On Thursday morning, Meredeth was a bouncing bundle of nerves. It was Honey-Milk's turn to be on-call and she'd brought Dell with her to look after Tessi, so her nerves were somewhat relieved over that. Tessi would be well taken care of so she could focus all her energy on not freaking out, or trying not to at least. She'd barely been able to sleep the night before between the bottom twin using her kidneys for bongo drums and her own anxiety to hear if her babies were healthy or not.

She glanced over to Esposito, who was sitting in the chair, just as silent and anxious as she was. It was one of the best understandings in their relationship - while waiting for news like this, neither wanted the void filled with extraneous chatter. The simple squeezes they gave each others hands while they waited patiently said more than an hour of noise ever could.

The door to Harvey's office opened and Meredeth heard her husband suck in a breath when Harvey gave them his patent, doctor-y non-descript smile.

'So how are things looking doc?'

'You are growing two perfectly healthy babies, Meredeth,' he told her confidently. 'There's no signs of developmental delay or disease, there's no TTTS, no diabetes, no heart problems. They are very strong and because you've been taking such good care of your own health there's far less chance of miscarriage.'

'How much less?'

'Given the medical evidence at hand, I would say you've gone from about a twenty percent chance to a fifteen, which may not sound like a lot but when you're dealing with biology and genetics like this, trust me, that's a significant factor. The most important thing to take away from it is the fact that you are now at a far less risk of having the babies before thirty-six weeks.'

'Oh God, thank you,' Esposito blew out a breath. He dropped his chin to his chest and prayed silently for a moment. 'Thank you, Harvey.'

'Thank yourselves, you've been incredibly supportive to one another. Pregnancy is to be enjoyed and you are enjoying while still being attentive. It's a hard balance to find and you should be proud.' Harvey smiled. 'Now, that being said, I would like to put you on a week's bed-rest starting Friday, Meredeth, because your blood pressure is still a little concerning and we want to get that in check before it becomes a problem.'

'Okay, so are we talking total bed-rest or can I get up to pee or what?'

'You can use the bathroom independently, but beyond that, you are in bed resting. Absolutely no doing laundry, cooking, house-work, none of that. You need to be off your feet.'

'What about Tessi, I mean, she's an active kid, she likes to do things like go to the park and take Arturo for a walk with me.'

Harvey nodded in understanding. 'This is a great time to show her how she is going to be a help around the house for you once the babies arrive. From what I understand keeping in touch with Nurse Ryan, you have a good buddy-system in place to help look after your daughter.'

'I can take a few days of leave as well,' Esposito added, but Meredeth shook her head.

'You guys are already short-handed with Beckett on maternity leave and Castle staying at home with her to write. It's not like I'm going into the hospital, I'm just at home resting and I've got my girls on my buddy system.'

'No. You are my wife and you need me more. Montgomery will understand.'

Meredeth recognized the steel in his voice and knew he wouldn't be swayed no matter how much she cajoled and reasoned with him. Knowing what her job as a good wife was today, she covered his hand and smiled. 'Okay. If you think that's best and the captain doesn't get pissy about it, Thursday and Friday. I just don't want you to max out your time off before the babies get here, you know?'

'I know.' Esposito picked up their joined hands and kissed the back of hers. 'What else, Doctor?' he asked.

'The position of the babies is making it possible, at least at this point, for a totally vaginal birth, so I'm going to go ahead and sign you up for the twins-delivery counseling starting in September. It's essentially your birthing class but it's done one-on-one with our staff therapist who specializes in fetal medicine, as well as Daniel Brick and Andrea Henessey. You know them, and they will be able to give you great counseling on any questions you have.'

'Sounds good to me. Mere?'

'Jenny works with them both and I trust both of your professional opinions,' Meredeth nodded in agreement. 'You haven't steered us wrong yet.'

'Thank you. I'll give you a scrip for a refill on your vitamins, you can pick it up on your next appointment, and don't forget, you'll find out what you're having then.'

On the bench outside the doctor's office, Meredeth rubbed her belly as they waited for Ryan. 'Hear that, kids, we find out who's what next time,' she murmured to them.

Esposito leaned in, rubbed his hand over the mound. 'You guys play nice with Mami, alright? She's doing a great job taking care of you already, making sure you stay good and strong inside there.'

'What a bunch of love-doves.'

They looked up, saw Ryan had pulled up in the Crown Vic, which had Esposito getting to his feet and help Meredeth to hers. 'We'll give you a lift home, then head on our way, okay?'

'Sure. You take care of my detective.'

'Sure, so long as you take care of my babies.'

'Deal.' Meredeth gave him a kiss. 'Love you.'

'Love you too.'

By the following Wednesday, Meredeth was ready to lose her mind. She'd been stuck in bed for the majority of her waking moments, which had made Tessi rather irritated with her when she couldn't accompany Lanie or Beckett or Honey-Milk on their walks with Arturo down to the park. Of course, Meredeth had done her level best to keep her frustration in check and make it up to her daughter by playing games with her, like Go Fish and Memory and even a little intro to Scrabble to help her learn how to spell simple words.

Her friends and their buddy-system paid off as well, a few times tag-teaming her so that she had one friend cleaning or doing laundry while the other kept her and Tessi company. At times it made Meredeth feel a little better but mostly, she felt like Ying-Ying the fat-ass panda at the zoo, too lazy to do a god-damn thing for herself. Her husband must have sensed her frustration as well, because he did literally whatever she asked him to do, even when that meant she would snap or cry as opposed to being her usual sweet self. It hadn't been an easy few days and Esposito knew he was getting short-tempered at work, but his partner would simply let him rant or snap and then give him a little 'feel better now' and they'd continued on their way; they did it this way because they were family.

By the time Tuesday rolled around and Esposito was looking at the fun side of his day off, he had a plan. It had taken a little bargaining and a couple of phone calls to manage it, but he knew he would definitely win the hubby of the year prize.

Opening the door, he walked in with a bag of ll Meredeth's favourite junky take-out foods and a bouquet of yellow tulips in the other. He'd already picked up a special little something for Tessi as well and hidden it in the same table drawer where he kept his service pistol when he was off-duty. Tonight he was going to spoil his girls absolutely rotten. With his weapon safely stowed out of reach and sight from Tessi and Meredeth, he tucked the little gift under his arm and went upstairs to the master bedroom. Sure enough, he found Tessi and Meredeth there with a game-board between them and Tessi with a card in her hand.

'What are my beautiful ladies up to?' he said, coming into the room; the sound of his voice had Tessi looking over and grinning widely.

'Danny-lan', Daddy. I ye-wow. Mama geen.'

'Oh?' Moving closer he could see they were indeed playing Candyland, and Tessi had just picked up a card for her turn. He set down the bag, but kept the flowers and he moved to sit behind Meredeth, who was flaked out crosswise in the middle of the bed, head propped on her hand. 'For you, my love,' he said, passing her the bouquet.

'Oh, Javi, they're beautiful.' Meredeth sniffed the tulips, gave her husband a kiss. 'You are such a good husband.'

'And tonight I thought we'd have a total junk-fest since you've been behaving so nicely. We're ordering Petrelli's, and I got those loaded-baked-potato chips you love so much, and the veggie-corn twisty thingies you love, and spicy plantains too with the sour-cream and chive dip, and the fancy all-dressed popcorn salt you like too. That'll have your blood pressure through the roof in no time.'

'Aren't you so sweet,' she replied, giving him another kiss. 'You want to join in with me and Tessi? We just started a fresh game.'

'Daddy boo,' Tessi suggested, passing Esposito the blue game token.

'In a minute, princess.' Esposito kissed her cheek. 'You know, Tessi, you've been a very big girl helping Mami out while she's had to rest.'

'Mami 'tay bed, babies be-have.'

'That's right, and to thank you for being such a big girl, I thought you might like this.'

He passed her the gift and instantly the game was forgotten, as Tessi ripped into the paper and smiled brightly. 'Mami, see, new book.'

Meredeth examined the cover - Marvin K Mooney Will You Please Go Now - and grinned. 'It's beautiful, Tessi, I'm just surprised your daddy found you a Seuss book you didn't already have.'

'Read bed-time?'

'Yes, we'll read it at bed-time tonight, but in the mean-time, there is pizza awaiting to be eaten and I think, we just might have The Little Mermaid downstairs as well.'

'Fishies! I find Dush, wash fishies!'

'Tidy up the game first, missy,' Meredeth reminded her, and Tessi nodded; she rounded up the cards and game pieces into the box before going in search of her stuffed turtle. 'You wanting a little daddy-daughter time with her?'

'I called Harvey, told him you've been behaving yourself and he said you can come downstairs with us, but you're lying on the couch.'

'Oh, Javi.' Happy little tears perked up in the corners of Meredeth's eyes. 'Baby, really?'

'Really, really.' If she was getting this worked up over the prospect of moving from the bedroom to the living room, he knew she was going to lose her mind when she saw what was waiting downstairs.

They went down to the living room and sure enough, Meredeth put her hands to her mouth when she saw what was there - in the living room was a Smartboard with a game waiting for her. But not just any game. The new edition of the Nikki Heat Case Files that Castle had worked up to include her alter ego of Maggie Ochoa in his fictional universe was waiting happily for a new game to start.

'Oh...oh, Javier, oh my god, this is too much,' she sniffled, and turned to give him a squeezing hug. 'How...how?'

'Beckett was your buddy today and while you were napping she had Castle and Alexis bring it over, after I told her that you'd get to be off bed-rest tonight.'

'I must have been really out of it. Did...did he do this just for me?'

'Sort of. Once Castle learned we were trying again, and that Beckett wanted more of the characters in the series included, he went back and did some more stories, had us do our own voices here and there again and now Beckett and you have more crimes to solve. So tonight, we'll be total teenagers - eat junk food, watch a movie and play video games.'

Meredeth rubbed her belly as she stretched out on the couch. 'All three of us think that's a pretty sweet deal.'

R&R&Enjoy.