Beckett was awake when Ryan and Esposito arrived the next morning to visit with her before they started their day. Ryan had a vase with a decorative arrangement of flowers in it in his hands and that made Beckett smile. She liked flowers – even if she'd never admit it to the guys. They teased her enough, and there was no way she was going to give them more ammunition than they already had.

As he handed them over to her, he frowned.

"Did you get any sleep last night?"

She nodded, not at all offended by the question. She'd seen herself in the bathroom mirror earlier and knew that she looked fairly awful. Not just the bruises on her cheek, but the dark circles under her eyes and a strained look that hadn't been there the weekend before. Really, though, she'd looked worse after a particularly rough case, so she wasn't too concerned.

"Some." Her throat still hurt, so talking was a chore. "Castle had a rough night."

They all looked over at the curtained off area, but they couldn't see anything.

"Hurting?" Esposito asked.

She nodded.

"Every time he'd doze off he'd move or something and hurt his ribs – which would wake him up." And her. "He's also a little out of it. They brought breakfast and he kept telling them he didn't want tuna."

Ryan made a face.

"They gave you guys tuna for breakfast?"

"No, it was oatmeal and toast. Like I said, he's a little out of it. Sometimes. They upped his pain meds, so that might help the pain, but probably not the mental –"

"Beckett?"

The voice from the other side of the curtain was still hoarse.

Esposito was closest to the curtain, so he reached over and slid it open. Castle took a moment to focus on him, and then looked over at the bed Beckett was in. He looked drunk, Esposito thought. And pretty awful.

"Hey, Castle," Ryan greeted him – slowly. "How are you feeling?"

"Awful."

The word died in a croak and he started coughing. Esposito saw a cup of water on the table by his bed, next to an untouched breakfast, and handed it to him. Castle downed it and managed to get control of his voice again.

"Thanks."

"Can we bring you anything, Castle?" Ryan asked as Esposito took the cup back and put it where he'd found it.

"Alexis."

"They're here somewhere," Esposito told him. "We brought them in." He looked at Beckett. "Your dad will be up in a bit, too. He and Martha are going to sit in on the press conference."

"Press conference?" Castle asked.

"Dude, you have a lot of people wanting to know what happened to you guys," Ryan told him. "The press are going nuts trying to get at you and Beckett, so the department and the National Guard are going to hold a press conference here with some of the staff to get them the information they want and get them off our backs."

He stared at them for a moment, as if digesting what he was being told, and then looked at Beckett.

"How did they find us?"

She smiled. At least he didn't think it was aliens any more.

"The transmitter you turned on."

"That swim you took was pretty impressive, Castle," Ryan said. "Dumb, too, from what the doctors say. But impressive."

"I had to do something…"

Beckett started to answer, but the door opened and Alexis walked in, holding a vase of flowers. Castle lit up immediately, Beckett noticed. Either as an effort to look better his daughter wouldn't worry, or because the very sight of her made him feel better. Or maybe a little of both.

Alexis smiled at him, and then at the others, but her eyes went back to him immediately. Esposito winked at Beckett, who grinned. They didn't have kids, but it was pretty clear what was most important to Alexis and Castle just then.

"Hey sweetheart."

She handed the flowers to Ryan and walked carefully over to his bed, noticing that he looked like he was hurting, even though she could see he was trying to hide it from her.

"Hi Daddy."

He gave her a tired smile.

"You brought me flowers?"

"They're for Beckett."

Esposito snorted, as Ryan handed that vase to Beckett as well.

"We'd better get going," Esposito said. "If Alexis is here that means the press conference is going to be starting, and Captain wants us there."

"Come by later," Beckett told them.

"We will."

They left, and Beckett looked back over towards Castle and saw that Alexis was holding his hand, looking like she was going to cry.

"I was so worried about you…" she told him – and her.

"I'm sorry."

She sniffed, and nodded, and Castle shifted himself over a little, biting back a curse since the motion was clearly agonizing.

"Come here, little girl…" he whispered, letting her hand go and patting the spot beside him.

She hesitated only for an instant, and then climbed up into the bed beside him. It was a bit of a squeeze, but that was all to the good. He put his arm around her, turning slightly onto his side to give her more room, and Beckett could see the pained expression fade as his daughter tucked herself against him, resting her head on the pillow under his chin.

"I'm so glad you're okay."

He pressed a kiss against the top of her head, looking over at the bed beside his and catching her eyes.

"Beckett took care of me."

Which made both of them smile.