Author's note: You guys are in luck. I have time to write out the next chapter and not leave you in suspense for too long.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Oh, no… oh, no…" she reached over and took his shoulder to turn him over and he yelped in such agony that she pulled her hand back. It came away bloody.

"Please don't touch me," he gasped, breathlessly. "Please…"

"Easy, Castle," Esposito said, noting the blood on the side of his head and the blood on Beckett's hand. "This is going to hurt."

In the background, Beckett could hear Ryan calling an ambulance and other backup, but she couldn't focus on that while she watched Esposito rip open Castle's shirt to start first aid. He swore, and did a double take.

"He's wearing a vest!"

"What?" Beckett looked down and saw that Castle did, indeed, have a vest on. But it wasn't a bulletproof vest. "It's a flak jacket," she said, feeling a surge of hope go through her. "To protect his ribs, I bet."

Esposito rolled Castle onto his back as carefully as he could, but Beckett saw Castle's face pale even more, and she reached for his hand to apologize for hurting him. It was necessary, though. He squeezed it, but yelped again when Esposito carefully pulled the Velcro straps that secured the vest.

"Will a flak jacket stop a bullet?" Ryan asked.

"A military issue one will," Esposito told him, looking up for only a second before trying to pull the vest open to see if a medical one would. "It had to hurt like hell, though."

"Especially with his ribs already killing him," Beckett added. She was watching as the vest opened, revealing the old bruises from the seatbelt of the plane and a couple of nasty looking welts that were obviously fresh. There wasn't any blood, though. At least not on his chest. "Let's roll him."

"No…"

"Sorry, Castle," Esposito apologized, even as he did it. They had to make sure there weren't any wounds on his back, since he'd been turned by the initial shot and might have been less fortunate from behind.

Castle groaned, biting back a curse as he was rolled onto the bloody shoulder, and Esposito slid his hand under the vest since he couldn't get the shirt all the way open and pull the vest completely off. When he pulled his hand back there wasn't any blood on it, and Beckett nodded.

"Let's roll him back."

"I'll give you a million dollars to not touch me again," Castle whispered, his face now pale, and tremors shaking him so hard that Beckett knew he was going into shock.

"Stay with us, Castle," she told him as Ryan and Esposito both pulled off their jackets to cover him up and protect him from the driving rain as she rolled him back onto his back. "Help's on the way."

He didn't reply, and she pressed tightly on the wound on his shoulder to staunch the blood that was flowing freely – and making a nasty mess of things when it mixed with the rainwater that was soaking them all. The one gunshot wound was all they could find – bad, but nowhere near as tragic as it could have been. He'd been lucky.

"Who is this guy?" Ryan asked, turning to the dead body.

"No idea," Beckett replied. "Some kind of nut job. You didn't know him, Castle?"

There wasn't any reply. He'd passed out on them. She could feel his heart beating strongly under her hand, though, so she knew he was still alive. In the background sirens were already getting louder. Esposito took advantage of the fact that he wasn't feeling anything just then and got his shirt off, handing it to Beckett so she wasn't pressing on the shoulder wound with her bare hand. The cloth would staunch the bleeding better than her hand – and it would cut back on the chance of infection.

"His name's Thaddeus Dailey," Ryan announced, looking at a license he'd taken from the dead man's wallet. "Lives on 212th street."

"We'll check the place out," Esposito said, as they were suddenly joined by a small army of paramedics and police officers. The medics pushed past Esposito and Beckett to get to Castle's side, and started working on him, which brought him around with another yelp as one of them pulled the vest off.

"Easy, Castle," Beckett told him. She glared at the paramedic who'd hurt him. "Be careful."

"Sorry."

Bandages and medical equipment were all over the place, and Beckett felt someone put a hand under her arm and pull her to her feet. Annoyed, she started to snap at whoever it was that was manhandling her, but was brought up short when she saw it was Captain Montgomery, looking worried as he checked her over for any new injuries.

"You all right?"

She nodded.

"Yeah."

They both watched as the paramedics put Castle on a gurney and covered him warmly, and then took him away.

"How about him?"

"He got lucky," she said, feeling a little light-headed all of the sudden. She must have paled, too, because he frowned and took off his jacket and draped it over her shoulders. She wanted to tell him it wasn't necessary, but the warmth was a comfort and she had a feeling she might have been trying to go into shock, too.

"Esposito? You got an ID on the DB?"

"Yes, sir."

"You and Ryan go and check out his place – see if there's any next of kin to inform. Then meet us down at the hospital."

The two nodded, and Ryan brought over Beckett's gun and handed it to her.

"We'll have the unies bring down Castle's mom and daughter."

Beckett shook her head, wondering how much therapy Alexis was going to need after having her dad back in the hospital only a day after he'd been released.

"Tell them that he's going to be okay."

"We will." He smiled. "It'll be a good story for another day," he told her.

"Why's that?" Montgomery asked.

"Gunman was aiming at Beckett," Esposito said. "Castle pushed her out of the way and took the bullet."

Montgomery raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything. Beckett didn't look like she was up to discussing it.

"Meet us at the hospital," he repeated, gesturing for Beckett to follow him. He waited until they were out of earshot. "If they release you, you can follow up on the DB if you want."

"Thank you, sir."