Hey guys! Wow, so many people already following this story, and it has only been a bit over twelve hours since I posted the first chapter! I really appreciate all of the reviews, I'll start responding to them in just a bit! :)
Without further ado...
"Where the HELL is Rick?" Doctor Davidson yelled, bursting through the doors into the waiting room, looking around, surprised not to find him there.
"Rick? RICK?! You mean my SON? The one that got shot protecting YOUR girlfriend? THAT RICK?!" Martha exclaimed, standing at her full height and throwing her full repertoire of acting behind this performance.
"Yes, THAT Rick. Wait, what? Shot?" He paused, taking in the faces of everyone else in the room. "Kate got shot, what are you talking about?"
"Yes, Kate did get shot, but not before the bullet ripped through Richard's chest!" Martha said, crossing her arms in a grand gesture.
"What…?" He was confused. He knew that there had been two GSW's so Doctor Kovatch couldn't take the surgery from him, but he didn't know who the second victim had been. It explained why the bullet hadn't done more damage than it did though, it had slowed down significantly due to prior impact. "Oh." Was all he could say before he turned around and made his way back through the doors to the ER.
"What about my son?!" Martha yelled after him.
"And my Daughter!" Jim called, standing next to her.
Doctor Davidson turned around, walked back to the door and spoke calmly, "Kate is in the ICU, I am going to go check on her, I don't know where Mr. Castle is." With that, he spun on his heel and walked back down the hall towards the elevator and on to the ICU.
The first thing he noticed when he walked in was that there was a second bed next to the one Kate had been assigned to. Looking at the face, he didn't recognize them, but when he picked up the chart, he nearly dropped it. It was Castle. He looked horrible. The breathing tube taped across his face, pale as a sheet from the noted blood loss on the chart, though he had a transfusion during surgery, not nearly enough, obviously. Despite his hate for the guy, he felt kind of bad, the guy did take a bullet for his girlfriend after all. Maybe he wouldn't kill him, just let him suffer with his injuries alone. He smirked, putting his chart back on the front of his bed. He walked over to Kate's bed, checking her vitals briefly before sitting down in the chair next to her bed and taking her hand. "How did you end up getting shot, Kate… at a funeral?!"
He sat there a few minutes before getting up and going back to work. He may have wanted to spend time with her, but he had a lot of patients to look after, and they were more important.
~KO~
Jim and Martha made their way up to the ICU, escorted by Kevin and Javier, for protection, they didn't know who had done the shooting, but they were going to post cops at every entrance to the hospital, and two outside the private room that they were having arranged for the both of them. Alexis had agreed to stay with Lanie for the time being, though she really wanted to see her father, she knew that her Grams actually had a say in treatment options and the like.
Martha made her way to Richard's bedside, barely able to recognize him. His hair wasn't its usual 'perfection', but a matted down mess, and his skin was so pale. He always looked so tan, a bright spot in her day, but now he looked literally like a ghost of that person. "Oh, Richard." She said, taking his hand, squeezing it tightly in her own, hoping for a response she was sure she wouldn't get. He was still under the effects of the sedative they used in the surgery.
A similar reunion was being made at Kate's bedside. Jim pushed back the hair that clung to the side of her face. "Katie, I thought I had lost you too." He said, tears swimming in his eyes. "I'm glad they got you both fixed up. I know I wouldn't have gotten you back if he didn't make it out too." He spoke softly, a sad smile on his face. "I know you love that man more than coffee Katie, I hope you dump that asshole doctor, even if he did operate on you." This time his smile was a little more genuine. He kissed her forehead, grabbed her hand and sat down for the long haul, until she woke up.
Martha had been listening to the sentiments that Jim had been passing quietly to Kate, she couldn't help herself. She indulged briefly in thoughts of the two of them together recuperating on a beach somewhere. She could hope, right?
~KO~
An hour or so later, Alexis and Lanie were allowed up as well. Lanie went straight to the end of Kate's bed, picking up the chart and flipping through it, satisfied with what she saw there, she put it back. She smiled at Kate's resting form, even if it was riddled with tubes. She quietly picked up Castle's chart, wanting to know the extent of the damage, and she nearly choked. The through and through had clipped his right lung and splintered a rib, but beyond that he had gone into cardiac arrest during the earliest stages of surgery, they had to restart his heart. She put the chart back, shaking her head when Alexis reached for it. "Honey, don't look at that, just be happy he's laying here, his heart is beating, and his color is coming back, little by little." She said softly, hoping the teen would listen. She retracted her hand, instead reaching for her father's unoccupied one, though it had plenty of tubes sticking out the back, it was still the most comforting thing she could imagine at the moment.
"I'm going to go check and see when the doctors think they are bound to wake up." Lanie said, making her way over to the nurse's station where an attending stood there, filling out charts. "Any idea when the anesthetic should start wearing off those two?" she said, motioning with her head at the couple.
He nodded, checking his watch. "I would guess that she should start coming around in the next hour or so, since she was under for a shorter period of time. We'll have to remove the breathing tube when she does wake up though, so… the family might want to wait outside for that part. As for him, could be an hour or two, maybe more. His surgery wasn't exceedingly long, but combined with the massive blood loss, I'm guessing he'd be lucky to wake up before I don't know," he looked at his watch again, "oh, maybe around eight or nine pm, which as you know is the end of visiting hours." He said, smiling as she scowled. He closed up his charts, and walked around the floor, checking various patients.
Lanie returned, giving everyone the news, good or bad she would let them decide.
~KO~
As if on cue, Kate's eyes began to flutter an hour later, it was around dinner time at this point, a bit after five pm. Lanie hit the call button to get the attending over there to see about removing the breathing tube. "Hey guys," Lanie said, "why don't you all go grab some sandwiches or something from the cafeteria while we get this taken care of?" She asked, hoping they would understand that this was going to be a bad experience for anyone that stayed. They all nodded, leaving, though, especially in Alexis' case, they did not want to.
Kate's eyes were blinking slowly, still not fully awake, but Lanie wanted to warn her, so as not to alarm her. "Kate, can you hear me? Um… Blink twice if you can." She did. "Okay, well this nice doctor here is going to remove your breathing tube, he'll talk you through it, don't worry." She tried to use a soothing tone, but she knew it was going to be horrible for her friend.
The doctor talked her through it slowly, and he gently removed the tube without mishap, quickly depositing it in the bio-waste bin by the bed. "Don't forget to drink some water, that throat will probably be sore for a day or two at the least." He said before walking away to continue his check on the other patients.
Lanie handed Kate a glass of water before she could ask for it. "You drink that, and then tell me how it felt to be tackled by prince charming." Lanie said teasingly.
Kate smiled, still pretty out of it from the anesthesia and drank the cool water slowly. When she found her voice, albeit weak and raspy, she spoke, "Did he really tackle me and take a bullet for me?" She asked.
"Hell yes he tackled you! As for taking the bullet… I mean, it hit him, but it hit you too, so does it even count?" She joked. Kate rolled her eyes. There was a curtain drawn around her bed, so she wasn't sure where she was exactly. "I take it from the wandering gaze, you want to know where you are…?" Kate nodded her response. "Well, you are in the ICU, same as writer-boy over there," She said, sticking her thumb out to point behind her in his direction.
"Is he… is he okay?" She questioned worriedly.
"I'm sure he'll be fine." Lanie dodged.
"But is he now?" Kate pushed.
"He's not at 100%, if that's what you mean. He's still under from the anesthesia, just like you were." Lanie said, still not answering her fully.
"Can I see him?" Kate asked, her eyes glistening.
"Kate," Lanie began, "I- I really don't think that's a good idea. You only just woke up yourself, and he isn't looking like himself right now. You know how he is, pretty boy, he wouldn't want you to see him like this." She tried to reason.
"I don't care Lanie, I love him, I'll look at him until I'm blue in the face." Kate said defiantly.
"You… did you just admit that you love him?" Lanie was taken by surprise.
"Yes, I did. He told me he loved me right before I conked out. If he can tell me his feelings while he thinks I'm about to die, then I can tell him mine, bad timing or not." She resolved herself to be truthful, at least on this one issue, for once in her life.
"Fine, Kate, but you can't get out of bed, you can look at him from there." Lanie said, pulling back the curtain between the two beds.
Kate gasped softly. Lanie had been right, his hair was all wrong, his color, wrong, his face was covered by a bunch of tape and tubing, his hands covered likewise. All she wanted to do was get out of bed and hug him to her and never let go. She couldn't do that yet though. She had responsibilities to take care of. First, she had to break it off with Josh, then she had to make sure Martha and Alexis didn't hate her for life for getting Rick shot, then she had to take a shower or something, she could feel where the iodine had cleaned her skin, but it fell wrong, and she didn't smell right. When Lanie went to return the curtain back to its original spot, Kate shook her head. "I want to see him, please." Lanie relented, letting the curtain stay where it was for the moment.
"When he wakes up, we're moving the both of you to a private room with no outward facing windows and stationing to armed officers outside the door." Lanie said, smirking as Kate cringed, she hated making lower ranking officers to stand around all day. "And when you have that private room…" she continued suggestively, "you can talk about your feelings for each other, and maybe even… feel each other." She said with a wink.
"Lanie! We were both just shot! You expect us to what, get it on in one of our hospital beds?" She whispered harshly.
"Expect, no… hope and pray for… maybe." Lanie replied with a smile like none other.
"Do you know how messed up that is? Especially coming from a doctor…" Kate said, shaking her head.
"I can't help but want that for you two! Especially after beating around the bush for three years and then you both wind up shot half to death!" Lanie just shook her head, grabbing Kate's hand and sitting in the chair by the bed. "I'm glad you're okay though." She said with a smile.
"Yeah me too… but I will be even more glad if you get me some Jell-O or pudding…" Kate smirked. Lanie rolled her eyes and got up to go get some from the nurse's station. While Lanie was away, Kate looked back over towards Rick. She wanted to cry. He had jumped in front of a bullet for her. It didn't stop her from getting hit, like she is sure was his plan, but the fact that he had done something so … heroic amazed her. She knew that he was capable of small feats of heroism, but that was so much more, and such a huge risk! She wasn't sure what this would mean for them in the long run, if he would be able to come back and work with them on cases like before, because even with all of those papers he signed, the force could take a hit, getting bad press for nearly getting a famous author killed. Kate promised herself not to overthink it, and talk to him about it later. Who knew, maybe he would have a crazy idea that would fix everything.
~KO~
After eating her fill of cherry flavored Jell-O, Kate decided it was probably best if she rested for a little while. She was feeling pretty groggy, despite having apparently having slept half the day away. She asked Lanie to let everyone know that she was fine, she just needed some rest. Lanie nodded her assent, and made her way to the cafeteria to get herself some food, knowing that at least one of her friends had pulled through. She had left the curtain between the two beds open, sure that Kate preferred it that way, even if she was supposed to be sleeping. She nodded to the officers stationed at the doors to the ICU on her way out.
Doctor Parish found the rest of the group sitting around some gathered tables, eating mostly in silence. She grabbed herself a sandwich, some chips, and a bottle of water from the deli counter, quickly paying and making her way over to the group.
"How's Katie?" Jim asked before she even sat down.
"She's good, she drank some water, ate some Jell-O, then she decided it was probably best to rest, and kicked me out." Doctor Parish smiled softly at her friend's antics.
"Did she remember everything?" Esposito asked, hoping that perhaps she had seen where the shot had come from, or more specifically, who.
"I didn't ask. She mentioned a thing or two, but nothing really pertaining to the shooting." She half-lied, knowing Kate wouldn't want the everyone to gossip about the pairs' love confessions. "She was really more concerned about Rick than anything," she continued, hoping that would appease them, and move the conversation in a different route.
"Oh, you didn't let her see him, did you?" Martha asked softly. "He would be so embarrassed about how he looks right now. The man goes through an hour-long ritual to get himself ready to see that woman, no matter the occasion." She divulged. The table chuckled lightly, knowing it was most-likely the truth.
"I did. She asked, and I couldn't deny her, she said she needed to be sure he was okay." She bent the truth a little, Kate had implied that, but not said it. "The look she gave me was worse than his puppy-dog eyes, I swear!" There was another round of chuckles, just what the group needed at a time like this, and they all knew it.
~KO~
Kate had just drifted off, having been staring at Rick's prone form for a while, her breathing evening out as she rested, when Josh decided to make a reappearance. He walked up to her bedside, closing the curtain between the two, wondering why it was left open. He sat down, grabbing her hand in his, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles, closing his eyes, he needed a rest. Her eyes flashed open, and upon realizing who it was holding her hand, she pulled on it sharply, trying to remove it from his grip.
"Kate?" He asked, looking up to her face, "What's wrong?"
"This." She rasped, swallowing once before continuing, "Us, it's wrong."
"What do you mean, 'us'? How is that wrong? I just pulled a bullet out of your chest, that is wrong, not us." He argued, shaking his head.
"The only thing wrong about it is that you performed the surgery, Josh. I could have taken a bullet any number of times." She said, her voice low.
"That doesn't make it right! And I couldn't step down from that surgery, there was no one else around to do it! Doctor Kovatch was working on that piece of work," He indicated to the bed behind the next curtain, the one containing Castle.
"He saved my life Josh, he isn't a piece of work." She couldn't believe this guy. "He was there for me today."
"The Hell he was! I was therefor you, I saved your life in the operating room." He fought back, getting angry.
"Josh, I appreciate it, but you shouldn't have, and you know it. Now please leave. We are done. I need to heal, and obviously I can't do that with you around." She said firmly. When he didn't budge, she pushed the call button. The attending from before came to check on her.
"Everything alright here? Oh, hey Doctor Davison." He said, wondering why the button had been pressed if there was a doctor already present.
"Yes, everything is fine." Josh attempted, but Kate was already shaking her head.
"No, it is not. Please have the officers outside escort this man away from here. I don't want him near either myself or Mr. Castle." The attending looked confused, but did as she asked, quickly walking over to the officers by the doors and explaining the situation.
"What the Hell, Kate! This isn't over! You can't just kick me out of the hospital, I work here!" He yelled at her.
"Well, I can make sure you aren't around here. I don't trust that you wouldn't do something you might regret, which would make me do something far worse." She leveled him with an icy glare as the officers approached.
"Doctor Davidson, we're going to have to ask you to leave the ward. We're here to protect these two, and you seem to be interfering with their recovery." One of the officers said. When Josh didn't budge, they each grabbed him underneath an arm and hauled him back out the doors into the hall. Kate could hear him yelling, but even better, she heard the other officer say "Don't make us call in backup to get you thrown all of the way out of the hospital."
Kate lay her head back down to rest, but she couldn't, not being able to see Rick, knowing that he was there and healing. She pressed the call button again, smiling apologetically as the doctor returned. "Hey, sorry about that…" She began, but he waved it off. "Do you think you could pull back the curtain there?" She asked, unwilling to give an explanation. The doctor just nodded, pulling it back.
"You get some rest. That was probably a bit more excitement than you should have had this soon after surgery." And with that he left, off to do more rounds.
Kate lay on her back, head turned towards Rick again, this time settling into an uninterrupted, much needed sleep.
So...? I know, I know, Rick still isn't awake! The chapter was just starting to feel too long though! I got this one up over 3,300 words and I knew I had to cut it, but have no fear, the next chapter is near! I just have to write it... lol
Let me know what you thought, I am just writing this as a way to immerse myself back into writing... and I guess to make people love me again. heh.
(Oh, and sorry if there are any mistakes, I don't go back and proofread these before I post them... I will probably go back and fix mistakes later.)
~Morgen
