Chapter 6
Kate is walking up the street. She has so much to think about. She knows that moving forward in her career is the best path for her. Keeping away anyone who tries to get close to her heart would be in her best interest. She has built up walls around her heart to keep it safe. Outwardly, she appears as a cold shell of a woman. She hides her emotions away from just about everyone who would hurt her. Her original thinking is that if she dove into her job everything would just fall into place. However, there is a very small part of her mind telling her that she is mistaken.
A light breeze blows past her as she walks. Within that breeze is a pair of voices that seems to carry to her ears. She stops for just a brief second then looks across the street. She notices a couple that are sitting on a bus stop bench. She observes them for a second or two. She faintly hears their confessions of love. Looking away sadly she starts to move again. This is only about 5 blocks away from her apartment.
She wished she had that. The small voice in her head said. Wait, what? There it is again that so very small voice speaking to her in her head. She knows that there is no way that she ever could find a man like that one so full of romance. No, what she needs to do is to take a long hot soak in the tub with a great glass of red wine. She continues walking until she reaches the street corner. Further up about a half a block she eyes a dark hooded figure walking ahead of her. She finds it odd because it is way too warm for him being dressed like this. Typical New Yorkers! The walk sign flashes green then she crosses the intersection.
The figure she sees has slowed his pace a bit. She is about 25 feet behind him. He looks confused as if he is second guessing something. She does not have a good line of sight between the figure and who or what is directly in front of him. Curious she changes her step to the left, just a step then she sees why the figure has slowed down. In front of the figure, there is a rather large man walking hand in hand with a small girl that looked to be about 7 or 8.
She could not make out any distinguishing features. The only the fact that the man was wearing a dark-colored sports coat and the little girl was wearing a light colored dress. As she continued to walk she notices the figure ahead of her start to pick up speed. He breaks into a run. Before she could act the figure has run past the man and the little girl then turned towards them. He points a gun at them both then ushering them into a very narrow alleyway to her right.
It feels to Kate that time has stood still. With what she has just witnessed, she knows she must help them. Though, her feet are frozen to spot for some unknown reason. Coming to her senses, she starts to quickly move up the street toward the alleyway. She is just about to turn the corner when she hears the gunshot. She takes cover against the wall. She quickly looks around the corner with her weapon drawn. She spies a figure running at full speed down the alley. Holstering her gun she pulls her phone then dials 911. As she was waiting for the call to connect she runs into the alley. She makes it mid-way into the alley and the man is just leaning against the wall not moving. The little girl is beside him. She is just staring at him with fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.
The little girl looked up to Kate.
"Please help my daddy!" she pleads.
Kate goes through all her training and assesses the situation. Moving past the little girl she came face to face with the injured man. The look on his face is of shock. He is grasping at his side. As he looked at the person helping him, his features softened. Now his look has turned to that of relief after seeing her in front of him. Their eyes meet then he knows that his little girl would be safe now. Without warning, he collapsed in front of Kate. The call she made to 911 has finally connected.
"This is detective Kate Beckett. I am out of the 12th precinct and I have a medical emergency." Kate repeats to the dispatcher.
The 911 operator asks her for the location and she gives them an exact location. Kate relays the location then hangs up the phone. As she does she faces the little girl who is very tearful.
"Sweetie, what's your name?" Kate coaxes.
Kate waits for a reply.
"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." She replies.
"Sweetie it's okay. Do you want to know why?" Kate asks trying to engage the child.
The girl nods her head.
"I am a policewoman." Kate pulls her badge from the waistband of her pants and quickly shows Alexis. "So it's okay to talk to me." Kate explains.
"I'm Alexis." She says between tears. "Is my daddy going to be okay?"
"Hi Alexis, my name is Kate. Now can you do me a big favor?" Kate asks.
Alexis nods still crying.
"I need you to move right over there. So I can see you while I work on your daddy. Will you do that for me?" Kate asks.
Alexis nods once again. Kate pulls the semi-conscious man away from the wall and places him onto his back. She assesses his condition. His light blue dress shirt is already soaked in blood. He has an entry wound. There is no exit wound. She calls Alexis over to her.
"Alexis I need you to go over to that trash bin and get me some of those rags right on top of the can. Would you do that for me?" Kate asks holding pressure with her hand over the wound.
Alexis nods then returns with the rags. Kate inspects them. They are somewhat clean even for being in the trash. Kate doesn't need to worry about how germ-filled they might be. She needs to halt the loss of blood oozing from between her fingers over his wound. Pressing the rags over the wound after she releases her fingers allows the blood to slow oozing. In the distance, she hears the faint sounds of sirens approaching. She hopes it's the ambulance arriving first. Though, it might be the sector car too.
Kate wipes the back of her hand across her face. She gazes into his face. His face shows years of worry and concern apparently for his daughter and rightfully so. From what little she has seen, he has done a fantastic job raising her. Kate studies his face more intently. She knows that she has seen him before somewhere. He looks familiar. But she can't place him.
"Alexis, what's your daddy's name?" Kate asks.
"Richard. Richard Castle." Alexis says proudly as she begins to cry again.
Kate looks again at the unconscious man lying before her. She recognizes his name. Now she remembers his gift to her in her life. It was a very dark time in her life. His written word has made her see that there still is a light. You just need to put the past behind you to find it.
Kate thinks he is very handsome. He is a little older than her but he wears his age well. She wonders what his life has been since the book signing she attended. He probably would not remember her. She is just one face in an endless sea of faces. There were a lot of fans in line that day. Her mother has been murdered 3 years prior. It still haunts her to this day.
The ambulance has just arrived. Kate moves to Alexis to hold her lovingly. She has not realized that she has made this action towards Alexis. It felt so right protecting her at that moment. The medical team has taken over and has stabilized Rick. They load him on the stretcher then into the ambulance.
"Which hospital are you taking him to?" Kate asks still holding Alexis.
"We are going to Bellevue. It's the closest and they are first for trauma of this type." The Lead EMT says.
"May we ride along?" Kate asked as she continues to hold onto Alexis.
"No I'm so sorry, Detective, no can do. There is not enough room." The EMT replies.
"Okay, we will meet you there!" Kate says as they watch the EMT jump into the back of the ambulance then closes the door.
The ambulance leaps into traffic with siren and air horn blaring. They stand there watching as Kate raises her arm to hail them a cab.
