A/N: It just so happens I decided I wanted to write this on the Wikipedia SOPA blackout day. Did not make things easy, but I wasn't going to let it stop me. I have most of the info I need now for what I've got planned now and this chapter managed to get completed without the inclusion of too much medical detail, so I think it worked out alright. Enjoy.

Chapter Four – Complications

When Castle had awoken that morning he'd been momentarily confused as to where he was, but it hadn't taken long for memories of a night spent in the ER to come back to him. It was only a few seconds before he remembered he was in hospital, and actually, he felt fine. Whatever it was that was wrong with him last night seemed to have passed. That was reassuring. What was also reassuring was when he saw that Gina was already in the room with him, sat on one of the chairs by his bed with a paper cup of coffee in one hand and flicking through a magazine that she had resting on her lap. She was wearing the same clothes as she had been last night, and Castle wondered if she even gone back to the hotel at all. Although, amazingly, she didn't even look tired. But then again, she rarely did. Castle wondered how she managed it.

"Morning," he said to get her attention.

She looked up, at first seeming a little surprised, and then a look of relief spread across her face. She set down her coffee and got up to go to him. "Rick, you're awake! How are you feeling?" she asked in a tone of concern as she reached his bedside.

"Not so bad," he answered honestly, "But I'd feel even better if I could see Alexis. Did you manage to get hold of her?"

Gina nodded. "I did, but it took a while. She wasn't answering her phone throughout the night."

Castle looked like that didn't surprise him and gave a small smile. "Well, she's a sensible girl. Knows she ought to actually be in bed when she has classes in the morning; no wonder she didn't answer the phone."

Gina smiled at him, finding it quite sweet how obvious his adoration of his daughter was when he spoke about her. "Quite," she said in agreement, and then carried on, "But I got hold of her earlier this morning. She and Martha are coming down here on the train right now."

Castle looked pleased to hear that, but still a little sad that they weren't here already. "Any chance you could phone her back so I could speak to her?"

Gina gave him an apologetic look. "Sorry, Rick. You know they won't let you use a cell phone on this ward. It's only an hour's train journey anyway, they'll be here soon."

Castle nodded in acceptance of that fact, realising that was as much as he could hope for, and then drew in a breath before asking another question. "And what about Beckett? Have you spoken to her?" He sounded more nervous than when he had asked about Alexis.

That fact wasn't lost on Gina, and she felt a little bad about the answer she was going to give him. "Rick, I thought it would be best if I didn't speak to her. She's a homicide detective, she doesn't need something like this on her mind when she's trying to solve a murder. I thought it would be best to wait until we know you're okay, then we can tell her what happened on the way back to New York."

Gina had hoped he'd be able to understand her reasons for that and would be okay with it, but the look on his face suggested otherwise. "So you've not even tried to contact her?" he asked, sounding a little betrayed.

Despite feeling slightly bad about it, Gina wasn't going to apologise. She thought what she'd done was for the best. "No. I didn't think it was the right time for it," she answered calmly.

Castle just stared at her, looking hurt. "Gina, she's my friend. I think she ought to know."

"Rick," Gina said with a sigh, "When she was the one in hospital she told you not to come and visit her and then shut you out of her life for three months. Imagine if I'd called her and she wouldn't be able to get away from work to see you, or she might not want to, or you'd have to stay here a few more days…How much of a mess could that turn into?"

By now, Gina was seeing something in Rick she hadn't seen very often. The only other times she'd seen him give her this look was when they'd been going through their divorce. He actually seemed angry with her. "Gina, you barely know anything about what happened when Kate was in hospital," he snapped, "And you barely know Kate. Now could you just call her please?"

Gina thought he was overreacting. She'd done what she did because she wanted to avoid causing trouble for both him and Beckett, and she didn't think it fair that he was getting mad at her for it. "Alright," she said coolly, "I will. But remember, Rick, I'm the one who came with you into the hospital and sat by your bedside all night, even when I'm not married to you anymore."

At those words he did look as though he felt a little guilty about snapping at her and might have been about to apologize, but at that point the door to the room slid open. They both turned to see who it was, and neither of them recognized the man who entered.

He looked to be in his early fifties, with slightly greying brown hair and stubble on his chin, but the most obviously noticeable thing about him was the cane he was carrying and that he walked with a limp. "Richard Castle?" he asked abruptly.

Wondering who this new man was, Castle answered a little warily. "Yes?"

The man gave a satisfied nod. "Good," he said, and then backtracked a step to stick his head out of the door. "Nurse!" he called out, "Get me a wheelchair and help me move this patient." Castle didn't see what went off in the corridor, but he assumed one of the nurses had done as instructed as the man stepped back into the room and turned his attention back on him. "Right, you're being moved. This room's only for overnighters, you need somewhere more long term."

He said that all in a very commanding tone, and Castle was somewhat taken aback. "Whoa, hey, what?" he said, sitting himself up straighter in bed. "The doctors said I could go home later, provided I didn't get any worse."

"Well, I'm saying you can't," the man answered him.

Castle looked completely perplexed by what was going on. "And who are you exactly?" he asked.

"I'm Dr House. I'm your doctor as of now."

"I thought Dr Tamworth was my doctor?"

House gave him a condescending look. "That's why I said 'as of now', which would imply that Dr Tamworth is no longer your doctor," he said in a patronising tone.

Castle exchanged a confused glance with Gina, who gave House a suspicious look. "Why's he being moved? We were told last night he was getting better," she said, clearly having taken a dislike to House.

"He's being moved because he's still sick," the doctor said in a tone of stating the obvious, just as a nurse pushed a wheelchair through the door.

"Dr Tamworth said it was just dehydration," Gina pointed out, still not clear what was happening. "Said it was down to exhaustion from all the travelling and he'd be alright if they gave him fluids and kept him in overnight."

"Dr Tamworth is an idiot," House replied, still talking to them as though he thought they were idiots too. "Dehydration does not generally cause a person to stop breathing. If it was severe enough to do that, there's no way they should be letting him walk out of here."

Castle wondered who the hell this guy thought he was to get away with talking to them like that, whether he was right or not. "I had asthma as a kid," Castle explained, his tone beginning to sound a little confrontational. "The doctor said that mild dehydration might be enough to trigger it again."

House looked like he thought that statement was moronic. "The key word there being 'might'," he said as the nurse pushed the chair up next to the bed. "But on the balance of probabilities, most likely not. Now get in that. I'm assuming you can walk that far." He nodded at the chair.

Castle just glared at him, wondering if he even ought to do as this guy said. House didn't even look like much of a doctor; he wasn't wearing a white coat for a start.

The nurse pushing the chair seemed to have noticed something funny was going on too, and said to House, "Um, are you even his doctor. I thought Dr Tam…"

"No!" House suddenly snapped at her. "Dr Tamworth is not this guy's doctor. Now, come on, we need to move you." He said the last part while looking at Castle and gesturing insistently at the wheelchair with his cane.

Castle was just considering if maybe he ought to go along with it when Gina said, "Well, if you're his doctor what do you think's wrong with him then?"

House turned his attention on her. "I can't know for sure yet, but it's definitely not just dehydration," he said as he began to explain, "He's a writer. What do writers do? They sit in comfy chairs all day and write, and then they go to book signings where they sit in comfy chairs all day and write. Now even if he was tired and the room was extremely hot, the exertion of sitting down and scribbling his name in a few books would not be enough to cause dehydration severe enough for him to pass out. Especially since he had a more than sufficient supply of water. So if the symptoms he's presenting with point to dehydration that must mean there's an underlying cause. I won't know what exactly until I've run a few tests, but I'll say it could be thyroid, neurological…sudden collapse at his age could even indicate a problem with his heart…"

"Whoa, wait just a moment," Castle suddenly said, a little panicked by that information and annoyed that House was talking about him as if he weren't even there. "Firstly, those chairs are not as comfy as you seem to think; and secondly, are you saying there's a problem with either my brain or my heart?"

"Quite possibly," House said bluntly, clearly not giving a damn that that might be difficult or upsetting for Castle to hear. "Now get in the chair so I can move you and find out."

Castle was convinced. Well, maybe not quite convinced, but definitely worried enough that he was going to do as House said. He was just sitting up and getting out of the bed when the door to the room slid open again and a young doctor with dark hair and wearing a white coat walked in. Taking in the scene before him he looked utterly confused and more than a little angry. "What's going on here?" he began to say, and then noticing the wheelchair and House standing there suddenly said, "House, are you trying to steal my patient?"

House looked nonplussed. "He's not your patient anymore, Tamworth, he's mine," House said. "Since a few moments ago."

"What? You can't just take my patient," Tamworth responded angrily, looking a little flustered. "Does Cuddy know about this?"

"I expect Cameron's probably drawn her attention to it by now," House replied, still sounding like he didn't really care. "We might be hearing from the queen harpy in a minute. Which is why I need to move him before she gets here."

Tamworth gave an exasperated shake of his head. "She won't let you try and treat him, you know. I'm discharging him. He's fine."

"He is not fine," House responded disdainfully. "You really think it's dehydration when he stopped breathing and there's no obvious cause?"

The younger doctor glared right back at him. "Yes, it was dehydration. All the travelling round the country meant he was a bit run down, but he responded to ventolin and when we gave him fluids his condition improved. We kept him in overnight just to be sure, but his condition didn't get any worse and he's okay to go. All he needs is to get back home and rest for a few days. I've got the discharge forms right here." Tamworth raised his right hand holding the discharge papers for emphasis, but House just took a couple of steps forward and snatched them off him before throwing them roughly to the floor.

"No good to you, he's not your patient," he said dismissively, as he turned and walked back towards Castle.

Tamworth looked like he couldn't quite believe what had just happened and gave an indignant huff. "Yes he is," the doctor insisted, clearly angered by House's completely disregard for authority or manners.

"Cuddy told me to take a case, I'm taking yours," House replied.

Tamworth scoffed. "House, I don't know you very well, but you don't usually take cases of patients who are completely fine."

"And since I am taking this case, that would suggest he's not completely fine," House said, coming to standstill next to where Castle was sat on the edge of the bed. "Now are you going to get in that wheelchair or not?"

Having just listened to the entire exchange between the two doctors, Castle gave House a glower. "Actually, I think I'll be ok to walk," he said, standing up. "And since you clearly aren't my doctor after all I'm going to discharge myself and get out of here. Now, where are my clothes?" He was still wearing a hospital gown and began to glance around the room for where the clothes he'd been wearing last night were. He spotted them folded up on a chair next to the one Gina had been sat on and began to walk towards them.

House rolled his eyes. "If you do walk out of here you're an idiot," he said in a tone of disdain, as if that might convince Castle to stay. Castle just ignored him.

"House," Tamworth interjected, causing the older doctor to turn his attention back to him. "Will you just stop this and go and find someone else to annoy. I know Cuddy puts up with you but that doesn't mean…"

He broke off as they suddenly heard Gina cry out, "Rick!" and both doctors turned to stare at where Castle had just collapsed to his knees in front of the chair, breathing heavily as Gina put an arm around him and tried to help him stay upright. As the closer of the two doctors House reached him first, bending down and reaching into his jacket to take out a flashlight which he shone into Castle's eyes. Castle looked up at him but didn't really seem to be focussing on him, too breathless to say anything.

"Pupils unresponsive," House muttered.

"What does that mean?" Gina asked, her voice sounding panicked.

"It means," House said, glancing back at Tamworth and looking rather smug, "I was right."