A/N There was another story line I was planning on pursuing instead of the case oriented one that I settled for involving Jim. You'll know it when I address it near the end. Let me know what you think. But, as for this, this is how I would have had Caskett end up. If I were a writer on staff, I would get everyone else sick on the day they wrote the epilogue for the show and force this one to air. It's the ending I've always wanted to see Rick and Kate have. Hope you enjoy.

"One... two... free... four..." The boys count.

The dad looks over to his wife, who's standing in the dining area off the kitchen in front of the screen door leading to the back yard, in a pair of loose denim jeans and a comfortable wool sweater with a cup of warm, steaming coffee clutched to her chest. The dad, in a pair of jeans, a grey t-shirt and a short-sleeved flannel over it, sneaks through the backyard, over to the right side near the tree, grabbing a red plastic play bucket from the ground near the sand box.

Dad looks over to his wife again and winks. She fights a bright smile as she watches him put the bucket over his head then crouch down inside of a bush, the bright red bucket sitting straight up out of the top.

"Ten! Here we come, Daddy!" The boys call out from the other side of the yard.

Jake is the first to see the bright red bucket and point at it. Reese's giggle makes their mother's heart skip as Jake jumps up in the air when Reese starts comically tip-toeing toward the bush. The boys are half-way there when Dad sneezes loudly, making the bush shake and the bucket raddle. Mom quickly puts her hand over her mouth to keep back the laughter.

Reese points to the other side of the bush, telling his brother to go around the other side, both of them tip-toeing as if they're in a cartoon.

"Raaaaagh!" They both yell and jump the bush from the back.

Rick falls forward with his twin sons on his back, a bright, happy smile on his face. Their mother's heart swells happily in her chest as she watches her husband roll around and wrestles with her boys, all of them laughing and smiling. She loves that they had the twins while they still had the chance. Rough housing with the boys has kept them both young. But still, he does love to attend his little girl's tea parties when he gets an invite over his wife.

Rick stands back up with Jake hanging from his neck. "You count now, Daddy!" Reese pushes on his dad's leg.

Jake jumps down from hanging on his dad's neck and Rick quickly jogs over to the other side of the yard, leaving the boys to silently direct each other, pointing around and giving each other silent nods and gestures. Already three and a half years old, and they're getting scary good at the silent twin connection. She can sometimes see them at the dinner table, having whole conversations with each other without saying a word. Mostly, the conversations are about how to annoy their big sister.

Rick counts and doesn't even get to five before the boys take off running toward the tree. Reese is the first one up. When Jake grabs onto the low hanging branch, Kate starts to call out. "Boys! Boys, be care-"

Reese, straddling the branch his brother is climbing up on, looks over to Mom and puts a finger over his mouth, shushing her and pointing at Dad. It's only a split second before they start climbing again.

"Ten!" Rick shouts and spins around. Rick, grappling the air in front of him and moving like a monster through the backyard, looks around and finds the yard empty. Kate pinches her lips together to keep back the laughter when she sees her husband stop just below the tree, put his brow in a straight line as he pouts, and lets his shoulders sag. After a few more seconds of looking around the empty backyard, he looks over to her at the entrance to the house.

Kate smiles, raises a brow and points up to the ceiling with her index finger.

Rick's brow pinches and he looks straight up into the tree. She can hear Jake and Reese erupt in giggles when Dad finds them. "How'd you guys get up there so fast?!" Rick calls.

Kate hears a door down the hall open and the jangle of dog tags come ringing down the hall as she watches Jake jump out of the tree into his dad's arms with a loud belt of laughter when Dad catches him.

"Mommy! Mommy!" Lily calls out from down the hall.

Kate turns around and sees Cordelia, Lily's golden retriever that her parents got for her just before her baby brothers were born, and Lily come around the corner from the hallway and dart into the kitchen with Sherlock in one hand, and Sherlock's felt hat in the other.

"Aww!" Kate coos sadly and honestly as she sets her coffee down on the counter. "What happened to Sherlock?" Kate asks sadly.

Lily stomps to a stop in front of Mom, the mother and daughter separated by Cordelia, showing her favorite stuffed animal to her. "Cordy and I were playing and Sherlock's hat came off!"

"Aww..." Kate coos sadly again, a sad expression on her face as she takes Sherlock and his hat from her little girl, almost turning seven. She's honestly, deeply saddened by the sight of Sherlock's hat torn from his head. Sherlock as become a staple of their family. There wouldn't be a family here if it wasn't for this stuffed bear.

Cordelia whimpers as she sits down on Kate's bare feet. "Can you fix him, Mommy?" Lily asks, bouncing up and down desperately.

Kate smiles and looks down to her daughter. Kate leans down, scratching Cordelia's ear as she does. "Of course we can fix him. Go get the sewing kit and meet me in the living room, okay?"

"Okay!" Lily cries out and jumps around, skipping out of the kitchen and back down the hall.

Kate moves into the living room with Sherlock in her hands, looking down at his bare head and his dark grey felt hat in her other hand, and sits down in the far left side of the couch. With a stone fireplace to the left, her rocking chair sitting to the right of it and her guitar next to that, the room is lit up with a bright light of late spring. She loves living out here. Just like they both wanted, Kate wanted them to move into a place that was brand new to both of them, and Rick wanted to move out to the country. Martha still lives in the loft, but visits her grandchildren as often as she can.

The tree is what sold them both on the land, and they built the house around it, nestled in thick woods out in the country side of New York state. No noise, no traffic, no crime, no grit, no pollution, no brake dust or car exhaust, no city rodents. Just her, her loving husband, and her more-than-a-handful three children. Sometimes, she thinks she got more than she bargained for when she found out they were having twins, but she wouldn't give her boys up for the world.

Cordelia whimpers at her and perks her ears up as she sits down at her feet. "Did you have anything to do with this?" Kate asks Cordelia, holding Sherlock's torn hat in her hand in front of her. Cordelia only responds by laying her head down on the couch next to her leg.

Lily comes running back into the living room and climbs onto the couch next to her mother before handing her the large tin can that holds the sewing tools. "Thank you, Lily bug." Kate says and decides then to pull her daughter onto her lap, instead of just taking the sewing tin from her. Kate opens the tin, threads the needle with a dark blue thread, and starts to sew with her little girl in her lap and Cordelia coming to lay down at her feet.

"Thanks for fixing Sherlock, Mommy."

Kate chuckles softly as she makes the fourth stitch, leans down a kisses her little girl on the cheek, making her giggle happily. "You're welcome, Lily bug." She says as she hears the screen door slide open.

Jake and Reese, instead of darting in, slowly meander back inside and head down the hall with their dad right behind them. "You boys are ready for a nap, aren't you?" Rick says as he scoops up Jake in his arms.

"You know, Lily," Kate says as she rounds the back bill of Sherlock's hat, "Sherlock is a very special bear."

"Yeah," Lily says, pinching Sherlock's foot and shaking it, "he's my favorite."

"He's my favorite too." Kate says, looking at her daughter sitting in her lap. She remembers clearly the day Lily stayed home recovering from a stomach flu in her parents bed, came in and found their little girl of only three and a half at the time with her mother's precious stuffed bear clutched tightly in her arms. It's been her little girl's favorite companion other than her goldren retriever ever since. "You know why?"

Lily turns her head and looks back at her mother. "Why?" She asks in a high voice.

Kate catches her husband's eye as he slows to a stop near the entrance to the living room, looking at his two girls with loving reverence. "Your dad gave him to me."

"Really?!" Lily asks, shifting and squirming around in her mother's lap.

"Mmhmm," Kate nods as she continues to stitch Sherlock's hat, "he gave him to me when Mommy got hurt and was in the hospital. He helped me get better. Just like he helped you when you had the flu. Remember?"

"Yeah, Sherlock's cool like that." Lily says again. Kate laughs genuienly and can practically hear Rick's smile shine from ear to ear.

Kate can feel her husband's loving gaze on the two of them. When she looks up, she sees him smiling warmly over at them, staying silent as he crosses one leg over the other, stuffs his hands into his pockets, and leans against the arch way into the foyer. "Did you know that Daddy even got Sherlock to ask Mommy to marry him?"

Lily gasps and her expression turns into excited shock. "Really?!"

Kate's butterflies swarm in her system as she remembers it. Coming home from a day spent with her father at the hospital to find Sherlock sitting on his desk with a note card sitting in his lap reading 'I finally figured out how to record over again. I hope you're not mad, but...', she turned around and saw him standing at the door. She pressed his button and Sherlock asked her 'Katherine Houghton Beckett... will you marry me?'

She still remembers perfectly how she threw her arms around his neck, still clutching Sherlock in her hand as she kissed him. "Sherlock asked if you could marry Mommy, Daddy?" Lily asks her dad.

Rick smiles and shoves off the arch way. "Well, your mother could never say no to Sherlock." Rick says and picks his little girl up off his wife's lap, putting her in his own as he sits down next to his wife. Lily wraps one arm around her father's neck and settles down sitting crossways in Dad's lap as Kate finishes the last few stitchings of Sherlock's hat. "You know Sherlock even has a super power?"

"He does not!" Lily says, inheriting the natural skepticism from her mother.

"He does too!" Dad says as he puts his arms around his daughter. "Just ask Mom."

Lily turns to her mother with a pout, and Kate sends her a slow nod. "Sherlock does have a super power. And..." Kate says and ties the end knot on the thread and clips the excess off, "it's a very special super power too."

"What is it?" Lily asks.

"Well, Lily bug," Kate says and scoots herself into her husband's side, putting Sherlock back into her daughter's lap, "Sherlock has the very special ability to always remind you of what's most important. And as long as he's around, you will always be able to discover the truth. And you remember what I taught you about truth?"

"Yeah," Lily nods.

"What?"

"Truth conquers all." Lily smiles proudly.

"Right," Kate smiles with her. "And you want to know what the truth is?"

"What?"

Kate looks down to Sherlock sitting facing her in her little girl's lap, reaches over to his hand and presses his button. "I love you, Lily!"

Lily smiles brighter and climbs over, putting her arms around her mother's neck. "I love you too, Mommy."

Kate hugs her daughter tenderly. "I love you too, Lily bug."

Lily doesn't waste any time after hugging her mother in climbing back over and putting her arms around her dad's neck. "I love you too, Daddy."

"Aww," Rick smiles and hugs his little girl tightly, placing a kiss onto her cheek. "I love you too, princess."

Lily climbs off her dad's lap and jumps down to the floor, making Cordelia jump to her feet. "Come on, Cordy. Let's play!" Cordelia whimpers happily and follows Lily back down the hall.

With a sigh, Kate rubs her husband's shoulder and climbs over, taking the place her daughter just left and sits down crossways in his lap. "I don't know how much more that bear will have to go through for our children, babe."

"Sherlock's a tough bear. He can handle it." Rick says and puts his arms around his wife, just like he had them around his daughter. Kate nods and brushes her hair behind her ear. He can always tell when something's wrong. "You've been thinking about him a lot lately." He states plainly.

Kate's eyes burn intensely and she nods, careful to hide her tears from her children.

"You still think we could have done more?"

Kate shakes her head and drapes her arm over his shoulders and taking his hand with the other. "It was his decision, Rick. You were there."

Rick nods and pets the back of his wife's hand as she fiddles with the wedding band on his finger. He can still remember the day Jim first told him about it. The day they met at the cemetery out of nowhere, the day he said he had just come from a doctor's appointment, that was the day he'd gotten the diagnosis back. He lasted much longer against the cancer than the doctors gave him time for, and Rick was willing to fly in any expert possible to fight it.

But in the end, there came a time when he knew there wasn't much of it left, and decided to go on his own terms. "Are you okay, hun?"

A silent tear leaks out onto her cheek, "He never even got to meet his grandchildren, Rick."

"I know," Rick soothes her, pulling her forward and having her lay her head down onto his shoulder as he pets her arm, "I know."

Kate sniffles and curls up in her husband's lap. "He would have loved playing with the boys."

"He got to watch you grow up, didn't he?" Rick asks, petting his wife's arm lovingly. "He still got to give you away at the wedding. He got to see Lily on the ultrasound. And he always had faith in us. He never stopped believing that we were right for each other."

Kate turns her head against his shoulder, her eyes red as she looks up at him.

"Even when we didn't. And he was right in the end, wasn't he?"

Kate sniffles and pets her husbands chest as she relaxes her head down on his shoulder. "You know, when I was recovering at his cabin, he told me that even knowing that my mom was going to die, if he had the chance to go back and do it all over again, he said he wouldn't change a thing. He always loved the time he spent with us. And he never let me forget that you cared about me... and he always made sure I knew I was marrying the right guy."

Rick smiles as he nestles his head down against his wife. "He was more right than we thought, wasn't he?"

Kate smiles a sad smile and reaches up, touching her husband's cheek. "He was."