This is just a quick plot twist/one shot of the beginning of season 7- in this version, Castle is never found.
Warning, it does not have a happy ending.
It had been six years.
Kate sat in a cafe, thinking, waiting for Alexis. When it first happened, their weekly meetings were for plotting and investigating, doing all they could to scrape together clues.
When Martha died three years later, the meetings became grief sessions, and the women spent the time with tears leaking from their eyes, trying to move on from the second loss.
Now, nothing but small talk passed between them, neither one having anything to latch on to and to fight for.
Kate's thoughts were interrupted by the bells above the door ringing.
"Hey," Alexis said, her eyes dim as she pushed through the crowds to get to the counter where Kate sat.
"Hey."
They chatted. Alexis had a new boyfriend and she sold the loft.
Kate had nothing to report, her fingers mindlessly playing with the chain she still wore around her neck as she told Alexis about Ryan and Espo's latest machinations.
Having nothing else to say, they sat in silence, Alexis drinking coffee and Kate picking at a donut.
"I miss him," Alexis said, her voice breaking slightly, "and I don't know what to do with myself anymore."
"You're so young, Alexis," Kate said, her eyes soft, "go back to school, or get a job doing what you love- but get away from the city, you have nothing here anymore and it's just too hard to stay."
"I have you," Alexis said, reaching across the table for Kate's hand, "and I couldn't imagine being so far from the only mother figure I've really had."
Kate snorted at the comment, thinking that she was hardly Alexis's mother since she and Rick never made it down the aisle.
"It's true. For the fifteen years I've known you, you've done more for me than Meredith ever has, and I love you for it."
"I love you too, Lex."
After a moment, Alexis spoke again, "you know, Kate, you should find a man. You've been grieving for too long, and I know it's hard to move on but I don't think what you're doing is really working."
"He was the only one," Kate said softly, "I can't ever love another man, because my heart belongs to your father, and it always will."
"Have you been seeing Dr. King?" Alexis asked, her eyes and voice leaking concern.
Dr. King was the therapist Kate, Alexis and Martha all saw after Castle's disappearance.
"Not recently, no," she said, pulling her hand back to pick at her necklace again.
Alexis noticed but said nothing.
"I have to go, I have an interview in an hour, but call me, okay?" Alexis said.
Kate just nodded, watching as Alexis got up and left.
After paying, Kate too got up and walked back to the precinct.
Knocking on Gates' door, she heard the woman tell her to come in.
"Yes, Detective?"
Gates immediately noticed the bags under Beckett's eyes, the wrinkles in her usually crisp shirts, the dullness behind her eyes.
"Go home, detective," she said, standing up to gently push Kate out the door, "you look like hell."
Stopping her, Beckett turned around to look at Gates in the eyes, " I'm resigning from my position as homicide detective," she said, voice even and lifeless, "I need to get away from here."
"Now detective, let's not make an rash decisions here. I know things have been a little rough, but sleep on the decision and get back to me tomorrow okay? As for now, go home and rest- you need it."
"Tomorrow," Beckett hazily repeated.
Quietly, she left the precinct and found her way back to her apartment.
Pulling out a piece of paper, she scratched onto it,
I needed to get out of here.
There's nothing left.
Adding as a post script,
Alexis- take the rings, your father would have wanted you to have it, and I want you to have mine.
Taking the chain off her neck, Kate ran her thumb over the smooth metal of one of the wedding rings on it, admiring the beautiful stone Castle had so painstakingly selected. Picking up her mom's ring, she thought about how nice it would look on Alexis's finger.
"See you on the other side, Rick," Beckett said, putting the ring with the note, taking her gun off the holster and pulling the trigger.
Yep. Sorry KBex.
-T