It was a cool November day, the kind of day that was Kate's favorite. The leaves were still falling from the trees, but would soon give completely to the coming winter. They were probably just weeks from the first New York snow and she looked forward to sharing it with her family. This year Charlie would be old enough to truly enjoy the flakes for the first time.

She and Castle walked through the grave yard, her arm wrapped through his as she carried a warm blanket, and flowers, while he carried their child on his hip. She thought warmly to herself as she recalled the day in early may when the latest member of the family joined them.

It was a warm and breezy Sunday afternoon, as Kate walked arm in arm with her husband through central park. Rick woke her up early that morning, bringing her breakfast in bed, a dozen pink roses, a wonderful bath set and candles to complement the gift, along with a beautiful emerald necklace. It was a symbol of their child, who was due any day now.

That morning marked the first mother's day of many for Kate Beckett. They spent the afternoon strolling through the park, as was usual for them. Even though she was 38 weeks pregnant, Kate was determined to remain as active as possible until the moment the baby came. Castle wasn't surprised, especially considering Kate's nature, he half expected their baby to be born kicking and screaming with fists balled in the air, demanding social justice for all.

She loved the scent in the air, as the breeze carried with it the fragrances of the fresh flowers in bloom. They rounded the sidewalk and Kate stopped once again, rubbing out the cramp in her uterus. The damned Braxton-hicks contractions had been coming for days now, and she was growing tired of them. At first they rushed to the hospital, thinking it was time, only to be sent home and told to not return until they were more intense and closer together, indicating actual labor as opposed to the false labor she'd been experiencing.

Castle stopped to rub her back, adding pressure to the circles he pressed in attempt to make her more comfortable. "Are you sure you don't want to take a break Kate?" He asked her.

"I'm fine, it's just these are getting annoying." She spoke, the tension finally releasing as she exhaled and they continued to move. A few minutes later she stopped again, breathing deep and waiting for the pain to pass. At the expression on her face, Rick became concerned.

"Kate, are those hurting you?" He pressed, knowing that one of the central differences between the false labor, and real contractions was the presence of pain. "Just a little." She admitted. His eyes widened at her, "For how long have they been hurting?"

"Castle it's ok. They're not too bad, and the timing between them is still not right." She appeased him.

"Well, these contractions are only about two minutes apart Kate." I think we need to see the doctor.

"I don't want to go back until I know that it's time." She argued. "Let's just keep walking."

So they did. By the time they passed the coffee stand that they usually used, Kate doubled over in pain.

"Ow!" Ok, Castle I think you're right.

"You think it's time? Are you sure?" He asked. She looked up at him and pointed to the ground, directing his attention down. There he saw a puddle, noting that her pants were drenched.

"Oh my God Kate, your water just broke!" He yelled.

"Yeah Castle. I noticed!" She grabbed his arm as he guided her out of the park and to a cab.

By the time they reached the hospital her contractions were about 90 seconds apart, growing closer rapidly. With the knowledge that her water had broken, they wasted little time getting her set up and in a room. Her first exam revealed that she was already 5 centimeters dilated and nearly completely effaced.

As she progressed through her labor, the contractions became increasingly intense, forcing Kate to focus almost completely on her breathing to concentrate through the pain. She was determined to give birth naturally, as her mother had done.

Finally, after hours and hours of hard labor, and the final stages of transitioning, the doctor informed her that she was fully dilated and ready to push. Rick and Kate had agreed early on that they wanted to be surprised about the sex of their baby, having names ready for both possibilities.

When the time came to push, Rick helped Kate to scoot forward in the bed slightly, bringing her legs to rest in the stirrups as the nurses and their doctor prepared themselves. They also saw that a nurse allowed for Martha and Alexis to join them. They were there through the majority of the labor, but had gone for coffee before the final exam by the doctor.

Once scooted forward, Rick crawled into bed behind Kate, allowing her to use his back to lean against. He held a compress against her head with one hand and held hers with the other. The women returned and stood on either side of her, ready to meet the newest family member and eager to see if it was a he or a she.

The doctor told Kate to get ready by taking a deep breath, and as she did she took both of Castle's hands in hers. As was the case with everything else in her life since the moment she met him, since before she met him, he was her anchor. They told her to push, counting slowly to 10 before allowing her to rest.

When the first contraction was over, she caught her breath as Alexis changed the cloth on her head, wiping the sweat from her brow. Rick kissed her forehead, whispering words of love and encouragement to her as she prepared herself for the next contraction. They saw it coming on the monitor, and she felt it, bracing herself while she took another deep breath.

Again, they counted to 10, Kate concentrating furiously as she tried to push, feeling an increase of pressure that was nearly impossible to manage. She let out a scream after the end of the second round, "I can't." She started to feel overwhelmed, the pressure taking over and her body shaking in exertion.

The doctor told her again to take a breath, informing her that she could see the head. Rick spoke to her as Alexis again wiped the sweat from her brow, Martha's hand resting softly on her arm. As the next contraction approached she turned her head to the side, "I'm sorry Castle. I'm too tired."

He comforted her, "you're doing so great Kate." The doctor and the nurses nodded and added their own encouragement. Kate, this is the hardest part, the baby is crowning and we've got to get the shoulders out. They urged her once again to take a breath, and she gave everything to the next push. She started to struggle as they counted, '7, 8, 9, 10,' Breathing out in exhaustion finally.

Tears streamed down her face, "Castle please. I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore." She tried desperately to recover.

"Kate, I can see the baby now, his head is out. Just one more big push and he'll be here; Just one more Kate." The doctor urged her. She couldn't stop the trembling in her body, and she'd never been as exhausted in her life. "I've got nothing left." She cried out.

"Kate, I remember the first time I saw you. I was amazed. You were so driven, so intense, you were extraordinary. Do you remember when I told you that?" He kissed along her brow and continued to speak softly to her,

"You're Kate Beckett. You kick ass and take names. You bring justice to victims and make grown men shake with fear. You're the strongest woman I know. Kate you've got this, your strength is what I fell in love with. I know you can do this." He whispered in her ear, "through everything you've done, you've survived, you've got this. I can't wait to tell this baby how strong and amazing you are. Just one more push Kate."

With the final contraction she pushed with all she had, she held out longer than the count of ten and just before she was to break, she felt it with a pop. The pressure was gone and she could feel the slide, the shoulders had passed and the baby came out.

She caught her breath, relieved that it was over, relieved that she did it and wouldn't have to do it again. In the next moment she heard it, the strong cry that was music to her ears. The magnitude of it all, the reality of everything set in as she completely forgot about the difficulty of the birth. All she could do was listen to the fierce cry.

In the next second the doctor lifted the baby, causing both Castle and Beckett to gasp, caught somewhere between a laugh and a cry. "Congratulations, it's a little girl!" The doctor spoke. Martha and Alexis were both in tears, Rick offering his mother the honor of cutting the cord. Once the baby was free, they set her on Kate's stomach and the parents stared on in wonder.

The tiny, screaming infant quieted when Rick's warm hand began to rub her back, Kate softly stroking her head. She opened her eyes and moved her head slightly toward Kate's voice when she spoke,

"Hello baby Charlotte. You're so perfect." She couldn't keep the tears back, as she became overwhelmed with a sense of love and protectiveness that she'd never experienced before. They took the baby, cleaned, weighed, printed and tested her reflexes before wrapping her in a pink blanket and hat, and placing her back in her mother's arms. Rick continued to hold Kate in his arms, reaching around her to lovingly caress their newborn daughter.

"She's beautiful Kate. Absolutely perfect."

Kate loved that Charlotte, who they frequently called Charlie for short, had been born on Mother's day. It seemed fitting, and incredibly special. She smiled to herself at the memory of her daughter's birth as she looked at her, laughing and clapping her hands as Rick carried her through the cemetery. It was the first time they'd brought her here, but Kate thought it was time.

She loved to watch her husband when he held their daughter, who had her brown hair, although slightly lighter and quite curly. She also had green eyes, but on her face were Castle's features. She was funny, happy, playful, way too smart for her own good, and absolutely gorgeous. Although Charlotte's eyes were green, they were more bluish green, whereas Kate's were more brownish green. It was like she was given a new eye color, the perfect combination of her parents.

Kate sighed happily to herself as she thought about life since Charlotte had arrived. Motherhood had proven to be difficult, but wonderful. Exhausting, but fulfilling. Scary, but exciting. She never knew what would come next where their little girl was concerned.

She was a Castle in every sense of the word, curious and into everything, with the stubborn streak of her mother to make controlling the strong-willed child nearly impossible. However, with all the strong-willed and sometimes difficult to manage traits, was a sweet and soft disposition, leading the most ornery of individuals to fall absolutely in love with her.

In addition to Charlotte joining their lives, Kate had seen herself present at the trial for the man who had murdered her mother. After he'd been convicted, and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, each of the victim's families were given the chance to come and speak up. Kate often thought about what she would say to the man, and how she would talk about all he'd taken away.

However, when the time came for her to speak, Rick and her dad by her side while Alexis and Martha remained at home with their 8 month old infant, she found herself compelled to take a different approach. After Jim said his piece, recalling the wonderful woman that he'd taken and telling the man that he had no right and that he would now rot in prison, Kate took the stand. She took a deep breath, held her head high, and began to speak.

"Hello senator Berkley. I know who you are, and I know what you did. I know all about how you got to the place of power you had. Now, so does everyone else, and your life is over." She began.

"Me, on the other hand, my life is just beginning. I've got a bright and happy, wonderfully fulfilled future ahead of me, despite what you did to my mother." She leveled him with her glare.

"Mr. Berkley, I've got all the love and happiness in the world. I wake up in the morning, and I go to bed every night with absolutely no regrets. If you ever wonder what that feels like, let me tell you-it's damn good." She continued.

"I know you ordered me killed, more than once, but guess what?" She waited for him to look up to meet her eyes,

"You lose." She bluntly stated.

"Unlike a lot of people who come in to speak, who can be just faceless and nameless to you, a victim from one of the many families destroyed by what you did, I have a name-and you know it." She pointed to him, satisfied by the fact that she had his complete attention.

" You know all about me, don't you?" She spoke, bitter self-satisfaction in her voice.

"You know all about who I am and what I do, that detective-thorn in your side who you just couldn't wipe out. It must make you really pissed to know that with all your power, and all your henchmen, you couldn't take me out. Just one cop…with a writer at her side, a weaponless writer! … and you still lost." She looked to Castle, who held her gaze, completely supportive and vindicated by her words of power.

"So when you rot in prison former senator, and you will, and you think about all your regrets and your failures, remember me. Know I'll be living my life to the fullest, I'll be living out everything Johanna Beckett wanted for her daughter." She glared at him.

"I hope you remember me in your darkest hour. I hope you remember my mother, because you may have killed her…but in the end, she took you down. Even from beyond the grave, she managed to tear you apart, which is what she aimed to do in the first place you son of a bitch." She stood then, adding one final thought before she exited the courtroom,

"Good luck in Hell Mr. Berkeley, think of me often. Remember though, as you do, that this is the last time I'm ever going to give your sorry ass another thought."

With that, she simply walked from the courtroom, in the end, justice came, and her mom's death was not meaningless. It was that investigation that unraveled everything afterall.

She smiled to herself as she remembered that moment, the day where she took a place of power for herself and for her mother, it was a power that could never be taken from her again and it gave her the closure to move on with her life.

As they made their way passed the grave stones, they arrived at the memorial for Johanna Beckett. There, Kate took the blanket and laid it out, spreading the multi-colored flowers out across the front of the grave.

Castle moved to sit beside her then, allowing their daughter to toddle happily to her mom. Charlotte steadied herself on Kate's folded legs, looking around at the scenery. It was unseasonably warm for that November day, the sun shining directly down on them making it even more temperate.

Kate moved to take the little hat from the daughter's head, allowing her brown curls to fly around in the breeze. Her light button-up pink sweater remained on, as did the matching dress and white leggings, keeping her little body warm. Charlotte kept her little palms on Kate's knee while turning to look at the grave.

She pointed and turned to Castle, "mama fower." She said, pointing to the flowers that her mother had just laid on the grave.

"That's right sweet girl. You're mama put those flowers there." Charlotte nodded, satisfied that her daddy understood what she was trying to tell him.

She walked over to the flowers and picked one up, "wello fower." She spoke, describing the yellow-colored flower in her hands. Kate smiled "That's my smart girl." The truth was, Charlotte only had down that there were different colors, she knew white and black, and every other color that was not white or black, which she called "wello." She'd not grasped that yellow was just one color and not the word for all colors.

"Charlotte, baby girl, can you come here?" She asked her daughter, who was bending over the flowers and re-arranging them in her own intricate pattern. Charlotte turned and walked back to her mom, allowing herself to be picked up and set on Kate's lap.

Castle moved in close to his wife, placing an arm around her neck and kissing her cheek softly, while Kate cuddled Charlotte close to her body. The child still held on to the single yellow flower. There, on that mild November afternoon, sun shining down on the family, Kate began to tell her daughter a story.

"Baby girl, let me tell you all about an amazing and brave heroine, a strong and beautiful woman who helped lots and lots of people. I want to tell you the story of your grandma."

The End.

So I do hope you liked the ending. One of the first scenes I wrote was the graveyard scene, knowing that flashbacks to the birth and the trial would be written in as well. :)