Thank you so much, guys, for all the nice reviews!

You will be my North Stars - always! ;)

And my special thanks goes to Angela again. Without her, this story wouldn't be here.

I hope you like this chapter and I would love to read your reviews!

Looks like I will be able to update weekly plus I'm working on a Castle Christmas fanfiction right now!

Chapter 3

Castle saw Beckett driving past him. He couldn't escape the feeling that something between them had been irretrievably destroyed. All he wanted to do was to stop her car to try to talk to her about it. About them. There had to be a them. He realized that he had never had such strong feelings for a woman before and he was determined to do everything he could not to lose her.

Rick couldn't imagine his life without Kate anymore.

A loud bang whipped Castle out of his thoughts. His eyes snapped towards the sound. At the next crossing he saw Kate's car spinning out of control after beeing hit by a white pick-up. It felt like being in a movie. A horrible movie in this case. Part of him tried to believe that it wasn't real.

For a moment he was paralized and stared at the completely demolished car. He felt, with a sickening feeling, that no one could have survived such a crash.

Slowly he recollected his wits and started running. Rick ran as fast as he could to Beckett's car and shouted her name again and again. Horrified, he thought back to the day where he had almost lost her when she had been shot. The thought of re-experiencing this once again, took his breath away and his eyes filled with tears.

When Castle reached the car, it was laying on its roof. Everything was eerily silent. He saw that the window of the driver's side had been completely destroyed. He took off his suit coat and wrapped it around his hand and arm and reached into the window to remove the splinters carefully.

"Kate, can you hear me?", Rick's voice cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again.

„Beckett! Can you hear me! Oh God, please be ok!" He pleaded over and over again.

He was panicking and realized that his voice was failing.

He heard a soft moan and vaguely heard the sound of voices behind him.

"An ambulance is on the way!"

"Is there a doctor around?"

"Oh man, that looks bad!"

Castle ignored the voices and concentrated on Kate. She seemed to be concious but her face was covered in blood and her right leg seemed to be jammed. Rick knew that he wouldn't be able to get her out of there by himself without causing any further injuries. All he could do for now was to stay with her and soothe her.

Carefully he took Kate's hand and brushed his thumb in small circles over its back like he had done a few weeks ago. He closed his eyes briefly and remembered touching her hand like this when he had wanted to show her how Royal the dog liked to be petted.

"Cas...Castle?", her voice was weak and so low that he almost missed it.

"Yes, Kate, I'm right here. The ambulance is coming soon. Please stay!", Rick answered almost pleading. He felt helpless and guilty. If they hadn't fought, this wouldn't have happened. This was all his fault.

"I...I'm so sorry", Beckett whispered as he gently stroked her hair away from her face.

Castle wasn't sure why she apologized to him because after all it had been him who had been acting like an idiot. But he knew that she had to remain calm and so he carefully brushed another bloody strand of hair from her forehead and said: "Shh, everything is going to be alright. Don't worry."

Rick had never hoped for his words to be more true. His medical knowledge was confined to some research he had done for his books but he knew that it wasn't a good sign that Kate was so pale and that she seemed to be really weak. At least she had recognized him which relieved him some what. That was a hopeful sign, wasn't it?

Before he could guess about Kate's medical condition any further, he heard the sirens of the ambulance and fire trucks approaching. Rick carefully kissed Kate's hand which he was still holding and whispered: "I love you so much." It was only then that Rick realized he was crying.

He scrubbed at his face with his hand that was covered in blood. Kate's blood. He wearily stood up to make space for the paramedics and firefighters.

Castle had never felt so alone and scared. She couldn't leave him, she just couldn't . There was so much he wanted to tell her.

What was taking so long! Why wasn't she out of the car and on her way to the hospital? What if there was internal bleeding? Every second could count.

Castle felt light headed and sat down on the curb.

He noticed the driver of the pick-up standing beside his car. The hood had been pushed in and thick black smoke was rising into the air. He was being interviewed by a police officer. He seemed to be fine and Castle tried to suppress the feeling of rage.

He watched from a distance as the police administered a breathalyzer.

What? Had he been drinking? Why did people still stupidly drink and drive?

Rick couldn't believe what he was seeing. To add to his agitation, he overheard the officer indicate the guy was being charged with impaired driving. Only the presence of the police kept Rick from tackling him and punching him until his anger had been sated.

Castle turned to face Kate's car again and saw with relief that the rescue workers had been able to free her leg. Carefully they pulled her through the window and layed her down onto a stretcher.

Rick approached one of the paramedics and asked him: "How is she? Is she going to be ok. Please tell me she's going to be ok?" He tried to keep the pleading out of his tone.

The paramedic looked at him warily and asked, "Are you family?"

Castle's first reaction was to shake his head but then he replied without even thinking about it,

"I'm her boyfriend."

The doctor nodded, looked at Rick symphathetically and said in a rush:

"Her pulse is weak and thready. She shows signs of pain at the touch of her left costal arch. There could be some internal bleeding. But we will be able to tell for sure after we get her to the hospital. Hop in the back..."

He was cut off when the machine they had hooked up to Kate started beeping. „Let's move!" he yelled to his partner.

Castle swallowed and looked at Kate who was still partly concious but didn't seem to entirely realize what was going on around her. In her eyes, he saw pain and confusion mixed with something he couldn't identify. He ran beside the stretcher so that she could see him and gently took her hand in his again.

"I'll stay with you, Kate. Always.", he told her in a whisper and he thought he saw a slight smile on her face.

After Beckett had been put into the ambulance, Rick sat down beside her where she was able to see him. He was holding her hand tightly to show her that she was not alone. He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath when Kate suddenly grabbed his hand and convulsed with pain.

Castle's eyes widened in shock and panic raised within him.

"Kate, what's wrong? What's wrong with her?", he cried. In her eyes he could see nothing but pain and fear. His eyes filled with unshed tears and he watched helplessly as she lost consciousness.

To be continued...