Authors Note: Sorry it's taken so long for this second part of Flowers for Your Grave. It's a lot harder than it seems to completely rewrite a series that was beautifully done originally (well, except that disaster that was season 8). A lot of you really enjoyed the first chapter and wanted me to continue. I had some negative reviews, which did bring me down a little bit. But I've decided to go on for those of you who truly wanted me to continue.

Here is the second installment. I plan on exploring this new dynamic of our favorite duo. Some didn't really understand Kate's need for a LOA, which is something that I will also explore. Just don't give up on me yet.

Reviews are love, leave some.

-Krystle

Flowers for Your Grave Pt 2

Kate wakes up to the sound of her alarm going off, groaning, she turns it off and rolls over reaching her arm out to find her husband, only to be met with cold sheets. She cracks her eyes open looking around their room. Soon, the familiar sound of fingers tapping a keyboard fill her ears and she smiles. Slipping out of the bed, she grabs her robe that is laying across the chair, ties the string loosely and heads into his office.

She's always loved watching him work. His eyes scanning the screen, chasing the words he's typing. The way his brow creases when he's having a difficult time trying to get out a thought, fury evident on his face as he deletes and retypes over and over until he gets it right.

Abandoning her spot against the doorframe, she walks over to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders from behind and burying her face in his neck, breathing him in. The typing stops, and his hands reach up, one wrapping around her left hand, the other cradling the back of her head. He twists his face towards her, kissing her forehead.

"Good morning, Mrs. Castle," he whispers, still sounding just as giddy as when they first got married.

She smiles, kissing his neck, "Good morning, Mr. Castle. How long have you been up?"

Glancing at the clock on the top right corner of his laptop, "A couple of hours. Inspiration struck, and I had to get the words on the page before I lost them." Before she can even attempt to peak, he closes the lid of the computer. "No spoilers for you."

She pinches his shoulder. "Mean."

CB

Coming out of their bedroom, she walks over to the kitchen island, kissing her daughter on the head, and reaching for the mug of coffee waiting for her. "Morning, Lex."

"Morning, Mom," the young girl answers, taking a bite of her pancake.

Rick places a plate in front of his wife. "I talked to Gina, she's going to send all the mail I've received to the Precinct this afternoon."

"Perfect," Kate smiles. She really didn't want to get a warrant against her husbands publishing house. She takes a bite out of her breakfast and looks up, still feeling Rick's eyes on her. She raises her eyebrows. "What?"

He gives his best set of puppy dog eyes, and tries not to bounce excitedly. "Do you need help going through them? I can swing by, help you sift through them while 'Sito and Ryan are doing grunt work."

There it is. "Rick, I don't know," she says.

"Come on, Kate," he's begging now. "Please? I have a copycat, I have to help."

"Why do you have to help?"

"For the story."

"There's not always a story, sometimes he's just a psychopath."

"There's always a story, Mom," Alexis pipes up, getting narrowed eyes from her mom and a smile from her father.

"So, not helping, kid," Kate grunts.

Alexis smiles sheepishly, "Sorry."

Looking back and forth between her kid and her husband she shakes her head. "I'm not gonna win this one, am I?" Two heads shake from side to side. "Fine, but you're bringing lunch."

"Deal!"

CB

Rick's fan mail is delivered at noon, and he come walking in thirty minutes later with bags from Remy's. He drops off a bag each to Ryan and Esposito, both of them giving him their thank you's. Kate follows him to the break room, and kisses his cheek.

"That was nice of you."

"Well, I couldn't just bring you lunch, Kate. Can't play favorites," he winks at her, kissing the side of her head.

She smacks him in the chest, "Whatever. What did you bring me?"

"Your usual," he answers, setting her food on the table, "And a strawberry shake."

"Wow," she smiles, "I'm spoiled."

They eat their lunch, Rick faster than Kate - he's still excited that he gets to help with the mail sorting. She can't imagine why. It's going to be tedious. Curiosity getting the better of her, she asks, "Why are you so excited about having a copycat, babe?"

"Are you kidding? It's like the highest honor in my profession."

She raises her eyebrows, "Seriously?"

He grins, "Yeah! That...and I need to be authentic."

"Authentic?" She questions. Why in the world would he need to be authentic? "Rick, what aren't you telling me?"

"I've figured out what my next book series is going to be about. Rather, whom my next series is going to be about," he answers, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

She nearly chokes on her milkshake. "Oh, no."

"Yeah!"

"No, really, Rick. Are you kidding me?!"

"Ok, you're mad."

"Yeah, you're damn right I'm mad!" She's nearly telling now. "Were you even going to tell me? Or wait until the launch party?"

"I just told you," he states, and turns in his chair, grabbing for her hand. "Kate, why are you so mad?"

"I don't want to be in the spotlight anymore than I already am," she answers, softening up a little at his touch. "What about Lex? This affects her life too."

"Well, I'm not using your name, honey, and the characters - as of right now - don't have a child," he explains. "I wouldn't even put a character in one of my novels based off of Alexis, you should now me better than that."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," she shakes her head, trying to calm herself down. "Does this mean I get to read it before anyone else?"

Rick chuckles, "We'll see."

CB

Turns out, the fan mail was a good place to start. They end up catching a lead, and of course Rick begs to come with her to chase it down. She tries arguing with him, she doesn't want him in danger, she would never forgive herself if something happened to him. She caves after arguing with him for ten minutes about it.

Pulling up to the apartment building she turns to him, her hand on his thigh, "Babe, please. Wait here."

"Scouts honor," he responds.

Once inside the apartment, Kate feels like she'll be sick. Rick's books, even the ones that flopped, are lined on the bookshelf. She gets called over to a closet and the bile in her throat rises. Before her is a shrine with photos of her husband, different book jackets.

"Whoa, that's creepy!"

Turning around, she is met with her husband. "Rick!"

He winks at her, "Honey, I was never a scout, remember?"

She glares at him, and shakes her head. Now is not the time to yell at him. Everyone's ears perk up at the sound of thumping coming from the opposite end of the apartment. She pokes her finger in his chest. "Stay. Here."

Of course, he doesn't.

The detectives move towards the door on the other end of the room, guns drawn. She announces their presence and demands the person on the other side open the door. Nothing. She nods, indicating it's ok to open the door. The sight before them is enough to break anyones heart. A man in his late twenties, early thirties, is banging his head agains the wall mumbling nonsense. He's clearly mentally disturbed.

CB

"Come on, Kate," he says, putting the pan of water on the stove, "You can't really believe that Cabott is the killer."

"Babe, we found the evidence in his apartment. You were there!" even though I told you to stay in the damn car.

"I know, but don't you feel like this kid could be getting set up? Think about it, Kate," he continues, dropping the pasta into the pan. "Why would Cabott clean up the crime scenes, but send me a letter covered in his prints? He's being set up."

"Rick-"

"Humor me," he says, flinging the dish towel over his shoulder and turning to face her. "Have you talked to Alison's father?"

"Only to inform him of her death, and the basic 'where were you the night of the murder'."

"Well," Rick says, turning around to stir the pasta so it doesn't stick to the pan, "What do you say we go talk to him again in the morning?"

"We? You're still going to come to the precinct with me? Seriously?"

"Um, yeah," he replies. "Of course I am."

"Why?"

"Come on, Kate, I have to know how this story ends," he answers, making his way to her and wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her to him. "Plus, you have to admit, you've had fun with me tagging along."

Rolling her eyes, she cocks her head to the side. "It has been a little bit fun," she concedes, and locks her hands at the base of his neck. "I just wish you'd listen to me and stay put. I don't want anything to happen to you."

He leans in, kisses her softly. "I'll be okay, Kate. You've got my back."

They smile at each other and lean in for another kiss, only to jump apart at the slamming of a book. "Okay, if you guys are gonna get all lovey-dovey, I'm gonna go study in my room," their daughter says, rising from the kitchen island. "I just want you both to be safe. Call me when dinner is ready."

CB

After talking to Alison's father and brother, the case started to quickly make more sense, much to Castle's pleasure. They get the warrant for Harrison Tisdale's apartment and assemble a task force.

Rolling up to the building where Harrison lives, uniforms run in ahead of her. "Rick. Stay here."

"You've got to be kidding!"

Damn him!. "Alright, fine. My back up weapon is in the glove box," she says, and gets out when he's distracted. She's going to keep her husband safe if it kills her, and if he has a problem with it, oh well. She runs quickly to the other side of the car and cuffs his right hand to the handle beside his head.

"This time you're staying put," she says, leaning in and kissing the side of his forehead.

"Oh, come on!" he yells after her as she's running away from him. "Kate!" She disappears into the building and he rolls his eyes. "Seriously?!"

He huffs in annoyance, and then pulls out his wallet. Who knew that the random cuff key he had been carrying around would actually be put to use…until he drops the tiny piece of metal. He takes his shoe and sock off and grabs the key with his toes, grinning in victory. He's trying to hurry and get out of the restraints, but movement in the the ally catches his eye.

Harrison Tisdale is coming down the fire escape, a bag of shredded paper in his hand and small pieces raining down from the bag not being secured.

Damn it! "Hey!" Rick yells, startling Harrison. "Hey, stop!"

Finally out of the cuffs, Rick pulls out his cell phone.

"Beckett."

"He's coming down the fire escape!" Rick doesn't even wait for her to respond, he starts charging towards Harrison, which of course would be easier if he was wearing both of his shoes. He hears his wife yell for Harrison to stop, and that give him a slight energy boost.

"Don't worry!" he yells, tossing his shoe aside, he'll find it later. "I got him!"

"Rick! No!" she yells, growling in a combination of anger and fear. Turning around she quickly runs down the fire escape. All she's concerned about right now is getting to her husband and making sure that he's safe.

She slinks along the side of a delivery van, gun at the ready, heart pounding in her ears. She can hear rustling, and angles the passenger side mirror so she can see what's going on. At the sight of Harrison with his left arm around Rick's shoulders, and his right holding a gun to his head she wants to be sick.

"Let him go, Harrison!" Of course, he doesn't. "Rick, you okay?"

"Fine," he answers, "except psycho here needs a breath mint."

"Hey!" Harrison yells, digging the gun into Rick's neck.

"Okay, okay, take it easy!"

"Let him go, Harrison!" Kate repeats.

"You know what I don't get? If you were so deep in debt, why didn't you just ask your father for the money?"

"Rick, you're not helping!"

He holds up a hand too Kate. "You know what I think? I think you did ask. I think you asked and he said no. A self made man like that? He probably thought you were weak."

Harrison breaks, "He's the one who was weak!"

"So you wanted to punish him before he died," Rick presses on. "Take away the only thing he ever loved. Thats a good story!"

Turning his head, Harrison looks at Rick with creased eyebrows. "Who the hell are you?"

"Drop the gun, Harrison," Kate says again. "It's over."

Before Harrison could even respond, Rick flings his right hand behind him, effectively retrieving the gun and knocking Harrison down. "Please tell me you saw that!"

Kate shakes her head, and runs over to where they are, and puts a knee in middle of Harrison's back, taking the cuffs that Rick holds out to her. Once she's got Harrison cuffed, she shoves her husband. Hard. Causing him to hit the brick wall behind him.

"What the hell were you thinking?! You could have been killed, Rick!"

"The safety was on the whole time."

She give him a glare. "You know, you could have told me."

"Where's the fun in that?"

Shaking her head, she stands, pulling Harrison with her. "We'll talk about this later."

"Kate-"

"No," she responds firmly. "We'll talk later. Please?"

He nods, knowing just by looking at her that she's not going to budge. He watches as his wife walks away with Harrison. She hands him over to the uniforms, gives her instructions for where to take him.

"Bro," Javi says, standing next to him. "You're an idiot."

"Why do you say that?"

"You serious?" he asks. "Come on, man. You're her husband. Do you really believe she would be standing there in one piece if something had happened to you during that little scene back there? You're smarter than that, Castle."

"Espo, I was just trying to help."

He nods. "I know, and what you did was bad ass. But, bro, you're not a cop. You don't have our training. She would never have forgiven herself if something would have happened to you. How would she tell your kid that something had happened to you?"

"Damn," he whispers.

"She's already lost one person she's loved," Javi says, as if reminding him about his mother-in-law. "If she lost you or your daughter, bro, she'd never recover. Just, think about it."

Javi walks off towards Kate, and leaves Rick standing there watching. All he wants is to put his arms around his wife and apologize for being so stupid. He wants them both to go home, and talk this out, hell, he'll even let her yell and hit if she needs too.

"Hey," she says, shaking him out of his thoughts.

"Hey," he whispers, not daring to reach out for her just yet. He can tell she's trying her hardest not to let her tough exterior break. "Kate, I-"

"Stop," she says, raising her hand. "Just-I know this case wouldn't have been solved as quickly without your help, Rick. I do. But I can't do this."

"Do what?"

"I can't get the image of him with that gun to you out of my head," her eyes are shining with unshed tears. "If anything would have happened to you-"

"I know," he states firmly, not caring about the officers behind her, he grabs her by the waist and pulls her to him, holding her close. She settles into him, her arms wrapping around him. He feels her body shake from the sobs she's finally letting out. "I'm so sorry, Kate. I'm sorry I worried you."

"I was scared," she corrects. "I was more scared than worried. I can't lose you, Rick. I can't. What would I do? How would I tell our daughter that you've been hurt or worse? I can't lose another person, I don't know if I'd survive it."

He nods, kissing the crown of her head, and pulling away slightly. Wiping the tears from her cheeks, he leans down, capturing her lips with his. "I love you, Kate."

"I love you too," she returns, "We aren't done talking, by any means, but what do you say after I turn in my report, you, me and the kid head out to the Hamptons? We could debrief each other."

He smiles at her. "I'll head home and start packing."

"No," she says, and he can see the fear in her eyes. "Stay. Please?"

"Alright. I'll stay," they start walking back to her Crown Vic, arms around each other. "Hey, you're gonna put that I knocked him out and got his gun from him in your report right?"

To be continued…