Last Day

by Minstrel164

A Castle AU What if only Castle died at the end of season 8? 23 Years later it is Kate Beckett's last day as Commissioner of the NYPD. Kate reflects on her career and life in general

Last Day

By Minstrel164

( A Castle AU What if Castle died at the end of season 8? 23 Years later it is Kate Beckett's last day as Commissioner of the NYPD. Kate reflects on her career and life in general)

A/N:

I started writing this story shortly after 19th April when the news came through that Stana Katic and Tamala Jones had been sacked from the show. Like most of you, I was angry. The bulk of the story had been finished before the news came through that the show had been cancelled. I have only tweaked one or two things following what had happened in the final episode. I hope you like it

Con

XXX

Kate Beckett walked into the outer office suite and slowly made a bee line for her personal assistant's desk. She did not walk as fast as she once did, these days it was a more sedate pace. Walking fast only further aggravated the pain and discomfort in her right hip that came in the colder and coldest months of the year. Her trademark high heels had given way to more comfortable footwear. The high heels just hurt her feet too much.

Detective First Grade Ann Hastings, Kate's personal assistant hurriedly finished off the call she was on and rose to her feet to accept the leather bound folder that Kate passed over.

"Thank God that was the last Compstat meeting I ever have to attend." Kate declared with no little relief in her voice, as she turned and started for her own office.

"I gather the meeting went well, Commissioner?" Hastings inquired as she set aside the folder.

"It went better than usual. I only had to light a fire under two precinct captains and one Assistant Chief's asses."

"That must be some kind of record, ma'am." Hastings remarked, trying not to smile.

"It just might be, Ann." Kate agreed.

Kate entered her own office and walked over to her desk and fell into the chair. She let out a long sigh. She had never liked Compstat meetings. She had never liked them from the very first one she had attended as the newly appointed captain of the Twelfth Precinct over twenty years ago and she had never liked all the subsequent meetings she had attended and subsequently presided over down the years. Like them or not she knew and understood they were a necessary tool for the NYPD. That was why she was always hard on senior commanders and precinct captains about the crime statistics and had been pushing them constantly for better results.

Try as she might she had never been able to forget her very first meeting. She had felt exactly like Daniel must have felt when he entered the lion's den. She had managed to survive that meeting without any long lasting mental scars. She had been rather proud of herself at being able to hold her own amongst her colleagues and senior command. It certainly helped the advice she received from Captain Gates before heading into the meeting. It had held her in good stead.

A part of Kate felt a little bad for being tough on Captain Gupta. The captain had only recently taken over command of the Twelfth Precinct and was still finding his feet. She could have cut him a little slack but it was the Twelfth, and that precinct would forever hold a special place in her heart. It had been her first command. By the time she had moved on from the Twelfth she had left it with an exemplary record and that was why she had always been a little tougher on Captains of the Twelfth who had followed her. They had a high standard to maintain.

Reclining back in her chair Kate thought about calling Captain Gupta and soothing his ruffled feathers. She dismissed the thought almost immediately. When she had appointed Gupta to command the Twelfth she had warned him that she would be tough on him and he had replied that he expected that. To his credit Captain Gupta in the meeting had taken it on the chin and then got on with it. Kate had a feeling that Captain Gupta would do alright.

If she felt a little bad for being tough on the two captains she certainly was not for Assistant Chief Ensign Klemp who commanded patrol borough Brooklyn North. Klemp had been a friend of hers since their academy days. Friend or no the numbers for Brooklyn North had been showing a steady and concerning increase in robberies, muggings, B&E's and several other categories of crimes but there was no corresponding increase in the clearance rates for those crimes. She had given Klemp a friendly warning at the last Compstat meeting that she wanted to see an improvement. At this last meeting there still had been no improvement to the statistics so Kate had given it to him with both barrels. Today may have been her last day in the job but she was still the commissioner and she still expected the standards she had set to be maintained.

The Compstat meeting would have finished a little earlier had it not been for the little farewell ceremony the Chief of the Department had organised for her. The cake that had been wheeled out was a nice if unnecessary touch. Mercifully the speeches were kept short. Even her own speech in reply had been kept short. It was just one of many speeches she had made these past two weeks and was starting feel like she was repeating herself.

Kate turned her head and stared out the window of her office at 1 Police Plaza. The sun was battling to peak through the band of grey cloud that had taken residence over the city. They were low and darkening bringing with them the promise of rain which from the looks of things would not be long in coming. Beyond the window it was getting cold with the approach of winter but it still was not cold enough yet for snow. There had been a time when she looked forward to the snow but not these days. These days she felt the bite of the cold right down to her bones and on particularly cold days there were aches and pains in some of her joints. These were just more reminders, if she needed them, that she was getting old.

She silently hoped that there was not another severe blizzard to hit the city like last year or the year before. Both times the city had come to a grinding halt buried under more than ten feet of snow. In her time in senior command there had been at least half a dozen really severe snow storms that were popularly called snowmaggedons which ended up crippling the city, not to mention that category five hurricane that had come through a couple of years back. One thing Kate was certain of she was not going to miss the high levels of stress that came during severe and critical weather events.

Dragging her eyes from the window Kate slowly turned her attention to the near empty office before her. She had spent most of the afternoon yesterday packing up the framed photographs on the walls and personal belongings from the shelves, the little bits and pieces that had added her own personal touch to the decor of the office. She had also removed the plaques and awards she had received over the years from various organisations. Most of the plaques and awards would be put in storage but there were one or two that she intended to put up in her office at home.

Detective Hastings had told her that she could bring a couple of the janitorial staff or uniforms to take care of the packing but Kate had declined the offer preferring to complete the task herself. However she did consent to having the packed boxes taken down to the waiting moving van.

It amazed her even now, on the last day in the job, that she had been Police Commissioner for the past twelve years. Not even in her wildest dreams did she think she would occupy this office much less lead the New York Police Department for such a long time. When she had graduated from the academy her one goal had been to make detective and having made detective to work homicides.

She had become a cop for one reason and one reason only. To find the person who had killed her mother. When she had been a rookie in uniform she had spent most of her spare time investigating her mother's case, going over the case files constantly until she had memorised the files. She had been searching for something the original investigating detective might have missed, one little clue that might have been overlooked at the time, that one little clue the might lead her to the perpetrator. Yet no matter how hard she worked, the long hours she put in, the leads that she tracked down, and all of it on her own time, it had been to no avail. She had not been able to find the killer. All she had managed to do was lose herself down the rabbit hole.

It had started off as a quest to bring justice to her mother and answers for her and her father but it had turned into an obsession. She might still have been down that rabbit hole had she not realised that she had to put aside this quest. However reluctantly, and painful it might have been, that is what Kate did. In the process she dedicated herself to bringing justice to those who no longer could speak and comfort those who were left behind, the family and friends of the murder victims. She more than anyone knew what it felt to be a family member of a murder victim.

Kate's eyes settled on the bankers box that was sitting in the middle of her desk, a reminder that the packing was not finished.

Slowly she rose from her chair and winced a little at the small dull flare of pain that rose up in her hip and paused to smooth down her skirt. When she had been getting ready for work this morning she had considered donning her uniform one final time but decided against it, choosing one of her favourite navy business jacket and skirt combinations instead. She figured she had come in as a civilian and she would leave as a civilian.

For the past couple of weeks she had been in uniform almost every day as she did a farewell tour of all the precincts. Kate had made it a point from her earliest days as Police Commissioner to visit all the precincts under her command as often as possible. She wanted the front line uniforms and detectives to see and know that she might have had more stars on her shoulders than some constellations but at heart she was still one of them. She was still a sworn police officer. One of them deep down.

Kate walked over to the set of bookshelves. Most of the books, the dry legal tomes, the better management dissertations, the stronger leadership anthologies had already been packed away and were now sitting in unopened boxes at home. Most if not all of those books had hardly been read during in the office and the prospects of ever being read by her were extremely thin. They had been placed on the shelves mainly for decoration.

All that remained were several hardback novels sitting on the middle shelf. These books had colourful dustjackets that once had been favoured by publishers as a way of attracting the eye of the buying customers. If one looked closely one would have seen that the dustjackets were a little frayed and the pages dog-eared from constant use.

Pulling the books off the shelf Kate turned them over to looked at the spines. With her free hand she ran her index finger down one spine and then the next and the one after that. Her finger lingered over the author's name for several moments before moving on. A small wistful smile appeared on her lips.

Kate returned to the desk and carefully started to place the books into the bankers box on top of some reports and other items that had been placed their when she had come into the office this morning. There had been a few occasions in her first year as commissioner when it had been suggested that these novels should be removed from the bookshelves as they were ill-befitting the office of Police Commissioner but Kate would not hear of removing these books.

One pompous and overly officious personal assistant during that first year had taken it upon themselves to remove these novels from the bookshelves thinking that the commissioner would not notice they had been removed. The personal assistant quickly discovered how wrong they had been. They felt the full wrath of the commissioner that was said to be almost biblical in intensity and was heard on several floors of 1PP. The aid was busted back to uniform directing traffic in The Bronx. No one was going to dictate to Kate Beckett what she could or could not read in her own office.

These books were special not because they had been written by her favourite author, which they had been. These books were special because they had been the replacements that Castle had gotten her after she had lost most of her library when her apartment had been blown up by Scott Dunn. Placing the last of the books in the box she reached down and picked the one on top. It was not a hardback like the others this one was a large paperback and it was not a replacement book either.

It was a publisher's copy of Heat Wave. It was the very same copy Castle has gotten her after she had expressed her unhappiness that a reporter from Cosmopolitan had gotten to read his novel but she, the inspiration for the book had yet see it. Opening the book to the title page the smile on her face deepened when her eyes settled on the handwritten inscription. Originally the book did not have an dedication. Kate had no idea when he had done it but she remembered the first time she had come across it. It was the same dedication that had been printed in the books sent out to booksellers for all the world to see. Reading the inscription never failed to bring a smile to her face.

She still remembered the first time she started to read the book. Actually, it was more like savouring it. She had ran a hot bath and poured herself a glass of red wine. It did not take long for Kate to fall in love with the book.

She took it with her almost everywhere, safely tucked away in her purse. The smile on her face deepened a little more when she recalled hiding away in the female toilets at the precinct to search for the infamous sex scene between Nikki and Rook that everyone had been talking about. Before she had a chance to find the page Castle had popped his head from the next stall almost giving her a heart attack. With a smug smile on his face he told her that she would find the sex scene on page 105 and promised her it was steamy. The first time she read it she had been shocked but when she had left the toilet stall she was feeling rather hot and bothered. There would be more times when she was left feeling very hot and bothered thanks to Castle's words.

The smile vanished suddenly from her face as she closed the book abruptly. She returned the book back to the box. There had not been another Nikki Heat since Driving Heat. The series had stopped suddenly twenty-three years ago.

A little over a year, perhaps eighteen months after the last Nikki Heat book had come out Gina Cowell had come to Kate seeking permission to allow Black Pawn to continue the Nikki Heat series with another author. Gina had used the argument that the fans were demanding another book, that there was a growing groundswell. Kate had never believed that argument and id did not sway her. Kate knew why Gina wanted to continue with the Nikki Heat books. It was because of the money it would bring into Black Pawn's coffers.

The head of Black Pawn Publishing had been effusive in her assurances to Kate that only the best writers in the country and elsewhere would be considered to continue the series, that Gina would personally oversee the project, would even give Kate the right of rejection not only on the author chosen but also on any completed manuscript that would be produced. Kate knew that the last offer was not made lightly. Book publishers hated to give outside parties the right of refusal on manuscripts.

Yet each time Gina made the pitch Kate would refuse. The publisher who had never been one to take 'no' for answer persisted in the hopes of wearing Kate down but in Kate she met an implacable wall of resistance. In the end after countless and fruitless attempts Gina finally gave up. The Nikki Heat series was allowed to finish with the last novel Driving Heat.

At first Kate's reasons for refusing Gina had been because her loss was still too painful, too fresh, too raw. However, the real reason was that no matter who Black Pawn got to write the next instalment of the Nikki Heat story they would never be able to do the characters justice. Kate knew better than anyone in the world there was only one author who could ever write Nikki and Rook's story but his voice and words had been stilled twenty-three years ago.

With the last of the books safely packed away in the bankers box Kate turned her attention to the pictures frames sitting on her desk. The picture frames made of silver inlaid with gold had been a birthday present some years ago. The photos held pride of place on the desk. They had sat next to the family of elephants that once belonged to her mother and which had sat on Kate's desk for many years at the Twelfth, keeping safe the piece of evidence that would eventually bring down and convict the man who had ordered Johanna Beckett's murder. The elephant family had followed Kate to other commands and other desks. For the past twelve years they had been sitting on her desk here. The elephant family had gone home yesterday. Their new residence was going to be the desk in her study.

Kate picked up the first of the photographs as it was the most recent. She smiled softly at the fresh faced twenty-three year old Nicholas Javier Ryan who was smiling at the camera. The photograph had been taken at last year's police academy graduation. Young Ryan looked proud and excited in his crisp new NYPD uniform, eager to set out and take on the job of protecting the City of New York and it citizens. It was a look Kate had seen on countless thousands of academy graduates over the years. More than likely she had worn a very similar expression on her face at her graduation.

In the photograph Nicholas was flanked by his proud looking parents. A beaming Captain Kevin Ryan and a smiling if a little reserved Jenny Ryan. The expression on Jenny's face Kate was familiar with as well. She had seen it on the face of every mother and more than a few fathers who had watched their son or daughter graduate from the Police Academy. They tried to not let their worry show as their children started on a new an potentially dangerous career but iw as never far from the surface.

Young Ryan was stationed at the Twelfth Precinct under the watchful eye of his training officer LT. Kevin Ryan still thought Kate had something to do with Nicholas's posting to their old precinct but she could put her hand on her heart and say that she had nothing to do with it as she had said to Captain Ryan on several occasions. Not that he believed her. Nicholas might have been her godson but she could not show favouritism. It did not mean that she did not keep an eye on the young man's progress. The last time she had spoken to LT he had told her that Ryan was progressing well.

Kate placed the photograph in the bankers box and picked up the next one. This one was of Nicholas and his sister Sarah Grace. If Nicholas had taken after his father in looks then his big sister has taken after her mother. The siblings were standing under banner that wished Sarah Grace a happy 21st. Kate remembered the party. It had been a raucous night of celebration but that was always the case when the Ryan and O'Malley clans got together to celebrate. They had been doing it from the day of Kevin and Jenny's wedding and showed no signs of stopping any time soon. This photograph joined the first one in the box.

The next photograph was of Lanie Parish's two boys taken when they were aged eight and six. Both boys were dressed in Little League uniforms and were beaming with gap-toothed smiles towards the camera as they clutched the trophies they had received for winning their little league final.

Kate picked up the next picture and could not help but smile as she gazed at her husband. It was a candid shot that she had taken one Sunday morning not long after the case about the guy who had come back from the dead. Castle was seated at his desk looking sleep dishevelled with his hair going in all directions his eyes concentrated on the laptop screen as he furiously typed away. A lopsided grin sat on his face. She had seen that look countless times before, when he was inspired to write. This picture had been taken around the time Kate had learned that Castle would take of her when she slept. This photo was her way of saying to Castle that two could play that game. She wanted to take many more candid photos of Castle but this one was sadly the only candid she was able to take. Not long after this photograph had been taken Castle would be dead.

Tears started to well up and she quickly placed the photograph into the box. She then took a deep calming breath and slowly exhaled. There was not a day when she did not think of him. There was not a day she did not miss him. She had thought the pain of losing her mother had been bad but it was nothing to the pain at losing Castle.

It took a couple of moments to rein in her emotions. A sad smile appeared on Kate's face when she picked up the next picture frame and looked at the photograph. The photograph had been taken about fifteen years ago in a hospital room and it was of Alexis and her husband who were holding their newborn twins. Alexis had never looked so happy. She did not dwell on this photograph. It joined the others in the box.

The last photograph sitting on the desk was perhaps her favourite. It was Castle and her dancing to "their" song on the gazebo at the Hamptons house in the fading afternoon light on their wedding day. Kate had never felt so happy than on that day when she finally married the man she loved.

The hastily arranged wedding had been witnessed only by the most important people in their lives; her father, Alexis and Martha. It had upset and disappointed their friends and other relatives when they were told about the wedding. Kate did not regret doing it. It had been the right thing to do. It was the only thing that would get them past those two months where Castle had gone missing and the pain that he had caused her. They simply had moved past that episode and got on with their lives. The first step had been to get married.

She and Castle did make it up to their friends and family a little later when they hosted a lavish party the highlight being when she and Castle stood in front of everyone and repeated their wedding vows. Their friends and relatives quickly forgave them.

Kate placed this final photograph carefully in the box and slowly put the lid on. She gave the lid a light tap with her hand before she walked around the desk and sat down again. Glancing over to the window she saw it had started raining. It was sooner than she had expected.

Looking away from the window Kate turned her attention back to her desk. She pulled open the top drawer and looked to see if she had forgotten anything. She reached in and pulled out the Stick Man, the wooden stick figure that had been created over forty years ago made from bits and pieces she and her father had gathered up from the beach at Coney Island on the day of her mother's funeral. She remembered that it had intrigued the author and he had come up with all manner of theories why she kept the Stick Man. Some of the theories had been amusing. Castle had looked genuinely touched after she told him the real story behind the Stick Man, it was a reminder that even on the worst of days there is the possibility for joy.

Reaching into the desk drawer she pulled out a second Stick Man. This one was a slightly larger than the first and a little less age worn. This Stick Man had been with her for the past twenty-three years. Kate carefully wrapped both Stick Men in bubble wrap plastic and secured them with a length of string. The two wrapped stick figures made their way into the bankers box

Sitting down again Kate resumed searching the drawers of her desk but was interrupted by a knocking on the door. Pausing in her search of the desk drawers Kate looked in the direction of the door and found Detective Hastings standing in the doorway. Hastings had been with Kate for the past two years. It had been the tradition that the Commissioner's personal assistant served as long as the Commissioner did. Kate changed that, instituting a one year secondment for the detective she selected as her personal assistant. Over the years both male and female detectives had served as the commissioner's personal assistant. She had felt that one year was enough and their skills would be better served investigating cases rather waiting on the commissioner. Hastings had stayed on past the usual one year secondment for a couple of reasons, one being that she was very good at her job and the other reason was that she had flat out said that she would leave when Kate left the office.

"Excuse me, Commissioner." Hastings said.

"Hastings, I've told you to call me, Kate."

"Your resignation doesn't take affect until midday, so until then you're still the Commissioner of the department, ma'am."

"Okay, okay. Point made." Kate let out a resigned sigh.

For the past week Kate had been trying to get Hastings to call her by her first name or at the very least, by her surname but all her efforts had been in vain. She realised there was no point fighting it.

"You have a visitor, Commissioner." Hastings announced.

"I said no visitors, Hastings."

Kate had made sure that her Schedule, apart from the Compstat meeting was clear of any appointments or meetings on the morning of her last day on the job. She had wanted a couple of hours of peace and quiet to finish her packing and perhaps to spend a moment or two on reflection.

"If it's anything department related pass it to Chief Mavropoulos." Kate directed.

"I think you'll want to see this visitor, ma'am."

"Damn straight she'll want to see me."

Kate immediately recognised the voice that called out from the outer office.

"Lanie?" Kate said.

Kate rose to her feet just as Hastings stepped aside to allow Dr Lanie Parish to come barrelling into the room. The two friends met in the middle of the room and embraced warmly. Kate was pleased and surprised to see her old friend.

"Lanie, what are you doing here in New York?" Kate asked when they broke from the embrace.

"Why I came to see your skinny ass, girlfriend." Lanie shot back. She looked Kate up and down and shook her head. "Look at you, still skinny as always. I don't know how you do it."

A lot of hard work, Kate thought to herself but did not voice. She had maintained a regime of visiting the gym at least twice a week for many years. It was only in the last year or two that she had stopped going to the gym on a regular basis settling on some less stressful exercises that could be done at home two or three times a week.

"It's good to see you, Lanie."

Kate smiled as she motioned her friend to one of the leather couches. Lanie settled herself down on the couch. The years had been reasonably kind to Lanie. Her figure was a lot fuller than it once was but having two kids would do that to any woman's body. Her black hair now short was more grey than its former colour. The pair of designer glasses perched on her nose were now a permanent and necessary accessory.

Kate sat down beside her friend. Usually she sat in the large black leather armchair at the head of the coffee table that separated the two couches when she was conducting small meetings or when she was reading.

"Would you like something to drink, Dr Parish?" Hastings asked solicitously. "Coffee? Tea? Something stronger?"

"Nothing for me, thanks, honey." Lanie responded.

Hastings looked to Kate who gave her personal assistant a pointed look. Detective Hastings smiled and nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"A coffee coming up, boss."

"It's good to see some things will never change." Lanie chuckled.

"It's so good to see you, Lanie." Kate repeated, still not quite believing that Lanie Parish was here in her office.

"Likewise, sweetie. It's been too long."

"I can't believe you flew up here."

"Do you think I would have missed this?" Lanie said as she reached out and patted her friend's arm. "No way, no how, girl."

Though Kate and Lanie spoke regularly on the phone, the last time Kate had seen her friend had been about eight months ago when Kate been a keynote speaker at a policing conference in New Orleans. After the conference Kate had delayed her return to New York for a day in order to spend time catching up with Lanie and her family. She had been glad she had.

Lanie Parish had surprised everyone by leaving the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City a couple of years after Kate had been made captain of the Twelfth Precinct. The reasons for her leaving the OCME had been because she had felt that she had gone as far as she could and needed new challenges.

Kate was one of the people who had been surprised and saddened when Lanie had decided to return home to Louisiana. She had been expecting her friend to get some teaching job at one of the universities in New York. Lanie had other ideas, applying for the vacant job of Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New Orleans and getting it. Her many years of experience in New York and being a native Louisianan tipped the scales in her favour.

Also in New Orleans Lanie had gotten married to Alan Masters, the guy who had come back from the dead several times in a case Kate had investigated. Lanie and Alan had gotten together after the case and had remained together ever since. Kate had been surprised at first because she had never pegged her friend as the marrying kind. Nor did Masters seem to be Lanie's type. "Have some fun and then move on" had been Lanie's motto but with Alan it was different. Kate saw how Lanie and Alan clicked together. It kind of reminded her of hers and Castle's relationship.

Kate knew it was true love when Alan had followed Lanie to Louisiana getting himself a safety inspection job with the State of Louisiana. It reminded Kate a little of the time when a certain author had bought a property for them in the Washington DC area during that time when she had been working on the Attorney General's special taskforce.

Within a couple of years of getting married Lanie and Alan had a couple of additions to the family, a couple of boys.

After ten years as the Chief Medical Examiner of New Orleans Lanie had left the job to take up a teaching post at the University of Louisiana. She was still there nurturing the next generation of doctors and medical examiners in particular.

"How you feeling, sweetie?" Lanie inquired, her southern twang had broadened over the years.

"I'm fine." Kate replied automatically.

Lanie directed a half raised eyebrow in her friend's direction as if she did not believe her.

"Honestly I'm fine, Lanie." Kate insisted.

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, yes, I might be a little sad at leaving." Kate huffed.

Lanie smiled and nodded her head at having her suspicions confirmed.

"But thirty-six years being a cop is long enough. The time's right to move on and let someone else run the place."

"Have you decided on what you'll be doing next?"

"Taking a holiday is on top of the list." Kate laughed.

Kate had forgotten the last time she had a real holiday. In over twenty years she had barely taken a day off. Whenever she had gone overseas or interstate it had been because of business, attending conferences or seminars or whatnot. When she did go overseas she did not have the time to do the touristy things. It was all work, work, work. After making the decision to resign she had started to think about taking a long holiday. A holiday to a place where it was warm. There were a few travel brochures and books sitting on the kitchen table back home that she had been perusing over.

"And after that?"

"I don't know. I've still got all those charities that I'm involved with which will keep me occupied. And I've been asked to join the board of the Police Pension Fund.

"I'm impressed."

"If that not is enough, I also have my lecturing at the police academy which I will be continuing."

Following the Daniel Bardot murder case Sergeant Ortiz, Kate's former training officer had invited Kate to be a guest lecturer at the Academy. It was an offer Kate had taken up and had maintained over the years.

"There are also several consultancies but as for anything permanent, nothing as yet." Kate said.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be beating a path to your door with lucrative job offers."

"Yeah."

The job offers in fact had been flooding in. Ever since it had been announced that she would be leaving the job before the 1st of January the usual date when her term of office came to an end. Detective Hastings had been fielding calls from corporations and high powered corporate head hunters with offers almost on a daily basis not to mention having to sort through thick folders outlining job offers that were mailed or couriered to the office.

Kate had taken a look at several that had come in but found nothing that really piqued her interest. All the job offers were sitting at home and Kate knew that sooner or later she was going to have to sift through them all. Perhaps there might be something amongst them that might really interest her. There was no rush however.

"And what about that offer to run for the United States Senate?"

Kate regarded the other woman carefully for a couple of moments before narrowing her eyes.

"Who told you about that?" Kate asked finally.

"Oh, a little bird told me." Lanie shrugged her shoulders.

"Alexis told you, didn't she?"

Lanie smiled and nodded her head confirming Kate's thoughts.

The offer to run for a US Senate seat had come out of the blue about six months ago. She had been attending some charity event where she had been corralled by a pair of heavyweights from the National Committee who sounded her out about running for the Senate.

The kind of questions these party men asked reminded Kate of that time when she had just been made captain and had faced a panel of three men in a near darkened room. Back then those men wanted to know if she was suitable to run for the state senate. Kate had not liked it back then and she did not like it on this occasion. She had politely but firmly told the party heavyweights that she was not interested. The men had tried again a month later but again Kate had rebuffed them.

Kate had mentioned the offer to run for the senate only in passing to Alexis in one of their infrequent telephone calls. Kate had run out of things to talk about with Alexis and in desperation she had blurted out about the offer to run for the Senate. Alexis had been quick to remind Kate about the prediction the alleged time traveller Simon Doyle had made about her. Kate had laughed that off. She had also remembered the other things Doyle had said, that she would have three children and Castle would write a Pulitzer Prizing winning novel. Neither of which had happened but she did not mention them to Alexis.

"I've had enough of politics." Kate told her friend. "Ever since I got my captain's bars I've been fighting political battles all over the place and it only got worse the higher I rose up the ladder. Washington is not for me, Lanie." Kate shook her head.

"But you got to admit, girlfriend, Senator Katherine Beckett has a nice ring to it."

It did have a nice ring to it but Kate had enough of being a public figure. In one form or another she had been in the public eye ever since Richard Castle had walked into her life and had been inspired to create a character based on her. She had learned to live with that. Her position as Police Commissioner meant that she was a public figure and that too she put up with. Running for the US Senate the public scrutiny would be far more intense, far more intrusive and she was not prepared to put herself through that nor any of her friends or family.

"Well, you'll have plenty of time now to write your memoirs." Lanie suggested with a chuckle.

Kate rolled her eyes at that suggestion.

"I doubt anyone would be interested in reading about me."

"Are you kidding me?" Lanie exclaimed. A look of astonishment spread across her face.

"Come on, Lanie. My story isn't that interesting. Nobody would want to read about it."

"Girl, I gonna smack you." Lanie huffed. "You're one of the department's most decorated officers, You have not one, not two but three Medals of Honour, a couple of Police Combat Crosses. Lord knows how many Medals of Valour, not to mention two or three Purple Shields..."

Kate could feel her cheeks start to warm up as her friend started to recite the list of medals she had been award during her career. She held up her hand to stop Lanie. She did not need to hear the list. Lanie paused a moment before she continued on a slightly different tack.

"You were the youngest woman to make detective, one of the youngest to make Detective First grade, the youngest female to be made captain, you've been a Bureau Chief, the Chief of Detectives and then Chief of the Department, and for the last twelve years you have been Commissioner of the New York Police Department. You have risen through the ranks from Patrol Officer right to the very top."

Kate opened her mouth to say something but her old friend was not finished.

"And if that's not enough you were the inspiration for a series of very successful crime fiction novels. Don't you tell me there's no story there."

Lanie shifted a little closer to Kate.

"Like it or not, Kate, you're a role model and always have been." Lanie added.

"I guess you're right, Lanie." Kate conceded.

"You guess? Girl, you know I'm right."

Kate allowed a small smile to reach her lips. Truth be told a number of publishing houses had been trying to get Kate to write her memoirs. Over the years she had received offers which she had dismissed out of hand. After the announcement she was resigning the offers had started to come thick and fast. It had made her head spin the sums of the advances they had been offering Some of the best literary agents in the country had been trying to get her to sign up with them.

"Well, it's a good thing I have an agent then." Kate said in a low voice.

Lanie's eyes widened with surprise at Kate's announcement.

"Who's your agent?"

"Haas and Associates."

"Isn't that...Castle's old agent?"

"Yeah." Kate nodded. "These days the agency is run by Paula's daughter but Paula's still involved as chairman."

"Is the daughter as full on like her mother?" Lanie inquired.

"A little but not as bad as Paula was."

After the first half dozen or so calls Kate had received from publishers and agents she had enough. Kate made a call to Haas and Associates and was singed up within a couple of days. Kate had chosen them for no other reason than Castle had been with them and had stayed loyal to them. Haas and Associates now fielded the offers from publishers on Kate's behalf.

"Just remember to send me an invite to the book launch party." Lanie said sternly.

"Your name is top of the list, Lanie."

Detective Hastings entered the office bringing with her a large NYPD emblazoned coffee mug. She placed it on the coffee table in front of Kate.

"Thank you, Hastings." Kate said.

Hastings nodded her head and looked to Lanie.

"Are you sure you don't want anything, Dr Parish?" Hastings asked.

"I'm fine, thanks." Lanie replied with a smile.

"That will be all, Ann." Kate added.

Kate watched her personal assistant leave the office before she turned and reached for the mug. She slowly lifted it up to her mouth and took a sip of the coffee.

"So, how are you and Alexis getting on?" Lanie asked as she watched Kate savour the coffee.

Kate swallowed the mouthful, shrugged her shoulders before she took a second bigger sip of coffee and then set the mug back on the coffee table.

Lanie raised a questioning eyebrow, silently demanding to know more.

"We're talking. These days." Kate sighed unhappily.

"That's good, right?"

"Yeah."

"It's a start, honey."

"Yeah, I know." Kate nodded.

Kate's relationship with Alexis had always waxed and waned, depending on where her relationship with Castle stood. Not that Kate begrudged the young woman's attitude. Alexis loved her father, worrying about him and always looking out for him. If sides had to be taken Alexis would always take her father's side. That was only natural. Kate expected nothing less. Kate would have done the same if the roles had been reversed. Their relationship had started to become close again when Kate had returned to live in the loft after the contrived separation. Sadly, it took a sharp turn for the worse after Castle had been killed.

Though Alexis had never come right out and said it to her face, Kate just knew that Castle's daughter blamed her for the death of her father. Kate was not sure if the young woman was not right. For many months Kate silently blamed herself for Castle's death. Yet despite her own pain and self incrimination Kate had tried to console Alexis and mourn with her only for those attempts to be rebuffed.

It was Martha who had sorted out a detente of sorts that saw Alexis being cordial towards Kate but that cordiality did not last long. In his will Castle had made sure his three favourite ladies were well taken care off but he had passed ownership of Castle Investigations to Kate. That was enough to upset Alexis and resume the cold war.

Her husband had never mentioned to Kate about giving her a share or full ownership of the agency. If she had been asked Kate would have told him that she did not want to own it much less run it. She neither had the time nor the inclination. Yet Alexis had accused her of wanting the detective agency. In an effort to restore peace and appease Alexis' ruffled feathers Kate had signed the agency over to the young woman. However within six months of taking full ownership of the business Alexis had lost interest in it and eventually sold it off to a private security corporation for a significant sum of money.

Alexis also had not been happy that Kate got to keep the house in the Hamptons. Kate had fallen in love with it from the first time Castle had taken her there, even if there had been the hiccup of a body falling into the pool that involved them in a murder investigation while trying to keep their relationship secret from their family and friends. The Hamptons house was where she had gotten married. It was the place she and Castle could escape to when they needed to get out of the city, and where she continued to go to when city living got too much. Kate was not about to give it up just to appease Alexis. Kate did give a standing invitation to Alexis that the redhead could visit the Hamptons house at any time she wanted. It was an offer that Alexis never took up.

It came as no surprise that neither Alexis or Martha nor Kate herself wanted the loft. For Kate she could not bear to be in the place. All the good and happy memories that she had there would always be overshadowed by Castle's death. The loft was quietly sold off.

A little over a year after Castle's death Martha, the matriarch of the Castle family passed away. Officially it was from a heart attack but those close to her knew it had been due to a broken heart. The death of her son and only child had changed her considerably, aging her visibly almost overnight. Martha had handed over the running of her acting school to others and had all but withdrawn from everyday life. Kate had felt Martha's loss more keenly than she cared to admit.

After Castle's death Kate had found an apartment not far from Central Park and had asked Martha to move in with her which she did. Kate, in a gesture of peace and reconciliation had asked Alexis to move in as well but the young woman had declined the offer. What was not said but certainly implied was Alexis never wanted to live under the same roof as Kate.

Many had been the nights when Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law sipped red wine and exchanged stories about Castle. There had been much wine drunk, many tears shed and a lot of laughter. Along the way Kate had drawn much closer to Martha than ever before.

The funeral for the grand dame of the theatre was held in one of biggest theatres on Broadway and it was a memorable occasion. Kate found herself rubbing shoulders with stars from stage and screen. Several of the biggest names in Hollywood attended. It was the kind of send off Martha would have loved and would have loved even more if she had choreographed and produced it.

What Kate also remembered from that day was that Alexis had made it a point to avoid her as much as possible. They hard barely said more than a few words to each other the entire day. This continued cold war did not go unnoticed by some of Kate's friends, Lanie especially but Kate had said to let it go.

Not long after Martha's funeral Alexis packed up everything and left New York for good moving to the West Coast to live. Alexis had stated that she had moved to be closer to her mother but Kate suspected that the move to the West Coast had more to do with Hayley moving there not long after Castle's death. From the time Hayley had showed up she and Alexis had become very good friends. Hayley had started her own private investigation agency in Los Angeles and Alexis had joined as an equal partner. For a while Kate and Alexis both made an effort to keep in contact either by telephone or email but little by little those contacts became infrequent and then non-existent.

Kate had been hurt when she did not get an invitation to Alexis' wedding. She had only found out about it when Lanie had called to discuss what each of them would be wearing at the wedding. It had been an awkward few minutes for both friends. Kate hid her hurt and disappointment behind a mask of stoicism. A belated invitation eventually arrived in the mail, through Lanie's efforts no doubt but by then Kate had already committed to a conference in Geneva and could not get out of it. Even if she was not committed elsewhere Kate doubted that Alexis would want her at the wedding anyway.

The last time Kate had seen Alexis had been a year ago when Alexis had come to New York on business. Kate had run into Alexis when walking along Centre Street and suggested they go for coffee. At first Alexis had tried to beg off but Kate had insisted. Kate was not sure if it had been because of her insistence or the intimidating presence of her protection detail but Alexis finally agreed to go for coffee. At the outset both women had been nervous and hesitant but slowly they soon got to talking.

Kate had to cancel a couple of important meetings in order to go for coffee with Alexis but she did not care as she felt this meeting with Alexis was more important. She had to make the effort to restore the broken relationship with the younger woman. She could not bear the thought that Castle would be unhappy that his wife and daughter had such a fractured relationship. The meeting did not end up with Kate and Alexis kissing and making up but it had gone much better than Kate had expected. It was after that meeting when Kate received the old photograph of the newborn twins.

Last Christmas Kate had received a call from Alexis wishing her the best for the holidays. Kate had been debating with herself for a number of days about whether to call Alexis or not but was saved further anxiety when the younger woman had called first. Alexis was still a little cool towards Kate but it pleased her that Alexis had made the effort, Kate did not push Alexis too hard letting her move at her own speed. On News Years Day it was Kate who called Alexis. The relationship was slowly being rebuilt one telephone call at a time. Perhaps it might never be like it once was but Kate was willing to take whatever kind of relationship Alexis offered.

Lanie noticed the legal pad sitting on the coffee table. She reached over and picked it up and read what was written on it.

"What's this?" She asked Kate

"Oh, that's my farewell message to the troops." Kate replied. "My publicity people have been bugging me to release a short message to the troops."

Lanie began to read the message aloud.

"There is a universal truth we all have to face, whether we want to or not. Everything eventually ends. As much as I've looked forward to this day, I've always disliked endings…the last day of summer, the final chapter of a great book...parting ways with a close friend. But endings are inevitable.

"Leaves fall. You close a book. You say goodbye. Today is one of those days for me. Today I say goodbye to everything that was familiar. Everything that was comfortable.

"I'm moving on but just because I'm leaving...there are some people who are so much a part of us they'll be with us no matter what. They are our solid ground, our North Star, and the small clear voices in our hearts that will be with us, always.

"It has been an privilege to have lead this Department and it has been a great honour to have called myself a member of New York's finest. Goodbye and goodluck."

Lanie looked over the top of the pad to Kate.

"Hey, this is pretty good."

Kate nodded her head.

"You know, this is something Castle might've written."

A smile spread across Kate's lips. "Actually you're half right, Lanie."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"That is part of Alexis' valedictory speech from her high school graduation." Kate explained. "I found it the other night when I was clearing up some old junk and I thought I might use it."

"The apple didn't fall far from the tree." Lanie chuckled.

The head of Public Information had been at Kate for nearly a week about releasing a farewell statement. He had even supplied her a sheaf of draft messages that could fit the bill. Kate had duly read each and every draft and rejected them all. None of the drafts seemed to convey what she wanted to say. In the end to keep the man off her back she said that she would draft one of her own.

As Kate had told Lanie, she had been clearing out a closet and found a couple of boxes sitting on the floor. The valedictory speech had been in the first box she looked through. It did not surprise her that speech had been kept. She remembered Castle telling her how proud of his little girl he had been on the day of her graduation.

Kate remembered that day all too well. It had been the day she and Esposito had risked their careers and lives going after Cole Maddox, the man who had shot her in the chest at Roy Montgomery's funeral. She had gone rogue in her obsession to get Maddox and in turn find out who had ordered her mother's murder. Castle had had enough and walked out. Ryan had been conservative sticking to going by the book. Ever loyal Esposito was the only one who had thrown his lot in with her.

They had tracked down Maddox and she had confronted him on the roof of the hotel. The assassin had thrown her about the roof of the hotel like she was a rag doll.

It had to take hanging by her fingers on a ledge to have the epiphany that there were far more important things in her life than finding her mother's killer. And it was true, all she could think of as she hung there mere heart beats from falling to her death, was Castle. She even thought she had heard his voice at one point. After being torn a new one from a very angry Captain Gates Kate had quit her job, not caring that she was throwing everything away. After a few hours sitting in the rain contemplating what a mess she had made of her life she had dragged her soaking, bedraggled form to Castle's front door apologising profusely and confessing that she only wanted him and when he took her in she spent the rest of the night showing him how much she loved him.

Reading through the speech had brought a tear to Kate's eye. It was perfect for what she wanted to say in her own valedictory message and decided to use some of it.

Lanie returned the legal pad to the coffee table and turned to look at Kate.

"So, how are your boys?" Kate asked, changing the subject.

"My babies are doing great." Lanie replied, her face breaking into a beaming proud momma smile whenever she talked about her two boys. "Marcus is already getting sports scholarship offers and calls from sports agents and he's yet to finish high school."

"That shouldn't come as a surprise, Lanie, Marcus is a pretty good basketball player." Kate said. "Isn't his high school team favourites to win the state championships?"

Lanie shot her friend a look.

"What? I might have kept an eye on his tean's progress."

"Marcus will be pleased to know his Aunt Kate has been monitoring his progress."

Kate smiled at her friend. Marcus, Lanie's eldest who at seventeen stood around six foot ten inches in height. Where he got the height from was a mystery because neither parent was exceptionally tall. Along with height Marcus had been blessed with above average athletic ability. He was a star basketball player who looked to have the talent to make it in college ball and the NBA after that.

"Leon has gotten himself a girlfriend." Lanie announced.

"I'm sure you're giving her a hard time." Kate said with some amusement.

"Nah-uh." Lanie shook her head. "No, she seems quite sweet.

Leon was two years younger than his brother. While Marcus had the athletic ability Leon had the academic ability of the two. A straight A student as Lanie enjoyed pointing out to anyone who would listen. Leon had pleased his mother no end when he had expressed an interest in going into medicine.

"Lanie, why don't I believe you?" Kate laughed.

"Well, I might have tried." Lanie confessed. "But that girl ain't the intimidated type. She gives as good as she gets."

"And how does momma bear feel about that?"

"Momma bear can live with that." Lanie said. "So long as she doesn't break my little boy's heart."

Kate nodded her head slowly. Lanie could be as ferocious like a lioness when it came to her boys. Heaven help any girl who might break one of Lanie's boys' hearts.

Lanie checked her watch.

"Oh Lord, will you look at the time." She said as she reached for her purse. "I have a couple more visits to make.

"I guess you'll be at the Old Haunt tonight, right?" Kate said.

"That's why I'm here in the Big Apple, girlfriend." Lanie laughed. "Tonight I aim to misbehave just like the good old days."

Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head but couldn't help but smile at her friend. Back in their younger days they would go out quite regularly ending up at clubs or bars. Lanie could be quite shameless when she put her mind to it when she spotted a suitable male companion for the night. Kate quietly hoped that her friend was not going to try and re-live old times.

"I hear that even that old curmudgeon Perlmutter is going to make an appearance."

Kate nodded her head. "So I'm told."

For the past week Kate had attended so many farewell dinners and other functions she was almost farewelled out but tonight's function at the Old Haunt was one she was really looking forward to. It had been organised by Hastings and it was a gathering of former members of the Twelfth Precinct. This was one farewell she was not going to miss. Though she was very much looking forward to it she was not sure if everyone from the old gang was going to make an appearance tonight. Hastings had not exactly been forthcoming in providing her with who would be in attendance at the gathering Dr Perlmutter's had been one name that had been mentioned only to stop Kate from pestering her personal assistant.

Following Castle's death the Old Haunt had passed into Kate's hands. She had thought about selling it but discarded the idea almost immediately. She knew how much Castle loved the place and the sentimental memories it held for him. It held more than a few happy memories for her as well. There were only a handful of people who knew that she was the owner. Over the years not much had changed. She had kept the old world atmosphere just the way Castle had wanted it. Eddy the piano player had passed on about ten years ago but Eddy's son continued the tradition of having a signature tune for the regular customers. The wall of fame still remained and over the years there had been a few additions. The only change Kate had made to the wall of fame was having a larger framed photograph of Castle.

The two women rose from the couch at the same time. Lanie took a step towards the door when she stopped and turned back to Kate.

"So, will your boyfriend be there, tonight?" Lanie asked suddenly.

"Who?" Kate replied, looking confused.

"Don't give me that, you know who I'm talking about."

"I'm sure I don't know who you're talking about, Lanie."

The look of confusion on Kate's face quick gave way to nervousness under Lanie's steady gaze.

"Mr Yum Yum himself, billionaire inventor, innovator and philanthropist. The Eric Vaughan. That boyfriend."

Kate rolled her eyes. "He's not my boyfriend."

"Really?"

"Yes, really." Kate insisted.

"Okay, friend with benefits, then."

"Lanie." Kate hissed.

"Girl, I'm gonna smack you." Lanie said with some heat. "I'm your best friend and the first I hear you're dating Mr Yum Yum is when I see a photo of your skinny ass all dolled up and hanging off his arm at some charity event!"

"We've gone out once or twice." Kate shrugged as if it was no big deal.

"Once or twice?" Lanie questioned. "This is the guy you almost kissed that time way back when."

"He almost kissed me." Kate corrected.

"Potato, po-tah-toh." Lanie said waving her hand airily.

Kate rolled her eyes again. She was regretting ever having told Lanie about the almost kiss she had with Vaughan in his hotel room when she had been ordered by Captain Gates to be the billionaire's bodyguard because Vaughan had gone to the Commissioner to request Kate's services.

"Spill girlfriend." Lanie ordered. "I ain't leaving till you do."

Kate gnawed on her bottom lip, a habit she had not been able to shake off, as she considered how much she was going to tell her friend.

"We've been seeing each other." Kate finally admitted.

"And..." Lanie pressed. "We both know there's more,"

"Maybe there is and maybe there isn't but this is neither the time nor place, Lanie."

"I'm gonna get the details out of you Kate Beckett, you see if I don't, and before the night is through too."

Kate smiled at her friend. She had no doubt she would be telling her friend more than a few tasty morsels of information.

Kate had crossed paths with Eric Vaughan a few months back. She had been at City Hall coming out of the mayor's office after having briefed the mayor on some police matter and had almost collied with Vaughan who had been standing in the outer office waiting to see the mayor. They had got to talking once Eric had apologised for colliding with her. Kate learned that Vaughan had been living in Monaco for the past twenty years and had only recently moved back to New York to take up residence again. Vaughan still looked as handsome as Kate remembered and just as charming. The flecks of grey running through his head of hair made him look more distinguished not to mention very appealing. Before going into the meeting with the mayor Vaughan had invited Kate out to dinner that night. Kate had said yes without even having to think about it.

Kate had not exactly lived like a nun these past twenty-three years. It did take a couple of years before she finally decided she felt confident and ready enough to start dating again. She fell back on what she used to do before she had met Castle, being in relationships with men she did not love, keeping one foot out the door if the relationship started to get too serious. Unable to help herself she found herself comparing the men she dated to Castle and all of them never seemed to measure up in her eyes.

She liked being in Eric Vaughan's company, finding him intelligent, very witty and entertaining company. He was always a good listener too. She found herself being able to open up and talk about Castle, their marriage and his death. He was a good shoulder to cry on when needed.

When Kate had found out about the gathering at the Old Haunt she had no hesitation in inviting Eric. To her delight he promised that he would be there.

There was a knock on the door and Detective Hastings entered the office carrying with her a large leather portfolio.

"Excuse me, Commissioner." Hastings interrupted.

"Yes, Hastings?"

"These came from Personnel. The promotions list that require you to sign off on them."

"Well, that's my cue to leave." Lanie announced.

"Hey, Lanie thanks for coming by." Kate said as the old friends hugged each other.

"Don't mind my ragging, Kate." Lanie whispered. "If you're happy, then I'm happy for you, you know that?"

"I know." Kate whispered back.

"Lord knows you deserve some happiness in your life."

Kate was the first to break the hug and took a step back. Lanie saw that her friend was a little misty eyed.

"I'll see you tonight at the Old Haunt."

"That you will." Kate nodded.

"And you better not be late." Lanie added, resuming her normal Lanie persona. She turned to Hastings. "I'm putting you in charge to see that she gets to the Old Haunt on time."

"Don't worry Dr Parish. Her protection detail have been advised to see to it the Commissioner is at the Old Haunt by 6pm. No ifs buts or maybes."

Kate gave her personal assistant a pointed look after Lanie had departed the room.

"You gave instructions to my detail?"

"Dr Parish scares me sometimes." Hastings explained, shrugging her shoulders. "I didn't want to be the one to tell her you were running late."

Kate grinned and held out her hand for the portfolio. She walked back to her desk.

"You're not alone with that. Lanie scares me too sometimes, and I've known her for a lot longer than you."

Kate sat down in her chair.

"Could you get someone to take this down to the car?" Kate asked nodding to the bankers box sitting on her desk.

Hastings stepped up to the desk and carefully picked up the box.

"Ill take care of it Commissioner."

Kate was about to protest about Hastings taking the box but closed her mouth and watched her personal assistant carry out the box from the room. She turned her attention to the portfolio and opened it. Reaching into the inside pocket of her jacket Kate extracted a pair of glasses which she put on. She had been using glasses to read for about five years. It had taken a few months before she felt comfortable wearing them and not self concious.

There was a list of half a dozen names on the top sheet of paper. As police commissioner she had the power to promote officers from the rank of Captain and above. Those below the rank of captain were promoted via passing the various civil service exams.

Kate herself had been promoted from the rank of Captain to that of Inspector and then from Inspector to Assistant Chief, and then Chief of Detectives because the then Commissioner had been very impressed with her work and record. Being the youngest woman appointed as Chief of Detectives was another first that she could add to her list of achievements. There had been some resentment amongst her fellow officers following that appointment but it was nothing compared to what had happened a couple of years later when she was appointed Chief of the Department. Her promotion to the most senior sworn uniformed member of the NYPD had put the noses out of joint of some her older colleagues who had been angling for the job themselves or had been expecting to get the job. Through shear hard work and clever political manoeuvring she had managed to overcome and neutralise that resentment.

Kate's eyes settled on the last name on the list. She let out a long sigh as she shuffled through the thin files till she got to the last one. Opening the file she flipped through the pages quickly. She already knew what the file contained having read it countless times, so much so, she could practically recite it off the top of her head. It was the summary of Captain Javier Esposito's personnel file.

She remembered the rivalry Esposito had with his then partner Kevin Ryan over the Sergeants exam. It had been during her first year as Captain of the Twelfth. Ryan had applied to sit the exam without telling his partner. Esposito had been more than a little miffed at that when he found out but then he also put in to sit the exam. Esposito passed his exam while Ryan missed out. It had caused some bad blood between the partners which saw Esposito being accidentally shot by Ryan when they were chasing down a suspect. The bickering got so bad she had sent them to therapy to sort it out. Eventually they did. Ryan re-sat the sergeants exam a little later and passed it the second time around. Esposito may have gotten his stripes before Ryan but it was the Irishman who had risen up the ranks much quicker.

For a number of years Esposito's name had been coming up for promotion and each time he would be passed over. Adverse reports from Internal Affairs and Public Information always blackballed his name. The reason was because Esposito had ended up marrying his ex-finance Sonia Ruiz not long after she had been released from prison. Esposito had been visiting Sonia regularly while she had been in prison. Kate had been at their wedding and was happy for him and his new bride. Esposito could not wipe the big smile from his face as she recalled.

Internal Affairs were concerned about possible corruption aspects and Public Information were concerned about the image of the NYPD and the public reaction at having a senior NYPD officer who was married to a ex-convict getting a promotion.

To her shame Kate had sided with Internal Affairs and Public Information. She had gone to bat for her former colleague the first time but experienced such heavy opposition that she chose to back down than fight harder. The next couple of times she had not put up much of a fight. The last time had been a year ago, Esposito had cornered her after a Compstat meeting and pleaded his case for promotion. Kate had mouthed some platitude before excusing herself because of some meeting she was running late for.

Following that meeting Esposito had turned cool towards her. He was cordial and respectful at those meetings where she sat in on but the old camaraderie had gone. She had no doubt that he was blaming her for not getting promoted.

Kate let the sheets fall back into place. She looked over the letter that awaited her signature granting the recipient promotion to ESU. Esposito had been trying to get into ESU for a number of years and each time he had been knocked back. Personnel had finally given up blocking his promotion.

Kate shook her head before she picked her pen and began to make changes to the letter, striking out a sentence here and there replacing them with something else. When she was finished writing she read over what she had written nodding her head in satisfaction before she closed the file.

"Hastings, could you come in here, please." Kate called out.

A moment later Detective Hastings came into the office.

"Yes, Commissioner?"

Kate held out the file.

"I need you to re-type this letter for me, asap."

Hastings took the file and looked at the name. A single eyebrow rose in surprise. It rose even higher when she took a look at the corrections Kate had scribbled on the letter.

"Are you sure about this, ma'am?" Hastings ventured.

"Manhattan South Borough is still vacant, isn't it?"

"Yes, ma'am." Hastings nodded. "But I believe Chief Mavropoulos already has a candidate picked out for that post."

"The Chief will have to live with the disappointment, wont he?"

"Yes, ma'am." Hastings grinned before she turned and marched out of the office.

Kate turned her attention to the remaining files. After a quick read through the summary in each file and then signed the promotion letter before returning the file to the portfolio.

She closed the portfolio and then remembered something. Pulling open the bottom draw she picked up the file that had been sitting there. She set the file on the desk and opened it. This letter she did not need to read over as she had personally typed it up. She quickly signed the letter and returned it to the file then set it aside. Removing the reading glasses Kate returned them to the pocket of her jacket.

"I'm sure Captain Esposito will be pleased with his promotion and new command, Commissioner." Hastings said when she returned with the typed up letter and handed the file to Kate.

Kate nodded her head in agreement as she signed the letter. It may not patch up the strained relationship she had with Esposito but maybe a smile might reach his face when he saw that he had been promoted to Assistant Chief. She silently hoped that she could tell Esposito the good news in person tonight.

Hastings picked up the file and placed it in the portfolio and lifted it off the desk. She started to move away.

"You forgot this one."

Hastings looked down at the file that Kate was holding up. She took it and a look of astonishment spread across her face when she saw her name on the file. She looked to Kate.

"Your new orders, Detective Hastings." Kate informed her.

Hastings opened the file and quickly read the letter. Her mouth fell open in surprise.

"Homicide Squad?"

"You start two weeks leave as of tomorrow and then you report to Captain Zahra at Homicide." Kate smiled.

"But ma'am..."

"What, did you think you were going to spend the rest of your days as the Commissioner's PA?"

"No ma'am. I was thinking I might get posted back to the Detective Squad at the 11th like before my secondment here."

"You're too good a detective for that, Ann."

Hastings looked at her new orders for a moment before she looked up and smiled.

"Thank you ma'am."

Kate rose from her chair and slowly walked over to the window. She stared up at the slate grey sky and at the rain that was falling steadily. Casting her gaze down to the street she saw people scurrying along the street trying to get out of the rain while others were walking at their normal pace protected somewhat from the rain by the umbrella's they were holding. She watched the people for a few moments before she lifted her gaze up to the sky once more.

For many years Kate had faced death in many of its forms and she accepted that as being par for the course of being a cop. She herself had personally confronted by death more times than she cared to mention and had cheated it.

There had been that time when her apartment was destroyed by the bomb Scott Dunn had placed there. She had escaped getting killed by managing to dive into her cast iron bathtub at the last moment emerging with a few scratches and bruises. What she also remembered about that night was Castle breaking down the front door as he stormed into her fire ravaged apartment in search of her. She had seen the remnants of the busted door when he had led her out of the apartment. There were not too many men she knew of who would have done that, rushing into a burning building with little or no regard to their safety. Castle did.

Though they never talked much about that night Kate was certain Castle had surreptitiously copped a look at her naked body before wrapping her in his coat and helping her out of the building. She might have admonished him not to look at her but deep down she really did not begrudge him sneaking a quick look. It was the least she could do to reward him for rescuing her.

Then there was that time she almost froze to death when she and Castle had been trapped inside that refrigeration container. Though they were rescued just in time by Ryan and Esposito and the rest of the cavalry to this day she was certain that she would have died had it not been for Castle's large frame providing her with what little warmth he could spare.

Kate smiled and shook her head at the memory of the time not long after almost freezing to death she and Castle had been just seconds away from oblivion when they found the dirty bomb. When all seemed lost it was Castle who had saved the day, the city and themselves by grabbing hold of the wires connected to the bomb and yanked them out. It was such a Castle-like thing to do. She had taken great pleasure in recounting Castle's exploits later back at the precinct to Captain Montgomery and the boys over a few beers.

What Kate also remembered from that day was Castle taking hold of her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. In that moment she wanted to tell him how she felt about him, what he meant to her. Yet with death just seconds away she did not have the courage to tell him.

Then there was the Pandora case where she met the inspiration for the character Clara Strike in the form of one Sophia Turner. Though she did not admit it at the time she had been jealous of Sophia and the history she had with Castle. By the end of the case those feelings of jealousy had all but faded. It was the case that almost saw her drowning on the Hudson River when her car had been pushed into the river. If it had not been for Castle she would have died when her seat belt would not unfasten. How he had managed to get her out of the car and carry her up to the surface and then onto the pier she never did find out.

Kate had been ready to fling herself at Sophia just as the woman was taking aim to shoot Castle in the back of the head execution style. She did not care if she died in the process all she cared was to save Castle. She was saved from any futile heroics when Agent Danberg shot and killed Sophia. As she and Danberg raced to save the little girl Kate had cast a look back at Castle who had remained on his knees and the look on his face had broken her heart. In that moment she desperately wanted to console him but first things first.

Kate had never forgotten the day she had accidentally stood on the bomb in that apartment and had to stand still for hours on end. Castle had stayed with her while the bomb squad desperately tried and ultimately failed to disarm the bomb that had been planted. She would be forever grateful to him as recounted excerpts of their story in effort to keep her mind off the bomb.

And when the bomb squad had withdrawn profusely apologising for their failure at not being able to disarm the bomb she had made Castle promise to leave and to her astonishment he did. What she had not expected was that he would return. Just as she finally prepared herself for the inevitable in walked Castle as it was just another ordinary day bringing with him a cup of coffee for her. He had told her that yes he promised to leave but had not promised her that he would not return. Kate also remembered what Castle also had said, that while there was a chance to disarm the bomb he was not going to give up. Then together like the partners they were, they were able to find the pass code that disarmed the bomb.

She had been shot at more times than she cared to remember and she had been shot. Even now after all these years her body still bore the scars of all those bullet wounds, not as noticeable these days but still there all the same. They were there as silent badges of her survival.

Kate had thought after all the ups and downs, the stops and starts, she and Castle had gone through that finally she would get her happy ever after when Bracken had gone to jail for his crimes. Life, the Universe and certain parties had other plans.

She and Castle had cheated death so many times it was inevitable the law of averages would tip against them sooner or later. In the dark recess of her mind she would conjure nightmare images of her taking the bullet that was meant for Castle. In her waking life she could not bear the thought of Castle dying. Keeping Castle and his family safe had always been at the forefront of her mind and actions.

When the LokSat thing had blow up she had separated from Castle because that was the only way she thought would keep her husband and his family safe. In the end she had come to realise how foolish that had been. The only way she was going to bring LokSat down was to work with her partner just like she had been doing for years.

Thinking about LokSat sent her thoughts to that fateful day. She had tried to forget it but it had been an impossible task that she had gave up trying. The memory resided there on the edges in her waking moments and in the nightmares that came to her for many years and still came from time to time. It had been the day they had unmasked LokSat and brought him down. It was the day her whole world changed.

They had been set up by LokSat at that recycling plant and had faced the death squad that had been sent to kill them. Under heavy fire and facing certain death, Kate remembered Castle making making a quip about knowing how Butch and Sundance had felt at the end of the movie they were surrounded by the Bolivian soldiers. She would have laughed at his remark but she was too busy trying to pick off the attackers. Thankfully she and Castle did not have to make some heroic last stand.

She and Castle had come home to the loft in the morning after closing the case feeling tired but relieved that the whole LokSat business finally over. While she was more than happy to order takeout for breakfast Castle had other ideas insisting he would make breakfast for her. She had always loved it when he made breakfast for her. Going into the bedroom to change her clothes Castle had wandered into the kitchen to start breakfast.

Kate had heard the distinctive click of the silenced weapon and then the loud thud of her husband's body hitting the floor. She drew her gun and came rushing out of the bedroom. She was shocked to find a very alive Caleb Brown with a gun standing over Castle.

Who fired the first shot Kate did not know nor did she care but when Caleb turned the gun towards her she stood her ground and instinct kicked in, pulling the trigger of her own weapon. She did not flinch as bullets whizzed past her head. Didn't flinch when she felt a sharp sing in her stomach. She fired at Caleb Brown just as she had been trained to do until she was sure he was dead.

It was only then that she turned her attention to Castle. She remembered the large amount of blood spreading across the floor from the wound in his head. She started to move towards Castle but found her legs wouldn't respond. They felt like jelly. The next moment she collapsed to the floor. The sharp sting in her stomach had all of a sudden flared into a raging storm of excruciating pain.

Gritting her teeth Kate ignored the burning pain and crawled across the floor closing the distance between herself and her husband as best and fast as she could. She remembered her futile efforts to keep him conscious, telling him that she loved him, that he could not die because she wouldn't let him, that help was on its way and not knowing if that was true or not but desperately praying that it was. Kate remembered the look of utter helplessness in his blue eyes as he stared up at her despite her assurances that everything would be okay. His desperate efforts to say something to her but unable to form the words and her pleading for him to conserve his energy. And most of all Kate remembered the small lopsided smile Castle gave her just as the light drained from his eyes.

It was some months after his death before Kate was able to see the irony in the way Castle was killed. It was a case of life imitating art. The author meeting his demise in the same manner as his creation Derrick Storm. Castle would have been amused by that, though Kate had never found anything funny about it and certainly made no mention of it to anyone and no one dared to mention it to her.

Kate rested her forehead against the window and let the silent tears slowly stream down her face. Twenty-three years might have passed by but the pain and anguish of his loss and what might have been was still as strong as ever for her. It always would.

She missed him and everything about him. She missed things like the coffee he used to bring her. It had started off a just coffee but had quickly turned into something more. The outlandish conspiracy theories he used to spin involving some three letter government agency that had her rolling her eyes and struggling to hide her amusement. The special happy birthday pancakes he made for her with the chocolate chip smiles. The times she caught him checking out her ass and the innocent expression on his face when she turned to face him. His unswerving faith in the possibility of magic that had made a convert of her too. The child-like quality he had which could turn a holiday into something magical and memorable. The days or nights wrapped in his arms as they lay on the couch watching some movie on tv. The childish pout on his lips when she beat him at Scrabble. The overly excited victory routine he went through when he beat her at poker. The annoying everyday little faults that wives found in their husbands. His ability to say the right words at the right time that would just melt her heart and make her love him even more. The surprises he would spring on her, like the time he had taken her Harley from her dad's garage where it had been gathering dust, had it restored and presented it to her at the Loft one night. Later that night in between rounds of passionate lovemaking they talked about the cross country bike trip they planned to take.

They never got to ride across the country and the Harley returned to the garage and remained there untouched. It was only about five years ago when she finally sold it.

Most of all she missed him and the love he had for her.

Kate moved away from the window a few minutes later having managed to rein in the tears and walked back to the desk. She quickly fixed up her makeup making sure any sign of tears had been concealed. It had been a good many years when she had cried like that and in such a public place. She studied her face in the mirror of the compact. There were more lines on her face she noticed, lines that no amount of makeup could conceal and there was more grey in her hair these days than she might have liked. For a while she had been hiding the grey by colouring her hair but she had stopped doing that a few years back. She was not an overly vain person even though she liked to look presentable. She was getting old and she could not be bothered trying to stop the march of time.

Closing the compact she returned it to the small makeup bag and tossed the bag into her briefcase. She then gathered up a couple of items from the desk and placed those into the briefcase as well. Closing the lid of the case she locked it. Turning around Kate slowly cast a final survey of the office.

There were so many memories in this office, both good and bad, she reflected. So many momentous decisions had been made within the confines of these walls. If there was one thing she had learned from her earliest days as captain was that decisions had consequences. The decisions she had made in this office had great consequences to the patrol officers and detectives out in the field. She had always been very mindful of that.

It was here in the early hours of a morning in her second year as Commissioner where she had finally hammered out a new labour agreement with the Police Union that prevented a full on police strike. The negotiations had been going around the clock with barely a break for several days but in the end there was an agreement which, though not perfect, was acceptable to both sides.

When she had become Commissioner the NYPD had been suffering an attrition rate above three percent. Most of the officers who were leaving before retirement age were long serving cops with years of invaluable experience. There had also been officers with less than five years on the job who had been leaving to take more lucrative jobs in police forces in surrounding counties. She hated the thought that the department would lose such officers so soon after having invested so much time and money to train them. It took her a couple of years but Kate had managed to bring down the attrition rate down to under one percent and had kept it under one percent for the remainder of her term as Commissioner. She was more than a little proud of that.

It was in this room where she had taken command of a hostage situation unfolding in midtown. It was very rare for a Police Commissioner to take personal command of a police operation but she had done so because she was not happy with the way the situation was being handled by the cops in charge. Something had not felt right to her about the whole situation. All her advisors and officers in the field were telling her that it was a terrorist incident and the terrorists would soon be killing hostages. They insisted it was an attack designed to shock and generate as much publicity as possible.

She held her nerve despite all the pressure she was getting from her own people as well as from the mayor and his people. Her gut had told otherwise. She had almost wavered under the enormous and unrelenting pressure coming from all sides but she heard Castle's voice in her head telling her to "Trust the magical properties of your gut, Scully.".

She had almost smiled at that reminder from the Vivien Marchand murder case from way back when. She managed to catch herself just in time. It was bad enough everyone around her were thinking that she was not up to job, they did not need more ammunition to bolster their perceptions of her. Castle's reassuring words had fortified her resolve. In the end she had been proven right. It had not been a terrorist attack but a couple of frustrated army vets suffering from PTSD who had not been given the treatment they had been promised and had taken it upon themselves to publicise their predicament.

It was in this office she had a stand up drag out fight with the mayor over his proposed budget cuts that if implemented would have seen over five hundred officers cut from the department. In the end the budget cuts were withdrawn and Kate received funding for an extra hundred new officers. She could have lorded it over the mayor with this victory but she didn't. She had won the battled and that was enough, there was no need to rub the mayor's or the rest of City Hall's noses in it. She knew there would be other battles to be fought with the mayor and having him off side would not have helped her cause.

It was in this office she had personally arrested a city councilman for murdering his mistress in a fit of jealous rage and had not only covered up the murder had tried to circumvent the police investigation. The councilman was a member of the committee that oversaw the Department and she had invited him to a meeting in her office where there would be reporters. Slapping the cuffs on the councilman in the blaze of lights from the news cameras reminded Kate of the day she had placed the cuffs on Senator William Bracken in his office in Washington.

It was in this office where her Public Information aid would constantly suggest things that would make her popular with the rank and file as well as the rest of the population. More often than not she rejected the suggestions. She had not become Commissioner to increase her popularity. Her job was not to be popular, it was to do right by the Department and the people of New York City. She must have been doing something right because the respect for the Commissioner and the department had increased, if the surveys Public Information had sent her recently were to be believed.

It was in this office late one evening she had been relaxing after a very long tiring day where she had been in one meeting after another. She had not been eager to head off home just yet so had pulled a book from the bookshelf without bothering to check what she had selected. Kicking off her high heels she had settled down on the couch for some reading.

To her amusement Kate found she had picked A Rose Forever After. She had read a couple of chapters before she was interrupted by her then Personal Assistant who informed her that a call had come from her father's nursing home saying that her father was ailing and that she had better get over there as quickly as possible.

Her protection detail broke a number of speed records to get Kate over to the nursing home in Queens despite the heavy evening New York traffic, radioing ahead to get patrol cars to clear the way for the commissioner's small convoy. Despite their best efforts Kate arrived a few minutes too late. Her father had passed away.

Jim Beckett had been ailing for several years. He had retired from his law firm and was spending half the time at his cabin in upstate New York and the other half in the city. That was when he had his first stroke, a mild one. After he had recovered from that Kate suggested that he move in with her. He did not want to move in with his daughter but Kate had insisted and reluctantly he moved in. It was either that or moving into an assisted aged care facility. Jim chose the lesser of two evils. A couple of years later Jim had a second and more severe stroke where he ended up in the nursing home in Queens. Kate visited him as often as possible. However because of her work the visits became less frequent over time.

She would be forever grateful to her father for the strength he had provided when she was going through the worst time in her life following Castle's death. Kate barely survived the gunshot wounds and should have stayed in the hospital but there was nothing and no one who was going to stop her from attending her husband's funeral. Her doctors had ordered her to use a wheelchair but she had refused. Kate doubted she would have been able to get through the funeral and the wake that followed if it had not been for her father. He had been at her side letting her cling to him. She did not remember much of the funeral but did remember a few things.

Kate smiled as she remembered the moment during the wake when her father had leaned in and whispered a suggestion that they get the hell out of there and take the Q-train to Coney Island. For the first time in many days Kate had smiled, a genuine warm smile when her father had reminded her of that other wake they had been at all those years ago. Jim had seen how miserable his grieving nineteen year old daughter had been so he taken her away from the wake. They had ridden the train all the way to the beach at Coney Island.

As much as Kate wanted nothing more than to go with her father out to Coney Island she could not get away. She was in no condition in any case. It was an effort to keep standing and receive the mourners who had wanted to pay their respects.

She had barely been conscious when Jim and Lanie had returned her to the hospital. However when Kate was finally discharged from hospital she and Jim did take the train to Coney Island where they slowly walked along the beach picking up enough material for the creation of the second Stick Man.

It pleased Kate to know that her father had been present when she had been appointed Commissioner. She had never seen him looking so proud than on that day when a set of five stars were pinned to the epaulettes of her uniform. Kate had no doubt that Jim Beckett would have been far more prouder and happier if she had provided him with grandchildren.

And it was in this office where she had made some organisational changes to the Detective Bureau. The proposed changes had met with resistance from some of her Senior command especially the then Chief of Detectives but she pushed it through regardless. It saw the creation of a specialist Homicide Squad with the same resources like its older sister squad the Major Case squad.

Kate had never understood why murder cases were investigated by the precinct detective squads. She had always felt and believed that murder was the most important of crimes to solve and the best of the best detectives in the department should be investigating the cases. It pleased her no end when after about a year of the creation of the Homicide squad the case clearance rate increased significantly.

Of all the things Kate had been able to achieve in her time as Commissioner she was probably proudest of the Homicide squad and it would be one of the legacies she was leaving behind.

There had been successes and there had been failures, there had been victories and there had been defeats. Overall the one guiding thing for Kate had always been to do the best that she could do. On balance she felt she had done a pretty good job.

There was still much to do, things that she had not been able to get around to doing because of one reason or another. Those tasks would become the burden of the next person who assumed the office.

She was leaving with few regrets. Yet if there was one regret she did have it was that her husband had not been here to see her rise through the department and eventually become Commissioner of the New York Police Department. However she had no doubt he would have been over the moon for her. Castle had always believed in her.

With a final small sigh Kate pushed herself off the desk that she had been leaning against and reached for the badge clipped to the belt of her skirt. She unclipped the badge and almost immediately felt naked without it. There would be plenty of time to get used that feeling, Kate thought to herself. As she looked at the badge in her hand Kate ran her fingers slowly over the five silver stars on the top of the badge. With a sad smile she carefully placed the badge in the centre of the desk.

Picking up her briefcase Kate walked across the room over to the coffee table where she picked up the legal pad. Casting a glance at the pad she was satisfied that her words did not need any more revising. With a final look at the office Kate turned and walked over to the coat stand and put on her long dark blue coat. Then she walked out of the room for the final time.

"Well, that's it for me, Hastings." Kate said when she stopped at her personal assistant's desk. She set her briefcase on the desk before passing the legal pad to Hastings. "I'm finally a civilian."

"Do you want me to type this up for you, Commissioner?"

"Yes, and have it emailed to everyone in the department under my name. It's my farewell message."

"Yes, ma'am." Detective Hastings quickly read over the message and nodded her head in approval.

From out of the corner of her eye Kate noticed the woman sitting on the couch near Hastings' desk.

"Chief Gates." Kate said her face breaking into a smile as she moved over to the couch.

Victoria Gates slowly rose from the couch and smiled. The two women embraced warmly.

"Ann why didn't you tell me the chief was here?" Kate demanded of her personal assistant.

"Because I told her not." Gates interjected.

Kate nodded her understanding and motioned to Gates to resume her seat.

"I'm not staying Commissioner." Gates said. "I just wanted to stop by to say a quick hello."

"Well, it's good to see you Victoria."

"Likewise, Kate."

Victoria Gates was rapidly approaching her eighties but still looked remarkably spry and active. There were more age lines around her face which only made her look more severe than ever. After leaving the Twelfth Precinct she had steadily risen through the ranks at 1 Police Plaza until she had reached the position of Deputy Chief of the Detective Bureau. She had retired from the department just before Kate's appointment as commissioner.

Kate had been a little concerned that Gates might have been upset when she had been made Chief of the Department. Kate had been aware that Gates had made no secret she was interested in the job even if she might have been past retirement age. Kate need not have worried. Gate had been one of the first people to congratulate Kate on her promotion. Gates had stayed on as Deputy Chief of Detectives for about a year before she put in for retirement.

If Gates had thought she was done with the NYPD she was in for a surprise. One of Commissioner Beckett's first acts had been to appoint Gates to the Police Academy. Kate had told Gates that she wanted the best trained recruit officers graduating from the academy and if she wanted the best of the best in the NYPD, she needed the best of the best to teach and train these recruit officers and the commissioner wanted Victoria Gates to be one of those teaching the next generation. Gates had accepted the offer.

Kate had always kept in contact with her old captain from the 12th Precinct. Gates had always made time for Kate right from the first few months of when the younger woman had become captain. Gates had been only too happy to pass on her years of wisdom and experience to Kate. Advice Kate had taken on board and made good use of.

"I'm so proud of you, Kate." Gates said. "So, damn proud of you."

"So, you've forgiven me for beating you to the top job?" Kate joked.

"I always knew you would, Kate. From the first time we met, I knew you would rise to the top."

"Thank you, Victoria." Kate replied. "

Victoria Gates had come in and taken command of the Twelfth Precinct following the tragic death of Captain Roy Montgomery. She had to contend with the resentment from the troops because of the baggage and reputation she had brought with her from Internal Affairs. Everyone called her "Iron Gates", a name she did not much like but had come to accept. And yes she had been tough, living up to her nickname, she would have been the first to admit that but she had never apologised for that. It had taken her about four years but by the end of her tour as captain of the Twelfth she had earned the respect of the men and women of the Twelfth precinct, especially her best detective.

Kate's relationship with Gates had not started off all that well. At their first meeting Kate had sensed Gates resented her for having beaten Gates' record for being the youngest woman to make detective. Kate had certainly resented the captain for having shut down the investigation into her shooting when all the leads had dried up and resources were needed to investigate resent murders. And she certainly resented Gates when the new captain wouldn't let her investigate the case personally. Gates had been right, she could not have Kate investigate the case into her own shooting. At the time it had made Kate angry and only more determined to investigate the case which she did on the sly with the help of Castle and the boys.

Over the years and over many cases Kate came to understand Captain Victoria Gates a little better and began to give the older woman the respect she deserved. It still amused Kate when she thought back the case where she had been standing on the bomb and afterwards when she and Castle had come out of the apartment building and Gates telling her to kiss Castle. It had shocked Kate to discover that Gates had known about her relationship with Castle all along.

What pleased Kate was the fact that they had become friends over the years.

"I've never told you this before Victoria, but when I became captain of the 12th and was faced with a difficult decision, I always asked myself the question, 'What would Captain Gates do?' Kate announced.

Gate looked genuinely surprised and moved to hear that. "Thank you, Kate. I'm pleased to see that I had a good pupil."

Gates gave Kate another hug and started for the door.

"I will see you tonight, Kate." Gates announced.

"You're coming to the Old Haunt?" Kate said looking a little surprised.

"Detective Hastings has gone to great lengths to get the old band together for one final time. It would be churlish of me not to show up."

"See you there, Victoria." Kate smiled.

Kate walked back to Hastings' desk. The personal assistant stopped typing and rose to her feet.

"I want to thank you for everything you've done, Ann." Kate said slowly. "You've been a great help to me, more than you will ever know."

"Thank you, Commissioner. It's kind of you to say."

"It's the truth."

"It's been an honour to serve with you, ma'am."

"The honour has been mine."

"If it wasn't for you all those years ago, I don't think I'd be where I am today."

"You did it on your own, Ann. Yeah, you were given some good advice which you accepted but you've always been a good cop. Never forget that, Ann."

"Yes, ma'am."

Detective Hastings came to attention and snapped a smart salute. Kate returned the salute.

"Good luck, Beckett." Hastings added.

Kate smiled at her now former assistant. She had finally gotten Hastings to call her by her name.

"Thanks, Ann." The two women shook hands.

Kate started for the door and Hastings followed. As Kate started to open the door she looked over to Hastings.

"Notify my detail that I'll be heading home, and I'll see you tonight."

"Count on it, Beckett."

Stepping into the hallway Kate came to an abrupt halt when saw the sight of uniformed officers lining the wall of the hallway. She was taken aback by the sight.

"Attention!" A parade ground voice called out.

Immediately all the officers present came to attention and in unison snapped perfect salutes. Kate returned the salute a moment later when she had recovered from her surprise. She had not been expecting his.

She looked over the line of the assembled officers and found a number of familiar faces amongst the ranks. Her eyebrows rose upwards in surprise when she noted the precinct numbers on the collars of the uniforms. It took a few moments before she realised that some of these officers were representing some past commands of hers.

"Don't you people have jobs to get on with?" Kate joked.

A couple of the officers let out nervous laughs."

"At ease everyone. I'm not your boss any more." Kate told them.

Kate looked over the assembled officers unable to hide the smile from her face. She had avoided as much as possible the pomp and ceremony her departure entailed but this simple line up of police officers had touched her. She looked at Detective Hastings and narrowed her eyes.

"Did you have something to do with this?"

"I plead the fifth, ma'am." Hastings grinned.

Kate nodded her head slowly then turned to look at the assembled officers. Her eyes came to a halt at a couple of very familiar faces. She walked over to the officers.

"Hey, LT." Kate smiled.

"Ma'am."

"How's Officer Ryan shaping up?" Kate asked, nodding to the young officer standing beside his tall training officer. LT cast a glance at the rookie standing beside him before looking at Kate.

"Still wet behind the ears, ma'am, reminds me a little of his old man, but I remain hopeful we'll make a damn fine officer out of him."

"I expect nothing less, LT."

"Yes, ma'm." LT grinned.

Kate looked to Nicholas Ryan and smiled.

"You listening to everything your TO is telling you?"

"Yes, Aunt...I'm mean, yes ma'am." Officer Ryan stammered.

She had always been Aunt Kate to young Ryan and it was a habit he had never been able to stop. He had called her Aunt Kate on his graduation day too, much to his father's embarrassment. Kate smiled a little more when she saw the young man's face turning a shade of pink which was not helped by the chorus of sniggering from the assembled officers.

"How is Sarah Grace?" Kate inquired.

"She's great, ma'am. Graduates from NYU soon."

Kate nodded her head. "Give her my regards."

"Yes, ma'am I will."

Kate moved on to the next officer in the line.

"Hey, Karpowski, how's it going?"

"Oh you know. Same old, same old." Captain Roselyn Karpowski replied nonchalantly adding a shrug of her shoulders. "And you?"

"Can't complain." Kate replied then smiled a moment later. Captain Karpowski returned Kate's smile.

It was the same old routine that they had been doing ever since they both worked at the Twelfth.

Kate had lost contact with Karpowski after she had been transferred out of the Twelfth precinct. Their paths had crossed again when Kate was given command of the 27th Precinct. By that time Karpowski had reached Detective First grade and was one of the 27th's best detectives. At Kate's urgings Karpowski had sat for the Sergeants' exam and had passed. Soon after she was the head of the detective squad at the 27th. These days Karpowski was captain of 124th Precinct on Staten Island.

"I hear you're thinking of putting in your papers?" Kate said.

"Yeah." Karpowski nodded her head. "At the end of the year."

Kate gave the other woman a quizzical look.

"I want to spend more time getting to know my grand kids, you know?" Karpowski explained.

"Good for you, Roselyn."

Kate felt a pang of envy for the other woman. There had been a time long ago when she discussed with Castle about having kids it was not too serious a discussion but starting a family was something they were both looking forward to. However, that was not to be.

"Will I be seeing you tonight, Karpowski?"

"I'll be there, don't you worry, Beckett." Karpowski replied with a smile. "And I have a few good stories to tell too."

Kate shuddered at the thought of what kind of stories her former colleague was going to dredge up from their distant past. Knowing Karpowski, it would be acutely embarrassing for Kate. Kate gave Karpowski a nod and squeezed the other woman's arm affectionately before moving on to the next officer standing in line. The smile on her face deepened a little.

"Lieutenant Decker, you're a long way from home." Kate remarked.

"Yes, ma'am." Lieutenant Rachel Decker replied. "Couldn't have you leave without getting the chance to say goodbye, ma'am."

Kate nodded her head in understanding. Lieutenant Decker was head of the Detective Squad at the 54th Precinct in The Bronx. Kate had first met Decker when she was just a Recruit Officer at the Police Academy twenty-three years ago when Kate and her team were investigating the Daniel Bardot murder. Decker had experienced doubts about herself becoming a cop because she was the daughter of a notorious criminal. Kate had talked to Decker, convincing her to continue on with her training. Decker had stayed on and eventually graduated.

After graduation she had been a patrol officer for four years working out of the 74th Precinct in Brooklyn before she became a detective. Over the years Kate had kept an eye on Decker's career, providing advice when it was needed. Nothing pleased Kate more than seeing her mentorees rise up through the ranks.

"I hear you sat the Captain's exam." Kate remarked.

"Yes, ma'am."

"You did well?"

"Yes, ma'am. I aced it for sure." Decker said confidently.

"I'd expect nothing less, Decker."

Kate had been told that Decker had not only aced the Captains' exam but she had been in the top five percent. A precinct command would not be long in coming for her. It would not surprise Kate to see Decker ending up a bureau chief in the not too distant future, perhaps the Chief of the Department. Decker had always been driven hard. At the police academy Decker had even claimed one or two of Kate's long standing records. In the past twenty-three years a few more of her records had fallen but not all. There were still a small handful of records and accomplishments that no one had been able to beat even after thirty-six years.

Reaching the end of the line Kate continued walking till she came to the elevators. She pressed the call button and then slowly turned on her heels to look down the line of assembled officers. At the end of the line stood Hastings. Kate could see that her former assistant had tears in her eyes which was a rare sight. Kate could feel her own emotions starting to well up. She forced back the tears that threatened. She had made a promise to herself that she would not cry but she had broken it already and it looked like she was going to break the promise again.

The elevator announced its arrival with a loud ping of the bell. She heard the doors open behind her.

"Thank you everyone." Kate said in low but emotion filled voice.

With a final nod of her head Kate turned and stepped into the elevator. When she turned around to face the assembled officers she saw them all saluting her again. She returned the salute just as the elevator doors slid shut.

The End

Thank you for reaing. If you have any thoughts, comments or whatever, please drop me a line.

Con