Hey! Have you all missed me as much as I've missed you? This is a sequel to my first 'Five Little Monkey's' book. It's set one year later and you don't have to have read the first book to read this one, but it would make SO much more sense.

Disclamor: We all know they aren't mine except fro Danielle, Liam, Miyana, Austin and Finn.

Enjoy!

Monday

Party Countdown: 5 days

He should have all of the awards. People will erect statues in his name after this one. He will have his own holiday, maybe.

Richard Castle has successfully gotten five almost one year olds down for a nap, started a second load of laundry and is working on the twelfth chapter of his newest book; a little behind, but still on track.

He types away on his laptop, the keys clicking in an almost syncopated rhythm. He stops every few lines, re-reads his words, changes them, reads again, and then goes back to typing.

He's too lost in his chapter to even register the front door opening and doesn't notice Kate is home until she wraps one arm around his chest and quickly presses random buttons on his keyboard with the other.

"Hey!" he squeals, smacking her hand away and quickly deleting all of Kate's handy work. "Hey!" this 'hey' is different, not anger, but surprise and happiness. "You're home early!"

"Yea we caught the guy and got a confession out of him like half an hour after I called you," she says half sitting on the desk, a hand on his chest for support.

"So, was I right? Was it the best friend?" he brightens at his idea, trying to help his friends.

"Actually no," she watches his face falls and pauses a moment to let him wallow in self-pity. "It was the best friend's boyfriend. But your idea helped put us in the right direction, so thank you," she says leaning down to kiss him, before standing up and moving to their room.

"Are the kids still asleep?" she asks checking her phone. It's nearly four, they will be up soon.

"Yes, for now," he says, stretching his arms over his head, feeling his upper back and shoulder muscles stretch out from sitting too long.

"Good," her voice is muffled from the open closet door. She emerges changed into a baggy shirt, grey yoga pants, and barefoot; her heels shed at the front door.

She moves to the bathroom to take off her make-up. Castle can hear the crinkling of the packaging for the make-up wipes she uses. He leans back in his chair and can just make out her profile in the doorway as she lifts a hand and swipes the wipe over her eye, the eyeliner and mascara coming off like magic.

She comes out a minute later sans make-up and her copper curls up in a messy bun to keep it off her face.

"Has she caught the guy yet?" Kate asks, coming into the study and pulling the extra rolling chair over to Castle's desk.

"Not yet, maybe in the next chapter or so; she's still interrogating the first suspect," Castle says, still typing and not meeting Kate's eyes.

"Still? Didn't she interrogate him last chapter?"

"No last chapter was the lead up to the interrogation; this chapter is the actual thing."

Kate just rolls her eyes and leaves her husband to work. Besides, she didn't want to be spoiled; she hates that. She wants to find out what happens along with everyone else who gets the book when it first comes out.

She's looking through the fridge and cabinets for something to make for dinner when she hears the tell-tale signs that babies are awake from their naps and ready to come downstairs and play.

Kate walks up the stairs, making sure the baby gate is closed behind her, down the hall and into the quints nursery.

She turns on the light and turns off the small tea lamp that sits on the bookcase as a nightlight.

All five babies are is various stages of wake. Danielle is standing up in her crib, tiny fingers grasping the top rail, and babbling loudly, telling her mom she's ready to be out of bed and wants to play. While Miyana on the other hand is still lying down and rubbing her hands over her eyes and yelling back at her sister, obviously mad that she was woken up from nap by her insomniac of a sister.

"Alright, alright, I hear you," Kate says walking over to Dani's crib and picking up the baby. Kate lays her on the changing pad, strips off her bottoms and pulls a clean diaper from the drawer. Kate keeps a hand on Danielle to make sure she doesn't roll off, which has happened before, while she changes her.

Danielle is still babbling, the occasional 'real' work coming out, and using her vast knowledge of baby sign language to talk to her mom.

Castle had started teaching the kids to sign when they were eight months old. They all picked up on it fairly quickly, but Danielle has defiantly taken an interest for it, learning more signs than her siblings.

Kate slips the same pair of blue leggings Dani was wearing to bed, over her feet, then stands her up to pull them the rest of the way up. She fixes the girl's 'Pebbles Flinstone' hair that had almost fallen out, and sets the girls down on her feet. Danielle takes a few shaky steps before getting her footing and attempting to run for the door, but not quite getting it yet.

"Not-uh Danielle, you stay here," Kate tells her daughter, who turns at the sound of her name.

She knows full and well that Danielle and Liam can reach their door knob, and have been known to sneak out when either her or Castle were trying to get them dressed or ready for a bath or for bedtime. That's why they put those knob locks on all of the doors so that the kids don't escape and get hurt.

Kate gives the girl a look and that seems to work as she gets distracted by a toy sitting in the fabric toy box in the corner of the room. She shakes her head, but moves back to the cribs to grab the next baby in line. The first one she sees is Austin, even though it really should be Liam's turn as the cribs are set up in birth order, but sometimes things change, and the kids need to learn the value of patience.

He gives his mom a huge, dimpled cheeked grin when she comes to pick him up. He's babbling nonsensical baby talk, but the word 'mama' does slip out a time or two. Kate changes him and wipes his running nose with an old burp cloth they use as washable tissues.

Once Austin is steady back on the ground, they round up his sister who is still engrossed in the toys and together they walk out of the door, down the hall and to the stairs.

Austin reaches up to be picked-up, but independent Danielle squawks at her mom's offer to be picked up. Instead she turns around and goes down their stairs feet first, like her dad taught her too. It's a slow process – one step at a time, but they eventually reach the bottom and Kate sets Austin over the gate first, then picking up Danielle under her arms and setting her on the other side. The two are already halfway to the toys when Castle comes out of his office.

"Incoming, Daddy!" Kate calls, but Castle has already seen the two. Castle picks up Austin and swings him around, making the boy giggle and squeal.

Kate stays on the steps a second longer; just to be sure they are alright. When they are she turns tail to repeat the process for the other three.

Liam is screaming when Kate returns, mad that his 'younger' brother got to go downstairs before he did.

"Liam, Liam, Liam, what are we going to do with you, huh?" Kate asks her son as she picks him up, his screaming quieting once his demands have been met.

He babbles up at her, running sticky hands over her face. Kate pulls them off and puts them to her lips, kissing them with a smack that makes Liam giggle.

Kate lays him down and changes his very wet diaper. He tries to squirm away the whole time, not liking the whole 'getting cleaned up' thing. Finally Kate has his pants back up; she smacks his bottom lightly and sets him onto the floor. He stays right next to Kate's leg, whining and wanting attention from his mom.

"Liam, buddy you need to move. I'm going to step on you," Kate says trying to get her son away from her feet where she is afraid she might get stepped on if Kate isn't paying attention. "I promise I will be with you in a minute. I need to get you sisters cleaned up," Liam is still whining but has moved over to his bed and is trying to get his puppy stuff animal that Alexis had given him when he was born through the bars of his crib.

Now that he was occupied for a few minutes; Kate could get the last two girls cleaned up. Miyana had stood up in her crib and was giving her mom and brother a 'ham' face: nose and eyes scrunched up, and a huge smile.

"Your brother is so silly, huh Mia?" Kate asked, picking up her daughter and kissing her cheek with a smack.

The girl babbles happily, giving her mom a re-cap of everything she missed during the day while she was at work.

After she is changed, Miyana toddles over to her brother and hits him, making him cry.

"Miyana, we don't hit," Kate scolded, getting down to her daughter's level, into her face. Kate grabbed her daughter's hand and smacked the back of it. Not hard, just enough for the girl to learn that doing mean things has consequences, and immediately Miyana begins to cry; not liking being punished for hitting her brother.

She moves the kids away from their cribs, over to the toys where, hopefully, they won't get into too much mischief.

Last but not least, Finn. Still the smallest, but catching up to the others; and probably the one with the most problems.

"Hello my little girl," Kate coos at Finn who is lying on her side, a new skill she had just learned. "Are you ready to get up?" Finn rolls back over and reaches for her mom. "Alright let's go," again Kate picks the baby up and kisser all over, making her giggle

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Instead of walking down the hall like she knows he can do, Liam bear crawls to the stairs and Kate laughs. Her son is so silly sometimes.

Liam stops at the top though and looks up at his mom, reaching to be picked up and carried. Kate scoops him up: Finn on one arm, Liam on the other. Miyana looks up for a minute, asking why her brother and sister are being carried, but not her.

Kate gives her an apologetic look, but Miyana shrugs it off. She is the sweetest thing. The girl turns around, lies on her belly, and goes down the stairs slowly, carefully, one at a time, feet and bottom first.

The reach the bottom and Kate hits the latch on the gate, letting it swing open and watching Miyana step down the last few steps before standing and toddling over to the rest of her family, and more importantly: the toys.

She tries to set Liam down but he wraps his legs and arms further around her body and whimpers.

"Alright, I won't let you go. You're alright."

They head over to where Castle is sitting on the couch watching the others play with toys and half listen to the Nick Junior show that is on TV.

Kate drops onto the couch next to her husband, two kids still hanging off of her. She moves her hand from around Finn to take her hair out of Liam's fist, before picking him up and standing him on her thighs. She bounces her legs and drops her arms for a second, catching him before he can fall. This game goes on for a while, until Liam is laughing so hard he's gasping for air, as is Kate; she's laughing because her son is laughing.

She loves this time of day. Everyone is home from work and up from a nap and dinner is still a little bit away. She loves getting to play with her kids for a little while as she hasn't seen them all day.

Castle has taken Finn out from under her mom, who was sitting on the girl's leg and is helping her to sit up on her own. His hands are in her armpits and she's sitting on his knee, with nothing supporting her besides her dad's hands. He lets go and watches the muscles in her torso start to work and hold her up for a full two minutes; longer than she's been able to do all week.

Castle smiles and praises his baby girl with kisses and words of encouragement. She works so hard.

"Look Kate, she did it!" Castle says, looking at his wife who is cuddling their son, running her hands up and down his stomach.

Kate looks over and smiles. "Good job, baby girl." She's really proud of how far Finn has come in the past few months.

Austin has toddled over and is trying to get his parents attention by repeatedly making the sign for 'eat' and whining.

Rick looks when he notices his son's presence. "Good job buddy, 'eat' that's right," he praises, but when Austin doesn't stop, Castle gets the message "Oh 'eat' okay, hold on bud. Kate," he says, tapping his wife on the leg, getting her attention. "Your son is hungry."

"Oh, so he's my son now?" she asks with a raised eyebrow.

Castle nods, stands and helps Kate up. Liam has long since left her arms and gone to the toys – cars and trucks are by far his favorites.

"Alright let's get some dinner ready," Kate says moving towards the kitchen.

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Theirs is not much in terms of food; they really need to go grocery shopping, but Kate manages to throw something together: macaroni and cheese, pears and hot dogs. Not the most nutritious dinner, but it's something everyone will eat.

Castle has rounded up the kids and put them in their booster seats around the table with their bibs on and sippy cups filled with milk. Bottles are a thing of the past in the Castle family and now everyone drinks from cups like big people.

Kate plates the food, putting them on divided plates because her kids have a thing about their food touching, and sets them on the outside of the counter for Castle to hand out to the kids.

"So, what's the plan for this week?" Kate asks as she plates food for herself and Castle (they'll probably end up ordering take out once the kids are in bed).

"Well Finn has therapy tomorrow morning."

"Right, I'm going to take her." Castle nods, takes his plate and sits at the table with his kids. Kate follows him around the counter and sits down at the other end.

"And Wednesday morning we have our play group and I called that daycare Ryan and Jenny have Grace in and they said we could come by anytime so long as we call them beforehand so they know we're coming."

Kate moves to speak, but Castle stops her.

"I know you said we were waiting a while longer, but you also said I could look but not touch."

He's right. That's what she said.

"Alright, well set it up. Just let me know so I can work out my schedule."

"Thursday is another therapy day for Finn, and if you can't get out of work, I can take her. I have a work meeting on Friday and Saturday is party day."

Kate smiled at that.

They were just under a week away from the quints first birthday party. They had been planning for months and luckily everything was coming together quite well. Just the small details need to be taken care of. The party won't be held on their actual birthday, which is the following weekend, since Kate has to work on their actual birthday. But celebrating a week early never hurt anyone.

"It's kind of sad, don't you think? They're one now, not babies anymore," Kate says, her eyes sad.

The party was kind of bitter sweet. The quints weren't babies anymore, they were into toddlerhood now. Her babies were growing up entirely too fast for her liking.

"Don't think of it as a sad or bad thing. Think of it as the start of the second book in their series of life. It's just a new adventure."

She smiles and pushes her food around on her plate. It wasn't exactly what she wanted for dinner.

Danielle is asking for more, her plate almost empty, she's using the sign for 'more' and trying to say it but only annunciating the 'M' sound.

Kate scrapes the rest of her food onto her daughter's plate, stands and moves back into the kitchen and puts her plate in the sink

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Bath time has always been Kate's job. After being at work all day she needs some time, like playing downstairs before dinner, to be with her kids and watch how they've grown over the day or new things they learned when she wasn't looking. Castle doesn't argue. After being with the kids all day, he needs a break at night and if Kate can get them ready for bed, then that's just one less thing he has to worry about.

After nearly a year, Kate has gotten quite well at giving five squirmy, wet babies a bath; has it almost down to a science.

She strips then down to diapers then goes to fill the tub. Both boys get washed first, and she lets them play for a few minutes before getting them out and wrapping a towel around each of them. She sends them back to their room to their dad who is waiting with pajamas and she repeats the process with the girls.

Once everyone is clean and dry they all play for a little while before it's time for a story. Everyone finds a spot on either mommy or daddy's lap and Castle cracks open one of the well-worn board books in the quints collection. The favorite right now is The Very Hungry Caterpillar, one book Castle and Beckett think every child should know.

After a story, or two, everyone gets hugs a kisses and it put into bed with their loveys and pacifiers and cups of milk or whatever else they need to sleep. The night light goes on and the overhead light gets turned off.

With one last 'sleep tight' from Kate, the door is closed, but not all the way, and the parents retreat downstairs.

Castle had gone down before her, so what Kate hits the end of the stairs and sees Castle on the phone; she assumes he's calling one of their favorite takeout places. She can hear him give the person on the other end their usual order, thank them and hung up.

"You know I love you right?" she asks stepping off the last stair and coming over to him. She wraps her arms around his chest and just stays thee for a minute, her eyes closed, just breathing him in.

"I know you do," he hugs her back. They stay like that for a minute, both needing a hug from the other.

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They are sitting on the couch watching TV when the doorbell rings, and Castle jumps up before it can go off again and wake up the babies.

He pays the delivery man and closes the door; a plastic bag in his other hand is full to bursting with yummy smelling Chinese food; so much better than macaroni and hot dogs.