Blood Spatter

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Amazingly enough, I still don't own this. Rating: K. Time: AU, indeterminate late in Season 2, but pre-Demming. Oh, what the hell, in this universe, Demming moved to LA to act in porn movies.

Author's note: I was over at the ABC TV Castle BB and someone posted that they'd like to see what would happen if Castle was shot or injured and how Kate would react. That was the plot of the first two episodes of season six, but it got me thinking. Suppose Castle got shot before they became an official couple?

Beckett, Esposito, Ryan and Castle stealthily approached the office in the abandoned building. "Our killer's on here. " Beckett whispered to her team. "We go in and take him down. He won't ever beat a little girl to death again, right?"

Beckett turned to Castle, anger clear on her face. Castle had been particularly annoying the entire week. "After the way you screwed up in the arrest this morning, Castle, you will stay in the hallway until this is over. Do you understand? And if you don't, this will be the last case you ever shadow me on, I will see to that."

"Beckett, I really…"

"Shut up, Castle. Just shut up and don't move until I specifically tell you can come in. If I hear one more word out of you, or if you put one foot in the office before I specifically give you permission, you will regret it." She whispered angrily.

Castle nodded.

Esposito tried the doorknob. "Unlocked." He whispered with a smile. He opened the door and the three detectives strode into the abandoned office. The office was filled with junk, stacked to the ceiling, but Kate could see their perp sitting on the floor with his back to them. They advanced silently until they were some ten feet from the perp. The Beckett screamed, "NYPD! Hands on your head. Do not move!" The perp did exactly as he was told.

Esposito moved forward to cuff him while Beckett and Ryan kept him covered, one on each side of the perp. Suddenly, a girl stepped out of a closet in front of them with a gun in her hand. "Gun!" Ryan yelled as the girl fired.

"Jess!" the perp screamed. "No! Put the gun down. Put the gun down, babe!"

The girl, no more than a teenager, stood there unsure of what to do. The recoil of the pistol had shoved the gun up so it was pointed at the ceiling.

"Jess?" Beckett said quietly. "Do as he says, and put the gun down. Nobody needs to get hurt here."

"Do it, babe." The perp said. "Put the gun down like the cop said. Please, babe."

The girl looked at the gun with a puzzled look on her face. Then she lowered her weapon so that it pointed to the floor. Beckett took the pistol from her and quickly cuffed her.

"Who the hell is she?" Beckett asked. Ryan and Esposito shrugged. Nothing they had indicated their perp had a girlfriend. While Esposito talked to the perp, Beckett took the girl aside to interrogate her. The girl didn't cooperate, staring sullenly at the floor.

"Hey," Ryan suddenly said, "for once in his life, Castle is following orders. You should remember what you said. Maybe it'll work again."

Beckett shook her head. "Castle, you can come in now." There was no reply and Castle didn't come through the door.

"Castle!" Beckett yelled. "Ryan, he probably got bored and wandered off. Go find him before he gets into trouble and drag him back here."

"On it" Ryan headed for the hallway. Then, "Beckett! There's blood spatter out here. And a blood trail."

Beckett felt an icy vice form in her stomach. "Oh, no!" She shot to her feet and ran for the hallway. "Keep an eye on those two, Espo!" She yelled over her shoulder. Once in the hallway, she took off after Ryan who was following a blood trail towards the stairs.

"He must have gone down the stairs!" Beckett yelled as she shot past Ryan. She threw the door to the stairwell open. "Castle! Oh God!" Castle was laying at the bottom of the flight of stairs, his head in a pool of blood.

Beckett ran down the stairs and knelt by Castle, then turned him over. There was a bullet wound an inch or so under his eye, bleeding badly. "Castle? Can you hear me?" No response. She pulled off her scarf and applied direct pressure to the wound. "Ryan! Get the medical kit out of the car. Call in an officer down. Esposito, get those two downstairs. Move!"

"Castle can you hear me? I'm sorry. Please, don't die on me, please."

Beckett stayed by Castle, keeping pressure on the wound until the ambulance arrived. The paramedics changed the pressure bandage she'd put on. She followed the gurney downstairs to the ambulance.

"I'm going with him." She told the senior paramedic.

"Detective, we can take care of him better…"

Beckett pushed past him and got in the back of the ambulance. Espo grabbed the paramedic's arm." You do not want to argue with her. That's her partner. And if you do argue with her, you'll end up arguing with all the cops here. Do you really want that?"

The paramedic shrugged. "Suit yourselves." He got in and the ambulance roared off.

At the hospital Kate had to leave Castle when he was wheeled into the emergency room.

A nurse turned to Kate. "You can go home now, detective. We'll take good care of him."

Beckett shook her head. "I'm staying here." She said belligerently. "He's my partner."

"Okay. You can camp in the waiting room. But it could be a while. What's your name?"

"Detective Kate Beckett."

"And your partner's name?"

"Richard Castle."

"Okay, I'll make a note on his chart that you're here and that you should be kept in the loop. Okay?"

Kate nodded and went to the waiting room.

In about five minutes the nurse came back out. "Detective? There seems to be a problem."

Kate shot to her feet. "What? Is there anything I can do?" No. She thought. Please, I didn't get him killed, I didn't. I didn't.

"You said Mr. Castle is your partner? When we get a police officer in, we take his weapons, shield and credentials and put them in a lock box. Mr. Castle was unarmed, had no badge or credentials and had a non-standard protective vest. Are you sure there isn't some sort of a mix up?"

Kate almost sagged with relief. "Mr. Castle is a civilian consultant with the NYPD. None the less he is my partner. How is he?"

The nurse assumed the blank expression that Kate had seen medical personnel use so many times when there was bad news. "The doctors are doing everything they can. They'll do their best to…"

"Cut it. I'm a homicide cop. How is he?"

The nurse smiled. "Sorry, I shouldn't have tried that on you, detective. I really don't know how he is. The emergency room doctors are doing x-rays and an MRI. He's had a transfusion. But, I'm sure you know, a GSW to the head isn't good."

"Thanks." Kate sat back down.

"Detective, would you like some coffee? The stuff in the vending machine down the hall is gross, but we have a coffee maker at the nurse's station. The doctors make sure we have lots of good coffee. I'd be happy to get you a cup."

Kate smiled for the first time since she had gotten to the hospital. "Thanks, and I'm Kate."

"I'm Kelly. I'll be right back with your coffee."

Kelly brought Kate a cup of coffee and told her if she wanted more, she should just walk down to the nurse's station. Kelly told her that she had told everyone she was a detective waiting for news on her partner. "We deal with a lot of cops. We know how important a partner is."

Kate nodded. Especially when we do something stupid and our partner ends up with his head in a pool of blood. Damn it, I should have…I should have what? I should have had him follow me so closely, he'd get aroused. Kate shook her head. Of course, I'd be aroused too. Not the best way to take down a killer.

Several hours and many cups of coffee later, Kate was still running the day's events over and over in her head when a familiar voice interrupted her.

"Hey, Beckett. You in there somewhere?"

Kate started, and turned. "Espo! Do you have anything?"

"Not about Castle. I tried to call Castle's mom or daughter with no luck. I did manage to get his agent and found they're at some sort of new age, touchy-feely confab that's miles from any cell phone towers and has no land line. They don't want the 21st century to intrude. They won't be back for another four days."

Kate nodded. "Someone's got to stay here. Look, talk to Montgomery. Tell him I'm staying with Castle until we know…" Kate couldn't continue. She shook her head to clear it. "I'll be happy to take vacation days, but I'm staying."

Esposito smiled. "We're way ahead of you. Montgomery said to tell you that you're on duty here until he's better."

Kate stared at the floor. "Suppose he doesn't get better?" She whispered. "Damn it! You know what headshots are like. He's lucky to be alive. He could…" Kate stopped.

"Don't beat yourself up over this, Beckett. You may have threatened to shoot him plenty of times, but you're not the one who shot him. You are not one bit responsible for what happened to Castle."

"I'm not so sure. I was hard on him today. He was…Castle, just Castle all week. It bothered me more than usual for some stupid reason. He screwed up at the arrest this morning. Hell, everybody screws up. We solved that case because of Castle, so he made a mistake! So what? We got the guy."

"And it's still not your fault." Espo added, quietly.

Kate slowly shook her head. "I was hard on him. Way too hard. What if, when he got shot, the one thing that was in his mind was that I had absolutely forbidden him from coming into the office with us? Suppose, instead of coming into the office, he felt he had to get help elsewhere. Not from me...us."

Espo shook his head emphatically. "He's been shot in the head. He was in shock. He wasn't thinking clearly, maybe not thinking at all. You are not at fault in any way for what happened to Castle. No way!"

"We may never know." Kate changed the subject. "What happened with our killer and his girlfriend? Get a confession?"

Esposito nodded. "Jess turns out to be the kid's mother. Her father started raping her when she was fourteen. Two years later she got pregnant and the bastard tossed her out. Even before she was raped, she had psych problems and a low IQ. She's the one who killed her daughter, although I don't know if she understood what she was doing. We're going to ask the DA to go easy on her, but that's up to them.

"We have a warrant out for Jess's father. We're not going to ask anyone to go easy on him."

"And here I was working up a nice hatred for Jess for shooting Castle. It's just not my day, is it, Espo?"

"Comes with the job. You know that."