Let me know if you catch the little One Tree Hill reference ;) Enjoy & Review!

Castle entered the Old Haunt and was immediately greeted by the young piano player, Adam, who started to play "Piano Man" the second he saw Rick. Rick grinned and clapped him on the shoulder, putting a twenty in the glass bowl on the top of the piano. He spotted Ryan and Javi at their favorite back booth, and signaled to the bartender for his usual Scotch before joining his friends.

"Hey, Castle," Javi greeted him as he slipped into the booth. "We take you away from anything?"

"Naw, Kate was just taking a bath," Rick said. Javi nodded and laughed.

"Cool, bro. You're totally not whipped, or anything."

"Oh, ha ha," Rick said. The bartender brought over his Scotch and Rick thanked him. "I was actually gonna let you guys in on a pretty epic secret, but if you want to act like children…"

"No, tell us," Ryan said, taking a swig of beer. He knew what Rick was about to divulge and was eager to stop pretending Kate hadn't told him the news. He smiled at Castle. "Forgive Javi, he's just trying to keep us from noticing the hickeys on his neck."

Rick smirked and Javi just frowned. "Thanks, man."

"Anyway, what's your news?," Ryan pressed. Rick smiled at both of them and leaned in, pausing for dramatic effect.

"Kate and I are having twins. A boy and a girl."

Ryan smiled and Javi held out birds for Rick to feed.

"Wow, congrats, man," Javi said. "That's awesome."

"Yeah," Ryan said. "That's incredible."

Rick nodded. He couldn't wipe the dorky grin off his face. "I'm really excited."

xxxx

"I'm really excited," Kate said to Alexis as they sat down at their favorite restaurant near the loft the next morning. Jenny and Lanie were joining them soon, but Madison was in London, looking for a chef for her newest restaurant, so Kate had told her over the phone. She had been very happy, and insisted on helping Kate shop for the baby girl. "I have a lot to tell you guys."

"Like what?," Alexis asked, taking off her coat. "You're okay, right?"

"Yes, Alexis," Kate said with a secretive smile. "I'm better than okay."

"Hi!," Jenny said, approaching their table with a stroller. Kate cooed at baby Amanda and Jenny sat down across from her, leaning over to kiss her cheek. "She's asleep for now, I didn't want to interrupt her nap. How are you?"

"Good," Kate said with a smile. She rested her hands on her small baby bump, barely visible under a loose gray tunic. A few minutes later, Lanie arrived, and after they all ordered drinks, Kate took a deep breath and addressed her friends.

"So, Rick and I have some really exciting news," she said, smiling at them. They all looked curious, and slightly confused.

"Well, you're already pregnant, so…," Lanie said slowly.

"We're having twins! A boy and a girl," Kate said, beaming. She looked at the shocked and happy faces of her friends.

"That is so amazing!," Alexis exclaimed, the first to break the silence. "How did you guys find out? I thought your next ultrasound was in a week."

Kate sighed. "I, um, may have been in the hospital with Rick a few days ago due to stress." She bit her lip and waited for Lanie to scold her for not slowing her life down. But instead her friend just smiled and squeezed her hand.

"The Ladykiller case?"

"Yeah," Kate admitted. "Rick brought me home, but I was just really scared for Javi and Ryan."

Lanie and Jenny nodded sympathetically, and then Jenny put a bright smile on her face.

"Well, everything is okay now, and I have a niece and a nephew on the way!"

Kate grinned. "I still can't believe it." She turned to Jenny and stuck out her stomach. "Look at how much it's grown in the last week!" Jenny, Alexis, and Lanie marveled at Kate's baby bump, which had grown considerably in the last 2 weeks.

"Honey, I hate to say this, but two babies isn't gonna seem to magical and wonderful in a few months," Lanie said with a laugh. Kate shook her head and shrugged.

"I think I can handle it."

xxxx

"Oh my god, Rick, I cannot handle this!"

"Kate, honey, it's only going to be a few weeks."

Kate sighed and put her hands on her stomach. "Fine. You may be able to win me over with another bowl of ice cream."

Rick grinned and put his hands on knees, standing up and taking Kate's empty bowl. "One more bowl of your favorite strawberry ice cream coming up."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

It had been a month since Kate and Rick learned they were having twins, and they were starting to think about where the babies would sleep. There was an empty room next to Kate's office, currently used by Rick for storage, that could serve as a nursery, and besides Alexis and Martha's rooms, there were two guest bedrooms upstairs. Unfortunately, some work needed to be done downstairs, so Kate and Rick were going to have to move into the bigger guest room for a while.

"So," Kate said to Rick as he returned, handing her a full bowl of ice cream. "Explain these plans to me again."

Rick picked up the pile of papers from the coffee table and shuffled through them. "Okay, so we need to put another door in the master bathroom leading into the hallway where your office, the big closet, and the soon-to-be-nursery are. It will make it easier to get to the nursery, because without the door we have to go through my office and around the living room. And I don't know about you, but screaming babies are like an alarm clock. They don't stop til you turn them off. Or in this case, feed them or burp them, or whatever. It should be easier to get to them, not take ten minutes."

"But we have to live upstairs while it happens," Kate said, taking a large bite of ice cream. Rick sighed.

"Yes. Unless you want to put drilling noises and hammering under 'babies kicking your tummy' on your list of things that wake you, and sometimes me, up during naps."

Kate laughed and finished off her ice cream. "Fine. But walking up or down stairs is gonna hurt in a few weeks. My ankles are already starting to hurt, even in flats!"

Rick smiled and then picked up Kate's feet, shifting her so her feet were in his lap. He started to massage the left one gently, and Kate moaned.

"Oh yeah, that feels gooood. I knew I married you for a reason."

Rick laughed and switched to the right foot. "Hey, have you given any thought to when you want to go on bedrest? Doctor Stevens suggested 6 months, but if it were up to you, you would say 8, and I don't want to ask Gates for permission, I want to tell her."

Kate thought about it. "You know, it were one baby, I would push for at least 8 months, but with two, I have a feeling 6 is good. I don't want anything to happen. I guess it took me being pregnant to realize that my recklessness outside the Precinct doesn't just affect me."

Rick breathed a sigh of relief and leaned in to kiss her. "Thank god." She laughed and smiled at him, and he smiled back. It had taken years, but he finally felt Kate was safe. She was putting her safety first, like he had always begged her to. And that meant the world to him.

xxxx

"Rick?"

Rick ran up the stairs and entered the guest bedroom, panting slightly. He looked worried. "What is it, honey?"

Kate looked at him and smiled. "I just wanted to know if you could grab my laptop charger." She pointed to the floor. "It fell out."

Rick breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, bending down to pick up the cord. He handed it to Kate and sat down on the bed next to her. Issues of InStyle and Glamour were scattered on the bed beside Kate, and there were two empty mugs on the nightstand that previously held tea. Kate was only 5 and a half months along, but she had been placed on immediate bed rest by as a preemptive strike. It had been agreed that to prevent Kate from having any more stress-related visits to the ER, bed rest should start sooner rather than later. It had only been 2 weeks, and she was already deathly bored. And on top of all of that, they had to spend their first anniversary in bed watching movies because Kate couldn't leave the house. She was getting very sick of sitting in the guest bedroom, reading baby books, watching tv, and sleeping.

"Rick," she groaned, closing her laptop and leaning against him, putting her head in his lap. "I am so bored. I've watched every season of Monk, I can't take a bath without you sitting next to me the entire time, and I have read this month's InStyle 4 times already."

He chuckled and tucked a shiny chestnut curl behind her ear. "I know, baby. And I'm sorry you got put on bed rest while we're working on the downstairs. At least they'll be done in 2 weeks."

Kate frowned. "Two weeks is a long time. Especially with these guys beating up on me." She put her hands on her growing belly. "It's like as soon as one stops kicking, the other takes over! They're already learning to go in shifts! What's gonna happen when they're born?"

Rick sighed. "We're going to sleep in shifts, synchronize our watches, stock on vitamins, and show those kids who's boss." He directed his voice towards Kate's stomach. "You hear that, guys? Mommy is a cop, and you can try all you want, but you won't outsmart her."

Kate laughed, but then her laugh turned to a wince. "Great, thanks, Rick. They just started kicking again." She clenched her eyes shut. "Both. At the same goddamn time."

Rick put his hand on Kate's stomach. "Wow," he marveled. "I mean, I know it hurts when it's two sets of little legs, but that feels amazing."

Kate smiled, but her teeth were clenched. "I think I prefer screaming in the middle of the night to this."

"Well, let's take your mind off of it," Rick said, shifting both of their bodies so he was sitting against the headboard with Kate in between his legs, leaning against him. "We haven't talked about baby names that much yet."

"Hmm," Kate said, turning her body slightly so she could look up at Rick. "Well, the baby book I was reading yesterday had some names I liked. I hi-lighted them, actually." She pointed to the nightstand, where a stack of books sat. The third book from the top in the pile was called "The Baby Basics." Rick picked it up and flipped to a dog-eared page.

"Juliet, Lily, James, Tyler, Emma…," he read out loud. "Not bad. Juliet is pretty. Very reminiscent of Shakespeare."

"I hadn't thought of that," Kate mused. "But do we want to name her after a suicidal girl who got married as a teenager and was blinded by a whirlwind 3-day love?"

Rick laughed. "Okay, so that's off the list. How about Scott, for a boy? After F. Scott Fitzgerald."

Kate made a face. "No. Reminds me of Scott Dunn."

"Oh, yeah," Rick said. He shuddered. "I fucking hated that guy," he said with a malice Kate rarely heard. "Staying on the Fitzgerald topic, what do you think of Daisy?"

Kate thought about it. "I don't know. Girls with flowers for names often turn out to be strippers or hookers, for some reason."

Rick was amused. "Okay…. Ezra, for a boy?"

"I like it, but I don't love it," Kate said. "Derrick? Jonathan?"

"I don't know, do we want people to think we named our son after one of my characters?"

"Ooh, true," Kate said. She sighed. "Are there any other names hi-lighted in there?"

Rick turned the page. "Jack, Kristen, Blake, Adrianna.."

Kate grinned. "Yes! Adrianna! That was one of my favorites."

Rick smiled. "I like it. But…." He put on his thinking face. Kate frowned.

"No, no buts! It's perfect!"

Rick shook his head. "Adrianna Johanna Castle would sound weird… how about Adrienne?"

Kate's eye widened and she stared at Rick. "You mean it?"

He smiled lovingly. "Yes. There is no other middle name I even considered."

Kate grinned and titled her head up to kiss him. He craned his neck down and his lips met hers in a gentle, loving kiss.

"Adrienne Johanna Castle," Kate whispered. Her hand went to the locket her dad had given her at their engagement party, that she had barely taken off since receiving it. "It's perfect."

Rick nodded and then sighed. "Okay, one down, one to go."

"Jack isn't bad," Kate said. "What about Daniel? Or Thomas?"

Rick shook his head again. "Nope. Demming. Uh-uh."

Kate laughed. "Oops. Didn't even think of that."

"How about… Stephen?," Rick asked. He was looking at the bookshelf, where a large number Stephen J. Cannell's books sat. "After Cannell?"

"That's a wonderful idea, Rick," Kate said. She smiled softly. "But he can't play poker til he's at least twenty-five."

Rick sighed. "Okay, fine. So now all we need is a middle name…" He scanned the room for another idea, and his eyes landed on a framed picture that was about 2 years old. "How about Roy?"

Kate was quiet for a moment. "Like Montgomery?"

Rick nodded, glancing at Kate before looking back at the picture of Ryan, Esposito, Rick, Kate, and Montgomery enjoying the rare scotch Rick had bought after the discovery of many bottles in the Old Haunt basement during a case. "Yeah."

She smiled. "I like it."

"I miss him, you know," Rick said, stroking Kate's hair. "He was a great friend, and a standup guy." Kate nodded.

"He always liked you, no matter how many times you got in the way."

Rick laughed. He and Kate spent a minutes in silence before he cleared his throat and said, "Okay, so we have our names: Adrienne Johanna and Stephen Roy."

Kate nodded and she looked down at her stomach. "Hey, they stopped kicking!"

Rick grinned and put his hands on Kate's belly. "Thanks, Adrienne and Stephen. Means a lot to your mommy and me."

Kate kissed Rick's hand and closed her eyes, tugging on her loose, dark red maternity pullover. She yawned.

"I think I'm gonna take this opportunity to nap, before they start up again," she whispered. Rick nodded and copied her yawn.

"I'll join you, I'm pretty tired too."

So they fell asleep in each other's arms, like they had many times before. But this time it was different. It wasn't just Rick and Kate. It was Rick, Kate, Adrienne, and Stephen. The perfect little family of four, sleeping peacefully.

Anyone remember Cannell? He was a great writer, and he was on Castle for a few eps. before dying. They mentioned him in the season 3 episode "The Dead Pool."

Also, what do you think of the names? :) Are the middle names too cliche for a Castle fic?