A/N: i'm Back! Things have been pretty crazy around here, but that is no excuse. I promised a chapter every week, and I broke that promise. I'm sorry. Hopefully I'll be able to catch up to where I'm supposed to be. Anyway.

Enjoy!

Disclamor: Not mine; just borrow them sometimes.

"Run, Liam!" Finn shouts, cheering on her brother. She's sitting on a blanket in front of her dad watching both of her brothers chase the soccer ball across the field. It's their second game of the season, and their team, The Rebels, is losing. The tiny girl hopes that if she cheers loud enough, Austin and Liam's team may score a goal.

The ball goes out of bounds and Liam tosses it in, but has to redo it because he lifted up his foot.

"Keep your foot on the ground," his coach reminds him a second before Liam makes the toss and the game continues.

"Hey," Kate says coming up behind her husband sitting in the folding chair just off the sideline of the soccer field. She kisses his cheek before slipping off the carrying case of the second chair, unfolding it and sitting down beside him.

"Hey," he replies, taking his eyes off the game long enough to acknowledge his wife and two other daughters who have joined their sister on the blanket. "How did it go?"

"It went well," she nods. "Still have to bring in suspects tomorrow, but at least we hit a good stopping point. Come on Rebels!" Kate shouts, cheering on the twins' team. The two teams of four, five, and six year olds continue to chase the ball around; clumped together in one large group, not having fully grasped the concept of 'spread out' quite yet. Kate has to laugh as how funny these kids are, and she thinks every parent on both sides has done the exact same thing.

"Here Dani, Mia," Kate says, passing out sweatshirts to the girls. Even though it was a warm day, it's getting colder as the sun starts to set. All three girls head off to an empty corner of field not far away and start playing tag and turning cartwheels with the other siblings attending the game.

At halftime, Austin and Liam run over to their family, searching for water bottles.

"You boys are doing great," Rick smiles, handing out water.

"Thanks," Austin replies, gulping down water.

"Having fun?" Kate asks.

"Yeah," Austin nods. "I was so close to getting a goal."

"Keep trying," Kate encourages. "You're gonna get it."

Halftime ends with a whistle blow from the referee, and the twins' race back to their team's 'bench.' Because they played most of the first half, Austin and Liam are being held on the sidelines as their other teammates run onto the field.

With another whistle blow, the second half begins.

[] []

"I don't want to hear it, Liam Roy," Kate says, ushering her kids through the garage door and into the house. Liam comes in, still pitching a fit, as he has been since they left the soccer field.

Upset over losing the game; tired after a long day of school and having the 'late' game that night. He's done.

All of the kids are done. They are picking fights over dumb things and pushing each other's buttons.

"Alright, up to bed," Kate says, pushing her son towards the stairs. He goes, crying the whole way; his siblings having scrambled off to various parts of the house.

Kate sighs loudly, sitting at the breakfast bar. She scrapes her hair back, and pulls her cell phone out of her pocket. The lock screen lit up with a text message from Lanie.

Sign us up!

Kate grins, setting it on the counter and moving to the fridge to look for food. She went straight from work to pick the girls up from tumbling class and then to the boys' game. She hasn't eaten anything since lunch, and a pb&j and some grapes is nothing when it's nearly seven o'clock at night.

She opens the fridge and pulls out leftovers of that night's dinner: Cincinnati style chili, and a plastic bag of grated cheese. A family favorite combining spaghetti noodles and chili topped with whatever the consumer wants. She pops the top of the container and sticks it in the microwave.

While her food heats up, Kate reaches across the counter for her phone and replies to her friend.

Great! I'll let Castle know. More info soon.

All those secret phone calls and e-mails, holding up in his office working on a 'secret project' amounted to this.

She wasn't surprised when he brought it up to her at all: Disney World; The Happiest Place on Earth. They had been planning on taking their kids eventually anyway.

But what Castle had planned, she initially though was completely crazy; it will never work. But somehow it did. Everything was working out and the trip was getting planned. Thanks in part to Castle's amazing travel agent who was doing most of the heavy lifting.

He had sent out an e-mail to their friends and family when they came back from their getaway last month asking what dates would work for everyone; what they had planned. And from there they worked out the best week for them all to go.

Ryan, Jenny and their two kids would already be in Florida visiting her mom and step-dad; they were the first to reply with a 'yes.' Alexis and Max also accepted their invitation, saying that they would make arrangements to have their shifts covered. Unfortunately both her dad and his mom were not able to come along on the trip. Martha would be working at Summer Stock, like she always did that time of year and Jim might be pulled in on a high profile trial, and didn't want to commit to the trip and then have to cancel because he got called in.

And now with Lanie and Javier's RSVP, they now had everyone and could finalize their plans.

The microwave goes off, and Kate pulls out her food, dropping it on the counter quickly because she stupidly grabbed it with bare hands knowing full well it was going to be hot. She shakes out her hands, hissing as they sting from the heat. She grabs the bag of tortilla chips from on top of the fridge and crushes a handful over her dinner. She adds some cheese and leaves both on the counter as she digs in while walking back to her seat at the bar.

Kate eats her dinner, both loving and hating the silence of the house's main floor. No kids running around fighting or playing games of pretend; the television turned off; not even Castle typing away on his laptop or rushing over to her to show her some dumb video or article. Her cell phone isn't even going off! She slurps up the last bite of pasta, and rounds the counter to clean up. After putting away her chips and cheese and rinsing out the bowl, Kate goes in search of her husband and to console her hurt kid.

She checks the office first and finds it empty, and turns back through the hallway picking up a lost baby doll and putting it on the entry table as she mounts the stairs. At the top, Kate goes right towards the master bedroom. The door is ajar and Kate can hear the shower running from the outside, and once again she turns tail back down the hallway to her sons' bedroom.

Liam is lying in his bed when Kate pushes open the half closed door. He's cuddling with his puppy stuffed animal and watching a movie on the TV perched on his and Austin's shared dresser.

"Scoot over," Kate directs, coming into the room and sitting down onto her son's twin sized bed. As Liam makes room, Kate leans back against the headboard, pulling her son close. Liam wiggles into her side, laying his head just under her collar bone, an arm still wrapped around his puppy.

"I'm sorry," Liam mumbles after a moment.

Such a sweet boy; he's always been that way. He wears his heart on his sleeve, very kind and compassionate; always the first to make people feel batter when they are hurt or sad.

"I know you are," Kate replies. "It's no fun to lose, is it?" She feel his head nod, and lays her cheek on his hair. "But sometimes it's okay to lose. It makes us work harder the next time."

"Yeah," he sighs.

"You're gonna work harder, right?"

"Yeah," he nods, setting his jaw. "We're gonna get better."

Kate isn't totally sure Liam's mind fully understands what she said, but somewhere deep inside, it does and is working it out and eventually the kid will get what his mom was talking about that one night.

"Come on," Kate sits up as the show ends. "Let's go get some dessert." She reaches for Liam's hand. The boy smiles and jumps up; his bad mood gone in a flash.

"Ice cream?" Liam requests, despite the spring chill.

"Yeah," Kate smiles, turning down the hall and starting on the stairs. "And if you don't brag to your siblings about it, I'll let you have some of my flavor."

Liam's face lights up. Kate's favorite ice cream flavor, Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia, is never to be touched by kids without permission. They only keep a small carton of it around at a time and it is rationed within an inch of its life. It must be a big deal if Kate is pawning off some of her ice cream to her son.

The kid scampers down the stairs, jumping off the last two steps and landing on all fours as his mom follows. Liam rounds the corner before her and she can hear him opening the freezer and rummaging through for the cartons of ice cream.

"Gotta let it sit out for a few and get a little softer, bud," Kate says closing the lid the Liam half pried open. He sighs loudly and steps back from the counter. "Sorry, it's the rules," Kate shrugs.

"What's the rules?" Castle asks coming into the kitchen wearing navy blue sleep shorts and pulling a shirt over his head.

"We gotta let it sit and get warm," Liam replies, pointing at his dessert.

"It will be too hard to scoop if you don't," Castle says, reaching over Kate's head and pulling down bowls.

"Oh!" Kate interjects. "Lanie texted me; she and Javi and the girls are good to go," she smiles, turning to Castle.

"Great!" he replies, his voice trails off as he walks into the office and comes back a minute later with his laptop. He wakes it up and types in his password before going to his email and forwarding the necessary messages to Lanie and Javier now that they are officially in the group going to Florida. "Let's see that brings our total to," he counts quickly in his head, adding the extra four bodies, "seventeen." He winces at the uneven number, hoping that Jim will be able to come to even out their count. It just makes things a lot easier for everyone involved if there is an even number of people in a large group.

"Is it ready yet?" Liam asks, hanging off the counter and leaning back, stretching his arms out to full length.

Kate opens the carton and tests a scoop. "I think so," she smiles and Liam cheers from beside her. She starts to dish out bowls for the other four kids, and once they're full she slides them further down the counter to make room. When she reaches Liam's bowl, Kate scoops out a little less than what she gave the others and fills the bowl the rest of the way with the coveted ice cream flavor. Liam heads for the table with his treat and hops up into his seat, the spoon sticking out of his mouth.

Kate loads the other four bowls onto a tray and brings it to the basement where the kids have migrated and are sprawled over the couch watching TV. She passes them out, reminding the kids to bring their bowls back upstairs when they are done and that after they finish it is bedtime. She knows that letting them eat ice cream by the TV is playing with fire, but it's a rare occasion and she knows they're usually pretty good about not making a mess.

Kate returns to the kitchen and both her son and husband are at the table scooping up bites, heads turned to see the iPad propped up in its case. One bowl remains on the counter but Kate opts to just eat straight from the carton. She joins the boys at the table, shaking her head at the motor cycle racing video they are watching.

"I sent Karen an email with our new numbers and she's changing out reservation," Castle says, a bite halfway to his mouth.

Kate hums a reply, her mouth full of cherry-rum goodness.

[] []

One bowl of ice cream and three videos later, Rick Castle is tucking in his daughters while Kate does the same with their sons. He makes sure the fairy lights are on and all three girls have their various comfort items (blankets, babies, bears, animals). He turns out the light and makes the rounds giving goodnight kisses and hugs.

"I love you," He tells each girl, and smacks kisses into their cheeks. He slips off Finn's glasses and sets them on her bedside table. Glasses are fairly new to the girl; she's only had them about eighteen months, and when she wears them Kate swears Finn is the spitting image of her father.

"Love you daddy!" the girls call once more before Castle closes the door and heads down the hall, crossing with Kate in the middle as they switch rooms to say goodnight.

"I'm really proud of you boys in your game today," Castle compliments the boys, tucking them in like he did with their sisters.

"We're gonna get better," Liam announces.

"I bet you will," Castle nods, kissing Liam's forehead. "And soon you'll be playing with the bigger boys like it's old hat."

"I can do that now," Austin says; the boy is confidents in his abilities, what can you do?

"Maybe wait until you get a bit more practice in, yeah? Gotta be able to keep up with the big kids after all, right?" Castle asks, heading for the door, clicking on the night light as he goes.

"Yeah, that's true," Austin nods, wriggling into his pillow. "Good night dad, love you." He says.

"Love you too," Castle responds, casting one last look at his boys before closing their door and heading for his office to start that Halo match he had promised his online friends.