Relapse
Chapter 1
Rick was feeling a little chilled. He attributed it to the late night of tree trimming and pulled Kate closer to his body. It should be a great day. Alexis and Martha had gotten early starts. Kate wasn't on call at the 12th and in the rarest of occurrences, Rick was caught up on his deadlines with Gina. He imagined curling up with Kate to watch a John Woo marathon - if he could just get warm.
Kate awoke to the slightest of shivers from Rick. "What's the matter?" she asked. "Bad dream?"
"No, just a little cold."
"I could warm you up," Kate offered.
"Just what I was hoping you'd say," Rick told her.
Kate snuggled into Rick, running her hands up and down his body, but she didn't receive his usual jump to attention. She reached lower. He guided her hands and seemed to enjoy what she was doing, but he was not the urgent lover to whom she had become accustomed. She finally replaced her hands with her lips and his excitement grew along with her own. He brought her above him and she found that she was doing most of the work. Not that she minded, exactly, but it was unusual and a disquiet began to eat at her mind. She collapsed on top of him, listening to the rapid beat of his heart. "Warmer now?" Kate asked.
"I have warm feelings," Rick answered.
"That's not what I asked you," Kate said, running her fingers over his face and brushing back the hair from his forehead. "I think you've got a fever."
"That's just my response to you," Rick teased.
"No, really," Kate told him. "I'm getting the thermometer."
Kate heard the beep and looked at the numbers on the display. "Rick, you've got a hundred and two." She grabbed an extra comforter from the closet, putting it on top of what was already on the bed and tucked it around him. "I'm going to get you a couple of ibuprofen."
As Kate was shaking the pills into her hand, the doorbell rang. She pulled on a robe and went to answer it. Agent Rachel McCord and Dr. Goldberg stood on the threshold. Kate's stomach twisted. Soundlessly, she motioned them inside.
"How's Mr. Castle?" Dr. Goldberg asked.
"You probably know or you wouldn't be here," Beckett answered, "but he has a hundred and two fever and he can't get warm. I was just going to get him some ibuprofen."
"I have something that should work a little better than that for now," Dr. Goldberg said. "Can I go see him?"
"Of course," Beckett answered and showed him into the bedroom. Beckett came out immediately to stand face to face with Agent McCord. "Rachel, what is going on here? And don't tell me I don't need to know, because I do and you know I do."
Rachel indicated that they should sit on the couch. "You know that Mary Elizabeth Reed got the same toxin Castle did," McCord began.
"Of course," Beckett told her impatiently. "I was there."
"McCord ignored Beckett's outburst and continued. "Mrs. Reed got more and she got it in liquid form which is much more deadly. She's had a relapse and is in a coma at Walter Reed under supportive care. Def Sec Reed is going nuts. He's decided that the staff is completely incompetent and won't let them try anything unless they try it on someone else first."
Beckett's eyes hardened. "So that's where Castle comes in. He's your guinea pig. If something works on him, you'll give it to Mrs. Reed."
"That's a cold way of putting it," McCord agreed, "but essentially yes. Dr. Goldberg will explain this better though. If we do nothing, Castle is going to get sicker and he could die. He needs us as much as we need him."
Dr. Goldberg beckoned Kate into the bedroom. "I want to explain this to the two of you together, he said. The antidote Mr. Castle got complexed with the toxin, that is, it fit it like a hook and eye to keep it from doing any more harm. But there were two different forms of the complex. One of them was water soluble, that meant it could be washed out of the body. That was done while Mr. Castle was in the hospital. He was unconscious and couldn't feel the effects of the complex going through his body. We were also able to control the effects such as fever to some extent. When his body was free of that complex, he seemed fine. The other form stayed in his body without obvious effects. Now it is breaking down. It may be releasing the toxin. It may be converting to the water soluble form or it may be doing both. We don't know exactly what is happening or how fast. We'll just have to watch it and keep analyzing Mr. Castle's blood. I've given Mr. Castle a shot that should help with the symptoms for now. Mr. Castle, did you have any unexplained illness before?"
Castle started to say no, but Beckett said, "Yes. Remember when you got that fever weeks ago and you thought you caught something from Alexis, but you couldn't have."
Castle nodded. "But that was only a day, and I was fine."
"That may have been the beginning," Dr. Goldberg said.
"Will Castle have to travel to D.C.?" Beckett asked.
"No," Dr. Goldberg told her. "I've set up a facility at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia. I can do the testing there and I can monitor him here, at least for now. This is my secure cell number," he said, handing a card to Beckett. "I'll be back in a few hours, but call me if anything happens."
"Rick," Kate said after Goldberg and McCord had left. "I am so sorry. I don't know what to do."
Rick patted the bed beside him. "Just come here, let me hold you for a while."
Beckett climbed into bed, snuggling under the curve of his arm while tears glistened in her eyes.
A shadow fell across Rick and Kate as they lay. Kate reached into the drawer of the nightstand for her gun. A man with snow white hair, dark eyebrows, and eyes with just the faintest resemblance to Castle's raised his hands in surrender. "No need for that," he said. "I'm here to help."
Castle opened his eyes. "Dad! What are you doing here?"
"Dad?" Beckett asked.
"Kate Beckett, meet my father. Still going by Jackson Hunt?" Castle asked.
"That will do as well as anything," Hunt said. "I'm glad to finally meet you, Detective Beckett. I watched you two dance around each other from afar for four years. It's nice you finally got some sense in your heads. It's a shame you had to stumble into this."
"Shame is an understatement," Beckett told him. "You said you're here to help. How?"
"This is not the only country that knew about that toxin or the only country working on antidotes. I may be able to shake something out of the woodwork. How are you doing, son?"
"Other than having a deadly toxin in my body? The doctor gave me a shot. I feel better."
"Good, I'll be around." Hunt walked away and out the door of the loft.
"Is he always that talkative?" Beckett asked.
"That was him being positively verbose," Castle told her.
"Clearly you take after your mother," Beckett told him with a teasing expression.
Warmed by her smile, Rick laid a kiss in Kate's palm and closed her fingers over it.