A/N: Okay, so I really don't have a true author's note, but i just want to say, I'm writing a book. And if I do get it published than you will probably hear the paragraph about the word victim in it. I can't write anything stronger than it so I figured, What the heck? So if you happen to see my paragraph in a book... I didn't steal it, it's been mine from the start.
~Sarah 3
The deafening, sorrowful sound, the one that can only be heard when a bullet exits a gun. Followed by the quiet, but almost too recognizable thump that you hear when said bullet plunges through cloth and flesh. Finally, to hear the victim fall through the air, landing with a dull thud, is the worst sound that this world has ever witnessed.
Victim, such an innocent word for such an innocent being, a word only used when karma decides she's had enough with a certain behavior or action, a word used when fate feels that punishment is in order. A word that no one wants to be called, though its incessant demand to be heard, such an inevitable word, and one that truly has no meaning but more of an understanding with society.
And Beckett was that victim. What had she done? No one will ever know, no one will even have the heart to ask. Especially in her current state, laying on the ground, in Castle's arms, bleeding. She heard screaming, though she doesn't quite make out anything that is being said. Her eyes glazed over with unshed tears, never leaving her eyes due to the fact that gravity had a different plan for itself and pulled blood from her body. She heard the three syllables, not quite reaching her ears as fast as they should, but when she was addressed, she focused her wandering gaze upon Castle's eyes and heard them again, this time four, but the same nonetheless, "I love you, Kate." She tried, wanted to, respond but her eyes had already slipped shut.
At one point in time, Rick and Kate's heartbeats where alternating. Not much to fuss about, seeing as how the two never really expressed their emotions, but here they both were in the grass with fastening hearts, and emotions raw. His from adrenalin, and hers from shock. They eventually found a similar rhythm, same really, it was a fast but steady beat, and it set the world right for the short while that hers was still circulating blood. They kept going, and going, and going until a few minutes into the ambulance ride. Castle and Lanie were in the back along with another technician, with Beckett hooked up to a few machines that were always taking her vitals.
The heart monitor was showing just exactly how fast her heart was going, and as Castle stared into the screen, he noticed that his was going a scarily identical rate. It wasn't until the machine sounded with a continuous beep, that the once rapidly beating heart had decided to stop. The world fell apart then. The in-sync beats that were holding everything together now displaying a different rhythm, one with a faster beat, and the other that had stopped. Though the still-pumping one most likely making up for the lost sound, the universe didn't seem to care, and it started to crumble in. Starting with Richard Castle.
Once Beckett's heart had started its own movements again, it started on the same beat as Castle's. And once again starting with him, the universe reversed its actions and got itself together.
Ever since that moment when satellites seemed to realign and the sun stopped from exploding, destroying everything in its wake, had it made sense. They were the center of their own universe, and when the heart of that universe stops, so does all the life in it. So to keep that universe in line, those beats hadn't made another fault, and to this day, they have been beating ceremoniously, steadily, and together. Always.