A little longer than I preferred. Have a lot to finish. Enjoy.

Chapter 5

29 Palms Marine Training Base29 Palms, CA

After his one-word conversation with Beckett, Castle was whisked into the Marine hospital and examined. The doctor walked out of the exam room shaking his head, amazed that anyone, let alone three people, could have survived such a horrific event.

Once the trio were given immediate treatment, they would be transferred to a civilian facility but until then they were the responsibility of the USMC. There was a total news blackout pending notification of next of kin but the flacks from TransCon had already been in contact with the Base and were demanding access.

New York
The Loft

Lanie was worried about Kate's reaction to the Major's phone call. Instead of the joy she'd expected, it was more like subdued grief and apprehension.

Lanie had spent the night at the loft keeping an eye on her friend who had slipped into an exhausted sleep within minutes of her arrival. Beckett had sobbed her way through a disjointed story of how she'd jumped to conclusions and ended up killing her future. Lanie had struggled to understand Kate but finally just gave up and rubbed circles on her back until she fell asleep.

She fell asleep herself but was awakened by Beckett's phone. She watched Kate lurch, only half awake, to the table where she'd left it and then answer and collapse again into a sobbing mess on the nearest chair, muttering 'he's alive' and thrusting the phone into her hands.

Kate had taken a shower, dressed in one of Castle's pullovers and her own jeans and was busy trying to find out how to get to 29 Palms, California and the USMC Training Base located just on the outskirts of town.

The Major had no idea of Castle's medical condition and when Lanie had pressed her for details the woman had simply stated that he and two other survivors had been airlifted out of a mountainous region and that he had demanded a cell phone once he'd regained consciousness. She was not a medic or physician and handled Public Information for the base.

Lanie made coffee and took two cups with her into Castle's office. "Here. Any luck finding us a way out to this 29 Palms place?"

"It's in the Mojave Desert. It's about 50 miles from Palm Springs. Once I get to Palm Springs, I rent a car and drive to the base. 29 Palms is 60 miles or so from Palm Springs."

"Kate, I said 'we', not 'you'. I'm going with you if only to translate the medical jargon and explain what's going on with him. I can get nothing from the Major. She's just a public relations officer."

"Lanie – what if he – what if he won't forgive me? What if he wants to end it? I was so cruel and I never gave him a chance to explain. What if he won't forgive me?"

"Like that's even a remote possibility? This is Richard Castle we're talking about here. You'll need to call his agent and have her get something out to the press and also have her update those folks looking for his mom and Alexis."

"Yeah. And I need to call – I need to call Natalie. She deserves to know. And she can take care of the film end of this. Yeah."

"Maybe I'd better talk to Rhodes. You need to call Paula and stop the damned rumor mill and press from turning this into a 3-ring circus."

"Yeah. We're going to need nurses and special equipment – "

"Kate, we don't even know the extent of his injuries. Let's hold off on buying a hospital until we know that, okay?"

"Yeah. I got to call Paula." She hurried from the room and into Rick's office to make her calls. She was uncomfortable with calling Natalie Rhodes but owed the woman something for her candor and honesty about what really happened in L.A. She couldn't believe she'd overlooked something as fundamental as the time difference and had just assumed that it was late and that they'd been making the beast with two backs all night. It had been 1am in New York when she'd called – not 1am in L.A. Just one more stupid move on her part.

"Paula, Kate Beckett. Listen – he's alive!" The rest of the conversation had to be done in spurts since both women were overcome with joy and Paula had to ask 'are you sure?' at least 10 times.

She hung up and leaned back in his desk chair. She organized her thoughts and then dialed Natalie Rhodes' number from her list. It rang and went to voice mail and she cursed and redialed several times until finally she answered.

"What, Beckett? Calling to twist the knife? Jesus, you are a piece of work, Katherine. I can't believe – "

"Natalie, Rick's alive! I got a call and he said my name and then some Marine officer took the phone away and told me there were survivors. He's at 29 Palms Marine Training Base. Lanie and I are flying out there just as soon as we can get a flight to L.A. and then a connection to Palm Springs. He's alive!"

The call had gone better than Kate had expected or deserved. Natalie offered to handle the press on the West Coast and the studio's flacks would arrange anything she needed in the way of medical transportation. "This whole thing is a miracle and they'll play it up really big in the press but I can guarantee you privacy. Castle's clout is pretty big and they won't want to risk offending any of you."

29 Palms Marine Training Base
USMC Hospital

Castle was in recovery and things were looking up medically for him. Of the three survivors, his injuries were the more complicated. He had hole in his heart.

It looked like someone had jabbed a finger into it. There was a round entry wound in his sternum that looked like it had been cauterized but the surgical team found no sign of what caused it. The surgeon had been in Iraq and Afghanistan and had seen his share of wounds, but nothing like this.

And Castle was still alive. His heart was still beating. It just had a nickel-sized hole through it that they had repaired.

He also had two broken wrists from where his seat had crashed into those in front of his when it had broken loose from its moorings. That also explained the contusions and swelling on the face and jaw and throat.

The human body was not designed to decelerate from 300 mph to 0 mph abruptly. The other adult survivor had similar broken bones and contusions from throwing up her arms to shield herself when her seat tore loose and sailed into the bulkhead like Castle's had. The child was physically fine, just dehydrated and frightened. They were trying to locate his parents without much luck.

He wrote transfer orders for the woman and child but Castle would be a guest of the USMC for a while yet. The doctor wasn't risking his patient to some small town quacks.

Los Angeles

Natalie finished crying and then began making phone calls. It took her an hour to set everything up with the studios, the public relations firm, and her agent. She made arrangements with her nanny to take care of David and then she drove to 29 Palms Marine Training Base.

During the long drive Natalie formulated a plan of attack. It was war and everything was fair in love and war. The objective was the heart of one Richard Edgar Castle. She intended to strike quickly and efficiently and make the most of the time she had before the 'Bitch Cop' showed her face. This time the time difference would work in their favor – 'their' being Natalie and Rick. She'd have 4 hours on them because of the flight time.

She knew the odds were stacked against her but she had one thing in her favor: she hadn't trashed Castle's heart by jumping to conclusions and basically telling him that he couldn't be trusted. She knew that Beckett was terrified of having her heart broken and had always held off committing herself fully to any relationship. She'd wriggled that fact out of Beckett during a 'girls' night' with Lanie. Beckett always had one emotional foot out the relationship door.

Natalie took stock of the situation. Castle loved Beckett. Beckett 'loved' Castle but not enough to give him the benefit of the doubt and listen to an explanation before trashing their relationship. Beckett had a temper and had unleashed it against an innocent and unsuspecting Castle. That was where he would be the most vulnerable – Kate's temper and lack of trust.

The Marine sentries had stopped her and listened patiently – okay, listened but spent most of their time gawking at her tanned boobs housed in an almost indecently translucent tank top – and finally allowed her to drive on to the hospital to see 'if the crash survivor' was her boyfriend, Richard Castle of 'Nikki Heat' fame.

JFK Airport

"Come on, Lanie. We're going to miss the damned flight if security takes too long to do their fondling and sniffing."

"Anyone grabs any of Lanie Parish's stuff will soon make an intimate acquaintance with one of my colleagues. A girl's got her standards and I don't see any of those TSA goons carrying wine, chocolates and flowers so – no touch!"

"Don't make me late, Lanie, please! Just suck it up. It's not like they're going to follow you home or anything."

It was Kate who caused the delay. A Glock 40 sent alarms ringing and waving her badge did little to make the security people just wave her on through.

The missed their flight and were wait-listed on three others and one of those was to San Francisco, even further from her goal than L.A. Her mistake.

She had made another mistake by being blinded by her emotions. First she'd accused Rick of cheating on her with Natalie and then the got so swept up in her dash for the airport that she forgot her weapon – and backup.

'I need to keep focused. These errors in judgment are costly.'

29 Palms Marine Hospital

"Ms. Rhodes, he's unconscious but stable and his stats are improving faster than we would normally expect. You can sit with him, of course. If he wakes, summon a nurse immediately so we can begin a pain management regimen. Other than that, he's all yours."

Natalie smiled and wished that were true. Castle looked so small and shrunken lying in the hospital bed with all the tubes and hoses and IV things attached. Both arms were in casts up to the elbow with just the fingertips exposed so she hung on to his fingers and waited for him to wake up. His face was a mess and she figured, correctly, that only one of his eyes was capable of opening. The other was swollen shut.

"Oh, Rick, look at what she's done to you. She's no good for you, sweetheart. Beckett's poison. Too much baggage and she's so damned untrusting and suspicious and this is the damned result. You need me in your life, someone who loves you and would quit her job in a heartbeat if you asked her to be by your side. I love you, Castle, and I only want to be with you and spend the rest of my life making you happy instead of miserable."

Castle was on the edge of consciousness and the first throbbing pain began wearing away at the blessed darkness. He heard someone telling him that only she could make him happy for the rest of his life.

He grunted in pain and after some time he felt a coolness sweeping through his veins and the pain went away. The voice started again. He knew the voice but couldn't put a face to it. The more she talked, the better he seemed to feel.

Natalie had summoned the nurse the minute Castle had begun making grunting noises from pain. The nurse checked his vitals and then injected something into his IV port and then explained the pain management system and what to do with it.

The nurse had casually mentioned 'the burned hole in his heart' and Natalie found herself crying against his thigh and talking to him about a possible future for them.

JFK Airport

Beckett was angry at the world. They'd missed their first flight and there were no cancellations on their next wait-list and so they re-booked a flight directly to LA but it wouldn't arrive until almost 2am California time.

She couldn't explain it but she felt like Rick was slipping away from her every moment she sat in the lounge waiting for a flight. It was like nothing she'd ever experienced before and she had such a feeling of desperate foreboding.

29 Palms Marine Hospital

"You're awake again! I'll get the nurse, Rick. Damn, but you scared me nearly to death. Promise me you won't die on me, baby, because I don't think I could survive it."

Castle wasn't sure what the woman was talking about but he recognized her voice and remembered that he was only lying in this bed because of something his fiancé had done to him. Wait – ex-fiancé. Yeah, now he remembered. His chest ached and he couldn't stop the slow trickle of tears the eked their way out of the corner of his undamaged eye.

'Beckett did this to me. It's her fault. I never would have been on that damned plane if she'd just listened but no – she had to jump to conclusions and refuse to listen to the truth.'

He squeezed his eye shut to try and stop the 'unmanly' tears but he felt someone press a kiss against his eyelid and wipe the tears away with something soft.

"Hey, I know you're hurting but all you have to do is 'grunt' or something and I'll mash the pain button and get you relief. You broke both wrists, got God's-own shiner and I'll bet your jaws ache. Rick, you should see your face – you're going to be gloriously purple for days but I so damned glad you're alive that I don't care what you look like."

Beckett had called her and explained the delays in getting a flight out and Natalie had told her, in a round-about way, that she would check in on Castle for her if she was allowed. Natalie wasn't asking permission but suggesting that maybe the Marines wouldn't let her see Rick.

"No! You go there and let him know I'm on the way. I don't want him left alone for a single second. Natalie, tell him I love him and that I'm on the way. I can't thank you enough for – "

"Beckett, I have to go. Let me know when the flight arrives and I'll have someone from Production pick you guys up and handle further transportation."

"Rick, Kate called you. She's having trouble getting a flight but she'll be here just as soon as she can. She told me to tell you that she lov– "

"No. No. Don't wanna – no. No Beckett. Oh, crap, hurts."

Natalie mashed the button that infused the IV with the pain killer and tried not to smile. He didn't want to see Beckett.