Escort

Chapter Fourteen (final chapter)

"Slow down, slow down!" Rick laughed as their four-year-old son and eleven-year-old daughter ran towards the office they both knew too well.

"Mom!" they both shouted and the brunette looked up from the papers she had been eyeing.

"Kids! What are you doing here?" she asked as she turned her chair in order to open her arms and hug them.

"We came to see you mom! Look, look, daddy took us to the water park today!" Jim said, holding his arm out to show the bracelet one gets in order to visit the water park.

Kate laughed, their son was as overly excited about places like that as his father.

"Did you guys have fun?" she asked and was immediately thrown into the story of their day.

Kate felt Rick's gaze on them, knowing just how much he enjoyed watching her with their kids. They had her full attention and she was listening to them as if they were her whole world, because in a way they were. It had taken only a year before Rick had proposed to her after they finally got her demons arrested, another year for them to marry and it didn't take long after their honeymoon before they decided to adopt. Kate had found Olive one day through her work, the small girl had lost her parents in an accident and Rick had seen how destroyed Kate was with the similarities to her own experience and suggested they adopt the girl. Rick had been supportive the second Kate had settled on working with kids who went through the tragedy of loosing their parents or guardians one way or another. Olive had been scared when Kate announced her pregnancy, and after some convincing she'd confessed to Kate she was afraid they would forget about her once their, as she put it, 'real' baby came along. That's when Kate had told Olive about how she herself had lost her parents, had told the girl she knew exactly what it was like not having her parents around. Kate had made sure to tell the girl how she would never try to replace Olive's biological parents but that there was no way her nor Rick would ever forget about her, because she was their daughter. Maybe not biological but real nonetheless.

"Kate do you got those... oh," Kate's co-worker, Denise, stopped in the doorway as she took in the sight of the whole Castle clan in Kate's office.

"Hi Denise, sorry, the kids wanted to say hi and I figured since Kate's shift's over in ten minutes it wouldn't mind," Rick immediately excused and the kids said 'sorry' as adorably as they could.

Kate chuckled while Denise just hummed, never really been a fan of Rick's small tricks, but smiled at the kids since, after all, kids where her profession. Denise had disliked Rick since the time she caught them making out in Kate's office, immediately assuming it had been Rick's idea when Kate really wasn't so sure about that.

"Anyway, Kate, you got those papers I asked you about earlier?" Denise asked, not saying any names because of the confidentiality.

"Yup, right here," Kate said, letting go of her kids' hands for a few seconds in order to pull out the file with the said papers and hand it to her co-worker.

Denise took the papers and said goodbye as she walked out of the office after giving Rick her another glare.

"What does she have against me?" Rick asked as soon as the door was closed behind the woman.

Kate laughed at her husband, "I don't know, maybe you shouldn't distract me as often as you do."

"Yeah, you're quite silly too dad," Olive agreed which only made Kate laugh even harder.

Rick grunted at his daughter's comment.

"Just for that, no ice cream when we get home," he told them with a fake irritation and Kate bit her lower lip.