Epilogue

There was something warm and soft cuddled up beside him when he slowly woke up. At first he couldn't quite think of what but then he remembered last night and when he lifted his arm and gently stroke her shoulder he knew it had not been a dream. He turned his head towards his alarm clock, saw that it was already nine o'clock and turned his head towards her. She was still sleeping deeply and a smile crossed his face. This was the first time ever that he had woken up before her. Normally she was up and running already by 7am if not earlier. She must have been very exhausted to still be asleep. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before he wriggled his arm out from under her, trying carefully not to wake her.

Once he was up and had a look at his bedroom, he grinned. Their clothes were scattered carelessly all around the floor. He could still feel her lips on him, her touch that burned his skin, the taste of her, the way her eyes glistened with every kiss, every move and every touch.

He quickly picked the clothes up now and piled them up just so it looked a little less messy before he took his dressing gown to cover himself. Then he turned around to have a look at his sleeping girlfriend and the sight of it took his breath away. The sun was falling on her face, illuminating her features and lighting up her hair like it was on fire. She looked so beautiful and he could hardly believe that she was all his now. There were no secrets anymore, they had fought their way through a dark tunnel and had found the light together. From now on, they would go the rest of the way together and no stone would get in their way anymore. Or if one did, they would move or rather throw that stone away together. Still smiling he walked out of the bedroom to the kitchen. He needed a coffee and something to eat and he was sure Kate would feel the same when she woke up.

The smell of fresh brewed coffee made its way to the bedroom where Kate stirred and slowly began to wake up. She rubbed her eyes and when she opened them she got blinded by the sunlight so she squinted through her half closed eyelids to see the bed empty. She raised an eyebrow. That never happened. She was always the first to wake up and when she looked at the alarm clock just as Castle had done half an hour ago, she could hardly believe what time it was. She still felt pretty exhausted but the smell of coffee made her want to get up, so she turned around and moaned. It seemed like every muscle in her body was hurting from dangling on that building wall – well, not all because of that. Moving slowly she managed to sit up and put one leg after the other on the floor and then stand up. Her stomach grumbled and she smiled as she not only smelled coffee but something else too. After quickly scanning the room and putting some clothes on, she walked into the office and then stood in the doorway to the open living room and kitchen, watching Castle scurry around in the kitchen and she smiled before she walked up to him.

He hadn't spotted her yet since he was balancing a frying pan in his hands. She watched as one of his fingers touched the hot rim and he almost let go of it and turned around to the sink to cool the finger he'd just burned. That's when he spotted Kate walking towards him dressed in nothing but one of his shirts that just about covered her enough. He looked down her endless legs, forgetting about his burn, looked up at her face again and saw the cheeky smirk on her lips.

"Morning," she simply said, took some more steps before coming up behind the counter and taking his hand.

"M…morning…" he stuttered as she turned the tab on and held his hand under the running water and he sighed with relief.

"Forgot about that…" he murmured still not quite capable of thinking properly and she grinned.

"And here I thought you had a good enough look last night…"

"Oh…I did…but I can't get enough," he replied, grinning down at her.

"You know, I wanted to come wake you up…you should've stayed in bed," he added before kissing her gently.

When they pulled away from each other too soon for both their tastes, Beckett looked past him to the frying pan, trying to make out what he was cooking.

"Pancakes," he answered her unasked question and she laughed.

"Don't let Ryan know about this, or we are completely busted."

He grinned at her and then walked to the coffee machine to hand her a freshly made coffee.

"Oh Castle, you're a star," she sighed, stretching her arm out to take the cup from his hand wincing a little.

"Are you alright, Kate?" he asked a little concerned but she nodded.

"I'm fine. Just a little sore, that's all."

"Are you now?" he asked cheekily and reacted too slow to escape her slap.

"Well, then go lie down again and I can pretend that you're still sleeping and I'm gonna wake you up with a perfect breakfast delivered to your bed," he said.

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a quick glance at the coffee in her hand and he sighed.

"You may take the coffee with you…" he said and she smiled before swaggering off towards the bedroom again. Castle watched her walk off barefoot and bare legged and he sighed. How did he deserve this again? How was it possible that she really came over last night, telling him all she wanted was him? They hadn't talked much after he had pushed her against his front door they needed no talking to know what they wanted. At least no talking about well, ordinary stuff or what exactly had happened that had made her come around a full 180°. There was plenty of time for that now and he was happier than he could ever have imagined. She was amazing in every possible way. His eyes were still fixed to the point where Kate had disappeared behind the bookshelves of his office when he smelled something burnt.

"Shit, the pancakes!" he exclaimed and leaped over to the frying pan where a very black pancake was sizzling inside.

Twenty minutes later he had managed to make pancakes that were not burned down to a crisp and he loaded them onto a tray with orange juice, a fresh can of coffee, melon, strawberries, strawberry milk shake, a lot of honey, maple syrup, chocolate sauce, marshmallows (yes, he wasn't able to resist). Carefully he walked to the bedroom with it where he found Kate sitting cross legged on the bed, a book in her hand, the coffee on the bedside table and the sun still shining at her back. He stood in the door for a moment before asking, "Whatcha reading?"

She looked up, smiling at him and the tray with their breakfast before holding up the book for him to read the cover.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "haven't you read that like a thousand times before?" he asked and she laughed.

"Of course I have but I felt like reading it again. We wouldn't be here were it not for Nikki Heat."

He grinned at that, walked to the bed and placed the tray on the mattress before sitting down himself.

"I guess that is kinda true. Although technically it was "Flowers for your grave" that brought us together in the first place…"

Kate bobbled her head, "Technically you could say that. But you could also say that I saved you from your…writers block… by inspiring you to write the Heat novels." All the while she grinned cheekily with a raised eyebrow and as it so happens, Castle didn't know what to respond to that because she was perfectly right – if he was honest with himself.

He cleared his throat. "Anyway…" he stressed, "let's have breakfast, shall we?" he said and she grinned at him while taking a plate with a couple of pancakes and pouring maple syrup on top of it.

"I so knew you were a maple syrup kind of person!"

"Oh well, I do have a sweet tooth…sometimes…"

He smiled, took a strawberry and held it in front of her to take a bite which she did without hesitation. They were both rather hungry and ate more or less in silence and when they were done, Castle put the tray down on the floor and then lay back on the bed again, as did Kate.

"I resigned, you know…" she said quietly, staring up at the ceiling with her arms behind her head.

"You did what?" Castle asked astonished and turned around to face her.

"I resigned," she simply repeated before adding, "Ryan…Ryan told Gates where Espo and I had gone. He saved my life by doing so but Gates had us suspended. And while Esposito gave her his gun and batch I was thinking of that moment when I was dangling from that building and how all I could think about was you and how this case wasn't worth dying for. I realised that the only way to let go of it was by resigning so that's what I did. I resigned."

He'd been listening quietly to her, totally taken aback by what he heard. They really didn't talk last night and this was big. Really big.

"Just….just like that?" he asked once he finally managed to find his voice again.

She nodded.

"And…what are you going to do now?"

"I…I don't know. Be with you for starters."

He smiled widely at her pressing a kiss to her elbow 'cause it was closest to reach.

"That's a good thing."

"Is it?"

"Well…it's what we've been saying all the time lately. We both got caught up in work stuff so much we neglected to take care of this relationship. Hence all the troubles we've had even before this really had a chance to start. Now we do have this chance and we can use it."

Kate nodded again, "You are right, it is good. But now that I have time to think about my reaction I also start to wonder what's next. I've never really done anything else in my life. If it weren't for you…my life would be pretty much gone now."

"Hey…" he said, "we'll figure it out. Together."

Kate then turned around as well to look at him. She reached her hand out and placed it on his cheek, stroking it with her thumb. "I know," she whispered before leaning in and kissing him deeply.


They spent the next couple of days doing this and that. Kate mostly was at the loft watching Castle trying to finish Frozen Heat. She still hadn't managed to get any spoilers out of him except the ones that were already out and about. About 36 hours after she'd shown up at his doorstep she got a furious phone call from her best friend, shouting at her about not talking to her about resigning and not talking to her about anything and how she'd had to find out through Esposito who was feeling miserable and who was furious at Ryan and that never happened, not like this and Beckett had to shout back into the phone several times before Lanie caught her breath and stopped talking.

"I'm fine, Lanie! Really! I just needed some time to think and well…then I ended up at Castle's and I've pretty much been here ever since…"

"Wait, you're at the loft?" her friend asked back.

"Yeah…why?"

"So you two made it? You finally managed to work it all out?"

Kate nodded, forgetting for a second that Lanie couldn't see her so she answered, "Yeah, we've made it. It took a while… Like really, a lot. But if we can get through all that we've already been through, the rest should work out as well…shouldn't it…"

"S'pose so…So, you know I want all the details, right? I mean not just about Castle and all…"

"I know, Lanie, I'll tell you sometime, I promise. But right now, I'm kinda busy…"

Both women then laughed and said goodbye after setting a time to get lunch together the next day.

Beckett then called Ryan. She had never really thanked him for saving her life because he'd informed Gates but like she told Castle, without him, she'd be dead by now and since Lanie'd told her about Esposito not talking to his partner she felt like she needed to do this.

He picked up the phone after she'd tried five times and they did talk for a while. She didn't tell him about her situation with Castle, the boys would find out soon enough but she told him how grateful she was and that she was sure Espo would come around as well. It really wasn't what they'd normally do after something like this, talking. But she wasn't a cop anymore, was she…and she had learnt that sometimes talking was a good thing.

On Sunday morning she was first to wake up again. After lying in bed awake for a while she poked Castle gently to wake him up.

"I want to take you somewhere…" she whispered, not sure whether it was a good idea. She'd been thinking about it for a while now and it seemed right now.

He grumbled as he looked at his watch.

"You know, I liked you a lot better when you were sleepy and all a few days ago…" he mumbled and rolled over so that he almost landed on top of her. She smiled up at him, lifting her head to close the distance to kiss him before pushing him off.

"I know. Now get up, come on."

Once they were showered and dressed and had had their coffee, she dragged him outside, past a flower shop where she bought a bunch of lovely white, and deep red chrysanthemums.

"Where're we going?" Castle asked confused as Kate pulled over a cab but his question was answered as she gave the cabbie the address.

"It's Sunday…," he whispered, "Mother's Day…"

Kate only took his hand and he squeezed it as the cab wound through the streets. It came to a halt by the cemetery's entrance and they got out.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because you've been with me a long way and you've been there, trying to help and I never let you close enough. This is part of me and I want you to be part of it too. She would've liked you. No, I know she did. At least as an author. But she would've liked you and I wish you could've met her."

"I would've loved that too," he answered and took her hand into his again.

Kate led the way that she had gone too often but still not enough. She didn't come here that much. Mostly just when she was out of ideas and needed a place to think and to be herself, but in the past year she'd been her a lot more. Somehow her mother always knew what to say and it helper her to come here and remember her mother. Once Beckett slowed down Castle spotted the grave immediately and not because of the name written on it but on the quote. Vincit Omnia Veritas.

"Truth conquers all," he said and watched Kate place the flowers carefully on the grave.

"And one day it will, but for now, there's us," she replied as they stood in front of her mother's grave.

"And you still don't regret your decision of resigning?"

"No. No regrets at all. For nothing I decided in the past few days."


Final note:

I could've went on writing about their lives, including other people and stuff but I feel that this is a good place to end it.

Again, THANK YOU for reading and I do hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it =)

Love, love =)