As promised, the highly anticipated part 2 of chapter 8!

Thanks to all of you who commented on my grammar slide in the last chapter...I guess I was asking for it, writing at 1 in the morning after a bad night at work and trying to pay attention at the CastleTV chat!

I must apologize for my lateness in posting this. Working and seemingly CONSTANT writers block and internet issues (I recently switched ISPs) have kept this story at a lull. But, if you'll bear with me, it will be finished (tonight!)


Chapter 8, Part 2

Wake up, Kate.

Kate's eyes flashed open slowly, trying to adjust to the medium light of the room she had been sleeping in. She could tell that she'd been unconscious for quite some time when she tried to move her head, feeling her muscles stretch and groan at the motion. Reaching down, she also felt the mass of bandages on her left thigh and was relieved when she felt her toes move.

Moving her head slowly to look around the room, she also saw the familiar form of Rick Castle, slumped over in a chair; the upper half of his body resting on her bed. She tried speaking, but all that came out was a series of coughs.

He sat bolt upright in the chair, eyes bleary, but behind it all, a gladness at seeing her moving. "Hey." He said. "Don't try to talk just yet." He gave her an open bottle of water and watched her take a long drink from it. "Ryan and Esposito are at the station, working on a case. Montgomery is there with them, and your father and Alexis are downstairs in the chapel." He said in response to the thought that was surely on her mind.

She nodded, the coolness of the water washing down her throat and making it feel normal again. "Thanks." She said quietly. "What's going on?"

"Well, for one thing you got shot."

She tried to laugh, but it came out as a series of coughs again. "Don't make me laugh, Castle."

He smiled. "Should I go run and get your dad and Alexis?" He asked.

She shook her head. "I don't want them to see me quite yet. Let me wake up a little more." She looked around the room, taking in the small table that was stacked with disposable coffee cups from Java Loft. "There's like, fourteen cups on that table, Castle. How long has it been?" She asked.

He let out a breath, unsure if he should tell her, but he knew she'd figure it out. "You've been unconscious for four days. You lost a lot of blood from the shot and you had a hell of a bump on your head, and they decided the longer you were out, the better."

"The case?"

"Ryan and Esposito let Morrison and Finn, the name of the guy from the loft, know that the stakes go up when you almost kill cops. Morrison worked with a sketch artist and Finn coughed up the names. They got them yesterday. Full confessions from everyone. I'm under orders that's all you get to know until you get the okay to go back to work."

"And the shot?" She asked.

Part of him was surprised that the inevitable question about motive didn't come out of her mouth. "You're going to need physical therapy for your leg, but you should make a full recovery." He paused, wondering how to breach the next subject. "Once they let you out of here, they want you staying with somebody."

"Lanie probably won't mind…" She said.

"You wouldn't even think about Alexis, Mother and I?" He asked, a little hurt.

"Heat Exchange is coming out, so you'll have the book tour and all the publicity, and I don't want to burden your mother and Alexis. Alexis doesn't get to spend a lot of time at home to begin with, and if she had to take care of me, she wouldn't leave at all."

"I put the book tour on hold." He said. "Black Pawn…" He stopped. That conversation was best saved for a better time, when they were out of the hospital and could be alone. "They put the party on hold too. I said I wasn't going to party with my Nikki Heat in the hospital." He said with a smile. "Alexis would love to have you around, and I know that Mother would too."

She nodded, smiling. "Thanks. You know how I love a party." She said dryly.

"Well, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it if you weren't there." He said in return. "Norah Ralle also stopped by with Maya yesterday. Ryan and Esposito told her what happened to you and they brought some food down for everybody. Seeing Maya definitely cheered your father up." His eyes brightened, remembering something else. "And, she drew you a picture when they were sitting here." He picked up the piece of paper from the table. "We've got a little Picasso in the making, I'd say."

She felt tears start to form in her eyes as she looked at the picture. "How are they holding up?" She asked.

"They're hanging in there." He told her. "Norah's been taking Maya to a child therapist and she said it's been helping; she sleeps through the night now. She's relieved these guys are behind bars and she can tell Maya when she gets older and asks questions that they're not going to hurt anyone else."

Her hand floated up to her neck, and looked back to Rick. "Alexis?"

"She hasn't let it out of her sight since I gave it to her; even got the chain fixed." He explained.

A silence fell over them, and she leaned back against her pillows. "I think I'm ready to see everyone now." She said.

"Okay." He stood up to leave, only to be stopped when he felt her hand grasp his. He looked at their joined hands and then back at her with a puzzled look on his face.

"Thank you." She said softly. "I don't remember much what happened in the loft, but I know you had my back. You kept me alive, and from what I can tell, haven't left since. Thank you." Kate let the hand that had gripped on to his drop back down to the bed.

Rick exited the room with a nod, planning on going downstairs to get Alexis and Jim, but they were already walking back towards the room. "She's awake." He said with a grin.

Alexis's eyes lit up as she hugged her father. "Go ahead, Mr. Beckett." She gestured to the door.

"She's eager to see you." Castle added. "I'll make some phone calls, let everybody know the good news."

*****

After waking from her coma, it had taken another two days for Kate to convince the doctor that she could do some desk work from her hospital room, and her first order to Ryan and Esposito had been to bring the file from Kat Harper's murder.

"So she had been convinced from the beginning that Evan had died in a friendly fire incident?" Kate asked Esposito.

"The Army denied it at every turn. Friendly fire doesn't do a whole lot for the image." He answered. "Hidden in Maya's bed we found file after file with her own research and notes from people she'd been talking to, and she built a pretty solid case about how Evan actually died. She was about to go to Representative Hahn with what she knew." He told her.

"What about the connection between Kat and the victims from the previous murders?" Rick asked.

"My mother consulted on some friendly-fire cases." Kate said. "Earlier in her career, but, it's there. I think she may have worked on one or two after she started teaching."

"From the notes you made when you were investigating, we pulled the cases she had been working on when she died. She'd been working on a couple of case studies for a class and one of them was what looked like a case of friendly fire." Ryan said.

"Morrison, besides what he told us, was clueless about the whole thing. He's been booked on conspiracy charges and his arraignment is next week. Talking to Finn, the guy that shot you, was actually helpful. He was the new guy of the group." Esposito said. "He was recruited after getting home from Afghanistan by the two other guys he rolled on, Jason and Will. All of them former Special Forces. Said it was their job to protect the reputation of the Army."

"And those who were going to uncover friendly fire cases were the top of that list in their minds." Ryan said. "Although, they never knew who the orders came down from. Said every time it was always a different messenger, different envelopes, different locations, with orders to burn the envelopes and pictures after getting the assignment. The wall that we found in the basement of the first warehouse, fingerprints were found only from Finn, Jason and Will. No one else."

"Which means we have nothing to find out who was giving them the orders. The pictures from the warehouse must have been surveillance photos." Kate said.

"DA's got the case, though, and she says it's a strong one. The knife we found on Will matched up with the wounds from all the murders. We can't tie Finn himself to the earlier murders, but we can tie him to Kat's murder." Esposito told her. "We can get Jason and Will on all the murders."

She closed the file and put it back on the table. "Good work, you two." She told Ryan and Esposito. "Montgomery said that you guys made a fearsome team."

"You don't mess with one of us and get away with it." Esposito said, bumping fists with Ryan. "We're just glad we could do this for you." He added.

Kate yawned, and her attending decided to step into the room at that point. "I'm going to say that the work session is over." He announced, stepping over to the bed. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Ready to go home." She announced, trying to look more awake than she felt.

The doctor gave her a stern look as he checked various monitors in the room, as well as her IV liquids. "Detective…"

"The leg's still a little sore. But the headache has gone away." She confessed.

He nodded. "I'm going to have a nurse come in and change your bandages. If you gentlemen would care to step out for a moment, we'll have her going again shortly."

*****

It was a week after that night that Kate was finally allowed to leave the hospital and step out into the warm summer air of New York. She'd missed it; the lights, the sounds, the noises, even the smells.

"Do you feel like killing a couple of hours outside?"

Leaning on her hospital-issue cane, she looked over to Rick, who had just finished a call on his iPhone. "Something wrong with your apartment?" She asked with a smile.

"Well, I just know it's been a long time since you've seen actual sunlight; figured you wouldn't want to go back to artificial so fast. The doctor said light exertion was okay." He said. "Oh good, there's Alexis." He noticed his daughter stepping out of a cab at the back of the hospital and waved her over. "So, Detective, what do you say? An afternoon with no murders and the most sunlight you can find in New York City?" He asked, wrapping an arm around Alexis. "And, of course, us?"

Kate had to admit that she was craving as much sunlight as she could get after a week and a half in the hospital. Looking at the pair, both wearing 'I'm so innocent' expressions, she relented. "Sure, you two. Show me an afternoon with no murder and lots of sunlight." She said with a smile.

Alexis jumped and squealed, while Rick motioned for someone to start a car. "We had this all planned." Alexis explained as the car with tinted windows pulled up in front of them.

Kate raised an eyebrow at the older Castle. "What if I said no?" She asked as they got in the SUV.

"I was going to have Alexis ask. She can be persuasive."

Just to prove the point, Alexis flashed Kate a large grin, and Kate knew she would have given in at that sight. "Okay, so where are we going?" She asked.

Alexis shared a grin with her father, handing Kate a bag. "This should help you figure that out."

Slowly, she removed the tissue paper from the nondescript bag. "A Yankees game? We're going to a Yankees game?" She asked, pulling out the blue and white baseball cap.

Rick smiled. "Pulled a favor; a friend of mine isn't using his box today. We've got everything taken care of. Back entrance to the stadium, the box, food, everything. You're not going to have to deal with a bunch of random people; just Alexis and I."

*****

Notes:

So, I realized when I got to this chapter that resolving the murder suddenly meant less to me, and it was all about the building up of the relationship and the feelings and emotions. Have any of you Castle writers ever run into the same thing? I hope I'm not alone. :P

So, this is where I think I'm going to end this part of the story. Finishing up the epilogue as we speak! Heat Exchange needs a launch party, after all! And of course, I did promise a fluff-filled last chapter.