A Different Shade Of Pale
Chapter 53
"Everything went well. Both Kate and the baby are doing fine," Dr. Gale reported. "It's going to be a couple of hours yet before the sedative we gave her wears off completely, so she's a little out of it, but once we get her settled in a room, someone will take you in to sit with her. Just Mr. Castle and Mr. Beckett for now and then she can have other visitors later."
"Thank you Doctor!" Castle exclaimed, teetering as Alexis threw herself at him in a monster hug.
Jim Beckett extended a hand to Gale. "Add my thanks to Rick's."
"Suddenly I'm starved," Martha announced. "Alexis and I will go down to that outrageously expensive shop downstairs and see what we can find." She inclined her head toward Castle and Jim Beckett. "We can bring you two something while you wait to be taken to Katherine."
Castle and Jim Beckett both demurred. "I'll walk down with you," Roy Montgomery said. "I need to get back to the precinct - what's left of it."
Castle and Jim Beckett sank back down into chairs. "You know," Jim Beckett began hesitantly, "I wasn't really sure about you marrying Katie. I could see you two love each other. That would be evident from the highest seat in the bleachers. But you are a two time loser and I wasn't sure I could depend on you to stick around if the going got tough. Now it's pretty clear that you're here for her and I suspect you always will be. I'm very pleased to have you as a future son-in-law."
"That's nice to know, Jim, but the truth is that I'm going to marry Kate whether you approve or not. I love her more than I've ever loved any woman in my life. So nothing and no one is going to keep me away from her, whatever happens."
"Well that's just fine, Rick. That's how I felt about Johanna."
"How's your class action going?" Castle asked, searching for some entré into less loaded conversation.
"Well Martha's former beau is not making things easy, but the facts are on our side," Jim replied. "I have a number of experts ready to testify to the gluten contamination in the Palco products and doctors to confirm the damage done to their patients with celiac disease, so I'm sure we'll win in the end. Paliburn's lawyers just keep filing motions to slow everything down and force a low settlement. So far, all my people are holding strong."
"Well let me know if there's anything I can do to help," Castle offered. "I have half a million followers on Twitter and they know how to make a lot of noise for the right cause. I know a lot of bloggers with very high readership too, probably more than the papers these days."
"Thanks Rick, I think we're okay, but I'll keep that in mind."
Despite Castle's efforts, they fell into silence again until a cheery volunteer made her way to where they waited. "Mr. Castle? Mr. Beckett?" The men nodded their acknowledgment."I can take you upstairs to Ms. Beckett now."
Kate lay drowsily against the pillow. Her lids lifted slowly as the men entered the room and her voice was deep and breathy. "Hey Dad, Babe."
Castle brushed his index finder against her cheekbone. "Hey yourself. Planning on lazing around all day?"
"I thought I would, Castle. Your habits must be catching. Maybe I'll even get into Terra Quest."
"Yeah I can see you kicking the East Mountain Goblin King's ass. But if you beat me and get a Falchining sword, I am going to be pissed."
"Come to think of it, Castle, you've always been the artist with a sword. Maybe I should get into Halo, use a different weapon. There's a character in there that sounds a little like you."
Jim Beckett coughed. "Katie, I'm only a phone call away if you need anything, but I think I'll just leave you and Castle to it."
Kate lifted a hand to her father. "Dad, thanks for being here. I'll call you whether I need anything or not."
Jim Beckett squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek before he left.
"Are Martha and Alexis around here somewhere too?" Kate asked.
"Your dad and I were allowed in first, so they went in search of sustenance, but they'll be in later. Listen, I heard from Tanu again. Jason Marx has been busy. He's called on every business on Ryan's list. Tanu is setting up a system to intercept calls and anything that goes out on wi fi from those places and from Marx. They'll probably be wise enough to encrypt, but you never know. All we need is one drug transaction we can trace through Marx to Bracken and we're on our way. Drug dealers don't usually employ brainiacs. Someone is going to slip."
"Castle if the police bugged someone like that without a warrant, anything they got would be thrown out in court."
"I know," Castle agreed. "And Marx or any any of the drug dealers or even Bracken could sue Tanu for invasion of privacy, or sue me for hiring him; but of course they won't. The minute they did, anything we found would become public. But Kate, Tanu and I aren't police so any evidence we get will still be admissible. We have nothing to lose here. Imagine the bonus if we get something on Donovan. Montgomery and all our friends at the Twelfth would be dancing in the streets. We just have to wait for something to pop - as long as it's not the baby. You need to keep that inside for quite a while yet."
"Castle, about the baby..."
"What?" Castle asked, his smile fading into his suddenly whitened face.
"Whoa, it's okay Babe, but a technician was doing an ultrasound to help set up for the procedure. I guess she didn't get the message that we didn't want to know the sex of the child yet. They'd already given me the happy juice, so I was pretty woozy, but she was definitely referring to the baby as a 'him'."
"Kate, 'him' is a pretty generic pronoun. A lot of people use it to mean either sex."
"Yeah Castle, I know. But when Dr. Gale came in, I asked. As whacked out as I was, she might have thought I wouldn't even remember, but she confirmed it, Castle. It's a boy."
"Well what do you know? Cosmo. If Alexis had been a boy I was going to name him Cosmo. It means order and beauty."
"Castle, I don't care what it means," Beckett insisted. "It sounds like a crazy character on Seinfeld. You would be dooming our son to a beat down on any playground in the country. When the time comes, we'll pick something else, something that won't leave him traumatized."
"When the time comes?" Castle repeated. "Kate are you afraid to name him now because you're afraid he won't make it?"
"Castle, no matter how good Dr. Gale is and no matter how hard Dr. Morris works with his team, it is still a real possibility. The thought of it tears me up but you know it's true. Choosing a name now could just make everything that much worse if we lose him."
"Or, Castle offered, "it could be a statement of faith that we won't. How about Morris? And then Gale as a middle name, like Gale Gordon, the guy who was on the Lucy show, or Gale Sayers, the football player. We name him after the people who save him."
"Castle, the name is fine, but are you really sure this is the time to settle it?"
"Kate, I'm sure. But tell you what," Castle proposed, "right now we can just call him M.G., pretend you have a tiny little sports car revving up in there."
Kate show her head in bemusement and gingerly laid a hand on on her rounded belly. "Alright, he's M.G., the little car that could."
