Hope in the Sunrise
A Castle FanFicfion one-shot
In the "Four Winds" Universe
By Laura Picken

Hi all! This is a one-shot in the crazy little Twilight Zone that is my fantasy AU "Four Winds". It's set during the six-week gap in the epilogue of my story "Ascension". If you haven't read that, stop right now and skip to the author's note at the end of the story, or prepare to be hopelessly lost. Don't say I didn't warn ya...

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mark Fallon or anyone else you recognize from Castle. Duh. There's no way that this would *ever* happen on the show. Ekaterina Petrovich, however, *is* my original character. Please don't use her without getting my permission first.

Anyway, on with the show!

No one ever seems to document the founding of a top-secret, super-covert government agency. It could be because the people involved in building the agency are passionate enough about their jobs that they have sworn themselves to secrecy for life.

However...it's much more likely that they were just trying to forget the endless cycle of meetings.

The Inner Circle of the Network had been at it for hours, discussing every aspect of their fledgling agency with a fervor that can only come from a group of people who are used to handling every aspect of their life passionately. And loudly.

"Hey, hey...HEY!" Director Mark Fallon called for the room's attention for what felt like the tenth time since the meeting began. "Look, I know it's tempting to exploit the fact that we can have anything the Sìfāng can conjure up for us. But we've got to remember that we still have to *buy* anything more technically complicated than a sword on a very limited budget. Now, I agree with Grumpy and the Yīzhì that most of our startup money needs to go toward computers and getting the lab set up. After that, we can focus the rest of the money on hiring Grumpy, Crusher and Claire as our additional support staff..."

"What about Angel?" asked Alexis.

Katya's half-smile was mysterious, speaking of a level of wisdom that came with age. "One thing that all of you will soon learn is that with a little luck and some very careful planning things like money no longer become a concern. I am thrilled to continue to hunt at your side, but I do not need to be paid for the privilege."

Fallon forced the group to stay on topic as he wrapped up the meeting. "I suggest we all call it a night. Why don't you guys go home and get some rest? In the morning we can start working on remodeling the building."

As the meeting broke up though, Fallon started to grow restless and fidgety; it was like he was trying to work up the nerve to say or do something. Finally the dam seemed to break, and the Director spoke up just before his intended target left the room. "Master Lièrén? May I speak to you for a few moments?"

Beckett nodded, making a quiet excuse to Castle and letting everyone else leave the room before she re-started the conversation with Fallon once they were both alone. "So how can I help you, Director?"

Fallon smiled as he blushed, clearly still not used to being called by his official title. The smile quickly left his face, though, as his thoughts returned to the reason he had asked Beckett to stay behind. "I...I was hoping you could call someone for me."

The Lièrén smiled as she took in her friend's nervous demeanor. "You're not looking to borrow my cell phone, are you?"

"No," replied Fallon, blushing. "No, I most definitely can't reach her on my cell phone."

"*Her*?" Beckett countered, continuing the teasing. "Does your girlfriend know you're asking me to call other dead women? She has always struck me as the jealous type..."

Fallon was too anxious to take the teasing well. "Beckett..."

"I can't guarantee I'll get through to her."

Fallon blinked back his surprise as Beckett's straighforward and deadly serious reply. "Why not?"

"Because Rebecca is no longer in our reality," Beckett replied, trying to explain things as best she could. "The last time she came through, she seemed to make it pretty clear that her business on Earth had concluded."

"But...things have...changed...since then," Fallon countered. He crossed the distance between them, hoping that bridging that gap might help to make his point. "Master Lièrén, for years the only hope I could hold on to was the idea that when I died I could be with Rebecca again. But now..."

Beckett understood Fallon's dilemma immediately. "Now there's a good chance that you won't be able to be reunited with her for a long time."

Fallon nodded. "I need to know if...if she can be at peace with that. Please, try."

Beckett raised an eyebrow, suspicious of her friend's story. "That's all? You want to make sure Rebecca's okay with you not living a normal mortal lifespan?"

Fallon forced himself to keep his expression carefully neutral. "That's it. Please, Beckett, can you help me or not?"

"All right, I'll see what I can do," sighed Beckett. She sat down at the conference table and closed her eyes, centering herself in the process handed down to her by her predecessors, reaching out with a clear mental picture of the woman she had only met but once. Rebecca, Beckett called out with her mind, Rebecca, your husband is here. He wishes to speak with you. Rebecca...Rebecca...

After five minutes of steady meditation, Beckett realized the futility of continuing. She opened her eyes with a start, drinking in deep gulps of air as she doubled over with the discomfort caused by a few minutes of oxygen deprivation. "I...I'm sorry, Mark. I don't think she's coming. I would have heard from her spirit by now if she was."

Fallon looked up to the skies as if trying to call on his late wife's spirit for himself. "Do you know why?" he asked Beckett with a frustrated sigh.

"My predecessor," Beckett replied with a sly smile, "would tell you that Rebecca had chosen to be reincarnated and that we can't contact her because she's off living a new human life somewhere..."

Fallon carefully considered Beckett's suggestion, as well as what she *didn't* say. "And you? What do *you* think?"

"I think," replied Beckett, "that Rebecca has moved on...in whatever way you want that to mean. Maybe you need to do the same."

The next morning, Mark Fallon woke up with a groan and a yawn...far, far too early, for his tastes. It had taken him a good four months to get used to the 'up- all-night' schedule that came with dating a vampire. And in less than three weeks, that entire schedule had gotten turned on its head. Not for the first time, he wasn't sure whether to despise or be grateful for his dual blessings.

Because even though he could no longer die, it seemed more and more like the blessing of the Mayan gods was just making Katya more determined to kill him.

Katya was still getting used to being a daywalker: a vampire who had the ability to walk in sunlight without being burned to death by it. She had not seen the sun without fear in almost half a millennia, and she seemed to rejoice in every second of every opportunity she got to enjoy it.

Which meant they were getting up before sunrise, every morning, without fail. No matter what had gone on the previous night.

Fallon drew deeply from the seemingly endless well of energy that his second blessing provided him. The Bengal tiger's spirit had, he thought, temporarily subletted his body during the battle of Central Park, and he had accepted the benefits gratefully, knowing that the strength, speed and endurance that came with the tiger spirit's presence were one of the crucial reasons that any of them had survived the battle at all. When the battle ended, Fallon knew from the stories of his Network brothers that there was going to be a huge letdown as the spirit left, and he had been fully prepared to deal with whatever mental and emotional toll that took on him.

But the spirit never left.

Instead the ghost spirit of a Siberian tiger bowed before him as a majestic voice echoed in his mind. You have proven yourself more than worthy, Phoenix.

Worthy of what? was all Fallon could think at the time.

The Mùshī has decreed that you may keep the blessing of the tiger spirits, if you so choose.

Fallon had taken one look at the woman he loved...the vampire he loved...and knew exactly why the Mùshī had decreed him worthy of such a 'blessing'. The Mùshī, Kevin Ryan, had, many years earlier, dated Katya himself. So Ryan had given their relationship his 'blessing' in the most generous way he could: by making sure that he, as a newly minted immortal, would have the energy to keep up with his already immortal girlfriend without collapsing in an exhausted heap and praying for death.

He drew on that energy yet again as Katya dragged him out of bed for an early morning 'jog'. Inspired by the stories many of the Network members had told them about the Guardians' stint as the 'Dark Angels', Katya had taken to waking him up at the crack of dawn to treat the industrial area surrounding the Network headquarters like her own personal playground. Part of him missed the days where she would tackle those runs at sunset, alone; the timing allowed him to meet her on the roof of the warehouse to share a picnic dinner and talk for hours with the lights of Manhattan at their feet. On a couple of rare days, they had talked nonstop from dusk to dawn. Part of him had missed those days; but to see Katya now, pulling him out of bed like a six-year-old on Christmas morning just to see another sunrise...

Yeah, he wouldn't miss this for anything.

Katya, as always, took the lead, running, jumping and swinging through the area with the ease of months of practice. The tiger spirit helped Fallon to keep up with her...but just barely. By the time they got to the roof of the warehouse, the colors of the sunrise has just started to burn out of the sky, leaving the sun to look like it was sitting atop the cliffs near the Hudson River. Fallon chuckled as he watched Katya stare, unblinking, toward the east, drinking in as much of the light as possible. The daywalker noticed her boyfriend's laughter. "What?" she asked. "What's so funny?"

"You," Fallon replied simply. "It always amazes me how you can get such joy out of something as simple as sunlight."

"Mark, I can assure you that nothing is simple when you are deprived of it for five hundred years," Katya responded with her own chuckle. They sat in companionable silence for a while before a thought came to Katya's mind. "Oh...how did your conversation with the Lièrén go yesterday?"

Fallon tried to play coy. "What conversation?"

"The one you had after our last meeting," replied Katya. "When you asked her to stay after for a while?"

"Oh, *that* conversation..." Fallon was sure Katya could hear his heart pounding through his chest. "You mean you weren't listening?"

Katya shook her head. "It's rude to eavesdrop on other people's conversations, Mark," she teased, "you know that."

"And you weren't...?"

Katya smiled wide enough to show her fangs. "You should know well enough by now that when I'm in your head, you know it."

"True," Fallon relented, sharing his beloved's smile. It was then that he noticed it, out of the corner of his eye: a bottle of champagne, chilling in a steel bucket with two plastic champagne flutes.

Katya was practically giddy as her normal excitement rose up to another level. "Ooh, is that for *us*?! Mark, did you plan this..."

Fallon cut her off, his instinctive levels of caution and suspicion putting him on high alert. "Kat, honey...I didn't set this up." He held out an arm to try and hold her back from the potential danger. "Let me go and check it out..."

Immortal or not, Katya had no interest in having anyone protect her from anything. She slid under Fallon's block and sprinted for the champagne. Before he had an opportunity to stop her, Katya was reading the note card that she had discovered sticking out from underneath the bucket. "Mark," she asked Fallon, "do you know what is the meaning of this?"

Confused, Fallon took the card from Katya's hand, and read the note that was addressed to him:

Ohfor God's sake, will you just ask her already!All this indecision is giving me a headache every time I get near you...KR

P.S.Your box is at the bottom of the bucket. Congratulations!

"What box is this note talking about, Mark?" asked Katya. "What do you need to ask me?"

Fallon swallowed hard, a nervous knot forming in the pit of his stomach. He took a deep breath, then plunged his hand through the ice, finding the small square jewelry box wrapped in plastic...

Katya pulled Fallon's out of the ice with a speed equal to the speed with which he plunged his hand into the bucket. "Mark! What is the matter with you? Why would you ever..." Her voice trailed off as she recognized the size and shape of the box in Fallon's hand. "Moya lyubovʹ, what..."

Fallon drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly to steady his nerves. "Kat, I know that you haven't thought very highly of marriage because of your human life and how...how..."

"How I died?"

Fallon nodded, finding it impossible to meet Katya's steady gaze. "You also know how I was fortunate enough to be married to a woman I loved very, very much. She was the only woman I've ever really loved...well, the only human woman, anyway..." It took a moment for Fallon to compose himself as the memory of his human wife caught him off guard. "Anyway...now, with everything that's happened and everything we've been through together, I was hoping...well, I was hoping you might let me take a lifetime or two to change your mind on the subject?"

Katya tilted Fallon's head up so their eyes could meet, her gaze glowing with joy, love and hope. "Well then," she replied as her voice started to choke up with unshed tears, "isn't there something you have to ask me, first?"

His heart soaring, Fallon got down on one knee and opened the box to reveal a simple diamond ring. Lifting his eyes to make sure he was once again looking at Katya, Fallon did as he has been asked. "Ekaterina Anastasiya Petrovich, will you marry me?"

Two floors below the couple, three other couples were waiting nervously for Katya's answer as well, two of those couples relaxing *only* after the words were actually spoken. "She said yes," Beckett declared to the group.

It felt like all the tension had been erased from the air. "So he *finally* asked her?" asked Ryan.

Beckett nodded, gently jabbing her boyfriend in the side as she replied to Ryan's question. "Yep. They're engaged."

"Thank God that's over..." Ryan exclaimed with a relaxed smile.

Esposito was confused. "Wait a minute, bro. We all knew she would say yes. Hell, you could even read her *mind*..."

Ryan cut his partner off. "Javi, one of the first things I learned about Katya is that she is extremely likely to change her mind right up until the moment she actually makes a decision about *anything*. You know that expression about how it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind?"

"Yeah?" asked Lanie.

"I tend to think that Katya's the woman they were talking about."

Hi everyone! I hope you liked this little jump back into the world of the Castle Guardians, but that's not the real reason why I wrote this. The real reason why I wrote this is to announce to all of the wonderful fans of the "Four Winds" series that the prologue to the predecessor novel, "Guardians of Shangri La", is now up on the sister to this website, Fiction Press. The direct link to the story is on my author page. (Sorry, I really wanted to give you a direct link from here, but this stupid editor won't let me.) You'll need to create a new account to leave comments on the novel, but I really, really, *really* want to hear what you guys think, so I hope you'll take the time to set up the account, follow and comment on the new story.

And of course, comments on this story are always welcome. :D