Vignettes:
a collection of three-words tumblr prompts

#1

Baby walk Beckett

— STELLARPUFFIN

"Shh, hush, it's okay," he mumbled, eyes barely held open in the dark hours of the night. The newborn mewled in his arms as Castle bounced him, walking back and forth in the living room.

He was trying to give Kate a few extra hours. Trying. He was a good husband, and she was a busy woman, and damn, if this baby wasn't going to kill them.

"Come on, Beckett," he murmured, only to have his soothing interrupted by his cracked-jaw yawn. He was so tired. He shook his head, trying to clear his fuzzy brain as the little boy whined anew, apparently not impressed with his father's exhaustion. "I'm too old for this, you know."

That prompted a full-throated cry from the boy, and Castle jiggled him a little more, cupping the back of his head as he walked around the room.

"Okay, okay," he apologized. "Colic is no fun, I know. Hush."

"I don't think telling a Beckett to be quiet is really gonna work, Castle."

He turned his head and saw Kate struggling through the doorway, hair brushing her chin, eyes glassy. He tried to smile at her, but the boy cried again, whimpers and unhappiness in his every fitful noise.

"Here," she said, stumbling into him before the couch. "I'll take him." The transition from his arms to hers was always awkward, especially sleep-deprived, but this time the fumble was enough to make the boy open his eyes wide and go very still. "Hey, Beck, what's wrong now, huh?"

Just her voice and her nearness was all it took. Beckett's gaze on his mother was rapt, and Castle thought, not for the first time, they should've named the boy after him instead - they were so alike in their absorption with Kate.

"Shut up, Castle," she said quietly, in that baby-quieting voice that always did the trick. "You already have on named after you."

He chuckled softly and leaned in over their son, kissed the dark hair fuzzing his head. "I didn't say a word, Kate."

"You were not saying a word very loudly."