"GOOD MORNING!" Castle yells seeing his daughter in the kitchen. She groans and gets up to be closer to her dad.
'Not so loud daddy' Alexis signs to him coming closer so she can continue to talk with him. Castle knows he can talk, he'd been the one not ready to give up the fact he was deaf. Sometimes he's still not ready. He forgets though that he can be loud when he talks. Alexis and his mother, the two hearing people in the house, are always telling him to be quieter. To be honest Castle can't hear himself very well so to compensate for that he has to talk loud.
'Sorry,' He signs to his daughter reaching around to hug her. After the hug, Alexis pulls away and looks up at her dad.
'I made breakfast, want some?' Alexis signs watching her father. He nods walking over and slipping onto one of the barstools.
'You see Kate?' Castle signs as Alexis puts an omelet in front of her father. She free's her hands and sighs back a 'No'.
'She may have gone out for a run' Alexis adds as Castle watches and clues in. It's Wednesday, hump day, one of Kate's favorite days to go running.
—
The air is crisp as Kate runs through the park near the loft. She's hot and sweaty but determined to go farther than she had gone on Monday. Reaching the end of the trail she takes a quick drink break before turning back and heading to the loft. The trail through the park and the little stretch of city in the middle is about three miles with two miles from the trailhead to the loft. So, if she runs it all one way and then runs all the way back its about ten miles total. A few years ago Kate would not have been able to run a whole ten miles but now since working out a lot more she can beast mode it all the way home. She keeps on running finally about an hour later she makes it to the loft. She greets the doorman and heads on up the elevator to get off on their floor and finally get home. Opening the front door, she smiles when she see's Castle and Alexis at the bar. Waving her hands, she beams as she walks over giving Castle a sweaty hug. He kisses her and pulls away smiling at her.
'How was running?' He signs a questioning look on his face.
'Hot' She signs back.
'Going to shower, we can go out after' Kate signs kissing Castle again letting go and heading to their bedroom to shower.
Kate comes out about a half hour later in some jeans and a t-shirt with the fingerspelling of 'I Love You' on it. Castle had gotten it for her a few years ago just after the couple had been officially told neither of them would get their hearing back. He figured it would be a nice gift to make her feel better. To let her know, he still loved her even though he could not tell her with his own voice anymore. Walking over she spies him on the couch nose deep in a book. Taking the book from him he jerks up and smiles softly.
'Lunch-Pizza' Kate signs, as Castle nods at her.
'Yes-Need-Shoes' He replies, his fingers and hands quickly moving to sign to Kate before helping himself up and going to slip his shoes on. Grabbing his wallet, he says goodbye to Alexis and heads with Kate out the door. The place they like is just down the street, so the two decide to just walk it; get some fresh air. The whole walk the two are chatting back and forth about things that have happened between them lately. About a case, Kate had a few days ago that everything about it made her laugh. Yes, she was a cop and had to be professional but this case gave everyone the laughs. The way the victim had been found and just everything leading up to it. Laughing the rest of the way the make it to Da'lotta pizza. Holding the door open Kate signs a quick 'thank you' to Castle before heading up to the counter. She waves and tries to get a hello out to get the guy behind the counter's attention. He turns around and smiles at the couple leaning on the counter. He's a new guy and does not know what the couple orders and that they are deaf.
"What can I get you?" He asks smiling at Kate. Kate sighs and quickly points feverishly at her ear with her pointer finger.
"Oh," He blurts reaching for a pad of paper and a pencil. He sets it on the counter and hands, Kate, the pencil. She takes the pencil and starts to write.
'Two slices, 1xCheese 1xVeggie 2xSoda' She scribbles turning the pad and showing it to the guy. He types on the cash register and writes down the total for Kate showing it to her. She nods and pulls out her wallet rummaging for the 8.95 she had to pay the man. She though she had the either dollars but couldn't seem to find the singles she swore she had. Sighing frustrated she finds a ten in her wallet and slaps it down on the counter sliding it to the guy. Castle can tell she's upset and comes close to her putting his arms around his wife. She flinches when she first feels him but calms down when she knows it's him. She's thankful to have him because he seems to know the right moments to step in and make her feel better. Looking up she sees the man count the change and show it to Kate before making sure she had her hand out to accept it. She takes it and shoves it back into her wallet as the man at the counter hands her the soda cups and writes on the paper "ten minutes". Kate nods and thanks him with a rather loud raspy "thank you". He nods and smiles softly seeing the two go find a seat and sit down.
'Feel stupid' Kate signs her eyes drooping as she looks at Castle.
'Not stupid' He signs back.
'Things happen ok' Castle adds reaching over to take Kate's hand.
'I love you' He signs with his other hand.
'Always'
The pizza arrives soon after, and the two have started to eat and sip their sodas. Kate wants to talk to him about kids, but she feels it's not quite the right time. She knows though if she waits too long her time will be up, and she won't be able to have any. She has to tell him soon, but she's not sure how she too wants to talk to him about it. Does she just bring it up in casual conversation? Does she sit down with him and have it all planned out and make him listen to her? Does she do it at home? Or out on a date night? All these things are running through her mind as she chews on her pizza. She'll figure it out soon. She has to.
Finishing up her pizza she looks over at Castle and waits for him to finish his last bite before asking if he's ready to go. He nods and the two of them clean up. Heading home Kate has a soda in one hand and is using her other one to sign to castle. She's become the master at one handed signing. She's also become pretty good at fingerspelling too which is good because sometimes a sign will slip her mind and she'll end up just fingerspelling it. They finally make it home and the two decide to watch a movie. They don't know which one yet but it will have to be one with subtitles.
'N-E-T-F-L-I-X' Kate spells as she sits on the couch.
'Subtitles'
The two decide on a movie and Kate makes sure Castle does not have the TV all the way up. If it weren't for Martha and Alexis floating in and out the couple would have the TV on mute and Kate would have tapped the remote so Castle could not change it. She watches him as he grabs for the remote and she smacks his hand.
'No!'
'You make TV loud hurts my ears stop!' She groans grabbing the remote from him and putting it out of his reach. Castle sighs and gives her a look as if to say "hey! Not fair!"
'No don't start' She groans again.
'I want to hear TV!' He angrily signs back.
'You can't hear like me Castle, we tried this already, tested you remember?'
'Just watch movie!'
Castle sighs and pouts as he turns back to the TV. He knows she's right but he's still in the phase where he needs the TV up. Just to feel semi-normal. Kate's tempted to hide the remote from him but she knows that will just make him more mad and she's not ready to deal with that. He's already lashed out before and it's not pretty. The two are watching the movie when Kate eventually falls asleep in Castle's arms.
A/N: Thanks to the people sticking with me on this weird journey. I want you all to know I'm leaving Wednesday to go to Vidcon. We will see what this brings. I may or may not post. Just FYI.
