The Universe and You.
Author's Note: This story is dedicated to two people. One who makes me blush, and one who makes me smile. FBD&CDM, you know who you are, and I know what you are worth.
Disclaimer: Nuh-Uh!
Coauthor: caskettastic
One phone call. That was all it took to shatter someone's world. And no one knew this better than Kate Beckett. For, she had been on the receiving end of life changing phone calls, not once, but twice.
Kate paced the room on the top floor of the Hamptons house, teeth gritted and palms sweaty. As if having wedding jitters wasn't bad enough, her irritating, annoying, childish,adorable and utterly lovable groom, who had promised to be there within 20 minutes, was now late by an hour.
From the atmosphere in the room, she knew she clearly wasn't the only one who was worried. Lanie kept glancing out the windows every 5 seconds, updating them on the guest arrivals, Alexis, kept fidgeting with her cute little bow tie, her face worried, and Martha looked purely impatient.
Before she could pace the room one more time, the shrill ringing of her phone interrupted Kate.
Katherine Beckett? The voice on the other end asked.
"Yes, this is she." Kate answered, a small pit forming in her stomach.
Ma'am, this is Officer Brooke from the Hamptons PD. There has been an accident, and the victim is a Richard Castle. We understand you are his emergency contact, so could you please come over to the 4th milestone immediately? The voice questioned with a voice of practiced calm façade.
The next few minutes were a blur to Kate. She didn't remember how and when she got down from the house, grabbed the nearest guy who could drive, jumped into the car that they had booked to escort them to the airport after, and reached the mentioned location.
Before the car could even come to a complete halt, she yanked the door open and threw herself out. The pit in her stomach was now a huge abyss. Even from this distance, she could tell that this was not a case of a minor fracture. And even as she ran the short distance from the car to the police cruiser, she knew her world was going to change forever. And the sight that awaited her when she did, just confirmed her worst fears.
She was mistaken. Her world hadn't changed, it had been destroyed. It had lost any and all purpose to even exist. As Katherine Beckett stood on the edge of the road, looking at the fiery pit that was once the car in which her fiancé was travelling, all she could hope for was that death claimed her too, and soon.
"Castle!" she called, in a choked voice, some part of her still stupidly hoping against hope, that he wasn't in the car. That this was just a pre-wedding prank, and that he would jump out of the trees somewhere and say 'Gotcha!'. If only it were that simple.
"Castle!" She called out louder, her voice more of a lament now, than anything else. Even through the grief, she could hear the emptiness that echoed in her tone. It sounded like it came from the inside of a tomb. A place where she wished she could go find solace in, if the love of her life was really dead.
The solace never came. The pain never eased. All she could feel was pain, pain and more pain. Her mangled heart began thinking up of scenarios where this could happen differently. If this was some plot by the universe to make sure that they did not get married, and the universe knew that THE only way that would happen, was if one of them were dead, Kate wished it was her.
She wished it was her who had stayed back to get the papers legalized. She wished she had tripped and fallen down the stairs and snapped her neck. She wished a sniper shot her through the window of the room she was getting ready in. No matter what the scenario was, the summary of it was this. Katherine Beckett wished, more than anything, that it was her who would have to suffer, in the process. Because in all honesty, she would gladly live through the shooting, the freezer, the bomb, the apartment explosion, and all the times she was tortured again, rather than watch Castle die right in front of her eyes and not be able to do anything about it.
Wait! Why was she not doing anything about it? That was her fiancé for Christ's sake! Her always, her everything. She had to do something right? Something, anything, to at least try to…well at least try.
With that thought in mind, and her fiancé in her heart, Kate picked herself off the ground, and started towards the burning car. As she trailed closer, she could hear Martha and Alexis in the background, screaming for her to stand back. She could smell the smoke that kept everyone else from moving closer. She could feel the heat of the fire that was engulfing the car. In that second, Kate suddenly had a clear idea of what her immediate future was. She was either going to get Castle out of that car, or die trying.
"Ma'am, please stand back. It's not safe" She could hear officer Brooke shout at her, trying to move closer. She took a step further.
"Katherine don't! Not you too." She heard Martha wail from somewhere behind her. She took another step further. Three more steps and she would be there.
One…two… A sudden explosion threw Kate all the way back to the police cruiser, before she could even contemplate what had happened. And when she did, all she could see was the burnt car. Except, it was now it smithereens.
No...No…this could not be happening. No…Castle….
"CASTLE!" A scream wrenched itself out of her throat, startling her eyes open.
Looking around and the dull morning sky, all Katherine Beckett could think was 'That is one nightmare I could not wait to wake up from', before yanking her cellphone off the charger dock and pressing speed dial #2.
"Couldn't go even one night without me huh?" Came the sleepy, rough, deep voice of her favorite author. Her everything.
And Kate Beckett, could finally breathe again.