Hello all. Here is chapter 2 and I hope you enjoy it. Happy Tuesday and please review.

The case worker entered the conference room and proceeded to pour herself a cup of coffee. It had been a long week and the twist at the end of her most recent case had been completely unexpected.

Hence they were working on a Saturday. She hated working the weekends. Her supervisor walked in shortly after she did and sat down. Pulling out her note pad and placing her glasses on, she spoke.

"Hi Kelly, how has your week been?" Kelly responded, stirring cream into her coffee and then sitting across from her boss, her files already spread out on the table.

"It was long and tracking down my newest little boy's next of kin proved to be more difficult than I'd thought." Her supervisor looked up to her, waiting for her to elaborate. Kelly took her cue and proceeded to tell her about the infant who had been placed in her case load.

"The boy Christopher Collins, was born January 22nd, 2013. He is just over 6 months old. His mother, Jacinda Collins was one of the passengers killed in the crash of Oceanic flight 815." Her boss nodded,

"Does he have next of kin?" she asked her subordinate.

"Well. Ms. Collins was in the process of getting a divorce from her husband of 5 years. According to him, she'd cheated and told him that the baby was his. He didn't go into detail concerning how the truth came out, but when he learned that the boy was not his son he left them both. He wants no involvement with the boy. Before he served her with divorce papers he had a paternity test done and court order to remove his name from the birth certificate."

"Ms. Collins had no next of Kin. She was a foster child herself and had no strong ties in her adult life outside of her husband." Kelly's supervisor then asked,

"and do we have any information on the biological father?"

"Well," she answered, "shortly after the divorce proceedings began she worked with her lawyer to draw up a living will, providing the identity of the boy's biological father in the event of a situation such as this."

"Great," the supervisor spoke, "then what's the problem?"

"Well , the father is Rick Castle."

"The author?" The older woman clarified.

"Yes, the author. Assuming that the woman was truthful, that is." Kelly responded.

"So, have you contacted him yet?"

"No I haven't. I wanted to update you of the situation in case the media got their hands on it. I can't imagine that things are going to go well. I'm not sure the man even knows he has a son, considering she had everyone convinced that the child was her husband's until very recently."

"Well, let's talk to him. See how he responds and explore our options." With that the supervisor stood.

"Keep me informed on this one Kelly."

"Yes Ma'am." The young woman responded.

Saturday mornings were Rick Castle's favorite day of the week by far. That was especially true when his wife was not on call. They both sat by the window, ready to sip coffee and watch New York City bustle below them. Soon after she'd moved in Rick had done a bit of redecorating.

He'd noticed that she often liked to stand by the window and just watch the world go by. She would often come here first after returning from a treatment during the previous summer, or after a scan. Something about his view of the city calmed her.

So, during one of her last stays in the hospital he'd taken the time to have professionals come (with a great amount of help and direction from both Martha and Alexis), and set up what he called "Kate's contemplative corner." He had a comfortable love seat placed, along with side tables for coffee, several plants, and even a small rock fountain. He'd had the area somewhat blocked off from the rest of the room to provide her with quiet and privacy.

She simply loved it, taking to it often to sip her coffee or tea, depending on her stomach, and read her books. Sometimes when she was particularly tired after a treatment, or on a bad day, she would sprawl out on the love seat and fall asleep. On several occasions Rick would find her there and carry her to their bed.

After she was well again they took to spending time there together, their special little area of the apartment where they could simply go to relax and just be together. That is where they were on Saturday morning, the next two days belonging to them, regardless of who may or may not be murdered. God I love it when she's not on call, he thought happily to himself once more.

Upon hearing his contented sigh Kate smiled, moving to one side of him to place the steaming mug she'd prepared on the table and then returning to her side of the loveseat and doing the same with her mug. Coffee was always something special between the two of them, it was always a non-verbal way of saying, "Hello. Good Morning. I'm happy to see you, love of my life." Coffee spoke volumes for them, even before they could say the words themselves.

Early on in their relationship coffee turned into somewhat of a game between them. It was a contest; who ever made and presented the coffee first loved their partner the most. They took much joy in waking up earlier, sneaking out to the kitchen and being the first to prepare the coffee. When she was too sick to stomach it, it switched to tea. It was a different liquid, but the message remained the same, "Good morning. You are my heart."

After she'd learned she was pregnant their morning drink was switched to decaf, but the game was very much still on. On one occasion Beckett got up extra early, tip toed from their bedroom and made her way to the kitchen. She'd even got Alexis in on it, having her sneak into their room to silently shake her awake so he wouldn't be alerted by her alarm. When she reached the kitchen she found that the night before he'd auto-set the coffee maker to brew at 5am.

She stalked back to the bedroom and woke him up by hitting him with her pillow. As he shook the grogginess she simply yelled, "That's cheating!" He laughed hysterically at her and wrestled her back into bed. By the time they actually made it to the kitchen, the coffee was cold.

To say that they were blissfully happy was an understatement. Still, nobody could deny that the couple deserved every moment of joy between them. That morning she rested her head against his chest, his arm around her, and snuggled up under a blanket that he'd thrown over both of them. Both sipped their coffee as they dreamed about the child that would be born to them in March, God willing.

"What about Thomas?" Rick asked her.

"mmmm…not sure. How about Andrew?" She countered.

"I like Andrew," he answered.

"We could call him Andrew James, the James after my father." Beckett sighed at the thought.

"And if it's a girl?" Castle asked.

"Well, I like Johanna, but maybe as a middle name?" She knew that her mother's name would be the obvious choice, but she wasn't crazy about having it as the child's first name.

"Hmmm." Castle simply nodded, "Ok."

"What first name goes with Johanna as a middle name?" He asked her.

"I'm not sure, but we could always use Johanne as well. The meaning wouldn't be lost." She added.

"Emily?" Castle asked.

"Maybe. How about Grace?" They both thought for a moment and then simultaneously said, "nah…"

"It doesn't really go with Johanna or Johanne as a middle name at all." Castle clarified.

Beckett nodded in agreement.

"Well," she spoke, "we've got time. I'm not even in my second trimester yet." He placed his coffee back on the end table and turned into her, sliding his hand along her abdomen. He kissed her softly and smiled at her.

"What?" she asked him, taking note of the dreamy expression on his face as he stared.

"I'm just having one of those 'I can't believe this is my life' moments." He spoke.

"I would have thought you'd be used to everything by now, best selling celebrity author millionaire that you are." She spoke to him teasingly.

"Yeah, that I'm used to, but seriously," he shifted away and then turned to her, placing one hand on her cheek and leaving the other to rub the small bump on her belly. "Kate, you're here. You're my wife, I get to keep you!" She laughed at his words, completely touched by them.

"I get to keep you here with me, as my wife, and we're having a baby and you're healthy again and you're glowing Kate." She grinned widely at him, understanding the meaningfulness of his words.

"Just a few months ago things seemed so…so hopeless; so endless." He spoke, moving to snake his fingers into her hair. He looked at her dark locks, which fell across his fingers.

"I was so scared Kate. I felt so weak for not being able to carry you through it all." Her eyes shot to his suddenly.

"What?" She spoke. "You think you didn't carry me through? Rick, you are the reason I was able to make it through." She shook her head at him, taking both of his hands in her own and commanding his complete attention before she spoke.

"Rick, you were the constant in my life. I lost complete control. I had no say in what was happening inside of my own body. I was betrayed by my own body Rick. Do you understand that?" She continued to speak.

"I spent month after month in sickness, feeling feeble and completely out of control. Do you know how it feels to have absolutely no control over anything? It feels like you're lost, you're suspended in mid-air and you can't get your feet back on the ground. It's scary as hell and it's hopeless Rick." Her eyes watered and she took a breath to calm herself.

"But Rick, YOU…you were my constant. You were the one thing in my life that remained unmovable. You tethered me and kept me from drifting away. You were more than strong enough, and you did more than carry me Rick, you stood by me and taught me to walk again. YOU got my feet back on the ground. Please, don't ever think you weren't enough, or that you didn't do enough. You were everything Rick. Everything."

He pulled her into him, rubbing her back and kissing her head. "I love you." He spoke. "I always will." She moved to look back into his eyes, "me too Rick, me too."

That afternoon Rick and Kate took a walk through central park, enjoying the sunny day and the opportunity to just be in each other's presence. He carried a picnic basket with him, scoping out the perfect location to set up their late afternoon lunch. When he'd identified the perfect spot, beneath the shade of several trees, she spread out the blanket she'd been holding and he set up the picnic for them.

He made himself comfortable resting his back against a tree and she moved to sit between his legs, leaning back on his chest. Together they watched a family playing in the grass. Kate smiled to herself.

"Do you remember the last time we did this Rick?"

"Yes I do." He spoke, recalling her pain over the thought of never having a family of her own. There was such a strong possibility that the chemotherapy would leave her unable to conceive and the fact tore them both apart.

"I remember us thinking about how we would have a family should we not be able to conceive." He spoke to her as she caressed her tiny baby bump, the evidence of their growing child.

"and now, here we are." She spoke as he watched her caress their unborn child. They were both silent for a moment, watching the family, who had twin boys that appeared to be about 18 months old.

"Thank god it's not twins." She spoke. "I think it would be too much for my body."

"Yeah." He agreed. "The doctor only heard one heartbeat and saw only one baby, and I was relieved about that too."

"Do you think everything is really going to be alright?" She asked him softly.

"Yes. I do." He spoke, trying to reassure her.

4 weeks prior

When she'd found out she was pregnant she went to Lanie to confirm with a blood test. She was only 6 weeks along, which although detectable with pregnancy tests, was very early. Lanie agreed to do a blood test to check for her levels of HcG, the hormone that would be readily apparent in her blood if she were actually pregnant, which she was.

After their wedding they found a good OBGYN, Dr. Clarke, one who specialized in high-risk pregnancies. She was very nice and very thorough, but was concerned that the couple had become pregnant so soon after finishing chemotherapy.

She'd explained to them both that although more than 6 months had passed, which was the absolute minimum amount of time that they should wait (she got pregnant after about 8 months), other studies recommended waiting several years.

Upon hearing this Kate became very frightened, Rick holding tightly to her hand spoke to the doctor,

"Why such a wide difference between recommendations? Some say 6 months, others say years? Which is it?" He asked.

"Yeah, what is going to happen to our baby?" Kate nervously asked.

Dr. Clarke was honest with them, sharing everything she knew about pregnancies and chemotherapy.

"Mr. and Ms. Castle, the reason that there is such a discrepancy in recommendations for waiting is because we simply don't know that much about how chemotherapy effects prenatal development." They were both surprised, considering all of the advances in medicine, they figured this would be something that was established in the field.

As if reading their minds, Dr. Clarke clarified, "It isn't because nobody has tried to study it. It's because most women who get pregnant soon after chemotherapy suffer from what are called spontaneous abortions. So we don't know much about long-term developmental complications." Beckett gasped, tears in her eyes and hand over her mouth.

"Because chemotherapy damages the ovum, it is difficult to know how the genetic code is altered or damaged. It really depends on the woman, the treatment, on many factors really. We find that we are unable to track the long-term effects of chemotherapy on infants because most women are not able to carry to term, as the pregnancy isn't genetically viable." Kate was stunned, and scared.

"When will we know if this pregnancy is viable?" Rick asked, squeezing his wife's shoulders.

"Well, the vast majority of women in this situation will lose the pregnancy during the first trimester; you are about 7 weeks along now. I'm afraid we will have to wait and see. There is no way for us to tell if there is genetic damage to the embryo at this stage in the pregnancy." Both parents nodded to the doctor, who offered them a glimpse of hope.

"You've made it 7 weeks, you're half way through the first trimester. Many would have lost the pregnancy by now. Let's see you again at 10 weeks and go from there ok?" Beckett nodded, feeling somewhat numb. She'd been so happy about the pregnancy, but now she was afraid to hope. It wasn't fair.

They walked around on pins and needles for the next three weeks, taking things one day at a time, and silently giving thanks at the end of each day that their child was still alive. By week 10 they returned to see Dr. Clarke.

As Kate lay on the examination table, Rick holding her hand nervously, they waited for the doctor to pick up on what was supposed to be their baby's beating heart. After a few moments they heard it, Kate could swear it sounded more beautiful than the most moving orchestra she'd ever heard. Rick was feeling the same way, as the doctor examined the picture on the screen.

"Well. You can hear that strong heartbeat. The baby's size is normal, I see the head, stomach, two hands and two feet." She smiled to them as she pointed them out. "They all look normally proportioned and based on this I'd have to say you have a normally growing fetus for this stage in the pregnancy."

Kate let out a sigh of relief, before looking at Rick. His expression matched her own, "Look Kate" He said pointing to the picture, "it's a little predator monster!" She swatted him as they both laughed together. Dr. Clarke smiled,

"They all look like that at 10 weeks, giant head and little body." She smiled at them and waited for Kate to sit back up. "So does this mean we're in the clear? Our baby is healthy?" The smile fell from the doctor's face.

"Kate, this means that things are looking good. As you get ready to move into your second trimester we will continue to monitor your baby closely. When you are further along we can test for some of the common genetic disorders too." She paused for a minute, looking from one parent to the other.

"If you carry the baby to term, we will be able to know more after he or she is delivered. As I said before, most pregnancies from eggs that have been damaged by chemotherapy spontaneously abort much sooner than this. It is a good sign that your egg may have been perfectly healthy and that you're going to have a normal pregnancy and healthy baby. We just can't be sure until after it is born." They nodded.

She knew she would have a million questions for the doctor as her pregnancy progressed, but for now she'd had all the information she could process.

As they lay in the park on that Saturday afternoon they smiled, happy to know that they had made it this far. Both carried around the silent fear that something terrible could happen, but they also had the hope that everything would be just fine.

It's so much like Cancer, Beckett thought to herself. Why must there always be such dramatic differences? She felt this way during every check up appointment. They stopped doing the X-rays and MRIs because of the pregnancy and were simply feeling her incision sites for lumps and checking her blood cell counts to get an idea of what the cancer was doing, if there was any.

She knew that they had no real way of telling what was going on inside her body without those pictures, and the thought of what could be occurring scared her. It's always such dramatic differences, you're healthy and cancer free or it's in your lungs and you're stage 4 and it's terminal. You have a normally growing baby who will suffer from no ill effects of the chemotherapy because your egg was not damaged, or you won't carry to term, or your baby will be deformed or blind, or something equally horrific. The thoughts passed through her head and she shuttered, looking back to the happy family with the twin boys playing.

They'd read more about eggs and ovulation, if the egg was in the primordial stage, or was not growing yet, nothing would have gotten through, no drugs and no hormones. If it was developing at all there was danger, even if she wasn't ovulating at the time. She was closer to 30 than 40, so the likelihood was that she'd had several eggs that were in the primordial stage and she'd not enter into menopause as long as they could mature.

As if reading her thoughts Rick spoke, one day that will be us, and we'll take our baby here and he or she will play happily. You'll see Kate, I believe it. She simply turned her head to face him and softly kissed his lips. "You believe it that and I believe in you. For now, I will make that enough for me." She smiled and kissed him again. As she told him earlier that morning, he really was her rock and her hope. As long as she had him by her side she swore she could make it though anything.

She sighed contentedly to herself as Rick's cell phone rang.

"Hello?" He asked.

"May I ask who is calling?" He said somewhat nervously to whoever was on the other line.

Kate got lost in watching the family play on the grass again, totally oblivious to the news her husband was receiving at that moment.