Final Chapter
A/N: The point of this three-story series was to give us all the chance to see what the finale wouldn't show us: how we get from dying on the kitchen floor to juice cups and coffee mugs during a Sunday brunch. I hope I've taken us there, up to that great culmination, the first chapter of their great story.
For myself, I chose to give us all the chance for an open ending. As you'll see, their story can go any way you want it to from here. If you're one of those who believes the show writers were always right in every decision they made, that continuity was never at risk, that characters were always executed flawlessly, then you can believe the finale's ending was exactly what their life looks like in seven years' time. And not a dream, not heaven as they died, not - as I have it in this story - Castle's might-have-been life flashing before his eyes as he lay dying, and the motivation to open his eyes and find a way to save them both once again.
However, if you're like me, you want to create your own world from the foundation the creators have laid for us. You want to decorate it how it most appeals to you. You want to hang wooden blinds not curtains; you want to smell the lemon polish as you dust every inch of it yourself. You want to sit back and admire your handiwork and know it is your own corner of the fandom, your own perfect head canon, and it's not bothering anyone.
This chapter is for both kinds, with all the respect and honor and love due after five years of feedback, reviews, encouragement, criticism, strength, friendships, disbelief, belief.