a.n. So I'm making a small change to canon that happened before this story picked up, and that is that I am not having Kate married to whatever his name was. You know her Vegas marriage. That didn't happen in this story, and frankly it shouldn't have happened in canon either. That was totally OOC, IMHO.

So to explain why Castle was traveling back from the city that day of their wedding, just call it last minute preparations or something. It doesn't really matter that much at this point. If I discover that I need to come up with a reason towards the end of the story, I'll let you know.

Thanks everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Keep those reviews coming! They keep me motivated!

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

Previously…

Kate frowned. "Do you love me?"

"Yes."

"Then how could I have pushed you into a relationship? I've done everything at your pace, and I will continue to do so. I know this is a shock, Rick, but I love you and whether I'm from the future or no, that will never change. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I will do anything I can to see that we're together always."

Castle sighed. Kate wished she could see what he was thinking. She couldn't help but think if they made it through this, they'd be stronger. If we don't… she shook that thought away. Failure wasn't an option.

She was brought back out of her thoughts by Castle getting up and walking towards the door. "I need some time, Kate. I…I just need to get my head around this, okay? I…I'll be back."

xxxx

Kate was worried. He'd been gone for over two hours. She hoped he wasn't going to leave her for weeks like he had after their last fight. She couldn't handle that. She knew that she made a mistake letting it slip about her situation, but she also knew that eventually he would have found out. I'm surprised he hadn't noticed something before anyways, she thought as she gazed out the hospital room window.

Someone clearing their throat interrupted her thoughts. Her head snapped to the right where she found Castle standing at the door watching her.

"I'm sorry, Kate," he said, walking closer to her. Kate's heart sank. He was going to break up with her. It was over. Before she could get too far into her misery he said, "I'm sorry for walking out on you like that. I shouldn't have…but I needed to clear my head. I'm also sorry for accusing you of using your knowledge of the future to push me into a relationship. I know deep down that you'd never do that." She was crying now. "I want to hear everything about your past life. If we can use the knowledge, it might help us be better now, if you know what I mean. I…uh…also want to hear all about Alexis."

He took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry for how I reacted before. You had no say in this, so blaming you for anything, or any changes that have happened, is dumb. The person I was before…before everything happened would have been jumping up and down at the prospect of real time travel."

Kate reached up and placed her hand on his cheek. She was so in love with this man, even this new, sadder version.

She was about to say he didn't need to apologize when a male nurse coming in the room and closing the door interrupted them. Kate scowled, thinking it odd that a nurse would close the door. Before she could think any more on that subject, the nurse pulled a gun out of his waistband and pointed it at her.

Castle who was off to the side noticed it first and moved to place himself in between Kate and the man with the gun.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the author of Nikki Heat. I have to say I was hoping to get both of you with the bomb, but it looks like I'll have to do it this way." This wasn't Scott Dunn, as it was the first time. This man had blond hair with huge black eyebrows gracing an angular face. He was about Castle's height, but nowhere near as big. He peered around Castle and said, "I'm really disappointed in you, Nikki. In my story you die at the end. That bomb would have made such a spectacular ending too, don't you think? DON'T MOVE!" he shouted as he noticed that Castle was inching his way closer to the barrel of the gun.

"Easy," Castle said, putting his non-injured hand up. "We can talk about this."

The man huffed. "Of course. They always want to talk. Couldn't you come up with something a little more original than that? Seriously, you call yourself an author. I'm sure she won't like it when I put a bullet in your head. Now that's original." Kate could see him start to put pressure on the trigger and knew she needed to do something before he shot her man.

"Hey! You want me, you don't need to hurt him," she shouted, trying to get out of the bed. Unfortunately with her head being in the condition it was, the dizziness came back full force making it impossible for her to get herself upright. No, not now, she thought. I need to help him. She knew however, until the world stopped spinning again, she would be of little use to anyone.

Her breath caught when she heard a struggle and then a loud gunshot. No! Castle!

She had to get up. She had to get to him.

Her world was still spinning while she attempted unsuccessfully to get up from her bed. She finally felt someone come up beside her and put a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back down on her back.

"Easy, Kate. It's over," Castle's voice said.

"Dizzy," she said, finally leaning back, her breath coming out in shallow gasps.

"I know. Just sit back. He's dead. I'm going to call Ryan and Esposito."

It took more than fifteen minutes for the boys to show up. By the time they walked in with two uniforms, Kate's vision had settled again. Jordan Shaw followed them in not two minutes later, looking at the man's dead body.

"Beckett. How are you doing?" the FBI agent asked.

"Fine. Just a concussion. They're going to keep me over night just to make sure."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

She and Castle spent the next ten minutes talking about what had happened once the man had entered her room.

"Do we know who he is?" Kate asked once they were done explaining how Castle had wrestled the gun away from the gunman.

"Michael Berman. Apparently he's a huge Richard Castle fan who didn't care much for Nikki Heat. We found out who he was about three hours ago, but he hadn't shown up at his apartment. Now we know why."

Well that's different, Kate thought.

xxxx

It took several hours for things to calm down again. Once they did, Kate asked, "What were we talking about before all the excitement?"

"Not a clue," he said, smiling. "Though probably something about you being from the future."

"Oh, right."

"We don't have to talk about it anymore now, Kate, though I do want to eventually hear all about Alexis and our relationship from that time. Though from what you've said, it looks like your foreknowledge isn't going to be as valuable as it was at the beginning."

Kate huffed, "Not that I did a good job of using it in the first place. When you were injured earlier this year, that could have been avoided, but I forgot that you went with Lanie. I also feel like I should have seen this coming. The killer blew up my apartment last time."

"It's not your fault, Kate. All you can ever do is your best. My mother always said that sometimes your best isn't good enough because sometimes life just sucks and there's nothing you can do about it."

"That sounds exactly like something she'd say," Kate said, smiling for the first time in hours. "Speaking of Martha, where is she?"

"She had a couple auditions today. She was here for a while when you were unconscious, but had to sneak out."

"How bad is the loft?" She could see the pain in his eyes. She remembered how hard it was to lose everything she owned in the last timeline. She couldn't imagine how hard it was for him knowing that all his memories of Alexis in that loft had went up in smoke.

"The upper floor was pretty much untouched from the fire, though the smoke damage is going to be a problem. The lower level, though, is pretty much a total loss. Luckily all my photo albums and my novel backups were in a fireproof safe. I lost some photos that I'll miss, but mostly I'm just glad that we're both okay."

"Me too. I…uh…know my apartment isn't as big as your loft, but you're welcome to stay at my place as long as you like, though," she smirked, "you'll have to share a bed with me."

"Well that sounds like a hardship, how will I ever survive?" he smirked back, then leaned in and kissed her. Both basking in the fact that they were still alive, and happy they were still together to fight again another day.

xxxx

When she went home the next day, she and Castle talked about her other timeline. She told him how proud he was of Alexis' accomplishments, how she had grown into one of the finest young women Kate had ever met. They talked about how their relationship had developed the last time around, how she had pushed him away over and over again. She told him how they had finally come together and how she had almost ruined it again when she had lied to him about a job in Washington DC.

She talked about their wedding preparations and how excited she was to get married to him, and how his accident and death had nearly destroyed her. She told him about that final night she remembered thinking about how she didn't want to live in a world without him in her life.

By the time they were done talking about the future, both had shed many tears, but she felt that they were stronger now that he knew what she was going through. She also felt at ease now that she could talk to someone about what might happen in this timeline based on what she knew from before.

xxxx

One Month Later…

It had taken her a week to get back to work. The doctors had prescribed her medication to prevent the dizzy spells which seemed to stick around a lot longer than she thought they should. During that time, she and Castle spent time shopping to replace his wardrobe. They also spent a lot of time going through the loft to salvage undamaged items from the blast.

Once she went back to work, Rick split his time between being at her side and cleaning out the loft and moving things to a storage unit.

One month after she was released from the hospital they were sitting on the couch in her apartment after a long day at the precinct when Castle broached the subject of living arrangements.

"Kate?" he asked, setting his wine glass down on the coffee table.

"Hmm?"

"What do you think about us living together permanently?"

She looked at him, a little surprised that he was broaching the subject so early in their relationship. "I think I'd like it a lot."

"I know that you're attached to your apartment, but it isn't really big enough for two people. Would you maybe want to look for a place together?"

Did she? He was right about her liking her apartment, but she also loved him much more than anything material. She looked around her home, and realize that she'd already given up this apartment once before and survived, and she hadn't even been with him at that time. She remembered how shocked and depressed she was after this apartment had been blown up by Scott Dunn. Now leaving it behind would be a happy memory instead of a terrible nightmare.

She looked back at Rick and smiled, "I think I'd like that too." They talked for several more hours about what they'd like in a home for both of them before they went to bed that night. For Kate, things had changed immeasurably over the last month. She loved him more and more each and every day, and while she knew her knowledge from the future was all but useless, she still had him, and she would fight every single day to make sure they had each other always.

xxxx

a.n.2. Too sappy an ending? So just a word about the timeline. I haven't done a great job in this story expressing the passage of time. At this point we're nearing a little over a year since Kate came back. She and Castle have been together for about eight months so far. Though it doesn't really matter all that much, I just thought it'd be good to express that so you know where we're at. Case-wise, we're in the middle of season 2. The cases the follow this, and the BIG case, are all very much non-canon. Because of the changes, things are just going to be different. There'll be similarities still, but it won't be a carbon copy of the future.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think!

M