CH21

Kate was in the hospital suffering in pain. Which wasn't really true. There was pain but she didn't think of it as suffering. Kate had been in labor for the last 18 hours.

Having the doctor tell her she was going to still be in labor a few hours from now.

Alexis had been standing next to her the entire time. They had just started to look at their murder board to see if the program had anything new to tell them when Kate's water broke. It had been an organized mad scramble after that to get Kate to the hospital.

Three hours later Kate was now deep into labor and the doctor was telling Kate to breathe and push with each contraction.

"You're doing great Kate, I love you." Castle tells them.

Kate was hanging onto Alexis screaming in pain, grunting and moaning, with a lot of deep breathing in between.

"You're doing great Ms. Castle, just one or two more pushes." The doctor tells Kate.

"Almost there Kate, you're doing great." Castle urges her on. "Elephants have close families Kate. A family of elephants."

A few minutes later Kate is holding her son in her arms for a moment before he is taken away to be cleaned. He hadn't cried after being delivered, instead he had been quiet just like he was now.

"He's gorgeous mom! He even has dad's eyes." Alexis had seen them right away.

Martha was in the loft. It was late and she was waiting for word on if Katherine had delivered her baby yet.

Martha had just finished pouring a glass of wine to try and calm her nerves while she waited, when the front door opened.

Martha turned wondering who it could be. Katherine wouldn't be out of the hospital just yet, and why would Alexis come home to tell her when she could phone. No one else she knew of had a key.

Martha saw two men enter. One started for the panel at the door while the other one stepped in and started looking around, not having stepped in very far yet.

"Oh my!" Martha stepped over to the panel in the kitchen and pressed the panic button getting the alarm to sound immediately.

The two men cursed and ran out the door leaving the front door open.

Alexis was still staring at Alex who was in her mother arms just as a nurse stepped in to take him to clean him, weigh and measure him.

Alexis's phone beeped at her. Pulling it out she opened the screen that was showing. "The alarm at home has gone off." Alexis explains.

"WHAT?" Kate was still out of breath from having just delivered the baby.

Alexis pulled up the views of the cameras. "The front door is open. I don't see grams!" Alexis was suddenly afraid. Alexis changed the view. "I see two men running down the staircase. …. They are outside now. The doorman is lying on the ground." Alexis sounded scared to Kate.

"Call the guys and have them get units over there." Kate tells Alexis.

After Alexis has talked with Espo she goes back to looking at the views of the interior. While she is the nurse comes back with a nice clean Alexander.

"Hi Alexander, you know me? I'm your mommy." Kate stares at him and kisses him while looking him over.

"We'll get you moved into your room soon. Your baby should be ready to feed in a couple of hours." A nurse tells Kate mostly since Alexis looked to be busy using her phone.

"Can you see Martha?" Kate asks worried now.

Alexis shakes her head. "No, I can't find her anywhere." To Kate it sounded like Alexis was about ready to crack.

The two of them had been playing a dangerous game lately and Kate was now suddenly feeling guilty about that.

"Call her cell phone, see if she will answer." Kate asks of Alexis.

"Come on grams, pick up. Please pick up. …. It went to voice mail." Alexis was worried but not yet ready to start crying. It didn't look like the men had been inside that long. Maybe she was hiding somewhere.

"Call Espo and update him pumpkin." Kate asks her next.

After she talked with Espo she went back to viewing the video of the house.

"I see 4 men in uniforms entering the front door." Alexis starts giving a play by play while Kate holds Alex.

"I SEE GRAM"S!" Alexis suddenly calls out. "She was hiding in the kitchen."

Kate starts breathing again.

"The uniforms are searching the house. … I see four more uniforms entering the front door. …. They are talking to grams. …. I can see Espo entering thru the front door." Alexis tells Kate.

"Call Espo, have him put your grandmother on the phone so you can talk to her." Kate tells her hoping hearing Martha will calm her some.

"Give me the phone pumpkin, I want to talk to Espo." Kate held out her free hand.

"He's already hung up. He said he would call you later." Alexis explains.

"How is Martha?" Kate wanted to know how she was doing.

"Her first question was, and I quote. "Has Katherine delivered the baby?" End quote." Alexis tells Kate smiling.

Kate starts giggling. Martha was amazing, she really was.

"Call Steve and have him get the security company out to the house. It looks like we need a new door. People are getting in too easily." Two break-ins in a short period of time was two times too many.

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Alexis programmed Kate into the front door so she could open it when she came home.

"Katherine dear, you're home! And you brought someone with you." Martha was instantly taking Alexander from Kate.

"And aren't you a handsome young man." Martha smiles at him getting Alex to smile back. "He has Richard's eyes."

"I think he looks like dad but has mom's hair and body shape." Alexis offers since she has been looking at him for longer than Martha has.

"I believe you are right dear. He's going to have women doing everything he wants when he grows up." Martha could see him having women fawning all over him.

"Let's get him to walking first shall we." Kate brings them back down to earth. "He should be sleeping Martha. I fed him before we left the hospital."

"I'll take him Katherine. I know what to do with babies." Martha has had practice after all.

Kate smiles as she watches Martha go upstairs with her son.

"There is something you should see mom." And Alexis heads for the study with Kate following, slowly. Kate still had some pain.

"It found Cole Maddox. He is associated with this group." Alexis brings it to the front. "Dick Coonan and Hal Lockwood are also associated with this same group." Alexis shows the connection.

"This group is part of this company that gets its financing from this group." Alexis shows the connection.

"Future Forward." Kate whispers.

"It also found the numbers that dad gave me. Turns out if was a bank account. Just one that was overseas. It was closed years ago but it was owned by this man." Alexis brings him forward.

"William H. Bracken." Kate read the name.

"I found that same name here." Alexis brings it to the front.

"Future Forward." Kate whispers again.

"They spend their money, millions of it, on his election campaigns. With their money backing him, he's rich mom. Even more rich than dad ever was." Alexis comments.

"Did it find who was running Future Forward?" Kate asks, not yet seeing anything she can use in court.

"So far just one, and he has a record. Probably why he was easy to find." Alexis comments and brings his name forward.

"Vulcan Simmons." Kate says the name with pure hatred of that name.

"You know him mom?" Alexis could hear it in her voice.

"Yea, I know him. He's the lowest of the low. A cold blooded murderer who deals mostly in drugs." Kate had slammed him against a wall and it had cost her then. It seems it was still costing her now.

"So Vulcan Simmons is who had my mother killed." Kate speculates. No wonder Simmons had teased her with her mother's death. He had, had her killed.

"Maybe, but why is he spending his money on Bracken?" Alexis doesn't understand.

"Bracken is a politician who needs money, he just happens to get it from Future Forward, who probably gets their money from the drugs Simmons sells." Kate doesn't see Bracken as the leader of this.

"What does Simmons get out of just giving Bracken money so he can get elected. Since elections cost money." Alexis understood the system. TV time could cost millions of dollars, and TV time was needed to get your message across.

"Maybe he has something on him. Something that could destroy him as a politician even after elected." Kate speculates.

"So Simmons has control over a United States Senator, but there are lots of Senators. What good does it do to control just one Senator?" One just wasn't enough, was it?

"Not if that one Senator makes it to the Presidency." Kate counters.

"Simmons makes it to the Presidency by having one as his puppet? Or is Bracken using him to get the money he needs?" Alexis could see a dilemma.

"We need something. We have a lot but we're missing something." Kate comments wondering what it was.

"What did dad say in the hospital?" Alexis knew they got a lot of their tips from Castle.

"Something about a family of elephants." Kate remembers. It made no sense at the time. What did elephants have to do with her being in labor?

"Plug in elephants and family of elephants. Let it search that for a while. And add Vulcan Simmons and Bracken to the list. Maybe one of them has something to do with elephants." Kate didn't get it.

"It would really help if you weren't so cryptic Castle." Kate tells open space, not expecting an answer. Kate and Alexis had learned that was not how it happened. "I have a call to make. …. Can you go check on Martha pumpkin. I haven't seen her since the break in. I'll be right up."

"Sure mom." Alexis was only too willing to check on Alex since she intended to help Kate with Alex as much as she could.

"Isn't he gorgeous grams?" Alexis found Alex in his crib with Martha standing over him, watching.

Martha turns to see Alexis enter. "He is. He looks like a little piece of Richard." Martha's walls were cracking as her tears start.

Alexis hugs Martha. "I miss dad too grams and Alex is going to know all about dad, because we are going to tell him."

Martha hugged Alexis back. Martha had lots of stories about her son starting with even before he was born. Yeah, Martha could do that.

Kate came upstairs to check on them. "I miss something?" Kate asks noticing they are hugging each other.

"He's gorgeous Katherine, you did good. I can see Richard in him as well as a little of you." Martha still had tears.

Kate moves over to hug them both. "I'm going to need your help Martha. I've never done this before." Kate did feel a little over her head.

"We'll both be here for you dear." Martha had hoped her son would give her another grandchild so she could spoil him. Now she was going to help Katherine raise him.

Kate was sitting in the nursery nursing Alex when Alexis came in to check on both of them. "He's smaller than I thought he would be."

"From my point of view 7 pounds 3 ounces felt a lot closer to 22 pounds 2 ounces." The entire process of being pregnant had been a strain on Kate. She was used to being thin and having strength. Being pregnant and delivering a baby had changed all that.

"How do you feel? Should I go get a pain pill?" Kate had come home with medication.

"Not yet. Maybe when I go to bed. It would be nice to at least get some sleep." Kate was afraid of not getting any sleep at all.

"None of us are going to get any sleep for a long time. You need to feed him almost every two hours." Alexis points out.

Kate sighs while still nursing Alex. "Don't remind me." Kate comments looking down at the baby at her breast. "Oh, I've got some names for you to add. They're on the chest of drawers over there." Kate motions with her head.

Alexis finds the piece of paper and finds three names on it. "We already have this one name."

"I know, but lawyers serve more than one client all the time. Input him again with those two. Maybe it means something and maybe it doesn't. …. And see how it's doing with the elephants." Kate asks of her.

"These the two that broke in while grams was home and we were at the hospital?" Alexis guesses she is right but just wanted to make sure.

"I got them from Ryan." Kate nods her head.

Alexis inserts the names and comes back to Kate who is done nursing Alex and is putting him down in his crib.

Elephant Family is a conservation movement registered in 2002 which exists to save the endangered Asian elephant from extinction in the wild, along with tigers, orangutans and all the other animals who share their habitat.

Highly intelligent, emotional, and expressive animals, it is little surprise that elephants live by social rules that are intricate. So complex and layered are they, that in elephant society males and females live in completely different worlds, with females dwelling in tightly bonded families that stay together for life, and males living a largely solitary existence.

"No connection with Future Forward?" Kate asks hoping Castle's words led them to something. Only to get Alexis to shake her head.

It is now one month later:

Kate is still home on maternity leave and would be for a number of weeks still.

Alexis was going into the precinct twice a week to work with Dr. Parrish who would drill Alexis with questions about Kate and the baby. Lanie and Kate had been talking at least twice a week but Lanie wanted to hear it from Alexis. Kate liked to keep some things guarded and Lanie wanted unfiltered information.

Alexis went up to the bullpen with the latest data Lanie had on the case Ryan and Espo were working on.

"Alexis, how is Beckett? ….. Castle." Espo shakes his head. He still couldn't get it right.

Alexis just grinned. "Mom and the baby are fine. Mom is thinking of bringing him by so everyone can see him next week. ….. These are from Lanie." Alexis hands over the papers.

Alexis starts walking back downstairs but stops at Kate's desk. On it she finds a family of elephants on her desk. Alexis picks it up and takes it with her with the intention of taking it home and give it to Kate. Maybe she knew why it was on her desk.

When Alexis got home she found Kate in the nursery just putting Alex down in his crib. "He doesn't cry much mom." Alexis has noticed he is a very quiet baby most of the time.

"No he doesn't does he. … Only when he wants to be fed. …. Is that from my desk." Kate has noticed what Alexis has in her hands.

"Yeah, the program isn't finding much on elephants, except for the real ones. I was wondering why you had this on your desk?" Alexis wanted an answer.

"My mom gave it to me, it's about an elephant family. It was the last thing she ever gave me. It became special to me." Kate hands it back to Alexis.

"Elephant family." Alexis whispers and starts looking it over and running her hands over all of it.

Then suddenly Alexis sees some lines and starts pulling and prying with her fingers. Soon she has a big piece in one hand and a smaller one in the other, and they both watch as a tape falls out and hits the floor.

Kate is watching an arrested William H. Bracken being placed in a police cruiser with Alexander in Alexis's arms standing next to her.

"I wouldn't be here without you pumpkin." Kate was proud of her.

"It was mostly dad's tips and his friend's mom." Alexis knows she helped, but thinks it was mostly her dad.

"Maybe." Kate however knew they wouldn't have the program or know how to use it without Alexis.

"Mom, …. Have you heard dad's voice lately?" Alexis hadn't heard his short words for weeks now or longer.

Kate thought about it. "No, I haven't. Not for weeks I think." Kate didn't know how long.

"You think he's moved on?" Alexis mentions her theory one more time. "We got your mother's killer and you've had his baby."

Kate felt great! She had finished something she had told herself she would accomplish when she left college and gave up her dream.

Kate still loved Castle so very much. Kate had a daughter who was now a teenager. Kate had a new mother who was helping her to raise her son. Kate had a piece of Castle in their son.

And she loved all of them a lot. Her heart was still hurting but it wasn't broken like it had been.

Her family had put it back together for her. "Maybe pumpkin. …. Maybe."

Kate had her happily ever after, and it was because of Castle and his family that was hers now.

"Sometimes the hardest part isn't letting go but rather learning to start over."

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I know it's a short story, not typical for me. And for the record people we love die all the time. I lost my Aunt Ruth 2 days ago. i still miss her and probably will for a while yet.

So, a question for everyone - Does Kate's happiness rely on Rick being alive?

Anyway, back to Stranger and Stranger since i promised. I'm only up to chapter 5 so far, so give me a week or two.

Book two will have a new name, so keep your eye open for it.

See you in the funny papers! (Oh god, I'm showing my age. Some of you probably don't know that saying. OH THE PAIN! (Mr. Smith from Lost in Space)).

Please tell me you've seen Lost in Space!