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Out of the Blue - Chapter 10

"Hey, Kate, what do think about putting the crib over here? By the window?"

Not that they have a crib to be put by the window just yet, but they'll get to that soon enough.

Suffice to say there's a lot going on right now. They'd finally closed yesterday, using their shiny new keys to let themselves in later on in the day to share their first meal (amongst other things) in their new home. When Alexis arrived this morning, the house was the first place she'd asked to go, wanting to see their new DC digs. As a compromise, they'd ducked back to the apartment to get some of the smaller boxes to move as well. He's been unloading said boxes while his fiancée gives his daughter the tour.

While he unloads, he tries to strategize for the rest of the move. The plan is to get it done as soon as possible, but he has no idea how he's going to move the heavier furniture on his own. The bed at least comes apart, but even with Alexis' help, the couch especially might be too much. So if his daughter and his fiancée want to go shopping, he's not opposed. He'll use the time to find a moving crew on short notice. Actually, they probably should go out; Alexis will need a bed, too. The couch may be okay for a day or two, but after a while sleeping in the living room will get old.

"Oh, that might be good. Do you think it'll be too much light, though? I don't want them to wake up as soon as the sun comes up every morning."

He smiles when Alexis hums. "That's a good point. I didn't think about that. Maybe over here instead?"

Shifting the box in his hands, Castle glances into the nursery on his way to the master bedroom. Beckett and Alexis stand in the center of the room, studying it thoughtfully.

He sees Kate nod. "I think that'll be a good place. And then we could put a rocking chair by the window and make it a sitting or play area. Not that infants really play at first."

Alexis laughs softly. "I think a rocking chair is a great idea. Dad might still have mine from my nursery… if you want it."

Kate's answer fades into the background as he finishes the walk to the bedroom, but when he returns he finds them beaming at each other.

"Hey," he calls, feeling a bit like an oaf as he ambles toward them with heavy footfalls.

"Hey, Castle. You heard all that, right?" Kate tilts her head. Her lack of surprise always helps to remind him she has the best mom-sense out there.

"Uh huh. Some of it? As I was… taking the box to our room."

Alexis squirms as he draws her into his chest, but doesn't protest the hug.

"Sure, Castle." Kate's lips twist. "So you'll get it? The rocker?"

Touching his lips to his daughter's braided hair, he nods. "I'll get it out of storage next time I run back to New York. And anything else you want me to bring, too."

Beckett smiles, stepping into him, too. "That'll be great. Thank you." Her lips slide against his cheek.

"They'll love it," he adds with a squeeze to his daughter's shoulders. "Little Jordan or Avery, Devon or Morgan, they'll love it."

Alexis sighs. "Dad, just tell me. Please?"

Kate chuffs against his cheek. He's been waiting for days to tease with a few semi-neutral names, especially since they've already chosen their top four options, to make the final decision in just a couple months.

"I will paint this entire nursery if you tell me."

Well that's tempting.

"How 'bout this, pumpkin. You and Beckett go pick out furniture for your room and for in here, and then you come back and guess based on what you bought."

"And you'll tell me if I'm right or wrong after I guess?" She lifts her eyes to his suspiciously.

Damn, she caught that loophole. Beside him, Beckett snickers. Yeah, she caught it, too.

"Yes, we'll tell you after you guess."

"Immediately after I guess," she adds. "Not some indeterminate amount of time later."

She's good. He'd been hoping to get away with that one. This subterfuge thing was easier when she was five.

"Immediately after you guess. We won't make you wait until Christmas like Gram and Jim."

Oh, that reminds him: they'll need Christmas decorations, too, since his main collection is still in New York. Though he supposes that can wait until after the first moving wave has concluded. Just to make it easier on everyone.

He'll have to try not to go overboard, too; last year was… a little much for Beckett and he knows it. With her father changing his tradition for them, for his grandchild, he doesn't want to overwhelm him either.

Yeah, he'll have to think about that a bit. Just later. Today's about moving.

Alexis cuts her eyes to Beckett. "He's not crossing his fingers behind my back, is he?"

Kate laughs, leaning to check. "Nope. Come on, you need a bed. You don't want to sleep on that couch more than a few times. I've done it on nights your dad's in New York and it's not fun."

"Okay, deal. We'll be back in a couple hours then. And then I will make my guess and the secret will be mine."

Smiling, he squeezes them both. "Good. And get whatever you want. You know the drill."

Popping her lips, Alexis nods. "Yep. Card?" Her palm flattens under his chin.

"Don't worry about it, Alexis, I've got it." Kate straightens, brandishing his wallet.

He gapes. "Seriously, how do you do that?"

His fiancée smirks, taking his preferred card and handing it to his daughter before replacing his wallet in his back pocket with deliberate fingers. Tease. Kissing him lightly, she holds out an arm to Alexis.

"Shall we? We'll arrange for delivery, Castle, don't worry. And you, call a moving company and beg them to send someone. We're not spending Christmas with you in a back brace."

Beside her, Alexis laughs softly, finally seeming to shake some of the fatigue she'd arrived with. "Oh, we should stop for food while we're out, too. I don't know about you, but I'm dying for a burger."

Well huh, that's new. She'd barely touched his turkey at Thanksgiving, sticking instead to the fruitarian offerings she and Pi had prepared.

"Perfect, me too." Kate grins, winking. "See ya, Castle."

He gets sporadic updates from Kate while they're gone. She makes sure to take care of Alexis first, letting her pick up whatever furniture and furnishings she wants, before they tackle the nursery. Part of him wishes he were there with her, helping her pick everything, but he knows he'll get to take part in the assembly experience. Let his daughter and his fiancée bond this time.

"You'll like this stuff, promise," she texts from the store.

Of that, he has no doubt.

Thankfully, the idea to get a small crew to help works out; the first place he calls miraculously has a crew waiting for a job after a last minute cancellation. Even though he pays triple their normal rate to book them on short notice, the fee is worth it. Not only do they get the job done, they get it done quickly, and he's able to start unpacking everything sooner than he expects.

He tackles the kitchen first, since he has a meal in mind. Last night's dinner was take out, but tonight he wants something special to welcome his family home. He ducks out for the ingredients as soon as he breaks down the last kitchen box, wanting to get it started before he moves onto another room.

He's finally resting a bit when Alexis and Beckett return from their shopping trip, bags weighing them both down.

"Hey, hey, lemme help you with those." He bolts off the couch, moving to Kate first.

Kate waves him off. "Relax, Castle, Alexis has all the heavy ones. She gave me the pillows and the blankets." She lifts one of the larger bags for emphasis. "I'll put these in your room, Alexis."

"Thanks, Kate." His daughter smiles, foisting one of her bags into his hands. "There's more stuff outside, if you want to grab it, too. We got paint for my room, the nursery, and your bedroom."

"Did you find furniture?" he asks, ducking outside to drag everything else in and spare them more trips into the cold.

"Tons," she replies, looking over her shoulder. "Mine'll be here Thursday. We got the rush delivery for both. The nursery furniture will be here next Monday."

Just before Christmas. That'll be good. His mother will enjoy the drama of a nursery reveal on Christmas.

"Perfect."

His baby girl grins, waiting for him to join her on the stairs. Together, they distribute all of the day's purchases.

When he steps into his bedroom, he realizes Kate's taking advantage of his foresight to pay the crew to help him set up their bed. It's missing sheets, but his fiancée doesn't seem to care. Her eyelids are already drooping when he leans over to kiss her.

"Mhmm, sorry, I'll be up to help in a minute."

Brushing his knuckles over her cheek, he murmurs for her to rest. "I've got this, Beckett. You just relax. I'll make you a smoothie in a little bit, too."

"Thanks. M'just a little tired." Her hand flexes against her belly. "Get Alexis to show you what she bought. S'gorgeous stuff. And she took pictures of the furniture."

He nods. "I will."

"And give her a hug. Think things are weird with Pi," she adds in a whisper.

"Weirder than normal?"

Kate snorts. "She just didn't talk about him much. Last time it was Pi this, Pi that. Don't get your hopes up."

"Kay." He pecks her lips quickly. "Sleep. See you in a bit."

She puckers belatedly, eyes slipping shut again.

His knee cracks as he stands, but he ignores it in favor of lifting her sweater and dusting a kiss across her belly.

"Be good for your mom, kid. Let her rest."

He finds his daughter setting up an air mattress in one corner of her room. She smiles easily when he offers to help her with whatever's left to tackle.

"Thanks."

"So what do you think about this place? Nice, huh?" he asks as she helps him feed ice blue blackout curtains onto the rod. He knows they'll have to take them down to paint in the next couple days, but they'll help her sleep tonight.

Her head bobs. "Yeah it is. I really do like it, Dad. I know I was… weird about it before, but I really do like it here. I mean it's different, and still a little strange not having you at home when I stop in, but I like it here, too. It's nice getting out of the city for a little bit."

"Good. That… makes me feel a lot better."

It does, he realizes. As much as he doesn't live his life according to his daughter's whims anymore, the fact that she's happy takes a weight off of his shoulders.

Alexis kisses his cheek. "Dad, this is great, I mean it. You should've seen how happy Kate was when we were shopping."

Warmth spreads in his chest, taking another weight with it. "Good. So how are you? In general. How'd the end of the semester go?"

She exhales. "School was fine. My grades were fine."

"What about your classes? Did you like them? Do you think you'll like the environmental studies major?"

"Yeah, I really do. As interested as I am in medicine and even law, I just don't see them as being for me. Sorry, Dad. No MDs in the family yet."

His arm winds around her shoulders. "Honey, I will be proud of whatever you do, provided it's not living in a psychedelically painted van in a public park by the river."

Alexis giggles against his chest. "Thanks, Dad."

"Any time," he rumbles, rubbing her back gently. "What else? Is everything else okay?"

"Uh huh."

Yeah, that's the least convincing assurance ever.

"How's Pi?" he tries, wincing a little at how stilted and awkward it sounds. He's never been great at talking to his daughter about boys. Breakups, sure. He can do comfort and ice cream parties with the best of them, but advising his daughter about a current boyfriend has never been easy.

"He's fine. He's in Amsterdam for the holidays."

"He got his passport issues sorted out?" Another thing he hadn't heard about at Thanksgiving.

Alexis nods, relaxing into him again. He tightens his arms around her; he's missed her hugs. "Yeah, finally. They're not exactly fast."

He nods, resting his cheek on her hair. "But now he has it and he has more freedom, right?"

"Yeah it does. Which is good."

"Driving you a little crazy?" It's a gamble, since it could be taken as an insult against her boyfriend, but Alexis just laughs and kisses his cheek.

"Oh yeah."

She pulls away to start hanging her clothes in the closet.

"We're um," she exhales. "Don't gloat about this please, but we're not going to move in together. Not in January. Maybe not at all or at least not for a long time."

He wants to be sorry about that, but he isn't. Not a bit. But he won't gloat.

"What made you change your mind?" he asks instead, curious.

"Seeing his place?" Alexis laughs. "He's… I don't want to be cleaning up after him all the time. I mean, he's a great guy, and he's absentminded because he's so smart, but I'm… we go in two different directions a lot of the time. Including what constitutes organized chaos."

"That happens sometimes, sweetheart."

"I know, and it's not even that, really. We have a good relationship now. It's fun, it's good, but I worry it might be less fun if we live together, you know?"

"Yeah, yeah I do know."

Alexis nods. "And I mean, he hasn't even brought it up since he got that space in the dorm, so that says he doesn't really want to either, right?"

"Well, I don't know if it means he doesn't want to eventually, but for right now he's probably content. Are you happy where you are?"

"Yeah I am," she says, laughing softly. "You know my roommate's really great this year. We have a great time living together and I was going to be sad to leave her if I moved. So now I don't have to and that's good."

A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. "Yeah it is. And maybe in six months or a year you and Pi will both feel differently and it'll work out to live together."

"Yeah, maybe."

A few minutes later, she slides the empty suitcase into the corner of the closet and claps her hands. "Okay, until we paint and get furniture in here, I don't think I can do anything else. Need help unpacking elsewhere? Or with dinner?"

"Help me set up the TV? We can eat on the couch and have a movie night."

"Perfect. Oh, do you have your Xbox here? We could play, too."

"Genius, daughter. You're a genius."

Alexis grins, ducking out of her room and bounding downstairs with the enthusiasm of a small child. He follows her eagerly, calling out box locations to make this happen faster.

Kate finds them an hour later, laughing over his daughter's terrible Guitar Hero skills.

"Beckett, hey," he greets, holding out an arm to welcome her. "How'd you sleep?"

His fiancée joins them on the couch, sitting close enough for him to feel her sleepy warmth as she props her feet on the coffee table.

"I needed that," she exhales, rubbing the bottom of her belly slowly. Little one must be boxing again.

His palm covers the curve of her stomach, hoping the heat from his hand will help the kid settle down. Kate hums appreciatively, slipping her fingers up his forearm.

"I think they're dancing," she murmurs finally, grinning over at Alexis.

"Or laughing at their sister's unfortunate attempts," he adds, attempting to duck against Beckett when Alexis lobs a pillow at him. Beckett laughs, clucking her tongue at his attempts to use his youngest as a human shield.

"Some of us actually did have to study in high school, Dad," she teases, making a face at her post-number stats. "We can't all be slacker super geniuses like you."

"A slacker super genius, huh?" Kate's fingers slip into his hair. "You were the kid in the back of the room who read the whole book in a night and was bored the rest of the time, weren't you?"

He's not sure what he's about to say, but Alexis beats him to it anyway.

"Oh yeah. You know how he is about remembering things. Gram always said he could've been a whiz in school, he just got bored so he slacked off, and that's what hurt him."

Well, hubris, thinking he knew everything, and generally wanting to be liked by his peers also had a lot to do with it at times, too. Even so, it's a reasonably accurate assessment of his school career. And if it he hadn't found writing, hadn't found the thing that made him want to work hard and hadn't been encouraged the way he had, he might not be where he is today.

Beckett squeezes his neck, halting that line of thinking in its tracks. "I was, too, at times. It drove my parents crazy. They'd tell me, 'Katie, we know you think you're set, but you still have to put in the work,' and I mostly brushed them off. Until the one time I really wanted to do well, but still only put in minimum effort and it backfired on me completely."

Alexis smiles softly, offering the guitar to them. Kate takes it before he can, nudging him out of the way to give her a better range of motion to play.

"What'd they say that time? Your mom and dad?"

"Oh, my dad threatened to ground me for life, just to make a point. My mom," Kate trails off, biting her lip quickly. "She could've played the 'I told you so' card, but she didn't. She just sat with me as I moped over this terrible grade, and then finally she asked me what I'd learned. And after that I worked my ass off whether I knew every word and formula or not. I wanted to earn it all. Which is what your dad did when he realized how much he loves writing." She smiles at him, squeezing his neck gently.

Oh, he loves her.

Crowding into her space again, his mouth seeks hers. Behind him, he hears Alexis make fake gagging noises, but the kiss he needs to give this woman is worth embarrassing his kid for a second. Kate hums, slicking her tongue against his lip quickly before squirming away and shoving him back onto his cushion.

"Don't be mushy, Castle, I'm trying to school you."

"Yeah, Dad. Kate's going to beat your high score."

Snorting, he shakes his head. "Good luck with that, I am a champion."

Kate's eyebrow lifts. "Okay, champ. We'll see who the master is after this and who has to tell baby boy they lost spectacularly."

He gapes. Did she just…? After all that teasing? After her insistence that he'd be the first one to spill. She let the cat out of the bag first.

Alexis' hah isn't subtle in the least, but it helps Kate realize exactly what she's said. What she's given away.

Her chin drops to her chest. "Shit."

"Uh huh," he chirps gleefully, clapping his hands. "And that, Agent Beckett, means you lost. I will collect my winnings later. For now, this moment is reward enough."

"You bet who would blow the secret first?" Alexis asks between spurts of laughter, leaning on her elbow.

"Beckett insisted it'd be me, but I knew it'd be her. I just knew. My will is strong, and my secret-keeping fortitude even stronger."

Both women roll their eyes.

"Well, for the record, I knew it was a boy before today and I was going to say that at dinner." Alexis lifts her chin proudly, leaning over to peck his cheek. "Congratulations, Dad. Congratulations, Kate."

The flush is already fading from Beckett's cheeks, being replaced with the same joyous glow she's had for months. Freeing her hand from the plastic guitar, she reaches across his chest to squeeze his daughter's fingers. "Thanks, Alexis. Now, watch me kick your dad's ass."

His daughter relaxes against his side, laughing as they watch Beckett's score climb higher and higher. He's so going to lose.

That's okay, he's already won more than once today.

A/N: Just one more quick author's note. In a fit of inspiration, I added another chapter to the story, bringing the total up to 15, not 14 like previously mentioned. Thanks.