I,m back exams are finally over YAY :), I know this chapter is kind of short and late but I really wanted to put one up asap, I figured I made you wait long enough and please review you guys have been really quiet lately.

Anyway, enjoy:)

Whenever things in life were so good that it was almost perfect, something big and more than likely bad and disastrous was going to happen. Which was why when Kate's mother's murder came up and she was the dragon's next target, he wasn't really that surprised. What did surprise him was the fact that Montgomery was involved in the whole thing and had sacrificed his life for Kate.

So standing next to the stand as Kate gave her speech he looked at everyone's faces they were all weighed with grief, suddenly something caught his eye it was a shimmer of light reflecting from something then it hit him.

"Kate!"

Everything went in slow motion as he ran to save her and his heart fell when he heard her gasp as the bullet embedded itself in her chest. Hadn't she suffered enough?

He couldn't hear anything but her, not even the crowd howling in horror, Esposito and Ryan barking orders at the other police to find the shooter, he couldn't even hear Becca's screaming, all of his focus was on Kate and only Kate.

"Please don't leave me Kate I can't do this alone, I love you Kate, I love you." he whispered as her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she lost consciousness.

"Come on Castle." Lanie urged him to move over.

"Rick I have to examine her."

He snapped out of his trans when she called him Rick, she never did that, he shifted around slightly so she could see and when he finaly looked up at her Lanie was a mess, her makeup was running because of her tears and sweat and her hands were shaking.

"Did anyone call, an ambulance. "

She just nodded her head, because it was a kind of stupid question but to his defense his wife did just get shot.

Soon a pool of blood oozed from the wound and Rick let out a panicked sob an Lanie applied more pressure to it, and shadows surrounded them from Montgomery's wife to Martha and he did a scan to see where Becca was and he saw Max, Olivia, Oliver and Becca who was giving Jenny a hard time to stop her from running to her father, the tears were rolling down her chubby cheeks and her face was red.

The ambulance arrived a little later one person was allowed to accompany them to the hospital which was Rick and Lanie came as a packaged deal with Kate as she was preventing more blood loss.

The ambulance ride was long well at least it was to Rick, in reality it was probably a 8 minute ride but when Kate's heart stopped it felt like hours as he prayed for her to be okay.

They rushed into the hospital through a different door from what they were told the paparazzi were already on their way. He stopped halfway through the corridor as he caught up to Lanie there was nothing else they could do her life was now in the doctor's hand.

They all waited in the lounge Becca had somehow fought her way from Jenny's hands and trotted over to her father her sobs immediately died down and turned into hiccups as she settled into his lap and slumbered.

He couldn't imagine how a week ago they were so happy and Rick was begging Kate for them to get a dog and now she was in the hospital fighting for her life.

A few hours later a doctor came out and they all stood in anticipation, with a doctor their faces were always stoic not even Rick could read them.

"How is she?"

"During the surgery she went into cardiac arrest. "

Oh crap.

"However we were able to get her heart working on it's own she should make a complete recovery."

The tension was lifted.

"When can we see her?" Jim asked.

"When we get her settled down we'll take you and any other immediate family over 18 to her, the rest of you should go home and rest up."

Ryan and Esposito left for the precinct stating that they weren't leaving until they found something.

Lanie stayed until the doctors came to direct them to Kate's room then she took Becca and Maximus along with Alexis home, knowing that she was not allowed to enter the ICU yet.

Castle let everyone go before him because when he went in he wasn't coming out until she opened those gorgeous eyes.

And finally Jim exited the room and he nodded his head looking broken and lost and Castle reminded himself to check on the man and make sure he didn't fall into old habits.

Entering the room was like walking into a haunted house. They was a tube in her mouth and several wires as well as an IV and a bag of blood hooked up to her the loud beeping of the heart monitor echoed throughout the small room, he dodged the wires and gently grabbed her hand almost like if she was a porcelain doll and for the first time since Meredith left him with a toddler for her director Richard Castle broke down.

It was one o'clock in the morning when the nurse came into check on Kate, she gave him a nod of acknowledgement then set to work.

"You know Mr Castle you should go home and get some rest, your wife will be okay in our hands." the elderly woman stated.

"Thank you but I would never be able to leave her here alone at least not when she's like this."

The woman nodded her head in understanding.

"At least let me get you a blanket, in here is freezing tonight." He was about to protest, other people needed those more than he did but she shook her head.

"Mr Castle this hospital has hundreds of towels, just take one."

He allowed her to give him the blanket.

Martha and Jim stopped by with fresh clothes and food, Jim was staying at the house seeing that it was closer to the hospital than his house was by far, he was glad that he was staying he had the support he needed. They offered to stay with Kate while he went home to get a nap, but he refused and they didn't push him anymore, it wouldn't make sense to.

He was also receiving hourly updates from Ryan and Esposito about the case, not that they really had one, the shooter had left the gun and ran off but still hadn't left a trace that he was even there and Castle wanted nothing more than to go and help put the daemon in jail, but Kate needed him more than the case did.

Eventually the doctor came in to examine Kate and Castle watched on with interested eyes and concern.

"How's she doing?"

The doctor put his tools back into their places.

"Well no signs of changes, it may take a few days before she wakes up but she's doing well so far and, her heart is still fine so that's good."

He didn't want her to just be doing well, he wanted her to be excellent and up.

The doctor looked up at Castle in understanding.

"She's doing great for someone who got shot in the chest." He said trying to ease Castle's mind.

He nodded his head in acceptance as the doctor let him alone in the room and he grabbed Kate's pale hand.

"I don't know if you can hear me Kate, but please wake up I need to hear your voice." He brushed the still blood stained hair from her face and kissed her forehead.

She would get through it, after all this was Kate.

Well this is it, Please follow and Please review.