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Silence had fallen again in the surgical waiting room. Esposito and Ryan were both pacing back and forth, back and forth, across the worn gray carpeting. Jenny called her parents to check on Sarah Grace and Nicholas, both of whom were doing fine, and regretfully informed her mother that there was no news on their friends yet. Gates was drumming her fingertips on the arm of her hard plastic chair in a rhythmless tattoo that did not get on anyone's nerves only because they were all near the point of critical mass but still far enough away from that point that they would not start fighting among themselves over little annoyances. Jim Beckett was slumped forward in his seat, clasped hands dangling between his knees, silently pleading with Johanna, the Almighty, and the world in general to let Katie and Rick be all right. Alexis, having pretty much planned the party as much as she could, was now mentally redoing the entire kitchen area of the loft, and vowing that as soon as she had her dad and Kate's permission, she'd have the whole room completely changed before they went home so that the room did not serve as a trigger for any of them, herself included. Martha had run out of pep talks and was sitting in silence, the only thought in her head that Richard and Katherine simply had to come out of this alive, and holding hands with Alexis, who was lost in her mental kitchen remodel.
Lanie had been quietly texting back and forth, on and off, with Alan, and suddenly she exclaimed, "Oh, hell, that's the last thing we need right now!"
"What?" Lanie couldn't keep straight exactly how many people asked that question, almost all at the same time.
She held up her phone even though they couldn't read the screen. "This text I just got from Alan: 'Some redhead named Meredith claiming to be Castle's first ex-wife just crashed a press conference that a woman named Gina, who says she's Castle's publisher, is holding outside the hospital. It's getting ugly. Thought you'd want to know.'"
Alexis's mood jumped from worried and preoccupied straight to enraged. "Are you freaking kidding me right now?" she exclaimed before jumping up and charging out of the surgical waiting room.
"Alexis, wait!" Martha shouted, heading after her.
Lanie texted a quick thank you to Alan, then shoved her phone in her pocket. "Oh, it is on now!" she exclaimed, hurrying after Martha and Alexis.
Sighing, Gates got to her feet as well. "Detectives, if you'd accompany me, please? Mr. Beckett, Mrs. Ryan, I'd like to ask you to wait here, and one of you come and get us if there is any news about Captain Beckett and Mr. Castle."
"Of course." "Absolutely." Jim and Jenny answered in unison.
By the time Gates, Esposito, and Ryan got outside, Martha had a firm grip on Lanie's arm, and Alexis was charging into the middle of the shouting match Gina and Meredith were putting on for the television cameras. "What is the meaning of this?" Alexis shrieked at the top of her lungs so she could be heard over the bickering women.
"One of my top authors was shot and is fighting for his life," Gina said, "and she's trying to horn in on my press conference!"
"My only concern is for Richard's well-being!" Meredith insisted with a wide-eyed innocence that even the tabloid reporters knew was phony.
"Bull. You're trying to use the shooting to sell more books!" Alexis shouted at Gina disgustedly. "That is so..." She had to think for several seconds before settling on words that said exactly how she felt about Gina's tactics. "...tawdry and sleazy."
Gina shrugged unapologetically. "Sleaze sells," she said.
"That woman has deserved a smack in the face since she went waltzing out of the precinct with Castle for that summer in the Hamptons! I could take her with one hand tied behind my back," Lanie insisted, but Martha refused to release her.
"I'm sure you could, and yes, it would be satisfying," Martha agreed, "until she had you arrested for assault."
"Dr. Parrish, stand down," Gates ordered. Lanie reluctantly relaxed her coiled-spring stance, but Martha didn't let go of her arm.
"And what are you even doing here?" Alexis asked, turning to Meredith now, all the while being careful not to identify Meredith as her mother. "And don't say you came here for me, because we both know that's not true."
"Now Alexis, I know you're scared and worried," Meredith began placatingly, "but I have a right to be here. Richard and I were married, after all."
"He is married to Kate," Alexis said through clenched teeth. "You don't need to be here at all. This is family only."
"They're not family!" Meredith said, waving a hand in the general direction of Ryan, Esposito, Gates, and Lanie.
"They're more family than you will ever be!" Alexis retorted. Then, after taking a fortifying deep breath, she turned to face all the cameras and reporters directly, waiting until after they had stopped repeatedly shouting "Who are you?" before speaking. "We have no information to release at this time on the conditions of Richard Castle and Katherine Beckett. When there is information, the NYPD will hold a press conference."
"That's right," Gates announced, wading into the fray both literally and figuratively, and standing beside Alexis. "In the meantime, I ask that all of you disperse as quickly and quietly as possible, and you will be notified by me personally on the conditions of Captain Beckett and Mr. Castle at a press conference to be announced at a later time."
"And who, exactly, are you?" asked an obnoxious reporter from TMZ.
"I am Deputy Chief Victoria Gates of the NYPD," Gates replied, giving the TMZ reporter such a steely glare that he actually backed away. "And this is a hospital, not a circus. You are in the way of people who need to use this entrance for far more important, life-and-death reasons."
Esposito and Ryan, with help from some of the uniforms from the 12th, began herding the crowd of reporters and camerapeople away then. Meredith and Gina both tried to follow the exiting media crowd, but they were not fast enough to escape Deputy Chief Gates. "Not so fast, you two," she said. Before either woman knew what was happening, Gates had Meredith by one arm and Gina by the other and had hauled them around the corner of the building, with Alexis, Martha, and Lanie in hot pursuit.
"Ladies," Gates began, "and I use that term extremely loosely, here is what's going to happen next. The two of you are going to leave. Now. You have no business here. Miss Castle is right. Neither of you are family, and don't try to tell me that 'ex-wife' counts, because it does not, not when Mr. Castle has a wife who is in there with him. 'Publisher' does not count either." She regarded Gina coolly and said in a no-nonsense, no-fools-suffered tone, "You can pedal your sleaze to try and drive up your book sales all you want, Madam Publisher, but you will not do it outside this hospital.
"As for you," Gates continued, looking at and addressing Meredith in the same manner as Gina now, "my guess would be that you're here to try and get your own name in the headlines in some pathetic attempt to further your own career, or some other such selfish motive. If you had any consideration at all for your daughter's feelings, you would either be trying to comfort her, or you wouldn't have shown up here at all."
"I have plenty of consideration for my daughter's feelings," Meredith bristled.
"Oh, really?" Alexis asked, finally finding her voice as a dam burst inside her and things she had felt for years finally came pouring out. "Yes, you're so considerate of my feelings that you didn't bother to show up for my high-school graduation, where I was the valedictorian! I was kidnapped three years ago! Where were you then? Doing some movie that was so horrible it makes Ishtar look like Casablanca? Or hanging out on the casting couch, trying to get any available part coming down the pike? Because you weren't here! You didn't come after me! You weren't there to console Dad and Gram, and you weren't waiting in the living room when Dad brought me home! All of my college ups and downs...relationship highs and lows...my internship with Dr. Parrish...You have missed all of that!
"But do you know who was here for all of that, besides Dad and Gram? Kate! Kate was here for all of that! Well, okay, not my high-school graduation, but all the rest of it!" Alexis gave Meredith such a harsh, appraising look from head to toe that it took all of Meredith's willpower not to squirm. "I've gone to Kate for advice on everything from studying abroad to college tests. She was waiting in the living room with Gram and hugs when Dad brought me home after I was kidnapped! She stopped at nothing to bring Dad back to us when he was missing! She has quizzed me before exams, and she encourages me in so many ways about so many things. She went to the Hayley Blue tribute concert with Dad and me. Kate Beckett has been more of a mother to me in the last eight years than you've been my entire life! Kate has more integrity, class, character, and empathy in her little finger," here Alexis waved her left pinkie wildly in the air, "than you will ever have in your entire body! And she doesn't know half of what I feel about her, because I never came right out and said it! She and Dad are in there fighting for their lives, and she doesn't know...neither one of them knows...that Kate means almost as much to me as she does to Dad! So I don't have time for your self-absorbed, flighty antics today! Not when my family and our future is on the line like this!" Alexis then turned her back on Meredith.
Everything was silent for a long moment. It was impossible for Martha to hide her pride in Alexis for finally standing up to Meredith, as she realized that Alexis was right, and Katherine had been more of a mother to Alexis than Meredith had ever been, or could ever be. Lanie, Ryan, and Esposito were proud of Alexis too, for taking up for Kate, because they all knew that if Kate Beckett were out here, she would have responded to Meredith, and to Gina too, for that matter, similarly to the way Alexis had just done...which was just further proof, not that any of them needed it, of the depth of Kate's influence on Alexis's life.
Finally Gates broke the silence. "I believe Miss Castle has made her feelings abundantly clear to both of you, as have I. Detectives Esposito and Ryan!"
They were there in an instant. "Yes, sir?" Esposito asked.
"I want you to take these two ladies," Gates gestured to Meredith and Gina, "to hospital security so they can get a description of the two of them. And make sure all of the officers from the 12th get a good description of them as well, because if either one of them returns, they are not allowed within 50 feet of the premises under any circumstances by direct order of 1 PP."
"Yes, sir," Ryan said. He went over to collect Gina, leaving poor Esposito stuck with Meredith.
"You handled yourself very well there, Miss Castle," Gates told Alexis after Ryan and Esposito had removed Gina and Meredith from the scene.
"Thank you," Alexis said quietly, faintly.
Martha and Lanie came over then. "Good for you, kiddo," Martha told her granddaughter, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling Alexis against her side.
"I just couldn't take it anymore," Alexis said, pushing her hair off her forehead. "Neither one of them was here because they give a damn about Dad or Kate. It's all about them. Gina just wants to use the shooting," Alexis choked on that word but kept talking, "to get more publicity for Dad's books, and..." She couldn't make herself say the word 'Mom' so she said, "...and you-know-who is just out for herself, as usual." She looked at Martha, Lanie, and Gates then. "I meant what I said back there, about Kate."
"None of us doubts that for a second," Lanie assured Alexis.
Alexis swallowed hard now. "But Kate doesn't know. And neither does Dad. There have been times over the years that I've pretty awful to and about Kate. And the thought that I might never get to tell her how I really feel about her..." Alexis trailed off, her fear for her father and Kate returning to the surface with a vengeance.
"Kate will understand," Lanie assured Alexis. "After all, it took her four years to tell your dad how she really feels about him."
"I just really hope I get the chance to tell them," Alexis whispered.
"You will," Gates said firmly. "Captain Beckett and your father are masters at beating the odds. You'll have plenty of time to tell them everything you want to tell them for many years to come, Miss Castle."
"Why don't we get back inside?" Martha suggested. Lanie quickly agreed with her, and the quartet of women returned to the surgical waiting room.
"Castle calling that woman a deep-fried Twinkie was an underestimate," Esposito was complaining when the women walked into the surgical waiting room.
"He also said she was crazy," Ryan reminded him.
"Yeah, well, he got that part right," Esposito said.
Before anyone could say anything else, Dr. Gallison entered the surgical waiting room, and everyone who wasn't already standing rose to their feet, looking at him with expressions on their faces ranging from deep worry (the Ryans, Esposito, Gates, and Lanie) to outright naked terror (Alexis, Martha, and Jim). "Kate and Rick are both out of surgery and in Recovery. They are both in critical but stable condition," he announced.
"Are they going to live?" Alexis blurted, unable to stand the uncertainty any longer and unwilling to listen to this doctor, as accommodating as he had been so far, couching all of his words in a way that he wouldn't be making any promises he would be unable to keep and opening himself and/or the hospital up to a malpractice suit.
"They did give us a bit of a scare for a couple of minutes there toward the end of their respective surgeries," Dr. Gallison replied, "but their vital signs are stronger and steadier than they've been since their arrival here. All indications are that Ms. Beckett and Mr. Castle will both make full recoveries."
The amount of exhaled air in the room at Dr. Gallison's last sentence was a gale force wind. Alexis and Martha sagged against each other in relief. Ryan wrapped one arm around Jenny and the other around Esposito. Jim didn't even try to hide the tears of relief in his eyes as he silently thanked God and Johanna for sparing Katie and Rick's lives. Lanie was smiling through her tears, and Gates had never felt so relieved in a professional capacity in all her years with the NYPD.
"So how are they doing, really?" Martha asked.
"They're still under sedation, and they'll be here with us for a while, but they were both very lucky," Dr. Gallison replied. "Ms. Beckett's biggest issue will likely be with her hip. The bullet lodged in her hipbone but did not cause a break, although she will require physical therapy for the hip. She will have abdominal pain for some time following the removal of the spleen, and those three broken ribs will have to heal on their own.
"In a way, her recovery should be easier than Mr. Castle's, however. Thankfully, the nick to his internal thoracic artery was not as serious as it could have been, but the bullet he took was lodged in one of his intercostal muscles. To put it in layman's terms, the intercostal muscles move and form the chest wall, and are mainly involved in the mechanical aspect of breathing. These are the muscles that help expand and shrink the size of the chest cavity to facilitate breathing."
Lanie, being an M.E., and Alexis, with her work with Lanie and some of her Columbia courses, understood the magnitude of what Dr. Gallison was and was not saying better than the others. "What, exactly, does that mean, Doctor?" Jim Beckett asked.
"It means that in addition to physical therapy, Mr. Castle will need to see a respiratory therapist. His right lung collapsed and had to be reinflated. The lung itself was not actually compromised by the bullet or any bone fragments, but breathing is going to be painful for Mr. Castle for quite some time. Respiratory therapy in addition to the physical therapy will aid with that.
"As for Ms. Beckett, she'll need physical therapy, of course. Her broken ribs will heal in about six weeks, but because of the amount of internal bleeding and the bullet lodged in the spleen, we couldn't perform her splenectomy laparoscopically. We had to cut her open to remove it and repair the internal bleeding and damage, which will mean a longer stay here, and a longer recovery time than if she had been able to have a laparoscopic splenectomy. They'll both be here in the hospital for at least a week, maybe as much as ten days. It will be six weeks before either of them can resume normal activities, with the exception of physical and respiratory therapy. We'll want to get them both started on that as soon as possible. They'll begin here, and then continue on an outpatient basis once they are discharged.
"We've already started them both on post-op antibiotics to prevent infection, and we've also started Mr. Castle on the shots he'll need to prevent blood clots from forming. We'll want to get him up and moving as soon as possible, provided there are no complications, and he'll start his respiratory therapy here in, hopefully, a couple of days' time, and then, as I said, continue it on an outpatient basis. They will both need physical therapy, Kate to regain strength in her abdominal muscles and to deal with the effects of the bullet and the surgery on her hip, and Rick to regain strength in his chest muscles and perhaps to help with the range of motion in his right shoulder. He'll need to be awake for us to perform the necessary tests to determine if his range of motion in his right shoulder and upper arm have been affected and to what extent."
"Kate's been down this road before, Doctor," Jim said then. "My daughter is in good health generally, and she runs, jogs, for exercise, in addition to working out at the gym."
"She really gives the punching bag a workout," Ryan said then. "With both her fists and her feet."
"That's going to be very helpful," Dr. Gallison replied. "Motivation is key in situations like this. They're being monitored closely, and they will be moved to ICU from Recovery in a couple of hours."
"Is there any way you can put them in a room together?" Alexis asked.
"I know they're married, but that's not usually how we do things," Dr. Gallison replied.
"Doc, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble if you put them in the same room," Esposito piped up then. "Trust us on this. If you don't put them together, you're just gonna have them going to each other's rooms."
"They aren't in any condition to do that," Dr. Gallison pointed out.
"It won't stop them from doing it anyway," Lanie replied. "You don't know Kate and Castle like we do, Dr. Gallison. Stitches, IV lines, oxygen masks, morphine dispensers... They won't care about any of that. These two will crawl to each other, popping every one of their stitches and dragging miles of IV line behind them, and forgetting the pain meds completely, if they have to, if there's no other way for them to get to each other's side, and that would just set the recovery process for both of them back."
"I concur with Dr. Parrish," Gates said then. She moved forward to speak to the doctor. "Deputy Chief Victoria Gates, NYPD," she said by way of introduction as she showed Dr. Gallison her badge. "Doctor, in Mr. Castle you have a man who let himself be bait to catch a serial killer once and for all because the man's accomplice had taken Captain Beckett and was holding her hostage; a man who, when she was standing on a live bomb and the Bomb Squad made him evacuate the building, and Beckett herself even told him to go, he left, but he returned not five minutes later and refused to leave her again as long as there was a chance her life could be saved. Stitches and oxygen masks won't even register with him. All he is going to care about is being at his wife's side, the same as he did when she was standing on that bomb, and when she was being held hostage by a serial killer's equally psychotic accomplice.
"As for Captain Beckett, if the first thing she sees when she opens her eyes is not her husband..." Gates trailed off, then shook her head slowly. "God help you and your staff, is all I can say."
"And she was their boss for four years, so she certainly knows whereof she speaks, Doctor," Martha chimed in then.
Dr. Gallison surveyed the group before him, a bemused expression on his face. "I must say, this is highly unorthodox," he said.
"You don't know Beckett and Castle. Everything about them is highly unorthodox," Ryan said.
Alexis took a moment to consider, and then decided she had to play the trump card here if it meant her dad and Kate could recover in the same room. "Being a doctor, a surgeon, you probably don't have much time for reading," she began, "but are you aware that you have a couple of celebrities in your Recovery room right now? My father is Richard Castle, the mystery writer, creator of the Derrick Storm and Nikki Heat series of books. And Kate Beckett is my stepmother and the inspiration for Nikki Heat, but more importantly, she is a highly decorated member of the NYPD. Surely you would be willing to make an exception for them, given the special circumstances here. A New York Times best-selling author and his highly decorated NYPD Captain wife merit a few broken rules, wouldn't you say?"
Dr. Gallison tilted his head, considering for a moment, before he answered. "Very well. I'll go and make the necessary preparations and brief my ICU staff. I'll be back after we've gotten Ms. Beckett and Mr. Castle settled in a room in ICU."
After Dr. Gallison departed, Esposito said, "Well played, Little Castle."
"I was ready to donate a wing to the hospital in Dad's name if the 'celebrity author and decorated NYPD captain' card didn't work," Alexis admitted. "Luckily I didn't have to go that far."
"Your father would have understood, kiddo," Martha said, pulling her granddaughter against her once more, "and he would have applauded your efforts."
"Right now, I just want him and Kate to wake up and be okay," Alexis replied, and everyone else silently agreed with her.
A couple of hours later, Kate and Rick were settled in the same ICU room together, both still unconscious. Since the rule was two visitors at a time, everyone agreed to take turns going in to see them...except that Alexis, Martha, and Jim all wanted to go in first, and Gates, of all people, said, "The three of you, go ahead. You have five lookouts here who will make sure you're not interrupted, but you'd better be quick about at least this first visit." So with their quintet of lookouts strategically placed between the ICU waiting room and the hall outside Kate and Rick's room, Alexis, Martha and Jim all three squeezed into the room at the same time for their first visit.
"Daddy, we're here," Alexis said as she took her father's hand in hers. He looked so pale, a ventilator with a breathing tube down his throat to help him breathe after the trauma of the bullet in his chest, which caused his collapsed lung, followed by the surgery to remove the bullet, repair the damage to his intercostal muscle, and re-inflate his lung, in effect giving his chest and just-reinflated lung as much rest as possible by letting the machine do the work of breathing for him for now, as Lanie had reassured Alexis before Alexis had gone inside the ICU room, when she had worried aloud about the ventilator increasing her father's chances of an infection or, worse, a blood clot.
Rick looked smaller than Alexis had ever seen him, dwarfed by the ventilator and all the other machines surrounding his bedside, his form so still and pale, completely silent and unmoving in the hospital bed. He hadn't been silent or unmoving when they were reunited at the hospital after he was missing the summer before last. Alexis wasn't used to her father being silent and unmoving at all, or looking so pale and small. She tried to be reassured by the heart monitor's steady, consistent beeping, but the ventilator scared her deeply. She held his hand in both of hers, and though his hand was warm, it was also limp, the effects of the shooting and the anesthesia completely knocking him out. He'd had so much blood loss. He was going to need respiratory therapy. She felt more tears welling up in her eyes and wondered dimly if she had ever cried this much in her life in one day.
"Keep fighting, Katie," Jim quietly urged his daughter as he held her hand with one hand and stroked her hair gently with the other. "You're doing great. And we're all here, all of your friends and family, and we're going to get you and Rick through this. I love you, Katie."
She too was pale, though perhaps not quite as pale as her husband, and Jim was fighting the tidal wave of memories of seeing Kate in similar condition after being shot at Captain Montgomery's funeral several years prior. Surrounded by machines, Jim tried to find comfort in the steady rhythm of his daughter's heartbeat, but Kate was way too still for Jim's liking. All of her life, she was always on the move. Seeing her rendered unconscious and in the ICU by two more bullets, then looking at the bed across the room and seeing the man his daughter loved more than life itself in a near-identical state, made Jim angry and relieved all at the same time: angry that this was happening again, that it had happened to both Katie and Rick this time, but relieved that they were still alive, that they had a fighting chance. He couldn't think beyond getting them both back on their feet again right now. His brain couldn't wrap itself around the concept of them eventually returning to the 12th Precinct, or stumbling across something else along the lines of Bracken and his conspiracy to murder Johanna, or LokSat, and something like this happening to one or both of them yet again. Neither his mind nor his heart could stand the thought.
So to keep what sanity remained in him on this terrible day, Jim merely sat at his daughter's bedside, holding her hand and stroking her hair and assuring her over and over that he loved her and that their family and friends would get her and Rick through their recoveries.
"Richard, darling, you and Katherine are safe now, and you're going to be all right," Martha said, just as disturbed as Alexis at the sight of Richard lying unmoving in that bed, so pale, hooked up to so many machines. He hadn't looked this bad when they'd found him after he'd gone missing the summer after he and Katherine were supposed to have gotten married. Of course he didn't. He hadn't been shot then, Martha chided herself. Since Alexis was on Richard's right side, Martha was standing on his left side, and she took his left hand in hers, frowning when she noticed something very important was missing. "His ring," she blurted suddenly. "Where is Richard's wedding ring?"
"They would have taken it off of him in the ER," Jim said, looking over at Martha from his perch at Kate's bedside. "Katie's not wearing her ring either, or her watch. The nurses have them somewhere."
"Well, this won't do. This won't do at all," Martha said firmly. "When they wake up, they're going to want their wedding rings."
"I'm sure they will," Jim said. "And they'll let us know that." Jim looked back at Kate once more, still pale and unmoving. She was receiving oxygen from a nasal cannula instead of a ventilator like Rick, but they were alive, and they would be okay. They had to be. "I fully expect you to demand your wedding ring back as soon as you realize you're not wearing it, Katie," Jim addressed his daughter then. "And when you do, we'll make sure you and Rick get your rings back right away."
Just then, Lanie opened the door a crack and stuck her head in. "Dr. Gallison's coming this way!" she hissed.
Martha and Alexis both hurriedly bent and kissed Castle, Martha catching one of his cheeks, leaving a smear of lipstick, and Alexis dropping a kiss on the crown of her father's head. Jim leaned down and kissed Kate's forehead.
Jim and Martha headed for the door then, but Alexis crossed the room to Kate's bedside. She regarded her stepmother's still, pale form, then leaned down and brushed a kiss against her cheek. "Thank you for saving Dad," she whispered. "Come back to us, Kate. We can't do this without you. Dad especially." A tear fell from her eye and landed on Kate's chin. Kate had no reaction whatsoever, so deeply unconscious was she, but somewhere in her brain, Alexis's last words registered.
"Come back to us, Kate. We can't do this without you. Dad especially."
And even in her unconscious state, her muddled brain registered the meaning of the words but not that it was Alexis who had said them, and Kate silently answered. "I will always come back to Castle. I need him."
