Back and Forth (A Castle Fanfiction)

Debate

"Michael," Rick stated, tossing names from his list at Kate.

"No," she said with a crinkled nose.

"Dustin."

"No."

"Reid."

"Ooo," Kate perked up, thinking about it for a moment as she stroked her stomach on the opposite end of the couch from her writer. She then compared it to their name, and shook her head, "No. Rick, I really like Henry Chase. It's a really cute name that the baby can grow up with, and you lit up the second you heard it."

Rick then agreed, "It is really cute, but what if he hates it? I mean, what if he's a jock. Henry isn't really masculine."

"No, but Chase is. If he wanted to use his middle name, he could. Plus, you said your friends all called you Rodgers in high school and college anyway."

"Kate, I love that name, I just- I don't think we should make it absolute yet. I don't think we should tell anyone else yet, just in case we change it."

"Rick, why would change the name? I thought we both loved it."

"I don't know. Maybe the day he's born, we'll see him, hold him for the first time and decide he looks like a Phillip or a Kyle or something."

Kate sighed. "First of all, I veto Phillip now if that's on your list." Rick huffed a moment and scratched his pen over the pad of paper he was holding. "Second, Rick, I love that name. And every time I hear it, I can feel how- right it is and the baby even moves around and- it's the right name, Rick. Unless you really don't like it."

"No, no, I love it. I just-...," he didn't know what it was exactly. He just told her, "I don't want to mess this up."

Kate lightly smiled to her lover, sighing, and then telling him softly, "Rick, if you really don't want me to broadcast the name to my father and your mother and everyone else, I won't. But you at least have to let me tell Maddie it's in our top five. She's dying to know."

Rick smiled. "Of course."

Alexis then cooed from the stairs, "Daddy? Kate?"

The adults turned. Together, they both saw her teary eyes and knew what had happened. Rick asked anyway, "Alexis, why are you up, pumpkin? It's almost midnight."

"I had a nightmare," the girl said softly. The adults together sighed and Rick got up as Kate watched him.

When he got to his little girl on the steps, he lifted her off the floor and gently stroked her back. "Come here, pumpkin," he said softly, "Let's come sit right down here, alright?" The child nodded, resting her head in the crook of her father's neck. The two then sat close to Kate whose hold Alexis shifted into the moment she could. As the writer and his girlfriend softly soothed the child's fears as much as they could, eventually getting her to fall asleep, they watched each other and their little pumpkin closely.

Eventually, Kate handed Alexis off after Rick stood. He then spared a hand to help her up as her now fairly pregnant stomach made it somewhat hard to do so. She didn't quite look full term yet. In fact, she didn't really look like she was a full six and a half months pregnant, but she was big enough now that there would have been no way to hide it. When they got to bed, as Alexis would have likely woken up and come back down stairs to their bed anyway, Kate and Rick allowed the girl to sleep between them. As Kate ran her fingers through the young girls hair as her father cradled his daughter in his arms, she whispered softly, "I hope he's just like his sister when he's this age."

Rick smiled, whispering back, "I hope he plays a better game of catch and doesn't play dress up as much."

Kate's gaze then flashed up to his. "I just hope he's happy."