'Where are we on financials?'

'No debits, no cash withdrawals and nothing on the credit cards that tells us she was anything but an insurance adjuster.'

'There's something we're missing then.' Beckett pursed her lips, looked down at her belly where the baby was doing some serious high kicks. 'What you think in there, hmm? What are we missing?'

'Much as I don't want to discourage you mothering your baby, Beckett,' Esposito smiled, 'I don't think even a smart one like yours and Castle's can kick out an idea via the womb in Morse Code.'

'Mother. That's it.' She turned to Esposito, the thunderbolt of ideas all over her face. 'We've been running Janice Hedlund's financial data, but we know after her husband passed away she had some of her bills changed back to her maiden name Turner. Look into Janice Turner, and I think we'll find what we're looking for.'

'On it.'

'And you and I are going to get something to drink,' she murmured, taking her bump into the break room and fixing herself a toffee-nut steamer. Inexplicably, pregnancy had made her want hot drinks when it was over eighty-five in the shade with this late-summer heat wave. But Beckett had long ago stopped questioning her body's motives when it came to pregnant cravings. She was just concerned about eating well and in a timely fashion.

She'd just flipped the switch for the steaming mechanism on Brewster when she heard Ryan on the phone behind her.

'No, I think we can manage that. Tell him we'll offer six even. Right. Thanks.'

Turning around, Beckett gave her friend the questioning eye. 'Why are you here?'

'Good afternoon to you too, Kate.'

'Sorry, that came out wrong. I mean, why are you here, aren't you and Honey-Milk supposed to be house hunting?'

'We were and she got called in to work, so her and Dell are at Saint Vincent's and I'm here so I don't have to go home and wonder how the hell I'm going to pack up three people's lives in time for the move.'

'You found a place?' Esposito asked, coming in with a note in hand for Beckett. 'You going over the cuckoo's nest or what?'

'We've put in an offer on a place in Clinton Hill, between Ninth and Tenth. It's right within the budget range, close for both of us for work and a good school for Dell, and the best part is, if they take our offer, we can get in before the baby's born.'

'Congrats, bro, sounds like we'll be rounding up the troops again.'

'I don't know how much help I'll be,' Beckett offered, pouting a little. 'I'll be huge by, like, next week.'

Esposito and Ryan both wisely held their tongues that their boss was already big and instead decided to go the cliche route of all men saving their hides around pregnant women. 'How are you feeling?'

'Good, he or she is less fussy now. The doctor says the baby is going to be around seven or eight pounds and I've put on enough support weight to not make it an issue for my body, but I could still do with another ten pounds just to be sure there aren't any complications.'

'That's good.'

'Go ahead, you can say it. I'm already a moose, right?'

Ryan cleared his throat. 'There is no right way to answer that.'

'Roger that, rubber ducky,' Esposito added, and had the joy of watching the level-headed Beckett do a spit-take with her drink.

'I'm sorry, what?'

'Roger that, rubber ducky? That would be a Mere-ism,' he grinned. 'Anytime I ask her about something Tessi-related it's become her standard response. So I thought I'd try it out on someone else and see if it is really as funny as I thought it was.'

'Is Uncle Javi being funny?' Beckett asked the bump, then stopped when Ryan couldn't quite turn his chuckle into a cough. 'Right, murder investigation, financial data. I'll have another pass at the phone records under the name Janice Turner.'

The trio parted ways, with Beckett going back to her desk to run the data. It was getting less and less weird to be going into the field - not that she didn't miss it, but since her belly arrived in a room or a car or an elevator before the rest of her now, it was nice to have the change of pace. And, she thought, as the baby kicked her in the kidney, it definitely made finding a place to take a leak much easier.

Esposito watched his boss head for the ladies' room and wondered if she knew just how many preciously hilarious preggo-cliches she was hitting now. His own sweet bride had hit them too, but the title of Biggest Nervous Wreck still had to go to Ryan before the. Lili didn't count in his mind because her mother-in-law had made her pregnant life a living hell when she'd been carrying Rosie.

He was barely through the first page of phone records when Beckett came up to his desk. 'Javi,' she whispered. 'I need some help.'

'What's up?'

'I...I think I need to go to the hospital.'

Now his head snapped up and Ryan also having the daddy-radar zipped over in his wheel-footed chair. 'Hospital? What's wrong?'

'I went to use the bathroom and I, ah...I was a little...bloody...down there.' Beckett's cheeks burned at sharing such personal details, but reminded herself they'd both been through childbirth with their respective women and once again, were in a position to be a hell of a lot more sympathetic to her plight than others would have been. 'I just want to get it checked out to be sure.'

'Of course.'

'Hey Ryan.' One of the uniforms stucked his head around the wire-mesh wall of the bullpen. 'Got a lady here says she was out of town when you did the canvass on the Hedlund homicide and thinks she might have some info on it.'

'Go, I got this,' Esposito reassured his partner before turning back to Beckett. 'Get your purse, I'll go talk to Montgomery.'

Beckett nodded and as a precaution sat in her chair, running her hands over her bump. For the first time since learning of her pregnancy she felt a lick of true panic. What if something was wrong? What if the baby was coming early? What if...what if...what if?

She didn't have much time to dwell on it, because Esposito and the captain came out of the latter's office at double-time speed.

'Detective, you're going to get yourself looked after. Take the rest of the day, no argument,' he said in his most authoritative voice, the one that gave zero wiggle room for argument. 'Where's your hubby?'

'Sir, Castle is doing a Q&A and autograph signing at a bookstore in Newark for the Roach Coach supplementary book to the Nikki Heat series.'

'I'll text him in the elevator,' Esposito reassured them both; the moment they were there he did just that. He glanced over and despite her placid calm surface, he knew that her brain and her nerves were working overtime. 'I'm sure everything is fine but we're going to get you checked out just to be sure.'

'Were you this calm with Meredeth?'

'I think so, but then I was a little too close to tell.'

Beckett's cell chirp-chirped Castle's ring-tone and she picked up almost right away. 'Richard?'

'Kate, where are you, what's going on?'

'I'm leaving the precinct now, Esposito's taking me to the hospital to have Phillips take a look, we'll meet you there, okay?'

'Okay. I love you.'

'Love you too.'


They made it to the hospital and were admitted right away; thankfully there was no rom-com mix-up about Esposito being her baby-daddy. He waited politely in the hallway while she was changed into a gown for the examination and kept his back turned away from her lady-parts when Phillips came in to do the exam.

'Don't tell Rick about this one, okay?' she said. 'The last thing I need is him freaking out on you for being so polite.'

'The way I see it, the only person I should see poked and probed like that is my wife, and the only person doing said poking or probing is either her baby-doc in an environment like this or me in a far more romantic one.'

Beckett chuckled as she held out her arm for a blood test to be drawn. 'Ryan mentioned you and Mere are already thinking of another one?'

'Yeah. We want like three or four Dan-o-Ricans and we want them close in age.'

'That's so sweet. Who knew big, bad single-guy Esposito would turn out to be such a family man?'

'I've always been a family man, I just knew I needed to find the right woman and Meredeth is all kinds of right.'

'Aw.' Beckett pulled a teasingly sweet face at him, then glanced down as the doctor finished taking her blood for testing. 'Wanna hear a bad joke?'

'Always.'

'I went to the doctor but all he did was suck blood from my neck, do not go and see Doctor Acula.'

Esposito laughed. 'I saw that Mitch Hedburg clip as well.'

'Dave got to see him live, you know.'

'Really? Well, yeah that makes sense, since he's got family up that way.'

'I was by to see Lanie a few days ago, Violet's looking amazing.' Beckett leaned back, twisted to her side so the baby wasn't crushing against her organs. 'Carey's so excited about his little sister. He is proudly telling everyone who comes to visit Violet's eyes match.'

The mention of Carey fixating on that particular aspect had Esposito thought of the way the young boy had been so eager and ready to go into the birthing room with his mother to make sure Lanie was 'not suh-cared' as he'd phrased it. 'Dell's going to rock it too, I think.'

The door opened and Castle came in, looking like he'd seen a ghost. 'Katie, what's going on? Are you okay?'

'Yeah, the doctor did an exam and once they have my blood-test back, they'll give us the rundown.'

'You're not having any pain or cramping or anything?' he asked; Esposito stood up to give the father of the baby the seat of honour and Castle took Beckett's slim hand in his wide one. 'You don't think it's premature labour?'

'No I don't and the doctor doesn't either.'

'I'm going to go feed the meter on the car.' Esposito knew when he was a third wheel and ducked out to give them some privacy.

Beside his wife, Castle shook his head. 'I shouldn't have gone to Newark, you said you were feeling out of sorts this morning, I-'

'Richard, it's going to be fine.'

The door opened once more and Phillips came back in with Beckett's chart in hand. 'Your blood work is fine, Kate, no signs of premature labour, pre-eclampsia or placenta previa. Your iron and sugar are all normal, your blood-pressure is fine so the answer I have for you is that there is no answer. I know that's frustrating for you, but it's the truth. The majority of the time it is just something the body does.'

'So is there anything I can do to prevent it?' Beckett asked and was irritated when Phillips shook her head.

'Nope. Again, it's one of those things. If you like, I can order you to get a day of bed-rest.'

'Yes,' Castle replied immediately.

'Then consider this your twenty-four hour mandate,' Phillips chuckled as she watched her patient roll her eyes good-naturedly at her husband. 'I'll bring your discharge papers in a moment.'

Alone just the two of them again, Castle kissed his bride. 'See? Nothing to worry about.'

'Me? You're the one having palpitations.'

'And you weren't?'

'I never said that.' Beckett gave him a kiss. 'We also need to get Espsoito a very big chocolate bar.'

'Bar, hell, I'll buy him shares in Hershey stock. Nothing to big for making sure you're safe and sound.'


R&R&Enjoy.