Title: The Twentieth Floor

Author: The Dramatic Dolphin

Characters: Kate, Johanna, Richard

Pairing: Castle/Beckett

Spoilers: None

Disclaimer: I don't own them.

Summary: In an unusual situation, Kate Beckett gets advice from an unexpected source.

Detective Kate Beckett stepped off the elevator at the twelfth precinct and was immediately confused. Although she was usually one of the first people there every morning, there was always someone else – a cop sitting at a desk, a maintenance worker taking out the garbage, or even an occasional witness or suspect who had spent the night on one of the couches in the break room. Today, however, the precinct was completely, eerily empty.

Kate loudly dropped her stack of files on her desk and sat down in her rolling chair. She pressed the button to start her computer and went to get a pen out of her desk drawer.

The drawer wouldn't open.

Kate frowned and tried it again. It was still stuck. She tried the drawer underneath, hoping to be able to pry the offending drawer open from below, only to find that the second drawer was just as stubborn as the first. She tried the third and the fourth with the same result. Looking at her computer, she realized that it had failed to power up.

With an exasperated sigh, Kate slid away from her desk and stood, walking quickly to the break room. Some of Castle's espresso would clear her head. But when she flipped the switch on the machine, nothing happened.

With another noise of exasperation, Kate left the break room and stormed to Captain Montgomery's office. It was empty. She tried the interrogation rooms. They were empty. Running out of places to look, she tried the women's and men's restrooms. There was nobody there. She picked up a phone, and was not rewarded with a dial tone. She tried her cell phone, which refused to get a signal. When she tried the elevator button with similar results, she finally allowed herself to begin to panic.

"Hello?" she called, working to keep a faint tinge of hysteria out of her voice. "Is anyone here?" The precinct didn't respond. An idea occurred to her. "Castle, if you're doing this as a prank I'm going to have Lanie kill you in a brutal yet untraceable manner!"

"Katie, he's not here," said a voice.

Kate spun around to face the entrance to the break room. The voice had originated from a woman in her forties who Kate was sure had not been standing there a few minutes ago. She was smiling at Kate, laugh lines evident around her eyes, arms folded in front of her as she leaned against the doorframe. Kate Beckett could almost tangibly feel her heart stop.

"Mom?" she managed to whisper.

"It's me, sweetheart." Johanna held out her arms, and without regard for her work environment Kate raced across the room to be engulfed in the first hug she had received from her mother in over ten years. Within seconds both women were crying.

"I've missed you so much, Mom," Kate said. "But…if you're here…that means I'm…"

Johanna drew back and used her thumb to wipe a few tears off of her daughter's face before brushing a bit of hair behind Kate's ear. "Not dead, Katie. But you were shot when you went to raid that warehouse. Do you remember?"

Kate closed her eyes and nodded. It all made sense now – she had taken the team into the warehouse where the drug smugglers had set up their business. A full-blown firefight had ensued and…Kate looked down at her shirt, which she could tell was stained a horrible shade of red. "How bad is it?"

"You were shot once in the chest, once in the stomach, and once in the leg. You were lucky that the leg shot didn't hit anything major, but the other two put a hole in your liver and punctured your lung. You're in surgery right now to see if they can fix it." Johanna gave her daughter a sad smile. "Believe me, Katie, I don't want to be telling you this. I just know that you're fantastic in the interrogation room and you'll keep asking until you get the truth."

"Am I going to make it?"

Johanna gave a small laugh. "I have a script here. I'm supposed to tell you that it's up to you – you can go back or you can move on. And if you'd like to move on, I can make the elevator start working again. Take it to the twentieth floor." The older woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a small ring of keys. "And I'm supposed to tell you that if you decide to go back, recovery will be one of the hardest things you'll ever have to do. It will be months, at the very least, before you can rejoin the police force."

Kate sighed. "So what incentive do I have to go back?"

"Katie, if you don't know that by now I've failed you as a mother. Can't you name a few reasons?"

"Dad."

"Exactly. I'm not supposed to be biasing you in any particular way here, but you saw how hard your father took my death."

"He wouldn't last a month without me before he started drinking again."

"Yes. What about your friends?"

"Lanie would be devastated for a while, but she would be ok in the end. The same goes for Ryan and Esposito."

"You're forgetting someone."

Kate brought a hand to her face and massaged the bridge of her nose. "You're going to make me say it, aren't you?"

"It's what moms do, honey."

"Castle."

Johanna took Kate's hand. "Katie, you know how he feels about you. And you know how you feel about him."

"Mom, he's Castle. He's already had two failed marriages; he acts like a child all the time…"

"And he's a great father, and he's a brilliant writer, and he makes you laugh, and I can tell you that he's currently sitting in a hospital waiting room worried out of his mind, waiting for news about you."

"That doesn't surprise me."

"He's paying all your medical bills. He'll pay for rehab if you choose to go back or your funeral if you choose to move on."

"Mom, do you honestly think I'm not going to go back after all this?"

Johanna grinned. "The people upstairs won't be too happy once they hear about this conversation. It's supposed to be purely your choice. But I figure I'm your mom, so I get to tell you what to do at least some of the time."

Kate returned the smile, and once again embraced her mother. "I'll miss you."

"Yeah, you will. I miss you too. But believe me, you'll see me again. I'll be waiting for you on the twentieth floor. It's the silver key to go back, by the way. Take the elevator to the ground floor."

Johanna held out the small ring of keys, and Kate took it, turning the small silver one in the lock by the elevator buttons. She pressed the down button and the doors quietly slid open. She turned back. "Mom?"

"Yeah, honey?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Katie. I always will. And I'm sorry I won't be there for some of the big upcoming moments in your life."

"Like what?"

Again, Johanna laughed. "I'm already in enough trouble for telling you to go back. I can't tell you anything about the future…except that you'll be so glad you made the choice you did."

Johanna waved, and Kate waved back as the elevator doors slid closed. The precinct faded into white.

When Kate opened her eyes, she could tell that she was in a hospital bed. Her body felt like it was made of lead, and every last inch of her hurt like hell. She could also tell from her general fuzziness that she was on some pretty heavy painkillers, which meant that the pain would only get worse as she was weaned off of them. For a split second, she wondered why she had chosen to come back in the first place.

Then, she noticed that she wasn't alone in the room. Richard Castle was asleep in one of the hospital chairs by her bed. He looked like he had showered and changed clothes, but he hadn't taken the time to shave – probably, she thought, because he didn't want to spend any more time away from her than he had to. Although he was asleep, his hand was firmly grasped in hers. Summoning up almost all of her strength, she squeezed it.

He instantly awoke. "Kate?" he asked as though he was afraid of the answer.

"Yeah," she croaked. Her voice sounded awful. "I'm here."

"God, I was so worried about you. How do you feel?"

"Lousy. But…Castle?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for being my reason."

"Reason for what?"

But Kate had already drifted back to sleep. Castle quietly leaned over to brush his lips against her forehead, and then settled back into his chair, never letting go of her hand.