"Night guys."Kate Beckett grabbed her jacket off her desk chair. Without looking back she headed for the elevator.

"Night!" Esposito and Ryan answered. They joked around some more while they saw Kate heading into the elevator. They saw the sad look on her face when the elevator doors closed. They knew it wasn't from the case. It was from missing him…

Kate leaned back against the elevator wall after she pressed the lobby button. She was tired from working the case. She hadn't slept in 35 hours. And all she did the last 5 hours was filling in paperwork… All that kept her awake where the coffees. She'd been so busy she didn't realize it was pouring outside. She cursed inside her mouth and tried to get a cab. After trying a few times, she gave up and started walking to her apartment.

She was soaked when she got to her building. She walked over to the elevator but it had a note on it: 'Do not enter. Broken!'

"Just my luck" she mumbled to herself as she opened the stairwell door.

She ran up to her floor but somewhere in the middle, she collapsed. She leaned against the wall and let herself slide down. She couldn't take it anymore. She thought about all the people she'd lost, her mom, since a few months her dad and now Rick… the only difference was that her mom and dad where dead. Rick wasn't.

Rick was happy with another woman, somewhere in the Hamptons, or in his Ferrari in LA. She pretended she didn't care, but she did. A tear rolled over her cheek. She let it roll. She was too tired to get up to her apartment but she couldn't stay here. So after a deep breath she pulled herself on her feet and slowly headed up the stairs.

When she reached her door she grabbed her keys, tried to get it in the lock, but she was cold and shivering, so that took a while. Once she finally got in her apartment and locked the door she walked over to her couch and just laid there for a while. She decided not to shower and just crawl into her bed. But she couldn't even get up. She just turned on the TV and got comfy in her couch. But when she skipped the channel to the news, she heard a familiar voice. When she realized it was the voice of Rick she looked around if she saw him. But she didn't see him. It was then that she realized Rick was at the screen of her TV. He was being interviewed by the news reporter.

There was something about a shooting in the restaurant he was having dinner with Alexis. And then she heard him say: "Because of me working with the NYPD for a while, I knew how to react. I'm glad I'm the only one that got hurt," he looked into the camera and added: "Thanks to Detective Beckett. Without her I wouldn't have known how to act." The news reporter thanked him and she said: "Well, I think we should thank Detective Beckett for teaching the ropes to mystery writer Richard Castle. Or else, people could've died. The police is still investigating the case."

She couldn't believe what she just saw. Castle? Involved in a shooting? But she didn't have lots of time to think about it when her phone rang. Lanie.

"Kate? Are you okay?" Lanie asked even before Kate could say hi.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Because- did you see the news?"

"Yeah I did."

"Well, then you know why I'm calling." Lanie thought she would know.

"Lanie, seriously, I'm fine!" she tried to convince Lanie after a short pause.

"Have you been crying?" when she got no response she knew.

"Kate, I know when something's up! I could hear it in your voice! I'm coming over there!"

Kate tried to protest but it didn't work. Lanie already hung up.

Lanie knocked on the door to find it open. She panicked. "Kate?" when she got no response she ran into the master bedroom. No one. She yelled again: "Kate?"

This time she got a response just as she saw the flickering light coming under the bathroom door. "I'm in the bathroom." Kate yelled.

Without thinking Lanie ran in to find Kate in the bathtub. Luckily it was covered with bubbles.

"Can't you knock?" Kate asked while covering herself up with some more bubbles.

"What in the lords name where you thinking leaving the door open like that! You scared me Kate!"

"I had to make sure you could come in, didn't I?" Lanie nodded.

"Now, why don't you tell me why you're here Lanie."

Lanie took a seat next to the tub and started her talk: "I was concerned. You haven't seen him in weeks, and then you see him on the news like that?"

"Lanie, I told you, I'm fine!"

"Yeah well, you have to understand I wasn't sure." Lanie got a confused look from Kate.

"Kate! When he left you there, you almost gone missing!"

"I wasn't missing!" Kate managed to say before Lanie continued.

"We had no idea where you where! For 3 days! And I don't like that to happen again, Kate!"

"Point taken," Kate agreed. "Now can you go to the living room and wait for me to get dressed if you really want to stay…"

Lanie stood up. "Kate, just know that I'm still here for you."

Kate got dressed and walked into the living room to find Lanie watching the news. It was about him. But he was not being interviewed. The news reporter said that Rick had been attacked a second time. This time he was really hurt. They showed a video from Rick laying on a stretcher and being broth to the ambulance.

"Lanie? What is this?" Kate had tears in her eyes.

Lanie turned around. Not realizing that Kate was standing there.

"Kate…"

"No! just tell me! What happened?" she was yelling.

"He's been attacked on his way home. He was coming back to his loft here in New York when he walked to his car he was shot. But because he just turned around when the shot went off, it hit him in the shoulder. His mom and Alexis were with him at the time." She sighed and wanted to pull Kate in for a hug but Kate grabbed her phone and called Alexis. No answer.

"Kate, sit down! I'm sure he's going to be okay!"

"You don't know that!" Kate snapped at Lanie.

"Okay Kate, now you really have to calm down!" she pulled Kate on to the couch and tried to calm her down.

Kate couldn't fight her tears anymore and went for a hug.

"Hey… he's going to be fine. Just fine."

While Lanie said that a few times she could feel Kate slipping away. she fell asleep.

Lanie laid Kate onto the couch and covered her up with a blacket.

She locked the door and went into the guest bedroom. She was sure Kate wouldn't mind she stayed the night.

Kate woke up to find herself not in her bed. But she soon realized that she was in her own living room. She smelled bacon. She turned her head around to find Lanie cooking.

"Hey Kate. You okay?"

"Yeah," she rubbed her eyes: "I'm fine." And she let herself fall back on the couch. Closing her eyes she remembered what happened to Rick.

She grabbed her phone and called Rick. No Response. Probably because he was in the hospital. So she tried Alexis.

"Hello?" Alexis had a tired voice.

"Alexis? It's me, Kate."

"Kate? You must have seen the news last night?" Kate could hear she'd been crying.

"Yeah, are you okay? Is he okay?"

There was a pause. It scared her.

"I'm fine, and my dad is still in surgery."

"Where are you Alexis? I'll come over."

"We're at the NYC hospital. He got transfered here. But… on the way his heartbeat stopped." Kate could here Alexis started crying.

Kate didn't know how to calm the upset teenager down.

"I'll be right there Alexis!"

"Kay." Alexis hung up.

Lanie grabbed Kate's keys before she could get them. "No way in hell you're driving!" she answered Kate's face expression. They both got into Kate's car and drove to the hospital.

Kate called Esposito. "Hey Javi. I'm going to visit Rick in the hospital."

That only was enough for Esposito to jump up from is chair.

"What?"

"Oh don't worry, Lanie's with me."

"We're coming to!"

Kate wanted to protest but decided to just agree. She gave him the hospital address and she hung up.

Lanie stopped in front of the door so Kate could get out while she parked the car. "Go, I'll be there soon!" she yelled at Kate while she got out of the car.

Kate ran into the emergency hallway. When she was about to ask where Richard Castle was she heard Alexis.

"Kate?" Kate turned her head and she saw Martha sitting and Alexis looking at her. Kate ran to them and pulled Alexis in for a hug.

"Thanks for coming," Martha said while she stood up and joined the hug.

"Do you know what happened Alexis?" she had to ask.

"The shooting at the restaurant just seemed random, but at the car…" the knot in her throat became too much and Alexis started to sob. She couldn't cry, all of the tears she had were already gone.

"It's okay." Alexis looked up at Kate. "I know you where hurt when he left. But I need you to know he loves you. Like really loves you!" When Kate realized what Alexis had said, she pulled her in for another hug and she let a tear escape from the eye.

"I love your dad, that's why I was hurt. But I don't understand why he left." Kate carefully said, not wanting to hurt Alexis more. Because the waiting was killing her.

"He left because you knew he loved you, and he thought you kept that from him, because you where ashamed." She thought of a million reasons, but this never accord to her.

"I'm so sorry to have caused that thought, but the reason I kept it from him was because I wasn't ready to hear that, and especially when I realized that I loved him back. That's why I never called him in those 3 months."

"It's okay, I can't forgive you, my dad has to." Alexis looked hopeful at the door. A doctor came out.

"We have news about M. Castle."