A/N: Just a drabble-y oneshot. I was listening to Flame Trees by Cold Chisel and I thought of this. I would suggest listening to the song while you read if you aren't familiar with it, it will help.
Needless to say, I don't own Castle or Flame Trees.
Thanks for reading :) x
Plot:
AU Season 4 – Beckett didn't survive the shooting. Castle has stopped working with the NYPD and is now catching up with Ryan and Espo a year later.
They decide it is time. Their individual mourning periods are over, now it is just a dull ache that they carry with them. It's been a year since they last talked and that was at the wake of the funeral. He stopped working with the NYPD a few weeks after her death, the sight of seeing her empty chair every morning was hard enough, but then someone took over and that was worse somehow. It didn't feel the same solving crimes without her, so he went back to writing.
But after all this time the boys still look the same. Nothing has changed, everything is still in its place, but she is gone. It's funny that life keeps going and the world keeps turning now she is gone. It makes it harder to believe that she won't be around. And when they meet, how could they do anything but sit and talk, pretend nothing has changed, because it's the remembering part that hurts the most.
There is an unspoken rule that her name will not be mentioned, and they will keep the conversation light. They see who could tell the biggest lie. I'm doing well seems to be the winner, but they are all telling it. It may have taken more than just a memory to make him cry in the past, but all the memories flooding back as they sit and reminisce about how life was. Well, that almost does it. And by the end of the night, he realises: they may have been lying about doing well now, but it's coming, and is only getting better with time.