Thank you all for your continued support and enthusiasm. It means everything to me.


Rick Castle was not a man who found himself at a complete loss for words very often. But this was definitely one of those rare times.

"Twins?" he repeated blankly, looking from Kate to the screen to Dr. Elliott.

"Twins," Dr. Elliott confirmed with a big smile. She gestured to the screen, and Rick and Kate both followed her gestures. "There's Castle Baby A," she said, pointing to one of the tiny blobs on the screen, "and there's Castle Baby B. It's too early to tell the sex yet, but they're sharing an amniotic sac, so they're identical twins."

Kate laughed again. Rick looked at her, wondering for a moment if she was on the verge of hysteria, but no—she looked overjoyed.

He was still in shock. Twins had never occurred to him.

"They're sharing the placenta, but they have separate umbilical cords," Dr. Elliott continued, "and based on what I'm seeing here, I'd say they'll be making their debut the middle to end of February." Then she looked at Kate earnestly. "You'll be 40 by the time these guys...or girls, as the case may be...are born," she said. "Given your age, and with your medical history, twins are automatically a high-risk pregnancy for you." Kate opened her mouth, but Dr. Elliott forestalled her with a raised palm. "I know you're on the City Council. I live in District 1 myself. To be honest, I voted for you. You can continue working, but nothing too strenuous. No shouting arguments at meetings, and no overdoing it. Listen to your body, and your babies. I'll be monitoring you closely. Everything looks great, and we're going to keep it that way."

"I'll do whatever it takes to bring these babies safely into the world," Kate vowed.

"I know you will," Dr. Elliott replied. "You're one of my best patients, Kate." Dr. Elliott then said, "Now for the soundtrack..." She adjusted the appropriate buttons, and soon the exam room was filled with the rapid whoosh-whoosh-whoosh of two tiny heartbeats.

Kate's eyes welled with tears now. Two babies! Identical! They were boys; Kate was absolutely certain of that, with every fiber of her being. Two more girls would have been just fine by her, but that was not what was going to happen. Call it mother's intuition, call it fate (a word that held no meaning for her until a certain ruggedly handsome writer crashed into her life), but Kate knew that these babies were boys.

Castle was meant to be a father, and he was living the experience of being a father to two daughters. The mere thought of Rick with two sons made Kate's insides turn to mush, because no matter which of them the boys resembled genetically (or if they were a pretty good mix of both her and Rick, as Lily was), Rick would be the coolest, most fun dad to little boys ever. Pirate treasure hunts, Laser Tag, endless stories made up off the top of his head… He would be both father and friend to their sons, to the two mini-hims, and the thought of having three Castle men in her life made Kate happy and giddy and amazed all at the same time.

Rick saw the two tiny blobs on the screen—they looked to him like tiny peanuts, or oversized jellybeans; hey, there was a thought for nicknames, because if they were identical, they were going to need to establish their own identities as individuals, and giving them separate and distinct nicknames would be a start—and he was still in shock. He knew that twins didn't run in Kate's family. He couldn't answer for Jackson Hunt's family, but no one on the Rodgers side had ever had twins. Although, wait, it was fraternal twins that were a genetic trait, not identical. His head was spinning and his heart was thumping crazily in his chest.

Boys. He had only raised girls so far. What did he know about boys? Well, he used to be one. Kate would be the first one to point out that a lot of the time, he still was one, and she would have a fair point there. But this was going to be new for him. And two of them at a time...He would be fifty a few months after the boys were born. What if he was mistaken for their grandfather by the time they started to preschool? He had been having some difficulty seeing his preferred font size on his laptop screen lately. It was probably past time for glasses, at least for reading. He'd have to take care of that, and soon.

Of course, they could be girls. In which case he was going to have to have Kate, Ryan, and Espo teach him how to be a better shot. Laser Tag was one thing, but if he had a houseful of girls, because Lily and the twins would have overlapping teenage years, he would have to do a lot of boyfriend-threatening, probably more than he had ever done with Alexis.

And it would be wonderful to have two more girls.

But, even though Dr. Elliott had told them it was too soon to tell the gender of the twins, Rick was certain they were boys. He knew it was his genetic contribution that determined the gender, and there hadn't been any screening or anything; no, he and Kate had made these babies, like they had made Lily, the old-fashioned way. It was a hunch on his part, though, that ran all the way to the marrow of his bones. His gut was telling him that come February, Kate would be giving birth to their sons. Sons...with Kate. Boys. Identical twins.

Oh, his mother was going to laugh her ass off about this when they told her. Rick couldn't count the number of times she had told him, "Someday you're going to have a son just like you, Richard," whenever he had done something particularly exasperating or maddening to her, "and then, and only then, will you understand the depths of my frustration with you at times like these."

Yeah, if these boys were anything like him as a kid, Kate was going to need all of her Beckett in the box with a suspect skills and then some when it came to disciplining them. Not that it was fair to her to have to be the bad cop all the time; Rick knew it wasn't. And she wasn't the bad cop all the time with Lily, but then Lily was pretty well-behaved, all things considered.

Lily! Lily was going to have two baby brothers, not just one. How jealous of them would she be? He and Kate would have to make sure Lily knew that she remained just as important to them as ever, that they loved her just as much, and they always would.

And then the actual handling of the twins. Two babies at the same time...two mouths wanting to eat at the same time, two bottoms that needed their diapers changed on a regular basis, and just because they were identical twins didn't mean they were going to be on the same schedule for sleeping. One or both of the boys might inherit Kate's insomnia, although her insomnia had abated considerably since they had gotten together. Lily was a good sleeper. Rick had never had much trouble sleeping.

They could do this, he and Kate, right? Raise three children together? It looked like Simon Doyle, the time traveler, had been telling the truth about at least that much of Rick's future book jacket bio: he and Kate would have three kids. No, wait, four—Alexis. Alexis was just as much Kate's daughter as she was his, just as much her child as Lily and these new babies would be. The fact that Kate had not carried Alexis in her womb and given birth to her was a mere technicality.

Four kids! Three of them separated by only three years.

Dr. Elliott had excused herself to get pictures and a DVD of this first sonogram for Kate and Rick, and Kate wondered what Rick was thinking, why he was so quiet, because he was never this quiet. She worried her bottom lip with her teeth, wondering if he was unhappy about the twins.

"Rick?" she said. "Babe? Say something. Please."

Rick looked into her eyes. "There's two of them," he said, and then realized how stupid that sounded.

"Yes," Kate said. She bit her bottom lip again before asking, "Are you...upset about that?"

"No!" he exclaimed. "No, I'm not upset that it's twins, Kate. Not at all! I'm...overwhelmed. I wasn't expecting this. No pun intended."

"I wasn't expecting it, either," Kate said, "but it's right. Of course we'd have twins. And I know it's too soon to tell the sex, but I am positive they're boys."

"Two mini-Castles," Rick mused. "Congratulations, I'm sorry?"

Kate just laughed and tugged on his hand, pulling him closer to her as she still lay propped up on the exam table. "You're half responsible for these guys, you know. No 'I'm sorry.'"

"You thought I was a 9-year-old on a sugar rush," he reminded her.

"I didn't really know you then," Kate pointed out. "And I didn't find it charming yet."

Rick swallowed hard. "Two babies at the same time," he said. "Isn't this kind of a role reversal? How am I the nervous one, and you're looking like you won the lottery?"

"This is much better than winning the lottery," Kate said. "This is a jackpot of a whole other kind." She paused, and looked at him earnestly. "Yeah, it's going to be a juggling act, but we can do this, babe. We can do anything together. I'm not saying there won't be difficult moments, because I know there will, but we'll be able to keep all the balls in the air." At his smirk she pointed at him and ordered, "Don't say it."

Rick looked at the screen again. "Peanut and Jellybean," he said. Then he looked back at Kate. "That's what they look like. So I'm going to nickname one of them 'Peanut' and the other 'Jellybean.'"

Kate looked at the screen. "I know we can't make out facial features yet, but they're beautiful. Or rather, ruggedly handsome." She looked back at Rick. "Just like their dad."

"Are you going to freak out about this later?" Rick asked.

"Probably at some point," Kate replied. "But realistically, we can do this. We have a whole big, wonderful family to help us out when we need it, and besides, I handled you, Ryan, and Esposito for eight years. I can handle these guys...with you by my side."

"That's exactly where I'll be," Rick replied. "Always." He framed her face in his hands and kissed her slowly, gently, deeply. She responded in kind.

They stopped kissing when Dr. Elliott clearing her throat interrupted them. "I'm sorry to interrupt," she said, "but here are your DVD and pictures. Kate, make your next appointment for two weeks from now. You've been through pregnancy before, so you know the basic drill, but as I said, we're going to be monitoring you closely because of the high-risk factor. And here's a prescription for pre-natal vitamins as well. I want you to start these immediately, today."

"I will," Kate promised.

Dr. Elliott regarded Rick then. "You doin' okay there, Dad?" she asked.

"Yeah," Rick replied. "I'm a little overwhelmed, but I'm also really, really happy and excited."

"Congratulations again," Dr. Elliott replied. "I'll see you in a couple of weeks."

After Dr. Elliott left, Kate wiped the gel from her belly and got dressed again. "When are we going to tell everybody?" Kate asked. "We can't wait until Christmas. These guys are due in February. By Christmas, I'm going to look like a beached whale."

"You are not," Rick retorted.

"I'll be seven months' pregnant with twins, Rick. I'm gonna look like Violet Beauregard in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory after she chewed that meal-in-a-stick-of-gum," Kate retorted wryly.

"You won't be purple," Rick pointed out. "And you'll be beautiful."

"I'll also be an irritable bitch, I'm sure," Kate said. "Is it too early to apologize for that?"

"You can be as irritable as you want to be," Rick replied. "It's not going to change how much I love you." He paused, then said, "You realize, once Ryan and Esposito find out, they're going to be lobbying us to name these kids after them."

"Oh, absolutely," Kate agreed. "But Kevin and Jenny already named Nick after Javi. Javi will have to wait for his own kids. I love them both, but our kids need their own names, and I already have an idea for one middle name."

"You do?" Rick asked. They had made another appointment with Dr. Elliott for two weeks later, and were in the car now, headed to the pharmacy to get the prescription for pre-natal vitamins filled.

Kate nodded. "I know it'll be close to Alexis's name, but it was your original middle name, so if we're right and we are having boys, I want one of them to have 'Alexander' for a middle name, after you." She paused and said, "Remember that case with the psychic that was found dead in the couch all those years ago?"

"Vivian Marchand," Rick replied instantly. "Hey, she wasn't talking about my mother at all!" At Kate's confused look, he said, "She did a reading for me once, I told you and Ryan and Esposito and Lanie about it at the crime scene. She told me that a beautiful woman would one day move into my loft and stay with me forever. I thought she meant my mother, but she didn't. She meant you."

Kate smiled. "Well, her daughter came to me during the case and said that she didn't have all of her mother's gift, but she had some of it, and that sometimes she had dreams that were meaningful, and she had had one about me. She said it was important, and she had to tell me."

Had he not been driving, Rick would have been on the edge of his seat. "Tell you what?" he asked, glancing at Kate before returning his attention to the road a split second later.

"Alexander," Kate replied. "She said she didn't know who he was, or what he meant to me, but I would meet an Alexander, and he would be extremely important to me...and at some future date, he may save my life."

Rick whipped the car to the curb then; the pharmacy was just down the block. "She meant me," he said in a hushed, awed voice.

"She meant you," Kate confirmed. "You are absolutely extremely important to me...and you've saved my life multiple times, and in multiple ways." She paused, and said, "Like I said, I know it's close to 'Alexis'-"

"It's what you want, so it's what we'll do," Rick said. "One of these boys will have 'Alexander' for a middle name. I, um, kind of had a thought on a middle name, too, actually."

"Tell me," Kate said.

"Well, my mother has been my one constant all my life," Rick began. "How would you feel if we gave our other son 'Rodgers' for a middle name, in honor of my mother?"

"I think it's perfect," Kate said. "Martha has always been on our side, and she should be honored. Lily is named after my mother. So it's settled: the boys will have 'Alexander' and 'Rodgers' for middle names."

"Now we just have to come up with first names," Rick said.

"Preferably before we tell everyone, so that we can honestly tell Javi and Kevin that these boys already have names," Kate replied.

"They'll have to be happy with being godfathers to the twins," Rick replied as they got out of the car and headed into the drugstore. After dropping off the prescription, they browsed through the store until it was ready, and then they returned to the car. When Kate noticed where they were headed, she reached over and squeezed Rick's knee.

At the cemetery, Kate touched Johanna Beckett's name on the headstone. "Hi, Mom," she said. "You're going to be a grandmother again...times two. Rick and I are having twins. Identical twins. We're both absolutely certain they're boys. Of course, now that I told you that, if you have any pull at all, you'll send us two girls just to get the last laugh." Kate chuckled and sniffled. "Although two boys will more than keep both Rick and me on our toes. You were the first one to know about Lily, and now you're the first one to know about the twins. I hate it that you're not here, I really hate it that you're not here to get to know your grandchildren, but I promise you, they will all know all about you. I love you, Mom." She kissed her fingertips, touched them to her mother's name again, then sniffled and smiled and turned to leave, but once again, Rick stopped Kate in her tracks when he spoke to Johanna.

"I like to think that maybe you have something to do with the twins being born in February, since you had a February birthday," Rick said. "But whether or not that's true, will you please watch over Kate and our babies? This is considered a high-risk pregnancy, and I'm not leaving that hospital without all three of them. I'd really appreciate it, if you could keep an eye on them from where you are, okay? Thank you...Johanna."

Then Kate and Rick got in the car and went home. When they got home, Rick stopped just inside the foyer and placed both his hands on Kate's abdomen, over their growing babies. "Hey, Peanut. Hey, Jellybean. I'm your dad. And you have the best mom in the whole world, and two big sisters and a whole big family that are going to adore you. Well, probably not all the time, in Lily's case, but I love you already. We're gonna have a lot of adventures once you're here." He looked at Kate and smiled, looking excited and happy for the first time since he had realized they were having two babies and not just one. "The best thing about this is that I get to do it all with you, Kate."

She rested her forehead against his. "Same here, babe," she replied. "Same here."