"You didn't grab the wipes?"
"I thought – you said!"
"Castle, you had one job this morning!"
Kate fumbles deeper into the diaper bag. She pushes her hair out of her face as it piles over into the bag. Pulling out toys, her wallet, a handful of diapers –
"Excuse me, I had one job?" Castle emphasized.
"You had one job when it came to getting things ready to leave," she explains, now sitting on the floor of their building's lobby.
Castle lets her have this one simply because she isn't focusing on him. With the baby seat in his arms, he waits for her to finally realize that they don't have wipes.
"Why do you need a wipe right now anyway?"
"I wanted to wipe her hands when we got in the cab," Kate answers.
"I'm sure they will have wipes at the doctor's office."
"But what if we need them before then?"
"It's a 20 minute ride," he says, confident, but after looking at her face, " . . . I'll go get them."
Castle puts Nora's seat down next to Kate, turns to the elevator, and disappears back up to their loft.
"I don't think we needed this many cases of wipes, Castle."
Kate finds more room in the diaper bag for two more packages of wipes.
"Get me my wipes - don't get me this many wipes - you had one job," Castle playfully whines.
Kate smiles to him, the baby seat between them in the cab. Getting Nora into the car took longer than they expected. Kate left an hour between the time they would normally leave for the appointment and the time they planned on leaving. But she didn't think that getting Nora down to the lobby – with everything they needed – would take that long. And when the cab came, Castle assured Kate that he knew how to get the baby in the car.
I've done this before. Trust me.
"Did you really think the cabs would have been the same?" Kate teases.
"Look, Kate. Who updates cabs? They get you from one place to another," he whispers, as to not offend the driver.
"Well apparently they have since Alexis was 4."
"I don't understand it."
"Oh, says the man who gets the new model of every phone, iPod, gaming system -"
"You have a point."
Kate smiles, receiving a look from Castle, knowing that she had won this one.
"She looks okay."
"She's fine, Kate."
"But she never sleeps this early."
"She was up half the night. And we did just jostle her around all over the place upstairs. She's probably exhausted. And – we are in a car. It's like baby magic. Puts them right to sleep. When Alexis was a baby, I'd try to walk her, but getting a cab to go around the block always worked the best."
Kate smiles, a finger inside her daughter's hand. It was their first trip to the doctor's office. Nora was calm. She was four weeks old and probably had no idea where she was going. But Kate was nervous. They made it four weeks – she had made it four weeks – and the baby seemed healthy. She ate and slept. Everything seemed normal, but the fear that Kate would somehow break her was still there.
"The doctor will be with you in a moment."
The nurse left, leaving a confused Nora inside her car seat on top of the table. Kate walked over and stood before the seat, watching her daughters eyes move back and forth.
"What do you think she's looking at?"
"Nothing. It's all blurry to her."
"Really?" Kate asked.
"Yeah. I read it in the book; she won't be able to make out your face for a bit. Right now you are a colorful blurb of light."
Castle continues to play on his phone, sitting in the chair next to the table.
"It makes me feel so unimportant right now, thanks."
"Kate, she doesn't see you, but she can hear you and feel you. And we're the only people she has been around so she likes us."
Kate smirks at him, leaving him to play with his game.
"What do you think the doctor will say?"
"She's fine. Healthy. Tell us when to come back."
"Castle, can you put down the phone for a second?" Kate asks.
"Just…a second…..okay."
Castle turns off the screen and places the phone next to the baby seat.
"What is it?"
"Can you not be so hard on the doctor today? It's bad enough that you called him the first week back. I don't think you need to – "
"Kate, it's not that – "
"No, I know. We talked about this, I know. But I want you to really understand that it wasn't the other doctor's fault – "
"Kate – "
"No, Rick" – her hands cup the edges of the baby seat, her daughter squirming inside of it, - "it was not his fault. Really, I would have let anything happen to me to have her be okay. If it meant that he needed to take risks, then so be it. The pediatrician was not there."
"Kate, I know. Honey. I get it. And if I were away from the panic of the delivery room I probably would agree with you – in the sense that I would understand why you were saying it. But you don't remember what it was like. And when it started happening again, my heart sunk."
Castle walks behind Kate – his hands fitting around her hips.
"I know, Rick, but really. You – "
"Look, I won't go completely nuts on him. I do, however, want to know if the forceps are leaving any marks on her – even the ones that we can't see."
Kate lowers her head, the side of it leaning into his chest.
"She seems perfect."
They look at Nora, still taking in the world around her.
"She is perfect. She will always be perfect," he comforts.
"Okay, so how is she sleeping?"
"How or when?" Castle sarcastically replies.
"Is she at least sleeping longer at night than she is during the day?"
"Yes," Kate replies, her hand still in Nora's.
"Good. And she does sleep longer for a certain period than she does for another – at night, that is?"
"Yes. Possibly. It doesn't seem longer, but it probably is."
"Okay, good. That's normal. How much is she eating?"
"She gets hungry every couple of hours. Maybe every three? I'm not completely sure."
"Okay. Now, when Nora cries - or wakes up at night – does she seem to calm down when you pick her up?"
"When Kate picks her up, she's great. God forbid I try to calm her," Castle laughs.
"That's normal, Mr. Castle, give it time."
"Okay. Well we already went over her growth – and this adds up with those numbers. She's normal. She's healthy. It seems like her development is right on track. She's beginning to recognize you two, Kate especially, which means that her brain is working correctly. We will, per your request, schedule a more in-depth analysis when she is a little older, Mr. Castle. We do see your concerns – and we do normally run some more tests. However, because she is so tiny we do want to hold off on that. She's in her normal percentile, but she is still tiny. There are no alarming signs that we need to act immediately, so we will hold off on that." The doctor closes the folder in his hand and stands before Nora.
"Okay then. All that is left is her shot."
Castle stands up and moves over to Kate.
"I think you should be the one to hold on to her, she won't take it as hard."
"She won't take it as hard, or you won't?" Kate says, smiling.
Castle runs a hand through his hair and puts a hand on his wife's back.
"I'm afraid my husband has never been the one to actually like shots. He doesn't do well when he has to get them, let alone his children."
"Kate, I can get a shot."
"Yeah, okay."
Castle's face goes plain.
"If you want you can stand in the hallway."
"No, Kate. I will be right here. The entire time."
"It's a shot, Castle, not another birth."
The nurse comes back into the room, getting out her supplies, and lays them next to the baby seat. She opens the package containing the needle. Laying it on the bed, still inside another package, she gets out an alcohol swab. Moving Nora's arm, she signals for Kate to come closer to the baby. After she is done finding the spot on her arm and disinfecting it, the nurse opens the next package of the needle, holds it to the light, and flickers it to get the air out.
"Are we ready?"
"Actually, on second thought, Kate – you seem well in control…of this…I'll just be outside."
"Okay, it's fine. She will cry though, you know that."
"Kate, this isn't my first trip with a child to the doctors."
"Okay."
Castle leaves the room. As the door shuts, the nurse gives Nora the shot, forcing the baby to cry.
Kate moves closer, bringing her arms around the baby's body. Cooing her, trying to comfort the pain away, she gets the okay to hold her after the Band-Aid is placed.
Thank you so much for sticking with me! I know updates are taking forever, but after Monday they should be back to a normal pace. My semester ends Monday - and I've been writing paper after paper - even this chapter was written between two assignments. But the next few chapters will be better, I promise :]
(they wont end abruptly like this and they won't be months apart).
I did want to answer the one review I got from last chapter. I tried to answer it on my tumblr, but I don't know if everyone sees the things I post about these stories. - First, I wanted to say that my opinions are not those of the characters I write about (referring to the idea of forceps and Castle's reaction). Even the ones I develop away from this site and on my own. Characters do have some of my emotions put into them, obviously, but simply because a character believes something does not mean that I do, as the author. Also, I have Castle reacting one way because of his story and Kate because of hers. She has a different experience than Castle and I plan to follow that through. However, this story is not over and more character opinions are to come out. I planned to have Kate react this way all along - and Castle react the way he did. Also, Kate and Castle are not perfect parents - as most parents are - and I see them handling their newborn in a way that makes sense in the moment (referring to the baby sleeping in their lap). I hope this clears some things up :]
Lastly, it's a downside of writing to not be able to see opinions of everyone - I feel that we are coming to an end with this story, but does anyone want to see it in the next stage? It can become the Surprises series, if anyone wants? I am willing to continue it.
Let me know!