a possibility for joy

AN: This idea has definitely been done to death but here we are anyway.

"Have fun!" She called, giving her daughter and father one last wave as the elevator slid closed.

Kate smiled, stepping out of the doorway and letting the door of the loft close. She flicked the lock and padded into the office where her husband was wiggling down into his chair as his laptop slowly came to life in front of him.

"Babe, I'm heading out. The boys caught a case and I'm going to the crime scene." She told him, lifting the sweatshirt she had worn to the park with Lily that morning over her head.

"Ooh, must be a big one if you're going to the crime scene." He couldn't keep the intrigue out of his voice, abandoning his computer to follow her into the bedroom.

Kate shrugged, snagging a blouse from the closet and pulling it on. "Lily's out with dad and you said you needed to write. Thought I'd go check it out."

"Can I come?" Castle asked her, already stepping out of his sweatpants. "I finished a chapter after you fell asleep last night. I don't have to write today."

"You said that Gina was out for blood."

"I sent in that chapter from last night. I don't have to work on another one today."

"Really?" She stepped into a pencil shirt, tucking her shirt in before reaching for the matching blazer. "I thought you were stuck."

"What can I say? You inspired me last night."

She snorted a little, looking in the mirror to make sure the minimal makeup she'd thrown on that morning was still in tact. "A quickie in the shower that I had to take because our three year old got peanut butter in my hair really did it for you?"

He smirked as he reached past her to grab his belt. "It got the creative juices flowing."

She used his arm for balance as she stepped into her heels, ignoring his attempt at a joke. "You can come as long as Gina's not going to put a hit out on you. It's your turn to give Lily a bath and it's hair washing night."

He groaned dramatically. Their beautiful little girl that was always so well-behaved, so polite and sweet turned into a little monster at bathtime. They'd both come to the conclusion that taking down the toughest of criminals was easier than washing Lily's hair.

"I did it last time and besides, you're the one who doesn't want to get her hair cut." Kate pointed out.

After he finished getting changed, he shoved his phone and wallet into his pocket. "She wants her hair to be long like yours. How could you say no to that?"

She couldn't which was exactly why their daughter had elbow-length hair that one of them had to wrestle a brush through every morning. Kate smiled, shaking her head. "She knows exactly what she's doing saying things like that."

"Of course she does. She's a genius like her mom." Castle said with that smile she loved, the one that bloomed any time he talked about either of his daughters.

She walked ahead of him, leading him out of the bedroom and through the office. "She got the sweet-talking from you."

He took her coat down from its hanger, helping her into it before gently pulling her hair out from under the collar. "Well, yeah, of course."

"What are you doing here, boss?" Esposito asked, looking up from his notepad.

Beckett stepped underneath the crime tape that her husband held up for her, striding up to the body that was sprawled out on the wet asphalt of the alley. "I can't come to crime scenes anymore?"

"Not together." Ryan said, gesturing toward the captain and Castle. "Jenny and I can't go anywhere together unless the kids are with us."

"That's because we only have one and you are about to become a family of five." Castle teased. Ryan and Jenny had just announced a few weeks earlier that they were expecting their third, and final according to Ryan, child. "You guys are going to be outnumbered! There could be a mutiny and you'd have no choice but to meet their demands."

"There won't be a child rebellion, Castle" Lanie said, sharing an eyeroll with Beckett as she crouched down beside her.

"Castle's probably right. I could see Sarah Grace talking them into it." Ryan said.

"And toss Lily in there?" Castle added. "We're all doomed."

"Not my little sobinas."

"Yes, your little sobrinas, Espo." Beckett told him, looking up from her crouched position. "They're evil geniuses when they play together. You should know that better than anyone."

Esposito chuckled to himself, memories of the last team dinner they'd had at the Castles' loft that had ended with him being ordered around by two little princesses who had placed a tiara on his head as well.

Beckett shook her head, turning her attention back to her friend and the body next to them. "What've we got?"

"Two GSW's to the chest."

"What is that? A 9 millimeter?"

"Looks like it." Lanie agreed. "Recent too. He hasn't been dead more than an hour."

"Really? Okay," She took Castle's outstretched hand for balance as she stood. Her eyes roamed over the alley for a moment before she turned her attention to the boys. "Find some uniforms and have them canvass the area. And see if that pawn shop over there has a working surveillance camera."

"An hour ago. He may not be too far away." Castle said, his eyes roaming over the dark shadows that existed in the alley; behind dumpsters, empty boxes.

Esposito shook his head. "An hour in the city? Castle, he could be anywhere by now."

"Or she." Ryan added. "Could be a woman."

"We get it, bro. You voted for Hillary."

"Just go." Beckett interrupted. "Castle and I are-"

Chaos erupted in the small confines of the alley. Castle heard Ryan and Esposito yelling before the sound of gunfire rang through his ears, making his whole body freeze up. He hadn't spent too much time in the field since their shooting a few years before. Shortly after healing, Kate had been pregnant with Lily and on desk duty. He'd stayed by her side, theorizing and keeping her company as she choked down her decaf coffee. And after the birth of their daughter, he'd done most of his civilian consulting from their living room floor with sticky cheerios in his lap.

"Beckett's down!" Esposito's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, the panic that surged through his body at the sound of the gun fading intensifying as he turned to look at his wife.

Kate was flat on her back with blood soaking through the left sleeve of her jacket, her eyes wide and afraid as she reached for her arm with her right hand.

He fell to his knees at her side. "Kate…"

"It's fine. I'm fine." She told him through clenched teeth. "Help me sit up."

Castle and Esposito both reached out, sitting her up as carefully as they could. She cried out when the movement jostled her arm.

"You're not fine, you're hit." Castle said, pulling his jacket off and bunching up the fabric the best he could before pressing it to her gunshot wound. When she cried out again, Castle started to pull his hand back.

"Keep pressure on it." Came Lanie's voice from somewhere behind him. He gently pressed the jacket back down, watching as Kate squeezed her eyes closed.

"No, no, Beckett. Stay with me, honey."

Kate lifted her hand, resting her shaky palm against his wrist. "Right here, Castle."

"Good." Castle lifted a hand to cover hers, smearing her blood onto her hand. "Stay here with me. The ambulance is coming."

She nodded a little, her eyes drooping.

"I love you."

"Love you too." She told him as her eyes closed.

One would think after all of the chaos, after the gunshot wounds, the explosions, the serial killers that situations such as this wouldn't surprise them as much as they did. She was a cop, she'd had more stitches and lost more blood in the time he'd known her than he thought possible of one person. He'd even felt bullets pierce his own body before but still he sat in a rickety old chair in the hospital waiting room, with shock rattling his bones as he wondered how this could happen to her again.

He looked down at his hands that were now scrubbed clean. He could still feel the warmth of her blood that's spilled out and coated his hands as he'd desperately pressed his jacket against the wound. Her voice echoed in his head, telling him she was okay and then trailing off as she slipped from consciousness; the cries of pain as she'd tried to comfort him. Memories of nearly bleeding out on their kitchen floor had flashed before his eyes, the healed scar throbbing with phantom pain.

The sound of approaching feet pulled him back to the present. Kate's doctor approached him, his face undetectable.

"How is she?" Castle asked as he stood.

"She's going to be just fine." The doctor assured him, a smile blooming across his unsettlingly young face. "She took it like a champ."

"So, she's okay?"

"She has broken humerus from where the bullet struck but it didn't cause any nerve damage and it missed all of the important arteries."

Castle let out a breath of relief. "Is she awake? Can I see her?"

"Of course. She's been asking for you."

The doctor led him back to his wife's room, reminding him to be careful of her shoulder before walking off toward one of his other patients. Castle took a deep breath, pushing back the images of his wife laid out in a hospital bed with a bullet wound to her chest. She was a fine. Just a broken arm.

He pushed the door open and was greeted by the sight of her sitting up in bed, a smile blooming at the sight of him, her tired eyes shining. "Rick." Kate breathed, reaching the arm that wasn't resting in a sling toward him.

He made it to her side in a few quick strides, taking her hand in his and reaching his other one up to cradle her cheek.

"I'm okay." She whispered, her eyes slipping closed as he rested his forehead against hers.

"I can't keep doing this. I can't keep watching you get shot and-"

"Shh," She soothed, letting go of his hand to lift her hand to his cheek. "we're okay."

Castle fell quiet, pulling back just enough to see her face, eyes roaming over her as if there was something the doctor had missed. He moved his thumb along her cheekbone, his other hand tangling gently in her hair.

Kate ran her fingers along the shell of his ear before tugging him to her again. "Come here." She pressed a kiss to his lips, lingers for a few seconds. "I love you."

"I love you too, Kate. So much."

Silence fell over them for a few seconds, their foreheads finding each other again. Castle closed his eyes, listening to the sound of her breathing and the beeping of the heart monitor as she nudged her nose against his.

"I'm pregnant."

His eyes flew open, pulling back to look at her smiling face. "You- ?"

Kate nodded, moving her hand to rest on her still flat stomach over the blankets. "The doctor told me a few minutes ago. Five weeks."

"Oh my god…" He looked at the hand over her stomach. "The baby's okay?"

"As far as they can tell, yeah. At five weeks, the baby's practically the size of a seed and well protected in there. He said they can do an ultrasound if we want to see."

"Really?"

She smiled, reaching for his hand again. The panic was slowly fading from his eyes, the worry slipping away as the excitement took over. She remembered the first time they heard Lily's heartbeat, the way they'd clutched each other's hand. They were going to do it all over again.

Beckett clutched Castle's hand tightly as the ultrasound tech smeared the cold gel across her stomach. "Is this your first?"

"No, we have a three year old at home."

"That's such a fun age." The older man replied, smiling as he reached for the wand. "Now, let's see if we can hear a heartbeat."

The man moved the wand along Kate's stomach until the distinct sound of their baby's strong, steady heartbeat filled the room.

A few tears escaped as she turned her head to look at her husband, giving him a watery smile.

"Oh, would you look at that…" The tech interrupted, pointing to the screen.

"What?" Castle and Beckett asked simultaneously.

"There's one baby and there's another. You two are having twins."

Kate gasped softly, watching the screen for another few seconds and then turned to her husband. "Twins…"

"Twins." He repeated, tears slipping from his eyes as well. "Oh my god, Kate…"

The tech wiped her stomach clean before slipping from the room, promising to return with their photos.

She carefully sat up the best she could, reaching for him with her good arm. He wrapped her up in a gentle hug, holding her close. She buried her face against his neck and let the tears flow freely.

"Kate…"

"I know."

"They're going to outnumber us." He said against her hair.

She laughed softly. "You think they'll rebel?"

"They're our kids. Of course they will. We don't stand a chance."