A/N: This is a follow up to chapter 11 'A Tissue for your Issue'. Castle family beach fun. Enjoy!

"We're back!" Miyana calls into the house, setting her wallet and sunglasses onto the entry table. Macey and Jaycee charge past her, finally able to play after being in the car for such a long time. Finn and Danielle, with Henry on her hip, finish off their group. Dani uses her empty hand to help Nemo lift her suitcase up the front steps and into the house, and leaves it at the foot of their stairs to be brought up later.

"Auntie Finn! Can we go to the beach now?" The little girls had doubled back, and were now jumping around their aunt, excitedly awaiting permission to return to their sandcastle.

"You let your aunt get settled first," Miyana says, collaring her daughter. "You guys are gonna go to the beach. Don't worry."

"Okay," Jaycee sighs.

"Come on," Danielle says, extending a hand. "Let's go downstairs. I think baby Henry wants to play for a little bit." The toddlers accept their aunt's hand, and the group takes the stairs to the basement where their other cousins are playing.

Mia and Finn head further into the house, where the sounds of a crying baby get increasingly louder as they get closer to the source.

"Perfect timing!" Byron announces, standing. He kisses his wife before handing over the infant. "She just started to get fussy."

"Probably hungry, huh? Mommy has been gone a long time," Mia croons at the baby whimpering and rooting around her mom's chest. "We'll be right back," Mia says, leaving the room to find a quiet place to nurse her daughter.

"Hey!" Byron smiles, hugging his sister-in-law.

"Hi," Finn says, talking over her twin brothers who are currently yelling at the TV.

"Flight go okay?"

"It was good," she nods.

"Good," Byron replies, re-claiming his spot on the couch, taking a sip from his beer.

"Maynard's gonna win by a long shot!" Finn remarks on the Motocross race the boys are watching.

"Not a chance! He's in eighth place!" Austin retorts, and after a second, registers his sister's presence. "Hey!" He jumps up and rounds the couch, pulling his sister into a hug.

"Hey," she giggles. "I see how it is, Liam," Finn says sarcastically. "Not even gonna get up and say 'hi' to me." She sits in the empty armchair.

"Well. .I. . ."Liam starts, glancing between his sister and the end of the race.

"No, no, it's fine," Finn replies, shaking her head, throwing up her hands in surrender. "I get it. A race is more important than your sister who you haven't seen in eight months."

"I never said that! It's just–"

"Hey! Nemo! I thought I heard your voice," Castle calls, coming in from the kitchen.

"Hey, dad." Finn stands and hugs her father.

"Where is everyone?" Castle asks, noticing the lack of grandkids running around and two of his own children.

"Dani took the little kids downstairs to play, and Mia is feeding the baby," Finn rattles off. "And I should ask you the same thing. Where is everyone?"

"Eh, here and there," Castle shrugs, using the casual 'come and go' manner of their beach-front home as an excuse for not knowing where everyone is. "I do know your mom and Ashley went to the store to get some last minute things for tonight."

"Oh," Finn nods. "Are we doing something special tonight?"

"No, just having a cook out."

"Cool."

Everyone's heads turn as the boys whoop at the TV because, just as Finn had predicted, Maynard had won the race after an amazing eighth place come-back.

"How did you know he would win?" Byron asks as the race changes into the post-game interviews.

"I didn't," Finn answers honestly, with a shrug. "I've always done it: picked someone at random and say they're gonna win. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't."

"Damn," Byron sighs. "I should bring you to Vegas with me next time we go," he laughs.

"You're on," Finn smiles, slapping five with her brother-in-law. "Hey, would you help me take my bag upstairs? 'Cause it looks like my brothers aren't going to do it." she asks, tipping her head towards Austin and Liam, who are once again engrossed in another motocross race.

"Yeah," Byron answers, taking another swig of his beer as he stands. After grabbing Finn's suitcase, the two take the stairs and turn left down the hallway that is flooded with afternoon sunlight.

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Hours later, her sandals slapping the bottoms of her feet, Miyana heads to retrieve her daughter from a nap, but instead of going directly into her room, Mia crosses the hall to the bedroom her sister had claimed. The door is ajar, but Mia still taps on the wood to declare her entrance as she pushes through.

"Nemo?"

Finn's sleeping form is laid on the bed as if she had only intended on lying down for just a moment before a deeper sleep overtook her.

"Nemo." Miyana touches her sister's arm. "Finn."

Finn snuffles awake, blinking up at her sister, confused, for a moment; a hand reflexively coming to her stomach.

"Sorry, didn't mean to startle you," Mia apologizes.

"You didn't," Finn smiles, sitting up.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just been a long day. I was only gonna close my eyes for a minute," she confesses, raking a hand through her hair, similar to the way their mom did.

"Yeah, I know how that is," Mia agrees.

"And I was gonna take the girls down to the beach and help them with their sandcastle," Finn sighs, disappointed in herself.

"Eh, don't worry about it," her sister waves it off. "You're gonna be here for the next two weeks. There will be plenty of time to build sandcastles."

"I know. But they were so excited to show me, ya know?"

"Honestly? They've probably forgotten about it by now." Then Miyana rethinks her words. "Just don't mention it to them for the rest of today, alright? Otherwise, it's all Jace will be talking about, and I don't want to deal with that," she shakes her head.

"Deal," Nemo agrees. "Come on; I think someone is calling for you."

The two sisters cross the hallway to the purple-walled bedroom they had shared as kids that Miyana and her family had claimed for the summer. With the curtains drawn, the room is dark despite the sunlight everywhere else. And over the white noise machine, a grunting, gurgling baby can be heard.

Miyana shuts off the fan and starts cooing to her daughter. "Did you have a good nap? Huh? Sweet dreams?" As she leans over the crib, Miyana smiles down at the baby and the three-month-old smiles back.

"Can I try?" Finn asks, stopping her sister who had gone to pick up the infant. "I'm going to need the practice."

It takes Miyana a few seconds to register what her sister had said, but when she does, she dives into her sister's arms.

"Oh my god!" Miyana gasps, tears in her eyes. She holds her sister out at arm's length, both women smiling and crying. "How far along are you?"

"I'll be ten weeks on Tuesday."

"Did you hear that, Emi? Auntie Finn is gonna have a baby," Miyana says, picking up her daughter. "You're gonna have a new cousin!"

Finn gives a watery laugh at that, wiping away the tears in her eyes. And when Mia hands over the baby, she takes her and lays her on her chest. "You'll help me practice, right, Emi? I'm new at all this baby stuff, so I'm gonna need your help," Finn whispers to her niece, breathing in her wonderful baby smell.

"She'll be glad to help," Miyana smirks, answering for her daughter.

"Okay, now I'm afraid I even asked," Finn laughs, backing out of the room.

"Be afraid, be very afraid," Mia giggles, adding on.

The trio of girls head down the hallway, and at the top of the stairs, Finn holds out a hand and stops her sister. "Promise me you won't tell anyone yet, okay? I'm going to do it."

"Okay, yeah," Mia agrees, knowing how particular this kind of announcement is.

"Not even Byron," Finn insists, knowing her sister tells her husband everything.

Miyana groans at that, throwing her head back. "Okay," she finally says.

And they continue downstairs to rejoin their family.

[] []

"Alright, come get it!" Castle calls after bringing in the last tray of food off the grill. The entire family is already in the kitchen ready and waiting and hungry, and as soon as the last tray hits the countertop, they start going through the buffet. Voices overlap each other, and silverware clinks in bowls and on trays. Adults fix plates for their kids and make sure they are alright and eating before going back and getting food for themselves.

Ten minutes later, everyone has plates full of food in front of them and is spread out across the two long picnic tables on the back deck where they can watch the sunset over the ocean; kids mixed in with adults, save for a grouping of three little girls: Macey, Jaycee, and Hayley, Austin and Christine's daughter, who at two years old wanted to be just like her older cousins.

Babies babbled, adding to the noise of lots of different conversations happening at the same time. It was an organized chaos unique to the Castle family.

"Damn, Liam," Christine says, taking the cell phone from her brother-in-law, "she is gorgeous."

"You did good," Finn remarks, smacking her brother on his shoulder, about the picture of the girl Liam was currently seeing. And apparently, it was serious.

Forever a bachelor, and the last of the Castle kids to enter into a serious relationship of any kind, it became sort of a family joke as to when Liam was finally going to meet 'The One.' So to have him come home for the summer with pictures of his serious girlfriend on his cell phone was something to be talked about.

"Is this the one you were telling me about?" Danielle asks while pulling a piece of mashed watermelon out of her son's hair.

"Uh huh," Liam nods.

"You knew about her!?" Mia shouts, offended her sister had known about their brother's current girlfriend before she did.

"Well, it wasn't like I went looking!" Danielle rebuts. "Liam came to me for advice about her, and I gave it to him. And he showed me her picture in return. I didn't ask."

"Advice huh?" Austin start, teasing his twin. "Bit confused on how to handle a lady of that caliber, huh?"

"Shut up," Liam scolds. "Um, no. Um, she's deaf, and I want to learn sign language, and since Dani has that friend who is deaf, I figured she could help me out."

"Aw! Liam that is so sweet," Christine sighs, and everyone has to agree.

[][]

Later that night, after roasting marshmallows over the fire and listening to Grandpa tell stories, all the grandkids, under ten years old, had been put to bed and were either fast asleep, or close to it.

"I told the girls to go to sleep. It's too late for them to be up giggling like that," Austin says, reclaiming his spot next to his wife on one of the bench swings around the fire pit. He sets part of the blanket Christine is wrapped up in over his legs and pulls his wife close, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Oh, Austin, you are in for it!" Miyana laughs.

" Me? You're the one who said they could sleep in the same room. What were your words again? 'Oh don't worry! They'll be okay. I'll watch them.'," his voice takes on a bad impression of his sister' tone. "I believe it is you who is in for it," Austin replies, smugly.

"Not uh," Miyana disagrees. "They're good for me. They listen to me. If I tell them to go to bed, they will. They don't listen to you because you are soft. They know your threats are empty. Those three girls are wrapped around your little finger."

"Dad knows how that is," Danielle continues. "We always went to him for permission to stay up later or have friends over on the weekends. And more times than not: we got what we wanted. It was Mom who came into our room at one in the morning to yell at us to go to bed for the tenth time."

As the kids laugh, both at the humor of the image of that scene and at how true it was, Rick and Kate share a look and realize that their daughter is right. Their laughter echoes in the nighttime and for a moment the sounds of the waves crashing on the beach that can consistently be heard are drowned out.

"So, um," Finn starts as the laughter dies down. "I have some news." She sits up in the camp chair she had claimed and huffs out a laugh as everyone turns their eyes on her. "I'm pregnant."`

Everyone was cheering and laughing and congratulating her, and Finn was smiling so wide her cheeks started to hurt.

"Congratulations, baby," Kate says, coming over and hugging her daughter.

"Thanks, Momma," Nemo smiles. "We were gonna wait until Deacon got here to tell you guys, But I couldn't wait," She smiles.

"You know your siblings are going to tease him mercilessly, right?" Kate warns, now that the secret is out."

"Oh, I know," Finn nods, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Are you gonna warn him?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

And the girls' laughter fills the night sky like the stars above them.