Summary: Castle and Beckett are happily married, for three years now. They have a one-year-old daughter, who got hurt in daycare. Beckett feels guilty for not being there for here, and makes some decisions.

A/N: I hope you'll enjoy this fic, and please leave a review since I'm new at this and I'd like to know what you think. English is not my native language, so I'm sorry for any grammatical mistakes or typos.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle :)

It was just another day at the precinct, until she got a particular phone call. "Mrs. Castle?", she heard the woman on the other end of the line say. "Yes, that's me.. who's this?" she asked. Her heart began beating faster, fearing the worst. "Hi, I'm Jenny, a substitute daycare assistant at your daughter's daycare. I'm sorry to say Lauren has been in an accident today, and is now on her way to the hospital. I called you as soon as possible."

Tears formed in her eyes. Kate dropped everything she was holding, including her phone. Her baby girl, in the hospital. Accident. Hospital. Baby girl. These were the only things that kept running through her mind. Rick! She needed to call Rick! Later though, now she needed to go see her baby. She grabbed her coat and ran off towards the elevator, when she realized her phone was still on the ground. She ran back towards her desk, and grabbed her phone. Damn, it had a nasty crack in it. FOCUS KATE!, she thought to herself. "Jenny, are you still there?", she said hastily. "Yes, I'm still here, I already figured you dropped your phone since I heard a loud thump.", she said while chuckling.

"Which hospital did they bring Lauren to?" Kate asked, already back on her way to her car. "Bellevue Hospital, I'm also on my way there right now, I'll explain everything once I meet you there!" "Kay, thanks, have to go now, bye!" Kate said before hanging up.

Once she stepped in the car, she immediately hit #1 on her phone, speed-dialling Rick. Luckily the 12th was not that far away from the Bellevue. The phone rang three times before he finally picked up. "Hey Kate, I'm in a meeting right now, what's up?"

"Rick..", she sighed. He was completely shocked. It sounded like she was crying, which she didn't do often. It was eerily quiet on her end of the line, and he didn't like one bit of it. "Kate, what happened?", he asked in a demanding tone. She tried to suppress a sob before replying "Lauren, Bellevue, accident at school."

He felt like his world had just stopped. "Kate, I'm on my way okay? I can be there in 10 minutes, hang in there, she's gonna be ok!", he said before hanging up. He walked back into the conference room, and excused himself, explaining why he had to leave.

Once Rick left the building, he hailed a cab. He offered the driver an extra $50 to drive faster. He needed to see Kate and his baby. When he arrived at the hospital, he already saw Kate walking towards the entrance, so he threw a $100 bill at the driver, and said "Keep the change, thanks for hurrying!" "Thank you sir, have a nice day!" the cabbie responded, but Rick was already too far away to hear it. He tried to catch up with Kate, calling her name. She turned around, and when she saw him she ran straight at him. First thing he did was to wrap her up in a hug, like their lives depended on it.

"What happened?" he asked her. "I don't know, she had an accident at the kindergarten, and the substitute teacher called me, said she was also on her way here. She'd explain it all once we got here, she told me." Kate told him. They walked towards the front desk together, trying to keep calm. "Hi, I'm looking for Lauren Castle, one-year-old, she was just brought in here." Kate told the lady behind the desk. "Yes, are you related to her? We can only allow immediate family to know her room number. "Yes, we're related! We're her parents!", Castle snapped at the lady. "Rick, calm down, it's her job to ask us that!" Kate smiled apologetically at the lady.

"Okay, room number is 583, fifth floor, when you get out of the elevator turn left, enter the first hallway on your right, and you should walk right into the nurses' station of the Children's department. They'll give you further information", the lady said. "Okay, thanks!", Kate said to her.

They walked to the elevator hand-in-hand, needing that kind of contact now. It was really comforting at moments like these. They left the elevator at the fifth floor, neither of them had said a word, both afraid of what was waiting for them behind the doors of the hallway they were about to enter. "Ready?" Rick asked her just as he was about to open the door. "No. But I want to see my baby.", she answered with a poker face.

They entered the hallway and walked for a bit, never having let go of each other's hands. Finally, after what seemed like miles (but was only like 75 meters) they arrived at the nurses' station. "Hi, we're the parents of Lauren Castle, she was brought in here earlier today and the lady at the front desk directed us to you", Kate said with a smile.

"Yes, there was this woman earlier, but she left just a minute ago, said she was needed back at the daycare centre. She asked me to explain it all to you. Why don't you follow me, take a seat?", the nurse asked. "With all due respect ma'am, but I'd rather see my baby girl as soon as possible." Kate told her. "Very well, follow me then", the nurse told her with a smile. Kate could see the sympathy on her face.

When they got to the room she was in, Kate broke down. Her little girl was lying there, right wrist in a cast, left leg in a cast and right ankle in a cast. Rick took her in his arms once more, whispered soothing words into her ear. He wanted to cry as well, but he had to be strong now. For Kate and for his baby girl.

"How did it happen?", Rick asked the nurse. "Well, they were about to go outside to take a breath with 4 other kids, and she tried to go down the stairs herself. She was still all the way at the top, when one of the older kids accidentally walked into her, so she fell down the stairs. She's got a fractured leg, she broke two of her carpal bones and she also has a fractured ankle." Kate knew the teachers always carried the kids down the stairs, since she knew half of the kids were not able to walk by themselves yet. She only cried harder when she heard this and Castle held her tighter.

"Will she be able to make a full recovery or is this going to be of influence for the development and growth of these bones she injured?" Rick asked the nurse. "She'll be able to make a full recovery, since bone fractures heal a lot faster if a kid gets one." They were both really relieved by the news and let out a huge sigh simultaneously. Kate wiped her tears away, embarrassed by her sudden breakdown.

Still, their baby girl was lying there in a hospital bed, with casts almost bigger than her small body. It brought tears to Kate's eyes again. "When can we take her home?", she asked the nurse. "Well, you can take her home right now if you want to, I'll give you some painkillers, she can take those 4 times a day, has to be at least 3 hours in-between every time she takes them. You cannot let her use them for longer than 3 weeks, even if she keeps crying and keeps having pain. I'd like to make an appointment with you to give her new pain meds and just to check how she is doing. If she's doing well enough at that point, we'll make another appointment to have one, two, or all of the casts removed, ok? By the way, since she is still really young, we decided to give her the waterproof casts, so it can get wet without you worrying about it. Do you have any further questions?", the nurse asked

"No, no questions. Everything sounds perfect to me", Kate said with a smile on her face.

They made an appointment, picked up their sleeping daughter and a special wheelchair for kids, and were soon on their way home. Since she had multiple bone fractures, Kate had to be really careful where she grabbed her daughter to get her in her car seat. When she lifted her out of the wheelchair, the girl began whimpering. Kate quickly and gently put her in the car seat, and decided to sit in the back with her, just in case.

Once they were home, she called captain Gates, explaining her sudden absence and asking for the next two days off. After that, Castle would take a month off to take care of Lauren while she was at the precinct.

She picked up her daughter and walked to their bedroom, laying her in her crib they had set up there for her, just in case she couldn't sleep while alone in her room of if she was waking up every 30 minutes, just to make it easier for her and Castle to be there for her. She was already asleep again as soon as Kate lay her down and tucked her in.

"Rick, it was supposed to be my day off today.", she said when returned to the living room. "If I had just told Gates I really couldn't come, this would've never happened, it's all my fault. What kind of mother am I?", she told him. "Kate, that's bullshit, and you know it! None of this is your fault, Gates needed you at the precinct today. You couldn't have known this was going to happen, so don't you dare blame yourself for this. You're the best mom our little girl could've wished for.", he said, tears in his eyes.

"Come here", he said while he took her hand and led her to the couch. He sat down and spread his legs, motioning for her to come sit in-between them. She did, and rested her head on his shoulder. They fell asleep like that, exhausted from the day they had and the news they had to process. It was all going to be ok though, she just knew it.

A/N: This story isn't over yet. I'm open to suggestions of where to take it. Even though I already have a main plot, I'm not that creative so you're welcome to leave a review of what you think should happen next. I'm really new to writing fanfics, so I hope you'll leave a review telling me what you think! Lots of love and thanks for reading this first chapter :)