Between the calls
Don't own Castle or anything else.
Spoilers for Hunt.
I dont have a beta reader and so all mistakes are mine, if you wish to be that person then PM me.
Her life for the past 8 hours had been defined between phone calls, very powerful life changing phone calls.
The first was when she had finally spoken to him for the first time after his desperate ill advised trip alone to Paris and that had ended with gunfire and then nothing, nothing for 3 hours while they waited for the French law enforcement to find his last known location.
That middle phone call had shook her world in ways she was still dealing with, 5 bodies were found lying in the woods southeast of Paris, and from the what they could tell it was an exchange that went bad. A name well known to the underworld for recues that Castle needed was found on one side of the exchange and 4 hooded men on the other. From details that were finally pulled from the French they thought Castle had been double crossed and his paid mercenary was trading him for the 3 million that Castle had pulled from his account. Both Rick and the money were now gone and any lead on where he could possibly be was gone. With no way now to track him, Castle was completely alone and there was no way for her to help him. That was if he was still alive.
So with everything a dead end now, she had sat at her desk till Gates told her to go and wait with Martha. Her reasoning sound, the FBI was pulling out since there wasn't much more that they could do and Martha needed a friendly face to wait for news.
Reluctantly she had locked up her desk and gone to the loft. Her thoughts covering that it more than obvious that Gates had figured out their relationship was more than work partners and did that even matter anymore? Would the next phone call be telling them when his body would be landing?
The last phone call would come from the American Embassy, they were safe, Rick had found Alexis and they would be on a plane home in the afternoon Paris time and land in the morning after here in New York. After a few questions that left a lot to be desired Martha had hung up the phone and broke down in Kate's arms. Kate had cried with her but held back so she could comfort and allow Martha the time she needed to put herself back together. Martha only knew that they had lost track of Rick, the details of gunfire and death left out as no one wanted to scare the older woman more than necessary.
Once Martha had retired after insisting that Kate take Richard's room, did the news he was alive and well hit her. She sat on the bed crumbling apart on how close she had come to losing the one person she needed more than she needed anyone in her life. Once he was home and they were alone, she would let him know how she feels and that he better not ever leave her behind again.
And in the span of a few phone calls her life had change forever.