Disclaimer: The wording is mine but the characters aren't
NB: Still writing this so, the updates won't be daily, sorry.
Collaboration
She found them passing through the lobby on her way in. She was going to ask for an update if they were on the move so early, but they were in their workout clothes and saw Castle walking between them also in casual sportswear.
It looks like they had roped him into working out with them. She knew he was a little self-conscious there but after his first session, he had merely developed a newfound determination. From the rumors she heard in the break room and even on the other floors of the precinct, he did a reasonable job. This wasn't the first time she had come in and found them already there.
They had extended the invitation to her, but she declined, knowing this was something they did together- she figured she should share him a little. And it was cute, watching them razz each other.
"Hey guys," she greeted them.
Ryan and Esposito gave her half-hearted replies, not looking directly at her. She felt her eyes narrow suspiciously and the two men shifted their weight subtly.
This was going to be interesting. The last time they looked this nervous was when they had eaten all the fortune cookies while she was in with Gates and she came out to find them trying to catch her m&m's in their mouths.
"Where are you going?"
They glanced at each other and then to Castle. Her eyes narrowed in on the way he had his arm tucked in against his chest.
"Oh, you know," Castle shrugged. "Just to the hospital."
"The hospital," she repeated slowly.
"Yeah, well," his eyebrows knit together as he ran out of words.
"I broke his hand," Esposito mumbled. At his side Ryan looked at her nervously.
"You broke his hand."
"Hey, no taking all the credit," Castle interrupted. "I broke my hand."
"It was a team effort," Ryan explained.
She narrowed her eyes at him dangerously.
"No! No. I wasn't part of the team," Ryan bailed.
"Bro!" Esposito shoved his shoulder.
"What? I wasn't!"
"So such for solidarity," Castle grumbled.
She rearranged her bag over her shoulder and let out a sigh. The gathered men looked at her apprehensively, as if they expected her to dress them down in the lobby.
"How bad is it?"
"Lanie's orders," they informed her. While a little surprised her friend was already in she now appreciated why they had looked so nervous to see her. Lanie must have been in early because she was being pressed for an autopsy and they had rendered her early morning useless. She probably hadn't been very civil and had resorted to listing all the things Beckett was going to do to them when she discovered they had put her partner out of commission.
More to the point, if Lanie couldn't deal with it, he really needed to get it looked at. From the pinched look on his face and the way he kept it cradled so gingerly against his chest, it was really hurting him.
"You two head on back up and let the Captain know when she gets in. Come on Castle. I take it you have your wallet and ID for the hospital?"
"Of course," he nodded then turned to his partners. "If you go and get it for me."
They beat a hasty retreat.
"I will take you Castle on the condition that we stop for coffee on the way. I know better than to drink hospital coffee."
"I know better than to offer it to you."
OOOO
"Are you angry?"
"Do I have a reason to be angry?"
"No?"
"Did you break any equipment?"
"No."
"Any holes in the wall?"
"No."
"Then I'm good."
At least she couldn't think of a reason why she wouldn't be. She wasn't thrilled about missing the morning at work. Well, she was pretty happy that she wasn't doing paperwork right now, but that was offset by the knowledge she would just have to do it later. At least she had the papers and files she was going to review for court this afternoon in her bag. She could go over the case while they were in the waiting room.
She heard a sharp intake of breath as she hit a pothole.
"Sorry," she said and glanced over at him. His face was tight and he was staring fixedly out the windshield. "Hey, you okay?"
"I'm fine," he assured her. "Just knocked it a little."
She let her eyes fix on his hand before concentrating back on traffic. She was alarmed at the level of bruising spreading up towards his wrist. She knew the bleeding would have been aggravated by the physical activity. His elevated heart rate sparring would have pumped the blood faster and spread the bruising.
But this was too extreme to be just bruising.
"Did Lanie tell you how bad it is?"
"She said unless I let her do an X-ray she wouldn't be certain, but she said I'll be lucky if I haven't broken anything."
She hummed in response and brought the car to halt at the lights. "Do you always hit Esposito that hard?"
He looked surprised. "That hard?" he repeated in askance. "We were just playing around. If we were really going for it we would have been strapped."
"You were playing around with enough force you to break your hand, Castle."
"It wouldn't have broken if it had connected," he assured her. "Espo ducked and I hit the wall. You know for a big guy, he's really fast."
"The concrete wall?" she confirmed.
He didn't dignify that with a response. She just looked at him, noting the muscles along his arm that were usually concealed, calculating the power they could generate. Quite a lot apparently. Lanie was right: his hand was not just bruised.
"Castle," she sighed. "What is Alexis going to think when you get home?"
"She's interning with Lanie tonight, so she'll hear about it long before she sees me."
She lapsed back into silence, keeping her attention split between the road and the tense posture of his body.
"It kind of stinks," he offered a minute later when they were about a block out. "This is going to mess with our routine."
"Come on Castle," she told him lightly. "You'll be back at the precinct by tomorrow. Next week tops."
"I didn't mean our routine," he informed her. "Alexis and I have a routine when we're sick or we hurt ourselves. This might be the last time before she leaves, too."
"Oh I wouldn't worry, Castle. Knowing you there'll be another opportunity."
"Excuse me," he huffed. "I never get sick."
"But you are accident prone. I know you didn't come in for a few days last year because you were recovering after paintball. Martha told me."
"That was research," he defended himself heatedly. "I was working on the scene from Heat Rises!"
"Ah," she smiled. "So that's why Rook is accident prone too."
He just nodded quietly and she struggled to save the conversation. She didn't mean when Rook was shot saving Nikki, she meant the alley shooting scene in their undercover work. And being used as a hostage.
"I am not going to dress up as a hooker though, Castle. I'm going to leave that to Vice."
His face lightened a little when he acknowledged her reference to the earlier scene where both of their alter-egos walked away. They had never talked about him allowing Rook to take that bullet. Or the way Nikki had stayed with him. Their alternate summer.
"You never know, Beckett."
"Some things I know."
OOO
"You missed."
It was a calm statement as the doctor returned with the X-rays and put them up on the illuminated wall space.
"How can you tell?"
"I've met a lot of people whose intelligence have left something to be desired, but I don't think even their heads are hard enough to do this kind of damage."
When she looked closer at the sheet of plastic, she could see what the doctor was referring to. The knuckle on his middle finger had several cracks visible to even her untrained eyes.
If he was capable of that kind of force, it was no wonder Lockwood had been out cold long before she reached them.
"Well, let's see here. There is obvious damage to your knuckles, both sets actually but the larger fractures occur in the lower set. There are some hairline fractures in the upper phalanges and you've broken two of your distals too." He glanced over at them to find them both studying the x-ray carefully rather than looking at him blankly. "Can you follow that?"
Castle jerked his head in her direction. "Her best friend is a Medical Examiner."
"I'll take that as a yes."
"What is the recommended treatment?" Beckett asked.
"Usually we would straighten the bones and strap them, but with the multiple traumas in such a concentrated area, I would have to recommend a light cast for at least six weeks. As you can see, the area is very swollen so I would like to put you in back-slab. It's not a full cast and will make things more comfortable for you, especially with the swelling."
"You hear that, Beckett?" he sounded excited as he looked up at her. "You get to sign something for me. I promise you get first dibs."
"Thank you?"
"Well, Mr. Castle, let's get you down to the treatment ward and see if we can't put your hand back the way it was."
The doctor moved to the doorway and motioned to a nurse who waited to escort them. Castle slipped off the bed and noted the way Beckett was already close against his side as if she was preparing to catch him. He considered pointing out to her that there would be no influence to his balance but there was a tender light to her face she didn't seem to be aware of and he decided to allow her this non-verbal comforting.
"If you could take Mr. Castle and his partner back and prep him, I'll be there shortly to supervise."
The nurse nodded and began leading them slowly through the E.R department. She looked over her shoulder at the two and asked if they had decided on a colour.
"What do you think, Beckett?" he asked.
"Why are you asking me? You're the one who is going to have to keep it for over a month."
He didn't seem fazed by her teasing. "This is going to be your first autograph, Beckett," he insisted. "Of course I have to have your input."
She smiled and shook her head.
"Black would be cool, but the marker wouldn't show up," he mused. "ooh," he exclaimed. "It would if we got some of those special pens. Gold and silver and the ones designed for writing on black paper."
"That would look cool," she granted. "But dragging those pens everywhere is going to get annoying."
"Good point."
"White would be easiest but it would get grungy."
"A given," he nodded. "No pink, purple or yellow either."
"What have you got against purple? You have purple shirts."
"Alexis has already used those colors. We said we'd go for the whole rainbow."
At this they caught the nurse sending them a worried look.
"So you have blue, green, orange and red to choose from."
"I don't want orange."
"You can't make your daughter take the orange one. She already has ginger hair. You're not that mean."
"Fine," he grumbled. "I'll leave orange for if I break my leg. That way I can cover it with my pants." He cringed. "The things I do for her."
They entered the small bay and the nurse pulled the curtains, screening them from view before pulling materials from various compartments around the room.
He sat down on the stool, resting his arm vertically on the table and she came to rest just off his shoulder.
"Blue would match your eyes," she offered.
"Why detective."
"Shut up. You're hurt, I was being nice."
"Pity, huh?" he narrowed his eyes at her before shooting her a grin. "I'll take it."
They watched the preparations intently and both noticed the nurse coloring under their attention. He grinned and mouthed fan when the woman turned to look out the curtains for the doctor.
Kate clipped him over the back of the head.
"Red," he said suddenly. "I'm going for red."
"You better have decided and not just be going to use that for another bad joke."
"Another bad joke?" he looked affronted.
She just sighed and looked for the nurse who had disappeared.
"You doing okay there, Castle?" It hurt just to look at his hand which was swollen with purple licking up his veins and gathering in angry storm clouds across his knuckles. His fingers were stiff with it.
"The morphine took the edge off."
They both went back to contemplating his hand.
"You think you could snap a picture for me?"
She blinked. "Are you serious?"
"Is that a no?"
She fished her phone out reluctantly. "No," she grumbled. She stepped around so she had a full view. She frowned and craned over so she could take it from an angle at the top where the lighting was better.
"Ooh. Show me." His face was full of childish excitement. She shook her head and turned the phone so he could see.
"Now that is cool. You've got to admit that looks pretty awesome."
"Awesome? Try gruesome. You just better hope I don't send this to Alexis."
"And give her all day to stew? I thought you like me."
"Sometimes."
"I knew it."
He took to tapping his free hand on his knee. His constant movement just on the edge of her vision was slowly driving her mad. The way his head would turn every few seconds, fixing on some fixture of the room. She knew he was very good at cataloging a room, but his movements now had no pattern. He would usually slowly sweep from one side to the other so as not to skip anything.
But this was a nervous energy she had rarely seen in him. He needed something to focus on until the Doctor came back.
"I had no idea you and the guys were training this hard," she offered. He immediately dedicated his full attention to her, rooting her in place with the sudden force of the transfer.
"You're not going to ground them are you?"
His face was a picture of pure concern for his friends. It was cute and the way he was looking up at her reminded of her of the way elementary and grade school students might look up pleadingly at teachers.
"No," she snorted but smiled when his face relaxed.
"Good."
"But, grounded or not, you will not be playing with them for a long time."
"Come on Beckett," he pouted. "People break fingers everyday. I'll even just use my left hand."
She opened her mouth to tell him just how stupid he sounded but the doctor beat her to it.
"I'm afraid she's right, Mr. Castle. Don't even think about throwing a punch for another three months."
"Three months?" They watched as the nurse followed him through the curtain partition.
"That's an optimistic estimation," he was firm. "Now, I'd like to get under way. We're going to start by straightening your hand out and giving some of the blood flow a chance to return. I need you to tell me about any numbness or pressure, any severe pain."
Castle just nodded as the Doctor carefully took hold of his fingers. As they unfolded the digits from the loose fist she let her hand graze against the one he kept fisted on his knee. For a long second, she thought he was going to ignore it, or that he hadn't felt it through the pain, then his fingers snapped out and curled themselves around hers in a firm grip.
The doctor took a moment to survey the progress before nodding shortly in approval.
"You did very well Mr. Castle. Now we're going to set the bones and strap them. It is imperative you keep us updated on any sensations. I will warn you if something is going to be painful, but ideally you shouldn't be in any more pain than you were earlier."
Kate felt herself nodding in time with Castle.
They slowly uncurled his fingers. To her relief they moved naturally, the bones staying straight under his skin rather than contorting. The doctor nodded to Castle and he tightened his grip on her hand.
He didn't even flinch. It didn't sound right to say she felt cheated, but she had expected him to make a big deal out of it when the bones were set. Complain. To make any response. She had seen a lot of bones set or even fractures set and the silence was unnerving.
She didn't want to see him in pain, but she almost wished he had fussed. That way she knew he was feeling well enough to make a scene. This silence just gave her room to think, and the evaluating looks the doctor and the nurse were shooting him weren't putting her at ease. If they thought he should be reacting, verbally or otherwise that had to mean he should be in a lot of pain.
She felt her stomach tremble uneasily at the thought.
"How does that feel Mr. Castle?"
"Not bad."
"Any tightness, pressure?"
"No."
"Any tingling? Pins and needles?"
"They're not as hot," he offered quietly.
"Yes, the blood is draining from the area now it's straightened out. If it feels comfortable, we'll go ahead and put you in the back-slab now."
"Sure."
The doctor nodded to his nurse, and she slipped a towel under his elbow.
"I'm aware that you are a writer," the doctor said some minutes later.
"Yes."
"And you are right handed."
"I wouldn't worry about that. I'm not known for being particularly dedicated. A few days without typing won't hurt."
He doctor paused and looked at him directly.
"Mr. Castle, in this slab, typing would be very difficult even if you hadn't broken fingers. Not only that, the cast restricts your thumb. You won't be able to use this hand to type until the cast is removed at least. Six to eight weeks. After that it could be up to another month before your hand is fully functional."
Castle and Beckett both stared at him after his prognosis.
He processed their silence and seemed to realize it wasn't of acceptance or preoccupation.
"You don't know how close you are to requiring surgery Mr. Castle. If these bones hadn't been relatively in place, or the breaks had been any more compounded, you would be in surgery now. Trust me when I say you will not be typing for at least two months."