AN: I know it's been forever and I'm sorry it took so long. First I had no time and then I couldn't get back into the groove. I hope it gets better now.
"Castle, you coming?", Kate called back over her shoulder, watching Castle stumble over a pile of cardboard boxes as he made his way back out of the alley they had just canvassed, "We're heading back to the precinct."
"Actually," he stuttered, hurrying toward her. "Actually, I just remembered that I have to get the next chapter done for Gina, so I think I better head home." He looked sheepishly at her and Kate frowned.
"Okay," she replied slowly. It was the first time in weeks he mentioned being behind with his writing. "You want us to drop you off?"
"Nah," he shook his head and then pointed toward the intersection. "I'm gonna take the subway."
"If you say so," Kate nodded, still slightly confused. He had been more than enthusiastic in joining the case when he heard about the involvement of call girls, although he had insisted his interests lay purely in the structures of the business not the women. She wondered why he had changed his mind all of a sudden. "You sure you're okay?"
"Splendid," he grinned goofily at her and she shrugged, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
"See you later," she said before heading over to where the boys were waiting for her.
"What about Castle?", Ryan asked frowning at their friend who was slowly making his way down the street to the next subway station, while throwing suspicious glances over his shoulder.
"He claims he has to write, though I'm sure something else is going on," Kate told them, without giving it much of a thought. She knew her husband had a tendency to be rather cryptic when he spurred one of his crazy ideas.
"Maybe it's something for your birthday," Ryan suggested with a smile. "Castle sure knows how to make a girl feel special."
"Oh yeah?", Espo snickered, bumping his shoulder into Kate's. "How would you know?"
"Shut up Espo," Ryan growled. "That's not what I meant."
"You sure?", his partner grinned.
"Could be," Kate nodded, referring to Ryan's statement that her husband was planing something for her birthday. "One thing is sure, he's not going home to write."
The three detectives headed back to their cars, not paying any further attention to the fourth member of their team who was still lingering at the corner of the intersection.
Castle waited for Kate and the boys to climb into their cars and disappear around the corner before he retraced his steps and hurried back into the alley he had come out of only minutes before.
When Kate came home later that evening she could already hear laughter coming out of their apartment as she stepped off the elevator.
"Look Dad!", she heard Jamie holler, followed by giggles and clapping.
"They're so cute," Alexis' muffled voice came through the front door and Kate wondered what her family seemed to be so excited about.
Opening the front door and stepping into the loft it didn't take Kate long to realize what exactly the whole fuzz was about. There in the middle of the living room was her family playing with two baby kittens.
"Hey Mom," Jamie was the first to notice their mother. "Look what Dad brought home."
"Strays?", Kate frowned and hoped she wasn't right and that those two furry things were simply here for one night because one of their neighbors had to leave town on short notice or something like that.
"Dad says we can keep them," Jamie beamed up at her, followed by Ellie's delighted squeal and only their oldest daughter and her husband noticed the irritated look on her face.
"Oliver," Ellie grinned holding up the orange striped kitten for her mother to inspect, but Kate only managed a half smile for her daughter before her eyes travelled to her husband who lifted his eyes up to her, sensing that he was in trouble.
"And this is Sookie," he tried to charm his way onto Kate's good side, by holding up the white kitten with two black ears and three black paws, but he could tell that his wife was only holding it together for the sake of their children.
"Castle, can we talk?", she asked tersely, pulling him over to the kitchen counter to get some distance between them and the girls. "Where did you find them and why are they here?", she then demanded to know once she was sure the girls weren't listening in.
"Uhm in that alley, earlier …?," he stammered, setting Sookie on the ground, where the little thing hurriedly made her way back over to Alexis, sensing the tense atmosphere in the kitchen.
"That's why you left?", Kate asked. "You didn't have to write?"
"No," Castle shook his head. "I'm sorry Kate, but look at them. They were helpless and all alone I couldn't just leave them there."
"No, you couldn't but that doesn't mean you had to bring them home," Kate hissed. "At least not without talking to me first, didn't we just decide that we don't have time for a pet a couple of weeks ago?"
"But Kaaate," he whined. "Look how cute they are."
"I don't care how cute they are, we are not keeping them. Whose gonna take care of them? They're not even housebroken," Kate replied, watching Oliver prove her point by peeing on her youngest lap, causing Ellie to shriek in shock before the girl started to giggle, "Silly Oliver," they heard her say affectionately to the cat.
"I'll train them," Castle promised eagerly.
"When Castle?" Kate questioned, losing her patience, "We have three kids to take care of, I have a full time job with horrible hours and you are writing a new book for which you are shadowing me, when would you possibly find the time to train two baby kittens?"
"We'll help Mom," Jamie tried to come to her father's aid, having listened in to her parents conversation after all, but Kate had already made up her mind.
She shook her head, "They can't stay. You will find a new place for them tomorrow."
"But Mom," Jamie protested and even Alexis and Ellie lifted big eyes to her mother.
"Enough," Kate said sternly. "They can stay for the night, but tomorrow they'll have to go."
"You're mean!", Jamie exclaimed, storming off with Sookie whom she had grabbed from Alexis's hands and Kate shot her husband and icy look.
"Thanks for making me be the bad guy," she hissed before storming off as well, closing the bedroom door behind herself with slightly more force than usual.
"Shit," Castle muttered, causing Ellie to clamp her hand over her mouth with big wide eyes. "Sorry," he apologized immediately.
"Daddy in trouble?", the little girl ask from her spot on the floor where she was still entertaining Oliver, despite her wet jeans.
"Big trouble," he nodded with a sigh.
"Don't you wanna go after her?", Alexis asked, glancing worriedly at the closed bedroom door.
Castle considered his options but finally shook his head, "I think it's best to let her cool off first. I'll go and talk to her after the girls are in bed."
"Do you think Mom will really make them go?", Alexis frowned, they all had already become so attached to the two fur-balls, she didn't want to give them away.
"I don't know," Castle replied honestly, "but I think this is more about me than about Oliver and Sookie."
"Daddy?", Ellie looked up at her father with her big eyes, that looked so much like her mother's.
"It's gonna be alright," he smiled down at her, before picking her up. "It's time for bed anyway, but first we gotta clean you up."
He came back down the stairs an hour later, the girls in bed and both kittens in his arm. Alexis was still up, learning for a test, but he had made her promise not to stay up too long. He dreaded to make his way into the bedroom. He was pretty sure he knew what was waiting for him in there and it wouldn't be pretty. He made his way into his office first though, having set up Ellie's playpen as a kitten jail, not wanting the two cuties to wander around the loft during the night.
But beside the playpen he also found a pillow and blanket on the small couch in his study and he realized he was in even bigger trouble that he had thought.
"Great," he muttered as he grabbed the blanket, it wasn't often that Kate banned him from their bed, but when she did he knew he had screwed up big time. And he really should have known that it would come to this. They had talked about a pet, specifically a dog three weeks ago and yes they had agreed that they didn't have the time and yet he had brought the two strays home without second thoughts, as usual. And this was probably the main issue here, that he hadn't talked to her about it. He knew how much she disliked not being included in this kind of decisions and yet he managed to do it again and again. Not on purpose, never that. He would never try to hurt her with his actions, but he just liked surprises and he had a tendency to forget about the rest when he thought he had a great idea. Well this great idea had won him a night on the couch on which he was trying to get comfortable, while grumbling to himself about his misfortune.
Kate tossed and turned in bed, she never slept well when he was not beside her, but she had been so angry earlier that she had thought it would be worth it, it wasn't though and with a sigh she turned over to stare at the vacant spot beside her only to find it occupied by a little orange fur ball.
"Oliver?", she mumbled quietly and the little kitten opened it's eyes to look back at her. "What are you doing here?"
Not expecting an answer Kate watched Oliver get up and lumber over toward her to curl up against Kate's chest and tuck himself under her chin, letting out a content purr as he settled down.
Kate sighed, "You're a charmer aren't you?", she said stroking the cat's back. "Come on let's get the big trouble maker back into this bed, because no matter how cute you are, you're not the real thing."
She picked Oliver up, held him close to her chest as she made her way over to the office, finding Castle sprawled on his stomach on the couch, one of his arms dangling over the floor while Sookie was curled up on his back.
"Okay, okay," Kate relented with an affectionate smile. "You two are really adorable. I get it. Still doesn't mean you can stay."
"Kate?", Castle's groggy voice filled the room and Kate looked down to find her husband blinking up at her.
"Come back to bed Castle," she simply said, grabbing Sookie from his back before he could accidentally throw her off. "This isn't comfortable for your back. Plus it's lonely over there without you."
He scrambled up, grabbing his pillow, all too eager to please her, "Did you get them out?", he asked and frowned at Oliver and Sookie who were now both tucked against Kate's chest.
She shook her head, "No Oliver sneaked into bed with me."
"Huh?," Castle scratched his head. "How did they get out?"
"Doesn't matter right now, Rick. Come to bed," Kate turned but was held back by his hand on her elbow.
"Kate I'm sorry," he started. "I should have asked you first. I got excited and thought it would be a great surprise."
"I know," she smiled. "It's who you are and I might have slightly overreacted earlier, but you know how I feel about these things. I'm missing out on so much already as it is with the hours I work and it makes me feel excluded when you keep me out of these kind of decisions, plus you make me out to be the bad guy when I have to be the one to tell the girls 'No'."
He did know. She had told him this before and it made him feel even worse that he had forgotten to consider her side in all of this. "I'm really sorry."
Kate nodded, accepting his apology before she moved into the bedroom, Castle close behind.
"But the questions remains. What are we going to do with them?", Kate asked, as she sat down on the bed, cuddling both kittens against her chest, already smitten with them.
"I'll train them Kate. I promise. I can get a head start on the next chapters and stay home for a week or two, until they know where to pee, what to chew on and all that stuff and then I come back. I have enough material and ideas to get me through a couple of weeks."
Kate looked at him, uncertainty swimming in her eyes, before looking at the two purring kittens in her arms.
"Come on Kate, you're already falling in love with them," he grinned, scooting over to her side of the bed, stroking Sookie's head. "Pretty please."
"Alright. You win. They can stay," she finally relented, watching his eyes go wide in happiness.
"I love you," he grinned before pressing his lips against hers with the two purring kittens between them. "The girls will be so excited."
"More excited than you?", she asked teasingly and he simply kissed her again.
xxx