"A kiss to the forehead is one of the sweetest things in the world."
November 2015
He's mesmerized by her, but her eyes are only on him for a second.
Pale faced, pink cheeked, Kate's hair hangs in limp and messy tendrils at her ears and in the long ponytail that falls down her back. She's sweaty, exhausted, possibly the most beautiful he has ever seen her and her attention is focused entirely on the other side of the room.
Their fingers are entwined and she grips him hard, squeezing, nowhere near as hard as the past few hours, there's nothing of pain in the way she clings to him now, just anticipation.
He wants to speak, to ask her how she is and how she feels, to tell her she's amazing and heroic and that he loves her more than ever, though he didn't think that was possible, but nothing comes out no matter how many times he opens his mouth on the off chance his brain might catch up. Maybe a part of him knows he'd break the spell and god, he doesn't want that. He doesn't even want to reclaim her attention, just holding her hand is enough.
Oh, and anyway, there are no words good enough, clear enough, drenched with enough love, for what he wishes to convey.
Where their fingers touch he can feel a quiver through her muscles and when he follows the movement he realizes she's shaking him off. Her arms extend, face glowing and Kate sits up to take the small bundled infant from the nurse - their son!
Their son - Castle freezes, his fingers hovering in the space she left behind and he stares, raw excitement exploding through with no outlet - they have a son!
He's tiny - perfect - with spindly long limbs that tell Castle he's going to grow up tall. Kate lifts him, raises the baby to her face and his dark, mysterious eyes blink open to focus on his mother just as intently as she's focused on him.
She brings the boy - his boy, god - up to her face whispering a language of love he's never heard before. She tells him something wholly belonging to the two of them, kisses his nose and his cheek, the tiny cupids bow of his puckered lips and then she brings him in close as she leans down until their foreheads touch.
It's the softest sweetest kiss, skin to skin, one he's shared with her himself a million times and words echo, still mumbled quietly, as she breathes in her child, her eyes closing slowly.
Castle draws in a deep, painfully ragged breath. It pushes his lungs out hard against his full-to-bursting heart, expanding his ribs with fascination and awe and no small amount of that soul shattering love. He's crying and he doesn't notice, not until the sight of wife and son blurs and he has to press at his eyelids to regain his vision.
The movement, small and inconspicuous, of his hand to his face as he wipes away tears, catches her attention. Kate's eyes fall to him at her bedside and Castle is stunned by the look on her face.
She's crying too, eyes bright and wet, yet she wears an expression of utter serenity. There's awe in there too, a feeling they clearly share, shock, surprise, exhaustion, but it's all overshadowed by the absolute adoration that emanates from her.
It hits him hard, lightning strikes to the heart of him, unrelenting, the knowledge that he's just witnessed Kate Beckett (Castle) fall head over heels in love with her child - their child.
Kate looks down at him and before he's even halfway coping with how beautiful they look - his wife, their son - her face breaks apart with the most radiant smile, and, though tears are streaming down her face, she laughs, positively joyous.
"Oh, baby, we broke daddy."
If he wasn't broken before, he is now. She calls him daddy and lowers his son to her chest, cradling him there in a way that unmans him and then immediatly remakes him - father, husband, partner, protector - shattered apart and brought back together in the most magical way.
"Castle, get up here." She laughs again, winces and sniffs, trying to a comfortable position.
Castle jumps to his feet and eases himself onto the bed at her side. He swipes at her cheek and she shakes, shivers when he wraps an arms around her shoulders and draws her into his chest. He raises his knees and they move their tiny boy to lay across his thighs. They share him, their fingers brushing when they both stroke across the blanketed rise of his chest.
Kate grows steadily heavier in his arms, her fingers slowly ceasing to move and coming to rest over their baby's heart, Castle knows she's fallen asleep. He closes his eyes too for a moment, then blinks them open to kiss her forehead, only to find the baby looking up at him.
He kisses her again as it comes over him in a lovely, warm wave. She's given him another person to stare at.