Life Goes On
Chapter 56
The distinctive "ah-lah" cry of a newborn sounded from the bassinet next to the Castle's bed. Kate stirred sleepily, feeling the heaviness in her breasts as they responded to Lily of their own accord. Castle yawned. "I'll get her for you."
Castle pulled himself from beneath the covers and dragged himself around the bed. He carefully picked up the baby and handed her to Kate. Lily immediately began rooting. Castle stroked Lily's dark fuzz with a fingertip. "She goes for you like you go for strawberry shakes, with a similar apperance of ecstasy. And you look pretty serene yourself, if sleepy. Are you sure you want to go back to work today, Kate? You're barely healed."
Kate sighed. "Not sure I want to, Castle, but I need to. Things are piling up. I checked with Nettie and the bus company the city sued to make them air condition the buses for the special needs kids still hasn't responded. In a few months those buses are going to be sweltering and those kids need to be on them to get to their summer programs. Some of those children could get seriously ill. Not exactly what we're trying to accomplish. Nettie said there's a whole new wave of relatives of disabled tenants complaining that their landlords aren't complying with the Disability Rent Increase Exemption too. The landlords are trying to put grannies in wheelchairs out on the street. I need to deal with those issues, but for the next few weeks I'll try to only do half a day. And you'll be bringing Lily to me to nurse, won't you?"
"Of course," Castle confirmed. "We'll see you mid-morning, then I promised Alexis and Hayley I'd bring her by the office for a few minutes. Alexis is in full doting older sister mode. Hayley's sort of nervous about handling a baby, but she's getting into it. Alexis wants get a portable crib for the back room so she can babysit."
"A little soon for that, isn't it Castle?" Kate inquired, switching Lily to her other breast.
"You know Alexis, always planning ahead. Anyway, today Lily will get her first look at the crime solving business. She's got it in her blood, Kate. Anyway, while you finish serving Lily her breakfast, I'll go work on ours. You can grab the first shower. Pancakes?" Castle inquired.
Kate yawned again. "I don't care, Castle, as long as I get my cruelly limited morning allotment of caffeine."
Castle pulled on his robe. "In honor of the extra calories Lily is burning for you, a whole milk latte with two pumps of non-sugar-free vanilla coming up."
Kate wished she had pulled Bill Garrett's perfectly contoured rocking chair up to the conference table, but somehow it hadn't seemed dignified. She suppressed the urge to squirm in her conventional seat as she listened to a landlord's representative whining that a building could not be properly maintained without a rent increase. He reminded Kate of some of the scuzzier lawyers she'd met, trying to make deals for their even scuzzier clients. "Mr. Siletti," she explained, "I have looked at the maintenance costs for the building in question, as has the accounting staff for the Department of Finance. Neither one of us has found any justification at all for your boss' violation of DRIE. Furthermore if a rollback is not initiated immediately, he may be liable for a hefty fine. So I would sincerely advise him to follow the law. I think we're done here."
Nettie came in as Siletti stomped out. "Another satisfied customer, I see."
"I hope not," Kate confided. "Sometimes I think some of the jerks in this city would charge their tenants for breathing, if they could. But we'll follow the situation. Set the staff up to get the D.A. to bring charges if necessary. And get a hold of Paul Whittaker. A little attention from the press should push things along."
Nettie grinned. "Yes Ma'am!"
Lily's declaration of dissatisfaction made its way through the open door, followed shortly by Castle trying to quiet the complainant. Castle closed the door behind him. "Your constituent has demanded a face to face, or at least a mouth to tit," Castle teased.
Kate rolled her eyes and went with relief to take a seat in Garrett's handiwork. She opened the carefully camouflaged snaps in her blouse and reached up to take Lily, who immediately quieted on finding her morning snack.
"Bad morning?" Castle asked, noting the faint lines in Kate's forehead.
"Just a conference with a jerk. Hardly anything unusual around here," Kate observed. "The staff has been doing a good job while I was gone though, not nearly the pile-up I expected. I think things are going to work out all right, Castle."
"Well that's good, 'cause I think it's a little late to put Lily back," Castle quipped. "Hey, I got a call from Louis Crampton this this morning."
"The guy who's being touted as the successor to Stephen King?" Kate asked.
"I don't there will ever be one," Castle opined, "but the guy is good, capable of a certain delicious creepiness. Anyway, he wants to collaborate. He's setting a story in New York and he wants to make sure he gets the details right. He also wants to explore some of the weirder murder scenarios."
"Well you've certainly seen enough of those," Kate concluded. "But are you going to have the time?" You've still been trying to get some of your own work done in the time while Lily's been asleep and there isn't enough of that if you're going to get any sleep of your own."
"True," Castle acknowledged, "but it's a fun project. And Crompton's publisher is a lot more literary than Black Pawn. I figure if I get my foot in the door there, it might be a good home for Colin. So in a way, I will be doing some of my own work. It won't take that much time. We'll be doing most of it by email and I can send those off in odd moments. He will be coming to New York tomorrow for a stopover on his way to a European book tour, though. He'll just be around for a day and he'd like to get together. He'd like to meet you, too. He's never had a muse and he's fascinated that I do. I thought we could go someplace baby friendly for dinner, or just have him come to the loft."
Kate caught her lip between her teeth. "Define 'baby friendly,' Castle."
"Restaurant with high backed booths, so there are no inquiring eyes in case you decide to give Lily a snack. Louis won't care. He has four kids. You could put her in that front carrier with zipper, then whatever you decided to do would be totally invisible anyway. Also, a restroom with a changing station or a big enough counter to serve as one. A wait staff that is sufficiently unobtrusive. In a few months the designation will include available high chairs, but we don't have to worry about that yet. I actually found an online directory on one of the parents' sites. One of the recommendations serves chicken cacciatore," Castle added enticingly.
"Oh, that was my Nona's specialty. I love it!" Kate exclaimed.
Lily fussed as she was temporarily dislodged, but almost immediately found her meal again.
Castle chuckled. "I know. So shall I make the arrangements? Louis will have a car and a driver. We can just meet him."
"Okay," Kate agreed. "Lily's first night out. This will be one of many new experiences."
