Disclaimers: I own the story. Andrew W. Marlowe owns the show and he does a great job with it.

Summary: The extended Castle family shares a milestone with Jim as things come full circle.

A/N #1: I got to do some unexpected research during my Thanksgiving holiday. That research will be reflected in this final chapter.

A/N #2: This chapter will go back to what Jim and Kate talked about in Chapter 9 about when he went into rehab.

A/N #3: I did some adding up in my head on exactly when this story would be taking place. I figure this final chapter would take place in January 2019, 20 years after Johanna Beckett's murder.

Chapter 11: A Reason to Celebrate

January 2019 (a year after Jack's birth)

Kate was sitting at her desk when her cell phone rang. "Beckett!" She answered her phone in her usual style.

"Ms. Beckett, this is Troy Henderson. I don't know if you remember me, but I'm your father's AA sponsor."

'Yes, I remember you, Mr. Henderson. How can I help you?"

"Your father's sobriety birthday is at the end of the month. We have a celebration for all of our January people on the last Saturday of the month. I think that it would mean a lot to your dad if you could be there to present him with his chip celebrating another year."

"Yeah, I'd like that. It would mean a lot to me, too."

"Terrific. We have a potluck before the meeting starts. So, the meal starts at 5:30 and the meeting will start about an hour later."

"Mr. Henderson, I have two small children. Would it be all right to bring them along?"

"Absolutely. Family is welcome at the meetings. Jim talks about you and his grandchildren all of the time."

"Then we'll see you at the end of the month."

Ryan and Espo were walking by Kate's desk when she hung up the phone. "Is something wrong?" Espo asked.

"No, I just have to be somewhere on the last Saturday of the month. I guess that I should call home and see if Jack has managed to destroy the house today."

"Has Castle let him play laser tag anymore?" Ryan asked.

"No, I think he learned his lesson after the mess with the broken lamps," she cringed, remembering the one and so far, only, time that Castle put a laser tag gun in their infant son's hands. The end result was two broken lamps.

"Beckett, you know that they tell you to be careful what you wish for," Ryan grinned as the two partners walked away.

Kate couldn't help smiling at her two colleagues and friends. She looked at the picture on her desk of her husband and two children. Ari had her green eyes and long brown hair, although her smile was pure Castle, to which Castle always disagreed. He thought that she looked exactly like Kate, especially when she smiled. But, little James Jackson Castle was a replica of his father. Same hair, same eyes, same smile, same impish personality. Jack had started walking at nine months, and he had yet to stop. He was on the move from the moment he got up in the morning until he was put down at night to sleep. He was non-stop all day long. The methods of containment that they'd applied to Ari when she was an infant had no effect on Jack. Castle had learned that he had to do most of his writing at night because the rest of his day was spent following his son around. He told Kate that Jack was much like Alexis had been as a small child.

Now that Ari was four, going on five, she was in school in the mornings. But she lived to get home from school so that she could play with her brother. For someone who'd wanted a puppy, she adored Jack and the feeling was returned 100 times over. They'd have awful fights, and within minutes, Kate would find them playing happily together, as if nothing had happened.

So far, there had been no discussion of having more kids. After the nightmare of Jack's birth and how traumatized Castle had been afterward, Kate had decided that they needed to wait. She still had a few more childbearing years left before she needed to be worried. She loved being a mom to the two kids that they had, along with Alexis. At times she'd find herself thinking of her mom and wishing that she was here, but she knew that it did no good to wish for things that you couldn't have. She was learning to be grateful for what she had instead of wishing for what she didn't have.

Which brought her to this celebration for her father. After her father had gone into rehab, Kate had gone to Al-Anon for a few years, but she'd never gotten the point. It had taken her years to get over the anger over the path her father had taken for those four years after her mother's murder. She knew that she had yet to fully forgive her father for the hell that he'd put her through in those years.

When she walked into the loft shortly before six, she found Castle and the two children in a tangled heap on the living room floor. She loved watching her ruggedly handsome husband with their small children. For a man in his mid-40's, he had the energy of a man 20 years younger most of the time. On nice days, he'd take them to the park for hours. He'd toss them around and play silly games with them. But he'd also proven that he could be a disciplinarian when he needed to be. "Mommy, play with us!" Ari jumped up and ran over to her mother.

"Let me change clothes first," she smoothed Ari's long curls.

"Please hurry," Castle huffed from his spot on the floor. "I'm outnumbered here."

"You can't handle 50 pounds of kid, Castle?" She looked down on him, her eyes twinkling.

"How do you figure 50 pounds of kid?"

"Thirty-five pounds," she pointed at Ari, "and 20 pounds," she pointed at Jackson.

"How is it that you only weigh 15 pounds more than your brother?" Castle asked Ariel, who merely shrugged. "You're a string bean."

Kate quickly went and changed clothes before coming back and getting down on the floor with Castle and the kids. They wrestled around, laughing and getting into tickling contests for the next hour until Kate got a whiff of her son. "Whoa, Jack!" She got up and scooped him up. "You need a diaper change. And daddy needs to start dinner."

The rest of the evening consisted of eating dinner, baths, and reading stories before bed. It was after eight before Kate came downstairs, flopping beside Castle in total exhaustion. She leaned her head into his shoulder when he slipped his arm around her. "I got a call today from my father's AA sponsor."

"Is everything okay?"

"My father celebrates his sobriety birthday this month. They have a function for all of the people with January anniversaries on the last Saturday of the month. He asked me to be there to present my father with his chip."

"How long has it been now?"

"Fifteen years. He went into rehab right after the fifth anniversary of my mom's murder," she placed her fingers on the watch that she continued to wear so many years later.

"When did he give you his watch?" Castle asked her.

"When my dad went into rehab, he called me one day and asked to see me. I hadn't seen him in almost a year. I just got tired of him being drunk and not seeing my pain. When I went to see him that day, he'd been in rehab for almost two months. He told me how much better he was feeling and how sorry he was. I was still so angry, Castle. I told him that I had nothing to say to him until he was sober for a year. He called me on the first anniversary of his sobriety and asked me to come to the meeting with him. They were going to give him his chip."

"Did you go?"

"No, I had to work. But he came to see me a couple of days later. He gave me his watch and thanked me for giving him his life back. I told him that I didn't do anything; he was the one who made the decision to get sober. But he said thinking that he'd lost me was what finally pushed him to do it. He told me that as awful as it was to lose my mom, he couldn't bear to think that he'd lost me, too."

"I'll call my mother and see if she can watch the kids," Castle offered.

"No," Kate shook her head. "I think that we should all be there, Castle. All of us. Not just me, you, and the kids, but your mother, Alexis, and Brian, too. We're all his family. They have a potluck dinner before the meeting starts."

"I can maybe whip up a pot of chili or something."

"Why don't you make your world-famous lasagna?" She grinned. "My father loves that."

"Okay."

Later that night, Kate was awakened by Castle's lips ghosting down her body. She stretched languidly, carding her fingers through his hair. "Castle," she tugged on him, forcing him back up her body. "Can't sleep?" She wrapped her legs around his thighs, holding him in place.

"I was writing, and then I got horny. So, I came in here, and my muse was asleep on my side of the bed," he kissed her, his tongue tracing her bottom lip.

"I was lonely," she opened her mouth to him, no other words being needed.

***CCC***

The last Saturday of the month, Kate walked into the basement of the church where her father's AA meetings were held. She was holding onto Ari's hand while she balanced Jack on her hip. She saw her father talking to three other men and made her way over to him. He smiled when he saw her and the kids. "Katie!" He embraced her. "I'm so glad you could make it. These are my friends Tim, Rich, and Leo. Gentlemen, this is my daughter Katie and my grandchildren, Ariel and Jackson," he chucked Jack under his chin as the little boy chortled and reached out to his grandfather. "Where's Rick?"

"He brought some lasagna. He's upstairs with his mother. Alexis and Brian should be here soon."

While they were eating a little while later, they were approached by a man in his 60's. "Excuse me," he looked at Kate. "Are you Ms. Beckett?"

"Troy?" Kate asked as he nodded.

"I just wanted to explain to you how tonight is going to work. The celebrants go in order of their sobriety. They all get to speak a few words. Your father is in the middle of the pack. When it's his turn, you'll come up to the podium and present him with his chip. You can say something to him if you'd like."

"Can I take the kids up there?"

"Oh, of course."

After everybody had eaten, one of the board member stepped up to the podium, where he introduced each of the members who were celebrating another year of sobriety. They each stepped up and made a speech, thanking people in their lives. When it was her father's turn, his sponsor stepped up to the podium. "I've known Jim for a very long time. A lot of us here are very familiar with Jim and his two favorite topics of conversation, his two grandchildren. His daughter and grandchildren are here to present him with his chip celebrating 15 years of sobriety."

Castle gave Kate an encouraging smile as she got up, leading Ari by the hand and once again balancing Jackson on her hip. She stepped behind the podium and gave her father a proud smile. "It was rough between my dad and me for a while, but I have to say right now that I've never been prouder of anybody in my life. Congratulations, dad," she said, bending down to give Ari the chip and directing her to give it to her grandfather.

Jim lifted Ariel into his arms after taking the chip. He kissed her before kissing Kate and then Jack. Kate then returned to her seat with the kids, settling the baby on her lap as he started to squirm and fuss. After pointing to his grandfather, Jack quieted down a little. After adjusting the microphone, Jim looked out over the group that had gathered. "My name is Jim and I am an alcoholic." After being greeted by the group, he cleared his throat before continuing. "Twenty years ago, my daughter and I suffered the worst loss of our lives when my wife and Katie's mother was murdered. But for a long time I thought that I was the only person who lost someone that night. Katie buried herself in her schoolwork, and then into her job as a cop, while I buried myself in a bottle. It took me five years to realize that if I didn't get help, I was going to lose everything that I ever loved. It took another year after that before my daughter could begin to forgive me. I watched her battle her own demons for a long time while I was recovering from my own. But Katie has given me something that I thought I'd never have again. A family. I want to thank Martha, Alexis, and Brian for celebrating with me tonight. I especially want to thank my son-in-law, Rick, for giving me the one thing that I thought I'd never have. Grandchildren to spoil. Katie, I love you and I'm also so proud of you, too."

***CCC***

Castle woke up in the middle of the night, reaching instinctively for Kate, only to touch an empty bed. He sat up in confusion, wondering if one of the kids had awakened. He got out of bed and made his way upstairs. Ariel's room was empty except for his small daughter who was buried beneath her blankets, her small army of dolls surrounding her. He straightened her covers before leaving and going next door to Martha's old bedroom, which was now the bedroom of his son. He stood in the doorway, smiling at the sight of Kate dozing in the rocking chair with Jack in her arms. He walked over and carefully lifted the baby from her arms. Kate stirred and woke up. "Hey, Castle," she whispered. "He woke up and needed to be changed."

Castle put Jack back in his crib and covered him with his blanket before walking over and helping Kate to her feet and leading her back to their room. After helping his still half-asleep wife back into bed, he got in himself. "That was a nice ceremony tonight."

"Yeah, it was. I don't tell my father enough how proud I am that he has managed to stick out the program. I had so many doubts when he first got sober."

"Why?"

"Because he spent the better part of three years promising me that he was going to get sober. Castle, I'd come home and find him passed out in the living room, or in the kitchen, or more times than I care to remember, in the bathroom. I'd scream at him until I was hoarse. I finally decided that I couldn't do it anymore. I packed my stuff and left. The last thing that I told him was that if he was going to drink himself to death, I sure as hell wasn't going to stick around and watch. He'd call me and I'd hang up on him. Finally, he stopped calling and so did I."

"What finally convinced him to go into rehab?"

"I don't really know. He says it's because he didn't want to lose me, but he'd already lost me. I hadn't talked to him in months. He called me one day and left a message on my phone, begging me to talk to him. He told me that he was on his way to rehab. You helped me completely repair my relationship with him, you know," she glanced up at her husband.

"How so?"

"When you and I first started working together, I was talking to him, but things still were shaky. I saw the relationship that you had with Martha and I'd listen to the stories that you'd tell me about her. I knew that there were times when she drove you crazy, but I could also hear in your voice how much you love her. I wanted that with my dad. That's when we started meeting at that little diner about once a week. Sometimes we'd have coffee, sometimes we'd have dinner. It was nice to have that bond again."

"He loves you very much. So do I," he kissed her on the forehead as she snuggled into him.

"I love you, too. You and our babies are everything to me."

As he held her tightly against him, Kate thought about how far they'd come in the past year. With Dr. Burke's help, they were now back on track and things were as close to perfect as they were going to get. She fell asleep wondering how she'd ever gotten so lucky to meet a man who would love her so completely.

A/N #4: So there you have it. I know that this final chapter doesn't exactly fit with the others, but after my impromptu research this past weekend, I decided that it was perfect for what Kate and Jim had talked about.

A/N #5: Today I will start working on my Winter Fic-a-thon story. It's time to add Baby Hope to the mix.

I can be found on Twitter Caskett1960