Beckett wakes up on what feels like cold tile. Her head is pounding and everything aches. She's about to get up when she hears a voice in the corner of the room.
"Easy." A man appears with a soft demeanor.
Beckett can't help but become frantic. "Who are you? Where am I? Why dos everything ache?"
"You were in a car crash." The man answers calmly as if he knew what she was going to say.
"So I'm in the hospital?" She's confused, why is she on the floor?
"No."
"Are you holding me hostage?"
"No, I'm your spirit god." The man grins at her.
"My what?" Kate can feel her stomach flip as if she's going to throw up. She just wants to know what's going on.
"I can show you better than I can tell you." He gestures towards a mirror that Kate hadn't noticed before.
"A mirror?" She trying to understand what's going on.
"Not just any mirror. Step through it and I'll show you what it looks like in New York at the moment."
Against her better judgement, Kate steps towards the mirror and is standing with the strange man in the loft, just like that.
The man on the couch is playing with a little, red box. His eyes are filled with sadness, empty gin glasses scattered around him. He doesn't look like Castle.
"Rick?" She's shocked and worried and so heartbroken.
"He can't hear or see you." The man tells her evenly.
"Please don't tell me the box in his hands is what I think it is." She closes her eyes tight and takes a shaky breath.
"It is."
"He was going to ask me to marry him?" Tears pricked at her eyes.
"Yes."
She face palms herself. "Oh gosh, I'm so stupid.
"Come on, let's go. Next up is the precinct."
In the blink of an eye, they're standing in the middle of the bullpen. It looks the same until they hear heels clicking and then stop when a woman sits down at Beckett's desk.
"Who is that?" She questions and notices Castle's chair is gone and so are her elephants.
"The new detective, Cindy."
"You've got to be joking." Beckett can't help but see the woman's overly blonde hair and pronounced chest.
"Don't be fooled," the man says, "she passed with flying colors."
And just like that, the precinct fades and they are back in the room they started in. Tears stream down her cheeks as she processes everything she's seen today.
"Wish you could take it back?"
"Yes, so much, but you're about to tell me that I can't." She runs a hand through her hair, anxiety coursing through her.
"No, I'm going to make your wish come true." the man grins like he did before.
"What's the catch?"
"You, my girl, are very smart."
"Tell me." She growls, needing answers.
"The catch is, I'm going to send you back to New York, back to where you and your boyfriend first started dating. Only you will know about this whole second chance. Everyday will be the same, but when the case comes up and the DC offer materializes." The man pauses, thinking she understands.
"What, what if I mess this up?" Kate rubs her forehead in exhaustion.
"If you mess up, that's it. No more. I'll send you back. Everyone in New York, apart from your dad, will forget you and you will forget them."
'What happens if I don't?"
"If you turn down the job and don't go for the interview and he still proposes." He pauses again, knowing she's a smart girl.
"I would say yes." She practically screams.
"Okay, so you say yes, then you start living your own story and I leave."
"But will I remember you?"
"No."
She grins. "I'm in."
The man nods. "Okay, step through this door."