It had THE worst week of her life since her mother died. It had been two years since Kate had gotten shot. Alexis was off at school (she decided to apply to Yale and got accepted) and Castle was still following Kate around.
It had been two years since Castle and his mother were held hostage by bank robbers. It had been two years since Kate had her mental break down and it had been two years since they were trapped in a basement with a tiger. Still they weren't together. But Rick and Kate had become best friends over those two years telling each other everything…. Well almost everything.
This case was a terrible mess. 5 victims all stabbed to death. All middle aged, fairly attractive men. Kate and Rick had finally gotten a lead when they found a second blood source on the most recent victim. It seemed that the victim didn't go down without a fight and he gave the killer a good beating and injured him. The blood belonged to an Adriano Estrada.
They got a hit off their APB on him. Estrada was living an abandoned apartment building. On their sweep of the building Beckett and Castle found him on the sixth floor and followed him. Estrada turned the corner and disappeared, Castle, being… well, Castle, decided to run into one of the rooms after him without being armed. Once in the room Castle lost sight of him. He searched the room frantically but couldn't find him, when he was about to turn around to go find Beckett he was grabbed and had a knife held at his throat.
"Don't say a word or I will kill you" whispered Estrada. He walked them slowly into a dark corner in the room and waited for Beckett. Once Beckett cleared the other rooms she went to look for Castle.
"Castle?" she said, when she walked into the room she saw a slight movement in the shadowy corner of the room. "Estrada let him go!" Estrada walked into the middle of the room with the knife still held to Castle's throat. Beckett swallowed hard and tried to talk Castle's way out of it. "Adriano you don't have to do this… let him go and I won't have to hurt you." Castle spoke,
"Why did you kill them Adriano? Were you jealous of them? Were they more good looking than you? More intelligent?"
"Shut up!" he yelled, "Just… just shut up! They didn't deserve to live! And neither do you!" Estrada moved the blade for a better angle on Castle's neck. Kate didn't know what to do, she wanted to scream, cry, and kill the bastard with his own knife.
Before she knew what had happened, her gun had gone off and Castle's arm and neck were bleeding. Beckett's bullet had grazed Castle's arm and struck Estrada in the shoulder but as the bullet hit Estrada his knife nicked Castle's throat badly. Kate immediately called for an ambulance and ran to Castle's side.
A tear rolled down her face while Kate told him to hold his hand over his neck and firmly as he could. He obliged and sat down because the loss of blood from both wounds was making him dizzy and lightheaded.
More tears broke free from Kate's eyes while she ripped off part of her shirt to tie around the wound on Castle's arm. Castle couldn't put enough pressure on the wound on his neck so she placed her hands over his to help him. A couple minutes later 4 paramedics arrived. The first two helped the crying Estrada onto a stretcher while Kate told him he was under arrest and told the paramedics that when he was healed he was in police custody. The other two replaced Kate and Rick's hands with their own as they carried him out on a stretcher. Kate followed them down to the ambulance and forced her way onto the ambulance with him.
While in the ambulance she held his hand as tight as she could, "come one Rick. Stay with me Rick! Stay with me!" Kate couldn't hold it in anymore, she started to sob uncontrollably. Rick, just barely conscious, placed a blood stained hand on her face.
"It's all going to be okay Kate" he said, his voice a low whisper. Kate held his hand to her face. She turned her head to kiss the palm of his hand then placed his hand back on her cheek and looked down at his bright blue eyes.
She could look into those eyes forever. That's when it hit her. Kate Beckett was in love with her best friend. It would have been more exciting if her best friend wasn't dying in front of her. If he made it she would tell him that, but what if he didn't make it? What if he died and he didn't know she felt the same way he did? It would crush her. She had to tell him. It was now or never.