Disclaimer: Sadly they don't belong to me.

A/N: Here's the last chapter, I had so much fun with this story. I hope those of you who read it will enjoy it! I want to thank all of you who have reviewed, I really appreciate it! This hasn't been beta'd so please forgive my many mistakes.

Alexis had stayed at the loft since her breakup, it's been a week and he loves having his little girl back under his roof. In fact, having both Alexis and Kate under his roof had really made this past week one of the best.

But as of nine-forty-three this morning he could have been declared brain-dead, maybe he's had a stroke, maybe an aneurysm but it's now ten-twelve and he hasn't moved. Not a muscle. He's standing in the second floor guest bathroom and this is where they will find his body.

He's asked himself why he felt the need to help Lea, the cleaning woman, with the trash this morning. He was just being him, being helpful. Running up the steps to grab a book Alexis asked him to bring to campus that she'd forgotten that morning Lea had asked if he would help gather the bags from the bathroom trash cans upstairs. She'd forgotten them after she did her usual cleaning on the second floor of the loft. No, he didn't mind.

That would be his cause of death.

Maybe cause wouldn't be it, but it definitely was the gun that the bullet came from.

He'd gone to his mothers' room and then the guest bathroom.

Castle stands with the bag in his hand, noticing the heaviness but taking in the fact there were only a few Kleenex lying in the bottom. He was Castle; of course he was curious as to what was in the bag.

The little pink box the Kleenex was obviously supposed to hide came into perfect view after he shifted them around. He was trying to reign in his breath, calm himself until his heartbeat returned to normal.

He shouldn't panic anyway. There was no reason to panic. He didn't even know the results that are going to be showing on that little plastic stick that was inside.

He couldn't do this. No this was something private and if Alexis didn't want to tell him yet then he couldn't invade her privacy as he so wanted to do. Instead he ties the bag together and takes it downs stairs so Lea can finish for the day.

He does his best to go on about his day like he had planned. His meeting at Black Pawn is at eleven and he would be meeting Beckett and the boys as soon as that wrapped.

He forgets to take the book to Alexis.

How he managed to make it through a two-hour meeting without his head exploding, every question, every thought he had flying out into the room for all to see, he is still not sure.

When she sees him she knows there's something on his mind. He's sitting in his chair listening to her ramble off all the new case notes she's made today. The interrogation he missed out on. He doesn't interrupt, doesn't throw a crazy theory at her, nothing. There's something not right with him today.

"Castle, everything okay?" She finally asks after over an hour of silence, he's reread the same witness statement for the past twenty-minutes; yeah something is on his mind.

"What?"

"You haven't turned the page since you picked up the file."

"Just making sure I've got everything down," he says, turning the page since she called it to his attention.

"Uh, huh," she doesn't look away from him though.

He can feel her eyes on him. But he doesn't want to bring it up here at the precinct. Doesn't want to bring anyone's attention what may or may not be happening with his daughter.

By seven he's starving and he can't sit in his chair anymore today.

"Dinner?" He asks her.

She looks over at him from where she's standing at the murder board. She's not ready to leave yet, wants just a little more time here, she's close to working something out, connect the dots, she can feel it. She can't leave yet.

"Um, no you go on ahead. I'll be home soon," she tells him, sits on the edge of her desk then returns her attention back to the murder board.

In a day that has thrown him off his axis and left his mind wondering is space her calling the loft home makes him smile. She doesn't even realize she does it anymore. She doesn't live at the loft really. But she spends more time there than at her own apartment. It's been weeks since they've even spent a night apart.

There's no one around when he makes his way over to where she's perched on her desk, kisses the crown of her head. He whispers his goodbye against her hair and then makes his way to the elevator.

He really had no intention of calling her when he pulls the phone out of his pocket but she answers on the third ring.

"Hey Alexis, want to grab a bite to eat with your old man?"

She hates when he calls himself that.

"Sure, where are we going?"

Kate is leaning up against the headboard when they come in. She hears him moving around the kitchen, a cabinet opening then closing, glass knocking against glass. Fifteen minutes later and he's still in the kitchen.

Crawling from beneath the covers she goes to find him. He's standing in the kitchen, head down leaning over the counter. Opened bottle of scotch next to an empty glass.

He knows the moment she's near him, he can sense her at his side before she runs a hand down his back her other wrapping around his bicep.

He's lost after his dinner with Alexis.

When he can put his words together, he'll tell her all about it.

"You ready to talk about what's had you trapped in your own mind all day?"

He huffs out a laugh but really there's nothing funny about what he's feeling now.

"Where's Alexis?" She asks him. The girl has stayed at the loft the past week and she knows her absence tonight must mean something.

"At the dorm."

"Castle…"

"I confronted her about something tonight...She said she'd be at the dorm when she left me sitting at the table after dinner."

"What did you confront her about, Castle?"

He takes a breath and lifts his head.

"I found a pregnancy test in the bathroom upstairs."

"What?" The word comes out of her mouth no louder than a breath.

"Yeah, she'd tried to hide it, but I saw it. I wasn't going to bring it up to her. Wasn't going to until she decided she was ready to tell me. After today, Kate…I just…I had to know. One day of not knowing if…I had to know. She's my baby and if she needed someone…I wanted to be there for her. I wanted her to know that whatever the results whatever she decided I would be there for her no matter what."

"Cast…" she starts to interrupt him but he doesn't let her. Just keeps trudging on.

"She didn't say anything. Wouldn't tell me anything, didn't deny anything…told me to talk to you."

That's when his eyes meet hers; they pierce her in their fierceness. He's angry…with her.

"So you know, huh?"

She nods her head yes.

"Tell me…Was it negative or positive?"

He's put some distance between them, backed himself up until he's against the refrigerator.

She doesn't want to tell him. Not while he's still so upset but this is not something he's going to let go for the moment.

"Positive," her voice low. She watches him take it in, watches him deflate a little.

"How could you not tell me, Kate? How could you keep something like that…" he stops, he's not going to make this about him. He's upset still but there's a bigger picture and he sees it.

"So my baby is having a baby of her own and I'm going to be a grandpa?"

The question is rhetorical.

She answers anyway.

"No."

It doesn't sink in what she's trying to say to him.

"What? You just said…"

And the moment she's been waiting for for two days is here. This isn't how she planned it. No, she had reservations, candles and a new nightgown and a box containing the first of the two pregnancy tests she had taken.

"I said, the test was positive but you're not going to be a grandpa."

He finally inhales and exhales even slower while he wraps his mind around what she's alluding to.

"You're going to be a dad. Again."

The smile that breaks on his face is one she knows she'll remember for the rest of her life.

"You mean…you're, we're…You and me," his brain is broken again. Twice in a week that's a record. "We're going to have a baby?"

No this wasn't planned and she never thought she would be a mother; she's scared, scared she won't be a good mother, scared how she'll be both detective and mother. But she's never been scared of how he would take the news. Never been scared of what kind of father he will be.

It calms her so when he says 'we'.

"Yes," the word is out and he is on her.

Arms wrapped around her bringing her body flush with his, he's kissing any part of her that he comes in contact with. Her shoulder, her neck, check, nose, forehead, chin, other check, another quick stop at her nose again, her smiling mouth. Bends down and kisses her flat abdomen through her shirt. She's laughing, silly, loving man. He pulls back from her, hands framing her face, kisses her mouth again.

He's reeling with what she's just told him.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to tell you. I wanted it to be special."

He's smiling down at her. "Kate, it was perfect." And he's kissing her again.

She breaks away and rests her forehead against his.

"I love you, Castle."

"I love you, Kate, so much."

He's imagined this moment a hundred times, believed in it when the possibility was so far away. When ex-wives and doctors and blonde stewardesses kept getting in the way, he believed.

"You think you should call your daughter, tell her what she probably has already pieced together?"

He laughs lightly, he probably should. The phone call goes surprisingly smooth.

Alexis had figured it out in a split second what he took almost all day to understand.

She's happy for him, for them. She's finally getting that baby brother or sister he promised her she would have someday.

They say goodnight with a promise to see her the next morning for breakfast.

"Kate, one question," he says as she leads him to their bed, "why the upstairs bathroom?"

She's pulling him down with her to the mattress, his body covering hers.

He's still grinning like mad and she's never been this happy.