Sequel to Perspective. This story starts about two months later. There isn't a mystery here, but I may write one eventually. This is more about who Beckett and Castle are when they aren't working. Beckett has to take a day off.

Ch. 1

Detective Kate Beckett loved her job. She loved her family. Really, she had no complaints. She was dating a nice, good-looking guy with a good job who loved her. She reasoned with herself over and over. She had to make a decision. She had a piece of paper in front of her that had been folded in half length-wise. Kate methodically listed the Pros on the left side and the Cons on the right. The left side had many, many reasons extending down half the page. The right side had only two items, but they were biggies.

Three days ago she thought her life had calmed down. There was all of the excitement over her "incident" two months ago. Her hand went to the spot on her head where one of the holes had been drilled. She was shot at with her vest on; the hit knocked her down and she hit her head resulting in a subdural hematoma that required surgery. After the surgery, Will Sorenson took her to Hilton Head, South Carolina to recuperate.

Hilton Head was incredible. They stayed in a house right on the water. Kate spent her days reading on the open deck, sunbathing on the incredible beach and swimming in the clear blue ocean. She had to give Will credit, he did his best to make sure that she rested and had no worries. They ate out every evening, because Will didn't cook and didn't want her to do it either. Even at night when they slept in the same bed, Will didn't expect anything. They only had sex once during their stay, the night before they left.

Once they returned, she went back to work. Castle was apparently doing a PR tour for two weeks, hitting late night talk shows, the morning programs and doing interviews with various publications. So by the time she saw him again, it had been almost a month since she said goodbye. Kate knew that Richard Castle had feelings for her. If she was being truthful she would say they were reciprocated 100%. When she left with Will, she knew she hurt him. It wouldn't have surprised her if she never saw him again. What she didn't expect was the ache in her heart. Castle was in her fantasies and her dreams.

When she saw him at a crime scene for the first time in a while, she was so excited she was shaking. But he wasn't the same Rick. Through that whole case he was serious and there was none of the playful banter they used to have. It broke her heart. She wanted to talk to him, like they used to, about all of the things that niggled at her brain. And yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that every word she said to him stung.

Three days ago, Will Sorenson proposed to her. Thank God he did it in the park without an audience, because she said she needed time to think. Eventually he would be transferred to another city. As his wife, she would be expected to go with him. Her family could handle that now, and truth be told, Kate would be fine working for a different jurisdiction. She made her list immediately. But she still couldn't decide.

The two items on the Cons list were huge to her: a) She was in love with Richard Castle, and b) Will Sorenson did not want children. It was terrible, she thought, to marry one man when you were in love with another, but she was pretty sure Castle had moved on, she lost her chance. Her mother always told her that love was not only a feeling but also an action. She could love Will Sorenson, but would she if he never changed his mind about having children?

His logic was sound. They were both in very dangerous jobs. Neither really wanted to leave their job to stay at home with a child. The thought of orphaning a child disturbed them both. The memories of losing a parent in a violent act were still fresh in Kate's mind. Perhaps her mind would change.

It was at ten o'clock one Thursday evening that started the cascade of events, the tipping point.

"Beckett."

"Kate, we need you. Can you do us a huge favor?"

"Jorge?" He never called this late. "What's wrong?" Jorge and his wife Emma just had their third child two weeks ago, a beautiful baby boy named Ethan. Jorge and Emma were close family friends. The bittersweet part of it was that their middle child would never know little Ethan. A precocious child at six years old, their son Luke was killed in a freak small plane accident outside of the city two years ago. The heaviness in her chest just thinking about the incident overwhelmed her, because of her status as a police officer, Kate had access to everything. She was there in the emergency room with Jorge when he was finally able to see Luke—after he was gone. They have an older son, Noah, who is nine and autistic, which was also a devastating blow to Jorge and Emma, both extremely brilliant scientists.

This decision to have another child was complicated, involving a vasectomy reversal and a miscarriage for Emma. So the birth of Ethan was long-awaited and joyous. The anxiety in Jorge's voice set Kate on edge.

"Don't worry, it's just that Emma is having an unusual amount of bleeding still and today she passed out. The doctor is concerned about the blood loss and so is Avery." Avery was Kate's sister and also happened to be a brilliant midwife. She delivered Ethan. "They want to do exploratory surgery tomorrow and maybe cauterize some blood vessels. I don't want to leave her there alone, but a hospital is no place for a newborn. Especially with this flu going around. Could you…keep Ethan for us tomorrow?"

"Me? I mean Jorge, I'll do anything for you guys, but you have to know I'm not the most experienced…"

"Kate, we've seen you with children—babies before. Now if you can't get off work, we understand, but we have the utmost confidence that you'll be great. The pediatrician also said that having someone watch him who doesn't have children would be best. They are germ magnets." He chuckled.

"Who's watching Noah?"

"Maggie already has him." Maggie was Kate's other sister. She was a stay-at-home mom raising three boys herself.

"Okay…well…sure." She nodded to herself. "I'll take Ethan."

"Great. We have to be at the hospital by six tomorrow morning, so we'll be at your place at five. Okay?"

"Five? In the morning?" She pushed a large sigh through her lips. "Okay, I'll see you then."

"Thanks so much Kate."

"Any time." She said those words with hesitation.

As she hung up the phone, she had an idea. Maybe Will could do this with her. Maybe having him around this precious new baby would get the wheels turning. She hit speed dial and waited.

"Hey, you." Sorenson answered. "What are doing this evening? Still pondering over my proposal?"

She ignored his salutation. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"I have a day full of meetings and debriefings. Why?"

"I have to take the day off to babysit for Ethan and I was wondering if you'd join me."

"Kate, I can't take the day off to play with someone's baby. Do babies even play?"

Kate sighed again. "This wasn't arbitrary, Will. Emma is having surgery tomorrow. They need my help."

"What time are they picking him up? Maybe we can go out later."

"They didn't say. Give me a call tomorrow and I'll let you know." She was irritated. He made it sound like she was just skipping work for no good reason.

"Don't be mad, Kate. You know this isn't my thing."

"I'm not mad. We'll talk tomorrow."

"I love you," he said.

"Me too." She lied.