Epilogue

Standing outside the prep school building, Kate Beckett waited patiently with her hands tucked into her pockets to protect them from the still-chilly early spring air. As kids began to slowly trickle out, a breeze kicked up and Kate ducked her head to protect as much of her neck and face as she could with her collar. Maybe the lighter trench coat had been a miscalculation that day as it was colder than she thought with the breeze. Thankfully, Alexis would be out soon and their walk to the subway wasn't that far.

Typically, Castle walked his his ten-year-old to and from school every day without missing a beat. Though Kate always offered to help when she had free time on weekdays, he rarely took her up on that offer unless something truly prevented him from being available. On that particular day, he was meeting with his editors who insisted they needed a two-hour block of time in the middle of the afternoon to review his latest few chapters. When Castle asked her to fill in, he seemed almost apologetic about it, but Kate promised she didn't mind; she never minded spending more time with her almost-step-daughter.

When the bright haired little girl ran out onto the sidewalk Kate reached out her hand, gave the little girl's a squeeze and said, "Ready to go, bud?"

"Yep!" Alexis waived goodbye to several of her classmates before the two began to stroll side-by-side down the sidewalk.

"So how was school? Anything interesting happen today?"

"We learned about babies and penises."

"Wha…." Kate croaked and stopped walking immediately. Gazing down at the girl with a mixture of shock and confusion she managed, "Wh-what did you say?"

"We watched a video that told us about babies—and a lot of stuff." Alexis further clarified with a scrunched up nose.

"Video…" Kate echoed as she unconsciously unbuttoned the top button on her coat; damn, why was it suddenly so hot out?! Her head spun with confusion for several moments before she realized what must have happened. "Oh you…did you watch a sex ed video?"

"Uh huh."

Kate struggled to keep up as Alexis bounced down the sidewalk. Mentally, she cursed her partner for not giving her any sort of warning whatsoever. Surely, if the kids were going to watch that type of video, a note would have been sent home to parents informing them—or at least warning them—that it would be happening. Now, she had to be the adult—the parent—with absolutely no preparation whatsoever. Though she supposed her situation was a good representation of what would happen when she eventually had babies of her own: she would be thrown into the deep end with no life raft.

"Okay." Kate's voice came out as a bit of a squeak, so she cleared her throat and continued. "Do, um, do you have questions?"

Alexis gave a non-committal shoulder shrug. "Our teacher told us a lot but...well, after class in the hall some of the kids were talking, and… They said people do that for fun, not just for babies. Is that right?"

Kate felt her mouth go instantly dry at the question. Jesus! She was going to kill her fiancé! "Well…" She began slowly, giving herself a moment to formulate an answer. She didn't want to lie to the girl; that would have been wrong and surely backfired, but giving honest answers about adult sexual relationships to a ten-year-old certainly was a tricky path to navigate. "Um, yes. Yes I suppose that's true but-"

"So you and my dad do that?"

Kate felt her face flush under the scrutiny of the girl's curious blue eyes. "Y..yes."

Alexis momentarily scrunched her nose and then continued to face down the sidewalk. "Oh."

Not wanting the girl to get a wrong impression, Kate reached out and gently touched Alexis's shoulder so she would stop walking and face her. "The thing is, Alexis—and this is very important—that is private. It's something that happens between two adults that love each other and it's not something that you generally discuss in public."

The girl nodded, clearly considering this for a moment, and then asked. "But why do you do it?"

Knowing "because it's fun" or "it feels good" were not ten-year-old appropriate responses, Kate instead said, "Because you love that person and want to be closer to them."

Her eyes widened. "Close?! It goes inside you! That's more than close!"

Kate nearly laughed at the girl's very blunt observation, particularly since she looked more than a little unsettled while saying it. While the comment was amusing, Kate also felt concerned as to how detailed the student's video must have been if Alexis made a comment like that. Surely it would have been more cartoonish than pornographic, but she wasn't sure (and feared asking) so she instead clarified with, "I meant figuratively close."

"Oh. But…doesn't it hurt?"

"No, of course not. It never should."

Alexis contorted her whole face for a moment and then shook her head commenting, "It's still gross."

Kate laughed, patted the girl's back, and then kept walking down the sidewalk. "Somehow I think your dad would be glad to hear that."

"It is!"

"I know; I thought so too at your age."

"I'll always think that."

Kate gave her a soft smile knowing that, once again, she had similar thoughts in the immediate aftermath of her class on sex ed. "Well that's ok if you do, but that's why sex is between adults its very serious. Do you have more questions?"

"Just…if I don't want to have babies, does that mean I can skip that period thing?"

Kate laughed again. "Um, no, sorry; doesn't work like that."

With a sad little sigh, Alexis admitted, "Thought so…"

With a whistle on his lips, Castle let himself into his apartment, anxious to see his two favorite ladies after a mind-numbing meeting during which his editors pointed out what felt like every single typo or grammatical mistake he'd made in the first half of Nikki Heat's third tale. Yes, he wanted the final part of her trilogy to be as successful as the first two, but this was only the preliminary review, so he didn't feel like such an exhausting endeavor was really worth it.

When he walked into the apartment, Castle first caught sight of Kate moving between the kitchen counter and the refrigerator, presumably pulling out ingredients to make their dinner. Wanting to observe for just a moment longer, he shut the door quietly, leaned back against it, and watched her move. God, he loved her.

Almost three full years had passed since the official onset of their romantic relationship and he could not have been happier. Their partnership blossomed into a strong, loving relationship just as he hoped it would. Though they did have a few pitfalls (most notably when she found out about the Nikki Heat book and was furious at him for not informing her about it before the book was complete) they made it through stronger and more in love than ever.

Though he'd found himself wanting to propose almost right away, he was delayed by a suddenly busy career, as his new book, Naked Heat, was a runaway success. His publisher told him to immediately begin working on a second book, and he happily did so, but then woke up one morning and was almost shocked to realize he and Kate had been together for over eighteen months. After conferring with Alexis he proposed the next day and she happily accepted. Now they were on the cusp of more changes—their wedding and a move to a larger apartment—both of which he was excited for, but his favorite moments were ones like these: making meals together, eating and swapping stories; being a family.

Castle pushed himself away from the door, intent on greeting his fiancée with a kiss, but was interrupted when his daughter came scampering down the hall with a book in her hands. "Hey Pumpkin." He leaned down and placed a kiss atop her head. "How was school?"

She shrugged as she looked up at him. "Okay. We learned about penises in vaginas."

Castle dropped the portfolio containing his manuscript and his heartrate spiked. "What!?"

Alexis gave him a patient smile. "It's okay, Dad. Kate told me you do it, too."

"Jesus! What?! What?" he stammered out as sweat formed on his brow and he began to fell nauseous. Oh god—was this what having a heart attack felt like!?

Alexis bent down, scooped up his portfolio, and held it out to him. "Are you okay Dad?"

He took it with a distant, "No…"

"It was sex ed day at school, Rick. Did you know that?"

Castle blinked at the woman approaching from the kitchen. She wore a knowing smirk and folded her hands over her chest as she stood a few feet away. Sex ed day? His brain processed her statement for a moment, but then he gasped and spluttered, "What? No! No—that's not until next week!" He had definitely received the letter—he remembered that—but was certain the date was more towards the end of the month!

"No, no—it was today."

"Oh shit—I mean shoot!" He corrected quickly under his daughter's disapproving glare. "Oh, Alexis, I'm sorry—we should have, um, talked about this before. Do you have any questions?"

"No. Kate answered them," she said simply before taking her book and walking off towards the couch.

With his heartrate slowly falling back to normal, Castle stumbled forward placed his portfolio on the kitchen table, and gazed over at the woman clearly waffling between annoyed and amused. "So there's no need to ask how your afternoon was…."

A blip of laughter escaped her lips. "Um, no; it was certainly interesting."

Castle dropped his chin to his chest and cursed. On one hand he was frustrated with himself for getting the date wrong and not having what was surely a pivotal conversation with his daughter ahead of time. On the other hand, if it had gone as it sounded, perhaps he wasn't all that disappointed that he missed it. "She asked you if we have sex?" he questioned in a hushed tone.

"Yep."

"God."

As he leaned more heavily against the table, Kate placed her hand on his shoulder. "It was shocking to say the least, but I think I kept my answers age-appropriate. At least, I tried to. By the way, you'll be pleased to know she thinks the idea of sex is gross."

He groaned and brought his hands up to scrub across his face. "Well thank god for that!" In fact, he was perfectly happy with her keeping that opinion for the next twenty or so years, as unrealistic as that was.

Kate hummed. "You sure picked a hell of an afternoon for a meeting."

Castle groaned, picked up her hand and brought it to his lips so he could kiss her knuckles. "I'm so sorry."

Smiling, she shrugged. "It's ok. At least we can cross sex talk off the list, but in ten years you're definitely doing the next one."

At first he laughed, but then the wheels of his brain started turning and he glanced excitedly between her face and her belly. "Ten years…are you…?"

"No! No!" she said quickly. "Not that I know of, anyway. I'm just planning ahead."

He nodded. "Sounds good." Before she could walk away, he tugged on her hand to pull her closer and then snuck an arm around her waist. "Hey, just for the record? I can't wait to marry you in two months."

She smiled and kissed him. "Me either."

A/N: Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing!

I do have another multi chap, but I have yet to think of a name for it...and my muse seems to have returned with a vengeance because i'm furiously working on another multi chap, so It'll be at least a week before I post something else, but I promise i have more coming! :)