Disclaimer: Castle and all its original characters, plot, etc are property of the creators. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made.

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It started out as a quiet Friday evening.

Martha was off at a party, Alexis was spending the night at a friend's house, and Castle had a date with Nikki Heat.

Well, not with Nikki so much as with the newest Heat novel. Gina had been pestering him non-stop to finish it, and he was determined to get as many chapters completed that night as he could.

He was completely absorbed in an ingenious – if he did say so himself – plot twist when the sound of the front door clicking open reached his ears. Bracing himself for the story that was surely coming, he called out, "Back so soon?"

No one answered, and Castle's grin faded slightly. Neither Martha nor his daughter were ever so mad that they wouldn't speak to him. Something was wrong.

"Alexis? Mother?" he called again, still with no response. The frown deepening, he set his laptop on the desk and got to his feet. He headed for the doorway, then stopped and picked up a small statue from the shelf beside him.

'No harm in being prepared,' he thought, shifting the weighty object in his grasp.

He hadn't heard anything from the front room since the clicking, and he was beginning to wonder if it was just his imagination. His story-writing was finally starting to go to his head. He grinned as he recalled his mother's warnings, dire declarations that he'd end up a paranoid old man, 'hiding from imaginary hoodlums at every slight noise'.

Just then, he heard a creak. It sounded like someone crossing the floor near the kitchen; it had always had that particular place … Castle tightened his grip and started through the doorway.

He had just stepped into the living room when the intruder made himself known. A sharp pain tore through Castle's side. A cry of pain escaped as he spun, his body involuntarily turning to escape the sharp object.

Jerking away, gasping at the searing sensation, his left hand dropped to his side. He grimaced as he clenched the wound, attempting to ignore the intense pain. Turning, though more slowly than normally, he caught sight of his assailant.

There was barely time for him to notice the dark-clothed intruder before the glistening blade blurred as it was propelled forward by the hand that held it. Another streak of fire entered his shoulder, and he cried out in pain as the knife twisted as it was pulled out.

He tried to remember everything he had learned from Beckett and all the other research he'd done over the years for his books, but he was having trouble focusing. He definitely wouldn't be able to commit any details to memory.

The floor was coming up too fast, and he landed hard, grunting as the impact jarred his injuries. The intruder loomed over him, and Castle felt something wet hit his cheek. He grimaced as he realized it must be blood from the knife.

Then, everything faded to black.

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"You sure about this?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, dude," Esposito replied. "Castle said he was going to lock himself in his office all evening and write. I think he needs something to break up the boredom of the night."

The two detectives were making their way up the stairs to the Castle apartment. Esposito was carrying a bag of chips and various other snacks, and Ryan's hands were busy with drinks.

"Well, then, I'm sure he'll be happy with us. But will Gina?" Ryan raised an eyebrow, grinning mischievously.

As they neared the door, Esposito suddenly quit laughing. Noticing the look on his partner's face, Ryan paused as well. "What's going on?"

In answer, Esposito pointed at the door. It wasn't ajar, but there were telltale scratches around the lock. Both of their cop instincts were on in full now; setting their groceries down in the hallway, they each put a hand on their weapons.

Esposito knocked on the door. "Castle?"

There was no answer.

Worriedly, Esposito rapped on the door again. "You all right, Castle?"

When there was still no answer, Ryan and Esposito exchanged glances, then Ryan tried the knob. The door swung open, and they both drew their weapons. Tensed in readiness for whatever they might find inside, Esposito kicked open the door. Both detectives burst in, scanning the front room for any danger.

The blood spatter on the far wall gave them the first sign that something was wrong. Esposito covered his partner as Ryan led the way towards the office. The coffee table was obscuring their view of the floor immediately in front of the doorway, but when it came into view, both of their eyes widened slightly. Esposito immediately reached for his phone, heading towards the kitchen, while Ryan dropped to his knees beside the still form on the carpet.

There was a frighteningly large amount of blood covering both the writer and the floor around him, soaking into his shirt and the carpet underneath him. Two dark tears in Castle's shirt, one high on his sleeve and the other on his left side, told where the blade had done the damage.

Castle was quite pale, and Ryan worriedly felt for a pulse, ignoring the blood that was starting to seep through the knees of his own jeans. It was weak, but it was there, and he breathed a small sigh of relief.

Removing his button-down shirt, Ryan tied it around the other man's shoulder to try and stop some of the bleeding. He then looked around for something to use for the wound in Castle's side.

"Here," Esposito spoke up from beside him, handing him a couple of dish towels, apparently scavenged from Castle's kitchen drawers. "There's no sign of the intruder anywhere downstairs. I'd say they're long gone by now. How's he doing?"

Ryan didn't look up as he responded, "Two stab wounds, but he's got a pulse. The one in his side is the one I'm most worried about; it looks pretty deep."

"An ambulance should be here soon. I called Beckett, too," Esposito replied. His voice had taken on a slightly softer tone; Ryan could read the emotion in his partner's question and had to swallow some of the same. It was one thing when it was a stranger at a crime scene; it was a little easier to look at things objectively, but this was their friend, someone with whom they worked every day.

"I'll go get more towels." Esposito disappeared again, returning a few moments later with another few. "Any idea when Martha or Alexis is due to get home?"

Ryan shook his head, focusing again on stopping the bleeding in Castle's side. The man had not yet regained consciousness, and his face seemed even more pale than before.

Sirens wailed outside, and both detectives looked towards the windows, breathing a small sigh of relief. A few moments later, there were footsteps on the stairs and two EMTs appeared in the doorway. Curious tenants were starting to make their way down the hallway as well, and Esposito hurried to the door to keep them at bay.

Beckett arrived several minutes later, as the EMTs were loading a still-unconscious Castle onto a stretcher. She nodded to Esposito, who was still handling crowd control, as she passed by him into the apartment. Several of the onlookers voiced protests, but one look from Esposito settled them back down.

"Ryan?"

He looked up from the small group on the floor. "Beckett."

"How is he?"

"He's suffered two stab wounds, one serious, and lost a lot of blood," one of the EMTs spoke up. She brushed a dark strand of hair aside and continued assisting her partner. "We need to get him into surgery immediately; he's lost a lot of blood already."

"Okay; thank you." Beckett stepped aside to let them pass with the stretcher. She took a deep breath, then turned back to Ryan. "Do we have any idea who did this?"

"Nothing." He shook his head.

"We need to get a team processing this place immediately," she instructed. "And has anyone called Alexis and Martha?"

"Yes; I thought they should know before anyone else calls them. They're both on their way to the hospital to meet him."

"Good." Beckett paused for a moment before continuing. When she did, her voice was full of resolve "Ryan, we need to find who did this."

"Yeah." He looked down at his hands, then reached for one of the clean towels on the floor. "We'll, uh, we'll take a look at the security camera footage from the lobby. Maybe we can spot something there," he told her, wiping at the blood that slicked his hands.