SORRY FOR THE REPOSTING! THIS SITE KEEPS EATING UP THIS STORY MAKING ME LOSE MY REVIEWS AN FOLLOWERS. PLEASE RE-FOLLOW AND REVIEW IF YOU GET THE CHANCE.

Apparently I can't stay out of this universe! I like writing about Beckett and Castle and the kids and Alexis and well everyone! So well here it is. I don't think it's going to be as long as the other two stories. I just wanted to write this one. It might be a while before I update as I'm going out of town to meet my new niece tomorrow :D anyways enjoy!

The sound of little feet padding across the floor awoke Castle way too early for his liking. He didn't bother to look up knowing it was Brianna. The two year old had developed the bad habit of sneaking out of her bed and into theirs. It was more of an annoyance for the adults as they had to make sure they were fully dressed after they made love, no matter how tired they were. Most of the time Brianna would try sneaking into Nate's bed, but there were some times Nate wouldn't let her sending her seeking their bed.

Beckett awoke to the bed shifting under the weight of her daughter. "Your turn," She mumbled to her husband.

Castle made a noise as Brianna wiggled between him and Beckett. "Bree what time is it?"

"I dunno." The girl replied, her hazel-blue eyes sparkling with mischief.

Castle cracked an eye open and couldn't help but smile at the state of her curly hair. The shade was a lighter brown matching Beckett's rather than his and right now it was just one big ball of knots. Beckett was going to have a great time trying to brush it out. "Why are you out of bed?"

"Lonely." Brianna lay down with her head on her father's pillow. "Mommy home now?"

"Yes baby." Beckett turned so she was facing her husband and daughter. Though since having Brianna she has been taking to the streets less, cases like her current one demanded that she did. It was one of those rare times that she didn't make it home after both kids were in bed. Beckett ran a hand over her daughter's crazy hair, "sorry I didn't make it home to tuck you in."

"S'okay." The two-year-old assured snuggling into her arms.

As much as Castle didn't want to encourage Brianna's habit, he couldn't deny he enjoyed these quite moments. Smiling, he slipped an arm around both of his girls and pulled them close as possible.

Two hours later, Beckett was moving around the kitchen trying to divide her time in making breakfast and making Nate's lunch. She had struggled a little with the balance when Nate started school. Of course Castle had been there help her along the way having already been through this with Alexis. It was a little harder when she had to keep an eye out and make sure Brianna wasn't getting into things she wasn't supposed to. The girl's favorite thing to do in life was explore. Just last week Beckett had found her sleeping in one of the kitchen cupboards with her favorite stuffed animal named Red.

"All right Nathan, your favorite." She laid a plate in front of the seven year old, "French toast and scrambled eggs."

The boy brushed his chestnut hair out of his eyes to look at it and half-heartedly pulled it closer to him, "Thanks mom."

"Hey," She reached across the counter to lift his blue gaze to hers, "what's wrong, Nate?"

"Nothing."

In mom terms that meant something. This was the first experience with her son not sharing whatever was bothering him. "Did you have a nightmare?" Every so often Nate would dream about Grey and how close the monster came in killing Jeremy. No, that wasn't it. If he had one of those dreams then he would have come and woken one of them up.

"No." Nate stabbed his fork at the eggs.

"Are you embarrassed that I'm coming to school for career day?" If that was the case it was news to her because up until now he had been talking none stop how he thought it was so cool she was coming to talk to his class.

"No I think it's cool that you're coming."

"Are you sick?" She hated seeing him look so down.

"I'm fine mom."

Beckett decided it was best not to push. Instead she turned her attention on making his lunch while keeping an eye on Brianna. She was sitting in the chair next to her brother coloring. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Brianna try to engage Nate and was shut down. Something was wrong. Nate, no matter how annoyed he might be at her, would never shrug off Brianna and her attempts to talk to him. "Okay lunch is done." She placed the Doctor Who lunch box on the counter in front of him. "Finish eating up and watch your sister for a moment so I can finish getting ready."

"Okay." Nate muttered.

"Rick?" Beckett pushed her way into the bathroom and called for her husband who was in the middle of his shower.

He popped his head out the shower glass door with his hair dripping wet. "Wanna join?" He asked suggestively with a smile. Their mornings were always so rushed that they hardly had any time together before she took Nate to school and went to work.

"Something is wrong with Nate."

His face sobered and he reached to turn of the water even though he still had soap in his hair. "What do you mean?" He took the towel she offered and wrapped it around his waist.

"I don't know." Beckett hitched herself on the bathroom counter. "He's hardly talking to me and hasn't touched his breakfast."

"Maybe he's not hungry."

"It's French toast."

That was the first warning sign right there; Nate always ate French toast, especially when Beckett made it. "Did he have a bad dream?"

"That's what I thought, but he said no. "

"Hmm…." Castle rubbed another towel over his hair, "think Brianna tried to wake him up too early and he never went back to sleep."

"Maybe." Beckett chewed on her bottom lip as she thought of a thousand other things that could be bothering her son. She just didn't like how gloomy he looked in the kitchen. Nate was always a ray of sunshine, even on his bad days.

"Nervous about career day?" Castle asked.

"About talking to a bunch of seven year olds," Beckett looked at him, "I'm terrified."

"Come on you've face down New York's toughest suspects and you can't talk to a bunch of kids?"

"It's different. They're going to be the on integrating me."

Laughing, Castle kissed the wrinkle that formed between her brows, "You'll do great and maybe since you'll be hanging out with Nathan all day at school you can figure out what's wrong with him."

"Sure you don't want to take my place?"

* "I don't think the kids would like to know about an author's life. A cop is so much more exciting."

"Admit it, you're just as scared."

"I never said that."

Beckett stole one more kiss and hopped off the counter, "What do you have planned for today?"

"Figured Bree and I can go visit Alexis and see how she's doing. Doctor says she's due any day now." He was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was going to be a grandfather soon. He barely recovered from giving her away at her wedding. "Jeremy is taking his detective exam today."

"I know." She had been helping coach the boy in any way she could. Jeremy had been spending a lot more time on her floor at the twelfth poking around trying to get a feel for real detective work. Gates even assigned him as an aid once or twice to help Ryan with cases. "Already have a dinner planned for him depending on the news."

Castle cornered her against the sink when she tried to leave. He gently cupped her face between his big hands, "I haven't told you I love you today, have I?"

"No."

He lowered his mouth to hers and indulged himself until her hands were gripping his shoulders. It was a nice reminder that after nearly ten years together they had the same spark between them like they did when they first got together. Smiling, he shifted as the towel did nothing to hide the effect of the kiss. "I love you Kate Beckett."

A warm smile split across her face, "I love you too Rick Castle. Now wish my luck!"

"Luck!" He called after her.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Dr. Castle?" Castle called out his warning as he let himself into the apartment. He made the mistake one time dropping by unannounced and now has an image burned into his brain of Jeremy's backside and his daughter that he would rather forget.

"In the bedroom," Alexis answered.

Brianna took off in that direction and gave a shout of glee before crawling onto the bed, "Lexi."

"Hey pumpkin," Alexis ran a hand down her sister's braided hair. "Giving dad more grey hairs?"

"Yep," Brianna grinned.

Castle entered the bedroom holding up a plastic grocery bag, "Brought some double fudge ice cream."

"Give me," Alexis begged her hand already extended. "I have such a bad craving for chocolate it's not even funny."

Castle dug out a spoon and the pint of ice cream and gladly handed it over to his eldest daughter.

"How are you feeling today?"

"Like a whale."

"Baby?" Brianna touched Alexis's swollen stomach.

"Is doing okay," Alexis assured before digging into her ice cream.

Castle noticed the way Alexis shifted in bed with a wince. "Kicking?"

"Braxton hicks. The doctor says that I'll have him out before the end of the week." The thought both terrified and delighted her. Alexis hoped that by watching Beckett for the last ten or so years she would be half the mom she was. "You ready to be a grandpa?"

"No," Castle laughed sitting on the edge of the bed, "You're going to be a great mom you know that?"

Alexis relinquished her hold on the spoon for a moment to rub her belly, "You think so?"

"Of course, have you guys settled on a name for my grandson?"

Alexis shared a spoonful of ice cream with Brianna, careful not to let the two year old get it all over her face. "We got an idea."

He raised a brow, "Care to share?"

"Well we wanted to honor those who aren't with us anymore. His dad and Kate's mom, but since it's not a girl we can't name her Johanna like we planned." Alexis shyly looked into her pint, "I don't want to upset mom with what we decided."

"Honey your mother won't get upset." Maybe before they patched up their relationship, Meredith would have been offended. Now that their relationship was evolved, he doubted his ex-wife would be upset. "Tell me what you decided."

"Kaden Beckett. I know it's cheesy, but…" Alexis sucked her bottom lips between her teeth to give herself a moment to gather her words. "Kate, well, she volunteered to be my mom even though I was old enough and didn't really need one. She loved me even though I wasn't her own and would have died for me. And before you two were dating she was the person I could go to about women things and well, I just want to thank her and honor her mother at the same time."

Castle leaned over to place a kiss to his daughter's crown, "I think that is perfect. I know Kate will think the same thing."

"How was Kate feeling about career day?" Alexis asked digging back into her ice cream.

"It's Kate, how do you think she feels?"

"Nervous. What about Nate? Is he excited or embarrassed about having his mom at school?"

"I don't know." He pulled Brianna onto his lap before he could steal any more ice cream. It still bugged him that neither of them could get Nate to tell them what was wrong. "He was acting a little weird this morning. He passed up French toast."

"He never passes up French toast," Alexis said.

"Well if Kate can't get it out of him, maybe you can take a crack at him," Castle suggested, "play on the sibling code or something."

"Tricking him is against sibling rules," Alexis informed, "Well for parents it is. I can trick him all I want for my own benefit."

"Feel up to going to the park?" Castle asked.

"Park!" Brianna bounced up and down in her father's lap, "Lexi, park?"

There was no way Alexis could refuse her sister's toothy smile, "Let me finish my ice cream."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Thank you Mrs. Castle for coming in today," Nate's teacher, Ms. Shane, greeted Beckett at the door with a warm smile and a firm hand shake. "Young Nathan has been getting the class all riled up about you."

Beckett watched Nate drop off his jacket at the pegs beside the door before he went to his desk that was towards the back of the classroom. The small desk had Nathan Castle written in big boxy letters surrounded by NYPD stickers she had given him. He looked a little happier as he talked to his desk mate; a young boy about Nate's age with dusty blonde hair and a pair of green eyes. Beckett couldn't help but think that they looked too sad for a young boy. "It's no trouble at all. I have to ask," Beckett turned her attention back to Ms. Shane, "Has Nathan gotten into any trouble lately?"

"No," Ms. Shane thought for a moment, "Nate has been one of the best in the class, minus a few frogs in my desk."

Beckett tried not to laugh at that. She remembered getting the phone call about the certain incident and found herself unable to punish Nate for it. "He just seems really upset and I'm trying to figure out why. Have you noticed anything?"

"He always seems so happy. He's even took young Daniel under his wing as he is new to school this year," Ms. Shane turned to look at the boy and defiantly could tell his small smile didn't reach his eyes. The bell rang bringing the teacher to attention, "Are you ready Mrs. Castle?"

There was no choice even if she wasn't. Beckett tugged on her jacket and ran a hand over her braided hair to smooth down any wisps. Castle was right. She put away harden criminals. A bunch of seven-year- olds should be a cake walk. Making sure her badge was clipped to her belt, Beckett stood in front of the class after she was introduced. "Hi guys. My name is Kate Castle, Nathan's mom, a police officer for the NYPD."

"Why don't you wear a police uniform?" A little girl in pigtails asked.

A nice easy question to start off with, she could handle that, "Because my rank is lieutenant and that means that instead of patrolling around in a police car I get to be in an office and solve harder crimes."

"So how can we tell if you're really a police officer?" The boy with the sad eyes sitting next to Nate asked.

The question struck something within Beckett causing her to cross the classroom and kneel down in front of Daniel's desk. She took her badge off her belt and handed it to the boy. "You ask to see their badge. See it has the city I work in and my rank, which is Lieutenant."

"How do you know if it's real?"

"See this number right here?" Beckett pointed to the five digit number, "Each officer is assigned a number. So if you're in trouble and you don't trust the officer, you can call 911 and give them the badge number. Plus we're required to carry around an ID as well." She watched the boy soak up the badge as if trying to burn it into his memory, leaving Beckett's mind to wonder. "Go ahead and pass it around."

It didn't get far before a boy behind Nate asked another question, "Is that a real gun?"

Beckett's attention shifted away from Daniel to the little boy, "Yes, and no you can't hold it." She stated already knowing the question on the tip of the boy's tongue. Beckett smiled when her son snickered beside her. It was the first upbeat emotion he showed all morning.

"What's the best part of your job, Mrs. Castle?" another classmate asked.

Beckett touched a hand to her son's shoulder as she made her way back to the front of the class. "I would say putting the bad guy away." She answered after thinking for a moment. "It's my way to make sure the streets are a little bit safer."

"Do you have a partner?" A girl in the front with a long braid asked.

"I have two. Their names are Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito. "

A boy in the back corner raised his hand and spoke when Beckett called on him, "What do we do if a stranger approaches us, like on the playground or at the park."

Beckett leaned against the teacher's desk, "Well if you're at school you should go to your teacher or another staff member right away. Don't talk or engage the person for any reason. When playing at the park make sure that you can always see your parent wherever you are. If you can't see them that means that they can't see you and keep an eye on things like that. If someone asks you to come with them you start shouting for help and run to your parent. Shouting - will most likely scare the stranger off as you're drawing attention to them."

"Have you ever shot anyone?" The question came out next.

Beckett gripped the edge of the desk as she glanced at the teacher. This was one of the questions she had dreaded being asked. She knew kids had this ideal that cops ran down dark alleys and engaged in fire fights every night while they went to sleep. If she said "no" they would know she was lying. So Beckett took another route and narrowed her eyes playfully at the boy, "Not today, but the day is still young." Thankfully the class laughed and eased the knots in the lieutenant's stomach.

A girl with thick glasses raised her hand, "Are there many police officers that are girls?"

"The force is a happy mix of both males and females." Beckett assured. Slowly the questions kept coming and Beckett did her best to answer each and every one of them. She told stories of some of her more humorous cases and about an average day in the life of an NYPD police officer and what it was like to rise through the ranks of the police department. Beckett tried to warn them of the dangers of being alone on the street after dark and answering doors for people they didn't know. She didn't want to scare them too badly and make them not want to go out into the world. One of the last questions had been if she had ever been shot. Nate's gaze locked on to hers just as curious, so Beckett had no choice but to tell them the truth. She was hoping that Nate would be much older before he learned the truth. "I have."

Ms. Shane stepped out from behind her desk bringing an end to the Q and A session. "Okay, I think that Lieutenant Castle has answered enough of your questions. She's even kind enough to hang out with us for the lunch and maybe recess if you're lucky."

Beckett blew out a breath of relief that the hard part was over. She looked to her son and he gave her two thumbs up of approval before diving into his desk for something that his teacher asked the class to get.

Beckett excused herself since she wasn't needed for a bit and decided to check in with Castle. "Hey," she greeted and smiled at hearing Brianna's infectious laughter in the background, "Sounds like someone is having fun."

"Yeah, how'd it go?" He wondered.

"I didn't faint from stage fright or anything," Beckett assured. She hated public speaking and for some reason facing those kids were worse than any press conference. "Nathan approved so I must have done something right."

"Is he any better?"

"Not really. I asked Ms. Shane if she's noticed anything and she hasn't. I'm hoping maybe at lunch I might get something out of him. How is Alexis feeling?"

"She thinks she has Braxton hicks but I don't have the heart to tell her that they're the real thing." Castle confessed. "I think she's trying to ignore it so she doesn't interrupt Jeremy's exam."

"Are you keeping an eye on her?"

"Of course."

"Keep me posted."

"I love you."

"Love you too."

At recess, Beckett sat on the picnic bench to have the best view of the playground. Lunch had been filled with fun and harmless questions. It seemed the class got the message to stay clear of dark topics by the way Ms. Shane intervened earlier. A few girls came to sit with her on the bench and chatted mindlessly about nothing. One even asked her to braid her hair just like hers. Beckett, of course, happily obliged and was left alone when the girl darted off to show the new braid to her friends. Every time a child had approached her, a part of her braced for the possibility one of them could confess something dark going on in their life.

Since it seemed that the kids were focused on playing with one another, Beckett looked around in search for Nate. Her son was sitting on a swing with his head bent close to Daniel who was on the swing next to him. Beckett resisted the urge to go over to them. Daniel's sad eyes tugged at her heart and by the look on Nate's face, her son's as well. "You said Daniel was new?" She inquired as Ms. Shane sat next to her.

"Transferred here about a month ago. His dad is a cop I think." Ms. Shane informed.

'How does he afford the tuition?" Becket knew on a cop's salary affording any prep school was nearly impossible.

"From what I understand it's his wife's money."

"What does she do?" Why was she so interested? Beckett hated gossip and prying into other people's business. There was just something about Daniel that perked her interest.

Ms. Shane thought for a moment, "She passed away a year or so, I believe."

"Leu-ten-ant Castle," A boy with big brown eyes approached her with a kick ball in his arms. "Will you play with us?"

Beckett happily took the ball, "You know what? I would love to. Nathan!" She called out to her son, "Why don't you and Daniel join us."

"Okay," Nate called back.

There was a big debate on whose team Beckett would be on, so she took it upon herself to play for both. She started off pitching, since it seemed throwing a straight pitch was beyond a seven- year-old's capability. She enjoyed watching the delight on the child's face when their foot connected with the red ball. If the ball came to her, Beckett made sure she made a big show of juggling the ball and dropping it to give the runner enough time to get to first base.

After three outs, the lieutenant joined the team at bat. She couldn't help but notice while most of the kids were crowded around one another, Daniel was off to the side. Beckett approached him with a gentle smile, "Its Daniel right?"

The boy nodded his head sending his shaggy hair into his eyes.

"I see you've made friends with Nate."

Again Daniel shook his head.

"Well," Beckett wasn't going to push too much. "Since you guys are friends, maybe I can talk to your dad about letting you come over one afternoon after school."

This perked the boy's attention enough for him to actually look at her, "I'd like that."

"I'm sure Nate would too. Now," She jerked her head towards home plate, "Why don't you have a go."

"I don't know how to play," Daniel shyly confessed.

"It's easy. Come on I'll teach you." She led the boy to home plate and positioned him correctly while explaining in great length how to hit the ball and where to run. Even after her explanation he still looked both hesitant and afraid.

Nate swooped in with his signature Castle smile, "You can do it Danny," Nate encouraged, "Don't take your eye off the ball."

It seemed Nate's encouragement worked. Daniel signaled for the pitcher to roll the ball. He ran up and missed the ball by a mile.

"Try again," Beckett insisted and told him how to correct his approach.

Daniel adjusted and this time the toe of his foot connected solidly with the kickball and sent it sailing towards third base. The connection startled the boy.

"Run!" Nate cried and took off towards first base to show Daniel where to go.

Tears prickled at the corner of Beckett's eyes as she watched her son celebrate with Daniel when the boy made it to first base. While the other kids ignored the quiet boy, Nate was doing whatever he could to make Daniel feel included and to make him feel important. When Nate jogged back for his turn, Beckett seized him up into her arms.

"Ugh," Nate wiggled trying to get free, "Mom, you're embarrassing me."

She set him down even though he only said it half-heartedly. Beckett ruffled his hair, "You're an amazing kid; you know that."

His lips curved in a smile that belonged to his father, "So I'm told."

Beckett laughed until her side hurt. Nate was truly a miniature of Castle.

0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Mom?"

Beckett glanced in the rear view mirror at her son in the back seat. It was the first time he spoke since they pulled away from the school. "Yes sweetie?"

"You were really cool today."

A smile crossed her face, "I didn't embarrass you too much, did I?"

"Dad would have been much worse," Nate replied causing his mother to laugh. He was quiet until he dropped his gaze to his fidgeting hands on his lap. "Mommy?"

"Hmm?"

"Lying is bad right?"

The question caught Beckett off guard. His mood had changed so drastically in such a short amount of time. "There are times lying is okay. They're called white lies."

"White lies?"

"Yes. It's when a person lies so they don't hurt a person's feelings. Like…" Beckett took a moment while navigating through traffic to think of an example. "When Alexis asks if she is fat and I told her no because saying she was would hurt her feelings."

"But she is fat."

Beckett shook her head on a short laugh, "She's not fat." She gently corrected. "She's pregnant. I guess you can say I lied to her to protect her from getting hurt. "

"So…" Nate looked at her reflection in the rear view mirror, "Lying to protect someone is okay?"

The tone of his question had her mommy senses tingling and she pulled off the road to park. She turned in her seat to look at him, "Lying to protect someone and lying because they ask you too because they think it will protect them are two different things. So say if someone told you something, something bad, and asks you to lie to cover it up is bad." Beckett watched his small brow scrunch in confusion. "Has someone asked you to lie for them, Nathan? One of your classmates?"

Nathan opened his mouth to answer and Beckett's cell phone came to life. She went to ignore it, but saw Castle's picture and knew she couldn't.

Nate's shoulders relaxed when his mother answered the phone. By the tone of her voice and smile on her face he knew his sister was about to have her baby, saving him to answer his mother's questions.

So whatca think? Please let me know!

Tonks32 :D