"Miss?" A man wearing a light blue polo shirt stepped in and closed the door behind him. His body rocked left to right and swayed in that motion along with hers.

"Miss, you can't sleep here." The man stepped back slightly and studied her more.

The sleeping girl was covered in bruises. Her face, once angelic, was now partially inflated around the eye and lip area and cut.

"Jesus!" He stepped in once more and placed his hand on her shoulder as she slumbered lying across three seats.

Alexis bolted up in fear. The man's cold hand against her bare shoulder shook her awake. Her eyes shot open as she sat up and brought her right hand up to her left shoulder, pulling her loose sweater back in place.

"Are you okay?" He asked. His voice was soft and sincere. His eyes were just the same.

"Where am I?" She asked, breathily as if she had been running for days.

"You're on the train-"

Before he could finish she added, "Which station?"

"Do you need me to call anyone for you?" He looked down at her.

"I need to get to Kate," she said to herself.

"Who?" The man in blue bucked his head down a little less than an inch. He placed his hand in his pocket and pulled out his cellphone, "you need to see a doctor about those cuts. They look real deep."

"I need to get to the twelfth precinct. I need to get there now." Her voice cracked. Alexis could feel the tears building up. She could see him, lying on the floor. Hopeless.

"You need a hospital. When we get there I'll be sure to call the police and notify them." The man dialed on his phone.

"You don't understand." Her eyes were instantly filled with tears, "he's dead." Alexis stared at the floor. Her hands made fists as they lay neatly upon her lap.

"Who?" He sat down across from her and looked deeply into her wounded eyes, "are you talking about the man that did this to you?"

"My father." She breathed out.

Still staring at the floor with tears in her eyes, Alexis took in the few seconds of silence she could before breathing in. When she did, her breathing hitched and she began to sob.

"Kate," Esposito rounded her desk slowly, "are we even sure that this has anything to do with Castle?"

"Javi," she shut her eyes gently, willing away the pain.

"Beckett, this could be anything. It doesn't mean it's him."

"Espo, I found that on his desk. What else can it be?" Her voice cracked and she shut her eyes tight for a few silent seconds.

Esposito looked to his left where the empty chair was placed beside Kate's desk. He took two steps to the right and pulled a spare computer chair, rolling it in beside Kate.

"I'm just saying, just because you found a piece of paper with some kind of cancerous disease written on it, doesn't mean it's his." His attempt to be reassuring clearly failed when Kate stood up and walked to the break room.

Following closely behind her, Esposito entered the room.

"Whose is it then?" She spat. Her back to him.

Kate turned to face him when his silence answered her question. His expression was clearly hurt. Kate took a step closer to him to apologize. She knew she was being hard on him and she knew none of this was his fault. She just needed something to take her mind off of it. She didn't need to have to choose who she would rather have it. She didn't want to have such thoughts as to which one of them was dying.

Martha was an amazing woman, and although she is the oldest of them, Kate couldn't bare the thought of what Castle would go through after losing his mother. Alexis was just a teenager, one of the sweetest girls Kate had ever met. Alexis had so much potential. Not to mention that losing his daughter would absolutely kill him. Castle would never be the same. She couldn't bare the thought of either of them dying. The door to the break room swung open before Kate could apologize.

"Kate, you better come out here," said Ryan with one hand on the doorknob.

"What is it?" she asked.

Ryan looked at his partner who stood still in the corner of the break room. His arms were vertical but slightly folded at the elbow. The tips of his fingers were buried in his back pockets.

Ryan looked back at Kate with a serious expression, "It's Alexis."

The room was silent.

A set of white sneakers pounded at the floor as her fragile arm came up to her temple. Her weak body lay silently beneath the hospital-blue sheets until she slipped into a steady slumber once more.

The only sound heard was the beeping of a machine, reassuring her that she was still alive.

The man placed a small pad of paper on the bed, just beside her feet. He checked her machines twice over and stepped back, picked up the pad and walked around the bed.

He picked up a needle from the nightstand beside her. He punctured a whole at the end of one of the many tubes connected to Alexis's arm. The man pushed down on the end of the needle as it released a yellow liquid in streams.

The door barged open.

"Put it down and step away from her. Now." Her voice was strong and fierce.

Kate took two steps into the room and ordered again, "I said now!"

The man dropped the needle and turned around.

Two hand guns pointed at his heart.

"Woah!" He yelled, he threw his hands up the moment he faced her.

"Don't move a muscle or I'll put a bullet through your skull."

"What the hell is going on? What did I do?"

"Just step away from the girl, jack-hole!" Ryan spat.

Kate removed her gun from the target between his eyes, "turn around and keep your hands up."

The man turned around and Esposito stepped between his partners to cuff him.

"Take him to the precinct; I'll just be a minute."

The boys gave Kate her space without question.

Kate was left in the hospital room. She turned to face Alexis as she laid on the bed. Something about her looked peaceful.

She laid motionless.

But something about her expression looked painful.

Kate stepped closer to the bed and placed her hand on Alexis's hand. The thought that she might never see Castle again entered her mind and left the moment the monitor went flat.