Before she could disregard his concerns for her safety once again, the crackle of gunfire rang out across the block.

Chapter 12

Adrenaline coursing through his veins, Castle grasped Kate pulling her underneath the shield of his body. Guarding her from the bullets soaring through the air he yanked her inside her building, pulling the doors closed behind them. Looking out into the streets they could see the chaos the gunfire had caused. Civilians were dashing left, right and centre not knowing which way was up.

Castle quickly evaluated what had just happened. Based on the sound of the gunfire as well as the projection, it had more than likely come from a rifle of some kind. He hadn't seen where the bullets had landed so he only had an idea of the general direction it came from. This won't be much good when he has to give a statement later, he thought.

"Are you hit?" Castle asked stressed and short of breath.

Kate was standing a few feet behind him with a petrified look on her face. She shook her head indicating that she was physically fine.

"Go hide in the storage closet at the back of the building," Castle ordered. "That way we can get you out of here quickly once reinforcements arrive. Call Montgomery. Tell him your location has been compromised and that we need to get you to a safe house ASAP."

Kate hesitated for a moment watching people on the streets running erratically past the door she hid behind. The thought that someone could have been shot and killed while she, the intended target, escaped was already eating away at her. Someone shot and killed for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time because of her. She tried to shake the thought.

"Kate?" Castle raised his voice to get her attention. "Go!"

By the time reinforcements arrived the shooter was long gone. By the grace of god there had been no fatalities. A few civilians had tripped while running and broken a bone or two, but nothing too serious. CSU were already on the scene trying to put together an accurate recreation of the path the bullets travelled, but it was going to take some time. NYPD had spoken to witnesses who all said the shots seemed to have come out of thin air.

Kate has been whisked away by a team of cops and escorted back to the precinct for her safety while Castle stayed at the scene to give a statement and help out as best he could. Captain Montgomery barely spoke a word to Kate on the drive, but instead waited until he could pace behind a desk before confronting her.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Montgomery scolded.

Sitting across from his desk was a shook Kate Beckett who still hadn't fully come to terms with what had happened. "I'm sorry, sir."

"The one thing I asked you to do was to stay inside and you couldn't do that?"

"I needed air," she said defensively. "Being locked up in a not-so ventilated apartment isn't exactly good for the lungs."

"Then open a window! Hell, I would've even arranged to have an air conditioning system built into your apartment." He sighed. "You were told repeatedly not to go out into the open."

"I know, it was stupid," she admitted. "I guess I just got a little claustrophobic."

"Thankfully by some miracle you and Mr. Castle got out unscathed." Montgomery signalled to three cops standing outside his office to come in. "These officers will escort you to your safe house. Mr. Castle will meet you there after our meeting."

Kate was worried that Montgomery would fire Castle after what had happened. She had left the apartment under his supervision, and all because she couldn't handle the idea of Castle possibly developing feelings for her if they slept together again.

"Sir, please don't blame Castle," she pleaded. "This wasn't his fault. He had no idea I was going to run out onto the street! Hell, I had no idea until I was on the sidewalk."

"Relax, Beckett," Montgomery said with a smile. "I'm not going to fire him. His job is to protect you from the bad guys, not yourself. He did his job."

The safehouse was located in a remote area an hour outside of the city. Kate had been accompanied out to the house, switching vehicles twice to make sure they weren't being followed. Her fellow officers left soon after Castle arrived after getting the 'all clear' from Captain Montgomery.

Kate had hidden herself away in the bedroom from the moment she arrived. The trauma of being shot at had hit her harder than she could ever have imagined. It's not like I was actually shot, she kept telling herself. What real reason do I have for being this effected by it?

There was a knock on the bedroom door. "You okay in there?"

The question went completely unnoticed. Kate was sitting on the bed lost in her thoughts fidgeting with her hands as she stared into thin air. Replaying the sound of the gunshots over and over again in her head, remembering just how loud they were. How close they had come to her body.

"Kate?"

She turned her head to see Castle looking at her concerningly with a mug in his hand. "Oh, hey. Umm… I'll be out in a minute."

"You doing okay?"

"I'm fine." A hard swallow and a series of nods wasn't convincing enough for Castle.

"Well, I made coffee for you if you want some." As he held the mug out to her he noticed how shaky her hands were. "Or maybe the adrenalin is a good enough caffeine substitute right now." As he sat next to her on the bed he asked, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"In all my years, Castle, being a detective… I have never been that scared of being shot at," she admitted vulnerably.

"In all your experience being shot at you've been on duty, been a cop. You had the upper hand. This time you were just a civilian, the same as the rest of us."

He had a point. Whenever she was in pursuit of a suspect there was always recon done on the person as well as the anticipation of potential gunfire. As a cop you know to expect the unexpected, how to prepare. But as a civilian you are simply a sitting duck.

"So, what happens now?"

"Well, you're officially under house arrest. Your phone has been cut off from the outside so any contact with friends and family will be through me and a secure line your Captain arranged to have set up."

"I feel like I'm in prison," she whined, smiling sadly at him.

"Yeah, only this is the nicest prison cell I've ever seen." Castle had a quick scour of the room nodding as he did so.

"Thank you, you know… for saving my life or whatever."

"Don't mention it. Just doing my job." He nudged her shoulder with his upper arm in a friendly manner flashing her one of those charming smiles of his before wincing as pain shot though him.

"Are you okay?" Kate's eyes darted to the sleeve of his shirt which was soaked in dark dried blood.

"Yeah, it's a flesh wound," he said looking at it. "It's fine."

"You were shot?!" Kate exclaimed.

"Barely!"

"Have you had it looked at?"

"Now when would I have had time for that?" the sarcasm in his voice resulting in a glare from Kate.

"Let me look at it."

"It's fine! Really."

"Shirt, off!" she demanded.

The last thing he wanted was Kate worrying about him when she was trying to cope with what had happened herself. He knew she wouldn't let it go so he complied and took off his shirt. Slowly pulling the sleeve down his arm as not to agitate the clotting wound revealed a nasty gash on his upper arm. Kate leaned closer to get a better look at the laceration, wincing when she realised how painful it must have been.

"Castle, that needs medical attention."

"Well, that's going to have to wait. Trust me, it looks worse than it is."

"I saw a first aid kit in the bathroom." Kate jumped up off the bed and dashed into the bathroom, returning with a little green box. "If you're not going to get medical attention then we at least need to make sure it's clean."

She removed an antiseptic spray and wipes from the box, carefully reading the directions to make sure she didn't make things worse. Castle watched as she fixated on her task, delicately wiping around the gash.

"This is going to hurt," she warned him as she opened the antiseptic spray.

"It's fine, I can handle it."

The coldness of the spray momentarily numbed the area before the burning sensation occurred. His fists clenched tightly as a means of holding back a yelp, Castle couldn't help but wince at the pain.

"The good thing is I don't think you'll need stitches." Kate rooted around in the first aid box again to find gauze, a bandage, and some tape. "Let's get you wrapped up."

Castle undid the tape with one hand and a little help from his teeth while she gently dried the area around the wound. Placing a thin layer of gauze on top of the wound, Castle handed her pieces of tape to hold the gauze in place and prevent the wound from getting dirty. When all four sides were taped, Kate began wrapping the bandage around his arm. They were both aware of the little tremors in Kate's hands, but neither wanted to address it.

"There, all better!" she said as she closed the bandage, softly caressing the top of it with her thumb to make sure it was secure.

"Thank you, nurse Beckett," Castle said gratefully.

She looked up to see the man smiling warmly at her in awe. There was something about the way he was gazing at her. It wasn't just a look of appreciation for bandaging him, it was more than that. Almost as if he couldn't take his eyes off of her. Whatever the intention, it erupted a wave of longing, yet uncertainty inside Kate.

Her mind flashed back to the conversation they were having just before the shooting, when he said he was afraid of catching feelings. Was that what this was? Had he already caught feelings but didn't say anything in fear that it might make things awkward?

Kate pulled her hand away from his arm and swallowed. "You should still be seen my a medical professional. You should call Lanie."

"Not yet," he said pulling his shirt back on. "We can't risk your location being known, not this soon."

"If that gets infected…"

"We'll cross that bridge if we get to it. But for now, no visitors."

"You have the unluckiest job in the world," Kate sighed, smiling empathetically at him. "You have to protect unappreciative strangers, you're kept away from your family, and to top it off you get shot."

"I don't know," he sighed. "I'm feeling pretty lucky right now."

Castle cautiously moved his hand to rest on top of hers, looking into her eyes as he did so. He had almost expected her to pull away instantly, bit she didn't. Instead she sat still, staring at the floor as if looking at his would kill her. A strand of hair fell from behind her ear and dangled in front of her face as she lifted her head, her eyes meeting his. That's when he felt her hand relax. For the first time since the shooting they had stopped shaking.

I've gotten this far, what's the harm in one more step, he thought. With his free hand he reached out and brushed the escaped piece of hair back behind her ear. He could feel the warmth from her skin against his hand as the blood rushed into her cheeks. The tension became too much for Kate, leading her to divert her eyes to the ground.

"Rick…"

"Hmm?"

"I should go shower…"

She knew she was just looking for a reason to stop this going any further, she could admit that to herself. Facing the inevitable was something she just wasn't yet ready for.

"Okay," he said, stroking her hand one last time before standing up to leave. "I'll get started on dinner."

She sat alone on the bed once again, watching as he left the room. Subconsciously she reached up to touch her face where Castle's hand had brushed off and released an unsteady exhale. Her assumptions were true, he really had caught feelings.