Chapter 2

Castle looked at Beckett who was sitting completely still in her seat, biting her lip with a look he knew all too well. She got the look when she was formulating theories on a case. He moved closer and sat in the seat the doctor was just in. "You okay?" She looked at him with watery eyes and he felt his chest constrict.

"I'm fine. You don't have to stay. You can go home. I don't need a baby sitter." She told him, feeling frustrated that she was still letting him take over.

"I know you don't need a baby sitter. I'm not here for that, I'm here if you need me or you need me to do something." He shook his head.

She gave him a stern look. "Castle, this isn't your family. I don't need you to be here. Just go back to the precinct and see if the boys got a case yet." He looked at her stubbornly but saw the frustration growing in her eyes as a nurse walked into the room.

"I can take you to see him." She said making Beckett jump to her feet.

"Castle." She said turning to face him.

"I'll walk to the room and then I'll leave." She looked at him a moment longer before following the nurse with Castle behind her. They reached the room and Beckett paused at the doorway looking at her father lying in the bed covered with bandages, wires and tubes. Another minute passed before she slowly walked to the side of the bed. She reached down, grabbing his hand and holding it in her own. Castle still stood at the door watching before he walked in to Beckett who had tears falling down her cheeks again.

"Go home Castle." She said sternly without moving or looking at him. She knew if she looked at him, she would lose her control and ask him to stay by her side. She needed to be herself; she had a need to keep being the strong detective. He took another few steps to stand in front of her, reaching out he wiped away a tear.

"Call me if you need anything." She nodded. "I mean it Kate. I don't care if it's an emergency or if you just want to talk. And I don't care what time it is. You call me." He told her in a tone she had only heard him use on Alexis. She did not risk looking at him; she could not look away from the bruised face of her father. "Kate?" He asked

"I heard you Rick." She told him, still not looking at him. He paused. He really did not want to leave her alone but if he stayed, she would only become more upset and angry. He knew she wanted space; she needed to be on her own, to feel like she was the strong, no-nonsense detective again. He nodded and left the room making sure to stop at the nurses' station on the way out.

"Can I help you?" Asked a nurse.

"Yes, can I leave my number in case there is an emergency or if I'm needed?" He asked. "My partner's father is in room 1047 and she has the need to be stubborn and strong. If anything goes on, could you please call me?"

"Partner?" She asked making Castle nod.

"She's Detective Kate Beckett." The nurse looked at him as her mouth dropped.

"Then you're…. you're Richard Castle?" She asked with a smile making him smirk and nod.

"So I can leave my number in case she needs anything?" He asked again

"Yeah, of course. Here." She handed him a paper and a pen not noticing Beckett peeking through the window at him talking with the nurse. She saw the woman give the admiration smile that she had seen so many times by the fans of Richard Castle. She saw her hand him a pen, paper, and assumed he was giving her an autograph before she turned back to her father and sat on the side of the bed.

"Dad, I don't know if you can hear me but please wake up." She said softly before walking over, dragging a chair over and sitting in it beside the bed.

Castle pulled his phone from his pocket and called home as he stopped in the lobby. "Hello?" Alexis answered

"Hey sweetie. It's me." He smiled.

"Hey dad? Where are you?"

"I'm with Beckett; her dad was in an accident and is in the hospital."

"Is he going to be okay?"

"I don't know. He's pretty banged up and is still unconscious. I'm going to stay at the hospital with Beckett for now. Okay?"

"Yeah, Beckett's really close with her dad. I can't imagine what she must be going through, I mean I can't imagine anything happening to you..." She trailed off.

"I'm not going anywhere for a very long time. You're stuck with me until I'm old and gray and have to move in with you when someone steals all my money. You don't have to worry, pumpkin." He smiled hearing her voice.

"Gee, thanks for making my future so bright dad."

"Not a problem." He chuckled. "Tell gram for me okay?"

"Okay. Bye dad, I love you."

"I love you too sweetie." He hung up and then immediately dialed Ryan and Esposito.

Ryan's desk phone rang twice before he picked up. "Detective Ryan." He answered.

"It's me." Was all Castle said before Ryan turned and waved Esposito over, telling him Castle was on line two he picked up the line too. "Beckett's in with her dad."

"How is he?" Ryan asked.

"Well from what I understood it wasn't all that great but he's still breathing. The doctor ran down a list of stuff." He explained.

"What did he say? I'll ask Lanie." Esposito said.

"He said broken ribs, fractured femur, internal bleeding, and cerebral edema." He gave the quick list.

"So you just stepping out to give the update?"

"Not exactly. Beckett kicked me out. She told me to go home, but she looked bad. I left my number with the nurses on the floor incase anything happened and told Beckett to call me-"

"But she won't." Ryan interrupted.

"That's why I gave it to the nurses and I'll probably just crash in the lobby or something until she can sort things out." Castle continued. "I'll call you if anything changes but so far he's in pretty bad shape because of a drunk driver who was speeding through a parking lot."

"Alright, take care of our girl." Esposito said.

"No worries." The boys heard a hint of a grin in his voice as he answered. "Bye." The three hung up and Castle turned to sit in a chair to wait until Beckett needed him or wanted to talk to him.

His phone ringing the death march woke him up hours later. He looked around to see the lobby was empty and it was completely black outside. He looked at the time and saw it was one in the morning before he answered.

"Castle." He said as cheerfully as he could.

"Hey, Castle." She said making him sit up in the chair and rub his eyes. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"Don't worry about it. Is everything okay?" He asked hearing the tears in her voice.

"Yeah, I just… you said I could call."

"Yeah, yeah, of course." He listened to her sigh.

"I know it's silly but I've been thinking. I shouldn't have snapped at you the way I did, and told you to go home. You were only trying to help and be there for me."

"It's fine. A lot has gone on and you're worried and scared." There was silence for a minute.

"I'm worried about my dad." She answered. "It's just that my dad is all I have..." She said softly. Castle sat forward a bit as he listened. "I'm sorry I sent you home."

"Hey, if you want I can be beside you in about a minute and a half."

"Castle there's no way you can get from your loft to the hospital in anything less than ten minutes and that's with speeding."

"Want to bet?" He asked with a smile.

"You never left did you?" She asked knowing him. He could hear the little happy note of a smile in her voice now.

"Of course not. You really think I would have left you alone here like that? I'll be up in a minute." They hung up and he started his way down the hall, up the elevator and to the room.

He knocked gently and saw Beckett to the side in a pull out bed. She jumped up and sat on the edge as he walked over to her. "I'm sorry." She told him again. "You should be home with Alexis and Martha. Be sleeping in your bed. Not up at all hours of the night in a hospital."

"It's not your fault. Besides, I wouldn't leave your side ever if you let me hang around longer." He smirked making her smile and shake her head. "You get any sleep?" He asked and saw her shake her head looking at her father.

"You?" She looked at him as he shrugged.

"Those lobby chairs are not very comfortable but I managed." He shifted and scooted up to the top of the make shift bed that was pulled out from a chair.

"What are you doing?" Beckett asked.

"We both need sleep. Come here." She looked at him a minute. His arms stretched out towards her, he was shifted to the side to let her lay back and against him. Sighing, she knew he was right and moved closer. Slowly she sank back with her head on his chest, his left arm draped across the chair behind her head. "Try to get some sleep."

"You know, you really don't have to stay. I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself."

"It's not a matter of if you can take care of yourself or not. It's a matter of this is a tough situation and it's good to have friends around just in case you want or need anything." He paused for a minute making her shift her head to look up at him. "Besides I am beyond exhausted." She smiled at him before they settled into their spots more, quickly drifting off to sleep.

Castle opened his eyes as the lights were switched higher in the hallways. The day crew was coming back on duty. He looked down at Beckett still laying, snuggled against his side sound asleep. He smiled and decided not to wake her right away. If she was still sound asleep at seven thirty in the morning, she needed the sleep. He knew she had a never fail internal alarm. He looked up as a nurse walked into the room with her replacement.

"Good morning." She smiled at him.

"Good morning." He said softly.

"This is Alison. She's going to be taking over for me today." The woman told him before turning to the new nurse, Alison. "Mr. Beckett came in late last night. He was hit by a drunk driver in a parking lot and was rushed here. Left R4-R6, the clavicle, Left femur and pelvis are all fractured-."

"Wait." Castle said softly making the two women look at him as he gently moved out from under Beckett, laying her down on the bed as he climbed to his feet and walked over to them. "The doctor last night only said he had broken ribs, a broken femur, internal bleeding and slight edema." He looked confused. The Nurse looked at him, looking not happy that the doctor did not explain everything to them.

"Are you his son?" Alison asked.

"No, Kate's the only child." He told her.

"Then you're his son-in-law?"

"No." He answered again. "I'm Richard Castle; I shadow Kate and the NYPD for my novels." Alison smiled.

"She's the inspiration for Nikki Heat?" She asked making Castle glance at Beckett still asleep.

"Yeah." The nurse smiled before taking a small breath.

"I'm sorry; it's not every day we get celebrities here." She explained.

"Are you listed on the paperwork?" The night nurse asked before flipping through. "Legally we can't tell you anything unless the family or the patient give the go ahead."

"I understand." He nodded.

"Looks like Ms. Beckett did put you down as an emergency contact." She said looking at Castle. He stole a quick glance at Beckett before looking at the nurses.

"So what exactly is going on? Is he in more serious shape than the doctor said last night?" He worried. If Jim was worse off and that doctor, last night did not tell them the man would be in a world of hurt once both he and Beckett were done, let alone when the others found out.

"Mr. Beckett has a lot of trauma from the accident. The broken bones have all been reset but with his age, it will take longer to heal, especially the femur, which was nearly shattered. The internal bleeding the doctor mentioned last night was a bleed from his spleen that had ruptured. They were able to get it under control rather quickly but with the Coumadin he had been taking it is very possible it could start again." She began, making Castle nod. "The slight cerebral edema is actually a bit more than just slight so we will monitor his brain to make sure the pressure doesn't become too great."

Castle's phone buzzed in his pocket making him pull it out and look at the name. He pushed the button to send it to voice mail and looked at the two nurses. "I know you're not supposed to have cell phones on in hospitals but the rest of the team want to make sure they can keep in contact with us."

"It's fine. Just don't go walking around disturbing patients with loud ringtones and stuff like that." The night nurse smiled.

"Got it." He put the phone back in his pocket and glanced at Jim. "So is he going to be able to pull through all of this and be okay?"

"You're going to have to talk to the doctor to get a straight answer on that. As nurses we only see and get so much information. I don't want to tell you yes, he'll make a full recovery, and then he doesn't. I also don't want it to be the other way because legally I am not allowed to make those assumptions."

"Well from the information you have, have others in his situation pulled through and recovered?" He wondered.

Alison looked at the files in her hands. "My experience." She said. "The injuries he sustained should not be a problem. With his age, they will be slow but everything should heal. However, we're talking about this human body. Anything and everything could happen."

Castle nodded. "Thanks." He sighed as he looked at Beckett sleeping still. "I'm just going to go call our friend back, in case you're in here and she wakes up." The two nurses nodded as he walked out and down the hall to a little waiting room to call Esposito back.

"Esposito." He heard.

"You called?" Castle asked.

"Yeah, why didn't you answer? Would have thought you'd be up already."

"I was. I was talking to the nurse. Is Lanie with you?" He heard shuffling before he heard Lanie's voice.

"Castle, how's Kate?" She asked.

"She's sleeping still."

"Still?" Ryan's voice came from the background.

"You two spend all night up talking about mushy stuff?" Esposito chuckled.

"Actually she kicked me out last night, remember?" There was silence. "She called me and I went back up and we went to sleep." He told the boys before turning his attention back to Lanie. "Lanie, the nurses gave me a rundown of his injuries."

"Give me a second." She told him before he could hear her telling the two men to leave.

"But it's my phone." Esposito said.

"And you'll get it back when I finish. Now both of you out." Castle could not help but smile. He knew she only kicked them out to try to get Castle to give more details about how Beckett was doing. "Javier said you wanted to know what a few things were."

"Yes, but it turns out the doctor last night didn't tell Beckett everything."

"What?" She sounded upset. "What exactly did he leave out?"

"He told us there were a few broken ribs, broken femur, internal bleeding and slight cerebral edema?" he turned the last terms into a question.

"Okay, the cerebral edema is basically the swelling of the brain." She explained. "It's slight, normal for an accident, so it should go down soon. What did the nurses tell you?"

"They said that he had a broken clavicle and pelvis also. The broken ribs are…" He trailed off trying to remember. "4 through 6 on the left, the bleed was from the spleen. They said they fixed it fast, but he was on Coumadin so it could start again. They also said that the brain swelling was a little worse than the doctor told us."

"The injuries sound like they should all heal, without the paperwork and test results I can't give you real answers though." They both fell silent. "How is Kate? Really."

"She's tough." Was all he said. "I better get back to the room. She's still sleeping, but if she wakes up…" he trailed off

"And you're not there… I get it. Go. Just make sure to keep us up to date." She told him with a small smile.

"You got it. Thanks." The hung up and Castle went back to the room and peaked in to see Beckett still sleeping on the pull out chair. He decided to get some coffee and started down to the cafeteria. He noticed the looks he was getting from patients, visitors and workers all the same. They recognized him. He just continued on his way, getting the two coffees, the additives they each liked and he paid.

Walking into the room again, he saw Beckett waking up. She looked at him as she sat up and took the coffee he extended to her. "Mmm. Thanks." She gave him a small smile as he sat next to her.

"Rested?" He asked watching her give a small nod.

"Thank you." She said softly before he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer to him.

"That's what I'm here for. We're partners; we take care of each other."

"Still. Castle, this is my father. My family. You don't need to put yourself out because my father is hurt. You have your own family to take care of and worry about." She shook her head before looking at him as he pulled his arm away and shifted in his seat.

"I can do both. Besides if, it was the other way around. If it were my mother in that bed instead of your dad, you would be right here too." She could not help the small smile that tugged at her lips as she looked down at the coffee in her hands. "So what made you put me as an emergency contact?" Her head snapped up as he nonchalantly took a drink of his coffee.

"What?" She asked.

"The nurse came in to give report to the day shift nurse. They checked the file to see if they could tell me anything and told me you wrote me as an emergency contact."

"I…" She paused and looked back at her father. "There are only a few people I really trust. I've trusted you with my mother's case; I figured I should trust you to take care of things if I couldn't, with my father." Castle just watched her explain and saw the worry on her face. There was a silent moment before she looked up at him. "So did the nurses tell you anything?"

He looked at her a second, she needed to know but knowing the doctor left out important facts would send her on a rampage. "They told me a few things." He nodded. "Promise me you will just stay here and not do anything."

She furrowed her brows, becoming more worried. "What? What's going on?"

"Just trust me." She looked into his blue eyes before she nodded and he explained everything the doctor had left out the night before. When he was done, he could tell she was angry that the doctor left things out but she looked even more worried than before. He continued and told her how he talked to Lanie and what she had told him and she nodded. The look of worry pulling back ever so slightly after hearing her friend says that he should be okay. They sat talking softly about the night before and what the doctor had done for three hours. There was a knock on the door making them both look up at a tall man with dark, buzz cut hair and brown eyes, standing in the doorway.

He walked in, over to them as they stood and shook his hand. "I'm Dr. Scerpico. I'm going to be your father's main doctor."

"This is Rick and I'm Jim's daughter Kate. What happened to the man last night?" Beckett asked, wanting to question the man.

"The doctor you spoke with last night is only an E.R. doctor." Scerpico explained. "I will be taking over his care for the remainder of his stay here." He paused with a smirk. "I'll take good care of him, so there will be no need to get the mayor calling the head of the hospital." Beckett looked at Castle as he smiled.

"As long as you take care of Jim and Kate's satisfied, I have no need to use my resources." Castle grinned and was rewarded by one of Beckett's famous eye rolls.

"Well I'm just going to examine him for a moment." He said as several nurses walked in. "You may want to step outside." He offered.

"Let's go grab something to eat. By the time we get back up here they should be done." Castle offered. Beckett thought for a minute before nodding and following him. She watched as person after person they passed recognized him and yet he had not made a single move to act on the looks. She was surprised to see him pretending he was not getting the looks from fans. He usually loved having fans swarm all around him.