Chapter 5

Just after one p.m. Kate strolled into the hospital and walked directly towards the bank of elevators, badge clearly displayed on her hip to avoid any questions about her presence. She was technically on her lunch break and decided to use that time to check up on Alexis at the hospital. After all, she had been thinking about the girl practically from the moment she left Castle's apartment at six-thirty that morning.

After half-dozing beside her partner for over an hour, Kate finally decided to get up so she could get back to her place in time to change before her shift. Before she left, she made Castle promise to update her on Alexis's condition as soon as he knew and he agreed. As she walked down to the street, she did so with a very heavy heart, as she had never seen her partner so distraught. Rightfully so, of course; she imagined she would have been similarly inconsolable if their positions were reversed. Still, she hoped for good news—for everyone's sake

Kate sat at her desk anxiously for nearly an hour before she finally received a text message from Castle that contained two simple words: no change. She sent her apologies and asked him to update her if anything did change, but then went about her morning. She argued whether or not to visit him on her break, not wanting to intrude, but then the mental image of his absolutely broken expression from the wee hours of that morning crossed into her mind and she knew she had to see him, even if it was just for five minutes; she needed him to know that, as his partner, she was there for him—no questions asked.

The moment the elevator doors opened on the third floor, Kate could immediately tell something was amiss. A cluster of people stood just a few feet away in the middle of the hallway. They faced towards the nurses' station, all of them watching transfixed as though a television was playing something confusing or horrifying, though she could hardly imagine a tv had been wheeled to the nurses station; that made almost no sense! She took two steps into the hall and heard a female voice shrieking and that's when she realized the onlookers were watching a scene of sorts; a horror movie was being acted out live in the hallway outside the ICU.

"…this is your fault—everything is your fucking fault!"

Kate watched as a frantic red-headed woman stabbed Castle in the center of the chest with her well-manicured right index finger. Then, evidently to add emphasis, she closed her right fist and wacked him on the collar bone with it. Her partner didn't even wince; his stoic expression remained, though he did take half a step away from her, so Kate knew the punch hadn't been that hard, but she also needed to intervene before the situation escalated.

Rushing towards them with hands held up, palms out in a defensive manner, she said, "Whoa, hey, what's going on here?"

The woman whipped in her direction and Kate immediately recognized her as Meredith, Castle's fiery—and adulteress—ex-wife and Alexis's mother. Kate had never before met the woman and only recognized her from the one photo that remained of her and Alexis in the Castle apartment. She had, however, heard countless tales of Meredith antics and thus was immediately on high alert knowing the situation could grow cataclysmic at any moment.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Kate Beckett and-"

"Oh—another one of your whores huh?" Meredith spat towards her ex-husband, instantly ignoring that Kate was merely a foot away from her. "Was she the one you were fucking while our daughter was drowning?"

Castle curled his lips. "Seriously? That's rich coming from you!"

"Well at least I was with classy people not some-"

"Ma'am," Kate jumped in, sensing a complete thrashing of her character was about to occur, "before you say another word, you should know I'm with the NYPD a-"

"The police? Perfect!" A sneer crossed Meredith's face as she jabbed her finger in Castle's direction once more. "You need to arrest this man!"

Caught completely off-guard by a statement she never would have anticipated, Kate stammered, "I…what?"

"Arrest him. For child abuse."

Castle threw both his hands up in the air and turned away from them, muttering, "Jesus Christ, Meredith."

"You let our daughter drown—if that isn't child abuse, I don't know what the hell is!" the red-head proclaimed.

"What? No. He didn't; he wasn't there."

Meredith blinked in Kate's direction. "What?"

Taking a confident step forward, Kate planted her right hand at her hip and tapped her index finger against the badge clipped there. "I'm Detective Kate Beckett, Rick's partner at the NYPD. I was with him when Alexis fell into the lake."

She clicked her tongue in a disgusted manner. "You mean when he abandoned her to go play his PI games or whatever the fuck-"

"Ma'am! Please!" One of the nurses from the nearby station interrupted in a flustered tone. "You need to stop shouting and cursing! This is the ICU and-"

"I'll shout if I want to!" Meredith threw her arms up over her head and spun around in a circle before jumping once and thrashing her arms in Castle's direction. "My daughter is dying! Dying because of him. Because it's his fault!"

"Meredith if-" Castle began, but his attempt was futile since Meredith lunged in his direction.

Knowing she had to step in, Kate hopped in between them with her hands up in front of her. "Whoa, enough. Enough." She stared Meredith down as she spoke in a calm, steady voice. "Walk away or I'll be taking you away in handcuffs."

Meredith hissed, "Bitch," just loud enough for Kate to here before spinning on her heel and stalking off down the hall.

"Yeah that sounds about right," she sighed to herself before turning around to see the PI raking his hands back through his hair so aggressively she feared he might tear some of it out. Trying to keep her voice light she said, "So… that was Meredith."

A sheepish look crossed his face. "Yeah. I'm so sorry, Beckett. She-"

"Don't worry about it." She brushed off her concern with ease. Truthfully, Meredith hadn't even come close to ruffling her feathers. "I deal with victim's families all the time, remember? How are you?"

A mirthless laugh escaped his lips. "Um…been better."

Watching him go back to raking his hands through his hair, she offered softly, "What can I do? Do you want a coffee?"

"No, no more caffeine. I'm shaking enough."

"A tea then? Just something warm to sip."

He hesitated for a moment, but then nodded. "Ah…okay. Thanks."

She waited until he'd disappeared back into the doors of the closed-off ICU area before walking towards the nurses station and asking for the closest place to get hot tea. She was directed towards an alcove down the hall where, unfortunately, Meredith sat on the floor, her back against the wall. Kate decided the best course of action was to ignore her, but as she searched for lids to go on the paper cups, she heard the woman say, "You're going to arrest me, then?"

Kate's gaze briefly flicked in her direction. "No, I'm just getting a drink."

After discovering the only tea option available was Earl Grey, she dropped a packet into the paper cup then filled it with hot water from the coffee dispenser. She was about to walk away when she paused and, despite knowing that it probably would not help the situation any, she decided she couldn't leave without defending her partner.

"I know it's none of my business, but Rick's a complete wreck over this too, you know."

Meredith's expression was more exhausted than anything else when she next gazed up at Kate. "He should have been watching her."

"She was with friends."

"It's still his fault if she doesn't wake up."

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Kate merely turned and walked back towards the ICU; clearly, there was no arguing with her.

Standing at the end of his daughter's hospital bed, Castle continued the routine he'd perfected over the prior twenty-four hours. He'd watch the monitor to the left of her bed for thirty seconds, verifying her steady heartbeat and blood pressure. Then, he'd turn to the monitor on the right of her bed. Despite some research, he wasn't entirely sure what it was for, though he continued to monitor its consistency, which he felt was important. Finally, he would gaze at his daughter's face for a minute before repeating the process. Her color looked better today, which he knew was a good sign, but with her still hooked up to the breathing machine it was difficult to become too excited.

After picking up his mother at the airport, they went to the hospital together to arrive just in time to be let into the ICU. His mother, to her credit, kept the majority of her eccentricities in tact and merely expressed how sorry she was that the whole situation was happening. As much as he complained about her crazy-at-times presence in his life, Castle found himself greatly relieved with her by his side. Of course, having Kate with him the night before had been nice, too, but then his relief had been mixed with guilt that she felt more obligated to be there because of their partnership and not because she actually believed them to be family.

When a doctor visited them during morning rounds and explained all the positive things he found in Alexis's stats and how they would be proceeding with her care, Castle actually felt his spirits lift. The despair of earlier that morning had faded slightly in the reflection of the doctor's upbeat attitude. His mother too pointed out several news stories she'd heard over the years of children surviving similar incidences with almost no ill-effects, which of course he had read about, but hearing it from someone else did help him believe it. In fact, the next two hours were filled with swapping fun stories about Alexis and more smiles than not. Then, Meredith had blown in like a hurricane to dampen all their moods.

The prior day, Castle had made two attempts to reach his ex-wife on the phone before being forced to leave a message explaining their daughter's condition. This didn't really surprise him as Meredith generally took days to respond to his text messages to set up a phone call between her and their daughter, but he was surprised that she didn't call him back promptly after the message. The later the day went on, he actually grew quite annoyed with her, wondering if her caring about their daughter had really disintegrated to the point where she didn't even care that the girl was in the hospital. He was just bordering on really mad about the situation when the ICU nurse informed him that visiting hours were nearly over, which had sent him down a different rabbit hole and thus he hadn't really thought about Meredith until earlier that morning, when of course it was too early to call her with the three-hour time zone delay.

As it turned out, Meredith had booked herself on a red-eye from LA to New York the moment she received his message. (Though of course she hadn't actually called him to inform him of this—that would have made too much sense!) Thus, he was completely blind sighted when she blew into the ICU sobbing with far too much vigor than was strictly necessary. While she had initially calmed down to gain the facts of Alexis's condition, her mood was erratic at best.

The more they talked, Meredith admitted that she had already checked into her hotel and left her bags there before coming to the hospital to check on Alexis—before even calling for an update on her condition. Though he knew he should have let it go, in the moment he simply could not, and Castle began arguing with her. Somewhere in there his mother excused herself to get them all something to eat, but he and Meredith continued to snip at each other until Kate arrived and witnessed their largest fight of the morning. Though in hindsight he was slightly embarrassed that it had escalated to that level, he was grateful Kate showed up when it did so the situation didn't get any worse.

Once again having impeccable timing, she walked into the ICU and handed him the paper cup of tea.

"Thanks." He smiled gratefully at her and she nodded.

"Of course. What's the latest on Alexis?"

"They're going to start weaning her off the sedation medication soon and so hopefully she'll wake up sometime this evening. When the doctor came through he said her brain function looks good and her lungs seems stronger."

"That's great news!"

"Yeah…I'm hoping," he said, still not allowing himself to be overly hopeful.

Kate reached out and gave his arm a solid squeeze. "It is great news. Can I get you something else? Food?"

He shook off her kind offer with a gentle smile. "Mother just ran out to get something. She didn't want to be in the same room as Meredith for too long."

Kate grunted. "Can't say I blame her."

A grimace briefly crossed his face. He could only imagine what Kate's impression of his ex-wife—and their relationship—after witnessing that interaction. He had, of course, told her stories, so she could not have been caught totally off-guard, but witnessing one of Meredith's performances in person really must have been eye-opening. "I wish I could say she was different when we were married…but she wasn't. Ah…sorry," he quickly added when an unreadable expression crossed her face, "you probably don't want to hear about this."

"It's okay; I don't mind."

Despite her verbal encouragement, he still gazed at her for another thirty seconds before rounding his shoulders and continuing. "It's just… I was barely out of college when we met. She was spunky and fun and…yeah, definitely had a crazy element but it didn't seem that crazy. Guess I had some rose-colored glasses on, but…but it also—this sounds terrible but—it was never supposed to be something long-term. At least, I never thought of it that way, but…"

"She got pregnant?" Kate guessed.

He nodded. "Yeah. And we…I mean. It was good for a little while. We were happy. I was happy with Alexis, but Meredith…well, let's just say I very much doubt she'll have any more children," he commented as his ex never had been particularly interested in being Mother of the Year. "Anyway, I don't think I realized just how crazy she could be until the last year of our marriage…and through our divorce, but now…"

Kate brushed off his concerns with a simple shrug. "She just upset. I've seen all kinds of intense reactions from victim's families."

A grumble escaped his lips. "I wish that was the case." Considering all he had witnessed during their marriage, he knew "dramatic" was simply Meredith's default setting.

Kate considered for a moment before suggesting, "I can arrest her if you want."

A genuine laugh escaped his lips. "As fun as that might be to watch, that won't make it better and…she should be here. Just in case." He added with a cautious glance towards Alexis.

They stood in silence for several minutes before Kate touched his arm and said, "I should be getting back to the Twelfth. You call me if anything changes, okay?"

He nodded. "Yeah, absolutely. And Kate? Thanks again," he said with genuine appreciation for all that she had done.

She brushed her fingers down his forearm until they could slip into his palm and she gave his hand a squeeze while saying, "Always."