Post epilogue, Lily sees the scars on Castle's back.

Castle runs the towel through his hair, over his chest, and down his arms. He was quick in the shower, just a fast wash and rinse, not wanting to leave Lily alone for too long.

She was busy perfecting her latest sketch when he left her, working hard on her illustrations for the children's book he's been creating with her. But even after a year of having him home, actually having her father as a real part of her life rather than the star of her mother's memories, his youngest daughter still tends to get a little panicky if he's out of sight for extended periods of time.

Initially, Lily's recovery went better than expected. Better than Castle's or Beckett's, that's for sure. She had no trouble opening up to Doctor Burke, warming up to the calm presence of the man right away, and following his suggestions to lessen the nightmares that tended to plague her at bedtime.

She was making extraordinary progress, even went to school without issue, reassured that her parents would both be there at the end of the day. It wasn't until Kate attempted to return to the Twelfth that the severe separation anxiety set in.

It was fine in the morning, the early afternoon, while Lily was already in school. Kate took her break in time to meet him at the elementary building before the final bell, ensuring that mother and father were standing side by side as their daughter walked out of the main entrance to find them waiting.

But when they tried to part ways, Lily and Rick to the loft and Kate back to work, their daughter panicked.

"No, Momma, we need to be together all the time," she insisted when Kate attempted to explain that she needed to return to work instead of allowing them all to go home together.

His fiancée descended to her haunches on the sidewalk, cupping their daughter's shoulders in her palms. "I'm just going to the precinct, baby. Just like always. I'll be home in time for dinner."

"You can't," Lily argues, her voice rising with her protest, trembling. "You have to be with me and Daddy. We need you, Mommy. You have to protect us, you have to-"

"Okay," Kate breathed, her fingers visibly tighter at Lily's shoulders, her chest rising and falling with a sharp hitch. "I'll - I'll call Uncle Ryan to cover for me for the rest of the day."

Lily pushed into Kate's arms and his wife - fiancée, he reminds himself - looked up to him with so much horror in her eyes, that his mouth ran dry. Neither one of them knew how to tell their little girl no when all she wanted was for them to be together, to be safe.

But Kate couldn't keep missing the latter hours of her days, couldn't continue to cut out on cases. They couldn't give up the pieces of normalcy in their lives to succumb to the residual fears Tyson and Nieman left them with.

Castle called Burke that same night.

The next day, when Lily panicked in front of the school as Kate attempted to leave, Rick was the one to kneel in front of her.

"Hey, Peanut, remember that book we were going to write together?" Some of the terror faded from Lily's eyes. The project they had planned together so many months ago fell to the wayside after their final battle with Tyson and Nieman, so much of their time devoted to healing, that neither he nor Lily thought to remember the stories they once wanted to tell. "I was hoping we could work on that today while Mommy finishes up at work."

Lily pursed her lips, looking so much like her mother that the awe, the pride, flared bright in his chest. He didn't rush her, letting Lily work through the reluctance on her own.

"Okay," she whispered, reaching for Kate. She gave her mother a hug goodbye, held on for a moment too long, but she was eventually able to let go.

And that was how they made it work now.

On the days Kate works evenings at the Twelfth, Rick picks their daughter up from school with an afternoon activity already planned out. Sometimes he'll take her to the park to burn off some residual energy or to Remy's for a milkshake, usually spending the rest of the day at home finishing homework and making dinner, watching movies and writing stories.

The fear still lingers, for all of them. But the time alone has helped convince Lily that he isn't going anywhere, that there's no one gunning to take him away again.

"Daddy?" Lily calls from outside the bathroom door.

Castle rushes to step into his boxers. "Yes, Peanut?"

"Are you almost done?" she asks, hopping impatiently on her toes by the sound of it, the way her voice bounces with her. "I want to show you my drawing."

"Just getting dressed," he calls back, pulling on a pair of sweats.

"Hurry," she whines. Castle huffs, stretches for the door handle and pushes it open.

Lily peers inside with eager eyes and her notebook pressed to her chest.

It falls at her feet a moment later.

"Daddy," she gasps, rushing forward. Castle turns, his heart skipping with worry and his brow furrowing at the concern covering her face.

Until she circles around to his back, raises her hand to the middle of his spine.

His blood runs cold and his skin flushes hot with shame.

"Lily-"

"Daddy, who did this? Who hurt you?" she demands, sounding just as fierce and protective as her mother. One of her tiny fingers traces the end of scar that spans diagonally from his shoulder blade to the small of his back. "Daddy, who?"

Rick turns around, his back to the mirror and away from her, and eases to his haunches so he can meet his daughter's face. Spare her the horror of studying his massacred flesh any longer.

His scars are all in varying stages of the healing process, his back a Jackson Pollock of multicolored lines of raised skin, some white and silvering, others still fresh in violent shades of purples and bright reds.

A picture he never wanted his little girl to see.

"It - it doesn't matter," he tries to tell her, but Lily shakes her head.

"Jerry Tyson did it, didn't he?" she questions. "The bad man who took you."

Castle sighs, but there's no point in lying to her. What he went through, what he survived to get back to Kate, to Lily, shouldn't be a secret from her. He and Kate agreed to keep his time in captivity as vague for her as possible, but Lily experienced a taste of his torment when she and her mother were captured by Kelly Nieman last year. She knows what the people who took him are capable of, can only imagine what they did to him, and if her imagination is even a fraction as vivid as his, he would rather her know the truth than fathom anything else. Anything worse.

He sighs, but nods. "Yes."

Lily frowns. "Why were they so mean to you, Daddy? How could anyone ever be so mean to you?"

The innocent question cracks at his heart. His daughter looks so perplexed standing in front of him, so troubled and worried. Her small hand touches his cheek.

"I don't know, baby," he murmurs, clearing his throat before he gets choked up. "Tyson and Nieman were just very bad people who did a lot of bad things."

Lily's bottom lip trembles before she forces it to stop. "I'm sorry, Daddy. I hate them. I hate them for hurting you."

"No, sweetheart, it's-" But Lily is already banding her slim arms around his neck, pressing her cheek to his throat. "It's okay," he finishes, gathering her up in his arms and standing with her in his embrace. "It's okay now. It's over and I'm okay."

"You promise?" she whispers, lifting her head to meet his eyes.

He hugs her a little tighter. "I promise."

The tension in Lily's small frame unfurls, dissipates, and she relaxes in his arms, drops her chin to his shoulder.

"Do they still hurt?"

"Sometimes," he admits, turning his head slightly to follow her gaze to the mirror. His scars are on full display, so is the hint of Kate's profile in the doorway. "But they're all healing. Soon, they won't hurt at all."

Lily touches her fingertips to the highest mark on his back, just under his nape. Her thumb brushes back and forth over the purpled flesh.

"No more," she mumbles, watching the movement of her thumb in the mirror, catching Kate's before she speaks.

"That's right," his wife - fiancée, his brain reminds him once more with exasperation - agrees, stepping into the bathroom. She picks up Lily's notebook from the floor on her way to them, meets his eyes as their daughter squirms to get down. "No more."

"Momma, you're home!"

Kate catches the embrace Lily delivers to her waist, bending to press a kiss to the top of her daughter's head.

"Hey Peanut," Kate greets, combing the hair back from Lily's face. "How's your afternoon with Daddy been?"

"Great! We've been working on the book and - oh, dinner!" Lily releases her mother to bound out of the bathroom. "Don't worry, Daddy. I'll check the pizza!"

"Homemade pizza?" Kate inquires with an arch of her eyebrow.

"Of course," Castle grins, meeting her in the middle of the en suite. He reaches for her face, catches her cheeks in his palms just as she rises into his kiss. He hears the notebook land on the bathroom counter and then Kate's hands are traveling up his back, palms pressing into his spine, his scars.

"I hate them too," she confesses into his mouth, so quiet, he barely hears the words. But he feels them, hot and brutal against his lips.

"Kate," he breathes. Her fingertips caress the worst scar down his vertebrae. "They're gone. Not worth the energy."

She kisses him again, a little harder this time. Fierce, protective, and he can't help but love her a little more for it. "I'll always hate them for hurting you."

He gentles her kiss, brushing his lips with reverence over hers until her breathing stutters and slows.

"So will I," he whispers, lifting a hand to her face. His large palm cradles her cheek, his thumb grazing along the corner of her eye. "For hurting you, Lily. But we're okay now. You know we're okay."

"I think it's done!" They both hear Lily call out and Kate's lips spread into a smile against his.

"We are," she nods, swallowing hard. Her hands coast down to the small of his back, converging at the base of his spine. "We're healing well."