Life Goes On

Chapter One.

Kate held the breath made so difficult by the bullet that had penetrated her side beneath her shirt. With her hand desperately grasping Castle's, she thought she could feel a faint flutter in the flesh beneath his thumb, Weak as it was, it was a pulse. He was still alive. The blood was spreading over the front of his shirt on the right side. The bullet hadn't hit his heart, but there were so many other things it might have hit. If they didn't get help soon, he would bleed out, and though her blood was draining more slowly, she would too. She strained for what seemed to be the whine of sirens in the distance. Caleb Brown's gun had been silenced, but hers had not. Someone must have heard the shots. Please God, someone must have heard the shots. The sirens grew louder, but the room faded around her. Consciousness retreated as she prayed help would come before the faint beat she clung to faded as well.

Castle fought his way back to consciousness. "Kate!"

A hand pressed gently against his shoulder, "Shhh, Dad, everything is all right."

"She's just in another room Richard," his mother's voice comforted. "She's restless and sitting up. We brought her to see you in ICU as often as we could. They just moved you down here. You've been out for two days."

Castle forced his muzzy brain to focus. "Caleb Brown?"

"Dead," Martha declared. "Katherine's bullets took him out and good riddance."

Castle tried to use a dry tongue to wet drier lips. "LokSat?"

"Dismantled, Dad," Alexis replied, "the whole group, or at least the ones who didn't get killed in the raid.. The NSA and the CIA kept the details out of the media as much as they could, but Hayley used her MI-5 contacts to get information. "They're being held incommunicado while they're debriefed, then they're destined for Guantanamo, or somewhere like it."

Castle closed his eyes and shook his head. "Debriefed, that's taken on a whole new meaning after what Mr. Flynn did to me. I suppose if what was done to my memory could be done, super truth serum isn't much of a step away."

"Hard to know who the good guys are anymore," Alexis offered.

"You got that right," Castle rasped. "But at least two of them are in this room with me. Could you see if Kate wants to come in, I mean if she can?"

Alexis squeezed his hand. "She can and I'm sure she'll want to Dad. I'll go hunt up someone who can snag a wheelchair for her."

Alexis wheeled Kate to Castle's side. "We'll just leave you two alone," Martha announced, using her eyes and a tilt of her head to urge Alexis to follow her from the room.

Kate stroked Castle's arm with her fingertips. "You're really here. You're really awake. You lost so much blood and then when they told me your heart stopped twice during surgery, I just wasn't sure you'd make it back to me."

"What happened?" Castle asked. "I mean I remember Caleb Brown shooting me and I remember feeling the blood on your hand, and then nothing."

"The whole building heard the shots Castle. Espo told me there were ten calls to 911. Then as soon as the units responding realized who I was, they notified the precinct. Ryan and Esposito camped out here until I woke up, and they've been alternating with Hayley ever since. Alexis and Martha are probably talking to Ryan right now. Jenny's been here, and L.T., and Officer Harrison. Gates even came over from 1PP. Everyone's been pulling for you. The bullet lacerated your liver, Babe. The doctors had to take a piece of it. For a while it looked like you might need a new one, but now they're saying it will just regenerate on it's own." She brushed her knuckles against his face. "You'll probably be off the scotch bottle for a while."

Castle tried to reach for her face, and she lowered her head so he could reach it. "The only thing I couldn't stand being off of is you."

Kate caressed the fingers that touched her skin. "That's something you don't have to worry about Castle. I'm not going to put either one of us in the line of fire anymore. When I do go back to the Twelfth, I'll be behind a desk and I think I may give law school another shot."

Castle raised his eyebrows in confusion. "You said you didn't want to. That you wanted to bring people justice, not get them off."

"I do Castle. But this whole LokSat affair, what Sofia Turner did, and, the behavior of the A.G.'s office, even the kinds of things your father does, they've all made me realize that the dirt isn't all in the streets. It's with the very people we trust to protect us. The only prayer I have to clean it up is to go where the power is. And the only way to do that, much as I hate them, is politics. The party wants me. So I'm going to get my law degree and I'm going to run."

"Hey, good for you," Castle smiled as best he could. "But can you do that and still be a police captain?"

"I think I can while I stick my toe in, Castle, take some night courses. Most captains keep pretty regular hours. I'm going to apply to Columbia, NYU, and CUNY, for the winter semester. and if I get into any of them, "I'll resign from the force."

"If you get in," Castle chuckled, "of course you'll get in to all of them. Then your only choice will be picking which one you want to honor with your presence."

Kate rolled her eyes."We'll see about that, Castle. Remember Alexis and Stanford? But the doctors told me I'll be able to go back to work in about six weeks. That will give me time to fill out applications and hang out with my favorite writer."

Castle twisted a strand of her hair around his finger. "We haven't had much time just to hang out, have we? We were even working a case on our honeymoon. First Bracken then LokSat has ruled so much of our lives."

"Well that's not going to happen anymore," Kate declared. "From now on we're going to chart a course of our own."