Another Chance
Chapter 45
Castle's mouth gapes as his brows migrate toward his hairline. "Bracken made a deal? What kind of a deal? He should be in prison for at least the next few centuries."
"I know," Kate agrees, gritting her teeth, "and he will be, but they promised him comfort perks like phone calls and conjugal visits. So he's giving DHS a rundown on all the foreign interests that have their tentacles in our electoral process and giving Gates' sister more details on Russian money laundering. I was hoping he'd rot in the deepest darkest hole Corrections could find, but I guess it's worth it."
Castle shakes his head. "I suppose if the angels of my better nature take over, I can see it that way. I'd rather picture him hanging by the most sensitive portion of his anatomy, but at least we'll know the whole affair's really all over." He runs his hand over her burgeoning belly. "And we can start planning in earnest for the blessed event. I was thinking we'll need to make a few changes in the loft. The bookcase walls can be rearranged to make a nursery adjacent to our bedroom. We'll want speakers for a baby monitor in every room. And ooh, maybe we can get one of those new Japanese robots that can sense the baby's vitals and sing like Tinky-Winky."
"Castle, I don't want anything around that sings like Tinky-Winky. I haven't been barfing my guts out with this pregnancy. I don't want to start now. But adapting the loft sounds like a good idea. And we'll need baby furniture, won't we?"
"Not unless you want to buy new stuff - which it certainly is a mama's privilege to do - but I saved everything from Alexis. It's in storage."
Kate laughs. "I should have known. You still have that half eaten cookie angel. OK, I'll have a look at your treasures. If they haven't been attacked by termites or something, we can go with the Castle legacy. And I'm pretty sure my Dad still has some of my baby things. He said something about a hooded blanket Aunt Theresa crocheted."
Castle leans in for a kiss. A melding of the Castle and Beckett heritages, just like our daughter will be. What could be better than that?"
Kate gazes at the TV screen with satisfaction as a woman is sworn in to serve out the rest of Bracken's term. Melanie Brandeis is everything Bracken pretended to be. The great-granddaughter of a Supreme Court justice, she was top of her class in law school, before returning to organize programs to bring better education and nutrition to disadvantaged neighborhoods. She worked herself up from state senator to congresswoman, before winning a special election for the Senate. Kate can't wait to see what Melanie will accomplish in the upper chamber.
She's starting to think more about her own future. Her over-reaching goal had been to find justice for her mother. She's done that, and she wonders where Johanna would want her to go from here. Of course Kate will be a mother and a wife, but Johanna was both of those things too, and still devoted herself to making the world a fairer place. Kate's not sure that as a cop, she can do that. The job's more like cleaning up after a mess has already been made.
She'll have some time to think about it. Dr. Lyra has banned her from doing any more work at the precinct - even at a desk. If anything, the desk work raised her stress level more than pursuing a case in the field would. But the baby isn't due for another month, and there's a limit to how much time she can spend looking at tiny clothes - adorable as they may be.
She's started to flip through some of her books from her pre-law days at Stanford. She wasn't as serious a student as she might have been. After the rigors of a special technical high school like Stuyvesant, she had been ready to cut loose a little. Breaking into the trailer of a rock star might have been a bit over the top, but she had been different then. Her mother's death drained that adventurousness from her life. Going by the book was more comfortable, safer. Castle had helped her recover her spirit, and now with Bracken in prison, she can finally turn her eyes toward the future again instead of the past. That future is full of possibilities.
Castle bounds through the door to the loft, a deli bag in each hand. "I got the pastrami and the potato salad, the mustardy kind you like, and they had cherry knishes. Last place I saw one of those was Coney Island, and I was thinking, now that the weather's warmed up, maybe you'd like to walk on the beach. Lyra said walking is good as long as you don't push it. We could go to Coney Island or Far Rockaway or take a drive out to the Hamptons and use the beach below the house."
"Castle, I'd feel like a beached whale."
"Then how about just lying by the pool? Ooh, or closer to home, how about a ride or two on the Staten Island Ferry? Watch the wind on the water. Feel the romance."
"Romance, Castle? That's where boys used to take me when they were broke and needed a really cheap date. You can't get much cheaper than free."
"That doesn't count the subway fare. I'll admit, I resorted to the ferry a few times myself as a teen when funds were scarce, but how could you and I together gliding over the water not be romantic?"
"Have you smelled the water in New York Harbor lately?"
"Some smells are really getting to you these days, aren't they? I saw how you recoiled when we walked by Eduardo after he'd been sneaking a smoke. You looked like you might be sick. But you can inhale the spicy goodness of Katz's finest."
"If you'll give me my sandwich instead of going on about beaches and boat trips."
"Ouch! Hungry pregnant lady. Maybe I should put up a warning sign that you bite."
"I thought you like it when I bite."
"Depends on where, but right now you can sink those gorgeous pearly whites into your lunch and tell me what's really on your mind."
"Castle, I want to do more, more than just being a homicide cop. I know I said that before I took the job with the AG in DC and it didn't work out - especially not for you. I almost lost you."
"I'm right here, and I'm still very much alive Kate. We're in this together, you, me and your hungry passenger. So if it's not being a homicide cop or a G-lady, what is doing more?"
"I'm thinking about going back to plan A, not all of it, not being the first female chief justice of the Supreme Court but following in my mother's footsteps as a civil rights attorney, getting justice without someone having to end up dead first. But that means law school. I don't know if I can even get started trying to work on that with the baby and the wedding and everything."
"Kate, compared to taking down Bracken and dismantling a Russian plot, getting into law school should be a piece of cake. I bought some of that too, by the way." He gathers her against his side, planting a kiss on her hair. "If that's what you want, we'll find a way to make it happen."