~~~I'm really bad at updating this, I'm sorry. I was on vacation, and I was putting off naming their kid, mostly because I didn't want to mess it up. So here's a short chapter to carry over until I have more time on my hands. I go back to school at the end of this week, and once I get my routine down, I should have time to write.

Again, please let me know what you think in the reviews, and thank you for your continued support!

-Alyssa~~~

The night is quiet, save the normal noises of late night city goers. They lay in bed fast asleep facing opposite directions, him with his legs splayed out at the bottom, her gripping the pillow between her hands. They lay unmoving, taking in the silence, regaining energy they continually lose throughout the day.

Suddenly, a soft cry is heard over the baby monitor on the night stand.

The parents slowly awake, and she groans. "It's your turn."

"No," he muffles, face turning into the pillow. "It's yours."

"I did it last time."

"He likes you more."

"It's because I'm better."

He shifts, half sitting up and turning to face her. "Better? I wouldn't say better. I'd say, you have the advantage." He glances down to her chest. "You have the food."

"Oh look," she says without moving. "You're up. Might as well stop the noise while you're at it."

He groans and rolls his eyes, but reluctantly throws the covers back, getting out of bed and padding across the room.

He makes his way through the loft and up the stairs, and opens the first shut door on the right. The nightlight shines around the room, and a little bundle shifts in the crib in front of him, soft crying coming from within.

He walks over and looks down at his infant son, who squirms on his back. "Alright little man, come here." He reaches down and scoops his son up in his arms, lightly swaying him back and forth.

The crying lessens. His son looks up at him, his blue eyes wide with recognition.

"Was that so hard?" He asks him, moving a finger to the baby's hand, which instantly latches on. "I love you kid, I really do. And so does mommy. But crying isn't going to make a difference when you're a 35 year old rocket scientist running for president. So, how about we try this whole less-crying thing, okay?"

His son's eyes are still wide, and the crying has completely stopped.

"Huh, taking orders from your old man already. I like it." He laughs and moves to the rocking chair in the corner of the room, sitting carefully and rocking.

"Your sister Alexis never really cried. We thought something was wrong with her, she was so quite." He smiles down at his son. "But I guess you inherited your mom's vocal abilities, huh?"

The baby yawns, his eyes drooping more and more with each passing second.

"Or your father's attention-hogging persona."

He looks up as she enters the room, a hint of a smile on her face, and she walks towards them. "But I guess that'll help him when he's running the country and sending spaceships to other planets."

"It's my turn; you didn't have to get up."

She looks down at her son who is now almost fully asleep, and rubs a few fingers on his tiny, thin-haired head. "Yeah, well, the monitor was still on. And I thought I'd come up before you tried to instill any sort of writer wisdom onto his life."

"Hey," he defends, "if he wants to be a writer just like his dad, I'm not gonna hold him back."

She giggles lightly and removes her hand from the baby's head. "I think he's asleep. You can put him back in now."

He looks down at the bundle in his arms, his eyes shining. "Nah, not yet. He's too cute to let go of. Got the best genetics a kid could have."

He looks up at her, a smile appearing on her face. She rolls her eyes and turns, retrieving a folding chair from the corner of the room, and dragging it next to the boys.

She looks at him for a moment, then down to her son. "He is pretty cute."

"We did a very good job." He looks up at her with a slightly hesitant grin. "We should mass produce these things."

She turns to him, an annoyed look appearing saved only for him. "Castle," she whispers so as not to wake the baby, "I know you've done the whole parenting thing before, but this is my first time. He's only three months old. It's been exhausting. I can barely handle one kid, let alone more. Can we at least wait 'til he's a little older before thinking about another? "

Castle sighs, but nods his head. "Alright," he replies looking back at their son, "but you know what they say: Practice makes perfect."

She rolls her eyes once more. "Okay, time to go back to bed. Let's put him down."

He laughs quietly, but carefully rises nonetheless, and walks back over to the crib where she stands waiting. He gently places their son down, positioning the blanket lightly around him.

They stay in place, looking down at their son, smiles playing on their lips. He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her too him, kissing her hair lightly.

"Look at us," he says. "We've got a kid, we've got a home, we've got each other. We're so…normal."

"I wouldn't call us normal," she replies.

"Okay, maybe not normal," he confirms. "But we got our own little Castle family." He looks down at his sleeping son, and coos. "We got Daddy Rick, and Mommy Kate," his fingers move to pull the blanket onto his son's shoulders.

"And little Grayson Robert Castle here, too."

She smiles and leans into him, kissing his shoulder blade. "Yeah, we got it pretty good."

He looks down at her, smiling. "Let's go get some sleep before he wakes up again."

She nods and walks out with him, looking over her shoulder at her sleeping son, until he shuts the door.