Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! So I wrote this when I should have been paying attention to orientation…whoops… oh well worth it.

Last Chapter: Kate sat in the waiting room just waiting to hear news that everything was going to be okay. She tried to distract herself by calling Martha, but she didn't answer again. She was about to start pacing when Ryan and Esposito showed up. Gates is letting her work from the hospital for today. They came to get her key to get into Castle's apartment. While leaving Ryan expressed his concern that for the first time Kate looked like she may not keep it together. After a few hours the nurse and doctor come out to tell Kate that it looks like Castle will make it, but he hasn't regained consciousness yet. We rejoing Kate as the nurse comes to bring her to see Rick.

Chapter 21: Stable

Kate slid her phone into her pocket and turned towards Karen.

"Hi" Karen greeted her.

"Hello." Kate said in reply.

"He just got put into his room, and I think it'll be fine if I bring you up now." Karen said.

"Okay great, thank you." Kate said as she let a small smile spread across her face, actually meaning it for the first time that day.

She was just so glad that she was going to see his face.

Kate followed the nurse through the maze of corridors to the elevator, boarded it, and stood waiting for the elevator to move.

All the while Ryan and Esposito were working with CSU around Castle's loft trying to finish up processing the scene.

It felt like it had only been a few days since they had done this last.

Oh wait, it had been only a few days.

Ryan sat on the edge of Castle's bed, watching CSU pack up.

He was rubbing his hands back and forth over the tops of his thighs. When he heard Esposito call.

"Dude, what's up?" questioning why Ryan was sitting there staring off into space.

"This," Ryan answered, pointing towards the bathroom, "It just reminds me so much of Beckett's shooting. I can't believe it's happening again. It just doesn't make sense. In the best case scenario this would just be a home invasion gone wrong, but a home invasion with nothing stolen, in an apartment where Beckett happens to be staying to avoid a psycho murder. That's like lightening striking the same spot twice…no like four times… in the same week. No ones that unlucky. The only way that this happens is if you're being targeted." Ryan continued to ramble on.

Esposito opened his mouth half way through to try to shut him up, but he was on a roll.

There was no stopping him now.

But once Ryan had stopped to take a breath Esposito jumped in saying,

"Well it isn't like this is entirely out of left field… Castle gave me a number to run yesterday. He said the guy called him, but he didn't want Beckett to get more upset. He said that his guy was just trying to ruffle their feathers, but now I'm not so sure that was the truth. Castle either lied to me, or he seriously underestimated this guy."

Ryan got up and smacked Esposito on the arm, and Esposito yelled, "Hey! What was that for?"

"You know exactly what that was for. When was the last time it ever turned out to really be a good idea to lie to Beckett about anything, especially when it is case related?" Ryan asked before he paused for a minute in front of him, before shaking his head before muttering, 'Dufus. "

"Who are you calling dufus? Dufus." Esposito spat back.

Ryan gave Esposito a stern look before going to follow CSU out of the bedroom.

But he paused when he head Esposito say, "Wait, are you going to tell her?"

" Javi, I don't know. She should know, but if I do tell her I'm not telling her today. She doesn't need to hear this with everything else that she is trying to deal with. But really man, why didn't you tell me. Aren't we partners?" Ryan said.

"Kevin, of course we're partners. I just thought that you wouldn't want to be in on keeping something from Beckett." Esposito explained.

"Yeah well, now it looks like I'm in on it no matter what."

This was perhaps the longest elevator ride of Kate's life, and that was saying something seeming as she worked at the 12th precinct which had to have one of the slowest elevators in the history of the world.

They finally reached the 8th floor, where Rick's room was, but Karen took her sweet time getting off and sauntering slowly towards the East wing.

Come on, can't we pick up the pace, even just a little bit? Kate thought to herself, but figured getting on Karen's bad side may make the walk to find his room on her own much longer.

She could also appreciate the fact that jogging through a hospital wasn't exactly the wisest thing to do.

After turning around a few more corners, they finally made it to the correct room.

Karen pushed the door to the room open, and stood aside, to let Kate in first.

Kate slowed her previously anxious pace, and walked almost timidly into the room, wringing her hands.

She had no idea what to expect when she saw him. People were al talking about how he would be and what to expect when he woke up. They never said anything about what to expect while he was still unconscious.

Luckily he didn't look too worse for the wear.

He definitely looked ill, but besides the bandage on his head, and his pale complexion, he didn't really look that bad.

Karen had scooted a chair close to his bed, while Kate was lost in thought, and then half lead her to it, and motioned for her to sit down.

She took a moment to process what was going on, but she did sit down, while she continued to examine his face.

He still looked the same to her. Same nose, same mouth, same jaw. He looked just the same as he did when he was asleep.

But she really wished that she was the one that was asleep, and that at any second she would wake up from this nightmare.

If Castle were awake he would pinch her, so that she would be sure that she wasn't.

She smiled to herself, thinking about his lovable antics.

But with him lying in the bed in front of her, she was quickly drawn back to reality.

Karen had stayed with her, just to make sure that she was okay.

Seeing her trepidation Karen said, "You can touch him you know?"

"Oh…" Kate said softly, looking down at her hands that were resting in her lap. She tentatively reached over and put her hand on top of his and running her thumb over his exposed skin, being careful of his IV, remembering that her hand was sore when she had, had her own.

Before leaving Karen managed to pull Kate's attention away from Rick long enough to tell her, "Mr. Castle's attending will be in in just a little bit, and he will tell you all about what to expect during Mr. Castle's recovery."

"Okay, thank you." Kate said sweetly, but she still kept glancing over at Rick.

She didn't want to take her eyes off of him. The last time she had, he had ended up here.

A moment later, Karen had left the room.

Kate sat there listening to the consistent beep of the heart monitor, and the sound of his short quiet breaths.

This was probably all her fault, but she did the best she could to push that thought out of her mind.

Self pity was not useful. It wouldn't help get her through this.

After sitting there for a few minutes Kate got a little braver and actually held his hand, resting her other hand gently over his wrist, where she absent mindedly traced patters over the inside of his wrist.

The time ticked by more quickly this time, with him by her side.

After a while the attending finally managed to make an appearance.

He walked in and shook Kate's hand, introducing himself he said, "Hello, I'm Dr. Walert. I will be Mr. Castle's attending during his stay with us." He glanced down at Castle's chart for a minute before continuing," So, as I'm sure you've been told, he is still currently sedated, and just a few minutes ago we stopped giving him the sedative. Now, depending on the individual the time frame for him waking up can vary quite a bit."

He looked up at Kate for a moment to make sure she was still following along. Kate nodded at him in response and he then continued, "When he wakes up it is completely normal for him to be confuse, disoriented, and/or groggy. That's not what we're concerned with, and we won't be measuring his mental status by that, so try not to worry if he seems to not be himself at first, that should wear off."

When he paused again Kate said, "Okay." To assure him that she was still with him.

He then continued, "You should also know that when he wakes up he could be in a lot of pain, and he may be short of breath as well. We will be monitoring him, but once he's awake and alert, if he needs pain medication just hit the nurse call button, and they should be able to help you. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Yeah, what exactly does it mean if his altered mental status doesn't wear off?" she asked, not sure she really wanted the answer.

"Well, at this point it's really too soon to say. If it comes to that we will run a whole battery of tests, but his preliminary scans make me optimistic. Anything else?" he said.

"Not right now. " Kate said. She found herself once again trying to process the massive amount of medical information that a doctor had thrown at her.

"Okay, well if anything comes up you can just tell one of the nurses and I'll come down as soon as I can." He added, just as his pager started to go off.

"Okay, thank you very much doctor." Kate said kindly, and with that he left the room.

Once again leaving Kate staring at Rick, wondering how this had happened.

She had so many questions to ask him…. If only her were conscious.

So, It's 1 am here and I'm pretty sure I can't even think straight anymore… my brain hurts. I was going to respond to your awesome reviews, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen until tomorrow morning. So, I did edit this but I'm sure in my current brain dead state I'm sure I missed some mistakes. So, I apologize for all the mistakes I missed!

Please let me know what you thought!

Always,

Elizabeth