Don't Give Up
post-ep for 6x23 "For Better or Worse"
But you can't give up. That's the deal. We want the happy ending? We can't give up.
-Season Six Finale, Castle
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Kate stands at the cliff's edge, her heart in flames below.
She already has a foot out over the crumbling dirt, skirt fisted in one hand to scramble down when a broad and strong arm corrals her around the waist and brings her back against a hard, warm chest. The reek of burning things envelops her.
"Whoa, Kate. Kate."
Castle.
Kate stumbles and jerks around, catching his face in her hands and kissing him, mouth to the moan trapped behind his lips. "What happened? Castle, are you-?" She pulls back when she feels the warmth running sticky between her fingers, finds his face a mess, swollen and cut and bleeding, and then his body sags.
She catches him under the arms even as an EMT is running for Castle, hustling, don't run off, sir, and all her words are caught at the back of her tongue and choking. Castle revives at the back of the ambulance, but he leans against the metal side as he sits on the bumper, his tux jacket split at the seams of his shoulders, the collar of his white shirt stained black with his blood, an angry welt on the side of his neck - burned.
"Rick," she whispers.
His hand fumbles for hers amid the skirts of her wedding dress and their fingers knot anxiously. The EMT bends over to dab at the cut lacerating the center of Castle's right eyebrow. His eyelashes are crusted with blood.
"Sorry," Castle grunts. His head dodges the paramedic only to glance against the side of the ambulance. They all hiss.
"Stop moving," she tells him. "What happened to you?"
"Don't... know."
"He's been unconscious," the paramedic reports. "Someone called 911 when they found him collapsed on the side of the road-"
"Had to climb out," Castle offers suddenly. His face looks split, his mouth a slash as he forms words. "I don't know what... How'd you get here? I don't know where my phone is."
"Police on scene called me," Kate croaks out. "Don't try to talk, Castle. I think you're-"
"He has a concussion," the EMT affirms. "Sir, please stop moving."
Castle winces and tries to shift towards her, but she stops him with a hand to his shoulder.
"Castle," she begs.
His eyes meet hers and his body wilts; he rests his head against the side of the bus, and his fingers lift to her dress. "Look beautiful, Kate. So beautiful."
She chews on her inside cheek and catches his hand, gripping both now, her heart thundering so hard it shakes them both.
"Oh," Castle startles, jerking upright. "Married. We have to - no, I don't need that, stop touching it. Kate, we're supposed to be getting married. Right now. I have-"
He untangles his hands from hers and reaches into his jacket, pulls out a packet from the inside, folded and dirty now, crumpled. It smells like his deodorant, the scent released and - for a moment - overwhelming the reek of burning rubber.
"We're free and clear," he grins. "Let's-"
"Castle," she whispers. "It's just not meant to be-"
"No, Kate-"
"-today," she finishes, taking the marriage license. She folds it back up carefully, and she opens his tux, slides it back into his pocket. His face falls.
"I got blood on your dress," he mumbles.
"It's okay."
"Your mom's dress."
"I don't care."
"But it's-"
"Castle, I don't care. You're alive. All I need is you."
"Car," he says suddenly. "Car ran me off - an Escalade. Big, black. Tinted windows."
"A car ran you off the road?" she says sharply, stepping into him. His knees shift wider for her and the EMT shoots her a dirty look, but already Castle is more docile, falling into their usual pattern.
He nods gingerly. "Came up behind me. I tried - thought to push ahead. And then it pulled alongside and I looked over and I knew."
She snags the sleeve of his tux jacket before he can finish lifting his hand to bat away the EMT; Castle reverses direction and grips her instead, hanging on.
"My head hurts," he says softly. "Really badly."
"Castle."
"I stomped on the brakes but it was too late. The SUV came right over into me and momentum took me over the edge, straight down. Air bag punched me in the face. I feel like I went thirty rounds with a kangaroo."
A kangaroo?
"Feet," Castle says. "They lift a foot and donkey kick... I don't know. Seemed right in my head."
"Can we take him to the hospital now?" Kate says tightly to the EMT.
"No, the wedding," Castle interrupts, standing abruptly and now looming over her, suddenly so tall and imposing in the black tux with his face running blood. His hands come up to cradle her jaw. "The wedding, Kate. I want to marry you."
"We will. Tomorrow," she promises. She can't make that promise. "When you can-" Here she catches him by the hips as he starts to list. "When you can stand up on your own."
"No. Everyone's there - and you. I want - your dress is ruined and my face is ruined but I really need to marry you, Kate." He leans in and this time his forehead comes to hers and she feels the kiss of blood - eyebrow to eyebrow - but she doesn't care.
"Castle," she hesitates. "You have a concussion."
"Please. I don't want another summer to pass."
"You need to be checked out. We'll ride in the ambulance to the hospital and maybe then, okay? We can call the chaplain. Or-"
"Not in the hospital, Kate," he growls. "No. It's not falling apart because of me."
He's alive. There's the car he hired for the honeymoon still idling with the driver, and it was supposed to be magical, but he's alive - he's alive - and that's magic enough.
"Okay," she says stupidly. Just as she convinced him to trespass on private property to rescue Rogan despite men with guns, he's convinced her to detour the hospital for another hour and marry him.
"Okay?" His mouth cuts into a smile that closes up her throat, but he grabs her fingers and pushes his thumb against her engagement ring. "Okay." He turns to the EMT. "Care to be a wedding carriage?"
"I have the car," she sighs. She shouldn't be doing this. This is not a good idea. But Castle's dreams come true while her life seems to be trying to set her up for a cycle of tragedy and she wants his. His life.
"The car? Oh, the get-away - God, Kate," he rasps and suddenly his arms around wrapped around her and she feels her knees giving out and her body falling into his embrace. They both sink against the side of the ambulance and he murmurs it's okay, I'm okay, we're okay into her skin.
It's not okay. He's not okay.
"This is a bad idea," she tries to say. "You should go to the hospital."
"Butterfly bandages and a couple swipes of an antiseptic and I'm fine," he says. "Concussion will be there no matter where I am."
"Castle," she cries, but her hands are gripping his jacket and she's not sure who is holding up whom.
"Marry me, Kate. Today. Like we planned. Don't give up - marry me."
She closes her eyes and tries, but in the end it's no good.
Kate opens her eyes and refuses her selfish heart. "Yes," she husks. "I'll marry you." His face lights up, split and swollen, painful. She pushes through it. "But only after the hospital. After you get treated. If we have to, we'll hold the minister hostage, we'll put up the guests in the house. However long it takes. I have three weeks' vacation and you're alive. It will hold."
The light falls out of his eyes.
But Kate steps into the ambulance with her hands holding up her dress, and she settles on the side bench, folding her skirts under her to give the EMT room. Castle turns to look at her and then he crawls in unsteadily after her, leaning heavy against her side as he sits.
She takes his hand and his fingers circle the ring around and around, twisting it at the base of her finger as if he needs the reminder of her yes.
"The watch is for the life I saved," she murmurs, kissing his jaw. "My mother's ring for the life I lost." Another kiss at his ear, avoiding the blood, lips brushing. "And your ring for the life I want. The life we have. Just hold on, Castle. Don't give up on us yet."
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