Set the Fire to the Third Bar

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Esposito isn't the one who finds the new lead in the Eldridge case. Castle is.

Stuck on the finer points of Nikki Heat's latest predicament, Castle had called up one of his unorthodox connections and had subsequently found himself sitting in a seedy bar filled with equally seedy characters. Midway through the discussion, he couldn't help but overhear a conversation between two men playing pool.

Two hours after he had texted Esposito, he finds out through Ryan that the three of them are heading to Eldridge's with explicit instructions for Castle not to follow them. So, as much as he had avoided the precinct since his fight with Kate, he decides that watching Eldridge get hauled off in handcuffs would be worth the trip. It is there, while he is examining the murder board, that he finds out about the shooting.

As Montgomery rushes out of the station, he orders Castle to either stay put or go home. Castle ignores both directives and tailgates the Captain all the way to the hospital.

.

"You all need to back up," says a nurse to the crowd of officers – and Castle – standing outside the trauma room. "I promise to update you on the status of your colleague as soon as we know anything but right now, you're preventing us from doing our jobs efficiently."

Even though this nurse is all of five feet standing in front of a bunch of burly cops, they all obey her and shift out into the halls.

"That means all of you," the nurse says when Esposito, Ryan, and Castle don't follow suit. "And—" she looks at Ryan's arm "—you need to get that looked at."

"That's our partner in there," Ryan replies.

Before the nurse can chastise them any further, Lanie barrels past them.

"Whoa, excuse me miss!"

Ignoring the nurse, Lanie pushes the door to the trauma room open just as the team inside is setting up for x-rays. "Wait!" she says, slightly out of breath, "She's pregnant."

"She's what?"

Lanie doesn't even know which one of the three guys had asked the question. She's too busy answering the doctor's questions.

"How far along is she?"

This time, she does glance over her shoulder at Esposito, Ryan and Castle but her gaze is fixed solely on the latter. "About seven weeks," she answers.

"Was she attached to this pregnancy?"

Lanie knows what the doctor is really trying to ask. She shakes her head. "She wasn't sure. Kate was still weighing her options when I spoke to her a few days ago."

The doctor nods. "We haven't been able to find the exit wound and she'll need exploratory surgery. The risk of complications to the fetus from surgery alone is large, more so because she's in her first tr—"

"—please try and save the baby," Castle blurts out, suddenly finding himself standing beside Lanie. His head is still spinning from the information.

The doctor looks at Castle. "And who are you?"

"Kate's my… the baby is…" he's stuttering and unable to decide on what to say.

"He's the father," Lanie answers for him.

This time, both Ryan and Esposito's exclamations can be clearly heard. "He's the what?"

"We're ready," one of the nurses tells the doctor. There are a slew of clicks as the doctors and nurses unlock the gurney and start pushing. The four of them move out of the way.

The doctor looks to Castle. "We'll do our best."

There is a moment of oppressive silence as the four of them watch the emergency team rush down the hallway. Then, a second after the elevator doors have closed, Esposito rounds on Castle. Pinning him up against the sickly green wall, Esposito is seething in anger. "You knocked her up and then you left her? You know, I thought it was strange when Beckett told us you no longer wanted to trail after her like a lost puppy anymore but now I get it—" he pushes Castle just a little bit harder, fists clenching the material of his shirt just inches away from his jaw, "—you already got what you fucking wanted from her, didn't you?"

"Espo—" Ryan is trying to pull him off Castle with his one good arm.

"—Tell me you're not pissed, Ryan," Esposito says between gritted teeth, his eyes still boring into Castle's.

"Oh, I want to murder him nice and slow," Ryan responds, "Just not here in the middle of a goddamn hospital."

"Hey!" Lanie butts in before the conversation could get any further down the path of bloodshed, "Would the three of you just calm the hell down?" She wrenches Esposito's right hand off of Castle and says, "As concerned as you are with defending Beckett's honour like she's some fucking damsel in distress and not somebody who can knock you all down like a bunch of dominoes, could you maybe tamp down on all of this macho-filled energy and channel it into catching the goddamned suspect who did this?"

"La—"

Lanie cuts Ryan off, pointing a finger at him in retaliation. "And you, you fool! Go get your bloody arm sutured up! Do you think it makes you look manly and attractive? 'Cause I can tell you right now – Jenny is on her way here and you know she won't be impressed."

Ryan smartly slouches away before Lanie can find another reason to yell at him. Esposito, on the other hand, still hasn't backed away from Castle.

"Javier," Lanie says with a little less force than before, "I know you feel like it's partly your fault that Beckett got shot but getting angry at writer boy won't solve anything."

Castle lets out a slow breath when Esposito finally steps out of his personal space and into Lanie's. "She wasn't feeling a hundred percent today," Esposito says, "I could see it and I should have stopped her from going in there with us."

"She wouldn't have listened," Castle says quietly, ignoring his self-preservation skills by speaking up at all. Sure enough, all he gets from Esposito is a glare. Castle looks down at the tiled floor, his fingers tugging at the hem of his shirt in order to straighten it out again. "Esposito," he starts in that same defeatist tone, "I didn't know. Kate never told me, okay? You and Ryan and Lanie can torture me as much as you want but I already hate myself so you really shouldn't bother."

Castle walks off before the two of them can respond.

.

It's just past three in the morning. The officers from the 12th had left a while ago, as soon as they had news that Kate had made it out of surgery. Esposito had taken Lanie home after she had collapsed in his arms from exhaustion. Only he and Kate's dad are left sitting in the waiting room outside the intensive care unit because even though Kate was alive, the next twenty-four hours were crucial. She would either wake up or…

Castle refuses to think of the alternative. Beside him, Jim Beckett is still sitting stiffly in the hospital chair like he had been all night. Barely moving. Castle is surprised when he starts to speak – the first words he has uttered since his conversation with Kate's surgeon two hours ago.

Still, it is only his mouth that moves. "How long have you been seeing my daughter?" he asks, voice raspy from disuse.

Castle shifts in his seat.

Jim turns his head slightly to look at him. "That's why you're still here after everybody else has left, isn't it? Or are you staying because you feel ashamed and guilty?"

Jim had been too worried about his daughter – too grateful to the doctor when she had come out to tell them that Kate had made it out of surgery alive – to fully absorb the fact that the same doctor had also just informed him they had been unable to save the grandchild he didn't know he had. He would have asked Katie about it if – when – she woke up but one look at Rick Castle's face and he had no doubt as to who the father had been.

What hurts Jim the most is the fact that Katie didn't think any of these events had been important enough to share with her own father.

"Kate didn't tell me either," Castle finally responds, as if reading Jim's mind. "That she was pregnant, I mean."

Reading between the lines, Jim asks, "Why not?"

Castle sighs. "We had had a fight."

"You broke up," Jim states.

Castle squeezes his eyes shut. "You can't break up if you weren't together in the first place." This is painful for him. "That's what we fought about. The status of our relationship."

It's Jim's turn to sigh but for reasons entirely separate. "My Katie is stubborn. Always has been."

There's a pause and then, "I'm sorry, Mr. Beckett."

"For what exactly, Mr. Castle?" Jim asks to which Castle has no answer. "If you want to apologise, I suggest you do so to Katie. When she wakes up."

With that, Jim returns to his previously stoic position and Castle gathers that they won't be having another conversation until after Jim is able to speak to his daughter.

Castle clears his throat before the silence becomes too awkward to break. There's one more thing he needs to say. "I didn't leave because I needed to make sure she survived—" he closes his eyes "—but I stayed because I love her."