Author's Note: This is the final chapter! And it takes place about thirty minutes after the last one ended.

Kate lay on her side in her bed, wearing her favorite sweatpants and sweatshirt, with her favorite blanket wrapped tightly around her. She was staring listlessly out the window, watching the clouds roll over the building next door. Her chest ached, but her eyes were finally dry and the lump in her throat had subsided at last. Her eyes were drifting towards closing when a knock sounded on her door.

She thought very seriously about ignoring it for a moment, in case it was Josh coming to try and win back her heart, but she figured it was Lanie, coming to check on her during her lunch hour. And she couldn't leave her best friend hanging, not after everything Lanie had done for her last night.

Kate sighed heavily and pushed the covers off of herself. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, but didn't bother to fix her messy pony tail as she walked out of her bedroom. And when she passed the mirror in the hallway, she refused to look at herself. She didn't want to see the mess that was her reflection at the moment.

She stepped up to the door and glanced through the peephole, just to make sure it wasn't actually Josh. The sight that greeted her knocked the breath out of her. She leaned her forehead against the wooden door and tried to calm her breathing and collect her racing thoughts. One thought that jumped out at her was, my best friend is a traitor. Half of her wanted to turn and run and the other half wanted to pull open the door and jump into the arms of the man standing on the other side.

She did neither.

Kate reached for the lock and then the handle, before slowing pulling the door to her apartment open.

"Kate." Her name fell from his lips like a prayer.

She wanted to slap him, to push at his chest, and claw his eyes out. What she didn't expect were the tears that instantly started streaming down her face. She wrapped her arms around her abdomen and held on tight.

His jaw dropped open and his mouth worked up and down like a fish gasping for water. He moved into the apartment and reached for her with both hands, but she took a violent, tumbling step backwards, out of his reach.

"Don't." Her voice was low and hard, and he saw the anger glittering behind the tears in her eyes. What he couldn't see was the relief that was tumbling through her. She was so angry at him, felt betrayed by him, but seeing his face was like a soothing balm to her soul. All she wanted to do was let him touch her, let him wrap his arms tight around her.

But if he touched her, she would fall apart, and then she would never know for sure. Even if what Lanie said was true, that Castle loved her and had walked away from her to avoid seeing her marry another man, she wouldn't believe it unless he could prove it to her.

"Kate." Castle shut the door behind him, but his eyes never left hers.

"What are you doing here, Castle?" She turned and walked away from him, going to stand in the kitchen, putting the island between them for some distance.

He followed her, but respected her space and stayed on the other side of the counter. They were silent for a few moments, and he tried to gather his thoughts and figure out what to say. He had come up with a plan on the ride here, but the plan had flown out the window at the sight of her tears. He'd been ready for the anger, or the indifference, but never the tears. They broke his heart all over again.

Finally, he said, "How are you?"

She snorted out a raw laugh, wiping viciously at the tears on her cheeks. "Just fucking dandy, Castle."

He bit his lip at her language. It was rare to hear that from her. As rare as the tears on her cheeks. He took a moment to study her, to see that she had lost weight, was nearly swimming in the clothes she was wearing. And Lanie had been right about the bags under her eyes, which stood out in stark relief due to the dark color of them against her pale skin.

"I'm sorry to hear about Josh," he said quietly.

"Ha, yeah right, Castle." Her words were filled with bitterness.

"I am," he murmured. "All I want, all I ever wanted was for you to be happy."

"That's rich, Castle. Really. Did you think leaving me behind was going to make me happy? That taking away our partnership and making it out like it was nothing to you would make me happy?" Her words bit at him. "Well, you were wrong," she spit out.

He cleared his throat. "I know, I understand that now."

"Just tell me why, huh, Castle. That's all I want to know. Why?"

He looked down, avoiding the fire in her eyes. It cut through him and he wasn't sure that Lanie was going to be right. He wasn't sure he could fix this, no matter how hard he tried. She probably wouldn't trust him ever again.

But he was going to give it his best shot. He looked back up and met her gaze. "Because I love you," he said simply, with a shrug of his shoulders. "I left because I wanted you, Kate. But more than that, I wanted you to be happy. And I thought being with Josh made you happy. So I tried to bow out gracefully. Only… I wasn't very graceful about it."

He ran his fingers through his hair. "I walked away because I couldn't stand to see you with someone else, not like that, not married." He rubbed a hand over his chest, as if trying to sooth an ache he felt there. "My heart couldn't take that."

She stared at him, and her chin quivered once again, but she didn't speak.

Slowly, he started walking around the counter to stand closer to her. He didn't dare touch her, not yet, but he wanted to be near her. "It seems my heart had a lot of trouble being away from you, though. You have no idea how many times I reached for my phone to call you, to tell you that I was sorry and that I wanted to come back, because being without you was worse than watching you with another man. But I couldn't, Kate, because I knew, deep down, that it would be worse to watch you marry him. Because you're a one and done type of girl. And I had hoped that eventually I could get over you and move on."

"And did you?" she whispered.

He smiled sadly. "Not a chance. You're unforgettable, Kate."

Her chin dropped to her chest and she closed her eyes, blocking her emotions from him. He sighed, wondering what to do next, what else he could say to make it better, to fix everything. The sound of her voice surprised him.

"Why didn't you ever tell me that?"

He sighed softly and leaned back against the island. "I should have. I should've tried to prove it to you. I should've told you all the things I kept inside of me, because then maybe you would have believed it. Believed that all the teasing and the flirting I did wasn't just a game I was playing. I know how powerful my words can be." He hesitated. "To you."

He swallowed back his fear. "But I never did, because I didn't think you were ready to hear it. You have to understand, Kate, I always thought we would end up together. I thought that in time, you would come to realize what I had, that we were meant for each other. And that you were all I would ever need. So I was waiting on you. Waiting on you to realize Josh wasn't the person you wanted to be with. Waiting for both of us to be single so we could take that chance. But that time never came. I waited too long. And now I've lost you." The grief in his voice was a tangible thing, and she lifted her eyes to meet his gaze.

And then, finally, she reached out to touch him with trembling fingers against his arm. "I'm right here," she whispered.

The touch unraveled him, and he stepped up to pull her roughly against his chest, his fingers digging into the back of her sweatshirt. He buried his face in her pony tail and held on for dear life. Her arms were slower than his, but eventually they wound around his waist. He could feel her breath, warm against his neck as she leaned against him.

"I'm sorry," he murmured, the words spilling out of him and into her hair. "I'm so sorry, Kate. I'm sorry I walked away, that I never told you how I felt. I'm sorry I left you to fend for yourself, without your partner. I'm sorry I told you our partnership didn't mean anything to me, because it does. It was everything to me. You're everything to me. Please forgive me."

"Shh, Castle." She soothed him, brushing her hands over his hair. Kate pulled him back to study his face. His eyes were brimming with tears, though none had fallen. "Don't cry," she whispered. She swiped a thumb over the corner of his eye, catching the moisture there.

He chuckled roughly. "Isn't that supposed to be my line?" His hands replaced hers and he used his palms to rub at his eyes.

Her lips quirked in a small grin. "I always knew you'd be the woman in this relationship."

"Hey!" he protested, with hardly any energy at all, because hope was suddenly blooming in his chest at her words. "This relationship?" he asked.

She looked away shyly, before glancing back at him as she bit her lower lip. Kate had no idea how much that habit of hers made him want to kiss her, but he still wasn't sure it was a good idea. He wasn't sure that her words meant what he hoped they meant.

"You have a long road ahead of you, Castle."

He nodded eagerly. He knew that.

"You…" She sighed softly. "You broke my heart when you walked away, even if I didn't really know that's what was happening."

His chest ached at her words.

"I thought I could be happy with Josh, but I wasn't. I wasn't happy without you. But you took something from me that day when you left, and I'm not sure that I've found it again. I… I don't know that I trust you completely right now."

"I'll prove it to you, that you can trust me. Every day, Kate. Any time you'll give me. I swear to you, I'll get it back." He was nearly begging her now.

She studied him, searching his eyes, and he wondered if she found what she was looking for. Finally, she said, "If you walk away again, Rick, I swear to God I'll shoot you."

"And Lanie will help you bury my body."

"Exactly." She smiled then, the first real, genuine smile he had seen on her face in weeks. God, he had missed it, missed her. Slowly, she rubbed her thumb along his bottom lip. "Are you ever going to kiss me?" she finally asked, after they spent a few moments just watching each other.

He chuckled and pulled her closer, nuzzling her nose with his cheek. "I was just waiting for permission."

She sighed in exasperation. "If you always have to wait for permission, we're never going to accomplish anything."

His lips curved against her cheek. "You're just going to have to learn to be more forthcoming."

"Castle."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and kiss me. That's an order."

"Ooh, kinky, Detective."

"Cast—" Her words were cut off by his mouth on hers, effectively silencing both of them. And for the first time in nearly two months, they let themselves hope.

End Note: Sorry for the line break there in the middle. I do that sometimes if I want to switch viewpoints during a scene. Instead of writing from Kate's perspective, I switched over to Castle's. If that's not cool, let me know, and I'll try to avoid it from now on.

Soooo… This story was exhausting! I wrote the whole thing in one day, and then I spent the rest of the week basically re-writing everything. But I've definitely learned a lot. I can't even begin to explain to you what I figured out by doing this. So… I won't try. I'll just shut up and post this (…in a minute.)

I do hope you enjoyed this, that the conclusion was everything you hoped it would be. I want to thank everyone who left me a review, or added my story as a favorite, or put this story on alert. It made me feel like I can actually get back in to this writing thing! Let me know what you thought.