Rick castle paced back and forth in front of the viewing window of the interrogation room. Cases such as these worried him ,especially for Beckett ,because for her they usually just hit too close to home. This particular case was that of Diana Rohloff, a thirty two year old mother of one ,who was stabbed in the chest and left to die in an ally a couple of blocks from the precinct.

He hadn't wanted Beckett to be the one to interrogate the subject. For one thing the guy was the size of a sky scraper, he has muscles as big as castles head, not to mension he looked like he could take Castle out with just one swing of his bulking, tattooed arms. It didn't help of course, that as Beckett had entered the interrogation room, the small beady eyes of the suspect swept over her long, slender body.

Castle knew Beckett was the officer of record on the case, but couldn't they have made more effort to find someone who was at least a little less vulnerable when it came to this particular type? Maybe Esposito could fill in for her...

He had been telling himself that Beckett was a big girl, and that she could fight her own battles until that afternoon, when he had found her in the break room after they had told their victims seventeen year old daughter and grieving husband the news. She had been sitting at the small wooden table in the middle of the break room with a cup of steaming tea in her hand. A stray piece of curly brown hair from her bun drifted near the frame of her face as the rotating fan in the break room, which was currently the only source of noise, came to face her. As he walked towards her, her face slowly came into view; on it was a blank saddened expression, hinting to him that she was deep in thought.

He hadn't gone to her to offer support, instead he had retreated back to his regular seat next to her desk to wait for her to once again battle with her internal demons, and now, as he stood looking at Kate through the tinted glass, he couldn't remember why, and he began to regret it not going to her.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of metal scraping against the concrete floor and a loud crash. He looked up to find Kate laying on the floor of the interrogation room, her face contorted In pain and her hand clenched at her chest. Towering over her was the suspect with arms the size of freight trains, who continued to deliver blow after blow into her chest with the tip of his shoe. Castle's brain caught up with him and he ran towards the room as Esposito and Ryan made their way at top speed towards the same destination, with hands on their lower backs as they reached for their guns. She was his only concern as he entered the room at top speed. She lay in the corner of the room while Esposito and Ryan attempted to restrain the suspect.

He knelt down next to her and scooped the upper half of her frail body into his arms.

"Kate sweetheart, where does it hurt?" he said, brushing the stray tears away from her cheeks with the pad of his thumb.

She didn't answer;she just continued to whimper in his arms while he held her, rocking her like he would an infant as he whispered soft, reassuring words in to her ear.

"Castle!" his actions were interrupted as Ryan yelled at him from in front of the suspect. "Get her out of here, now!" he scooped her up into his arms and carried her swiftly to the break room, where he lay her on the couch and knelt next to her head, brushing her temple with his thumb as he resumed whispering the reassuring words into her ear as she lay there, with eyes closed tightly as she tried to wait out the pain.

This was how Ryan and Esposito had found them after bringing the perp down to holding. Esposito walked quietly towards Castle and laid a hand on his shoulder. "Is there anything we can do?" he asked quietly so as not to disturb Beckett, who at this point had tears streaming down her face.

"Get Lanie" Castle said quickly "if she's seriously hurt she'll know what to do"

Esposito nodded and left quietly, with Ryan trailing behind him.

Lainie arrived some ten minutes later carrying with her a first aid kit she had grabbed as she had rushed out of the morgue.

"Hey sweetie" she said softly to Beckett as she took Castle's place next to her head. She looked at her for a second and made a quick decision.

"I'm going to have to unbutton her shirt" she said matter of factly "you three should probably leave" she said acknowledging the boys for the first time.

However, as Castle stood to leave Beckett's eyes shot open and her hand reached out for his wrist at record speed, causing the pain in her chest to intensify.

"Don't leave me" she said quietly, through labored breathes

"Never" he said, smiling to himself and sitting on the couch as he put her head in his lap.

Leonie looked at her two colleagues suspiciously before getting to work.

Lainie's Hands were cold against Kate's skin and she slowly opened her eyes. He half expected Castle, whose lap her head was currently resting on, to have his eyes trained to her exposed chest. As she opened her eyes, however, she they came into contact with his cool blue ones, which were looking into hers with a mixture of worry, tenderness, and love as he played gently with her hair.

"Hey" he said, showing obvious relief at the fact that she had finally opened her eyes permanently.

"Hi" she said quietly

Lainie let out a small "…oh!" forcing them to tear their eyes away from each other.

Castles eyes made their way to where Lainies fingers gently traced the scar on her chest that she had acquired after being shot in the cemetery. The long, dark, already swollen scar was surrounded by what was slowing becoming a massive cloud of deep purple and blue on her skin, that caused Kate to wince whenever Lainie's fingers ghosted over it. Castle mentally kicked himself for being stupid enough to waste time asking her what was hurting while she was lying on the ground of the interrogation room. His mind flashed back to when she had accidently reached too quickly for a cup of coffee he had handed her at a crime scene a couple weeks back, and he remembered how even that had caused the scar tissue to pull, and Kate to wince. He couldn't imagine how much pain she was in after being thrown across a room like a ragdoll, followed by being kicked in the exact location of the scar on her body.

"That suspect had impeccable aim" he said, tracing the pink swollen line in her flesh gently with his finger.

Lainie looked up at him with something that was somewhat a glare "It looks like everything's going to be fine" she started slowly "however, pretty much doing anything other than sitting or laying down, is going to hurt like hell" she said frankly "I would suggest that you stay with someone for a few days, because trust me, doing most things on your own is not going to be easy with a bruise like this, especially with its location. also," she said, turning towards Castle, "you need to watch her very carefully, if she shows signs of having trouble breathing, you see an exponential increase in the amount of swelling we are seeing now, or if her pain starts to worsen at all, you need to take her to a hospital immediately, because she could be having a blood clot" Castle nodded, slowly standing and scooping Kate up into his arms "Thanks a lot Lainie" he said, giving her a wink.

"Sure thing" she said "now take my girl home and make sure she gets some sleep"

"You know I will" he said, slinging Kate's purse over his shoulder as he carried her limp body towards the elevator, and out of the precinct.

Okay, i there wasn't that much romance in this chapter, but it was basically just to set up the rest of the story that is coming soon

also, this was my first chapter of my first fanfiction, and I haven't been writing stories much lately, so i might be a bit rusty...

anways, I'm still deciding whether or not to continue writing this or just ending it here, but once again it will get more romantic, i promise, this chapter was mostly just to lay the foundation of the story.

reviews as always, are appreciated.