AN: Wow! I'm not sure if I have had a more positive response for one of my stories before...ever. I want to thank everyone so much. Castle fans are the greatest aren't they? This next chapter came out so quickly in part because of the brilliance that was Once Upon A Crime, I completely fan-girled over it. Please enjoy, I reckon I'll get about four chapters total from this.


The Waiting Room

Kate sat in the Hospital waiting room, hunched over, trying to breath evenly. Javi had his arm around her, it was all he could do, he felt helpless. Castle was his friend, but Beckett, she was like his sister and he knew just how badly she was hurting. The lurking threat that he might not make it out of surgery alive was tearing her apart. Lanie got there as quickly as she could. She rushed over to Kate and hugged her. Esposito scooted over for her.

"Honey...I'm so sorry."

Kate hugged her back so tightly. "Thank you."

"What do we know, what have the surgeons said?"

"It's still too early."

"Has anyone called his family?" She asked everyone present.

"They're on their way." Ryan replied. He had called them after the ambulance had pulled away from the crime scene. No sooner had he said it the group heard the clicking of heels running down the sterile corridor. Martha and Alexis came hurtling around the corner, both of them looking as white as a ghost. Alexis locked onto Beckett and marched straight up to her, nostrils flaring and eyes wild.

"This is your fault! How could you let this happen?"

"Hey, we know you're upset, but it was an accident, you weren't there." Esposito stepped in between the two women trying to defuse the situation.

"Javi, it's ok." Kate told them.

"This is not ok!" The redhead shouted. "My Dad would have done anything for you. This, this is how you repay him?"

"Alexis Castle." Martha used the strongest tone she could given the circumstances.

She spun around and looked at her Grams.

"That's enough. You are not the only one who loves that man in there. God forbid that Richard doesn't make it out of surgery alive he would not want us to blame the woman he loves for what happened today. He would want us all to comfort and support each other."

Kate broke down again at Martha's speech and Lanie kept hugging her tightly.

Martha led Alexis to the opposite side of the room to sit down but not before the young woman looked over her shoulder and addressed the NYPD Detective one last time. "If he dies, I will never forgive you for this."

"She's right." Kate whispered to Lanie. "What happens if he dies?"

"Honey, he is not gonna die, he's far too stubborn to do that."

Four harrowing hours later a surgeon came out to the waiting room. Everybody looked up, and Martha and Alexis stood quickly.

"Surgery went very well. Mr Castle was incredibly lucky. The bullet was originally aimed at chest height, but seeing as he dove into the trajectory it went in on a diagonal, and missed his heart. It did graze a lung, and that I'm afraid will take a long time to fully heal. That shut down his ability to breath for a time, and whoever gave him CPR at the scene kept him holding on just long enough. He can't breathe on his own just yet and will need to stay on a ventilator for some time. It's early days but overall, my outlook is positive."

Everybody in the room had been holding their breath and their sighs of relief all came at once.

"We are just setting him up in ICU, I'm afraid only family will be allowed in until we transfer him to a ward."

"I'm his mother and this is his daughter Alexis." Martha told the surgeon as they stepped forward. She looked over her shoulder and asked "Are you coming Kate?"

She looked at the older woman with a startled look on her face.

"I'm sorry what is the relationship to the patient?"

Martha gave Kate a re-assuring smile before turning back to the surgeon. "This is Kate, she is Richard's...partner of four years." Kate walked up to stand by Martha's side slowly and unsteadily.

Beckett would never find a way to repay Martha's kindness at that moment, bending the truth to get her into ICU like that.

"Alright well he can only have two visitors at a time. One of you will need to wait."

"You go ahead Alexis, I'll wait out here with Kate."

Alexis was livid and Martha thought she might just let the truth out, but she didn't, instead following the surgeon into her father's room without a word.

Kate turned to Martha. "I don't even know what to say."

"I don't blame you Detective, Richard knew the risks. Just promise me that you two will just come clean with each other. Life is short, and I wasn't born yesterday. I know how deeply you two care for one another and I just want my son to be happy. When he's not by your side, he's not happy. I know you love him, and you've both been given another chance here, for god sake's don't blow it."

Esposito turned to Lanie and touched her lightly on the shoulder to get her attention. "Hey."

"Hey yourself." She even gave him a small smile.

"Deja Vu right?" He asked her.

"A little bit yeah, kind of gets you thinking..."

"...About how life can be cut short just like that?" He finished her sentence for her.

Lanie just looked at him and said his name in an uncertain tone. "Javier..."

"Beckett and Castle are stupid, they've waited too long to talk about what's important."

"So what is important to you Detective?" Her question was sly and she flashed him a smile that he hadn't seen from her in a long time.

Esposito was just about to answer Lanie when Ryan walked up to them.

"Gate's just called me. She said if Castle's ok we need to get back to the 12th and explain why she has a dead body on her hands instead of a murder suspect."

Esposito just looked at Ryan with a look of disbelief, his timing could not have been worse. "Did you tell her that Beckett's staying here?"

Ryan suddenly looked a tad uncomfortable. "You tell her."

Javi turned back to Lanie, "Excuse me..." She gave him a light pat on the hand.

He stood up and brushed past Kevin's shoulder. "Shot bro." He told him sarcastically.

The two women waited until Alexis came out before the entered. She had told them he was still sleeping and the doctors thought it would be a while before he woke up. When Kate went in with Martha she got the fright of her life. He was pale as a ghost and hooked up to so many machines. Was this what she had looked like?

"Oh Richard." Martha said sadly before giving his hand a quick squeeze. Kate sat down in one of the chairs without saying a word. There wasn't a lot that could be done now except wait. After fifteen minutes Martha stood up. "I'm going to take Alexis home, you should try and get some rest, the coming days are not going to be easy."

"Martha?" She grabbed the older woman's attention, who turned and looked. "Thank you."

Kate slipped off her heels, and leaned back in the hard, stiff hospital chair. It was going to be a tough night, but she wasn't leaving.

Overnight the doctor's warmed Castle's temperature up, making him look less ghostly and the doctor's said there was a good chance he would wake up soon. Kate slept as much as she could. Alexis came back and Kate would use the opportunity to get coffee and go to the bathroom. Alexis wouldn't speak to her, would hardly even acknowledge she was even in the room. She sat down in the toilet stall, scrolled through the contacts on her phone until she found her Dad. She took a deep breath as she dialled.

"Katie?"

"Hi Dad. I was just calling to say hi, and that I love you."

"Katie what's wrong, what's happened?"

"It's Rick...he got shot..." She tried to keep her composure but sometimes a girl just needs to cry to her Dad. She explained what had happened, and that he was out of surgery.

"Do you need me to come to the hospital?"

"No, honestly, that's ok. I'll come see you when I get a chance."

Martha was going to come back that evening, she knew how these things usually went and knew it would be some time before Richard would be fully coherent. It was mid-afternoon when Castle opened his eyes for the first time since the shooting. The first thing he saw was Kate asleep in the chair, her hair was a mess, she was still wearing the same clothes as the last time he had seen her. She hadn't left this whole time. When Beckett woke up a couple of hours later there had been no signs of change, Rick's eyes were still closed. Martha came in, and convinced her to go home, eat a decent meal, get cleaned up.

"I will call you the minute he wakes up."

When Kate arrived back two hours later Martha was still there, and this time Rick was awake, very groggy, but coherent at least.

"Rick?" It blurted out from her lips before she had a chance to stop it. She rushed straight to his bedside.

He looked straight at her. "Beckett." The use of only her last name wasn't lost on her, she couldn't remember the last time he had addressed her so nonchalantly. The smile came off her face as fast as it had slipped on.

"I can understand if you don't want to see me, I can go, give you some time with your family."

"Actually dear, I was just leaving." She told Kate before turning to her son. "I'll see you later Richard." She patted his arm.

"Goodnight Mother." He said softly.

When the two of them were alone, she sat down slowly. "Hi."

"I was just about to go to sleep for the night." He couldn't face her right now.

"You don't have to talk to me right now, but if it's alright with you I'm going to sit here all the same. Please don't ask me to leave."

"Please yourself." His demeanour was cool and he closed his eyes.

Kate sat back in the stiff hospital chair and pulled out her worn copy of Heat Wave and opened it up to the first page.

"to the extraordinary KB and all my friends at the 12th." This was going to be a long night.