Ian 2

Chapter 14

Castle looked up in surprise when Martha swept into the loft with two overflowing shopping bags. "Mother, I thought you were finishing your run at the Guthrie."

"Darling, I had to see my new grandchild. Besides, who wouldn't rather be in New York than Minnesota this time of year? We had twenty straight days of below zero. And aside from that city that calls itself a mall, the shopping is much better in New York. My understudy can handle my role for a few days. So where is Amelia?" A loud cry emanated from the bedroom. "Never mind, I can tell. My goodness, that child is destined for the stage. I doubt even Ethyl Merman had pipes like that at such a young age."

"Amelia can certainly get our attention - about every two hours a night."

"Now Richard, don't complain. You knew what you were getting into. As I recall, Ian wasn't the quietest baby either, and certainly, you weren't. Some things don't change much."

"Yes, Mother. From the sudden cessation of sound, I can only assume that Kate is dispensing nourishment, so don't barge in," Castle counseled.

"Richard, really, I do have some finesse," Martha protested.

"Coulda fooled me," Castle muttered as Martha marched off toward the bedroom.

Mona Seligman examined her latest bank statement with satisfaction. Her teacher's salary was a pittance, hardly worth noting. She'd managed to survive on it for years, but her anger had grown at being not only underpaid but underappreciated. When her cousin had died suddenly, she'd jumped at the opportunity to take over his business as an import agent. Some of the products might be questionable, but it was hardly her fault that some other countries didn't properly regulate their industries. She'd observed over and over again that Americans liked to get their merchandise as cheaply as they got their civil servants. If the price was right, buyers and middlemen didn't ask many questions. She'd received the email from some pissant web merchant about the paint, but screw it. No one asked the buyers to bypass art supply houses. And no one told the artists to eat or inhale the stuff. If they were stupid or careless, that wasn't her concern. She'd just had another shipment arrive, and she'd be damned if she was going to let it sit in a warehouse or worse, foot the ridiculous bill for hazardous waste disposal. There were plenty of online sellers who fancied themselves entrepreneurs. That paint would bring a healthy profit.

Ian regarded the empty seats of his classmates. He'd heard that some of them were in the hospital because they had to get intravenous medicine every four hours. He winced, visualizing that many needles. Still, at least they weren't going to die like Darcy did. He felt good about helping to keep that from happening. He could understand why his father was so drawn to the work Kate did; catching murderers before they could kill anyone else. And he could understand why Kate wanted to keep at it somehow, even if she and Dad had to spend so much time taking care of Amelia. He'd started wearing earplugs at night after the first couple of days Kate and his sister were home from the hospital. He'd had to buy the heavy-duty ones. He could imagine his sister as either a superhero or a supervillain, subduing people with her cries. Black Canary already did that, but she was a tall, kickass woman. The idea of a baby tickled him, and he had been planning to use Amelia as a model for life drawings of babies anyway. Since he found out what happened to Darcy, he wasn't nearly as interested in trying to do a series of paintings from his sketches at the hospital. Baby Blaster, carried around by her faithful guardian Gladys Shoop, would be fun, and she would work in a comic book aimed at little kids, especially the ones with noisy brothers and sisters of their own. The more he thought about the idea, the more he liked it. Maybe that night he'd skip the earplugs so he could catch his sister at her loudest.

"You know," Castle mused as he and Kate enjoyed a welcome moment of quietude, "the outfits Mother bought for Amelia, are strangely appropriate. The colors are even louder than our bundle of joy."

"Maybe, but if I put them on our daughter, I'm going to have to wear sunglasses. They're all too big anyway," Kate pointed out. "The only things that fit her yet are her t-shirts and her stretchy sleepers. And even those don't need to stretch much."

"She's big enough to be healthy. That's all that matters, and the way she's been swigging the Beckett blend, I'd swear I can see her growing. I'm willing to bet she crushes it at her weigh in at Dr. Lauria's office tomorrow."

"Yeah, fortunately, her gain is my loss. I've had friends who've had trouble losing weight after they had babies, but I don't think I'll have that problem. When I weighed myself this morning, I'd dropped another pound."

"I don't understand why you bothered. You look perfect to me."

"You just love the way my boobs have grown."

"I love all of you," Castle assured her, "But the boobs are definitely a bonus. I'm looking forward to enjoying them, even more, when Dr. Fury gives you the okay for us to burn up the sheets again. I remember it fondly or fondlingly in my dreams."

"It has been a long time hasn't it," Kate agreed, "but you know Babe, there are things we could do that wouldn't upset Dr. Fury."

"Are you feeling up to those?" Castle asked.

"I'm getting there. Look, my Dad is coming over in a little while but maybe tonight between Amelia alerts we could find out."

Castle gazed at his watch and shook his head. "It's going to be a long day."

With Amelia having retreated to the Land of Nod, Jim Beckett sipped a cup of black coffee while Kate downed one of her strawberry sodas. "She's just beautiful, Katie. Different than you were as a baby. Her hair isn't as dark, and there's a lot less of it. And I think she has Rick's eyes. But beautiful."

"I know Dad. Castle took so many pictures that he ran out of space on his phone and had to upload most of them to the cloud. I can't say it wasn't rough staying in bed all that time, but it was worth it."

Jim reached for her hand. "Children are worth everything,"

"I know Dad. That's one of the reasons Rick and I are so upset about the death of Ian's friend, Darcy Williams."

"I read something about that in the newest digest of consumer product deaths. Accidents like that are a terrible shame."

"It was no accident, Dad. Someone brought that poison into the country and sold it without the proper labeling. In my book, that makes it at least negligent homicide or manslaughter."

Jim Beckett shook his head. "Assuming you can find the person responsible, that's going to be a hell of a case to make, Katie. And aren't you going to be on maternity leave for at least a few months?"

"Maybe more than that Dad, I might be leaving the force to work as a consultant. I still want to help Ryan and Esposito get a handle on this thing, except that it may just be the lack of sleep, but I haven't come up with anything yet. Neither has Rick."

Jim leaned over to kiss his daughter's forehead. "Katie, I know at this stage it can be hard to think straight. But I know you. You don't quit. Sooner or later something will come to you. I'm sure of it."

Kate raked a hand through her hair. "I hope you're right, Dad."