Saturday morning. Second day after they returned to their loft.

6.00 a.m

"Beckett, the baby is crying" he shook her shoulder softly and turned to sleep again.

"Your turn Castle. I left a bottle in the fridge. Warm it up and you're set."

"Really? You are going to this to me? Didn't we say that we wanted to breast feed him?"

"We are breastfeeding him. But I leave a bottle at night so you can take your turn feeding him. I am being considerate. Now go."

He murmured something she didn't catch. Something like "So not fair". She didn't think about it. Before Castle was out of the room she had passed out.

Noah's nursery was completely dark but the cry of his baby guided him. He adjusted the light so that he could see where Noah was but was still ok for his eyes.

"Hey, buddy. You hungry? Let's get a bottle, 'kay?"

It was absolutely incredible how he seemed to understand him. He stopped crying the moment he took him up and looked at him. His baby looked at him as if saying, "ok, dad". Castle kissed Noah's forehead and walked to the kitchen. The bottle was on the top shelf of the fridge, just where Kate left it the night before. A little note in a yellow post-it was sticked to it.

"Thank you, babe. I needed the sleep"

He didn't know if she was teasing him or really thanking him. But she was Kate. Surely she was being serious. She wouldn't joke with his sleep. She knew it wasn't something to lark about.

"There you go, munchkin."

Noah started sucking the bottle's teat nearly forgetting to breathe. Castle had to take it away a few times so that the baby could swallow without choking. He wrote a mental note: Next time feed him before he cries.

It was different being at home that at the hospital. There, a nurse would tell them it was time to feed the baby. She would take care of his baths. She would even change most of the diapers. At home it was just the two of them. He had a bit of experience thanks to Alexis, but that was so long ago... He wouldn't consider that as experience. Then, there was Kate, who hadn't even hugged a baby before theirs. So they were a bit lot. Well. They were completely lost. Thank god they had a great doctor who had given them a lot of advice about feeding him, burping and all of that baby stuff.

Noah seemed to be done a few minutes later. the baby was falling asleep in his arms so he decided to take him back to the crib. Instead of going to the nursery he took him to their room. Kate had insisted on having a crib near their bed, for those nights when Noah wouldn't stop crying. "It was a great idea" he thought through his tiredness.

"Night, Night, Noah. Give Mommy at least another hour of sleep before you wake up", he kissed him before setting him on the crib and literally let himself fall again to their bed.

12.34 p.m

It was the fifth time she was feeding Noah since Castle gave him the bottle that morning. Soon enough she was going to change the third diaper of the morning too. And she was happy. She was excited actually. Kate looked at her baby and smiled. Eight pounds of joy. That was what she saw when she looked at her baby. Just a happy newborn. She wasn't going to mess up. At all. She had Castle to help her. Castle. Who was at that moment preparing her a cup of coffee (oh god, her first cup of coffee after nine long months).

"Hey Noah, wanna go and see what's Daddy up too? That coffee is taking too long, right?"

She covered herself and stood up really carefully. She was still not confident holding him. At first, she had even cried about that. "What kind of mother am I if I don't trust myself holding my own baby, Castle?" she had asked him, desperate and overreacting a little bit. "The best kind," he had answered, "One that really cares about the welfare of her baby. You are great, Kate. I would repeat it as much as necessary. You. Are. Great." Noah had made a sound then. As agreeing with his Dad. She felt better then. Way better now.

The smell of good coffee filled her senses. Oh, god. Real coffee. It was their thing. The coffee. That chair at the precinct near her desk that he always used. Symbols. Of their partnership, of their relationship. Of their love.

"I was going to take the coffee to you" he said, placing the cup in front of her.

"We wanted a little walk, right baby?"

"Has he eaten?"

"Like a champ. I had to wake him up a couple of times though. Such a good baby"

"We've been lucky. Alexis was a cryer. She was all cute and chubby, but would cry all day long. No matter what I tried. I though she was sick. Even took her to the doctor."

"Such a paranoid." she laughed. "We could go for a walk and maybe have lunch outside?"

"Sounds good to me. Do you want me to prepare a bottle in case he gets hungry?"

"Please. I'll get his bag and set him on the stroller. We are going out, buddy" she said to the baby who was sleep again "We're going for your first walk around New York".

2.21 p.m.

Such a bad idea. Terrible idea to take a newborn baby for a walk and into a restaurant. They didn't know what got him. Noah was normally calm and quiet. He just cried when he was hungry or when he needed to be changed. But maybe that open space got him nervous. Or maybe it was the crowded restaurant. But he wouldn't stop crying.

They ate as quickly as possible, nearly choking with the enormous bites of burger, and took a cab to go back to the loft. The moment they opened the door, Noah had fallen asleep.

"Wow. That was fast" Castle commented closing the door.

"Are you playing with us, little man?" Kate asked taking him out of the stroller.

The baby was completely asleep.

"No more outing until he can sit still by himself" said Castle falling down on the couch.

Kate placed Noah in the moses basket, making sure he was safe there, and sat with her husband.

"Deal" she cuddled with him and after he kissed her head she fell asleep.

7.45 p.m.

Kate didn't know how she had got to the bedroom. She was in her pijamas and had slept for... Wow. More than five hour. More than five hours was a lot with a newborn, right? She jumped out of the bed. It was already dark outside. She looked and the alarm watch she had on her night stand. 7.45 p.m. Hadn't Noah eaten in all that time? Why hadn't Castle woke her up?

She went out of the bedroom. Looking for them. The loft was completely quiet. Without Alexis (who had left the loft that morning to go to her apartment) that big apartment was really quiet. She walked the stairs up to the nursery. Ok. She was going to need a lot of training after she recovered. She was already tired. Because of some stairs.

Castle was sitting on the rocker, Noah in his arms. He was feeding him a bottle and talking to him at the same time. She stood there, resting her body in the doorframe. She didn't want to interrupt.

"And then Mommy told me... well no. She didn't tell me that she was a Nebula 9 fan. I discovered it. At a convention and thanks to a guy that was also a fan of that show. I teased your Mom a lot. A. Lot. Seriously. But then she made me watch every episode of the show. It was awful, Noah. Really bad. I promise I won't let Mommy make you watch terrible shows, ok?"

"Aren't you going to tell him that I scared you to death with my costume?" she asked, entering the room.

"Hey! We agreed that we were going to keep that a secret"

"You're such a girl." she laughed "Why haven't you wake me up?"

"You were tired" he shrugged "And my boy and I wanted some time for ourselves"

"Yeah, right. This was Noah's idea" she kissed his lips and then the baby's forehead."I'll order dinner, okay? Don't make up things so that you look like the cool one."

"Beckett, you know I am the cool one," he said while she was leaving the room, "You're the badass, I'm the cool one"