You wrote really well and I’m glad Rick finally got the respect he deserved and how he felt out. They all needed a reality check and by the end I totally forgot you were going to make it a Caskett fic. But it happened more naturally and it made the ending better! Really great fic! Loved it! :)

Liked your story rite up to your epilogue don't endorse them getting back together she became such a callous individual that no man would ever have anything to due with her the lying repeatedly ruined the show for me. From season 3 to the end which I stopped watching during that .same time frame. To bad I like the first 2 years for the most part.

Loved the story! While I wasn’t thrilled they got back together, it was a well written and executed ending. I really liked Castle figuring out Beckett wasn’t good for him. Personally I stopped watching the series after the bombing episode where Castle finds out Beckett lied about remembering him say he loved her when she was shot. Anyway thanks for both writing and sharing your story. Cheers

Great story about redemption and forgiveness!

Great story! Thanks so much for your writing!

Thanks so much for this great story where Rick is shown to be a sensitive yet strong man with character! Hoping for many more episodes!

Very good start. I particularly liked the insight Castle gained from the group about the nature of his relationship with Beckett, and also the point the leader made about how women can be given a pass due to gender bias and stereotypes.

One thing in your A/N that I wanted to address, if I may. You're right that many of the female leads in cop (and military) dramas are somewhat masculinized. However, this isn't far from the daily existence for many of them. A large percentage of women in these jobs feel the need to prove themselves to be as tough, if not more so, than their male colleagues. This extends not just to physical tasks, but also emotional ones, including the control of emotions, or at least the tendency not to show them. As such, the roles in these shows are actually not very far off.

Should it be that way in these jobs? No, but it is understandable. If a person is not raised in a particular environment, when they are asked to blend in, often they will exaggerate the roles, sometimes to the level of parody. (Gates' cast-iron bitch persona could be seen that way) Men in these roles are familiar with what's expected of them, and also know when the 'rules' can be bent. Women likely will not know that, and so they make mistakes.

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this story. Onward!

It was one of the best ff ever. May I point out that most of writers wrote Fanfiction without regards of the Castle character and they don't like the review which do not contain their appraisal and they all made Backett the God and Castle the slave( just a metaphor) and everyone tends to have something in the chapter in which they tends to forget that what a great character Rick Castle is, even though I am a fan of Kate Backett but they always let her get away with her mistakes. Also I can't understand that where was Rick's fault at the end of season 2 because what simply I can understand that Castle invited her as a no funny business capacity while spending the weekend with him relaxing and she rejected him by saying no and then lied to him about she had work to do while making plans with boy toy for the weekend. So tell me why writers doesn't provide Castle the freedom to ho with whoever he wants and he didn't promise to call Backett but they were upset and furious with him for not calling why? Does only Castle had the phone throughout the summer? They didn't understand Castle's perspective. And what Happened in watershed, doesn't Backett said that she only want him so what Happened to her that she didn't include him in her decision to go to DC for her interview and when she came to talk to Castle on swings with mind made up for Taking the job and Castle breaking up with her and wasn't open to the any other idea and even she didn't talk to Castle about what she should do when she got the offer while saying not to make things about them this about her, doing something great. So all I can think of she only said that she only wants him in the the heat of moment and she would have said anything to be with Castle in end of season 4 and while treated Castle as she was treated by Sorenson.

Wow! This is a great story! I love how you covered most of the events between Caskett and how lopsided they truly were toward Kate! Do you think that is why NF will not say much about his years on Castle?

That was an amazing story. Very well written and you got the characters down far better than many of the writers of the show itself, especially Season 8.

I also love your author's note at the beginning of the story. Equality is for everyone without favoring one group over another. Anything else isn't equality and if people could actually understand that we'd have far fewer problems in the world.

I've always had an issue with how there was massive double standards for Castle and Beckett. That would've been okay — to a degree — if Beckett had been called out on this at some point and maybe even recognized it and apologized. Instead, she was something of a closeted bully. Someone who didn't overtly intend to cause harm, but still did through her actions or inactions, whatever the case may be.

I really wish your story had been Season 8 or at least, the second half of it. As it stands right now, I pretend Season 8 never happened and that the Season 7 finale was the series finale.

Probably the one line that drove me up the wall in Season 8 was at the end of the eighth episode ("Mr. and Mrs. Castle") where Beckett gives a ridiculously poor explanation to castle about what she's been doing and then when she expects him to just drop everything and welcome her back, she has the nerve to say: "Don't make me do this without you."

She was the one who made herself do it without Castle! Now because Castle is bowing down and worshiping the ground she walks on she's turning it around and claiming he's abandoning her when she needs help? Gah!

I LOVED this from start to finish!

Way to write I give you credit, peace out

You had me at your A/N! Great start. Thank you for courageously articulating and tackling the lopsided treatment of Rick and Kate. I could talk about it endlessly and did rant about it privately, many times, while watching. So I am looking forward to reading more! YOU...have powers!

First, let me say how happy I was to read your introduction and realize I wasn’t alone in my view of Kate Beckett. While I usually enjoyed Stana Katic’s performance, I was not happy with the selfish character the writers created.

Even after they were married, Beckett flirts with Danny Valentine right in front of Castle without any thought of her actions hurting Rick. Then when they arrive back to the precinct, she sluffs off her action by stating “It was just flirting Castle”. And why was it okay? Because it was “Danny freakin Valentine.”

I would have loved to see Castle get into a serious conversation with her about how her actions hurt him or resurrect her own words later while he flirts with a well known model to see how she reacts.

Castle should have brought up Eric Vaughn as another “freakin” example and asked her how he was ever going to be able to trust her. If she would openly flirt with another man in front of her husband, how would he expect her to act when he wasn’t there? After all, he divorced his first wife due to infidelity.

nice job and the hell with beckett