AN: Just a warning, there will be an epic author's note at the end of this. Also, I sincerely hope you enjoy the last chapter of Lost in You!

Chapter Thirty-Eight

"We got it covered," Esposito declared as Ryan parked the car. Beckett nodded at the boys before moving from the car, tugging Castle after her, linking their fingers.

Ryan and Esposito watched Beckett and Castle make their way into the building, their faces shining with joy even through the layers of exhaustion.

"Beckett looks happy," Esposito commented.

"It's about time," Ryan sighed contentedly.

"Dude," Esposito snorted.

"What?" Ryan whined.

"You are such a girl," he retorted.

"And you never let me forget it… Let's just take a moment to remember who has the hot wife waiting at home for him. Oh, that's right, me," Ryan grinned. Esposito frowned in response. Ryan chuckled at that and nosed the car away from the curb, edging into the flow of morning traffic. "Let's pay Dunnings number two a visit before we head to the precinct."

X-X-X-X-X-X

Beckett clung tightly to Castle's hand as they waited for the elevator to ascend. She could see where the morning was heading, she could see where the future was heading and to say she was approaching it fearless would be a massive oversight. Her walls may have been cracked to the point of destruction, but she was petrified that Castle wouldn't like what he found on the other side, that once he got to know her, the real her, the one behind the wall he wouldn't be satisfied. Women he'd fallen in love with in the past had been bright and flashy and they hadn't been enough to hold him, she paled in comparison. There was a rational part of her that knew she was just being overly self-conscious, that what Castle loved most about her was that she was real. But still, the insecure teenage-age girl that still inhabited a snippet of her soul was roaring her paranoid head.

"I'm so glad you came home with me," Castle murmured, stroking her chin tenderly with his free hand. Just like that her insecurities were pushed back under the surface, far away from her conscious thought. He loved her. He wanted her as badly as she wanted him. They could make it. They would make it. It really could be that simple. It was that simple.

X-X-X-X-X-X

Dunnings, or Dunnings' brother for that matter – the two seemed largely interchangeable at times, given that one could so easily contrive to be the other – was sitting smugly in the visiting room that the prison had set aside for the detectives to meet the man in. His arms were crossed and he was leaning back in the chair, feet on the table, a devious smirk marking his expression.

"Let me guess," he drawled as the detectives entered the room. "My brother has your sexy lady cop and her dopey boyfriend and you want me to help you get them back?" At that Ryan and Esposito exchanged a glance. There was a fine line between wanting vengeance and just being plain cruel. Although they were leaning towards cruel in this particular scenario when it came down to it, they were good cops and good guys.

"Not quite. You'll be happy to know that our lady cop and her partner are just fine," Ryan replied. Dunnings rolled his eyes.

"Well, that's just plain boring. I'm sure Petey has something special in mind for them, don't you worry about that," he grinned crookedly, a twisted expression that had Ryan cringing internally remembering the last time he'd encountered the man. He was glad he'd managed to keep his saliva in his mouth so far this time.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Esposito retorted, his tone low, clearly serious.

"Oh yeah, why's that? Believe me, Peter will not stop until your lady cop has paid for what she did. Personally, I can't wait. It's going to be excellent. Then he'll come back and get me and this whole thing will be spectacularly over," Dunnings remarked, his voice confident and sure.

"Your brother will never come back for you," Esposito continued. Dunnings eyes flashed, dark and angry, apparently unhappy that the detectives doubted his brother's loyalty.

"He will," he hissed, fire in his eyes. "He's my brother. Family is more important than anything. Anything." Ryan actually found it strangely ironic that man had a point. It was true, family was the most important thing, that's why they'd fought so hard for Castle, for Beckett, for their unconventional but completely functional little family. It kind of made this next part all the more harder. Empathic as he felt, he couldn't find it in him to sympathise with the man who'd been pivotal in bringing about so much pain to his own family.

"He won't. We're here to inform you that yesterday during a police rescue Peter Dunnings received life-threatening injuries as a result of a gunshot. He died at the scene," Ryan admitted. Usually this was the point where he added that he was sorry for the loss of the person on the end of the receiving end of this speech's loved one, but in this circumstance, he wasn't really all that sorry. Rage clouded Dunnings expression, it really was the only word for it, his face contorted in pain, but rage was the dominating factor.

"Let me out," he growled. "I am not Peter Dunnings, I am Daniel Dunnings, you can no longer hold me here. Let me out!" he screeched, standing as he spoke, his hands making tight fists that he slammed on the table top to enunciate each point he made. "Now!" he added through clenched teeth, spit spraying on the table beneath him, as neither Ryan nor Esposito made to comply to his request.

"I suppose you're right," Esposito intoned, his tone harsh and unyielding. He made no move to stand behind the man as he spoke, but the implications of his words were clear. "Daniel Dunnings, you are under arrest for aiding and abetting in the escape of a prisoner. You are also under arrest for the accomplice of two counts of attempted murder." Dunnings started screaming threats and howling agonisingly for his dead brother as Ryan jumped in and recited his Miranda rights. They left the man in the custody of the prison guards and headed back to the precinct, a subtle weight lifted from their shoulders with the knowledge that justice had once again been served.

X-X-X-X-X-X

"Beckett," Castle said as they reached the door to the loft. He pulled her to a stop and began rubbing gentle circles in the back of her hand with his thumb. "I have an idea. If you don't like it then that's fine, it'll be forgotten. Just hear me out." Beckett's mind rushed a million miles an hour, trying to comprehend where Castle was going with this. She rolled scenario after scenario over in her head, trying to decide which would be most likely. God, he wasn't going to propose was he? She so wasn't ready for that. They hadn't even had a proper date yet. Well, not one when they had been dating anyway. A few of those late night trips to Remy's had felt a hell of a lot like dates. Castle cleared his throat and Beckett realised he was waiting on some sort of response from her to continue. She nodded her head dumbly and waited, trying to slow her mind from jumping to crazy conclusions – what would she say if he proposed? Not the time, so not the time. But obviously, she'd say yes, right? There was no other logical answer. That's where it was headed in the long run. She forced her mind back to the present, caught Castle's eye and watched as he smiled at her, she pushed her lips upwards in response, she knew it didn't come across as genuine because Castle's expression dropped just a bit and he doubled his caressing of her hand. "It's about Tessa," he continued and just like that all the thoughts fell from her mind.

"Oh," popped from her lips. "Right, okay." She felt stupid for where her mind had been headed and dropped his gaze, blushing fiercely. He placed a finger under her chin and drew her face level with his.

"You are going to tell me what that was about," he said seriously. "First, umm, how would you feel if I had the charges against Tessa dropped?" Beckett's mouth fell open and she heard the gasp spill unconsciously from her lips. He took in her shocked expression and hurried to finish his point. "On the condition that she enters a mental institution, I'll pay for her treatment of course. It just doesn't seem fair that she spends so much of her life in jail because she was malleable enough to be manipulated by a psychopath like Dunnings."

"Castle," she sighed, pulling her hand from his and cupping his face tight with both her hands. She kissed him gently, confused as he was by her reaction – he had kind of expected yelling – he kissed her back passionately.

"Bad idea?" he mumbled against her mouth. "I'm sorry. Forget I said anything about it." She leant back from his mouth and stared him intently in the eyes.

"A noble idea," she said, biting down on her bottom lip. "You are a noble man, Richard Castle," she admitted. "I sometimes forget how much of a good, generous man that you are. Then you blow me away, with something like this, or something like the scholarship in my mother's name."

"Keep going," he grinned.

"And then you ruin it with something like that," she teased lightly. He shrugged.

"Thank you," he said, his tone becoming serious. "Yours is the opinion that matters most," he sighed. "So you're okay with it then? The Tessa thing?" he added.

"Yeah, Castle. I'm okay with it. As long as we ensure that it is a very secure facility. Probably be best not to mention that the funding is coming from you, she might get the wrong idea. Apart from that, I'm very much okay with it, she'll fall even further from reality thrust into the system. With proper help, she might actually make it," Beckett smiled softly.

With that Castle beamed and pushed the door to the loft open. He paused, hand on frozen on the handle.

"Wait. Why'd you blush before?" he remembered with a grin. She blushed again, kind of embarrassed about where her thoughts had so quickly gone when Castle had mentioned wanting to ask her something. "Exactly, just like that," he mused, stroking her reddened cheeks adoringly.

"If I say no reason will you drop it?" she attempted weakly.

"Mmm, most definitely not," he smiled softly, his fingertips still caressing her face. "I want to know what you're thinking about."

"I don't know if you really want that, but fine. My mind just jumped to wild conclusions when you said you wanted to ask me something," she went with the safer option, "I thought you were going to ask me to move in or something crazily rushed like that."

"Nothing about us has been crazily rushed, Beckett. It's taken us a long, long time to get to this point. Secondly, I'm ecstatic that your mind went there. Did you say yes? Because, you can if you want to," he responded gently, his tone laced with honesty.

"All in good time, Castle. How about we go on a date first?" she matched his tone with sincerity and truth, it made him so unbelievably happy. She made him so unbelievably happy. He kissed her once again, soft, gentle, a promise of a future shared together – a future with moving in, marriage, and children. Everything they ever wanted.

X-X-X-X-X-X

"Good morning, Mother," he called in the general direction of the kitchen where his mother and daughter were seated, discussing something animatedly, hands waving and eyes flush with excitement.

"Good morning, Richard, Detective. Would you like some breakfast?" Martha responded, coming to doorway, watching as they deposited their coats.

"No thanks, we're off to bed," he clasped Beckett's hand once again and started in the direction of the bedroom. She felt blush pooling on her cheeks.

"Castle," she whispered, tugging him to a stop.

"What? I didn't mean it like that. We've been hospitalised, we need bed rest. I'm not letting you out of my sight so you're coming to rest in my bed. Simple as that," he grinned.

"Dad, my hearing is actually quite good," Alexis moaned from the kitchen. "It certainly sounded that way to me! On that note, Grams and I are going out."

"Alexis, you don't have to do that," Kate groaned, swatting Castle on the arm. "Look what you've done, you're scaring your family from the house."

"Ours," he responded automatically with a bashful grin.

"Our," she admitted. "Now fix it."

"You don't have to leave on our account," he declared. "I promise I'll be on my best behaviour. Nothing untoward." Alexis appeared in the living room, and pulled on her coat. Martha mirrored her actions.

"Really, darling. We had plans," Martha smiled at her son. "If you just give us your credit card we'll be out the door and on our way," she teased with a wink. He rolled his eyes at her.

"Mother," he started as she waved him off with the brush of a hand, coming to his side and kissing his cheek and then Beckett's in farewell.

"I'll see you kids later, remember to get some rest," she hinted suggestively.

"Gram," Alexis shuddered. "I think you're the one who needs to behave."

"How you ended up so mature I will never know," Martha sighed dramatically ushering her granddaughter from the room. They continued to debate the question of Alexis' maturity's origin as they made their way down the hall to the elevator. Beckett caught snatches of the conversation, something about aliens and CIA conspiracies. They were Castle's family alright. No doubt about it. She loved them all the more for it.

X-X-X-X-X-X

"Okay, now that we have to house to ourselves I totally meant it like that," he chuckled, pulling her tightly into his chest.

"Huh?" Beckett said, still lost in the silence filling the gap that Martha and Alexis' voices had left, her thoughts on the amazing women in Castle's family. Their family.

"Ah, the innuendo kind of loses its fun if I have to spell it out. I can spell it out though, if you'd like," his hands were causing dangerous feelings in the pit of her stomach, it curled tightly with pure want. It didn't help that he pressed his hands under the thin film of her shirt and ran his fingertips across her back. She realised after a moment that he was literally spelling it out across her back. She tried to make sense of the movements, but the letters were lost on her, all she could feel was the growing arousal. She latched her mouth fiercely to his and it stilled the movement of his fingers. Spelling it out forgotten, living it suddenly all the more important. His hands tightened on her, drawing her closer deepening the kiss. They stayed like that for a few more seconds before impatience got the better of him, he lifted her off her feet and shuffled gracelessly towards his bedroom.

X-X-X-X-X-X

The next time Beckett woke she really did feel rested, which was somewhat ironic considering all the exercise she'd had over the past couple of hours. She snuggled back further into Castle's arms, a simple contentment to just be in the moment. Time passed, she wasn't sure how much and then he was stirring, whispering sweet nothings in her ear, random musings that meant nothing to anyone but her, like how cherries tasted better than they smelt and how the books were about to get so much more vivid now that he had reality to write from. She didn't have the eloquent words to respond to him so she just whispered the one that meant the most to the both of them –

"Always."

This time they both knew that it really would be. This was the beginning of always. This was what happiness looked like, what living looked like. The future was sure. It would be them, together.

THE END

Final AN: Thank you so much to everyone who has read & reviewed this! I'm particularly grateful to my regular reviewers: White Pawn, BoneyCastle237, DocNerd89 & TheTravelBug. I honestly can't believe I managed to write a story this long in the first place, thus your encouragement is all the more appreciated.

To White Pawn: Seriously? Could you manage to overwhelm me anymore with praise (as well as a good dose of valid criticism & story ideas). I'm actually rather devastated that the end of this story means the end of your reviews.

On an unrelated note, if you're looking for something else to read, my dear friend TheTravelBug has a couple of great fics in the works :)

I will write more in the future – although probably not too much over the next month or two, life & all that jazz – so add me to author alerts if you'd like to keep up to date with that.