Young at Heart
He was letting Kate sleep, leaving her curled around the spare pillow with her hair in a fan over the bed. She had crashed the night before, dozing off on the bus ride back from their trip to EPCOT to see more of the World Showcase and try out Test Track. As soon as he had the door to the room unlocked, Kate had fallen into the bed, still clothed, and promptly begun to snore.
So instead of rousing her from the sleep she so obviously needed, Castle goes out into the living room to check the weather and the news. He ducks his head into Al's room and finds the girl wide awake, talking quietly to Penguin.
"Hey, kid," he says, just loudly enough for the girl to hear. "What're you doing up so early?"
Al shrugs, holding Penguin close to her. "Couldn't sleep anymore."
"Come on, then," he says, holding out a hand to her. "Let's hang in the living room until Mom wakes up."
The girl takes Penguin with her, the bird flopping against the floor with her every step. Castle boosts her up onto the couch before settling next to her. He doesn't recognize the news anchors in Orlando and none of places sound familiar as the pretty woman on the screen talks about a winning lottery ticket being sold. Al is unusually quiet, clinging to his side, her thin, little fingers digging into his elbow.
"What's wrong?" he asks softly.
Al bites her lower lip and shakes her head. Then she buries her face into the fabric of Penguin's back. "Nothing."
"Something. You know you can tell me, right, Al?" Castle says, shifting so he faces her, one leg drawn up under his thigh. "What's going on?"
"Will you and Mom still love me when Minnie comes?" she blurts out. Immediately, she hides her face again as if ashamed that she even thought of it.
Castle pauses. This is Kate's territory. He's good at navigating most of the kid things – at least he is with this particular kid – but suddenly Al's insecurity transfers straight to him.
He knows the answer. Of course he and Kate will still love this amazing, funny, caring child. That won't change come hell or high water but for a time, he's sure their focus will shift a little. But their feelings toward Al won't abruptly disappear. He wants to pause the conversation, to go ask his sleeping wife what to say and do, but those slightly sorrowful and frightened blue eyes are peering at him from around Penguin and he can't just walk away from her. So he reaches out and gathers Al up into his arms, squeezing the girl tightly.
"No, Alexandra. We will always love you, no matter who or what happens, do you understand? Love doesn't just go away because someone gets a little brother or sister."
"Sister," Al corrects.
Castle smiles a little. "Of course. That love just grows and grows until everyone gets a little piece of it. So when Minnie is born, we're all gonna still love each other but we just get a little more love to spend toward Minnie." He pauses, finger-combing Al's tangled curls. "Does that make sense?"
"You won't love Minnie more than me?" she asks, sniffling as she cuddles into his lap. "You'll still keep me?"
He works to swallow the ball of grief that he feels for her. "Oh, kid," he says, touching his lips to Al's forehead. "You are stuck with us for a long, long time." He wipes away a track of a tear on her cheek. "Mom's not awake yet. What do you say to ice cream for breakfast?"
"Really?" Her face lights up. "Mom would never let us have ice cream for breakfast."
"All the more reason to do that right now."
Castle places Al on her feet before going to take the ice cream carton from the freezer. Al boosts up on her toetips to get spoons from the drawer, peeking over the top of the kitchen island as Castle scoops out large balls of chocolate ice cream. He hands her one of the brightly colored bowls, putting the ice cream back into the freezer.
"Back to the couch?" he suggests, gesturing with his bowl.
They snuggle up, clinking their bowls together before falling into silence, listening to the news anchors and weathermen and the sports report. Still cloudy but the nice meteorologist promises that the sun will make an appearance in the afternoon. Not horrible for their day before heading back home. He doesn't know if Kate has plans for the day other than spending the morning sleeping but it seems as though an extended trip to Downtown Disney for souvenirs and food might be a good idea.
The clock in the corner of the television declares it as nearly eleven o'clock by the time Kate stumbles from the hallway to their bedroom. She is rubbing her eyes, squinting into the light. "What time is it?" she mumbles, flopping into the armchair.
"Later than you usually get up," he responds, nudging the empty ice cream bowls under the coffee table so they're out of her view.
Al slides off the couch, climbing up into Kate's lap to rest her head against her mother's shoulder. "Morning, Mom."
When she places a kiss on Kate's lips, Kate's face scrunches up. "You've had chocolate." Her eyes narrow at him and Castle squirms a little under her gaze. "Rick…"
"What?" he asks as innocently as possible.
"Feeding her chocolate for breakfast? Really?"
"I do not know what you mean." Except he suddenly becomes completely engrossed with the television, looking everywhere but at Kate. Screaming guilty. "We had…"
Kate holds a hand up as he trails off. "Al," she says, turning her head down to the girl and in that moment, Castle knew he was screwed. "What did you and Rick have for breakfast?"
"Uh…" The girl's eyes flick to Castle then back to Kate. "We had…"
"Chocolate ice cream," Kate says. "You ate chocolate ice cream for breakfast."
"It was warranted." He needs to explain but not in front of Al. He fumbles for the remote, switching it over to the Disney Channel. "Al, we're gonna go make the game plan. Chill here for a few minutes?"
Al transfers over to the couch as Castle helps Kate up to her feet from the chair, linking his fingers with hers. It takes effort not to drag her into their bedroom, not to forcibly sit her down on the bed as he starts to pace along the room. She curls her legs up under her, grabbing one of the pillows and hugging it against her chest.
"Okay," she starts, watching as he worries his hands together. "What made chocolate ice as breakfast a good idea?"
"She thought we'd stop loving her when the baby comes." It comes out in a rush as he sits down heavily in the armchair in the corner. "She thought we wouldn't want her anymore."
"Oh. Oh," Kate sighs, dropping the pillow and crawling over to the opposite side of the bed, reaching out to trail her fingertips over his arm.
His head is back against the chair. Turning his hand over, he touches his fingers to hers. "I had no idea what to say. Because I haven't even done this once and I never had siblings so I don't even have personal experience to go off of. I froze. And she just kept looking at me, pretty much on the verge of tears, and so I did the one thing that always comforted me and we had ice cream."
She unfolds herself from the bed, bracing her arms on either of the armrests to brush a kiss over his lips. "What did you tell her?"
"That of course we'll still love her. That we get a little more love to spend on the baby."
"You done good, Daddy," she says, kissing him lightly. "So very good."
"Good enough to forgive ice cream for breakfast?"
"Maybe just good enough to scrape by." She leans a hip on the side of the chair, threading her fingers through his hair. "So… Game plan for our last day?"
He places a hand against her side, his thumb skimming over her belly button. "Downtown Disney?"
"You just want to get Al one of those Belle dresses," Kate accuses.
"Duh. Especially after this morning. And maybe more ice cream."
They're sitting on one of the benches in the little amphitheatre, sharing bits of cinnamon sugar pretzel as Al spins and twirls on the edge of the stage. Her foot is hooked around his calf, legs pressing together from hip to knee.
"What time does the plane leave tomorrow?" she asks quietly, eyes on the girl doing some form of Peter Pan kicks across the platform.
Castle holds out a piece of the pretzel to her mouth. "Nine tomorrow morning. Early alarm."
She takes hold of his wrist, letting her lips caress over his fingertips with a teasing smile. "Just means an earl y bedtime."
"For us too?"
"Yes," Kate says, rolling her eyes. Before he can pout – she knows that's coming – she braces a hand on the wood beneath them so she can brush a kiss over his lips. "Real celebration when we get back to New York, okay?"
"And by real celebration, you mean…"
He trails off as Al runs back to them, leaping up so that she ends up sprawled across both of their laps. "Did ya see me dancin'?"
"We certainly did," Kate says, tucking Al's hair back behind her ear. "Scootch off, kid. You're crushing the presents."
Castle moves the bags of souvenirs they had collected after nearly two hours wandering through the massive rooms of World of Disney to the ground at their feet. They had mugs for the boys and Jim, a little glass figurine for Martha, a ceramic Daisy Duck dressed in scrubs for Lanie. All cushioned by t-shirts and plenty of tissue paper.
"What're we doing next?" Al asks, squeezing her way in between the two.
"Maybe head back to the room and get dinner. Spend the last night being lazy before we start packing up," suggests Kate, reaching around Al's back to touch Castle's shoulder, rubbing at his neck.
Al's face falls, her upper lip quivering just a little. "Like, to go home?" When Castle nods, the girl shakes her head, burying it into his chest. "No. Wanna stay."
"But what about Minnie?"
She turns up to Kate with a look that screams 'are you serious?' "Mom. Minnie should be born here. With Mickey and stuff."
"What about at home with Grandpa and Martha?" asks Castle. "I think they'll want to be around."
Al sighs. "Fine. But can we have pizza for dinner?"
"Duh," says Castle. "Unless we want to have smorelettes!"
"No," comes Kate's immediate response. "Never again."
"Oh, you loved those," says Al, cuddling over to her mother's side. "Smorelettes are yummy."
"I hated those. You two are the ones with strange tastebuds."
They gather up their things and Al steals the last bit of the pretzel to eat as they walk back toward the parking lot. Castle has his phone to his ear, calling up the pizza place to order the food so they can pick it up on the drive back to the room. He goes for the passenger seat so Kate helps Al into the backseat before sliding behind the wheel.
"Might take about an hour," he says, hitting the end button on the phone. When Kate gapes at him, he shrugs. "Busy place. Listen, why don't I drop you and Al back at the room. I'll go pick up the pizza and bring it back."
"You sure?"
He touches the back of her hand on the wheel, making her glance at him from the road. "Totally. Spend some time with just the girls."
"Girls? Plural?"
"Cause of Minnie, silly!" adds Al from the backseat. "Duh, Mom."
She wants to turn and scold the girl for speaking back but she's working through the tangled traffic to get back to the resort. "Al…" she warns, trying to meet her eyes in the rearview mirror. "Hate to break this to you but the baby might be a boy."
"No. It's not."
Kate smiles at Castle as she pulls into the resort. "If you two insist."
Castle switches seats with Kate once she parks in front of the building. Before she can cross behind the back of the car to get Al from the car, he grabs her around the waist, tugging her up against him. "It's a girl."
"Can't know that for certain at this point," she reminds him, head tilted back to look at him. "Gonna take a few months to figure that out."
"But I know. A little girl with brown hair and your eyes." He places a chaste kiss on her mouth, fingers running up her back. "My sense of fun, your quiet strength."
Kate feels tears press at the back of her eyes, has to push her face into his chest to stop them from spilling over. "Rick…"
"Okay, okay," he says, touching hips lips to her forehead. "Too much at once. Let me go get dinner for my girls before we start the packing mania."
Al demands that they play Disney music while gathering some of the things they won't need tomorrow for the plane ride home, filling part of the suitcase. They snack on chips and salsa on passes from the bedrooms to the living room.
"Mom," Al starts as Kate arranges things in the first suitcase. "What if the baby is a boy? What can I do with him?"
"Well, you can still teach him how to sneak out of bed to watch TV and we can still take trips to the coffee shop and you can trick him into doing the dishes for you. Not sure how the Princess Leia braids would go over," Kate says with a smile.
When Castle shows up with the pizza, they pause, cuddling up on the floor next to the couch. Kate leans her head on his shoulder, reaching up with a napkin to dab at a bit of grease at the corner of his mouth.
"It wasn't too much," she murmurs. "Before. It's just that maybe it hasn't really set in yet."
He shifts – Al's in his lap, head cushioned on his chest – enough to glance down at Kate. "Scared?"
"Completely."
"We can do this. You've got help this time." Castle taps on Al's head. "Right, kid?"
Al turns, nearly dropping her slice of pizza and the crust she refuses to eat, and wraps them both in the best hug possible. "I'll help with Minnie… or the boy. Cause I love them."