A/N: Thanks so much for the support on my first story! I'm usually a big chicken when it comes to stuff like this, and I'm so happy people liked it! The title of this comes from Google Translate, so I don't know how correct it actually is. Please forgive any formatting weirdness, I'm doing this on my phone. "Veritas" post ep.

VERUM CUM PACE (With Truth Comes Peace)

Jim Beckett unlocked the door and walked into his apartment, tired but invigorated from a three week trip up to the cabin. No TV, no phone, just commiserating with nature—and Johanna—over his baby girl getting married in a couple of weeks. He chuckled at the memory of Kate complaining (loudly) about Richard Castle infiltrating the precinct, making her life miserable. How far she had come in the past 6 years.

Jim was so grateful to Rick for bringing back his Katie. She had been so closed off from everyone, including him; though he realized that that was partly his fault the first couple of years. Even though her job terrified him every day, he was thankful for it as well. It gave Katie something to live for, something to keep her from falling into the same trap as he did, even though sometimes it seemed to be a trap of its own, as driven as she was to find Johanna's killer.

But Rick Castle had changed all that. First, through his books, then through worming his way into her life. The author was the best thing to ever happen to his Katie.

Putting his suitcase down, he reached into the refrigerator for a bottle of sparkling water. 'Hmmm,' he thought, seeing the empty shelves in the fridge. 'Need to do a little grocery shopping.'

Closing the door, he twisted the cap on the bottle. But before he got it open, there was a knock at the door.

Putting the bottle down, he went to answer. It was Katie and Rick, looking a little worse for wear; especially Katie.

"Hi, guys," said Jim, smiling, opening the door wider to let them in. "You're lucky to have caught me. I just walked in from my trip, and noticed I was out of food. So I…" He broke off, seeing their faces; wonder, elation, disbelief, and not a little bit of shellshock spread over the both of them.

"Katie?" said Jim, pulling her into a hug. "What happened?"

Kate winced when Jim put his hand on the back of her head.

He pulled away. "What happened?" he asked again, noticing other scratches and bruises on her face and arms.

"Dad…" said Kate, and then she stopped, not able to go on, tears filling her eyes.

"Katie?" Jim turned to Rick.

"You might want to sit down, Jim," said Rick. "This is big."

Jim looked quizzically at the two of them, then led them to the kitchen where they sat at the table.

"Rick, Katie?" now he was getting nervous. "What the hell happened? Katie, why are you hurt?"

"I take it you haven't heard any news while you were up at the cabin?" asked Rick.

"No. There's a TV up there, but I rarely turn it on. Kind of defeats the purpose of going, I think," said Jim. "Phone stays off too."

Kate took a shaky breath.

"I'm glad, Dad. I wouldn't…we wouldn't want you to find out on the news." She looked at Rick.

"Ok, now you two are scaring me," said Jim. "Come on, spit it out."

Rick turned to Kate. "Kate?"

Kate steeled herself.

"It's over, Dad."

"Over?" asked Jim. "What's over? What do you mean?"

Kate's voice cracked.

"Sena—Senator Bracken has been arrested."

Jim looked a little confused.

"Senator Bracken?" he asked. "Why? And why would you be here telling me?"

"He's the man behind Mom's murder," Kate replied.

Jim sat there, stunned.

"Katie? How long have you known? Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"Because people had a tendency to die if they knew too much," she said. "I couldn't …I'd completely go off the deep end if anything happened to you," she went on. "And I know you would too if you knew."

Jim looked resigned at the truth of her statement.

"If I'd known…I might well have found a little 'liquid courage' and gone after him myself," he admitted. "Tell me the story, Katie."

"I put the cuffs on myself," she began. "He'd tried to kill me earlier. He and a couple of his goons cornered me in a hotel room Castle and I had gone to—"

Rick cut in.

"I had gone to pick up a car. We were on our way out of the country. There was a manhunt for Kate."

"It wasn't Castle's fault, Dad," Kate interjected. "Neither of us realized we'd been followed. They tried to make it look…look like I committed suicide."

Jim still just sat, trying to take it all in. Suicide? Not his Katie. Not after everything.

She went on.

"I fought, and managed to get the gun away from them, but not before one of them broke a bottle over my head." She touched the back of her head gingerly, wincing again. "Castle found me just as I was passing out from the concussion…And the booze. They got me drunk, Dad."

Jim winced himself, at that, especially in light of what he had said earlier.

"I carried her out of there and we got right on the road, stopping for some first aid supplies along the way," said Rick. "We were on our way to Canada."

Jim looked back and forth at the two like he was watching a tennis match; trying to process all they were saying.

"We'll go over more of the details later, Dad," Kate cut back in. "But while I was semi-conscious in the car, I had a flashback of talking to Captain Montgomery back when I was in uniform. He'd said something to me about Mom giving me a cassette tape."

She was silent a moment, remembering, then went on.

"It didn't mean anything to me at the time, I hadn't found a cassette looking through Mom's old files before, but when I remembered it now we went back to the city, and went through them again."

Castle spoke again.

"We still didn't find the cassette, but we were accosted by IA and dragged in handcuffs to the precinct."

Jim jumped forward at that.

"What?" he asked incredulously.

"There was a note in Mom's planner that said something about family. You and I had thought that it was a reminder about meeting us for dinner that night, but when Castle saw the note he thought it might be something different. And then at the precinct, I remembered that Mom had called her elephants a family. You remember those, right? I keep them on my desk at work."

Jim nodded.

"She loved those," he said. "Always said they gave her luck."

"I know, Dad," said Kate. "And they still do."

She paused; gathering herself together.

"I pulled on it until it broke, and the cassette that Captain Montgomery asked me about fell out of it. We listened to it. Everyone. Captain Gates, Kevin and Javi, the IA people."

Her voice cracked again.

"It was Bracken on that tape, Dad. Implicating himself in blackmail and in murder."

If Jim hadn't been sitting, he would have fallen.

"God, Katie…"

Kate had grabbed Rick's hand, holding tightly, drawing strength from him.

"I was given permission to go to DC and arrest him, along with Kevin and Javi."

She'd given up holding the tears back, they were flowing freely now.

"He was in the middle of a television interview," Kate stopped a second and actually smiled.

Rick chuckled a little too.

"I wasn't in there, I waited outside, but that reporter got the scoop of a lifetime!" he said.

Still smiling through her tears, Kate went on. "You should have seen the look on his face when he saw me, Dad," she said. "He thought I was dead, told me I couldn't be there. I arrested him; I took him into custody right there in front of the cameras."

"You did it, Katie," said Jim, tears running down his cheeks as well. "Your mother is so proud of you right now, I know it."

"It's over, Daddy," said Kate, full on crying now. "We can move on, live our lives," she looked over at Rick. "Get married."

They all stood. Jim took Kate in his arms, mindful of her head injury, and they just held each other for a moment, crying.

"Get over here, Castle," she said, holding an arm out for him. "You're a part of this too."

"If it wasn't for you—" Jim agreed; his own voice breaking.

Rick joined the hug.

"I'm so glad I could help."

The three stood there holding each other. The story wasn't over, they all knew it. There was a trial coming, and a man like Bracken would have resources to try to get him off. But for now, they could let it go.

Vincit Omnia Veritas.

Truth Conquers All.

Verum Cum Pace.

With Truth Comes Peace.

They've found their truth, and they've found their peace.