This isn't exactly a time jump in the traditional sense; it's more of a whirlwind tour through the rest of the year 2018 with the Castle family (including all their friends, who are really part of their family), since the last chapter left off in early August of 2018. I'm wanting to get to 2019 and some of the big events that happen that year in this universe I've created.
Also, for the purposes of the remainder of this story, I'm writing Sarah Grace and Nick Ryan as their actual ages based on when they were born on the show (Sarah Grace was born January 6, 2014 in season 6's "Under Fire," making her four years old and rapidly approaching her fifth birthday at the end of 2018; and Nick was born April 11, 2016, in season 8's "Death Wish," making him two years old going on three in December 2018).
Lily, having been born on May 7, 2017 in this story, is 19 months old in December 2018, and will turn two in May of 2019.
Thank you all for your continued enthusiasm and support for this story. And a special shout-out to the guest reviewers to whom I cannot respond personally. Thanks for taking the time to review.
The notebooks Matias Esposito had left behind for Javier in August 2018 were filled with recollections of his life and his personal history, everything he could think of and remember to write down for his only child, including stories and information about Javier's long-deceased grandparents, aunts, and uncles.
The envelope Walter Albertson gave Javier contained the necessary information for Javier to contact Matias's lawyer in Miami; Matias had left a small inheritance for Javier in the form of a life insurance policy.
Javier decided to take the money his father had left him and use it to start a program for adult literacy in Matias's name. Alexis, Rick and Kate helped Javier with the details, Rick and Kate having experience with that sort of thing from the scholarship they started in Johanna Beckett's name at her old law school, which was still providing a full ride each year to one student who dedicated their career to those in the legal system without a voice, the very people that Johanna herself had championed over the course of her career. The fundraiser was held every February 4, on Johanna's birthday.
Alexis began her second year of law school in September of 2018. Things didn't really calm down any for her schoolwise, but having her own apartment gave her a lesser number of distractions, albeit with a few guilt feelings about them. Sundays were still prime family time, and Javier was there every Sunday, along with Alexis, Rick, Kate, Lily, Martha, and Jim.
Jim formally retired from his law office, but continued teaching a couple of law school classes at Columbia.
Martha landed the role of Mrs. Higgins in the revival of My Fair Lady that opened on Broadway in April of 2018. The whole family was proud of Martha and overjoyed for her, and everyone but Lily would be in attendance at some point during the opening week. (Jim happily watched Lily on Opening Night so that Kate and Rick could attend, along with Alexis and Javier, and because of Madison's many connections, she had also scored tickets for herself and Mark for that night. Jim took in the Sunday matinee, running into Victoria and Gerald Gates; Kevin and Jenny, and Lanie and Alan, were in the audience on Saturday night.)
Rick spent the rest of the year 2018 plugging away at his new book of serious literature. He finally came up with a title for it: Something Worth Saving. He had his moments of doubt, since this story was unlike anything he had ever written. Kate had never seen him so insecure about his own writing in all the time they had known each other, but, expert on all things Rick Castle that she was, she soon recognized when he was having legitimate writer's block and when he was procrastinating just for procrastination's sake. He was about halfway finished with the book when he told her, one night when they were lying in bed, long after Lily had gone to sleep, "I'm not sure it's going to be any good. It's definitely not going to be anything like what my fans and readers are used to from me, because it's not a murder mystery."
Kate propped her head up on one hand and, lying on her side, looked at her husband. "Rick, what made you decide to write this book? I mean this particular story at this particular time, right now." She paused, then, remembering a case from years before, she said, "It's not because of that time traveler guy from years ago, is it?"
"Simon Doyle? No, it doesn't have anything to do with him," Rick replied. Of course he remembered the guy's name, Kate thought. His attention to detail wouldn't let him forget, especially since he had believed Doyle's story for the duration of the case...although Kate was not quite as skeptical at the case's end as she was before they closed it, especially after it was her spilled coffee that soaked the letter that had been the evidence they needed to get the killer before he claimed a third victim.
"I'm writing this story now because I need to write it," Rick said. "The initial idea came to me, and so I started outlining it...and then before I knew it, I had nine chapters outlined, and I knew where I wanted the characters to go after those nine chapters, all the way to the end of the story. This story has taken hold of me and won't let go until I write it. All of it. It's just something I have to do. I honestly can't explain it any better than that."
"I understand completely," Kate replied, moving closer and resting her other hand on Rick's chest, over his heart. "You are an exceptionally gifted, incredibly talented writer, Rick. This is a departure from your normal, but that doesn't mean it's terrible. I don't see how it could be terrible. You're writing it, and you're writing it from your heart and your soul. Yes, it's different, but anyone who admires truly great writing is going to love this book, whether this is the first book of yours they ever read, or if they've read everything you've ever written. I know it." She looked deeply into his eyes. "I believe in you. And the people who read your first foray into serious literature, whether they're old fans or new fans, are going to see just how gifted and talented and amazing a writer you really are."
Rick smiled. "You're still my muse. I can't honestly say there's a character in this book that's based on you, but you will always be my greatest inspiration, Kate."
"And your proudest fan," Kate added before leaning down for a kiss that Rick enthusiastically returned.
Kate went through her own growing pains as she settled in with the City Council. She was learning a lot, taking copious notes, and it was in October of 2018 that she worked with other City Council members to craft her first bill, which called for stricter prerequisites when residents legally acquired guns. Kate vented to Rick, railing against the special interests trying to block what they were trying to accomplish. "Those people don't know what they're up against," Rick told her. "You come up against a wall, and you don't stop. You'll go over it, under it, crash right through it if that's what it takes, Kate. With you co-drafting this bill, you'll get it exactly the way you want it, exactly the way that will make the most sense and help the most people."
"You really think so?" Kate asked.
"I know so," Rick replied confidently.
True to Rick's words, the bill was hammered out, exactly to the specifications of Kate and her like-minded fellow City Council members, and it would go into Committee in May of 2019, with public hearings being held all throughout the summer of '19, since that was the procedure. Rick and Lily attended as many City Council meetings as they could, and even a few of the public hearings.
Lanie and Alan announced their baby news when they joined the rest of their family of friends at the loft the Saturday after Thanksgiving 2018, when they all gathered for an afternoon of food and games and catching up. The baby was due in April, which led to Rick reminding everyone that he was an April baby himself.
"Well, one April Fool in the family is enough," Lanie said. "I'm sure our baby will pick a different birthday."
"So do you know yet if it's a boy or a girl?" Kate asked.
Lanie and Alan exchanged a look. "We decided to be surprised," Lanie said.
"Yeah, once the baby's here, we'll know it's a boy or a girl forever. It's the greatest surprise we could ever get, so we decided we didn't want to know until she-"
"Or he," Lanie interjected.
"-actually arrives," Alan finished.
Alan and Lanie were bombarded with hugs and congratulations from everyone, and although they had already decided to ask Kate and Rick to be their baby's godparents, they silently communicated with a look that they would ask the Castles later, when they weren't in front of everyone.
Javier gave Alan a handshake and a hearty clap on the shoulder while Alexis was hugging Lanie, and then Javier and Alexis switched places, with Alexis congratulating Alan while Javier smiled at Lanie and said, "You look good, chica. Very happy."
"Back at you, Javi," Lanie said. "Everything has worked out exactly the way it's supposed to."
"It really has," Javi agreed, catching Alexis's eye and beaming at her. She returned his smile and then returned to his side, wrapping her arm around his waist as his arm wrapped around her shoulders.
When they were alone together a little later while Kate changed Lily's diaper, and her outfit, since she had eaten her sweet potatoes so enthusiastically she had splattered them all over not only her bib but the part of her shirt that the bib didn't cover, Lanie said, "You're gonna be my main go-to for pregnancy questions, you know," to Kate.
"I wouldn't have it any other way," Kate replied with a smile as she finished dressing Lily and then picked her up from the changing table and set her down on the floor, then watched her scamper across the room to grab one of her favorite toys, her farm-themed See 'n' Say, and then plop her 19-month-old self down on the rug and pull the string, echoing the "moo"s and "meow"s of the cow and the cat, her two favorite animals featured on the toy. "And if you and Alan have a girl, she and Lily can be the next generation's you and me."
"Sarah Grace is so good with Lily, and with Nick. She's a little mother hen," Lanie reflected. "Of course, she is the firstborn, not only in her own family, but also out of the next generation. She'll probably be the ringleader as the kids grow up, since they're all going to be growing up together."
"Maybe," Kate agreed.
"Of course, Miss Lily over there has a very strong personality," Lanie continued, smirking at Kate. "I wonder where she got that from?"
"Laugh it up now. You're going to be fighting the same battles yourself before you know it," Kate said.
"I can't wait," Lanie replied sincerely. She rested a hand on her just-noticeably-visible baby bump. "I'm gonna be a mom, Kate." Lanie looked at Kate then, thunderstruck.
"Yeah, you are," Kate said with a smile, "and you're gonna love it. Well, not every moment of it, but overall, you're gonna love it." The best friends embraced, and Lily approached them then, carrying her See 'n' Say.
When Kate and Lanie broke their hug to look at Lily, Lily reached out and gently patted Lanie's baby bump. "Aun' Yaynie, what's dat?" Lily asked. Kate visibly paled, and it was all Lanie could do not laugh out loud.
"Well, Miss Lily, you're getting a cousin next spring," Lanie replied.
Lily frowned, her expression a miniature of her mother's over the course of many years of police work, and seeing that look on Lily's face stopped Kate and Lanie both in their tracks. "Cousin?" Lily parroted. She had an exceptional vocabulary, not only picking up the words all of the adults in her life, as well as 4-almost-5-year-old Sarah Grace, who, in her second year of preschool, knew her ABCs, her 123s, her colors, and her shapes, and could now print her name, as well as the alphabet and numbers 0 through 9.
"Uncle Alan and I are having a baby, Lily," Lanie replied.
For one moment, Kate was afraid that Lily would be just precocious enough to ask where babies come from, or at least ask how the baby got in "Aunt Yaynie"'s tummy, but Lily's response was to stand up straight, thrust out her chin, and say, "I'm not a baby. I'm a big girl!"
Kate let out a breath she wasn't even aware she'd been holding and scooped Lily up, settling Lily on her hip. "That's right, Lily, you're our big girl, and getting bigger every day," Kate said.
"How are you and Castle going to handle it when you're the ones having the you-know-what?" Lanie asked. "Or are you not having any more?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Kate said casually as the trio headed back downstairs to join the rest of the family.
December was a monthlong celebration. At 19 months of age (as of December 7, 2018), Lily was old enough to be more of a participant in Christmas than she had been the year before, and she had lost none of her love of Christmas lights (which meant her own personal Christmas lights strung up in her bedroom above her crib again), and had most definitely inherited her daddy's love of Christmas decorating. Alexis brought over some mistletoe when she came over to help decorate the loft for Christmas (Javier was supposed to be there too, but he and Kevin and Hastings caught a last-minute case, so he couldn't come), and Rick made a big show of hanging the mistletoe and giving Lily, Alexis, and Martha, who also joined them for the decorating festivities, cheek kisses, and then luring Kate under the mistletoe, pulling her into his arms, and kissing her soundly on the lips, dramatically dipping her in the process.
This led to two things: Lily, who pronounced "Christmas" as "Kiss-mas," parking herself under the mistletoe whenever she wanted to either get or give a kiss; and when the three of them were all at home and in the living room, whenever Rick or Kate passed under the mistletoe, Lily would insist "Kiss-mas kiss, Mama, Daddy! Kiss-mas kiss!"
"Her incorrigibility is all you," Kate said as she approached Rick under the mistletoe.
"Is that a complaint?" he asked, genuinely unsure whether or not it was.
"An observation," Kate replied before kissing him to Lily's giggles and cheers.
Madison introduced Mark to her parents that December, since they were in town for the whole month. The Quellers liked Mark right away, and Madison was happy relieved that Mark liked her parents back.
She wasn't so happy, however, that Mark liked them so much that he became paranoid about staying at Madison's apartment while her parents were in town, even though her parents were staying in a hotel, however. The whole thing came up in the first place because Madison made the mistake of telling Mark that her parents had a key to her apartment, and would come over even when she wasn't at home if they were in the neighborhood, or if her mom wanted to cook or bake something since she couldn't do so at the hotel, and that she didn't impose any kind of curfew for them. He was equally scandalized when Madison suggested that they stay at his place at least a few nights while her parents were in town.
"So, what, my parents being in the same zip code is such a buzzkill that we're not spending a single night together all month?" Madison asked.
"What would your parents say if they found us in bed together?" Mark asked, his voice an octave higher. "Even just sleeping."
"You do know my parents were kids in the '60s, right? Bra burning, hippies, the Sexual Revolution, Woodstock, free love, they know about all of that stuff," Madison replied.
"Knowing about it is one thing. Knowing their daughter is doing it, and doing it with me, is something else entirely," Mark insisted.
"Great, my parents are cockblocking us," Madison said.
Unfortunately, at just that moment, since Madison and Mark were having this conversation at Madison's apartment, the front door swung open when Madison's mother used her key, and when Mr. and Mrs. Queller walked into the apartment, Mark looked positively horrified, afraid that the Quellers had heard what he and Madison had been discussing just a moment earlier.
It turned out they had heard Madison and Mark talking, and although they were around during the '60s, Madison's father didn't want to discuss the situation at all. As far as he was concerned, his daughter had no sex life, and if she ever presented him and his wife with grandchildren, they would be brought by the stork, or found in a cabbage patch.
Madison's mother had no such qualms, however, and after Mark's hasty departure, she asked her daughter, "Is Mark always so uptight? He's a wonderful man, and I'm very happy for the both of you, but really, we're all adults here."
"And that's my cue to leave," Madison's dad said, hurrying to the bathroom, which was the furthest room away from the living room, where Madison and her mom were speaking.
"He's not that uptight usually, no," Madison replied. "He just really wants to make a good impression on you and Dad. And he's kind of old-fashioned, which, ordinarily, is part of his charm..." She trailed off.
"The weekend is coming up. Your father and I will make it a point not to come over Saturday or Sunday morning," Madison's mother said.
Even that wasn't enough to sway Mark, however. It wasn't that he didn't believe the Quellers; he just didn't like thinking that they knew what he and Madison were doing.
"Fine, we'll be celibate for the month of December," Madison said, throwing up her hands and refusing to discuss it any further, since they would just keep going around in circles, since neither of them would give in and they couldn't reach a compromise. "But you'd better DVR all those stupid football games on New Year's Day, because I'm jumping your bones at 12:01 AM, pal, and I'm not letting you out of bed for anything but food, calls of nature, and a shared bath for the whole day."
"I'll make it up to you on January 1, Maddie, I promise," Mark said.
"You're darn right you will," Madison replied, folding her arms across her chest.
Actually, Mark was taking Madison away for New Year's, to Mill Falls at the Lake in New Hampshire, but she didn't know it yet. She had already taken New Year's Eve and New Year's Day off, as had he, and this would be the first time they actually went away somewhere together. The inn was one of four on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee in the village of Meredith, New Hampshire. They would be able to ice skate on the bay, and they would be attending a formal gala in the ballroom (Mark had already had his tuxedo dry cleaned and prayed that the dress and shoes he was surprising Madison with would meet with her approval; he had gotten Kate's approval on the dress and shoes, and the whole plan) with dinner and dancing to a live band, a fireworks display and champagne toast at midnight to ring in 2019, and they could even take a horse-drawn wagon ride around the village if they wanted, although Mark was more than fine with Madison's jump-his-bones-and-keep-him-in-the-bedroom-for-most-of-the-day plan to start the year off too.
Mark and Madison made an appearance at the Castle family Christmas Day Open House, which had become their new tradition in the past couple of years. Rick, Kate, Lily, Alexis, Javier, Jim, and Martha all spent Christmas Eve together, and Martha returned early on Christmas morning (everyone else stayed at the loft, but Martha and Earl Clifton, the actor playing Eliza's father Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady, had taken quite a liking to each other, and she would be attending Midnight Mass with Earl at his invitation, and she would be bringing him to the loft on New Year's Eve to introduce him to her immediate family, including Javier and Jim).
Rick and Alexis hadn't seen Martha like this about any man since her late high school sweetheart Chet Palaburn, and even with Chet, there had been a fair amount of hesitancy on Martha's part, partly due to Martha's independence and occasional bouts of flightiness. She wasn't talking about moving in with Earl, even to divide her time between Earl's apartment and her own, but she was clearly smitten, and Rick, Alexis, and Kate all three hoped the feeling was mutual, because none of them wanted to see Martha get hurt.
Alan and the increasingly pregnant Lanie came for Christmas dinner and stayed well into the evening, needing a break from Lanie's mother, who was in what Lanie called "Granny-zilla mode." Alan's parents were with his sister, brother-in-law, and little niece Aubrey, in suburban Chicago.
Victoria and Gerald arrived about three in the afternoon, and Victoria and Lanie spent some time together decompressing as they commiserated about their respective holidays spent with Victoria's mother-in-law and Lanie's mother.
The Ryans arrived about six P.M. and were shortly followed by Mark and Madison, who had spent the day with her parents and Mark's in-laws Jack and Anna, who had come down to New York City for the day. Mark had sprung his New Year's Eve surprise on Madison, and she was amazed at the lengths he went to to surprise her.
When Nick Ryan, who was just a little over a year older than Lily, plopped down under the mistletoe with his new LeapPad, which he had brought along to play with, Lily, noticing Nick under the mistletoe, abandoned the tea party she was having with Sarah Grace, Kevin, Jenny, Kate, and Rick, walked over to Nick, dropped down to the floor next to him, and exclaimed, "Nick!" When he looked up from his LeapPad to see what she wanted, Lily shocked everyone by leaning over and giving Nick a smacking kiss on his cheek.
"EWWWWWW, YUCK!" Nick exclaimed, jumping up and running away from Lily. "Why'd you do that?" he asked disgustedly as he rushed over to his parents and scrambled up into his dad's lap, looking for a safe haven from Lily and her girl cooties.
"Kiss-mas kiss," Lily replied, unfazed. She pointed up at the mistletoe, and the gaze of every adult in the room, as well as Sarah Grace, followed her little index finger, and looked at the mistletoe.
Rick looked horrified. Kate was laughing. He looked at her. "You think this is funny?" he asked, alarmed. "She's 19 months old, Kate! That's way too young to be kissing, mistletoe or not!"
"It is a Christmas tradition, Mr. Castle," Victoria pointed out.
"I don' like kisses!" Nick announced, making a big show of wiping away Lily's kiss.
"Good!" Rick said. "Keep feeling that way, Nick, for as long as you want to. Years. Decades, even."
"If he's anything like his father, he'll like kisses from pretty girls like Lily sooner rather than later," Jenny said.
"What kind of playground Lothario are you two raising?" Rick asked Kevin and Jenny.
"Nick's no Lothario," Kevin defended his son. "Although I admit, I didn't think we'd have to worry about this much before third grade, at least. That's when it started for me, with girls chasing me around at recess, trying to kiss me under the slide."
Sarah Grace, worldly at the age of almost five, looked from her little brother, scowling from the safety of their dad's lap, over to Lily, still sitting under the mistletoe. "Did you kiss Nick just 'cause of the mistletoe, or did you kiss him 'cause you like-like him?"
"Like-like?" Madison repeated. She and Kate looked at each other. "Elementary school flashbacks!"
Now Kevin looked horrified. "What do you know about like-liking boys, Sarah Grace?" he asked anxiously.
"Emma B. and Emma K. both like-like Braden," Sarah Grace explained, referring to preschool classmates of hers. "Emma B. kissed Braden at the Play-Doh table before Christmas break, and Emma K. got so mad about it that she threw Duplos at Emma B., and Miss Kristin made Emma B. and Emma K. go to different time-out corners."
Now Kevin and Rick both looked horrified. "Preschool? This is happening in preschool?" Kevin asked. Then another thought occurred to him. "You don't like-like any boys, do you, Sarah Grace?" he asked his daughter.
Sarah Grace shook her head. "No, Daddy. They're all so gross! Braden eats Play-Doh, and Caden farts all the time and thinks it's funny, and Aidan won't stop smelling glue sticks no matter how many times Miss Kristin tells him to. And the other boys are worse!"
"Aiden, Braden, and Caden? That poor teacher," Gerald Gates said sympathetically.
"Nick was under the missa-toe. Kiss-mas kiss," Lily repeated. Then she smiled and waved at Nick, who was still scowling.
"No more kisses!" Nick exclaimed.
Rick looked at Kate helplessly. Kate had recovered herself by now, and she said, "Lily knows that we kiss under the mistletoe. She has egged us on all month. She got Alexis and Javi a few times, and whenever she's under the mistletoe, she expects at least one kiss from at least one person."
"Okay, then, no mistletoe next year," Rick decreed.
Lily walked over to the couch, where her father was sitting in between Kate and Jenny, climbed up into his lap, and gave him a smacking kiss on the cheek. "I lub you, Daddy," she said. "Merry Kiss-mas."
Rick looked down at Lily in his lap, looking up at him, a miniature Kate, her eyes bright with happiness and excitement. She wasn't paying any attention to Nick now. She really had only kissed him because he had been sitting under the mistletoe, and she had learned in the past month that whoever was under the mistletoe got a kiss.
"You don't fight fair, sweetpea," he murmured, settling her in his lap and kissing the top of her head.
"Of course she doesn't fight fair," Jim replied. "She takes after her mother and her Grandma Johanna that way."
"You don't have to sound quite so amused when you say that, Jim," Rick said.
Jim grinned unrepentantly. "Welcome to the club, son. They challenge us, they make us crazy in good and bad ways, they are extraordinary, they are frustrating…and we are better men for loving and being loved by Beckett women."
Rick looked at Lily in his lap, looking back at him, and then looked at Kate beside him. "No argument here," he said.
"Wouldn't it be funny if Lily and Nick got married to each other someday?" Martha mused then.
Rick groaned aloud. "Lily isn't even potty trained yet, Mother. Let's not talk about her getting married. You're doing My Fair Lady, not Funny Girl."
Then Jim joined in the fun. "Preschool's a lot different than it was in my day, or even Katie's," he said. "But if you think that sounds bad, just wait another fifteen, sixteen years, because that's when, if she's anything like her mother, Lily Jo will be dating a boy whose hair is longer than hers, with multiple piercings, and his pants fastened around his knees so you can see his underwear on purpose." Rick and Kevin both went pale at this prediction from Jim.
"Okay, everyone, it's Christmas, be nice," Kate piped up then. "Since no one of legal age has any wedding announcements to make tonight, we'll change the subject now...although for the record, if Lily and Nick did get married when they grow up, we'd be totally fine with that, wouldn't we?" She looked at Rick then.
Rick's eyes flashed for a moment with a mix of concern and anguish as he thought about a grown-up Lily marrying a grown-up Nick Ryan. Kevin and Jenny were part of the family already, and Rick enjoyed being fun Uncle Rick to both Nick and Sarah Grace, so Kate was right in that he wouldn't mind if, some distant day many, many decades from now, Nick and Lily did fall in love for real and get married.
He just wasn't anywhere near ready to even entertain Lily marrying anyone as a possibility. He knew the day was coming, sooner rather than later, that Alexis would be marrying Esposito, although as Kate had just said, no one was making any wedding announcements tonight.
Rick took a deep breath, put aside his irrational, overreacting dad feelings, and looked at Kevin and Jenny as he replied, "Yes, we would."
"You have a long way to go with Lily before you have to worry about any of that," Martha said. "Enjoy the here and now. There's so much to look forward in the new year, for all of us."
"Indeed there is," Victoria agreed.
The others murmured their own agreement.
The days, weeks, months, and years to come would bring all manner of joys and surprises, and a few tough times, with them, but this group of people, this family, would endure and thrive through it all...together.
