Always.

Twenty-Six

"Well.... Good news and bad news."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh God." Castle said, and he looked away. I hated seeing him like this. I just grabbed his hand, making him look up at me. There were tears in his eyes.

"What do you want first?" the nurse said, looking to me.

"Surprise me." I said, still trying to sound optimistic, even though I wasn't.

"Good news is always easier to get out first." she said, waiting for an answer from me. I just nodded.

"OK. Well, good news is that you will be fine, and make a full recovery."

"And the bad news?" I asked. I could feel Castle's grip tighten, as he did not want to hear it.

"Hmm..." she sighed. "Well, most people would consider this a win in this situation." she said, trying to soften the blow. It did seem to help, somehow. I could feel Castle, while still very stiff, a little less tense.

"What is it?" He managed to get out, through impatient.

"We believe that there is a chance that one or both of your babies could be born with a birth defect. We could determine that through more extensive x-rays, just not at the moment, with you in your current condition."

"But other than that...?"

"Other than that, your babies are just fine." we both sighed a breath of relief, as we almost jumped into each other's arms.

"I will give you two a minute." the nurse said, happy to see that we were not so upset.

When she left, Castle spoke.

"Are you upset?"

"No. I'm just happy that they're alive!"

"Me too." he said, smiling. And with that, he ended the conversation by kissing me.

*three weeks later*

I had just gotten back from my leave for being injured. I felt that it was ridiculous, all the leave that I was getting recently, and I was about to leave on maternity leave. But, Castle said that it was necessary, so I took it for his sake.

"Hey, Beckett's back!" Ryan yelled as he saw me enter the bullpen. I got a round of applause, making me blush. I went and put my stuff at my desk. I would need to get some paperwork to do, since I was officially on desk duty. I went first though to go get a coffee from the break room. As I went in, Ryan and Espo were quick to follow.

I sighed. "OK guys, what do you want?" I asked, sarcastic, but nonetheless, happy to be back.

"Uhm, how are you doing?" Ryan asked.

"I'm... okay. Otherwise I wouldn't be back."

"How are the babies?" Espo asked, and cringed, feeling as if he had hit a sensitive subject.

"They are also okay. The doctor said there is a chance they will be born with defects but other than that, they are okay."

"Good. Cause we don't want anything to happen to our little niece and nephew." Ryan said, smiling, looking at my belly.

"Do you want to see?" I asked, gesturing at my belly. They both nodded, unsure. I raised my shirt up a little bit, earning a small gasp from them both. It was still quite black and blue. I lowered my shirt, suddenly getting self-conscious.

"Don't worry, Beckett. This time Josh is definitely never coming after you again. I made sure to that."

"Espo... what did you do?"

He just smiled a little bit, allowing Ryan to speak up. "When you got hit, the room kinda went into a frenzy, giving Josh a chance to escape. Javi didn't wait to..." He looked away, unsure of my reaction.

I had to sit down. This was all too much right now. I wasn't sure if I was glad that Josh was dead or not. It was just so bizarre, the whole situation.

Castle came in at that moment, and saw me. "What did you guys do to her?" he asked, sitting down next to me.

"We told her, about Josh." he said.

"Oh." was all he said. He wrapped his arms around me, making me feel better. Ryan and Espo left the room, and we sat like that for a minute.

"You okay?"

"Yeah."

"Good, because I got a couple of coffees and complimentary cronuts to help us get through today's paperwork." I looked up at him, and smiled. It wasn't like him to help me with paperwork.

"Hmm. Richard Castle doing paperwork. That's a first." I said, laughing.

"Well, I thought that under special circumstances... Hey, there's a first for everything, right?" He said, trying to stay off of the sensitive subject.

I laughed again, getting up, pulling him with me. "Come on." I said, giggling, and slapping his ass to give him a kick-start.