Jane Doe

Kate wakes up early the morning of Valentine's Day, heart in her throat and the room still bathed in grey almost-darkness. It's time.

She's been so looking forward to today, to showing her husband just how much she loves him. Sliding out from between their sheets, Kate rolls her shoulders and stretches her arms up above her head, back arching until she feels her muscles pop and release. Her robe is draped over the armchair at her side of the bed and she shrugs her way into it, fastens the ties into a knot at her waist and steps into her slippers too.

The loft isn't cold, exactly, but the chill that rushes in to touch the windows makes her want to bundle up warm, wrap herself in layers and then, yes, snuggle her two boys. Kate pads quietly from the bedroom through into the kitchen and starts the coffee machine working. It isn't due to come on automatically for another half hour but Kate overrides it, starts it anyway.

Maybe it's cruel, to wake her husband so unspeakably early, but she wants to have time to get this right before she heads to work. And it's not like he won't fall back to sleep anyway. Most likely scenario, Mal will climb in with his father and the two boys will get another hour's sleep in after Kate leaves for work.

Once the coffee starts to drip down, rich and hot into the pot below, Kate heads towards the staircase to check on her son. There were no noises over the baby monitor other than the occasional snuffle in his breathing, so she assumes he's still asleep.

Even if he is, her heart cries out for him. Her baby boy. Kate moves down the hall, heading for where her son's door is partially cracked open. When she slips inside, she sees first that all of Marlow's sheets have been pushed down to the foot of the bed. Her son is sprawled on his stomach, clutching Jolly Tall and his little mouth is open, his pillow damp with sleep sweat and drool both.

Kind of gross, but her heart does an odd kick at the sight of it. Kate comes the rest of the way into the room and then shrugs, decides there's nothing for it but to kneel at her son's bedside. Splaying a hand at his back, Kate pillows her cheek against the mattress and watches her little boy, his eyelids fluttering rapidly as he dreams.

She stays for five minutes or so, just watching her son. He's so peaceful when he sleeps, a world away from the excitement he faces every aspect of his waking life with. So much like his father in that respect, and it makes her heart ache with tenderness for them both. Her two boys, always ready to drag a smile out of her, no matter how hard the case has been, how much her heart is aching for the victims.

Eventually, she stands up from the floor and heads back for the kitchen. Rick has a mug he adores, proudly declaring him as Super-Dad across the side of it with a picture of his face atop the body of a superhero. Kate chuckles every time she sees it; even now as she fixes his coffee just the way he likes it, a smile blooms across her face.

Kate carries the coffee through to their bedroom and sets it on her husband's nightstand, crawls back into bed after toeing off her slippers and wraps both arms around his middle, her nose pressed against the ridge of his spine. He doesn't stir - he's a heavy sleeper, but he comes alert right away if she needs him to - and Kate grins to herself. Sliding her fingers up underneath her husband's shirt, she traces them over the muscles of his abdomen and feels his skin ripple under her touch.

Her fingers must be colder than she realises because Rick jerks awake with a gasp and groans, grabbing for her hands and tugging them out from underneath his shirt. Rolling onto his back, he scrubs a hand over his face and peels his eyes half open, stares up at her in accusation. "You're so mean."

"Sorry, babe." Kate hums, a smirk just flirting at the corners of her mouth. He seems genuinely affronted though, so she schools her features and cards a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry. Good morning."

"Morning." He says quietly, just staring at her.

It's intense; Kate's heart pounds and she furrows her brows at him. "What?"

"You're beautiful." He sighs out, a clumsy hand coming up between them to cradle her cheek in his palm. It's sort of funny to her, actually, how the slow rise up from sleep makes him awkward and klutzy. If it were Mal needing him, or even Kate herself hurting in some way he'd be immediately alert, but he knows that everything's fine so he takes his sweet time coming to the surface to join her.

Rick's fingers curl at the back of her neck and draw her in to him; he eases a gentle kiss from her mouth and Kate's whole body goes limp in their sheets, suddenly hyperaware of everywhere their skins are touching. She moans into it, largely on purpose because she knows exactly what it does to him.

Sure enough, he growls and rolls half on top of her, a thigh nudging between her legs. Kate gentles him, fingers stroking at his cheeks and the soft baby hairs at his nape until his body loosens against her and she can nudge him off.

Not that she doesn't want. . .that. She just has other, more pressing concerns to deal with first. "I made you a coffee, babe." She smiles, tipping her head towards the nightstand. His eyes widen a little and he sits up, arranging his pillows until he can lean back against the headboard.

Kate joins him, shoulders brushing as he reaches for his coffee and wraps both hands around it, takes a slow sip. His eyes flutter closed and he groans, a shiver of pleasure racing through him. "Did you add nutmeg to this?"

"Uh-huh." She grins, inordinately pleased with herself.

His eyebrows shoot up into his hairline and his eyes flick from her face to the coffee and back again, his jaw rapidly growing slack. It makes her want to kiss him, but she holds back. Looks as if her husband has things to say. "How did you know about that?"

"I've seen you add it a couple times, when you need an extra pick-me-up." Kate shrugs, a little confused about why Rick is at once so delighted and perplexed. "I'm a detective; I notice things."

"You're perfect is what you are." He beams. Leaning in to kiss her, he gets close enough that she can actually taste him, her bottom lip swollen and ripe for the touch of his mouth before he freezes and jerks away from her. "No coffee for you?"

Crap. "No. Not today."

"Not today?" His eyebrows arc upwards again, his eyes suddenly so intense on hers that Kate has to glance down at the sheets, smoothing them under her palms instead of meeting her husband's gaze. "Kate Castle, are you-"

"Don't say it." She blurts, but the sudden release of that crackling tension at least enables her to look at him. "Just. . .let me give you your Valentine's gift. Okay?"

"Okay, love." He grins, wide and bright and those lovely creases around his eyes. "Give me my gift. I'm saying nothing."

"Thank you." She breathes, and then she presses a smacking kiss to his mouth before she slips out from between their sheets and heads for the closet. The package was gift wrapped at the store so she didn't have to worry too much about hiding it.

He's inquisitive, this man she loves, but he also appreciates a good surprise. So however curious he might have been about the white box with the bow that's been in their closet for the past three days, she knows he won't have messed with it too much.

Kate climbs back into bed, kneeling opposite him this time. She hands the package over, but rather than opening it right away like she expects, Rick sets it beside him and reaches for her instead, tugging until she comes to straddle his thighs.

He kisses her, hot and deep and drawn out, but she can feel his distraction in the way his mouth moves under hers and she laughs, breaking away from him. "Open it first. I know you want to. Plenty of time for making out later."

That earns her a bubble of laughter and he reaches for his gift again. He takes his sweet time unfastening the ribbons that hold the lid onto the box and Kate isn't sure who he's really trying to torture here - himself, or her. Eventually, he peels off the lid and pushes aside the tissue paper to reveal his gift.

For a long moment he does nothing but stare at it and then he glances at her, the corner of his mouth quirked up in delight. "Kate. . .I think Mal might be a little too big for this."

"It's not for him." She grins. Rick's mouth opens but nothing comes out, his smile all in his eyes for just a moment. And then he's beaming, wide and gorgeous, and he reaches for her and rolls her underneath him, kisses her with one hand cradling the curve of her skull and the other splaying low down at her stomach.

His tongue slicks inside of her mouth and she groans, arches into him but then he's gone again, breathing hard and staring down at her. And. . .oh, wow. There are tears in his eyes. "You're pregnant."

"Yes." She grins, and then she's crying too and Rick is wiping at her tears as fast as they're spilling out. He kisses her again, and then he crawls down the bed and nudges the hemline of her sleep shirt up towards her chest, leaning in to kiss her stomach. There is a very subtle curve there, only noticeable to the two of them, and it has been a fight the past few days not to rest her hand there and give the whole thing away.

Kate palms the back of his head and watches him, how completely enraptured he is with their baby. Obviously she knows he's a wonderful father - Marlow adores his Daddy - but Kate is so relived to see him as overjoyed about this as she is.

"Hi baby. This is your Daddy. I'm so happy to know you." He's saying to her stomach, and Kate finds herself tearing up again. It's ridiculous, really, and if this is what the hormones are going to do to her she honestly has no idea how she'll survive the teasing from her boys at the precinct.

She gives him a moment to murmur to their child, the kisses he brushes over her bare skin making her whole body erupt with awareness, and then she brings her hand down to cup his cheek, her thumb smoothing underneath his eye. "Babe, there's more in the box."

"There is?" He sits bolt upright, reaching for it again. Rick lifts the onesie out of the box with about as much reverence as she imagines he'll show the actual baby, smoothing it out over one of his thighs so he can look at it again.

It's simple, soft grey cotton with black font emblazoned across the front of it. Adorable Baby, and Kate has no doubt that it will be true. After all, Marlow is the cutest child she's ever known. She and Rick clearly excel at this.

Kate watches her husband's face as he pulls the shirt out from the box and holds it up so he can read it. It's grey to match the onesie but a whole lot bigger, big enough to fit her husband. Across the front, it says I make adorable babies and Rick laughs, brings the shirt in to clutch it to his chest.

"I love it, Kate. It's perfect."

"Yeah?" She offers him a shy smile and he gathers her up into an embrace. Her nose presses against his neck and she sucks in a shaky breath, relief crashing over her hard now. It was completely irrational, how nervous she had been to tell her husband about the baby, but he's erasing all of her doubts just with the firm hold of his arms around her.

His mouth skims the crown of her head, his touch making her blood sing out. "Yes. I love you, Kate. I couldn't be more excited. How far along are you?"

"I think about ten weeks." She says around a grin. Her smile seems to be a permanent fixture this morning, but Rick is beaming just as wide so she doesn't even try to get a hold of herself.

He kisses her again, his thumb smoothing over the material of the onesie that still rests at his thigh. "Wow, Kate. So you'll be showing at the wedding?"

"Yeah. That's gonna make finding a dress pretty tough, huh?" Kate's original wedding dress, the dress her mother wore to marry her father, is apparently in no condition to be worn again after the disaster of their last wedding. Most everything will be the same as they had originally intended, but both Kate's dress and Rick's tuxedo need to be replaced.

"You'll be so beautiful." Her husband breathes against her mouth, so in awe of her and the life that flutters between them. "I can't wait. When can we start telling people."

"I haven't made an OBGYN appointment yet. Do you mind if we wait until after that? Just to be sure that everything's okay before we tell everyone."

Rick nods, perhaps a little too enthusiastically, but she can hardly blame him. "Yeah, of course. And then we'll have a scan picture to show everyone."

"Uh-huh. I'm gonna have to tell Gates today. I wanted you to be the first person to know, but we'll have to discuss how to keep the baby safe while I'm at work." Even saying the baby sends a delicious thrill of pleasure down her spine; she hasn't said it out loud to anyone yet. But now she gets to share in everything with her husband. The excitement and the nerves and the wondrous joy.

Rick still has her in his arms and it doesn't seem like he's going to let go any time soon, but she doesn't mind at all. The only thing missing is their son, and Kate finds herself wishing that Marlow will wake up so she can go get him and bring him into the big bed with Mommy and Daddy.

"Well, there's already a plan from when you were pregnant with Mal. So I guess Gates will just go over it again. But Kate, last time you weren't allowed to make arrests or anything like that. You were allowed at crime scenes as long as they had been properly cleared and in interrogation, but nothing that was potentially dangerous."

Kate shrugs at him, a frown creasing her forehead again. "I know, Rick. That's fine. I don't want to do anything that might put our baby at risk."

"No, I know, love." He hastens, his lips brushing over her forehead to smooth away the furrow in her brow. "I just mean that. . .the boys will notice. You can't really keep it from them."

"You think I should tell them?" Kate chews on her lower lip. Realistically, she knows there isn't really a way to keep it from her boys at the precinct. She's just worried.

At thirty nine, Kate's pregnancy is considered high risk, and even as she's overwhelmed with happiness there's a small, terrified part of her that keeps focusing on all the awful things that might happen to her baby. The thought of telling the boys and then going to the OBGYN visit and finding out something is wrong, having to tell the boys that they're not going to be uncles again after all, makes nausea roll in the pit of her stomach.

Rick knows this, of course. They'd talked about it at some length back at Christmas when they started trying, and they had decided that the prospect of a new baby, a new little person to love, outweighs the risks involved. Even so, Kate isn't sure she'll be able to completely relax until she has their baby safe in her arms.

"Kate, they're your brothers. You know they'll support you, no matter what."

Swallowing hard, Kate blinks back tears and presses her forehead against her husband's neck, feels his pulse thud heavy there. "I'm just worried. I don't want their pity if something. . .happens."

"Nothing's going to happen, sweetheart." Rick soothes her, a hand carding through her hair now. "Don't think like that. But if it did, the boys wouldn't pity you. They'd help you get through it."

Strangely enough, it does help. Rick has always been like the eye of the storm for her, a place to shelter. And she finds it so easy to believe in him. "Okay. I'll tell them. Let's have them over for dinner tonight. I want to tell them before Gates."

"That sounds great." Rick smiles at her, and then his fingers are underneath her sleep shirt again. "Now. It's Valentine's Day, our son is fast asleep, and we've got time. Let me distract you."

Their friends notice right away.

And it's not even because Kate is drinking lemonade rather than wine like everyone else. Oh no, they pick up on it almost as soon as Rick opens the front door, his wife tall and graceful at his side. Conversation bubbles up between everyone but Lanie is quiet, her gaze fierce on Kate.

Everyone comes further inside the loft, coats piled up on the couch, and then Lanie's voice cuts right through everybody else. "Kate Beckett. You're pregnant."

Of course, Lanie has known that they've been trying. And it's really pretty obvious just what the point of this impromptu dinner is. But even so, Rick didn't think that she would figure it out quite so fast. And then he glances over at his wife, and. . .yeah. Kate is glowing, bright and gorgeous, and her smile is still vibrant even hours after this morning when neither of them could really contain it.

"I. . .yes." Kate shrugs, and then Lanie and Jenny are squealing and rushing to embrace her, and Rick finds himself sort of sandwiched between Ryan and Espo, the boys clapping him on the back and huffing their congratulations in a sort of gruff, understated way.

The joy dies down just a little bit, just enough for Kate to find her way back to his side and tangle her fingers up with his, stretching up onto tiptoe to press a kiss to his cheek. "We haven't even had an OBGYN visit yet. But I wanted to tell you guys before I tell Gates tomorrow."

"I'm so happy for you guys." Kevin grins, an arm looped around his wife's waist.

Rick grimaces, his own hand sliding into the back pocket of Kate's jeans. "Sorry it had to be today, guys. I know you had Valentine's plans."

"Don't be stupid, Castle." Lanie huffs at him, rolling her eyes in an almost frighteningly accurate imitation of Kate. "It's no big deal. And anyway, Valentine's Day is about the people we love, right? So it's nice to all be together for it. A triple date."

Jenny chimes in too, a little more shy. She's always been the quietest of the group. "We already asked Kevin's brother to look after the kids. And we were just going to stay home anyway, have a quiet night in. It's great to not have to cook."

That earns her a laugh from everyone and Ryan's face lights up with pride. Rick would tease him about it if he weren't so sure that he gets the same completely lovestruck expression whenever Kate is near.

"Dinner is ready actually, if you guys are hungry." Kate says at his side, getting a murmur of approval from everyone and their family crowds towards the dining table.

Sometimes still, Rick thinks it must be strange for Kate to have woken up to this. Their precinct family came together slowly with the addition of first himself, then Jenny and then the Ryan girls. It's been a gradual thing, blossoming under the care that the six of them have all given to it.

But Kate? Kate was born right into a new world, one where it wasn't just her and her father anymore. He can't imagine how strange that must be. Before she gets a chance to follow their friends, Rick catches her hand and draws her in close. "You okay?"

"Yeah. You were right. It's better to have their support. I want to share this with them."

And even the silly, selfish part of him that wants his wife all to himself can't argue with the delight that blossoms across her face.