A/N: Some requests for an Epilogue to wrap up. Basically filling in some of the background I'd just kept in my head, not on the page. I liked my ending, but...

XxXxXxXxXxX

It was a year ago today that he'd lost her, Castle stood beside the grave, placed the flowers gently down before standing back up and putting his arm around his mother.

Alexis had been gone a year. A whole year.

Life had never returned to normal, not even after returning home. Protective custody had been a burden on them both, right when his mother's career had been picking back up she'd been required to disappear from the public eye for three months.

Gates reached out to her contacts, within the NYPD, and further afield; had been placed in charge of the local effort of a specially convened task force. Castle had been in protective for the first three months, but once the investigation grew big enough, had dug further; once the cat was out of the bag there had been no need. Targeting Castle or his mother would have been a waste of time.

Ryan and Esposito's death had quickly been connected to the Irish mob, though no individual culprit had been identified even a year later. Esposito was presumed to be collateral damaged in the murder of Ryan. Clearly, it was a false trail, Castle knew that, explained it to Gates. LockSat was behind it, but had constructed a false story, a patsy to take the blame. A murder by the mob, of an officer who had formerly been undercover with them was all to plausible. It was a risk Ryan had known about every day, every cop knew about; it was a rare occurrence, buy they faced the risk of revenge with eyes open.

Lanie's killer was never identified, the weapon was still at the scene but untraceable. The NYPD had no knowledge of how the assailant had managed to enter the medical examiners office. In comparisons to federal lock-up though, the city morgue probably hadn't been much of a challenge.

Alexis. Castle always had to take a steadying breath when he though of her. Her death had been tied back to enemies of Dino Scarpella, who had been found dead in his offices with several known associates. Another family had started a war, killed Dino and was targeting those he trusted. Castle thought his name being on a mob hit list was a little implausible, but it seemed more believable than being on secret multi-national drug syndicate hit list.

What were the odds? Various mob families all deciding to take revenge on the same day? A bizarre coincidence? Without someone to add the secret LockSat ingredient the murders would likely have been treated as just what their framers wanted them to be viewed as: unrelated.

A year later, and they still didn't know who LockSat was, nor where Beckett was.

Kate was simply gone. Vanished. Her father too. They had found her credentials, side arm, and a burner phone in a dumpster 3 blocks from grand central station. The burner phone had only calls to other burner phones, one in particular found on the body of an unidentified woman at the New York Public library.

Jim Beckett had left the office suddenly midday, and never returned. He'd received a call and walked out without explanation. The call had come from one of the same burner phones that had called Kate's own burner. That phone last pinged off a cell tower on the west side of Manhattan just hours after she had left the precinct. It had never been found, or pinged again.

Castle really didn't know what to make of it. She'd left him, but he'd retained some hope. Now she was gone. Had she gone on the run, taking her father with her to protect him? Much like Castle had gone straight to his mother to ensure her safety? Well he'd tried to call Beckett first, but she'd left her phone at the precinct. He still remembered the last time he'd heard her voice, her voicemail had picked up.

They'd found a handful of surveillance pictures that captured her image, entering the New York Public library, in the company of the woman later found dead with the burner phone. That woman had been shot, multiple times; not by Kate's service weapon. There was more blood at the scene, male, but it didn't get any hits in the system.

A picture from later that day showed her jogging, wearing headphones, and new clothes; she was alone and moving away from Grand Central, and the dumpster where her burner and service weapon had been thrown away. They hadn't found anything else, but hadn't really known where to look.

If Beckett had run, she'd probably stay gone until LockSat was brought down; by her singular avenging hand if she got her wish. A year and they were no closer to that goal, with a NYPD and federal task force involved. He held out little hope of Kate returning anytime soon.

Worse, she may already be dead, but he didn't know; would hold out hope for her to get what she wanted.

It just wouldn't be him.

Dead, or simply missing; he couldn't wait forever. He'd never stop loving her, but his mother had yelled at him this very morning. Stop wallowing, Alexis would want you to live life, not to mourn forever. She was right. She also hadn't mentioned Beckett's name.

It was time to move forward.