Capítulo 8: 8. Chapter 8
Kate wakes at six, like usual, and hears the muted sounds of the television in the living room. She closes her eyes again, letting herself become aware more slowly, giving herself time. She has a window here, a narrow window, in which she could get up and get moving, eat breakfast, workout, and be alert and ready to start the day.
Once the window closes, when these first twenty minutes have elapsed, if she's not out of bed, she'll sleep another three hours.
A bark of laughter from the television decides her; she will share her son's fate.
Kate opens her eyes, focuses on the lump breathing beside her, makes out a little hand, the dark hair. Ellery sleeps with abandon, wild and mysterious abandon. Like her father. Castle's arms are splayed across the bed, his pillow missing, the sheet dragging into the floor. His face is mashed into the mattress, his hair oily, spiky with sleep.
Her face flickers with a smile and she slides out of bed. She stands over them and stretches, yawning the last of her sleep away. Blinking, she heads for the door; their suitcase is still out in the living room where they opened it last night for pajamas.
The television is down pretty low, actually. Dashiell sits on the long sectional couch with an arm wrapped around a Transformer, his blanket in a ragged pile on his lap. He watches like a zombie, mouth hanging open, eyes dull.
Cartoons. Kate clears her throat and stops in front of their suitcase. "Dashiell. Morning, sunshine."
He blinks, a little less zombie and a little more boy struggling in his eyes. He swivels his head to look at her. "Not sunshine. A cloud."
"A cloud today?" she murmurs, bending over to pull running shorts out of the pile of her clothes. "Why a cloud, kiddo?"
"Dunno."
Mm, kay.
"What did the numbers say?" She finds a sports bra, digs around until she locates a tshirt. She hates to run in a tshirt, but it looks like she didn't pack a single workout tank top.
"Numbers said four three six."
"Oh, baby, no wonder you're a cloud. I told you nothing before a five, remember?" Kate straightens, clothes in hand, and glances at her son. Her insomniac son.
"Ellery wasn't in bed."
"Oh." Damn. Not that they could help that one. Just another little thing for Dashiell to obsess over, worry over. All that frantic energy making his mind race. She sighs.
"She wasn't in any bed but the last one."
"Ours."
"Yeah." He's watching television again, but he lets out a long sigh and leans back against the couch. "The tv is very quiet, isn't it, Mommy?"
Her shoulders slump at the anxiety in his voice. "Yeah, baby cloud, it's very quiet."
"Not a baby cloud. I'm a middle sized cloud. A kid cloud."
She can't help the quirk of her lips as she moves to sit beside her son on the couch. He crawls into her lap, abandoning the clunky Transformer (thank goodness), and leans his head back against her chest.
"Okay mid-sized cloud, we're on vacation you know."
"Yup."
"And me and Daddy talked about the tv mornings."
"It's very quiet, Mommy. Isn't it?"
"You did just fine, sweetheart." Kate draws her legs up onto the couch and sits Indian style, resettling Dash in her lap. "But Daddy and I got this condo specifically because of your bedroom."
"Me and Ellery sleeping there together."
"No, baby, actually, Ella's got her own room. Because in your room, where you slept last night, is a tv."
Dashiell suddenly gives her his whole attention, life sparking in across his face. "A tv?"
She grins, lets go so he can wriggle to the floor. He darts for his room, and she hears his excited crow of disbelief when he gets there.
Kate follows, then stands in the doorway while he makes loves to the television. She finds the remote on a bookshelf and hands it over to him.
"You know the rules."
"After a five."
"And?"
"Lights off. In bed. Very quiet."
"Well, that rule can bend a little since it's in your room, kiddo. It can be just normal quiet."
The television goes on. Dashiell thumbs the volume down automatically. "Like this?"
"Hmm, let's see." Kate backs up, eases the door closed. She grins to herself, opens the door. "You can do it up one more."
Dash bumps up the volume and turns bright eyes on her. "Star Wars Clone Wars is on."
"Okay, I'll be fast." Kate moves to the bed where he bounces, excitedly, on his knees. "After five, lights off, in bed, normal quiet, and you stay in your room."
"That's a new rule."
"That's a vacation rule, for vacation tv. Look, the bathroom is right through there-" Kate points to the door that connects his room to the bathroom in the hall. "And Ellery's room is on the other side of that bathroom. You can check on Ella however many times you like by going through the bathroom, then you can watch tv until Daddy comes to get you."
"Or you?"
"I probably won't be the one, but sure, I might."
"I can check on Ella?"
"As many times as you need to."
"But don't wake her up."
"Kiddo, you know that's nearly impossible." Kate reaches out and smooths the longish hair off his forehead, her baby boy, not exactly a baby anymore. A kid. Almost five. Worrying about his sister.
"Yeah," he grins back, diverting his attention from tv to his mother. "She's better at sleeping than even Daddy."
"Yup. So. You got the rules?"
He's back to the ever-distracting tv. "Yeah. Stay in my room."
"Until Daddy gets you."
"Are you gonna come get me?" Dashiell turns his head again, gives her an intent and concerned look. He needs everything all laid out, all the scenarios.
"I will come in and check on you, but I won't say it's time to get up. Look at the numbers, Dash."
He crawls up to the head of the bed and checks the alarm clock on the nightstand. "Six one two."
"When does Mommy usually get up?"
"With sixes."
"And when should *you* get up?"
"With sevens. And even better, eights. Ella is nines. Tens if Daddy lets her."
Tens? She narrows her eyes. "Well. So. Do you think I'm coming in to tell you to get up at six?"
"No." Dashiell sighs and cradles the remote control. "But if you get to get up at sixes, why can't I?"
"Dashiell, were you a sunshine this morning or a cloud?"
"A cloud."
"Are you getting sunnier?"
"Umm. . ."
"Because of the tv in your room?"
"I have a tv in my room!" He jumps up and bounces his way back to her at the foot of the bed. She catches him, laughing, and wrestles him back down beside her. "I'm getting sunnier."
"It's not four, is it? It's six. And if you could sleep until seven or eight, buddy, you'd feel a lot better."
"I *tried* Mommy, I did-"
She smothers his cry with a fierce hug, kissing his forehead, his cheek. "I know. It's not your fault, baby. It's not you. I know you tried."
His cries shudder away, but she holds him still, that little panic of why him? in her heart not quite settled yet. Dash brings up the remote and aims it at the tv, nudges up the volume.
She rolls her eyes. "Dash." Nothing like flagrant misbehavior to ease her heart.
He sighs and nudges it back down. Kate lets go, brushing a hand over his hair. "So. This is the plan for vacation, okay? TV in your room until everyone else wakes up."
"Okay, Mommy."
"Normal quiet."
"Yeah."
"And baby, I know you tried."
He looks up at her with still watery eyes; she can tell he's trying to keep them back. "Ellery was gone."
Her heart clenches. "I know. She was missing Toto."
"Mommy?"
"Yeah, wild man?"
"Will you get my Transformer and my blanket? I can't leave the room." He gives her a sly look from under his long lashes.
She laughs and reaches over to tickle him, driving him back against the mattress. "Fine, fine. I'll get them. Get under the covers."
Dashiell grins and wraps his arms around her neck, tugging her down with a squeeze. "I *love* you, Mommy."
"Because I'm letting you watch tv in your room. I know, I know."
"Yes! TV!" He lets go and crawls under the covers, wriggling down as he gets comfortable. Kate pushes on his forehead and gets up, heading back towards the living room. She scoops up the Transformer and the blanket, then discovers a Star Wars action figure buried in the couch, so she brings that too.
Back inside Dashiell's room, she flips the lights off and drops the blanket over his head, making him giggle. She tucks the Transformer and the Star Wars guy next to his pillow as Dash yanks the blanket off.
"Mommy?"
At the door, Kate turns, glancing at her son. "Yeah?"
"And also just cause. . .I just love you."
"Love you too."
"All the times," he murmurs back but his eyes are already on the television.
"All the times, in all the ways," she finishes.
Kate crawls onto the bed and hovers over him, waiting for just the right moment. He's moved onto his back sometime while she was talking with Dash or eating breakfast. His lashes are so vulnerable looking on his cheeks, but the broad chest just under her has a power and appealing breadth to it that draws her attention.
He cracks open an eye and winces in the sunlight, ruining her evil plan.
"Kate?"
"Darn. Yeah."
He grunts and turns his head, sees Ella in the bed next to him, then closes his eyes again.
"You were gonna wake me up in some new, twisted way, weren't you?" he mutters.
She drops a kiss on the corner of his mouth, sits back on her haunches. "I might have been planning something like that."
"Foiled."
"Foiled," she repeats, sliding her hand up his thigh, moving in.
He jerks and sits up, grabbing her wrist. "Holy sh-"
She grins.
"So not funny, Kate Beckett."
She grins wider. "It is to me."
"Are you going to work out?" He laces his fingers with hers and lays back down, tugging her down with him. She goes.
"Yeah." Laying next to him, she traces his ear with her mouth; he twists his head away and rolls onto his side, putting his back to their daughter.
"No one should be this perky in the morning," he groans, rubbing a hand down his face.
She shakes free of his grip and sits up, swinging her legs out of bed. Her running shoes are on. She moves to stand, but Castle snakes out a hand and grips the back of her shorts.
Kate turns. "What?"
"Dash?"
"Up at four," she sighs.
"He had an exciting day. An exciting week. It'll settle down."
"He's in his room watching tv."
"Good, you told him the deal?"
"Yeah. He'll stay. And that Ella was in here with you. That eased his mind."
Castle tugs on her shorts; she wriggles her finger at him, pokes his stomach. Castle huffs and lets go.
"Running or workout room?" he asks, propping his head up with a hand and yawning.
"Not sure yet. Maybe both. Don't wait up."
"Yeah. Just wake me before you shower."
"Why?" She stands up, popping the vertebrae in her back as she stretches, then lifts a knee to her chest to loosen her muscles.
"I looooooove SweatyKate."
She laughs and leans over to kiss him again, lingering a little. His hand comes up to caress her cheek.
"Go be a machine," he murmurs into her mouth. "Then it's my turn."
"To be a machine?"
"To have you."
She grins at him, but his eyes are still closed; he'll be asleep in moments.
"Castle?"
He jerks his eyes open, blinking at her. "What?"
"You wake up a little, you could have me right now."
He grins and the sleep clears from his eyes. "I would, but I want to have you for awhile. A long while. Five minutes rough ain't gonna cut it, babe."
And just like that, her heart is pounding. "Shit. I do *not* want to leave."
"Language, love. Go run. Lift weights, whatever. I'll dream highly inappropriate dreams of sweaty coupling, and we'll both be ready for that shower."
Coupling? Jeez, her whole body is zipping with awareness; she's not sure she can leave him in bed with that look in his eyes-
"Go, Kate." He lifts his knee and nudges her away from the bed. "Practice chasing after suspects; keep yourself safe."
He has her there. Run now; come back to him later.
So that she will always come back to him.
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