Title: To Help a Friend
Summary: Castle is injured during a shoot out and Kate does everything she can to help her friend while he recovers.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing and toying with.
Spoilers: None that I can think of. It's not really set during any specific time-line. Montgomery is still alive and that's about it.
Author's Note: I got the urge to write a Castle fic and this is what came out. Please review and tell me what you think. It's my first Castle fic EVER and I did my best to keep everyone IC while still getting their feeling across.
"All clear!" The same two words spoken by four different people echoed through the rundown, ragged abandoned warehouse Detective Kate Beckett and company was currently traveling through, their guns held before them protectively and aggressively while their Kevlar vests covered their torsos. Morning September sunlight shone brightly through the torn curtains on the east side of the building creating shadows that made one think someone was there when they actually weren't. Booted feet pounded upon the wooden floor as more members of the 12th precinct flooded the warehouse, securing the first floor and slowly ascending the stairs where Ryan, Esposito, Beckett, Hansen, and Castle were currently roaming.
Beckett's green eyes scanned each room individually, looking for their assailant. They had originally come to check it out, not really expecting to find anyone but hoping to none the less. The Captain hadn't been willing to discount the possibility of the place being totally abandoned and therefore ordered Ryan, Esposito, Hansen and ten other officers to accompany her and Castle to provide back up. She hadn't thought it was necessary but when her and Castle had exited the car and started striding forward to the door, shots soared through the air, striking the dirt at their feet, the several abandoned cars, sending shards of glass flying about wildly giving Castle a fairly deep cut across his smooth check just above his unnaturally high but attractive cheekbone, and managing to graze her arm. Castle had all but panicked when he'd seen the blood trailing from her arm and staining her light green sweater red but she'd quickly assured him, and Ryan and Esposito, that she was fine.
They'd all run into the abandoned building after that, storming the place with angry cries of, "NYPD get down on the ground!" echoing throughout the empty rooms. No one shot at a police officer and got away, not if they had a say in it. She turned to her right, checking the next available room for signs of life while the others continued passed her heading towards the open warehouse space in front of them.
Movement to her left caused Kate to pivot, spinning her gun onto the armed man that currently stood in front of the five of them, determination and desperation in his eyes. Kate knew from experience that that wasn't a good combination. Desperation alone made any person with a gun dangerous, liable to shoot from fear or lack of hope but determination meant the man wasn't going to go down without a fight and if he managed to take a few cops down with him, so be it.
The 9mm in his hand swung, making each and every person on the second floor jumpy as the weapon was aimed at one of them or someone they cared about and only their training kept their nerves in check. Kate's heart was beating frantically, the muscle working hard as adrenaline flooded her system, a new wave of them constantly crashing into her body every time the gun was aimed at the inexperienced Castle. She knew that he was a VERY good shot and that he'd been in plenty of situations like this with her but each time it made her nervous for him – what if he got shot? How would she explain that to Martha and Alexis?
"Jude, man, what's goin on?" came a fairly baked voice from the room off the to the gunman's right. A tall, skinny man came out of the room, holding his own 9mm in his left hand, the weapon blending in with the baggy jeans that barely stayed on bony hips. His rag-mop hair hung over his face, the long bangs hiding his eyes from the cops.
"Nothin man, just shoot!" 'Jude' commanded instantly raising his gun at the group and firing off two bullets before the detectives returned fire, shooting 'Jude' dead and injuring the other.
Beckett and Esposito ran to the two downed men, disarming them with a kick of their feet and keeping their own weapons trained on the bodies until their pulses could be checked. Kate blew out a breath when she received no pulse at her fingertips and looked at Esposito who nodded but gravely. He quickly opened his phone and called for an ambulance as she continued to darkly stare at dead man beneath her. No matter what the circumstances, Kate Beckett HATED having to kill; she'd become a cop to help save lives, not take them and every life she was forced to take in order to save many more still crushed her, adding its name to her very lengthy list of people she couldn't save.
"Castle, you alright man?" Ryan's voice asked, drawing their attention from the men on the ground to the one who was painfully easing his body against the dirty, paint-peeling wall with a grimace set in his handsome features.
Castle gave a slow, concentrated nod. "Yeah, I think so," he wheezed painfully, his chest feeling like it was on fire with every breath he made. "Man that hurts!" He brought his hand to the right side of his chest, drawing everyone's attention to the bullet hole that lay just above the letter 'W' in 'WRITER'. A gasp came out of his mouth as he bent his left leg and a surprised, pained, "Ow!" resounded throughout the small hall at the loud yell. His left hand clenched hold of his thigh and tears welled in his enticing blue eyes.
At his cry of pain, Beckett immediately abandoned the dead shooter and ran over to her partner. She knelt down, trying to stamp down on the fear and panic welling within her as she examined him. Her eyes automatically went to the bullet hole and, without telling Castle what she was doing, she loosened his vest, slipped it off then unbuttoned his shirt and pulled up the undershirt. Deep purple and green bruising covered his right side, just below his pectoral muscle, making her wince with the severity of it. There was no doubt in her mind that the writer had at least two broken ribs, if not more.
"Castle stay still, you probably have a couple broken ribs and we don't want you puncturing a lung in an effort to see the pretty colors," she instructed when he tried to move in an attempt to see the damage. Her tone was scolding but her touch was gentle as she ran her hand over his side, pressing on each individual rib. Castle groaned underneath her touch but she didn't desist, her mind desperate to know how badly he was injured before her conscience would let her be.
"Beckett," Ryan's voice interjected. There was a tone in his voice that unnerved her, making her immediately abandon her examination in order to make eye contact with the young Irishman. He motioned his head towards Castle's left leg and her eyes automatically followed, her heart dropping into her stomach at the fairly medium pool of dark crimson blood gathering underneath his calf.
"How far is that ambulance?" she called as she looked for something to stem the flow of blood, absently hearing Esposito's answer of, "Two minutes out.". Upon finding nothing suitable, Kate did the only thing she could think of and stripped her sweater off (it was already ruined from her own blood anyways) and folded it so it made a decent sized, rectangular bandage. "Castle," she called, drawing the pained eyes to hers, "I'm going to have to put pressure on the wound to try to stop the bleeding. I'm sorry but it's going to hurt, a lot." He gave a nod, a solitary tear straggling down his face with the motion.
Red stained her hands, painfully standing out against the pale ivory of her skin as she gently felt around the back of his leg for an exit wound. She lifted his leg once she found it and placed her sweater under it. Once the exit wound was lying on top of cotton, she wrapped the garment around this leg, tying it tightly over the entry wound. Her heart gave a painful jump and tears formed in her own eyes, glossing over her green eyes like a thin sheet of ice, when she heard his pained but short scream.
"Gah-ha that hurts," Castle announced through ground teeth. He panted painfully through the fire that seared throughout his leg, setting his nerves on fire, impatiently waiting for it to calm to a stinging burn so he could breath normally again. His chest felt like an elephant was sitting on it while someone forced it into an extremely tight corset while another person filled his lungs with water, sending little rivulets of the liquid through his bronchial tubes. Pain accompanied every breath he drew in, stabbing his side with a sharp, multi-bladed sword, and wheezing whistled through the silent space, ragged and horrible sounding making all wince in sympathy.
"I know, just hang one, the ambulance is almost here," Kate encouraged frowning at how quickly his blood was seeping through the thick fabric of her sweater. The sound of sirens reached her ears and she blew out an explosively relieved breath, grateful to let paramedics with access to pain killers take over.
"What have we got?" the first paramedic asked upon entering.
"White male, early 40's, GSW to the left calf and at least two broken ribs," Beckett informed clinically thanks to years of practice. She looked over where the other injured man lay, unmoving and looked to Esposito who ran over, bent down, checked his pulse and gave a sad shake of his head. With a sigh, she moved off to the side, her eyes never leaving her partner, watching the paramedics like an overprotective mother as she ordered Esposito to call the morgue and arrange a transport then track down the men's identities and next of kin.
"Is there a freight elevator in the building? We need to get this man to the hospital ASAP. His bleeding has slowed but it's not stopped and he needs a transfusion sooner rather than later."
"There's one just around the corner," Ryan informed returning from the wide open room.
"Davies, go get the stretcher, IV, saline, oxygen, and pain medication," the first paramedic ordered, listing off all he'd need to keep the man stable.
Kate stood leaning against the wall, her thumb nail between her teeth. She watched as the two medics quickly worked to stabilize Castle then transport him upon the stretcher. They placed the fluids and clean air canister on the bed between his legs, leaning against his uninjured right leg to spare the heavily gauzed left. Blood was still seeping through the bandaging but thankfully it had slowed tremendously and Kate's frantic heart began to slow bit by bit.
Castle grimaced when they moved him but thankfully the pain medication, fed into his veins through the IV line, had dulled the pain enough to where it wasn't the raging fire that it had previously been. He reached out a hand for Beckett, grabbing her arm just above the wrist. "Call Alexis and Mother," he instructed, his words muffled by the oxygen mask.
Kate nodded, "I'll have Ryan go and pick them up."
"No, it has to be you," Castle argued, his voice weak from the strain his body had been put through. "It would be better coming from you. I'll be fine but Alexis will still worry," he paused to draw in a deep, wheezing painful breath, "she'll worry less with you than if someone from the precinct shows."
She stood back, stunned by just how much he and his family trusts her, watching as the paramedics loaded Castle into the back of the ambulance and headed for Mount Sinai. The wail of the vehicle broke her out of her reverie and she looked around to find Esposito and Ryan looking at her with concern and empathy in their eyes.
"Go back to the precinct, figure out who those men were and find their next of kin. I'm going to pick up Alexis at her school then grab Martha. I'll take them to the hospital and wait to hear how Castle's doing."
"Beckett," Esposito began but soon thought better of it and closed his mouth. The action didn't stop her from reading her friends, her family, as easily as she read Castle's books. They wanted to go to the hospital and wait to see how the other member of their family was doing as well but they didn't want to disobey their boss either.
"Guys he'll be alright until after you've ID'd those guys. He doesn't need all of us waiting for him to get out of surgery. I'll call you with updates when I get there." She knew that she was trying to convince herself just as much as she was trying to convince the boys and for awhile it worked.
Ryan and Esposito nodded and walked back to their car, looking slightly downtrodden but their male pride refusing to show it. Rationally they both knew that Castle would eventually be okay, but gun shot wounds were tricky little blighters and can easily create enough damage to become serious. Granted the wound was in the leg but you never knew if you would heal quickly from those or require more in-depth physical therapy.
Kate watched the boys drive away then got into her own car, Castle's absence from the car hitting her like a stinging backhand and she turned her attention to driving, letting her mind wander. Like the boys, she knew that Castle would be okay but a part of her couldn't stop herself from worrying about the writer anyways. It surprised her just how much his pain hurt her. Sure any time one of her friends became injured, it hurt but not as much as the suffocating feeling she got when Castle had cried out; it had felt like all air had exited her lungs at the sound and her heart had been held between two iron hands, relentlessly squeezing until it bled. She'd felt his pain almost as if it had been her own and that was a new feeling for her.
Arriving outside Alexis' school, Beckett parked the car and got out, her heart growing heavier with every step closer to the school she took. Even though she wasn't coming to inform the young Castle girl that her father was dead or grievously injured, she was coming to tell her that he had been injured while he'd been following her around and that was a weight that wasn't sitting well in her stomach.
"Good afternoon, may I help you?" a friendly, elderly woman greeted from within the outer office the Headmaster's office.
"Hi, yes, I'm Detective Kate Beckett," she flashed her badge, holding it steady and close for the woman to easily read, "I need to speak to Alexis Castle."
"Of course, is there something wrong?" The woman's pencil-thin eyebrows drew together in a worried frown as she looked up what class Alexis was currently in.
"I would rather discuss it with her first," Kate answered politely.
The woman gave an equally polite, if not a bit curt, nod and called the classroom, alerting the teacher that Alexis needed to report to the Headmaster's office immediately.
Despite her attempts to remain calm and collected, Kate began to pace as she waited for the ginger girl to enter. Her nerves, which had been hidden beneath her professionalism were now making themselves known again and she felt her heart begin to race again as sweat began to pool in uncomfortable places.
"Beckett, what are you doing her?" Alexis asked immediately beginning to worry once she spotted the Detective. "Has something happened? Is my dad okay?"
Kate stopped her pacing, listening as the girl asked each question in rapid-fire speed. She walked up to the young woman and folded her hands in front of her. "Alexis, your dad was shot this morning during investigating a building. He'll be okay but he's currently at Mount Sinai being prepped for surgery."
"Shot? How many times? Will he be alright?"
"I promise I will tell you everything but right now I think we should go and get your grandmother then go to the hospital. Is she at the loft?"
"No, Gram had an audition," Alexis answered in a daze.
"Okay, you can call her while I drive." Kate placed a hand on the small of the girl's back, gently ushering her out of the school. Thankfully she had thought of grabbing her things from the classroom when she'd been called so she was ready to go.
Kate listened silently as Alexis called her grandmother and told her about her father, tears of worry streaming down her face and her hand shaking with fear. Guilt stabbed her heart but she quickly pulled the arrow out and threw it aside. It wasn't her fault Castle had been shot; they all knew the risks every time they walked into that kind of a situation and Castle had been informed for hours, in detail what could happen but that didn't stop her heart from reminding her of the pain her partner was currently in when he should have been safe at home in his plush loft, writing his little books.
"Beckett?" Alexis asked. "Are you okay? Your arm looks like it's bleeding."
"Yeah, I'm fine, bullet grazed me, it's nothing." She waved off the unnecessary concern with an angry air. "Your dad was shot in the chest. Don't worry," she added hastily, "his vest stopped the bullet from doing too much damage but from what I could tell, it did leave him with a few broken ribs. The second shot entered through his calf. I don't know how extensive the damage is but I do know he'll be okay."
Alexis nodded, hearing and processing the information she was just given. Tears continued to stream down her beautiful face; tears of worry, tears of fear, and now tears of pain. She couldn't imagine the pain her dad was in and somehow she didn't think she wanted to. According to her, her dad shouldn't have to feel any amount of pain; she wasn't naïve enough to think he never hurt, sure, he got the occasional headache or stubbed toe but those were nothing compared to broken bones and gun shots – those were pains he should have to feel, ever.
Before either of them had realized it, they had arrived at the hospital. They gave one another wary looks before the exited the car and entered through the main doors of the hospital. Kate asked for information on Castle and was soon directed to a set of elevators and the fifth floor where the waiting room for surgical patients resided. With their hearts in their throats, the girls arrived in the waiting room to find a fiery-haired Martha pacing back and forth.
"Oh Kate, do you know what happened?" the older woman asked, coming up and enveloping her granddaughter into a massive, comforting hug.
Kate drew in a deep breath, doing her best to calm her racing heart and still her hands from fidgeting. "Why don't we sit down?"
TBC