Thank you, everyone, for your continuing support and enthusiasm. I would especially like to thank everyone whose words gave me a much-needed and much-appreciated boost: kwarner; JAG'ed Bones in the Casckett; NYAZ; 7761; 12Precinct42344; Thatsmegigi; Manxkid; teazer; fentonjames05; Caskett1963; Larry Holmes; Breathegsr; TORONTOSUN; Nancy; Purple Satin; leingh; the Guest who so magnificently summed up what I've done with building a future for Rick and Kate, and for fleshing out Alexis, Martha, and Jim; stonecoldku; Chacha; Beth Daniels; and AALiz. I appreciate what you said and how you lifted me up more than I could adequately say.
It's a short chapter this week, but I hope you'll consider it a prelude to Memorial Day weekend and the run-up to Alexis and Javier's wedding.
Javier got called into work at 5 AM the morning after Alexis's graduation. She was still so soundly asleep that she barely stirred when he whispered to her that he had to go to work, and kissed her on the cheek after hurriedly showering and dressing.
He made it out of the apartment without waking anyone up, although Javier hadn't been gone long when Reece, the early bird, awoke crying. Kate was instantly awakened at Reece's first wail, and she threw back the covers and hurried out of the master bedroom, through the loft, up the stairs, and down the hall to the nursery. Jake was stirring, and Kate swooped Reece out of his crib and settled herself in the rocking chair to nurse him. It had been a late night last night, with Rick still wired from Alexis's graduation, and he had brought both boys into bed and fed them bottles of breast milk Kate had expressed in the middle of the night, so now that he was sleeping, he was sleeping hard.
Once Kate was nursing Reece, he settled down to the business of eating. "You're our early bird, Reece," she observed as she looked down at the tiny boy in her arms. Her own eyes gazed back at her; Lily, Reece and Jake all three had inherited Kate's brown eyes. Other than that, though, Reece and Jake looked a lot like Rick. She stroked Reece's cheek with one fingertip. "You have so much personality already," she continued as Reece continued to eat. "You, Jake, Lily...I had no idea what being your mom would truly mean to me.
"I spent a long time...too long...not really noticing anyone else in my life after...well, after I lost my mom. But then your daddy came into my life, and everything changed. It was a long road, a lot of stops and starts, a lot of denial, and I really hope that you and your brother and sister are smarter about that than your dad and I were, although we had our reasons. If I believed in time travel...which I don't, for the record, although your daddy does...I'd go back to the broken, grieving girl I was at 19 and tell her that it will get better, that she's going to have everything she never believed she would." Reece unlatched and looked up at his mommy in the dim light of the nursery and, for the first time in his young life, gave her a real smile.
"Reece, you smiled!" Kate exclaimed. She then grimaced, realizing that she had been louder than she should have for this early hour of the morning, with Alexis and Lily (she, of course, had heard Esposito's quiet exit and correctly figured he was called for a body drop) sleeping nearby, and Jake right there in the same room. She held her breath for several seconds, but Jake didn't even stir. He was their night owl, and, in fact, he had awakened shortly after everyone left and they had gotten Lily up to bed, and Jake had fallen asleep on Rick's chest, not long after Rick had finally crashed.
With no disturbances or protests from anyone else, Kate returned her attention to Reece. "You smiled at me," she repeated, smiling down at him before closing her shirt and lifting him up to brush her nose against his. "You'll have to show Daddy your smile later," she said. "This is your first real one." Jake had smiled at Lily a few weeks ago, and the family counted that as his first real smile. He had smiled at all of them several times, but Reece was more serious. Not that he was unhappy, he just obviously preferred to bestow his smiles one-on-one.
Kate put him over her shoulder then, and after he let out a burp, she brought him down again and cradled him in her arms, rocking gently back and forth in the rocking chair, and they shared a few more smiles in the pre-dawn light. Kate had just gotten Reece back to sleep when Jake awoke, also wanting to be fed. Kate put Reece in his swing before tending to Jake. "All right, Jakey, your turn now," Kate said.
One thing everyone had noticed about young Jake Castle: once he was awake, he was awake. Jake was ever observant; if his eyes were open, he was taking in every part of the world around him. "Little observer," Kate said as Jake nursed while Reece squealed and chortled in his swing. "You're only three months old, but you don't miss anything. You're an amazing boy. All of my kids are amazing. And I'm so incredibly happy and grateful that you chose me to be your mom, and your dad to be your dad." After Jake had finished nursing and burped, Kate got Jake dressed for the day, then put him in his swing while she dressed Reece for the day before taking both boys downstairs to the playroom to play with them on the floor.
Not even two hours later, everyone was awake for the day in the Castle household except for Alexis. Lily was impatient to see Alexis, and to wear Alexis's graduation hat, and Reece showed off his smile, and it was one of the few times Rick needed coffee more than Kate.
They just barely managed to hold Lily off until 7:30, when Grandpa Jim arrived with muffins and bagels, and the video he had taken of Alexis's graduation. Lily clambered up into Jim's lap and watched the video of Alexis's graduation while Rick chugged coffee and Kate got down on the floor with Jake and Reece for tummy time.
Alexis emerged from her room shortly after 8, in her robe and pajamas, her hair a mess, carrying her graduation hat. "ALEXIS!" Lily shouted, scrambling off of Jim's lap and rushing to meet her big sister on the stairs. Alexis stopped halfway down and smiled down at Lily as Lily hugged her legs. "Grandpa showed me your graduation!"
In response, Alexis settled her tam on Lily's head and Lily's smile would have put the sun to shame.
"Look at me!" Lily crowed. "I'm wearing Alexis's graduation hat!"
"Slow down, sweetpea," Rick said. "But then, I guess this is how it starts, isn't it? You'll be going to preschool in the fall."
"I can't believe Marlowe Prep has a preschool program now," Alexis said as she followed Lily downstairs.
"The only constant is change," Jim said.
"Grandpa, you sound like Owl from Winnie the Pooh," Lily said as she reclaimed her seat on the couch next to him.
"We've started reading A.A. Milne," Rick explained.
"I'll take that as a compliment, Lily Jo," Jim said.
Alexis snagged a chocolate chip muffin from the plate on the coffee table before flopping down in the chair. "Well, at least Lily will get to spend her entire school career from preschool through high school at Marlowe Prep," she mused. "It's a great school. I loved it there."
"Reece smiled at me this morning, his first real smile," Kate said, smiling as she told Alexis.
"Wow, we're hitting milestones all over the place around here," Alexis mused.
"It's going to be quite a summer," Jim said.
"It sure is," Alexis agreed, watching Lily march around the living room in Alexis's graduation tam, Kate working on coaxing smiles from both Reece and Jake, and Rick, awake now from the amount of caffeine he had ingested in his coffee, moving to the floor to sit by Kate and the boys as Lily ran in circles around the couch, the tassel on Alexis's tam swinging from the force with which Lily ran, and Alexis, looking more relaxed than she had in months as she watched them all with a smile on her face.
"Speaking of summer," Rick said, "it's going to be Memorial Day in a couple of weeks. Hamptons time!"
"Javier's taking Monday off, but we're not coming up until Saturday morning," Alexis said. "He's saving most of his vacation time for our honeymoon."
"I'll be there," Jim said with a smile. "For the whole weekend. And so will Martha and Earl."
"So will Lanie and Alan and Will, and Kevin and Jenny and Sarah Grace and Nick," Kate said.
"Madison and Mark?" Rick asked.
"I invited them, but Mark has some work conference, so Maddie said not to count on them," Kate replied. "And I still haven't gotten a definite answer out of Victoria as to whether she and Gerald can make it for at least part of the weekend."
"It'll be the boys' first trip to the house, and to the beach," Rick said.
"And we got a new swimsuit for you, didn't we, Lily?" Kate asked.
Rick put a hand over his heart. "Please tell me it's not a bikini. I can accept that Alexis will be wearing a bikini, but not my Sweetpea. Not yet."
"It's not a bikini," Kate said.
Rick gave an exaggerated exhale. "Good, I'm not ready for that yet," he said, snagging Lily as she rushed past him and settling her in his lap.
"We get to go to the beach soon?" Lily asked.
"In a couple more weeks," Rick replied.
Lily cheered. "Will we build a sandcastle?" she asked.
"We will," Rick promised. "We'll build the ultimate sandcastle!"
"I think I'm going to be investing in a lot of beach toys in the next couple of weeks," Jim said. "Well, whatever Martha leaves in the stores, anyway."
"Dad," Kate said half-scoldingly.
"Grandparent's privilege, Katie," Jim replied with a smile.
"Which is your way of saying there's no point in arguing with you, even when it comes to Reece and Jake," Kate said.
"Exactly," Jim replied.
Kate's response was to focus on Jake and Reece, who were lying on the floor on their backs looking up at her, and pull a silly face, crossing her eyes and sucking in her cheeks to make her lips look like a fish. "Your mother always told you if you kept doing that, your face would freeze that way," Jim continued, amused.
Kate held the silly face for a few more seconds, only letting her expression go back to normal after Jake and Reece had both laughed at her.
"Hasn't happened yet," Kate said, leaning over both boys to tickle them gently, since she loved the sound of their laughter.
"Hey, I thought I'm supposed to be the silly one!" Rick interjected in a mock-hurt tone.
"You are silly, Daddy," Lily assured him. "You're silly most of the time. Mommy's only silly sometimes."
"I agree with Lily on this," Alexis said.
"You'll always be the King of Silly, Rick," Kate assured her husband.
"I'll make you a crown, Daddy," Lily offered earnestly.
Rick gave her a big hug and a smacking kiss on the cheek. "Maybe later," he said. "Right now, you need to have some breakfast, Sweetpea."
"Okay," Lily agreed. "But can I still wear Alexis's graduation hat?" She clapped a palm atop her head to keep the tam in place.
"Sure," Alexis said with a smile. "It'll be good practice for when you get to wear one of your own." Catching the look in her father's eyes, she hastily added, "A long, long time from now."
"How long?" Lily asked.
"Years and years," Rick said. "But the beach is only a couple of weeks away."
And so plans began in earnest for the Memorial Day Weekend getaway to the Hamptons while Lily ate her blueberry muffin and drank her orange juice, and the adults lingered over juice and coffee and took turns engaging with the kids.
