A/N This chapter is the first in a two-part arc.

Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

Day before yesterday was a huge, amazing day for a lot of reasons so I'll start at the beginning. I love parades and it was Saint Patrick's Day which has a big parade, and Dad promised me we could go. He got me a green fuzzy hat that says TOP OF THE MORNING on it which I don't understand because I didn't know morning had a top and wonder if it has a bottom. Not the kind you sit on! That's a joke. But I still don't know if it does. Have a bottom.

I wanted Mom to come to the parade because there's a lot of music and Obi would like that, even though some of it's loud with all those drums, but she said she couldn't.

"I wish I could, sweet pea, but today is my last day at work until after the twins are born. Starting tomorrow I'll be home with you and Dad for a long time, until way after the twins come. We're going to have fun, aren't we? But that's why I can't take the day off. You and Dad can tell me all about it later. Especially the bagpipes!" Then she made a funny sound like imitating a bagpipe and it was pretty good, even though she couldn't fool me.

The parade goes up a long street, Fifth Avenue, which is next to Central Park. I had never been to such a big parade before. It doesn't have those cool balloons like the Macy's Thanksgiving parade, which I will go to when I am three "and not a moment sooner," Mom says, but it's still great, especially because it has so many bagpipes. I have loved bagpipes ever since I saw a DVD of something called The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. It doesn't mean tattoo like people put on their arms or even their necks which is creepy, it means kind of a concert by people in the Army. The DVD shows all these bagpipers playing music and marching in front of Edinburgh Castle in Scotland. Scotland is a country that's pretty close to Ireland which is where Saint Patrick came from and where they also have bagpipes. Sorry if you already knew this but I think it's interesting. I wonder if everyone in Scotland and Ireland knows how to play the bagpipes? Maybe I can have lessons, even though I live in the United States. Maybe someone from the parade can teach me.

Dad and I watched the parade for a while, and then we went to Central Park where there was a ton of snow from a storm the day before. My baby sitter Sarah who takes care of me on the days that Dad is at the precinct met us there with my sled and then she left to visit her Mom in Queens. The park has big hills that Dad and I wanted to zoom down fast.

The next part of what happened has to do with Mom. It was at the same time as Dad and me being at the parade and sledding, so you probably wonder how I can tell you about it. Some was what EB and Obi told me, some was what Mom told me, and some of it I heard her telling Gram when they thought I was asleep but I wasn't and some of it I heard Dad telling Alexis when they thought I was asleep. You can find out some exciting things that way. Oh, and Scrapple told me stuff, too. No one ever thinks a dog is listening, but he's really good at that. So here's Mom's part of the day. I tried to remember every word even though I don't know what all of them mean.

I was trying to clear my desk off and get everything settled since I won't be back for six months. I hated leaving before this horrendous double homicide that Espo and Ryan have been working on is closed, but I had no choice. I was exhausted, and Lotte was already furious at me for staying this long into my pregnancy. The boys were out chasing some tenuous lead when Perlmutter called.

"I've been back over the reports, over and over. Something was niggling at the edge of my brain all night, and I finally figured out what it was. I've found something significant, but I'd rather not discuss it on the phone."

"No problem, Perlmutter, I can be there in fifteen."

"No. Absolutely not. No. The streets are still impossible from the storm, and the Saint Patrick's Day revelers are throwing up green beer on the sidewalk. I'll come to you."

"Aw, Sidney, you're a saint yourself."

"The century's first Jewish saint, I like it. I'll be there shortly."

I was starving. I've been ravenous for the last week, so I decided to run—okay, waddle—to the coffee shop across the street and get a sandwich, and something for Perlmutter since he was nice enough to be coming to the precinct for me. When I got back to the station there was the sainted doctor, right at the front door, and we got in the elevator together. Just the two of us. Or as Castle would undoubtedly have said, "Just the four of you."

You know, I've felt that ancient elevator lurch a thousand times, but never like that. It felt as if every one of my vital organs had been dislodged. I think my heart was where a kidney should have been and my liver was up near my lungs. I also slammed into Sidney, and he hung on to me, I still don't know how. And the noise! It sounded like a ten-car pile-up. And then it stopped. The elevator just stopped. We rang the alarm bell, for all the good that did. The intercom wasn't working, but at least our cells were. After a couple of hour-long minutes, LT told us that because of the parade and because a lot of side streets were still clogged with snow, it was going to be a while before a repairman could get there.

"At least we won't starve while we're waiting," I said. "I have two sandwiches in here, grilled cheese with tomato, or chicken salad, and two bottles of water." It's not as though I had a presentiment, but I do think I knew, I absolutely knew, right then, what was going to happen. We weren't just stuck, we were going to be stuck for hours. And just as I was unwrapping my sandwich I felt something I'd felt once before, except that time it was at home, in the bathroom, and not in an elevator that was probably older than Perlmutter and me together, and about as sanitary as your average subway car.

"Oh, my God."

"What? Find something in your sandwich of mysterious origin?"

"I think the twins are on their way. Look at the puddle by my feet."

For some insane reason, because insane was pretty much how I was feeling, when I looked at Sidney all I could think of was that old Procol Harum song "A Whiter Shade of Pale." That's what he was. Ashen.

"Your water just broke. How far along are you? Thirty-four weeks?"

"Thirty-five."

"What the hell are you doing here, Kate? You should already be on maternity leave."

"Yeah, well, it was supposed to start about four hours from now."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, forgive me. I shouldn't have snapped at you."

"Sidney? I know what it means if my water breaks before I've had any contractions, and I haven't. It means I'm going into labor any minute, doesn't it? And you and I are in a filthy airless cube. And I'm having twins. Oh, god, oh, God, oh, God. I have to call Castle."

I did call him, but he and Eliot were at that freaking parade or in the park and it went straight to voicemail. It's funny that I can remember everything else, but I can't remember what I said in that message. Because I was more terrified than I had been in my entire life. He must have saved it, though.

"Kate. Kate, listen to me. I won't lie, yes, you will probably go into labor very soon. I hope that we'll get out of here before then, but we may not. I haven't been in a delivery room since my daughter Abby was born, but that's something you don't ever forget, and I did an OB/GYN rotation, even if it was a long time ago. Now, it's good that I always have latex gloves in the pockets of everything I own, because I might need them. Okay? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah. Yes. Yep." It's incredible how soothing his voice was. Except that right then I think I screamed loud enough to deafen him. It was one hell of a contraction, that first one.

Hi. It's me, Eliot. Dad says I have to go to bed now. I'll tell you the rest tomorrow. It's amaze balls.

TBC