Chapter Twenty

After thirteen years, The 12th precinct has finally caught them. The Deliverers have been brought to justice by the talented work of NYPD's finest Det. Kate Beckett (left) and her team. Simone Potter a nurse at The Woman's Health Free clinic has been charged with the murder of two people, one of them, Forrest Jackman, who, like Potter, has been linked to the killings of several women in their baby napping operation over thirteen years ago.

Rick stands in the middle of his loft, the latest issue of the New York Times clutched in his trembling hand as he reads the article. His eyes dart to her picture every few milliseconds, and now, as he reaches the end, he cannot help but stare at her.

He's finally found her...

"Kate..." He whispers, his heart singing at the sound of her name on his own lips.

The woman who's haunted his dreams, who's buried herself deep in his soul, from the moment he laid eyes on her...She's right here. A detective for the NYPD.

"Darling?" His mother asks, she's been watching him stare at the photo of Kate... Kate Beckett., god, she finally has a name...

There is no air left in his lungs as he gazes upon her face. The one he never thought he'd see again. Running his finger along her cheek as she stares up at him from the page, he wishes he could actually feel her again. All he's had these many years later, is the ghost of her touch, the whisper of her lips upon his, and the fervor of her desires as it burned in those green/brown eyes.

"Kate." He says again, louder this time.

Rick would give anything to have it back. To have her.. all of her.

This mysterious woman.

Music beats in his ears, followed by that familiar thrum in his veins from that night. Rick closes his eyes, sees her in the throng of the other dancers, as if it's that very night, as if he's never left.

And their eyes meet just the same, his entire body, his soul jolting as if finally awakened...

She's flush against him, the blue and green lights flashing about them as they dance to the cosmic rhythm of fate. He can hear her, feel her all around him. Her hot breath in his ear as she spoke the only words he ever heard from those lips. And then the moans he elicited as he took them into his own mouth, tasted every inch of her, connected with her on a level he never thought possible...

It is possible, he realizes as he opens his eyes. Because he's always been drawn to her. Something has always brought him straight to her. Whether it be how she smelled, the color of her eyes...or just the epitome of her existence. The universe has been keeping her with him in the form of cherries...that tiny little fruit and he can bring her up in his mind just at the sight of them.

Coffee... how he could vaguely taste it on her kiss.

Green and browns...in.. Autumn's eyes... he still doesn't understand it.. but it's there.. in that girl...

He can't breathe. His heart leaping around in his chest as it tries desperately to tell him to go.

Move your feet, go to her!

His mother walks towards him, reaching a hand out and resting it upon his arm. "What are you going to do?"

He's frozen.. in shock.. or in terror he's not quite sure.. There's a difference between thinking about it, and actually doing it. He never thought this moment would come...He had moved on.. or so he thought.

But it seems now.. as his feet start to move slowly to the door, paper close to his face as he looks into her eyes.. that his dreams have not withered away. They have just been lying dormant in his heart. For his heart has always known that it would find her's again..

"Go get her dad." Alexis says from the stairs, leaning over the railing.

There is no further thought, as the paper drops from his hands, swishes to the floor, scattering every which way as he is opening the door. Running with everything he has in him, he speeds down the hallway, bypassing the elevator and taking the stairs.

Everything echos around him as he propels down the stairwells. His own heart hammers against his ribcage, his body vibrating with awareness. As if it knows. Knows that it is about to reconnect with it's lost soul-mate.

The only thing he can think about is seeing her face, whisking her off her feet and never letting her go again. She's worth it, he can feel it, he's known it since she disappeared from his life. He hasn't been the same since. He's never been more affected by anything or anyone in his entire existence, and that has to mean something.

It means Everything.

He would be a fool to let it slip away from him.

He has to go to her. He must relight the twin flame for which they had so serendipitously ignited together.

And has his feet hit the sidewalk down below, he heads straight for the 12th Precinct.

"Let me go!" Autumn yells, trying desperately to yank her wrist free from Bell. They are battling in the kitchen, the little raven hiding behind the living room doorway as the two shriek at each other. The New York Times lays on the table, and Bell snatches it with her free arm, raising it up and shaking it furiously.

Bell holds firm, her hand wrapped around Autumn's skinny arm as the thirteen year old pulls with everything she has. "Autumn, listen to me."

"NO!" She's free, running though the kitchen and slamming the door behind her as she thumps onto the porch. But Bell is on her heels and grabbing her by the elbow.

"What do you think is going to happen Autumn? Huh? You think this woman is your mother?" She asks, pointing angrily at the photo of Kate Beckett. "How can you possibly know that!"

Autumn grasps the porch rail, using it as leverage as she continues to lean away from Bell. "I just know!" She yells back, eyes burning with finality. " I can..feel it."

"You can't always go on feelings Autumn, you have to have the facts... what if she isn't?"

"Don't say that!"

Bell throws the paper onto the porch, both looking down at it as the wind pushes it about, scattering the pages all over the place. "I'm just trying to prepare you...I don't want you to get your hopes up, if this..if this woman isn't who you're looking for." Bell stares into those fierce eyes, and then at the ones of the woman on the page before it flutters into the air and snags on the railing.

She won't admit it.. She just can't, that this Kate Beckett and Autumn look very much alike. For all she's wished for this intense human being before her...Bell never thought she would actually have to face the day when Autumn actually found them...She's become too attached. Autumn is hers in her mind, and she just cannot let her go..

"I have to go..." Autumn says more softly as she sees these emotions play across her foster mother's face. "You have to let me go."

Bell releases her, dropping her hands to her sides and looking away from the girl who's just aged ten years in under five minutes. "I can't let you." She says, her voice raspy.

Autumn stumbles down a step at the sudden freedom, and just stares. Glares at her until she's stunned into silence when Bell finally looks her in the eyes...tears streaming down her face. She chokes up, hand sliding from the railing and her chin dropping to her chest.

Bell has been everything to her. But she can't let her dreams slip away from her. She has to find her parents. And if Kate Beckett is in fact her mother.. then...Autumn is not sure what comes next. She's only ever dreamed about it.. Written about what it would be like.

She felt it the moment she laid eyes on the picture in the article. Her chest lit with a spark that traveled the length of her body. An all knowing she knew she couldn't ignore. It has to mean something.. to have affected her so greatly.. And she has to see this through, she needs to know for sure.

Now, faced with the reality that those dreams may come true. Autumn is frozen. Conflicted as she stands before the only person who's ever been a mother to her.

"Please." She finally asks, lifting her chin and meeting Bell's profile. "You have to let me just.. see."

"Then I will go with you."

She says nothing, ascending the steps and enveloping Bell in a tight embrace. Autumn waits until she un stiffens, wrapping her own arms around her. They stand there a long time until Autumn feels a small weight at her back and doesn't have to look to know it's The Raven.

This little human being she swore to loathe. For stepping into her territory, thinking she was going to change everything. But change is inevitable. It's something she's been striving for. Autumn just never thought herself afraid when the time actually came. And now cannot will herself to let them go, even though she pleaded for them to let her go.

Bringing an arm around, she presses the little one to her, all the while burying her face in Bells neck. Breathing in the life this woman has given her. And even though, this is just a chance, just a look see at the possibilities of Kate... Autumn knows deep down.. that this is it.

And then, all at once, they let her go, "Let me just get the keys." Bells says, wiping her eyes.

Autumn waits until the door shuts, and then she's running. Down the porch steps and across the lawn, until she reaches her bike. She doesn't look back, as she peddles off down the street, doesn't listen as Bell comes back out, yelling for her.

She lifts her face into the wind, feeling the pull of what she knows to be the universe. This is it. Everything leading up till this moment has prepared her for what's to come. She's felt it in the air, heard it in the whispers of the city.

And now she is going to seize it for her own.

She lets herself smile, brown/green eyes open to every possibility as she heads towards the 12th precinct.

She could kill that woman, for what she just told her. After all of that.. after all she put Kate through thirteen years ago. Kidnapping her, taking her baby and leaving her to die. Leaving her to suffer all this time without knowing that her child was alive. All of that, and she ended up in an orphanage.

Kate doesn't understand.

What was the reason behind all this? Is there some sort of.. cosmic plan that has finally fallen into place. And why now. Why after all this time and not then?

She rests back against the railing in an abandoned stairway, chest heaving and eyes burning as she tries to will herself to keep moving. Go find her. She knows where she is...but there is always that fear, like she's had before.

Before she was afraid of not being able to get her back. Kate has always known she was alive, but she didn't know if she could get her back if she was with a family. Because of course that is where she would be. That's what Forrest and Simone did, sold the babies to wanting families. And her baby girl would have grown up not knowing that her mother was waiting for her.

And now.. the fear has transformed into something new. Her child has grown up, probably thinking Kate didn't want her. That she was given up, abandoned. Would she even want to go back to Kate, or has she been adopted?

Living the life she should have had with Kate...

All of these things run through her mind. Stopping her from doing the one thing that has driven her all these years. Rising up from the wall, she straightens, taking in a breath before taking a step.

No, she cannot let her fears stop her from living the life she knows she deserves. From getting back what was taken from her. And with each step, one quicker than the last, Kate can actually feel her daughter calling out to her.

It's unmistakable.

They have always been eternally linked. She's always been able to feel her. It's how she's known she's alive. They're souls are connected in a way Kate has only ever experienced once in her life. And even that is different.

Kate feels it in her veins, the pumping of blood to her heart and reawakening the fire she thought had been extinguished. But as she runs down the remaining steps, not being able to get down them fast enough, she finally lets that smile spread across her face.

Those green/brown eyes of hers light up in a way they haven't since she was pregnant. She can see her, imagine what she'll be like now more than ever as she reaches the last step, pushing with everything she has against the door and stumbling into the lobby.

And when she reaches the front entrance, Kate feeds that fire in her as she steps out into the sun of New York City. There is a lightness in her heart, and an excitable thrum in her veins at the knowledge that she will be seeing her daughter again.

Autumn leaps off her bike, leaning it up against the wall of an alley near the precinct. Her heart is fluttering madly in her chest, and she clasps a hand over it, as if trying to quiet it. But she knows she can't, moving out of the shadows of the alley, and into the bright hot sun.

She's not paying attention, walking down the sidewalk with her eyes solely on her destination. And when she sees it, she lets out a gasp and she runs blindly the rest of the way. She's so busy staring up at the giant pillars, and then the carved 12th Precinct just over the entrance, imagining what her mother must be like, working in this place, being a NYPD detective, Autumn runs right into something solid.

"Omph!"

She stumbles back nearly tripping on the bottom step leading into the precinct. Her eyes travel up as someone grabs onto her elbow, and her eyes soon look into the sharp blues of Richard Castle.

"Hey!" She chirps excitedly, righting herself.

"Oh.. hey Autumn." He replies, shifting from one foot to the other and looking at the doors and back at her.

"Don't worry about before." She says in a hurry turning to climb the stairs.

He reaches out again, taking her by the shoulder. "What's the rush?" He asks.

Autumn stares back at the doors. "I'm here to see someone." She says pulling away from him a little, eager to get inside, she can't wait much longer.

"Me too." He says. "Who are you going to see, we can go in together."

"My mother."

"Your mother?"

"Yes!" She hops on the balls of her feet, throwing her head back around to the doors once again. "I found her!"

Rick's brow creases in confusion, and he kneels down, placing both hands on either of her shoulders. "What do you mean you found her?"

"She's in the paper.. I have to go see her.. " She steps away from him, going up a few stairs before he follows.

"Wait a minute Autumn.. you don't know this woman, who is she?"

"Detective Kate Beckett." She replies reaching a hand for the door just as it opens.

"Wait what!" He practically yells yanking her down the steps before someone hits her with it.

"Let go!"

"Rick?"

Rick's heart ceases, and he freezes, dropping his hand from Autumn. "Kate." He whispers.

"Wha...what are you doing here?" Kate asks taking the remaining steps down to him.

Autumn gasps, and she finds she has no words what so ever. Here she is, standing before her, and her heart is imploding in her chest.

"I'm...here to see you...I..." Just like the girl beside him, he's lost the capabilities to speak.

Kate bites down on her lip, looking at him, and then down at the girl next to him who's also biting her lip. "I need to go.. but ah-"

"Where are you going, I'll get you a cab."

She shakes her head. "I'm...so sorry." She then says brushing past him to get to her car. "Rick.. I." She stops at the car, turning around to see him standing there dumbfounded, and the girl just, biting down on her lip, big green eyes wide and looking between them.

He frowns, stepping over to her and leaving Autumn to stare stunned. "What for?"

Kate hangs her head. "Something happened...after we met...it's.. a long story but I'm..on my way somewhere..I need to go." She opens the door, stepping off the curb to get inside and then stops. "Come with me."

Rick looks behind him at the girl, and back at Kate. "Well I...where?"

Kate worries her lip between her teeth again, shuts her door and moves to him, taking him by the hand and looking into those blues that have forever changed her. "I'm sorry." She says again. "I am so sorry that I didn't tell you.."

He leans closer to her, not being able to stay away any longer, and brings a hand to her cheek. "Tell me what?" He asks, voice soft, tender like he's always dreamed of being with her.

She feels as though they have always done this, that there has not been years and years between them. Eyes fluttering a little, Kate leans into his palm,"...I'm going to find...my dau- baby...well our baby." She then says, pulling him to the car.

"Wait!"

Both Kate and Rick whip around to find Autumn standing alone on the sidewalk.

"You don't have to go." Autumn says, taking a few sure steps forward.

Kate looks at her curiously. "Why not?"

"Because... I have always been right here."

That's the last chapter.. But don't worry! I will have an epilogue up soon.

Thank you, my dear readers for sticking with me the entire time.. and reviewing for those who did...please, let me know what you think.. for I feel mixed emotions about this ending.. and I just hope, you all liked it.