Yeah, so this chapter is a bit angsty. Just know that I've never, ever killed anyone, or at least no one that didn't deserve it. Trust me, everything will work out and I know exactly where this will go...

The wait seemed to take forever. Kate and Rick held each other while time crawl to a stop. Kate kept looking at the doors to the emergency room. She kept wondering why no one was coming through them to give them news about their son. Was he okay? Were they able to bring his fever down? So many unanswered questions were running through her head.

Finally after what seemed like forever, Kate saw a doctor emerge from behind the door. Then she heard her ask, "The family of Noah Beckett?"

Kate shot up out of the chair and flew to her. She told her quickly, "I'm his mother." After taking a deep breath she told her, "And this is his father."

Their sons doctor simply nodded at her and then she took a deep breath and told them, "I'm not going to lie to you. Your son is a very sick little boy. When he was brought back to us, his temperature was over one hundred and three. Has he been sick recently?"

Kate shook her head, "No. He's always been very healthy."

Nodding, "Well we are doing a complete blood count and we have him hooked up to an IV. We suspect that he has an infection. Possibly in his kidneys. We won't know for sure until all of the tests come back."

Kate nodded and asked, "Can we see him?"

"Of course. He's sleeping right now, but I'll take you back there. You can spend the night with him."

Rick looked at her and asked, "Can we both stay?"

The doctor nodded and smiled softly at them. After leading them back to their sons room, the doctor went to the nurses station and grabbed Noah's file from the desk. She sighed and closed her eyes. Then her head nurse asked, "Did you tell them what you suspect?"

She shook her head, "I don't want to alarm them in case I'm wrong."

"Do you think you're wrong?"

Looking down, she read over the preliminary results of Noah's bloodwork. She'd asked the lab to rush the results. Her patient had an extremely high white blood cell count and his red blood cell count was barely on the charts. Doctor Parnell had seen this before and it was never good news for the patient.

Sighing, she told her nurse, "No. Unfortunately I don't think I'm wrong. I wish to God that I were though." She looked back in the direction of her patients room and sighed. This wasn't the reason why she had gone into medicine. She had wanted to heal people and while she had done plenty of healing, she had also had her share of having to deliver bad news to her patients families. However, this kind of news was the worst possible that a family could ever receive. She knew that maybe, just maybe the second round of results would come back with positive news. If the second round of tests came back like she supposed that they would, there would be many more tests for Noah Beckett. None of them were very pleasant and they were somewhat painful.

It was days like this that she regretted ever going into the medical field. Sometimes, the heartache outweighed the good she did. Sometimes, it was all she could do to keep going. She wanted to walk out of the hospital, but knew that it wouldn't change the outcome for her littlest patient. So, she called her best friend and set up an appointment for her to come and evaluate her newest patient. She knew that Karen would be gentle with Noah's parents. There was a reason why Karen was the best pediatric oncologist in the state. She was wonderful with both her patients and their families.

She smiled when Karen answered the phone saying, "You do realize that it's nearly three in the morning Tara."

Smiling, she told her friend, "I need your expertise. I have a new patient."

She heard her friend sigh and whisper, "Shit...I knew that it couldn't be good news. Nothing good ever happens at three in the morning..."

They finally hung up and the doctor headed into another patients hospital room.

Meanwhile, Kate and Rick were sitting beside their sons bed and looking at one another. One hand stroked her sons arm and the other held only Rick's hand tightly. Neither of them spoke, they simply watched as the son slept.

When Noah finally woke, Kate noticed that his normally clear eyes were foggy. She could tell that he wasn't feeling well. He still had an extremely high fever. Kate wished that there was something that she could do to help him. She had no idea what was wrong with him, but she hoped that the doctors could make him better and then they could take him home.

Neither parent had any idea of the extremely long and rocky road that lay ahead of them.

Later that morning, Karen Darby walked into the hospital and met with her best friend to go over the test results for Noah Beckett. What she saw filled her heart with dread. When she saw the results from the second tests, she knew that there wasn't any time to waste. She hugged her friend and then walked in the direction of her newest patients room. She needed to break the news to them.

Walking up to the door, she took and deep breath and walked into her patients room. She heard laughter coming from inside and she knew then that she was going to change their lives forever.

Kate and Rick were laughing at their son and the funny faces he was making. Kate could tell that she was still feeling sick, but he was laughing a little bit more.

When they heard the door to the hospital room open and they turned to see who was coming into the room. When Kate saw another doctor coming into the room, she sighed and tightened her grip on Rick's hand.

Karen walked over to her patients parents and introduced herself, "I'm Doctor Karen Darby. I'm a pediatric oncologist."

Rick smiled at her and held out his hand, "I'm Noah's father Richard Castle and this is his mother, Katherine Beckett."

Nodding, she smiled and smiled at their son, "And this must be Noah." The little boy nodded at her and gave her a thousand watt smile. So, she continued, "I'm very glad to meet you Noah Beckett. How are you feeling?"

The little boy shrugged and gave her a weak smile, "I'm okay, but my bones hurt."

Karen nodded, "I'm going to try and make you feel better. I'm going to talk to your mommy and daddy and then we will see what we can do to make you feel all better. Okay?"

Noah smiled and nodded, "'kay..."

Rick and Kate didn't know what to make of this newest doctor. She was obviously used to dealing with children. That much was evident in the way that she talked with Noah.

Finally, the doctor turned to Rick and Kate and told them softly, "Doctor Parnell called me early this morning. She got the results of Noah's preliminary complete blood count."

Rick looked at the doctor and asked, "What's wrong?"

She looked at Rick and Kate and told them, "There' no easy way to tell you this." She took a deep breath and told them as softly as she could, "I believe that Noah has leukemia."

Kate gasped loudly and Rick felt as if his heart had stopped. He was the first to recover and asked, "How will you know for sure?"

"We need to perform a bone marrow test and a lumbar puncture. Those two tests will tell us what our next steps in the process will be."

Kate whispered softly, "Will he be in pain?"

Noah's doctor smiled at him and then she shook her head, "Not during the test. We will give him medicine that will put him to sleep. Then we will take a sample of his blood marrow and bone. Then she lumbar puncture will give us an even clearer picture of what's going on in Noah's little body. Then we will know how to go about treating him."

Kate couldn't bare to say anything, but Rick asked, "W-what are his chances of surviving?"

"Well, we caught it early and that's a good thing. If he responds well to treatment and there's no reason to believe that he won't, I believe that his chances of surviving this are remarkably well. He's young and it relatively good health, so I'm not seeing any potential problems. However..."

Kate and Rick both looked at her and asked, "What?"

Their sons doctor smiled and then she said, "Well, it's customary that we get bone marrow samples from immediate family members. That way if we have to do a bone marrow transplant we can get a good idea of family members to look to."

Kate and Rick immediately agreed and it was arranged for them to have the necessary tests done. Before his doctor left the room, she smiled at Rick and Kate softly and told them, "I wish the news was better. I will do everything I can to make him better."

Then she smiled and walked out of the room. Leaving the devastated family to deal with the news that they had just been given. Kate turned to Rick and fell into his arms and cried silently. Rick's tears fell also and they held each other while their world collapsed around them.

Neither knew then that Karen Darby would be a huge Godsend and the key player in bringing their son back to health and in doing that, it would bring Rick and Kate closer than they had ever been before...

Please don't hate me or kill me. I promise this will have a happy ending. So, yeah, I'm gonna go...over there...