The next few hours were a blur of frenzied activity and intense embarrassment for them both. The hazmat team brought Beckett and Castle to St. Vincent's Hospital. Kate was shocked when they were both pushed into a makeshift decontamination shower and told to strip.

"Can't we at least get some music to strip by." Rick had already removed his shirt and was removing his belt as a plain white sheet was stretched across the shower area in an attempt to give Kate some privacy.

The water was not exactly warm but the chemicals in the water forced them both to keep their eyes closed. Afterward Kate was freezing, she eagerly wrapped herself in a few towels. They were given scrubs to wear; Kate was amazed at how at home Castle looked in them. She was amused as she watched him try to negotiate with the men from hazmat to save his Rolex. She knew it wasn't the money; he had bought the overpriced watch with his first royalty check. It was his good luck charm. It stopped being funny for Kate when they took her father's watch and her mother's ring and placed them both in the pile to be destroyed with all their clothes. A stunned and speechless Beckett was escorted inside as Castle still argued.

After endless examinations, various tests and an armful of shots, Kate was finally brought in a silly hazmat suit to a small, dark basement isolation ward. Pulling off the hot and smelly suit made of violent blue plastic, she was startled to hear a disembodied voice coming from the wall area. The voice informed her that food had been ordered and would arrive shortly. Beckett saw the vague outline of someone outside the darkly tinted glass as she looked around the drab, sterile room that would be her home for the next week. There were six beds, three on each side of the room and a curtained area at the back that held an ugly shower and toilet.

Yup, all the comforts of home, if your home was the county lockup! Kate ran a hand through her hair, it felt stiff and sticky from whatever chemicals she had been sprayed with. Beckett walked into the shower area but there were no towels, soap or shampoo and also no toilet paper. It had been a rotten day so far and it kept getting worse. Her sadness and disbelief at the loss of her treasured keepsakes was quickly turning to anger. She wanted to scream or hit something but she knew it would change nothing and she absolutely refused to cry.

Beckett prowled around the small room to help expend some of her pent up frustrations. After a few minutes, she walked back to one of the beds and sat on it experimentally, it was much too hard. She would have a tough time trying to get any sleep on that thing. However, she was grateful that there were so many beds; at least she wouldn't have to sleep right next to Castle. Suddenly, Kate realized that the man, or pain in the neck, still had not arrived to the isolation room yet.

"Hello...Hello, can anyone hear me?"

"There is a button for the intercom on the wall, you don't have to shout. Just speak normally."

Speak normally, yeah right! I may have the plague and I am going to be trapped for a week in a small enclosed space with a man who acts like a 9 year old sex fiend on a sugar rush.

"What happened to the man that was with me. His name is Rick Castle. Is he OK?"

"I can find out, your food is here. Just open the panel beside the intercom."

"Thanks, hey I really need a shower. Can I get some towels and soap or shampoo? Oh yeah, there is no toilet paper in here."

"I've already ordered all that from supply. Sorry, we haven't used this room in a long time, this outbreak was unexpected."

Did she say outbreak? "Who else got infected?"

"DEA said there were six men that jumped off some ship from Columbia or Somalia."

"There are only six beds in here...Oh, they didn't make it, did they? Like the man I found, they all died."

Getting no answer, Kate removed a tray of food but she was no longer hungry...not that the food looked all that appetizing. She took a sip of the coffee and spit it back into the cup. It tasted like the slug that she used to drink at the 12th precinct before Castle had donated an espresso machine to the squad room. So many things had changed since he had come into her life. She was getting more concerned about where he was and if he was all right.

She walked around the small enclosed space again but there was nothing to do, nothing to read, no TV or radio. Putting the untouched food tray back behind the panel, Kate selected a bed and stretched out. She might as well try to get some rest for now. Once Castle showed up, she knew that he would talk non-stop for probably the whole week. Her eyes kept going to the doorway, as more minutes passed her worry grew.