Thanks for the reviews everyone! Disclaimer: Castle is still not mine


Five Months Ago

Esposito, Ryan, Lanie and Jenny rushed into the hospital's waiting room, the two detectives having been picked up from the accident and bringing them to the hospital. They made it to the nurses station and began their questions as one, before hearing the unmistakable vice of an angry and upset Richard Castle.

"NO! You can not expect me to not only be forced to wait to see my fiancé, but to also be taken to a completely different room? Do you know who I am? I have made countless donations to this hospital, you can probably thank me for your job, so no! I will not be leaving this spot unless I am taken inside Kate's room, or I am following wherever she is going." None of the group had ever seen Castle this angry, except for when Kate had been shot, but that wasn't even half of how he felt now. The doctor whom Castle had been screaming at stalked past them with a face bright red embarrassed and refused to look anyone in the eye.

Lanie led the way, coming beside Castle and touching his shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, Rick, we're all here. Have they told you anything? How was she on the ride over?"

Castle scrubbed his hands over his face before talking to his four friends- his family. "They were saying something in the ambulance about a concussion and a leg injury and rib injuries. It was so chaotic. She was mostly stable the whole way here, but right before we pulled in, her blood pressure fell and they started yelling to the driver to relay that there may have been a pierced lung. Oh God, this is so much worse than her shooting."

He stared past the four into the trauma room where his fiancé was being worked on. "Guys... W-what if she doesn't make it? I can't lose her after everything we've been through." With his last statement, Castle slid down the wall, sobbing into his hands as Lanie sat next to him and tried to assure him Kate would be okay. She had to be.

Ryan pulled out his phone and walked down the hall, murmuring about calling Alexis, Martha and Jim, while Esposito dialed the precinct to find out more about the guy who had hit them and if it was really an accident, while Jenny walked to a vending machine to get Castle a water.


An hour later, Alexis, And Martha had showed up at the hospital and convinced Castle to move to the waiting room, whereas Kate's dad was apparently on a fishing trip in Alaska and was unreachable. Ryan had left a voicemail requesting him to call back as soon as he could.

Castle and Esposito paced the room, while the others sat in the uncomfortable chairs and stared at the two who were constantly moving across the room. It was thirty minutes and five trips to the nurses station before the person coming through the door in scrubs was heading their way. Everyone rose as one as Castle and Lanie stepped closer to the doctor, both demanding at the same time, "How's Kate?"

The doctor motioned towards the door, and said, "Mr. Castle, why don't we move this to the conference room- you're listed as Ms. Beckett's emergency contact, so I can only speak to you."

"No." Castle stated as he looked at the others standing with him. "They're family. They can hear what you've got to say."

The doctor nodded, "Alright, when Ms. Beckett was admitted, she presented with a mild concussion,on her right side she had three cracked ribs and one broken rib, which punctured her right lung. We had to place a chest tube to re-inflate the lung, and so that has been taken care of. We were concerned there might have been a spinal injury, but there wasn't."

The doctor paused as everyone let out a sigh of relief. "However, her right hip was dislocated, and there was a fracture to the hip as well. We reset the hip, and stabilized it, but we won't know if there was any nerve damage until she wakes up, and from where her fracture is, there is a possibility. We will deal with that if it comes up. We do however want to know her sedated until the chest tube comes out, so we're keeping her on a ventilator to maximize her oxygen saturation. Other than a long road of recovery ahead, we expect that she will be fine. As soon as she is all settled in her room, the nurse will come and get you, but only two at a time in the room for now." After asking if they had any questions, the doctor headed back out the door.

Everyone let out a collective breath and had hopeful expressions, knowing that Kate would be live. Castle vowed to himself that he would do everything he could for this recovery, and that he would be there for the entire time to help her. Before any of them could speak again, the nurse came in and said, "Mr. Castle, I can take you all to Ms. Beckett's room now."

Before anyone else had thought of moving, Rick was out of the ugly plastic chair and moving towards the nurse.


As they walked towards the ICU were Kate was until she was awake and off the ventilator, Rick was visibly nervous. He couldn't wait to see his fiancé, but the last time he had visited her in the hospital, it hadn't gone so well. Of course the entire situation was completely different, but he still felt uneasy. As the walked off the elevator, he turned to Esposito and Ryan.

"Did you all get checked out? Espo you were on the side that got hit, are you alright?"

Both detectives nodded and Esposito spoke, "Yeah man, we got checked out on scene right after you and Beckett left. The impact was mostly towards the front of the car, Beckett took the hit. I just got a few scrapes and some bruises."

Ryan nodded in agreement, "Same for me. What about you Castle, have you gotten checked out?"

Castle nodded, "As soon as we arrived at the ER they made me get checked out before they would let me wait outside where Kate was."

As as soon as he finished his sentence he realized they were finally at the entrance to the ICU and the nurse was beginning to speak. "Remember, Ms. Beckett has been through a lot, she may not look quite like herself. Don't mess with any cords or machine, and hit the call button immediately if you notice that anything changes with Ms. Beckett at all. Only two at a time, and visiting hours are over in an hour."

With her speech done she walked off, and Castle stepped towards the sliding door that his fiancé was behind. He took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked through.


Sorry it took forever to get this, Hope you enjoy though! Reviews are very much appreciated and thank you for reading! :)