Epilogue
Kate wakes to the insistent buzz of her cell phone against the side table, snaking a hand free from the snare of their sheets to swat at it. Curling her fingers around the offending device, she draws it to her ear and presses accept without looking.
"Beckett."
"It's time."
Sitting bolt upright as awareness rips its way down her spinal column, excitement collecting like static charge in each vertebrae, Kate nudges at Castle's arm until he rouses. Her husband stares up at her, his eyes unfocused as if he sees her through the filmy lens of his dreamscape, hair like an oil spill in the darkness. "Castle. Ryan's on the phone. I gotta go get Brooke."
"Right. Okay. Need me to do anything?"
She leans in to kiss him softly, her sweet, beautiful man. "No. I shouldn't be gone long. If he wakes up try him with the formula if he wants it."
"Will do. Love you." He murmurs, turning to mash his face against the side of her pillow. Okay, she's lost him then. It's a miracle really that she was able to drag him out of sleep to speak with her at all.
Kate slides her way free from the sheets and pads across the room, stopping to gaze into the bassinet at her son. At seven months, the boy has been known to sleep through the night once or twice, and since Kate fed him a couple of hours ago she hopes he won't wake before she returns home.
She traces the curve of his cheek and tucks the blanket a little closer around him, smoothing two fingers over the dark cap of hair. It's getting a slight curl to it that makes him almost cherubic. So completely perfect.
A part of her always guessed that the marriage of their genes would turn out well, but she never could have imagined just how beautiful their son would be. His eyelids flutter and Kate withdraws her hand, careful not to wake him.
Since the day he was born, he's been hyperaware of his mother's presence. Even so much as the sound of her voice has been known to tug him up from sleep. And sometimes it causes problems, means that Castle is the one who has to put him down for naptime because he just wants to stare at his mother, but she won't deny the surge of bliss that crests through her when her baby boy gives her that smile that seems to say with such clarity Mommy, I love you.
Castle laughs about it, says that their son has a major crush on his mother. To which she usually offers some scathing remark about him taking after his father that makes Castle laugh and crush his mouth to hers.
Kate tugs on jeans and glances at herself in the mirror, decides to just stay in her sleep shirt. Shoving her feet into tennis shoes and grabbing a jacket from the closet, she pockets her phone and keys and moves for the front door.
It still tugs at her guts sometimes. Leaving the loft without her son. God knows what she'll do when she goes back to work next month.
She's so ready, for the thrill of the solve and the burn in her muscles as she chases down a suspect, for the cogs of their case to fit together in her mind and point her right at their killer. But a part of her is so not prepared for leaving her little boy every day.
Throughout the whole of her pregnancy she had worried that she'd miss the precinct too much to really settle into her maternity leave, but quite the opposite is true. Kate has adored every precious moment she's shared with her son and his father, learning all about who her baby is and watching his little personality bloom as he grows.
Castle has promised to keep her updated, send her endless texts and pictures of their boy, but it won't be quite the same. She wants to be here for all of it, everything.
At the crux of it, she just adores being a mother. She really does. And sometimes, in the middle of the night when her son wakes up and wants only her, she can't help but think about what Castle told her once, before they were married.
That her job is not her only option. That he has the means to support them indefinitely if she wanted to quit.
She doesn't want to quit. Or she doesn't think that she does, but the appeal of spending every day with her husband and her son is a siren song too sweet to ignore.
The elevator seems to take forever to sink to the lobby but then she's there and stepping off, nodding her greeting to the night doorman as she heads for the street. A cab pulls up at the opposite curb, the door opening wide to let the spill of partygoers exit. They're a giggling, stumbling, barely-legal mess of eyeliner and high heels and Kate can't help but smile as she crosses the street and climbs into the back of the cab.
Beckett gives the driver the Ryans' address and leans back against the seat, pulling her phone free from her pocket to rest against her thigh just in case. Anticipation hums low in her stomach and she has to battle with her own body so as not to squirm.
It's so exciting. She can remember it all too clearly. Seven months ago, waking up at five to a strange pressure low down in her abdomen. It felt immediately different to the Braxton Hicks, some core part of her aware that it was time.
She shook Castle awake and watched him for a moment, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. And then she said let's go have a baby.
Even now when she looks back on how he panicked, she can't help but laugh. He had bolted out of bed to grab the overnight bag they'd had sitting by the door for a week, called the car service as he hopped around the bedroom wrestling with his shoes.
And then he'd come to help her to the front door and there had been a moment of silent acknowledgment, a shared smile. That this was the day their lives changed forever, the day they met their son.
Of course, it's not quite the same for the Ryans. They've done this all once already with Brooke. But Kate imagines it to be no less exciting.
The cab pulls up outside the Ryans' building and Kate leans forward to talk to the driver. "Would you mind waiting? I'll be five minutes."
"I gotta keep the meter running." He grunts at her and she nods, stepping out of the cab and onto the sidewalk.
Forgoing the elevator in favour of the stairs, Kate makes it to the third floor apartment in record time and finds Ryan standing by the open front door with his daughter in his arms.
"See Brookie, here's Aunty Kate. She's going to look after you while Mommy and I are at the hospital."
"Hi beautiful girl." Kate reaches for her niece and holds the girl close to her chest, kissing the soft cheek and nuzzling at her neck until Brooke giggles and buries her face against Kate's clavicle. "You guys all good?"
"Yeah, just. . .things are moving fast. Thanks for getting here so quickly."
"Not a problem. Tell Jenny good luck from me." Kate grins, leaning in to kiss Ryan's cheek. He kisses his daughter's forehead and then hands her overnight bag to Beckett, watching until they're on the elevator before he goes back inside to his wife.
"Hey Brooke," Kate bounces the girl in her arms a little, keeping her close against her chest. "Are you excited for your baby brother or sister?"
"He can play with me." The little girl grins up at her aunt, struggling to get down. Kate sets her on the floor and takes one of the tiny hands in her own, her free hand falling to cup the back of the girl's skull. "When he bigger."
"That's right, sweetheart."
Brooke beams up at her aunt, reaching the hand not ensconced in Kate's up to curl tiny fingers in her belt loop. "Him play with Artie too?"
Kate can't help but grin at the nickname, her husband's face ripe with indignation in her mind's eye. He just gets so obnoxious about it, tells her that Conan Doyle would be turning in his grave if he knew the torment inflicted upon his namesake.
Or something like that.
"I'm sure Arthur would love to play with him, baby girl. And while you're staying at mine and Uncle Rick's house today you can play with Artie too if you want."
"Uncle Rick will do pancakes?" Brooke tilts her head, those huge blue eyes wide and beseeching as ever. God, if Arthur ends up even half as adorable as his cousin Kate is just going to be absolutely ruined. She has yet to figure out how to say no.
The elevator doors open onto the lobby and Kate scoops her niece up again, balancing the girl against her hip as she grabs the overnight bag and steps out of the car.
A surge of gratitude wells in her chest at the sight of the cab still waiting for them at the curb. Sure, she's paying the guy, but there really wasn't anything to stop him abandoning them to the textured dark of four am.
Kate opens the door and pushes the bag in ahead of her, climbing inside and giving the driver the address for the loft. There's no child seat in this cab so she has to keep Brooke firmly in her lap, both arms around the girl.
She doesn't seem to mind, little body sinking back into Kate's chest, warm and lovely. "Okay sweetheart, when we get to my house you have to be a little bit quiet, okay? Uncle Rick is still sleeping. I can put on some cartoons for you if you want."
"You watch thems with me?" Brooke settles her head against Kate's shoulder, her hand clinging to her aunt's wrist.
"Of course I will. I might have to get Artie if he starts to cry though, okay?"
The little girl nods, her eyelids already drooping. "Him watch too cartoons."
"Yeah. We'll all watch until Uncle Rick makes us breakfast, how about that?" Kate cards a hand through the spill of curls down the girl's back, her free hand tight around Brooke's waist.
It's really wonderful, to have all three of their families be so close. Brooke equally content to fall asleep in Kate's arms or Esposito's. Artie's little face lighting up every time he sees his uncle Kevin. They're her work family, sure, and she trusts them with her life. She just never quite imagined what it would be like when all three of them settled into families of their own.
If something did. . .happen, to any one of them, their family wouldn't be left alone. Kate wishes she didn't need the reassurance, but it's good to have it to cling to all the same.
The cab pulls up at the curb and Kate pays the driver, sliding out with Brooke still cradled against her body. The doorman gets the door for her and she nods at him in gratitude, her mouth settled against the crown of Brooke's head.
In the elevator, Brooke rouses just enough to press the button for their floor and then she's dozing again, little body suddenly a dead weight in Kate's arms. In front of the loft door she drops the bag to free her hand, fishing around in her pocket for the key.
Unlocking the door, she's hit with a wall of sound before she even makes it over the threshold. In the kitchen, Castle shifts his weight back and forth from foot to foot, their son screaming in his arms.
"See buddy, here's Mommy now. You're okay." He murmurs against Arthur's ear, rounding the counter to exchange children with Kate.
As soon as he finds himself in his mother's arms, Artie goes quiet. He rubs his little face into Kate's chest and grabs for a handful of her hair. "Hey, my sweet boy. What's wrong?"
"I tried him with the formula and I changed his diaper and he was still yelling. He just missed you." Castle shrugs, arranging Brooke more comfortably in his arms so he can lean in and go for Kate's mouth. "He wasn't the only one."
"I was gone for what like, forty minutes?" She huffs a laugh at him, curling her fingers around the back of her son's skull to keep him close.
Kate buries her nose against the soft covering of hair and basks a moment in the sleep-warmed scent of him, like clean sheets and baby shampoo and the blurred colours of his dreams.
"Yeah. We missed you." Her husband grins, coming in to brush his mouth to her cheek and then down to their son's forehead. "How's Jenny?"
"Good, Ryan said. This one's beat, though." Kate nods towards their niece, smoothing her thumb under the girl's eye until the thick fringe of lashes just brushes against the edge of her nail.
Castle moves to the couch and settles Brooke out along it, snagging the blanket folded over the arm to tuck her in and slowly easing her shoes off of her feet. She doesn't even stir, already completely out, and Rick comes back to envelop Kate in his arms, a hand falling to span their son's back.
"I'll find that blow-up mattress later. You want to put her in our room?"
"I think so, yeah. We'll hear her if she wakes in the night, then." Kate settles her cheek against his shoulder and takes a moment to just rest, the two people she loves more than anything in the world here and warm against her.
"Okay. I might go back to bed for a while if that's okay with you?"
Kate kisses the cleft of his chin and steps away, her heart leaping into her throat when he leans in to kiss their son. "Sure. Wake you when we get hungry. I sort of promised Brooke you'd make pancakes."
He laughs at that, his face so rich with life as it creases up. "I see how it is. Okay, love. Yeah. Wake me when you need me."
"Always need you." She murmurs back to him, letting Artie draw her attention so she doesn't have to watch the wrecking ball of that statement as it tears through her husband. It's something he knows, of course, but she's never actually voiced it before.
Something about the weight of their son in her arms and the softness of his face as the sun battles its way up from between the canyons of city blocks to gild the edges of their early morning has words just falling from her tongue, all the ways she cages them in left useless.
"Need you too, Mrs Castle."
When Brooke wakes, she scrubs her hands against her eyes and sits up, unfocused and a little lost looking. Kate watches from the easy chair as her niece scans the room, takes a moment to recall where she is.
In her lap, Kate's son giggles at the clear plastic ring with all the little balls and helter-skelter spirals trapped inside to entertain him. He curls his fingers around it and claps his hands together, delighting in the clattering sound it makes.
Kate covers Artie's hands in her own and leans down, pressing her mouth to the shell of the tiny ear. "Hey little man. Your cousin's just waking up. Let's not make too much noise."
Arthur cranes his neck to stare at his mother, turning so far that Kate has to clutch at him to keep him cushioned safe against her thighs.
"Aunty Kate." Brooke says, sliding down the edge of the couch cushion until her feet hit the floor and she can pad across to where her aunt sits. "Mommy have my baby?"
"Not yet, sweet girl. Daddy will call us when it's time to go to the hospital and see Mommy and the baby, okay?"
Her little brow furrows as she ponders this and then she nods, gives Kate a shy smile. "Kay."
"You hungry, baby girl?"
"I have pancakes now Aunty Kate?"
Kate can't help but laugh at the earnest expression on the girl's face, eyes wide and beseeching. Brooke comes close enough to set her hand at her aunt's knee, leaning on Kate in order to kiss her cousin.
Almost full on the mouth, sloppy and a little gross, but it melts Kate's heart all the same. "I think pancakes is just what we need. You want to help me wake up Uncle Rick?"
"We can jump on him?"
Sharing a grin with her niece, Kate cups the back of Brooke's skull in her palm to steer her towards the bedroom, following behind with Artie secured against her chest. He watches his cousin run into the bedroom, all of his father's inquisitive nature present in him almost since the day he was born.
Kate scoops Brooke up and drops her in the centre of the mattress, three fingers coming up to cover her mouth and contain the laughter as Castle stirs, a hand coming up to cover his eyes. Brooke climbs onto her uncle's chest and cradles his face in her palms, patting his cheeks to rouse him.
"Wake up now, Uncle Rick. Time for pancakes."
To his credit, Castle somehow manages to make himself alert pretty much immediately, shooting a glare at Kate over their niece's shoulder as he scoops the girl up in a hug. "Is that right? Well it's lucky that my extra special assistant is here today, isn't it."
"I help, I help." Brooke shrieks, loud enough to make Arthur startle and wheel around to stare at her so violently Kate almost drops him. She tightens her arms around her son and comes to sit at the edge of the bed, brushing a kiss to her husband's mouth.
"Morning, Daddy. Sleep okay?"
"Yeah, good. The kids okay?" Castle reaches out for his son and Kate lets the baby go, her face unravelling into tenderness as her husband cradles their little boy against his chest, the plane of his abdomen suddenly dwarfing Arthur.
He's such a wonderful father. His whole life now is about Kate and Artie, every molecule of his being finely attuned to their every need. Since their son was born, Kate has been struck every day with just how incredible a man he is to do this for Alexis too, all alone.
And it does help to know that if something happened to her, if one day she never made it home, he'd be there for their son. Arthur wouldn't be left floundering in the rabbit hole and watching the sink of his father's bloated body further down into the bottle.
Jeez, she's morbid this morning. No more of that. She's here, her family are here, and she has every intention of basking in it.
Castle climbs out of bed with Arthur still in his arms, reaching down a hand for Brooke as well. Both kids held close against him, he moves through to the kitchen and hands the baby back to his mother, looking out an apron for Brooke to wear.
"Okay munchkin. Can you help me gather the ingredients?"
Brooke's little tongue pokes between her lips in concentration as she nods and Kate laughs, moving to sit at a barstool and watch the two of them in their elaborate pantomime.
Manoeuvring her son to get her hands underneath his armpits, Kate cups the tiny wings of his shoulder blades in her palms and holds him up, enough that he can bounce off of her thighs. Chubby legs bending and face contorted in joy, Kate can't help but reflect his smile.
Something about it, the abundance of her baby's delight and the patient rumble of her husband's voice through the dawn-soaked morning, seems fragile in its brilliance, as though if Kate doesn't acknowledge how sacrosanct this moment is, she might never find it again.
Closing her eyes, she sends silent thanks to whoever might be listening. For her family, for the way her heart soars inside of her chest, free from the birdcage of her grief.
For her happiness.
The call comes in at lunch, Castle almost knocking over Brooke's yoghurt in his haste to reach for Kate's cell phone. He swipes across the screen to answer and hits speaker, beaming at Beckett.
"You've reached the Castle family, plus one. How can I help?"
"Hello Uncle Rick. I'm wondering if I can speak to baby Ryan's big sister, please?" Kevin's voice comes through, tinny and far away but no less thick with delight.
Castle nods at Brooke and the girl grins, puts her face next to the phone the way she must have seen her parents do countless times. "I here Daddy."
"Hey there Brookie. How would you like to have a baby sister?"
"Really Daddy?" The girl breathes, sliding off of her chair and climbing into Kate's lap. She burrows her face against Kate's chest and fists a hand in her sweater, seeming to not quite know what to do with herself.
"Who wants to come and meet Bethany Ryan?"
"Me, I do." Castle almost yells, already standing up to gather everyone's plates. Kate snatches hers back from him and shoots him a pointed look as she finishes up her grapes, offering one to the squirmy girl in her lap.
"Well see you in an hour or so, Ryan. Congratulations." Kate says, snagging her phone from the table so Castle can't do something ridiculous like run away with it.
"Thanks, Kate. I'll see you later. Love you, Brookie." Ryan says and then he hangs up, probably has to continue with a litany of phone calls to all of his enormous family.
Silly tears flood Kate's eyes and she battles them back, distracting herself with standing up and gathering her son from the highchair. It's just the emotion of the day, bringing back memories of the first time she held her son.
A screaming, red-faced, perfect little person totally dependent on her and Rick. And her husband, who could only break the stream of kisses peppered to the canvas of her face enough to tell her over and over how proud of her he was, how much he loves her.
Castle comes back from the kitchen and darts in for her mouth, shifting up to find her ear amidst the spill of curls. "Makes you want to do it again, doesn't it?"
Shit, yeah, it really does.
"Not yet, okay? Let me get through starting back at work and handling long stretches apart from my son and then we'll talk about it."
He sets his grin against the top of her head and traces the shell of Arthur's ear, his arm settling around her shoulders. "You already let me get you pregnant once, Kate. And remember how fun it was. All that trying."
Kate swats at him, stepping away to corral her niece and steer the girl towards the couch and her shoes, still on the coffee table where Castle left them earlier. "Okay Brooke, let's go meet your sister."
"Aunty Kate, is Artie a big brother now too?"
"No sweetheart. The baby is your sister, not his. He's your cousin, remember that word? And the baby's cousin too."
The girl takes a moment to process this and then she nods, a sly little grin spreading across her face. "But one day you will have a baby in your tummy that will be Artie's little sister?"
Castle snorts from across the room, striding over to kiss the top of Brooke's head and drop her coat into her lap. "That's my girl."
Kate rolls her eyes at him and murmurs to her son about how silly his daddy is, but all the same, she's picturing it. A tiny girl with dark hair and eyes like August skies who curls up in bed and calls her Mommy.
Crap. She's ruined.
A/N: Okay, that's a wrap. Once again, thank you for all your love and support. Especially TMC, you guys rock my world.