Flu
Chapter 2
Rick checks the digital readout on his top-of-the-line thermometer. Your fever is down to 101, but that's after taking Tylenol, so I don't know how good that is.
Kate coughs again before getting out a hoarse response. "Babe, it's only been a couple of hours since I took that prescription the doctor gave me. You can't expect much this fast."
"I know," Rick admits. "I just don't like to see you miserable, that's all."
Kate points at the screen. "Now that's miserable. Angela Cannon thinks Joseph Fox is cheating on her."
"He probably is," Castle considers. "My mother was on that show once. Her character caught his eye, and whatever other parts of him they could show on the screen."
Kate's jaw drops, and she coughs again before she can answer. "Martha knows Lance Hastings? She never said a word."
"Kate, Mother's probably had a hundred leading men and known thousands of actors over her career. She usually doesn't talk about them unless they're in some kind of trouble or come back into her life. But if you have questions about Hastings or the show, I'm sure she'd be happy to answer them. And if you eat some wonderful, if outrageously overpriced chicken soup, you might even have enough energy to ask her."
Kate rasps a sigh. "All right. Bring me the soup. You're beginning to remind me of my father."
"All the age stuff that's been coming up aside, I'll take that as a compliment. Just don't expect me to start going to baseball games," Rick adds.
"As long as you don't ask me to dress up as Boba Fett."
"Point taken. I'll get you a bowl."
Despite three empty chairs at the massive mahogany table, James (Jimmy) Spinelli holds a council. "Everything I hear from our capos tells me that a lot of the cops are off the street."
"A lot of our guys are off the street, too," Vic Fratelli points out. "same with the other families. This bug is hitting everyone."
"But you strike while the enemy is weak," Jimmy insists, "and we've had a chance handed to us on a silver platter. If we unite with the other families, even one or two of them, we can rebuild some of the operations the cops have been tearing apart. The Cardanos are in bad shape, but I set up a meeting with Dino Scarpella. Now's the time to make a big push."
"What about the rest?" Vic queries.
"I want to see how things work out with Scarpella. I heard on the news this flu is supposed to be around for months. That gives us time to put our roots in deep before the cops can stop us."
As she comes through the front door, Alexis eyes the barriers Rick set up across the loft. "Dad, what's all this?"
"Kate's got the flu, and I don't want you to catch it, Sweetheart," Castle explains. "The doctor thought you should stay away from her and wash your hands a lot. I thought this would make it easier."
Alexis rolls her eyes. "Dad, I spend the day working in a lab. When I'm not wearing gloves, I'm always washing my hands. But fine. I was going to be up in my room studying anyway. How's Kate doing?"
"Not great, but she's sleeping, and I'm hoping the stuff the doctor gave her will kick in. Want some dinner to take upstairs?"
"I ate with the techs at the lab. Let me know if I can do anything for Kate, OK?"
"Sure, Pumpkin. Thanks."
Rick grabs his laptop out of his office. He settles on the bed next to Kate with the computer across his thighs. He can remember doing something similar with Alexis when she had a bad strep throat, and he wanted to watch over her but was up against a deadline. Good thing he doesn't make his money digging ditches, or for that matter doing police work. He can be where he wants and needs to be. Maybe later, he'll even catch some sleep himself.
When Kate's coughing wakes Rick up, he can feel the heat coming off her body. Even without the thermometer, he knows her fever is worse but hurries to get a reading anyway. The device says 104. The list of instructions from Health Services burned itself into his brain the first time he read it, but he went over it twice more anyway. A fever that high means a trip to the emergency room. Grabbing his watch from the nightstand, he checks the time – 2 a.m. He's not about to wake Alexis, or his mother either – if she's in yet. As soon as he pulls on some clothes, and puts some on Kate, he'll leave a note. He can drive his Ferrari. At least, at this time of night, he can take some advantage of its speed.
The emergency room is even more crowded than Health Services was, but Kate's fever gets her close to the front of the line. A doctor shakes his head when he listens to her lungs and checks her oxygen saturation. The medic turns to Castle. "I'm going to admit her. I'll have someone take her upstairs as soon as we have a bed for her. Will you be handling the paperwork?"
Rick's eyes flick between the doctor and Kate. "Yeah, sure, of course, but I don't want to leave her alone."
Behind a mask, the doctor's eyes hint at a tired smile. "You can stay with her. The clerk has the computer on a cart. She'll bring it to you."
"Right," Castle responds as the man is already moving on toward another patient.
Martha catches Alexis's worried expression as she takes an early morning walk of shame toward the kitchen. "What's wrong?"
"Dad took Kate to the hospital last night. I checked, they're not back. I was just about to text him." Alexis's thumbs fly over her phone.
The ding of a text alert rouses Rick from a half-slumber. Of course, Alexis is up, and she says Mother is with her. Despite his wordsmithing skills, he's at a loss for what to say. He doesn't want to worry anyone too much, but on the other hand, his wife is on oxygen. The truth is always the best, and as Rick recounts the doctor's words, he imagines Alexis will understand them at least as well as he does. He checks the time as he sends his message. He really should call Jim Beckett, but it's too early. He quickly sets an alarm to remind himself to do it in a couple of hours. Maybe he'll have better news by then. He hopes so. The last time a nurse checked in on Kate, she didn't look too cheery.
Rick decides to send one more message to Alexis, asking if she can bring him his laptop before she goes to the lab. He doesn't feel much like writing, but it will be a distraction from some of his darker thoughts. For now, at least, he can make things go better for Nikki and Rook than they are for him and Kate. And he knows that in his books, things will eventually work out for Nikki and Rook, no matter how many hurdles they have to leap to make Black Pawn happy. He only hopes that real life will work out as well. It has to. Who can kick ass better than Kate Beckett? The stupid flu virus doesn't stand a chance. The sudden shimmering of Johanna Beckett into the room is not reassuring. She's only allowed to come back to Earth when Kate's in grave danger.