Somehow - and no one in the Twelfth Precinct family was quite sure how it was managed - Castle's plan to give his first grand baby a six-months birthday party of sorts had blossomed into one great and large collective gathering by the time the invitations had made their rounds, so much so that Esposito was still marvelling at it as he stood in the kitchen of Castle's Hamptons house kitchen helping his wife getting the supplies ready for their celebratory feast.

'Daddy?'

'Yes my little hurricane?'

Trini bristled at the name as she casually wandered into the kitchen, and wanted to protest but she knew better - doing so in Uncle Rick's big fancy gingerbread mansion on the water would earn her a one way ticket into a time-out and she wasn't about to miss out on anything today.

'Daddy,' she said again and followed Esposito through the kitchen as he moved from the island to the sink to rinse the veggies he'd just finished slicing. 'Why are we having a fancy thing now? We've never done this before.'

'Because we have many things to celebrate,' Esposito replied, and indeed they did. Petra was already six months old, Finn had his birthday less than a week away, not to mention Lanie also had both her birthday and her anniversary with Dave coming up, and Watkins was about to go on her maternity leave which meant they needed to have a baby party for her.

Thank God Rick was rich, Esposito thought on a chuckle, or else they'd be stacking bodies up on every available surface to sleep. But it also helped the kids loved having their campout nights so-

'Javi?'

He shook himself from his thoughts, saw Mere grinning at him. 'Huh?'

'Just wondering if you're trying to drown those carrots, babe.'

'Oh, sorry.' He looked down and shut off the tap to the overflowing bowl and grinned. 'They still good, chef?'

'You betcha.' Mere leaned in, gave her husband a kiss that elicited a loud 'ewwwww' from Trini, who promptly dropped badgering her father for details of their party weekend and returned to the billiards room where she found Dell, Rosie, Tessi and to her surprise TJ with the burbling Zane in his arms watching them play a round of eight ball.

'Hey there soldier, what's the recon status?' Rosie asked as she watched her cousin line up her shot and miss grandly.

'Daddy didn't say much more than we already know. When did you get here, TJ?'

'I caught the train up from school late last night.'

'Did you want to spend Saint Patty's with your friends? Daddy says too many people do that, which makes his job a real headache,' Trini chirped, too young to notice the little flicker in TJ's eyes at the word 'headache' was TJ fighting the remnants of his own Saint Patty's hangover.

'I went out with my friends earlier this week.'

'On a school night?' Tessi looked affronted, then softened. 'I guess when you're a big kid who is almost a grown up that's different, huh?'

'We go out on school nights, Tessi,' Dell reminded his angel with a wink that made Tessi's pre-teen heart flutter madly. 'Right Zane?'

'Omomomom.'

'That's right, we go for snacks, and go om-nom-nom.' Dell leaned over and deftlyplay-gobbled at Zane's little knuckles, making the baby shriek in delight and TJ wince.

'Ow, my head! Must you do that?' he said to Zane, who leaned close and patted his fingers on TJ's cheeks.

'Moomoomoomoo?'

'Are you pretending to be a cow?'

'Moomoomoo,' Zane repeated, and squished TJ's cheeks so his lips puckered like a goldfish, and Trini snickered.

'I think he wants to know if you need a moosh to make it better,' she told him,

'Bebebebe,' Zane went on and still cradling TJ's face moved his hands to nod his head. 'Bebebebebe.'

'Yes it is better now, thanks big guy.' TJ blew a raspberry on his young charge's own cheek and endured the high-pitched howling laugh Zane emitted. 'So, refresh me again who is this nice lady we are surprising along with Alexis and Shane?'

'Zane's daddy, Detective Adam, it's his partner,' Tessi explained as Dell's yellow striped ball sank into the side-pocket and made her pout. 'Her name is Evelyn but no-one calls her that, she is Watkins. She has a baby in her tummy that's almost ready for its birthday.'

'Neat. Is her husband coming too?'

'She has a wife, TJ,' Rosie added on with a regal flick of her wrist, 'it's complicated, Mami says.'

'As long as there is real love, it will work out,' TJ said with the conviction of that place in his soul that wold forever be seven years old and bursting with pride at becoming a big brother. 'Don't forget my dad isn't my bio dad.'

'And Auntie Kate isn't Alexis' bio mom either,' Trini added, then frowned. 'What's a bio mom and bio dad?'

TJ spluttered a little; fortunately he had Dell there to pick up the torch. 'Remember how Shane and Alexis made our Little Rock?'

'Uh-huh.'

'Well sometimes the people who do that don't become the parents someone grows up with. My bio-dad and mom got divorced when I was a kid and I don't really remember him. Then Mom met my real dad, the guy who taught me to do stuff and helped me grow up. Sometimes that's the part that counts more.'

'Ohhhh, so…so like how Mami has Terrance?' Trini inquired, thinking of her kinda-grandpa in Miami and Dell nodded.

'Uh-huh, exactly like him.'

'But why would anyone not want the special little baby they made?'

Before TJ tried to find a workaround answer so he wouldn't shatter the girl's beliefs in love and families, RJ appeared and grinned widely.

'They're here!'