I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I guess this chapter decided to be short. I had no clue, my version of Word is prehistoric and doesn't give me a word/letter count at the bottom, or anywhere for that matter.

I like this chapter a lot more than the last, but it's up to you guys to decide if it's good or not in the end. Leave a review? :)

Gina had left for the day, mumbling something about a file she had to email to some editors and needing some sleep. Alexis was curled up on the same green sofa Kate had placed her on before, in a fitful slumber. Martha had arrived, flown in from California where she'd been auditioning for a role in a movie. The woman was sitting in the corner, her knees curled up to her chest. She was staring at the bed with a blank, shocked expression on her face.

And then there was Kate. She was seated at the edge of Castle's bed, her legs curled up under her and her hands on the blankets. She'd been sitting there since Gina had left, and nobody had tried to kick her off yet. She was occupying herself by staring at the wall, at a certain spot that must have felt pretty damn intimidated by now.

"He loved you, you know."

The words brought her out of her trance, and she turned slightly to face her partner's mother. The English language momentarily escaped her as they sank in.

"What?" It came out as barely a whisper.

The actress behind her sighed. "I know he was with Gina, but he was in love with you. He talked about you constantly. 'You should have seen Beckett today', 'Beckett said the funniest thing today'…he was never really with anyone else. It was always you." A melancholy, reflective look crossed over her face before the look of shock slipped back on.

Kate was at a complete loss for verbalization. She didn't understand. He had left, with his ex-wife and publisher. He had always seemed to only want her for a night or two. His reputation was so tainted.

But then, he had been trying so hard to get her to go with him to the Hamptons for the weekend. She had been his first choice, not Gina. Gina was a placeholder.

It dawned on her.

It was true.

She sucked in a breath and looked back at Castle. Shutting her eyes, she forced a reply out.

"I…I don't know, Martha…I mean, what if he just thinks of me as a really, really close friend? What am I supposed to do then?" She couldn't believe she was thinking this. And then saying it to her partner's mother. She shook her head almost imperceptibly.

She heard a laugh—an actual, legitimate laugh—come from behind her, and she looked at the woman incredulously.

"Darling, if you were just his friend, I don't think he'd still be going to your precinct every day, now would he?"

Kate shook her head, a small smile spreading across her face. This was like a repeat of her conversation with Esposito.

"No. No, he wouldn't."

"Well, there you go. There's your answer."

Kate returned her gaze to the man lying in front of her. When he woke up, she would tell him. She wasn't going to let another chance at what they could have pass her by.

She stood then, careful so as to not disturb him, and turned to Martha. "Thank you. I really appreciate that."

Martha just smiled. "Anytime."

Sighing, Kate gathered her coat from the chair next to the wall and turned for the closed doorway. She placed her hand on the doorknob and heard the last words of the actress behind her.

"He will wake up, Kate. And when he does, I want you to be here."

She smiled. "I'll come back tomorrow after work."

It was two days later. Two days, and Castle still hadn't woken up. Two days of agonizing, brutal waiting.

When Kate had returned to the precinct the next day, she'd removed the chair from the side of her desk. Esposito had watched her, worried. She never removed that chair. Not even after Castle had left for the summer. The chair had stayed in its rightful place, a symbol of the friendship that had formed between detective and writer.

But now, the space next to her desk was empty. It was walking room. Only air hung there, freeing the room of Castle's prescence.

A sick, horrible feeling washed over him, and the hispanic detective rushed over to his friend's desk. She had her nose buried in paperwork, obviously trying to avert her gaze from that empty spot. He slammed his hands down in front of her, causing her to glance upwards, startled.

"You haven't talked about Castle in days, Beckett. What's going on?"

"He was shot. You know what happened."

"No, now. What's happening now? Why is the chair gone?"

Kate sighed and dropped her pen, running her hand through her hair and shaking her bangs out. "He still hasn't woken up."

Immediately, Esposito's eyes softened as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "He will, Kate. I promise."

A shaky breath escaped her lips. "I'm just gonna have to keep believing that, right?"

"I know it's hard, Becks, but yeah. Just keep believing that."

Martha had returned to the loft to pick up clothes for Alexis, who refused to leave the hospital. Any evidence of the hard working, I-have-to-get-to-school-everyday girl were out the window while she was going through the trauma of it all. Burnt out, she was yet again asleep on the couch.

Gina and Kate were the only two awake. They sat on two chairs next to each other, both staring at the same spot on the floor. The tension in the air between them was unmistakeable and almost unbearable.

Kate wasn't usually like this. She wasn't one to sit around and let problems and worries hang in the air. She was stronger than this. Drawing in a long breath, she turned to the blonde beside her.

"Look, Gina, we've never really met before. I've never known anything about you. I don't understand why you seem to be making it so hard for me to be here."

Gina narrowed her eyes at the detective. "Seriously, Kate? You don't get it? Let me make it easier for you then. I love Rick. I was married to him. Now that I have a second chance with him, I want to take it. I want to believe that he loves me, that he wants to give what we have a second shot too, but I can't. Not when he's so irrevocably in love with you!"

Kate was awestruck, again at a loss for verbalization. How was everyone but her seeing this? "Look, I—"

"No, Kate. No. Don't tell me you never saw it. You cannot honestly tell me that you never noticed how much he loves you. Following you around like a puppy dog, putting his life at risk? He wouldn't do that for anyone else and you know it."

"I—"

"Don't even say it. I know you've seen it. What I don't get is why you haven't taken advantage of it yet!"

"I haven't 'taken advantage' of it yet because I didn't know it was there!" She was furious now, her voice escaping at barely below the volume of a shout. "I never saw it! In the past week, I have had at least two different women telling me how in love with me he is, and I haven't seen it for myself! I never knew he loved me the way he apparently does!

"And even if I had seen it, you really think I would have taken advantage of it like that? You really think that, Gina? The day you showed up at the precinct to get him, I was about to tell him that I was in love with him. I never knew he loved me. It took a fellow detective telling me for me to realize my feelings, let alone his!

"So I'm sorry, Gina, if I've offended you in any way by not taking advantage of the infatuation that I never recognized." Her eyes were blazing circles of flames.

Gina looked like a deer in the headlights. Of all the things she'd expected Kate to say, that had not been on the list.

Kate just glared at the woman, infuriated. How dare she? She wasn't the kind of woman that went around pawning men for fun. She was dedicated and serious. Everything else in the world seemed to have stopped moving, and it was just Kate Beckett versus Gina.

Alexis Castle, woken from her already fitful and disturbing slumber, was still laying on the couch, confused. She'd heard the rising voices of the two women, her ex-stepmother and her father's best friend. Afraid of interrupting something important, she'd just opened her eyes and watched from a distance.

But she'd heard the whole thing. The entire argument had been based around Kate's feelings for her father, and her father's feelings for Kate. It had sent one thought into her mind; I knew it.

She'd always known it. Ever since that first day when she'd met Kate, she'd known. She'd seen it in her father's eyes, the happiness he'd gotten from her. As time had passed, and their strong-as-steel friendship had formed, she'd heard her father come home every night raving about the new trick he'd seen Beckett do, or the creepy criminal he'd seen Beckett take down. He had loved her almost from the start.

And if Kate, being the strong and protected woman she was, had realized it too, then it had to be meant to be. If she had seen her partner's emotions, if she'd felt them herself, then it had to be right. It made Alexis smile, despite everything.

Knowing the arguing had to end at some point—it was, after all, a silly catfight—she settled back into the couch and let her mind sink back into a world of thoughts.

It seemed the women were still having a stare-down. They were both angry, more so Kate than the other, but they were both infuriated all the same. Their breathing had slowed, and it was just eyes against eyes.

Then, out of the blue, the beeping of the heart monitor behind them sped up incredibly fast, shocking them both. Alexis flew up from her position on the couch, startled. Before Kate even had a chance to turn around, they all heard what they'd been hoping for.

Castle's voice.

Except, when it came, it didn't say what they'd expected it to say. His eyes were still closed, and he still seemed mostly out of it and unaware of the people around him, but in his almost dream-like state, something escaped his lips that no one had expected to hear.

"Kate?"

My God, this is barely even a chapter.

I'd just like to thank all of my reviewers. You are all the reason I keep writing. I'd especially like to give a huge thanks to mrhyperbole, who helped me to keep going through what I had previously thought was a haunting case of writer's block. Also, to annaluvsu6761, who left what has got to be one of the most entertaining reviews I have ever recieved. And lastly, to anonymous reviewer Allie, I WANT TO KNOW WHO YOU ARE OMG, DO YOU HAVE A TWITTER OR TUMBLR OR SOMETHING? Haha, sorry guys, but her review was, to say the least, the best thing ever. 3