A/N: I want to apologize for my lack of knowledge in wound treatments and other medical-y stuff. Also, the beginning of this chapter is pretty crappy. Please endure the crap until you get to the good stuff. Thank you.

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Too Close For Comfort

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When they arrived at Castle's hospital room he was propped up on his side and chatting with some nurse.

When the nurse saw them she left the room with a smile on her face. She seemed a little starstruck. Probably a fan.

Martha and Alexis were the first trough the door and Castle's face lit up when he saw them.

"Oh, Richard." his mother said, approaching the bed and grasping one of Castle's hands.

"Hello, Mother." he said with a soft smile.

"Dad?!"

"Hey pumpkin. Hey! You're wearing the necklace I gave you." his smile grew a little bit and then he looked at her.

She could see the happy look in his eyes when he realized that she was here.

"Hey, Kate."

"Hi, Castle."

He gave her that dazzling smile. The one that made her feel like she was the only on in the world.

Martha was sitting in the chair near the bedside and Alexis was sitting on the bed, near her father's hip.

"Kate." Castle called softly "Come here."

She went.

"You think you can smuggle some coffee in here?" he whispered in a conspiratorial tone, making her laugh.

He smiled broadly at her.

"But seriously. The nurses here don't let me get up and I need coffee. Even if it's monkey pee battery acid."

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Castle."

He pouted at her adorably.

"What about you, daughter? Can you go get coffee for good old dad?" he asked Alexis, winking at her and making the girl smile.

"You admitting you're old, dad?" she teased back making Castle splutter.

"You have to face that you are getting a little old, Castle."

"Can't stay young forever, kiddo."

Rick pouted at them.

"No fair. You're ganging up on me."

Kate smiled while Alexis gave a short laugh. Martha swatted him on the chest making him gasp and scrunch his face in pain.

Her heart constricted painfully and suddenly all three women were hovering over him.

He breathed trough his nose and slowly opened his eyes, putting on a smile.

"I'm fine. It's fine." he assured the three of them. This time she didn't knew if she believed him.

"I'm sorry, kiddo. I-" Martha started apologizing, but Castle cut her off.

"It's okay, mother. I'm fine."

"Richard-"

"I'm fine." he said again, reassuringly.

"Dad?" Alexis asked with a shaking voice "Why does your chest hurts?"

He made a face and now Kate was afraid of the answer to that question. She had seen the taser marks in his back and she was afraid of how his chest might look like.

"You don't want to know."

"Dad, I'm not a kid anymore."

"Believe me, pumpkin. It's not pretty. Not a thing I want you to see."

He reached for Alexis hand and squeezed it. Alexis squeezed back. And just like that, the teen backed off.

And then Castle masterfully steered the conversation the other way.

He happily talked with Alexis and Martha and tried to engage her too in that conversation, but she was happy to just stand and watch. Watch him carefully because something wasn't quite okay. Castle was the type of guy that whined to no end when he got injured, so he could get all of the attention but he wasn't doing that. And that told her that it must've been worse than he was letting out.

She wondered what he was hiding beneath that hospital gown and she wondered what led him to call his kidnaper and torturer poor woman.

But Castle wasn't giving her a chance to really ask and she didn't want to do it in front of his family. So she pushed the other chair that was in the other side of the room and sat on it, watching Castle interact with his family and letting her heart settle on how he was okay.

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"Well, I think we should grab a snack. What do you think, Alexis?" Martha asked throwing a meaningful glance towards Kate.

Yeah, that must've been where Castle got his subtlety.

Alexis wavered a bit, looking between Kate and her father but then nodded.

Kate should really say something in the lines of 'Don't bother yourselves because of me. You're his family.' but she couldn't. She really needed to talk to Castle. She needed to talk to him about so many things.

She sighed as the two women said their goodbyes and promised to be back soon, leaving she and Castle alone.

Okay. This was it. Time to talk, Kate.

Castle sighed heavily.

"What do you want to know?" he asked softly, blue eyes trained on her.

So many things.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you think she's a poor woman?"

He sighed heavily and shook his head like he didn't knew the answer, but then he started talking.

"Because it's sad, I think. I mean you try. You try during your entire life to find that person that can give you happiness and you fail in doing it so many times that you give up. She didn't gave up. She kidnapped me instead, which is wrong and I know she was a psychopath and all of that, but my point is: she tried and failed and went crazy because of it and that's sad."

She slowly nodded her head, trying to understand his logic.

"She killed people, Castle."

"I'm not excusing her. I'm saying that to some extent I understand her logic. But I'm a best-selling author that gets paid to think like a psychopath, so it ain't that strange that I understand her, when you think about it." he said with a small smile and a shrug of one shoulder.

She nodded, once again trying to understand.

"Next question." Rick said mockingly.

"Right before she stabbed you. You said some things. You believe in what you said?"

"For a while, yeah I did. But then I thought good and hard about it and realized that things weren't like I first thought. I mean it takes two to fail a marriage. My dad is probably CIA, so that explains a lot. I still think that I'm partially responsible for all that has happened to you, but- I guess I'll just have to deal with some things."

She furrowed an eyebrow at him.

"You're not responsible for my shooting, Castle. Or Captain's dead or anything. They are."

He smiled bitterly "The thing is that I am. I am a little bit."

"You're not."

He huffed at her.

"Kate. You have to see things like they are."

She folded her arms over her chest and stared him down.

"What's under the gown?" she asked suddenly making him cringe.

"My ruggedly handsome self." he answered teasingly receiving a hard look. "She liked to play with knives. It's a H."

"What?"

"It's a H, carved with a knife." he said quietly.

That shocked her to silence.

What? Bitch had carved a H on him. If this didn't felt so real and if she wasn't so shocked by it, she might laugh.

"Thought you were going to ask me the most important question. Or are we going to keep pretending."

"What?"

"I know that you heard me. That day. At the funeral. When you got shoot." he kept talking quietly, suddenly seeming so tired.

"I heard you, Castle." she confirmed "The thing is: did you heard me?"

It was his turn to look confused.

"At the swings, Castle. Did you heard me?" she clarified.

"I heard you, Kate. But sometimes waiting outside the walls can get lonely."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Not your fault."

She scooted her chair closer and placed her elbows on the mattress, supporting her head on her hands.

"If it's any consolation, it's pretty lonely inside the walls as well."

He smiled softly "It's not. Makes it worse."

"You're wrong, Castle."

"I don't think so."

She smiled softly at him "No. Before. You were wrong. You're good enough. More than good enough. You're more than I can ask for."

His entire expression changed. His eyes widened and his mouth fell in a perfect 'O'. And then, the most beautiful smile took over his face, all eye-crinkling and awe and hopeful.

And oh God! She loved him. So much.

She scooted a bit closer and kissed him. She kissed with all she had. And he kissed back, bringing one hand to cup her cheek and hold her right there. Right where his mouth could reach hers easily.

He broke off the kiss entirely too soon and looked at her. Their faces mere inches apart and she could see his eyes up close and they were so blue that she felt she could drown in them and it would be all right.

He was smiling at her, still so beautiful and open and warm, that, for a moment, she forgot about the stabbing and the nerve wrecking kidnapping and all of that. She just let herself be.

"You should step outside those walls of yours. It's a beautiful day outside, Kate Beckett." he said and it was so sappy and yet so right that she felt like laughing. Instead she kissed him again, running her tongue lightly over his bottom lip and then pulling back. Teasing him. She was good at teasing.

"No fair. I can't do nothing about it." he complained lightly, still smiling.

And it hit her. How beautiful he was. How lucky she was for having him. Lucky that he loved her.

"It's a beautiful day outside." she whispered back with a silly smile. And it was okay. It was okay to be a little silly when the man you loved was right here near you and he was just so damned good.

He laughed a bit at that and brought her closer, with a hand behind her neck, for another kiss.