Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

A/N This is for BaltimoreJaxs.

Last Sunday afternoon Docky came over to see Scrapple and me while Sarah took care of the twins and Mom and Dad went to see a play. Docky and I were building a hospital and a police station out of blocks when they got home.

"Hi, Mom, hi, Dad!"

"Please forgive me for not getting up, but Eliot and I are in the middle of a construction project. How was the play?"

"Aah, so-so," Mom said, "but Hallie Foote was incredible."

I pointed to my shoe. "Foot!"

"Yes, that's her last name, just like your foot."

"Docky, my teacher should have gone to the play with Mom and Dad."

"Why is that?"

"Because his name is Mr. Shue! He could have jumped up and said, 'Hi, Ms. Foote, my name is Mr. Shue. Will you marry me?' Wouldn't that be funny? They would be the Shue-Foote family."

Docky laughed, so I knew he thought it was funny. "You crack me up, Eliot."

"I like that expression, you crack me up. I'm glad you explained it the other day or I would have thought that I broke you, get it? I cracked you up?"

"I do get it. You definitely crack me up."

"I think we're missing something here, Beckett," Dad said, but he was smiling. "This calls for ET."

So ET—in case you forgot, that's short for Eliot Translator, who is Docky—told Mom and Dad what I'd told him and they laughed, too. Then he pushed himself up from the floor and said, "Castle, would you like to finish building the precinct with your son? I'd like to have a word with Kate about a case, if that's all right."

So Dad switched places with Docky and got some toy police cars to put in front of our police station and Mom and Docky went to the kitchen. They were talking for a little while and then we all heard Otis and Abby who had just woken up from their nap and Sarah brought them downstairs. Oh, boy, oh, girl (get it?) I knew they would get on the floor and knock over my blocks and they did. "Don't cry over spilt milk," Grandad says. That's an expression not about milk. It means something happened and you can't fix it but it's not important.

Sarah went home and Docky stayed a little while to have coffee with Mom and Dad. And then we had a nice, quiet evening at home. That's what Mom called it, but if you have two babies at home like my sister and brother it's never very quiet.

I forgot to tell you the exciting news which is that the day before I got a big boy bed.

"Abby and I are still getting used to not being in bassinets anymore but sleeping in cribs like you and you don't have to be in a crib anymore? That's not fair. You always get to do everything first."

"He's older than we are, Otis. He's bigger, so he gets a big boy bed. It's logical."

"Well, someday I'll be bigger than Eliot and then we'll see who gets to do things first."

"You think you're going to be bigger than me, Otis?"

"Yeah, Dad says I'm a real bruiser."

"I think he means you're kind of fat, Otis. Eliot's going to be very tall. Everybody says that."

"You guys? We're all gonna be tall, even Abby. I'll see you later."

The thing I like about my new bed is that it doesn't have all those rails and it's low to the floor so that Scrapple can jump up on it and sleep next to me. And the night that Docky came over I found out something because of my new bed. I decided to see if I could get out of it all by myself so I did. I wanted to tell Mom and Dad and I walked to the top of the stairs where I have to wait for them if I want to come down but they were in the kitchen and I could hear them talking about me so I decided to listen. I didn't understand all of it, but most of it I did.

"Castle, I understand that he's really smart."

"He's way more than that, Beckett."

"I understand. I do. I just don't want to make him self-conscious or isolate him from kids his age. The principal suggested putting him in the class with the older kids, but his verbal skills aren't up to it yet. I don't know how to do this. It terrifies me, that we can screw this up. It's a parental responsibility I never expected."

"We'll figure it out. He's such a level-headed kid. He can help us, too, you know? What was Perlmutter saying to you this afternoon? I know it wasn't anything about a case."

"He was saying how funny he is, how he's blessed with a great sense of humor. He can tell that better than we can at the moment, but we do see that he laughs all the time. And I think that will be a huge help to him when he's older, that he's so funny."

"So he's funny and he's happy, sounds like a good combination to me."

"It is, it is, but he needs more, and I don't mean educational toys. I was thinking maybe one thing could be a second language?"

"Like Russian? Or French? You could speak those with him. Especially French, ooh-la-la."

"Sidney told me about an amazing graduate student at NYU, Ernie Jackson. Absolutely understands kids like Eliot and plays great games with them, one on one. Sidney say if we're interested, he'll get in touch with the guy."

"Let's do it."

I decided to go back to bed. I can climb in all by myself. I liked that Mom and Dad said I can help with things and I liked hearing about Docky's friend who plays games with kids all the time. That sounded like fun.

Two days later we went to enwyyou to meet Ernie Jackson. Well, I met him. Mom and Dad already did the day before.

"Eliot," Mom said when we were on our way, "Mister Jackson had a very bad accident a while ago."

"He has ow?"

"Yes, a very bad ow. He's fine now, but I want you to know that he has some scars. You know what scars are, because you've seen mine. But Mister Jackson's are on his face, especially around his eyes. I don't want you to stare at them, all right? Because that's not kind, even if you're just curious, okay?"

"Kay."

"I think you're really going to like him, Eliot." Dad said. "He's very funny."

"And he has a great imagination, just like you, sweet pea."

Then we were at the big brick building where Mister Jackson works. Only after I met him I didn't have to call him that. I call him Ernie. He is really tall and so funny. I am going to see him two times a week. You know what we did the first day? A game called checkers. He taught me how to play. It's a game on a board with checks which must be why it's called checkers.

"You want the red guys or the white guys, Eliot?"

"Red!"

"I thought you'd say that. You like bright colors, don't you?"

"Yah."

I like the part where your guys, they're called pieces, get to jump over the other guys. Sometimes you get to be kinged which is good because a king gets to jump around all over the place, anyway he wants.

"Crow, Ernie?"

"Crow? Oh, crown! You think you should get a crown when you get kinged?"

"Yah! Crow!"

"I'll have to think about that."

So yesterday Dad took me to see Ernie and he had a surprise. When we played checkers, the first time my red guy got kinged, Ernie stood up and said, "One minute, your majesty." He bent over to open the cabinet but before he did he turned around and said, "Please close your eyes, your majesty." And I did.

"Okay, you can open 'em!"

I did, and I clapped! Ernie had made me a crown, and one for him, too, for when he gets kinged. It has gold sparkles and jewels. Not real jewels like Mom's ring, but pictures he glued on. It's very cool. I leave it at Ernie's office for when we play. "You don't want other kids seeing it, your majesty. They might get jealous." He stores our crowns in the cabinet so they're safe.

On our last game yesterday, guess what. I beat Ernie! He said, "This calls for a celebration!" and we had a chocolate-chip cookie which is my favorite, and a glass of milk. He took my picture with me wearing my crown, and one of the checkerboard where you could see I won. And he sent them to Mom and Dad and Docky and underneath he wrote, "The New Champ!" That's me, Eliot. I know I won't be the champ every time, but that's fine. I love Ernie.