The taxi had accelerated to dangerous speeds, but at three in the morning there was no traffic to worry about. They screeched to a halt in the ambulance parking outside New York Presbyterian, and the driver leaped from his seat to call for help as Castle opened his door and pulled Kate with him. Two orderlies burst from the building with a gurney between them, and Castle laid his fiance on it gently as they asked him questions.
"Sir, can you tell me what the problem is?" Her nametag read "Mel," and Castle took a half-step back as she took his place at the top of the stretcher. Her partner - a young man just a little older than Alexis - was on the other side and they moved in sync as they pushed Kate back into the hospital.
"She's having trouble breathing," he told them. "She might have water in her lungs."
"Has she been swimming?"
"No," Castle had to jog to keep up with their fast pace, but he didn't care. They were wheeling her past the waiting room and straight into the trauma area. It was a place Castle had never wanted to see again, and he tried not to think about the last time he stood in this hallway. "No," he repeated, but didn't know how much he could reveal about her mission. "She was dunked repeatedly in a tub of ice water."
Neither orderly reacted to that, but Castle could see the questions in their eyes. They let him follow as far as the trauma room, but a nurse stopped him just outside the door with her hands held up and a stern expression.
"Sir, you can't go in there."
"But she might have hypothermia, too, and her ribs -"
"We'll take care of her," she promised. "I need you to go out to the waiting area and fill out some paperwork." She gripped his arm and tried to turn him as he watched the two techs hook Kate up to a variety of machines.
In the harsh white lights of the hospital she looked worse, and wave of nausea flooded him for a moment before the nurse managed to steer him back toward the reception desk. His feet carried him even as his mind swirled through one worst-case scenario after another. He was handed a clipboard with an obscene amount of papers, and he unwound the small pen attached by a beaded chain as he made a mental list of everyone he needed to call.
Lanie promised to call the boys, and Jim was already on his way after a frantic call from Martha. As he hung up with Kate's father, his mother and daughter came through the doors in an entrance that would make Meryl Streep jealous.
"Richard!"
"Dad what happened?" Alexis' eyes were wide with worry, and Martha hadn't bothered to put on more than jeans and a long-sleeved blouse. Castle wrapped his daughter in his arms as he told them what had happened at the loft.
"Poor girl," Martha cooed. "Hasn't she been through enough." It was a rhetorical cry to the universe, but Castle seconded it whole-heartedly. They'd been through enough. Enough.
Ten minutes later Jim came through the door, and he easily caught sight of the trio standing against the far wall.
"What's happened?" Castle felt a pang of sorrow at the pain on Jim's face. This man lived in constant fear that one day he'd get the phone call that ripped away the last of his family. Standing in the ER at four in the morning, Jim looked braced for the worst.
"She's having trouble breathing," Castle explained quietly. "She went undercover yesterday, but things went badly. She survived, but some of the things they did to her..." He couldn't voice them aloud, and from the look on Jim's face he wasn't the only one who didn't really want to hear it. "She got some water in her lungs, and she's been coughing violently all night. They won't tell me what's wrong."
"It's called dry drowning," Alexis spoke up, her fingers swiping across the screen of her phone. "It happens to swimmers sometimes when they swallow too much water." She scanned the article she'd googled as the others gathered around her.
"Will she be okay?" Castle tried to peer at the small screen over her shoulder, desperate for answers.
"She'll be fine," another voice spoke up, and they turned to face the nurse that had halted him earlier. "We've stabilized her and put her in a room. We'll need to keep her overnight."
"Can we see her?" Jim asked.
"The doctor will be out shortly to let you know more. Best thing for her now is rest." She offered them a reassuring smile, then bustled off to handle another patient's family.
"Castle!" Esposito's voice rang across the room, and they all turned to greet him and Lanie. Ryan was right behind them, and when they had all gathered Castle went over everything again.
"I knew we should have taken her to the hospital," Espo growled.
"She refused to go," Ryan reasoned, remembering how adamant she had been with the paramedic yesterday.
"Beckett?" An older man in scrubs stood just outside the double doors with a clipboard in hand. When all seven of them turned, he seemed shocked for a moment. "I'm Doctor Dyers, Ms. Beckett's physician."
"How is she?"
"She'll be fine," he confirmed, and the entire group let out a collective sigh. "She had a lot of water in her lungs, and it was giving her some trouble. We put a tube in and suctioned it out, but we want to monitor her through the night to make sure she's getting the right amount of oxygen."
"What about her temperature?" Castle asked. "She's been cold all evening."
"Actually, that probably helped her." He laughed at their confused expressions, and continued. "When we're presented with a dry drowning case, there's often concern about brain damage since the lungs aren't transferring oxygen properly. One of the treatments we use is to keep the patient's body temperature a bit lower because we use less oxygen, so her hypothermia may have saved her."
"But she's fine now?" Jim pressed.
"She will be after a good night's rest. We've brought her temperature back up gradually, and she's being supplied with oxygen. We should be able to release her tomorrow provided she can take it easy a few days."
"She will," Castle said firmly. "Can we see her?"
"She's sleeping now so it would really be best to come back -"
"I'm not leaving her alone," he insisted. "What room is she in?"
Lanie and the boys agreed to come back in the morning before they went in to work, but Castle led Jim and his family down a series of corridors until they came to a group of private patient rooms.
"We'll wait out here," Martha grabbed Alexis' hand as Jim opened the door, and Castle gave her a grateful nod before following him into the darkened room.
Jim was standing at the foot of the bed staring down at his daughter. There was a cannula in her nose supplying her with steady oxygen, and only her arms rested above the thick blankets they had tucked in around her. In the dim light from the hallway she looked small, and Castle was harshly reminded of the last time he'd seen her this way. He moved to the head of the bed, sinking down into the chair positioned there. The machines beeped steadily as she took even breaths, and though Castle didn't know what all of the numbers meant he trusted they were where they needed to be. He reached out slowly and brushed a piece of hair away from her face, then trailed his fingers down her arm to grip her hand.
"I should have made her go to the hospital when we found her," he whispered in apology, but Jim shook his head.
"She'll be fine now, Rick. She's a fighter."
"Yeah," he let out a breath that was almost a laugh.
"Can you tell me what happened?" Jim moved to the other side of the bed, pulling a plastic chair up to sit on the other side of Kate. Castle spent the next half hour detailing everything that had happened from the first phone call yesterday afternoon to finding her injured but alive in the woods outside of Scarsdale. Jim remained quiet through it all, but Castle could see the worry and fear in his eyes.
"I should have been there with her," Castle said.
"It's over now," Jim dismissed his self-recrimination with a wave of his hand. "There's nothing you could have done. Right now just concentrate on getting her better. You're getting married in a few months, after all." The last sentence was said with a smile, and this time the writer returned it.
"It's not soon enough," he claimed. "My mind keeps imagining the worst scenarios, and I keep wondering why we've waited so long. What if something like this happens again, and we can't get to her? What if we never get the chance -" His throat closed over the horrifying thought, and he blinked a few times to banish the sting of tears.
"Hey," Jim reached across Kate's body and laid his hand over Castle's arm. "You can't do that. Believe me, I know. I've spent the last fifteen years terrified of that phone call. The only thing you can do is cherish every moment you have together. She loves you, Rick, and you love her. Dates, invitations, center pieces...none of that matters, because in your hearts you've already promised each other everything. The rest is just formality." He settled back and let his words sink in as the machines beeped a steady rhythm.
The silence stretched on for a few more minutes, then Jim stood. "She's in good hands. Will you call me tomorrow when they release her? I'll swing by the loft, if that's alright."
"Of course," Castle stood as well. "You're always welcome there." There was a moment of hesitation between them, then Jim reached forward and wrapped Castle in a hug.
"Take care of her. And yourself, too. I love you both." He patted his future son-in-law on the back twice before pulling back. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Castle watched the older man go, marveling in the feeling of family that washed over him. He moved quietly to back to Kate's bedside and sank down into the chair. His hand found hers again, letting her know he was there even if she couldn't hear him. After a few moments he laid his head on the bed next to her shoulder, letting the rhythmic beep of her heart monitor lull him to sleep.