Close Encounters 28

The boat was the same one they'd taken on the journey over to their island, but the difference between then and now was remarkable.

Not just for Kate Beckett. But she hoped for her husband as well.

James, of course, was happy to be back on the water, inside the boat with its bolted down furniture that allowed him to tumble headlong from one item to the next across the floor. He chuckled as he went, gripping a chair before heading for the bed, rebounding with the pitch of the deck back to the chair.

They were experiencing some rough weather, but it was well in hand. Castle wasn't even in the pilothouse; he was back here trying to entice their little wolf to eat his lunch.

"James. Get back over here, you little maniac. What are you doing?"

Kate glanced up from the laptop to see James giggling on the floor, clutching his corduroy elephant in one hand and apparently having lost his balance. "I think he's overtired. James, eat your lunch so you can take a nap."

Giggling stopped abruptly. James shot her a look, not happy, and she was beginning to realize that this had been a bad idea. It was too new, too exciting to fall asleep now, and yet it was his nap time and he was so tired. They might be in for a fight.

"How about this?" Castle said, standing up from the table and closing the lid on the tupperware container. "James, we'll skip lunch. Go straight to bed. And then we'll wake you for the good part, okay?"

"I don't think he's old enough for bargaining," Kate said wryly. But she closed the laptop and shifted it into the soft case, putting it between the bolted down shelves. The boat pitched in a sudden wave and James, who had just gotten to his feet to run from his daddy, was toppled back to the floor.

He was giggling again, a little hysterically, and Kate stood up and made her way to him, intercepting Castle.

"You're working," he murmured.

"I got him. We'll switch off," she said quietly, bending down. James lifted his head from his fit of laughter, his eyes overbright and tired. "Hey, my little wolf. I know you so love the boat, don't you? Yeah. Come here. That's right."

James crawled into her lap and slumped against her, limp and heavy. She cupped the back of his head and kissed the soft hair, brushing her fingers through the spiky rise of his fauxhawk.

James's mouth fell open. She gathered the corduroy elephant and stood up, carrying James to the bed with her. She sat against the sloped side of the boat, letting its engines thrum down through her bones and vibrate into James as well. The baby tried to pick his head up, tried to fight it, but the lull of the rocking boat and the engines and her own heart under his ear was too much.

"Mommy is magic," Castle whispered, leaning over them a moment. She lifted her head to smile at him and he kissed her softly.

"He'll probably wake in an hour, hungry," she said back. "But we'll feed him then. Early bedtime tonight."

"Sounds like perfect plan," he smiled.

"Take the laptop," she nodded. "Your turn."

Castle didn't protest; they had a lot to catch up on before they made landfall.

James was still asleep when Castle managed to get through the latest urgent messages in his email. He switched with Kate, carefully peeling the sweat-sleep heavy boy off his mother, letting him squish down into his father instead. Kate took the laptop from him before it could fall, another pitch of the deck under his feet making him shift.

James never woke.

"Hey," Kate said softly. "Here's El."

Castle took the stuffed animal and tucked it into the crook of his elbow, kept it close as he turned around. "I'm going to walk on deck with him."

"If he can sleep the full nap time, let him. Don't wake him up, Rick."

"I won't. I'll let him sleep," he said, already heading for the door. "You have a conference call in twenty minutes."

"I do?" she blurted out.

"It was on the calendar," he said, stopping to turn and look at her.

"Shit," she groaned, glancing at her watch. "It's already two? Shit. I was supposed to do the spreadsheet for Ryan first. Okay, shoo, Castle. I have to work."

He grinned into the top of James's head, turned around to slide open the cabin door. He met Jim in the narrow hall, and the man gave way to let Castle pass.

"How's the boy doing with the weather?"

"Look at him," Castle murmured, turning so Jim could see James over his shoulder. "Out cold. Doesn't even faze him."

Jim chuckled, touching the top of James's head as they went by. Jim went the opposite direction, heading for the galley, while Castle moved to the sliding door that connected the cabins to the pilothouse. When he got inside, the churning of engines and the thud of the boat moving through the water was monstrously loud, compared to the quiet of their cabin.

James snuffled in his sleep, an arm twitched, but he was still out. Castle found their pilot, Marco, at the controls and looking unconcerned. The weather was rough but Marco was good, and the boat was good too, and Castle wasn't worried. Things could be done before there was ever a problem.

"Oh, look at him," Marco said, a wide and hungry grin on his face. He pinched his fingers together and took James's sleeve in his grip, tugging as he bent forward over the boy. "A natural sailor, sleeping right through. Eh, James? I hear they call you wolf, but look at your sea legs."

"I think the sea legs are mine," Castle remarked, amused by Marco's sudden transformation into a kind of papi. "But he has a good stomach for it. How's the dog?"

"Cowering under the table this time. No fishing to distract her."

"Oh, no, really? Where?" Castle ducked his head but he didn't see Sasha in the pilothouse's narrow space.

"Back in the galley. Jim has been taking care of her."

"I'll go take a look," he murmured. "Good job, Marco, with the boat. It could be a beautiful day for all we know."

Marco saluted him with a wink, a last shake of James's hand, and Castle headed back through to the galley. He passed Jim's cabin and then their own, and lastly came to the common kitchen. Jim was sitting on the floor, cross-legged, with Sasha curled in his lap like she'd done when she was a puppy. Jim couldn't be comfortable like that.

Castle stepped inside. "Oh, Sasha, poor puppy."

Jim glanced up, so did the dog, whining at him. "She's not loving it. But I think it's because she spent so long wild out there."

"We let her come and go," Castle winced. "She did get wild. That's our fault. Too much wolf." He sank carefully to his knees and sat down, shifting James to cradle him in one arm. "Sasha, puppy. Hey. You want to come here? Come curl up with James."

Jim chuckled, lifting his hand from her ruff to let her go. "Kinda full there, both wolves together."

Castle grinned but allowed Sasha to gingerly step over Jim and slink into his lap instead. He had to hold James up for a moment to let the dog get situated, and then he lowered James to her back, his free hand caressing the poor dog's ears and neck. Sasha was whining again.

"It is kind of full. I'd take you into our cabin, but Kate's on a conference call."

"Well, you've got a nice wolf pile going there. I'm actually going to see if I can't stand up again and take a nap myself. James has the right idea. It will be a long trip."

"Thanks, Jim," he told her father. Jim stood up - there was some effort to it - and then patted Castle's shoulder as he left.

Sasha huddled into him, not liking the roll of the deck, while James slept on in the crook of his arm. After a minute, his back began to stiffen up, so Castle shifted dog and boy towards the wall, let himself lean against it with a minimum amount of fuss.

Sasha was a tight fight in his lap once more but James curled up with the wolf, an arm around her like a chokehold, his mouth open at the dog's collar. Since they'd had to shave Sasha down after so long on the island, James wasn't even getting any fur in his mouth.

Sasha stopped whining. She licked James's neck and then her eyes closed.

They were both content.

Beckett lifted her hands over her head and stretched, her back popping as she arched, up on her toes for the full effect. She tilted her head side to side, broke out into a yawn, and then came back down flat-footed. She glanced out the porthole and saw only the deck outside, the metal railing, and past that the wide ocean in all its murky-brown endlessness.

Time for a break.

She was starving; she could use a snack. Even some lunch. She'd been too busy trying to get James to eat and then sleep that she hadn't eaten anything herself. The galley was stocked, and so she slipped out of their berth, sliding the door shut behind her, and headed for the boat's kitchen.

When she opened the galley door, she was startled to find her husband and son and dog curled up in a pile on the floor.

"Um. Rick. You okay?"

His eyes popped open, but then so did James's and Sasha's too.

"Am I okay?" Castle repeated, looking at her stupidly. "Are you okay?"

She came forward and sank down onto her knees beside him, reached out a hand to stroke the dog's fur. Sasha was curled in his lap like she used to do when she was a puppy. "Is she scared?" she whispered.

"Yeah, she doesn't like the pitch of the boat."

"Come here, puppy," Kate murmured, reaching in to gather up her dog. Of course, it proved incredibly awkward for both of them, the wolf was so big now, and Kate merely got a pitiful look from Sasha and a laugh from Castle.

"Mama."

"Yeah, you've got Daddy. You're fine," she told her son, kissing his cheek as he blearily rubbed his face against his father's shirt. "Everybody come with me. We'll go back to our room. Sasha, come on."

Castle nudged on the dog and she resignedly got up, jumping gracefully out of his lap and to the floor, but she whined and circled their feet as they stood. Castle stayed still, James in his arms, and Kate gave up and squatted down, gathered the dog into her arms.

"Whoa, you're heavy," she muttered. Still, she rose to her feet, putting her legs into it as she stood, and she started moving for the door.

Castle got ahead of her to ease the way, opening the galley door and shutting it behind them, then slipping by her in the narrow passage to get to their own door. James was squishy on his father's shoulder, merely watching with sleepy eyes, and Kate got the dog inside the room and on the bed.

She crawled up with Sasha and curled on her side, wrapping her arm around the puppy, getting close. "Come on, Rick. Sit with her. I think he'll fall back to sleep too."

"Probably," Castle said softly. He was already sinking down to the mattress, leaning his back against the wall at the head of the bed.

Kate pushed her arm across the dog and laid her hand on Castle's thigh, wriggling a little closer. Sasha nudged her wet nose against Kate's, licked her.

She laughed. "Okay, thank you. Yes. Kisses are very sweet. You're okay, you're just fine, puppy."

The whining had stopped.

She glanced up to check on her son and saw his eyes were closed. Good.

Castle eased a little further down in bed and lifted an arm free of James to lay his palm over the back of her head. Felt good, heavy and warm, and she closed her eyes too.

She could use some sleep too, no doubt. And then late - even later - lunch.

"Your stomach is growling and it's keeping me up," Castle told her. She cracked an eye open - no one was sleeping through the engine's chugging and the pitch and roll of the deck.

"I'm starving," his wife admitted.

"Let me make you something."

"No, I can-"

"You're kind of a human pillow at the moment," he reminded her, kissing her temple. "I can squeeze out, but you've got wolf and wolf."

She grinned, fingers trailing across James's back, other arm under Sasha's head and between the dog's front paws, cradling her more than the baby.

Castle slid out from under James, carefully laying the boy on the mattress as he left. Kate watched him with her eyes full, that gaze she sometimes had where he could practically feel what she felt, where her contentment and peace spilled out and permeated the whole room, his chest, his heart, and nothing needed to be done about it.

Nothing more than this. The existence of their family in this room, whatever came, was enough for the world, for the rest of time, for whatever happened in their future together.

"Kate," he said. And the words of love that might have come after didn't come. She only smiled at him, easy and brilliant, and he smiled back so hard that his face hurt.

Their son sleeping hard against her side, the dog watchful and aware at her shoulder but soothed, and Kate reclining in the narrow bunk, hair in glorious mane around her face, health pinking her skin.

He nodded and turned around, walked out of the cabin, sliding the door closed behind him.

That was all. It was all. Things would happen, events would unfold, their lives would expand or contract, change, blossom, be battered, receive hits, find new directions. This was all, this was perfect.

Castle headed back for the galley to make her a quick sandwich, and himself as well, and he didn't worry about where the boat was taking them, or how rough the water, because they were home. They were already home, together.

End Close Encounters 28

Spy Castle will take a summer hiatus and return in the fall with Close Encounters 29: Octopussy