Double Up

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

it was evening now, and Kate had dressed the kids up and sent them downstairs with Alexis so that she could get ready.

Castle had bought her this new purple dress that fit her perfectly. And he'd told her a week back that he wanted her to wear it for the kid's birthday party.

She was at the dressing table, doing her hair, when Castle came out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

She looked at him through the mirror, his hair still wet from the shower. He was looking at her too she noticed. But not directly though.

No, he was looking at her back. Of course. The dress allowed for her back to be open, and he liked what he was seeing. She turned to look at him, but he immediately looked away then and stepped towards the bed. She had laid his clothes out on the bed for him.

He quickly got dressed and then went to the other mirror in the room and began to put on his tie. Kate put on her earrings and then just turned to watch him. He seemed to be at it for the past few minutes.

Finally, he threw the tie on the bed, giving up. He walked to the wash basin and took out his hair gel from the cabinet there and began doing his hair.

From the side of his eye, he noticed Kate was standing at the doorway to the wash basin area. He turned to look at her; she was holding the tie in her hand.

"I'll do it for you" she said.

He nodded. She stepped in front of him and with so much ease; she slipped the material in the right way through the loops, creating the perfect tie knot.

"Thank you" he said. She straightened the collar and smoothened his shirt. She looked down and then back at him. Her lips parted to say something. But they heard Martha's voice.

"Kate, darling, your dad's here... he wants to see you."

"Uhhh... yea. I'll be right down"

"Go..." he said to her. She smiled sadly and left.

Castle set his hair the way he knew she liked it. He really wanted to talk to her. He didn't like the way they'd been dodging around this the entire day. All he really wanted to do was kiss her, and tell her none of it really mattered to him.

Whatever they fought about, it's not worth any of this. He wanted to tell her they could forget the photo- shoot; he really didn't care for it if she didn't want it. What was important to him was that he and his family were happy and that they enjoyed a private life.

And if Kate felt a photo release of the kids was unnecessary, then he wouldn't argue. She knows what's best. He just wanted them to be alright now. He couldn't stand another minute without being near her.

He quickly went downstairs in search of her, to approach this elephant in the room before the party started. But when he went downstairs, he realized that most of the guests were already here.

Ryan and jenny, with their son; Esposito and Lanie, even Gate's was here with her husband. Rick spotted the mayor talking with Martha. A few other friends of theirs from the precinct were there too.

Kate was holding on to Jo and talking to her dad who was carrying Nate. They seemed to be engrossed in whatever they were talking about.

Rick was about to walk over to Kate, and ask her to come to the kitchen with him so that they could talk, but that's when he saw Espo and Lanie make their way over to Kate. Espo took Jo from Kate's arms, and began to play with her. Rick took a few steps in their direction, thinking now would be a nice time to pull Kate away, but he bumped into Paula on the way.

"Rick, finally I found you. So should I arrange for the photographer to come over tomorrow?"

"What? NO! Listen, I'll talk to you later."

"Wait, why? Did she say no?"

Rick was trying to keep an eye on Kate, needing to go to her right now.

"Paula, we're not doing the photo-shoot okay."

He tried to move past her, but she stopped him.

"But I thought you were all for it"

"Listen. The photo shoot idea is cancelled. We don't want to do it just yet. Now you'll have to excuse me, I need to find my wife."

When he looked back to where Kate was, he found only Espo and Jim with the kids. He looked around. 'Where did she go?' he thought to himself. And that's when he saw Kate and Lanie walking to the kitchen, they seemed to be involved in very serious conversation.

'Of course, they must be talking about me' he spoke to himself. 'Kate must be telling her about r fight in the morning' he thought. Rick ran his hand down his face. Just then he heard Alexis's voice

"Dad?"

He turned around to find Alexis walking up to him, and she was holding someone's hand. Oh. Yea.

"Dad, I want you to meet Jake. Jake, this is my dad"

"Jake, Hi" Castle shook hands with the guy.

"It's so nice to finally meet you Mr. Castle."

"You too"

Castle thought to himself. He's tall, handsome, seemed charming, and a little too polite. Everything that screamed he was a nice guy for Alexis. Then what was making him despise the guy. Castle was about to say something, when Jim came and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around.

"Hey, Grandpa Jim"

"who gave you permission to call me that huh?"

Rick laughed and hugged the man. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great… what about you?"

Rick sighed. "I've had better days." Rick spotted Kate and Lanie again, walking out of the kitchen with wine.

Jim looked towards where Rick's gaze was and then back at him.

"You two never talk when you really have to" he shook his head, laughed and walked away.

When Rick turned back around, Alexis was gone. He looked to the other guests and then spotted them dancing among the rest of the people enjoying the music. Yup, everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun tonight.

Everyone seemed all too happy for his liking. But that's only because he was feeling miserable. He spotted someone holding Nate, and went towards them.