Chapter 4

.

"Well, this is nice."

"It's a room filled with sick children, Castle."

"I didn't mean that part. I meant, you know, the elephant wallpaper and oo! If I Ran A Zoo! I used to have a first-edition copy of that book… I wonder where I put it –"

Castle's thoughts got cut off when Kate said, amused, "Look, you and a one-year-old seem to be attracted to the same things."

Zoey had run over to the tower of books when they had first arrived and after contemplating the options carefully, had decided to pick up the aforementioned Dr. Seuss book.

"Great minds think alike," Castle smirked.

"Rick!" Zoey had run back towards them. "Book!"

"Yeah, Zo," he said, "Do you want me to read it to you?"

Zoey nodded. Castle picked her up, flying her through the air and eliciting joyous shrieks before settling her on his arm.

"You guys go and sit," said Kate, "I have to check in with the receptionist."

"Sure."

Kate approached the front desk. "Hi," she said, "We have a 10 o'clock appointment with Dr. Myles. For Zoey Queller?"

"Have you been here before?"

"Yes. Dr. Myles has been Zoey's paediatrician since she was born but some of the personal information in the file has changed."

"Address and phone number?"

"Well, yes, but also the parental information."

The receptionist had looked slightly bored up until that point but at Kate's words, she looked up, suddenly interested in the conversation. "The parental information?"

"Yes. Zoey's mother passed away a couple of months ago."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

Kate nodded, never knowing whether or not to thank a stranger for offering their condolences. "I'm Kate Beckett. I adopted Zoey after the accident so we'll probably have to update all of that information."

"Yes, of course," the receptionist pulled out a clipboard with a stack of papers already attached. "Just get them back to me when you're done."

"Okay, thanks."

Kate walked slowly back to the chairs, eyes occupied with scanning the myriad of forms. Castle looked up from the book when she sat down beside them. "How does it look?"

"Extremely tedious," she replied. She flipped through the forms, "I really only need the first two. I mean, can't I just write that the medical history remains the same? Just scrawl it across all of these sheets?"

Castle shrugged, "I would."

Zoey, who was sitting in his lap, tilted her head back to look up at him. She jabbed the page with her finger. "Go," she commanded, "Read."

Castle kissed the top of Zoey's head. "You're so bossy," he chuckled and raised his eyebrows at Kate. "Reminds me of somebody else I know."

"You're just easy, Castle."

"Hey, I'm not complaining," his voice took on a suggestive quality, "I happen to like being dom—"

Kate held up a finger in warning. "Don't even think about finishing that sentence."

"Hi, um, excuse me?" a voice interrupted.

Kate and Castle looked up to see a young woman.

"Yes?" they both replied.

"I was just wondering, I mean, you look so familiar…" the woman was directing her gaze at Castle and Kate rolled her eyes and went back to filling out the forms. "…Are you Richard Castle?"

Castle grinned. "Why yes, I am. Are you a fan?"

The woman seemed to take that as an invitation to seat herself on the other side of Castle. "Huge fan!" she exclaimed. "I mean you are just way more handsome in person, Mr. Castle," she stuck out her hand, "Oh, my name's Amber by the way."

Kate put her hand over her mouth to cover a cough that sounded a whole lot like "of course it is".

Castle gave Kate an amused glance.

"I didn't know you had a daughter," Amber said, trying to catch Zoey's attention.

"Oh, I do have a daughter. Except she's in college." Castle gave Zoey a reassuring pat after she buried her head into the crook of his arm. "This is –"

"—She's my daughter," Kate cut in, offering her own hand. "Hi, I'm Kate."

"Oh!" The girl feigned surprise as if she hadn't noticed Kate before that exact moment. "I didn't know… are you two together?"

Kate immediately scoffed, "No" just as Castle said, "Not really."

Amber was momentarily confused before replacing the grin on her face, "Well, you're really good with her. Maybe you could come over sometime and have a play-date with my nephew." She pointed across the room to a woman who looked slightly older and who was holding a boy who was clearly sick and clearly didn't want to be there. Amber directed the attention back at herself by presenting Castle with a card. "Call me," she said before sauntering away.

As soon as Amber was out of earshot, Kate hissed, "What kind of 'huge fan' doesn't know you have a daughter? She's clearly a fraud. And, how old is she? She could be in college with Alexis!"

"I wasn't going to call her," Castle said, clearly entertained by Kate's reaction.

Kate's pen was paused over one of the forms. "Can I put you down as Zoey's emergency contact or will you be too busy?" she asked him, eyes slightly defiant.

"I am not going to call her," Castle repeated. "Seriously, Kate. I haven't even gone out on a date for, I don't know, months."

"Well don't stop on my account."

Castle sighed, "Put me down as the emergency contact. What do they need me to provide?"

"Don't worry about it," said Kate, writing down all of his information by memory. She filled out the rest of the forms rapidly and was just about to get up when -

"Here," Castle said, handing her Amber's business card.

"Well, I don't want it," she said.

"Well, neither do I."

.

Castle was just finished measuring Zoey's height against the giraffe ruler on the wall when there was a knock at the door. A nurse stepped in who looked young enough to still be in high school.

"Hello," he said, "My name is Peter and I'm going to give Zoey her vaccinations before Dr. Myles examines her."

"Where do you want her?" Kate asked.

"Up on the exam table, please," he said as he took some vials out of a tray. "It might be better if one of you holds her in your lap."

"I'll do it," said Kate. The paper scrunched beneath her as she and Zoey sat down on the exam table. "Okay, Zoey, do you remember what we told you when we came in here?"

Zoey nodded warily. "Needle."

"Yup," said Castle, voice as cheerful as he could make it. "But while the nurse is helping you stay healthy, we can blow bubbles." Castle dug through Zoey's backpack until he found the green bottle. He directed Zoey's attention away from what the nurse was doing by telling a story about purple birds and double rainbows. Zoey was too busy giggling to notice when Peter swabbed her arm with antiseptic.

At Peter's nod, Castle unscrewed the Miracle Bubbles bottle. "Do you remember how to make bubbles, Zo?"

Zoey nodded, smiling. "It's fun!"

"Okay, so first you have to take a deep breath."

Zoey breathed in.

"And then you blow out," Castle said, holding the soapy wand just in front of her lips.

When Zoey blew out, Peter gave her the needle. Zoey's eyes widened at the pinch.

"Keep going Zo, there's still more bubbles on the wand," said Castle, with encouragement.

Kate held Zoey calmly, one arm wrapped loosely around her stomach – she knew that if she felt tense, Zoey would sense it.

Castle and Peter repeated the same process for two more vaccines. Zoey didn't cry once.

"You did really well, Zo," said Kate as the nurse put a Sesame Street band-aid on her left arm.

"You were awesome!" Castle exclaimed, lifting Zoey up so that Kate could hop off the exam table.

"That really was awesome," said Peter, sounding impressed. "Very few parents are so calm and collected themselves let alone their children."

"Experience," said Castle.

"You two have another kid?" Peter asked.

"Oh!" said Kate, "We're not—"

"—Together," Castle finished with amusement and then added, "Well, not really."

"Uh huh." Peter smiled knowingly, "I'll go tell the doctor that Zoey's all set."

Peter left the room and Kate whirled around to face Castle. "Okay, seriously, what was that?"

"What was what?" he answered.

"Not really?"

.

"Nothing to worry about, Ms. Beckett. Zoey has a clean bill of health," said Dr. Myles with a smile. She was standing off to the side with Kate. "She's within the normal range for height and weight and the behavioural problems you mentioned are completely natural for a child adjusting to such a big change in her life. Just make sure to keep Zoey following a normal routine – sleeping and eating at the same times every day, things like that. Do you have any other questions?"

"I think I'm good." Kate looked over her shoulder at where Castle was letting Zoey scribble on the exam table's piece of paper. "Is it okay that they're doing that?"

"It's perfectly fine. We have to rip off that piece anyway for the next patient." The doctor laughed. "I think he's the first person to let their child use exam table paper for an art project."

"Castle's a real trailblazer that way," Kate replied sardonically.

"Were you already together when you adopted Zoey?"

"What do you mean? Oh! You mean together together?" Kate shook her head. "He's not my – we're not dating."

Dr. Myles didn't quite look like she believed Kate but she only said, "Well, he's really good with her."

Kate smiled. "Yeah, he really is."

"Is that a compliment I hear?" Castle sidled up beside them, holding a multi-coloured Zoey in his arms.

"Jeez, did she get any on the actual paper?" Kate asked as she tried to rub off streaks of blue lagoon and flamingo pink from her arms.

"Yes, she did. Check this out." Castle handed her a section of the paper where "I love you, mommy" was written amongst a mass of colourful scribbles.

Kate's mouth dropped open slightly and tears suddenly threatened to blur her vision.

Castle was grinning. "I didn't prompt her or anything, I swear. I asked her what she wanted to say to you and I merely transcribed the words. Except, I added the 'mommy' part. You know, so you don't accidentally give me all the credit."

"Aw, Zoey!" Kate lifted Zoey from Castle's arms and gave her a big hug. "Did you say 'I love you'?"

Zoey nodded and gave Kate a loud kiss on the cheek. "I love you."

"See?" said Castle.

"Mommy?"

"Yeah, Zo?"

"I want cookie."

"Ha! She really knows how to play you, Beckett." Castle shook his head in admiration, "This kid's a genius."

A/N: Not to toot my own horn here, but this just might be one of my favourite chapters so far. Except maybe the end. I'm not sure about the end.

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