Welcome to my 2014 Castle Ficathon entry. This is going to be a collection of stories in the same future 'verse as my story called Ómorfo Fengári, which I wrote for Lou's birthday last year. You should probably read that first, as it serves as an introduction to this larger tome, and it also references events that we will see in this collection. We're going AU from bang on the end of Season Six, flaming car wreck and all. So, without further ado, let's begin!

Disclaimer:
I am not Greek, I do not speak Greek: Google Translate is my friend.
I am not Andrew Marlowe, I do not even live within five thousand miles of Los Angeles: Castle does not belong to me.

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon.

Το φως του φεγγαριού
To Fo̱s tou Fengarioú
The Light of the Moon

1 - Γέννηση - Génni̱si̱ - Birth

Chapter 1

It had been five weeks after the day her world turned upside down when Kate Beckett stood in the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror as she waited for the water to turn hot in the shower. Sure, she had looked before, every day in fact, as if doing that would make him magically appear in the mirror behind her, wrap his arms around her stomach and mould himself to her spine. But today something seemed... off.

Kate closed her eyes and imagined her hands were his as they ghosted across her abdomen but what those hands found there were not the expected lines of muscle. Her eyes flew open and she stared at her body, willing them to see what she thought her fingers had felt. She turned and regarded herself from the side but that didn't help much.

She ran out of the bathroom, the water forgotten as it flowed into the shower stall, and grabbed her phone from her side of their bed. She scrolled to Lanie's number with shaking hands, and her friend was swift to respond.

"Hey, Girl, we still on to meet at eight before work?"

"Lanie..." Kate gasped. "Lanie, I need you to get over here with a blood testing kit. Now. Please."

"A blood tes-... why, what's happened?" Lanie's voice began to rise, matching the panic in Kate's.

"I just need you here, with a kit, okay? Can you hurry?"

"I'll try, honey, just take it easy, and get Martha to make you some breakfast." Beckett pulled the phone from her ear and disconnected the call without saying anything more when she realised the aforementioned lady of the house was making her way through the office and into the bedroom.

"Katherine?" Martha knocked and entered straight away but pulled up short and turned her head when she realised that her almost daughter-in-law was standing there naked as the day she was born, "Katherine, I was just about to put the kettle on, and wondered if you wanted anything..." She left the apology for intruding unvoiced, but Kate knew it was there.

"Sorry, Martha, I just... had to call Lanie before I forgot why I needed to call her."

"Of course, darling. I'll make you a peppermint tea."

Kate frowned. Peppermint seemed an unusual choice, and it was better that than coffee in this precise moment, but how did Martha know her suspicion? How had she guessed what Kate had only just realised might be going on, that the reason she's been so sick might not be related to the anxiety and stress after all. "Get in the shower, dear, before you drain all the hot water from the building!" Martha's voice floated in from the kitchen, jolting Kate back into action.

Lanie arrived to find the loft's two current inhabitants sitting at the kitchen counter, their backs to the front door with mugs of steaming liquid in front of them. It seemed unusually quiet in the room, but perhaps that wasn't so unusual nowadays, with the man whose name graced the deed of the place somewhat... absent.

"Now what in God's name did I have to traipse all the way up to the office to get a blood testing kit for, Kate?" The two seated women turned as one with raised eyebrows and watched Lanie bustle in. "Lift up your sleeve so I can get at you," she ordered.

"It's, uh..." Kate began as she rolled up the cuff on her left arm and pushed it over her elbow. "Lanie, I think I'm pregnant."

The medical examiner stopped halfway through swabbing the crook of Kate's arm and looked up, first at Kate, and then her eyes flicked to Martha briefly, assessing the despairing hope in the woman's wide eyes, before her gaze returned to Kate. She returned to her task without a word, efficiency in every movement as she drew some of Kate's blood into a tiny vial, put a band-aid over the needle site and returned all the instruments to her bag. Then, and only then, did she look back up at her friend, tears brimming in her eyes.

"I don't even know what to say, Kate. How is that even fair on you? On your family? On your baby?" The first tear slipped onto Lanie's cheek before she launched herself into Kate's arms and clung on for dear life. "He would've wanted to be here for this."

Somehow, Kate was keeping her cool, even with her best friend weeping on her shoulder. "He's not dead, Lanie, he's alive, somewhere. If that test comes back positive it just means we have even more reason to find him, even more than we did before, okay?" She received a sniffly nod in response. "Come on, let's get this to the lab and then I'll go to my meeting with Gates."

She stood, stopping for a warm hug with Martha, before leading Lanie out of the loft.

Captain Gates stood with her back to the inner windows of her office, her eyes unfocused as she took in the view of the Brooklyn Bridge through the external windows. With one hand perched on her hip, she sucked on one of the arms of her glasses, deep in thought, the sun reflecting from nearby buildings as it beat through the panes.

"Good morning, Sir."

She turned with a deep breath at the sound of Detective Beckett's voice. How that woman could look so put together after the disappearance of her partner – and with no leads to go on in the case – was a complete amazement to the captain. Had the roles been reversed, Victoria was almost certain she wouldn't have been able to stand without aid.

"Take a seat, Detective."

They both sat down, opposite each other across the desk, and regarded one another for the barest moment. Gates was about to speak when Beckett's phone announced a new message. Though the detective made no move to look at it, Gates gestured for her to carry on. She watched as Kate removed her phone from her pocket and raised her eyebrows at the message, before nodding decisively and laying the device on her thigh.

"Sir, it seems there's a couple of things I need to talk to you about this morning." Gates tilted her head, indicating to Kate to continue. "Firstly, I've just found out that-... that I'm pregnant." She paused, as if waiting for some kind of reaction, but Victoria had no reaction to give now that she'd just had her suspicions confirmed. "And, uhm, there's no new leads in the Castle case. But sir, I can't just stop looking for him. You have to underst-..."

Gates lifted her hand and Beckett's pleading stopped instantly. "Kate, I do understand. I know you follow the evidence in front of you, and from what you've shown me I agree that it's still a missing persons case." She stood and walked around her desk to take the seat next to Beckett. "But you are a homicide detective, this is the homicide department, and people don't just stop killing each other in New York City."

Kate looked down at her feet, twisting her engagement ring around her finger. Her captain reached over and stilled her hands with one of her own. "Congratulations on the baby. Do you know how far along you are?" Kate shook her head and pursed her lips, tears welling in her eyes. "Well, get yourself booked in with your OB-GYN doctor as soon as you can and keep me informed. As you probably know, there's no strict policy about how long you can remain on full duties, but we'll play it by ear, and I suggest that when you're finding your vest a bit tight then it's time to stay at your desk." Kate huffed a small laugh and Victoria gave her hands a final squeeze before she relinquished them and began to stand again, before being stilled by the shrill ring of Kate's phone.

They both looked at the screen before Kate answered, "Hey, Alexis, how's Mexico City?"

Alexis' voice came through loud and clear for both women to hear even without the call being on speaker.

"Kate, I found him! I found Dad! He's here! He's safe! I found him!"

As ever, there is no posting schedule except 'when I can'. I work a stressful full-time job, and this is my fun thing, so I can only promise to do my best.