a.n. This chapter was posted simultaneously as I was worried that the ending of that last chapter would drive everyone away. This one is very short.

The twist I've been teasing is here. I hope you like it. Let me know if you saw it coming.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

xxxx

"Kate, you have to wake up!" The voice was right next to her ear, but Kate didn't want to wake up. The world outside was full of horror. In the world outside, she was alone. She remembered the blank look in Castle's eyes. It was the last thing she saw, and it was likely she would remember it for the rest of her life. She didn't want to live. She'd had a second chance and she'd blown it. Alexis. Then Ryan. Javi too. Now Castle. All gone. She'd left one world behind where Castle was dead, now she was living another.

"Kate!" This time the exclamation was accompanied by a shake to the shoulder. Groaning, Kate opened her eyes. The sight before her shocked her almost as much as the cold lifeless eyes she'd seen before she passed out.

Alexis Castle was standing next to her, shaking her shoulder.

"Kate, thank goodness. You need to get up. We found dad outside our door a few minutes ago. He's alive, but pretty banged up. Gram's calling the ambulance."

Kate was confused. They'd found Rick? How was Alexis alive? How did she get back to the loft? What the HELL was going on?

The only thing she could figure out was that it had all be a dream. Her trip back in time had been a figment of her imagination. Could it be? But it seemed so real, she thought, slowly sitting up and swinging her feet over the edge of the bed. But if it was a dream, then how did Castle end up outside the loft? Lanie confirmed his death.

Her head was still foggy as the apparent dream and reality clashed, making it hard for the detective to think clearly.

"Come on, Kate, get dressed. The paramedics will be here soon." With that the redhead rushed out of the room. Kate, still in a stupor, hurried to follow. She had to see this for herself.

xxxx

She'd called Lanie on the way to the hospital. Somehow, someway, Richard Castle was alive, though barely. The man was in bad shape. He had obviously been tortured, and had broken bones, burns, and cuts all over his body. He was also missing a finger.

Kate, after seeing him with her own eyes, ran back to their bedroom and got dressed in time to take Martha to the hospital; Alexis had ridden in the back of the ambulance.

"Hey girl, how are you coping?" was the first words out of her friend's mouth when she answered the phone.

"Lanie, Rick's alive. We're on the way to Presbyterian right now."

"What do you mean, Kate? Rick's gone."

"No Lanie, he's not. Somehow the DNA must have been mixed up. We found him on our doorstep this morning. He's in bad shape, but he's breathing. And it's definitely him. I'd recognize those eyes of his anywhere."

There was silence on the line for several minutes before Lanie replied, "Okay, let me call the boys. Something fishy is going on."

With that they ended the call, and Kate continued to make her way towards the hospital. Her mind, however, was having problems. It seemed just hours before that they'd been in that alley under gunfire. But it also seemed just hours before that Lanie had confirmed his death after an apparent car accident.

What's real? She asked herself desperately.

xxxx

Sitting in the waiting room, Kate thought back on her 'dream.' She could see now that she was more awake, that there were things that just didn't make sense. For example, the way things before she had been sent back in time had been changed, like Alexis' death and the differences in her mother's murder. She also recognized Jessica as her hair stylist, something she hadn't realized while she was dreaming.

Other things just didn't add up, and that was what really convinced Kate that her trip back in time, her second chance, had been nothing but a fabrication of her overtired mind. Given how it had ended up, Kate was glad that it hadn't been real.

Kate, Alexis and Martha had been waiting in the waiting room for hours, and she was getting antsy. The boys and Lanie had been by, but had left to continue investigating. Someone was dead in the morgue, and somehow the DNA had been switched making them all think that Richard Castle was dead when he had really been kidnapped and tortured.

Whatever had happened had caused them all a lot of grief, and still might cause them more. Kate sat worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, trying to contain the tears that had been threatening to fall ever since she woke up that morning. Her emotions were all over the place, part of her still residing in the dream which had turned into anything but, another part of her still unable to believe that Castle was alive.

She was brought out of her thoughts by a voice calling the family's name.

The three of them stood up and approached the doctor who had come out of the stereotypical double doors.

"Mr. Castle sustained numerous injuries, though none are life threatening. We've wrapped his chest as he has three broken and cracked ribs, we've put both his arms in casts and set the bones, and done likewise with his right leg. He has a mild concussion, but in the grand scheme of things, it's relatively minor. We'll keep him overnight and as long as nothing happens overnight, we'll release him tomorrow."

The three women all had looks of relief on their faces. Given how bad the man had looked, they were all very happy that the injuries he had suffered were relatively minor.

"Can we see him," Kate asked, through happy tears.

"In an hour or so," the doctor replied. "We'll move him to a private room, then I'll send someone to come get you." With that the man returned back through the doors. The three women looked at each other, then came together in a group hug, all very happy that the man that resided at the center of their lives was going to be okay and would hopefully be with them for a long while.

Kate was exceedingly happy. This was her second chance, for real this time. The man she loved was alive. They could get married, have kids and grow old together. She vowed that she would live the rest of her life with as few regrets as possible. She wouldn't waste another minute of their always.

xxxx

a.n.2. Yes, this is an astoundingly short chapter. But the next one will contain the answer to 'what the hell happened to Castle!' Two more chapters to go, likely.

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