~Chapter Three~
Kate sat motionless for at least an hour in Castle's room, watching him slowly breathe and listening to the beeping of various medical monitors.
The bullet had hit his chest, but on the opposite side of his heart. He had lost a lot of blood on the ride to the ER, despite the paramedics' attempt to clot the wound. As Javier had reported, they had retrieved the bullet before it could do any permanent damage, but the blood loss skill kept him unconscious long after the surgery. They had hooked Rick up to several different bags of fluids through IVs in his arm. His face was pale and still. Without his signature "Castle" smile, he was almost unrecognizable. Kate felt tears coming back as she stared at him in silence, but she blinked them back with a sniff. She had done enough crying for one night.
A nurse came in and took some notes on her clipboard from Castle's readings, and also stuck yet another syringe in him.
"How is he?" Kate asked her quietly, afraid of what the answer could be.
"It's hard to tell right now," the nurse answered, looking up from her notes and right into Kate's eye. "We do know that his heart's trying to get blood level back up to normal, but that's going to take some time."
The distraught detective let this new information sink in, glanced at Rick, then back at the nurse.
"Is there a place where I can get a cup of coffee?"
"No need."
Beckett looked up to see Esposito, Ryan, and Lanie walking through the door, each holding a cup of java, and Lanie carried and extra for her.
"Thanks guys, she said as the ME handed over the coffee.
"Well, I think I'll leave you all now; I've got to get back to my rounds," the nurse bid lightly, and then left the room just as quietly as she came.
As soon as the door closed, Kate spit the sip of coffee she had taken back into the cup.
"Ugh...bleah, oh, I hate hospital coffee," she muttered. She placed the java on the table beside her chair, but as she retracted her arm, Lanie caught in with snare-like agility.
"Girl, what...is that?" she asked slowly as she gaped at her prey.
Kate then realized just which hand Lanie had caught, and her eyes, too, trailed to the rock that now sat on her finger.
"Girl, please tell me this is from who I think it's from!"
The detective nodded slowly, and actually smiled gently.
"Javie, Ryan, look at this thing!"
Javier peered over his girlfriend's shoulder and gave a low whistle. Kevin just "Wow"ed and blinked.
"Honey, did he propose tonight?" Lanie took a seat next to her friend, still holding her hand captive.
"Not exactly. After...what happened, he told me to have Martha give it to me. He said it was...it was important that I know...in case anything happened to him."
There was a brief silence in the room, only interrupted by the timely beeping of the heart monitor.
"Where is the rest of the Castle Clan, anyway?" Esposito piped up lightly.
"In the gift shop, picking him up a giant teddy bear, no doubt." Kate's eyes drifted back to the hospital bed. "It's scary. He's usually so full of life, and...now he's just trying to hold onto it."
Lanie must have seen the mist in her eyes, for she asked, "Kate, are you alright?"
"Yeah..." she lied. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"No, you're not," the ME retorted. She gently tugged on Esposito's arm. "C'mon, Javie, I think I saw a vending machine in the hall."
"Yeah, and I gotta call Jenny, anyway," Kevin added, already pulling out his cell as the threesome filed out the door.
Kate would have protested if she did not want to be alone. After a few moments of ominous silence, she scooted her chair up next to Castle's bed, and began to have a one-sided conversation as she gently played with his hair.
"That's what you get for leaving your 'Writer' vest at home...The ring is beautiful. I really love it...Rick, please, wake up...I need to tell you...I need to tell you 'yes'."
She leaned over the edge and place a heartfelt kiss on his cheek, and then sat back in her chair in silence, dozing off within the next half hour.
(A/N: Thanks to my momma for helping make the medical details all that more believable!)