Kate Beckett (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} katebex) wrote in ![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small} toboldlyrpg,@ 2017-12-22 18:19:00 |
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WHO: Kate Beckett and Richard Castle
WHEN: 2264.12.24
WHERE: Their quarters, Starship Enterprise
RATING: So sweet it’ll give you a cavity.
SUMMARY: Beckett has a certain Christmas surprise for Castle.
WARNINGS: None.
NOTES: Let’s all agree I posted this on Sunday instead of Friday, okay? Okay.
All in all, Kate was pretty good at keeping secrets. Most of that talent had been developed by professional necessity, but she had also learned early on when she joined the NYPD that it was best to also keep her personal life close to the vest. A woman working in a male-dominated field had left her a constant source of gossip and speculation, and she had spent most of her career not feeding the talk.
Until Castle, at least.
Most things in her life had changed when Castle had rolled into her life, which was really how they had ended up here with Kate fiddling with a cup of coffee - coffee she could no longer have - and doing her best not to blurt out the secret she had been sitting on since yesterday afternoon.
“Coffee,” she said, crossing over to the sofa and carefully passing the mug to Rick. “Since it’s late, I didn’t make it very strong.”
The tree pushed into the corner of their small living room wasn’t real, but one fashioned from the replicator. Even so, the effect it gave off was real enough, which had been the entire point of decorating, really. It turned out that celebrating Christmas wasn’t quite so full of holiday cheer floating through space without a real hope of trees, snow, and all the things that were synonymous with the holiday.
“I knew it’d be different here,” Kate said as she took a seat on the couch, ignoring the flutter of nerves that began somewhere in her stomach. “No snow, no ice skating, no tree in Rockefeller Center…..”
It didn’t feel like the holidays, particularly because seasons didn’t really change aboard the Enterprise. It could very well be July. At least he had the Christmas tree and he had Kate. Those were two very important elements to a successful holiday.
Castle had managed to get a lot of writing done on their Risan vacation, and he was pleased with how his space detective novel was coming along. It would need edits, of course, but he was finally getting into the meat of the mystery.
He was taking a break from writing to sit on the couch with Kate. After thanking her for the cup of coffee, he gave her a skeptical look. “None for you?” Kate usually mainlined coffee, like most people drank water.
Sighing at her comment, he put his arm around her on the couch. “Yeah. Not unless we make something in the holodeck,” he replied. Even that wouldn’t be quite the same.
“No, if I drink it now, I’ll never sleep.” And really, that wasn’t much of a lie. Over the past week or so, her sleeping habits had been terrible. She had chalked it up to trying to readjust to the life cycle of the Enterprise after so many days full of an actual sun and moon. Maybe that had been part of it, there was really no way to know, but knowing what she knew now, Kate was pretty sure that wasn’t a large factor.
Curling up against Castle, her head resting against his shoulder, she wrinkled up her nose at the idea of the holodeck mimicking Christmas. “I just think there are some things you can’t replicate, and that would be one of them.” But, if he wanted, she would have tried. “But I wish we’d been able to do more since you love Christmas so much.”
Castle shrugged at that, though remained a bit suspicious. Kate normally drank so much coffee that it didn’t even make a difference with her sleeping habits, though he had noticed that she had been restless. Coming back from Risa had been hard on him too.
He kissed her temple. “Ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Maybe we could just do a general ice skating rink.” At least it would be something. “That might be a fun activity for people.”
“I think that’d be nice,” she said with a grin, tilting her head just enough to brush her lips against the line of his jaw. “I bet you a lot of people on this ship have never been ice skating.” Rockefeller Center would be lovely, but it wasn’t exactly a requirement.
“But it has to be weird for you,” Kate continued, “Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve had all these Christmas traditions and I feel like we haven’t done any of them this year.”
“They probably haven’t,” he replied. “I bet that will be hilarious to watch.” Not that he hoped anyone got hurt or anything, but people wiping out while skating was always amusing.
As far as the Christmas traditions, he shrugged. What could he do about that? They could try to make the annual Christmas cookies, but it wouldn’t be the same without Alexis here. The holiday wouldn’t be the same at all without his daughter or his mother. “They’re hard to do here, especially because we’re missing a few people.”
The absence of Alexis and Martha, not to mention her dad, Lanie and the boys, was always there in the shadows, but Christmas had made it all the more pronounced. “I’m so sorry,” she told him, reaching up to brush his cheek with the back of her hand. “But, you know, we can still do some of this stuff. It won’t be the same, but it might still be fun?”
It was probably a terrible attempt to cheer him up, but she still wanted to try, if only to keep some of the traditions alive that Castle valued so much.
At least before she added her own into the mix.
He nodded. A lot of the coolness factor of the Enterprise had worn off for him by now and he was struggling to find his place in this time period. At least he had one thing though.
“I do have you,” he said. “And I’m incredibly thankful for that.” They could do some of the things that they usually did, as well as possibly make up some new traditions.
“Me too,” she said with a smile. “But, you know, we can’t really do some of the things we’ve been doing at Christmas at home, and I know Alexis isn’t here to do others, but I was thinking maybe we could start a new tradition?”
It was a roundabout way of getting to what she needed to tell him, and that was the reason why she got up off the sofa and walked over to their Christmas tree. “You won’t remember this, but a couple of weeks after we got married my dad came for Thanksgiving dinner and he brought a box with him. For the first time since my mom died, he had opened the Christmas decorations and he pulled out a box of ornaments for me.”
Really, he had brought a couple of boxes, but there was only one that was relevant to her point. “My parents started a thing when they got married….” Kate paused for a second as she picked up a small box from under the tree. “Well, if I’m honest, my mom started it and my dad drug his feet for a couple of years until he joined in,” she said with a grin. “Anyway, every year they would buy an ornament for one another that had something to do with the previous year and our entire tree was practically those ornaments when I was growing up, especially when they started buying them for me.”
Rising back up to her feet, Kate shrugged. “So my dad brought me all those ornaments that day and after I told you this same story, you and I, and Alexis and your mom, started doing the same thing.”
It was a little silly to be blushing, but she certainly was as she took a seat across from him, resting her butt on the edge of the coffee table. “And I thought we could start that here, so I messed with the replicator all yesterday afternoon until I was happy with this.”
Maybe she shouldn’t have told him what was in the box and ruin some of the surprise, but there was nothing she could do about it now. But there were those nerves again, fluttering to life as she passed the wrapped package with red paper and a green ribbon over to him.
Castle smiled at her as she told the story. “That sounds like a really wonderful tradition. I like it, and I’d love to continue it while we’re here.” He took the box from her and pulled on the ribbon. “Is it a spaceship?” he asked teasingly. That was honestly what he was expecting. What he got threw him for a loop. After peeling back the tissue paper that was inside the box, he pulled out a silver baby shoe ornament and held it up.
“Is this…?” Castle was actually stunned for a moment as he looked at it. “Okay, is this just because we tried this year, or is this your way of trying to tell me something?”
He could feel his heart start to pound in his chest, his breath quickening at the idea that Kate might finally be pregnant.
She wasn’t often speechless but the look Castle gave her as he opened the box very nearly rendered her so. It didn’t help that she was alternately trying not to fidget with her nerves or, more likely, to start crying.
What she settled for was a nod of her head, something which Kate realized too late didn’t answer his question at all. But the prospect of saying it out loud to Rick was a little too much for her, and as the first tear slipped over to trickle down her cheek, she opened her mouth. “It would seem that you and I are going to have a baby, Rick.” And then she gave him one of her megawatt smiles.
For once in his life, Castle was speechless too. All he could do was grab Kate in a hug and pull her tightly to him. He held her for a long time, his fingers in her hair as his eyes welled up. For a while, he hadn’t been quite sure if it would happen for them, as it had seemed to take so long for her to get pregnant. But now he was happier than he had been in a long time.
He pulled back to look at her, smiling as he cupped her face in his hands. “This is amazing.”
All Kate could really do was slip her arms around his neck and hold on, burying her face against the side of his neck while he hugged her. She was sure Castle was crying, she was definitely crying, the evidence of that dripping down to leave wet spots on the shirt he was wearing.
It was what she had wanted to happen, and she was over the moon about it, but there was also a definite fear of knowing that, now, there was no turning back. For better or worse, she and Rick were in this thing.
“I know,” she agreed quickly, wrapping both of her hands against his forearms. Kate was shaking all over, a byproduct of the nerves that had kept her wrapped up for the better part of 24 hours, but she also just needed something to hold on to. And Castle was always going to be the best option out there. “We made a person, Castle. That’s crazy.”
Castle could see both the excitement and the fear in her eyes. He didn’t blame her for that. Being a first-time parent could be terrifying. He hoped that she knew that he would be with her every step of the way through. They would get through it together and everything would be fine.
Castle rubbed her back, hoping to try and calm her down. “It kind of is. It’s going to be an awesome person though.”
Kate leaned forward just enough to brush her mouth against his, “I told Lucifer once that a kid with my looks and your charm would be deadly,” she said with a laugh, migrating back over to the couch and curling up against Castle once again. “Which probably means you and I are in for a wild ride.”
Castle would be the first person to tell people that his first experience as a parent had been extraordinary. Unlike pretty much everyone in her family tree, Alexis was the ideal kid. She rarely got into trouble, her idea of rebellion hadn’t come until she was 21 and consisted of dating a boy best described as a hippie. Kate didn’t think that he would describe the experience as easy, he had raised Alexis pretty much as a single parent after all, but his first-born’s personality had made it more serene than what Kate had put her own parents through.
Her mother had always told her she’d pay for everything she had done as a teenager when she had kids of her own. Now she was going to find out.
Castle put his arm around her and pulled her close. “We probably are. I don’t think we’re going to be lucky enough to get Alexis twice.” She had been mostly a dream to raise, and Castle didn’t even feel like he could take a lot of the credit. Alexis kind of just… was. She was apparently born with more maturity than her father had as a grown man. That kind of lightning didn’t strike twice.
“This is an amazing Christmas present, babe. I’m so happy.” He kissed Kate’s temple. “So… boy or girl?”
“Do you honestly think any kid of ours is going to be as well behaved as Alexis?” Kate asked with a laugh. “I think that’s asking a bit much.” Being a cop had mostly drilled out the wild, free-spirited side of Kate’s personality, but if her child had that same sort of spirit, she had no plans in trying to tamp it down. Her parents had never really tried to corral her own, life had done that part.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “That’s why I went ahead and gave that to you now,” she grinned, flicking a finger at the delicate ornament in his hand. “I can never top it, so it’s best to just go ahead. And keeping the secret was terrible, too. I think I looked at you a million times last night and almost blurted it out.”
Boy or girl? She’d never really thought about it, content just to have a baby at all and knowing that it would likely take a long time to happen if it happened at all. “Healthy,” Kate said after a moment, “Though it might be nice to have a boy.” She said that mostly as an afterthought, carefully tugging the ornament from his hand and slowly brushing her fingers against it.
“I think that’s only because it’d put us on equal footing in a way,” she explained, “You’ve had a kid before and I haven’t, but you haven’t had a boy before. So it’d be a first for the both of us.”
But when it came right down to it, Kate didn’t care one bit. As long as the baby was healthy, she’d be happy.
Castle nodded. Healthy was what he wanted too. He hoped that one benefit of being in this century meant incredibly advanced medicine and thus a higher likelihood of a healthy baby. “I’d like a boy too,” he admitted, “since I haven’t had one yet, but I agree, I’ll be happy no matter what.”
He paused, looking at their Christmas tree for a moment, and then suddenly grinning. “I just realized that our baby is going to be delivered by Dr. Leonard McCoy. How freaking cool is that?”
While the part of Kate that was a sci-fi nerd found the concept to be amazing, the more rational part of her was horrified. It didn’t seem appropriate somehow that one of her childhood heroes was going to see parts of her that were exclusive to her husband these days. “He’ll be thrilled, I’m sure,” Kate replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Somehow, she was sure that delivering babies was very low on the list of things that the ship’s doctor wanted to do.
“According to the test they ran, I’m close to eight weeks in,” she told him, “So delivery day is early August.”
“Knowing Bones, you’re probably right,” Castle replied before leaning over to kiss her temple again. “August seems so far away, but it will probably be here before we know it. This is the best Christmas present I’ve ever gotten.”
Even if they were in space and away from their home, at least Castle felt that they were relatively safe up here. Kate wasn’t working a dangerous job and there weren’t people trying to kill them. This century might actually end up being the best time to start a family.
“You think it’s forever away?” Kate asked, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. “I was just thinking how it seems so close.” Already she had lists going in her mind of things she needed to do, and there was a very real hope that they’d end up back on Earth or maybe at another Starfleet post between now and then. There were certain things they would need that she wasn’t comfortable replicating and there were no guarantees that any of them would be available on other planets without a Starfleet presence.
But even so, she couldn’t help but smile, stretching just enough to brush her mouth over Castle’s in a brief kiss. “Mmm, I’ll never be able to top this, so it’s really downhill from here,” she teased, “Only socks and underwear from now on.”
“It’s nine months,” he said with a shrug. Less than a year, but still quite a bit of time. Maybe it was because he had done this before, but Castle wasn’t feeling as panicked as Kate.
He nodded sagely at her words. “My Christmas expectations are forever lowered.” Truly, nothing could ever be better than this.
“It is,” Kate agreed, stretching herself lengthwise on the couch before she tugged at his arm until Castle followed, fitting into the space she had made between herself and the cushions. “But I have far more patience than you do.” And, in her mind, that pretty much settled it. Castle was never good at waiting, whereas she didn’t tend to mind.
Moving carefully onto her back, Kate glanced up at him with a laugh. “Okay, good,” she replied, threading her fingers through his and guiding his hand to rest low on her stomach. For now, it was still flat, the muscles taut and her skin still tan from their three weeks on Risa. But that wouldn’t last too much longer.
For a long time, she didn’t say anything to him, her eyes trained on the rise and fall of her stomach as she took in a breath and then released it. Sometimes she just needed quiet, a minute or two to get her bearings back and accept whatever new thing that life had thrown at her.
And then, like the flip of a light switch, she was back in the moment, grinning up at him as her fingers gently drew lines over the back of his hand. “Hey Castle?” she asked, waiting until his eyes met hers before she spoke again. “Thank you for doing this with me. I love you.”
Castle smiled when she took his hand and placed it on her stomach before he could do it himself. He knew not to expect to feel anything there yet, but he was happy just to know that a life was growing under his hand.
“Always,” he replied, leaning over to kiss her. “I love you too. There’s no one else I’d rather do this with.”
WHEN: 2264.12.24
WHERE: Their quarters, Starship Enterprise
RATING: So sweet it’ll give you a cavity.
SUMMARY: Beckett has a certain Christmas surprise for Castle.
WARNINGS: None.
NOTES: Let’s all agree I posted this on Sunday instead of Friday, okay? Okay.
All in all, Kate was pretty good at keeping secrets. Most of that talent had been developed by professional necessity, but she had also learned early on when she joined the NYPD that it was best to also keep her personal life close to the vest. A woman working in a male-dominated field had left her a constant source of gossip and speculation, and she had spent most of her career not feeding the talk.
Until Castle, at least.
Most things in her life had changed when Castle had rolled into her life, which was really how they had ended up here with Kate fiddling with a cup of coffee - coffee she could no longer have - and doing her best not to blurt out the secret she had been sitting on since yesterday afternoon.
“Coffee,” she said, crossing over to the sofa and carefully passing the mug to Rick. “Since it’s late, I didn’t make it very strong.”
The tree pushed into the corner of their small living room wasn’t real, but one fashioned from the replicator. Even so, the effect it gave off was real enough, which had been the entire point of decorating, really. It turned out that celebrating Christmas wasn’t quite so full of holiday cheer floating through space without a real hope of trees, snow, and all the things that were synonymous with the holiday.
“I knew it’d be different here,” Kate said as she took a seat on the couch, ignoring the flutter of nerves that began somewhere in her stomach. “No snow, no ice skating, no tree in Rockefeller Center…..”
It didn’t feel like the holidays, particularly because seasons didn’t really change aboard the Enterprise. It could very well be July. At least he had the Christmas tree and he had Kate. Those were two very important elements to a successful holiday.
Castle had managed to get a lot of writing done on their Risan vacation, and he was pleased with how his space detective novel was coming along. It would need edits, of course, but he was finally getting into the meat of the mystery.
He was taking a break from writing to sit on the couch with Kate. After thanking her for the cup of coffee, he gave her a skeptical look. “None for you?” Kate usually mainlined coffee, like most people drank water.
Sighing at her comment, he put his arm around her on the couch. “Yeah. Not unless we make something in the holodeck,” he replied. Even that wouldn’t be quite the same.
“No, if I drink it now, I’ll never sleep.” And really, that wasn’t much of a lie. Over the past week or so, her sleeping habits had been terrible. She had chalked it up to trying to readjust to the life cycle of the Enterprise after so many days full of an actual sun and moon. Maybe that had been part of it, there was really no way to know, but knowing what she knew now, Kate was pretty sure that wasn’t a large factor.
Curling up against Castle, her head resting against his shoulder, she wrinkled up her nose at the idea of the holodeck mimicking Christmas. “I just think there are some things you can’t replicate, and that would be one of them.” But, if he wanted, she would have tried. “But I wish we’d been able to do more since you love Christmas so much.”
Castle shrugged at that, though remained a bit suspicious. Kate normally drank so much coffee that it didn’t even make a difference with her sleeping habits, though he had noticed that she had been restless. Coming back from Risa had been hard on him too.
He kissed her temple. “Ice skating at Rockefeller Center. Maybe we could just do a general ice skating rink.” At least it would be something. “That might be a fun activity for people.”
“I think that’d be nice,” she said with a grin, tilting her head just enough to brush her lips against the line of his jaw. “I bet you a lot of people on this ship have never been ice skating.” Rockefeller Center would be lovely, but it wasn’t exactly a requirement.
“But it has to be weird for you,” Kate continued, “Ever since I’ve known you, you’ve had all these Christmas traditions and I feel like we haven’t done any of them this year.”
“They probably haven’t,” he replied. “I bet that will be hilarious to watch.” Not that he hoped anyone got hurt or anything, but people wiping out while skating was always amusing.
As far as the Christmas traditions, he shrugged. What could he do about that? They could try to make the annual Christmas cookies, but it wouldn’t be the same without Alexis here. The holiday wouldn’t be the same at all without his daughter or his mother. “They’re hard to do here, especially because we’re missing a few people.”
The absence of Alexis and Martha, not to mention her dad, Lanie and the boys, was always there in the shadows, but Christmas had made it all the more pronounced. “I’m so sorry,” she told him, reaching up to brush his cheek with the back of her hand. “But, you know, we can still do some of this stuff. It won’t be the same, but it might still be fun?”
It was probably a terrible attempt to cheer him up, but she still wanted to try, if only to keep some of the traditions alive that Castle valued so much.
At least before she added her own into the mix.
He nodded. A lot of the coolness factor of the Enterprise had worn off for him by now and he was struggling to find his place in this time period. At least he had one thing though.
“I do have you,” he said. “And I’m incredibly thankful for that.” They could do some of the things that they usually did, as well as possibly make up some new traditions.
“Me too,” she said with a smile. “But, you know, we can’t really do some of the things we’ve been doing at Christmas at home, and I know Alexis isn’t here to do others, but I was thinking maybe we could start a new tradition?”
It was a roundabout way of getting to what she needed to tell him, and that was the reason why she got up off the sofa and walked over to their Christmas tree. “You won’t remember this, but a couple of weeks after we got married my dad came for Thanksgiving dinner and he brought a box with him. For the first time since my mom died, he had opened the Christmas decorations and he pulled out a box of ornaments for me.”
Really, he had brought a couple of boxes, but there was only one that was relevant to her point. “My parents started a thing when they got married….” Kate paused for a second as she picked up a small box from under the tree. “Well, if I’m honest, my mom started it and my dad drug his feet for a couple of years until he joined in,” she said with a grin. “Anyway, every year they would buy an ornament for one another that had something to do with the previous year and our entire tree was practically those ornaments when I was growing up, especially when they started buying them for me.”
Rising back up to her feet, Kate shrugged. “So my dad brought me all those ornaments that day and after I told you this same story, you and I, and Alexis and your mom, started doing the same thing.”
It was a little silly to be blushing, but she certainly was as she took a seat across from him, resting her butt on the edge of the coffee table. “And I thought we could start that here, so I messed with the replicator all yesterday afternoon until I was happy with this.”
Maybe she shouldn’t have told him what was in the box and ruin some of the surprise, but there was nothing she could do about it now. But there were those nerves again, fluttering to life as she passed the wrapped package with red paper and a green ribbon over to him.
Castle smiled at her as she told the story. “That sounds like a really wonderful tradition. I like it, and I’d love to continue it while we’re here.” He took the box from her and pulled on the ribbon. “Is it a spaceship?” he asked teasingly. That was honestly what he was expecting. What he got threw him for a loop. After peeling back the tissue paper that was inside the box, he pulled out a silver baby shoe ornament and held it up.
“Is this…?” Castle was actually stunned for a moment as he looked at it. “Okay, is this just because we tried this year, or is this your way of trying to tell me something?”
He could feel his heart start to pound in his chest, his breath quickening at the idea that Kate might finally be pregnant.
She wasn’t often speechless but the look Castle gave her as he opened the box very nearly rendered her so. It didn’t help that she was alternately trying not to fidget with her nerves or, more likely, to start crying.
What she settled for was a nod of her head, something which Kate realized too late didn’t answer his question at all. But the prospect of saying it out loud to Rick was a little too much for her, and as the first tear slipped over to trickle down her cheek, she opened her mouth. “It would seem that you and I are going to have a baby, Rick.” And then she gave him one of her megawatt smiles.
For once in his life, Castle was speechless too. All he could do was grab Kate in a hug and pull her tightly to him. He held her for a long time, his fingers in her hair as his eyes welled up. For a while, he hadn’t been quite sure if it would happen for them, as it had seemed to take so long for her to get pregnant. But now he was happier than he had been in a long time.
He pulled back to look at her, smiling as he cupped her face in his hands. “This is amazing.”
All Kate could really do was slip her arms around his neck and hold on, burying her face against the side of his neck while he hugged her. She was sure Castle was crying, she was definitely crying, the evidence of that dripping down to leave wet spots on the shirt he was wearing.
It was what she had wanted to happen, and she was over the moon about it, but there was also a definite fear of knowing that, now, there was no turning back. For better or worse, she and Rick were in this thing.
“I know,” she agreed quickly, wrapping both of her hands against his forearms. Kate was shaking all over, a byproduct of the nerves that had kept her wrapped up for the better part of 24 hours, but she also just needed something to hold on to. And Castle was always going to be the best option out there. “We made a person, Castle. That’s crazy.”
Castle could see both the excitement and the fear in her eyes. He didn’t blame her for that. Being a first-time parent could be terrifying. He hoped that she knew that he would be with her every step of the way through. They would get through it together and everything would be fine.
Castle rubbed her back, hoping to try and calm her down. “It kind of is. It’s going to be an awesome person though.”
Kate leaned forward just enough to brush her mouth against his, “I told Lucifer once that a kid with my looks and your charm would be deadly,” she said with a laugh, migrating back over to the couch and curling up against Castle once again. “Which probably means you and I are in for a wild ride.”
Castle would be the first person to tell people that his first experience as a parent had been extraordinary. Unlike pretty much everyone in her family tree, Alexis was the ideal kid. She rarely got into trouble, her idea of rebellion hadn’t come until she was 21 and consisted of dating a boy best described as a hippie. Kate didn’t think that he would describe the experience as easy, he had raised Alexis pretty much as a single parent after all, but his first-born’s personality had made it more serene than what Kate had put her own parents through.
Her mother had always told her she’d pay for everything she had done as a teenager when she had kids of her own. Now she was going to find out.
Castle put his arm around her and pulled her close. “We probably are. I don’t think we’re going to be lucky enough to get Alexis twice.” She had been mostly a dream to raise, and Castle didn’t even feel like he could take a lot of the credit. Alexis kind of just… was. She was apparently born with more maturity than her father had as a grown man. That kind of lightning didn’t strike twice.
“This is an amazing Christmas present, babe. I’m so happy.” He kissed Kate’s temple. “So… boy or girl?”
“Do you honestly think any kid of ours is going to be as well behaved as Alexis?” Kate asked with a laugh. “I think that’s asking a bit much.” Being a cop had mostly drilled out the wild, free-spirited side of Kate’s personality, but if her child had that same sort of spirit, she had no plans in trying to tamp it down. Her parents had never really tried to corral her own, life had done that part.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “That’s why I went ahead and gave that to you now,” she grinned, flicking a finger at the delicate ornament in his hand. “I can never top it, so it’s best to just go ahead. And keeping the secret was terrible, too. I think I looked at you a million times last night and almost blurted it out.”
Boy or girl? She’d never really thought about it, content just to have a baby at all and knowing that it would likely take a long time to happen if it happened at all. “Healthy,” Kate said after a moment, “Though it might be nice to have a boy.” She said that mostly as an afterthought, carefully tugging the ornament from his hand and slowly brushing her fingers against it.
“I think that’s only because it’d put us on equal footing in a way,” she explained, “You’ve had a kid before and I haven’t, but you haven’t had a boy before. So it’d be a first for the both of us.”
But when it came right down to it, Kate didn’t care one bit. As long as the baby was healthy, she’d be happy.
Castle nodded. Healthy was what he wanted too. He hoped that one benefit of being in this century meant incredibly advanced medicine and thus a higher likelihood of a healthy baby. “I’d like a boy too,” he admitted, “since I haven’t had one yet, but I agree, I’ll be happy no matter what.”
He paused, looking at their Christmas tree for a moment, and then suddenly grinning. “I just realized that our baby is going to be delivered by Dr. Leonard McCoy. How freaking cool is that?”
While the part of Kate that was a sci-fi nerd found the concept to be amazing, the more rational part of her was horrified. It didn’t seem appropriate somehow that one of her childhood heroes was going to see parts of her that were exclusive to her husband these days. “He’ll be thrilled, I’m sure,” Kate replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Somehow, she was sure that delivering babies was very low on the list of things that the ship’s doctor wanted to do.
“According to the test they ran, I’m close to eight weeks in,” she told him, “So delivery day is early August.”
“Knowing Bones, you’re probably right,” Castle replied before leaning over to kiss her temple again. “August seems so far away, but it will probably be here before we know it. This is the best Christmas present I’ve ever gotten.”
Even if they were in space and away from their home, at least Castle felt that they were relatively safe up here. Kate wasn’t working a dangerous job and there weren’t people trying to kill them. This century might actually end up being the best time to start a family.
“You think it’s forever away?” Kate asked, her eyebrows lifting in surprise. “I was just thinking how it seems so close.” Already she had lists going in her mind of things she needed to do, and there was a very real hope that they’d end up back on Earth or maybe at another Starfleet post between now and then. There were certain things they would need that she wasn’t comfortable replicating and there were no guarantees that any of them would be available on other planets without a Starfleet presence.
But even so, she couldn’t help but smile, stretching just enough to brush her mouth over Castle’s in a brief kiss. “Mmm, I’ll never be able to top this, so it’s really downhill from here,” she teased, “Only socks and underwear from now on.”
“It’s nine months,” he said with a shrug. Less than a year, but still quite a bit of time. Maybe it was because he had done this before, but Castle wasn’t feeling as panicked as Kate.
He nodded sagely at her words. “My Christmas expectations are forever lowered.” Truly, nothing could ever be better than this.
“It is,” Kate agreed, stretching herself lengthwise on the couch before she tugged at his arm until Castle followed, fitting into the space she had made between herself and the cushions. “But I have far more patience than you do.” And, in her mind, that pretty much settled it. Castle was never good at waiting, whereas she didn’t tend to mind.
Moving carefully onto her back, Kate glanced up at him with a laugh. “Okay, good,” she replied, threading her fingers through his and guiding his hand to rest low on her stomach. For now, it was still flat, the muscles taut and her skin still tan from their three weeks on Risa. But that wouldn’t last too much longer.
For a long time, she didn’t say anything to him, her eyes trained on the rise and fall of her stomach as she took in a breath and then released it. Sometimes she just needed quiet, a minute or two to get her bearings back and accept whatever new thing that life had thrown at her.
And then, like the flip of a light switch, she was back in the moment, grinning up at him as her fingers gently drew lines over the back of his hand. “Hey Castle?” she asked, waiting until his eyes met hers before she spoke again. “Thank you for doing this with me. I love you.”
Castle smiled when she took his hand and placed it on her stomach before he could do it himself. He knew not to expect to feel anything there yet, but he was happy just to know that a life was growing under his hand.
“Always,” he replied, leaning over to kiss her. “I love you too. There’s no one else I’d rather do this with.”