Well, this short epilogue concludes this story. I have had a lot of fun writing it, and I am thrilled at the great response to it. Thank you to everyone who has read this one, and also a big thanks to all those who reviewed. Even though it started as a serious story, I expanded on it and added some humor to it. I hope that my desire to have fun with the characters didn't take too much away from the impact of the first chapter. Gregg.

Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Esposito and Ryan watched as Castle walked, or was that gingerly moved, through the precinct towards Beckett's desk. Beckett had been looking a bit pale and off kilter all morning, and when she noticed that Castle was there they saw her grimace and jump up helping him settle into his usual chair. What the Hell? Castle even looked a bit pale and haggard. He was wearing a very loose fitting jogging suit, not his usual finely tailored suit. Ryan and Esposito craned their heads as surreptitiously as possible to try and listen in.

"I am so sorry," Beckett said as she saw how much pain Castle was in.

"Something for you," Castle handed her a file folder.

"What's this?" Beckett asked. She was tired, and horrified over what had happened the night before, and now he was here and she was feeling even more horrible over it all. What had she been thinking?

"A newly revised list of sexual likes and dislikes," he said quietly. "Somehow I think I forgot to mention whips in the original list of no go territory."

"It really was an accident," Beckett said for what was likely the thousandth time.

"Kate, as your fiancé I am more than happy to accept that, and I do, but my scrotum, which now has three painful stitches, and my inner thigh, which has seven of its own stitches, may take a little more time to accept the tried, and, most definitely, true accident approach," Castle said, and grimaced as he felt a stitch pull. "The swelling isn't helping the accident side of things very well, either."

"Is there anything I can do?" Kate asked.

"Well, any sane, shrill answer to that question would destroy the thing I value more than anything in the world outside of my Mother and daughter, so I'll just leave it with you needing to memorize the revised list, and promise to never, ever, argue when apples comes into any conversation," he told her after a moment of thought.

Kate felt her heart flip just a bit when he effectively told her how much she, and their relationship, means to him, but instead of responding to that she just nodded grimly. "I'll work on that tonight," she assured him.

"No rush," he told her quickly with a slight gasp as he stood up with a pain filled grimace. "Me and the Boys will be out of commission for a few weeks as we heal and try and move beyond that horrifying, terrifying experience."

"Well, at least you didn't get turned into a kitten, Kitten," she injected a slight bit of levity into the conversation, and she also noticed that Ryan and Esposito were desperately trying to listen in without making it obvious. "I think we should table the discussion until we're alone. The guys seem pretty interested in what's going on."

He grabbed a slip of paper and wrote a website address on it and passed it over to her.

"Here's something I'd like your opinion on, and the rest of the guys, too," he told her. "I'm making a site for people in the community can write in their own stories and experiences with the NYPD, but it's not official, and it's all anonymous. That way New York's Finest can have a site to go to and see how their doing from a community perspective, and not from the perspective of the NYPD or the city. The site is set up and waiting final approval from me to be openly available. The front page has my article on it, plus a welcome that I wrote for the site specifically."

"Really?" Kate asked as she stood up. She was constantly amazed at what Castle would do for her and the rest of the cops that he worked with.

"I worked on it this morning when I was laying around bored out of my mind and a little loopy on pain meds," he shrugged. He had actually spent a few hours on it and had put a good friend on it as well, and now the test site was up and waiting for some feedback. "Oh, by the way, this is for you," he said as he handed over a small box.

Kate didn't react as she already had an engagement ring on her finger from him, so that shock wouldn't be happening. Taking the box she opened it and saw a very familiar car key in it. It was the key to the Jag!

"Castle?" she questioned.

"The car is yours," he told her.

"I can't accept that!" she said firmly, though in a low tone so that only he heard her.

"Beckett, that vehicle of evil is the one that took me to your apartment where my real horror happened last night. I got nauseous just looking at the Jag this afternoon, so I figured that you would actually get more use out of it than I would," he told her.

"If Beckett doesn't want it, I'll take it off your hands, Bro," Esposito chimed in immediately, letting them know that he had heard at least that part of the conversation.

"If anyone gets a gift of a Jag it's going to be Beckett," Castle said quickly.

"And you say I'm more whipped than he is?" Ryan asked Esposito.

"Please," Castle said rather stiffly, feeling his face pale noticeably. "Don't say that word, or any word derived from the root word whip."

"Problems, Bro?" Esposito asked, noting the very pale expression on Castle's face when Ryan said whipped.

"Nothing you need to be concerned with," Beckett said firmly, and quickly, with a deliberate BACK OFF glare thrown in. There was no way she wanted anyone knowing what had happened the night before. As it was she would be making it up to Castle for a long time to come, even though he was being an absolute saint about the whole thing.

"The Jag's yours, Beckett, and I'll even have the piece of crap you're currently driving hauled away," he said as he got a second wind and the paleness receded a bit. He looked over at the guys. "Guys? A word of advice. Always have a safe word handy, and no matter what is being offered, never, and I mean never, back down from it once you've said it. It's just too painful if you do."

"What the Hell happened?" Ryan asked, receiving a deadly glare from Beckett.

"Trust me, Guys, you don't want to know," Castle winced as he headed to the elevator. "I gotta go. Alexis is waiting for me in her new Mustang. Kate? You can pick up your new Jag at my place. You still coming over for dinner?"

"Uh, yeah," Kate said, still pretty dumbfounded over the gift. She watched the door to the elevator close and pondered the utter absurdity of the whole situation. Castle writes an incredible piece for the New Yorker in honor of the NYPD, she gives him a surprise party, then she makes a grave error and injures him severely, and then he gives her a brand new Jag? She would never understand Rick Castle, but she couldn't help but love him. She turned to her friends and saw them still looking at her expectantly. She sighed. Those two were worse than gossiping teenage girls! "Get back to work, you two!" she ordered. Then she smiled. Lanie was going to love this story. And be jealous as Hell of her new wheels!

A/N: This is it, folks. Sorry about the lame end, but this was all that would come to me. I hope that you've all enjoyed the whole piece, though. I tried to tie in various elements of the story in this epilogue, so I hope it works. Thank you so much for all the great response to this story. Gregg.