11. Castle: Intimacy

by: jewel of athos

Summary: In which Castle and Beckett are trapped and dying, and reveal their feelings for each other…

Prompt: Intimacy

Author's Note: Merry Christmas! New chappie for you today. :)

This one was an interesting project. And for once, it's actually sort of romantic…well, as romantic as verge-of-death situations can be. If it seems slightly disjointed, I think it took me two days and quite a few stops to finish. But I think I did okay. I like this one.

*~_~o0o~_~*

Castle sat on the floor, his back against the rough wall. In his arms, Kate Beckett whimpered and bled – two things that were completely uncharacteristic of her. The explosion that had trapped them in the building had also pelted them with debris and she'd been the unlucky one who had been standing near a window when it happened; a lot of that window was now imbedded into her flesh. She was probably in agony, trying not to scream in pain; she needed medical attention. But Rick was hurt too, and they were trapped. There was nothing he could do.

"This was really stupid," Kate said after a while, the words choked out through her pain. "We were set up so clearly a blind man would have seen it coming, and we waltz right into it anyways. And he got us." Encouraged by the fact that she could talk, Castle tried to make light of their plight.

"The half-collapsing ceiling was an unexpected touch, though," he joked weakly. "Something I'll have to think about for Nikki Heat." Beckett rasped out a laugh.

"I still think that sounds like a stripper name, Nikki Heat," she informed him. Castle nodded, smiling fondly.

"Yeah, it really does," he sighed. They both fell silent for a while. Absently, Castle started rubbing the less-injured of Kate's shoulders with slow, gentle strokes. He felt her sigh, and her weight grew a little heavier on him. She had fallen asleep. He wasn't sure if it was dangerous for her to be sleeping right now in her condition, but she had been running herself ragged on this case, and he didn't think he could wake her.

For a while, Rick became agitated. He had already explored the whole room directly after half the building had collapsed, and there was nothing there. No way out. But all the same, being forced to sit there holding her while she slept and not even attempting to find an escape was frustrating.

Kate mumbled something quietly, making him attentive to her once again.

"What was that?"

"I said I like Nikki," she murmured sleepily, pressing a little harder against him. "You really got me down better than I thought you would."

"You told me when you read it that she was a poor copy of you!"

"Yeah, I lied about that," she admitted. "Didn't want you to know that I was a fan…"

"But I love fans."

"Exactly," Beckett whispered. Castle frowned.

"The fact that you're telling me all this makes me think I didn't have your character down all that well after all. Nikki Heat would never admit these things."

"But a dying Kate Beckett would."

Castle gulped. "Kate, you're not going to die!" He thought he was pretty expert on the subject of wounds and death; and while Beckett's injuries looked very painful, he hardly thought she was going to die from them. At least he really hoped that she wasn't…

Kate was shaking her head. "No, Castle. This building is set to be demolished this afternoon. Even if someone does notice the partial collapse, they won't dig in to find us; no one is supposed to be here. It'll probably just come down an hour or two sooner because everyone knows it's a danger, and they're destroying it anyways. We have about two hours at the most."

"And you didn't have the good sense to bring a cell phone with you?"

"You broke it, remember?" Castle reddened.

"Sorry about that. I've been meaning to buy you a new one…"

"Don't worry about it. What about your phone? If you had it, you'd have called half the country by now."

"Left it in the car," he admitted. "You always yell at me for having it and taking pictures at crime scenes; so this time I left it."

"Right," she sighed. "And this is why I want to tell you everything."

"That seems sort of intimate, to share everything with the guy that drives you nuts, doesn't it?" Kate turned her head to look up at him.

"What would Nikki Heat do?" she asked. Castle's eyebrows shot up.

"Oh…" slowly, he started to lean down towards her lips, closing his eyes…

"Beckett?" His head shot up as a muffled voice carried from the other side of the rubble. "Castle?"

"Esposito," Kate identified weakly.

"Brilliant." Easing gently out from under her, Castle went to stand by the collapsed wall, shouting, "Esposito! Hey! We're here, we're sealed in!" He heard the very faint sound of footsteps, and then a much cleared knocking noise.

"Castle, is that you?" Ryan's voice leaked through. Rick grinned.

"Yeah, it's me. What took you so long?"

"Would you believe we got hung up in traffic?"

Castle laughed in disbelief. "Haven't you cops ever heard of speeding?"

"Yeah, it's been mentioned once or twice," Esposito said. "Is Beckett in there with you?"

"Yep! She's hurt though; she got all torn up when a window shattered. She's gonna need medical attention."

"We've got EMT's on their way here as we speak," Ryan assured him. "When you guys never checked in we came right over – we used the GPS in your phone to find the car, Castle. Once we saw the state of the building we called for medical assistance and some drills. We'll have you guys out of there in no time!"

"Awesome, great! You guys are awesome; you are definitely getting a shout-out in my next book!"

"Alright"! He heard the sound of his friends high-fiving. Rick grinned and shook his head, then turned to give Beckett a thumbs-up. Kate's lips quirked up, and she raised a shaking hand to return the gesture.

*~_~o0o~_~*

Two hours and a lot of careful drilling later, Beckett and Castle were safely extracted from the building and on an ambulance headed for the hospital to be checked out. Ryan and Esposito, once they had been sure their friends were safe, had gone off in pursuit of the guy who had done this to them.

Rick smiled at Beckett from his seat at the side of the ambulance. Bring the more severely injured of the two she was on the stretcher, but she was still awake.

"So that was pretty exciting, huh?" Rick asked, batting an EMT's hands away. "And you were scared that we were gonna die." Kate snorted, submitting her arm to another EMT for bandaging.

"Yeah, right. You were the one freaking out when you thought I was gonna die."

"Me? Then what was all that fatalistic "dying Kate Beckett baring her soul" stuff?" Beckett raised an eyebrow, her half-lidded eyes glinting.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Lies!" Castle pointed an accusing finger at her. "You said that Nikki Heat was just like you, and that you were a huge fan! We were about to kiss when Esposito and Ryan showed up!"

"I don't remember any of this; you must have been hallucinating," she insisted, sounding sleepy but smug. "All I said was that you need to relax."

"Alright, you are a liar! We were having a lovely, romantic, intimate moment amidst a time of great peril, and you were coming clean!"

"You're crazy," Beckett mumbled with a smile as her eyes closed. "Now relax and let them check you out." Castle reluctantly let the EMT's do their work, shaking his head tensely.

"Oh, this is not over," he warned Kate. Her eyes flickered opened for a second, and she winked at him.

"Bring it on."

"Bring it on? Bring it – It is so on!"

fin.

A/N: This is definitely one of my favorites. I love peril and brink-of-death stuff. (: