When their daughter had gone inside her class Beckett took her husband's hand and together they walked downstairs and outside. "Do you think we should just order everything today?" she asked him.
"We might end up doing that," Castle said with a nod. "We did the same thing last time. We said we were just going to get Eliza's crib and we managed to grab everything the same day."
"Kamir really knows what he's doing," Beckett said, smiling.
"True," Castle replied, laughing slightly. He squeezed her hand and said, "We should be getting it soon if we get all the furniture we need."
"Hmm, we will," Beckett said.
"What's on your mind?" Castle asked her at her tone.
Beckett told her husband about Julia's questions concerning the theme for the baby's room and she told him, "I don't think I want to have any space pictures this time around."
"Just straight ocean?" Castle said. When she nodded he said, "We can do that. Actually, I was thinking that myself, so their rooms won't be exactly the same. With that, we should get different pictures too."
"We'll still use coastal shots of Ireland, right?" Becket asked.
"Of course," Castle replied before he smiled. "We should get those as well."
"Today?" Beckett said as they were walking up to the store. When he nodded she said, "Might as well just get it all."
Castle laughed slightly at her tone before he opened the door for her and they went inside, seeing the salesman walking up to them. "Hello again Kamir," he told the tall, Indian man.
"Good morning and congratulations," the man told them, smiling at Beckett. "I heard and had expected to see you. We have some new items for babies if you'd like to see."
Castle and Beckett followed the man over to the section dedicated to baby furniture; glancing at each other they crossed the threshold to it as they were both feeling déjà vu. They were alone to look around on their own which they did, studying all the cribs before they stopped at one they'd looked at second.
"So, this," Castle told his wife. "Plus, the dresser and the changing table."
"Right," Beckett said before he left to get Kamir to tell him they were ready to order. When they had gotten everything paid for and learned it would be delivered that Saturday they left together and she said to her husband, "We make it easier for ourselves."
"I guess we could have gone with dark wood to contrast with the blue but… we live on the beach," Castle commented.
"Which is why I'm fine with it," Beckett said with a smile.
"Now we can get the pictures?" Castle asked.
Beckett laughed softly and said, "Yes, let's go," before they made it down to the sidewalk and headed east for home.
"Do we have to get pictures of places we've been?" Castle was asking his wife as they sat at their computers.
"Not necessarily," Beckett replied. "But it would be nice to have them along with any other pictures." She studied her husband and asked, "What're you thinking?"
"We're not going to do a mural or anything like that," Castle said. "And we have the baby's desk already."
"We do," Beckett said as they'd had that desk in storage since buying Eliza's as part of a deal. "And luckily we took the white desk too."
"I know," Castle said, smiling as he watched her stroke Rita's head since the dogs had come in and straight over to where they were sitting. "But I thought that if we shift the desk all the way to the corner, or just place it so the baby sitting at it would be looking in the direction of the hall, we could put a bunch of smaller pictures on the wall where the changing table will be."
"And have them all be of the ocean?" Beckett asked.
"Well you said you wanted pictures of the family in between the windows and above the crib," Castle stated.
Thinking that over Beckett nodded and then said, "Alright since we'll have pictures on the dresser too. But I don't want twenty small pictures."
"Than half that," Castle replied.
"Why don't we get twelve," Beckett suggested.
"Where else do you want besides Ireland?" Castle asked her.
"What if we went with Spain too? Maybe Scotland?" Beckett suggested as she was thinking.
"England?" Castle added.
"Start looking," Beckett said with a laugh. "And let's go with color, I don't want anything dark."
"Sure," Castle said absently as he was searching a website they'd used for pictures before. "Here's Scotland," he told his wife.
Smiling Beckett nodded and said, "England?" When he found beach pictures of that country she nodded and said, "Now Spain." She looked at what there was of beach pictures and she pointed to one saying, "That one's nice, where is it?"
"It says Costa Verde in Asturias," Castle told her. "Up north."
"We'll have to go there next time we go to Spain," Beckett said with a smile. "Put that one in the basket."
"What about this one?" Castle added, pointing to another that had fewer rocks in the water. "It's the same beach, Playa Del Silencio and it's really nice too."
"Okay," Beckett said. "Let's go to Ireland next because I get the feeling we'll be getting more pictures from there."
Nodding Castle set the search on the site for beach pictures from the country and he and Beckett proceeded to look at what there was to decide what to get for the baby.
"Are we at fourteen now?" Beckett said a while later.
"We are, I guess we should stop," Castle said. "And you're right; we did get more pictures from Ireland."
"That shouldn't surprise you," Beckett said. "Okay, so now we can get started with our next chapter."
"Do we have to," Castle sighed. He wasn't surprised when his wife didn't respond and he said, "So where would you like to go next?"
"Since we're past the next murder," Beckett said. "I say we get them all to Sky's office."
"Alright, you want to take this?" Castle asked his wife.
"I'll let you," Beckett said wryly as she was petting Macca who had his head on her lap along with Rita's. "I can't really reach my keyboard."
"Alright, let's talk it out," Castle said with a nod. "I'll start with Sky. 'So this person is killing everyone in the club,' Sky said grimly," he said as he was typing it out.
"'There haven't been any victims that weren't part of the club,' Green told her," Beckett said, watching him typing though she could have looked at her computer screen to see it. "'We'll have to look at the club,' Moor took up. 'Where else could the killer have come from?'"
"'Unless they're just using the club to get to their victim,' Sky suggested," Castle said. "When the two looked at her the investigator said, 'They could have something against one of the victims specifically, nothing to do with the club itself. They're hiding it.'"
"You want to take from that first case we worked on?" Beckett asked him.
"I'd like to," Castle replied. "We never used it."
Thinking about that for a moment Beckett nodded and said, "Alright I think we can do that but that leaves us with what we'll do with the actual killer in the end."
"I don't want us to go with our real case," Castle commented thoughtfully. "So the one that would work most would be someone in the club."
"We can't use Sky's friend, or a friend I should say," Beckett said. "We did that already. What about the engineer from the flight we had briefly in the first book?"
"The one that didn't say much?" Castle asked. When she nodded he thought and said, "What about something else?"
"A partner?" Beckett guessed.
"To help the engineer," Castle said.
"It's possible but we'd need someone not really believable until we show they're the killer," Beckett told him.
"We can do that," Castle said with a nod. "What should we do with this conversation?"
"We made the club smaller," Beckett said, thinking over the names they had. "So why don't we just go through them."
"Which I think means we can't use the partner from the club," Castle replied. "What about the woman from the airline that was fired after the crash?"
"Good idea," Beckett said with a nod. "But we'd need to make it a while since she saw her."
"Of course," Castle replied. "Unless you want to do a whole betrayal thing." He smiled when she paused, and he said, "Not a bad idea I guess."
"No, and now I can type let me add something before we get to the names," Beckett replied, turning to the computer as the dogs had gone to their beds in the room.
Castle watched her start typing before he turned his attention to his laptop screen to read what she was writing.
Before anyone could speak there was the sound of the bell and Moor and Green looked to Sky questioningly.
Pushing herself up off her desk the investigator went outside and pressed the intercom button saying, "Hello?"
"What are you going to call her?" Castle asked quickly before she could continue.
Beckett didn't answer, merely smiled at him before she turned her attention back to the screen.
"It's me Sky, Maggie and Garrett," a voice said on the other end.
"Who are they?" Green asked, stopping her friend from letting them in.
"Friends," Sky replied. "She was the engineer on Flight 56 and Garrett was one of the passengers. I know them well." When her wrist was let go she pressed the button and they stepped out to the porch to watch a black sedan pull up to the house.
"How are you?" Maggie asked, hurrying to them and embracing Sky tightly.
"Okay, glad to be out of the hospital of course," the investigator said. "I have a couple friends here, Paul Moor and Georgiana Green. Guys this is Maggie Stryker and Garrett Cook and they're friends of mine from that flight I told you about."
Shaking the woman's hand Green was startled when she glanced over her before turning her attention back to Sky. She stepped back to Moor and tapped out a message on his hand, telling him to watch Cook.
"Wouldn't that be a little too obvious?" Castle said slowly.
"I was hoping you'd see that, what should we have there?" Beckett asked.
"Let me try this," Castle told her.
Beckett read the screen as he deleted her last sentence and then began to write to finish up the paragraph.
Shaking the woman's hand Green was startled when she glanced over her before turning her attention back to Sky. Cook was also watching her, and she glanced back at Moor who was shaking Stryker's hand and saw his glance over to her.
"Why don't we head inside?" Sky told them with a smile, leading her two friends in first.
"What was with the staring?" Moor asked his fiancé as they stayed back a little from the others.
"They're trying to figure out why we're here?" Green said questioningly. "We can't really figure that out now," she told him quickly. "We'll talk with Sky about them; actually we need to know about everyone there is on that flight that hasn't been killed already."
"Agreed," Moor said before they went into the house to see what they could learn of Sky's two friends at the moment.
"Nice," Beckett said, smiling at her husband. "Break?"
"Yes," Castle said earnestly before his wife was laughing softly while they got up together.
Going over to the kitchen Beckett stopped her husband from getting the kettle and told him, "I'll take care of this."
"Sure," Castle said though he hesitated for a moment. "You can't blame me Kate."
"I know but believe me I'm okay making some tea," Beckett said, filling it with water and setting it on the stove. She went over to where he was leaning against the counter and said with a smile, "But it's sweet you try to look out for me."
"And the baby," Castle hurried to say.
"And the baby," Beckett said, still smiling. "Just take it easy." She laughed briefly when he nodded and when he leaned over to her she met him, and they began to gently kiss when she heard the back door opening before the dogs began to bark. "My dad," she said, slightly breathless as they'd been getting into that kiss.
"Yeah," Castle said slowly before he looked at his watch. "Yikes, I thought we hadn't spent that much time at the furniture store."
"Hey Dad," Beckett said with a smile as he appeared in the hallway. "Are they bothering you?" she asked since the dogs were bouncing around him.
"Oh no I'm fine," Jim replied.
"Would you like some tea?" Castle asked as the kettle began to whistle.
"That would be nice; it's getting colder out there," Jim replied. "How did it go shopping?"
"We managed to get everything today," Castle said slightly laughingly.
"You mentioned the salesman being really good at convincing you," Jim commented.
"He is and this time it wasn't any different," Beckett replied. "But it's better we get this ready now so I can help." When her husband looked at her instantly she told him, "I can do some things, not anything too heavy or rough, but some easier tasks."
Jim watched his son in law visually debating that in his mind before Castle nodded and he said, "Her mother was the same way."
"You were as bad as I was?" Castle asked.
"Just about," Jim said with a nod. "But she did appreciate it."
"And of course, we appreciate your help," Beckett assured them. She poured out three cups of tea and said, "But we're not fragile."
"That's hard to understand, we have no clue what you go through exactly," Castle reminded her.
Beckett kissed his cheek and said, "I'm going to the parlor."
"I'll be in the library," Jim said with a smile. "Reading."
"Will you come with me to pick Eliza up?" Beckett asked her father.
"I'd love to," Jim replied.
Walking with her father, Beckett and Castle went as far as the parlor room before they detoured inside and he went to the stairs. They sat down together on the couch there, looking outside before she spoke first.
"What?" Beckett asked her husband.
"What?" Castle replied.
Rolling her eyes Beckett told him, "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I was thinking," Castle began to say. "About continuing what we were doing earlier."
Though she wanted to tease him about if he meant writing again Beckett stopped herself and told him, "We could; you shouldn't really worry about us being interrupted."
"Okay," Castle said slowly. "Good."
Beckett was going to speak before he leaned down and she allowed him to capture her lips with his before she was quick to wrap her arm around his neck carefully. She was a little irritated with the mug in her other hand but didn't move to set it down and instead responded to him as his tongue gently slipped into her mouth. They caressed each other at the same time with their tongues and repeatedly until she was slowly pulling away from him. "I'm glad you did that," she told him with a smile.
"Me too," Castle replied.
Beckett laughed softly and told him, "No surprise there."
"No," Castle said, shaking his head before they just stared at each other. He glanced down at her lips but before he could act on his desire he took her mug and hurried to set it aside before he set his next to hers. Going back to her he kissed her and deeply before they were soon passionate. They were holding onto each other as tightly as they could, and he eventually gave into his desire and pulled her directly onto his lap.
Though that movement startled her for a moment Beckett quickly recovered and kissed her husband that time, holding onto him tightly. Their tongues were meeting again, and they were caressing at one another though they tried their best not to really get out of control. She could feel he was struggling as much as she was, so she pulled away from him and said, "We better stop."
"I know," Castle breathed out heavily. "But it's really difficult to."
"Then we should probably talk about something else; anything," Beckett replied as she reluctantly got off his lap.
"Okay," Castle replied.
Giving him a look; though she could guess why he had a harder time thinking of something himself; Beckett said, "So we have the conversation but I'm wondering if we should get Moor and Green out of there after a few minutes."
"Good idea but I think we need to ease up on making them really creepy," Castle said. "They'll be too noticeable."
"Then you realize we need to change Moor and Green's initial reaction to them," Beckett pointed out to him.
"I had that same thought," Castle said, nodding. "So, what would you say to a rewrite?"
"We have some time," Beckett said. "So let's get that done and quickly get Moor and Green out of there."
"And then what will they do?" Castle asked.
"Go over the case or start them looking through the names," Beckett replied.
"There's a problem with the names," Castle said.
"I know, I was waiting to see what you'd say," Beckett said. "I guess it's them going over the case."
"That might not take that long," Castle replied. "So…" he started to say before he was thinking that over.
"Why don't we get the revision done and think about what to write next," Beckett suggested. When her husband nodded she got up and followed him over to their office before they were sitting, and she looked on while he corrected their initial reactions Green and Moor had, changing it to them noticing Stryker and Cook seemed to be very concerned about Skye as they were asking to make sure she was alright a few times.
"That took longer than I thought," Castle commented when he checked the time. "I better see what I can make for the four of us."
Beckett followed him to the kitchen again and as he was looking through the fridge she rinsed out their mugs before she heard him groaning. "What?" she asked.
"We need food," Castle said. "I was going to make some grilled cheese sandwiches and we only have three slices of bread and the same amount of cheese slices. And we need milk too."
"We should go," Beckett told him.
"I'll go," Castle replied. "Just to get enough for lunch and you and your dad can pick up Eliza."
"Alright," Beckett said. "But you're right we need more food, we should have gone yesterday with the car."
"Oh well," Castle said. "We can go after dance class."
"Alright," Beckett told him. "But my dad can get Eliza."
Shaking his head Castle replied, "I'll go fast."
Beckett smiled slightly and said, "Fine but we're going with you to the market," as they walked together over to the foyer.
"With Mari?" Castle said as he grabbed his coat.
"Yes," Beckett replied. "I don't think she'll care or the girls either. And we do need to get food in general; I'd like Julia to take lunch tomorrow."
"Then like I said before I'll go quickly," Castle replied with a nod.
"Not that quickly," Beckett said. "You've got time."
"See this where the ability to beam up would be awesome," Castle told her.
"You're a nerd," Beckett said teasingly.
"Yep," Castle said simply, smiling at her. "But hey, you knew that about me before we got together."
"I know, and I still went to you," Beckett said.
"Would you do that again?" Castle said as she was wrapping his scarf around his neck.
"Repeatedly but now we don't need to be concerned about our relationship," Beckett replied. "And this is a little weird to be talking about. Grab our lunch and we'll get Eliza."
"Okay, if I'm not back yet then tell her I love her," Castle said. "And I want to hear about her day at school."
"I will," Beckett replied. He leaned down to her and they kissed tenderly before she wrapped her arms around him and they deepened it at the same exact time.
When they'd finally managed to pull away from each other Castle said, "I try to tell myself to stop but… next to impossible."
"I agree," Beckett said with a smile before they let go of each other. "I love you," she couldn't help saying; still smiling.
"I love you too, I'll be back," Castle replied. He brushed his lips to hers and patted the dogs' heads before he went over to the garage to leave, trying not to race out of it or the driveway to the street before he made his way to the market.
"Something wrong Dad?" Beckett asked, turning and seeing that her father had walked to the top of the stairs and was looking down at her.
"Did Richard go?" Jim asked her.
"He did. We need some food to make lunch, so he ran out," Beckett replied as he walked down the stairs. "We're going to need to go over to the market after Julia's dance class."
"Driving or walking?" Jim said as he followed her to the kitchen.
"Driving, it'll be too cold for the girls by then," Beckett replied, getting some plates prepared since she didn't have anything to really do besides that while she waited.
"So, he's eager for the baby," Jim told his daughter.
With a smile Beckett said, "He is, he's wanted one more child."
"Just one more?" Jim asked her.
"Yes," Beckett replied. "He had an idea that I would only want to have one more."
"You never talked about it?" Jim said in slight surprise.
"We did, when we discussed if we could have another child a year after Eliza was born," Beckett said. "He said he would like one more child; he didn't want that many kids and with one more he'd have four so that was enough; but I needed to decide."
"Do you see yourself as having four children as well?" Jim asked.
"Of course," Beckett replied. "And you?"
"I have four grandchildren," Jim said with a nod. "If I didn't think that I probably wouldn't have gotten Alexis some gifts from Spain."
"Oh, you did? I'm glad to hear that," Beckett replied, sitting at the kitchen table. "What though? And what are you doing?" she said in surprise when he made her stand up.
"Better you sit on a couch," Jim told her.
Beckett laughed and said, "You're as bad as Rick is."
"I'm standing in for him," Jim said with a smile.
"Does this still seem weird to you?" Beckett asked her father. "Seeing me pregnant?"
"A little but it's more because it's been six years since I've seen you like that," Jim answered as they sat together in the parlor. "As for Alexis' gifts you'll see them on Christmas."
"I have to ask; speaking of Alexis and the baby; did you get anything for the baby too?" Beckett asked him with a smile.
"I did but it's nothing gender specific," Jim replied. "Small but I'm hoping you'll enjoy it."
"I probably will," Beckett said. She sighed and said, "Why exactly doesn't anyone listen to me?"
"We can't help it," Jim said. "We're eager for this baby. But not as much as the two of you."
With a slight smile Beckett said, "I guess it's inevitable."
"Any ideas for names yet?" Jim asked
Beckett smiled and said, "We haven't really thought of names; we're waiting."
"Not for much longer," Jim replied. "But I wonder if you'll stick with whatever name you decide on."
"Who knows," Beckett replied. She looked around and thought of something before she said, "Since Rick is going to be awhile I'll make us something to drink."
"You have something for that?" Jim said in surprise.
"Plenty of apples," Beckett said. "And other fruit too so I think some smoothies."
"I'll help," Jim said before he followed her back to the kitchen.
"This reminds me of when I was little," Beckett said after she'd gotten the fruits and they were beginning to cut them up together once they were washed.
"Me too," Jim said with a smile before he began to set apple slices into the blender at his daughter's instruction to make her smoothie while they began to discuss what she and Castle would do once Eliza was home.
"Richard," Steven said with a smile. "Here for dinner?"
"Lunch I'll be coming back with the family for dinner," Castle replied. "I need some ham, making quesadillas."
"Sounds good," Steven said, going to the slicer after he'd grabbed the ham. "How's Kate doing?"
"We're getting ready to find out what we have next Monday," Castle replied.
"Hopefully it's healthy," Steven said.
"Definitely. Speaking of kids how's your oldest?" Castle said since they'd met the man's family several times at the market.
"She's good, she's set at Hofstra now but she's almost ready to come home for the holidays," Steven replied. "How're your daughters doing?"
"Ready for Christmas; the two youngest; my oldest is running around seeing shopping right now," Castle said. "Thank you," he said as he took the package of ham.
"You're welcome," Steven said, smiling as Castle was testing the weight. "You can pay me back letting me know what you have; Maureen will want to know."
"We'll tell you," Castle said with a laugh. "Thanks again."
"Hey Rick," David said when he walked up to his friend.
"Hey," Castle said in slight surprise seeing his friend. "How's Dani?" he asked.
"She's doing alright," David replied. "I needed to get some tea."
"Tea?" Castle said in surprise.
"It'll be weak," David said. "Becca wants to make sure she stays warm. You?"
"Lunch," Castle said, holding up the basket he had. He studied his friend and asked, "You got Rebecca flowers, didn't you?"
"I did, so did you," David said. "Cerise at the register mentioned you were just there. Nice flowers?"
"It's a hodgepodge of colors," Castle said with a smile. "I went mainly with the meanings." When David raised his eyebrow he said quickly, counting off on his fingers, "Primrose, forget-me-not, heliotrope, tulip and coral roses."
"Geez, I just went with pink roses," David said.
Shrugging Castle said, "Kate knows all the meanings."
"How's she doing?" David asked.
"Good, this week is going to take a long time," Castle replied.
"It always does," David said since he and his wife had found out what Mari was before she was born, and he recalled the wait leading up to that moment. "What're you going to do to make the time pass?"
"Mostly write," Castle replied. "Oh, we did get the furniture for the baby's room and some pictures."
"Still have that gift?" David asked.
"Gifts," Castle replied.
"Hopefully she won't mind the baby still getting some things," David replied.
Castle laughed and said, "And speaking of a long time earlier," looking at his watch. "I have to go so I can get everything ready by the time Eliza gets home."
"I need to get back myself," David said. "I'll see you."
Saying goodbye to his friend Castle went to pay before he hurried to his car, checking on the bouquet he'd stopped to pick up downtown. Making sure everything was still pristine he set the food on the backseat but brought the flowers up with him. He left the parking lot, making a quick check on the time before he pulled out into the street.
Going through an intersection near home Castle didn't see the car racing through the red light until it was too late, and he yelled as the back of his car was hit dead on. He bore the car spinning and his head throbbing as glass showered him. He felt the car striking something hard enough to make him stop, rocking in his seat before he stopped and almost collapsed. He felt something warm on his face as his adrenaline lessened to let him feel the pain that was much more than just his head while he heard people yelling and running up to the car. Slumped towards the middle he had a moment to think of Beckett as his eyes swung to the bouquet just before he was consumed by darkness.