Chapter 43 -32 Weeks

The doctors were right; Kate woke up in the middle of the night in more pain than she thought was possible. Rick immediately got up from the chair he had fallen asleep in after she passed out to help her, but there wasn't much he could do to ease her pain. The nurses came in and gave her some medicine to help with the pain and to help her sleep. This time she cried herself to sleep, but he was there right beside her smoothing her hair back and rubbing her back.

When she woke up in the morning, Alexis was there, sitting on her dads lap, cuddled into his side.

"Hey baby girl."

"Kate, you're awake! Dad told me to be quiet so you could sleep."

"You did such a good job, I didn't even hear you."

The little girl smiled and looked up at her dad who gave her a small nod.

"I brought you something Kate, well it's for you and my brother."

The small red head slid off her dads legs and ran over to her bag perched against the wall, she unzipped it and pulled out a teddy bear. Tucking it under her arm and walking towards Kates bed.

She pushed the bear up to Kate and pointed to his foot.

"Look Kate, it says his name on his foot, Carter Castle."

"I love it Lex, get up here." She motioned for the little girl to climb up on the bed.

She looked at her dad and he looked at Kate who gave him a smile and a nod.

"Just be careful Lex."

"Oh I will daddy, I promise." And she softly climbed into the bed and laid next to Kate. Who gave her a kiss on the forehead.

"Can I touch my brother?"

"Of course you can, I think he missed you, he's been going wild in there."

"Do you think he knows who I am?"

"I think he knows exactly who you are. Every time you're around he goes wild. You two are going to be the best of friends."

"I hope so."

"Oh I know so."

The door cracked open and Kate's doctor came in.

"How are you feeling today?"

"I'm sore, but I'm fine," She looked down at Alexis, "even better now that my munchkin is here to cuddle with me."

"Well Kate, it looks like everything is normal, all your tests came back okay and the baby is fine. I don't know how you managed to come out of this unharmed."

"It's a blessing that's for sure." She responded, reaching for her stomach.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, I just don't know what I would have done if something would have happened to him."

"Well maybe you should take a little more time on the stairs at home next time."

"Oh, I will, I'm almost nervous to even go up or down them again." She laughed.

"Well I think as long as you go slow and you use the railing you should be fine."

"I know, it was an accident, one that won't be happening again."

"Good, because you still have another 6-8 weeks to keep that little boy safe."

"Gosh, that's it, it feels like it has flown by."

"That's what most mothers say, dads on the other hand think about it as the longest 9 months of their life." The doctor laughed, giving Rick a wink.

"Yeah, It's been a wild ride I'll tell ya." Rick through in, receiving a look from Kate to keep his mouth shut.

"Yup, looks like she has you right where she wants you." he teased.

"I'm just glad we are having a boy to equal things out a little bit. I don't know what I would have done with another girl in the house."

"Oh you'd make it work, I have five girls at home."

"I think these two are enough for me." He laughed.

"You know Carter is going to be a mommas boy, right?" Kate threw back at him.

"Oh, in your dreams. He and I are going to be pals."

"Believe what you want Rick." She teased, giving Alexis a tight squeeze.

Xx

The doctors gave Kate the okay to go home later that day after all of her test came back normal, advising her to take it easy over the next few days to let her body rest. When they got to the loft it was quiet and dark, and looked like everything had been cleaned.

"Why is this place cleaner than I've ever seen it?" She questioned Rick.

"I might have hired someone to come in and clean and re-stock the fridge so that you wouldn't be stressing out over anything. I know you're nesting and even the tiniest bit of disorder drives you nuts so I took care of it. I want you to be able to rest and relax and not have to worry. Oh and mother took Lex for the night." He explained.

She dropped her bag and made her way to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and lifting up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his mouth.

"I love you Richard Castle."

"I love you too babe, now lets get you settled into bed."

"I really don't want to go to bed yet."

"Okay, well you want to cuddle up on the couch and watch a movie?"

"Actually, I kind of want to work on the babys room. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it."

"Kate, you really should take the night off."

"I know, but I don't want to. I'm not going to over-do it by hanging up a few things and decorating a bit."

"Okay, but I'm helping. No heavy lifting and nothing strenuous."

"Sounds perfect to me." She said lifting up on her toes to press another kiss to his mouth.

They spent the rest of the evening decorating the baby's room. Rick moved the furniture around for her until she found an arrangement that she liked. They made up the baby's bed and put away the few clothes they had already bought for him. They needed to do a little more shopping before he arrived. They had decided against a baby shower, both agreeing that it would be more stressful than anything. Especially when they could afford everything for the baby on their own.

Rick finally convinced Kate that they had done enough for the night and he went downstairs to run her a bath. They bathed together, cuddling up and talking about what their son might look like and who he would act more like. Kate insisting that he would have Ricks blue eyes and her attitude. Rick disagreed, hoping he would have her eyes and his sense of humor.

The night had been perfect for them, just what they needed, a night alone together to bond and spend time talking to one other about the baby. They hadn't had much time alone lately, and even less time to be sweet to one another, and take care of each other. Kate appreciated that he didn't try to put the moves on her like he normally would have. He had given her a little space and not put so much pressure on them to be intimate.

As they lay in bed, feet tangled together, his hand was pressed tightly into her abdomen so that he could feel Carter flipping around inside her womb everything felt like normal again. The stress of the past few days had washed away.

"Rick, when the baby comes do you think it will be harder on our relationship? Or do you think that it will bring us closer together? She asked.

"Honestly it could go either way. We are going to have to work really hard to stay on the same page, to make things work for us. There are going to be times when we want to kill one another but I think if we just take a little time to ourselves and remember that we love each other everything will be fine."

"Yeah, you're right. I just get so stressed about him actually being here. I feel like it could be and incredible bonding moment for the two of us, and other times I feel like the stress could rip us apart."

He brushed her hair back behind her ears and pressed a kiss to her temple.

"Kate, you and these kids of ours are the most important things in my life. When I found out you were pregnant I was scared to death that we wouldn't be able to make it work. We had already had so much go on between us, I didn't think that it would get better, but it has. This little boy has created a bond between us that will never be broken, we are bound to each other forever. You're going to be my wife one day, and the mother of all the rest of my children, however many that turns out to be. We are going to be great, we are going to make it work. It wont be normal and it wont be easy but it will be ours, and I wont ever give up on that, okay, and neither can you."

She nodded and a tear escaped her eye, "I wont."

"Okay, good. Now stop worrying so much and get some rest." He pressed another kiss to her forehead.

Okay, it took a while for you all to get to 20 reviews this time. I have had multiple people make comments about me blackmailing people for reviews. Honestly it doesn't matter what you put in the review, it's just a motivator for me. Seeing people get excited over each chapter or just say that they are reading makes me want to post more for you all. I'm not fishing for compliments by any means, I just use it as motivation to put a chapter up quicker. You might not understand it, but it's what works for me. So when I ask for 20 reviews it more of me challenging myself to post quicker and more often for you all.

So another 20 reviews, and the next chapter will be posted.

Thanks again to everyone who is reading and reviewing.