For my 400 follower giveaway, prompt from cuffedcasket47 on tumblr. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!
The soft ping of her phone pulled her out of her trance, the file in front of her closing as she reached for it. A smile crossed her face when she saw his name, her thumb swiping to open the text. Your witness can tell me what I had for lunch. It's like the greatest superpower ever!
She rolled her eyes, the smile still plastered on her face. That's not the greatest feat. You're a creature of habit, leftovers or grilled cheese for lunch.
Yeah, but today it was leftovers. She doesn't know what I had for dinner last night.
Maybe that means you should work a little harder at brushing your teeth. She giggled to herself, trying to keep her spirits up. This was safe for them, for now, and she was thankful for their limited interactions.
Her phone pinged again, and she laughed out loud at his one word response. Ouch.
There was a quick knock on her door and Ryan entered, his suit and hair reeking of his salad dressing. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"
She locked her phone, pushing it to the side to give her full attention to the younger man. "What do you have for me?"
He moved to her desk, launching into a tirade on numerical figures, cell phone triangulation, and potential motives for their person of interest. As he got more excited, he moved closer to her, the overwhelming scent of vinegar invading her nostrils. She pushed away from him, her hand covering her nose, a movement that didn't go unnoticed by her colleague. "I'm sorry, I can just smell your lunch all over you."
His eyebrows knit together over his baby blues, and he pulled the side of his vest to his nose, inhaling the scent. "Is it that bad?"
She shot him a sympathetic smile, nodding and relaxing as he backed away. "Yeah, I'm so sorry! It's making me sick."
He shrugged and waved it off, making his way to the door. "Nah, don't worry about it, Captain. Jenny complains about it all the time. Granted, she's pregnant," he stopped as Kate's eyes grew wide, her mind counting backward. He finished his thoughts, trying to ease the awkwardness, "so she's got this weird super smell thing going on kind of like our witness. But I guess she's not exaggerating as much as I think she is." His hand scratched the back of his head as he avoided eye contact. "You know, I can just email this stuff to you. You're a cop, you don't need me to explain it to you. I'm going to go."
Kate wasn't paying any attention. Instead she was looking through her calendar, trying to remember what was going on the last time she remembered her monthly visitor. A case number, a court appearance, anything that could help her figure out what was going on.
She threw her head back, her mind racing. There was too much going on right now, LockStat forcing her to keep her husband safe, solving the murders of her friends in the AG's office, and figuring out who was behind Bracken. She didn't want to worry about another life in the midst of all this. At the same time, she wanted to be happy. They'd talked about this. The less involvement in the field that came with the Captain title, along with the ability to do paperwork from home meant that they would start talking about starting a family after her promotion. Unfortunately now they were forced to have this conversation, now that she had messed everything up.
Her fingers flew to her computer keys, Google opening as she typed. Heightened smell pregnancy. It couldn't be a real thing, could it? Ryan's food hadn't bothered her before these last few weeks. But she was realizing that she wore less perfume than usual, the scent being more sickening lately. And she hadn't had any sort of seafood either, the smell of it making her queasy. And the more she counted, the more she realized she was late. She hadn't been late since her mother died, the stress of the events making her body turn against her and leading to more than a few worrying experiences. She leaned back after closing the browser, her hands resting on her still flat abdomen, her mind wandering to the life that was maybe developing inside.
She caught her own Mother's eye in the picture on her desk. She would be disappointed. So far, her Dad had let her stay with him, no questions asked, afraid to pry but always willing to offer an ear. Her Mom would have been knocking down her door though, demanding answers she couldn't give. If her mother knew what Kate was discovering now, she wouldn't be allowed to stay there anymore. No, she would be marched to her husband's door and forced to make things work. She shook her head, averting her eyes from her mother's all knowing gaze, and reaching for the phone. Johanna wasn't here anymore to talk sense into her, but she knew somebody who was. "Lanie? I think I screwed everything up."
The first thing Lanie did when Kate blurted out her suspicions was hand her a sterile cup and point at the bathroom. "I can have the lab rush the results, and in the meantime you will fill me in on all of this ridiculousness, are we clear?"
"Crystal." She gave her friend a grateful hug before leaving for the bathroom, the cup in her hand blowing LockStat out of her mind.
After she deposited her sample at the lab, Lanie's note to rush the results attached, she returned to her friend's office. The medical examiner had closed her laptop and pulled out two bottles of water, anticipating a long conversation. Kate didn't disappoint, launching into the entire story, from that call from Vikram early in the morning, to her conversation with Rita about LockStat never giving up, to her decision to leave Castle for his own safety. Lanie just listened in wide-eyed silence, giving Kate the time she needed to finish everything. When Kate finished, taking a long drink from her water, Lanie took a deep breath and spoke. "That's a lot of information to take in in such a short period of time."
"I know, I'm sorry." She rested her head in her hands, her stomach dropping as she heard the insanity out loud. "God Lanie, what did I do?"
"You did exactly what I would have expected you to do. You fell into a pit of a case that is loosely related to your mother's. Your family was threatened, and you kept us out of it no matter how much it's been hurting you." She leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest. "But I have to ask the obvious question here. You do know that you and writer boy work best as a team, right? I mean, you could have stayed home and dug into this."
Kate shook her head, her heart and brain pulling her in different directions. "No, I couldn't. What triggered all of this was a search. One search caused the death of five of my friends, and hits to be put out on people I never even met. And I love him dearly, but Castle isn't exactly subtle." Her friend chuckled, the smile wide on her face. Kate sighed, taking another swig of water before continuing. "If his involvement in this case got him killed, I'd never forgive myself. I won't be responsible for letting Alexis live without a Father."
"What if you didn't make it though, how would that make Castle feel?" Her friend's words had her fighting tears. She hadn't considered that. "He would do anything to protect you, and he's proven that he has your back. This is dangerous, Kate. If you were worried about him, you should also be worried about yourself. As much as you can't stand to live without him, he can't stand to live without you. And now you have to worry about your own potential little peanut." Kate's hand traveled to her abdomen again, already protective of an entity she didn't even know for sure existed. "You need to make sure that little one has a Father and a Mother in it's life. This is bigger than some case, Kate."
"I know." She met her friend's eyes over the desk, her own widening as she panicked. "Lanie, what if I screwed everything up? We said no more secrets and here I am, keeping secrets! What if he doesn't take me back?"
"Are you kidding me? That man worms his way into every one of your cases just to be close to you. He'll take you back." She held up a finger, stopping Kate's reply. "When he hears the whole story, he'll be angry. He has a right to be. But he'll take you back."
"I hope so." She sat back in her chair, picking at the skin under her nails as she tried to imagine the conversation in her head. She didn't even hear Lanie's phone ding, the sound that told her she had a new email in her inbox. All Kate registered was Lanie's voice, pulling her out of her fog and back to the present. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Are you ready to find out if you've got a peanut in there?"
Kate nodded, her arms wrapping around her midsection, the answer already clear in her head. "Yes."
Lanie's eyes drifted to her phone as she read the results. When they returned to Kate's face, she kept a neutral face, as if unsure how to react. "Congrats, Mama."
Kate stood in the lobby of their apartment building, her eyes resting on the text she had just sent to Vikram. This is so much bigger than my marriage now. I'm sorry. He read it without responding, her head still torn as she fought to shut out that part of her life. The elevator brought her to the top floor, and she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that followed her down the hallway. She hesitated outside of their door, unsure if she should use her key or knock. He hadn't told her whether or not he'd be there, all he knew was that she wanted to get her things. This threw a wrench in everything.
She decided to knock, something she hadn't done to that door in ages. Castle answered quickly, dressed in jeans and a button down shirt, the top button undone. He flashed her a sad smile, one that broke her heart into pieces and made her want to reach out and hold him close, never letting him go again. "Hey, Kate. I got your stuff together." He moved to the side letting her enter. "I wasn't sure how much you wanted, but I gathered a couple jackets, your favorite blouses, comfy pants, yoga pants, and your favorite fuzzy slippers. And of course, you can get whatever else you need."
He made this difficult. His understanding, however small, of her need for space, and his thoughtfulness to actually gather her things and make this as painless as possible for both of them broke her heart even more. instead, she turned to him. "Is anyone home?"
He shook his head, his hand scratching the back of his head. "No. Alexis is at a study group and Mother is at some gala…"
She didn't let him finish before surging at him, slamming him back into the door. He met her kiss with the same ferocity, his hands finding their way to her hair, his teeth finding her bottom lip and biting gently. In between kisses she kept whispering to him, "I'm so sorry, Castle. Forgive me."
He pulled himself away from her to look in her eyes, which she found filled with tears. "What happened?"
"I'll tell you everything tonight, I promise. But I don't want my stuff anymore, Castle, I want to come home."
"Of course you can come home. I missed you so much." He launched himself at her now, his tongue begging for entrance, which she granted, his hands running over her, like he couldn't believe she was real. She kept hers fisted in his shirt at the back, letting him know that she didn't want to leave him.
After a few moments, when she realized where this could be leading, and what happens afterward, she pulled away. "No, wait. Stop for a second." He deflated as she talked, his hands and face falling. But she held on, keeping his attention at her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere, I promise. I'm right here." She removed one hand from his shirt to caress his face, making sure he was meeting her eyes. "Rick. I'm pregnant."
Prompt: Beckett finds out she's pregnant in 8x05 and decides to come home. I just need a reunion fic in my life and also I love Castle babies!