A/N: This story hit me yesterday as I was listening to Linkin Park's "In The End." I wrote it down immediately, as quickly as I could, because I know sometimes these random streaks of inspiration disappear as quickly as they come. SPOILERS FOR SEASON FINALE ("KNOCKOUT"). I hope you enjoy this as much as I do! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, nor do I own the song "In The End." Those claims can be made by people much cooler than me.

She lay there on her hospital bed, wounded, immobile. Just thinking. There had been a lot of thinking going on these past few days. Since the funeral. Since the worst day of her life – worse than when New York City had almost blown up, worse than when her apartment did blow up, possibly even worse than the day her mother had been murdered. Because that was the day of the Captain's funeral, when the man she both hated and loved, the man who had fulfilled his promise to stand by her, the man who had been part of the plot that killed her mother, had been put to rest. Not to mention the fact that she herself had been shot – almost fatally. And that was how she'd landed herself here, with Josh as her doctor.

Josh. A cardiac surgeon. Her boyfriend. The man who had saved her life . . . twice. The object of much of today's thinking. Beckett sighed, pain shooting through her chest at the slight rise and fall. She would much rather not think about him now. But he haunted her mind. They haunted her dreams. "They" being, of course, Josh and Castle. She could never remember the dreams, only that she was constantly torn and woke up every time in tears, alone in her hospital room because no one was allowed to stay here with her. The nurses probably assumed she was insane, or at least delusional from the pain meds. Well, at least she had a good excuse.

And at least there was music. Someone, somehow – probably Josh, with his surgeon status in the hospital (or had it been Castle, with his famous-author status?) – had gotten the hospital people to let her have an iHome in her private room. She was grateful for her thousands of songs. Beckett, the tough woman detective, had a weakness for music. She loved to sing, and she could play guitar. And if a guy ever wanted to win her over, he could just sing and she'd be head over heels for him. Maybe that was why, when Castle had inexplicably asked her how you knew you were in love, she had answered that all the songs made sense.

"In The End" by Linkin Park came on the music player by her bed. As she mouthed the words to herself – singing out loud wasn't exactly a possibility right now – for some reason she thought of Josh. She frowned. It didn't make sense.

I tried so hard, and got so far

But in the end, it doesn't even matter

What? She didn't understand her own mind's logic . . .

Remembering all the times you fought with me

I'm surprised it got so far

Things aren't the way they were before

You wouldn't even recognize me anymore

Not that you knew me back then

But it all comes back to me in the end . . .

The song made sense to her. Love was when all the songs made sense, right? But somehow, she didn't think that was the case right now. If this was the song that made sense to her, it couldn't be love . . .

And then she saw it. She saw everything that was wrong. And she saw what she had to do. She closed her eyes and leaned back into her pillows, waiting for Josh to come back. It was over. This time, she knew, the nightmares wouldn't come for her. In the end, it didn't even matter: Rick Castle would always be the one.

Always.

A/N: Yes, I simply had to finish it off with that one word that sums up Caskett. xD Review, please! Feedback would be much appreciated! Thanks for reading. :)