A/N: Everyone ready? Got your bags packed and a bottle of sunscreen? Alright! Let's go.
Enjoy!
Disclamor: Not mine; just borrow them sometimes.
It is much too early for anyone to be awake, it fact she might just go back to sleep right no–
"Kate Beckett don't you dare fall asleep again," Castle's voice rings through the room, coffee cups in hand, the bathroom and closet lights illuminating him with shadows where they don't hit.
"Ugh! Do I have to get up?" she asks, burrowing deeper into her pillow.
"You don't have to do anything. But Lanie and Esposito will be here in twenty minutes, so. . ." he trails off as he sets one of the mugs of coffee on her bedside table and leaves the room again.
She sits up and brings the mug up to her lips, knowing it's hot, but takes a sip nonetheless. Coffee burns her tongue and throat on its way down and she grimaces the whole time; the caffeine wakes her up, gets her mind going. She gets out of bed, fixing the sheets and blankets that were messed up in the night, and moves to her closet.
Once she gets cleaned up, she walks out of her room, her hair pulled back to keep it out of her face, and nearly collides with one of her sons.
"Whoa, sorry buddy," Kate says, putting a hand to the back of his head. Austin doesn't say anything, just hugs his mom around her waist. Kate squeezes him back, realizing he's still half asleep; it's an early morning for them all. "I was just about to come get you guys up," she says, taking Austin's hand and leading him back to the room he shares with his twin brother.
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Liam is still asleep in the bed closest to the door, and Kate walks up to it, running a hand on her son's side.
"Come on Liam, time to get up," she says, turning on the lamp that sits on his side table. Slowly the boy wakes up, stretching and rubbing at his eyes. Once he wakes up enough, Liam turns his blue eyes, the same as his brother and dad, on his mom. "Hey buddy," Kate says softly. Liam sits up and gets out of bed to hug his mom.
Her boys are much cuddlier when they're sleepy; she likes that.
"Are you guys ready to get dressed? Tio and Nani will be here soon," she says using the nicknames Lanie and Javier were given by her kids when they were little: 'Tio' means uncle in Spanish and 'Nani' is how they pronounced 'Lanie' as two year olds.
She moves to the boys' dresser and pulls out the outfits they had picked out the night before: Tan cargo shorts, a blue tee-shirt with Buzz Lightyear and the little green aliens on it, and a grey sweatshirt to layer over top, just in case. Kate Beckett is not above dressing her twin sons in matching outfits when the occasion is right; and this was one of those times. She tosses them to the appropriate beds, before leaving the room, knowing the boys will get dressed in a few minutes.
Kate goes into her daughters' room, surprised to see two of the three girls up and getting ready under the fairy lights hung round the room in an almost continuous string.
"Mommy, can you help me?" Finn asks, crawling over to her, dress in hand.
"Of course," Kate says, squatting down and taking the dress from her daughter; it's white with orange and pink heart shaped polka dots. She scrunches up the material, and holds it away from her, the head hole facing her chest. "Hands up," she directs Finn, who sits up on her knees and holds her arms up like her mom says. Kate slips the dress over Finn's head and arms and drops it down her torso. The girl thanks her mom and crawls back over to her walker and uses it to help her stand up. Finn fixes the dress that comes to just above her knees, and smiles that famous grin at her mom.
Kate stands back up and goes to her oldest daughter's bed. Danielle is still dead to the world and Kate hates to wake the kid up because she's a beast in the morning and Kate doesn't want to deal with that today.
"Danielle," Kate says, shaking her daughter's shoulder. Dani grunts and moves under her covers, a sign she's waking up. "Come on sunshine," Kate says, shaking the girl once more before turning to the other two.
Both Miyana and Finn are standing in their bathroom, at the sink, brushing their hair and teeth. Kate watches as Mia hits a knot in her hair, struggling with the brush and contorting her face in pain.
"Here, let me help," Kate says, crossing the room and taking the brush from her daughter. Slowly and carefully, Kate works through the tangles in Miyana's hair and expertly pulls it back into a high ponytail, as per request from the five year-old. Mia is also wearing a dress and black leggings, like her sister, but hers is white and navy blue stripped with an appliqued Minnie Mouse on the front.
After brushing her teeth, Finn wipes off her mouth on a towel behind her and turns back to the mirror. She shakes out her hair before sliding in a neon pink headband, setting it right behind her ears, and putting her brown and pink glasses on over it.
"Very pretty," Kate says, smiling at Finn through the mirror. "Ready to go?" She asks the girls. They nod, hop off the step stools, and follow their mom back into the bedroom.
Danielle is now awake, or less asleep than she was five minutes ago, her blonde curls in disarray like they usually are first thing in the morning.
"Danielle, you don't have very long to get ready," Kate tells the girl, hurrying her along.
"Okay," Dani says, sliding blue shorts over her legs and up to her waist before asking her mom for help in trying the drawstring. Kate kneels in front of the girl and ties the bow before pushing Danielle to the bathroom to finish getting ready.
The boys burst through the door to the girls' room just then, both dressed, save for their shoes. They both run around trying to catch their sisters in an imaginary game Kate never fully understood, but one her kids know all too well.
Kate puts a stop to the screaming when she wraps an arm around Austin's stomach as he runs past her. "No more running," she tells him, "it's much too early for that," her son nods and she releases her hold on him.
"Ready!" Danielle shouts, now dressed in blue shorts and a white shirt with Cinderella on it. Kate gives her daughter a once over, stopping at the girls' blonde curls. Obviously Danielle didn't run a brush through them, or maybe she did; with all those curls, it's hard to tell sometimes.
"Dani, go get a brush, let me check your hair," Kate says to her daughter as the other four leave the room, headed for either the boys' room where they can play or downstairs to wait with their dad.
"No!" Danielle shouts, putting both her hands on top of her head. "I did good; I promise!" she jumps away from her mom, not wanting to be caught.
"I know you did, but I want to check it, please." Kate says to the girl, who reluctantly goes back into the bathroom and comes back with the hair brush.
Kate works through the curls and tangles of Danielle's hair, the child most definitely did not do a good job, and when she's finished the hair looks softer, nicer, less like Medusa.
"There, now: it looks good," Kate smiles and Dani runs to the mirror hung on the wall, and turns this way and that, looking at her reflection from different angles. "Come on," Kate stands and moves for the door, "let's go." Danielle follows her and like she guessed: the other four are running around the boys' room, deep in their game.
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He's waiting outside, with their bags, for the bus he chartered to pick them up and take them to the airport to arrive, when a car coming down their street breaks the relative morning silence. It comes around their cul-de-sac and stops in front of the grassy area between the Castle house and their neighbor's.
"Hey 'Zito!" Castle calls as he walks down the driveway towards his friends. The Latin detective looks back at Castle with a face that says what an entire books worth of words couldn't
"Man, I've had to get up much earlier than this before, but when the alarm went off this morning, I hated it so much for waking me up," Esposito says, taking another swig from his travel mug of coffee.
"Yea, yea, yea, poor Javi," Lanie interjects as she gets out of the passenger seat and opens the back door on her side. She works on something inside for a minute before coming out with a grumpy, sleepy two year old in her arms. Monica hides her face in her mom's neck, obviously mad to be up at this early hour.
"Hey, I don't want to hear a word from you, Miss 'I-didn't-have-to-work-all-day-yesterday'," Javier tells his wife as he pops the trunk and starts to pull out their suitcases. He pulls two vey girlie looking backpacks out and slings them over his shoulders. Castle scoffs a laugh, getting a death glare in return.
"And just for that, you can deal with her," Lanie says handing off the girl in her arms and moving around the car, and grabbing her twin sister, "I get the good one," she finishes, walking back to the sidewalk with the baby and sliding the girls' backpack off her dad's shoulder. Lanie kisses her husbands' cheek, a silent white flag in their 'argument.'
"Where's Beckett?" Lanie asks, hoisting her daughter higher on her hip.
"Inside; finishing getting ready," Castle replies, adding the three suitcases to the pile he had created, before moving into the car and helping Esposito take the twins' car seats out as they would be used to and from the airport as well as in the plane and any other car they might drive in.
Lanie nods and turns up the driveway, her sandals scuffing on the concrete and slapping on the bottoms of her feet. She walks through the garage and sets her daughter down as they walk up the stairs and into the mud room, not bothering to knock.
"Beckett?" she calls out, after not seeing her friend right away.
"In here!" Kate calls out and Lanie and Letty follow the voice into the front room of the house. Kate is moving around, putting last minute things into her carry-on bag.
"Hey, you ready?" Lanie asks her.
"Just about," Kate says, standing up and zipping her bag closed, raising a hand to push her hair back, out of habit, but stops short when she realizes it's still pulled back. "Hey Letty, do you want a donut?" Kate asks the little girl, stealing a look at her mom, who nods.
Letty smiles happily, and Kate leads them into the kitchen where her five kids are sitting at the table, their own donuts in front of them.
"Nani, we're going today," Finn announces to her aunt as she, her mom, and cousin come into the kitchen.
"I know!" Lanie replies, smiling and stopping to hug each of her nieces and nephews as she passes the table. "Are you excited?" she asks, moving to lean against the bar height counter.
"Yea," all five of the kids answer, even though the question was mainly pointed at Finn.
Kate leads Letty to the counter and grabs under her arms to lift her up so she can see inside the clear fronted box. She picks a chocolate frosted donut with rainbow sprinkles on top, which Kate grabs and places on a paper plate before handing it to Letty.
"Hold it with two hands," Kate reminds the girl and watches as she carefully carries it to the table and sits down next to Liam.
Lanie goes to the garage door, opens it, calls for her husband, and returns with Monica in tow. The younger twin goes up to her aunt Kate and asks for a donut like her sister. Kate grabs one and hands it to the girl who is the near mirror image of her twin, save for the scar running down the middle of her top lip where her cleft lip and pallet were repaired just about a year ago. To Kate: it's the one thing she has to tell the girls apart.
Both moms let their kids eat and enjoy their own donuts, the sugary treat work its magic in helping wake them up more. Everything is going well until an outburst spoils the good morning they are having.
"No, Monica!" Austin is pulling his paper plate away from the two year old as she tries to steal the last piece off her cousin's plate.
"Monica, that is Austin's food," Lanie scolds her daughter. "You have one of your own, let him have his," she says going over to her daughter and breaking her donut into smaller pieces, hoping to distract her from Austin's food.
"No! I do have it!" Monica shouts, reaching over, trying to grab the piece again, making Austin cry out again.
Lanie scoops Monica up under her armpits and carries her, crying, over to the time out spot: the corner behind the front door. She comes back, Moni is still crying, and just shrugs at Kate and carries on like nothing happened.
Eventually all of the kids finish their breakfast and get up to throw their trash away. Kate takes the half full trash bag out of the can, replacing it with a new one, and takes old bag to the garage door to be thrown away as they leave. As she's standing next to it, the door opens, startling her at the unexpected sound and movement.
"Beckett," Esposito says, sticking his head through the opening. "The bus is here." Kate nods at him and lets the door stay open as she walks away.
"Alright," Kate calls out, clapping her hand together, "shoes, backpacks, car," she directs her kids, who start to move like it is routine, which it is.
"Liam Roy," Kate calls to her son, who is the first to be ready to go. "Bring this to daddy, tell him to throw it away, please," she says handing Liam the trash bag and watching as he walks down the steps to the garage.
Lanie goes to get Monica from time out, and after a little bit of prompting, gets an apology from the girl for shouting and not listening when she was supposed to. They both come back into the kitchen and Monica runs up to Austin and hugs him around his waist.
"Sorry Tin-Tin," she says.
"It's ok," Austin says, accepting his cousin's apology. He finishes hanging the second strap of his carry-on backpack, which is really just his school backpack cleaned out and filled with snacks and things to keep him occupied during the plane rides, over his shoulder before taking Monica's hand. He leads the girl out the door and down the steps into the garage.
They all troop out of the house, Kate bringing up the rear behind Finn.
"I wanna sit with Nani!" Miyana calls out, running through the garage, stopping at the open bus door. Soon all of the kids are calling out who they want to sit with, talking over each other, practically yelling.
"Okay!" Castle calls out, stopping his kids screaming. "Mia gets so sit with Nani to the airport because she called it first," This gets shouts and complaints from the others, and excited squeals from Miyana. Castle gives Mia a glare, stopping her celebration in fear of losing her spot. She stands quietly in the driveway, the wind coming from under the bus ruffling her dress.
"But," Castle continues, "Nani gets to pick who she sits with on the plane," he says looking at Lanie, who nods.
"Yeah and I'm only picking someone who is good and doesn't fight, or yell, or pitch a fit before we get there, alright?" Lanie tells the quints and her daughters who nod and stay quiet, realizing they are now on watch from their aunt and they all want the privilege of sitting next to her on the plane to Florida.
"Ok," Castle nods and starts to lift the kids over the high first step into the bus. Once inside, they jump around, trying to find the right spot to sit in. Two of the seats are taken by the twins' car seats, both by windows, just like they are in their regular car.
Once everyone is on the bus and sitting down, a hard thing for seven kids who are very excited to go to Disney World, and all the bags have been packed up, the driver pulls out of the driveway and stops in the street.
Esposito gets out and moves his car into Castle's driveway, where it will be safer and look like someone is home, before getting back onto the bus.
They drive out of their sub-division and onto the main roads of their neighborhood, trying to get to the freeway and the airport.
"Hey Kate?" Lanie calls to her.
"Hmm?" Kate replies, turning to look at her friend.
"Isn't you dad coming with us?" she asks, wondering why Jim Beckett didn't come to the house like they did.
"Yea, he's coming. He's meeting us at the airport," Kate explains, getting a nod from Lanie in return, and turning back to the front.
With her kids happily distracted for the time being with their coloring books and other toys; Kate can finally take a breath for a minute.
From beside her, Castle takes her hand, lacing their fingers together. She squeezes their hands together and smiles at him.
"Excited?" he asks, looking at her profile.
"I am; if we can survive today, this is going to be good," she says, thinking about everything that might happen or go wrong now that they have left the house; it makes her head spin.
"Hey," he says, using his other hand to make her look at him. "It's going to be great!" His smile grows across his face; the nine year-old coming back.
She smiles back at him, excited for their trip.