One rather frantic and hysterical hour later, Castle and Josh were back upstairs with Kate, surrounded by a team of hospital security on orders to guard the detective at all hours and triple-check IDs of any staff or visitor inclined to enter the room. Beckett slept on, oblivious to all the excitement. "Who was that?" Josh asked, now that everything had finally settled down.

"He didn't say much after they took him into custody," sighed Castle. "Much as I can figure, he was hired by the man behind Kate's mother's murder." Josh closed his eyes, as if he were letting it all sink in. He'd known about Johanna, but until the shooting he'd had no idea of how dedicated Kate really was to solving the murder.

"How did they know she survived getting shot?" asked Josh, thinking of spies and betrayal.

"It's been all over the news," said Castle, squashing Josh's theories. "'Castle's Heat Inspiration Shot At Funeral,' 'Nikki Heat In Critical Condition.'" Castle said it with a bitter tone, gripping the sheets on Kate's bed in anger. "It's my fault."

"Don't blame yourself."

"Why not?" asked Castle, bleak.

"You saved her life," said Josh simply. He was right, and not just about the scalpel madman. It was rare that Kate Beckett needed saving, but when she did, Castle was there. Always.

Princess Kate stood back in her balcony, letting the wind sift its cool fingers through her hair. Days had passed since she had returned to the castle after watching the Dragon fly off into the night. She was clean, caught up on sleep, and out of her worn riding outfit and into a fresh dress.

Hoof beats below her alerted her to Serenity's presence, and to Castle's. "Good morrow, Kate," he called up. She tossed one end of the rope ladder she'd brought with her from the NYPD headquarters over the edge of the balcony. The other end was at her feet, weighted down with a few heavy flagstones.

"Come on up, Castle," she said. After tying up Serenity, he did. "Thank-you," she said when he got to the top, helping him over, "for saving me." She felt like getting over the formalities first. "I am in your debt."

He watched her carefully for a moment, as if he were gauging her reaction to something, or wondering if she looked healthy enough. "No, you're not," he said finally. "I didn't save you so you'd owe me, I saved you because…" He paused, then, with determination- "I love you."

"I know," she said. When he kissed her, she felt warmth on her side and knew that Hemlock's curse had melted away. That was always it, wasn't it- true love's kiss. It was true love's kiss that broke the spell, that woke the sleeping princess.

Only… she wasn't sleeping. Some kind of shock zinged through the princess's brain- why would she think she was sleeping? Unless… she was.

Kate's eyes flickered open to see Castle, leaning over and watching her worriedly. "-waking up, she just moved," he was saying to someone across from her. It was a lot to take, coming face to face with reality after realizing that what you thought was reality wasn't really reality.

The first coherent thought she had after waking was that she probably should have paid closer attention during the movie Inception. The second was that the real Castle was sitting right next to her and she was relieved to see him.

"Castle," said Kate.

"Kate," said Castle, thus beginning a series of awkward lying-down hugs and name repetitions and What-happeneds on her part and I'm-so-glad-that-you're-okays on his part. Josh may as well have not been in the room. A doctor, after being checked by security, rushed into the room and began ascertaining that Kate was alright."Welcome home," breathed Castle when they had both calmed down.

Kate glanced around the room, noticing Josh with some surprise and guilt, and also noticing that it was a hospital room. "This isn't home," she corrected him.

"Well, I kind of meant consciousness in general," he said, laughing a bit until he remembered that her boyfriend was sitting across from him. "Here, I'll leave you two alone," he said quickly, standing up. Much as he hated leaving her side now that she was awake, he knew that it was important he respect the boyfriend's rights. A, it was what a grown-up would do. B, it might gain him some points in Kate's eyes.

Castle had just finished calling Jim, then Lanie- she'd tell the others, he knew- when Josh came into the hall. "She's asking for you," he said, jerking a thumb towards Kate's hospital room. Castle gulped uneasily, picturing years stretching in front of him of sharing the woman he loved with Josh like this- taking her spare time in shifts.

"Yeah, okay," he said, walking into her room. There was no trouble with the security guards stopping either Castle or Josh. With all the time they had spent by Kate's bedside, the two of them were practically on a first name basis with each of the guards.

"Hey," said Kate. She was sitting up, stuffing herself with the hospital's vanilla pudding. Two empty containers already sat on the tray above the cot. Her color seemed to be returning, and Castle felt reassured by that.

"Hey," he returned, taking his seat beside her.

"So can you tell me exactly what happened?" she asked. "Because I think Josh is sugarcoating." Castle remembered what Josh had said about sugarcoating and didn't much blame him.

"You were in the middle of Montgomery's eulogy and a sniper in the cemetery shot you," he said, a lump rising in his throat as he repeated the story. "The doctors got the bullet out, but you had a negative reaction to the anesthetic and slipped into a coma." She nodded slowly, taking the news with characteristic ease.

"How long?" she asked him.

"Four days." She continued nodding, a habit that he guessed she was using to stall while she processed the information. "During which," he added, "some guy tried to kill you with a scalpel but I fought him off with a suture needle." Her nodding stopped abruptly, but she made no other indication that she'd heard him. "Beckett?"

"Are you being serious or recounting the latest episode of Private Practice?" she asked, her voice a bit breathy.

"The first one," he said. "That's why all the security."

"Okay," she said slowly, in a way that said she was most definitely not okay. "Okay. Okay." He could see the zigzag green line on her heart monitor going crazy.

"Kate," he said, patting her arm in a desperate attempt to calm her down. "You're safe now, alright?"

"I know," she said, nodding as she tried to relax. "Safe. Right." He rubbed her arm until her heart rate went back to normal. He was a little surprised at first- Kate Beckett wasn't the kind of person to freak out so much, even after an attempt to assassinate her. He factored in the fact that it had been two consecutive attempts to assassinate her and decided her reaction was very normal.

Beckett shook her head like she was shaking away all the fear, and then she looked much more like her old self again. She glanced up at Castle as if she were going to say something to him, and then froze. Her eyes darted back and forth between his.

"What is it?" he asked, noticing the change.

"I don't know…" she said slowly. "Did we go somewhere recently together?"

"LA," he shrugged. "Shared a limo to Montgomery's funeral." He wondered, as he had when he mentioned the eulogy, if Beckett was about to remember her mentor's death all over again. She didn't though- evidently a four day coma was not enough to fog the memories out of her head, even temporarily.

"No," she muttered. She looked frustrated, like she was struggling to remember something. "I think I had a dream about you."

"Oh?" he said, raising an eyebrow. She smacked him playfully.

"Not a sex dream," she said. "Just a dream. I think it was a nice one." She relaxed against the pillows, glancing down to see that his arm was still on hers. "I wish I could remember it."

"Well, it doesn't matter now," he said. "You're back now. You're home." There he went with the home thing again, she thought. It had seemed strange at first, but now she was beginning to make sense of it. Castle was home. She smiled, thinking of the saying "A man's home is his castle." Her home was Castle. "Listen, Kate," he said. Her stomach tightened up- experience had taught her to be apprehensive when he began a sentence like that. "Before Crazy Scalpel Guy comes back, there's something I need to tell you- something I've told you before- many, many times- but you never heard me." She was holding her breath. "I love you, Kate."

"Oh," she exhaled after a long moment of silence. "Well." She opened her mouth, prepared to stutter and ramble, but instead said "I love you, too." More silence. "But… but I'm not really sure what to about that, not yet."

"That's okay," he said quickly, trying to keep a wide grin off of his face. "Just so long as I know."

"Alright," she said, swallowing when she realized how dry her throat was. An awful thought struck her. "You meant that right? I mean, you weren't just joshing with- Oh, God, Josh!" Castle watched her as she started to freak out a little, not really sure how to proceed. "Can you send him back in here?" she asked.

"Yeah." Castle wondered as he walked to the door if the end result of a declaration of love should be her asking to see another man. "Josh," said Castle, stepping out of the hospital room. "She wants to talk to you."

"Yeah, okay," said Josh, coming forward to enter the room. He stopped before he reached the door and turned to Castle. "Listen, I know we're not technically friends, but if you knew… you'd tell me… when she says 'talk'-"

"Capital T," said Castle. "The bad kind."

"Thanks," said Josh, mentally preparing himself. He walked into the room.

Kate looked vulnerable all hooked up to machines and wrapped in the white hospital sheets, an extreme rarity when it came to her. Josh resisted the urge to pull her into his arms and took his chair beside her. "Hey," he said, as though they hadn't been speaking to each other just minutes ago.

"Hey." She said it like an apology.

"You love him," he said, getting right to the point. She nodded slowly.

"You act like this is so easy for you to take," she sighed. "This whole thing. For months, I've been pushing you away, and I didn't mean to, it just happened, and you never left. You just let me do it, you put up with me the whole time." Her voice was reaching hysteria. "I put you through all that, and now I… I just…" Tears sparked in her eyes at the thought of breaking his heart after everything he'd gone through for her.

Josh realized this and, to make it easier for her, he decided to turn the break-up around. "You're right," he said. "You put me through so much, and I didn't deserve it. I deserve better." She nodded, agreeing with him when he didn't even agree with himself. "I'm not going to stand for this any longer. So, in the words of Sam Cooke," he said, standing up, "that's it, I quit, I'm moving on." He walked to the door. "Goodbye, Kate."

"Thanks," she murmured, recognizing what he was doing.

"Any time," he said with a smile, and then walked out of her life.

"You okay?" asked Castle, coming into the room the moment Josh was gone.

"I think so," she said as he sat beside her bed. "Went a lot easier than I thought it would."

"That's good," he said, but his mind was approximately several minutes in the past, reliving the moment when she'd told him that she loved him back. And now Josh was out of the picture. "Kate-" he started, but then a very excited Medical Examiner burst into the room and attack-hugged Kate.

"You're okay?" ascertained Lanie. "You're really awake?"

"Yes, I'm fine," laughed Beckett, hugging her back. "Wide awake." She glanced at Castle over her best friend's shoulder and shot him a look that clearly said "Really? We're still getting interrupted?"

Always, thought Castle, staring down at her. Always.

THE END