Note the genre humour. This is meant to be lighthearted and funny. I can only imagine what it is like to go through in real life and I didn't mean to belittle either man or woman.
For those who liked it, thank you for the favourites, follows & reviews. I like to hear feedback.
FYI, I don't know that they do this in NYC but I saw this 'experience' on the news years ago and then had this idea to add to Ch1 which was the prompt.
Chapter 2: Your Turn
She promised herself that she would do it, originally it was during labour when she was irritated by her husband moaning that she had broken his hand and since then she's been a bit busy. Now though, their little family have settled into a routine she's got around to it.
She's been searching for well over an hour now for somewhere in New York that will do this kind of thing. If it's a good laugh for her then she'll tell Jenny about it. Maybe even get Esposito to go at the same time too. That would be funny.
Whoever invented this experience must have been a woman who wanted to show her husband what it felt like. The machine that will help simulate labour for men. She looked at some more YouTube videos of it and found the reaction of the men hilarious. She won't tell him beforehand because he'll do everything to get out of it.
Two weeks later, having dropped their son with Alexis for a few hours, they arrived at the centre; Castle still unaware of her surprise. She told Alexis about it who wanted a picture, at least, of her father.
"Kate, what is this place?" Castle asked as they stood outside the entrance.
"You remember how you moaned about me breaking your finger when I was in labour well I thought that you needed to experience what I went through."
"What?" He asked with the panic rising in his voice.
"There's an experience for men, who through shocks can feel what contractions are like." Okay, so women could do it as well but it was mainly men.
"You didn't?"
"Oh yes I did." Kate said with a smile, which was the complete opposite of Castle's expression.
"Kate, please, no, I will-" He begins to beg.
"No, Castle, there's nothing you can say to get out of this." Her mind was made up, it was booked and they were there now so he was going through with it.
Twenty minutes later or rather two minutes into the experience…
"Gah, please make it stop. I will never never moan or complain about it ever again." He pleads, grasping in agony.
"Sorry, Castle, mandatory half an hour experience." She says nodding to the woman operating the machine.
"She's right, Mister Castle, you will now fully appreciate what your wife and all women go through bringing life into this world." The operator inputs, okay it wasn't mandatory but as long as there are no health issues then Kate made sure that he continued.
After the so called experience, or as Castle said 'pure hell', they were walking back to their car parked around the corner with Castle still awkwardly walking.
"You know, we don't have to have another child." He told his wife.
"Castle, I grew up an only child and I know there's Alexis but I want our son to have a sibling their own age."
"You're willing to go through, THAT, again?" He exclaimed, now aware of the pain he had much more sympathy than before. It still baffled him that God would make it such a painful and long lasting experience.
"Castle, you had that for half an hour, I had eighteen hours of it and had to push our child's head out of a hole that's usually the size of...well you know."
"Just promise not to break more than one finger." He requests, but in reality he knew that she couldn't make that promise.
"No promises, Castle." She said gleefully, she didn't mean to last time and part of her actually felt sorry for him. She apologised in time but still…
"Oh hell." He mutters "Could you have the epidural next time?"
"No. I did it last time without so don't need to next time."
"Well can I at least have something for the pain?" He jokes, sort of anyway.
She doesn't justify his ridiculous question with an answer just a glare which gives the silent answer of "you've got to be kidding me"
When the test comes up positive less than a year later, with both of them having sat for the three minutes hoping for that answer, she turns to say "I promise to try to not break your fingers but that doesn't mean I won't, babe." She plants a kiss to his temple before dragging him to their room for a celebration.
Eight months later after a gruelling twelve hour labour bringing their daughter into the world, he's glad to find his fingers and hands are intact. Phew.
Thank you for reading.
