This time, the woman in Castle's dream recognized him… but she wasn't really Kate, after all.

They sat side by side on a bench, watching the horizon where a sunrise was imminent. He wasn't sure where they were, but it didn't matter. She turned to look into his eyes with a gentle smile, her hand in his.

"Kate," he whispered.

Her smile grew wider. "That is one of my names," she said, and her voice had a lilt in it he hadn't heard before, as though English were not her native tongue.

"It's what I call you," said Castle. "Who are you, then?"

She turned to gaze at the faintly lightening sky. "I have always been Simone," she murmured. "I have had many names over the centuries, but I was born Simone. And I will die Simone."

"Die?" Rick felt a stab of alarm. "You - you're going to die? Why?"

"Oh, Richard." She shook her head. "You know why. We have defeated the evil one. I can rest now. I just want to share this sunrise with you, before I go."

Rick's mind raced through the scant clues she'd just given him and suddenly recalled a story Kate had once shared with him. At the same moment, he realized she was humming the same fragment of a tune that he'd just been hearing from Kate.

"You're a vampire," he said, thinking fast and speaking slowly. "You've been guarding an artifact for hundreds of years, and you're weary. The artifact has been removed to safety, your nemesis has been destroyed, and now… you're waiting for the sunrise to take you away."

She looked him in the eye again and gave a little laugh.

"Bravo, Richard Castle," she said. "You've heard my story before."

"So I know how it ends. But I have to know - when you go - when you die," he took a deep breath. "Will Kate die as well?"

"Cheri," she said, taking his face in her hands, "it's my time to go, not Kate's. You must not try to hurry her; you must be patient."

"I love her, so much," said Rick with tears in his eyes. "I don't know what to do."

"Give her time." Simone leaned in to kiss his lips, lightly, and he resisted the urge to sink deeper into the kiss. She sat back, still holding his hand, and looked out at the sky.

"It's beautiful," she breathed. "It has been four hundred years since I have seen the sun rise."

Rick saw her outline begin to glow and soften; the tips of her hair sparkled as the sunshine touched them. Her face was full of delight and joy even as her form began to fade into transparency. She'd waited so long for this moment. He could try to be patient for Kate, wait until she was ready to come back to him, from wherever she was.

A/N: Stana Katic played Simone Renoir, a beautiful vampire living in New Orleans, in The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, 2008.