Shattered Lies

Chapter 6

Rick points at his plate. "You really should try some of my pork belly, Beckett. It's even more triumphant than it looked on the screen."

"No thanks, Castle. I'll stick with my chicken - lean and mean."

"I suppose that suits the woman consuming it. Even aside from the ongoing legal complications, you seem pretty disturbed by Perlmutter's involvement in Wolf's demise."

"I am, Castle. According to his plea, he didn't inject the poison, but he was an accomplice, however unwilling. After he spent so many years on the right side of the law, it was upsetting to see him cross the line."

"People, even Perlmutter, will do anything for the ones they love. He must not have seen an alternative. And … what the hell?"

A man with a Sig Sauer barges into the dining area at Q3. Castle springs from his chair and throws himself in front of Kate, as the gunman aims his pistol directly at her. As Rick is knocked to the floor by the penetration of a bullet into his chest, Kate pulls her off-duty weapon from her ankle holster and shoots the gunman. The shooter, with a hole in his forehead, crumples to the floor, never to move again.

Grabbing a heavy cloth napkin from the table, Kate falls to her knees, trying to staunch the blood staining the shirt Alexis had carefully selected for her father's big date. "Somebody call 911! Castle, Rick, stay with me, OK. Help is coming. You're going to be all right. Just stay with me."

Rick tries to focus on Kate's face. Her hazel eyes seem to have shifted to emerald green as he stares up at her, but a gray haze is beginning to block his vision. The room fades as sirens scream in the distance.

"Katherine, what the hell happened?" Martha demands as she and Alexis thunder into the waiting area at Bellevue, the nearest trauma hospital to Q3.

Kate's teeth dig into her lip, almost drawing blood. "There was a shooter, and Rick…he, he put himself in front of me. I took out the sonofabitch who pulled the trigger. Rick was the only one hurt, but because I'm not next of kin, the doctors won't tell me anything except that he's in surgery."

Martha's eyes blaze. "Well, they'll sure as hell tell me." She turns to Alexis. "Wait with Katherine while I track down someone who will talk to me."

Alexis shakes her head. "He's my father. I'm going with you."

Ryan and Esposito rush in as Kate paces in misery. Esposito lays his hand on her arm. "Any word yet?"

"Nothing, but Martha is on it."

"Come on, Beckett, sit down," Ryan urges. "It could be a long night."

Kate drops into a chair. "Anything on the shooter?"

"Not officially," Esposito responds, "but the organized crime unit thinks he works for the Spinellis. You ruined Collici's play, Beckett, so they sent someone after you. Montgomery's put a protective detail on you until this all gets sorted out. He thought you might be safer at home under guard, but he knew you weren't about to move from here while Castle's in danger."

"He's right about that. You know it wasn't just the blood, he was barely breathing - like he was dying in front of my eyes. And it should have been me. He jumped right in front of me to take the bullet."

"As you would have done for him," Esposito points out.

"Yeah, but I'm a cop. 'To serve and protect,' right? He wasn't supposed to be protecting me." Kate springs to her feet again. "Martha, what's happening?"

The older woman's hand is tightly interlaced with her granddaughter's. "A resident came out of the operating room to speak with Alexis and me. The surgeons think Richard will be in surgery at least another hour, and it may be several more. The bullet shattered his rib. There are a lot of bone fragments. Some of them collapsed his lung. To eliminate the chance of any other organs being injured, they have to find them all and repair the damage. At least the bullet didn't hit his heart, but he lost a lot of blood. He was very weak by the time the paramedics brought him here. They'll be taking him to ICU from surgery. The surgeon will be able to give me a report then.

"Can I get anyone a coffee or something?" Ryan offers.

Martha's eyes harden. "Just go catch the bastards behind this."

The first word attempting to come out of Rick's mouth when he opens his eyes is Kate's name. He can barely manage a choked "K" sound, but Martha knows what he wants. She's known for two years, from the moment she saw the way he looked at Detective Beckett.

"Katherine is right outside, Richard. I'll get her."

Rick lifts his hand slightly as Kate approaches the side of his bed. Without hesitation she grasps it, gazing down at him. "That was really brave but really stupid putting yourself in front of me that way. Why did you do it, Castle?"

No sound emerges, but his lips form the words, "I love you." He can only hope that Kate understands.

In the private room where Castle has been moved from ICU, there are fewer beeps and whirs, but he can hear the sound of Kate's breathing. She's fallen asleep in the chair where she's spent the last few hours. Alexis and his mother have been there too, but in the mists of semi-consciousness, he thought he heard his mother say something about grabbing food.

Kate is instantly alert at Rick's rasping approximation of her name. "You're awake. I should get Martha and Alexis. They're right down the hall at the vending machines."

Castle reaches for her hand. "In a minute. How long?"

"Since you were shot?"

Rick nods.

"About 36 hours."

"And you stayed with me."

"As much as I could. The boys went to my apartment to get me some things. Ryan enlisted his girlfriend to help. They went to your loft to get clothes and stuff for Martha and Alexis too."

"That was kind of them."

"They wanted to do something. The shooter is dead."

"You killed him."

"But going after the Spinellis who sent him is going to be tough. They've survived in this city for a long time. They know how to protect themselves."

"And you, Kate, do you know how to protect yourself?"

She smooths a few strands of hair from his forehead. "Hey, you don't need to worry about it. Montgomery has a mother hen squad on me 24/7, not to mention the ever watchful eyes of the boys. I'm going to have to work at it to get enough privacy to take a shower - and I need one."

"You're going to get the bad guys, Beckett. We're going to get them."

"You're not going to do anything that doesn't involve being in bed."

Castle wiggles his eyebrows. "Is that an invitation?"

"We'll talk about it when you're on your feet again."

"You just said you wanted me in bed."

"You know you're just as impossible as you were before you got shot."

"Nice to know I haven't lost my touch."

Martha's voice trumpets from the doorway. "Richard, Darling, you're back!"

The best he can while tethered to IV's, Rick holds out his arms to his mother and daughter. As Kate watches them wrap themselves around him in unabashed love, she knows there's something she has to do. Tom will be disappointed when he hears what she has to say, but he's too good a detective to be surprised.