper and see's the glowing red light at maximum – and that's when her heart drops into her stomach, her pulse coming to a stop as her eyes widen and her mouth goes dry.
She stills for a moment before all her training runs through her mind and she's shutting the crate.
"Castle, get out! Get out!"
"What?" He asks in confusion, not understanding the fear in her voice.
"Go!" She yells at him, shoving him forwards and he's quickly rushing out as she follows behind him, dropping her flashlight as she emerges from the storage locker.
"Castle, back away from the door! Get away!" She yells, quickly reaching up to grab the storage locker door and slamming it shut as she rushes down the hall, Castle only slightly ahead of her.
"What's going on? What is that thing?" Worry fills his voice, his chest rising and falling as he spins round to search Kate's face for answers but she's busy pulling out her phone and speaking into it.
"This is Detective Kate Beckett, badge number 0334. I've been exposed to high levels of radiation. We need emergency services right away."
He's confused, worried and scared – but not for himself, not about being exposed to radiation – no, he's scared for Kate – for his son, and he has no idea where she is. The pair were separated the second emergency services arrived, and now he's being dragged down a long plastic tube by men wearing hazman suits and if he wasn't freaking out he'd think this was extremely cool.
They toss him inside, zipping up the door – confining him and his fist collides with it, shaking the plastic door. "Guys, you can't just – you can't! Just, at least tell me where Kate is – how serious this is!" He calls out, a sigh falling as his pulse pounds beneath the cage of his ribs.
He turns around to examine the room – but that's when he sees her.
She's standing at the other end of the tent, wide eyed and afraid. He can see her chest rising and falling, the tears that are falling down her cheeks and he quickly dashes towards her, their bodies carefully colliding as his arms wrap around her tightly.
"Oh, god, Kate." He sighs into her hair and she lets out a sob against him, her grip tightening around his shoulders.
"Are you – god, are you okay?" He pulls her back, holding her from her shoulders as he examines her, eyes darting to her stomach before back up to her.
"I'm – I'm fine." She lets it out with a shaky breath, more tears rolling down her cheeks as she feels Castle's thumb wiping them away. She pulls her bottom lip into her mouth, head lifting and gaze landing on him. "I'm so sorry, Castle. I'm so sorry." Her head shakes and Castle looks at her confused as she buries her face against his chest.
"Sorry? Kate – this isn't your fault." He wraps his arm around her back, beginning to rub his hand up and down to soothe her as his other hand comes to rest at her stomach.
"If I hadn't been so stubborn about coming into work today – we'd be at home, and not here – we wouldn't be – our baby wouldn't be…" Her head shakes, a gasp falling from her lips as her body can't help but tremble.
She knew the risks of being exposed to high radiation while being pregnant – all the health problems that can arise, she could've prevented putting their child in danger had she listened to Castle and stayed home, rather than going into work and exposing not only herself, but her child to radiation.
"Hey, no – you couldn't have known. You didn't know. it's not your fault, Kate." Castle shakes his head, it only dawning on him now the high risks of pregnant woman being exposed to radiation, but he knows if he freaks out – that getting angry and telling her I told you so won't do either of them any good. He has to be the strong and stable one for them right now, try his best to reassure her – even if he wasn't so sure himself.
He carefully moves them to the seats in the middle of the room and sits them down, Kate still latched onto his side, her tears staining his suit jacket.
"What if its serious, Castle? What if something's wrong – or something happens? It'll all be my fault." Her gaze drops to her stomach, a sob threatening to slip from her mouth, her vision still blurred from tears continuing to fall from her eyes. Was she ever going to do anything, right? Her child wasn't even out of her yet and she was already screwing him up.
She closes her eyes rather tightly, face burying itself into Castle's chest more as her head shakes. "I'm so –" Her words are cut short by a sharp pain shooting through her body and her hands immediately come to her stomach as she sucks in a breath.
"What? What is it?" Castle leans back, looking down at her worried and Kate can't take the look in his eyes – knows fully well that if something were to happen to their child that he wouldn't forgive her. She wouldn't even forgive herself.
She forces a smile on her lips, hands rubbing against her stomach as the pain starts to subside. "N–nothing..." She shrugs, mind swarming with too much to come up with some lame excuse, but she doesn't want Castle worrying even more.
"That didn't look like nothing, Kate." His hand comes to cover hers on her stomach, his brows pulled together as he stares down at her stomach.
"He was kicking – that's all, took me by surprise." She shrugged, teeth soon sinking into her lower lip. But she knows the difference between Joseph kicking and the intense pain that shot through her body – and that was definitely not her son kicking, but she sees Castle's face soften and hears the small sigh of relief that slips free from his lips, so she decides against telling him the truth – for now at least.
"That – that's good. He's moving, he's active." The edges of his lips crease and he's bending down onto the floor, moving between Kate's legs to rest his hands against her stomach.
"Hey, little man." His voice goes soft, and Kate's eyes fall closed, tears slipping through them. "You know your mommy doesn't like surprises, but right now this is a good surprise." He glances up at Kate, one of his hands lifting to cup her cheek and her eyes open, gaze landing on him. "He's letting us know he's okay." He nods – tries to reassure her with one of those dazzling smiles that always comforts her but her chest aches, pulse skipping with each beat with what she's withholding from him.
"You're free to go." One of the hazmat specialists says while entering, glancing over at Castle and Beckett – Castle sitting between Kate's legs, his hands still against her stomach.
"Uh, we are?" He asks the specialist, his brows pulling together, lips gaping slightly.
"What about the radiation?" Kate asks.
"We found residual traces of Cobalt 60 in the storage unit. Not enough to cause any health problems." He pauses glancing at Kate's stomach. "For you or baby."
Relief immediately washes over Kate, her shoulders already feeling light as the edges of her lips stretch up wide, tears slipping free once more as she glances down at her stomach before glancing at Castle who's matching her expression.
He gets to his knees, pressing his lips against hers hard and she reciprocates instantly, her hands cupping his cheeks as she sighs into the kiss.
"We're okay. He's okay." She murmurs against his lips and Castle smiles against her, his head nodding as he squeezes her arms, his lips continuing to move against hers.
They soon get up, heading towards the exit of the tent where they're soon met with Montgomery.
"Kate, Rick – we're all real glad you two are okay." Kate can see the genuine relief in his eyes as he pulls her into a hug, rubbing her back slightly before pulling back and she smiles at him.
"Thanks, Sir. So are we." She glances towards Castle, reaching out to take a hold of his hand; their fingertips intertwining as she squeezes his hand before glancing back over at Montgomery. "I'm confused, though. Is this just a false alarm?"
"Well, not exactly… if you're up to it, we really could use you back at the precinct. I can fill you in on the way."
She feels Castle tense beside her, his grip on her hand tightening and Kate's eyes fall closed as she begins to chew on the edge of her bottom lip.
This morning she'd been dreading starting desk duty – didn't want to leave the field and miss all the action, but after today – after the close call they had, Kate didn't want to risk it anymore, not if it meant Joseph harm.
"Sir, I think it's best if Espo and Ryan take over." She sighs, gaze landing on her stomach as her brows pull together before she's looking up at Montgomery. "…And if I start my desk duty immediately, instead of on Monday."
"After today, I wouldn't want you anywhere else but glued to that desk." Montgomery nods before beginning to speak once more as his gaze shifts between Castle and Beckett. "But I also know you don't like backing out of cases. So, how about I fill you two in on the case while I drive you home. Then I'll see you in the morning where you'll start desk duty?"
Kate continues to chew on her lower lip, glancing over at Castle who's face is still full of concern and worry.
"Look, Kate. You know I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want – especially pregnant. But we could really use you and Castle on this. You won't be put in any danger, I'm even forbidding you to leave the precinct during working hours."
She squeezes Castle's hand, tongue sweeping out across her bottom lip as she looks over at her Captain and nods her head. "Okay." She wasn't one to back out of a case – hated leaving anything unsolved, she knew how that felt to live with that grief. And solving a case – no matter what it was, always made her aching heart ache just a little less.
After Montgomery had filled them in about the case and promised Castle he wouldn't let Kate out into the field anymore, Castle had dragged Kate to the hospital with ease. He was still worried; they both were, and after a few tests it was revealed that everything with the baby was fine. They'd even gotten an ultrasound, could see Joseph moving around and hear his heart beating strong, the thumping filling the room and filling the parents hearts with such joy.
They arrived home to an empty and dark loft, and while Rick switched on the lights, Kate headed towards the couch.
"I know you're not happy with me still agreeing to be on this case…" Kate starts as she carefully begins to sit down, resting her hand against her stomach.
"I'm okay with it, Beckett." He falls down next to her, his hand coming to rest against her stomach before he begins moving it in small circles. "You're not going out in the field anymore, you're strictly desk ridden and Montgomery even said that come morning if you're not okay in any way, that you're not to come in."
His gaze flicks up to land on Kate's face. "I just want you rested and safe. Both of you." He sighs, tearing his gaze away to press his lips against the fabric covering her stomach, his forehead soon resting against it as her hands lift, slender digits beginning to run through the dark hairs covering his head.
"Now, you're going to sit here and not move a muscle why I make us some dinner, and then it's straight to bed. Got it?" He's rising slowly and Kate shifts back, making herself more comfortable as the edges of her lips curl, a slight chuckle slipping from her lips.
"Got it." She wasn't about to protest, didn't even want to. She was exhausted. Today had been filled with too much and she needed to sit and relax instead of painting Joseph's room or running away from crates full of radiation.
Castle kisses her forehead once she's situated before he's disappearing into the kitchen, as he does, another pain shoots through her and Kate's hand comes to her stomach once more, her teeth digging deep into her lip to the point of almost drawing blood. The pain this time was way more intense than the last, and she had to suppress a groan from leaving her lips – not wanting Castle to hear her.
Most likely it was Braxton Hicks contractions, especially considering how well their visit to the doctors were. So, there was no point in worrying Castle – and she knew that he would, that he'd go overboard and drag her back to the hospital, and all she wanted to do was rest – possibly drift off to sleep while he made her dinner, and just forget about the antics of today.