Another Chance

Chapter 46

When he hears Lanie's voice instructing him not to panic, Castle is immediately seized with dread. When Kate left for her evening out with her friend, he felt the unease in his gut that has often heralded trouble. Lanie insists that Kate is fine. When she realized that the contractions were more than harmless Braxton-Hicks she and Kate took a cab to the hospital. Kate was ushered up to OB where they confirmed that she is in labor, but neither mother nor child is in distress and birth is not imminent. Castle has plenty of time to reach Kate's side before she's anywhere close to delivery. In the meantime, Lanie is standing in as coach.

It wasn't supposed to go this way. Kate's bag is in the front closet, ready to go. He was supposed to be the one to take her to the hospital, hold her hand and breathe with her. But then, when have things ever gone the way they were supposed to? The infant seat is already installed in the back seat of his new, family-friendly, SUV. He can be there to give Kate whatever she needs until she and his new daughter are ready to come home. He just needs to get to the hospital. He gives a second's thought to calling the 12th and asking for an escort, but somehow, he doubts that Gates would go along with the idea, especially since Kate is already where she needs to go. In the elevator to the garage, he maps out the route in his mind, allowing for any new construction. The drive shouldn't take him any longer than 10 minutes.

It took the N.Y.P.D. a lot longer than 10 minutes to clear an intersection blocked by a stalled sanitation truck, but Castle finally runs breathlessly into Kate's room. He'll feel the bruises made by her bag banging against his thigh as he hurried through the corridors, later.

Lanie excuses herself to get a soda and take a long-delayed pee.

Kate looks fine, beautiful actually. He notes the catheters leading to her back. Good, she gave in, probably at Lanie's urging, to the insertion of an epidural. Meredith was game for any drugs she could get to ease the pain, but he'd heard stories from his mother about enduring agony while giving birth to him in a New York subway. Later he found out that she'd made the subway part up but had been convinced by her tranquility guide that with the proper mindset and exercises, giving birth would be a breeze. According to mother that was even a bigger lie than her underground labor. He'd seen Kate suffer enough when Maddox had put a bullet in her chest. He has no desire to watch her endure any more pain than she had to. "Did you call your dad?"

"Not yet. The nurse said it will probably be hours before the baby comes. It could even be tomorrow. If he's here, all he'll do is wear a track in the floor and drink too much coffee. He'll call Aunt Theresa, and I really don't need her here telling me that I should be marrying a doctor."

"She wanted you to marry Josh?"

"No, Murray Greenblatt. I went out with him for a month when I was in ninth grade. Now he's a urologist. He specializes in vasectomies."

Castle gives a little shudder. "An expression of her underlying opinion of men's contribution to the human race, no doubt. I haven't called Mother or Alexis yet either. Mother is doing summer stock in the Catskills. She'll want to come, but it will take her some time to get here. Just as well. Alexis and Micah are at an innovation conference, picking up some pointers on getting their company going. There's probably some kind of schmooze fest tonight, but if I know Alexis, she'll be happy to cut out of there anytime you're ready for company."

"To tell you the truth, Castle, I'm really not. And I don't want you proudly sending off pictures and video either. I just want to get through this so we can take our daughter home."

"OK. But when we do that, we'll have to call her something other than our daughter. In a maternity ward that could get downright confusing."

"I know Castle. I've just been putting off the name thing because I didn't want …"

"To jinx anything," he finishes. "I know. I understand. But Kate, you're here, and this is real. We don't want Dr. Lyra delivering little Whatshername."

Kate scrunches her nose, and her lips twitch. "Actually, that sounds kind of cute."

"Or like an Abbot and Costello routine. Seriously, Kate, you must have been thinking about it. I know I have."

"And what have you been thinking, Babe?"

"Well, for one thing, I'm partial to the beginning of the alphabet. As Richard Rodgers, I was always somewhere near the back of the line or the end of a list. That's why Alexis is Alexis. I wanted to give her a good start."

Kate nods slowly. "I can go along with that. Being a Beckett came in handy, although Katherine didn't do me much good. There were at least two of them in every class I had. We should go for something unique, but not made up. Meaningful, you know? How about Aletha?"

"If my memory doesn't fail me and it rarely does, that means truth."

"Right," Kate confirms. "And it honors everything we've uncovered together."

"Yes, it does." His lips brush hers. "Aletha she shall be, the truth of our love."

Kate rolls her eyes but reaches for his hand.

Jackson Hunt hasn't been in New York long. He figures that if his arithmetic is correct, it should be about time for his new granddaughter to meet the world. Not that Richard would call him. He doesn't even know how, and it's best to keep it that way. But Hunt has his feelers out. He knows where Martha is, and she wouldn't miss an event like the birth of their grandchild, and she wouldn't leave a play for much else. If she makes a beeline for New York, that will be his signal that his family is expanding, even if he can't do much about it.

Even in the states, he has to lie low. The Russians never found any proof that he killed Kilimnik, but if intelligence is correct, they did pick up on the route of the boat he took to get away from the Ukraine. If Vlad is angry enough, he won't spare any resources to track him down, but he hasn't launched an operation yet, at least not here. That gives Hunt a little breathing room, hopefully enough to make sure that the new addition has safely entered the world.

He grins as he takes a sip of his coffee. One thing about being back in New York is that the caffeinated liquid is better than in most other countries. He's had some terrific brews in Columbia and Venezuela, but he was too busy taking care of business to really enjoy them. His phone buzzes with an alert. Martha Rodgers' car has just been detected at a tollbooth. She's making her way to the city. The ceremonies must be about to begin.