Epilogue

As she sat on the couch Kate absentmindedly brought her index finger to her lips, moistened it with the edge of her tongue, and then moved it slowly towards the book she held so she could more easily turn the next page. With the next page turned, she tucked her free hand back beneath the blanket draped over her lap. She was so engrossed with the story, that she paid no attention to where her partner was until she felt the couch sink with his weight. A moment later his hand landed on her thigh and he rubbed it tenderly but didn't say anything until she finished the page she was reading, lowered the book, and turned her head in his direction.

"Hi."

He dipped his head, kissed her shoulder, and then gave her a dopey smile. "Hi. How are you?"

Kate flicked her eyes up and down her partner, then studied his face for another few seconds. "Well now I'm wondering what you're up to."

"Me?" he responded with his voice half an octave higher than usual. "Why would you think that I'm up to something?"

"Because you have that 'I'm up to something' look on your face."

He grinned. "I'm not up to something—not yet, anyway. I was just thinking about our anniversary in a few weeks."

"What anniversary?"

He practically choked and his eyes bulged wide. "What anniversary? Beckett! Our wedding anniversary!"

Kate groaned and tossed her book onto the couch beside her. Of course, he was bringing up that. Really, she should not have been surprised. It was barely more than two weeks away and he'd yet to mention anything or drop any anvil-sized hints, but in the end Kate did not feel the anniversary of the day they fake got married did not need to be celebrated with anything other than a brief mention the day of (and that was only because she was certain he would be offended if she didn't at least do that).

"Oh, Castle…that's sweet, but no."

"What do you mean no?"

"We're not celebrating the anniversary of our fake marriage."

"Beckett!"

She huffed out a breath at the tone he used; it was the half offended one he always got when she referenced the fact that their marriage wasn't real. She knew that every time she said that, a part of him felt like she was calling their relationship or feelings for one another into question, but that could not have been further from the truth. She loved him and valued their relationship more than anything else. And while they had discussed that no, they would not divorce at the one-year mark of their marriage as they had originally agreed upon, she also very much looked forward to marrying him again on her own terms. That was the point at which she would consider them husband and wife.

"I'm sorry, Castle, but on that day it was supposed to be fake. Why would you want to celebrate that?"

"Why wouldn't we celebrate that?" He countered. "Come on—the day you and I got officially hitched! That's one for the books! So…weekend getaway?"

She laughed and picked up her book once more. "No."

"Dinner reservation? Oh—dinner and a show? What do you want to see?"

She wrinkled her brow and shook her head. "No, it could be snowing. Let's just stay home. I'm sure we can celebrate here," she added in an enticing tone while running her hand up and down his forearm.

His expression fell slightly and he mumbled, "I just want it to be special."

Not wanting his feelings to be hurt, she rotated her body so that her knees and torso faced him. From that angle she easily placed her hands atop his shoulders and brushed her thumbs gently on the side of his neck. "Oh Castle, that's very sweet and I know you mean well but I'd rather save something extra special for celebrating our real anniversary—I know, I know." She quickly interjected when he opened his lips and she knew a protest was about to emerge. "This counts too but you know what I'm saying."

He grumbled for a moment, but then nodded. "Fair enough. I guess I… well, I mean obviously I want to celebrate all our anniversaries because I love you and love an excuse to celebrate, but I guess I was worried that our real anniversary is tainted."

"Tainted?"

He gazed over at her sadly. "Because it's the day Montgomery died, and we found out about everything he did."

Kate's hands dropped from his shoulders and she leaned back, surprised. So that was why he was pressing the issue of celebrating their wedding anniversary so much—because he was worried she wouldn't want to celebrate their real one. Her heart clenched in her chest, for that could not have been further from the truth. Yes, technically the onset of their relationship also happened to be on the same day as one of the worst events of her life, but she didn't connect the two in her mind. That was: she did not let one poison the other as he feared. She had never once thought that and knew she never would.

"Castle, I don't think of it that way—not at all. Yes, it is unfortunate those things happened on the same day, but I refuse to let it taint those moments we had together."

A soft smile crossed his face. "Technically it was an hour and seven minutes."

A laugh bubbled out of her chest and she could not help but reach out and brush her thumb over his cheek. "Right. The hour and seven minutes that were some of the best of my life. I never…I never thought I could experience a moment of pure happiness like that, but I did, and it was incredible, and nothing can ever take that from us, so I don't mind that being our real anniversary."

He turned his face so that he could kiss her palm. Then he brought his hand up to join with hers saying, "It was pretty amazing."

"Yeah."

"And we've had some pretty amazing times since then," he added with a naughty eyebrow wiggle.

"Yeah I can think of one or two," she said, feigning a casual tone. Then she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. "We'll have dinner on our anniversary, okay? Nothing too extravagant."

He leaned back with a careful expression, "So I should cancel the three dozen roses being delivered to the Twelfth."

"Castle!"

"Kidding. It was only one dozen. Hey!" he whined when she poked his arm aggressively.

She shook her head and said, "You're terrible."

"Nah." He refused. Then he stood up, brushing his lips against her head as he did so. "I'll make us dinner—but it'll be an amazing one."

She gave her head a gentle shake and said, "I would expect nothing less."

Castle made sure to take his steps very carefully as he moved from the kitchen to the dining area, where his lovely partner awaited him. He held in his hands a carefully balanced—and surprisingly heavy—tray on which their desert was perched beneath a large silver roasting pan. This, of course, was not the presentation he was aspiring for, exactly, but it wasn't until after he'd made the dessert that he realized he did not want Kate to see it before he placed it on the table in front of her and the roasting pan was the only item he had large enough to cover the whole thing.

"Okay, my dear, are you ready for your extra special dessert?" he asked as he walked the last few steps towards the table.

"Sure," she responded with a slightly nervous laugh, but Castle didn't pick up on that, he was too excited to present his creation.

All in all, their anniversary dinner had gone quite well. Though it pained him to do so, he refrained from making their evening too elaborate. He'd made salmon and roast veggies as he knew that was one of her favorite meals. Thankfully she was able to work a regular shift that day so their meal did not have to be atypically early or late. She arrived home just as he was lighting candled on the table. She'd laughed, said he didn't have to, and then disappeared into the bedroom to change out of her dress pants. Castle watched her go with a secret smile on his face; he'd suspected as much, which was why he'd altered his original plans to ensure a surprise.

They dined together with great wine and conversation. He'd insisted on them running-down their favorite moments of their one year of cohabitation. He thought she would be more receptive of a retrospective if he kept it about their living arrangement rather than the marriage she didn't like discussing, and she was. He was pleased to hear just how many of her favorite moments involved the whole family. To him it only reaffirmed what he already knew in his heart; they were going to be together forever.

"Okay, here we go. Voila!" He slid the tray in front of her and felt his heart beat just a little bit faster as he wiped the roasting pan of and then moved his gaze immediately to her face to see her reaction.

Her eyes shifted back and forth over the cake for two seconds before she said, "Oh…oh! You made this?" she gazed up at him with slight surprise.

He let out a slight laugh and looked down at the cake, which was meant to be in the shape of two interlocking hearts and iced in light pink frosting. Then, in red frosting he'd piped out their initials and what ended up being a tragically misshapen Cupid's arrow. Unfortunately, 'misshapen' seemed to be the theme of the cake, because while the hearts looked mostly recognizable before the frosting, in the aftermath they became very blob-like. The only thing he was really proud of was how neat their initials looked. Thus, he was not at all surprised when he saw a flicker of disappointment in Kate's eyes initially; a cake decorator he was not.

"Yeah…I know it looks a bit wonky. I tried really hard, but I guess I should stick to coffee art."

"Oh no! No—it's really thoughtful and sweet." She reached out and grabbed his hand to give it a squeeze. "I love that you did this; thank you."

He smiled at her, then went to the kitchen to get a large knife and two small plates. When he returned to the table, he saw her gazing down at the pink mess with a bit of a sad expression, and he felt his heart clench. "Listen, I know it looks a bit disheveled, but I promise it tastes good," he said confidently for he had eaten the leftover cake pieces from his heart-creation surgery, and of course he'd licked the spatula after he was done with the frosting.

"What? Oh no its really great, Castle."

"Are you sure? You looked kind of…sad."

"No, no. I was thinking—imaging you trying to design this cake by hand. They make baking tins already shaped like this, don't they?"

He shook his head as he began to slice up the heart with "KB" in the center. "No—I checked several stores. I could only find a pan shaped like a single heart, not two interlocking."

She hummed and happily accepted the slice of cake from him saying, "Well who cares what it looks like when it tastes delicious, right?"

He winked and said, "I was hoping you'd say that." He then dug into his slice of the dessert—a white cake with a hint of lemon and a raspberry filling—and found it was even better when he ate all the parts together.

They were quiet for a few moments before Kate reached out, patted his forearm and said, "Thanks for doing this, Castle. I…I know I was being a bit of a stick-in-the-mud about celebrating, but this was really great. Really."

"Thank you. And I wouldn't say you were being a stick-in-the-mud; I get your reasoning. I just…well, I'm always going to take any opportunity to celebrate how much I love you. You should get used to it."

She let out a light laugh, and he could see the joy shining in her eyes. "Thanks for the warning."

"Speaking of…" Again, his heart fluttered, and he cleared his throat. He took a quick sip of water before continuing with, "I also want to warn you that I did get you a little something."

She let out a heavy sigh and set her fork down against her plate. "Oh Castle…you really didn't have to. I didn't get you anything and now I'm going to feel-"

"Don't feel bad." He interjected. "The thing I got you is small—really small, actually."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "How small?"

He merely shrugged. "You'll see…just finish your cake. It can wait."

She finished the two remaining bites of her cake, licked the excess icing off her fork, and then proclaimed, "That was delicious. And I still think you should put out a book of recipes someday."

He laughed. "Well, I'll pitch it to Gina next time we talk. I'm sure she'll love that idea," he said knowing the exact opposite was true, though she would probably get a good laugh out of it.

"So where is this small gift?"

"It's in the bedroom."

"Really?" Her voice rang with surprise, presumably because she had passed through their bedroom to change her clothes when she came home from work and she had not discovered anything. That was, of course, all part of Castle's plan, but he didn't want to spoil it, so he merely hung back and watched as she walked towards the bedroom. Then, after a few seconds, he followed.

He stepped into the doorway just as she turned on the lamp and gasped. Rising up on his toes enabled him to peer over her shoulder and see that his secret elf had done her job well; his plan was going perfectly.

"Oh Castle!" Kate gasped, her hands pressed against the center of her chest as she looked back and forth between him and the rose petal covered bed. She jerked her head back and forth for ten seconds before demanding, "How—how did you—but—you never left my sight!"

He casually shrugged his shoulders and confessed, "Alexis helped."

Kate's gaze flitted back to the bed with a bit of uncertainty, then she turned back to him and asked, "Alexis agreed to do this to our bed?" in a tone that indicated both surprise and a little bit of concern.

As she had yet to see the actual surprise, he could not blame her for this reaction, for her very much doubted his daughter would have been up for doing something to aid his sex life. When she heard the real reason he needed her to sneak into their room via the extraneous door in his walk-in closet, she was all too happy to help, but of course he could not give that away—not yet. So instead he merely smiled and focused on the fact that she had referred to the bed as "theirs," which it was, but only for the prior two months—after he'd finally convinced her to move the rest of her belongings out of the guest room.

"Why…why don't you take a closer look?" he suggested, trying his best to keep his voice even when his heart was hammering against the inside of his ribcage.

She took two steps towards the bed and he held his breath for twenty seconds before she turned around with a soft smile and shrugged. "It's cute. Looks like her heart-creating skills are on par with her father's. Not that I could do much better," she added with a light laugh.

"Wha…" Castle croaked when Kate's reaction did not match near what he thought it would be. What was going on?

Confused and now a little bit anxious, he walked around Kate to the foot of the bed to see that yes, Alexis had tried to create two concentric hearts in the middle with more petals surrounding, but this wasn't right! They had agreed she would put the ring box in the center of the middle heart, but it was extremely obvious that there was no ring box there. How had she forgotten the ring box?!

Refusing to accept that not only was his proposal going totally awry, but that his perfectionist daughter had failed to complete her most important task, Castle shot his hands towards the center of the bed and began to dig around. It only took him a few seconds for his fingers to come in contact with a solid object and he pulled it out with a gasp of "Ah!" Evidently, Alexis had gone against their plans and put only the ring—not the box—in the center of the bed and it had inadvertently been buried among some petals.

Turning around, he saw Kate watching him with a glassy-eyed expression of awe and his stomach lurched in his gut. Shit! This was not how his proposal was supposed to go!

"I, um, I…" He glanced between Kate and the ring he pinched between his right thumb and index finger then dropped his chin with a bit of a huff. "I'm sorry—I guess that kind of backfired. I thought we agreed that Alexis was going to put the ring box in the center of the bed and—hey…what is it?" His tone turned soft when a tear slid down her cheek and she turned her head away from him to hide it. He stepped up to her and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Is it too soon? Are you upset about the timing because-"

"No, no." She turned back, shaking her head as a few more tears fell. She rubbed her fingers underneath her eyes to collect them and then confessed with a squeak, "I thought it was going to be in the dessert!"

"What?"

"The dessert!" She stepped away from him and walked over to the bedside table to snag a tissue. "You were making such a big deal about how special it was—I thought you'd put the ring in it."

Castle nodded slowly as the events of the prior ten minutes processed in his mind. He had been right—Kate did look a little bit sad as she looked down at their cake, but not because she thought it was hideous, but because it was only a cake! "You were disappointed?"

She shrugged a little bit, then, after a beat, nodded. "I didn't expect to be. When you went to get the cake I sat there, panicking a little bit, trying to figure out what you might say so I could be prepared. I thought maybe I'd ask for more time or…or…I don't know." She combed her hands back through her hair and then looked at him and made her next confession as thought it had been one she'd hid her entire life. "And then you took the lid off that cake and it wasn't there, and it was the worst feeling in the world."

His heart fluttering with hope and love, he stepped up to her and said, "Do you still think it's too soon?"

She reached out for his hand, as though she needed the anchor to say what came next. "We've only been dating six months. I never would have even considered after that short of a period of time. Not before, but then…I also never would have expected this. You."

From the love pouring out of her gaze, Castle knew it was safe for him to continue with what he'd wanted to say before the SNAFU with the ring. He brought her hand to his lips, kissed her knuckles, and then sunk down onto the floor on one knee. "For one full year, all I could think about was how much I wanted you to be my wife for real. For more than a year, actually. But on that day, as we looked into each other's eyes, I wanted it so much, but even then, I didn't know how much I could love you. How much I would love our life together. How much I cannot begin to fathom what it would be like to not be with you every single day. Now I know how wonderful it is to be beside you, and I know I want that for the rest of my life. Us, together, just like this. So…Kate Beckett." He paused to hold up the ring in front of her. "Will you continue to be my wife?"

"Yes." She breathed out her answer like a prayer and he shot to his feet immediately, smothering her with a kiss. Her arms banded around his waist and she held him so tight he never wanted her to let go.

When he pulled back, they shared a laugh, and he slid the ring onto her fourth finger where it clicked against her wedding band. He then dipped his head and kissed her knuckle beside the rings. Then he locked his arms around her waist, pulled her against him and sighed, "I love you so much Kate."

"I love you." She kissed him and then brushed her thumb against his cheek adding, "Let's get married this summer in the Hamptons."

Stunned, he half laughed. "Really? I mean—sure. Yes. Absolutely. I just didn't expect you to want to plan the wedding immediately."

She gave him a happy smile and said, "I never expected to want to marry you this much."

With a grin he said, "Well, you won't hear any complaints from me." Then, he pulled her body closer to his and smiled to himself, knowing he could not wait to start their life together.

A/N

I want to thank everyone who read and gave reviews. This story became my most reviewed story ever on this website and that its pretty incredible. I started writing fanfic about fifteen years ago so to have the one i intend to be my last be my most reviewed is something special. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed; that means a lot to me. Maybe i'll write something again some day, maybe for another fandom, maybe note, but I will always appreciate everyone who has supported me over the past several years. thank you.