Kate wakes sluggish and heavy, tries to figure out what's wrong, where she is. Her whole body is stiff; her eyes crusted with sleep.
She snakes her tongue out along her bottom lip, tries to lift her lids.
Bright sunlight - too bright - she groans and turns her head to find little eyes watching her.
Sucking in a surprised breath, Kate brings her hand up to touch Ellery's face. "You awake?" she whispers.
Ellery scoots in closer, her little face nuzzling her mother's shoulder. Kate curls her hand around Ella's neck and kisses the top of her head.
Movement, flickering catches her eye and she looks up to find the television on, still mute, but with the closed captioning on. Like Dashiell can read closed captioning - even though he apparently knows how to find it on the menu, strangely enough. She snorts and turns to find him asleep beside her, his body flushed and sweaty, but his breathing good, his spots just the same. He's clutching the remote, looks like he fell asleep watching early morning cartoons.
Kate checks his forehead and then draws Ella up into her side and tries to stand.
Her head hits the top of the blanket fort - she forgot - and she stumbles with Ellery, making the girl giggle even as Kate tries to regain her balance, not trip over her other kid.
She huffs as she gets clear of the area, has to maneuver around the couch to the kitchen. "You hungry, baby girl?" Kate checks the time as she goes for the cereal, nearly drops Ella when she sees that it's already eleven o'clock.
Ohhh. Okay. Well that explains why baby girl was awake. Kate laughs and hikes Ellery higher on her hip, drags a hand through her hair, feeling gritty and overdone. Ug. Though Castle is gonna laugh when he hears how late she slept.
Ellery wriggles in her arms and points to the Cocoa Pebbles.
"Ug, yeah, okay, I don't care." Kate grabs the cereal. Castle bought it before he left, and Kate's fairly certain Dashiell and Ella have been working together trying to reach it. This or the nutella. Depending on the time of day, probably.
She pours out cereal one-handed into a bowl, Ella leaning into her chest and so very quiet, watching every movement her mother makes. Kate kisses the soft, warm cheek settled so close to hers and takes the kid and the cereal over to the bar, drops Ella down in the chair.
"Eat up, sweet girl. Let me wake your brother."
Ellery likes her cereal dry and no spoon - just fingers - and Kate isn't in the mood to make her eat it like a civilized human being. She heads back for Dash in the floor, bringing his water with her, and crouches over him.
"Dash? Baby, time to wake up."
His eyes actually flutter as they open, those beautifully long lashes caressing his cheeks, and then he smiles at her, all morning delight and fever haze.
"Hi, Mommy," he says. "I had a dream."
"Oh, you did?"
"There were Reavers and I was running away with the Captain and then Ellery hid under the bathroom sink in the cabinets and I had to find her and save her."
Doesn't sound scary. He's grinning at her too. "Did you save her?"
"I don't know." He shrugs, seems unconcerned, and curls onto his side to get to his knees. Dash shivers and bounces a little, then crawls into her lap. "Carry you."
"Don't talk like a baby," she sighs, kissing a spotless patch on his cheek. "How're you feeling?"
"Mmm, I think lots of itchy. Can I have a bath with cereal again?"
"An oatmeal bath?"
"Yeah."
"Sure, baby. And I have some calamine lotion for you too - it'll help all the spots."
"No more medicine?"
She presses the back of her hand against his neck, skirts his cheek to feel his forehead. "We'll see. I'll take your temperature after your bath. Did you wake up this morning and watch tv?"
He gives her a sly look from under his lashes. "You always let me watch tv when I'm sick."
"I do, yes. Did you turn it on cartoons this morning?"
He nods.
"What were the numbers on the clock?"
He shrugs.
"You're not in trouble. I'm just curious."
"I think. I think four started it. Cause I'm four."
"Hmm, okay. That's pretty early," she murmurs, shifting to get to her feet with Dashiell in her arms. He curls around her, arms and legs against her ribs, burying his face in her shirt, snuggling down. "Want to eat breakfast before your bath?"
He shakes his head, rubbing his face against her, working his shoulder blades under his skin so that they pop out like wings. "Can you itch me real good?"
Kate presses her fingertips to the soft cotton of his tshirt, feels the chicken pox even through the material. She rubs with her knuckles, slowly, deep pressure, and smiles at the sigh that pushes out of him.
"More, more."
She lets her nails trail down his back, using the flat edges to almost scrape. Not quite.
"Oh more, more, more-"
She laughs, tries to not sound too mean about it, kisses his ear. "Okay, we'll do a good scratch when you're ready for the bath. Want to take one in Mommy and Daddy's bathroom again?"
"Can I?"
"Sure. Still sick, aren't you?"
"Can you tell me a story in the bath?"
"What kind?"
He shivers and squirms, but she knows it's not to get down; it's just the itchy places. He's even got spots on his neck, the back of his hands, poor kid.
"What kind of story?" she asks, moving through her bedroom and into the master bath.
"A Beckett story."
"Oh? Okay. I can do that. Here, get down and start stripping. I'm gonna check on our baby girl."
She lowers him to the bath mat, careful to keep his feet from touching the cold tile, and he lets go of her, moves a hand to scratch. Kate catches him by the wrist, lifts an eyebrow.
"I'm just so itchy all over me."
"I know. But try to remember. I'll start the bath." She left the oatmeal she ground up last night in a plastic bag by the sink, so once the water starts running, Kate adds in the last of it. "This time, we'll try it without bubbles. I think the soap might make the itching worse."
Dash is already sitting on the floor and pulling his socks off. She leaves him to it and heads back for the kitchen, nearly collides with Ellery in the hallway off the bedroom.
The bowl of cereal in her hands clatters to the hardwood, and they both stand still, staring down at the mess.
Kate sighs and sinks to her knees, brushes a hand over the cereal to start gathering it up. "Coming to find us? It's okay. Accidents happen."
Ellery leans against her mother's shoulder as Kate balances on her toes, scraping cereal back into the bowl as best she can. The girl's weight shifts, sending Kate rocking backwards; she reaches out and catches herself on the wall, shooting Ella a glance.
"What's up with you, huh? Looking sad, baby girl."
Ellery winds an arm around Kate's neck and her fingers play at her mother's ear. Every time - it gets her every time. When Dash does it, when Ellery does it now, seeking comfort. She presses her cheek against Ellery's, closes her eyes a moment.
"Did you get enough to eat?" She opens her eyes.
Ella nods, looking solemn.
"You don't want more?"
Kate gets only a slight shake of the girl's head in answer.
"Okay, moja ljubav, let's clean up the rest of this, and then we'll figure out what we can do until Daddy gets home."
Little eyes lift, light up so brilliantly blue, a smile stretching across that face.
"Yeah, me either," Kate murmurs, leaning in to kiss Ella's nose.
This is not ideal. But it's the best she can do.
Sitting in the video game chair (again, jeez, this has been the best stupid, impulse purchase Castle has ever made) on the bathroom floor with her daughter in her lap and her son in the bathtub pretending to be either the big fish from Jonah or a mermaid, depending on his mood, Kate tries to remember where she left off in the story.
"The freezing, Mommy. It was freezing."
She sighs. She doesn't want to tell this one - not because of bad memories or anything, but because she's not sure she likes telling her two small children about how one time she and their father were locked in a freezer with a dead body as they tried to stop a bomb from going off.
Why, exactly, did she ever let Castle tell them this story to begin with?
Oh right, he likes to stress exposition.
"Freezer. We were both in a freezer."
"And it was very cold. Where was the dead guy?"
Really? Boys. "At the very back. Daddy and I stayed near the door. I sat beside him and we hugged and tried to stay warm."
"But it was too too cold."
"It was." She watches the movie on the ipad over Ellery's shoulder; the older sister steps into the magic cat bus and goes riding through the night. This was the compromise. Ellery in the bathroom with them watching Totoro on the ipad.
"And?" Dashiell prompts, flipping over onto his stomach in the bathwater.
"And we fell asleep-"
"You were gonna die," Dash interjects.
Jeez, Castle. "But Tio and Uncle Kevin found us in time and they saved us."
"Yay! Tio and Uncle Kevin rescued you."
"They did. They always come through," she smiles.
Dashiell splashes again in the water. "Hey. I can touch my bottom with my foot."
Kate closes her eyes and presses her lips together but the laugh bubbles out anyway. "Ah, really?"
"Look, Mommy. See?"
She hums something encouraging, tilts her head back against the video game chair. It's really quite comfortable.
"Both feet. It's because I do karate. Like you."
She lifts her head to look at him. "Like me?"
"Daddy said you do karate," he says, now suspicious, his brow furrowed. He looks like he's found that a lot of the things Daddy says don't end up being exactly, specifically true.
Welcome to my world.
"I - I do. Basically," she admits. "It's called mixed martial arts. But karate is a form of martial arts. So you and I both do karate."
"I can kick. And ee-yah!"
"You can," she laughs. "You want to hear another Beckett story about your daddy and karate?"
Both kids perk up, Ellery twisting around in Kate's lap while Dashiell sits up in the bath.
"Yeah!" Dash cheers.
"And then Daddy fell on his butt," Kate finishes, grinning at the kids. Oops. "Bottom."
"And I was how old, Mommy?" Dash says, still giggling, and maybe because she just said a bad word.
"You weren't born yet."
He's propped up his chin on his hands in the bathwater, lying on his stomach again, and he regards her with some confusion. "Where was I?"
Thank goodness they go to church. This is easy to answer now. "In heaven with God. Waiting to be born."
"Oh. Okay. So you and Daddy - when you got stuck in the freezer - all the Beckett stories that Daddy tells me and Ella - that was just you and Daddy and no me? No Ella either?"
She quirks her lips. "Yup. Just me and Daddy. Then you. Then Ella."
"Were Tio and Uncle Ryan born yet?"
Kate laughs so hard that she has to clutch Ellery to keep the girl from falling off her lap. "Oh, baby. How old do you think me and Daddy are?"
He shrugs at her, reaching back to scratch. She shakes her head at him and he sighs, squirms in the tub. "I don't know. How old?"
"Not that old. I'm 35 and Daddy is almost 45."
"How old?" Dash gasps, like it's some strange and crazy concept.
"Older than you," she rolls her eyes. "But Tio is older than me. And Uncle Ryan is too. But not as old as Daddy."
"Daddy is old," Dash whispers. "I'm only four. What happens when I'm forty-five?"
"You'll have a little boy of your own, maybe. Or you'll be a space cowboy on the moon where Daddy bought land."
"Daddy has moon land?"
"He does," Kate grins, shifts her knees so that Ellery's bony butt isn't digging into her mother's femur any longer. "You like the moon?"
"Not really. It's all grey. And dusty. I seen pictures."
"It is. Are you ready to get out now? It's lunch time. Way past. You haven't eaten."
"I'm not hungry." He thinks he isn't, but he really can't gauge that very well. She bets he's hungry once he gets moving.
"You need to eat." Ellery wriggles in her arms and slips down to the floor; Kate stands up, wincing as her feet tingle from sitting so long like that. "Come on, wild man. Let's get out."
"My water's cold."
"Well yeah, you've been in the tub for two hours. And you're all raisin-y."
Dash looks at his fingers, then sits up and brings his foot to his face, peering at his toes. "I am. Raisins every single one."
"Okay, raisin. Get on out. Pull the plug."
Dashiell pushes down on the handle for the drain and slowly gets to his feet. When he sways, Kate darts forward and grabs him by the upper arm, alarmed when his body goes a little limp.
"Dash? Baby-"
"I'm hungry now," he says, gives her a startled look.
"Yeah. I know you are. You have trouble figuring it out, remember?"
"I'm starving, Mommy," he says, and his voice breaks in a whine. "My tummy hurts. I'm so hungry-"
"Okay, my man. I know. Let's not get melodramatic about it." She hoists him out of the tub and onto the bath mat, wraps him in one of their huge brown towels, rubbing his hair with one corner.
"Can I have nutella on toast?"
"I'll think about it."
He shivers and his teeth start to chatter, so Kate picks him up and nudges Ellery with her foot to get going. They parade out into the bedroom where Kate left his dry clothes she grabbed from upstairs.
"Mommy?"
"Yeah?" She sets his feet on their bed and pats him dry, trying not to aggravate his spots. She used one of Castle's expensive towels - the softest they have. Should keep from breaking open the sores.
"My engine is very low."
"Yeah, I can tell." She pokes his shoulder, dropping him to sit on the mattress with a bounce; he giggles and flops back in the bed, his wet hair curling a little at his forehead. "Put your clothes on, Dash."
She tosses the underwear onto his head and he giggles again, that high-pitched, breathless sound he makes when he's too tired, too stimulated, and beginning to shut down.
Kate feels a hand at her leg and glances down to find Ellery hanging on. She leans over and brushes her fingers through the girl's hair. "Hey, srce moje, let's go scrounge up some lunch while your brother gets dressed."
She swings Ella into her arms and turns to see Dash bouncing on the bed, naked, his wet hair flopping on his head, other things flopping too. "Mommy can we get Thai?"
"No. Too spicy for Ellery."
"Can we get some Chinese?"
"No, wild man. I've told you before. It's got chemicals in it that mess you up, remember? We have to make it at home-"
"But I like it. It's so good."
"How about I make you pizza?"
"How about chips and salsa?" he says, still jumping on the bed, totally naked, making the conversation entirely ridiculous and hard to keep track of as she tries not to laugh.
Kate feels Ella's hand scrunch in her shirt and glances down; the girl is also wrinkling her nose, mimicking Kate.
"How about a compromise?" Kate suggests. "We'll order in lunch this afternoon, but we get to pick. Ellery and I."
Dashiell bounces once more and then collapses back on the pillowless, blanketless bed. "Okay, but make it something good."
"You can always put hot sauce on it," she tosses back, already heading for the kitchen.
"Yeah! Hot sauce for the win!"
Kate startles, laughing as she turns back to Dash. "For the win? Daddy say that?"
Dash shrugs, tugging on his underwear. "Sure. I don't know."
Kate rolls her eyes and heads out, rubbing Ella's back as the girl clutches her shirt tighter. When she gets to the kitchen, thinking about ordering Italian - creamy sauce to fatten Dash up - she realizes she's not seen her phone all morning.
Hmm.
"Ellery, what did you do with my phone, baby girl?"
Ella's little face turns mulish; she shows Kate her cheek and straightens her spine, pulling away.
"Yeah, I thought so. I need you to go get my phone. Stop hiding things, moja mala svraka."
Kate puts the girl on her feet, nudges her with a knee. Ellery makes her hands into fists, sets her jaw, not looking at her mother.
"Do I have to count to three?" Kate threatens.
Stony face.
"One."
Ella lifts her head, staring back at Kate, such deliberate intent on her expression that the kid doesn't even need the words. Try me.
Kate's no stranger to it - it's her own face looking back at her. She bends over. "Two."
Ellery doesn't waver.
"Th-"
She bolts away, heading down the hallway, bare feet slapping the hardwood, and into Castle's study. Kate doesn't follow, knowing that the girl likes to keep her secrets. And that's fine.
So long as she gets her phone before Castle calls.
She doesn't want to miss him.
Since alerts aren't working, I wanted to let you all know that Sandiane Carter and I are posting chapter one of a new fic tomorrow or Sunday - Bucket List. Be looking for it.