A Different Shade of Pale

Chapter 28

"Castle c'mon," Kate pleaded as he lay, eyes closed, on the dark pavement. She framed his face in her hands. His skin was sallow, a frightening shade she hadn't seen before. He was breathing and she quickly found a pulse, but he didn't respond to her voice. "Call the EMTs!" she yelled to a uniformed officer. "Castle, don't do this," she begged, smoothing the hair back from his face. Sitting cross legged on the road, she eased his head into her lap, holding it and rocking her body back and forth while she strained to hear the wail of an ambulance.

Two EMTs calmly and competently took Castle's vitals. Remarking that his blood pressure was low, they started an IV and prepared him for transport. Kate insisted on climbing into the ambulance beside him, pulling out her phone to call Dr. Morris one-handed, she clung to Castle with the other while siren blasting, the vehicle barged its way through New York City traffic.

Without benefit of siren, it took Morris more time to arrive in Emergency, a span that Kate found almost endless, but filled with the heart-wrenching task of calling Martha. Running in with his off-center gait, Morris spoke briefly to Kate, gathering what details he could of Castle's collapse before looking at looking at his patient. Kate paced the floor outside the curtained enclosure around Castle, waiting for Morris to finish his examination. "What the hell happened!" she demanded as he emerged.

"Mr. Castle had several strains of the parasite in his body," Morris explained. "One of them was less responsive to the medication. I believe that it has now mutated to become completely resistant. He's jaundiced, which means his liver is affected and there may be other organ involvement as well. And he's spiking a high fever as the organism is bursting his red blood cells. You saw that before when we were in Romania, before the virus cleared and he was able to start his treatment regimen. This is a serious relapse, probably made more so because his body is in a state of near exhaustion. He should have had complete rest when his symptoms began to flare. He might have been able to fight this."

"Damn f***ing Dunn, dammit Castle," Kate cursed under her breath."Can't you give him something else, Doctor?" Kate pressed. "Something that will work?"

Morris's lips formed a tight line as he shook his head. "There is nothing else. We've run the gamut of drugs, even experimental ones. There's only one course of treatment left to us. Since Castle's parasite is unique, I have to make my best guess as to whether to use it. Sometimes it's effective for similar types of diseases and sometimes it's not."

"What is it?"

"Complete blood exchange. There are risks, he could suffer an overload of iron or his lungs may be damaged, but there's no alternative. Have you called his family?"

"They're on their way," Kate confirmed, Martha and Alexis rushing up as if in summons to her words.

"Stupid! Stupid!" Martha exclaimed. "I knew something was going terribly wrong with him again, but Richard was too stubborn to admit it. That's why I didn't want to move out."

"He told me everything was fine too." Alexis added tearfully.

Morris softened uncharacteristically. "We'll do the best we can to make it that way," he assured her, before addressing Martha and Kate. "I don't have admitting privileges here, so I'm going have to get someone to sign off on what Mr. Castle needs, but it shouldn't take long. Columbia credentials have some degree of clout here. I may need some assistance from you, consent forms and such, but I'll get it done. They should move him to a room soon and you'll be able to sit with him while he undergoes the procedure."


Castle's eyes opened slowly as blood flowed though catheters in and out of his arms. He slowly focused on Kate. "What happened?"

"You were an idiot!" she replied."Serial killer or not, you should have let Morris know how bad things were getting."

"I just wanted to take care of you before I worried about myself," Castle protested. "After all you went through with me, I owed you that."

"Castle," Kate chided, "no one is keeping score."

"We'll just give you two a minute," Martha interjected, signaling Alexis to leave the room with her.

Castle wanted to reach out to Kate, but was frustrated by the restraints holding his arms in place. "Kate," he pleaded, "honestly, with Dunn out there after you, I couldn't think of anything else. I just kept seeing your apartment blowing up over and over; feeling my guts tying in knots not knowing if you were dead or alive. And even after I got you out of that hell hole, I was so afraid of losing you again, my focus was entirely on you. Kate by now you have to know I love you. You were all that mattered."

Kate sighed, reaching out to caress his face. "You jerk! Do you think I went to Romania for the scenery? God only knows why, but I love you too and don't want to lose you either. So this better work or I'll do Morris some serious damage."

Castle gazed down at the needles in his arms. "This was Morris' idea?"

"Yeah, and I guess he and Martha had to kick some serious ass in the bureaucracy around here to get it done, since you have an unknown organism with no officially sanctioned treatment." Kate shook her head. "Good thing you're rich, because your insurance company wanted no part of it. Martha had to call your business manager to get him to send the hospital a payment guarantee."

"Remind me to write something about that kind of garbage into my next book," Castle remarked in disgust. "Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege, whether anyone has money or not. This country is always bragging about being exceptional when what we are sometimes is exceptionally stupid. But speaking of exceptionally stupid, now that we've finally gotten the loving each other thing straight, what are we going to do about it?"

"What do you mean, Castle? We're sleeping together. Forced as it was, I've moved in with you. What else is there to do?"

"Kate, strange as it may seem, especially since I've bombed twice, I was talking about getting married. We've already been through the 'for better or for worse' and the 'in sickness or in health' part. All that's left is the 'for richer or for poorer' and even with whatever the hospital decides to gouge me for this, I think I'm in pretty good shape. Twenty-three best sellers will do that. I should be down on one knee with a ring in my hand, but you can pick out whatever you like when I get out of here."

Kate considered what Morris had told her about the uncertainty of the treatment, but couldn't pull her gaze from the hope in of Castle's eyes. She leaned over to place a soft kiss on his lips. "Sure Castle, but no Canal Street," she teased. "You better take me to a first class ring merchant. I'm not putting up with any green fingers."

Castle's mouth gave a lopsided quirk. "Don't worry," he assured her, "I've got a guy."