Kate gets shot again, only this time she's wearing a vest. Ideally pre-couple, but either's good :-)

The bullet arcs towards her, each twist and rotation visible to her, even as other images cloud her mind.

Kate is shot in the vest, a facsimile of her previous wound.

She is so distraught, she rips the vest off the moment the gunman is felled, and tosses it to the floor. She falls to her knees, gasping for breath, unable to catch it until a familiar pair of arms find their way around her, bring her face up to look into her eyes. He tells her to take a deep breath, that everything is going to be okay. A breath stutters past her lips and holds when she meets his eyes.

"You with me, Kate?" He asked, mirroring the words he had whispered to her as she lay bleeding in the grass beneath him, though she wasn't sure if the phrasing was intentional or not.

"Yeah, I won't leave you," she replied, quickly adding, "that easily!" She said it to break the tension, letting a harsh laugh escape her, which was followed by a cringe of pain.

"What was that?" was his immediate response, his brain still caught on her words, so eerily similar to some that he had uttered months ago on that fateful day.

"I said I'm with you. Look, let's get out of here and down to the paramedics so they can check me out and say, 'yup, she's fine, why don't you take her home though, just to be safe.' And then you can take me home like you dream about every day," she chuckled again, making a face as the movement jarred her bruised chest.

"Another joke, hmmm?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow. "Who's deflecting now, detective?" His tone was a bit icy, but he just shook his head, pulled her up, and turned to leave.

"Wait! What?" She exclaimed, grabbing his sleeve before he could move further away from her.

"You always accuse me of using humor to deflect, and you're doing it now, maybe I'm rubbing off on you." He shrugged again, easing his wrist out of her grip.

"Maybe you are, maybe I want you to."

"Sure, Beckett, but let's get you checked out first," he appeased as he bent down to grab her vest from the floor and mumbled, "for a head injury."

"Castle, I didn't hit my head, I just- my life- it's almost as if I saw my whole life in a slow-motion replay as the bullet was coming at me," she attempted to explain, even as he scoffed.

"Sure Beckett, sure, you suddenly believe in your life flashing before your eyes." He turned away from her again even as he rolled his eyes.

"It happened, Rick, and I-" she drew a deep breath and spun him around before continuing, "what I saw were all of the moments I spent with you. Each and every moment, the funny, the sad, the happy, the mad, all of them." She looked up, finally meeting his surprised eyes.

"You definitely must have hit your head, let's get you to a medic," he said, ushering her out the door and into the elevator.

"Seriously, I-" she heaved another breath with a bit of effort, and placed a hand over his heart, "I know what you said last time, and it's practically all I can think about."

He just stared at her, not believing his ears, or his eyes, or his sense of touch for that matter. He pinched himself in the thigh and gritted his teeth against the pain, it wasn't a dream, but maybe it was a trick.

"Look, Beckett, I'm not exactly sure where you're trying to go with this, or if you're even aware of what you're saying or doing. Maybe you're in shock or something. I don't know, but I do know that you couldn't possibly mean what you're saying, because that's not something the Kate I know would say, none of this is."

"Maybe I am in shock, maybe that's what it took for me to get it through my thick skull that if I don't act now, I may lose you forever. Maybe that's what I was seeing as that bullet came at me, all of the missed opportunities, or all of the opportunities I would miss out on if I had died from that bullet. I don't know what it was or what it meant, but what I took from it is that I should tell you how I feel, and tell you now, before it's too late."

He paused for a long moment before he just went the most direct route. "Okay, how do you feel?"

She didn't even think about her answer. "I feel like you make my life better at work, and if I gave you the chance, you would make it better at home, and I could finally be happy again."

"Anything else?" He asked, hoping she would just say what he wanted to hear.

"And… I – I love you?" It came out as a question, but he took it for what it was, the three words he wanted to hear from her.

"Good, me too," he smirked at her, walking off the elevator as the doors opened.

She just stared after him for a few moments.

"Wait! Castle! Where are you going?!" She called after him, stepping off the car just as the doors began to close. "I thought we were having a moment!"

"Well, I'm going to find a medic to check you out and give you the all clear," he called over his shoulder. Then after thinking over his words, "A female medic… we don't need you meeting another hot young medical professional and running off with him after a confession like that... as I plan to have much more than a moment with you." He threw a wink over his shoulder at her and ran smack into the paramedic he was 'looking' for.

"Castle…" she sighed, rolling her eyes.

AN: There's another prompt down, maybe I'll get some "real" writing in soon...

Thanks for reading,

~Morgen