"The what?"

"The emergency beacon," he panted, doubling over when his legs gave out and dragging her down as well. "I wanted to see if it was on."

She swore, and let him go long enough to go collect his clothes. Draping them over one shoulder, she helped him to his feet and walked him back to the fire, holding him as close to her as she could to try and warm him up. His lips were blue with cold and his skin was freezing. He wasn't walking well, either from exhaustion or simply from being so cold, so she pretty much pulled him along with sheer determination and muscle.

Then, once she had him by the log she started drying him off with his shirt, concerned now with trying to get him dry and warm without hurting him. Having his shirt off let her see just how badly bruised his upper body was; there was a dark, almost black, bruise that went the entire length of his torso from shoulder to belly – clearly from the seatbelt – and several others that were scattered along his ribs. Right now, however, her bigger concern was to warm him up. She was just a little gentler than she would have been – especially considering that she was annoyed with him for being stupid.

"Take your shorts off and put these on," she ordered, thrusting his pants at him. Before he could respond, she went to their woodpile and tossed on a couple armfuls of wood, wanting to get the fire as warm as she could. When she turned back around he hadn't moved. He was still doubled over and shivering, with water dripping from his soaking wet hair and running down his face.

With a resigned sigh, she reined her temper in and went over to help him.

"Here," she said, taking his shirt and drying his hair with it. She then dabbed his shoulders, chest and stomach dry and helped him stand up long enough to get out of his wet boxers and into his pants, which would warm him up a lot better than soaked shorts would. Luckily for his health, he didn't make any smart comments when she had him naked, and was equally silent when she helped him with his button and zipper because his hands were shaking too badly to do it himself.

His shirt was damp, now, but still warmer than going without, and she helped him get that on, too, before she settled him in their sleeping spot, sitting upright against the log with her pressed against him, and her arms around him to warm him up as well as she could. The fire was warming her up nicely, but he shivered for a long time before she felt them starting to ease off a bit.

"That was dumb, Castle…" she finally muttered.

"Sorry."

"You could have drowned."

"I wanted to see how deep the water was."

"You should have told me what you were thinking of doing."

"You wouldn't have let me."

"Because it was dangerous," she pointed out, hugging him close when he shivered again. She wasn't sure if it was cold or reaction, but he was still trembling enough to have her worried. "You should have waited for it to get warmer."

"I didn't think about that," he admitted.

She shook her head and wished she'd thought to put some water by the fire to warm so she could get something warm into him.

"What were you thinking?"

"I need to get home."

It wasn't what she expected to hear, but it certainly said everything. He wasn't worried about himself, he was worried about Alexis and was desperate enough to jump in the lake to try and help the people who had to be looking for them by then.

"I found the plane," he told her, not lifting his head from her shoulder.

"Yeah?" she hadn't expected to hear that. "What did you see?"

"We got lucky. It's on an underwater ledge – or a sandbar, I'm not sure. Maybe twenty feet down or so. If someone flies over it, they should see it pretty easily."

"Is it in one piece?"

He shrugged.

"The front is."

"Did you see the emergency transponder?"

He nodded.

"I managed to get to it and turn it on, too. I don't know how well it's working, but it's on…"

Beckett was torn between being mad at him for being impulsive enough to try something so dumb and being impressed at the guts it had to take him to go out and look when he knew the water was going to be so cold. She settled for just holding him while he warmed up and kept both observations to herself.

"Was it on before?"

"I don't know."

"You should have had me go look for it…"

She wasn't as battered as he was. Of course, she hadn't realized just how battered he was before she'd seen him without his shirt. She started to wonder what kind of injuries he might have internally to cause so many deep bruises. Not to mention what a dive in deeper water would do to those injuries since there would be more pressure on his body the deeper he went.

He shook his head.

"You don't know what it looks like."

Good point. It was clear he'd thought that much through at least.

"It was still dumb," she told him.

He didn't argue with her, telling her that he was either still trying to warm up or that he agreed with her.

"I didn't see your bags…"

Meaning he'd looked.

"It's okay. I'd rather you hadn't stayed out there long enough to get them anyway."

"I would love a bath."

She smiled, remembering their conversation from the day before.

"Me, too."

"With soap."

"Yeah."

He trailed off and she relaxed her hold on him a little as he finally stopped shaking.

"How are you feeling?"

"Warmer. Thanks."

Beckett nodded, but if that was a hint that she could let go of him she ignored it. She wanted to make sure he was warmed up. Hypothermia was a very real concern and she didn't have the luxury of calling a doctor if he managed to catch a chill.

As the time passed, however, he warmed up and leaned more and more weight against her, telling her that he was probably falling asleep in her arms. She didn't really mind, but she had a few things she wanted to take care of, so before he could fall asleep completely, she ran her finger along his cheek – knowing that would wake him up a little. Sure enough, he jerked his head back in surprise and looked up at her.

She smiled, because he looked sleepy and kind of cute that way. Just kind of, though.

"Let's get you settled a bit so you can take a nap."

He nodded and much the same way he'd tucked her in the night before she made sure he was comfortable against the log and covered as well as she could before she moved away. Castle didn't even open his eyes, so she was pretty sure he was asleep before he was even settled.