Chapter 40 – 32 Weeks
Kate heard the buzzer ring at the front door and started to make her way down stairs. She had been doing laundry all morning while Castle and Alexis were out picking up Alexis' school uniforms from the dry cleaners and hadn't been expecting company.
She got to the bottom of the stairs and Elmo raced past her feet towards the door barking. Anytime someone came to the door he did this, which Kate had been annoyed with at first but now it made her feel safer. She usually knew when people where at the door before they even had the chance to knock.
"Elmo, quiet." She scolded him as she pushed him aside to pull the door open.
There stood her best friend Lanie, with a tear soaked face.
"Lanie, whats wrong?" Kate's hand flew out to grab Lanie's, pulling her into the loft and shutting the door behind them.
"Kate, we broke up, for good this time."
Lanie had been Kate's best friend for a few years now and she had been there through the ups and downs of her relationship with Javi. They fought and broke up all the time, but Lanie usually dealt with it well.
"What happened Lanie, just calm down and tell me what happened?"
They both sat down on the couch while Lanie calmed herself and caught her breath.
"He is seeing someone else Kate."
"What? Javi."
"Yes, Javi. I went through his phone and there were multiple phone calls over the last week with a girl named Lauren. So I confronted him about it, I told him that I was not a fool and of course he denied it all."
"Well then how can you be sure it's not innocent?"
"I asked him to explain it to me. I told him that if he wanted me to believe him that I needed to meet her."
"And…"
"And he refused, and then we got into an even bigger argument and by the end of it he told me that he was done and that he couldn't believe that after all this time together that I didn't trust him or believe him, but I am not stupid Kate."
"Lanie, I have been around the two of you for years, yeah your relationship is full of bickering but Javi… he would never cheat on you, I know how much he loves you."
"I though he did too, I thought he was the one."
Kate wrapped her arm around her friends back, leaning in to give her a hug,
"It's gonna be alright, everything will work itself out Lane, you two will be fine."
Lanie nodded, "I don't think there is anything there anymore Kate, but you're right, I'm gonna be absolutely fine."
Kate stood up pulling Lanie's hand with her, "Lets go shopping, it helps with everything."
"I don't really want to go anywhere right now, I think I'm just gonna take a nap, do you mind if I crash on the couch for a night or two, I just cant be in my apartment right now."
"Absolutely! We have a guest room you can stay in as long as you need, I'm sure Rick will love having someone else here to talk about the baby with. He is starting to really get excited about Carter's arrival."
"Carter!" Lanie shrieked, "You named him and didn't tell me?"
"We haven't really told anyone, we wanted to keep it to ourselves until he was born, but you're gonna be in the house and probably in his room, and we already have his name on the door."
"Oh my gosh!" Lanie threw her arms around Kate's neck. "I'm so happy for you Kate."
"Thank you." Kate smiled into Lanie's shoulder.
As the two girls separated the front door opened and Alexis came flying in.
"LANIE!" the little girl shrieked, tossing her arms around Lanie's legs.
"Hi squirt."
Rick walked over to Kate, running his hand around her waist and resting it on her lower back before placing a kiss on her cheek and then nuzzling into her neck.
"Hey babe" Rick whispered into her ear as he backed away.
"Hey," she said wiggling away from his touch and walking towards the stairs, nodding for him to follow.
"Hey Lanie, I need to change the laundry, you'll be okay with Lex right?"
"Yes dork, I'll be fine with the five year old."
Rick walked into the laundry room behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind and stretching them over her bump.
"I love you." he whispered into her ear, peppering kisses down her neck.
"I love you too, but I'm not having sex with you in the laundry room." She scolded him, pressing her butt back into his groin, creating space between them.
"Ughh," he moaned, "Why not?"
"Because I'm big and pregnant and not really in the mood for a quick fuck on the washing machine. Now if you want to woo me a little, maybe a massage and dinner, you might get lucky then."
"We still have months left in the pregnancy and I have a feeling that I'm not going to be getting lucky very often."
"I mean, you keep up this attitude and you wont be." She rolled her eyes as she grabbed the basket full of clean clothes and left the laundry room.
"Wait, Kate.."
She turned around at the end of the hall in front of the guest room where she had been folding clothes all day.
"Rick, I'm not mad." A smile stretched across her face, "I'm just letting you know that you're gonna have to put in some work to get me in the mood."
He nodded, "I can do that."
"I know you can, so get to work." She turned away from him again walking into the guest room to finish folding the laundry.
The truth is, she had been very snappy with him lately. He left his socks on the bathroom floor the day before and Kate almost had a breakdown over it. Rick thought he was never going to get her to calm down so eventually he had to grab her shoulders and pull her into his body and just hold her while she cried for 30 minutes. Of course he apologized and they got over it quickly but it was getting harder and harder for him to deal with her emotional breakdowns.
He walked into the room and started to help her fold clothes.
"Hey babe," he said placing a hand over hers when she lay down a folded shirt.
She raised an eyebrow at him, "Yes?"
"I think we should go away this weekend, just the two of us."
"For?"
"I just know you've been going through a lot lately and with your hormones being the way they are I feel like you just need a break from everything."
"Now isn't really a good time Rick, the baby will be here soon, and we don't even have the nursery finished. There is just so much for me to get done." She sighed, plopping down next to him on the floor.
"I'll hire someone to come finish the room." He wrapped his arm around her body, pulling her in close.
"I don't want someone else to do it Rick, I want to do it." she leaned in, throwing her arm over his torso to cuddle him.
"Okay, if you want to do it, then we will do it. Can I at least get a night away with you? We can go to a hotel, get massages, and cuddle up and watch a movie together."
"I don't want you to think I don't want to spend alone time with you babe, but I already told Lanie she could stay for a few days. She and Javi broke up and I really want to be there for her."
He nodded and placed a kiss on her head, releasing his hold of her body and she sat up so that he could stand.
"You're not mad at me are you?" she asked, the tears starting to well up.
He leaned down and grabbed her hand pulling her up to stand in front of him.
"I'm not mad, I just feel like we don't get to spend much time together anymore and it makes me a little sad. I just want you to be happy though and I know that once the baby comes it's just going to be harder for us to get alone time, or even just time to talk to one another. I don't want us to grow any further apart then we already have."
"You think we are growing apart? I don't think we are growing apart. Is something wrong, did I do something wrong?"
"No babe you didn't do anything wrong, and I don't mean that we are growing apart in a way that cant be fixed. We just haven't been making time for each other lately and it's starting to get to me. I want my girlfriend back."
"Fiancé." she interjected.
A smile broke across his face, "My fiancé, I want her back. So when you find her and she has a little time for me, let me know. Until then I'll be in my office, writing."
xx
Lanie and Kate spend the day in the nursery, hanging things on the walls and decorating. It was nice to be able to spend time together since they hadn't been able to see each other much lately.
"Are you excited for the baby, Kate?"
"I'm excited to get him out of my body, but I'm nervous about actually having to take care of him by myself." She shrugged her shoulders and Lanie could sense her nervousness.
"You have Rick though, and he has done this before."
"Yeah I know, he is gonna be great." She smiled. "Hey Lane, I have a question."
"Shoot."
"Do you think it's crazy of me that I don't want to be intimate with him? I mean we have sex…. Sometimes, but I don't really do it for me, I do it because I know he wants to be close to me, and I think it's the only way he feels he can be close to me."
"I've never been pregnant before so I can't relate to how you're feeling. I do know that he loves you and it probably hurts him a little that you don't want to be intimate with him."
"Sex is just so incredibly awkward for us right now. There isn't a position that makes me comfortable; we've tried them all. There is just not part of me that is turned on by him anymore. I mean sure I love him, and that's not changing, but I have no attraction to him anymore."
"Is it because you're pregnant? Or do you feel like maybe he isn't the one for you?"
Kate sighed, "I don't know Lane," She shook her head.
"Hey, its gonna be okay, I'm sure once the baby comes things will change." She wrapped her arms around Kate and Kate lifted her head to embrace Lanie. When she opened her eyes she saw Rick standing in the doorway staring at her.
Before she had the chance to say anything, he turned and walked away. He had heard everything. How could she have been so insensitive to talk about him in the house where he could easily overhear her?
She dropped her arms from Lanie and started for the door.
"RICK!" She yelled after him as he walked down the hall at a fast pace.
"Kate, don't." he responded softly.
"Rick, please, can I just talk to you." she yelled after him.
He turned the corner and ran down the stairs and across the living room into his office.
Kate's panic started to take over and she started to run after him, as she hit the second stair her foot slid out from under her and she fell forward down the stairs.
"Kate!" Alexis yelled from the living room as she started to run towards Kate. "Daddy, Kate fell!"
If I get 20 reviews, I'll post the next chapter today.