I've tried to do Martha justice in this chapter. She's a hard character to grasp as she's so theatrical but at least I tried :)

I'm going to make Kate remember some of the little moments (Alexander, Temptation Lane, Natalie Rhodes) as well as the big moments (Freezer, Kiss, I love you). I'm going to try and make her remember in different ways like looking at an object, hearing a voice, or dreaming. If you have any ideas, don't hesitate to make a suggestion! Hope you like this one.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle, but I do own a brain so I can keep dreaming.

Chapter 4 - I'd Get You Out

The next day, the doctor upped the amount of visitors allowed to 3 which meant that Kate had spent the last few minutes sat with Martha and Esposito. Ryan was following up a lead on Beckett's shooter with a little help from a determined Lanie and Castle had gone home to see Alexis off to school.

"How are they doing with finding my shooter? Made any progress?"

Esposito tried to stay in detective mode as he told her the details.

"No. Lanie is helping Ryan with a lead, but after the bullet hit you, the sniper ran and had a pretty big head start which meant we couldn't catch him, but he left the silencer in the grass when he hurried to escape, and it was a rare model that are hard to get hold of, so hopefully we'll be able to trace it back to whoever shot you." He was trying to sound hopeful, but both detectives knew how good some of the professional hit men were at covering their tracks.

"I don't know what that means, but I'm hoping it's good?" Martha had always been confused when Richard explained their cases to her when he came home, but it didn't mean she understood.

"I guess it's better than nothing. Somewhere to start."

They were all silent at the prospect of never finding her shooter until they heard the creak of the door opening.

"Hope you guys are hungry. I brought food." Castle was stood there, juggling a bunch of paper bags with bright red logos in his hands. "I managed to sneak them in without the nurses seeing, but I managed to talk to the doctor, and you're allowed to try some solid food. I know it's know Remy's but I know you like your burgers." She gave him an appreciative smile. He'd read her mind after the doctor spoke to her the previous night about trying food again, as long as she wasn't too greedy.

"Thanks, bro. Just what I needed." Esposito had his mouth full of cheeseburger within seconds of taking one of the bags.

"Ugh. No thanks, Darling. That looks disgusting." Martha shuddered at the thought of eating greasy fast food.

"I know how picky you are, Mother, which is why I got you a sandwich. Just how you like it." The old woman was pleased at her son's thoughfulness. Not just because she'd have something edible to snack on, but because he seemed slightly more like himself. He'd been closed off as soon as they had reached the hospital when 'it' first happened, but he was clean, tidy and had evidence of a contented smile on his face.

It was Kate's first taste of solid food after the surgery. "Oh God. This tastes sooo good, Castle. Where did you get it from?"

"A new place opened around the corner. Burgeropolis."

"So. Two lovers reunite after 3 years... Where would you go?"

They had to find Greg after he broke his girlfriend out of prison. As far as they knew, they could be anywhere and the letter's they were reading were starting to make Beckett feel a little awkward.

Castle didn't have to think for long before replying with a standard male answer. "A motel."

"Really?" She wasn't expecting that. After all the things she'd heard him say, she'd figured that he was a romantic. A rare breed these days. And yet here he was and a motel was the best he could come up with? "That's what you call special?"

"Well... I'm assuming they're on a budget." He watched her as she shook her head a rolled her eyes. Such a guy. "Alright, where's the first place you'd go?"

"I don't know. Some place romantic... Some place with special meaning, maybe-" She stopped as he turned to look at her and raised his hand to stop her speaking.

"Like the first place they met?"

She watched as he messed about with a pile of letters, trying to find the one he was looking for.

"I'll never forgot the first time I laid eyes on you. That cold, rainy night inside the Burgeropolis, Hillsdale." He snapped his fingers with triumph. "Hillsdale, New Jersey."

"Burgeropolis? You think that's their special place?"

He looked down at the letter considering his response. "Yeah.. No... That's stupid."

"Maybe we'll get lucky with the APB's."

"That was a nice thing you guys did in there." Esposito was touched by Castle and Beckett's actions. They'd given Greg and Amy in holding takeaway from Burgeropolis where they'd first met. The guy was so in love with her that he'd broken her out of prison. She'd actually been innocent in the end.

"Well... I just thought that after everything Greg did for her, they deserved a chance. Besides, if it were you and I, in Amy's shoes, we'd still be rotting in prison."

"Ha! Speak for yourself bro. I'd escape."

"What? You'd just leave me in there?"

"Law of the jungle. I gotta look out for numero uno."

"Wow. Nothing like a hypothetical prison sentence to know who your friends really are."

All the time Esposito and Castle had been talking, Beckett had been round the corner listening intently to their conversation. She almost felt sorry for Castle at hearing Esposito wouldn't help him out of prison. He looked a little disappointed.

"Don't worry, Castle. I'd get you out." She hadn't realised the significance of the comment after the conversation with Martha earlier in the day, but she still meant it. Castle just stood there, rooted to the spot, his jaw hanging open. She started walkng towards the elevator before realising she wasn't being followed. Turning round, he was STILL stood there.

"You comin'?"

He jolted out of his stupor and followed after her. "Yeah..." He ran to her side and she turned to look at him as he left.

Castle looked at her as she stopped eating suddenly, staring into space. "Kate, you there?" He waved his hand infront of her face until he got a response.

She placed her burger down on the small table across her bed. "I'd get you out..." Martha and Castle looked at each other confused, whereas Esposito knew exactly what she was talking about.

"The case when Greg broke Amy out of prison so they could be together. You guys gave them food from Burgeropolis because it was where they first met. Me and Castle were talking after the case..."

"You said only get yourself out of prison and leave me to rot and Kate said that she'd get me out if I was ever locked up..."

Castle could recall the moment easily. They same day his mother had told him that it takes true love to break someone out of prison. Something that he wouldn't do for Gina. He'd stood stuck to the spot with his mother's words running through his head. 'Would you be willing to break her out of prison? Because that, my boy, is true love.'

He wasn't the only one who could remember the conversation. He looked towards his mother to see that she'd stopped eating and was staring wide eyed at her son. "Is that when-"

"Later, Mother."

"No wonder you were so cheery that night, huh?" She muttered to herself as she returned to her sandwich.

"No I'm a little confused again. Why are you all smiling at me? What was so important?" Kate was annoyed. She was lying in a room with her colleague, her partner and his mother, and all three of them had just had some kind of epiphany. Martha was winking at Esposito and Castle was smiling down at his hands looking pretty damn happy.

"Nothing you won't figure out in time, Darling. C'mon Richard we should go home. Alexis will be back soon and we need to have a little mother-son chat, don't you think?"

Castle looked to Kate, silently pleading with her to save him from the wrath of Martha Rogers. She couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face as though he'd been caught out.

"I'm gonna go too. See if Ryan has any news on the silencer. See you tomorrow. I'll come back with Lanie and Ryan tonight and update you. Get well soon, chica." As Esposito left, she caught his face one more time. He was grinning from ear to ear and shaking his head. He'd be talking to his girlfriend about that one later.

"I'll come back soon, yeah? Oh, and Alexis want's to come and see you as well. She's been so worried about you and I had to force her out of the house this morning. She was pretty cut when she saw... You know." He gave her a sympathetic look and his hand rested on her leg before he and Martha said their goodbyes and left. Before long, she was in a morphine hazed sleep for the second time that day and having a pretty interesting dream.

"The only thing that Amy talks about is being innocent of the crime she was convicted of and how much she missed Greg."They were once again buried in a pile of letters between the pair of lovers.

Castle picked up a letter and started to read before slowing down his speech towards the end. "Yeah, it's pretty clear Greg misses her too. Listen to this. 'The days without you grow longer, but my love for you grows..."

"Stronger?"

"Harder. A poet he's not."

"Yeah, well. Not everyone is a best-selling crime novelist."

Castle gave a small smile before scanning the letters again.

"And it doesn't mean their love was any less. Listen to what she wrote to him. " Beckett picked up a separate letter, reciting it to Castle. "I can't bear to see you suffer. Make a new life with someone else. Just be happy. If anyone deserves it, it's you."

Castle started to shuffle the letters once more. "I think I have his response to that." He found a small white letter and turned to Beckett to starts reding it aloud. "'I don't believe in much, but I believe in us.' I like this guy. 'And no matter the obstacles, no matter how hard you try, you'll never get rid of me. I love you.'" As he read the last line, he faced Beckett, looking her straight in the eye. She was smiling back at him, but her face turned to shock as she realise what he'd just said, even if they weren't his words. They looked at each other for a few more moments until they both turned away, nervously.

"You're right. These are worthless."

That was awkward.

She'd recalled something else but in the form of her dream. At least she though it was a memory. She was sat in the same room as she was when she remembered earlier. Letters piled high, they were wearing the same clothes and Castle was just as ruggedly handsome. Woah, Kate. Stop thinking like that. Her heart was beating a mile a minute. Medication or Castle?

This amnesia thing was gonna get complicated.

Castle walked through the front door of his loft, stepping out of his shoes with ease. He walked over to the kitchen and poured himself a drink. Not alcholic. He didn't need it so much seeing as Kate was alive and well now. He'd forgotten his mother was behind him until he jumped at the sound of her voice.

"Going to tell me what that was all about earlier?"

"There isn't anything to say." He tipped his head back and drank his water in one.

"Would you get her out of prison, Darling?"

"I need to get her out of the hospital first."

"Richard."

"I'd take a bullet for her. Hell, I already did, but look at how that turned out."

"Stop being so angry with yourself. Detective Beckett doesn't need that right now. She needs you to be strong when she can't be, although she'll hardly tell you when. Can you imagine what she is going through? She can't remember her cases, her boyfriend, she can't even remember what she ate last Friday."

"Remy's. I had to force her to eat because she was working late on her Mother's case." He smiled at the memory, even though her shouldn't. She didn't take care of herself, and it had turned into his job over the past 3 years.

"See. She needs you even when she's healthy. Remember what I said, Kiddo. Don't wait until she's shot again or even worse." She turned to walk away but turned when she heard him sigh as though he was preparing himself to speak.

"I didn't wait. I told her and she can't remember. It's probably best. She has Josh and a bullet wound."

"What exactly did you tell her?" She walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "You can tell me, Richard. I'm your mother and I care about you. I could help you."

He closed his eyes and looked away from her. "I told her I loved her. I love her. As she was bleeding all over my hands and I thought she was dying. It was my last chance."

Martha put her hands on his face and turned his head to him. "Look at me, Darling. She won't remember right away, but you have got be there ready to prove it to her in case she does. And if she doesn't, I want you to tell her again when she'd better, OK? I've seen you two together and she's like no other woman you've ever dated and she loves you too. It'll come to her soon enough. Now come on and eat. I made some lasagne earlier and there are some leftovers in the fridge."

"Are you trying to put me in hospital?" He managed a small smile towards her. He knew he could count on her confidentiality, although deep down, it was obvious that everyone he knew, knew exactly how he felt about her. It was only the woman herself who didn't know. Especially now.

"Thanks, Mother, but I'm going to get some sleep. I need it." He walked up the stairs and heard her call.

"Promise me, Darling."

He said nothing.