Well I know this isn't a trick, but I hope you find it to be a treat...

The final chapter and epilogue of "Picking Up The Pieces"

Chapter 23

Rick gasped as if he'd been punched in the gut. When Kate called him, he had no idea something was wrong. So when he found her pale and sitting in a pool of her blood, he choked on his own bile.

Before he could react, a vision of her lying in a grassy cemetery flashed before his eyes. He pushed the frightening thought aside and focused on trying to help. He reached for his phone and dialed 911 as he knelt down beside her.

"What happened?"

"I thought my water broke, but..." her entire body tensed as her abdomen spasmed. "Oh god it hurts!"

The anguish in her face, ripped his heart to shreds.

The voice on the phone answered on the second ring. "911 what is your emergency?"

"My name's Rick Castle, and my wife is in labor, but she's bleeding all over the place."

"OK, Mr. Castle, crews are on the way. Is your wife conscious?"

"Yes, but she's weak, please hurry."

The next eight minutes until the paramedics arrived felt like eight hours. And the entire time, panic and fear kept playing tricks on Rick's mind. For a brief second, he thought Kate's bloody hand was wearing a white glove. When he told her he loved her and begged her to stay with him, the hauntingly painful look in her eyes made him recoil with ghostly familiarity. When he watched the medics load her onto the gurney, he swore he heard Lanie's voice tell him she'd be OK.

Rick didn't let the hallucinations, paranoia or whatever it was, distract him from Kate and the baby. Instead, he fought past the confusion and focused on his wife's distraught eyes.

The paramedics didn't allow Rick to join them in the ambulance, due to an extra medic helping Kate. But one of the cops who'd showed up, an Officer Hastings, knew him, and took him in her squad. The fast paced trip to the ER was a blur of introspective thoughts and fears, punctuated by red and blue flashes of light and screaming sirens.

After they arrived at the hospital, Kate was only in the exam room a few moments before they began wheeling her to the elevator. A kind-hearted nurse grabbed his hand and pulled him along for the ride up. She told him that although things were serious, mom and baby were doing OK. They'd need an emergency c-section, but the situation wasn't as critical as first believed.

Rick held Kate's hand on the elevator ride and told her over and over again to be strong and that he loved her. He could see her fear, but she never voiced it. Instead, she only restated his words of love back to him.

When the doors slid open, the doctor informed Rick that for emergency procedures, he couldn't be in the OR, but to gown up so he could join her in recovery.

He kissed Kate's lips firmly, hoping that any strength he had in his body would be soaked up by his wife and child. Then he watched helplessly, as the three scrub clad physicians and nurses pushed Kate through a set of swinging doors.

The one nurse who remained with him, guided Rick by the elbow to the front desk. She coached him through the stack of insurance forms and medical releases that he blindly signed, and then took him back to another room so he could wash up and change into scrubs.

It was in that room where he waited silently. It was a hellish eternity, and he felt as if he was going mad. He took the quiet time to text Jim, Alexis and Lanie. They would pass on the information to the rest before coming to the hospital as well.

Anger poured into Rick's veins like fire. He was sick of hospitals. Why couldn't anything just go right? He punched a box of paper gowns hard enough to leave an imprint. Dammit, this was supposed to be the happiest time of their lives, not another trauma!

Rick paced the small, yellow tiled room that reeked of antiseptic, until a faint noise caught his ear. He hurried to the stainless steel door, that he assumed led to the OR, and pressed his ear against the cool metal.

Sure enough, he could hear the faint sound of a newborn's mewing cry. Relief washed through him like the heat of a whiskey shot. His daughter was alive. Hot tears ran unchecked down his face. She was OK! Rick fell to his knees and wept for the joy of his child's life and fear for his wife's.

The tears had begun to dry and his shaking hands stilled by the time a nurse rejoined him.

"Mr. Castle?"

"Yes," he sniffed.

Seeing him on the floor, with his hands cradling his face, she quickly appraised the situation. "I'm gonna need you to scrub up again real quick, but then I can take you to see your wife."

"What about the baby?"

"She's been moved to the NICU for observation. I can take you up in a little while."

"But they're OK?"

"Yeah, they'll both need a little time to recover, but they're good."

"What happened? Why was Kate's labor like that?"

"She experienced something called a placental abruption. It's when the placenta begins to pull away from uterine wall before birth. It can be quite serious, but both mom and baby fared well. Your wife is receiving a blood transfusion but we were able to stop the bleeding, and that's key. And your daughter seems to be doing very well, but will need oxygen and fluids for a little while."

His hands began to tremble again, but this time out of relief. "Thank you. Thank you so much." He worked quickly to get cleaned up again and then followed the nurse back to the next room.

Kate was still on the table, covered in blue drapes, and connected to monitors, IVs, blood and oxygen.

"Kate, Honey, are you OK?"

"Yeah, they said I'll need to stay a few extra days to recover but I'm OK. No permanent damage."

"Thank God." Rick stroked his wife's hair. "Have you seen her yet?"

"They held her up for a second but then took her away. She's got good strong lungs though, and lots of dark hair."

Kate's eyes closed and Rick just let her rest.

Several people continued to work in the room, occasionally checking on the new mom. After a while, Kate opened her eyes again. "What are we going to name her?"

"I was just thinking about that. I want you to pick."

"But..."

"I like them all. Whatever you choose will be perfect."

"I hate that she's just Baby Girl Castle right now, but I think I want to hold her, or at least touch her first."

"That's fine. Whatever you want is fine. You scared the hell out of me tonight Kate. I really thought that I might lose both of you."

Kate reached for Rick's hand, stroking it with her thumb. "Scared me too, not so much for myself, but for her. I had to fight for her life."

"I've never seen anyone fight harder."

Thoughts of what happened and what could have happened, held the couple hostage.

Recalling the earlier events triggered something in Kate. "When we were still home, you said something to me, and it made me wonder... did you...do you remember my shooting?"

Rick looked into her eyes and began to shake his head no, then stopped. He shut his eyes and concentrated. "No, I don't think so. Not the way I remember other things, but when everything was happening and you were covered in blood and close to passing out, I think... I had flashbacks. It was like I was seeing stuff, for just a second every now and then, that wasn't there, but I know was real. Does that make any sense?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"It was like I was remembering the emotions, through these sporadic flashes of recollection. I tried to ignore them, but, frankly they were terrifying."

"I think that day, and probably today, were just as traumatic for you as they were me."

"Then lets not have any more traumas. We've had more than our fill."

"Agreed."

One of the nurses who'd been filling out paper work on the far side of the room, approached them. "Kate, I need to check your incision and vitals, but then are you ready to head to your room?"

"When can I see my little girl?"

The nurse in purple scrubs smiled. "Maternity and NICU are both on the same floor. I'll see if we can swing by on the way to your room."

XXXXXXXXXX

Rick's pulse raced. While Kate was being checked and transferred, he was able to go on ahead to the nursery. At first he resisted, choosing to stay with Kate. But she told him to go. Their baby needed him.

After being tagged with three different medical bracelets, he made his way to the next floor. He was finally going to meet his new daughter.

It took clearance through a security check point and a nurses station, but eventually he was ushered into the quiet room of small plastic bassinets and incubators. In the far corner, under a warming light, and hooked to an oxygen tube and IV, Rick's precious child slept.

"May I?" he asked Nurse Foster, who'd brought him in.

"You can touch her."

He ran his large fingers over her dark brown downy hair. "She's so small."

"Actually at seven, four, she's our biggest resident in here right now. And that's good. She won't be here long I'm sure."

"When can I hold her?"

"Soon. Dr. Epstein, the neonatologist on call, needs to see her again before anyone should pick her up. She's not terribly ill, but her blood counts and oxygen levels were down from the abruption."

The kind nurse could read the anxious father like a book. "Don't worry, that's a normal result from such a traumatic delivery. But she's strong and full term. She just needs a little extra TLC to rebound quickly. We don't want her to get sick."

Rick caressed the translucent skin of his baby's cheek, arms and toes.

"If you'd like, I can bring you a rocking chair, so you can sit with her."

He smiled. "Yeah that would be great, thank you."

XXXXXXXXXX

When Kate was wheeled in about a half hour later, Rick noticed that her color had drastically improved, much to his relief. Once she was situated, the staff left the couple alone with their daughter, to enjoy the couple minutes they had together.

"She's so beautiful." Kate breathed.

"She looks like you."

From where Kate was positioned, she could only reach one of her daughter's tiny hands, but that was enough, because immediately the infant wrapped her hand around her mother's finger.

Kate choked up and wiped at her tears.

"Ava."

"Hmmmm?" Rick asked.

"I think she looks like an Ava."

He rubbed his wife's shoulder. "Me too."

Again Rick touched the tiny cheek, and this time she opened her blue eyes.

"Ava Emerson Castle, our sweet angel."

Kate saw the nurse coming to take her to her room. "We love you Baby Girl!"

XXXXXXXXXX

The next afternoon, Kate's room was full. After twelve hours of observation, Ava had thrived and been moved to the standard nursery. And since Kate was recovering well also, she was allowed a few extra guests. Besides the new parents and chubby cheeked arrival, sat big sister Alexis, two doting grandparents and "TiTi Lanie".

The family reveled in the joy of the new baby, and couldn't stop expressing their relief that everyone was OK.

"Did Rick tell you the other news?" Kate asked the group.

"Uh no." Alexis stated without looking up from the bundle in her arms.

"His memory flashed back a bit last night."

Everyone's eyes turned to Rick.

"She's exaggerating. She hasn't had much sleep."

"No, I'm fine. And your memory did come back." she turned to look at the others. "We talked about it more this morning. He remembered things from the cemetery and the ambulance ride. Stuff I knew happened but never saw. He may have been told about some of it, but," she turned back to Rick. "What you explained to me were things you saw from your perspective. And maybe it's still mostly gone right now but this proves to me it's all still in there. And I believe one day you may get more back."

"I don't like what I remembered. Maybe I'm just better off just forgetting it."

"You remembered a part of one of the most traumatizing days of your life. You have six years of decidedly better days in there. And I'm not going to give up on that. Maybe it will come back, maybe it won't, but I'll never say never."

Martha chimed in. "Gotta say, I'm with Kate on this one Richard. I think this family has proved more than once, miracles still happen."

Rick sighed. A little butterfly of hope strummed deep within him still, but he'd learned to ignore it. Now, watching his wife and two perfect daughters, he knew anything was possible, and like Kate always said, only time would tell.

The End

Epilogue

February 4, 2017

"Daaaaah-deeeeeeeee!"

Rick groaned and buried his head deeper into the pillow, without waking.

"Da Da Da Dahhhh Deeeeeee!

He grunted and patted the bed behind him. "Kate, Ava wants you."

No answer. Crap, she's still at work. OK OK.

Rick propped himself up and squinted at the clock, 2:36 in the morning. With a sigh, he pushed himself out of bed, grabbed his robe and shuffled to the door.

"Daaaaaaaaaaah-deeeeeeeeeee Up! Av up!"

"I'm coming Peanut!"

The moment Rick opened the door, the smallest wavy haired brunette in his life began bouncing gleefully in her crib. "DahDee up! Up! Up! Up!"

He hoisted the tiny girl up into his arms. "Yes, I'm up. But why are you up?"

Ava laughed and grabbed his nose. "Up!"

The experienced father, brushed the child's hands away gently and checked her diaper. "You're dry. You have your binky and Gog," he told her, referring to her pacifier and Ava-named, stuffed hedgehog that she adored. "Whatcha need Kiddo?"

Two bright blue, wide, hopeful eyes stared up at him. "Mama," she answered simply with a trembling lip.

He hugged her snugly to his chest and headed to the rocking chair. "I know, Baby. Me too. Mama's been working a lot hasn't she? But she had to work lots of days in a row so she could be here all weekend with us. Tomorrow, well today actually, is your birthday. Did you remember that?"

Her downy head nodded under his chin. Then a single finger appeared right before his eyes. "Av one".

"That's right. My Ava Girl is one. Happy Birthday."

She babbled something in response that sounded like she was probably telling Gog happy birthday as well.

"Are you ready to go back to sleep now?"

No she wasn't.

Ava began to cry fat, inconsolable tears into her daddy's shoulder. He rocked her and hushed her and ended up telling her a story until he thought she'd dozed off again. But when he stood to put her back to bed, the little girl woke up again, with tears quickly filling her eyes.

"Daddy has to go back to bed, Peanut."

"No."

"Yeah I do. And so do you."

"Mama!"

"She'll be home when you wake up."

"Av up!"

"I know you are. But I meant in the morning. When the sun comes up, then Mama will be home. Then later, Lexi and Matt, Gram and Papa and everyone will come to your party. But you have to go to sleep first."

"No! No seeeeep Dah dee!"

"Please?"

"Av up Mama, Dah dee!"

Rick blew a breath of air out his lips.

"You want to come sleep in my bed? You can sleep on Mama's pillow."

Her soft head nodded vigorously against his cheek. "Go Dah dee!"

He quickly gathered her sleep lovies and carried her back to his room. Once settled on Kate's side of the bed, with every spare pillow he could find, now arranged on the floor next to her, Ava fell almost instantly asleep.

Rick climbed in on the other side, and didn't find sleep quite as fast. He stared at his daughter, who was sucking softly on her binky, and caressed her chubby cheek. His baby was already a year old. It didn't seem like that was possible. At times, it felt like Alexis should still be that age.

Rick thought back to the year before. At this time, he would have probably just been going into the NICU to meet her for the first time. She'd been so tiny and frail looking, with all those tubes and wires attached to her.

Thank God she'd done so well. Now she was a healthy, thriving toddler, who walked and talked and got into the kind of mischief one would expect out of his progeny.

And Kate, she recovered well too. Despite the complications with the delivery, there were no lasting effects. She came home after a few days, spent four months as a full-time new mom, and then went back to work on the force where she began training Detective Moriah Hall. Det. Hall is a young natural, much like both Kate and Captains Gates. Under their watchful eyes, she was getting the opportunity to work with the best and advance quickly. She was doing so well in fact, that Kate had come to a somewhat surprising decision. In June, Kate would retire from the NYPD. She'd found that motherhood was a calling she didn't want to share with a career outside the home. Besides, next month, she and Rick planned to begin trying for another baby.

She wouldn't completly be leaving her police days behind though, when Kate gave Gates notice of her plans, the Captain worked out a deal with her arranging for her to be a civilian consultant from time to time as needed. Rick was thrilled about this, because he knew it was a perfect answer to all the secret doubts his wife tried to keep hidden.

Ava kicked her blanket off and rolled toward him, sprawling in an odd way that he'd only ever seen Kate sleep. He chuckled.

He was so happy.

Before long, his eyes grew heavy and his breathing grew shallow. When he finally fell asleep, it was with a smile playing on his lips.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kate padded softly into the bedroom after locking her gun in the office safe. She stripped off her blouse and jeans, tossing them into the hamper, before heading to the bathroom to wash up.

When she returned to the bedroom, she shed the rest of her clothes, slipped on some flannel pajamas and headed toward the bed. As her eyes adjusted to the dark room, she noticed Gog sleeping on her pillow. Upon closer examination, she could see that the sleeping mound of blankets on Rick's side of the bed wasn't only her husband, but their daughter as well.

Kate grinned. Rick was on his back, one arm above his head, and the other wrapped around Ava's waist. Ava was using her father's bicep as a pillow and had tossed a footie-pajama clad leg over his stomach.

Kate crawled in to join her family. She kissed each of their foreheads before snuggling up to their sides. It had been a long, awful night at work, but returning home to her family was already melting the stress and horrors of her latest shift away.

Despite her exhaustion and the fact the dawn was looming just over the horizon, she couldn't sleep. Her mind was racing with everything from gruesome images of the triple homicide they'd just cleared, to details for Ava's party only twelve hours away.

Kate chose to focus on the party so that she could put the closed case out of her head.

Alexis and Martha were going to take Ava out for a birthday lunch and then back to Martha's place for a nap, while she and Rick decorated the loft, picked up the cake and prepared the food. Then they'd come back just before her dad, Alexis' fiance Matt, the Ryans, Espositos and Jakobsons arrived to celebrate.

Kate smiled to herself. Tonight, the same people who welcomed Ava on her first day home, would be the same people who celebrated her first year with them. So much had changed in the last year, perhaps not as much as the year before, but enough that last February seemed like both, a heartbeat and a lifetime away.

Lanie and Javi bought a condo only three blocks away from the loft, and were now actually talking about starting a family. The Ryan's had been through the ringer after finding out that Collin had a heart defect that had already required two surgical repairs, and would likely require a couple more as he grew. Thankfully the little boy did well despite the health issues, and had just taken his first steps the week before.

Th Jakobsons, in a lot of ways, probably had the most mundane year out of everyone in the group. The most notable things Kate could think of were that Becca had started up an online business selling custom jewelry that she made at home, and Ezra had begun preschool.

In their immediate family, life had taken a few happy turns as well. Martha's acting school had a successful off-broadway run, with a musical version of Heat Wave, effectively doubling business for her. Kate's dad Jim retired and spent two days a week watching Ava if she was working, so that Rick could write or attend meetings for the last Nikki Heat book he was writing, "Final Heat". And perhaps the most exciting news... last summer, after Alexis and Matt graduated with their Bachelors degrees in Biology and Psychology, they were engaged to be married. Now the two spent most of their time either in grad school or planning their July wedding.

Ava turned over and began to fuss, drawing Kate out of her musings. She wrapped her arm around her daughter and tugged her close to her body, while inhaling the sweet lavender scent of her baby shampoo. The little girl's eyes cracked open just long enough for her to whisper "Mama" before falling back asleep.

It was moments like this that confirmed to Kate that she'd made the right decision about retiring. As much as she loved her career, her heart broke every time she left for work. Her pulse raced in fear every time she pulled her gun, unsure if she'd ever see her family again. When the hours grew long, her focus went to the two halves of her heart waiting at home for her, instead of the task at hand.

Kate had already missed Ava's first steps and the day her first tooth came in. She wanted to be there for her other milestones. She was in a unique situation where she didn't have to work, so she was going to reap the benefits and stay home. Besides, if things went well, by this time next year, they'd have another little Castle to care for.

She looked over to her husband and thought back to the months and months spent trying to conceive Ava. Although, Rick's brain had gifted him with a few more random glimpses of the time he'd lost, he still didn't remember much, including that. When it came to planning for another baby, he was more optimistic than her, that they'd get pregnant quickly. Maybe it was cuz they had Ava already, proving that they could indeed create a beautiful baby together. Maybe it was because naturally he was more of a "glass half full" kinda guy. But maybe it was because he didn't have to remember facing the painful truth of infertility month after month like she did. No matter what the reason, he'd almost convinced her that they'd be expecting again before summer, when she would resign.

Kate sighed and cleared her thoughts. She didn't want to think about that right now either. Both Rick's memory and her work situations were bittersweet topics that could sway her emotions if she lingered on them too long. She didn't need to play the mental game of "what if?" right now. Today was about Ava, their sweet, precious little angel. And if she didn't get some sleep soon, exhaustion would trickle in and affect the rest of the day.

Rick turned to his side and wrapped his long arm around both her and the baby, cocooning them in his warmth. Joy and comfort soothed away everything else but the satisfaction of the moment, finally allowing Kate to truly relax. As her eyelids grew ever heavier, she rested her hand on Rick's firm shoulder and dropped a final kiss on her daughter's soft hair before eventually drifting into a deep and dreamless sleep.

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Author's note of thanks...

First and foremost, I need to thank you, the reader, for making this story a success. I won't lie, I had doubts. More than once. But you stuck with me and encouraged me. I think many of you really enjoyed this fic, and I'm thrilled, because that's why I do it. It's not about being internet popular, or feeling a sense of accomplishment. It's about giving the fandom a story that they can get into and really enjoy. So if you've liked this story... even a little. I've done my job.

And if you did enjoy "Picking Up The Pieces", I would be thrilled and honored, if you would share it with your friends. It's never too late to read a fic!

Next, I want to thank ABC, Andrew W. Marlowe, Nathan Fillion, Stana Katic and all the writers, producers, cast and crew that give us Castle each and every week. Without Castle, we wouldn't have this fandom of friends, the fics, the vids, the forums, the books, etc... What what we be doing with our lives if Castle was never made? Gasp! That's a scenario too horrific to consider for very long. But seriously, our enjoyment is their job. They work long, hard hours, striving for excellence so that for an hour each week, we can escape into a fictional world of awesomesauce! If any of you who are involved with this show read this, thank you so much!

And last, but certainly not least, I need to thank two very special women in my life, Teel and Kat. Even though it's my name typed on the front of the fic, this story would not be what it is without the selfless help these two have given me over the last six months. I can't tell you how many times they've listened to me whine about being stuck and uninspired. How patient they were between chapters (you guys only had to wait two or three days usually. They often waited three to four weeks between them... especially the darker more emotions ones). Or how many times they had to whip out the "tough love" and tell me "More details. I wanna see, smell, or feel it", "That makes no sense, fix it", "Feels rushed, do it over", "You can make me cry, that didn't make me cry. Go back and try again.", or even Teel's frequent reminders that she wanted me to bring Rick's memory back... sorry Hun, you didn't really win that one, and yet I think you're OK with that!

If you don't write, I don't know if you can fathom how wonderful it is to find the rare treasure of a friend that is brutally, lovingly honest, and who is so insightful that they instinctively know what you want to create and are willing to push you past, what you think are your limits, to produce that. I am blessed because I don't have one of these gems, but two. Picking Up The Pieces started as a random idea that I didn't have the time to cultivate, became a work of frustration that challenged me as a writer, and finally ended up as a story I'm proud to share with you. This is because of Teel and Kat. So ladies, I know you are reading this right now and are probably shaking your heads and may be trying not to cry (yes the story is over and I'm still tugging that emotional chain), but what I've written here is the honest, wonderful truth. And you deserve all the credit I've given you and more. Thank you so much. I hope to have the pleasure of working with you again.

Until next time...

Always,

DeBo81