A/N: This would replace Chapters 12 & 13 - should be fairly self explanatory. I didn't want to go with this ending, but wanted to explore it anyway as it seemed somewhat more "realistic" (as realistic as things can get during a zombie apocalypse)

Alternate Ending

18 months later

Kate Beckett shivered as she hurried inside her lower Manhattan apartment building and into the dimly lit lobby. As she made her way past the elevator with the handwritten "Out of Order" sign on it she thought for perhaps the hundredth time that, while it was nice to be back in the city that had been her home for so long, she really did miss her old apartment building. This one was certainly…less than ideal.

Several months earlier, when she was finally able to move back into the city, Kate for the first time in almost two years begin to feel the semblance of normalcy settling over her. Granted, most of Manhattan was still uninhabitable thanks to the bombing done to rid the city of its undead occupants. Even the areas not covered in debris were mostly blocked off until the authorities could be one hundred percent certain that no corpses remained.

Due to the business, financial, and international occupants, they were moving from the southern end of the island northwards to clear and clean up. As a law enforcement professional, Kate had been in one of the first waves of people allowed back into the city. Granted, she was not solving homicides or doing any other detective work; she was back to being a beat cop because that was the position that needed filled, but after not working for nearly two years, Kate was simply glad to have something steady and meaningful to occupy her time.

As she trudged up the stairs to her second floor apartment, Kate shivered and stuffed her hands down into her pockets. Thought there were definitely more good days than bad days, the city's infrastructure was still in flux and thus things like heat and electricity were not always consistent. Add to that the sub-zero temperatures outside, and the best they seemed able to achieve was a temperature warm enough to prevent frostbite and freezing pipes, but one that also still made wearing multiple sweaters and heavy socks indoors a necessity.

Kate unlocked her apartment, stepped inside, and breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't as cold in there as it was in the stairwell. She shed her hat, sweater, and heavy jacket, before crossing the tight kitchen-slash-living area space to the petite bedroom and bath. This apartment was by far the smallest she'd ever lived in, but it was fine—certainly larger than the treehouse she had inhabited for several months. Besides, she didn't have too much choice in the matter. The government had doled out apartments in that area to law enforcement and other employees of the state at an extremely reduced monthly fee due to the dangers existing still within the city.

Even if she'd wanted to pay more to live somewhere else, there weren't many options. The subway tunnels were too riddled with bodies to be used yet and there weren't many buses running, either. At least, not nearly enough to keep up with the number of people who wanted to get to and from their jobs. Walking was more or less the only travel option, but that was okay; she was used to walking.

Kate didn't know how many hundreds of miles she'd walked over the prior year, but she almost felt better off not knowing, for the number surly would have been large. She had walked from Manhattan to the treehouse and from central New Jersey into Pennsylvania with her companion, but the bulk of her walking had been done after she had separated from the mystery writer.

After escaping "El Capitan" and his men, she had a rough few days navigating the wounds she received thanks to barbed wire fencing while still searching for food and water. She'd come as close as she ever had to not making it, but a passing caravan of two women and their combined five children took pity on her. They were traveling as far south as their vehicle would take them and agreed to drop Kate off a bit closer to Philadelphia.

Kate had absolutely no idea where to begin looking for Rick, but the Philadelphia camp was her only clue. After a day of travel due to blocked roads and a bridge that looked too dilapidated to safely cross, her temporary companions dropped her off near the Pennsylvania-Maryland boarder. Kate moved northward and searched the area west of Philadelphia for nearly three weeks, but found no such safe haven. Starved and devastated, she bunkered down for the night in an abandoned car and decided her only course of action would be to move southward.

Giving up on finding Rick was, quite possibly, the most shattering decision she had ever made in her life and it was certainly not one she took lightly. In the end, it became a matter of survival. Her search had been extensive, though of course she hadn't covered every square foot. It was possible for her to find him if he was there, but it was also possible she'd be wandering around southern Pennsylvania until the snow began to fall and then she'd never find him. By that point, both her vague perception of the date and the crispness in the morning air told her that she was on the cusp of fall meaning she needed a plan for winter. Going south was her only option and thus, with a heavy heart, Kate set off towards Maryland.

Though it took her almost another month, Kate was able to find a camp just south of the nation's capital in D.C. The gated neighborhood was stocked with canned goods and bottled rainwater and agreed to let her bunker down for the winter. They still had snow those few months—certainly more than she would have preferred given that she slept in a home heated only by a single fire on the first floor—but it wasn't awful. She survived, and that was the most important thing.

The onset of spring brought the first news from the government. A vaccination to prevent against the spread of the zombie plague had been created and representatives were going to begin administering it as well as attempt to reform the country as a unified nation instead of clustered groups of survivors. Of course, this did not happen overnight and while she had grown fond of some of her fellow refuges in the Virginia camp, Kate still held out hope she would be able to find Rick, as impossible as it seemed, so at the first opportunity, she began traveling north once more.

For a reason Kate could not explain, she had a hunch—really, a hope—that after being unable to find her, Rick would return to the treehouse where they had met. She knew such a thought was entirely irrational. She had no idea if he was alive or still looking for her, but the thought gave her hope when she awoke in the morning. The thought gave her the motivation to keep walking when her feet ached after wearing through a second pair of shoes since the beginning of society's downfall.

In the end, Kate never made it back to the treehouse. She was sidelined in Philadelphia, where the a roving military patrol corralled her into a camp set up for safety while the vaccine was administered and existing zombie hordes were eradicated. For a brief moment, the prospect of finding Rick flashed through her mind, but he wasn't there and thus she passed the year mark of their meeting alone.

As a ranking law enforcement officer in one of the largest cities in the country, Kate was afforded certain advantages in the new post-zombie-virus world. As she was trained, willing and able, she was invited into the security team in the camp, despite technically being a civilian. She was allowed in the first wave of citizens returning to the New York area, and she was permitted to register on the survivors list before the general public.

As the government began to reform and build back its infrastructure, word of a potential survivor's list or survivor's database filtered through Kate's camp. The prospect of this both delighted and terrified her. If a survivor's list existed, it would be possible for she and Rick to find each other again. However, this also came with the devastating possibility that Rick's name would not be on the list, because he had not survived for one reason or another.

When the list became official, Kate, as a government employee, was allowed to register first to beta test the system. She entered her information—full name, birthdate, her location when the virus hit, her current residential location, her current phone number—and, most importantly, the name of anyone she was searching for and as much of their information as she could provide. So as not to open up the information to everyone a user could only see information if they were mutually matched with someone. That was to say she would only be able to see Rick's information if he had listed her as someone he was searching for.

Ever since filling out her information, Kate had woken every day wondering if that would be the day she would hear from Rick. Her feelings were absurd, of course. For the vast majority of those days the database was not yet open to the public, thus it would have been nearly impossible for him to contact her. Still, as the public launch date grew nearer, Kate's anxiety heightened.

On the day of the public release, Kate could hardly tolerate her agonizing eight hour shift so that she could check her phone messages. When she found none, the disappointment almost crushed her, but then she had to remind herself to think like Rick. It was absurd to think that just because he had not contacted her on the first day that he was dead. The government was slowly releasing the database to the public. Whatever camp he ended up at might not have been in the initial wave. No, she would need to wait at least a week, possibly longer; then, she'd worry.

Three days later, her "I won't worry" mantra was wearing pretty thin. With each story from her coworkers about discovering a loved one, her heart sank deeper in her chest. She began to wonder what had done Rick in assuming he had not survived. A zombie? The winter cold? Another group of thugs? The prospect of not knowing seemed quite devastating.

Trying to push such thoughts from her mind, Kate changed out of her uniform into sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt with a hoodie over top and walked into the cramped apartment kitchen to make dinner. Food was slowly being rationed out by the government and it wasn't much or very fancy, however it was a vast improvement from scouring through abandoned homes hoping for a granola bar or bag of mostly stale cereal.

Just as she was debating between a chicken or beef MRE, Kate heard a knock at her apartment door. For several moments she merely stared towards the entry way; she almost never had visitors. Cautiously, she approached the door and, upon peering through the peep hole, let out a scream. Her fingers trembling, she struggled to undo the locks and chains. Shen then grappled with the door handle for what felt like minutes but was only around ten seconds before coming face to face with the man she had not seen in over a year and a half. He wore jeans and a heavy winter jacket. His face seemed worn and older, yet his smile stretched ear to ear.

"Hi," he said, just as casually as ever.

Kate's chest began to heave and she could not have stopped the tears if she wanted to. Without even saying a word she flung herself forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her face in the open collar of his coat. Rick was here; Rick was alive.

Rick was alive!

Rick cradled the back of the crying woman's head and felt tears begin to prick his own eyes. The relief of being able to hold her again was indescribable, even for a writer like himself. He dropped a kiss onto her hair and pulled her closer, rocking them both gently back and forth.

That morning, when he had finally been granted access to the survivor's database he'd practically battle-rammed his way to the front of the line. Instead of doing as instructed and filling out his profile first, he'd immediately gone to the search feature, only to realize he would get not results without first having a profile. Cursing under his breath, he'd angrily typed out his information and bashed the mouse while selecting "Submit." When her name and address popped up at the top of his match results, he'd leapt from his chair and yelped with joy.

He had been afraid for a year and a half that she hadn't made it or, possibly worse, that she'd remained a captive and the group of thugs had done unspeakable things to her. Of course, without knowing what all she went through during their separation, he still could not rule out such horrible things, but at least she was there, alive, and in his arms after so much time apart.

As Kate let out a shuttered breath, Rick skimmed his fingers down her spine and said softly, "It's okay, Kate; I'm right here."

"I never thought I'd see you again." She whimpered, squeezing him a bit tighter.

He shut his eyes and pressed his cheek against the top of her head. "I know; me too, but I'm right here."

They held each other for the better part of five minutes on the threshold of Kate's apartment before she pulled back, sniffing and rubbing her cheeks with the back of her hand. Smiling up at him, she shook her head gently. "Sorry, I, sorry—please come in."

"No worries." He grinned at her and stepped through the doorway. He unzipped his coat and hung it on the hooks on the wall by the entryway before stepping into the kitchen area and observing the small space. "This is nice."

"Uh, yeah, it's tight, but at least it's inside, right? Would you like to sit, or keep standing? Or—god, sorry." She groaned and covered her face with her hands. "I don't even know what to do. Are you sure you're real?"

He smiled and approached her, settling his hands at her waist as she placed hers on his biceps. "Very real."

"You got my name through the database?"

He bobbed his head. "Just registered this morning."

Her eyebrow arched. "And you came right here?"

His grip on her waist tightened and he drew her just a few inches closer. "You doubted I would?"

She shook her head and shrugged. "Thought you might just call first—not that I'm complaining."

He moved his hands from her waist to beneath her jaw and said gently. "Why would I call when I could just come here and see your beautiful face?" She smiled and leaned into him, but he stopped her, holding her firm just a few inches away from him. "I, ah, hate to start out with the most awkward question but: are you with anyone? Like, a boyfriend?" He questioned. She shook her head with a smile and the writer's entire body relaxed. "Thank god."

Pressing his lips against Kate's for the first time in eighteen months felt like a magical, out of body experience for Rick. Though he'd dreamed of their kisses many times, the memories paled in comparison to the real, incredible thing. As they kissed it felt like no time had passed at all between them—like they had just left the treehouse only days earlier.

"Mmm Kate." He hummed when she pulled back and leaned her forehead against his.

She gave him another quick kiss before asking, "You don't have to go soon, do you? Can you stay a while?"

He grinned. "I can stay all night if you want. In fact, why don't I just stay another two hours and then I have to stay all night," he said, referring to the dusk-to-dawn curfew inside the still dangerous city limits of New York.

She let out a light laugh. "Sounds like a plan to me." With that, she took his hand and led him over to her crowded sitting area. Once he was on the couch, she sat against him, draped her legs over his lap and snuggled up against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in tight, shutting his eyes for several moments until she said. "I wasn't with anyone, you know. The past year and a half. I waited for you."

He gazed down at her curiously. "Even though you didn't know if I was alive or not?" She nodded and he grinned. "I did the same." She laughed and hugged him.

Though he knew it was improbable and borderline impossible, Rick knew one day he and Kate would find each other again. He didn't know how or when, but somehow the world would right itself once more and then they would be able to find each other. No matter how long it took, he knew he had to find her again, because he was certain she was the person with whom he would spend the rest of his life—which, now that the virus had been quelled, he hoped to be a very long time.

"Where are you living now?"

"Not too far away, actually." He told her. He then went on to explain that after they were separated he was picked up by two men who volunteered to take him back to their gated golf course community safe haven and give him food and water. He'd stayed with them for a few days until it became clear they were unwilling to help him search for her, so he set out on his own. He'd found a bicycle and managed to make it back to the garage from where she was taken to resume his search, but after a few weeks he'd busted one of the bicycle tires and had never found her.

After his failure, he figured he had no choice but to move south and attempt to find the Philadelphia safe haven, which he never ended up finding. By that point in the year, the weather was turning cooler and, by dumb luck, he stumbled upon an underground bunker someone had obviously built in their apocalyptic planning. As an apocalyptic planner himself, this delighted him. While the below ground room wasn't as nice as their treehouse, it was a decent enough place for him to spend the cold, winter months safely.

Once the last of the snow melted, he decided to return to the tree house in case Kate did the same, but he ended getting corralled into a community just outside Trenton and had been there ever since.

"For the past few months I've been working with my banks to get access to my assets once more and with my publishers in hopes they'll agree to my semi-autobiographical tales of survival." He concluded.

She gazed up at him, amused. "How's that going?"

He grimaced. "Not as well as I'd hoped. Turns out they don't think there will be enough market for it. As they put it: anyone who's alive now survived the past two years; they don't want to read about it."

Kate nodded. "Can't say I entirely disagree. Maybe in a few years?"

He nodded. "Maybe. In the meantime I'm trying to find out how long it'll be before we can start living out on Long Island again; my apartment building was destroyed so the Hamptons house is all I have left."

"You're living in one of the government apartment buildings now?" She questioned; he confirmed with a nod. "Well…you could move in with me, I think. From what I hear they've been pretty good about reuniting people, even if this housing was originally meant for government employees."

Rick leaned down and kissed her. "That sounds perfect."

"Yeah? Not too soon?"

"We lived together before!"

"Well, yeah, but that was different. This is…real-er…kind of." She finished with a half-laugh.

He skimmed his hand beneath her jaw and rested his thumb against the end of her chin. "Well, in that case, I can't wait to have a real-er relationship with you. In fact, I plan on never letting you out of my sight again. You don't have to work tomorrow, do you?"

"Rick!" She half-laughed, half-scolded. "That is not only ridiculous but entirely impractical."

"No it's not. I'll just follow you to work and hang out with you all day."

She rolled her eyes. "You're not doing that."

"I could! It would be fun! Remember the good old days when we were in that tree house twenty-four-seven?"

She smiled and gently wrapped her hands around his forearm. "Yes, I remember, and I can't wait to spend a lot more time with you, but let's be realistic here—sooner or later we were going to drive each other nuts in that treehouse."

Rick moved his head back and forth. He wasn't sure he entirely agreed with her statement, but definitely saw her point. "Okay, fine. We won't spend every moment together; we can each have one hour to ourselves a day."

She laughed loudly and pulled him into a hug. "I missed you a lot, you know?"

As he had missed her more than a lot, he did actually completely understand her sentiments. As a response, he kissed her head, pulled her close and sighed, "I love you, Kate."

Her fingers skimmed through his hair and she said, "Love you too." Rick shut his eyes, tucked his head against her neck and let out a relieved exhale; he knew he'd never have to let go again.

A/N: Again, thank you all so much for reading - I truly appreciate all your reviews/follows. You have all really encouraged me to stick with writing even now that the show is over.

As for what's next...I'm thinking Murphy's Law because its done-ish, though needs some revisions. Give me a week or so :)

Thanks again! See you soon!