A/N at the end

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my mistakes

The More Things Change…

…the more they stay the same. Kate Beckett is bored with life, but when a serial killer starts dedicating murders to her- someone enters the scene to aid with the investigation and her life may never be the same. Season 2- AU Caskett meeting.

Epilogue

"I can't believe you're not going to show up with me," Kate whined from their bedroom.

It had been a couple months since Bracken's arrest and even though it was entirely safe for her to return to her apartment, she hadn't. They had both just naturally fallen into a rhythm, living together. It had become an easy pattern of her casually bringing clothing and knick-knacks over to his loft before it became silly to keep both of the apartments.

"You'll be fine," Castle said, walking back into the room and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"You're making me show up to your book release party alone. I think the word fine is the exactly opposite of what I'll be feeling." She pouted, burrowing her face against his shirt.

"Kate, you're the guest of honor." Castle kissed the top of her head and laughed as she scoffed. She pushed at his arm in mock offense before looking up at him to roll her eyes.

"No, the author is the guest of honor. The girlfriend of the author is not a guest of honor type of title."

He tilted her chin up to meet his eyes.

"And who inspired Nikki Heat?"

"That character was created from your overactive imagination using very tiny, tiny similarities to my life."

Now Castle was the one rolling his eyes at her. He cupped her face with his hand and traced her cheekbone with the pad of his thumb.

"Kate Beckett, you are my muse. Hence, guest of honor in my book. So you'll show up, look stunning in the dress you refuse to let me see, and enjoy yourself," he instructed and kissed her forehead.

"Fine," she grumbled. After he released her from his embrace, she flopped herself onto the bed.

"See I told you, you'd be fine," he teased, walking out of the room. She grumbled at his words and threw a pillow at him. "You missed me."

"I'm dating a five year old," she called out before standing and following him out into the kitchen.

Kate sat on one of the bar stools at the counter and raised an eyebrow at him.

"So Black Pawn needed you for a meeting on the day of your release party?"

"Um—yeah. So I'll just take a car from the meeting to the party," he said, avoiding her stare.

Something didn't seem right. He hated Black Pawn meetings and he would do anything to get out of them.

"I don't believe you. Something seems fishy, Mr. Castle. What are you up to?"

He grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator and chugged it before answering her question -

"Why would I avoid showing up to the party with you?" - with a question.

"Mmhmm. I don't know. You're just acting funny."

He threw the bottle into the recycling bin and hurried around the counter to her.

"Not meaning to—I'm sorry," he said, moving to kiss her forehead before heading to the door. "I love you. I'll see you a little later. The car will be here for you at seven."

He was totally up to something.

Kate had taken the day off of work today to avoid getting wrapped up in an investigation, but maybe she should've worked. She needed a distraction from the butterflies in her stomach.

Days like today really emphasized the fact that she was dating someone famous, when most days she found herself forgetting that Castle was in fact her favorite author. The paparazzi had even stopped paying attention to them. They no longer created the attention grabbing headlines that he had attracted when he was single so the photographers had moved on to stalk other more lucrative celebrities.

Yet today, today Castle was Richard Castle, famous author, and she didn't know how to play the part of being his girlfriend in the public eye. Alexis and Lanie had helped her pick out a gorgeous blue Hervé Léger dress that fit her perfectly. Seeing Castle's reaction to the dress was the only thing she was looking forward to at this point, but maybe she was being overly pessimistic.

It wasn't like she had everattended a release party before.

Maybe it wouldn't be horrible…

Looking down at her freshly manicured nails, she started to get fidgety. She still had another hour before the car would be here and she hadn't seen Alexis or Martha. Nor had she heard even a word from Castle since he had left. Not even a text and usually that was how he passed the time during the Black Pawn meetings.

Pulling out her phone, she resisted the urge to text him and instead decided to call someone to talk some sense into her.

"Hello."

"Hey, Mom."

She stood up and started pacing around the bedroom.

"Katie? Is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. I'm just trying to kill time before Castle's party so I wanted to see how your day was," she said, straightening the picture frames on her dresser.

"Oh, I forgot that was tonight."

Well now she was sounding weird, too. Or maybe this was the start of a mental breakdown?

"Yeah, Mom. You knew that. I'm—just nervous about all the attention."

This conversation wasn't having the effect she had hoped.

"It'll be—"

"If you say fine, I may lose it," Kate whispered.

"Well it will be and I wish I could talk longer, but I really need to be going."

"Going? Where are you going?" Kate asked in surprise. Her mom was a creature of habit and her schedule was normally free at this point in the night.

"Going? Oh, I just meant I'm in the middle of something. I'll talk to you later, honey."

Before she could ever respond, her mom disconnected the call.

Yep, she was definitely losing her mind…

The car pulled up to the party and Kate looked out the window to find photographers lining the red carpet. She took a moment to compose and prepare herself for facing the circus alone. Just as she felt anxiety nearly take over, the car door opened and Castle was standing there holding out his hand.

"Wha—what are you doing?"

"I would never let you do this alone," he said, pulling her out and pressing a kiss onto her temple.

"I don't understand," she whispered.

"Let's get you inside first."

Placing his hand on the small of her back, Castle led her through the red carpet madness, and with his body next to hers she felt at ease.

The flash bulbs were blinding, but she managed to make it into the ball room without making a fool out of herself.

Once they were out of the doorway, she tried to pull Castle aside to make him explain what was going on, but something else caught her eye.

"Mom! What are you doing here?" Kate asked, darting toward her mom and looking back at Castle with a raised eyebrow.

"Rick invited me to be here tonight," she said with a grin.

"You didn't tell me that!" Kate looked back at Castle with shock and he just stood there smiling.

"Well—"

"Ricky, I have some people you need to meet," Castle's agent Paula said.

"Kate, I'm sorry. I'll be back as soon as I can," he said, kissing her cheek before he walked away.

She turned back to her mom who was still looking at her with an unusually large grin on her face.

"Are you going to explain why you're acting so strange?" Kate asked and her mom shrugged.

"Katie, I'm just happy for you. This is all I've ever wanted for you," Johanna said, pulling her into a hug.

"All you've ever wanted for me was to be dating my favorite author and be awkwardly uncomfortable at a release party for a book with a character inspired by me?" she rambled. Her mom laughed while shaking her head.

"No. All I wanted was for you to be happy. And you're happy."

"More than I can ever remember," she admitted.

"It's written all over your face. Just like when you look at or talk about Rick, there's no denying how much you love him."

"I'm so lucky to have him in my life," she said, feeling her blood warm her face.

"I think he's pretty lucky to have you. Did you read his dedication?"

She had forgotten about the dedication. For weeks, she tried to sneak in his office to see what he had written, but with the stress of the party. It had completely slipped her mind.

"No, he wouldn't let me see it."

"Here," Johanna said, reaching for her hand and pulling her to the table of Heat Wave books. "I'll give you a minute." She squeezed Kate's arm and walked away.

Kate looked around at the room full of people, most of whom she had never met, and smiled.

This was her life.

Her boyfriend had written a novel - inspired by her.

This was real.

She picked up one of the copies of the book and opened it up to the dedication page.

'To the extraordinary KB

Truth conquers all

I can't wait to spend the rest of my life discovering more truths with you'

Her heart sped up as she ran her finger tips against the words on the page. She was in the middle of reading the words again blinking away the tears, when she heard her name.

"Kate?"

Spinning around as soon as she heard Castle's voice, she found him kneeling in front of her.

"Castle," she whispered, those same tears now streaming down her cheeks.

"The day I met you my life became extraordinary. Will you—"

Kate pulled him up and pressed into his body. She attached her lips to his.

"Yes!" she said in between kisses.

"You didn't let me finish," he teased.

"Doesn't matter. I love you. That's all I need," Kate said, deepening the kiss.

The sounds of whistles and cat-calls were a reminder that they were in the middle of a very public party and she hid her face against Castle's chest for a moment and then started giggling.

She was marrying Richard Castle.

Looking back up at her fiancé, he leaned down to press another kiss against her lips and then watched as he slid the beautiful princess cut diamond ring onto her finger.

Johanna hurried over and wrapped her daughter into her arms.

"Now you know why I was here," she whispered into Kate's ear.

"I was asking for your mom's blessing today," Castle explained, as Kate looked at him with confusion. "I was trying to surprise you, but you wouldn't let it go so I made up the Black Pawn meeting."

"Well I will say, I could tell something was up, but I never imagined this." She beamed at Castle, before turning back to her mom to show Johanna the ring. "Mom! I'm getting married!"

To Paula and Gina's dismay the party had turned into more of an engagement party than a book party, but Castle didn't seem to care.

His arms were wrapped around her waist the entire night, neither one of them able to get enough of each other.

As they sat on one of the couches sipping champagne at the end of the night, she smiled down at her ring and leaned her head against Castle's chest.

Her mom was right.

She was finally happy.

THE END

Thank you all so much for reading this story and being so sweet about it. I never thought I would write a story of this length and the fact that people actually cared about it? Words cannot describe how much that means to me! I'm so sad to see this story end, but unfortunately every story needs an ending.

Jo- honestly your beta help with this story - I cannot express enough gratitude for all that you did. This story wouldn't be what it was without you!

Joanna and Janna- you are constantly in my corner and my own cheerleaders. Love you guys.

I would love to hear from you all. Thanks again for reading! xoxo