A/N: WELCOME TO CHAPTER 20! YAHOO!
It's a week before the Spina Bifida walk and Kate is freaking out. Everything is ready to go but the shirts. Kate had had bright yellow shirts made for her team to wear during the walk, and they have not come yet. She's been religiously tracking them via an app on her phone, and it says they should be delivered any day now, but for Kate any day now is not soon enough. The kids are at school, and Kate is sitting in Castles office Arejay in her lap as she taps on the computer keyboard. She was checking a few things online, but that quickly turned to browsing Facebook. She would have stayed longer but when she smelled the little guy in front of her she had to get up immediately.
"Woah, ok, wow, someone needs a diaper change." Kate chuckles softly getting up and closing the computer before going down the stairs and into the little guys room and placing him on the changing table. Undoing his clothes she takes the dirty diaper off and throws it into the diaper genie cleaning Arejay up. Before putting a new diaper on him, she checks his scar and wipes it clean making sure it's still healthy and not infected or damaged in any way. It's not and she straps a new diaper on him and pulls his pants back on lifting him up carefully. He's cooing and giggling as Kate slips the boy carefully on her hip.
"There we go, all clean. I wonder when daddy will get home, Dax and him just kind of left didn't they." She smiles kissing him. She knows he won't talk back, but Kate makes a pact to talk to him all the time, it's good for babies brain development.
"What do you say we get some lunch are you hungry?" Kate asks watching as the boy lifts his hands up and starts patting her chest.
"No, sorry buddy not right now, you get to have some baby food, maybe even some of mommy's left over smoothie from this morning." She tells him walking out of the room and towards the kitchen. She reaches the kitchen and puts the little boy into his high chair. Spinning around she goes to the cupboard and grabs a jar of chicken and peas baby food grabbing a spoon and setting the two on the counter. Shifting, Kate move to the fridge and pulls out the smoothie from earlier and pours some of it in a sippy cup for Arejay coming back and sitting in a chair in front of the boy. She opens up the jar of food and starts slowly feeding the boy. She gives him a few spoonfuls of the stuff before handing him the cup of smoothie. He gladly takes it and starts sipping from it. It's just then moments later that she realized Castle had used milk in the smoothie, and she jerks the cup from him freaking out that she's now caused her son to have an allergic reaction. Just days ago the couple had taken Arejay in for a six-month check-up and a few tests they had been meaning to run for a while now. Since day one they had suspected him to be lactose intolerant but had to test him on multiple occasions before they could finalize it and put it in his record.
Kate's freaking out now, she's just given her son milk, and she's not sure how much has gone into him. It's most likely not enough to cause anything but being the mother she is she's freaking out. Getting up she pours the smoothie back onto the glass in the fridge and cleans out the cup. She gets him another cup and fills this one with pedialite, hoping she can flush his system pretty quickly. Sitting back down she continues to feed Arejay and finish the jar of food. Just as she gives him the last spoonful the front door unlocks and Castle and Dax come walking in. Arejay eye's him first and smiles brightly clapping his hands trying to get his dad's attention.
"Honey! I'm home!" Castle jokes, walking into the kitchen and giving his excited son a kiss before leaning to give his wife one.
"Hi, babe." Kate smiles softly reaching for a cloth and cleaning up the food off Arejay's face and hands.
"So, we had a small issue a while ago," Kate confesses. Part of her wanted to keep it a secret but not telling her husband could turn into something big she was not ready to deal with.
"What happened?" Castle asks pulling up a chair next to her and reaching his hands out to play with his son.
"That smoothie you made me for breakfast, I saved the rest and poured him some, I had forgotten you put milk in it." She starts.
"But I quickly remembered and took it away from him, I have him drinking some pedialite, I'm hoping to flush it out." She sighs watching Castle and Arejay pat the tray of his high chair.
"Well, he seems to be ok. I'm glad you caught it early. I'm sorry I forgot to remind you I put milk in it." Castle says turning to look over at his wife. He could tell she was upset.
"I'm not mad ok? This is all new for us." He says placing a soft kiss on his wife's lips.
"I'm glad because I really freaked out." Kate chuckles dryly standing to reach over and pull Arejay out of his chair.
"So, can you tell us where you went?" Kate inquires hoping maybe for an answer from her husband.
"Nope, lips are sealed."
"Awe man!" Kate pouts quickly checking to see if her son had peed yet.
"You will get to know tonight." He smiles and reaches to take his son from Kate.
"This better be something good, you know I hate secrets." She sighs handing over their son.
"It's a good one I promise!" He beams pushing Arejay's hair out of his face. Moments later The three still standing in the kitchen Kate's phone goes off and Castle and Arejay start dancing to the song that's playing out of it. Kate picks it up and pushes answer. She glances down to see its Jenny.
"Jenny, hey, how are you?" Kate asks Smiling softly as she hears the woman's voice on the line.
"I'm great, hey, I have a favor." Jenny sighs softly, her daughter leaning on her trying to hear what Kate has to say.
"Yeah, shoot, anything," Kate speaks listing for Jenny to start.
"Something came up and I need you to watch Sarah for the night," Jenny says.
"Oh sure, everything alright?" Kate worries trying not to laugh as Castle spins Arejay around in the kitchen.
"Yeah, just fine. Kevin last minute wanted to take me out, and I don't feel good leaving Sarah home alone."
"No worries Jenny. Being her over, we will make it the perfect sleep over." Kate smiles softly.
"Thank you." Jenny says before hanging up and helping her 13 year old pack for a night at her aunt and uncles house. The kids get home a while later and Kate tells them about Sarah coming over for the night. Johanna is thrilled because she will have another girl her age to talk to. The girls go to the same school but interestingly enough don't see each other very often and love to hang out. Knowing that his niece would be coming over later Castle sits everyone down and decides to give them the surprise now. He knows they won't be going for a while but with the walk coming up he wants to give the kids time to tell their friends and get all excited. Pulling out envelops he hands each kid and Kate an envelope with a hand made card in it that is hooked to a wristband. Each has their name on it and where they will be going. Opening hers the fastest Johanna screams when she sees the card, jumping up and running over to her dad. The rest of the kids along with Kate get theirs open and are also excited.
"We are going to Disney World?" Johanna smiles hugging her dad tightly.
"Yes, but not for a while, I figured we could go in December for Victoria and Arejay's birthday, maybe over Christmas, we will fly down and stay at one of their hotels for a whole week." Castle explains shifting Arejay on his lap as he reaches for the box.
"Each one of you will get a wrist band that's your official ticket, I will hold onto those until we arrive, I don't want anyone to lose theirs." He says opening the box and showing off the bands. There's six of them, one for Kate in purple, a red one for Castle, plus a red one for Sidney, a green one for Nate and Pink ones for Victoria and Johanna. Thankfully, Arejay does not need one yet.
"There's a lot of planning for this trip and don't worry, mom and I will involve you all in any portion we see fit." He explains giving the kids a moment to think over the excitement.
"I can't believe you did this Castle." Kate smiles kissing her husband.
"I hope you are not mad." He sighs.
"Mad?" Kate asks. "Never, this is actually pretty exciting!" She beams hearing a knock on the front door. Shifting Kate comes to the front door opening it to see Jenny, Kevin, and Sarah standing in the door way.
"Hey guys! Come on come in!" Kate smiles Jenny cooing at Arejay who was sitting on Kate's hip. Kate steps back to let the three come in as Kate is pointing upstairs.
"Johanna's in her room. That's where you will be staying tonight. Go find her, tell her I'm going to order pizza and she better be ready." Kate explains watching Sarah leave and bounce up the stairs to see her friend.
"Thank you so much Kate." Jenny smiles reaching out to hug Kate.
"It's not big deal guys, anytime. Jo loves hanging out with Sarah, and we love having her over. You guys should have more kids and then my kids would have more friends to play with." Kate chuckles softly readjusting Arejay on her hip. After talking for a few more minutes Kate ushers the two out and on their way. She has a sneaky suspicion that Jenny is already pregnant and wants to tell Kevin or is not pregnant but wants to try and get pregnant tonight. Just after they leave and Kate closes the door there's another knock and Kate opens it quickly thinking its Kevin or Jenny with something they forgot but it's not. It's a guy in a brown UPS uniform with a giant box on a hand cart. Moments later a clipboard is shoved in her direction to sign. She does so and asks the man to wheel the box more inside. She's confused until she sees who it's from on the box. It's the shirts and she couldn't be more happy. She thanks the driver and sets goes and gets a box cutter setting Arejay on the floor before opening the box. Castle has now walked in and he's watching.
"Shirts came." She says pulling one out and showing off the front before showing off the back.
"What do you think? Pretty cool huh?" Kate smiles softly waiting for a reaction from Castle.
"Those are sweet! I can't wait for the walk." Castle smiles back peering to see the mound of shirts in the box.
"One for all of us, a little one for Arejay, plus a bandana for Dax, plus shirts for Martha and Jim and one for Alexis. I think some extras too, just in case like Jenny and Kevin join us." Kate explains pushing the box off to the side and out of the way.
Awhile later pizza has been ordered and a movie picked on Netflix. All the kids are in their pajamas eating pizza and ready for the movie to start. Kate had planned later on that she would sit down with Johanna and Sarah and paint their nails for fun but they must of talked to much upstairs because the kids seemed to fall asleep pretty quickly. They all loved staying up late during the summer but it seemed movies at night put them all to sleep. Kate did not mind because it was easier to put a half sleeping kid to bed then one that was fully awake and protesting. Helping the kids up off the couch Kate and Castle send them all to bed putting Arejay in his bassinet and going to bed themselves. They did some minor cleanup but would do the rest of the cleanup in the morning. The two where also exhausted.
A/N: I have to laugh because one reviewer said Castle should get snipped and another said they should have one more kid. I don't think they will have anymore kids but I dont see Castle getting snipped because they are a couple that to me seems like they would if accidentally gutting pregnant again would keep the child. I see them as taking hurdles as they come. With Arejay having Spina Bifida they realize they cant handle anymore kids and are very careful with protection. Maybe later they might decide to adopt. We will see.