AFTER

"Morning Lanie," Kate Beckett said, shielding a yawn as she walked into the morgue. Man, did she miss her coffee that morning. As was uncommon those days, she had stayed at her place the prior night, not at her boyfriend's, and she had disappointingly discovered her supply of coffee was vacant around five a.m. that morning. As she had an early shift, she had no choice but to get ready sans caffeine and hope for the best when it came to her alertness. Two hours later, she was still struggling.

Gazing up from her desk, Lanie shot her a rather incredulous look. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Um…it's nice to see you, too," Kate said with notable annoyance, not used to such a harsh greeting from her friend.

"Seriously—why are you here?

"Um, because you have autopsy results…?" she said as more of a question, not sure what was going on. She had seen the email on her phone as she was leaving the house that morning. Lanie had worked the nightshift and the results notification email had come through around two a.m.

"I already sent those to Karpowski."

"Oh. Well, um, I guess I'll go talk to her then." Still feeling confused, she turned around and took a step towards the exit before her friend stopped her again.

"Hang on—you haven't been to your desk yet, have you?"

Kate shook her head as she rotated her body. "No. Why?"

Lanie hummed and folded her arms over her chest. "That explains it then. When you do see your desk, you're probably want to go ahead and call in sick today, so you can go home and celebrate your anniversary properly."

"Well, I'm not—wait." Kate shook her head when Lanie's words fully processed in her mind. "How do you know today is my anniversary?"

Lanie chortled. "Honey, the whole NYPD knows it's your anniversary."

"WHAT?" Kate bleated out while cursing her boyfriend beneath her breath; she could only imagine what he had done to result in a comment like that from Lanie. "Why? How? What are you talking about?"

"Well I'm not going to spoil it for you; you're going to have to see for yourself."

"Oh my god," she muttered before spinning around and hurrying towards the exit.

By the time Kate arrived on the third floor of the Twelfth precinct she was sweating. She could not even begin to imagine what Rick could have done to her desk or surrounding area in the fourteen hours since she'd seen him last, but the prospects were terrifying. When he became extremely enthusiastic about something, his creativity was boundless so, really, the sky was the limit. She merely hoped it was something that could easily bee un-done.

Practically sprinting off the elevator, she hurried towards her desk, expecting a large, ceiling-high display, but didn't see anything like that. Caught off guard by her lack of shock, she slowed her walk, her eyes continuing to search the area. It took her almost another full minute to see it or, rather, them for atop her desk sat a glass vase with a dozen real, red roses.

"Oh Rick," she sighed with amazement as she approached. "What did you do?"

In the prior half century, roses had become nearly extinct due to a disease that attacked most of the world's remaining crop, which had already dwindled due to limited farm lands and population explosion. As a result, the flower, which remained a symbol of romance, was exceedingly difficult to come by—and very expensive. Though she had seen many fake plastic ones, Kate had never before seen a real rose in person, and now she had twelve.

Stepping up beside her desk, she reached out to touch the petal of one of the flowers, feeling its smooth surface between the pads of her fingers. At that close of a distance, she could smell the flowers lovely fragrance and felt a smile blossom across her face. Her boyfriend truly was one of a kind.

Exactly six months had passed since the night she and Rick shared their first kiss and Kate could confidently say that she had never been happier. Their first month together had been rough—very rough. As he had been in relationships several times before, Rick dove in head first and never looked back while she felt the need to stay tentatively on shore despite the fact that he continually tugged on her arm and tried to drag her out to sea with him. In the end, they found their way, and she leaned to let go of all her fears and uncertainty and simply be happy.

Kate soon found that being with Rick was the easy part. He made her laugh and smile—and the sex certainly wasn't anything to complain about. Being a woman in a relationship with a human man, however, became a trickier avenue to navigate. As they were previously aware of Rick (and, quite honestly, appalled it hadn't happened sooner) her coworkers adjusted easily enough; the rest of the world was a different story. To that day, she and Rick could not go out in public together without getting at least a dozen gaping stares. She hadn't anticipated such reactions at all and struggled with them greatly as she had never been one to desire attention. Being a spectacle certainly was her least favorite part of her relationship with Rick, but it was worth it for all the other wonderful things he brought to a life, including love, which was the best of all.

After observing each and every one of the twelve flowers, Kate pulled the small white card from the center of the bouquet and held it between her fingers as she read, Happy six-month anniversary, love; see you tonight. Though Kate did not necessarily feel the need to celebrate such a milestone, she certainly had no intentions of turning down the homecooked meal he offered her. While she already had plans to thank him thoroughly for the dinner, given his floral gift she decided she needed she might need to expand her thank you in a more creative and sexy way.

"You won the lottery, Beckett."

Kate glanced to her left to see one of her coworkers standing a foot away eyeing the flowers with envy. Looking back to the red roses herself, Kate knew what the woman said was correct. The luck she had to find Rick and become one of the few women she knew to be in a relationship with a man was not lost on her—not even a little bit. She woke up grateful every day that she was one of the lucky ones and, though he still drove her absolutely crazy sometimes, she tried her best never to take him for granted.

"Yeah, I think I might have."

"May…may I smell them?" the woman asked cautiously.

"Oh, here!" Kate reached out and grabbed one of the roses from the bunch, holding it out to her colleague. "Take one. Please."

"No," she refuted, looking a bit embarrassed. "They're yours."

"But I don't need twelve. Please," she repeated, reaching a bit further with the flower. Ultimately, the woman took it with a very genuine thank you and walked away cradling the rose to her chest.

Kate had barely sat down at her desk when another one of her coworkers approached and pointed out that her flowers were beautiful. "Are you doing something special for your anniversary?" she asked.

"No, I don't think so." Kate said, while also realizing that with Rick there could very likely be more surprise to come. "He said he was going to make dinner, but he does that a lot."

"I bet your dessert has a ring in it," the woman commented as she walked away.

Kate merely shook her head and turned to her computer, but when she reached out for her keyboard, she paused and thought about what would happen if Rick presented her a chocolate cupcake with a ring tucked into the icing.

Her chest filled with a warm, happy feeling and she cradled the card with his note close to her chest while thinking about the two of them together, building a family, a future. Though she never would have thought of any of that before meeting him, Kate realized in that moment such a future didn't sound so bad. Actually, it sounded lovely—and she couldn't wait to experience it.

A/N: Thank you all so, so much for all your reviews/comments

Next up is Richard Castle as The Bachelor in "Looking for Love" - starting Saturday! :)