Castle's partner

The End

Eight years later, Oliver pov

"Keep the change," I say, handing twenty dollars to the florist on the corner.

She smiles, handing me a bouquet of sunflowers.

It still amazes me that people can smile at strangers. That's one thing Samantha taught me. When I first met her, I was so angry. Angry at the world, for my father dying, for leaving me to watch my mom and Lydia in that pain. But she taught me how much a smile can do, because it was her smile that I fell in love with. A stranger, in a morgue. A beautiful stranger.

I start walking down the busy New York sidewalk, moving my wedding band around my finger.

It doesn't take long for me to get to my destination. The sun is hidden by rain clouds, and I know the sky is going to burst open at any moment.

I guess that's a sign. Samantha loved the rain, it's fitting it would rain exactly a year after her death.

I set the bouquet of sunflowers on her grave, and sit down next to it.

I run my fingers along the sleek, gray marble that reads Samantha Ross, loved by all 2000-2022.

Uncle Castle paid for it. I know he wanted to get her a crypt and a large plot of land, but she told him before she died that she didn't want that.

She didn't want to stand out after her death. She wanted to be buried next to her father.

Then I notice something else next to the flowers.

A hairpin, the one she wore to Uncle Ryan and Aunt Jenny's wedding.

They must have been here earlier.

I still see the rest of the family almost every day. I graduated early and went to med school. I'm the Medical Examiner for the twelfth precinct, and Aunt Lanie is my consultant.

When Uncle Ryan and Uncle Espo and Aunt Beckett and Uncle Castle work late, I'm the designated babysitter. Well, if I'm not working late. In the past year I've tried to stay as long as I could, to bury myself in my work.

It's only been a year since she died, a whole year, and I still feel broken. She beat the cancer, the surgery worked. But it came back, and it hit her hard. She suffered for five months, before she passed away just days before my twenty-third birthday. She was twenty-two.

But today is also our anniversary. We were married for one whole year, before she died.

We didn't have any kids, she didn't want to bring a child into this world until she knew she could provide, and that she would live. The doctors told her it would probably come back, and she didn't want her kid to grow up without a mom.

But she grew really close to my mom and Lydia. Family.

I will always love her. I loved her first, and I think she'll be my last love. I've never dated anyone else, and I don't want to. I love Samantha, forever and always.

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Ryan pov

I pop open a beer in the kitchen and hand one to Espo, Jenny, and Lanie.

I sink into my chair as the silence overwhelms me.

We're drinking Peroni, her favorite beer from Italy.

I can hear Sarah Grace and Nick talking in the living room. They're older now, Sarah Grace is eight, and Nick is five. We named him after Samantha's older brother, who is now family to the rest of us.

The rest of them sit down at the table with me.

"I miss her," I say to no one in particular, and they nod.

She didn't deserve it. Not at all. And she fought so hard. It's been a year. Her funeral was one of the hardest things I've ever had to go through. It was hard for Sarah Grace and Nick too, they lost a sister. Jenny and I lost our daughter, and that is the worst thing you can possibly live through.

She saved my life so many times, she struggled through so much, only for cancer to be the thing that ended her.

We watched her suffer, but she didn't want us to.

I miss her so much.

I set my beer on the table and take Jenny in my arms. Espo does the same to Lanie, and it's not long before I'm crying, along with the rest of them.

I miss my niece, the one who taught me that life is only worth living, if you're with the ones you love. The one that taught me that you can be strong even when you feel broken. The one that taught me to love unconditionally, and to forgive quickly.

The one that loved, and who was loved back.

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Nick pov

I sit at my dinner table, thinking about what today is. How much I miss my little sister.

I hear crying coming from the nursery, and I get up.

But when I get there, my wife Valentina is already holding my baby girl Samantha in her arms, singing softly, and rocking her.

I smile, before turning away and returning to my spot at the table.

A few minutes later, Valentina sits down next to me, taking my hand.

"Hey. How are you doing?"

I shrug as tears well up in my eyes, and she pulls me into a hug.

"I miss her. I miss my little sister."

"I know baby. I do too."

Valentina and Samantha got close after I started dating her five years ago. We go married three years ago. And Samantha lived just long enough for us to tell her she was going to be an aunt, and the godmother of our baby. But after she passed away, we knew we had to name the baby after her.

Samantha Katherine Lancaster.

It may not be much, but besides the scar she gave me, it's the only thing I have left of her.

I'm so sad, my baby girl will not be able to meet her aunt, but she's not suffering anymore.

She's happy. She's with her parents, her sisters, her brother.

She's home.

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Castle pov

The table is full tonight. My whole family is here.

Beckett, my three beautiful children, of course Alexis, so I guess my four beautiful children, Alexis's husband Luke, and of course, my mother.

We got together tonight in honor of Samantha.

I can't help but think about the things we did after she was diagnosed. Though her surgery had only a ten percent chance of working, she beat the odds. Her cancer went away.

Not long after that, Tyson made a mistake. He kidnapped the woman I love, and he paid the price. He died, and Samantha got justice.

She did the only thing she ever wanted to do, she put her family's killer away. Kind of.

I raise my glass for a toast.

"Today, we remember a beautiful girl, who did not know how to give up. She was a partner to all of us, she was a partner to me. To my partner,"

"To Castle's partner."