The spirit of Mike Royce was consumed by the white light, disappearing as the light itself imploded. Stephanie stared at the space where her father had been standing just a moment earlier...and at the woman who was now standing in front of her. Long brown hair, warm brown eyes-the resemblance was uncanny. And Stephanie knew she was standing in the way of their reunion. She turned around to face Beckett with a sad, affectionate smile and excused herself. "I'll just get out of your way..."

Kate Beckett barely heard her. Her focus was entirely on the woman on the other side of the room. A very familiar woman she thought she would never see again. Kate found she was having trouble getting her voice to work. Remembering one of the first things Mike's ghost taught her, Beckett switched to her mind-voice. Mom?

"Hi Katie-girl." The ghost of Joanna Beckett stood quietly, studying her mature, adult daughter. "It's been a while."

A while...Kate was grateful that Royce's descriptions of how time passed for him were so close to the front of her mind. Yeah. A long time.

"How have you been?" asked Joanna, her voice starting to choke up as her daughter's had.

Kate found it impossible to answer her mother's question. What could she say? That the obsession with finding her killer nearly sent her to her own death...but that she was okay now, because she's keeping the guy at arm's length with a bluff about a non-existent file?

Joanna regarded her daughter with a loving mother's patience. She crossed the room silently, lifting her hand in a gesture that mimicked caressing her daughter's cheek. "Oh, sweetheart..." she sighed, "I've put you through so much..."

Kate stared at her mother in disbelief. You?

Joanna nodded. "I let the Pulgatti case become my obsession. Put your father through hell..."

He never told me, Kate admitted.

"I would have been surprised if he had," said Joanna. "It's not your father's style."

An uncomfortable silence descended between them. Did dad ever...did dad ever help you with the case...

"The way that man over there has helped you?" Joanna replied to her daughter's unfinished question with a knowing smile.

It took Kate a second to realize that her boyfriend was still standing in the doorway. She motioned over to the wizard, who crossed the room and squeezed Kate's hand for support. Mom, she began, this...this is my partner, Richard Castle.

"I know," Joanna said with a smile. "I introduced you to his books, remember?" The ghost turned her attention to the man next to her daughter. "Joanna Beckett."

Castle had to stifle a chuckle. He had stared at pictures of Joanna Beckett so often he knew it would have been impossible for him to *not* recognize the woman. "Nice to finally meet you, ma'am."

"Please, call me Joanna," the ghost told him.

There was only one question going through Kate's finding enough of her voice to talk out loud, she asked "Mom, why are you here? Is it about..."

"The men who killed me?" Joanna asked in response. "No. Sweetheart, I moved on almost as soon as you..."

As soon as I killed him, thought Kate. She quickly caught on to the first part of her mother's statement. "You moved on, mom? I thought that meant..."

"That we couldn't meet like this? Normally, we wouldn't be able to. When I found out about...about your new 'gift', I must've waited on that line for..."

"A *line*?" Kate was dumbfounded. "There's a line...up there...to see *me*?!"

"You have no idea," replied Joanna, rolling her eyes. "I think I must have been on that line for weeks before they realized I'm your mother..."

Kate was still trying to wrap her head around the idea that there was a waiting list for ghosts who wanted to see her. "Why?"

"Think about it, Kate," chimed in Castle, "think about the number of people who die without getting the chance to tie up loose ends. Without getting to say goodbye to their loved ones. If there wasn't some sort of control over the number of ghosts that get through to you, you'd be mobbed. All the time."

"I was able to come through because I agreed to give you a message," Joanna declared. "Actually, I'm supposed to give this message to both of you. Something is coming. It's big, it's dangerous, and if isn't stopped the world will never be the same. But the *only* way you will be able to defeat it is if you stop hiding from each other."

Joanna watched as Kate and her boyfriend started to study each other, each wondering what secrets the other person had been keeping from them. The ghost was finding it a very frustrating experience. "Dammit!" she exclaimed, "Why do you think that link grew between the two of you in the first place?! Rick, you need to stop keeping secrets from my daughter."

Kate was confused...and starting to get angry. "What secrets are you keeping from me, Rick? After everything we've gone through?"

Castle's eyes shifted away from Kate's intense gaze, like a little boy who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "The file..." he mumbled.

Kate was, once again, grateful for her superhearing. "What file, Rick?" Her eyes widened as she realized what was the only file Castle would have any trouble talking about in front of her mother. "The file that Captain Montgomery sent to Smith? The file that got blown to bits in the safe? It's gone, isn't it?"

Castle stared down his partner with a look that she found sadly familiar. It was the same look she remembered facing the night Castle admitted he had been working with Smith to protect her from Bracken and his power. "It's not gone. I have it. Have had it for a while."

Kate was fighting a losing battle to keep her emotions under control. "You *have* it? How?" Another wild realization hit her. "You put it back together, didn't you? Using magic?"

Castle nodded. "It'll stand up if you have to show the file to Bracken or any of his cronies, but if a newspaper tries to verify it's not a fake, I...I can't be sure of that."

"But what about the *information* in that file, Rick?" Kate spat out, clearly fuming. "We don't know if Bracken's the only one running things. Did you just restore the file and stick it in a safe somewhere? Or do you know other things you're not telling me?"

Joanna could feel where this was heading just from the emotions radiating off her angry daughter. "Katharine Beckett, if you run off without your team again I swear I'll come back just to haunt you for the rest of your very long lifetime. Is. That. Clear?"

Kate turned her stare on Joanna, shocked by her mother's chastisement. "What?"

"Now I know *you*, of all people, heard me clearly the first time," Joanna replied. "Need I remind you where you ended up after going off half-cocked because Rick was keeping secrets from you?"

Kate's face fell as she considered her mother's words. "I ended up hanging off a roof by my fingertips," she admitted guiltily.

"*Exactly.*" Joanna's face softened as she realized her message was getting through. "Katie, I hope you know that I'm proud of you. You've grown into a strong, smart, and fiercely compassionate woman who's surrounded herself with the best of people. People who *all* love you dearly. And people try to protect the people that they love. Some of them might go about it the wrong way," she said, glaring at Castle, "but that doesn't mean they don't love you any less. Honey, you need to let them love you and stop pushing them away. If you don't, then you'll be *lucky* if the only thing they do is keep secrets from you. Do you understand?"

Kate nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Joanna came forward, wanting to reassure her daughter. She moved her hand forward toward her daughter's, not remembering or caring that her hand was likely to go straight through.

Kate gasped as her mother's hand became flesh and rested gently on top of her own. She smiled, shaking her head as she stared at the supernaturally physical connection, realizing that it was just another example of how much Rick Castle loved her...even when she was trying to push him away.

She also knew that the touch meant her time with her mother's spirit was growing short. "You know, I wouldn't mind if you haunted me the rest of my life," Kate said quietly.

Joanna smiled, savoring the chance to touch her daughter one last time. "Sure, you say that now," she teased, "but how would you feel if I showed up when you and Rick were in bed tog..."

"Okay, mom, you've made your point," Kate cut her mother off, trying to keep that image from cementing itself in her mind. She pulled her mom into an embrace, finally allowing the tears to flow freely as the emotion of the moment ran through her uncontrolled. "I miss you so much, mom..."

"I know, sweetheart, I know," said Joanna, squeezing her daughter before pulling away from the embrace. She felt a necklace underneath her daughter's clothing, and, curiosity getting the better of her, Joanna pulled the chain out into the open to find her engagement ring hanging from it.

Kate smiled as she watched her mother's hand holding the ring, still strung on the chain. "I wear this necklace every day," she said. "It's been my way of keeping you close."

"Oh honey," Joanna sighed, "I'll always be with you." She placed a hand over her daughter's heart. "Right here."

Kate pulled her mom into one last embrace, feeling the change in her mother's skin that meant the spell was giving out...and her mother would soon be gone once again. "I love you so much, mom..."

"I love you too, honey," Joanna's voice whispered as her spirit faded away. "Always."

Hi everyone! Just a quick heads up for anyone who hasn't visited my author page lately. I live in one of the metropolitan areas hit hardest by hurricane Sandy. I was very blessed (and slightly cursed, depending on how you look at it) in that the only damage my house suffered was loss of cable/phone/Internet. So until that's back, chapter posts will be sporadic and may come in bunches.

This series will continue with Double Vision. Chapter 1's going up today. And if you've gotten this far in the series, then you know that it's your comments that keep me going. So while I catch up on my own commenting, just click on the box below and let me know what you think!