Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.
A/N Reviewer lisac0304 is worried that the baby sounds like Bruce Willis and asked me to describe the baby's "voice." I hope that this will put your mind at ease.
It's a cold, bright March afternoon and Castle and Beckett are taking a walk along the Hudson. The weather has been so damp and gloomy that they've spent almost no time outdoors for two weeks and Beckett in particular is a little stir crazy. They're so glad to be out that they don't even mind the Arctic wind that's slicing through their coats and forcing them to bend into it like marsh grass.
When they stop to watch huge chunks of gray ice flowing out into the harbor, he hugs her tight against his side. "Cuddling for warmth, Kate." he says.
"Huddling, Castle, huddling." She smiles and nuzzles the one tiny patch of skin on his neck that isn't swathed in a scarf. She's tracking the progress of a lumpy slab of ice when she blurts out, "It's the weirdest thing."
And then nothing. Castle waits two minutes, but when she still hasn't explained he can't contain himself. "Nobody loves weird more than I do. You gonna tell me or torture me with silence?"
"Seriously, this is seriously weird. You might think that I've lost my mind."
"Tell him, Mom, please. It's freezing out here. If you tell him maybe he'll want to go home and he'll make us some hot chocolate."
"I won't, I promise. Besides, you've never had a weird idea that I didn't love, especially one that involves sex."
"Dad! Don't talk about sex!"
"Don't get your hopes up, Castle. Although, come to think of it, it does sort of involve sex."
"Mom!"
"Then my hopes are sort of up. Go ahead and tell me."
"I love this stroll we're on, but it's freezing out here. Why don't we go home and you make us hot chocolate and I'll tell you about it." Huh? Where did that come from? She'd been looking forward to a really long walk. Huh.
Half an hour later, snug in the loft by the fireplace, Castle passes a mug of hot chocolate to Beckett. It's been her go-to drink this winter, ever since she found out she was pregnant. "So, weird, eh? I'm dying to know."
"It started when I got pregnant."
"Is that the sort-of-involves sex part? Me knocking you up?"
"La la la la la la la. I'm not listening! I'm putting my fingers in my ears. Ow! Why didn't anyone tell me about fingernails?"
"Yes. Well, just that it has to do with me being pregnant."
She's staring blankly across the room, and he wonders if she's nervous about whatever it is. "Kate?" he says, putting his hand over hers. "You okay?"
"Fine." She smiles. "Really. Only I think I'm hearing a voice."
"Oh, God, you're hearing voices?"
"No, no, a voice. I think I'm hearing a voice, singular. Don't worry, Castle."
"Well, when did this start?"
"You remember a few weeks ago, when we went for the ultrasound?"
"Of course. It's on my list of Ten Best Days of All Time."
"Yeah?" She's beaming now, with the tip of her tongue caught between her teeth. The look that does Castle in, every time. "Remind me later to ask you what the other nine are. And in what order." She leans over and gives him a long, deep, seductive kiss.
Oh, he's a goner. "Do that again, and I'll rewrite my Ten Best list."
She caresses his cheek. "Later. Right now I have to tell you about the voice. The first time I thought I heard something was while the doctor was doing the ultrasound."
"That was just the heartbeat, Kate. Noisy as hell, too."
"Nope, doesn't sound anything like a heartbeat. It's a little bit like a buzzing sound. It's indistinct. It's like hearing someone from the other side of the house: you know they're talking, but you can't make out any words."
Castle looks as if he's been hit by a train, but smiling ecstatically from the cowcatcher on the front of the locomotive. "Does this happen a lot?"
"Not that often, just often enough that it makes me curious. With two exceptions—at the ultrasound and when I went out with Lanie the other day—it happens only when we're together, just the two of us."
"Maybe it's hormones," he says, clearly hoping that he's wrong. "Or something you ate?"
"I can't believe that you're the one who's trying to explain this away, Castle."
"Oh, Beckett, believe me, I'm not trying to explain it away. So where is the voice coming from?"
"Uh, from me. I mean, from inside me. I think it's the baby talking. Saying something to me, or to both of us. Crazy, right?"
"No, no, no, this is the new Best Day of All Time, Kate! What's he saying? Or she saying? Can you tell whether it's a boy or a girl? This is incredible. We have to write down every word." He's already running to his desk in search of a pad and paper.
"Castle! Rick! Calm down. Come back, please." She pats the cushion next to her. "There are no words, Castle. It's more like a feeling, really, or a suggestion."
"But the baby is talking to you! What if I get Mother's Ouija board? Maybe we could find out that way."
"Yeah, or Google Translate."
"Goo-goo translate, Mom. Get it? Get it? My first joke!"
Beckett puts her palm on her stomach and grabs Castle's hand. "There!"
"What? There! There, there?" He points at her stomach and pokes it very gently.
"Ha, Dad, gotcha to look!"
"Did the baby say something?"
"It felt like it, for just a second."
"Wow. Wow. You know, it kind of makes sense, Beckett."
"This makes sense? Only in your universe, Castle." She presses her forehead to his shoulder. "You don't think I'm nuts, do you?"
"Absolutely not. I'm not even surprised. Any kid of mine is gonna be a talker. Remember what you said to me all that time ago?
"I said a lot of things to you all that time ago."
"When I said that Alexis and Ashley had a song and you said that we had one, too. 'You Talk Too Much,' by Clarence Carter."
Beckett laughs, and takes the last sip of her hot chocolate before tugging on his ear. "We have a new song now, Castle."
"Yeah? he says, tugging hers. "What is it?"
"'You Got Me, Babe'."
"You talkin' to me?"
TBC