Castle and The Originals

Chapter 33

"Aren't you glad you went?" Jenny asked Kate as they entered the elevator.

"Yeah, actually I am. It was a great idea Lanie, thanks." Kate smiled at her friends.

"All my ideas are great." Lanie quipped.

Kate just nodded and leaned against the back wall of the slowly rising cubicle. The afternoon spent with Jenny and Lanie really had been wonderful. They all three had their nails done, something Kate rarely did because it just seemed so impractical considering her occupation. Then she got her haircut while Lanie and Jenny sweated away in the sauna, an activity Kate couldn't participate in with them. Finally they all received a massage, Kate's being performed by a licensed Prenatal Massage Therapist. She couldn't remember the last time her body felt this relaxed; sometime before becoming pregnant she was sure of that.

The elevator announced its arrival at their floor with a familiar ding. Kate opened her eyes just as the doors parted. She was slightly startled to see her husband waiting for them on the other side. Strangely enough however, she was the only one that seemed surprised by his presence.

"Everything set to go?" Lanie asked him as the three women exited the elevator.

Rick winked.

"Sure is and I thank you both for acting as the decoy." He reached out and took the bag of hair care products Kate had been carrying and handed it to Jenny. "Can you take this inside? We may need a minute."

Jenny readily took the parcel. "Least I can do considering the relaxing afternoon you just provided."

Kate watched the two women prance down the hall towards the loft as if they had been victorious somehow. She had seen Lanie walk like that on many occasions, but was shocked to see how easily Jenny fell right in step with the ME's conniving ways.

"What did you do?" Kate lifted her eyebrow, glared, and crossed her arms at her husband.

As relaxed as she was feeling at the moment she figured she would need to use every weapon in her arsenal to intimidate the man currently smirking at her like the cat that ate the canary.

"Straight huh, I like." Rick brushed her hair behind her left ear and kissed her cheek lightly.

"Nice try. Now still." She tapped her foot; another weapon called upon.

Rick pulled his other hand from behind his back; he was holding her baby book. He raised both arms as if to surrender.

"Before you say anything there is something I want you to read to me." He opened the familiar pink book to a previously marked page. Even upside down Kate immediately knew which page it was. Rick didn't turn it to her quite yet. He smiled. "You didn't really think I would let them go through with it did you? I mean the thought of you trying to sit through an elaborate froufrou baby shower complete with fifty guests, pink streamers, a cutsie cake, and silly party games is almost comical."

Kate opened her mouth to speak, but Rick halted her with a finger to her lips. "Uh-uh."

Then he turned the book so she could see it clearly. He pointed to the entry at the top of the left side of the page just above the names of all the guests that had attended her mother's baby shower. He was clearly waiting for her to read it. She took a moment to look across the page at a few of the pictures that had been taken that day some thirty-two years prior. There were streamers, pink and blue since the Beckett's had opted not to find out what they were having in advance. There was a cake shaped like a baby carriage decorated with green frosting, and finally there was a picture of one of her mom's colleagues with at least a yard of toilet paper in her hand trying to guess the circumference of Johanna's belly.