Disclaimer: I wish...
"Let them all pass their dirty remarks.
There is one question I'd really love to ask.
Is there a place for the hopeless sinner, who has hurt all mankind
Just to save his own beliefs? "
-Bob Marley, One Love (People Get Ready)
They stared ahead at the man seated at the table. His hands were in cuffs and he was wearing a white jumpsuit. He seemed to be much calmer, less agitated than he was the last time they'd seen him.
Fallon had been quite clear that they would get one shot, and one shot only at him. He was also very specific in his assertion that the NSA didn't respond well to threats, even if they were from NYPD detectives and famous writers. He also acknowledged all that Kate had been through, pulling the necessary strings to get them just a few minutes.
Kate was determined that it would be enough. She would make sure it was. The detective was amazed by how much had changed since the last time she'd encountered this man. She took a deep breath as she prepared herself to face him once again. As they entered the room Dr. Berring smiled.
His face lit up when he saw Kate, taking in her obvious pregnancy and raising his shackled arms with joy.
"Wonderful! One of my children survived!" He seemed ecstatic.
"This child is NOT yours." Castle nearly yelled at the madman, his fists curling of their own accord.
"Well, of course not. The child is yours, I was only taking credit in a manner of speaking." Berring corrected, "genetically, the baby is all you." He motioned between them with both hands raised, the handcuffs restricting his movements.
Kate was disturbed by the fact that Berring seemed to treat them as his oldest and dearest friends. The man was truly delusional. The question was whether or not he was competent enough to secure whatever goal he'd been seeking when he'd set out on this experiment; and what the fallout of that goal might be.
"What did you do?" Kate spoke, her voice barely above a whisper. She didn't seem to notice the way her hand came to rest over her stomach protectively. It struck Castle odd that she could play both offense and defense at the same time, already a fierce and protective mother.
"Did they both survive? Are they both growing?" He asked with delighted interest. He then paused and thought about it, "I suppose not. Afterall, you spoke of your child, not children. No, it would appear that only one survived… But which one? Yes, which one indeed… "
Castle and Beckett watched as Berring seemingly held an entire conversation with himself.
"I'm the one asking the questions here." Kate spoke, interrupting the scientist's thoughts. She had the same deadly calm in her voice that was reserved for the most dangerous of suspects.
Berring smiled at her, seemingly filled with gratitude.
"That's good. Protect him." He thought about it for a moment before adding, "or her." He glanced from Beckett to Castle and back again, "do you know which one it was?"
They stared at him blankly for a few moments before Castle gave in to his curiosity, his need to know all he could.
"Do we know which one? Which one what?"
Beckett interjected, before Castle could ask further questions. The detective in her needed to control the conversation.
"What the hell are you talking about?" She pressed.
"Do you know which embryo survived? Was it the male or the female? Each is very special, mind you, but which one? I wonder…" Again Berring seemed to zone out, his excitement and joy escalating as he thought more about it.
"What did you do?" Kate pressed, her stature was unwavering but her voice was strained.
"I simply improved on what we could be." Berring stated happily.
"Improved how?" Castle pressed.
"I was protecting us! I was ensuring that the enemy couldn't succeed. I created perfection." Berring tapped on the table with his index finger as he made his point.
"Can you imagine it, a human being that is immune to all major diseases? Just think, from the common cold to cancer; a child who is intellectually superior, whose talents go beyond…" Berring paused and considered his words, "well from there it all depends…" He smiled at them deviously.
"What the hell are you talking about? Depends on what?" Kate was losing her patience.
"As I said… it depends on which one survived, all traits engineered into the embryos were designed to compliment one another; where one lacked the other excelled and so forth." Berring took in the horrified expressions on their faces and elaborated, as if to put them at ease.
"Don't get me wrong, they're both miraculous specimens independently, but we were supposed to see how each might excel in different areas. It was all experimental, mind you."
Kate's breath caught as she finally caught on to Berring's intent. Everything about this child, from hair and eye color, to natural talents, intellect and temperament was engineered. The man in front of her had genetically manipulated their child in some morbid attempt to create a super human, a designer baby. It truly was science fiction.
"Why would you do this?" Kate whispered, her voice barely above a whisper.
"I did it for us. They were all supposed to survive. They were going to create a better race, they were going to save us!"
"From what?" Kate yelled.
Berring's eyes grew wide, "From them." He pointed upwards, as if towards the sky.
He truly was mad. Castle simply stared at him, disbelieving the incredibly outlandish things coming from the scientist's mouth. The writer's hands fell below the table to find Kate's thigh, as if some form of physical contact would make this all better.
"Tell me, did the boy survive or did the girl? I can tell you all about your baby. Just tell me which one lived! Such a shame they both didn't. " He was very animated in his behavior, still under some delusion that he had done them some favor.
"Go on, tell me. Is it a boy, looking every bit like his dad? Agile and cunning; Or a girl, the spitting image of her mother and yet skilled in ways you can't imagine!" Motioned between them again as he continued his speech,
"You two really were perfect specimens, it's one of the reasons you were chosen. Afterall, you were never supposed to have been there." He spoke as if he were mildly scolding the pair of them.
They simply watched in disbelief. Kate was feeling light-headed, overwhelmed by the need to get as far away from him as possible, to get their child away. Her reaction was the complete opposite compared to the last time they'd met. She had no desire to flip the table and attack him, only to get herself away from him.
Berring took in the silence before he added, "Of course, they will be like you physically only. The child will be far superior to either one of you." The mad man spat out as if he was telling a beloved story.
"Now please, did my boy survive? Or did my girl?" Both Castle and Beckett felt sickened by the man. They rose together, Castle stepping between the detective and the scientist. He had no doubts that Kate could kill the man. He was concerned that she might try, and he wasn't willing to risk it.
"Please." Berring demanded once again. Kate stopped before she left the room, turned and spoke in an even, deadly tone.
"You'll never know." She spat before leaving him with a final thought.
"Burn in Hell."
"Do you believe it?" Castle asked her as they drove back towards the city. He'd grown accustomed to driving them, whether it be his vehicle or hers. While she was just nearing the halfway point in her pregnancy, both had grown weary of her swelling stomach where the steering wheel was concerned.
Driving was still not a problem, and she did so when necessary, but there seemed to be some non-verbal agreement that he would drive when they were together. It wasn't about power, or about him taking control. It simply made sense to the both of them.
"Do I believe what?" Kate was staring out the window as the rain fell. It was dreary and cold, unseasonably chilly for late August. New York didn't typically see such temperatures until late September.
"Do believe any of what he said? That he altered the baby's genes?" Castle turned to her briefly, but shifted his gaze back to the road before she responded.
"I don't know, Castle. He was able to extract, to bring the ovum to maturity, to create and freeze the embryos. Why shouldn't he have the capabilities to do this as well?" Kate paused, finally turning to face Castle, "he hasn't lied about any of this yet."
Castle nodded.
The car was filled with silence for quite some time. It wasn't the awkward quiet of two people who didn't know how to fill the space with conversation, but a contemplative one. Both were lost in their thoughts, playing out various scenarios and what ifs as the time passed.
Kate's head was pounding, overwhelmed by the sheer impact of information. A man had tampered with their baby, had gone where no person had the right to and altered who he or she would be. The same sense of violation that the detective felt when she'd learned of her infertility returned. He knows, he'll know everything about our baby. He's predetermined who are baby is going to be. The thought made her sick. Kate could feel the burning behind her eyes and closed them in attempt to gain control of her emotions. She took a deep breath and rested her head against the cool glass of the car window in some attempt to anchor herself.
"Well," Castle finally spoke," all check-ups have been normal and the amniocentesis was clear of anything problematic." His tone was hopeful, and he was correct. All signs pointed to a healthy baby, right on target developmentally speaking.
Kate smiled, releasing a sigh as she allowed his words to bring her some comfort. She began rubbing circles into her stomach as the sensation of butterflies filled her there. She'd noticed it a lot in the past days; flapping wings in the pit of her stomach. She then moved to Castle's hand, placing it between her own and the baby.
"I don't want to know." She spoke.
"You don't want to know what?" Castle was confused.
"All Berring was able to tell us was that he'd created two, a male and a female." Kate began to elaborate.
"He doesn't know which survived and neither do we."
"It's too early for that, Kate."
Castle was right. At 18 weeks, it would likely be another week or two before they could tell whether the child was a girl or a boy; and Kate's next appointment was at 20.
"I know it's too early, but when the time comes, I don't want to know." She clarified. Castle was lost for words, and it took everything in his power to not go with his initial reaction to object. Instead, he listened.
"He's in my head, Castle." There was a plea, a note of desperation in her tone, "Berring is in my head, stating all the traits of our unborn child, knowing details that no person is meant to know. We are this baby's parents, not him." Castle could feel her distress by the way she squeezed his hand.
"I can't control any of that, I can't control what he's done Castle, but I can control this. I don't want to know what our child is until he or she comes. I don't want to spend the next 20 weeks thinking about all the things that Berring turned this baby into, and if I know the gender I'll do just that." She explained, turning to glance at her partner. Her expression was pleading.
Castle nodded, releasing a sigh. Everything that Kate spoke made sense. It was understandable that Berring's words would have such an impact. The possibility that he would spend the next several months caught in the same web that Kate was trying to avoid was a very real prospect.
Still, he'd been so excited by the coming sonogram. He was ready to design and paint the nursery, he was ready to buy clothes and pick out names. With Alexis they'd found out immediately, and waiting even until the doctors could know was torture.
None of that matters, Castle told himself.
"Kate, there is only so much that he can do. I firmly believe that our experiences, that our parents-or environment, shape who we are. It isn't just our brains. You're a detective, you know that. How else do we explain why twins can take such separate paths, one becomes a banker and the other a serial killer?" Kate turned to listen to his words. She knew enough of human behavior to see his point. Once again he spoke.
"Yes, Berring did unthinkable things, unethical things, but he didn't tell us anything we didn't already know." He squeezed her hand again,
"So there were two and one survived. At the end of the day he told us that the baby is either a girl or a boy. We already knew that." Kate was silent, but was listening intently to his words.
"Even if he did manipulate our baby's genetic blueprint, he cannot control how we raise him or her. Berring cannot know where he goes to school, or who her first best friend will be. His first kiss, her choice of college...Those are things that nobody can know, Kate, because we decide. "
She turned to smile at him, her eyes watering.
"You're pretty amazing, did you know that?" She spoke softly to him as her hand remained clasped with his own on against her stomach. Throughout the course of the conversation Kate's shirt had ridden up slightly, exposing her bare skin to their touch.
"I already knew, but I'm glad you see it too." Castle joked.
Kate rolled her eyes but stopped suddenly, staring back down at her stomach and releasing a deep breath.
"What is it?" Castle questioned.
"Oh, it's nothing. I've been getting these butterflies in my stomach, it's kind of strange."
The writer smiled, "What do you mean, butterflies?"
"Like…" Kate paused as she thought about how she could describe it, "like little wings flapping around. She brushed her fingers lightly across his skin, stroking quickly in attempt to replicate the feeling."
He released a laugh and spread his palm wide against her stomach. Although he couldn't feel a thing, Castle knew.
"Those aren't butterflies, Kate, that's our baby… kicking."
AN: So clearly, I already know the gender of the baby (singular) and I'm not going to change it. I am open to name suggestions though. What do you all think? Boy names? Girl names? Just curious.