As I read over some of my previous chapters, I noticed some mistakes and things I just forgot. It happens every time, even when I think it doesn't, but I hope you can read through it.

Sorry you had to wait for so long, but I hope this chapter is worth it.

Chapter 9

After the explosion, Castle stared in shock at the building in front of him and tears formed in his eyes.

"No. Kate. Oh god. No. No."

All he could think about was the love of his life and how close they'd been. Losing her was bad, but losing her when they were so close to having her back was even worse. It wasn't fair. Even though it had already been a year, they'd just begun their life together. And it wasn't just Kate. His friends were in there too. His partners. His buddies. And they too had friends and lovers who cared about them. Jenny, Lanie, Bren-

And that's when he saw it. Four shadows coming through the smoke. At first, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him. It couldn't be true. It couldn't be…

But the shadows became clearer now. Three males, one female. Ryan and Esposito were slightly supporting Kate, and Booth came just after them.

The second he made eye contact with Kate, he ran towards her and she did the same. When he reached her, he wrapped her in a tight hug, lifting her slightly off the ground with it. He put her down pretty quickly, but he never loosened his grip, and neither did she. Tears were rolling down their cheeks, having thought they would never be able to see each other again, let alone holding each other.

Neither of them knew how long they'd been standing there, but eventually they pulled apart enough to look at each other. Kate had her arms around his neck, while his were around her waist. Then, Rick removed one arm from around her and wiped at her cheeks with one thumb, removing the tears that were still resting there. He looked at her with so much love, and touched her so tenderly, that Kate couldn't help but smile and lean forward to kiss him softly on the lips.

"I love you, Rick," she whispered after they'd broken the kiss, moving her arms to circle around his waist, putting a little bit of distance between them.

"I love you too, Kate," he whispered back. "When that bomb exploded… I really thought I'd lost you. I just stared at those flames and all I could think about the wonderful time I'd had with you, and the wonderful times that were yet to come. God, I- I wouldn't know what I'd do without you Kate and I-" he looked away as tears formed in his eyes again.

She put her hand on his cheek to make him look at her again. "Hey, I'm here. I'm still here, and I'm not going anywhere. I'm okay, really." She gave him a sympathetic smile. This made Castle chuckle dryly, which, in turn, made Kate's expression go from sympathetic to confused.

"I should be the one comforting you, not the other way around," he explained. "I should be the man in this relationship."

"You do realize you'll be the girl in this relationship, no matter what you do, right?" Kate teased.

Castle gasped and feigned a hurt expression, which made Kate laugh at him. He stared at the beautiful sight in front of him, and he was glad they'd fallen back into their usual routine so easily.

Xxx

About two hours later, the fire was extinguished. Kate, Ryan, Esposito and Booth had already been checked by doctors. Cam and Booth entered the building again, making sure Tyson was dead, and that it hadn't been just a trick. When they reached the room, they saw the body, heavily burned.

"You think it's Tyson?" Cam asked, still not really convinced.

Booth nodded. "I kinda recognize the clothes, and of course the detonator. And even if I didn't, he wouldn't have had enough time to get a body in here and get out in time. I'm sure it's him."

"You have a point. But I'm still going to check it when we're back in the lab. I don't want anything to go wrong with this one. Can you get a team in here?"

Booth nodded again and walked outside while calling for a team. When he finished his call, he walked over to Kate and the boys.

"You can head back to the hotel, if you want. We've got this."

Kate immediately shook her head. "No way. I want to head back to the Jeffersonian, finish up the case. I can't just go and sit around doing nothing." Ryan and Esposito hummed in agreement, backing up Kate's decision.

"That's fine with me too, but I just thought you could use some rest," Booth replied. "You can go already; we'll come later with the body."

Kate nodded and turned around, Ryan, Esposito and Castle in her wake.

Xxx

Lanie was the first to notice Kate walking into the lab. She jumped up with tears in her eyes and hugged Kate tightly. Lanie sniffed then and pulled back, scrunching up her nose.

"Girl, you smell like you've held your straightener in one place for too long," she said, trying to cover up her fear that she might have lost her best friend. "What the hell happened?"

"Tyson had a bomb," Kate said and Lanie gasped while covering her mouth with her hand, her cover up act long forgotten.

"We ran out of the building before it was too late. Tyson didn't survive, however," Kate rushed to explain.

"So it's over now?" Lanie asked.

"Yeah, we only need to finish up some loose ends and then it's over."

Lanie nodded and stepped away from her friend, knowing that they needed to finish this.

Kate received some welcome backs and then went back to work. Castle, Ryan and Esposito helped her, while Cam, Lanie and Wendell went to work on Tyson's body, which had just been brought in by Booth.

Xxx

The whole afternoon they'd been busy doing all the necessary things to finish up the case. Kate had also called her dad to tell him she was okay, and Castle had texted Alexis and his mother to tell the same.

Now, all the team members were sitting together, talking about the case. Castle, however, wasn't completely involved in the conversations. Suddenly, he got an idea. There was something he'd been thinking about a lot recently, and now he'd figured it out. He stood up and cleared his throat. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"I think everyone is feeling a bit drained out about now, but how about we all go to the Royal Diner tomorrow evening? We could officially end this case and it'll be some sort of goodbye as well." He looked at the others. "What do you think?"

Everyone hummed in agreement, and Cam spoke up. "I suggest we all go home now. It's been a long few days, and we can all use our rest. Everyone is off tomorrow, and say we'll meet around 7 at the Royal Diner? We'll have dinner together, a perfect goodbye to me."

Again, everyone hummed in agreement. Then, they stood up, said their goodbyes and left.

Xxx

Castle and Kate were just a tad later than their coworkers, and just as they were about to leave, it started to rain. Castle stopped dead in his tracks when he saw it, but Kate smiled and took his hand, running outside and pulling him with her. Within a matter of seconds, they were both soaked. Kate released his hand again and started to run faster.

"Race you to the hotel!" she yelled over her shoulder. Castle shook his head and started to run after her, but he knew he'd never be able to beat her. And indeed, when he reached their hotel room, he saw her leaning against the wall, pretending to check her watch.

"Getting old, Ricky?" she teased.

"You had a head start!" He exclaimed as a protest while opening the door and going inside. She followed him and closed the door behind her. When Castle turned around and took in the sight in front of him, he was struck by the resemblance of the night that had changed their lives.

Well, except that they were both wet now.

Just then, lightning flashed and thunder could be heard. He couldn't resist and placed his hands on her cheeks, kissing her softly and deeply. He pulled back and gave her a smile so full of love, that she put her lips over his again immediately. The kisses grew more heated as the minutes rolled by, and soon their wet coats were on the floor, creating a small puddle of water underneath. Kate pushed him backwards towards the bedroom, their wet clothes leaving a trail behind them.

When they reached the bed, Kate pushed Castle down onto the bed, a beautiful night full of emotion and passion between two lovers following that.

Xxx

The next day

Brennan stood at the crib, looking at her sleeping daughter, when she felt two strong arms encircling her. She smiled and put her hands on top of his.

"She's so beautiful," Booth whispered in her ear, careful not to wake their little girl.

"She is, isn't she?" Brennan spoke back softly.

Even though they'd whispered, Jade opened her eyes. They were pale blue-greyish, with gold around the irises, just like her mother's. She stretched her little arms out, and Brennan picked her up, holding her close.

"Oh god, Bones, she looks exactly like you," Booth breathed out. "She's definitely going to be a mini-you."

Brennan nodded absentmindedly, stroking her daughter's forehead. Together, they stood there for a while, until Booth spoke up again.

"I hate to break this wonderful moment, but we should get Jade ready to go to the sitter, and we should be getting ready for dinner."

"Yeah, you're right," Brennan replied. She felt sorry for leaving behind Jade so soon after she was born, but she knew that she couldn't stick with her daughter 24/7 without having problems leaving her later on. So, she went to get Jade and herself ready.

Xxx

They'd had a lot of fun throughout dinner, and now, afterwards, the teams were telling each other stories and laughed about them.

"Oh, remember that time with the tiger?" Esposito asked, laughing at the memory.

Angela choked on her drink. "A tiger?" she managed to say after swallowing a few times.

Kate laughed as well.

"Yeah, Castle and I woke up cuffed in some sort of basement, not really remembering how we got there at first. We tried to escape through a hatch high up, and we ended up doing some kind of circus act, but fell down when a guy opened it." She winced at the memory of falling down hard. "Anyway, at some point, we thought there was a child on the other side of the wall, so we made a hole in the wall, but-" She burst out laughing as she remembered what happened when Castle put his head through.

"I looked through the hole, looking for the child, but I was met with the sight of a tiger that nearly bit my head off," Castle finished.

Everyone at the table burst out laughing, and Castle pretended to be hurt, which wasn't the first time he'd done that while he was in D.C.

"I would've loved to see that," Hodgins said.

"How did it end?" Cam asked, and Kate carried on again.

"It entered our room, but there was this huge box which we put upright, and we climbed on top of it." Kate glared at Castle when some people raised their eyebrows. "It was his bright idea, not mine. Ryan and Esposito found us, but were held off by the people who'd taken us. After a few minutes, the tiger pushed us over, but we managed to hold onto the pipes on the ceiling."

"You should've seen them," Ryan laughed. "Hanging there looking like monkeys in a forest."

Everyone laughed again, including Kate, and when Castle looked at her, laughing that bright laugh of hers, he knew. Now was the time. He took a glass and tapped against it with a knife to draw everyone's attention. His hands were getting sweaty though, so he quickly put them down again.

The laughter had subdued and everyone was now looking at him again. Castle stood up and cleared his throat, not noticing how he was repeating himself a lot this trip.

"I'd like to say something. To Kate, actually." He turned to her and in turn, she turned a bit more towards him than she already was.

"I'm…" Castle shook his head a little and started over. "You're…" he chuckled as he got stuck. "You know, I had planned this whole speech full of poetic crap, but there's really not much I want to say." He took a breath and continued. "I love you Kate. And that night when you came to me, I- It made me so happy. A year has passed since, and I loved every second of it. But I… I want to make sure you're mine. I want to claim you and have a good reason for it. I want to show you off to the world, not just as my girlfriend. So, what I'm really trying to say is…" he took a small velvet box out of his pocket and got down on one knee in front of Kate. He opened the box, revealing a beautiful golden ring with diamonds imbedded in it.

"Kate, will you make me the happiest man alive and marry me?"

Tears sprung into Kate's eyes and her hand flew to her mouth. She nodded yes, before actually giving her answer.

"Yes. Yes, I'll marry you, Rick. Of course I will." She got off her chair and kissed Castle full on the mouth. A tear of happiness escaped from her eyes and Castle pulled back, wiping the lonely tear away with his free hand, before pulling her back up and sliding the ring on her finger.

They kept looking into each other's eyes until a small squeal was heard. A bit ashamed (a tiny, tiny bit) that they'd forgotten about the others, they turned towards the sound.

Lanie jumped up from her chair and ran towards Kate, hugging the life out of her.

"I'm so happy for you, honey. So very, very happy. You really deserve this. Both of you."

Everyone was standing now, congratulating the happy couple. They all sat down again afterwards, but Lanie, Ryan and Esposito gathered around Castle, walking forward. They urged him to step back until he almost hit the wall. It kind of scared him.

"You better not hurt her, bro," Esposito started.

"She's like our sister," Ryan continued.

"Yeah, you better take care of her, writer boy," Lanie added.

"If you don't hold yourself to that, we know how to hide a body." - Ryan.

"And I know how to leave no forensic evidence behind." – Lanie.

"Do you get it?" – Esposito.

Castle gulped. "Loud and clear."

Ryan and Esposito simultaneously patted him on the shoulder.

"But we're really happy for the both of you," Ryan added at last. They all headed back to the table, Castle walking just the slightest bit behind his three friends. Kate eyed them suspiciously.

"Guys, you didn't just threaten my fiancé, did you?" She asked, putting extra emphasis on the word fiancé.

Esposito shook his head. "Nah, just clarifying somethin'." Kate just nodded, not totally buying it but also not wanting to engage any further.

Castle, however, did not really notice. All he could think about was how good that sounded.

Her fiancé.

So. Uhm. Well. Okay. Let me know what you think?

-xxx-