'Please?'

'No.'

'But it's just so-'

'No.'

'But-'

'Castle!' Exasperated, Esposito could only laugh as he dragged his palm over his smooth scalp. 'You are not putting this into your book as the birth of Maggie and Ochoa's baby. It was bad enough what you did for the scene with the conception!'

Castle snickered, thought of how he'd used Ryan's embarrassment to his advantage: he'd written into the latest Nikki Heat novel that Maggie and Ochoa recording their lovemaking wormed its way onto the Internet and everyone got to see just how Ochoa had knocked up the beautiful Maggie wearing his ring. He hadn't told them about that one until he'd given them all a preview copy before the book launch and he'd gotten a call from a rather irate Meredeth over using the moment without consulting her first. 'At least I asked this time,' he pointed out.

Esposito rolled his eyes, then took his coffee into Meredeth's suite along with a cup of chipped ice for her. She'd gotten her mild painkiller already and was just coming out of a contraction with Honey-Milk by her side as the two men walked in the room.

'Ice,' Meredeth panted, 'gimme please.'

'Here we are my little firework.'

'Thank you.' Meredeth took the cup, chewed down three ice chips at once. 'What time is it?'

'About one-thirty, baby.'

'And I'm just over four centimetres, so at this rate, we'll have twins for breakfast.'

Honey-Milk laughed. 'Always an optimist. Don't you remember your labour with Tessi?'

'Yes, I do, quite well and she was a stubborn little thing. This time, there's two babies and the girl twin who will be the second-born is kicking her big brother's behind to get the part started.'

The room phone rang, which had them all looking around; who would be calling on that line when they all had cellphones? Meredeth picked it up hesitantly. 'Hello?'

'Hi, is this Meredeth?'

'Yes it is.'

'This is Kelsey Ryan, Kevin's sister? I've got a little girl here who wants to talk to her mom for a moment.'

There was a shuffle and Meredeth heard her daughter's sleepy voice. 'Mami? Babies here?'

'Oh, hi, baby, they're not here yet, they're taking their time. Why are you awake, preciosa?'

'Bad deam. Mon'ters shassin' me. Dell no' there helpin'.'

'Aw, princess it's okay, it was just a dream. Do you want to talk to Daddy?'

'Uh-huh. Love you, Mami, moosh babies, peas.'

'I will.' Meredeth passed the receiver to Esposito. 'Tessi had a bad dream.'

She watched Esposito sit back down beside her, talk in his sweet, fatherly voice to their big girl and reassure her it was a bad dream and that the babies were coming and they would be here as soon as they could. He gave her kisses over the phone and hung up, then squeezed Meredeth's hand tightly when he saw the tears glistening in her eyes. 'It's okay, Mere, she's fine.'

'I know, but I don't like the idea that we're not there to comfort her.'

'I get that, baby believe me, but she's got Kelsey there and Dell's there too, you know if he wakes up and Tessi's in trouble, a hoarde of ghouls and goblins wouldn't stand a chance against him.'

'Even so...oh...big one, this is a big one.'

'Okay, okay, you got it, you got it.'

She made it through, and when she opened her eyes, Beckett, Lanie and Honey-Milk were all in her birthing suite each holding a little gift bag. 'Athos, Porthos and Aramis, welcome,' she sighed with a little laugh as her husband wiped down her sweaty brow with a cool, damp cloth. 'Oh that feels so good, baby.'

'I know.' Esposito pursed his lips to try and fight the smile.

'How?'

'It's the same tone of voice you use when we making love.'

'Ew,' Lanie winkled her nose, 'over-share.'

'Out you go, Javier, it's girl time now,' Honey-Milk told him in her sweet no-nonsense voice. 'We'll send up a smoke signal in fifteen.'

Esposito looked at his wife, so beautiful and strong. 'Mere?'

'Go get something to eat, I'm sure Castle's bought share in Famous Ray's by now.'

'Actually it's Genaro's Sandwiches and he's already saved three of your favourite ones for when Harvey gives you the all-clear after the birth,' Beckett reassured her friend, remembering all too well how it had been almost a year before and she'd was so hungry. 'My first meal as a mama was fish and chips, and Sprite.'

'Really?' Lanie sat down near Meredeth's feet, gave them a rub. 'Mine was Meredeth's home-cooking with Carey, with Violet it was fried chicken, biscuits and sweet corn.'

'Mine was pizza, though the twins seem to want

The door opened and Andrea came in to check Meredeth's blood pressure and temperature, read the fetal monitors. 'Looking good, Meredeth, you're cruising,' she told her, patted her shoulder with a gentle smile that didn't really reach her eyes.

Honey-Milk saw it too and gave her friend a look. 'Andy, everything okay?'

'Yeah, just...Daniel's been really weird lately, not like acting funny or lying about what he's doing, just...a little more wound up than usual.'

'It's almost Hallowe'en, right? People are starting to get twitchy, psychos take advantage of the mental vulnerability of Hallowe'en which means his free time is getting eaten up a lot more, isn't it?' Beckett pointed out, speaking from experience.

'I suppose. We do have the mandatory lab time for a week starting on the twentieth in addition to the usual Hallowe'en crazies, that could be it, too.'

'There you go.' Meredeth gestured with her IV-tubed hand, making the plastic pipes dance. 'I don't even bother trying to make plans with Javi from the twentieth to the thirty-first, I save myself the headache.'

Andrea nodded, then grumbled at her pager when it went off. The moment she was out of the room, Meredeth fluttered her hands and wiggled her toes in excitement. 'I know what's going on,' she sang, then remembering her promise to Daniel groaned. 'But I can't tell you.'

'Oh, it's so obvious girl,' Honey-Milk giggled. 'Daniel's going to pop the question, and I'm so excited for them. They're so cute together.'

'I know, and you can totally tell he's going to be a crier when he does it,' Lanie added, then went into doctor mode when the beeping of Meredeth's monitors increased slightly. 'Another one?'

'Yeah this one isn't so bad...no, wait, I lied, it is.'

As Beckett and Honey-Milk were sitting on either side of her, they took Meredeth's hands as she breathed through the contraction. Her face was flush from the effort but she made it through another one, and they pulled the loose strands of hair off of her face, patted her skin with the damp cloths. 'Where's Javi?' she sighed. 'I want my Javi.'

'Okay, honey.' Beckett stood up, kissed Meredeth's forehead. 'We love you.'

It was another seven minutes before Beckett came back with Esposito, but he wasn't alone. Following him into the room was Terrance, her grandmother's companion, looking travel-weary.

'Hello, Meredeth.'

'Terrance, hi. What...what are you doing here?'

'Your man called me, said I should come to New York because you're having your babies tonight. I got the first flight out.'

'You didn't have to do that.'

'Yes I did. Constance would have slapped me silly if I didn't check in on her pige at a time like this.' He fished in his pockets, found his handkerchief to give to Meredeth as her tears spilled over. 'Here, now, lass, dry your eyes.'

'I miss her. I miss her so much. She should be here for this.'

'I know, it's not fair, but she'll keep an eye on you.' Terrance nodded, feeling the gut-grinding ache as he thought of Constance. 'I'll be around here if you need anything.'

'Thank you. Thanks, all of you but I'd like a little time just me and Javi,' Meredeth told them, looking around and hoping they wouldn't think her a bitch. Her prayers were answered when her friends nodded understandingly, filed out so it was just the parents to be left in the room. The moment Esposito sat down on Meredeth's bed, she pulled him in for a mind-melting kiss.

'Javi, I love you so much, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me.'

'I love you too Mere.' Esposito rubbed his thumb over her cheek. 'And it's me who's the lucky one, being so blessed to have a wife and lover who's also my very best friend.'

'Dammit, you're gonna make me cry again.'

'Let it out, then.' Esposito gently pushed her temple to his shoulder and felt her sob a little, some from the hormones, some from the over-extended emotions they were all feeling. 'Feel better?' he asked a few minutes later.

'Yeah, I do. I'm still scared something will happen.'

'If something happens, I'll be right there with you.' Esposito paused, studied her face and knew what it was that was bothering her. 'You want Tessi here, too, don't you?'

'I do. I want to see our little girl.'

'Okay. I'll take care of it.'

By three in the morning, Meredeth was holding steady at six centimetres and Esposito had gotten Ryan to go and pick Tessi up from his apartment; Kelsey stayed behind to watch Dell. The little girl was cranky at having her sleep disturbed but when she saw Meredeth in the hospital bed with the IV tubes, she was more confused than anything.

'Where babies, Mami? They domin' yet?'

'They are, but it takes time for them to come out of Mami's body.'

'How long I take?'

'Fifteen hours.'

At this knowledge, Tessi's tired eyes went wide. 'Thassa long time, Mami.'

'I know. Why don't you go back to sleep, princess, and pretty soon, you'll be a big sister.'

'Yea.' Tessi cuddled against Ryan's shoulder and was already fighting the yawns as Ryan took her back to the lounge with the rest of their family, leaving Esposito and Meredeth alone once more.

'I feel much better now, though...shit. Shit, shit, shit.'

'Another one?' Esposito went on alert at the sound of the monitor's increased beeping. The contractions were now six minutes apart, and Meredeth was almost due for her epidural. 'Okay, just breathe, breathe through it, Mere.'

'No! No, no, no, no, stop it!' she bellowed, and Esposito's gut went a little watery as he felt his finger-bones rub together. 'Fuck!'

'Mere, I'm getting Harvey or Andrea or someone, you need-'

'You move, you die! Just...wait...there.'

The beeping slowed once more and Meredeth flopped back against the bank of pillows. 'Okay,' she huffed out, 'now you can go and get someone.'

But there was no need, as Harvey and Daniel both were coming in, reading her chart. 'Time to see the caterpillar, Alice,' Daniel told her with a smile as he brought over his tray of supplies for giving her the epidural. 'Your blood pressure is high enough with the labour we can give you the legal max of drugs. Should be a most excellent trip.'

He helped Meredeth roll to her side and Esposito was ready to punch Daniel square in the face when he saw the little tear roll out of Meredeth's eye, heard her whimper a bit as Daniel inserted the catheter. She was gently rolled to her back again and Harvey snapped on the gloves to examine her progress.

'Looking good Meredeth, Boy Twin is definitely on his way down, and Girl Twin isn't going to be too far behind him once things get moving.'

'So nothing we can do but wait, Doctor?' Esposito asked.

'Nothing to do but wait.'

Harvey made a few more notations to her chart, as did Daniel, and they were out the door leaving Meredeth and Esposito alone together again.

R&R&Enjoy