Chapter 23
When Kate woke up on Friday morning she felt like she'd been hit by a train. She wanted to call Castle, but she didn't think that it would be a good idea after what had happened a few nights night before. Her moods had been so back and forth lately that she didn't blame him for needing space. She had been miserable, and she knew that she had been making him just as miserable, so she had given him the time and space away from her. She decided to run herself a hot bath to relax in, thinking that maybe it would help but it only seemed to make her more uncomfortable. She couldn't tell if she had a fever or not, but she knew that she was coming down with something. She tried to force herself to eat, hoping that it would make her stomach feel better, but it had been hard to keep any of it down.
After hours of throwing up she knew that she had to reach out to someone for help. She was absolutely miserable and she didn't know if the stress over her relationship was the cause or if there was actually something wrong with her.
Lanie made it over in under 30 minutes, with crackers and sprite in tow.
"How long have you been feeling like this?"
"Honestly, just this morning, I woke up and I felt horrible. It's now 2 pm and I haven't stopped throwing up."
"So you felt fine yesterday?"
"Yeah, physically I was fine."
"Physically? What does that mean?"
"Castle left the other night, said he needed a break from me because I was, quote 'being bat shit crazy', which he isn't wrong about."
Lanie brought a cold cloth over to the couch, laying it across the back of her neck and taking a seat on the ground in front of her.
"Oh lord, what were you being crazy about?"
Kate sighed, "More like what wasn't I being crazy about. Lanie, I seriously feel like I've lost my mind. One minute I am fine, the next I could seriously commit murder. We had sex for the first time since we came back from the Hamptons. THE HAMPTONS LANIE! That was a month ago."
"You went a month without having sex with your boyfriend, and he still stuck around, he must love you."
"He does," she smiled, "he told me, before we had sex, and then afterwards, literally thirty seconds after I was biting his head off again."
"So he told you he loved you, then you all had sex, and then you attacked him."
"Yeah, pretty much."
Lanie shook her head, "Kate, I don't know what could be wrong, maybe you should go see Dr. Burke again."
Kate bolted up from where she lay, making her way to the bathroom. Lanie could hear her emptying her stomach from the living room so she made her a glass of sprite and took a few crackers to her.
"Kate, you should really try and eat something."
"Lanie everything I eat or drink comes straight back up."
Lanie bent down to put her hand on the back of Kate's neck, feeling for a temperature.
"Kate, you are burning up, hold on let me grab a thermometer."
She hurried off to find one, and when she came back to Kate curled into a ball in front of the toilet, she took her temperature. "103, Kate I think we should go to the emergency room."
They made their way into the emergency room, and they began her on IV fluids to help with the dehydration. The nurse made her way in to check her blood pressure and ask a few questions.
"Ma'am what is the date of your last period?"
"Sometime last month," she paused, "I'm trying to think…"
"Are they irregular?"
"They didn't use to be but the last few months they have been. Honestly, I don't even really remember when my last period was."
"Kate," Lanie yelled at her, "What do you mean you don't know, it hasn't crossed your mind that you might be pregnant."
"Honestly, No. We use condoms and I'm on birth control."
"Calm down then," the nurse said, "I'm sure you're fine, but we will run some test to make sure."
Kate nodded, towards the nurse and then looked over at Lanie whose eyes had grown even wider. As the nurse left, Kate couldn't help but question what the look was for from Lanie.
"What do you mean Kate? Mood swings, sickness, missed periods."
"Lanie, I'm not pregnant. It's something else, I would know if I was pregnant."
"Are you and Rick always careful?"
"Yes… I mean I can count the amount of times we have forgotten a condom on one hand, and not even a full hand."
"It only takes one time."
"Lanie, I know it only takes one time but, I'm not pregnant."
Just as Kate finished her sentence, Castle rounded the corner into her room.
"Rick, what are you doing here, how did you…" she looked towards Lanie who shrugged her shoulders.
"I knew I had to call him, you're too stubborn to."
He crossed the room, coming to the side of her bed and bending down to place a kiss on her forehead.
"Kate, I told you to call if you needed me."
"I was just trying to give you the space you wanted."
"Kate, the space was for both of us, but I told you that you could call if you needed me, and you needed me, so why be so stubborn?"
"So what, I'm a little sick, it's not like I'm dying. I have a stomach bug, people get them all the time." She laid her head back on the pillow, turning her face away from him.
He sat down on the bed next to her and started to play with the hair around her ears, pulling it back and tucking it in.
"You were sick enough to make it into the ER, I think that at that point it's okay to call."
"I wasn't exactly thinking about that while I was throwing my guts up."
"You okay now?" he said leaning over her mouth and bringing her chin up to kiss him.
"Yeah, I missed you." she said, breaking away from their kiss.
Lanie stood up from her seat and pointed to the door, "I'll give you two a minute."
Kate nodded at her.
As Lanie was walking out the nurse was walking back into the room.
"Well I think I know what's going on."
"Finally!" Kate said, throwing her arms down to he sides.
Rick stood from the bed making his way to lean against the wall.
"Is it okay if I talk about it with him in the room or would you like privacy?"
"He's my boyfriend, he is going to find out either way so it's fine if he is here."
"Well, you are pregnant, urine test we did on you came back positive."
"No, No, No," Kate began to cry, looking over towards Rick who slid down the wall immediately, hitting the ground and burying his face into his hands.
"So this wasn't planned?"
"No," she shook her head, "I'm nineteen, how am I suppose to take care of a baby?"
"Hey, everything is going to be okay," the nurse said, patting her on the leg, "I'll give you two a minute."
They both sat in silence not even looking in one another direction. Rick eventually got up and made it back to her bed, taking a seat on the end of it and looking down at her.
"It's gonna be okay Kate, we are going to be fine."
"That's easy for you to say, you have a child already. You know how to do this, and you don't have to carry this baby. My body is going to be ruined, my parents are going to kill me."
"Those things might happen, but you are going to be a great mom, and this baby is going to be so loved by both of it's parents." He took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers.
"Yeah?"
He made his way up the bed, taking hold of her face and pulling her in for a kiss,
"This explains a lot about these mood swings you've been having."
"I don't know how this happened, we have been so careful."
"I wouldn't call us 'so careful' Kate, there have been a few times that we have been unprotected."
"Yeah, a few times, but I am also on birth control."
"Do you take it everyday?"
"Yeah, except when we went to the Hamptons, I did forget it at home, but we used condoms."
"No, actually we didn't, not in the hot tub, either time, or on the couch."
"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that." She smirked, a smile growing at the memory of that night. She let out a loud laugh, and shoved her foot at him.
He nodded his head, a smile breaking across it. The mood in the room got lighter as the shock began to ware off. Internally Kate knew that everything was going to be okay, and now she had a reason for how she had been acting. As he realized that she was happier in this moment than she had been in weeks his mood completely changed as well. This baby was going to be a part of both of them, and as he looked into her eyes he knew that everything would work its self out.
"Why are you so happy? You're suppose to be freaking out with me."
His smile only grew at her accusations of him being happy. "Because the girl I love is going to have my baby."
"Castle, we both talked about this and decided that we needed to take our relationship slow, and now we have been dating for a little over three months and I'm pregnant." She laughed.
"I wonder how fat your gonna get?" he teased, again lightening the mood.
"Oh don't even make me think about that yet," she rolled her eyes, "I can already imagine myself waddling through the loft."
They both laughed at the thought of that.
"How do you think Alexis is going to feel about it?" Kate asked.
"I think she will be excited, but I think we should wait to tell her."
"Why would we wait, she should be the first to know."
"I mean we don't even know how far along you are, plus 9 months is a long time for a 4 year old to wait on a baby."
Kate laughed at that, "Yeah, maybe we should wait until I start to show, so that she can physically see the baby growing inside of me."
"Wow."
"What?"
He reached up placing his hand on her lower abdomen and rubbing circles, "Our baby is in there."
She ran her hand down over his, mimicking his movement, "Yeah, that's weird to think about."
The nurse walked back in the room, interrupting the intimate moment they were sharing.
"You two look a little better."
"Yeah, I think we are going to be okay." Kate teased, squeezing Castles hand.
He nodded back at her, "We are going to be great."
"Okay kids, here's the deal, Kate, make an appointment with you doctor within the next few days. And you," she pointed at Rick, "Your only job is to make sure she is eating and drinking enough, the beginning of a pregnancy can be very hard on your body, make sure she eats."
"Yes, of course." He said.
"Well I am gong to go get your discharge papers, and you can get dressed. You two are free to go as soon as the paperwork is done. Make sure to get plenty of rest Kate, and don't stress out, stress is the worst thing for your body while pregnant."