Back and Forth (A Castle Fanfiction)

Conflict

The next morning, as Kate snuggled with Alexis on the couch reading a short story, Rick tapped away at his keyboard, editing the latest chapter of the new Derrek Storm novel, revising what he had written when he was exhausted late at night. After a short while, Rick looked up to his love and asked, "Which sounds better, 'He thrashed his fist against his assailant's cheekbone' or 'He hammered his fist against his assailant's cheekbone'?"

Kate tossed both around a moment. "Well, thrashed doesn't feel contextually accurate, but hammered sounds like he's punched him more than once. Try... bashed...?"

Rick typed it in and reread it to himself. He then looked up at her with delight and mused, "This is why I love you."

"Because I'm a walking thesaurus?"

"Because you are a genius." She smiled, shaking her head a bit and then starting to look back to the book.

Before she could read even one word, Alexis looked up at her and questioned, "Can we read Clifford?"

"Sure sweetheart, but you've got to get it yourself." The child smiled, feeling like a big girl and wriggled off her mom's lap to rush toward the bookshelf upstairs. Once the girl was out of sight, Kate sat back and leaned into the arm of the couch. She then looked to the writer and told him, "The baby's kicking."

He was clueless as he absently murmured, "Uh, huh."

Her eyes became slight as told him suspiciously, "I think maybe he's ready to pop out."

"Nice."

"I'm serious. I think my water just broke."

"Cool."

"Babe."

"Yeah," he asked, finally looking up.

She smiled, "You really are in another universe when you're writing, huh?"

"Sometimes," he replied. At this, there was a knocking at the front door. Rick and Kate both looked at it and then each other. He was the first to ask, "Who is it?"

"I'm not expecting anyone. This was your place for the longest time."

Rick then rose his brow as though to say, 'Fair enough,' and put his laptop on the coffee table. He got up and reached for the door handle without checking who was on the side, not realizing the danger he was allowing into his home. When the door was pushed away, he found himself shocked silent by the scene before him. Only one word slipped from his lips before he went silent and all color from his face and melted away by the fire about to come forth from the world. "Meredith?"

"Hello Richard," the woman said with a thoughtless smile. Kate, from the couch, turned her head to look at the sight, then nearly had a panic attack as she twisted herself up from the couch. Meredith, without having seen a thing beside her ex-husband's face, questioned softly, "Where's my little girl?"

Just then, from the other side of the door, Alexis called over to Kate from the bottom of the stairs, "Mommy, I got it. I got it." She then ran toward Kate without catching a glimpse of the woman who was pushing through the door that Rick was half trying to block in shock. When she finally saw the little red head in Kate's arms, sitting on Kate's side, maneuvered around the woman's very obvious baby bump, Meredith looked more taken back than the writer had at the sight of her.

Kate just told the helpless child, "Lex, honey, look who's here."

The child looked puzzled. "Mommy?"

"Yes, pumpkin, mommy's here," the red headed woman said. Kate then put the child down, holding the book Alexis had handed to her, and then watched as the little girl took a few unsure steps.