AN: Caskett Appreciation Week 2020 prompt 6: Flashback/create your own parallel.
It's been a long, long day. The day had actually started yesterday at 5 in the morning. A man had been murdered in his store, which luckily had security cameras. This meant that they had lots of good leads from the get-go but it also meant that there was no room to go home for a quick nap or even take a little breather.
After they had closed the case in record-time, Kate Beckett had grabbed her jacket, not daring to stay long enough for the phone to ring again, and had left the precinct. She is currently soaking in her tub at home, bubbles all around her, a glass of delicious red wine in her hand and a book on the table next to her. The perfect way to relax before finally getting into bed.
This feels so good, she thinks and relaxes a little further into the water. She takes a sip of the wine, a proven way to calm her down. The fact that she dribbles a bit means that she probably has had enough of it by now.
She traces the drop of wine from her lips down her neck to her chest before it can hit the water. She stops it in its track right before it hits the scar on her chest. Her fingers fall to it. She keeps forgetting it's there. It's not like the one on her side that tends to bother her when she strains too much during a sparring match or starts to itch when she's wearing that particular wool sweater that irritates it.
But this one does bring back the trauma. Feeling the punch to her chest. Falling over. Her back hitting the grass. The commotion rising around her. Castle. The world going black.
She remembers how seeing that scar in the mirror when getting dressed in the morning would send her panicking. She would feel the world closing in on her, breathing becoming harder and harder in that moment. She'd had a couple of those flashes at work too in the beginning, which in turn would flare up her anxiety. She had spent a good year being paranoid with every step she took, every corner she turned, and every random bang - oh so common in New York City - she heard.
But therapy has helped a lot. And so have the boys, especially Esposito. And now, Castle. How every time he touches her, it's a reassurance of how she's alive, how strong she is, of how much of a survivor she is. He has always been a grounding force to her but the past couple months have solidified that feeling for her.
She lifts her hand from its spot on her chest and sighs. As the physical scars heal, so do the emotional ones.