A/N: kinda neglected this for a week - sorry about that! This is the final chapter - I'm going to mark it as complete once it's up, but I'm probably going to write an epilogue at some point - but I've got some catching up to do on other fics, so it might be a week or two before I get round to it!

Thank you for all of your reviews, you've all been so amazing and I don't think I've ever had so many positive reviews for a story, I think I only had one bad one and it currently stands at 152 - pretty happy with that so thank you!

"This weekend has been truly amazing, Castle, thank you," Kate murmured into his shoulder as they led on the beach. It was early afternoon on Sunday and they had to head back to the city soon, much to both of their disappointments.

"You're welcome," he smiled, twisting his head to plant a kiss on her forehead. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, took me long enough to convince you to come!"

"Well if you'd actually asked me about accompanying you to that book party then it wouldn't have taken you so long, would it?" She teased, poking him in the ribs.

"Yes yes, I get it - no more going to book parties without consulting my gorgeous, incredible, smart and funny girlfriend."

"There's a thing called laying it on too thick, ya know?" She told him rolling her eyes.

"Not if it's all true," he quipped back and she couldn't hide her smile. She'd never before thought of herself as anything above ordinary, but Castle made her feel beautiful. He made her feel good about herself and when she was with him, she wondered how she had coped before he came along.

"But back to this weekend..it really has been perfect." They'd come up early on Friday morning, heading into town for a late breakfast together before Castle showed Kate the house. Or mansion, to be more precise. She had to struggle to stop her jaw dropping to the floor when they pulled up, it was huge! He'd shown her round, downstairs first before showing her the upstairs - they spent extra long looking in the bedroom, a few hours to be exact.

Early on Friday afternoon, they'd headed down to the pool, wiling away the hours chasing each other through the water and catching the sun, before going back up the house and making arrangements for dinner. They'd gone out that night, deciding on a small bistro in the village where they could have a quiet night together.

Saturday morning had found them wandering around the town, Castle pointing out some of his favourite spots to write, or places he and Alexis liked to go. Kate physically had to stop him from buying her a gorgeous pair of earrings she'd spotted in the window of a little boutique - she'd said that when you had to ask for the price, it meant they were too much. He'd argued and whined but she wasn't having any of it, dragging him back to his house to take his mind of off the earrings and onto something else.

After a light lunch in the house, they headed down to the beach - it had been ages since Kate had seen the ocean, watched the waves crash against the shore as the sun glistened in the distance. Castle had ruined the moment by throwing her over his shoulder and running full speed towards the sea, dropping her in when he got to waist height. When she emerged from the water, coughing and spluttering, she noticed a few other couples on the beach were watching them intently - and some of the women looked at her with what looked an awful lot like jealousy. She'd actually felt pride at that - they were jealous of her, of the man she got to call hers and something about that made her feel good.

After drying off and burying each other in the sand like kids, they'd gone back up the house with Castle saying he had a surprise for her. As much as she tried, he wasn't saying what, just that she had to dress to impress - she suspected he'd planned this, given that her dark purple cocktail dress - one of the only dressy dresses she owned - was packed neatly in her bag, and she certainly hadn't put it there.

She found him waiting for her in the kitchen - looking particularly handsome in a black tux. Wow, they really must be going somewhere special. With Castle still maintaining a silence on their plans for the evening, she gave up and just went with it.

It turned out his surprise had been dinner upon a yacht. They'd been driven by a chauffeur to the marina, where Castle had taken her hand and led her aboard the yacht, Beckett speechless the entire time. Nobody had ever done anything like this for her before, a girl could sure get used to being treated like that.

Castle had hired the yacht from a friend - she was a little relieved to know it wasn't his, she tried not think about the money as it was. He'd also hired a private chef, along with waiting staff so neither of them had to worry about a thing, just sitting and enjoying themselves as the yacht floated out to sea.

It had been a perfect night and Beckett knew then that she was falling in love with him, which scared the life out of her. She suspected he felt the same, but he hadn't said anything. It was fast..some would say too fast but it wasn't, not really. The last few weeks since they'd met had been a whirlwind to say the least, but finally meeting the man she was destined to spend the rest of her life with was a dream she never imagined could be so perfect.

And here they were, enjoying their last few moments together on the beach before heading back to reality and back to work. "I guess we better head back and sort our stuff out," Beckett grumbled, making no effort to move.

"Five more minutes," Castle said, "just give me five more minutes to prep myself to leave."

"You sound like you don't want to leave," Beckett laughed. "Don't you miss Alexis?"

"Of course I do but it's not like I've left her at home alone, we'll probably be back before her."

"How come you've never moved out here?" Kate wondered aloud. "Surely you could write here?"

"I could and I did think about it but I couldn't do it, I love the hustle and bustle of the city too much." Not to the mention the fact that now that he'd found his soulmate, he wasn't leaving her, not ever.

"I know what you mean," Kate agreed, "I don't think I could ever leave Manhatten, not for good." Or him. She knew from this moment on that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with this man, come hell or high water she wasn't letting go of that. "Come on, we need to go," she sighed finally, jumping up and brushing off the sand from her legs. Castle made no effort to move and stayed where he was, eyes roaming Beckett's body with appreciation.

"Stop it, you perv," she laughed, throwing her towel at him.

God he loved her. He had been arguing with himself all day as to whether he should tell her, but he hadn't so far, he was a coward. The only thing stopping him was the fear that she'd run away and he'd lose her forever, he didn't want to tell her too soon and ruin everything.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked and he realised he'd been staring at her the whole time he'd been having his thoughts on telling her how he felt.

Now would be a good time, then they could go back to the city and she could have her space but he had the journey back to gauge how she was reacting to the news. She made to pull her dress on over her bikini but he jumped up and stopped her. "Kate, wait," he said and she stopped to look at him inquisitively. "I need to tell you something.."

"That sounds ominous," she laughed nervously. They'd had a good weekend - hadn't they?

"I um..god I don't even know if I should be saying this but I'm taking a chance and hoping it's the right thing to say because if it's not then I don't even want to think about the consequences and-"

"Castle," she interrupted loudly. "If you want us to get back to the city sometime today then you're going to need to spit it out."

"I love you," he blurted out and braced himself for her reaction, clamping his eyes shut.

She watched him blurt the words out and squeeze his eyes shut, apparently waiting for her to shout at him or hit him or something. Jesus he was adorable. She didn't shout at him and she didn't hit him, instead she bounced up on tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck and planted her lips over his.

His surprise only lasted a second, before he responded in kind, kissing her back just as passionately.

"So..it was the right thing to say?" He grinned as she pulled away.

"Yeah, Castle," she smiled back. "And I'm not going to say it now because I'm not one of those people who will say it back straight away, not the first time. But yeah, it was the right thing to say."

Oh god, was she saying..oh my, yes she was. Castle could hardly contain his joy at the insinuation she had just made, this day couldn't get any better.

"Now come on," she laughed, "we have to shower and get rid of all this sand before we get back in the car."

"Might as well save time and shower together," Castle added nonchalantly but Beckett didn't miss his little smirk.

"Can I ask you a question?" Beckett asked in the car on the way back home. They hadn't actually talked about who's place they were going back to, or if they were going home separately but Beckett had decided she'd let Castle figure that one out.

"Technically you just did but sure, you can ask me anything you like," he grinned, placing his free hand on her thigh and squeezing lightly. He made to move his hand away again but she placed hers over his and kept it on her leg.

"Um..honestly what did you think when you realised I was your soulmate?"

"That I was the luckiest man on earth," he replied simply, giving her leg another squeeze.

"I'm trying to be serious here, Castle," she groaned, rolling her eyes.

"So am I. I'm not joking, Beckett, I thought all my birthdays and Christmases had come at once. I didn't realise it at first because so many people had said those words to me, but when I realised what I'd said to you was your tattoo, I was over the moon." He looked over to her and then back at the road before continuing. "I can tell that every time I pay you a compliment you brush it off and get all shy and it's really kinda adorable, but I don't say it for that, I say it because I honestly think you're the most beautiful, intelligent, funny and perfect woman I've ever met. If I have to spend the rest of my life proving that to you then so be it, if that's what it takes then I'll do it."

"Thank you, Castle," she whispered. No one had ever said anything so sweet to her before and she could tell he meant every word. "So now I guess you want to know what I thought?" He nodded at her, a cheeky smile appearing on his face. "So I'm not going to lie, I couldn't really stand you." They both chuckled at that. "But even I couldn't deny the attraction between us.."

"Tell me about it," he replied, "you could practically light fireworks on the sparks between us when we first met!"

"And I was a bit worried that it was just sexual tension but uh..I guess it's not," she grinned.

"No, definitely not," he said resoundedly. "There's a hell of a lot more to it than that."

"So um, even though I couldn't stand you when we first met, I soon realised you're not really like that, that underneath the playboy womaniser, there's a caring, smart, kind hearted and wonderful man and I'm so very lucky that he's all mine."

"You might have to share me with Alexis but apart from that, I'm all yours," he grinned.

"I think I can deal with that," Beckett laughed, "I'm lucky that my boyfriend has such a great kid - one who seems to like me, too."

"Why wouldn't she like you?" He asked and Beckett raised an eyebrow. "Okay, so she hasn't liked all of my..dates before but I knew she'd like you, you're special."

They continued the rest of their journey happily, making small talk and sharing secret glances at each other when they could. Getting back to the city, they pulled up at Beckett's apartment and the realisation hit that she was going to have to say goodbye. Climbing out of the car, she tried not to let her disappointment show as she went to retrieve her bag from the boot.

"What are you doing?" Castle asked and she sent him a puzzled look. "Leave it in there, we're only here so you can grab some clean clothes - we can take your bag back to mine and I'll put the washing on." He said all of this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh..okay."

"What, you don't want to come back with me?" He asked, looking slightly crestfallen.

"Oh no, of course I do! I just didn't want to assume!"

"You're always welcome, Beckett, you know that. And if you think I'm letting you go after this weekend then you're in for a shock."

"Castle," she said as they headed to the elevator.

"Yeah?" He said, stepping in and pressing the button for her floor.

"I love you."

He turned to face her, the biggest grin on his face that she'd ever seen. "It wasn't the most romantic of places to say-"

He cut her off with a kiss and she grinned against his lips. "It's perfect," he growled. "I don't care when you say it, you can tell me whenever you feel like it."

"I love you," she repeated with a grin. Now that she'd said it she wouldn't be able to stop.

"I love you too, Kate. God I love you so much!"

"We're gonna be alright, aren't we?" She asked, the remainder of her doubts slipping away.

"Always, Kate." He knew as he said it he'd never felt so sure of anything in his life - and Beckett knew that neither had she.

A/N: and we're done! Once again thank you so much to every one who has reviewed, followed and favourited - it means a lot! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this final chapter and I'll try and get an epilogue up in the next few weeks!