Hello all, so this is an extended chapter but I didn't want to edit anything out, it's all part of a very big important moment in the Crumbs-verse: Little Ryan is arriving! Enjoy!

Esposito waited in the hallway while the doctor performed her exam on Honey-Milk; he told himself he was keeping an eye out for his partner as a way to distract himself from all the poking and prodding he was certain was going on in the room he'd just left.

Sure enough, he saw Ryan walking, not running, in with his wife bags in hand, a storm of emotions on his face. He stopped when he saw Esposito waiting outside.

'Hey, bro, thought you were taking Meredeth to the airport.'

'We were in the car, Lanie called Mere and we detoured here.'

'Thanks but this is going to be a long time, are you sure you-'

'I'm with you till the wheels fall off.' Esposito held out his fist which Ryan bro-dapped once, twice, then pulled his friend in for a tight hug. 'This is it, man.'

'I can't believe it! I'm going to have a son or a daughter soon.'

Ryan's babble was cut short when Krishner came out of the room, deposited her latex gloves in a medical waste bin across the hallway, then turned back to her patient's husband. 'How's she doing so far?'

'Things are looking good. Her water broke, and her contractions are about twelve minutes apart, so there's still some time to go. She's asking if you're here,' Krishner added with a soft smile. 'And no matter what she says, no green Slushies until after the birth.'

Ryan furrowed his brow at Esposito. 'Green Slushies?'

'Apparently she really wants one and Krishner said no,' he explained as they went in the room. Esposito watched the absolute pure love that lit up his partner's face when he saw Honey-Milk in the bed, blond hair tied back from her shiny face. He set the bags down at the foot of the bed, took the chair of honour beside his wife that Lanie gave him wordlessly. He linked his fingers through hers, put his hand on her rock-solid tummy.

'Hey sweetie. I'm here.'

'You made it.' Honey-Milk kissed their joined hands, then winced. 'Ah, felt that one.'

'Contraction?'

'No, kick.'

'Did you have any idea when you woke up this morning?'

'I thought I was having the usual Braxton-Hicks ones, you know how I've been getting them when I first wake up, and then they go away? Well, Lanie picked me up, we went to the day spa, and when I got there I used the restroom before the girl started on my pedicure. She was halfway through my second foot when she just stopped and said, 'Ma'am, I don't want to embarrass you but I think you just wet your pants.' And I realized what had happened, and said to her, no, my water just broke, can you get the woman I came in with and tell her that please?' See, look.' Honey-Milk tugged back the covers on her hospital bed and wiggled seven shiny dark-green toes, and three unpainted ones. 'Didn't even get through that. She gave me the polish, though, told me I could finish it myself if I had the time.'

Ryan said nothing, just picked up her purse, found the tiny little bottle. He moved to the end of her bed, and with an practiced hand, stroked the little nail-lacquer brush over her unpainted nails. When he finished, he screwed the lid back on the bottle then smiled at his bride. 'There. Ten shiny toes.'

'Aw, thanks baby, I...oh, dear.'

'Kick?'

'No, contraction.'

From their spot at the end of the bed, Meredeth nudged Esposito and Lanie. 'Let's let them have some time alone.'

The three of them filed out into the hallway; as they went, Meredeth heard a sniffle and was surprised to see Esposito swipe a hand under his nose. 'Javi?'

'He painted her toes for her while she's in labour.' Esposito looked at the other two women, giving him gooey looks. 'What? I'm not made of stone. It was really sweet.'

Lanie shook her head as she fished out a fiver and some tissues from her purse. 'I think we could all use a drink. Why don't you guys wait up here, I'll go down to the cafeteria and get us something cold, if not aged and fermented in oak barrels.'

As Lanie went to the elevator, they found the waiting room surprisingly empty. The walls were decorated with pictures of women in various stages of pregnancy and to Esposito's utter relief there were no colourful instructional posters showing cross-sections of babies in wombs or in various stages of exiting said wombs. He may have been a decorated homicide detective who'd see his fair share of blood and guts, but there was a difference between seeing a body with his head bashed in on the sidewalk and the abject horror-show that comprised the disgusting miracle of childbirth.

'So what do you think? He a fainter or a cheerleader?'

'Hmm?' Esposito turned to look at Meredeth.

'Ryan. He's gonna hit the deck when things get heavy or he's gonna be cheering her on?'

'Cheering. He may have freaked about the whole natural birth thing, but that's a guy thing. Nothing turns us to jelly quicker than our woman in distress. Kev, the last thing he'd do is let his Honey-Milk down.'

Meredeth nodded in agreement, then, putting her hand on his arm, turned serious. 'Javi, can I make sure we are very clear on one thing?'

'Okay.'

'After we get married, and we're having our own babies, I want drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. I want the legal limit of painkillers possible, and if that's not enough, slip the docs a fifty and see what he can do for me.'

He laughed, gave her a kiss. 'You got it, my little crack-head.'

They drank colds beverages and waited. While she'd been in the cafeteria, Lanie had called Castle and Beckett - they'd taken Alexis and Sloan up to East Hampton Village for a quasi-family vacation before Alexis went to Japan with Meredeth, and were on their way back to the city with the promise of picking up food for everyone on the way. Everyone took turns sitting with Honey-Milk to give Ryan some down-time, even if it was only a pee break. When it was Esposito's turn, he'd held her hand through three contractions, barely noticing how she gripped his hand like a vise as he breathed with her. When she was finished, Honey-Milked flopped back against the pillows, ran her hand over her belly in circles.

'How far apart?'

'Six minutes-ish, give or take a Mississippi.'

Honey-Milk laughed, smiled at him. 'That's good, being funny is good right now. Can I ask, why aren't you as broken up as Meredeth is over her going to Japan?'

'Oh, it's eating me up inside, but I'll have a lot to occupy my time.' He didn't know what impulse propelled him to it, but he reached for his wallet, and in the flap behind a picture of him and Meredeth, he took out a computer printout of Meredeth's ring and showed it to her. 'I'll be working overtime to pay for that.'

Honey-Milk looked at the picture, then as Esposito. 'Oh, Javier. Really, really?'

'Really, really.'

'Do you know when? Oh, at the airport when she gets back?'

'Nope. Already have it planned.' Esposito took the paper, tucked it back in his wallet. 'I can trust you, right, not to say anything? I want to tell Ryan and the rest myself.'

'Are you kidding, I'll be lucky to remember my own name when things get going here.'

Just then, Ryan popped back in, a bottle of water in his hand. When he leaned over to kiss Honey-Milk on the forehead she sniffed at him. 'Garlic-breath.'

'Yeah, the Castle-Beckett clan is here and they brought snacks. I needed a small bite to eat.'

Esposito slipped out of the room, went to wait with the others and see what kind of snacks his friends brought with them that would give his partner garlic breath.

The hours seemed to crawl by as they waited. They drank coffee and juice and waited. Sloan volunteered to check on everyone's parking meters, took the appropriate credit cards and cash with her; Lanie being a doctor ducked in and out of the room the most as she could relay the information to the group in the waiting room. Beckett had brought with her from the Hampton house a deck of cards for poker, a deck of Uno cards and Monopoly Express to keep everyone occupied. They ate the pizza and salad, and wraps and brownies. Meredeth shared her iPhone with Beckett and they watched a few episodes of Beetlejuice - apparently the detective shared her love of eighties cartoons. They named all the mommies and babies in the photos on the wall, took every magazine quiz they could find in the lounge's selection of reading materials.

And waited.

Finally, Andy, the nurse Esposito and Meredeth had met on the floor told them that Honey-Milk was pronounced ready to push and had been taken to delivery.

'Hey.' Alexis looked around as if something had just occurred to her. 'Where are Ryan and Jenny's parents?'

'The Ryans are in Australia, and the Delaneys are in Ireland,' Beckett told her. 'I called both the hotels, left numbers for flights out when they get the messages.'

'But why would they leave when they knew-'

'They'd already been gone for a month, they didn't bank on the baby being so early.' Castle laughed, gave a little 'oof' as Alexis sat on his lap. 'You, my sweet, were eleven days late, and we didn't have cell phones back in ninety-three like we do now, so I barely left your mother's side. I got back to our apartment when she sent me on a cravings-run, and she'd left me a note saying she'd gone into labour and was going to the hospital.'

'What about when I came out? Were you there for that?'

'Absolutely.' Castle flipped a finger down her nose. 'Your mother was in her homeopathic phase, and didn't want drugs. When the doctor told her to push, she broke my hand.'

'Really?'

'Well, hairline fractures in two of my fingers, but same thing.'

Meredeth shook her head, leaned over to Esposito. 'Like I said. Drugs.'

'Agreed, cracky.' Esposito adjusted himself in his chair, spoke to Castle. 'You ever do the shadow thing for a baby-doctor like you do with Beckett?'

'Four times. I was writing the scene where Storm's fiancee was giving birth and I wanted different perspectives- natural, natural with drugs, c-section and twins.'

'My mother was a twin,' Meredeth said offhandedly, then looked up when she saw the others looking at her. 'What?'

'You don't talk about her that much,' Beckett pointed out, 'which I get. Traumatic loss makes relieving the memories hard sometimes.'

She looked at Esposito. 'Since the night terrors have stopped, it's easier.'

'Was she an identical?'

'Yeah. Her twin, Rikki, she's the one that lives in Copenhagen. I've visited her once or twice, but it's kinda creepy.'

'Well, you know twins skip a generation, so chances are you two will have a two-for-one,' Lanie pointed out.

'They're babies, not a special on Tierney's chicken wings, Lanie,' Esposito started, then stopped when Ryan appeared at the doorway, his hair sticking up in tufts from his head and his face show signs of weeping. 'Kev? What are you doing here?'

The entire room went silent as they all stood up, anticipation running high. Ryan put one hand on his hip, cover his mouth with the other and gave a little laugh.

'I'm a daddy. I have a son.'

Cheers exploded in the lounge like fireworks as they enveloped the new father with embraces like villagers greeting a returning war hero. Ryan hugged all of them tightly, tears of joy falling from his blue eyes like rainwater. He kissed all the girls, and got hearty slaps on the back from the guys who were just as choked up as he was.

'A son,' he repeated as they sat down. 'Thomas Delaney Ryan, born July seventeenth, at seven twenty three pm, Eastern Standard Time. Six pounds, thirteen ounces. Little Dell.'

'How's Jenny?' Beckett asked.

'A champion. Unbelievable. Doctor didn't even have to do an episiotomy, his head was small enough.' Ryan laughed as he watched all the women, even Alexis and Sloan cringe. 'Sorry, ladies, just saying she was spared that hell.'

'Lucky girl,' Lanie murmured. 'I don't even like using a razor down there. It's why I go to the day spa.'

'Can we see him?' Beckett asked eagerly; despite having misgivings about potentially making a child with Castle when he'd already been through it eighteen years before, she loved holding new babies. All that possibility in one tiny creature never failed to fascinate her.

Ryan hesitated. 'I'd kinda like Meredeth and Javier to be first, just the two of them. After all, they're going to be godparents.'

Touched, Meredeth gathered her purse up, looped her arm through Esposito's as they followed Ryan out, across a sky-walk to the nursery. They stopped at the window for a moment as Ryan pointed him out.

'Second row back, three from the right. That's him.'

Esposito rested his chin on Meredeth's shoulder as they found the littlest addition to the Twelfth precinct amongst New York City's newest citizens. He was on his back in a white blanket with a little blue hat on his head and what appeared to be booties on both hands and feet. 'Bro, why's he got socks on his hands?'

'They're baby mittens. My boy's got super long fingernails and they don't want him scratching his face. My boy,' Ryan repeated with a chuckle. 'That's my son. Come on.'

They went into the nursery, where Ryan spoke to Andy the nurse and she went over, picked up the newborn then placed him in Ryan's arms. 'There we go, it's okay, Daddy's here,' he murmured as Dell fussed momentarily, then relaxed as Ryan spoke. 'Dell, these are your first visitors, Uncle Javi and Aunt Meredeth.'

'Hey little bro.' Esposito brushed his fingertip over the baby's tiny knuckles. His own heart sighed when he saw the infant yawn, blink open bright blue eyes. 'No question he's yours, dude. He's got your eyes.'

'And Jenny's cheeks,' Meredeth added, sniffling a little. 'Oh Ryan, he's perfect. A perfect little boy.'

'Yes he is. Yes you are,' he told his son who yawned again, then stuck his little tongue out from his lips. 'I know, busy day for you, wasn't it? You must be hungry and tired and you just don't know which way to go, do you?'

Andy stepped over, the plastic bassinet on wheels beside her. 'Time for Dell's first road trip. We're going up to see Mommy now, get in a snack.'

With the nurse's assistance, Ryan placed Dell in the bassinet, then followed her out of the nursery. Knowing they needed their privacy, Esposito and Meredeth hung back as they watched steady Ryan coo the entire time at his baby boy.

'Wow. Ryan's a daddy,' Meredeth managed, tears backing up into her throat. 'You're an uncle.'

'And you're an aunt.' Esposito kissed her temple as they walked back towards the lounge. 'You know, I was thinking-'

'We should get Jenny her green Slushie?'

'You read my mind.'

Meredeth laughed. 'Now can you read mine?' she asked with a suggestive glint in her eyes; Esposito only stared at her.

'Well, the Slushie can wait until tomorrow morning.'

R&R&Enjoy!