Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing. Your enthusiasm and support for this story mean everything to me.
This chapter covers January 2020. And thank you to the guest reviewer who pointed out to me that Jim gave Kate another rocking chair for her birthday, so I quickly rewrote Jim's gifts: Yankees uniforms and caps for Lily, Reece, and Jake all three, and baby books for Reece and Jake.
The second Saturday in January, everyone gathered at the loft for Kate's baby shower. The kids were all also present—Sarah Grace, who had just turned 6 the previous week; Nick, who was almost 4; Lily, going on 3; and Will Masters, the current youngest at 9 months of age.
"We should get a picture of all the kids!" Alan exclaimed. "And then we can do it again when the twins are a few months old. This is the next generation, after all."
"We are not putting our baby in a bald wig for Halloween so he looks like Captain Picard!" Lanie informed Alan in a tone of voice that let everyone know this was not the first time they had had that conversation.
Alan looked slightly deflated. "How did you know I was thinking that already?" he asked her.
"Wives know all," Lanie said. "Will went as Han Solo for Halloween a few months ago. I'd like a little more input into his costume this year."
"I wonder if they make Luke Skywalker flight suits that small?" Rick mused aloud.
Kate just looked at Lanie. "Now do you see what you started?" she asked.
"Oh, like Castle wouldn't have eventually asked Alan that," Lanie retorted.
"As entertaining as this argument no doubt has the potential to become," Alexis said, amused, "we have a mountain of presents waiting to be opened, and Madison brought all this delicious food that Javier, Kevin, Mark, and Jim are looking at like it's Shark Week, so maybe we should get this show on the road."
"As always, Alexis, you are the voice of reason," Martha applauded, rolling her eyes with a fond smile on her face as Earl deftly snatched a stuffed mushroom cap off a plate teeming with them in full view of everyone.
"Decades of practice come in handy," Alexis replied wryly.
Kate and Rick were seated side by side on the couch. "Peanut and Jellybean behaving themselves?" Rick asked so only Kate could hear.
"For the moment," Kate replied.
Kate had been taking it easier than she ever had in her entire life for the past month. Dr. Elliott had predicted that Reece and Jake would probably make an early appearance, in the early part of February instead of closer to their February 15 due date, but she stressed that both babies were healthy and of good size and weight, and that as long as Kate made it to at least February 1, lung development should not be a big concern, if it was a concern at all.
Kate had let Jenny and Lanie talk her into doing a baby registry online, if only to make it easier for everyone to shop for the boys. This was the first time that everyone had been able to gather since Christmas Day, and even on Christmas Day, not everyone had been there at the same time. She, Rick, and Lily had attended Sarah Grace's sixth birthday party at the beginning of the month, but Alexis was swamped as her final semester of law school ramped up, Nick had been down with the flu a couple of days after his sister's birthday but was now fully recovered, and Kevin and Jenny had taken great pains to keep Sarah Grace from getting it, and managed to succeed, so they had their hands full, and Javi and Kevin were on a case at the time, so only she and Rick had made the party, loaded down with everyone's birthday gifts for Will.
Most of the wrapped packages were on the large side. She and Rick already had the cribs, dressers, and changing table, and Rick had hauled the rocking chair that Jim had lovingly restored before Lily was born upstairs and into the nursery after they had finished taking down all of the Christmas decorations. But some of the other items they knew they would need, after Lanie and Jenny had insisted that Kate and Rick could not just put items like onesies and pacifiers on the registry, were surely underneath some of that stork- and balloon- and baby blue wrapping paper.
Lily grabbed a flat package off the top of the stack and carried it over to the couch, presenting it to her parents with a flourish. "This is my present for my brothers," she announced.
"That's right," Martha said. "Pops and I took Lily shopping, and she picked these out all by herself."
"Well, once we explained about them," Earl added.
"Yes," Martha added.
Kate looked at Lily. "You picked out a present for your little brothers?" she asked.
"Yup," Lily said with a vigorous nod. "Open it, Mommy!"
Kate eagerly tore into the package as everyone watched, no one more anxiously than Lily.
Kate brushed the tissue paper aside (Martha had had the gift wrapped at the store), and revealed two onesies. The white onesie was emblazoned with multi-colored block letters proclaiming "LITTLE BROTHER," and the sky blue onesie was similarly emblazoned with multi-colored block letters proclaiming "LITTLEST BROTHER." Rick gazed at the onesies in the box and then met Kate's misty-eyed gaze and found his own eyes growing watery.
"Do you like them?" Lily asked anxiously.
"Sweetpea, they're wonderful," Rick proclaimed, reaching out and lifting her onto his lap, since Kate's lap was nonexistent these days.
"This is just right," Kate assured Lily. "And Reece and Jake are going to look great in these."
"We'll have to get you and Alexis 'Big Sister' shirts," Rick said.
"Already got 'em, Dad," Alexis called across the room.
"Oh," Rick said. "Well, good. Then we know what picture we'll be taking first when you meet these guys for the first time."
"Thank you, Lily," Kate said, giving Lily a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Yes, thank you, Lily," Rick echoed, giving Lily a hug and a kiss after Kate had hugged and kissed her.
Her little face aglow, Lily announced, "Mommy and Daddy like my present!"
"We sure do," Kate agreed.
The beaming Lily remained on her daddy's lap, watching as Uncle Kevin and Uncle Javi began to haul the bigger presents over so Mommy and Daddy could unwrap them.
Kevin and Jenny's gift was two baby baths and plenty of accessories—washcloths, bottles of baby bath wash (regular and the formula for cranky babies), and hooded bath wraps that looked like yellow ducks. Sarah Grace and Nick had each chosen one special rubber duckie for each of the babies, even though they wouldn't be old enough to play with the bath toys for several months.
Martha and Earl's gift was a double stroller in which Reece and Jake would sit side by side. Rick and Kate had debated whether the double stroller should hold the boys seated side by side or front and back, and in the end, they had agreed that they'd rather have the boys seated side by side. Martha and Earl had chosen the exact stroller Kate and Rick had put on their baby registry.
Madison and Mark's gift was two new baby swings. Rick and Kate still had Lily's baby swing, in their storage space, but her swing was rather worn, since Lily had spent a great deal of time in the swing as a baby, so when Madison went shopping for her and Mark's gift, she just decided to get two new swings.
Victoria and Gerald had gotten two new Pack 'n' Plays, which would prove invaluable in the next couple of years, and see a lot of use.
Lanie and Alan's gifts required explanation. There were two gifts from the Masters' because they were smaller gifts, and when Kate unwrapped three packages of what looked like miniature blue birthday party hats—the cone-shaped contraptions were covered with clouds and airplanes—she and Rick were both puzzled. "Birthday hats?" Kate guessed.
"Peepee teepees," Alan corrected.
Rick and Kate exchanged a look. "What now?" Rick asked.
"Peepee teepees," Alan repeated. "One thing you'll learn having boys is that they have a serious lack of aim when you're changing their diapers."
"And another thing you'll learn is that your precious darling sons will nail you every opportunity they get, whether intentional or not," Lanie added. "I am serious, Kate, Castle. You have got to keep them covered at every diaper change. That's what those are for."
Kate studied the peepee teepees intently before looking up to meet Lanie's gaze. "So you put this over their little..." she began.
"Exactly," Lanie replied. "And when they pee—and it's almost always a 'when' and not an 'if' in my experience—the pee goes in the teepee and not on you or Castle."
"And since you're having two boys, we got you two dozen of them," Alan added. "Those things are lifesavers. Clothing savers. Shower savers. And they're washable."
"Good to know," Rick said.
Lanie and Alan's other gift was the Twin Z Pillow, an oversized nursing pillow that was big enough to hold both boys, and had enough room to support their little bodies, one on each side of Kate, and would also provide back support for Kate while she nursed. She was planning to nurse both boys, but she had already spoken with both Dr. Elliott and Lily's pediatrician, and the most likely scenario was that by the time Reece and Jake were three months old, they would have to have bottles because it would be next to impossible for Kate to keep up with their feeding needs by solely nursing. But of course, she would still nurse the boys whenever she could, and the rest of the time, she would pump and they would be bottle fed, and they would probably eventually have to add supplemental formula.
Alexis and Javier's gift was a double baby carrier, called a TwinTrexx. "You can use it front to back, side to side, or you can take it apart and each of you can carry one of the boys," Alexis explained, "and it will hold the boys when they're between seven and twenty-five pounds."
Jim presented his gift last: two blank baby books, one for Reece and one for Jake, and, unable to resist, two miniature New York Yankees uniforms and baseball caps. He also had a Yankees uniform and cap in Lily's size. Lily squealed with excitement at the unexpected present, since she had been told multiple times by Mommy, Daddy, Gram, and Alexis that the presents today were for her brothers.
"Maybe you and I can go to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium this year, Lily Jo," Jim added as Lily modeled her cap and jersey, which she had haphazardly buttoned so that the top button wasn't in the correct slot, in her excitement. "And you can document everything for Reece and Jake like you've been doing for Lily, and they can match."
Kate already knew that she'd be having a picture of all three kids in their Yankee gear from Jim taken and framed as his Father's Day present this year. He was an amazing grandfather, not that Kate had ever doubted he would be. She wished, as she often had since finding out she was pregnant with Lily, that her mother was here to enjoy all of this, to spoil the kids, to laugh and say "I told you so" when they drove Kate crazy.
Since it was easier for Jim to move than for Kate to move, he sat down on the couch on the other side of her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her cheek against his shoulder. "Dad," she said.
"I know, Katie," Jim replied, gently rubbing her back between her shoulder blades.
Everyone talked and ate after the gifts had been opened, enjoying being in each other's company, catching each other up on their news. Jim's retirement from the law firm had come as a surprise to everyone but Kate, Rick, Martha, and Earl, who already knew about it. "I'm still teaching Contracts at Columbia Law School, for this semester at least, but when May gets here, I'll probably be taking a sabbatical, at least for the fall semester," Jim said. "I want to spend as much time as possible with my grandchildren and help you out as much as you need me to," he concluded, looking at Kate and Rick as he said this last part.
"Earl and I will be on hand as well, as much as you'd like," Martha said. My Fair Lady had closed the previous November, and Earl was now helping Martha teach her acting students, since he had a few skills that she didn't, and his stage combat class was a big hit.
Alan had gotten a promotion, and Lanie was now planning to stay home with Will until he was ready for preschool. "Potty training will be upon us before we know it," Lanie said. "Speaking of lack of aim..."
"It won't be that bad, Lanie," Martha assured her. "I trained Richard on my own. You'll have Alan to help."
"I'm already planning to do the Cheerios thing," Alan said with a chuckle.
"Just be prepared to clean them out of the little potty after Will makes them float," Jenny said. Everyone looked at Kevin then, who blushed slightly.
"Okay, yeah, that part's gross, but Nick had fun and learned to aim, and that's what matters, right?" Kevin said.
"So, two mini Castles," Victoria said. "God help you, Kate."
"I handled Rick, Javi, and Kevin for eight years, Victoria," Kate reminded her former captain. "I'm sure I can handle these little guys."
"Well, you'll have no shortage of help," Alexis said. She frowned slightly. "Although I'm not sure how much help I'll be able to be for the first...well, by the time I take the bar, probably the first six to eight months."
"All you have to do is be a great big sister," Rick told Alexis. "We know you have your own life and lot of big, important things coming up: graduation, studying for the bar exam, passing the bar exam, your first job."
Javi felt Kevin's eyes on him and shot his best friend a quick glare. He had not proposed yet, still waiting as he was for the right moment. But he knew it would come.
Much later, when all of the gifts had been put away in the nursery, when Lily had been read to sleep and tucked in for the night, Rick found Kate in the nursery, which was all ready now. The walls had been painted Hyper Blue, dozens of diapers and onesies and sleepers and pairs of impossibly tiny socks were stocked in the dressers, the cribs and changing table had been assembled, both rocking chairs were now in the room; all that was missing was the babies, but they had a little while to go yet.
Kate was sitting in one of the rocking chairs, looking around the room. "I can't wait to see who they are," she said. "Lily had always had so much personality, from the time she was in the womb. We might want to consider signing these guys up for peewee soccer when they're old enough. They may look exactly alike, but I'd bet that they're going to have different personalities."
"Complementary personalities, maybe," Rick mused, kneeling beside Kate's chair. "One that acts like you, one that acts like me."
Kate's response to that was laughter. "You know," she said when she recovered herself, "if that is what ends up happening, I'll be fine with that."
"And I will be totally gray-haired by the time they start preschool," Rick said.
"It'll look good on you, babe," she assured him. She reached out a hand and cupped his cheek in her palm. "Just like the glasses do. And our sons will do just as much to give me gray hair, I'm sure, no matter what their personalities."
"Best of friends, worst of enemies," Rick said. "I couldn't wish for anything more than that for them. That, and that they, and Lily, and Alexis, despite the massive age difference, will always have each other's backs."
"We'll make sure of that," Kate said.
"We will," Rick agreed. "And all of our kids will be as remarkable as their mother."
"And I hope they all inherit their father's heart," Kate said, leaning in to rest her forehead against Rick's.
Javier and Alexis had exchanged keys to each other's apartments almost a year ago, and since it was a particularly nasty late January day, and he and Ryan didn't have a case and were actually caught up on their paperwork, Javier used his key to let himself in to Alexis's apartment a little after 3:30, planning to surprise her with dinner, since she would be in class until 5.
He pulled up short when he saw her backpack and purse on the floor by the coffee table, her laptop closed on top of the coffee table, and a stack of unopened textbooks on the couch. "Lex?" he called.
Alexis shuffled out from the bedroom, her face pale and pinched with pain, her eyes large, both arms wrapped around her middle, wearing an NYPD t-shirt she had swiped from him, a baggy pair of gray sweatpants, and her slippers. "What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised.
"I knocked off work early because we didn't really have anything going on," he replied. "I figured I'd surprise you with a home-cooked dinner. I thought you had class until 5 today?"
"I was supposed to, but I just couldn't make it through," Alexis replied. "My stupid period decided to come early, and as if it isn't bad enough all the stress has thrown off my cycle, I feel like total crap." Then, realizing what she had just said, she blushed almost as red as her hair.
Javier removed his coat and tossed it onto the nearest chair, then crossed the room, took Alexis's hands in his, and led her back to the bedroom, where he motioned for her to get back into bed. When she had done so, he sat on the edge of the bed and took one of her hands in his. "We've been together for almost three years, Lex," he said. "We've never really talked about it, but I am aware of your cycle, and when your time of the month usually is. It wasn't supposed to be until next week. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. It's just a natural part of life. What do you need?"
"I need the ibuprofen I took about twenty minutes ago to kick in and at least take the edge off this pain," Alexis said.
Javier grabbed the pillows from his side of the bed and put them under Alexis's feet, slightly elevating her feet. She'd already taken a pain reliever. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and did a quick Internet search. "Do you have a heating pad?" he asked several seconds later.
Alexis blinked. "No," she replied.
He nodded as he scrolled down his phone's screen. "I'll be back in a few minutes," he said. "Keep your feet elevated, and call me if you need me, or if you think of anything you want me to pick up while I'm out." He bent and kissed her quickly, then headed out.
Alexis laid back against her own pillows, wishing the damned ibuprofen would kick in already, although she had to admit that propping up her feet helped. Her cramps were only ever this bad when she was stressed, and she had to admit, she was stressed to the max by this final semester of law school.
She was trying to remember the last time her cramps had actually been this bad when she heard the front door open and Javier call out, "Alexis, I'm back!" He entered the bedroom a few minutes later, carrying a couple of bags from the nearby pharmacy. "Feeling any better?" he asked hopefully.
"Not really," Alexis replied, mustering up a wan smile.
"Well, let's see what we can do about that," he said. He began unpacking his purchases. The first thing he unpacked was a heating pad. "According to what I read, heat helps the pain," he said as he took the heating pad out of the box, crouched down to plug it in, turned it on High, and then gave it to Alexis. She gratefully draped the heating pad over her abdomen and within a couple of minutes, the heat was making the pain gradually lessen.
Next he removed a box of herbal tea. "This is supposed to be really good for cramps," he said. "I'll go heat some water, if you'd like a cup now?"
"Please," Alexis said, eager to see if the tea would help.
She heard the tea kettle whistle, and Javier returned with a steaming cup of tea a few minutes later. "Are you hungry?" he asked.
"Not really," Alexis replied. She took a sip of the tea, detecting both chamomile and a hint of raspberry in it.
"Okay," Javier said. "We'll wait on dinner, then." He paused, then said, "If you're up to it, you could take a warm bath. That's also helpful, or so I read." Then he thought of something else. "I should have asked before I went to the pharmacy. Do you have the supplies you need, since you got it earlier than usual?"
"Yeah," Alexis assured him. She took another sip of her tea before setting the cup on the nightstand. She adjusted the heating pad and, having kicked off her slippers before Javier had propped her feet up, Javier propped his back against the footboard of the bed and gave Alexis a foot rub.
Within half an hour, Alexis was sound asleep. Javier had read that sleep was very important during a woman's menstrual cycle, and he knew better than the rest of the family just how ragged Alexis was running herself, how hard she was pushing herself, determined as she was to graduate law school with a 4.0 GPA and just how often she burned the candle at both ends, studying into the night and most of every weekend, limiting the time they had to go out, although honestly, Javier was just as happy to stay at Alexis's apartment or his, order in, and watch a movie, on the occasions he could get her to unwind enough to take ninety minutes or two hours to watch something funny, or some romantic comedy that, more often than not, they would pick apart a la Mystery Science Theater 3000. Maybe part of it was having Castle for a dad, and Martha for a grandmother, being raised primarily by the two of them, with Beckett's input and example starting when Alexis was at the still-impressionable age of fifteen, but Alexis didn't go in for the damsels in distress, or the dithering rom-com heroines who took until the next-to-the-last frame of the movie to realize that the man they belonged with had been right in front of them from almost the opening credits of the movie. Alexis went in more for badasses like Princess Leia in the original Star Wars, the movie that launched the whole franchise, or the bold and fearless heroine, like Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride, or a classic speaks-her-mind-and-if-you-can't-deal-with-it-that's-your-problem heroine, like Katharine Hepburn in pretty much every movie she'd ever made, or Ingrid Bergman in Spellbound; after they had seen the first Thin Man movie with William Powell and Myrna Loy, Alexis had come up with enough comparisons between Nick and Nora Charles, and Castle and Beckett, to write a paper on them. Javier had seen some obvious similarities between Nick and Nora, and Castle and Beckett, himself, although not as many as Alexis. And Javier had laughed until he had almost cried when Alexis had humorously destroyed Notting Hill the one time they had watched it.
Javier covered Alexis, who was curled into a fetal position with the heating pad, which had an automatic shut-off after two hours, with a blanket, then fixed himself a sandwich and ate before locking up, making sure all the lights and appliances were off, and making sure that Alexis's laptop and phone were both charging. He set the alarm on his own phone before brushing his teeth, stripping down to his t-shirt and boxer briefs, and settling himself in bed next to Alexis, who was so exhausted she was lightly snoring. He lay there just watching Alexis sleep until he fell asleep himself, and he gladly slept without any pillows because her feet were still propped on the two pillows from his side of the bed.
Alexis awoke before Javier's phone alarm went off the next morning. Although she had skipped dinner the night before, she felt better than she had in a long time. She wasn't as tired as she'd routinely been for the past month, and her cramps were gone, even though the heating pad had long since grown cold and the ibuprofen she had taken had long since worn off. Javier was sound asleep next to her, lying on his side, his head flat on the mattress because she had had her feet propped on his pillows all night. She smiled at his sleeping form, love and warmth bubbling up inside her at the memory of how he had taken care of her last night.
After a trip to the bathroom, she headed to the kitchen to fix breakfast for herself and Javier. She had just started a pot of coffee when Javier emerged from the bedroom, still in the t-shirt and boxer briefs he had slept in, scrubbing both hands down his face in an effort to wake himself up. "I woke up, and you weren't next to me," he said. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better," Alexis replied. "I think the sleep did me just as much good as the heating pad and the ibuprofen and the tea and propping my feet up." She pecked a kiss on his cheek before turning her attention back to the pancakes she was cooking on the stove. She had pulled her hair back in a messy ponytail, she was still in his NYPD t-shirt and her baggy gray sweatpants and her slippers, and she had never looked more beautiful or more like home to him in that moment.
"I'll be right back," Javier said, turning and leaving the kitchen.
Alexis figured he was going to use the bathroom or brush his teeth, something like that.
When Javier returned to the kitchen, he was wearing his pants, his white t-shirt tucked into them, and his hands were behind his back. Alexis scooped the finished pancakes onto a plate, and carried them to the small breakfast nook, where she set the plate on the table. Javier had turned off the burner in the meantime, and he was looking at Alexis intently. She asked, "What, do I have something on my face? Creases from the pillowcase or something?"
"No," Javier said with a smile. "You're beautiful." He took a couple of steps closer to her and then stopped. "I'm only going to do this once in my life, so I'm going to do it right," he said.
Ryan was right, he reflected, about the right moment. Javier knew that this was the right moment he had been waiting for and thankful that he had been carrying his engagement ring for Alexis with him since picking it up from the jeweler.
Alexis's eyes widened and her jaw dropped when Javier got down on one knee in front of her. Looking up at her, he said, "I love you, and I will love you forever. I want to take care of you and be by your side and make a future and a life and a home and family with you." He brought his hands out from behind his back and opened his right hand, revealing a small black velvet box. He opened the lid to reveal a simple round cut solitaire diamond set in a platinum band. With his heart in his eyes, Javier gazed deeply into her eyes and said, "Alexis, will you marry me?"
Tears swam in Alexis's eyes and her heart pounded as she looked at Javier, on one knee, holding an engagement ring. "Yes!" she exclaimed. "Yes, Javier, of course I'll marry you!"
Beaming, Javier got to his feet, pulled the ring from its box, and slipped it on the third finger of Alexis's left hand. The ring was a perfect fit, and they both looked down at the ring on her finger, admiring it before Alexis framed Javier's face in her hands and said, "I love you too."
Then, morning breath be damned, as their pancakes cooled on the kitchen table, they sealed their engagement with a kiss.
