The only thing Kate Beckett was enjoying about becoming captain was that she was too busy to spend much time thinking about Castle, or about the LOKSAT case. Castle had apparently decided to give her a week before he started haunting the precinct; she'd seen neither hide nor hair of him, nor had any other contact.

Eight days into her new job, close to shift end, her phone rang, showing the number for Bellevue. Her cell phone, not her desk phone, and even as she responded with a sharp, "Beckett," she felt her pulse quickening.

"Katherine Beckett?"

"This is she."

"This is Bellevue Hospital Center, Emergency Department. A patient just came in who lists you as his emergency contact..."

It was a short trip, especially since she used lights and sirens; when she arrived in the ED she strode up to the desk and flashed her badge.

"Richard Castle?" she said briskly.

"D-4," said the woman behind the intake counter.

As she approached cubicle D-4 she was intercepted.

"Can I help you, ma'am?"

"Captain Beckett," Kate supplied. "I'm looking for Richard Castle - he was brought in by ambulance."

"Right - the cab accident. Let me see what's going on - I'm not sure he can give a lucid account."

"I'm not here for his statement," said Kate. "I'm his wife."

Castle had been wedged in the back seat of the cab, hurled to one side when the vehicle was t-boned at high speed by a hit-and-run driver. His lucidity was suspect not only because of injuries he sustained in the accident, but also due to the level of alcohol in his bloodstream.

"Typical lacerations and contusions, concussion, and a collapsed lung. Nothing broken," said the doctor. "And he's been in and out of consciousness; from what we can tell, his cognitive functions haven't been adversely affected."

Not by the trauma, anyway, thought Kate. Intoxication had never slowed down Castle's powers of speech.

Between Alexis' arrival, the doctor's report, forms, and eventually Martha (Alexis wouldn't text her until after her performance let out), it was well past midnight when Kate settled herself in a chair in the corner of Castle's room. He'd been unconscious since he was moved to this room, and after a while his redheads had kissed him good night and departed.

While Alexis was murmuring something into Castle's unheeding ear, Martha drew Kate aside.

"We should talk," she murmured. "Not here and now, but soon. I'll call you."

The three women had confined their conversation to the subject of the accident, and Kate had no doubt that Martha had a fair bit to say regarding her son's relationship with his wife. Kate was mulling over what that conversation might look like when she heard a monitor, softly beeping, pick up its pace. She looked over at Castle, just in time for his waking gaze to fall on her.

"Kate," he said. There was a happy tone in his voice, but the next moment, he said it again, more sorrowfully.

"Kate. What are you doing here?"

She moved to stand beside his bed, looking down at him.

"You were in an accident," she began.

Castle started to shake his head, grimaced, and then said, "I know. I know where I am, and why, and how lucky I am to have escaped a gruesome death. The staff here have been quite clear on that."

"I got a call," said Kate. "I'm your emergency contact, you know that."

"What I mean is, why are you here now?" Castle asked. "I can tell it's late, and there's nothing to do - Harriman said he'd come by tomorrow morning for my statement. I'm guessing Mother and Alexis went home? So why are you sitting here, Kate?"

She hadn't expected that question. Caught off-guard, she said, "Because - I'm your wife, and I love you."

After a long moment, Castle closed his eyes.

"Okay," he said. "You can go now."

"What?" Kate managed to keep her voice down, just barely. "You're dismissing me?"

"You've done your duty," he said wearily. "You've checked the box. Your work here is done. Back to your real calling. Your top priority."

"Checked the - Castle, you're not a box on my to-do list," said Kate. "I love you. I was worried to death when I got that call, I've been here waiting for news, for you to wake up. I would've waited all night, if that's what it took."

"So for you, this crisis is over," said Castle. "For me - maybe you forget, for me, I'm still waiting for the day I get that call. The one that says, my wife was pushed off a bridge. My wife was shot and left for dead. My wife was killed in a car accident."

He had to stop for breath, tears starting to make their way down his cheek.

"That's the job," said Kate fiercely, defensively. "You knew that when you married me, the danger I walk into every single day. That has nothing to do with why I had to leave."

"I've lived with that every day," he replied. "I knew that. I get that. Until now, whatever happened to you would have been down to whatever evil force tried to take you out - a known quantity. But now - This time, Kate, I don't know what you're facing. Your own emotions? Your past? Something to do with that memo?"

He paused for breath again. This time Kate remained silent, pale, frozen by his words. He doesn't know, she told herself. He can't know.

"Whatever it is," said Castle, "if you have to face it alone, I will still be here to back you up. But if you won't even tell me what it is, you take away my right to decide for myself what to do - or not do. I did that to you once, and I swore, never again. I didn't expect you to turn around and do it to me."

Kate leaned closer, her own tears falling on his hospital gown.

"I don't have a deal with anyone," she told him. "There's no way I can keep you safe, except to keep away from you. You are the most precious thing in the world to me, Castle, and if anything happened to you - "

This time, she had to pause.

"But something has happened," said Castle quietly. "Things happen, every day. Sometimes they're accidents, sometimes deliberate. The best way to keep me safe, Kate, is to keep me close. Back to back, watching each other's six."

Kate thinks about Rita's words. "Unlike McCord and her team, anybody who dies now? That blood is on you."

She can't tell him that. She can't tell him anything, and the silence is killing her. She takes his hand in hers, leans down to kiss his face, and straightens up, preparing to leave.

"Do you mind - is it okay if I check in on you again?"

If he says no - she doesn't know what she'll do. But he says simply, "Any time, Kate."