Kate Beckett woke up to a very familiar ringing; she twisted on her side and checked the alarm clock: 5:15, but that was not the source of the noise. It was her cell phone, who on earth was calling so damn early?

"Beckett."

"Beckett, It's Esposito, we've got a case," said the voice on the other end of the line.

"At 5:15 in the morning?" It was definitly too early to deal with murder, "Okay Espo where the vic?"

"Um well at Manhattan General Hospital."

"Espo, last time I checked we worked homicide. Our victims are usually past going to the hospital," she was joking but she heard no acknowledgement of her comment from the other end.

At last the reluctant reply came, "Look Beckett, this isn't gonna be a normal case, the vic, it's Castle."

It's Castle. For as long as Kate lived those words would forever be burned into the back of her mind. There was silence from the other end of the phone and it took her a few seconds to realize she had hung up.

Within twenty minutes she was at Manhattan General shoving past people in the waiting room looking for anyone and anything that could tell her something. Her first speck of hope quickly turned to fear as an angry teenager with red hair approached her. One look at the anger in her eyes and her tear stained cheeks told Kate to brace herself.

"It's your fault!" Alexis screamed at her as Ryan pulled her back, "He wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for you. All that damn research, all those people he was meeting, the late nights in his office, and he wouldn't talk to me about it. It was for you, I know it was and now he's dying! He's all that I've got and I swear detective if you take that away from me…."

"Alexis! Honey no!" Martha clutched her granddaughters head as she sobbed into her shoulder. Kate started to walk away to leave them in peace, "Kate," Martha called, "She's upset. It's not your fault. Whatever my son got into that caused this he did it by his own choice."

She only nodded, unable to manage more she slumped down in a chair and put her head in her hands. "Esposito?" she called to him trying very hard to keep her voice stable, "What happened?"

"Well, see the thing is nobody really knows exactly. He was shot between 4:30 and 5 am. He was found in an alleyway about two blocks away from the precinct. It was a response to a 911 call."

"Who made the call?" the detective in her was suddenly alert and looking for clues.

"The killer did as far as we know. He used Castle's cell phone," Ryan was answering now.

"Why would a killer do that?"

"We think that he wanted us to find this," Esposito handed her and evidence bag with a blood-soaked note inside, "It was pinned to Castle's jacket."

The note was simple, it read:

He knew too much Kate. Learn from his mistakes.

"It's for me," she said still trying to process it all, "Alexis was right, he did get killed because of me."

"Beckett you don't know that," Ryan started before she raised her hand to stop him.

She sighed and again braced herself for the worst, "How is he?"

"Still in surgery," Esposito said tentatively.

"But Beckett," Ryan interjected for his partner, "It's not looking good."

"Dammit Ryan don't tell me that!" The anger rushed over her like a waterfall, "This is Castle we're talking about. He's gonna fight for it. He won't die. He can't….," her voice had reduced from anger to slow sobs, "He can't die."

"Kate, Darling!" Her head snapped up, it was Martha, she was running down the hallway breathless, "It's Richard, he's out of surgery. He's not responding but he's alive."

Kate had never been so relieved in her life.