Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.
xxxxxx
Rick pulled onto a street near the scene, rechecking his phone quickly to make sure he had the address right and his mouth gaped when he was stopped by a police officer, standing in the way of an accident. A car accident.
Rick stepped out of the car and walked as close as he could to the cars. One of them was a silver truck, its bumper hanging off the front. The other cars driver's side window was smashed, and there was a large dent in the door. Blood trailed along the steering wheel and the hubcap from the front wheel was about two feet from the car.
Rick's breath caught in his throat and his blood chilled when he recognized the car. Kate's car.
"Kate!" Rick yelled. He saw Kate being pushed into an ambulance on a stretcher, and ran to the ambulance. He tried to get to her, tried to talk to her or hold her hand, do something to make sure she was still alive.
The paramedic leaned down toward Kate and then called to the officer that was holding Rick back, "Who's Rick?" He ran to the paramedic, ignoring the officer calling his name.
"Me, its me, me, I'm Rick." He was breathing heavily and when he looked down at Kate his breathing stopped altogether. "Oh, Kate." There was blood from her temple to her shoulder, some dry; mostly new and fresh. A few shards of glass were still in her wound and her arm was filled with bruises.
One of the paramedics asked Rick to back up and he watched as Kate was lifted into the ambulance.
"You can't come in here sir," A paramedic said to Rick. Rick blinked and looked at the doors being shut.
"I- Wh- Why?"
"Only family. I'm sorry, sir, we're going to the nearby hospital, you can meet us there." The man turned and started towards the ambulance.
"I am," He turned back around to look at Rick, "I'm her fiancée." He watched Rick for a minute, watched fear and anger flash in and out of his eyes. Finally, he opened the doors to the ambulance and Rick climbed in next to Kate, grabbing her hand.
"Kate," She tried to open her eyes but all she found she could do was tighten her grip on his hand. She tried to speak, but she couldn't get any sounds out. "Hey, don't, it's okay, don't say anything." When Kate finally opened her eyes, Rick saw that they were flooded with tears. "It's okay, I'm right here."
Kate's eyes closed again and she squeezed his hand and Rick's eyes widened when the steady rhythm of the beeping of her heart started to fade into one straight beep.
"What's happening? Is she okay? What's going on?" The medic that was in the back with them immediately started to move into action and Rick leaned back to give him room so he could do what he needed. The doors of the ambulance opened and there were already three or four more people standing outside, starting to pull the stretcher out.
Once they got it fully out, Rick and Kate's hands were disconnected. Rick jumped out of the vehicle, following Kate until they got to a door with a large, red OR written on it.
"Sir, you can't come back here." The medic stopped and faced Rick as Kate was pushed into the room.
"I- Is she okay? Who hit her? How long will it be?" Rick put his hands on his head and leaned against the wall.
"It was a drunk driver-"
"At one in the afternoon?" Rick screamed.
"Sir, please calm down." Rick nodded his head in apology. "We don't know how long the surgery will take. I will update you as soon as I know anything."
Rick thanked him and sat in a chair in the waiting room, leaning his head in his hands.
xxxxxx
It was now around nine o'clock and Rick had only gone home around seven to change and feed Alexis, with a promise of a call if anything happened.
As expected, nothing happened.
When Rick pushed open the door and looked up to see Martha following Alexis into the foyer, Rick kneeled to Alexis' height.
"Where's Kate, daddy?" She asked him. Rick was looking at his mother as he spoke.
"Kate's at the hospital, baby. She was in an accident earlier and hit her head really hard." Martha placed a hand on his shoulders and kneeled down, hugging Rick.
"Is she okay?" Martha asked, pulling away.
"I'm not sure. She's been in surgery since around two." Martha tried to smile and kissed Rick on the cheek. Rick looked at Alexis and picked her up walking to the kitchen. "Let's get some food into that belly, eh?"
Rick made Alexis mac and cheese and throughout it they had small conversation. There was no mention of Kate, or the phone call. Martha noticed Rick checking his phone every few minutes, and finally asked him about it.
"Waiting for a call?" Martha asked while Alexis was in the bathroom washing her hands.
"Yeah, the hospital said they would call me if there were any updates on Kate." Martha wrapped her arms around him and whispered in his ear,
"She'll be okay, Richard." They stepped apart and Rick smiled at her, watching Alexis walk back into the kitchen.
"Alright Little Lex, let's get you in bed." Rick lifted Alexis and groaned, but laughed.
"But what about Kate?" Rick stopped and looked at her. Her face was red and her eyes were rimmed with tears. "Is she okay?" Rick glanced at Martha, and then walked up to Alexis' bedroom.
He laid her down and changed her into her pajamas, not saying anything as he did.
"Alexis, Kate got into a bad car accident this afternoon. That's why she yelled when she was on the phone with us. She is in surgery and I'm not sure how she's doing." Alexis wrapped her arms around Rick's neck and a single tear fell onto Rick's shoulder.
After around twenty minutes of just holding Alexis, she was asleep. Rick laid her into her bed and pulled the blankets up to her shoulders. He kissed her forehead and whispered goodnight, and walked out.
Walking down the stairs, he noticed his mother sitting on the couch in the living room with a cup of wine in her hands.
"I'm going to head back to the hospital, alright?" Martha looked up at him and smiled as he checked his phone again. She stood and kissed his forehead, patting his shoulder.
"Be safe." Rick kissed her cheek and walked out of the house, on his way back to the hospital.
xxxxxx
At exactly 9:54PM, Rick stood up from his seat and greeted the man which he assumed was Kate's doctor.
"Miss Beckett's impact was more severe than expected considering she didn't see it coming. The most impacted area was probably her temple. She has a concussion, and there was massive brain swelling that we luckily got under control. She also lost a lot of blood, which is why she blacked momentarily in the ambulance. She's on heavy pain drugs right now and she's very drowsy, but she should be awake if you want to go in and see her."
Rick smiled and when the man extended his arm, he pulled the doctor into a hug. The doctor seemed stunned, but Rick was all smiles for the time being.
"What room is she in?" Rick asked.
"173." The doctor smiled and watched as Rick ran down the corridor.
Walking into Kate's room, Rick expected to see Kate lying in her bed. Instead, when Rick walked into the room his breath was lost and his smile fell. She was hooked up to many machines, and she had gauze wrapped around her head. Half of her arm was purple and the other half was covered in a hospital gown.
Kate smiled slightly, turning to Rick in the doorway.
"I'm alive; you can stop looking at me like that." Rick walked to Kate, placing a hand on her face, the other wrapping his fingers around Kate's weak ones.
"I thought I lost you. You can't do that to me again, Kate." Kate almost rolled her eyes at his tone of voice.
"Rick, I'm not that important, and I'm fine."
"Kate, not that important? I just spent six hours in that waiting room, and one hour with my daughter who fell asleep crying because she didn't know if 'her Kate' was going to be okay. You act like we don't care about you. You act like just because we haven't known each other for years that I don't care about you. That my family doesn't care about you. We do. You're like a part of our family, Kate. We were all worried."
When Kate finally looked up at Rick she had tears in her eyes. No one had ever said anything like that to her. After her mom died, everyone seemed to leave. They all cared about her the first month after, and then she was alone. Not even her co-workers knew how to talk to her in a basic conversation without knowing if they were saying the right thing or not.
Not even Madison was there when she needed her. Her dad had fallen right into the bottle and chances are, he didn't even know about her being in the hospital. She tried to help him. She tried to be there for him and help him, but he always refused. So she finally stopped.
To have Rick say such a thing to her made her heart clench and she laughed teary. Rick kissed her on the forehead and she smiled. He grabbed a nearby chair and sat next to her, still holding onto her hand.
"Thank you, Rick. I don't know if I'm going to be able to say it enough in these next few days." Rick looked up at her with the first light in his eyes she'd seen since he walked in the room.
"Always."
A/N: Yay! Of course I wouldn't kill her off or anything like that, pft! Anyway, I was going to update this yesterday, but then I figured I'd let you suffer. c: Enjoy and review!