Bab 2: 2. Chapter 2
Usually packing with a two year old would be impossible. Packing with Dash at two? Never would've happened. But Ellery sits in the middle of the bed with a picture book, a ratty stuffed dog, and watches her mother.
Kate had a system in mind about three weeks, when she first started thinking about this, but she's had absolutely no down time. When she gets home, she does home, and she tries not to let other things get in the way.
So now she's got to pack for an eight day vacation in the space of thirty minutes. She pulls out the first things at hand from the dresser, a few tshirts, shorts, workout clothes, a pair of jeans, shorts. All in the suitcase next to Castle's stuff. His, of course, is neatly folded and tucked just right.
Oh, underwear. She almost forgot.
She's got twenty minutes. They are never going to make it.
"Kate!"
"What!" she bellows back, rolling her eyes at Ella and getting a small smile in return, like they share a secret. She loves those blue eyes peering back at her from the fringe of dark hair.
"Where're the carseats?"
The carseats. "Sh-"
Kate claps a hand over her mouth and muffles the curse, then heads for the bedroom door only to collide with Castle. He yelps; she shakes out her elbow with a wince. Funny bone. She reaches out and soothes the red mark on his neck where she got him.
"I forgot. Lanie'll be here any minute and I forgot-"
He surveys the wreckage of their closet and squeezes her hand, pulling it away from his neck as he swallows. "Okay. Uh. Can you just pack my shower stuff with yours? and I'll get the carseats out."
"Bless you," she exclaims and kisses his cheek. "Go, go."
"Yeah."
Castle leaves and Kate turns back for the bathroom, grabbing his travel kit from the linen closet and doing a quick check to make sure everything's there. Then she grabs hers, tosses in her razor and various meds, oh wait, tweezers and nail clippers, a file, maybe that pale mint green polish?
No time, no time for that.
Kate shoves the bags into the outside pocket of their suitcase, slaps a hand to her head and goes back for his electric razor.
Kate hunts for her swimsuit, doesn't find it, abandons that search to throw things into the suitcase as she remembers them. Hopelessly unorganized, Kate just starts adding shoes, underwear! (almost forgot again), makeup.
Ellery crawls forward and takes a shoe out of the bag, puts it on over her bare feet, grinning. Kate reaches for it, but her phone rings. The somber Imperial Death March which usually signals a body has dropped.
"Kate!" Castle bellows at her from the hall, clearly put out.
"It's just Lanie," she yells back and answers her phone.
"Hey girl. I'm on my way, but I got Javi with me."
Castle stalks into the bedroom with that murderous glint in his eyes. She chucks a shoe at him, which he catches, tosses it back into the suitcase. Kate gestures towards where Ellery has the other shoe, and he reclaims that one as well, adds it to the collection. But he's still staring her down, a warning.
"Lanie, that's too many people. We've got the carseats; we won't fit-"
"I've got an autopsy, covering for Purl."
Her radar goes up instinctively. "Purlmutter got called out?"
"Yeah, fished a body out of the Lake, Central Park, right as you left. Barely missed it, you lucky dog."
"Oh, is-"
Castle yanks the phone out of her hand. "Lanie. For my own peace of mind, no shop talk."
Kate snatches it back, but doesn't ask any more questions. "Lanie?"
"Ooh, am I getting you in trouble?"
"Not funny." She can hear Esposito laughing too.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll take the subway into the office from your loft, and Javi's gonna drive you guys to the airport. Plus he can help load the truck."
Oh, nice, Esposito's SUV. Much better. "Thanks, Lanie. Look, I gotta pack and Castle is giving me a death stare-"
"Yeah, yeah, you gotta kiss and make up. See you in five."
Kate thumbs off her phone and shoves at Castle, not hard, but he catches her wrist and quirks an eyebrow.
"Getting slow. No more bodies, Kate. You promised."
"I wasn't gonna-"
"I saw the look on your face. You took a call this morning too, even though you *knew* we were leaving today-"
"And I closed that case today too, *and* did the paperwork before I left."
"Which is why we now have fifteen minutes and you're not even finished packing." Castle glares at her, drops her wrist to stalk out of the room.
From the corner of her eye, Kate catches sight of their daughter, so still, so quiet, and her anger melts away with guilt. Damn. Ellery sees everything.
"Castle," she calls out to his retreating back. She sees him hesitate. "Castle." Her own warning. Get your ass back in here is unspoken, but she know he hears it.
He sighs and turns back around. "I gotta get their bags ready for the plane, Kate." Part apology.
No. Not today. "Come here."
He glances back down the hallway and then heads for her. "Your idea, you know. Taking a commercial flight. I told you-"
She stops his whining with a kiss, wrapping herself around him, prying him open like a starfish on a clam. Kate feels the moment he relaxes and gives up, melding with her, stroking her jaw with his fingers, hungry and a little desperate.
They pause to breathe, still close, and she feels the pound of her heart under her skin, feels the echo of it under his.
"I thought you'd be here an hour ago, help me get everything ready."
"I know," she says gently. "I thought, when you said you had it under control, that it meant I could close the case out, take the last hour to get it off my desk."
"Under control was kinda a euphemism for please come home soon so you can help me make it."
She sighs. "I should've realized. I'm trying."
"I know," he sighs. "Forget packing. We'll buy you whatever you need when we get there."
"Wasteful-"
"Lay off, Kate," he says with a half-amused grumble. At least there's humor there, where it was irritation before. "We're going on vacation."
The front door's buzzer sounds and they withdraw to their corners, each a little breathless. Kate reaches out and brushes a hand over his neck, tries to keep this feeling.
"I'll help you with the kids?"
He nods but captures her hand to kiss her fingers. "It's fine. I'll get the door."
Kate turns back to the bed but doesn't see it, tries to reassemble herself but with less somehow. Less armor, less Beckett, less detective. She's supposed to be going on vacation.
From the hall, she hears the door open, Lanie and Esposito greeting Castle, teasing him.
"It's Tio!" Castle yells down the hall, and Kate hears Dash thumping down the stairs. Ellery pops up from the bed too, arms raised for her mother, no trace of the fight on her face. Because Kate feels guilty, she picks her up wordlessly and carries her into the living room.
"And what am I, Castle, chopped liver?" Lanie is saying, eyeing him.
"And Tia. Sorry, sorry," Castle corrects.
Esposito is high-fiving Dash, but he turns when he sees Ellery. "Oh, chiquita, my little Suri," he grumbles, reaching his arms out for the baby.
Kate hands her over so she can hug Lanie tightly, but shoots Esposito a glare. "She's not Suri Cruise. Stop calling her that. No wonder the kid never talks; she has no idea what her name is."
"She does too," Espo shoots back, squeezing on Ellery and then handing her over to Castle so he can pay attention to an impatient Dash. "Don't you, Suri. You know exactly who you are."
Ella giggles but makes no comment, one way or another.
Kate releases Lanie, grumbling at her now. "Thanks for contracting the job out," she murmurs.
"You get reamed for being a workaholic?" Esposito says, his arms now filled with four year old boy. He's grinning at her.
"Shut up," she shoots back, aiming another glare at him. Esposito has taken the big brother role on with a vengeance lately. Lanie says he's angling for her good graces, trying to sweeten her up before he asks for one of his own.
Dash is wriggling to get down. "Tio, Tio, come see my new T-Rex!"
"Hey hombre, I gotta help pack up the truck. You're going on vacation."
"T-Rex!"
"Truck," Esposito growls back, bending over to grab for Dash around the middle, picking him up, and throwing him over his shoulder.
"T-Rex!" Dash giggles, kicking his feet.
Castle ducks to avoid flailing limbs and heads for the kitchen with Ella. "I've got to get their snacks out. Kate, the bags for the plane?"
"Right. Got it." Bags for the plane? She casts a half-panicked look to her son, and Dash laughs at her, squirms out of Tio's grip.
"Stuff to do, Daddy said. Like my video games." Dash grabs her hand and leads her towards the stairs. "Come on, Momma."
Kate throws a glance over her shoulder at her friends and shrugs. "We'll dump everything in the foyer?"
"That works," Esposito says. "We'll start packing the truck."
Kate follows her son up the stairs.
Rick drops Ella into the chair at the bar, where she sits like a good girl and watches him. He digs a coloring book and crayons out of the junk drawer, hands them over to her, and begins assembling snacks for the week.
Kate was supposed to have done this last night; that was their deal. But it didn't get done because she got home at nine and wanted to play with the kids, both of whom were up way past their bedtimes. How could he say no to that? And *he* didn't want to be left out on the fun while he made snacks.
So he's doing it now, and hoping they can find stuff when they get to the condo. Problem is, South Padre is an island off the coast of Texas, and he's not sure they have a Wal-Mart or even a grocery store on the island. Do they?
Kate would've been the one to research that stuff, download maps, make reservations. But Kate's been clearing cases right and left to get her inbox down, and she's missed who knows how many dinners the past few weeks. Castle just doesn't do vacations like that, the planning and thinking ahead, but he has to admit, it went smoother a few years ago when she did all the organizing.
"Daddy."
Castle glances up in surprise, sees Ella at the bar stool, glancing mournfully across the countertop at a crayon that has rolled away. Her chin rests on her arms on top of the counter, like a pose, her long lashes brushing her cheek. And well, it's true: she looks like Suri Cruise did at that age. A few months ago, a tabloid printed a picture of Ellery at the zoo, peering through the bars, and ran it side-by-side with a similar photo of the Cruise kid at about the same age, remarking on the look-alike. Castle was frustrated that a picture of his two year old daughter had showed up in the tabloid, but Kate was angry about the comparison, go figure.
Ellery is still sighing after her far-flung crayon. Dashiell, at two, would've crawled onto the counter to get it, knocking his chair over in the process of course, and then tried to dive headfirst off the side.
"What a good girl for getting my attention," he praises, reaching for the crayon and rolling it back to her across the counter. She giggles and gives him that brilliant, happy look, pushing her hair back with a hand. "Daddy's getting snacks for the plane. You want animal crackers or wheat chips?"
She waits, hands behind her back, in her classic mute pose. The hands behind the back thing used to be cute, like she's not giving away any secrets, but lately it's gotten disquieting. Kate's wondered aloud to him if maybe they need to put her in speech therapy, but Ella talks when it's necessary. And she talks clearly.
Castle holds up the box of wheat thins in one hand, which Dash dubbed wheat chips when he was two, and the box of animal crackers in the other. Ellery grins widely at him, as if rewarding him, and points to the box of wheat thins.
"Mommy will be so proud," he mutters, and puts the wheat thins in the travel bag. He adds the grapes even though he only rinsed them off, never washed them, (they'll be fine, it'll be fine), and roots around in the pantry for inspiration.
Cheerios. They love those. Kate won't freak out at the sugar content. He takes the bag out of the box and rubberbands it, then adds it to the rest of the kids' snacks. He then dumps a couple of sippy cups and a few empty camelbak water bottles into the travel bag. All set for now. It will have to do.
He swings the bag onto his shoulder and lifts Ellery into his arms. She grabs for her picture and he brings it too, hoping to add it to her backpack for the plane. "Let's find Momma."
In the hallway, he dumps the bag of snacks and meets Lanie coming in. She takes a bag of toys he packed in one hand and shoves on his shoulder. "Wanna give me the girl while you do the heavy lifting?"
"No way," he grins. "She *is* the heavy lifting. You might strain something."
"I'll strain something-"
"Castle!"
That sounds like panic, and he heads for the bottom of the stairs, clutching Ellery tighter. But Kate comes to the top of the stairs with Dash trailing after her, looking unharmed.
"My iPad! Will you put it in something? I have to bring that; I downloaded all those books."
Oh. . .damn it. He forgot all about *their* toys. "Yeah, I've got to bring my laptop too," he admits.
She meets his eyes. Even Dash knows what that means, and the boy doesn't look pleased. But Kate's been at work until late these last few weeks and he promised her years ago that he wouldn't get too behind on his deadlines. They can't afford it - time-wise - so it means he's got to do some catching up on their vacation.
"All right," she says slowly. "Will you get my iPad then? And some earbuds. Oh, and I have that paperback on the bedside-"
"I got it covered. You got their stuff?"
"I need Ella to come tell me what she wants."
Castle drops Ella over the baby gate and watches her steady climb up the stairs, one foot over the other. It seems like only a few weeks ago she was still butt-scooting backwards.
At the top, Kate leans over and picks her up, but Dash comes down dragging his backpack behind him.
"Daddy, I wanna help Tio with the car and show him something."
"You aren't allowed to bring T-Rex," Castle immediately says, knowing exactly where that's going.
Kate laughs. "I told him you'd say the same," she calls out as she heads down the hall.
Dash stops in the middle of the stairs and glares at the space his mother occupied at the top, then turns and glares at his father. "I wanna show Tio my T-Rex!"
"Dashiell Hammett-"
"No!" He yells and jerks his backpack around, slinging it down the stairs, and then clenches his hands into little fists. "That's not funny. Don't call me that!"
Castle feels that twitch in his hands but suppresses the urge. He calls Dash that because of course he knows it irritates the boy, and really, how mature is that? Which one of them is the parent? "I hope you didn't have your video game in that bag."
Dashiell's fit dissipates as quickly as it came, horrified concern etching its way across his face. "Daddy," he breathes and runs down the stairs.
"Son, I told you-"
"Oh, Daddy, no-"
He lets Dash pick up the backpack first, yank open the zippers. The kid's hands are practically trembling at the thought that his handheld video game might be broken.
Castle knows it's probably fine, but maybe this will check the hothead next time. Beside him, he can hear Lanie snorting under her breath.
"Oh, there's still hope," Dash crows, pulling out his player with reverent hands. It's in one piece at least. The boy turns it on and waits, looking as if he's walking over hot coals as the device powers up. The telltale chime has Dashiell slumping back into the step with relief, a hand over his eyes. "It's a miracle!"
Castle shakes his head but Lanie bursts out laughing, perhaps because she is unused to Dashiell's daily dramatic displays. Castle simply thumbs the power off and puts the game back into the boy's backpack. Looks like Kate put his blanket and bear on either side of it for protection, smart woman.
"Dashiell, you wanna go help Tio, you can, little wild man," Lanie says, holding her hand out. "But Daddy's right. No time for the T-Rex."
"Mommy won't even let me bring it on the plane," he moans.
Castle puts the backpack over the boy's shoulders, squeezing in both fondness and irritation, and Dash takes Lanie's hand. "Buddy, that's because Uncle Kevin is nuts and bought you a four foot dinosaur."
That roars. So not cool, Uncle Kevin.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone