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When they finally pulled into the hospital parking lot, the pain was getting pretty bad.

Lanie, Jim, and Espo were waiting at the entrance.

"How the hell did they get here before us? We were on the way before we…" his thought was interrupted by a cry from Kate as another contraction came. She grabbed his wrist and squeezed it hard.

"Ow!" he cried.

"Shut up, Castle!" she said with clenched teeth.

"Sorry babe." He said feeling bad for being insensitive to how much pain she was in.

Alexis was already running to Lanie. She had tears in her eyes. "Lanie she's hurting so bad. I can't stand seeing her in so much pain."

"I know sweetie, but she's a strong woman and she'll be fine." Lanie said, giving her a hug.

Meanwhile, Castle was helping Kate get out of the car. She tool his hand, but when they started slowly making their way to the entrance Kate stopped and doubled over as she cried out in pain. She buried her face in Castle's chest, moaning in pain. He held her in his arms, supporting her and rubbing her back.

When it ended she took his hand and they slowly made their way to the entrance. But when everyone all came rushing towards them, he put the hand Kate wasn't holding in a death grip in front of her protectively.

"No guys! I need to get her checked in and…" but he was interrupted by another cry of pain from Kate. Again she buried her face into his chest, moaning in pain.

"Hang in there, Kate." He whispered gently in her ear, still holding her in his arms.

They finally made it inside and got Kate settled inside a room.

Even though she was still in a lot of pain she was relieved to be in bed and with Castle by her side giving her his full support and attention.

She was holding his hand and had her eyes closed as she tried to relax, but was failing. She was scared and in pain, but she wouldn't let him know she was scared, not yet anyway.

"Are you a little more comfortable now?" he asked her.

She shook her head. Another wave of pain came and she squeezed his hand tightly.

"Oh my God, Castle! It hurts so bad!" she cried in pain, with her teeth clenched. She had tears forming in her eyes.

"I know baby. I'm so sorry Kate." He said gently.

When the contraction was over he wiped the tears away with the pad of his thumb and the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of his shirt.

"You're doing great Kate. I'm so proud of you."

She couldn't stand it anymore. She had to tell him she was scared. She needed to hear him tell her that she was going to be fine and that everything would be okay.

"Castle…" she paused, "Castle I'm scared." She finally said, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

"Kate, you know everything will be fine. The doctors know what they're doing and I'm right here with you the whole time." He said putting his hand on her cheek. He gave her a kiss.

Kate nodded.

"Ahhh!" she cried out in pain as a sudden pain came over her. She grabbed his hand again.

She moaned as she tried to breathe through the pain. The doctor walked in and sat down on the stool at the end of the bed.

When the contraction ended, he looked at them and started asking questions.

"Okay, so how far apart are the contractions?"

"Seven minutes." Kate said looking at Castle for reassurance; he gave her a slight nod, knowing she was terrified right now.

"Okay. I'm going to check you and see how dilated you are so we can figure out how close we are to pushing okay?"

Kate nodded. Castle felt her squeezing his hand again, terrified. He gave her a reassuring squeeze.

"You'll be okay." He whispered.

After the doctor checked her he said, "About 8 centimeters so it'll probably be about 4 to 5 hours." He said.

Kate groaned. "I can't do this." She said looking at Castle, desperation on her face.

The doctor shrugged insensitively and walked out.

That pissed Castle off a lot. "You can do this baby. You're strong." He said, but he was staring at the doorway the doctor had just exited.

"That ass hole." He mumbled to himself.

Another contraction came, the most intense so far. She cried out in pain. "Make it stop! Castle! Please make it stop!" she cried.

Castle felt like a knife was being twisted in his heart. He couldn't bare seeing her in pain, but he had to be strong for her.

"Breathe Kate. You need to breathe baby." He said gently, kissing her forehead.

Kate tried to breathe but the pain made it impossible.

"Kate you need to breathe or you're going to pass out, baby." He said, wiping her forehead again.

Kate tried to focus on breathing, but every time she had a contraction she held her breath. She was squeezing his hand in the middle of a contraction when she got light headed and the next thing she knew she passed out, partially from not breathing enough and partially from how excruciating the pain was. Castle didn't freak out because this had happened when Meredith had Alexis. He pressed the nurse call button and when the nurse walked in he said, "The pain was so bad and she wasn't breathing enough and she passed out." Just as the nurse was getting the ammonia packet to wake her up she came to.

"Wha…what happened Castle?" she asked, hazily.

"You passed out because you weren't breathing enough." He told her.

"Oh."

"Wear this for a few minutes." The nurse said, putting an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, Castle held it there instead of having Kate wear the strap, which he happened to know she hated from when she was shot.

After a few more hours the doctor came back and checked her again.

"You're just about there and we can start getting set up for delivery." He said plainly and walked out of the room.

"What an insensitive ass hole." Castle said.

He felt Kate grab his hand as another contraction came.

"You ready to be a mama?" he asked her when it was over.

She nodded. "Only because I know I have you to help me." She said giving him a weak smile.

TBC! HE'S COMING IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!