A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't thank you enough for all the support you have given me through this story. I can't believe I've been able to write over 10 chapters for a story. I do intend on finishing this story. How long will it be? I don't know. As long as people are enjoying it, I'll keep writing it until I feel like it's time to end it. When I first started writing FanFiction, I thought I would only be able to write on-shots. Now, here I am writing my second multi-chapter story. And it's all because of you, so I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Chapter 12

Kate gets off the elevator onto homicide floor. She walks over to where Ryan and Esposito are standing. Without stopping her walk, "Guys, conference room. Now." She points in the direction of the conference room and the boys follow.

Being the last one to enter the conference room, Ryan closes the door behind him. "What's up, Beckett?"

Kate lets out a long sigh. "Look, guys… have a seat." The boys take a seat and Kate continues. "I know you're working on the case to find out who the shooter was. But, what I'm about to tell you, I think is in a connection to the shooting. I don't know how, but I feel like it's connected."

Esposito gives Kate a quizzical look. "Ok. What is it?"

"Well, this morning, Alexis and I went to go see Castle. Oh, which, by the way, he's awake." Kate shakes her head to get her thoughts back on track. "Anyway, when Alexis and I got there, there was a nurse checking on Castle. While she and I were visiting him, and keeping him company, while he was sleeping, another nurse came in to say that she needed to run tests… However, I don't think that nurse who was running tests, was actually a nurse."

"Hold up. You're saying that someone was posing as a nurse to get to Castle?"

"I don't know Espo. I think whoever that person was, was trying to do something to my husband to try and get to me, since I was, and still am, the intended target."

Ryan wants to try and get the story straight before he heads out on a mission. "Ok, so what you're saying, is that someone dressed up like a nurse to sneak into Castle's room to do, what, exactly? So, you think that whoever was behind the shooting wants to take Castle out or take him down to get to you?"

"Yes, exactly. Whoever it is that's behind all of this wants to get rid of me. But, I don't think they anticipated Castle getting in the way. So, in order for them get to me, they need to get Castle out of the way first, so I'm an easier target."

"Alright, I'll get started on working some of my magic. I'm just going to need a description of the person you saw who was posing as a nurse."

"Of course. I'll meet you at your desk in a second." Ryan gets up from the chair he was sitting in and heads out to his desk. Kate watches Ryan leave and then turns to Esposito. "Espo, I need you to continue looking at the shooting. If we split up the tasks, maybe we'll have a better chance in finding a connection and finding out who's behind all of this."

"You got it, Beckett." Esposito gets up from his chair. "Oh, by the way, I'm glad Castle is ok. He's become like a brother to us, even before the two of you were married."

Kate gives him a small smile. "Thanks, Espo. I'm glad he's ok too. Now, let's get to work."

Kate and Esposito exit the conference room. Espo walks over to his desk to make some phone calls to find out what's happening regarding the shooting. Kate walks over to Ryan's desk to talk to him about the lady who was posing as a nurse.

"Hey, Beckett. I'm going to see what I could do. I can do searches based on the description you give me, but I'm thinking it almost might be easier if we went to a sketch artist or something. Then maybe we can do a facial recognition."

"You're probably right, Ryan. But, right now, I don't know who else is behind this or how many people are involved. So, what I need right now is to work with the people I know I can trust. You and Espo are the only two I can trust right now, other than Lanie."

"Ok, you got it. Where would you like to start?"

"Do you mind if I close my eyes? It might help me picture her and give you a better description."

"Sure, whatever you need to do."

Kate smiles at Ryan. "Thanks." She sits down on the edge of Ryan's desk and closes her eyes to get an image in her head about the lady who was acting as a nurse. "Ok, she looks like she could be in her late 20s to early 30s. She's about 5 feet 9 inches tall. She had light brown hair that stopped just below her shoulders. She has an athletic build."

"Ok. Did you get the color of her eyes?"

Kate still has her eyes closed but can't remember. She furrows her eyebrows to concentrate. Hopefully it will trigger something. "Brown. She had brown eyes. When she came into the room there was slight fear behind them, but I didn't think anything of it at the time."

"Alright, go on. Was there any particular way she walked or how she moved?"

"No. Her walk was normal. There was no limp or anything." Kate stops to think about something else that could be useful. "Her voice. It wasn't high pitched, but if you know music and vocal ranges, she had a mezzo-soprano voice. And she had an accent. It was a slight accent, but she still had one. It sounded like it was a European accent, of some kind."

"Good. This we might be able to work with. It might take me a little while to go through some of the searches, but I'll let you know if, and when I have something."

Kate opens her eyes to look at Ryan. "Great, thanks Ryan. I'll go check on Espo to see if he has anything new." Ryan nods as Kate gets up from sitting on the edge of his desk. Kate walks across the bullpen to Esposito's desk. "Hey Espo, you find anything yet?"

Esposito shakes his head. "No. I called CSU, but they haven't found anything new. All we know was that it was a sniper rifle. Other than that, we don't know much, if anything. The weapon was wiped clean and there was no trace of the shooter there, other than the rifle being left behind."

"Alright. You keep working on that, while Ryan works on getting a search on our mystery nurse. I'm going to head back to the hospital to see if Castle can tell me anything about her."

"You got it, boss. Let Castle know we said hi and that we hope he gets better soon."

"I will." Kate calls across the bullpen to Ryan. "Hey, Ryan!" Ryan turns around in his chair to look at Kate. "Call me if you find anything." Ryan gives her a thumb's up, then she heads for the elevator. It's time for her to go back to the hospital to see what her husband knows. She hopes that Castle is awake and can remember what happened.

Kate arrives back at the hospital 20 minutes later. She gets off on Castle's floor and is walking by the waiting room when two red-heads catch her eye. She turns to look and sees that Martha and Alexis are sitting in the waiting room. She walks over to them. "Hey. What are you two doing out here?"

Alexis stands up from her chair to give Kate a hug. "They're still running tests on dad. Real ones this time. Last we heard he was awake and that he was asking for us, more specifically, you."

Kate gives Alexis a nod. "Ok, I'll go in and see what's going on. Hopefully I won't get in the nurse's way. I'm hoping he'll still be awake when I get in there. I need to ask him some questions about that nurse. Maybe, with his help we'll be able to figure all of this out."

Both Martha and Alexis give Kate a nod. Kate turns around and heads towards Castle's room. When she gets there, the nurse comes out of the room with a sad look on her face. "Mrs. Castle?"

Kate looks worriedly at the nurse. "Yes? What's wrong with my husband?"

"We're getting the test results ran right now. We're hoping to get an answer ASAP. But, from what I can see, it's not looking good."

"What do you mean?" Kate starts to panic.

The nurse stays as calm as possible. "Your husband seems to be getting weaker. The tests that we're running are blood tests and a tox screen. We're getting those tests rushed." The nurse takes a breath. "It does appear that Mr. Castle's heart rate is slowing, and we don't know why. I think it could be something that the imposing nurse gave him. But, we won't know anything until we get the test results back."

"What?! I need to get in there to be with my husband."

The nurse, Rose, gave Kate a nod. "Of course, Mrs. Castle. Go right on in."

Kate rushes into the room very worried about her husband. She didn't even think about letting Martha and Alexis know what's going. She went straight to Castle to hold his hand and to give him a kiss. "Hi, babe."

Castle looks more tired now than he did when Kate had left him. He looks into Kate's eyes and he can see the worry written all over her face. "Kate? Honey, what's wrong?"

Kate gets tears in her eyes and takes a deep breath. "I don't know, babe. Nurse Rose is running tests to find out what's going on." Kate pauses to see if Castle will say anything else. When he doesn't she goes on. "Castle, if you're up to it, I'd like to ask you a few questions about the other nurse that was in here."

Castle furrows his brow. "There was another nurse in here?"

"Yes. She came in while Alexis and I were visiting with you. You had just woken up from a little nap. I came back in here after making the call to Gina."

Castle has to think about it for a minute. "Oh, right her. She freaked me out a little bit."

"What do you mean? How did she freak you out?"

"Well…" Castle feels like he's running out of breath. So, he takes his time getting the words out. "She seemed nice, on the outside…" He needs to even out his breathing. "But, her eyes said something else."

Kate senses that he's having a hard time breathing. "Castle? Rick, are you ok?"

Castle looks into Kate's eyes with a scared look in his. He just shakes his head and his eyes start to close. Before he closes his eyes shut he says one last thing, "She told me not to worry. That I wouldn't feel a thing."

Kate squeezes Castle's hand. She needs more information. "What? What did she give you?" When Castle doesn't answer and the grip he had on Kate's hand goes slack, she looks over to the heart monitor and sees that it's nearly flatlined. In a panic, not wanting to lose her husband, she reaches the call button to get Nurse Rose back into the room.

Nurse Rose, along with two other nurses and a doctor rush into the room to try and safe Castle's life. Kate needed to get out of the way, so the medical professionals can do their job in saving her husband's life. Kate has tears rolling down her face, which she cannot control. She can no longer watch what's happening, so she steps outside into the hallway, not wanting to go too far, in case they need her.

Kate was standing in the hallway, just outside of Castle's room, for what seemed like forever. The door opens, and Nurse Rose comes out. "Mrs. Castle?"

To Be Continued

Note: I do apologize for leaving, yet, another cliffhanger, but I'm hoping it will keep the readers intrigued. I also didn't want the chapter to get too long, especially when I have ideas on the brain. In case you were wondering, Nurse Rose is sort of made up. I actually decided to borrow her from another ABC show, "Grey's Anatomy".