Author's Note: Last chapter. The chances of me leaving you alone to read it in peace are not good, but I'll save my comments for the end.

One thing though, before you start reading. I realize it's not necessarily normal to dedicate a fanfic to anyone, but do I care? I think not. So, that said, this story, all 32 chapters of it, is dedicated to all of my wonderful reviewers, without whom there is absolutely no way I would've ever finished this. Hope you like the end!

In the darkest hour of the night, you find daylight."

She replayed the message one more time before she left work.

"Hey Kate, it's me. Rick. I just wanted to let you know I have some things I have to do today, so I won't be coming in. But let me know if there's a murder and I'll meet you at the scene."

She smiled. She'd over-analyzed the message several times now, and she loved both the beginning and the end. The beginning for its familiarity: "Hey Kate, it's me. Rick." She rarely called him, or even thought of him, by his first name, although he sometimes used hers. But now she thought she might start. It was a nice concept. And she loved the characteristic childish excitement of the end: "Let me know if there's a murder and I'll meet you at the scene." As many crime scenes as he'd been to now, the novelty never seemed to wear off. He was always excited. It was the strangest thing, but she found it oddly endearing.

Of course, though, there hadn't been a murder, at least not one that she'd been assigned, and it was the other part of the message that made its point: "I just wanted to let you know I have some things I have to do today, so I won't be coming in." What did that mean?

She'd called him as soon as she got his message, but he hadn't answered and she hadn't left a message in return. She'd briefly considered shooting him a text just to make sure everything was okay, but hadn't done it, not wanting to overstep. However their relationship might be defined at the moment, she was sure it wasn't yet to the point where each needed to know exactly what the other was doing at all times. She was sure that would make her uncomfortable, and she didn't want him to think that was what she was trying to do.

But she couldn't help but find it weird that today, the day after they'd agreed to be more than friends, was the day he decided not to come in. She guessed it was easier that they wouldn't have to worry about figuring out what to say, or not say, to their coworkers, but part of her couldn't help but wonder if he'd changed his mind. Had they actually managed to mess everything up this quickly?

Just as she finished listening to the message one final time, Esposito sidled up to her desk. "You've been pretty attached to that phone today," he noted. "Everything okay?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah." At least I think so, she added internally.

"Doesn't have anything to do with a certain writer who didn't bother to show up today, does it?"

"He told me he wasn't coming," she said, maybe a little too defensively. "He didn't just 'not bother to show up,' he said he had stuff to do."

"So it is about him."

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't say that."

"And why are you defending him all of a sudden? Is there something going on that I don't know about?"

She picked up her things, getting ready to go. "Always, Esposito. See you tomorrow."

As she got on the elevator she saw a very confused Esposito head over to Ryan's desk, likely, she knew, to discuss what they thought was going on between her and Castle, but she found that she didn't care. They could theorize all they wanted. Sooner or later, she knew they'd figure it out anyway.

What she couldn't stop thinking about now was why Castle hadn't been at the precinct today. She was trying to think of things that could've kept him, and she couldn't come up with anything good. While she didn't want to be bothersome, she needed to know that he was okay. That Alexis was okay. That everything was, in fact, okay.

When she got into the cab, she found that instead of giving the driver her address, she was giving him Castle's. She'd just dropped by there before, and she was sure she'd do it again.

She was a little surprised to find that it was Alexis who answered the door, and appeared to be perfectly fine. "Hey Alexis," she greeted her casually. Since she'd started talking to the teenager fairly often, she found that she was actually really easy to talk to. "Is your dad here?"

Alexis nodded. "He's here. He's in his study. I'll get him."

Alexis, still walking with crutches, started to hobble away from the doorway, but Kate stopped her. "I'll just go in," she offered. "I know where his study is."

But Alexis shook her head. "He's writing. He gets in kind of a zone. He might not even realize you're there for a minute or two." She rolled her eyes. "I've dealt with it a lot, I'm used to it. It's actually a really great time to ask him for things I'm not sure he'll agree to."

"Ah," Kate said, smiling. "I can work with that. I've got this."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely." She smiled at Alexis with some mixture of actual pleasure and conspiracy, and the way Alexis smiled back, Kate was pretty sure she'd picked up on the fact that something was different between her and Rick.

But even if this was the case, all she said was, "Be my guest."

Rick didn't even look up when she walked into his office, and she smiled, although she was a little confused. Had he really not come to the precinct today because he'd been writing? "What were you doing all day?" she asked, a little flirtatiously.

He didn't stop typing. He did grunt something that could've been a response if she'd recognized it as a word, which she didn't.

"You didn't answer your phone when I called."

Another grunt.

"I thought maybe you were reconsidering what we talked about last night." At this point she was almost positive that this was not the case, but now she was baiting him, trying to figure out how much it would take to break him from his trance.

This turned out to be enough, at least, for some actual words. "Hold on," he said, still not taking his eyes off of his laptop screen or slowing his typing. "Just let me get to the end of this… paragraph." He typed for a few seconds longer, and then finally looked up. He smiled as if he'd just noticed her presence for the first time. "You're here," he said.

"Yeah, I've… been here."

He nodded. "Right. I'm glad you're here."

She smiled. "So what was it you had to do today that was so important?"

He gestured to his computer. "Write," he said, like it should've been obvious. "I haven't felt much like it lately and I fell behind, and yesterday… my muse hit a whole new level of inspiring. And when I'm inspired I need to write, because there's no telling how long it will last."

"Oh." She nodded, although she still wasn't sure she fully understood. "So you didn't come to the twelfth today because… you were inspired?" She thought about his use of the word "muse," and threw in another question. "By me?"

"Exactly." He got up from his desk and took a step toward her.

"Isn't that why you shadow me?"

He took another step toward her. "It turns out you can inspire me in ways that don't involve police work."

She made a face. "Do I even want to know what you've been writing?"

"Kate Beckett," he mock-scolded, "get your mind out of the gutter."

She shook her head. "Let me get this straight, though. I inspire you, so you decide not to see me at all today? Okay, that makes sense."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really?

"Um, no."

He smiled. "I knew that if I saw you, yes, I'd be even more inspired, but I also wouldn't get any writing done. Your presence is very distracting."

"So me being here right now… is distracting you?"

He nodded. "Oh yeah. But some distractions are worth having." He touched her cheek lightly. "May I…?" he started to ask, but she interrupted him with a shake of her head.

"It kills the mood if you ask," she said softly. "Go with your gut."

He took another step toward her, and she felt the warmth of his breath on her skin. It smelled like peppermint. She wanted to kiss him, but forced herself to hold back. Trust, she reminded herself. He'll come to you.

And he did. Within a second, she felt his lips brush hers. She wrapped her arm around him, pulling him closer still. Their lips locked, and in this moment she knew. It wasn't just chemistry; she wasn't just swept up in the moment. She knew. This was right. This was exactly where she wanted to be. Where she was supposed to be. It wasn't a mistake, and whatever happened down the road, she would never regret it. Right here, right now, this moment? It was perfect. And to get here, everything they'd gone through in the past and everything they'd go through in the future seemed worth it.

She deserved him, he deserved her, and finally they both understood that. And finally, they had each other.

Whatever happened in his life, good or bad, she wanted to be there for him. With him. And whatever happened in her life, good or bad, as long as she would let him, she believed he'd do the same. No matter where her life led her, no matter how much changed, how dark things seemed to get, one thing would remain consistent. Rick Castle. He would always be the same, and he would always be there. He would always be her shoulder to lean on. Her soft place to land. Her little glimpse of daylight.

A/N: First and foremost and absolutely most importantly, thank you. ALL of you. Whether you've been reading this since I started writing it in January (I admire your dedication), you started somewhere in the middle, or you just read all 32 chapters of it today (and for completely different reasons, I admire your dedication as well). Whether you've reviewed every chapter or haven't reviewed at all. If you're reading this right now, thank you.

That said, I'm probably about to get really sentimental, so if you want to duck out, now's the time. It's been fun.

I'm nearly positive that in the six-ish years that I've been writing, this is the single longest story I've ever written. I know there are longer stories out there, trust me. But for me, a 32 chapter, 62,000-plus word story is quite an accomplishment. And while there are some parts of this story that I am really proud of and other parts I'm sure I could've done better, I am proud of the fact that it's as long as it is, and I've actually managed to stick with writing it for over six months. And I know I couldn't have done that on my own, so I want to send a special thanks to those of you who have been reviewing this story pretty consistently, especially Kelly, who, besides just generally being awesome, made me promise not to abandon it no matter how many times it frustrated me or pissed me off (which this story did a LOT of for awhile there). Guess what? I didn't. :)

Because of all the trouble this story gave me, I have to say I'm a little relieved that I've finally managed to finish it. At times, I wasn't sure it would ever happen. But at the same time, as my longest story, the one I've spent the most time on, and the first story I've ever written with an outline (not my usual style, but it worked pretty well the way I did it), I'm attached to it. And I'm sad that it's over. I will miss it. But it is over. Completely over. The story that I wanted to tell ended. I won't be writing a sequel. It is what it is.

Of course you haven't heard the last of me. I absolutely love writing Castle fanfic, and there's still quite a lot of time until season 4 starts, so I need to get my Castle fixes somewhere. As a matter of fact, I'm already working on another story ("Here for the Story") that I love, am super proud of, and, to be honest (*shameless pimping*) haven't been getting as much feedback on as I'd like. So if you're sad that this is over and you haven't, go read that. Please? Okay, moving on. I also have some other ideas and half-formed ideas I'd like to work on, so you might be seeing a new story from me before too long. We'll see.

Oh, one more well-deserved thanks to Better Than Ezra for writing and/or recording (not entirely sure if they wrote it or not) the song "Daylight," which, I'm sure you realize by now, inspired this fic. I highly recommend that you listen to it, because it's an awesome song. I tried to do this as a thanks to you guys for reading, and I've never done this before so I'm not sure if it worked or not, but if you want the song, I think you can download it here: http:/ www. megaupload. com/?d=630L1SGG
If for some reason that doesn't work, or you just want to listen to it but not download it, here's a YouTube link: http:/ www. youtube. com/watch?v=Fh1t951IMNY
In case you're interested. Take out the spaces and they should work (I hope!).

Anyway, I guess I'm done rambling. As always, I'd love your feedback. Reviews are like... chocolate. And I'm a chocoholic. So... feed me?