AN - Here we are...the final chapter. I'll explain more at the end.

CHAPTER 14 - All the layers peeled

She looked up at the last words she had typed. She thought back to that day; Rick had had an evil grin on his face when he said them. She sighed as she looked at the date on the right hand corner of the screen. It was February 14th and would have been their 41st anniversary. She ignored the tightness in her chest at the thought of going on after his passing three days earlier. The funeral today was not what she had been looking forward to when he showed her the tickets last week. They were supposed to be boarding a plane right now to head down to Florida for a week's vacation and to visit Javi and Lanie in Miami. Shaking her head of those thoughts, she once again concentrated on the screen in front of her.

Kate smiled softly as she saved the file. Rick had always had to have the last word; even after more than forty years of marriage. She looked at the family picture on her desk. She and Rick had been surrounded by Alexis, Jo and Ethan and their families. She was so proud of her family! Johanna Martha Castle had been born three years after they had married and Ethan Alexander Castle was two years younger than Jo. Alexis had taken the role of big sister very seriously, even though she was almost twenty-two years older than her next oldest sibling.

They had married six months after that fateful day when Bracken had been arrested. His subsequent trial and sentencing had happened just after they returned from their honeymoon; he had been convicted on dozens of counts of fraud as well as seven counts of conspiracy to commit murder (including her mother). His network of assassins, moles and associates disappeared before his trial and his backers shunned him. He lasted forty days in jail before he was found dead in his cell, a victim of a shank buried into his chest like a stake through his heart.

Rick resigned again from the FBI three days after the task force shut down and continued to shadow her (as the NYPD's first official paid consultant – both badged and with a weapons permit) until Jo was born; then he stayed at home so she could work. He wrote another 20 best sellers including six more Nikki Heats before he passed the torch to his daughter. Alexis had become an ME by that time and as her dad wrote his last novel, she wrote her first; she based her novels on a smart but sassy ME named Melanie Farris. Her second book hit number one and the last three followed in its footsteps.

Kate herself eventually became Chief of Detectives before retiring at the age of fifty five. She wanted to take time to be with Rick and the kids while she could still enjoy it. By that time Alexis was married and had a child of her own...a red-headed fiery girl named Mary Houghton Duncan. Ned Duncan had met Alexis when they were both pre-med at Columbia and they married just after graduation.

Jo had followed her mother into the NYPD and was making a name for herself as a detective in Robbery. She met her husband Del Harold at a Black Pawn event; he was a junior editor at the time and helped Gina edit her last book for Rick before she retired. Their two boys, Alex and Edgar, were just turning seventeen and were still amazed that their Grandpa Rick was famous.

Ethan had followed his grandmother into the theater and was currently on Broadway in a revival of The Music Man. His portrayal of Harold Hill had won him a Tony that he had dedicated to the memory of his grandmother. Martha had passed away when he was ten years old but he had sat on her knee and listened to her stories so often that he knew he wanted to be on stage by the time he was fifteen. His wife Lydia was a theater manager and was expecting their first child.

Kate's mind wandered back to her dad. Jim had hidden his liver disease from her even as he walked her down the aisle. His liver failed about a year later and he passed away knowing that his wife's murder had been solved by his daughter and her husband. Kate thought back to when she had lost her mother and had felt so alone; when her father passed away she had Rick, Alexis and Martha to make sure she got through.

She looked down at her left hand; the rings she wore to signify her heart belonged to another. She smiled as she thought back to the last forty years. At Rick's eighty-first birthday party he grinned and said that even though she had never admitted it, he knew that she was wildly attracted to him that first night they met at the book party. When she rolled her eyes he laughed. He said even though she had been a Castle for almost forty years she still had the Beckett eye roll going on.

She felt her eyes start to water as she remembered her husband. He meant everything to her; he had come into her life when she was at her darkest and now she knew nothing else could have happened. After all these years she finally believed that Fate had led him to her. She thought back to his smiles, his crazy theories and his ability to make everyone feel a little bit better about themselves. He always knew what she needed. He had always been her rock and she missed him terribly.

At the knock on the door she jumped. "Come in."

Alexis tentatively peeked around the door. "Are you okay, Mom?"

Kate smiled. Alexis had started calling her Mom not too long after Rick had retired from the FBI again. "Sure thing, Lex. I just finished the book. You can edit it and get it to them whenever you have time."

Alexis smiled softly. "Okay. I just wanted to let you know that the car will be here in ten minutes. Do you need me to help with anything?"

"No, Lex. I just have to freshen up my makeup...have to look good for your father."

Alexis looked down. "Mom, you know he loved you no matter how much makeup you wore."

Kate's eyes teared up. "I know, Pumpkin. I'm just not sure how to go on."

"You've got me, Jo and Ethan, Mom as well as the kids. We'll get through this."

"Oh, I know we will. I just hope that we make it through today. Your dad meant a lot of things to a lot of people."

Kate heard the sounds of movement out in the living room. "Lex, go make sure they are ready and I'll be right out."

After Alexis left, Kate went into the bedroom and sat down to fix her makeup. She looked into the mirror and saw not her seventy two year old self but her face as it was when she was younger. Her eyes widened as she felt a pair of arms circle her from behind. "Extraordinary. I always said you were."

Kate turned around to find herself in Rick's arms; he appeared as he did the day they were married. Her heart quickened and she had trouble catching her breath. "Rick? What...? How...?"

Rick's laugh melted her insides. "Katie love, I told you when we married that I would never again be apart from you for more than a few days! Sometimes you just have to believe in the unbelievable!"

Kate looked at her husband and realized he looked like he did on their wedding day. She looked behind her to see her older self slumped over in the vanity's chair. "Am I dead, Rick?"

"You are, Katie love. I came to get you when I found out today was the day. Looks like someone really couldn't live without me." He grinned and winked at her.

She slapped his chest. "Be good, Alex. So what happens next?"

"Well, you come with me and we see your parents and Mother. Then you stay with me."

She smiled at the thought of seeing her mother. "I can stay with you?"

Rick smiled and kissed his wife as things faded around them. She saw her family ahead but looked at her husband to hear his answer. "Always."

FIN

Thank you all for reading this. A few explanations and thoughts.

I've been asked a few times why the nicknames 'Alex' and 'Katie love'. As this is AU, I wrote it Kate to be a little less stilted and a little more affectionate. In canon, Kate likes to know things or do things that others don't and I can see her calling him by his original middle name when they are alone. The relationship I have seen for them is more likely the one Rick wants for them on the show.

I am sure you read this chapter expecting to see the take down itself. As I wrote this, my main goal besides making it enjoyable was creating a fairly believable AU that I could flesh out over a couple stories. I know that with the ending it would appear to be over, but there are forty years available for more stories. I plan on writing some of those too (and maybe I will start with the actual take down) but I wanted this piece to set the stage and to see if what I enjoyed writing was what others would enjoy reading. It feels like through the reviews that you do enjoy it. I have another piece partially written that is not this AU but I have some notes for additions to this one.

I read that a TV script for an hour long drama averages 50-60 pages; this is 76 pages in Word, so I feel I accomplished my goal of writing something decently sized. So thanks again and I hope you've enjoyed this little story.

C