CHAPTER SIX

Kate walked into Warehouse Medical, as she had labeled the abandoned warehouse that Hunt had procured for the resurrection of Castle. She saw that another operating table had been brought in, and activity around the room had increased. Jackson came up behind her and she jumped when he put his hand on her shoulder. The man still moved like a cat.

He pointed at the dual tables. "It won't be long now. Dr. Allezandez should be arriving tomorrow."

Both their gazes fell on Rick, who was working out with dozens of electrodes taped all over his body. Kate was drawn to the sweat covered nearly naked body of her husband. He looked good.

She looked up at Hunt. "I'm not going to question your motives anymore, nor probe your rationale for doing this. But it will soon be time to go through with it." She put her hand on his arm. "How are you doing?"

His smile barely creased his face. "I'm good, Kate. I'm an old man, and I'm tired. I lived a life of service to my country. In doing that, I've been required to do some terrible things. Actions that have permanently stained my very soul." He shrugged. "And I'd do it again, but it will be nice to go out doing something good for a change. Something I do, not because someone orders me to do it, but because it will be the first righteous thing to do."

Kate turned and hugged the tired old man. "Well, I am indebted to you beyond anything I could ever repay." A single tear slid down her cheek.

He chuckled. "You being here for Richard is more than payment enough."

Kate hadn't really had any preconceived expectations on Dr. Allezandez but the person who was escorted into the makeshift operating room wasn't what she had envisioned.

She did strut into the room like she was the queen of the ball, which in a real sense, she was. Kate didn't know what she expected, but a sixty something woman built like an Olympic gymnast wasn't it. She walked like a stalking cougar, and her crystal blue eyes seemed to miss nothing in the room.

She walked up to Hunt and Castle, who were both sitting on chairs watching her approach. They both stood up as if at attention when she reached them. A sly smile slipped onto her face as she stood in front of them.

Rick started to make an introduction, but Dr. Allezandez waved him off. She just stepped up and placed her hand on Rick's chest, over his heart. She closed her eyes as she felt his heart beat. Then she placed her hand on Hunt's chest and listened to his heart beat. She just nodded.

She looked Hunt in the eyes. "You're pretty fit for an old fart. You'll do fine." She raised a brow. "It's a good thing I got here when I did. All this exercise getting Mr. Castle used to his new prosthetics has put some extra strain on his heart." She waved her hand in dismissal. "We start first thing in the morning, eight o' clock sharp." She glanced at Hunt. "Have all the prep done by then." Hunt just nodded.

As Allezandez walked toward the exit, she stopped next to Kate.

"Except for the bad haircut, you are a pretty one aren't you. You're obviously not with the medical team. Who are you?"

"I'm Kate. Your patient's wife." Without asking, the brash doctor placed her hand on Kate's chest, over her heart.

Her brow furrowed. "You've had heart problems in the past. Your rhythm's just a bit off."

Kate nodded. "I was shot in the chest by a sniper at my Captain's funeral. My heart suffered some damage."

The heart surgeon chuckled. "It should be good for a while, but if you want to live as long as your husband will once I'm done. Let me know. You come up with a donor, and I'll do the operation for free." She patted Kate on the cheek and strolled out the door with her companion.

Kate just stared at the door when she left.

The next morning came too quickly, and not quick enough for Kate. She was more nervous about the surgery than Rick appeared to be. She was there holding his hand while the medical team went about the preparation for the two surgeries.

Before she knew it, both Hunt and Castle were under the anesthesia and she was being moved out the door to wait outside the improvised wall that had been put up to form the medical room.

A few minutes later Dr. Allezandez came striding into the warehouse, heading for the door that led to the newly retooled operating room. She stopped as she came upon Kate sitting on one of the folding chairs that could be found scattered throughout the warehouse.

"What are you doing out here, my dear?"

Kate started briefly when the somewhat mythical doctor addressed her. "Umm, they are ready for you, so I had to get out from under foot."

The doctor frowned. "Nonsense, do you want to come in and watch the surgeries?"

Kate's emotions spun into a veritable tornado of conflicting thoughts. While watching an open heart surgery might be a bit much to take considering who the patients were. Sitting out where she would just be worrying every minute as time crawled by might be worse. If she was in there, she could read the room as to how the operation was progressing, even if it might be more emotional considering who was under the knife.

The doctor grabbed Kate by the hand and pulled her up from the chair.

"Come on," she said. "I work better with an audience anyway." She pulled Kate through the door and into the operating room "Can someone get this woman robed up, please."

Dr. Allezandez left Kate in the hands of an orderly who brought her over to a rack of medical gowns and such.

Kate spent the next several hours mesmerized by the performance of the magician with a scalpel.

She had seen bloody and gross wounds several times, but seeing first Hunt and then Castle being sliced open with such automatic precision was both unsettling and amazing. Kate had to push the fact that she knew the people on those tables out of her mind and just concentrate on the incredible artistry she was seeing. The woman hummed songs while she worked her magic.

Kate had been so involved when Dr. Allezandez was concentrating on Castle's open chest that she never noticed when Hunt's body was removed. She felt that she had cheapened his sacrifice by not even realizing that he was no longer in the room. Tears clouded her eyes.

She knew that Hunt had made arrangements to deal with his body once he was no longer necessary, but it struck Kate that she didn't know what arrangements he'd made. She had no idea where his remains were to be buried, and that bothered her, a lot. She felt like she should know that. It felt like a betrayal, that he'd done so much to save Rick's life, and now he was just gone. She couldn't even show up at his grave site and thank him.

Kate had never really liked the man. He was arrogant, self-absorbed, and frustratingly focused on whatever task he took on. She might not actually miss him, but she hated not being able to say again how much his sacrifice meant to her, and will mean to Martha and Alexis.

Kate had chewed her bottom lip to the point of it bleeding as she watched the ballet being performed by the hands of the humming doctor. She had lost all awareness of time, but eventually Dr. Allezandez stepped back with a satisfied smile on her face.

"I'm finished. Whoever is doing the closing, please keep your stiches neat and even. I don't want my exceptional work marred by a sloppy close." The doctor turned to where Kate was standing. "How are you holding up there, Kate?" She just nodded, not taking her eyes off of Castle.

She startled when the good doctor placed her hand on Kate's arm. "This is where ordinary surgeons give you the little pep talk and tell you that the next 24 hours are the most critical." Allezandez just smirked at her. "I won't. I can unequivocally state that given the proper rest and care, he will be just fine." She chuckled. "Actually, from what I've seen, he'll be a lot better than fine."

Tears were rolling down Kate's cheeks. "Thank you."

Allezandez patted Kate's cheeks and continued to chuckle as she headed for the door and her exit.

It was a full day before Rick was taken off the anesthesia. And then he was on a ventilator for another full day, but he was conscious and was able to smile at Kate. She'd been there day and night since the operation had been completed.

The doctors still on duty finally took Rick off the ventilator and warned him that his throat would be sore and he shouldn't try to talk much. So Kate just talked to him. Told him what had happened and how the surgeries went. She kept telling him how unbelievable Dr. Allezandez was.

Whenever he tried to say something, Kate put her finger over his lips and told him to take it easy. That he'll be more comfortable in a few days.

He finally convinced her to go home and get some rest and get cleaned up since she'd been there for days.

Reluctantly she did as asked, but was back in less than twelve hours.

Rick was going to be bed ridden for weeks, but he could talk, and take some soft foods along with the liquids. So Kate felt it was time to have some serious talks.

She brought up the fact that Hunt never told her where he was going to be buried, so there was no way to visit the site and give him the final thank you he deserved. Castle wasn't surprised. It was his feeling that Hunt probably felt that he was never in their lives while he was alive, so there would be no logical reason to expect that he'd be once he was gone. Their memories would have to be enough.

Kate hated it. It was because of Hunt that the love of her life was still with her. She would never be able to truly express her gratitude to him. But he had gone out the way he intended and she had no choice but to accept the man's wishes.

Kate finally got around to telling Rick all she had had to do to acquire the money to fund Hunt's grand gesture. Castle just laughed at her when she told him about how she had to work with Henry to get all the cash to pay for this incredible endeavor.

"Kate, I can tell handling all that money bothered you, but you have to realize, you're my wife and that means it's our money. Whether I'm alive or dead, you have every right to that money. And I'm glad that Henry didn't give you any grief about needing it."

Kate shook her head. "Henry was great. I asked him why he was so accommodating to me about such large sums of money. He just said it was none of his business. It was my money and it was his job to provide it to me as best he could."

Castle nodded slightly. "Yeah, I think we should keep him." They both laughed.

Kate suddenly got serious. She put her hand on his cheek. "Babe, I think we need to talk about Martha and Alexis."

His face blanked. "In what way? I thought we both agreed that we would keep this a secret until it was a sure thing. It would be cruel to raise their hopes and then have it come crashing down again if this all suddenly goes south."

She wiped at a few tears. "Rick, your surgeon was a magician. She pretty much guaranteed that her work had been perfect, and that you'd recover just fine."

He pursed his lips. "I'm not going to be able to leave this place for a while yet. Don't you think waiting a little longer would be better?"

She shook her head. "No, I've spent so much time here that I haven't seen either of them more than a couple times since they got back from Europe. I have no idea how many times they might have stopped by the loft wondering about me."

"If you're sure that it would be better to tell them now. Then do it. I trust your instincts on this."

Kate leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. "Thanks, I just feel bad withholding this from them. They were destroyed as much as I was when we thought you were gone. And I know they will be mad that they weren't trusted with your survival from the crash. They will feel betrayed and probably will not be very happy with me."

Castle gave Kate a sympathetic look. "So, they're upset for a while."

Kate rolled her eyes. "If they're only upset, I'll be grateful."

Castle was able to lift his hand up enough to take her hand in his. "They'll get over it. They'll realize you did it to protect them from a double dose of anguish."

Kate grumped. "Or they'll feel they were deprived of a chance at hope."

He patted her hand. "Just tell them that I was the one who made the decision to hold off on telling them anything until we knew that I'd recover for certain."

Kate shook her head. "We decided together, and we'll take the heat together." She sighed. "Of course you're her son and her father, and I'm the outsider, so I'll be the easy choice to vilify."

He smiled. "I wouldn't worry that much. They've always loved you."

She grinned. "I think you're forgetting things that happened a few years ago. If I remember right, your daughter actually hated me for not telling you I heard you after I was shot at Montgomery's funeral. And at about the same time, Martha who was usually very nice to me even took her shots at me."

He nodded. "Water under the bridge. And they'll get over this, just as they got over that."

Kate chuckled and shook her head. "Not exactly the same, babe. But I think it needs to be done."

"So how are you going to do it?"

Kate shrugged. "I'll get us together somehow, and I'll think of some way to bring it up."

Castle smirked. "Well I wish you luck."

She gave him her first Beckett glare since the accident.

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Once she worked up her courage, Kate planned to spend a morning with Martha and Alexis. She suggested that they go out for some window shopping just to stretch their legs and reconnect after the circumstances of Rick's accident had pushed them apart for the past two months plus. They had all gone off and chose to deal with Rick's absence in their own ways.

After their European trip, Martha threw her energies into bringing her acting school back to the vibrant enterprise that it had obtained before their lives went black.

Alexis had kept her Grams company on the impromptu vacation, and once back had to make up for lost time in her studies. She rarely dropped by the loft to check in on Kate. She buried herself in school and spent most of her waking hours studying. She'd then come back to her dorm room, crash, then the next morning get up and do it all again.

The morning's get together was the first time they had done something together as a family since the funeral. It was long overdue, and Kate knew each of them were uncertain as to how it would go. She was sure there would still be issues that hadn't been resolved between the Castle women.

Each had been devastated by Castle's accident differently, and instead of pulling together, it seemed they all chose to hide in their own personal coping mechanisms and not burden the others with their inability to share their personal pain as family should have.

The three of them were to meet at the loft the day after Kate had discussed with Rick that they should reveal his miraculous escape from the hands of death to the two women. Kate was nervous as to what she should say to them. They literally hadn't spoken more than a few words to each other since Martha and Alexis left for Europe. She wasn't sure that they even wanted to associate with her anymore.

The knock on the door of the loft startled her, but brought her out of her head. She had to face up to her unexplained disappearances these past several weeks. She just hoped that they could be civil to each other. At least enough for Kate to give them the message she had to tell.

As she walked toward the door, she suddenly became self-conscious about how she looked. Kate had mentioned that it would be a casual day, so she was dressed in slacks and a pull over top. She was suddenly very aware of her short hair. Both had seen Kate's buzz cut when they came back from their trip, but neither had made more than a passing comment about the coming summer, and the forecast of a hot one in the Northeast.

Kate opened the door to find Alexis standing out in the hallway. She looked a bit apprehensive. Kate took her hand and led her into the entryway, then enveloped her into a long, heartfelt hug.

"Alexis, why didn't you just use your key?"

Alexis blushed. "I didn't want to seem like I'm imposing?"

Kate shook her head. "How could it be imposing? This is your home too. It always has been your home and it always will be."

Alexis shrugged. "I wasn't sure how things stood between us now?"

Kate guided the young woman over to the couch. "Where did you ever get that idea?"

Alexis didn't look Kate in the face. "Well, with dad gone, I wasn't sure of my place anymore."

Kate shed a tear, quickly wiped it off and pulled Alexis back in for a hug. "Your place is here for as long as you wish it. It has been your home growing up and it will always be your home as long as a Castle owns it."

Alexis leaned back, a look of concern on her face. "You aren't planning to sell it, are you?"

Kate shook her head. "This is my home now, Alexis. And as long as I'm here, there will be a place for you."

Alexis sniffed. "Thank you." She reached her hand up and rubbed it over Kate's buzz cut. "I see it's had a chance to grow out a bit. Before long we'll be able to call you Shaggy."

Kate ran her hand down the side of Alexis' face. "What about you? It seems to me that you've cut yours again. It's shorter than you had it when you came back from your trip."

Alexis grinned. "Well, I was actually tempted to cut it as short as yours just so I didn't have to worry about it at all, but at the last minute I chickened out."

Kate laughed. "Well, I think it looks good. It suits the more mature version of you."

They were chuckling and had their arms around each other when there was the sound of a key being turned in the door.

Kate raised her brow. "Well, at least, your grandmother has no reluctance in using her key."

The door swung open. Martha walked in and stood there staring at her granddaughter and her daughter-in-law. Alexis and Kate looked each other in confusion.

Martha expelled a huff of annoyed breath. "Okay, which of my children are going to come and give me a hug?"

Alexis smiled, and Kate smirked as they both got up and went over to the grand dame. They encircled Martha and both hugged her at the same time.

The tender moment lasted for a short time until Martha guided them all over to the couch.

The older woman took Kate's hands in hers. "I've been so worried about you. You shut yourself off from all your friends and family. You decided that you would carry all that pain and anguish on your own." Martha hugged Kate again. "You keep forgetting that you are part of our family now too, and we will always be here for you… always."

Kate wished right then that she still had her long hair so she could hide her embarrassment and shame from Castle's mother and daughter. She tried to smile but her tears kept leaking into her mouth.

"I'm so sorry. Whenever I'm confronted with a near impossible situation I fall back on my old habits. I think I have to isolate myself and deal with my pain on my own. After my mother's murder, and the subsequent loss of my father to alcoholism I got used to having to deal with problems and misfortune all by myself." Kate managed a weak smile. "But you have to cut me some slack here. I've only been part of this expanded family for around six months now?"

Martha shook her head. "You've been a part of this family much longer than that, Katherine."

Kate allowed herself a wet chuckle. "I guess I'm a slow learner."

Martha stood up. "Well then, I guess it's up to Alexis and me to teach you that you've always been a part of this family." She smiled and reached out her hand. "And you're stuck with us."

Kate took her hand and stood up. "Well, I guess I'm in for some lessons then."

Alexis piped in. "There's a whole new line of summer wear that has come in at Sax's and at Bloomingdale's. Nothing can ease the mind like a good shopping spree."

Kate nodded in agreement. "And we can a find a nice place to have a pleasant lunch. A place with sinfully good desserts."

"It sounds like we have a plan, ladies." Martha piped in. "Shall we go?"

And the three of them passed through the loft's red door and were on their way.

Kate was astounded how easily it had been to shove their problems to the back of their minds as they enjoyed a morning of 'look but don't touch' shopping. That's not to say that some items might have been put on a mental wish list for a later time. No one wanted to complicate the window shopping with having to carry several bags around all morning.

They did manage to find a little café tucked between a pair of specialty shops. The place had several offerings that sounded delicious, and turned out to be just that. And Kate was well pleased with their coffee.

Martha managed to get a Bloody Mary 'just to get the old ticker started'.

They were just getting ready to leave when Kate asked them to follow her out. She knew this next part was going to be hard for her to explain.

They stepped out of the little café, and walked to the corner with Alexis and Martha making suggestions where they should go next.

"Um, I have something I need to tell you two." Kate was biting on her lip, but had their attention.

"I need to apologize, because I've been keeping something from you both. Something I found out while you were in Europe, but chose not tell you when you got back."

The red heads both gave Kate the same look of confusion.

"I don't know how often you tried to come by the loft once you were back, but most likely I wasn't there." Kate scraped her nails through her short locks. "I was involved with something I knew was important. Something that I felt was important enough to leave the NYPD."

Martha gasped. Alexis just gave her a hard look. "You quit your job?"

"Not exactly. I tried to, but Gates wouldn't let me quit out right. She put me in for a leave of absence and left it open ended."

"But you just told us that you weren't at home either." Martha added.

Kate nodded. "That's right. I was spending a lot of time somewhere else. Somewhere that I felt I needed to be as much as possible."

Kate hailed a cab, catching one that had almost passed them by. She opened the back door for them to get in.

"I want to show you where I was all those times I was away from home, and why."

The three of them sat in silence for several minutes after Kate had given the address to the cabbie.

Alexis was the first to break the silence. "So, what is this all about? What's the big secret that you kept from us?" There was a definite edge to her voice.

Kate pursed her lips. "I'd like to wait until we are there. I'm sure you both will be angry with me, but I'd rather not start a fight in the cab."

Martha raised a brow. "That doesn't sound good."

Kate just kept her mouth shut until they reached their destination. After the three of them got out of their cab, and Kate threw some money at the driver. They stood there staring at an old abandoned warehouse. Two of them had no idea why they were there.

Kate began to lead them down the alley. "Back when you two were in Europe, I went back to the precinct and tried to go back to my job. After going out to a crime scene and coming back I suddenly got a call from an unknown number."

She took a deep breath. "It turned out to be from Jackson Hunt." Both Martha and Alexis expressed their shock.

"Why would he call you, Katherine?"

Kate waved at the street person who was on duty slumped against the battered dumpster. Martha and Alexis gave Kate a strange look.

"He called me and wanted me to meet him at this old warehouse."

Kate opened the door and led them into the warehouse half of the renovated building. She led them to the door that had been framed into the new temporary wall that had been built especially to create Warehouse Medical.

"When I asked him why. He told me," she opened the door. "That Richard was alive."

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A/N: I've had several comments suggesting that it might be possible to find a way to "fix" Rick without using Hunt's heart to do so. I believe that Castle's journey back to health after such a horrendous accident can be called miraculous. But miracles often come with a price. I'm usually all for happy endings, but it can't always all be fluffy bunnies and rainbows. Sometimes there's some rain before the sun comes out.

All Readers are Appreciated, Review if you wish