Author's Note: Man! That last chapter through all of you into a tizzy! It was highly amusing to read the reviews, and I'm glad that you are all enjoying this! I hope you enjoy the epilogue as much... and READ TO THE END! Review if you would like!
That night was one of the hardest nights of Katherine Castle's entire life… worse than the day she lost her mother because of all the promises she had wrapped up in that man.
Eight months later, when their daughter Hope was born, she was sitting in that same hospital, thinking about what could have been while staring at the little baby girl in the bassinet at the foot of her bed.
"Mom?" she hears, coming from her bedside. She hadn't realized that Alexis had even entered the room, and her smile brightens at her use of the term. It came out one day when Kate had been admitted into the hospital a few months into her pregnancy.
"Where is she?" she hears screaming from outside her door.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but you have to calm down."
"Seriously… I get a call saying that she passed out at work and you're telling me to calm down."
"I'm sorry ma'am, but who are you?"
"Alexis Castle! My… ugh… My… mother… is sitting in some hospital bed probably scared out of her mind and you people aren't going to let me see her?"
"You said Castle?"
"Yes, Katherine Castle. She was brought in about a half hour ago."
"And you're her daughter?"
Kate hears the hesitation, but Alexis doesn't deny it. "Yes… and I want to see her."
At that moment, Kate can't help but press the call button… wanting to stop the craziness outside her room, and honestly needing Alexis as much as Alexis wanted to see her.
Another nurse floats into the room and Kate gestures to the door, "I'm sure that you've heard the redhead out there screaming. It's my daughter… can you let her in?"
The nurse walks out of the room and over to the nurses' station, just as Alexis is screaming again, "I want to see my mom… what is that going to take from you people?"
"Excuse me, Miss Lange… Mrs. Castle is in her room asking to see her daughter. She thought she would speed this process along." The other nurse says, looking at Alexis and smiling.
"She could hear me?" Alexis said, a blush creeping over her face.
The nurse nods and guides her over to the room.
"Hey Alexis… I hear that you're causing a bit of a scene… not unlike your father would."
"Well if dad could be here, I'm sure he would have done the same."
"I'm sure he would…"
Alexis sits down next to the woman that has become so much to her in the past year and grabs hold of Kate's hand.
"Is the baby okay?"
"She is fine."
"She?!"
Kate nods with a glint of tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.
"A baby girl… that's exciting."
"Well, I think that I can certainly handle another daughter…" Kate says, looking down and smoothing the blankets over her growing stomach.
"Kate… I ummm… I'm sorry if what I said out there made you uncomfortable. We haven't even talked about all of this and I don't want you to think that I'm forcing you into—"
"Into what exactly? Into loving you? Into feeling protective of you? Into worrying about you like I know I will with this little one? Alexis, you are my daughter… it's as simple as that. And I can be whatever you need me to be. I told you that once before and I'm not going back on that."
"Even if that is a mother?"
"After all that the two of us have been through the past few months, I wouldn't think twice about our growing relationship."
"Kate, I do love you, and I do think of you as a mother… and I don't know where I would have been without you these past few months."
"Lex, I don't know where me or this baby would be without you either."
"You come to meet your baby sister?"
"I did. I heard that she arrived a few hours ago. I came as fast as I could after Lanie called."
"You can't help an internship in another state, Lex. I'm so proud of what you are doing."
"You are?"
"Yep, and your sister is going to look up to you so much."
"Has she been sleeping this whole time?"
"On and off… same as someone else." Kate gestures with a cock of her head off to the right.
"I don't think that can be helped." Alexis says, with a smile.
"You know… I can hear you people talking about me." A voice says from the chair in the corner of the room.
"You ready to join us again?"
"I never left." He says, and it causes her heart to skip a beat.
He did leave them for a while. Apparently they had missed something in the first surgery and as the night had worn on after his accident, a small tear caused more internal bleeding. They had to do another emergency surgery, but this caused too much damage and forced the doctors to put him into a coma. He was in the coma for four months healing before he woke up to a smiling Kate sporting a round baby belly that his eyes were glued to from the moment he woke up. After several months he was still easily fatigued, but he was quickly recovering to be the Castle that he was before the accident.
"Can I hold her, or should I just leave her sleeping?" Alexis asks shyly, looking towards the bassinet.
"Actually, I think she is due for another feeding really soon, so I think that waking up in her big sister's arms will be perfect." Kate says, smiling at the older girl.
The two watch as Alexis gently picks up the newest addition to the Castle family.
"Hope Johanna Castle… I will love you forever and always, just like our mom and dad love each other the same. Through the hard times and the good times, I'll be right there, even if mom or dad can't be there. You have no idea how lucky we are." They hear Alexis whisper in the sleeping infant's ear.
"What do you say, Kate… you want another one?" Castle says with a smile on his face.
"Let me get through the toddler stage with this one and you're on…" she says with an equally expressive smile on her face.
Always.