Not Always An Always
Summary – WARNING – MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH. This is totally AU post 6x23 because everyone has contracts for season 7 – yeah! So what if it happened a little differently? Definitely angst but does end happily for some. May be a little sensitive for some people. And don't read at work.
Author's Notes – Sorry – I had this strange dream last night – didn't have anything to do with Castle, but it could be tweaked. I attributed it to being sick for a couple of days because obviously WWII did not happen in the back yard of the house I grew up in although we did have a fairly big yard and the neighbors on each side didn't get along with one another, or anyone else for that matter. This is a one-shot.
Disclaimer – Don't own Castle – Andrew Marlowe and Disney do.
Chapter 1 – Not Always An Always
Everyone said it was a freak accident, a one in a million happenstance, but the outcome was just as deadly, just as disastrous.
Lanie was the only witness, having just arrived on the scene of the car crash.
Beckett stood motionless to the side of the road, tears running down her face, devastated as she watched the fire that enveloped the car that held her beloved.
She finally dropped her head, starting to crumple in on herself, when she heard a loud voice booming from the ambulance almost hidden by the fire truck. He could always be loud when he thought he wasn't being heard.
"No, you are not taking me to the hospital! Damn it! I'm getting married – let me out now!"
She straightened and smiled through the tears as she recognized the voice and turned slightly, closing her eyes, listening to the rant, letting it fill her with joy.
It happened at the same time she turned. The fire finally reached the rear tire on the driver's side of the car, causing it to rupture with explosive force, sending the hubcap and rubber flying.
Lanie saw the flash behind Kate's head and saw her jerk and then drop to the ground like a rag doll.
"No, no, no, no, no, no!" Lanie screamed as she jumped out of the car and raced to where Beckett lay unmoving on the ground. "Kate! Kate!"
Her screams caught everyone else's attention, including the man who the EMTs were trying to treat, and they all rushed to where Lanie hovered over Kate.
"Come on, Kate. Stay with me," she said as she felt for a pulse and then sat back with a sob as she looked at the strangle angle that Kate's neck was bent and the blood pooling under her head.
"Oh my god – Kate! Kate!" Castle screamed as he dropped to his knees beside Kate, not caring that the pants ripped. "Lanie?" he asked in a shaky scared voice, looking at her with tears in his eyes.
"Sir, you need to move," said the EMT. "We need to help her."
Castle nodded numbly and then moved out of the way, helping Lanie to stand. "Lanie, what happened? Is she…?"
"There was a flash and she just fell," Lanie said through her tears, watching as the EMTs worked urgently to stabilize Kate.
They clung to each other as they watched the gurney being loaded into the ambulance.
# # # # # # # #
By the time they reached the hospital, Jim Beckett was there, waiting for them, along with the head of ER.
Kate's father looked like he had aged 10 years in a day. "Rick, I've given Dr. Philips permission to speak to you," he said quietly.
Castle sat stiffly in the chair as the doctor told them what had happened.
The hubcap had hit Beckett (it would now always be Beckett because a corpse can't marry) in the back of her head, immediately severing her head from her spinal column, an internal decapitation. She didn't die from blood loss; she died from lack of oxygen before the EMTs could even help her.
Per Kate's wishes when she first started the police force, Jim Beckett signed the papers allowing the organ donation and several of her organs could be harvested. In fact, years later, Jim would give Castle several letters from the people Kate had helped.
She had also willed what was left of her body to the CSI body farm to help in forensic research – she and Castle had joked that he could come visit her on Halloween.
# # # # # # # # #
A week later, the wedding was turned into a memorial for Kate held at Castle's house in the Hamptons for privacy.
Gates gave the eulogy and Ryan and Espo shared a few stories.
Castle said only one sentence before sitting down, chin quivering as he chose not to let the tears fall – she was the most remarkable, maddening, challenging, frustrating person he had ever met and he doubted he would ever meet someone like that again.
Jim Beckett said that he was sure his daughter was finally happy before she died.
Then they released the butterflies that had been bought for the wedding.
A week after that, the wake held at the Old Haunt for the police department. It was standing room only.
# # # # # # # # # #
Time slowly passed for the people left behind.
The SUV that had run Castle's car off the road was never found and the case remained unsolved.
Castle completed the final Nikki Heat novel, bringing her search to find her mother's killer to a satisfying end, and giving her and Rook a romantic weddin. He then quit writing because he could no longer stomach murder mysteries as he thought of Kate's body lying there in the cold ground at the farm.
He still consulted with the 12th on occasion and the boys would come over every so often for a poker or video game night. They did see each other at the annual Joanna Beckett scholarship fundraiser.
Jim Beckett spent many nights at Castle's loft, talking when the man needed to talk, just sitting when he needed silence, playing endless games of gin rummy when both of their hands itched to hold a glass and drown their mutual sorrow in liquor.
Martha continued to live with Castle so that her son would never be alone.
Like Lanie, Alexis became a medical examiner, interning with the 12th when she graduated medical school.
It was there that she met her husband, Lt. Dennis Storm, no relation.
And shortly after that, Alexis found herself sitting in her OB-GYN waiting room, waiting patiently with her father for her second pregnancy checkup because Dennis was out of town. She had been feeling exhausted, but attributed it to all the work she was doing both at work and getting their new house ready.
"Sorry, this is going to be a little cold," said the technician as she squirted the thick fluid on Alexis' slightly extended abdomen. She ran the probe for a few moments, watching the monitor, and then paused. "Alexis, can you excuse me for a minute? I'll be right back."
Alexis gripped Castle's hand and looked at her father worriedly.
"I'm sure it will be okay," Castle said, smiling at her.
Alexis nodded at him. She still worried about him. He didn't smile as much now, but a laugh would bubble out of him every so often. And he didn't date, saying that Kate had set the bar very high.
There was a knock on the door and a handsome, middle-aged woman came back in the room with the technician.
"Alexis, I'm Dr. Annie Bryant," she said, introducing herself. "Dr. McNeil is in labor and delivery right now, and she asked me to step in and have a look."
"Is something wrong?" Castle asked.
"No, Mr. Castle, there isn't," Dr. Bryant said with a smile as she turned the monitor to face them. She ran the probe over one part of Alexis' abdomen and pointed out a spot on the monitor. "See, here's your baby's heart." She moved the probe to another part. "And here's another heartbeat – and then a third heartbeat."
"What!?" exclaimed Alexis. "Triplets?!" (I'm going to kill him, she thought silently – no wonder she was so tired and so fat now that she thought about it).
"Dr. McNeil suggested that, if it's okay with you, I take over this case since I deal with high-risk pregnancies," Dr. Bryant said.
"Yes, yes, that's fine," said Alexis, laughing. "Dad, I think we're going to need a bigger house. And you're going to have to put a credit limit on Gram's credit card; otherwise, she'll buy out the stores."
Castle smiled at her as he kissed her forehead. "My little overachiever," he exclaimed proudly, beaming at her.
# # # # # # # # # #
Castle accompanied Alexis on every OB-GYN visit, as much to give his daughter support as to work up the nerve to ask Dr. Bryant out for coffee.
Before they knew it, the triplets were there – Jackson, Katherine, and Alexander. Castle was a natural with them. Martha spoilt them rotten because she said that was what great grandmothers were for. And Dr. Bryant finally said yes to the coffee.
When the triplets were 6 months old, they went on a real date where Dr. Bryant told Castle about her first husband who died unexpectedly from undetected stomach cancer and Castle told her about his almost wife named Kate Beckett. They toasted to lost loves and being opened to future new loves.
When the triplets were 1-1/2 years old, Castle accompanied Dr. Bryant on a medical mission trip to Africa, where she helped deliver babies in areas where there were no hospitals, no running water. He was so moved by what he saw that he began to write again, not made-up stories, but stories of life in the savanna – the harshness and the beauty of it. Gina said it was one of his best books ever.
When the triplets were 3, Castle and Dr. Annie were married in the hospital chapel because the hospital was their second home now with their involvement in the neonatal unit. Their vows didn't promise always, because they both knew that not always an always happened. But they promised to cherish each other while they each drew breath.
# # # # # # # # #
The End