It was nearly 11PM, the nurse that helped Rick call his daughter earlier watched both her patients settle in for the night. One was asleep and the other was reading. Usually she waited until her replacement arrived but tonight she just wanted to go home and hug her own little girl. She watched as Rick Castle got up and walked to the bathroom. The nurse quickly wrote notes for the next shift, signed out and left the building. She didn't know that her replacement was running late.

Arriving twenty minutes late, the new nurse was surprised to find the nurses station empty. The doctor assigned to the isolation unit called her earlier; he had explained the case and the hazmat precautions. She quickly read through the notes left by the nurse from the previous shift as she put on her protective suit. From her desk, she could only see one patient and assumed that the other person was probably in the bathroom. Entering the isolation unit, she saw a body on the floor and hit the alarm!

Kate had been violently woken up by the sound of the alarm. She watched as someone in a hazmat suit rushed towards her bed. She was puzzled when the woman ran past her bed to kneel next to someone on the floor. Still half asleep, Kate suddenly realized that the person on the floor had to be Rick! Beckett started to get up and go to him but an angry voice from the doorway ordered her to "STAY IN YOUR BED!" Reluctantly she complied. She watched as two others, obviously men and probably doctors, hurried into the room. Together they lifted Castle and carried him back to the bed furthest from her. A fourth person soon arrived and pushed a medical cart into the room.

The doctors were quickly handed several items. Kate watched as one man listened to Rick's heart and lungs. One nurse was preparing an oxygen mask but the doctor waved it away.

"No, he is breathing fine on his own, no coughing and no blood. What the hell is going on? He has a fever but it's not that high." She watched as they cut away the scrub top Castle was wearing. "There are no blotches anywhere. I want another blood sample, then monitor him and start an IV."

Finally the doctor turned to look at her. "Are you having any problems? Sweating, coughing shortness of breath? No dizziness or fever?" Suddenly the reality of the situation hit her hard; Kate just shook her head no. "Do you know if this man was having any of those symptoms before he collapsed?"

Kate finally got her voice to work. "Asleep...he went into the shower and I fell asleep."

"The nurse's notes said that he was in bed reading when she left. What the hell happened? I will need another blood sample from you and I want you to wear a mask. Stay as far away from him as you can in here; at least until I have some more answers."

"Will he be OK?"

The two doctors left without another word. One of the nurses came over and handed her a face mask and proceeded to draw the blood. Then as quickly as they came, they were all gone. Kate could do nothing except watch Castle from across the room as the monitor mechanically counted his heart rate, respirations and temperature. Beckett had never felt more useless in her life. After they had been gone a long time, Kate got tired of just watching, she wanted to walk over and sit with him, touch him...at least hold his hand. Angry with herself, she wiped away a few tears. What good would crying do, she needed answers. A short time later, one of the doctors returned and she turned her anger on him. "What is going on? Why is Rick so sick but I'm not?"

"I'm sorry, Detective Beckett, I do not know. I just got the blood work back and neither of you show any trace of the plague bacteria, at least not yet. I cannot explain his fever, why he collapsed and is now unconscious. Was he sick before today, I mean like a cold or allergies? Was he recently in an accident or hurt in any way? Did he actually touch the infected man or stay near him longer than you?"

"No! We both were about ten feet from the victim and we were both exposed to him for a minute or two, tops. We were decontaminated at the same time and have been in here ever since. What is wrong with him? Am I going to sick like that too?"

"I wish I could tell you. I don't know the answer to any of those questions right now. If all the other variables are the same, why aren't you showing the same symptoms? And why is he showing all the wrong symptoms for plague? Mr. Castle symptoms indicate some kind of allergic reaction or poisoning but neither of you touched your dinners. The food trays are still waiting to be destroyed. The symptoms came on so fast, anything you had for breakfast and lunch was digested too long ago."

"Rick's mother had dinner delivered from his favorite restaurant...but it was just cheeseburgers and I had one too."

"Where did the food come from? Did you have exactly the same thing?"

"Remy's! I had French fries and a strawberry shake. He had onion rings a chocolate shake...oh yeah, he had grilled onions and mushrooms on his burger."

"Mushrooms! Listeria, yes, now the symptoms make some sense. He probably has severe food poisoning from the mushrooms. I'll check the trash; hopefully I can find a sample to test."

"Wait! He will be OK, won't he? I mean you don't die from food poisoning, right?"

"He should be fine." The doctor all but ran to the door of the unit and was gone.

Kate watched him leave and felt tears pickle her eyes again. "Should be?

Kate had been sitting beside Castle holding his hand for hours. Exactly how long she had been with him, Beckett had no clue because there was no clock in their isolation room and she no longer had a watch. Kate felt a tug at her heart as she remembered the loss of her dad's watch or her mother's ring again. She had lost so much, so quickly…..she could not loose him too. Her eyes scanned the monitors beside his bed again. His temperature, heart rate and respiration had not changed and he still showed no signs of waking up. Beckett rubbed her eyes and shifted her butt on the hard wooden chair. Her bed was just sixty feet away but Kate knew that she would not, could not sleep and her bed was too far away from him. She tried to read to him for awhile but the words on the page kept swimming as she tried not to cry and failed. Ignoring the orders from both the doctors and nurses, who came almost hourly with more medications for his IV, she sat with Rick waiting for him to open his eyes.