A/N: Well, you asked for it, so here it is :) I'm kind of sad to be posting the final chapter. It's been so much fun thus far, and I'd like to keep going, but the story just wound itself down here.

This is a much shorter chapter than I've done before. It's just here to round out all the stories and give a lighthearted ending to a story that was much less lighthearted than I started out intending to write.

Thank you to everyone who has read this from the beginning. Your alerts, favorites, PMs, and reviews have been amazing to read. This fandom has welcomed me with my first story so warmly I could barely believe it.

As usual, I don't own any characters or settings. It's all in fun.

Enjoy!

Chapter 11

The first day back at the precinct…

Kate sat at her desk, staring at the elevators with a glower that had the rest of the homicide staff avoiding her like the plague. She tapped her ceramic coffee mug with a manicured nail, waiting. To everyone around her, she looked like she was about to tear someone's head off, and if the precinct rumors were to be believed, that someone usually arrived right about….now.

Ding!

The elevator doors slid open to allow him to exit. Rick Castle entered the 12th precinct's homicide bullpen with all his usual swagger and flair. His charcoal Armani suit was as immaculate as ever and the royal blue shirt with French cuffs made the blue in his eyes seem to glow in the right sunlight. When he really tried, no one could deny that he was, in fact, ruggedly handsome.

Gesturing greetings with his coffee filled hands to one and all, he had the appearance of a returning hero, rather than someone walking to his apparent death. Other officers accepted his greeting but hurriedly looked away rather than be collateral damage of Hurricane Beckett. When his eyes met Kate's laser-like glare, he froze comically, with his mouth opening and closing.

"What the hell," she interrogated in a low voice hiding her malice, "are you doing here?"

"I…I…brought you coffee?" he answered, somehow using his tone to make the response a question of its own as he lifted her cup.

"You cost me my best chance to ever personally slap the cuffs on the bastard who ordered my mother killed and you think waltzing in to my bullpen with a cup of coffee is going to make up for it?" Kate asked in a threatening voice as she slowly got to her feet, her posture and expression radiating menace.

"Now just a minute, Detective Beckett," Castle protested as she slowly walked up to him, nearby officers scattering from her progress and leaving her path to her intended target clear. From his desk off to the side, Esposito watched in confusion and growing dismay.

She didn't give him the chance to finish. "You have a lot of balls to think I'm going to welcome you back with open arms, Rick Castle," punctuating each word with a jab to his chest.

"What happened to partners?" he shot back, leaning in to regain some of the ground she'd taken, "What happened to all the times I've saved your life?"

The slap took Esposito by surprise. In the four years that Castle had been working at the precinct, Kate had never once physically struck him, no matter how annoyed she'd been.

"I told you I didn't want you back here after we rescued your girlfriend," she sneered, "I told you we were done when she was safe. Why are you back here acting like nothing has happened?"

Castle looked incredulous as he rubbed the darkening handprint on his face. He opened his mouth to retort, but his specific response was lost on their only audience as off to the side, Esposito withdrew his phone from his pocket and was furiously sending Lanie a text as fast as his efforts at surreptitiousness would allow.

Mom and Dad are fighting again. It's bad. There was a slap. What should I do?

Downstairs in the morgue, Lanie's phone beeped to signal an incoming text as she showed Alexis the answer to one of her questions in a procedure guide. Leaving the girl to read, she looked at the message and rolled her eyes. "Are you kidding me?" she murmured.

"What's wrong, Dr. Parrish?" Alexis asked, looking up from the book.

"Your father and Kate Beckett, that's what's wrong," Lanie grunted as she showed her intern the phone.

"Oh come on, Dad! What happened now?" Alexis wondered in a more exasperated voice than Lanie had ever heard from her.

"Enough is enough," she said, "Working behind the scenes is all well and good, but with these two, I think we're going to have to stage a damn intervention," Lanie looked to Alexis, hoping she wouldn't take any offense to the comment on her dad.

Alexis stood with her and went to get her own purse. "You're absolutely right. Shall we?" The smile on her face would have had her dad worried for his well-being, or at least the well-being of his wallet.

"I like the way you think. Follow me," Lanie answered as she thumbed a quick reply to Esposito.

Time to put a stop to this once and for all. Tell them there's a suspect in one of the holding cells they need to talk to. We'll be waiting.

Upstairs, Esposito grinned, sensing their plan. Lanie Parrish was a devious woman. She'd used the pronoun we, so it was likely thatLittle Castle was in on it too. She must be just as fed up with the two arguing partners as everyone else was.

"Uh, Castle? Beckett?" he asked in a loud voice to get their attention off their latest squabble.

"What?!" They exclaimed in unison, whirling over to face him.

"There's someone down in holding from the Brentwood case a couple months back that we need to go have a chat with. Can we maybe get back to this…whatever it is…after interrogating him?" he asked, gently steering them to the choice he wanted them to make.

"Fine," Kate spat out, "but we're not done with this, Castle. As soon as I'm done talking to this scumbag, you and I are going to have it out for the last time."

"Sounds good to me," he shot back.

They followed Esposito down to the holding area, but before heading to the cells, he gestured for them to lead. When they moved down the aisle, it was apparent there was a problem. One of the cell doors was hanging wide open. Approaching the area, Kate whirled on Esposito, apprehension filling her entire face. "What the hell is going on?"

Not giving them any time to react, Javier grabbed Castle's arm and pushed him and Kate through the door and swung it shut without a word. Lanie and Alexis joined him from their hiding place, standing next to Esposito with their hands on their hips in mirror images of consternation.

"We've all had it with your antics, Dad. You too, Kate," Alexis began without any preamble, "and this is what we're doing about it. You're fighting like teenagers, but it's obvious to everyone you're only fighting yourselves. It's time for an intervention."

"I really just want things to go back to normal, when I could ignore your little glances and awkward silences and pretend like nothing was going on," Esposito chimed in.

"And Kate," Lanie took her shot, "I've spent enough time counseling you that I'm about ready to share notes with the department shrink. Honey, you've spent way too much time with losers in dead-end relationships. Castle's the first man that's really challenged you and made you feel again. He's the first guy who's really made you live as the woman you were before your mom died. You need to embrace that. Grab it with both hands and never let it go, because you'll never see the same chance again."

"It's time for the fighting to stop. Nothing you've done to hurt each other could be worth this much pain when the payoff could be so good. Dad, I've seen the way your eyes light up when you're around Kate. She's made you grow up in ways that no one ever has before. Mom's a flake, Gina was a blood-sucking witch, and don't even get me started on the parade of bimbos you dated before Kate showed up at the book signing. You need each other, so stop screwing around and fix this!" Alexis finished.

Kate looked out of the corner of her eye at Castle as they each dropped their gaze to the floor. It was tough to tell, but she thought she could see the corners of his mouth twitch up. She tapped her foot twice before saying, "Think we've taken this far enough, Rick?"

Looking up at her, he grinned. "Yeah, I think they've learned their lessons."

Their audience was stunned, but Esposito was the first to recover. "You mean this was all a set-up?"

Kate chuckled. "Of course it was, Espo. You didn't really think we were still fighting, did you?"

Bereft of a coherent response, Esposito could only stammer out, "Well I was…I mean I thought…"

Alexis cut him off, arms folded across her chest. "I'm still not buying it. They could just be saying that to get out of the cell. I want proof," she declared, looking at her father.

Heaving an obviously faked enormous sigh, Castle turned to look at his fellow prisoner. "Well, if they want proof…" he trailed off.

"…always give the people what they want, eh Mister Best-selling novelist?" Kate finished with a smile.

"You've learned so well," he complimented before laying a short, sweet kiss on her. "Happy now, daughter of mine?" he asked, turning to the redhead.

Lanie didn't give the girl a chance to answer. "Uh-uh, no way. Do you think some nice words and that pathetic excuse for a kiss are going to convince us to let you out? Do I look satisfied, Javier?"

"No, ma'am, I've seen your satisfied face and that's not it," Esposito responded before his brain could filter his mouth.

A visible shudder went through the rest of the group at his statement, accompanied by an audible, "Ewwwww," from Alexis.

Lanie turned to him and stage-whispered loud enough for everyone else to hear, "When we're done here, I'mma smack you."

He gave her a challenging smirk, "Looking forward to it."

Kate threw her head back and blew out an exasperated sigh. "Fine. You want proof, you'll get proof." Without another word, she turned to her partner, grabbed his lapels and crushed her mouth on his in a toe-curling kiss on him that he would remember for the rest of his life. Their tongues dueling, she poured every ounce of repressed passion she'd felt for the man over the course of four years, snaking her hands through his hair as his hands found places on her hips after flailing in shock for a few moments. Their audience was soon forgotten, and as the kiss deepened they whimpered moans of lust, want, sheer need for each other.

It was almost a full minute before they came up for air. Kate licked deliciously bruised lips before turning to face their captors with her hair mussed and breathing hard. Castle had clearly gone to his happy place. His body was limp, his eyes were fully glazed over, and a sappy, dreamy smile formed on his lipstick-stained mouth. He may not have even been on the same planet, much less in the same cell as Kate.

Javier and Alexis were laughing, though the latter looked slightly grossed-out at watching her father make out with his apparent girlfriend. Before Lanie could stammer out an answer, Kate looked at Alexis. "I'm sorry we had to tell you this way. I wanted to just get it out over the last week, but when we figured out you all were playing us behind our backs, we wanted to have a little fun in return. Your dad and I (she snapped her fingers in front of his face to no avail; Castle was still gone and even seemed to be humming slightly) talked about something, but agreed we'd wait for your approval. If you're ok with it, I'd like to move into the loft permanently."

Dead silence.

Alexis' jaw dropped. "Kate?!" she squealed, "Are you serious?"

Beckett nodded. "We've wasted too much time as it is, and after we talked things out once Kyra was safe, it just seemed like the most natural thing in the world."

Lanie gave a happy squeal of her own as Alexis' face split in an ear-to-ear grin. "Of course I'm ok with it! I've been wanting this to happen for years!"

"Me too, sweetie," Kate responded. Seeing that Castle was still in no condition for actual thought, Kate directed her question at Lanie. "Satisfied now?"

"Absolutely. I'm so happy for you, Kate," Lanie answered before elbowing Javier, "Don't just stand there! Let them out!"

That's when things hit a little snag. He patted his pockets. "Um, yeah, about that…"

Kate stood up, her mood switching from happy woman in love to active menace in an instant, "What about that, Esposito?" she growled, eerily reminiscent of a Doberman Esposito had seen once early in his career, but never forgot. He still hated walking down a certain street.

"I, um, don't have the key. The guard said it was unlocked and ready to go," he whispered.

"So go get it from him!" Lanie exclaimed.

"The thing is, as soon as we got set up, he went to lunch. Said something about not wanting to see whatever was going to happen," he admitted sheepishly.

"So we're stuck here until he gets back," Kate finished, disbelieving.

"You three are stuck," Alexis answered, "Dr. Parrish and I are going to get some lunch. Want me to bring you anything back?" She directed the question at her dad, who was slowly coming out his stupor, but who didn't comprehend her question.

"Just get us some burgers and fries from Remy's, please. They know our usual," Kate answered for him. When Lanie and Alexis had left and Esposito went to wait for the guard at his desk, she turned back to Castle. "Oh well. I guess we've got the chance to make up for lost time," and with a huge grin, started kissing him again.

A/N: And that's a wrap! Once again, thank you to everyone! I really hope you enjoyed this!