AN: What can I say? Life…. I am genuinely sorry for not updating sooner, however, life just got in the way. Like always…. But thank you to everyone who is still reading, reviewing and following this adventure. It means a lot to me! Thanks!
P.S.: This chapter contains both chapters three and four of the original IFTFFYEA.
Sowway Momma and Cassy, my can'te dwo it." Emily said as the crime-fighting duo shared a look of mix emotions."Gwoodknigty," Kate watched in horror as her baby girl closed her eyes and her breathing evened out. His steps faltered when he felt her breathing abruptly stop.
He can't remember following the paramedic's orders, his own ears ringing as his body follows the commands. He lays Kate down on one of the gurneys, Emily on another right next to her. Paramedics rush over to Kate and Emily, and he sidesteps one of them so he can still hold on to Kate's hand until he gets pushed out of the way again by another medic. He has to control his anger and remind himself that they are here to help, that they are here for good reasons, their main concern being Emily though. He feels an intense pressure crushing his hand as Emily gets loaded into an ambulance.
"Stay with her Castle, please, for me. I trust you." She croaks out to him before their hands separate and she too gets loaded into an ambulance. He doesn't have to sprint far to get to the other ambulance, yet his heart still clenches at the thought of Kate by herself. Even if he is well aware that she can take care of herself. But she can't. His indestructible detective can barely lift her head up, and just the thought of that makes his head spin.
"I'm riding too," his voice is stern, strong, and if his face is anything to go buy, he is so not in the mood to be messed with right now. The paramedics share a look before nodding their heads in agreement. He takes hold of Emily's tiny hand in between the both of his, a silent prayer falling off of his parted lips when the vehicle finally begins to move. He doesn't consider himself religious but, he needs for them to pull through this.
"Uh, Sir?" The male paramedic asked, the female scolding him with her glare and he is oddly reminded of the looks that Kate used to give him. The male had shady blond hair, dark chocolate brown eyes, perfectly manicured nails, and neatly waxed eyebrows. Whereas, the female had plucked eyebrows, a puffed out bottom lip, with a tin top lip, brown hair with hints of red highlights in them, and an effortlessly slim nose. In any other circumstance, he would be using his ruggedly handsome features and charm to pick her up but, now was not the time nor was she the girl.
Realizing that he hadn't answer him, he turned back into the conversation and arched his right eyebrow. "We know that this must be a very hard time for you," Castle had to bite back a scuff at that part; they had no idea what the heck he was going through.
"But for legal reasons we need confirmation that you are her father." The female paramedic answered, looking him over with a small smirk and subtle wink. His thoughts were confirmed when the male paramedic rolled his eyes at her and puffed his chest in jealousy. Partners, he thought, in more ways than one.
Turning back to the male paramedic, whose name tag read John, he answered the question with as much clarification as he could. "I was the one who rescued her from that burning apartment, I'm the one who she will be staying with, I'm the one who loves her like she is my own. Do you need any more confirmation than that?" He finished with a glare before turning his attention away from the paramedics and back to Emily, God only knows that she would need his full, undivided attention for a while.
The female paramedic's phone rings and it doesn't take long for Castle to figure out that it is Kate's paramedics requesting an update on Emily. The conversation goes on for a few minutes before Janet, according to her nametag, hangs up with a curt goodbye and sharply turns to give him a glare. "Apparently, Detective Beckett started to threat bodily harm if she didn't get an update on Emily Beckett as soon as possible." Castle smirks in response, 'That's my girl!' he thinks to himself.
He is brought back from his thoughts when he hears an alarming sound coming from the other side of the vehicle. It takes his head a minute to register that Emily just flat-lined. 'But flat-lined means, her heart stopped beating.' He hears him tell himself when it all registers in his head, his heart dropping to his stomach and he has to swallow back bile to stop himself from throwing up. They get her out of the ambulance with his larger hand encasing one of hers as Kate is unloaded out of the other ambulance. Doctors rush to his detective's side, unknowingly obstruct his view of her and then, his focus is forced to change back to the chocking toddler. He releases the breath that he was holding, hopes that his unwanted air goes to the little girl. Everything is happening too fast for his brain to comprehend it.
All he can understand is that there is an older lady dressed in a nurse's attire with cartoons on it pushing him in the direction of the waiting room and forcing him to except reality. His breathing becomes erratic and even in his distraught state, he knows he is having a panic attack.
"Son, take a deep breath. Son, deep breaths. They are both going to be okay, your daughter and girlfriend are going to be okay. Just let the doctors do what they have to do, okay? Let her hand go Son, let her hand go." The little old lady tells him, drawing his attention to her petite height and calming smile, "Mary Ann" his eyes read from her nametag. And he lets go; against his better judgment, he lets go of Emily.
He turns around and there she is his Kate she looks off, like something worse has changed in her. And maybe, just maybe, if he wasn't such in a trance before he might have heard what the nurse and doctors had said. It's not until he knows for a fact that they took Emily away, does he jump up on the side of Kate's gurney and grabs her hand as they start wheeling her in. That's when he sees it, understands why she is on the verge of tears and is still crying for him and in pain.
He tries to calm her down, shush her, but he knows that its useless because the half-a-foot long piece of debris in her side has her distracted and sobbing. He hears her cries out in pain once more, and takes his prying gaze away from her side and up to her eyes. All he can hope for is that she is his last image before her eyes shut close and her breathing stops.
Letting her hand go and jumping off of the gurney he stumbles backwards, nearly losing his balance in the process before being caught on the arm and shoulder by Mary Ann.
He watched as doctors and nurses in scrubs wheeled the love of his life away into what he assumed to be an operation room, as they try to figure out how to save her.
That was exactly five hours and thirty-three minutes ago, although he keeps telling himself that he is not keeping track of the time that passes by.
He had the nurses call everyone for him; unable to talk, let along speak the words himself. Lanie is sitting across from him; she keeps telling him that no news is good news but even in his deranged state, he can see the wariness in her eyes. Martha and Alexis are sitting on either side of him, Alexis holding on to him for dear-life and him holding on to Martha for dear-life. Javi has taking his spot harassing the nurses for information with Kev backing him up.
He keeps blaming himself for not figuring it out sooner, and for not getting them out faster, or not getting hurt instead. He would scarify his own life if it meant that Emily could live to her third birthday and that Kate could live to see Emily get bigger for just one more day. There's no doubt in his head that he would.
"Where's my daughter? Huh? Where's my granddaughter?" An older man styling his grey hair as bed head sprints in Castle's direction while yelling at passing nurses and doctors.
"Mr. Beckett, do you remember me and my partner? We work with your daughter, detectives Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan?" Javi ask the older gentleman and Castle watches as Kate's father, Emily's grandfather, is informed of the night's events with a blank face.
"Yes, of course I remember you two, and please we have already gone over this. call me Jim " Jim stated matter-of-factly.
Kev started talking to him as Javi lead the three of them in the direction of the others.
"How are they? Are they going to make it? What's been going on? The news said that the bomb went off almost five and a half hours ago." Jim gushed out all in one breath, probably not good for someone his age, Castle thought to himself.
"Hello Jim, long time no see. We have yet to hear word on either of them, but when they came in Emily had just flat-lined in the ambulance and Kate had about a half-a-foot-long piece of debris in her side. Right as she went through the doors to the operation room, she began having trouble breathing. That's all that we know at the time." Lanie gave him a smile as she tried to hold back tears of her own and her wavering voice at the end. He nodded his head to her in acknowledgment before running his hands through his hair, even more so messing up the thinning hair.
"How did they get out of the building? No one ever did say." Jim asked, while everyone's gaze switched to Castle and back to Jim in a split second. "I am going to take it, that it has something to do with you, young man." Castle could practically fill the relief rolling off of Jim in waves.
Relief though? He didn't know why. Didn't he just save this elderly man's daughter and granddaughter only after putting them in the initial danger? Shouldn't he be the one angry and mourning what had happened, while Castle was upset and angry? Angry at the world for what had happened, angry at Scott Dunn for the bomb, and lastly, angry at himself for writing the books that had put Kate and her Daughter,her precious sweet little angel in the hospital.
"Yeah. You could say that it had something to do with me."
AN: Once again, sorry for the really long pause in-between updates. Nonetheless, please review, follow and favorite both the story and my account! If anyone has any suggestions and/or ideas, please do not be afraid to Private Message me or leave them in the a review. Thanks!