the night of the best birthday present ever
"Hey, you have absolutely perfect timing. I just got off the pla–"
Rick answered his phone without looking and assumed it was Kate. The dread that hit him when it was Ruby nearly knocked him off his feet.
"Which hospital?" He asked. "Okay, I will be there as fast as I can. It's going to be alright, Ruby."
He spotted his town car driving waiting for him outside of arrivals and practically dragged the man with him to the exit. "Emilio, I need you to get me to NY Pres as fast as possible," he says, tossing his suitcase in the back seat next to him instead the trunk. The driver picked up on the anxiety of his patron and hightailed it out of Queens and back toward Manhattan.
"Rick!" Ruby exclaims as soon as she sees her parent enter the waiting room of the emergency department.
"Hey, kiddo," Rick says as he scoops her into a tight embrace. "What happened? Where's Kate?"
"She just fainted. We were cooking and she just collapsed. It happened so fast," Ruby explains.
"Oh, Richard, Ruby was so brave. I had gone downstairs to help Alexis with some things and when we got back up, she'd already called 911," Martha says, squeezing Ruby's shoulder in soft encouragement.
"Do they know what's wrong? Kate has never fainted before," Rick comments.
"She was already conscious again by the time the paramedics got her in the ambulance," Martha says.
"She didn't want to come here, but I made her," Ruby adds.
"Good girl," Rick says. "Kate's stubborn like that."
"Her allergies have been bothering her this week," Martha says. "She looked absolutely ghastly this morning."
"But she seemed fine when she got back from work," Ruby adds.
"Kate was at work? This morning?" Rick asks.
"Serial killer," Martha and Ruby say in unison.
"Great!" Rick exclaims sarcastically.
"Family of Kate Beckett?" A nurse calls out softly in the otherwise empty waiting room.
"Yes, that's us," Rick says. "I'm her husband."
"Ah, Mr. Castle," the man says with a smile. "My wife and I are big fans. I can't bring all three of you back just yet, but Rick, you can see her if you'd like to follow me."
Rick turned to Ruby and Martha and gestured for them to sit back down. "I'll come get you as soon as I can," he tells them.
"So, Kate lost consciousness only for a short time, but we ran a few tests to find the cause. She's receiving an infusion of iron for her anemia now," the nurse says.
"Kate's anemic? She's not anemic," Rick says with anxious concern.
"There are a few reasons that anemia can develop," explains the nurse.
"Do you know what is causing hers?" Rick asks.
"Um, I think you should leave that up to Kate to explain," the nurse says, stopping outside of a closed exam room door. He knocks before opening it and he ushers Rick forward.
"Kate!" Rick exclaims with a wave of relief. He practically jumps into the chair next to her bed and plants a deep kiss on her dry lips.
"Hey, Castle," she says with her typical rasp when she's tired.
"This is a terrible April Fools prank," Rick jokes as he takes Kate's hand in his. "Are you feeling better now?"
"Yes, I am," Kate says with a smile. "And this isn't an April Fools, it's actually a birthday present."
"A birthday present?" Castle repeats with a raised brow. "Kate, I'm sorry, but this is also a terrible birthday present."
"No, silly, not this," Kate laughs, gesturing at the hospital room. "The reason we're here is the present."
"Okay, I'm completely lost, so spell this out for me," Rick scratches his head.
Kate sighs and then carefully considers her words. "Um, so the reason I fainted is I guess I'm anemic now and when the doctor told me that, I said that was kind of weird because I'm not anemic, and then they said that mild anemia is common in pregnancy and then I said okay, that's nice to know but I'm not pregnant and then they said, actually I am."
"You're pregnant!?" Castle exclaims. "Oh, my god, Kate. You're pregnant!"
Before Kate can say anything, Rick leans over and kisses her again, this time tenderly, deeply.
"Baby's first April Fools prank," Kate whispers into her husband's mouth.
"At least we know it's definitely mine," Rick says, leading to a scoffs and a objecting punch to the shoulder from Kate. "Kidding, of course."
"Can't believe I didn't know," Kate says.
"Do they know how far along you are?"
"No, but it's gotta be pretty early. They said we could do an ultrasound if I wanted," Kate explains.
"Do you want to?" Castle asks.
"I don't know," Kate admits. "It could be so early that we don't even see anything."
"Or maybe we see something," Rick shrugs.
"It would be good to know everything is okay before we tell Ruby and Martha," Kate adds.
"Oh, shoot. We've kept them waiting a long time," Rick says.
"I'll call the nurse to tell them we want the ultrasound," Kate says. "You go tell them I'm just getting one more test done and then you'll come for them. And Rick, make sure Ruby knows that I'm okay." Rick nods before getting up and heading back to the waiting room. When he returned, the technician and OB fellow were already in the room prepping for the scan.
"Ah, woah," Castle says when he sees the wand the sonographer has in her hand. All three women in the room look at him with a knowing stare. "I was just expecting the gel and the thing on the tummy."
"I told you it's early, babe," Kate chuckles. When Castle maintained the uneasy expression on his face, she reaches out her hand and says, "it's nothing I haven't done before. Plus, this time I have someone to hold my hand."
Castle drops his expression and smiles instead, grabbing his wife's hand as he takes a seat next to her.
"Kate, are you ready?" asks the technician.
Kate nods, takes a deep breath and lays her head back to relax. She grimaces slightly but when Rick asks, she assures him that she's okay. After several loud seconds, both the technician and the OB fellow look away from the screen with a slight smile.
"Are you two ready to see your baby?" asks the fellow. When both parents nod, she turns the screen slowly and explains, "now, it is very early, so there's not a ton to look at, but you will see a flicker on the screen. That's your baby's heartbeat."
Kate and Rick fix their eyes to the screen, in awe of the little flickering blob in front of them.
"Would you like to hear?" the fellow asks.
"Yes, yes," Rick says without hesitation.
As soon as they hear it, they're breathless, tears filling their eyes. Kate sniffs and lays her head back into her pillow, her tears of joy rolling down her face. Castle takes the hand he was still holding and brings it to his lips, kissing it as he cries too. After a few moments of silent tears, they both chuckle and wipe away the moisture on their cheeks.
"Everything is looking great, Kate," says the OB fellow. "There is some scarring, which your normal OB will want to keep on eye on."
"It's from a shooting," Rick blurts.
"Yeah, we weren't even sure this was possible," Kate adds.
"Then these are happy tears, I'm guessing?" smiles the OB.
"Extremely," Rick says.
"Well, congratulations," says the fellow. "Kate, you'll want to schedule a follow up with your doctor probably in the next three or four weeks. By that time, they'll be able to give you a better estimated due date."
"You're really having a baby?" Ruby asks for the second time in the last five minutes. After the ultrasound, Rick brought Ruby and Martha back to the room to see Kate and to share the happy news. The twelve-year-old was ecstatic but still in a bit of disbelief. Martha was so happy, too, to be adding two grandchildren to the family in less than a year. She did have to make sure it wasn't an April Fools joke, but she never believed she'd joke about something like that, especially knowing they weren't sure that Kate would be able to conceive after her last shooting injury.
"Here, see," Rick laughs, showing Ruby a picture of the sonogram.
"That doesn't even look like a baby, that looks like a smudge," Ruby replies.
Kate laughs and beckons for Ruby to come sit next to her on the bed. "Yep, I'm having a smudge! And you're going to be such a good smudge sister."
"When are we going to be able to go home?" Ruby asks.
"The nurse is going to be back here with the discharge papers any minute," Kate says.
"Oh, wonderful, then how about I order us a car so it'll be ready when you are?" Martha suggested, leaving the room without waiting for confirmation.
"Will we still be able to have our dinner?" Ruby asks.
"Well, maybe not all four courses like we planned," Kate sighs. "But I know Alexis stayed behind to finish everything so we will have plenty of leftovers to do it tomorrow, too."
"Four-course dinner?" Rick asks.
"For your birthday," Ruby says, the duh was implied.
"I knew you two were cooking but you didn't mention it was going to be a four-course meal," Castle laughs.
"It was going to be a surprise," Kate explains. "But I guess we got another surprise instead."
"Well, I'm sure it'll be amazing, even if we're eating it later than planned," Rick says.
That's when the nurse arrived with Kate's discharge papers and post-visit instructions. As they reached the emergency room exit, a black town car was pulling up to where Martha was standing. "Perfect timing!" The woman announced as she beckoned them toward her.
When they got home, they shared the news with Alexis, who was extremely happy to hear about the impending arrival of a younger sibling. While everyone else was at the hospital, Alexis had engrossed herself in the kitchen, setting out a beautiful display of all the elements of the four courses. Plus, she'd already completed all of the cleaning, including dishes, leaving behind a spotless sink and countertop.
"So...let's eat?" Kate said after everyone had taken plenty of time to admire the beautiful smorgasbord.
"I don't know about you guys, but I think we should make this four-course meal thing an annual tradition," Rick says while everyone was digging into the main entrée.
"As one of the people who cooked the meal, I say speak for yourself," Alexis laughs.
"Gee, Richard, I think that instead of suggesting this for your birthday every year, perhaps you should do this for each of us on our birthday," Martha says.
"Yeah, Richard," Ruby adds with a sarcastic mock of Martha's cadence.
"Hey, zip it over there, peanut gallery," Rick says.
"This was all Ruby's idea, by the way," Kate says. "So maybe Richard should be the one zipping it."
After several but, but, buts, Richard did in fact zip it, but a few seconds later, Alexis asked him about his week in New Orleans, so he recapped his days in the Big Easy. As late evening rolled into night, the little Castle family did one more round of clean up, putting leftovers away using some the containers that only saw daylight at Thanksgiving. Then, they played a few board games before the decision was made to start teaching Ruby how to play poker. It was nearing midnight by the time that Alexis and Martha left, and Rick, Kate, and Ruby got ready for bed.
"Oh, it was mentioned in passing earlier that you got called in to work this morning," Rick says as he puts on his pajamas. "Serial killer?"
"Yeah," Kate sighs. "The boys are handling the investigation over the weekend, though, so that is a Monday problem."
"Motherhood has changed you," Rick jokes.
"Shut up," Kate retorts.
As the couple climbed into bed, there was a knock at their bedroom door.
"Come in," they say at the same time.
Ruby opens the door and walks in, holding a gift bag behind her back. "I almost forgot, I have a present for you." She jumps onto the bed and hands Rick the bag.
"Oh. My. God," Rick says when he opens his gift. "Did you make this?" He holds up the crochet beaver like a prized possession.
"Yeah," Ruby says. "It's a beaver."
"I see that," Rick chuckles. "It looks exactly like a beaver. Ruby, this is amazing. Thank you so much."
"You really like it?" Ruby asks.
"Um, I love it! How'd you even learn to do this?" Rick asks.
"I just watched some videos on YouTube," Ruby shrugs. "But I made a beaver because it's the—"
"State animal of New York," Rick finishes. "I remember. Uh, thank you again, Ruby. For this and for dinner."
"Kate and Alexis did most of the work for dinner," Ruby says. "Mostly Alexis, though, since someone decided to faint."
"Woooow," Kate laughs. "Cut me a little slack, Rubes. I'm growing a baby here."
"By the way, we learned how babies are made in health class a few months ago, so while I'm very happy, I do think it's kind of gross," Ruby adds with a scrunched nose.
"Not gross at all when it's with someone you love," Kate says.
"Right, it's really beautiful, actually," Rick adds.
"Okay, now I'm definitely grossed out, so I'm going to head up to bed," Ruby laughs, turning her cheek for kisses from both her parents.
"Night, kiddo," Rick calls as she heads out the bedroom door.
"Night, dad," she calls back.
"Woah," Rick whispers, grasping for his chest. "She's never called me 'dad' before."
"Yeah, she called me 'mom' in her sleep this morning," Kate says. "Don't think she even knows she did, but I felt like I'd gotten run over by a truck. In a good way."
"I know what you mean," Castle smiles. He turns onto his side leans gently lays his warm hand on Kate's abdomen, softly rubbing his thumb against her pajama top. "We're really having a baby."
"Guess this explains why I've felt like crap this week. I thought it was just allergies," Kate chuckles.
"Have you had morning sickness?" Castle asks, not exactly knowing what "allergies" had looked like, being away from his wife for the week.
"Nausea, definitely," Kate nods. "I almost threw up at the morgue this morning."
They both chuckle a bit, knowing that Lanie would have loved that.
"Well, I guess the good thing about how we found out is that we don't have to decide when to tell our family," Rick says. "But do you want to tell our friends or would you like to wait?"
"I should tell my dad when we get lunch this week," Kate says. "And I feel like Lanie and the boys might figure it out."
"And you probably have to report this at work, don't you? I mean, you shouldn't really go out in the field..."
"Yeah, I do, but I can also decide when it's safe to leave the precinct and when it's not," Kate says, with a tinge of annoyance.
"Of course, I didn't mean to make it sound like I don't trust you," Rick adds. "I know that you'll be careful."
"Plus, I'll have some extra help while we catch this serial killer," Kate says.
"Yeah, I'm sure you've got multiple precincts on it," says Rick, not quite picking up what Kate had meant.
"I do," Kate nods. "But I was thinking of calling in a civilian investigator with experience at catching serial killers."
Rick gasps. "Yes, I accept," he smiles.
"Good, cuz I wasn't asking," Kate laughs, kissing her husband on his pillowy lips before yawning and stretching into a comfortable position under the covers.
"Man, this really was the best birthday ever," Rick muses aloud before turning off the lights and going to sleep.