Back and Forth (A Castle Fanfiction)

Danger

As Cavin ran from his seat toward Javier when he picked him up from his tutoring session, Kate stayed behind, sitting at the table, eyes closed, hands over her stomach after her son had delivered a swift and powerful kick to her kidney. When Javi saw her breathing deeply, he questioned from a distance, "You alright?"

"Yeah, I guess. The baby's just- got a strong kick, that's all."

"Can I..." his half question and hand gesture was enough for her to fill in the blanks. She nodded and he made his way over to her, placing his hands on either side of her stomach, feeling the baby move around a bit. "Wow. That's- amazing."

She smiled sarcastically. "Yeah, until he nails you in the kidney."

"Does he have a name yet?"

"No, his father and I are still tossing names around."

"Ah, gotcha," he said, nodding softly. He then looked at her stomach and said, "You'll get a name soon, buddy. I promise."

"Javi, come on, let's go! I want to get there before it gets dark."

"Alright," the man said, "Alright. Just give me a second, kid. Here," he pulled his hand up and fished his keys from his pocket. "You go to the car, check that everything is secured down and I'll be out in a sec."

"Alright," the boy replied with some slight disappointment. Cavin then dragged his feet toward the door.

Kate smiled as she watched him go and asked, "Where are you guys going?"

"Um, camping with a couple of his friends and their Big Brothers."

Kate smiled softly, "That's got to be nice for the boys."

"Yeah, Cavin's really excited to go."

"I can tell."

"I don't know how I'm going to tell him that they're calling me in early and I have to leave in four day."

Her smile then suddenly disappeared. "Four days? Oh man, I'm sorry."

"Don't be," he stated, "They're actually moving me to what I wanted to be. They're training me to be a sniper, which is better than being a ground pawn."

"Sniper, huh? That's less dangerous, I assume?"

He nodded. "And honestly, it's just better to be out of the main combat zones. Like, until we're in a city, we're kind of useless."

"Fair enough," Kate said with a nod. The man then swallowed hard and half nodded. Kate then questioned, "Is this really something you want to do?"

He answered quickly enough, "Yeah, I do. I just don't want to have to tell Cavin."

Kate sighed, thinking for a moment and then asking, "Is there anything I could do? Maybe I could talk to him or something."

"No, but, thank you. I'm just going to get through this weekend with him and then tell him I'm leaving when we get back. Hopefully he won't be angry too long."

In the moment, Kate didn't say anything to Javi and simply allowed Cavin to drag him off toward the car. However, when she got to the loft that night after a final class and a short shift on campus, she found herself thinking about this endlessly. Even into the night, this thought weighed heavily on her and her hands caressed her baby bump. She then rolled over to look at her writer and whispered, "Is it selfish of me to want to be a cop?"

His eyes opened and his head adjusted to her with a look of concern and confusion on his brow, "What are you talking about?"

"I mean- what if something happens? I don't want my son to grow up without me. I don't want to put him through losing his mother the way I did."

"Kate, nothing is going to happen."

"You can't know that. I don't even know that. I just-... Promise me if anything happens, you'll keep it together. You won't drink. You won't fall apart. You won't stop writing, and if you do, you'll get another job and the kids will be fine."

Rick half smiled at the sound of her saying "the kids" and then stated, "I won't let anything happen to them, Kate, and I swear I won't fall apart even if I badly want to."

"Thank you," she said softly.

"You're welcome. And just to answer your original question, no, its not selfish for you to want to be a cop. It's selfless. It's courageous. You wouldn't be you if that wasn't something you wanted to do. Don't ever feel bad about wanting that."

She then sighed a bit of relief. "How did I manage to land you?"

"You didn't. I got you pregnant and now you're stuck with me."

"Really?"

"Yep."

"So this was a trap?"

"Yep."

"Well then, Writer Monkey, what makes you think I didn't plan this all along?"

His brow rose. "Did you poke a whole in my condom?"

"Maybe...," she smiled.

Rick then looked down toward her stomach and told their son, "Here that, Henry? Mommy's as manipulative as daddy."

"Oh, really," Kate questioned.

He looked up at her and smiled with scandalous intent, "If not more so." He then leaned in and stole a kiss from her lips.

When they pulled apart, she told him, "You got that right. And don't think I didn't notice that you called him Henry."

"It feels right."

"I know," Kate smiled. "This all feels... Right."

"Good," he said, brushing a bit of hair from her face. "Then there's no need to rush into anything."

"Rush into anything? Hasn't this whole thing been rush, rush, rush," Kate teased.

Rick replied, "Well now we can just enjoy the moment."

This sat strangely with Kate, mostly becausehe had been the one that was so gungho about jumping into a wedding. Still, she just let it slide for a second time, nodded, and told him, "Well, in this moment, I really just want to get to sleep. Goodnight, Rick." After an exchange of 'I love you's, the two fell asleep beside each other, their minds on opposite sides of the universe.