Super late to the party reading this fic but I absolutely loved it. This was just an extremely beautiful and I could have read a million more chapters. You are a very talented writer!

Please, a couple more chapters. It's a great story. Totally different from all the others so we need it to continue for a little while. At least, until they are really together and talking marriage. Thanks.

fantastic story loved it

He! Ii's very good story! Are you going to write more this or was this the end? Hope you write it more! :)

WOW, looks like they made it. With a child. Beautiful name. At least Paula didn't make it worse than it was. I like the last minute choice that Johanna picks. Great moment.

This was very interesting. There are some flaws that would have been easily flushed out with a beta. Enjoyable story overall.

Oh wow this story is so great oh my god
I love this so much

Good story with some flaws. This is going to seem really critical but I hope you'll consider it constructive because I did enjoy your story...

It was usually a good, smooth read but you need some work on homonyms (lots of their vs. they're, to vs. too, even a forth vs. fourth in this chapter) It's odd because you have a fairly broad vocabulary but get tripped up on these simple ones. Also, you use a LOT of hyphens when commas or parentheses would do the same job more effectively. This is always a touchy, stylistic thing so...

You could have done more NICU / premie research. Two weeks early is not a big deal and is actually not even considered premature.

I'm no expert but from my own experience, 4-11 is a six/seven week early birth weight (mine was 4-15 at 6 aka early). At two weeks you're only about 5% off from full term birth weight (say, 7 lbs instead of 7.5; at six weeks early it's like 35% light) and probably don't need an incubator. Incubators are for babies who can't maintain body temperature (a 7 lbs baby can) but a baby that small (4 lb 11 oz) has even bigger problems, specifically breathing and feeding. Ours premature birth was somewhat planned or at least foreseeable so we mitigated with steroids for lung development and didn't need an incubator.

I also do not see why Kate HAD to be fired. This is NY. Maybe censured. She could have had sufficient philosophical objections to having slept with an "only barely still technically" married man without it being a career killer.

But the fundamental logical flaw is where you begin and end with Johanna not choosing to walk down the alley. It's just not that simple. If she HAD been a victim of random gang violence, perhaps choosing between the road and the alley would change what happened that night. But she was TARGETED.

The route she chose did not matter.

(And did Johanna just drop the Pulgatti case over the ensuing years? If she was a target that night she would have remained a target, right?)

I initially didn't like the (parenthetical synopses) but it grew on me. (However, did you transition at some point between summarizing what HAD just happened in that section to telling us what was ABOUT to happen in the next section?)

Overall I enjoyed it, but I had to overlook the flaw in the premise to do so.

Do some research; I confirmed most of the above with just three google searches.

Maybe it is as you describe but check legal/bar code of conduct the same way (if every cheating lawyer got fired / became unhirable there'd be a lot less lawyers).

Your flow is good but watch out for those typos (word choices) that spell check won't draw to your attention.

Sorry to be a wet blanket but these are the technical issues that stood out to me in a story I did enjoy.

very good chapter wish Paula would have gotten
her stuff put in the papers just mean but love how you
let her(Kate) have a family and her mother picking the road.

A baby that's only two weeks early wouldn't be that undersized. The whole unreasonable panic thing where no one says anything to Paula for what seems like forever doesn't ring true. Also, truth be told, most people in situations as bad as Rick and Paula are separated for a while before the divorce and under those circumstances Kate most likely wouldn't be fired. From what you said of Kate's career if she's with a large firm and has the kind of reputation you implied she had she's probably a junior partner, not an associate and partners can't be fired but can be bought out.

Wow absolutely incredible :) update soon please :) love this fic;-)

Your timeline is confusing. You give a date of 2009 then 2012 and then nothing. How many years later is the meeting of Castle and Beckett?

Wow, I love this story, like walking a tightrope. Don't look down or you will fall.
Good work.

Absolutely amazing :) please continue :D can't wait for more

Why this doesn't have more reviews is beyond me. This is very well written and the story is not only believable but catches you and doesn't let go. I am looking forward to the conclusion and only wish it were here faster. As long as your delicious chapters are, they leave me wanting more.