Hey guys! This is the re-write and edited version of my original story called "I'll Fight the Flames for You, Emily, Always." I changed a few things from the original and from the show itself. Such as, Alexis is seven, Castle never married Gina, the bomb did not go off in Kate's kitchen, and nobody knows about Emily's existence except for Jim.
Summary: This is a rewrite of season two, episodes seventeen and eighteen. What-if Kate had a daughter when the bomb went off in her apartment? Can Castle save the both of them in time? Or will it be one over the other? This is an AU to the ending of season two.
"Kate, are you in there? Kate?!" He yells, debating for a split second on whether or not he should jump on the door or kick it in to knock it down. "Ow, ouch." He picks himself up off the floor of her apartment and gasps for a breath, sucking in what was left of the clean air. "Kate, Kate..." He calls out franticly.
He's attempting to see the hallway connected to her bedroom to the right through the wall of smoke when he can hear the faint cough coming from his left. Right or left? His subconscious is saying right but his gut saying left. Left. "Kate?" Fear and hope laces his voice; he needs for her to be alive. He can barely see the charcoaled color hand grasp the side of the cast iron tub, but the relief that spreads through him makes the weight in his chest and anchor on his heart lessen.
He can see her hair pulled back into a tight pony tail that is starting to come loose as she lifts her head before looking back down in pain. She endeavors lifting her body up again when a jolting bolt in her spine sends her down, her chest heaving in a coughing fit. She goes to rest her head on the edge of the tub when her vision clears and she can see him, her partner, the man she has grown to care for over time who is yearning to get to her with debris and parts of the apartment collapsing around him.
Part of the bathroom door is covering her back, shielding her from both the fire and him. She is turned away from him, her lungs still wheezing for air from the fit while his begin to breathe again. "You're alive," he says with a sigh of relief. "Oh, and you're naked." The realization comes to him as he looks down into the tub where she is currently at. "Castle turn around." Beckett says with a bit of annoyance in her voice.
Rick nods and does as she demands to prevent her from shooting him later, plus he was raised to be a gentleman. Once she is done coughing he speaks his thoughts, taking a chance that she won't kill him for what he is about to say. "You know; the apartment is on fire…right now might not be the time for modesty." He watches as the fire spreads with vengeance.
He has a point, she thinks to herself while bringing her knees up to her chest by wrapping her arms around them and hugging them to her. She takes a few deep breathes to steady herself before she leans back against the tub, her attire really is an inconvenience. "Castle," thoughts of her daughter's welfare cloud her brain, her mind racing into mama bear mode. "Hand me a towel." Kate says and raises her right arm up to him, trying to remain shielded.
He goes to reach for a towel but stops abruptly, "the towels are on fire." He states with worry creeping into his voice even as he tries to hide it for his and her sake. "Well what about the bathrobe?" She asks swerving her head from the left trying to see the rack in which it normally resides on. She can feel the panic rise up from her chest and into her throat leading her to choke. She can barely hear him let alone see anything, the adrenaline coursing through her veins momentarily preventing her from doing much.
He goes to reach for the bathrobe with his left hand, mouth still opening and closing on air when his brain registers the flames that light the room in a soft, golden glow. Changing tactics, he asks her a question instead. "Do have anything that may not be flammable?" Annoyance evident in his voice; annoyance at Dunn, annoyance at himself, there are so many people that he is currently annoyed at. He makes the mistake of turning his head and upper body around to talk to her. "Castle," she hisses and waves her hand for him to turn around before bringing it back down to somewhat cover her breasts.
She thinks she can hear the faint sound of a sorry from him, and yet little does she know that he is already beating himself up, too afraid that he has lost her trust again after working so hard to gain it back. The incident that had occurred last spring is fresh in his memory, the hurt and pained look in her eyes that would betray her facial features for months to come still haunted him at night. The incident that almost made her run back into her ex-boyfriend's arms and end their partnership forever. She chances a glance behind her to see where he is when an idea strikes her. She raises her right arm up, barking out orders and turning into Detective Beckett mode. "Give me your jacket."
Keeping his face trained on the fire ahead of him he quickly slips his jacket off and turns around, but keeps his head turned to the side. Using her left hand to push down and pick herself up Beckett speaks to Castle. "Don't look," she says her words short, yet effective. "I'm not… I'm not looking." Castle states his voice hiding nothing and showing pure honesty. He is holding his jacket up, keeping his head turned to the side with his eyes closed. Castle can feel her eyes on him as she watches his face, gauging his reaction while she leans back against his jacket and he wraps it around her slim figure.
"Alright?" Castle asked, letting go of his jacket hoping she had a good hold on it. Taking a deep breath, she makes sure she is concealed the most she could be before giving him an acknowledgement in response. He turned around, thoughts of how very sexy and hot she looked in his jacket overriding his brain. What's happening to me? He asked himself. Taking her left arm and hand with the left side of his body he let her lean against him while his right arm snaked around her waist and gently picked her up to carry her out of the bath tub.
"I dove into the tub just as it blew." Kate said clinging on to Castle for dear life as she walked on unsteady legs. "Can you walk?" Rick asked holding on to her as he comprehended that her legs were trembling and disagreeing with her trying to walk.
"Ah, yeah, it's just; I'm a little banged up." Kate said hopping on one foot while Castle supported her upper body with his strong muscular form, something that Kate couldn't help but notice. Jeez. What, did I hit my head when I dove for cover? Kate asked herself.
She pushes off of him, trying to walk faster and get to her daughter's room where the little girl had been sound asleep when Kate went to take a shower. She can hear Castle chant behind her, "nice and easy, nice and easy." She stopped for a second and breathed out a yeah to acknowledge him before she turned to look deep into his icy blue eyes and for once didn't see the light that always shone through them. Instead, she saw a worry, scared and confused mature grown-up which startled her more than anything else had during their partnership. Their eyes spoke volumes to each other, and when she was on her way to pass her kitchen her legs gave out and she crumbled into Castles warm and strong embrace as he caught her just in time before she fell to the floor.
"No, no, Castle I have to get to her. I have to get to my daughter." Kate said trying to stand back up as her voice cracked at the end of her sentence. She could see the shock that crossed his face before he quickly schooled his features, a habit that he had been getting better at since he began shadowing her. However, the cough that sputtered up from his chest betrayed his face.
"NO! Kate, NO! I will go get her, but Kate we need to figure the safest way for me to get to her without anyone getting anymore injured, okay?" Castle threw himself into over-protective father mode, one that in any other circumstance she would find to be a major turn-on. She began to observe their surroundings while he rearranged her ankle so that she didn't hurt it any more.
"Uh, okay. Well, it is not that bad in the bathroom and the kitchen which means the bomb had to have gone off on the opposite side of the house." Beckett stated quickly going back into Detective Beckett mode.
"Alright, so the bomb must have gone off down this hallway." Castle said while surveying the damage done to the rooms down the opposite hallway where Kate's bedroom was. He remembered the layout from the night before when he had stayed over, wanting to protect her from that psychopath that apparently was still out there. He looked down to see Kate looking up at him through glossy hazel eyes, he could feel his heart shatter at the pain in them.
Castle walked slowly over to the hallway stopping at the first room on the right and peering in through the slightly ajar door. Rick's eyes scanned across the princess décor in the bedroom before falling on a small lump huddled in the corner of the room on top of the bed. He noticed that the lump held another pair of petrified hazel iris that were so familiar to him afore he spotted the dresser that had fallen on an angle so it was pushing up against the bedroom door. He did not have professional training in bombs or fires, but he knew a point of origin when he spotted one. Having known what was in that room his annoyance towards both Dunn and himself turned into anger and hatred.
"The bomb went off in front of Emily's bedroom and knocked the dresser down on top of the door. I'm going in to get her out."
AN: How was that? Hopefully better?! It is still a little too fluffy, but I did not want to change everything that the younger version of me created. Please review or PM me your thoughts/opinions/suggestions on this chapter!
Another thing, I know that some people did not originally like this first chapter because Emily is mentioned closer to the end and readers said that a real mother would never do that…but this is my story and this is how I imagined that all of these events would take place. So, please be respectful and do not PM or review rude comments. Constructive criticism is always welcomed, and if there is something that you truly are dying to tell me…then PM me, do not leave it in a review.
Thank you!