Hello Casketteers! Well, here it is. The final little blip in this Moment of Always! Thanks for following along with me as this story came together.

For Alexis, Kate, Rick, Jim, Martha, J.B. and even Josh, I thank you for allowing me to give these characters a little a.u. twist but still with lots of their love and craziness involved. I appreciate them and you!

Please enjoy this epilogue with a peek into their future.

KTCLF!

-adcg

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Jim Beckett and Alexis Castle watched the 3-year-old as she played with her dolls. Neither of them were surprised that Johanna Beckett Castle was telling stories, given the sheer number of them that she had already heard from both her father and mother -not to mention the obvious storytelling gene that she had inherited from her father..

It seemed the little girl's favorite lines had become, "Tell me a story…" or "Let me tell you a story!"

Of course, everyone she was around indulged her requests. Her young mind probably knew more about her parents and her own birth than most adult children.

One of her favorite activities was telling stories to her friends. Although she had a little lisp as many kids do, and still couldn't wrap her tongue around 'l' sounds, J.B. was growing into quite the orator.

So after Thanksgiving dinner, while cleanup was going on in the kitchen and dining room of the Castles' home in the Hamptons, Papa Beckett and big sister Alexis had followed J.B. into the living room where the little girl had left her dolls and action figures to 'relax' while she was eating.

Now that the meal was done it was time once again. J.B. adjusted a couple of the toys and began. "Okay, guys, wet me tell you a stowy…"

"Once upon a time, there was a wittle pwincess who didn't wive in a castle…but that was her wast name. Her daddy was a writer and her mommy used to be a powice captain but once the wittle pwincess was borned her mommy changed jobs and became a powice con… con… con…" the dark haired toddler turned and looked at her big sister. "Wexis, what's mommy do again?"

Alexis smiled at her little sister. "Consultant, Jo, Mommy's a police consultant."

J.B. nodded and went back to her dolls. "Con-thul-tant," she over-pronounced the word and turned back toward the couch. "Tank you, Wexis. Papa why am I ah-ways forgetting that word?"

Jim smiled but didn't dare laugh at his granddaughter. She was quite serious about these kinds of questions. "It's a big word, Sweetheart. Don't worry, you'll get it," he encouraged her. The moment J.B. turned back to her story, Jim looked at Alexis and simply shook his head and smiled.

J.B. was continuing to tell her friends about her mother's job - a story that Alexis and Jim had both heard several times, albeit with different details each time - so Jim's look turned to a question for the older Castle daughter.

"When did you start calling her 'Jo'?" he had been wondering about the different name that Alexis was using for J.B.

Alexis smiled widely. "She asked me a couple of weeks ago about Nonna. I know Beckett has told J.B. about the original Johanna Beckett, and I think they've looked at pictures, but I pulled out the photo album that you shared with me before J.B. was born. I told her I didn't know Nonna either, but we could learn about her from the pictures and by talking to you and to Mom," she reached out and took Jim's hand.

"At some point it really sank in with her - I think - that her name and Nonna's name are the same. So I told her that Mom and Dad had named her after this lady who had stood up to try and make things right in the world. She thought about that a little while and looked at more pictures. There are a couple in the scrapbook that have captions written on them. Maybe Kate has added them…but they say 'Jo', not Johanna. J.B. told me to call her 'Jo'. I kinda like it, a different name between me and my sister."

"That's funny," Jim offered Alexis a soft smile, "because Johanna's sister - Kate's Aunt Teresa - was the only one who was allowed to call her 'Jo'."

Alexis sat quietly after hearing that but Jim smiled and ran his thumb across the young woman's knuckles as they were still holding hands. "Seems like Nonna is passing down a little more of herself than we realize, huh?"

Alexis smiled at him and gripped his hand a little more strongly. She was feeling thankful that apparently both of the Beckett grandparents were keeping an eye on them.

"But the wittle pwincess was a bit unhappy with her pawents…" J.B. was saying to her dolls. She had Barbie seated in an Adirondack toy chair with Ken standing beside her. There was another doll that looked a lot like Kate Beckett sitting on the ground beside Barbie. J.B. appeared to be lecturing all of them. "She kept telling them that she was going to ask Santa Claus for a baby brother but they were not wistening to her."

The mention of a baby caught Jim and Alexis's ears and also a couple of parental ears who were just coming in from the other room.

"What's that?" Castle looked toward his oldest daughter and Alexis raised her eyebrows and shook her head as she kept listening.

Jim took another thought before turning to look at his daughter.

"What?" Kate asked and started to make her way down to the floor to sit with J.B. and the dolls.

"Something you want to share with the class?" Jim asked with a slight tilt of his head.

Kate looked around and shook her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Because big sisters need to have wittle brothers or sisters," J.B. seemed to raise her voice so all of them could hear her.

Kate ignored the looks from her father, her husband and their older daughter. "J.B., what's this story about?" She went directly to the source.

The little girl turned around and watched her mother sit down beside her. J.B. pulled a baby doll from the side of her little friends group and handed it to her mother. Kate immediately cradled the doll as though she was holding an infant but continued looking at her youngest daughter.

"You and Daddy say I grew in your tummy but you brought me home from the hospital. Which was it?" She asked pretty precisely.

Kate glanced at Rick whose eyebrows had raised instantly wondering what was going through the girl's mind.

"Both," Kate dipped her eyebrows and answered J.B. honestly. This was neither the time or place to discuss how babies are made but her daughter deserved truthful answers. "A mommy and daddy work together to make a baby. The baby grows inside the mommy's tummy until it's time to be born. Then the mommy goes to the hospital…that's where the baby is born, usually…and then the mommy and daddy bring the baby home from the hospital."

Castle cleared his throat for attention and then commented, "Unless Mommy decides to wait too long and then the baby is born in the Mercedes - or god forbid - the Ferrari," earning him a shut-up-you-are-not-helping look from his wife.

"Did not happen," Kate threw back at him, "so why even bring it up?"

"Just sayin'," Rick pressed his lips together and looked at Jim and Alexis.. "In the middle of all the other chaos she wanted me to bring her to the hospital in the Ferrari…"

Jim chuckled, Alexis snorted and Kate squinted her eyes with the next look at her husband.

"Rick," Jim warned.

"I see. I know, I can sleep on the couch tonight. That's fine. I'm still waiting to see where this little chat is going," he commented but was nowhere near apologetic or regretful of the comments he had just made.

"Are you two done yet?" J.B. stood up, stretched her arms above her head and then put them on her hips.

"Darlings, what am I missing over here?" Martha swooped into the room after putting the last of the leftovers into the refrigerator.

Alexis looked at their grandmother and started to explain but then J.B. took the floor - looking dramatic, much like said grandmother.

"Gwams! I am twying to tell Mom and Dad that they need to go to the hospital and get me a wittle brother or sister," the little girl with the commanding voice declared. "But Mommy says a baby has to grow in a mommy's tummy before it can be borned. So chop, chop," she clapped her hands together and then attempted to shoo her parents out of the room. "Go make me a baby."

Every adult in the room pursed their lips together knowing better than to laugh or make any humorous comment at J.B.'s instructions.

Kate and Rick looked at each other, both blushing, before Rick commented, "I'm game if you-" he smartly stalled as his wife gave him another warning look, including raised eyebrows. "So that's a 'no' for now? Yeah, okay, not right now…bad time…got it." He accepted the loud sigh and smacks from both his oldest daughter and his mother, but Rick noticed the lack of an eye roll, nor a full smile on his wife's face.

Instead Kate looked back at their daughter and pulled J.B. down into her lap. She handed J.B. the baby doll which the girl cradled in her own arms. Then Kate wrapped her arms around her little girl and hugged her. "That is something that Mommy and Daddy will have to talk about, okay?" Kate asked and J.B. somewhat huffed. "Some things in life aren't that easy, Little Princess," she tried to sound jovial but knew her child could feel the slight anxiety that this topic had caused.

J.B. turned her head to look into her mother's face. "Will you and Daddy talk about it?"

Kate smiled at her calmer tone of voice and nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

After that exchange the dramatic flair drifted back to Martha Rodgers and her call for J.B., Alexis and Jim to come have dessert. Once the couch was emptied, Kate moved herself onto it and then watched quietly as the others headed toward the kitchen counter to choose their sweet delights.

"So you wanna tell me what that last look was about?" Castle stepped in front of his wife and then sat down beside her.

Kate smiled at him but didn't say anything, obviously trying to put her thoughts together.

"That kinda came out of the blue there, didn't it?" He pointed his thumb over his shoulder toward the rest of their family.

Kate nodded. "You didn't put her up to that? Telling a story about a little princess who wants a younger sibling?"

Rick shook his head, "Not me. If I pulled an antic like that, I would make sure she told you the story, not the whole Castle clan. That's a discussion for us alone, not a family meeting."

Kate nodded again but stayed nearly silent.

"Look," Rick reached for her hand and linked their fingers together, "I know we've joked several times about more kids but we're not there yet. Thus the reason you're on birth control and I begrudgingly use those god-awful condoms…sometimes…by the way, isn't your birth control enough?" He digressed until Kate loudly rolled her eyes at him. "So if J.B. is it for us," he got back on track, "Kate, that's fine. I'm happy, you're happy, we're happy. J.B. will be just fine being the little princess that she is without a younger sibling. Alexis was fine for 20 plus years, J.B. will be fine."

Kate laughed quietly at his last comment then looked at their entwined hands. "That's the thing," she started but wouldn't meet his eyes. Rick quickly noticed her nervous lip nibble so he waited patiently for his wife to form her words. "I want J.B. to have a younger brother or sister. And I don't want to wait much longer if we're going to try. But I'm also," she took in a deep breath and finally looked into his face, "I'm scared to try again," she admitted.

Castle's face was beaming. Both knew the idea of having another child wasn't out of their realm. But he wasn't going to push the idea with the thought of what Kate had gone through before. She never outright nixxed the more-Castle-kids discussions. But this was the first time she was actually telling him what was going through her mind about the topic.

Rick tempered his smiling eyes and thought about Kate's words. "Would talking to Dr. Ange help, or Dr. Burke? They're both good at listening, but they're also good at laying the cards on the table, you know? Giving us straight answers."

Kate agreed with another nod. "That would probably be a good idea. But you know me. I'm scared to talk to them because I'm afraid their answers wouldn't be what I want to hear. I want them to say that everything will be perfectly fine, no additional complications to expect and we should absolutely try again!"

"That would be the best outcome…but?" He wondered.

"But what if they say that 3 years later is too late or too dangerous for us…for me…to have another baby?" Kate was slightly proud of herself for voicing her thoughts.

Rick thought for a moment, then pulled his wife to his side. "If that's their answer, then we know we have each other and we have J.B. and we have Alexis and our family is perfect the way it is. I won't question that answer…but that doesn't mean I'm gonna stop getting you into bed as much as possible."

Kate smacked his chest before laughing and laying her head against his shoulder. "You're insatiable," she looked up and allowed him to kiss her lips.

"Who knows, in another Thanksgiving or two we might have more little Castle's running around here or at the cabin. Hey, wasn't it Thanksgiving a few years back that we first started talking about having kids together?" Rick wrapped an arm around her shoulders to keep her snuggled against him.

"I never really thought-" Kate stopped, "No, that's not true. With little Bennie, I did really think about us having a baby together."

"And?" Rick wondered.

"And I'm very happy we do. And I'm glad that we have the option at the moment to try for more. When we get back to the city I'll make appointments with Dr. Ange and Dr. Burke to help ease my mind. Wanna come with?" She asked as she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"MORE whipped cream!" came a resounding chant from the kitchen. The four voices and the whooshing sound from a can told the couple they were missing some kind of activity that probably included pumpkin pie and ice cream.

"My Dear," Rick placed his hands gently on her cheeks to cup her face and then placed soft kisses on Kate's forehead, eyes and the tip of her nose. "I will go with you anywhere that you allow me to go. And in the process, if it involves us potentially making a baby for our daughter, you know you can count me in!" He wiggled his eyebrows and this time Kate rolled her eyes at him and smiled widely.

"While I love your go-get-em attitude, Lover, you may want to dial it back a little. Otherwise we might just end up with two playmates for J.B. instead of one," Kate attempted to joke.

"Ah!" Castle gasped and his eyes widened like a child's, "Do twins run in your family? Because that would be - oh Kate! Twin boys would be sooooo perfect!" His excitement didn't exactly translate to Kate but she still laughed at him.

"Let's keep that idea to ourselves right now, Big Rick. Last thing I need is for you and J.B. to start doubling down on me," Kate commented.

Rick continued smiling widely but looked at his wife with complete love from his heart. "I love having a family with you. Have I told you that recently?"

Kate smiled back at him and met his lips for a kiss. "Not in so many words, but I know. And I love having this family with you. Even with all our chaos and craziness, I love our lives and our family."

"Thank you for taking this ride with me," Rick lifted himself off the couch and tugged on Kate's hands to pull her up so they could join that chaos and craziness along with the laughter that was drifting toward them from the other room.

Kate smiled, wrapped her arms around her husband's neck and pressed her lips to his as she emphasized their word to him again quietly.

"Always."

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And there we have it, the little ending to this Moment of Always with a potential peek into future ones.

Thanks again for reading, commenting and sparking my Caskett muse into action. Who knows, perhaps a growing Castle clan will find their way into my imagination again soon for another moment or two! ;)

KTCLF Casketteers!

-adcg