Kidnapped Ch.10
'The pulse is there. It's weak, but it's there. We need to get her to a hospital now,' the EMT declared and everyone let out a sigh of relief.
'Sir, you have to let go,' another EMT told Castle, pushing him away from Kate, but Castle clung on tightly, refusing to let her be taken away from him again.
'That's my wife, and my baby,' Castle yelled at him desperately, hoping that the EEMT would understand and allow him to stay with his family.
'She's pregnant, sir?' The EMT asked. 'How far along is she?'
'I – I don't know. She was going to tell me the night she was kidnapped, but she – she never got the chance to,' Castle murmured dejectedly.
'Thank you, sir. You've done all you can, please let go,' the EMT told him, and the Castle tightened his hold on Kate once again.
'She's my wife, do you understand, she's my wife. And that's my baby there, too,' Castle shouted, and the EMT looked at him sharply.
'Then let us do our job and save your wife and your baby,' the EMT said, and Castle let go of her hand reluctantly.
'Sir, if you want to, you can ride with her,' the EMT told him, feeling sorry for the poor man. It was obvious that he was not doing well being separated from her and that the woman on the stretcher seemed to be reacting well to his presence. Even in her unconscious state, the EMT could feel her trying to reach the source of that voice.
Castle looked at the detectives and they gestured to him impatiently. 'Go ride with Beckett. We'll be right behind you,' Esposito told him, turning his attention away from his phone momentarily and Ryan nodded.
Jumping onto the ambulance, the door shut behind him firmly. The sirens began wailing, and the ambulance began to move astonishingly quickly. The EMT took out a small, strange device and began to move it around Kate's abdomen.
'What are you doing?' Castle asked, his eyes never leaving Kate's pale face.
'I'm trying to find the fetal heartbeat. From the looks of it, I'll say that she's ten weeks pregnant, so there's a chance that we can hear it,' the EMT answered, moving the wand around.
Castle immediately fell silent and his hands unconsciously grasped Kate's hand tighter. His eyes fell on the hand of the other EMT who had his hand pressed against Kate's wound on her neck, minimizing the lost of blood from the wound. After all these physical assault to the mother's body, was the baby even still alive?
A strong whooshing noise filled the ambulance, and everyone relaxed a little. Castle sat there, mesmerized by how a simple sound could fill him with such hope and joy. He looked down, and a pang of disappointment filled his heart that Kate could not enjoy hearing the baby's heartbeat with him for the first time. But for now, it was enough to know that both Kate and the baby were alive.
Before he knew it, they had reached the hospital. The EMTs quickly rushed the gurney into the emergency room, and Castle rushed in after them.
'Sir, you need to stop here. No one apart from the operating team is allowed behind those doors,' a nurse told him as she blocked his way while Kate was pushed through the heavy, swinging doors.
He was about to rush in regardless of what the nurse told him, but just then, Alexis rushed into the room, her eyes frantic as she searched for a person who could give her the comfort and reassurances that she so desperately craved.
'Dad,' Alexis gasped, launching herself into his embrace. 'Did you find Kate? Is she and the baby alright? Where are they?'
'Pumpkin, pumpkin, slow down,' Castle told her, interrupting her torrent of questions. 'Yes, we've found Kate. The doctors are working on her now.'
'But Kate will be alright, won't she?' Alexis asked.
Castle looked into Alexis's eyes, and at that moment, her expression was scared and vulnerable, but determined nonetheless. She wanted to hear that her stepmother was going to be okay, but she would not be lied to.
'I hope so, pumpkin, I really hope so,' Castle murmured into her hair, fighting the tears that were threatening to fall at the mere thought of her not being alright.
'Thank god the cut missed her carotid artery,' a surgeon muttered to himself as the nurses around him bustled about in a hurry. 'Someone give her two more units of blood.'
He took a look at her and memories flooded through him. He had seen her at the hospital multiple times. It could be something as simple as a cut on her body, or something as severe as a bullet in her chest. He had seen enough to see that she was a tough girl, and he was not going to be the one that allowed her to leave the world just like that.
He carefully stitched the wound up, but he knew that this was going to leave another scar on her. A pang of sadness shot through his chest as he knew how the scar was gong to affect her. His sister had been through something similar and he knew that the scar would be a constant reminder of what happened to her. Every morning, when she looked into the mirror, it would be like reliving the whole experience again.
'Thank you, everyone,' the doctor said as he placed the needle into the tray that the nurse held out for him. Everyone in the room smiled as he lifted his headlamp off his head, signaling the end of another operation, another life saved. The nurses began to redress the wound on her neck and arrange for her to stay under observation in a hospital room.
Walking out into the room, the doctor looked around the people in the waiting room. 'Family of Katherine Beckett – Castle?' He called.
Castle, Alexis, Esposito and Ryan jumped up immediately. After comforting his daughter, Castle had talked to his father-in-law and mother and convinced them to wait in the loft for more information, as they were obviously exhausted after the cruise. After plenty of promises that he would call them as soon as they knew something, the two reluctantly agreed to the arrangement.
'I'm her husband,' Castle told the doctor, who nodded. 'How is she? Is the baby fine?'
'The cut in her neck was pretty deep, and she lost quite a bit of blood, but fortunately, the cut just missed the carotid artery, so she didn't bleed out. We've stitched up the cut and repaired the ligament in the neck during surgery, and it was a success,' the doctor told him, watching as relief wash over their faces.
'So she'll wake up soon?' Castle asked excitedly.
The doctor bit his lip. No matter how many times he had done this, he still hated to be the one who had to give bad news to the patients' family. Shaking his head slightly, he gave them all a sympathetic look.
'Unfortunately, due to the loss of blood, she had slipped into a coma. We have no idea when she will wake up,' the doctor told them, dropping the bombshell reluctantly.
'What – what do you mean? Can you give us a time frame?' Alexis asked, her voice quivering slightly.
'It depends on the mental strength of the patient. She could wake up tomorrow, a week later, a year later, or…' the doctor trailed off. Everyone could fill in the blank: or never. Castle looked at him angrily, his hands balled into fists.
'She will wake up, do you hear me? She will wake up,' Castle shouted, looking around. 'She will. She's Kate Beckett – Castle; she will.'
A/N: Ta da, another chapter. I debated whether to make the end of this chapter to be a slight cliffhanger, or a full-blown one, but seeing that you guys have already suffered through two full-blown ones, I decided to make this a minor one.
Thanks for all your reviews telling me that yes, Gates has met their parents, but for the sake of the story, let's just pretend she hadn't, shall we?
Those of you who reviewed will already know this, but the reason behind me not knowing was that my mother has decided that I watched too much TV, so she confiscated my Castle DVDs, but thankfully, with the last chapter as leverage (and that I did well in my exams), she finally gave them back to me, so all is well.
As usual, PLEASE REVIEW. Criticisms will be much appreciated, but no flamers please.
This chapter is dedicated to Bianca tabbycat for being an awesome beta.
Zoe tabbycat.