Worst Case Scenario

Disclaimer: I still don't own it, and I am back to being a poor student with bills, so I'm even less worth suing.

AN: Prompt at the end. I'd say I'm sorry, but...

As he lay in an ever expanding pool of blood, Castle couldn't help but wonder how he always seemed to get them in to these situations. True, he had only wanted to help. And it had seemed so simple, so harmless. But he should have known that nothing ever quite works out as expected where he and Kate are concerned. And he should definitely have listened to the alarm bells that had warned him against dragging her into this with him.

She had sworn that it was okay, that she didn't mind, wanted to help. Of course she did. She loved him enough to jump into his crazy schemes despite her own reservations.

Only now, circumstances have conspired in totally unforeseen ways, and he's dying, Kate hovering over him, saying all the right things, going through all the right motions, like she knows exactly how it should go. A little haltingly, yes, but under the circumstances he could hardly blame her. And it's eerie, this switch of roles from her shooting. But it's oddly comforting too. He wants her right there if everything goes of the rails like this and he's known that for a while.

But he's torn, watching her go through this, because it isn't fair, it's hurting her. His mother had wanted to intervene, back at the start, but they had refused to involve her. It wouldn't have been right, Kate had insisted. That was Beckett, his partner, commented.

But he can't spare the thought for his concern for too long. The situation is becoming more and more grim, the area beneath him more and more bloodied, and if he doesn't get the words out soon, he'll miss his chance. And given his present condition, getting the words out should be hard enough as it is.

He lifts a hand, wincing. It's coated in blood. But it can't be helped. He reaches out, letting pain make his movements slow and uncoordinated, but not letting it stop him. He's on a mission. His hand grazes her cheek and transfers blood there in a haphazard trail.

Her eyes snap to his, and she grabs for his hand, pays no attention to the blood. She leans closer over him, keeping up a soft litany of words that make his heart falter and his stomach twist. He wants to make this better for her, if that's humanly possible. So, he goes for it.

"Marry me," he gets out.

Her eyes go wide and her jaw goes slack. He's vaguely proud that she didn't see that coming.

"Rick, be serious," she admonishes him, her voice somewhere between laughing and crying, like she's stuck between the two. Or maybe thinking about smacking him. All of which works right now.

He grins at her, pleased with himself, even as he tries to work around the blood and his injuries to free his treasure from his pocket. It requires contortions that make him grimace, and have even his still stunned partner trying to keep him still.

"Totally serious," breathes out once he succeeds, holding the sparkling ring aloft. Kate gapes at him, and for a moment he thinks he might have done too well, might have rendered her speechless, when a moment is really all they have left.

But then he sees the understanding dawn in her eyes, and she manages a strong if unsteady "Yes,"

And then it's all over but the inevitable end. His lips curve into a smile, even as his eyes try to send her one last silent apology for the whole thing. A moment later he goes still, and the hand holding her ring out to her falls limply at his side.

The room bursts into an awkward smattering of applause and a few sniffles, and he jumps to his feet, making a comical show of it as he brings Kate up with him. He hams it up as as his mother praises their performance, mostly for his wife's benefit. Between the nature of the prompt she had drawn ("The love of your life bleeds to death in your arms") and her tendency to not be comfortable performing in front of others, he knows this can't have been an easy exercise for her.

But she had wanted to help as much as he had when his mother asked them to volunteer for the improvisation workshop she was holding as part of a summer program for underserved teenagers interested in the arts. They just...hadn't anticipated this scenario.

"How did you even get my engagement ring in your pocket?" Kate asks as Martha turns her attention to her young students.

"You took them both off when Mother said that the props might get a little messy. I didn't want them to get lost in the shuffle, so I stuck them in my pocket for safe keeping." That was,of course, before he realized that his mother's idea of messy was going to involve a more than adequate quantity of fake blood. "I'll have it cleaned. Both of them. Thoroughly." He promises, and his too he realizes.

"Better," she mutters in his ear, digging her fingers into his back a little she speaks.

"I figured it would help, under the circumstances he says, holding out his own prompt for her to read. She squints a little as she reads, the paper smeared with stage blood. ("During exercise A, propose marriage to your partner.")

"Of all the combinations to draw," she says with a sigh. Kate had drawn the first slip, which was meant to be shared between them. He had drawn the second, which he had to keep to himself, allowing Kate to improvise her response. Kate had reasoned that her limited ability to follow a script, but her considerable skill at thinking on her feet would serve them well. He's suddenly very glad they had chosen to go in that order. He couldn't have done it if she had been the one bleeding on the ground.

His mother, realizing the situation had quietly offered to let them redraw. But Kate had said that would violate the spirit of the exercise and set a bad example for the young students. He feels like maybe he should have a word with her though, about picking less extreme examples of drama to work with in the future.

"Yeah, not the greatest circumstance for a proposal, huh?" He offers in reply.

She hums in agreement. "Yeah, I think I preferred thinking you were breaking up with me."

"Hey, now," he says, mildly affronted.

She comes in close, brushing her fingers through his hair. "Worth it," she whispers. "Totally worked."

"Gonna get the blood on you," he warns her, holding her away a little.

She bites her lip and looks over at his mother. He follows her gaze, but teacher and students now seem wholly engrossed in each other and their discussion.

"What do you say we get out of here, and I help you get this stuff off?"

He takes in the quirk of her eyebrow and her mischievous smile, none the worse for wear, apparently. Not for the first time, he thinks about how much he loves the way that her mind works. Yeah, he can count a long shower with his wife as a perk of this experience. Definitely.

"Lead the way," he says, his smile matching hers.

Prompt: *clutches heart* Person A cradling Person B's head, frantically trying to stop their bleeding, when Person B suddenly asks A to marry them. When Person A tells them to stop joking around, B pulls a wedding ring out of their bloodied coat. The moment A says yes, Person B's last breath leaves them.