Thank you all for your continued support of this story. This chapter takes place in October and early November 2019. Some very big things are coming up for the Castle clan in 2020, so we're getting closer.
After announcing the impending arrival of Reece and Jake to their family, Rick and Kate immediately started preparing for their births. Alexis, Martha, and Lanie teamed up to plan a baby shower for January, after all of the holidays and their attendant happy chaos and celebrations were over. Martha's old room was slowly transformed into a nursery for the boys over the course of the next several months. Alexis insisted on helping Rick paint the nursery, as she had done with Lily's room; the paint color he and Kate agreed on was "Hyper Blue," and Alexis let it slip to Javier, although Kate outright told Martha, so it didn't take long for everyone to start teasing Rick about having two hyper miniature versions of himself running around before too long. They started buying the furniture for the boys' nursery, realizing they would need two of almost everything. Lily transitioned to a toddler bed in mid-October with a minimum of fuss, all excited about being a big girl and a big sister and fascinated by Mommy's daily (or so it seemed to both Kate and Lily) growing tummy, so they only needed to buy one crib, and they still had Lily's changing table, and the rocking chair Jim had lovingly refinished and passed along, but they still needed two dressers and another crib and swing, and they also decided to buy another rocking chair, finding as close a match to Johanna's rocking chair as they could. So the room was painted, and the furniture mostly in place, except for the rocking chairs, in fairly short order.
October was a busy month for the whole family. Alexis and Jim were both thriving at Columbia, and, seeing how stressed Alexis was about her final year and what would be coming next, Jim made a special effort to sort of take Alexis under his wing, assuring her that she would get through this last year, and sharing stories of both his and Johanna's final years in law school.
"I wish I'd known Johanna," Alexis said at the end of one of the weekly lunches Jim had begun inviting her to. "I wonder what she would have thought of my dad...and Gram...and me."
"She would have loved all of you," Jim said with a wistful smile. "No doubt about it."
"What kind of grandmother would she have been?" Alexis asked.
Jim laughed. "Oh, she and Katie would be butting heads constantly, because Johanna would have let Lily Jo get away with just about everything, and Katie would always have to be the bad cop, and Johanna would have claimed grandmother's privilege, and Katie would have been positively outraged that Johanna was letting Lily get away with things she never, in a billion years, let Katie get away with when she was growing up."
"I bet she and Gram would have been thick as thieves," Alexis mused.
"They would have," Jim agreed.
Alexis checked her watch. "Lunch with you is always great, Jim, but unfortunately, I have just enough time to get back to campus for my Topics in Criminal Prosecution and Defense class."
That reminded Jim of something. "Have you ever seen the movie The Paper Chase?"
"No, I haven't," Alexis replied as she put on her jacket.
"You get a few free hours, you should watch it, maybe with Javier," Jim suggested. "If you can get past the clothes and the hair, since it's from the early '70s, it's an excellent film, and I think John Houseman's character will remind you of someone we both know at Columbia."
"Thanks for the film recommendation," Alexis said, "and for lunch." She bent and hugged him goodbye, then shouldered her purse and backpack before leaving the restaurant.
Jim signaled their server for the check, then, after paying and leaving a generous tip, returned to his office at Columbia to catch up on some paperwork.
He was surprised when Javier showed up at his office a little over an hour after Jim himself returned to the office from his lunch with Alexis.
"Is this a bad time, Mr. Beckett?" Javier asked after he had knocked on the door and heard Jim invite him to come in.
"Javier. No, not at all. Come in, please. Have a seat," Jim replied, gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk.
"Thank you," Javier replied, closing the door behind him. "I won't take up too much of your time. It's just that all the lawyers I know are public defenders or at the D.A.'s office, and so they can't help me out on this."
Jim pushed aside his paperwork. "And what, exactly, is it that you're seeking legal help with?" he inquired.
"A prenuptial agreement," Javier replied.
The silence that descended on the small office fell as heavily and swiftly as an anvil. Jim blinked a couple of times, then said, "I just came from lunch with Alexis. I didn't know you two had gotten engaged."
"I haven't actually proposed yet," Javier admitted.
"Then isn't researching prenuptial agreements sort of putting the cart before the horse?" Jim asked.
"I'm not researching prenups. I want one," Javier clarified.
"Alexis doesn't strike me as the type of person who would want one," Jim replied, "and I don't recommend continuing along these lines without seriously talking it over with her first, Javier."
"I know that Castle is...well, rich," Javier replied. "It's not something any of us have ever really talked about, but we've all been to their loft, and to the Hamptons house, and Alexis went to private school from pre-K through high school, and Columbia's Ivy League. I know Castle's footing some of the bills, and that Alexis stands to inherit probably a significant sum of money someday in the very distant future. But I'm not after her money."
Jim exhaled. "It sounds to me like you and Alexis need to sit down and have a serious talk about money and prenuptial agreements," he said. "I know you're not after her money. I'm sure Katie and Rick know you're not after her money. And I'm certain Alexis knows you're not after her money. But you can't just unilaterally decide to get a prenup, Javier. Speaking as both a lawyer and a family member, you have to talk to Alexis about this."
Javier ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah," he said after a long moment. "I guess I should talk to Alexis about this, shouldn't I?"
"It's an absolute must," Jim urged. "Your intentions are honorable, but you can't make this decision alone, Javier."
Javier nodded. "You're right," he said. He stood up and extended his hand to Jim to shake. "Thank you, Jim." After shaking Jim's hand, Javier left the office.
When he was alone again, Jim looked at the picture of Johanna he had on the corner of his desk, in between the pictures he had of Katie and Rick and Lily, and a copy of the picture the judge had been kind enough to take of himself, Katie, Rick, Alexis and Martha at Katie and Rick's wedding. He liked Javier; always had. The man had been part of Katie's team at the 12th Precinct for years, had had her back before Rick came along, and on at least one occasion Jim knew about when Katie and Rick had been on the outs, right before they'd gotten together at last. Katie never had given him all the details, but he knew that it had had something to do with Johanna's killers, and that Katie and Detective Esposito had been suspended for it. "They have a lot to learn," he said, addressing Johanna about Alexis and Javier, "but after a rip-roaring argument about the pre-nup, I think they'll be all right. And I don't think they'll end up with one. They really don't need it."
Rick and Kate were both working in the office (neither of them thought of it as just Rick's office any longer, and they were in the process of making arrangements to buy the empty loft next door so that they could expand the office and the living room before, as Martha so presciently and eloquently put it, "your living room décor solely resembles FAO Schwarz in its glory days"), ears peeled for the sleeping Lily, when Kate saw it again: the telltale signs that her husband had yet another headache. He'd had far too many of them lately.
Uh huh, there it was: Rick's hands went to his face and he rubbed his eyes. Kate had noticed the squinting had begun in earnest a couple of months ago now.
And now that Rick had rubbed his eyes, he was massaging his temples with his fingertips, even as he leaned in more closely to the laptop screen. She knew he was just reading emails, since his book was set to be released two days before Thanksgiving, Black Pawn hoping to cash in on big holiday sales of Something Worth Saving, the "complete departure in genre from Richard Castle, certain to become a classic of serious literature in its own right." (The PR department at Black Pawn was nothing if not totally committed to Rick as one of their star authors and completely optimistic about this "complete departure in genre" from him.) But that was enough.
Now Rick's fingertips migrated to his forehead, pressing against his forehead as he lowered his chin to his chest.
Kate quickly saved her work—notes for her next City Council meeting on what she and the other members of the Committee on Fire and Criminal Justice Services had been working on in their committee meetings regarding a local law to amend the New York City Charter in relation to social services for the wrongfully convicted—and set her laptop aside, got up from the couch they had added to the office several months back, swapping the two leather chairs for the more comfortable, roomier couch, and crossed the office until she was standing behind Rick's desk chair, where he was seated in front of his open laptop and still applying pressure to his forehead.
"Babe," she said gently as she began massaging his temples herself, making a mental note to work her way to the back of his neck. "I really don't think you can put off going for an eye exam any longer. The squinting, the headaches, the burning eyes..."
Rick sighed. "You're right. I know you're right. I just..."
"You just what?" Kate asked as she began massaging the back of his neck and the base of his skull.
"I know I'm 50 now, but I guess I didn't expect that I'd feel it this...this keenly," Rick confessed. "I never really thought about getting old. Now it's this creeping thought of dread that ambushes me without warning. I need glasses. When I was shaving this morning, I found some gray whiskers along my jawline. That's the first time that's happened. My knee, from that skiing injury years ago? It was popping like bubble wrap today. Not hurting, just popping. Lily kept giggling and asking me to do it again."
Kate stopped massaging Rick's neck, gently spun his chair around, and seated herself on his lap. "So that's what it is," she mused as her arms went around his neck.
"That's what what is?" Rick asked as his arms went around her waist, one hand resting on her ever-growing baby bump.
Kate brushed an errant strand of hair off his forehead before letting her hand drop back to his shoulder. "We've got a lot of changes happening all at the same time," she began. "We have twins on the way...your book is about to be released and it's not like anything you've ever written before...Alexis will graduate from law school next spring and she and Javi could get engaged at pretty much any time between now and then...we're working on potty-training Lily...Martha and Earl are very serious about each other...I'm busting my tail on the City Council. It's a lot to take in, a lot to adjust to. And yes, you had a landmark birthday this year. I've got one coming up in a few weeks.
"But we're not getting old, babe. We're just getting older. And there's a big difference there." She framed his face in her hands and looked deeply into his eyes. "I spent a lot of years not even thinking about getting old, or getting older, because I really didn't believe deep down that I would get older. I went through such traumatic changes, the very foundation of my family was completely destroyed when my mom was murdered, and it took fifteen years for me to finally get closure and get justice for her, which never would have happened if not for you.
"Even at my worst, even at my most closed-off, when anyone else would have thrown up his hands and walked away forever...even when we went months without speaking to each other at all, spent years ignoring what was right there in front of us because of fear and insecurity, which was probably more me than you...You never gave up. You knew my heart better than I did. You made it okay for me to believe and to trust again, you made me want to be my best self. You made me want this life with you that we now have. You've always had my back, you've always believed in me and in us, even when I didn't, when I couldn't, when I was too scared to, and you taught me the power of forgiveness...of forgiving myself for so many things...of being forgiven when I hurt you so much worse and so much more deeply than you deserved."
"Before I met you, I was already a two-time loser at marriage, and love hadn't been particularly kind to me," Rick reflected. "But you were unlike any woman I had ever met. How could I not fall completely in love with you? And how'd you get so good at talking me down when I get like this, which has been happening way too much lately, I know."
"What is too much?" Kate replied rhetorically. "It's a lot of big changes all at once, babe. I get it. Change is never easy. But we'll get through it like we get through everything else: together. I was such a mess for so long, but you've never been anything but patient...overall, I mean...and we've been through some of the worst nightmares humanly possible. But we're still here. Through all the narrow escapes and near tragedies, the PTSD and the lost summers, we made it. We're still here. And that's what matters.
"I remember when my mom turned 40," she continued. "Her work friends at her law office threw her one of those ridiculous 'Over the Hill' birthday parties, with the black balloons and streamers and gag gifts and jokes about Geritol and knitting needles. She thought the whole thing was ridiculous. Dad and I knew better than to make any cracks about her age. She always said that age was just a number; you're only as old as you feel. And she didn't feel a day over 25.
"The only people who are old, Rick, are the ones who were born old to begin with. You were born young, and you're always going to be young. You might have gray whiskers, and a knee that pops like bubble wrap, and you'll start wearing glasses, which will look great on you. Someday I'll probably be wearing glasses too, and we'll both have gray hair and matching pillboxes. But in here..." She laid one hand over his heart. "In here, you will be forever young. And so will I, thanks to you, and our kids."
Before Rick could reply, he and Kate both felt a fluttering in her abdomen. As tired and red as Rick's eyes were, they instantly lit up like a Christmas tree. "Was that-?" he asked.
"I think so," Kate replied excitedly. They both gently pressed their hands over her baby bump and waited.
Several seconds later, they were rewarded with more movement. "Kate!" Rick exclaimed excitedly.
"They're moving," she replied, her eyes welling with tears as a big grin lit her whole face. "At least one of them is, anyway. Hey, Reece, hey, Jakey, it's Mommy."
"And Daddy," Rick added. "We felt you guys move, or at least we felt one of you move." They had been through this with Lily, of course, but it was no less amazing or miraculous to them this time.
They kissed, tenderly, both overwhelmed by the rush of emotion at feeling at least one of their sons move for the first time.
Two weeks later, Rick returned home after being fitted for his new glasses. Kate, Lily, Alexis, and Javier were all at the loft; Alexis and Javier had come over for dinner. When Rick walked through the front door, four pairs of eyes looked directly at him and studied his face in various modes of contemplation.
Rick had chosen lightweight semi-rimless frames with rectangular lenses, and was more than a little relieved that he did not need bifocals. The earpieces were slim and solid black, the frames themselves made of titanium. The top half of the frames were black titanium, and the lenses themselves comprised the bottom half, resting directly on the bridge of Rick's nose.
"Lookin' good, Dad," Alexis approved.
"They work for you, Castle," Javier added.
"Thanks, pumpkin, thanks, Esposito," Rick said. He took off his coat and hung it up, then entered the living room, where everyone was sitting. He hugged Alexis hello, exchanged back slaps with Esposito, then went over to where Lily and Kate were sitting on the couch. He picked Lily up to give her a hug hello. Lily hugged her daddy back and regarded his glasses solemnly. "Mommy says I can look at your glasses but no touching them," she said.
"That's right," Rick agreed. "What do you think of them, though, Sweetpea?"
"You still look like you, Daddy," Lily said.
"She's right," Kate said, managing to struggle up from the couch unaided for once (now that it was early November, Kate was entering her sixth month of pregnancy with the twins, and she was starting to slow down out of necessity, but so far, she was taking the weight gain, the ungainliness, and the difficulty sleeping through the night because of repeated trips to the bathroom and an increasing inability to find a comfortable sleeping position in stride). "You do still look like you." She moved closer to Rick so only he could hear her and said quietly into his ear, "And you look incredibly sexy in them too."
"Really?" Rick asked as Kate moved away from his ear.
"Really," she said. "As long as I don't fall asleep first, I'll show you just how sexy I think you look in those glasses later."
"You're on," Rick said.
"I certainly am," Kate murmured. Rick waggled his eyebrows suggestively, making Kate laugh. The oven went off then, and they all sat down to dinner together, where the conversations over the lasagna, green salad, and garlic bread ranged from Alexis's classes to Kate's City Council work to the book signing Rick would be doing on Black Friday to upcoming plans for Thanksgiving.
Rick looked around the table at this part of his family and marveled at how he had ended up here. Yes, a lot of things were changing. But these people, and the rest of their big, crazy, wonderful, chosen family who were not at the table tonight, would always be the constants in Rick's life, no matter what, and that was all he needed to know to be certain that whatever life threw at him, even when he was uncertain and insecure, as he had been lately, he could make it through with Kate backing his plays, and with the unwavering love and support of all of these amazing people he was blessed to call his family.
