In A Heart Beat (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Chapter 16: Family and Fueds

Castle had been asleep the entire ride back to the precinct. With him not being conscious, it gave her time to think about the case. And clear her head of the thoughts of the baby. Even still, her mind seemed to only be able to focus on the baby and her future with Rick. It was like the world had stopped and she was stuck on the vision of her future. A baby boy or girl crawling around the floor of her and Rick's apartment, possibly even a wedding ring on her finger, or at least an engagement ring. According to Laynie, she'd seen the one Castle had picked out and she'd heard the engagement plans. It was amazing how very little Laynie could talk about this and how much Kate smiled at the thoughts.

While Rick slept quietly beside her, she reflected on how much she loved him and on how much she wanted to be with him. The mere thought of spending a lifetime with him was something she wanted more and more by the minute. A lifetime with him and their kids was just- amazing to think about. That is of course, if they had a future together, which they wouldn't if she were shot and killed tonight.

Focus Kate, you have a case to solve. Alright, so Laynie gave them the when and they had the why, not all they needed was the ability to contact Tyson. Then, she thought back to the times he'd called her before. She picked up the phone and searched her resent calls list. When she found Jerry Tyson's number of an unlisted burner cell, she called it again, hoping that was how he was going to reach her. It went straight to voice mail without a single ring.

With the phone still in her hand, however, it started to ring. She answered Ryan's call, saying, "Tell me these aren't baby issues."

Ryan mocked a laugh, "Ha, ha, ha. That's so funny. No, this is about the Hamptons. The bomb unit did an initial sweep. Apparently there is no bomb, but there is a woman tied up watching the view of the crime scene where her son blew up. And you'll never guess whose name was written on her arm."

"3XK?" Kate asked, annoyed with his self service.

Ryan laughed as he commented, "Don't we all wish? No, it was your name. You'll be happy to know that it wasn't Detective Beckett, it was Detective Katherine Castle. How touching. He's already married you two in his mind. Isn't that sweet?" He was joking around of course, just like everyone she knew probably was, but it wasn't funny to her in the least.

"Yeah, it's beautiful. Did they find anything else?" Kate asked already annoyed with the subject. She couldn't imagine it getting any worse. But it did.

This time, Esposito butted in, "Well, that was only the wedding plans out of the way. Along with that, he bought you a present," the jokes in his tone meant this could only be a baby joke. He was the one that started that rumor in the first place. He shouldn't be so happy as to just go ahead and joke, "A white basinet with a card inside that read 'when one child comes into the world, another must leave. Signed 3XK'. Isn't he a doll?"

"That's disgusting. And by the way, Javier, how is Fernando? Has he spit up on you yet?" she was hoping for a yes just to change the subject from the things that were filling her heart and heart with heavy fire.

Ryan answered for him, "Actually, Nando's asleep. He crashed the second you can Castle left," good. Then he wasn't being a tyrant to the boys. That was actually great because she needed them to work. "How's Castle?"

Kate looked at her sleeping lump of a boyfriend as he seemed at peace. She smiled, knowing he was actually sleeping and actually getting the rest he needed, "He's asleep as well. He needed a nap. And when we get back, he'll need a shot of Espresso." She smiled, once again thinking about her future with him for just a moment before returning to the case.

"Well, we've got nothing else on this end. What did you guys get from Laynie?" Espo asked as he and Ryan finished their side track conversation that was simply back round noise to Beckett. She thought about what she should be telling them and what she should hold off on bringing them in on before she talked to Gates. Having that number and knife could have meant a lot of things that Castle had no doubt thought about, but there weren't any Kate could think of that were real possibilities.