Disclaimer: Why yes, I do own Castle.

HA. In my dreams.

A/N: Hey guys! Once I saw the Canadian promo for the next episode (3x17, "Countdown") I had to write this. Just a short, quick little oneshot.
But I promise I'm working on Swings too, for those of you who read that!

So, obviously, SPOILERS ahead for both 3x16 and 3x17.

Hope you enjoy!

Some say your life flashes before your eyes right before you die.

Others say all you see is the color blue, like the sky is passing you by.

Still, others say there's just…nothingness.

Darkness.

Blackness.

A void.

But all she could see was him. His face, his deep-blue eyes, his fantastic smile. He filled her every sense, her every thought, her whole being.

She couldn't help but find it ironic that it took the frightening, looming, threatening prospect of a slow and cold death to drive her into his arms…to stay there and allow him to hold her. To let her walls crash and burn.

She couldn't help but find it ironic that death-the thing that drove them together in the very first place, and even now in this situation-would be the thing to drive them apart.

She suddenly heard him inhale sharply, his body involuntarily convulsing as shivers ran down his spine.

"We're not gonna make it," she breathed.

He adjusted himself to look down at her.

"Hey, don't say that."

She moved to look up at him.

"I don't see another way out."

"We'll make it, I promise you." He slowly lifted a frozen hand from her waist to move a shock of brown hair out of her pale face, so he could look in her eyes.

He tried to avoid looking at the ice forming on her eyelashes and her purple-blue lips. "Where's the Kate Beckett I know, hmm? The strong, beautiful, independent, dedicated, never-give-up Kate Beckett?"

She could hear the struggle in every word he uttered, the pain. It hurt to speak…she knew.

"Castle, I can't feel anything…"

"Shh." He mustered all the strength he had left to pull her in closer, if that was even possible.

"Castle…?"

"Kate, you need to conserve your-"

"I just wanted you to know how much I-" her voice lowered to a hoarse whisper as her eyelids heavily drooped, and she sank further into him as she fought to finish, to stay awake. "Love you."

The next thing he knew, her head had fallen onto his shoulder, her hand had left his chest, and her body had gone completely limp.

His heart dropped, and he felt like he was going to throw up.

She had finally said the words he'd wanted to hear so incredibly badly, but she hadn't gotten the chance to hear him return them. And now, he would-

No. He couldn't even think of the possibilities right now.

All that mattered was keeping her alive.

Her.

He would do anything just to see her come out of it perfectly fine. But now, she wouldn't know. She wouldn't know that he wanted so badly to be the one to dive in with her. To be there for her for the rest of her life.

So she would know where she stood.

So she wouldn't be lonely.

So he wouldn't be lonely.

"Come on Kate, stay with me," he begged, desperate. "Stay with me, please."

Rick could feel a sob from inside him screaming to get out, but his body just wouldn't allow it.

"Kate, I love you too much-please stay with me."

What felt like hours passed as he tried to wake her up without wearing himself out too much, so that if she woke up, he could keep her warmer than she would be alone.

What he hated the most, though, was the fact that he couldn't even hold her hand with her awake and aware of the fact that he was madly in love with her.

Crazy about her.

Suddenly, just as he could feel his eyes begin to roll back into his head, just as he could feel his heart slow to one beat a minute, he vaguely heard the door open and the screams of men-Ryan and Esposito?

And all he could feel was Kate leaving his side as someone pulled them out of the freezer to the safe haven of the world outside of the truck. One last, abrupt burst of energy led him to desperately reach out and attempt to grab her hand while being loaded into an ambulance…but instead, he watched as the green of her eyes suddenly became visible, and he met her gaze before he slipped under, his eyes shutting with the doors of the car.

And all he could see was green.

Kate's green.

Review? :)