-Chapter 5-

Castle arrived at home but he was 15 minutes later than he promised to be home.

"Dad! What took you so long? You know there is a murderer out there and you were with Beckett and he is after her and-" Alexis ran to him yelling as he opened the door.

"Hey sweetie! I am totally fine and I'm sorry. The doctor had to check her first." Castle lied.

"Yea right and you have to stay for protecting her from the bad, bad doctor… Okay… Well I was worried sick and now I'm hungry!"

"Okay what do ya want? Maybe a nice and hot Richard Castle special pizza 'Rickey's smokin' hot pizza'?", he asked acting like he was a real chef.

"If that's eatable. Okay! Sure. I call Ashley now and then we eat and TALK!" Alexis said running into her room.

Rick went into the kitchen and prepared the pizza and thought about what had just happened.

'Why didn't we talk before? That really was easier than I thought it would be. Can this relationship succeed? How can I go on shadowing her?

There's so much we have to talk about… tomorrow' he thought and stated being there for his daughter completely.

While they were eating their pizza, which really was eatable, they talked but Castle did not mention that they kissed… he only said that they had talked and that they get along again. She forgave him. For Alexis that was enough to know and then after they finished their dinner they went into the living room and played guitar hero all night long. At 11 pm Martha came home but she was so tired from some date she had been on before that she went straight to bed.

-In the Hospital-

A few minutes after Castle had left the doctor came into the room to check her again and everything was okay but she had to stay in bed for a little time.

"Can't I go to work again?" Kate asked desperately.

"Mrs. Beckett you are a detective, right? And just nearly died yesterday, right?" the doctor meant.

"Paperwork? Please?" Kate begged.

"I'm sorry but you have to stay here for at least three more days and then you can go home but I think working is too much stress right now. Maybe you need to take a little vacation. Get away from everything. Relax a bit and you will see that your wounds will be healed when you come back and then the bad guys of New York have to be scared again." The doc said and smiled.

He reminded her a bit of Josh and that made her thinking: 'How should I tell him that now I want to be together with Castle… before he had left to Haiti he asked me if he would have to be worried about her and Castle and she ensured him that there was no reason to worry about.'

"Okay Doctor Simmons. Now I will get some sleep. I'm tired."

"Goodnight Mrs. Beckett and please relax. The bad guys are not after you. Thank god! And the other cops can take care of the other ones." He said and left the room.

Kate panicked: 'Oh no? I think they are after me… What if one of them comes here and kills me in my sleep? I am not armed... damn it! No.. it's well protected here… okay Kate, calm down nothing will happen to you. Ryan and Esposito are on it. And the doctor told me to relax and the more I relax now, the sooner I will get outta here and catch those sons of bitches.'

Kate thought and was confused by the thought that she had just talked to herself.

Kate tried to stop thinking of the shooter and her thoughts flipped to the experiences of the afternoon. 'Finally. But do I really love him? I think so. But I have to find that out by myself in the next few days or weeks or hopefully lifetime. I already miss him. It has to be love. Maybe he was right when he said that I dated men I didn't love because I was scared to admit to myself how I really felt about him and because of that I had to distract myself of those feelings and emotions by making out with guys like Josh who I like but nothing more.'

After she thought about that she felt horrible because of what she was doing to Josh. Kate pulled her phone out of a drawer and dialed his number.

"Hello this is Josh. I am not available right now. Probably I am treating one of my patient at the moment so if it's necessary leave your message after the tone" the phone said after the second beep tone.

*Beep*

"Ehm… hey Josh. It's Kate. Oh man I really didn't want to do that on the phone and now I even have to talk to answering machine… okay doesn't matter. I have to say this now and not tomorrow or when you come back to New York. Josh I am really, really sorry but it is over. Yesterday I have been shot and I think if you really were my boyfriend you should know that by now. I nearly died and you are in Haiti… well okay. If I am honest that is not the whole reason why I have to break up… it's Castle. I-"

"We're sorry but the memory chip is full. We can't take another message on our memory. But try to call back later." The machine said.

Kate was partly so mad at the machine and Josh that she wanted to throw her phone through the room but partly she was relieved that Josh doesn't got to know the whole story so she didn't throw her phone against the wall.

Kate got tired and then she wrote a quick text message to Castle

Okay I talked to him…kinda. I will tell you the whole story when we meet again.

Goodnight Kitten! I love you… I think! : ) XOXO Kate