Chapter Seven
Mysterious
Post-series

"What about this one?"

Kate lifts her gaze from the hand resting on her belly and has to suppress a frustrated sigh. They've been looking at paint colors for weeks, and her husband's insistence that the nursery needs to be more perfect than perfect is trying her patience. Her back hurts, her feet hurt, she has to pee, and she just wants to go home.

"I don't really care, Castle," she snaps, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

Rick's cheeks flush and a look of understanding creeps over his face. He takes her hand and turns to the paint store employee helping them, who now looks like he'd rather be anywhere else so he doesn't end up in the middle of a squabble.

"Right. Well, I have plenty of samples, so we'll go home and see if we can't narrow it down," Rick tells the young man. "Thanks for your help, Scott."

"Any time, Mr. and Mrs. Castle. Like I said, I'm a fan. I'm happy to help when you do decide." The men shake hands and, with a final good-bye to both of them, Scott takes his leave.

Kate practically drags Rick out of the store, ignoring glances from other patrons and employees. She doesn't know if they're being stared at because she radiates tension and annoyance, or if Castle's been recognized, but she really doesn't care right now.

"Whoa, Kate, slow down. Where's the fire?" Rick tugs at her hand to get her to stop, but she doesn't, not until they're in the car.

"I have to pee, that's the fire," she says when he puts on his seatbelt.

"I'm sure they have a bathr-" He turns on the ignition when she levels a glare at him. "Okay, we're leaving. Got it."

Luckily the store is just a few minutes from the house, so as soon as the car comes to a stop in the driveway, she's out of the car. She beelines to the bathroom and immediately feels better.

Until she emerges and hears Rick grumbling under his breath.

"What was that?" she says when she hears something that sounds suspiciously like "it's not my fault."

He does at least make an effort to look apologetic before he answers. "Nothing."

"Yeah right."

"Okay, fine." Rick leans against the kitchen counter after setting down the new paint chips. "If you didn't want to go, you should have just stayed home. But it's our kid, Beckett. Decorating the nursery is something we need to do together."

"I told you I didn't want to go!" Kate argues, taking a step closer, her voice rising with her frustration. "You said it would only take a few minutes, but then that kid complimented your books, and your ego just took over."

"We need to decide what color-"

"We have forty-seven paint chips, Rick!" she yells, exasperated. "How many more do we need before we can make a damn decision?" She almost collapses in the chair closest to her, which happens to be right in front of Rick. "Maybe we shouldn't even paint the room. Just leave it the way it is."

"Leave it-okay, wait a minute."

When she looks up, Rick's smiling with the same expression he gets when he has an idea. "Maybe we're worrying too much about picking the wrong color."

"You think?"

Rick just throws her a look and continues, grabbing a magazine from the dining table-slash-nursery planning zone. He flips through the pages until he lets out a triumphant "a-ha!" and shows her what he found. "What about this?"

Kate squints. Maybe she's just tired, but she doesn't get it. "What am I looking at?"

Rick points at the wall of the pictured nursery. "That. They're decals. I saw some cute decal sets at Target the other day, and I'm sure they have some at the hardware store. So, we paint the walls white or something, and the decals are the focus instead of the wall color. And if we don't like it, we just switch them out. Much easier than having to re-paint the whole room."

"Huh." Kate considers. It's actually a great idea...if they can find a decal they can agree on. "Okay, let's go to Target. Tomorrow," she clarifies when Rick reaches for his keys. "We'll look at some tonight online, okay? Just to get some ideas."

Rick pulls her up and envelops her in his arms. "Okay," he agrees, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm sorry for today."

Kate smiles against his shirt. "Me too."

"Kate, honey, will you come here for a minute?"

Kate sighs as she puts her book down and stands. She just got to a good part, where the former lovers are about to give into their still-simmering desire, and she doesn't want to be interrupted. But Rick has been in the nursery since after breakfast, with strict instructions for her to stay away and relax, so she hasn't given him much of a second thought.

Well, she's definitely started thinking about him now that the book's getting steamy.

She pushes the beginning tugs of arousal from her mind and heads down the hall, finds the husband in question in front of the closed nursery door. "What's up? Everything okay?"

Rick grins and opens the door. "Let me know what you think."

Kate gasps when she walks in, her gaze flicking from one thing to another, unsure where to even look. He's put together the crib, and when she turns and sees the wall her eyes fill with tears. They'd painted the walls a pale orange color the previous week - well, he had - and he's taken the leaf decals they'd found and put them in a falling pattern.

"Rick-" she breathes, her voice catching and the tears starting to fall. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm crying."

Rick just grins and crowds her back, wrapping his arms around her middle and cradling her rapidly growing belly. "No apology necessary." He drops his chin to her shoulder. "I can move the leaves if you want, but I thought it'd be fun if they were falling."

"No, it's perfect." Kate turns in his arms and presses a hard kiss to his mouth, thumbs the stubble on his jaw when they part. "I love it. And I love you."

"I love you too."