Bab 69: 69. Chapter 69
"Where's Dad?" Allie says, slinging the bag off her shoulder and holding it out, looking hesitant.
"Drop it there; that's fine." Kate nods to the floor where they've been dumping everything, entirely too messy and scattered for Kate's liking but she's also too relaxed right now to care. Of course, she just may be straightening everything in the morning when she can't sleep past six. "Your dad's on the phone in the bedroom."
Dashiell bounds over the bag and jumps for his mother; Kate catches him, jerking her head back to keep from getting a bloody lip. "Whoa, whoa. Wild man, careful. You just got stitches."
"We played Marco Polo and chicken!"
"Chicken?"
"I was on Rafe's shoulders and Ellie was on Allie's shoulders and we-" Dash growls and poses like Hulk in Kate's arms, mean face and all. "-We fought. Girls v Boys. Rafe says v means versus. Like against."
"It does. Versus. You fought?" Kate glances up to the blushing Allie.
"You know chicken, where you try to knock the other team back into the water?"
"Yeah, yeah," Kate laughs, shaking her head at them. "Who won?"
Dashiell bounces in her arms, almost too heavy for her to keep hold of. "It was a tie!"
"Perfect." Kate moves with him towards the bathroom. "Let's do showers so we can get right to dinner."
Ellery sneaks around Kate's feet for the bathroom and slaps the doorframe as she runs inside. "Beat you!" she crows, her face exultant. Strong voice, happy face - Kate's heart clenches and she grins back.
Dash wriggles in her arms to get down so Kate drops him to the floor. "Be nice."
She turns back to Allie, catching the girl by the sleeve of her cover-up. "Will you check on the chicken nuggets in the oven? Oh, also, if you have anything that needs to be washed, I've got some loads in the floor by the washer."
"We just got here!" Allie laughs, then reaches out and hugs Kate impulsively. "But thanks, Mom. We're good. I'll get dinner finished up. Rafe will be too disgusted by chicken nuggets to touch them."
Kate laughs back, putting a hand to her mouth. "Oh my. Good point. Well. He's going to hate the adults' dinner as well-"
"Oh no. Rafe's making us dinner. That's why we went into town this morning."
"Oh really?" Kate steps closer to the kitchen, as if to investigate this claim, but a clattering crash from the bathroom has her spinning back around. "Okay, gotta keep them from killing each other. Do what you like with whatever, Allie."
"No problem. Go."
Kate clears the bathroom, stumbles to a stop before she trips over the towel bar. In the floor. Two kids standing at shocked attention in front of it.
"How did you pull the towel bar out of the wall?" she growls, reaching down to grab the metal bar. There weren't even towels on it - Castle had taken them to start laundry. "Dashiell."
"It was. . .an accident."
"Uh-huh," she mutters, turns to look at the gaping holes in the wall where the bar pulled out the dry wall. Shit. "Dashiell," she sighs.
"Ellery! It was Ellery's accident. Not mine."
Kate turns to look at the little girl, the round, wide eyes, then back to Dash. "And how did Ellery even reach the towel bar?"
"She stood on my back. She was a monkey."
She. . .what?
"Ellery?"
"Accident," Ella whispers, the wide eyes turning stubborn, the chin jutting out. Fighting tears, but determined to stand up for herself.
"You accidentally what? Swung from the towel bar?"
Ellery sucks her trembling lower lip into her mouth, stands up straighter. "I a monkey, Mommy. Need a tree."
Kate cracks, has to turn back to the wall to keep Ella and Dash from seeing her grin. She presses her lips together, purses her mouth and rolls her eyes as she holds the towel bar up to the holes, then realizes the kids can see her in the bathroom mirror. Ellery is grinning now, Dashiell just looks immensely relieved. Ah well.
She lays the towel bar on the counter by the sink (it won't fit back in the wall), makes sure it won't fall, then turns back around to her mischievous kids. "Well, little monkey. No more tree swinging in the condo. All right? Oh, and don't do this at home either. Got it?"
Ellery nods, eyebrows raising slowly as if she's thinking she's about to get away easy. Oh no, not at all, baby girl.
"Ella. What does Daddy say about playing in the bathroom?"
"Not to," Ellery says, eyebrows knitting together now.
"We don't play in the bathroom because it's dangerous - a lot of hard places that might find your head. Did you hurt yourself when you fell?"
Kate crosses her arms over her chest, watches Ellery for a long moment. Dash is the one to speak up. "She did. She smacked down hard."
"Ella."
The girl is struggling against it, maybe tears, maybe the sense of shame from doing something wrong that should've been fun. She reaches back, touches her bottom with both hands. Kate sighs, relief trickling through her. Hitting her head, or her back, from that height-
"Come here, baby girl." Kate drops to her knees, hugs the still-wet girl when she comes into her arms. "Did you hit your back?"
"Mine Elbows."
Kate leans back, pulls Ellery's arms up so she can kiss both elbows, then clasps the two little hands together between hers. "No movie tonight, Ella Kate. No more playing in the bathroom."
"Sorry," she whispers and tries to tug her hands back, her face down. But Kate knows this girl, knows exactly how this feels, and she doesn't let go. Ellery is too much like her mother; Kate won't let her daughter detach. Not when she knows how this ends up - this habit of isolation when hurting.
"You're forgiven, baby girl. But I need a big hug."
"I can give you a hug, Mommy," Dashiell says, anxious to make her feet better.
Kate winks at him, lifts an arm to include him, bringing his body to her side. She doesn't let go of Ella's hands. "Thank you, my handsome man. Ellery?"
The girl squirms for a moment, then sighs and leans forward, as if subjecting herself to it. Kate wraps her arm around Ellery's little waist, tugs the girl against her tightly.
She presses a kiss to Ella's cheek, whispers in her ear. "We all make mistakes. You know Dash does. But so does Mommy. So does Daddy. Even you, sweet girl. It's okay."
Ellery presses her face against her mother's neck, both kids soaking Kate's shirt with their wet swimsuits. She hugs them, crouched in the bathroom floor, and that's where Rick finds them.
"Uh, what happened here? Anybody need a hospital?"
Dashiell wriggles out of Kate's hug and bounces over to his father. "We're good, Daddy. Ellery has bruised stuff, but she's okay. She's trying not to cry."
Kate huffs, feels Ella stiffen in her arms - yeah, they are way too alike.
Castle lifts his eyebrows at Dashiell. "Hey, my man, it's not really nice to point that out, you know? If someone's trying not to cry, then we don't call attention to it."
"Why not? Everyone cries sometimes. Everyone feels sad. Clouds get burnt off by the sun, that's what Mommy says."
Oh, her little therapy boy. Kate smiles at him, stands up with Ellery in her arms, the girl's face still against her neck. Castle reaches out and lays his hand over Ella's back, meets Kate's eyes. An urgency there.
She lifts her eyebrows at him in askance.
Castle finishes answering his son first. "You're right about that, Dash. Everyone needs to cry now and then. There's nothing wrong with it. But Ellery is a lot like Mommy, and neither of them like to cry, even when they need to. And especially they don't want people to see them crying."
Dashiell scrunches up his nose, starts peeling his swim trunks off, reaching out to grab his father's hand for balance. "But girls cry alllll the time, Daddy. Mommy why you and Ella don't want to cry like all the other girls?"
Kate laughs, strokes a hand down Ellery's back. The girl has wrapped both arms around her neck now, but her chin is tucked against Kate's shoulder now instead of hiding her face. Progress. "Probably because all the other girls cry. How annoying is that? If all the other girls are doing it, sometimes that makes me want to do the exact opposite."
"Huh," Dash murmurs, flinging his swimsuit off, then kicking it towards his room. Castle stops him from getting into the tub, tugs him back out with a hand wrapped around the boy's upper arm. "What, Daddy?"
"Hold up." Castle glances over at her. "Kate. We need to go. Right now."
"Go?" She startles, looking at his face, remembers. The dog. The dog?
He nods. "Right now." Castle turns and puts a shoulder at Dashiell's chest, lifts him up over his head so the naked boy giggles. "Okay, buddy, we'll do bath later, when Mommy and I get back. Right now, let's get on some pajamas."
"Castle-"
"Right now, Kate."
She pauses, accepts that with a frustrated sigh, turns with Ella in her arms. "All right, my monkey, let's get these wet clothes off and put on some clean ones."
What's going on with the dog?
Castle has Dash in clothes in record time, pushes the kid out towards the kitchen. "Dinner."
"Where are you and Mommy going?"
"Gotta pick something up."
Dash stops in the doorway, draping his blanket over his shoulders like a cape. "Daddy, can I-"
"No. Dinner first. Allie and Rafe are gonna watch you guys while Mommy and I are out. So you be good."
"I didn't even get to ask," he complains.
"I already knew what you were gonna ask. Now go, Dashiell." He nudges the kid's head with his fingertips; Dashiell steps out into the hall and trips on his blanket. "Careful, kiddo."
"Can I watch after?"
"I told Allie you could watch two shows."
"Only two?" Dashiell whines, his face souring.
"Now it's only one," Castle says back, raising an eyebrow. "Mommy says you were Ella's step stool so she could reach the towel bar."
Dash screws up his face, but can't find an argument against that. "You're no better than Mommy," Dash huffs, then spins around and heads for the kitchen with a wounded air.
"Well, that's a compliment," he yells back.
He hears a laugh from behind him, turns in the hallway to see Kate smirking at him, Ellery in her arms. The little girl is curled around her, looking both worn out and somehow fragile. Which is strange to see in her. Kate is rubbing her back with a hand, but smiling at him.
"A compliment, hmm?"
"Oh yeah, of course. You're the bad cop; we all know that. So if I manage to actually discipline-"
"I'm not the bad cop, Castle," she laughs, then lifts on her toes to kiss his mouth; her lips are chapped, maybe from salt and sun. She tastes good, what he can get of her. "You do your share," she murmurs, brushing her thumb over his bottom lip, then curling her arm back around Ella.
He's inordinately pleased she's said this, because he really does try not to be the softie, the good cop to her bad cop. He knows he's a lot more laidback than Kate, but she's right in wanting rules and discipline and guidelines for their kids. Dashiell thrives with all of Kate's rules and schedules and order; the kid needs it to feel calm. So Castle makes the effort.
"Thanks," he murmurs back, then watches Ellery clutch her fingers in Kate's shirt. "She fell from the towel bar."
Kate nods. "Mm-hmm. I told her no Totoro tonight."
"Sounds fair. Dash only gets one show - cause he helped break the rules. Ellery, you okay?" Castle tilts his head to see Ellery's face; her eyes shift to him. Some hurt there, maybe more wounded pride than anything else. Mommy's the best one for that, because Mommy doesn't coddle like he does. "Mommy got you?"
Ellery hunkers down into Kate's chest. "Mommy got me."
Kate hums. He lifts his eyes and sees that hers are closed, her cheek pressed to the top of Ella's head.
Okay, she's *so* coming with them. Can't leave her now, not when the little thing needs some time with Mommy.
"Kate?"
His wife opens her eyes, warm brown in the afternoon sunlight spilling in from the balcony. He nods to Ellery. "She should come with us."
"To get. . .?" Her eyebrow lifts.
He nods. "Need to see if she's okay with it. You know?"
"Ahhh," Kate sighs. "Didn't think of that. But true."
"You ready to go?"
"I need shoes. Wallet or keys?"
He shakes his head. "I got what we need. Let me say bye to Dash, tell Allie he can only watch one show."
Kate snags his arm even as she's sliding her foot out to grab her flipflops. "Why are we in a rush? I thought this was his birthday present."
Castle sighs. "The thing's scheduled to be put to sleep. Within the hour."
"No sleep," Ella says pitifully. "Not tired."
Kate sighs, squeezes Ellery tighter, but her eyes meet his. "Let's go."
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone