Kate saw the nurse's face too, and stood up immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"Uh … your father kind of … disappeared"

"Disappeared? People don't just disappear! And people who just had heart surgery even less!" Rick said, Kate's hand literally crashing his.

"I know, I called security as soon as I noticed and ran here to tell you. I'm so sorry Mrs Castle, I really don't know how it's even possible…" the embarrassed nurse tried to explain.

"You don't know how it happened ! Let me tell you something: it was Josh, that's how it happened, there is no other solution possible. I nearly metaphorically lost my father tonight and now you're telling me that you literally lost him ? I thought hospitals were supposed to be safe places! You just …"

"Kate stop ! Now!" Rick yelled at her, seeing that the nurse was crying"

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry" Kate said to the nurse, wrapping herself around Rick "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry…"

"I understand you're stressed at the moment Ma'am, but I assure you we'll do our best to find what happened."

"We should go home Kate. We need to have our ideas clear."

"No! We need to call Montgomery and let him know what happened. We need to …"

"Kate " he said, taking her face into his hands "listen to me. Everything is going to be fine. We are going to go home with the girls, I'll call Roy to let him know but we're not doing anything that could endanger your father. There are people whose job is to find missing persons, they'll find him. But for them to do that, we need to rest a bit so we are able to answer their questions the best we can, ok? I promise you he'll be fine."

"You can't promise something like that, you don't know, I don't know, nobody know…"

"Come on, let's go home" he said, taking her by the hand and leading her to the car.

On the way home, Kate was completely out of herself, completely empty, looking the town pass by through the window. Rick called Lanie to let them know what happened and ask her to bring Alexis and Lizzi back home. Next, he called Montgomery and explained everything to him. He promised to call the FBI first thing. When Kate and Rick arrived home, Lanie and Esposito were already here. As soon as Kate enter the apartment she literally ran to Lizzi and Alexis who were reading a book on the couch. She actually startled all of them with her rapidity.

"Oh my babies, I'm so happy you're OK!" she said, kissing them one after the other … and not stopping.

"What's happening to her?" Esposito asked

"Come with me in the kitchen, I'll explain" Rick said to them

About half an hour later, Lanie and Esposito were gone, Kate was putting Lizzi to bed and Rick was explaining the situation to Alexis. She was supposed to go back to college the following day but absolutely refused to leave them. Once he had calmed her down, he went to his bedroom. He could hear that Kate was in the shower, crying. He couldn't take it anymore. It was too much, even for him. He couldn't bear hearing her cry, seeing her in so much pain and knowing there was nothing he could do to help her. He threw himself on the bed, buried his head in the pillows and let his tears flow. When he calmed down, he noticed that Kate was still in the shower. Deciding to go and see how she was doing, he entered the bathroom. Not surprised to find her sitting on the floor of the shower, he went in fully clothed, turned the water off, picked her up and took her in the bedroom to dry her. By then she had stopped crying and seemed closer to her normal self. He was still drying her when he felled her unbuttoning his shirt.

"Kate, what are you doing? It's 3 am, you're exhausted, emotionally drained, I …"

He was cut off by her lips on his chest. He couldn't suppressed the shiver that traversed his body.

"Rick, I need to let go, and I can't cry anymore because I don't have any tears left. I need something good right now, and you're always really, really good to me. Please Rick, I really need you now" she said, kissing his neck. Feeling the need to lose himself into something else than pity or sadness, he let himself go and used the small pool of energy he had left to make sure his wife felt alive and loved.

The following day, Kate felt more like herself but she didn't want to get up. She was afraid that she was going to lose it again. She just wanted to wait … she didn't know for what though. Just as she was going to fell asleep again, Lizzi started to cry. She got up and took her to the kitchen. When she had finished to feed her, she prepared a pot of coffee and, sure enough, as soon as it started to smell of coffee, Rick appeared in the kitchen.

"How are you feeling?" he asked Kate, putting his arms around her waist and burying his nose in her neck

"Better, thanks" she answered caressing his back

As he was going to ask her something else, the door bell rang.

"I'll get it" Rick said, kissing her one last time before moving.

When Kate heard Captain Montgomery talk, she took Lizzi from her chair and went to meet them.

"Sir, do you have any news?"

"Not yet, I'm sorry. We got our hands on the video tapes from the surveillance cameras, Ryan and Esposito are on it right now. As I told you yesterday, I called the FBI. I hope you don't mind, I gave them your address. They should be here any minute now… Oh and by the way, nice pajamas Detective Beckett!"

As Rick was taking him in for coffee, Kate looked down on her outfit. Her pajamas had small castles everywhere on the pants and a really big one with a banner hanging from the tower reading "I love you Princess" on the shirt. A present from Rick … of course.

"Oh my God, he'll never let that one go…" she said, going to close the door. Then she heard the elevator doors open on their floor. A group of FBI agents got out. Instinctively, she pulled Lizzi closer to her.

"Kate?" the FBI agent asked "I thought it was Castle's address… of course. I should have known…"