So sorry for the delay. Christmas shopping has gotten in the way of my writing.
This is the moment we've all been waiting for. I hope it lives up to the expectations. And don't worry the next chapter will take up right where this one leaves off. I want to see all of it as it unfolds, but I also didn't want this chapter to be 10,000 words long.
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Jim Beckett hesitantly approached the door. He really didn't think he could do this, but… he'd been summoned; his daughter had asked for him, and if one thing in this life was certain, it was that he could never refuse his Katie.
He knocked gently before traversing the curtain draped threshold. The fist in his chest eased instantly at what he saw; she was smiling, laughing even. Thank heaven for modern medicine; his little girl was no longer rendered motionless by pain.
Jim listened to the melodic way Kate laughed at her husband, who jovially poked and prodded at the enormous mound of babies just beneath the sheet covering her body.
"Can you feel me now?"
"No."
Rick poked her other side, "Can you feel me now?"
"Nope - nothing."
"Can you feel me know?" Even though Kate leveled him with a patented Beckett glare, Rick's mouth split into a huge grin as his hands palmed Kate's belly like a basketball player about to make a pass.
"Let me guess?" Jim interrupted as he made his way to the bedside. "She left her gun at home?" Jim winked at his son-in-law before leaning down to kiss his daughter's head. "You're looking quite a bit better."
"Thanks Dad, I feel a lot better." She smiled up at him with wide and happy, yet very tired eyes.
"Actually, she's not feeling a whole lot at all right now." Rick massaged the back of Kate's head; his fingers digging deep into her tightly braided hair in order to reach her scalp. "The epidural just kicked in."
Kate thumped the top of her right thigh with a fist, "Yep, pretty much numb; not sure why I waited this long." Her sentence ended with a huge yawn.
"I'll give you two a few minutes." Rick leaned in and planted a reassuring kiss to against Kate's lips. "Be right back."
"Promise?" Kate's hand curled around his ear holding him in place.
"Promise."
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"Hey, the gang's all here!" Castle announced his entrance to the waiting room. "Oh thank god, we have food." He leaned over the nearest chair and hugged Alexis from behind. "I'm starving."
Castle grabbed a cheesy slice then took a seat between his daughter and mother. He filled everyone in on Kate's progress. She was currently dilated to seven centimeters, completely effaced, and at minus-one station. Lanie quickly jumped in to explain the science behind the whole dilation, effacement, and station thing to the clueless Detectives in the room. She was sure to mention that a woman normally dilated about a centimeter an hour so is should only be a few more hours before Kate reached the full ten required for pushing.
While Lanie talked, Castle practically inhaled three huge slices of pizza and a bottle of root beer; he hadn't eaten since earlier that morning. Of course neither had Kate, but that wasn't going to change anytime soon; she was restricted to ice chips only until after the birth. The sweet nurse that had been assigned to them, Hope was her name, had promised to provide a nice big meal as soon as the twins were delivered.
"So," Castle stood back up and glanced at his watch. He'd been gone ten minutes, which was long enough; was as long as he could bear. "It may be a while longer before we have babies. If you guys want to head home, we can call you…"
"No way." "Dude?" "Richard." "Ain't happening'", they all spoke at once.
Castle held his hands up in surrender; it was all he could manage with the lump currently residing in his throat. They had the best friends; the best family.
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"She's beginning to nod off."
"Thanks Jim." Castle shook his father-in-law's hand as they switched places beside Kate's bed. He glanced down at her; tears shined on her cheeks, her eyes were rimmed with red. It must have been an emotional talk.
"No Rick," Jim Beckett squeezed Rick's hand tighter; grabbed the younger man by the upper arm. "I'm the one that needs to say thank you."
"Jim," Castle shook his head, but was interrupted before he could say anything else.
"Look, you two can thank each other for the gift that is me later." Kate laughed and reached for her husband's hand. "Right now I require some serious sleep." She yanked at Rick's hand so hard he yelped. "I need my pillow, now get down here."
"Sorry Jim, duty calls."
Jim watched, waited as Rick eased into the partially raised mechanical bed, settling in next to Kate, making sure to avoid all the tubes and wires that closely monitored three precious heartbeats. After much maneuvering and Rick's assistance with her mostly numb body parts, Kate curled into her husband's body; practically wedging him between her belly and the mattress. Closing her eyes Kate hummed in appreciation.
"Sleep well, Katie-Kat." Jim patted her foot and headed for the door.
"Night Daddy."
A completely overwhelmed Jim Beckett slumped against the pastel colored wall of the maternity ward hallway. He just needed a second. Needed to push back the emotion that had threatened to take over the moment he'd heard it; the still soft voice of his little girl. He wiped his hand down his face, closed his eyes momentarily to conjure up the images. He saw a scared three year old refusing the comfort of a nightlight, choosing simply to lie in bed and will the boogeyman away. Then there was the pre-teen Kate punching her pillow over and over because some idiot boy had asked her best friend to the school dance instead of her. And finally, a nineteen year-old woman crying herself to sleep just hours after learning the mother she so desperately adored would never again return home. Then there was today; the day his little girl would give birth to two little girls of her own.
'Oh Jo-Jo, I wish you could be here to see this.'
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Rick stroked small circles against Kate's forehead with his thumb. She'd been asleep for almost two hours but had begun to stir over the last few minutes. He watched as her face crinkled up and she moaned into the material of his shirt.
"What is it, Love?" Rick tried to scoot from the bed but she held on tight.
"Pressure," she panted.
Across the room Lanie jumped from her chair. She and Alexis had been quietly playing cards to pass the time. "I'll go get the Doctor."
Rick nodded, "Does it hurt anywhere?"
"No." Kate spoke between gritted teeth, "Just feels… weird?"
Rick didn't need to move to know that Kate was in the middle of a contraction. With the way she'd been laying against him he'd been able to feel each and every time her abdomen had tensed up every few minutes while she slept. "Dr. Candace will be here in a sec."
As if the mere mention of her name had caused her to manifest, Dr. Candace was instantly at the foot of the bed; Lanie stood directly behind her. "I hear your feeling some pressure?" Kate nodded. "That's what we like to hear. Rick, you want to hop up so I can take a quick peek?"
By the time he was on his feet, Hope had also entered the room. She helped Kate roll to her back and assisted the Doctor in discreetly checking out the situation. Rick noticed the subtle change in Hope's face and the straightening of Dr. Candace's back as she stood from her seated position on the end of the bed. Suddenly his heart began to race.
"Kate," Doctor Candace nodded to the nurse who abruptly left the room. "I know right now the urge to push is probably overwhelming." Rick watched as Kate nodded. Her lips were fused together in a straight line; completely focused. "I need you to try to breathe through the next few contractions, let me get suited up and we should have a baby here very shortly."
"What?" Rick's attention turned to Alexis. He wasn't sure when, but at some point she'd made her way to the opposite side of the bed; she gripped Kate's right hand between both of her own smaller ones. "I thought she was going to deliver in an Operating Room?" Yep, his little girl, always a stickler for the rules.
Sensing the heightened energy in the room Dr. Candace kept her voice soft and soothing. "Looks like these babies didn't get that memo, Alexis. Everything's fine, delivering in the OR is just a precaution we use with twins. Kate's labor has been practically text book; the delivery should be no different. Kate, you doing okay?"
"Anxious to get this show on the road." She took in another long breath as she winked at Alexis.
"Rick?"
He startled, "What?"
"You hanging in there?" The Doctor chuckled.
"Yeah," he took in a deep breath of his own. He was fine, Kate was fine, Alexis was fine, or semi-fine. He needed to shape up, needed to calm down; focus. "I'm good, yeah, I'm good." Kate laughed up at him; laughed? Rick covered her smile with his lips, taking one last chance to be needy; he was so needy for her. "I love you."
"I love you too." She whispered against his mouth.
Kate stared into the blue depths. Clung to him for just a second more, drawing in some of his strength; his love. This was it, this was the moment; surreal. Everything was about to change, her life would never be the same. She was no longer responsible for just herself; the weight of it was so heavy yet somehow so freeing, so exhilarating.
"Alright Kate," Dr. Candace was once again at the foot of her bed. Kate couldn't help but laugh at the almost spacesuit-like getup the woman had donned, complete with a plastic face guard. "This is the point where all modesty flies out the window." With some help from Hope, the sheet that had been covering Kate was quickly removed.
"Camera!" Alexis tried to shake loose from Kate's grip. "I'm responsible for the pictures."
"Lanie," Rick looked to their friend still standing a few feet behind the Doctor. "Do you mind?"
"On it." Lanie ran to the corner where she and Alexis had been seated and dug out the camera. She was back in a flash.
"Lanie," Kate growled, "I better not see anything but baby in these pictures, you got me?"
"Hush Girl, you know I'll do my thing."
"That's what I'm afraid… oooowww!" Kate gritted her teeth against the building pressure.
"Okay, Kate I'm going to walk you through it. I'm pretty sure all that's standing between this girl and her birthday is a bag of water. I'm going to rupture…" Before she could finish the sentence there was a quiet pop followed by a not so quiet splash. "Well, we seem to have an eager beaver on our hands."
"Great, looks like this one takes after you, Dad." Alexis quipped.
"Gotta push." Kate grunted.
"It's okay Kate, just relax let your body do the work, save some energy for number two. This first one's raring to meet her momma."
"Yep, just like me." Rick announced proudly.
"The head's out. Breath through it Kate." Doctor Candace carefully suctioned out the mouth and felt for a chord around the neck. When she found none she stood slightly. "You ready Momma?"
Rick looked to Kate as she nodded. There was no fear no hesitation, only happiness. "Here she comes, Love." He rubbed his nose against her temple, kissed her cheek, then watched; stood in absolute awe. With barely a sound his wife gave birth to the most perfect baby he had ever laid eyes on; bar none. The emotions that flooded his brain, for Kate, for the baby; it was almost too much. He'd never witnessed anything so… There were no words, absolutely none; he was speechless. Unable to make a sound, he decided he could at least take action. So he counted; heads - one, limbs – four, fingers and toes - twenty in total. Then before he knew what was happening he'd taken the pair of scissors from Hope, following her instructions he snipped the tough gray material connecting his daughter from his wife.
For Kate the whole world just fell away; the pain, the room, the people, the snap of the camera, everything blurred into the background. All she saw was the perfect human being that had just been placed on her chest; her baby, her daughter, hers. She felt her heart instantly double in size. She was overcome with every emotion she had ever experienced, but where it used to be too much, where she used to push back, where she would normally turn and run; now it was perfect, complete, all consuming. It just was.
How many times had Kate witnessed the last breath of a human? How many times had she watched the lights go out? Not today, today she'd witnessed the first breath, the illumination of a life as opposed to the extinguishing.
She reached out a shaky hand, "May I?"
The nurse laughed, "Kate, you just gave birth to her, you can do anything you want."
Elena was wet and warm and loud. Her long fingers were fisted, her head was thrown back as wail after wail filled the room, and her legs kicked frantically. Kate's fingers cupped the tiny dark curl-covered head. With the support of Rick's hand beneath hers, she pulled her first born to her chest. "Hush Baby Girl, there's nothing to cry about. You're here - you're safe; Momma's got you, she'll never let you go." As if on cue the ear-piercing screams quieted to nothing more than a whimper.
"Oh yeah, just like Daddy." Lanie snapped another picture.
Rick leaned in to greet his daughter, "Hey Elena. You're just as beautiful as your Mommy aren't you?"
"Kate?" The Doctor's voice was stern. "I know you want nothing more than to hold on to that baby girl, but now's the time to get serious."
Hope swooped in and lifted the mewling baby from Kate's grasp.
"Rick, go with her, please."
"No love, I'm with you, just like always. Alexis is with her."
The new parents' eyes followed as the once again wailing baby held tightly to her big sister's pinky. The nurse was sure to clean and dry every inch of her little body before swaddling her tightly in a pink blanket. She then placed the squirming bundle in her sister's arms. Tears streamed down Alexis' face.
"Kate, you're gonna have to do a little more work on this one. With the next contraction I need you to bear down. Okay, here we go."
Rick supported Kate's head and counted to ten with each and every contraction. He wiped the sweat from her forehead and blew on her neck to help keep her cool. He'd never seen her work so hard, she never made a sound; just remained so focused and kept at it contraction after contraction..
"I see the head." Alexis finally announced from behind the Doctor. Apparently all the earlier nerves about watching had been washed away by the sleeping baby in her arms.
"Come on Girl, you can do it." Lanie joined the cheering section.
"Just a couple more pushes Kate."
"Oh god!" Kate growled in Rick's direction, "Why couldn't this one be like you too?"
He laughed, "No way, we need at least one little stubborn girl to keep her stubborn Mommy company." He leaned in closer as she whimpered with the next push. "You got this Kate, focus."
"Okay, head's out. Just breathe." Dr. Candace repeated the same actions with Erin as she had ten minutes earlier with Elena . "Okay, here she is."
It was like deja vu; she had the same face, the same dark curly hair, only there was no crying, no flailing or kicking. Erin just laid quietly on her mother's chest, blinking against the harsh light that had to seem so foreign to her newly opened eyes.
"Hey their Baby Girl." Kate greeted her in the same way she had her sister. "Whatcha see?"
"A little doppelganger, huh?" The infant raised her eyes and strained her neck to see her father above her as he spoke. "Yeah, here I am, Erin." Her eyes seemed to widen as she locked gazes with him.
Lanie snapped another picture, capturing the moment. "Looks like she's only got eyes for you, Castle."
"Oh, Baby," Kate kissed Erin's cheek. "Just like your Momma."
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Okay, maybe I did have her spew one of them out without much effort. Like I said, she's good. I did make her work for the other one, but not too hard.