Just two years after Reese was born, Lillian Kinsey Castle joined their family.
With her fathers eyes and her mothers curls, Lily immediately stole her mothers heart. Eradicating the fear that she would never be able to love someone as much as she loved her son.
Kate was not prepared for how different raising a daughter would be.
She didn't realize the sorrow that would tug on her heartstrings as she navigated raising a daughter without her mother. She didn't realize how healing it would be to have her little girl wrapped snuggly in her arms while she weeped for the woman who would never get to meet her grandchildren.
She loved her daughter just as much as she loved her son.
So her priorities changed.
It was her second week back after her almost two month maternity leave with Lily. After they had Reese, Castle became Mr. Mom again. She missed him at the precinct. The 12th wasn't the same without their beloved nine year old on a sugar rush. Castle was adamant that he stayed home with the kids, refusing to hire a nanny. He knew Alexis was grateful he was there throughout her childhood instead of "pawning" her off on someone else. He wanted his youngest two to be able to say the same.
They had a lead on a case she had been working since she got back. One she jumped into, on the verge of growing cold. Brushed off as random murders even with a new body dropping every week. Six women were now victims. It took her awhile to make the connection. Everyone assumed it was just happenstance that six women who had seemingly nothing in common would suddenly turn up murdered. But Kate knew there was more to it. Maybe Castle has rubbed off on her, but the crazy theories when there was no other hope always seemed to pay off.
Thats how she ended up in an abandoned factory in downtown Manhattan. An abandoned factory that was set up as a drop location. An abandoned factory that had been being monitored by her team for the last week, allowing them to know when the building would be vacant. An abandoned factory that ended up being occupied when they arrived. A not so abandoned factory in downtown Manhattan with no backup besides her new partner.
Her new partner, who was now laying in a pool of his own blood when a shot rang out of nowhere.
She was cornered, without backup, in the same room as the ring leader of the deadliest cult on the East Coast. Her only line of defense being disarmed by one of the twelve shadows in the room.
Kate wouldn't call herself a religious person, she couldn't remember the last time she stepped inside a church. But in this moment, she prayed that Espo and Ryan would be on their way like they originally agreed upon and prayed that they would realize something was wrong and call for more backup.
But when she felt the cool metal of a loaded gun press to her temple, she could only think of one thing.
Lily.
So she prayed that her little girl would not be forced to fall down the same path as her.
She prayed that Lily wouldn't lose her mother at the hands of a power-hungry man like she did so many years ago.
She prayed she would be able to come home, be able to kiss her daughter, soak in the smell of her newborn skin, and tuck her son into bed.
And she prayed that having to navigate life without a mother was something her daughter would never have to experience.