"So, when are you moving in with him?" Lanie asked and Kate bit her lip as she went through her closet to see what clothes she felt comfortable wearing to work now that her baby bump was showing.
"We haven't exactly set a date yet," she told her best friend as she looked at the pink dress she'd worn when she crashed his book reading about two years ago.
"Why not?"
Kate groaned at the thought that she wouldn't be able to wear the dress for a couple more months and started to think about how long it would take for her body to go back to normal size after she gave birth.
"Because we've been busy at work, which reminds me, Montgomery put me on desk duty from now on," she grunted and Lanie laughed behind her.
When Kate turned around Lanie just shook her head. "You didn't see it coming?"
"Well, yeah, but not this soon." Kate rubbed her belly a bit, the little one was moving around in there and even though it was kind of nice to finally feel him or her it was a bit frightening as well.
"Not this soon? Kate, you almost got punched in the belly by a suspect," Lanie reminded her and Kate shivered at the thought of how close it had been.
Good thing that her partner had been there to jump in front of her at just the right moment. She'd begged her partner not to tell the captain but he threatened that if she wouldn't then he would, and so she did. And got desk duty.
"Yeah, I know." She finally found a couple of shirts big enough to hide her bump which she pulled out and put on her bed.
"Plus you almost threw up at the last crime scene you were at anyway," Lanie reminded her and she wrinkled her nose. "What are you doing again?" she questioned as Kate went back into the closet.
"I'm picking out clothes to take with me to Castle," she told her best friend and got a smirk directed at her.
"Why?"
Kate felt her cheeks blush along with her ears turning red. "Because I'm slowly moving in?" Lanie let go of a joyous yelp as she clapped her hands. "Please just help me find jeans to fit in."
The M.E. didn't need more encouragement but jumped up from where she'd been seated and went to help her friend. Once they'd found a bunch of clothes that still fit Kate was hungry and asked if the latina wanted to eat something, of course she did and so they made sandwiches.
"Apart from desk duty and not being able to fit all your clothes, how does it feel being twenty weeks pregnant?" Lanie asked and Kate swallowed the piece of bread she had in her mouth.
"It's weird," she admitted. "Now that I'm starting to show people keep looking at me, especially at work. Even Karpowski has been close to asking me if I'm pregnant but she doesn't dare in case she's wrong."
Lanie started to laugh. "No, no one would ask you unless they were sure."
"True," Kate chuckled too.
"What about your relationship with Castle? Still frightening?"
Kate bit her lip. "Not as much. It's actually kind of exciting," she revealed to her best friend who was smiling big. "I-uh, I love him." She hadn't said it to anyone other than the writer himself so it made her blush again saying it out loud for someone else's ears to hear.
"Wow, I haven't heard you talk like that about anyone before," Lanie said with a wide smile on her lips.
"Can we talk about something else?" Kate asked.
"How about shopping?" Lanie said and Kate groaned. "What? You'll need bigger clothes soon, plus we need to buy clothes for the little one as well."
"How was your day with Lanie?" Castle questioned as Kate walked into the loft, carrying a couple bags filled with clothes.
"Eventful," she told him and he laughed as he turned around to see her exhausted expression.
It had gone a week since the M.E. suggested they should go shopping and since it had been both of their day off her best friend had insisted they'd go shopping. Shopping with Lanie was always an adventure of trying out new clothes in pretty much every store, and now, with the baby on the way, they went into a lot more baby stores than Kate had imagined was within walk-distance of each other.
"Come on, let me take some of that," Castle came up to her and held out his hands and she didn't hesitate to give him a few of the bags. "What did you even buy?"
"Oh, I don't even know anymore," she admitted and he laughed again. "Pretty sure I bought a whole clothing store thanks to Lanie." She let go of a groan as they walked through the office and into his bedroom. Soon to be their bedroom.
She could hear how he tried not to laugh anymore, he knew how much she hated being the center of the universe, and he was having a pretty good feeling on how much attention she'd already gotten from her friend trying to convince her to try on clothes and show her everything. He put down the bags he held on his bed and Kate couldn't stop him before he started to open them to look inside them. She bit her lip as she felt a rising blush on her cheeks.
"You bought some for the baby as well I see," he said and she saw the big smirk appear on his lips.
He'd tried getting her to look at baby clothes for months but she hadn't budged. In her defense she'd been literally dragged into the baby store before she had even known it was on Lanie's agenda, which was why she'd been surprised enough and not been able to pull away. The reason she hadn't agreed on looking at baby stuff earlier was because it was all getting too real too fast for her. True, the baby growing in her stomach was five months and one week now but the fact that it was less than four months left scared her. She still didn't feel ready to be a mom.
"Oh my god, this one is absolutely perfect!" Castle exclaimed, bringing her back from her thoughts and she looked up at him to see him holding up the onesie she'd felt be perfect for their little one.
She chuckled at his childish excitement when he held it up for her to see it, as if she hadn't already seen it. The onesie had two cartoon-ish coffee cups with eyes and smiles on their "faces" as they looked to a smaller almost identical coffee cup in the middle, resembling a family of coffee cups. As soon as Kate had seen it she'd felt her heart melt and had even felt her eyes water, stupid hormones, and Lanie had followed her gaze only to demand she'd buy it.
"Either you buy it or I will," she'd threatened.
"What else did you buy," he mumbled as he started looking through the rest in that bag.
For about half an hour they looked through all the stuff she'd bought for their baby. It didn't take that long due to the amount of stuff but more because it took Castle about five minutes to examine every single item. When he moved on to a second bag, she didn't notice which bag until it was too late.
"Ooooh, what's this?" he said and she turned to look only to widen her eyes at the lace bra and panties he picked up.
She took quick steps to yank the undergarments from his hands and put them in the bag again. "Nothing."
He smirked and let his eyes roam up and down her body, sending arousal into her body as she felt her cheeks blush again. "Stop it," she whispered and he chuckled.
"Stop what?" he asked as he went closer to her, placing himself so close their bodies almost touched and she had to look up in order to meet his eyes.
He looked at her with that look that always made her melt, and with her hormones at this stage pregnant it also made her quite hot. She bit her lip as she tried to control her emotions. "That. Stop that."
He glanced her up and down again, sending another shockwave down her body before he leaned closer with his face. His nose nudged hers and she whispered a curse, her eyes closing. It was electrifying being so close to him and it didn't take many seconds before she couldn't stand back anymore. Kate's the one who closed the last space between their lips in order to claim his in a heated kiss. It took a second before he deepened the kiss and when his tongue asked permission to enter she parted her lips and moaned when his taste got on her taste buds.
Castle's hands went around her back, landing on her lower back before pulling her closer to his body. She let her own hands circle to the back of his neck, holding him close as well. When one of his hands went down to her ass, giving her a squeeze only to have her gasping at the arousal pooling inside her. His lips left hers only to trace down her skin, her jaw, to her neck. When he was at her pulse he stuck out his tongue to wet her skin and it made her shiver, before he started sucking.
"Damnit, Castle," she whispered out on a small gasp before it slightly turned into another moan.
He started to back her towards the bed and Kate didn't even try to fight, she was way too turned on to want to stop. She fell down onto the bed with him never letting his lips leave her skin. One of his hands found its way in under her shirt and it made sure to stroke her belly before traveling up to her bra. Soon enough her shirt was off along with her bra, his mouth attached to one of her breasts, and she became a moaning mess in no time. That's when she decided to take some control too and started to get him out of his clothes as well. Once they're both naked it didn't take long before they connected and made love with each other.
"Only four more months until I get to meet you." The whispers were what woke her up and while she did wake up she didn't move a muscle. His voice was so soothing, plus she hadn't heard him talk like that to her stomach before. "You know, I don't know whether you're a boy or a girl but I swear to you we'll love you no matter what. And yes, I mean both me and your mom. You know, she's been shopping for you today," he whispered and half-chuckled. "I've been trying to get her to shop for you for months, but the fact that she has now shows how far she's come with accepting that you're on your way. Plus all the things she bought are absolutely adorable."
She continued to stay quiet, but did crack open her eyes in order to look down at him. Her boyfriend, and her baby's father, was laying on his stomach with his face close to her ever growing stomach. It almost looked as though he was expecting their baby to answer him. He sighed and Kate was about to ask him what was wrong but didn't get the chance before he was talking again.
"Speaking of your mother, she'll move in here soon and I know she's doing it mostly because it'll be easier on you if we all live at the same place but…" she felt fear fill her belly, what if he didn't want her to move in with him? "Apart from that I really hope she wants to move in here because she wants to, not only because of you coming into our lives. I love her, more than anyone I've ever been with before. And I would've proposed but I have a feeling she'd say no. She'd probably just think I proposed because of you, just like I did with Meredith when Alexis was born. There's a big difference though."
He stopped talking and she felt the baby move around in her belly. The baby continued to move and she felt a few kicks here and there. Since the little one didn't stop kicking she made quick work of finding his hand with hers to put it right on top of the baby's kicks. At first he showed surprise that she was awake, not having expected her to actually be awake, and then his eyes widened with pride when he felt what she felt coming from the inside of her belly.
"The baby's moving," he said with wonder in his voice and she nodded.
"I'm guessing it likes the sound of your voice," she told him and he looked at her with a small fear in his eyes.
"You heard me?" he asked and she wrinkled her forehead.
"Heard what?" she questioned, pretending she woke up from the kicks.
He shook his head. "Nothing."
They let their hands lay on her belly for a couple minutes, just feeling the small baby inside her making itself known. Castle laid his head on the pillow beside her and they snuggled closer to each other, their hands slowly intertwining on top of her stomach. When she could hear on his breathing that he was slowly falling asleep she opened her mouth and let out her confession before closing her eyes in order to fall asleep herself.
"I love you too."