I officially suck. I'm sorry I cannot keep a steady updating schedule, but all of my stories will be finished. Hopefully soon. Thank you for reading!
A routine was instituted over the next three days as Beckett got better and the excitement at having the famous writer in the hospital died down. A few nurses had been added to the staff authorized in the detective's room and April Kepner hadn't come back, to Kate's biggest pleasure. Dr. Meredith Grey was still her main treating doctor and both women had quickly become friends despite the unique relationship linking them.
Meredith had just come off her night shift and was currently sitting in the detective's room and were discussing the latest gossip amongst the hospital's walls. "How long do you think before Bailey and that cute anaesthesiologist will finally hook up again?"
The doctor smirked at her newest friend and shook her head mischievously. "Soon enough, hopefully. Cristina had this genius plan to make our first year residents keep asking Bailey questions whenever one of them was working with Ben, and they're always so confused that she has to go and see him to know what the hell is going on."
Kate winced when she laughed, but she ignored the sharp burning sensation with a happy smile. "That plan better work soon, I want to see them together before I get out of here."
"I can arrange that for you, you know. Find something to keep you here longer." Meredith mock-threatened, amused at the flash of horror that crossed the detective's face.
Kate scoffed and glared, but the effect was tamed because of the smirk teasing her lips. "You are so funny. As much as I like having you as a doctor, I can't wait to get out of here." Her lung was finally strong enough to get rid of the oxygen tube and she had been ecstatic when it had been removed a few hours before, along with the chest tube. She had also started walking again the day before, at her highest pleasure. She couldn't do more than a few steps alone yet, and every single one of them had brought in a new kind of pain and hell, but just to be able to get out of bed was a reward on its own.
"I know, and it should be soon enough, maybe even tomorrow if it all goes well. You know you won't be able to go back home right away though, right? You're looking into a couple of weeks of recovery and physical therapy here before it'll be safe for you to take the plane."
The smile faded on Kate's face but she nodded, having already had the talk with Castle and Lanie. "Yeah, I know."
"Where are you going to stay?" Meredith already knew but she wanted to hear it from the detective's mouth, to see how she was dealing with the situation.
"Castle rented an apartment close to here. Secured elevators, one floor apartment, two bedrooms." Kate enumerated from memory, a grim shadow crossing her face. "I really want to go back home though."
Meredith smiled sympathetically, imagining how hard it had to be to be stuck all the way across country without anyone by her side. "Rick is staying though, right?"
"Yeah," Kate breathed and the doctor saw the relief in her eyes even if she hadn't voiced it out loud yet. "Lanie is leaving tonight though."
"Because you're kicking me out of here, girl." Lanie reminded her as she came into the room, the detective's cell phone in hand. "Hello, Dr. Grey."
"Excuse me."
Lanie pointedly ignored Cristina's dry apologetic words for several seconds before she finally moved out of the doorway to let the Asian resident in. "Oh, sorry, Dr. Yang. I hadn't seen you there."
Cristina's mutterings were too low to be understood, but it didn't keep Meredith from throwing her friend a warning glare. "Hi, Dr. Parish." Meredith echoed with a grin.
Kate snorted and glanced between the three women. "Yeah, yeah, you're all doctors, so what? Lanie, I'm kicking you out because you have a job waiting for you in New York. Beside," she flashed an innocent look through her long lashes, "It's bad enough that Esposito and Ryan will be stuck without me a while longer, do you really want to let them deal with Perlmutter alone?"
Cristina smirked at the medical examiner being blatantly manipulated by her friend. "Yes, that sound so bad, whatever a Perlmutter is. What are you still doing here? Clearly you need to go back to keep your people in line. Far, far away from here."
"Cristina!"
Lanie merely smirked back and ran a small hand into her soft curly chocolate hair. "You're right, I do need to go, to take care of Dr. Perlmutter, and her people," She said too sweetly as she ignored Kate's scowl. "Shouldn't you be doing the same? Oh, that's right, you don't have people to take care for, they're in charge of you."
Kate sighed and closed her eyes. She thought she had seen it all in April Kepner, but apparently there was something in the Seattle water because Lanie Parish and Cristina Yang, upon meeting, had practically hated each other.
The cop remained quiet as Cristina checked her oxygen level and the other machines, muttering and scribbling down hastily in the woman's chart. "So?"
"Lanie..." Kate warned but there was nothing she could do. Defeated, she glanced at Meredith and watched the show.
Cristina pursed her lips and mumbled something that no one could hear. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we heard what you said. What was that?" Lanie asked cooly.
"I said, her oxygen levels are stable. Her blood pressure is back up and her heart is not showing any signs of duress. We should be able to take her off the heart monitor later today."
Lanie was gloating. "Told you my girl was strong."
"More like pigheaded like her friend."
"Hey!"
"You let her get out of bed before she was even cleared by her surgeon! That's not your job, it's ours to clear our patients when we see them fit to take five steps without diving head first on the floor."
"You do have a point." Lanie conceded, but not without raising an eyebrow to the surgeon. "But it was nine steps, not five. And we got to her before she even had the slightest chance to actually fall, so. You were still wrong."
"Ok, that's enough!" Kate warned them and winced when she inhaled too sharply. "Don't make me hurt the both of you. Lanie, you do need to go back to keep the guys in line. God knows what they'll do if neither of us is there."
Lanie glared but she knew her friend was right. "That's your best argument? Care to tell them that to their face?" She asked and shook the iPhone in front of the woman's face.
Shock colored Kate's face before a blush crept its way on her features and down her neck. "Um."
"You've talked to them but they haven't seen you yet, sweetie, and I know they're getting crazy over there. The only thing keeping them from flying here is Gates's wrath. And yours if they do come here."
There was an hesitation on the detective's face, doubt. "When do they want to do that?"
"Now."
"Now?"
"Yes, they're on lunch break so they won't get harassed or disturbed by anyone. Please?"
Kate sighed and nodded, secretly excited to see her friends again. Lanie was setting up the Facetime app on the phone when the detective's voice distracted her. "How do I look?"
"You are perfectly fine, honey. You were in an accident a few days ago, not walking down red carpets and partying all night."
"Really? That's the comparison you're going with?" Kate glared.
Meredith watched the two bicker amicably, and suddenly felt out of place. "I should go while you talk to your friends, I'll come back later, okay?"
"No, don't go!" Kate asked her in a rush with a shy grin, "You could meet them, if you want to? That way they'll stop giving me and Castle the third degree every time we talk to them. Please?"
"Bro, she's on!" Esposito yelled when his phone chimed and Beckett's number appeared on the screen. Ryan jumped over his desk and followed his partner into the break room, quickly closing the door behind him. "Hey, boys."
"Hey, Lanie." Both men grinned at the M.E., their smiles growing much wider when the small camera moved from Lanie's face to include Kate as well. She was sitting close to the detective on the hospital bed and their heads were almost touching so they'd both fit in the screen. "Hi guys."
They both released deep breaths as they finally saw each other after several days. Castle and Lanie had texted a couple of pictures to keep them in the loop, a fact that had to keep quiet if they didn't want to get killed by Beckett, but seeing her moving and talking finally put a balm on their frazzled nerves.
The woman they had come to care about as if she was their own sister was still pale looking and broken, but already better than the first pictures they had received the day it happened.
"You know, if you wanted to go on vacation so bad, you could've just asked Gates." Ryan teased her just to see her glare, and was rewarded with just that when she narrowed her eyes at him. Her answer was not what they had expected though, when Kate groaned and tried to push the phone away. "God, is that how I look when I'm pissed? Get that thing away from me, Lanie!"
The detective was limited in her movements though so she couldn't do much without hurting herself and gave up pretty quickly when her ribs protested painfully. She threw one last annoyed glare to her friend and sighed, vanquished. "How is it back at the 12th, Gates giving you a hard time?"
Esposito sighed and shook his head, familiar with the woman's diversion technique. She didn't want to show exactly how bad she got hurt so she was changing the subject, but neither men felt like talking about their Captain right now. "Beckett..."
There was a brief glaring contest before Lanie rolled her eyes and softly poked her friend in the arm. "Honey. They are hundreds of miles away right now, and they're worried about you. Humor them and answer their questions."
The glare shifted to Lanie but she agreed, glancing back at the phone guiltily. "Sorry, Javi. Apparently Castle and Lanie are tired of answering your every question so go, ask away."
Kate spent the next fifteen minutes answering a continued flow of questions, ranging from her case to her injuries to her recovery. It was that last question that had her gasp, remembering about Meredith and Cristina. "Hey guys, talking about doctors, this is Meredith Grey, she's been the main doctor treating me since I've been here, and Cristina Yang. She's another surgeon resident here, and Lanie's new best friend." Lanie moved the phone away from Kate and toward the doctor, who smiled and waved at the screen while the Asian surgeon glared and waved awkwardly.
Esposito could swear he heard a soft gasp and his boss whining Lanie's name when the phone shook in the ME's hand, but decided it was best for him to ignore what may had just happened.
The guys began firing questions at the woman, mostly wanting to know what kind of patient she had been so far and bursting in laughter when she told them about Kate firing Kepner under the nose of two attendings.
"I get it now."
From the doorway just outside the room, Castle glanced at Derek curiously. They had been standing there for the past ten minutes, watching and smiling at the friendly display, not wanting to disrupt it. "What do you mean?"
"The reason why people are going crazy for your Nikki Heat books. If she's half of what Kate is, she must be one hell of a person to be friends with."
"As great as Nikki is, she doesn't even come close comparing to the real one." Castle agreed softly, his eyes shining at the sight of Kate smiling and chatting with their friends.
Derek glanced at the writer and took a step back in the hallway so they wouldn't risk being overheard. "You love her."
There was not a single moment of hesitation in the writer's voice. "Yes."
"She loves you back?"
Castle sighed and took a big sip of his coffee. It didn't taste like battery acid, but it was close. "I think she does, but she's not ready to admit it yet."
"You know, she reminds me of Meredith, back when we started going out." Derek told Castle, a wistful smile on his face. "We were together but she kept snaking away whenever it got too serious. Just the words 'girlfriend' and 'commitment' were enough to send her run in the other direction faster than saying 'hi'. She was so haunted by her past, and so terrified of being like her mother that she had convinced herself she was doomed, that she could never have a real, normal relationship."
Castle pondered the doctor's word quietly, and at how striking their stories were alike. "Kate's mother was murdered when she was nineteen and up until three years ago, she thought it was due to random gang violence until I started digging into the case. Someone put a price on her head when she got closer, but we still have no idea who. Kate had to shoot her mom's killer two years ago after he was about to kill me so she never had the chance to made him talk who had hired him."
"Those men then spent the last few years killing and destroying any remaining proof that might incriminate them while we've been inching closer to them. When we got too close again her captain was killed and Kate was shot at his funeral a few days later."
Derek shot Castle a sad yet understanding look. "I remember hearing about it. They caught her shooter?"
"No. She is safe now though, as long as she won't go anywhere near her mother's case again." Castle was cryptic but Derek figured that it must have been a cop thing, even if the writer wasn't one, so he didn't press the issue. "You were shot too last year, if I recall correctly?" Castle asked almost shyly, suddenly remembering about the shooting that had taken place in the hospital. "In the chest?"
"Yes, I was." The memory of the detective's scars when he first saw her flashed through the surgeon's mind, recalling that hers was fairly similar to his. "I take it that from the way you're asking, she isn't dealing well with it?"
"She refuses to talk about it. She's seeing a therapist to help her, but not a word to any of us."
"Give her time. She will get there when she's ready, and I have the feeling you'll be the one she will come to. Have faith in her, show her that she can have faith in you as well and you might be surprised."
Hysterical laughter suddenly erupted loudly from the room and both men exchanged a look, deciding it was time for them to make their presence known. Lanie was standing beside the bed and was half bent over it as she couldn't control her laughter while Meredith and Kate were beet red, tears running down their faces as they cackled.
Kate's back was resting on pillows, her left side raised higher to relieve pressure on her broken scapula and her eyes were shining when she turned her face to see the new comers. Her smile got wider and brighter when she saw Castle, and Derek shot the man a knowing smile.
"What is so funny? It better not be about me or my fabulous charisma that has all nurses and doctors at me feet." Castle joked, relishing the amused glare she got from the detective. He got back at her whenever he could ever since she had kicked out Kepner out, teasing her about being jealous of his attractiveness.
"Oh, Rick, you should've seen this!" Kate exclaimed animatedly, not noticing the effect her smooth, warm voice had on the writer when she used his first name. "Ryan was showing us the murder board of a case they're working on and he was going on and on about the importance of being stealthy so that Gates wouldn't see them and, then," The woman guffawed, the memory of whatever happened too vivid in her mind to continue talking.
"Ryan spun the phone around directly into Gates's face and Espo shrieked like a little girl before he hung up."
The three women shared a look before bursting into laughter again.