Capítulo 34: 34. Chapter 34
Kate sits in the floor of the aisle with Ellery in her lap, her hands itching to take over the painstaking task of buckling the patent leather shoes. The girl's hair brushes her cheek as Kate bends over her, careful to keep her palms on her knees, watching the laborious work.
Ella sticks out her tongue and tries again. The shoes are round-toed faux suede in a rather bright mint green. Kate would never wear them, but Ellery picked them out with a lunge, nearly falling right out of Castle's arms for them. Like a Dashiell stunt. Speaking of-
Kate lifts her head and sees Dashiell clomping around at the other end of the shoe department, his feet pushed into something sort of resembling cowboy boots. Castle is trying to convince him that he will have to be flexible about the details of his space cowboy costume due to their limited resources. In New York, they might have been able to get something more in line with his father's outfit, but not here.
Dash seems to be loving the boots though. He kicks out at a stool and jumps, making growling noises. Kate turns her head back to Ellery. The shoes she's picked out to wear even have an inch and a half heel. Kate's not worried about Ellery walking in them; the girls wears Kate's shoes and has absolutely no trouble, plus her princess dress-up shoes have heels. It's the bright mint green that jars her. Almost turquoise.
"Hey, Ella, are you sure you don't want-"
Ellery turns and lays a fierce glare on her mother. "Mine."
"Oh, really?" Kate raises a confrontational eyebrow and plucks a shoe off Ella's foot. Neither strap has been managed. "We haven't paid for them. And Mommy and Daddy haven't said you could get them. They are not yours."
Ellery casts a longing look at the shoe in Kate's hand, then reaches out to stroke the fake suede of the heel. "Please, Mommy?"
Not even words will make Kate capitulate to greediness; she absolutely abhors the way her kids insist on having things. "They're expensive. They're hard to put on. You-"
"Mommy," Ella crawls up and twines her arms around Kate's neck, her little face pressed to her mother's cheek. "Please. I not fight Dash. Him fight. I not hit."
Okay, so her tolerance for adorable baby girl is lower than she thought. Kate hugs her daughter back and brushes a hand over her spine. "Let me help you put the shoes on, okay? Then we'll see."
Ella nods, back to silence it seems, and gets down to sit in Kate's lap. She sticks her foot up and Kate tugs the shoe on, then slides the buckle in place, keeping it snug. Ellery lifts her other foot and Kate makes short work of it, patting the girl's knees when she's finished.
"Okay, moja ljubav, try to stand up."
And of course, Ellery has absolutely no trouble scrambling to her feet and taking off down the aisle at a run, her hair flying out behind her. "See, Mommy? I skipping."
Sort of skipping. And where have all the words come from? Castle mentioned paying attention, using the ABC model that Dash's behavioral therapist gave them. Antecedent - Behavior - Consequence. But Kate can't see an antecedent for this behavior. Only that Ellery was about to get something taken away from her that she wanted. But that's happened before. Toys or movies or something of her brother's she shouldn't have. She never-
Well, Ellery wants the shoes because she is dressing up as her mother. And Kate's concentrated attention on just Ellery has yielded a handful of sentences. Dashiell is nowhere around to run interference.
A little bit depressing to think either it's Kate's fault for not giving her enough attention or Dashiell's fault for not shutting up long enough.
Ella comes flying back down the aisle and leaps into Kate's lap; she huffs out a breath and catches the girl, trying to keep from toppling backwards. And then something silly and entirely too Castle possesses her, and Kate lets herself be flattened, falling back with Ellery on top of her.
The girl makes a soft cry, her eyes wide, then giggles loudly as she looks down into Kate's face.
"You got me," Kate murmurs, on her back in the middle of the department store's shoe aisle. Ridiculous. And yet the warm weight of her daughter, the giggles escaping her mouth, the delighted surprise on her face more than make it worthwhile. She goes for the soft spots at the girl's sides, tickling, pushing kisses to Ella's cheeks, raspberries into her neck until her daughter shrieks and begs for her mother to stop, gasping.
"I got you, didn't I?"
"Mommy got me," Ellery says back, propping her head in her hands, panting, elbows against Kate's ribs.
Kate laughs and brushes the hair out of Ella's eyes. "I do. My sweet girl. You run pretty good in those shoes."
"I run fast. I chase bad men and catch 'em." Ella pushes her hair back out of her eyes with a hand. Those electric blue eyes. Rick's beautiful eyes staring out of her daughter's smiling face.
"You certainly caught me. I guess you want them for your Halloween costume."
"Please, Mommy."
"All right, ljubav, we can get them."
She gets a hasty smack on the lips, and then Ellery is crawling off of her. "Daddy, my shoes!"
Kate looks back and up, still on the floor, and sees Castle's upside down face. He looks entirely too amused.
"You found some shoes just like. . .uh, Mommy's," he finishes lamely, staring at the things on her feet. Kate laughs and moves to sit up, taking the hand that Castle holds out for her.
"Just like," she agrees, rolling her eyes where Ella can't see. Dashiell comes crowding into the aisle with his boots on.
"See mine, Ellie? I got boots. And Daddy found me suspenders. We gonna get guns next."
"Guns?" Kate says, shooting a look to Daddy. Her eyes narrow at him.
"I know the rules," he says, holding his hands up. "Dash does too. We're getting bright nerf guns. Or water pistols."
Doesn't make her happy that *both* her children want to dress up as gun-wielding characters-
Oh well, okay. Her child wants to go as her mother (ignoring the thrill that gives her). And her mother just so happens to carry a gun. Almost all the time. In fact, these past few days have been the longest she's been without the holster and weapon, and she feels it.
"Jonesing for a gun, aren't ya?" he says, stepping in close to kiss her mouth, his tongue fairly aggressive for the middle of the day in a shopping mall. "I can taste the need," he growls in her ear.
"It's only because of-" Kate stops short, flicks her eyes down to the little ears now comparing how high they can jump in their new shoes. "You know."
"I thought so. You had that look on your face every time you put it in the safe. I mean, you nearly gave the kids a bath with it on a couple months ago."
"I know." She growls a little back at him and presses her mouth to his, stealing his next accusing statement. "I need a gun range and an hour. But I also need my kids to *not* need a gun range. Get me, Castle?"
"I get you all kinds of ways-"
"Stop being smutty," she mutters, but kisses him again, softer.
"Ew, kissy face again. I'm telling Allie!" Dashiell clomps over in his boots and head-butts his parents apart.
"Lay off me, Dashiell," his father says, collaring him by the suspenders so they snap back. "I'm trying to get you a baby brother."
"You did NOT." Kate stares at him. aghast. "You didn't. He asked me that and I said no."
Castle laughs and shares a smirk with Dash, then glances back up to Kate. "I said maybe."
"It's a no, Castle."
"It's a 'you never know' sounds like to me."
"It's a 'you're sleeping on the couch' sounds like to me." She smiles prettily at him and lifts an eyebrow in challenge.
"Can I sleep on the couch with you?" Dashiell bounces on his toes, tugging at his father's sleeve.
"Mommy's kidding."
"Mommy is certainly not. You are. . .too potent for me," she hisses at him, stepping in close so that most of her words are lost to the kids. "Don't even hint that you're trying because - as we know all too well - it will happen."
"It's not like I was trying the first time," he says back, still laughing at her.
"This isn't funny. I'm not doing it again."
He laughs and presses his laughter into her mouth, kissing her softly, gently, with happiness she can't explain. It melts down her icy insistence and has her leaning towards him. Too potent. As always. She can't hold her own around him when he's like this.
"Kate," he murmurs.
It takes her a moment to come out of it, to figure out what she's doing and where. Ellery is hanging on to her leg now, Dashiell still trying to squirm between his parents, the two of them fighting over who gets to touch Mommy more.
"We should go," Castle says, giving her a silently laughing look.
"You did that on purpose."
"Maybe a little." He leans down and grabs Dashiell, manhandling him away from Kate. "Come on guys, let's look for the rest of your costumes. We need some accessories"
Castle watches Ellery prance through the store in those lurid turquoise (sorry, Kate says they are technically mint green) shoes. She doesn't even trip. The ability must be genetic, because he's seen Kate run after suspects in four inch heels without so much as stumbling.
Dashiell, on the other hand, tromps around like a T-rex through the forest, knocking into clothing racks and tripping over his boots. But he refuses to take them off, insisting that he likes them and they're cool. His stubborn face has more shades of himself than Kate really, and he can tell that she sees it too by the looks she throws him.
It takes relatively little time to pick out the right pants and shirts for the kids to wear, now that they have the shoes and suspenders and various other things. Kate hotly vetoes his idea to let Ellery wear a cowboy's holster for her outfit, but Ellery turns watery eyes on her mother and pleads - yes, with actual words - and Kate relents inch by furious inch.
Steadfast, rock-like Kate is kinda looking like a pushover today. Castle hoists their shopping bags over his shoulder as they leave the toy store inside the mall (where they picked up plastic guns with bright neon colors). His stomach growls as they pass the food court.
"Kate. Let's stop to eat-"
Ahead of him with Dashiell yo-yoing from her hand, skipping and bouncing and galloping, Kate turns around, jerked off balance by her son before she manages to address Castle.
"Sounds good. We're pretty much done, right? So inside the mall or outside?"
"They have Dairy Queen!" Dashiell chortles, releasing his mother's hand to dart off. Kate, in a oft-practiced move, snags him by the shirt as he goes by.
"Settle down."
"What else did we need? I know we're forgetting something."
Kate uses her free hand to push her hair off her face, glances around. "Oh. The swimsuits. But we're going to that surf shop, right? You wanted-"
"Yeah. Nearly forgot. Okay, let's head to the car then. Healthier choices out there, I think."
Kate gives him a pleased smile and steps closer, brushing her hand over his cheek and then kissing that spot. "What a good daddy."
"You're so patronizing."
"Mm. But it works for me."
"I'll say," he agrees, shaking his head. Ellery is dancing around them in her shoes, hopscotching from block to block in the tiled floor while Dashiell uses the railing around the food court tables to jump even higher. "All right, your kids are getting entirely too rambunctious, Kate Castle."
She laughs at him, but he sees the flare of both indignation and arousal at the back of her gaze, hears it deep in the throaty part of her laugh. She likes it. She hates that she likes it, but she really does like it. Different kind of thrill from when he calls her 'Detective' but they're equally good. For him.
"Baby brother here we come," he murmurs.
Kate pointedly ignores him, turns to hold her hand out to Ellery. "Come on, little jumping bean. Let's go."
Dashiell climbs off the railing at his father's command, but catapults himself into his family at top speed, managing to collide with all of them like bowling pins. He cackles and rights himself, dusting off his hands with a wince. Castle sees blood on his palm where he must have landed against Ellery's heels. Ha. Serves him right.
Kate has maintained her grip on Ella though, so both of them are still standing, if a little wobbly. Castle drops the bags to corral his son, taking him by the back of the neck.
"Settle down, Dashiell."
"But my engine is at high speed!" He bounces on his tiptoes and reaches up to cling to his father's neck, smacking Castle in the mouth as he does. Great. He's gonna have a fat lip. Good thing they're not in New York. Once when Dash socked him in the eye, entirely on accident, the gossip magazines got a photo of Castle and his black eye and speculated that Kate was abusing him. Castle had a good long laugh but Kate didn't think it was at all funny.
"Okay, but we need for your engine to shift into a lower gear, buddy. Medium engines right about now. How can I help you do that?"
"Big squeeze," Dashiell whines, clearly frustrated. "Hug, hug, hug, Daddy."
Castle wraps his arms around Dash, standing up as he does, squeezing past the point of a normal embrace, making sure he applies equal pressure across the boy's back. He can still feel the kid's excess energy buzzing under his skin; Dash wriggles and wriggles, as if trying to escape.
Kate has Ellery in her arms as she comes over to them, laying her hand on Dash's head and pressing down. Castle can feel Dash squirming for a second longer, and then his body relaxes a tiny bit, seems to stop fighting the deep pressure.
"Put your face against Daddy's chest," Kate murmurs, her fingers trailing through the boy's thick hair to the back of his skull.
Dashiell lays his head at Castle's heart; Kate flattens her palm and slowly increases the pressure against his skull. Castle pushes back as best he can without support behind him, feels Dash dissolve against him.
"Okay buddy, not too low. We still need you to walk around."
"I'm starving," he whispers. "Too low. Need fuel."
Ah, okay. That explains it. Castle is grateful for Dash's physical therapist, Lisa, who gave them this analogy, helped Dash figure out why his body and brain did the things it did. "Did you have a hard time figuring out you were hungry?"
"I'm so hungry," he whines, lifting his head up and nailing his father with pleading eyes.
Kate reaches down and grabs their shopping bags, Ellery hanging on to her neck as she scoops down.
"We're going to get lunch right now, buddy."
Kate gestures with her head towards the doors. "Got the keys?"
"Pocket." He still has Dashiell in his arms; the boy probably won't walk now, too lethargic in his hunger. Castle honestly can't remember how much the kid had for breakfast, if any at all. He was bouncing around from the time he woke up.
Castle shifts his son so he can get at his keys, but Kate's already moving around him, her fingers sliding into his back pocket.
She digs them out awkwardly, her arm clamped around Ella, her other hand carrying their bags.
"Okay, time for lunch, guys." Kate leans in and kisses Dashiell's cheek. "Love you wild man."
"I'm not wild now. Just sleepy. And hungry. I could eat a cow."
Kate and Castle share a laugh over his head. "Let's get this space cowboy some food," Castle says.
"Everyone's makin' a fuss!" Dash mutters, mimicking his father's favorite space cowboy show. He giggles and looks back at Kate. "Cap'n Tightpants, Mommy."
Kate's face goes bright red. Castle looks at her incredulously. "You let him watch it?"
"No." She turns her face away. "Not on purpose. We just. . .watched it together."
"Where was I?" Castle laughs. "I mean, usually the corrupting is my doing. I can't believe I missed out on yours."
She shakes her head at him, eyes narrowing but still guilty. "When Dash got chicken pox and I stayed home with him."
"Oh, the book tour. Sugar jets. Can't believe I missed that. Wait. How many episodes?"
Kate waves him off. "Lunch, remember? The details aren't important."
"Sure, sure, Kate." He gives her another incredulous look but follows her down the crowded concourse towards the doors to the parking lot. "What a terrible influence Mommy is on you all."
"We watched for hours, Daddy," Dashiell sighs happily. "The Reavers-"
"Kate!"
She's still bright red. "Mistake. I made a mistake. I just. . .he begged me to watch and we sat down and I thought I could fast forward, and I did, mostly. I mean, yes, I skipped through stuff. Castle, lay off."
He can't help laughing. It's not gonna scar the kid for life or anything. Obviously hasn't, except for this obsession with space cowboys lately.
"Daddy, sooooo hungry. Nothin in the 'verse can stop me! I'm gonna eat like a T-rex. Chomp, chomp, chomp."
"Okay, okay, we're going." But Castle is still laughing and he can see that Kate is too.
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