576AN: You guys!
I can't believe the response I got for this story! I never expected so many people to follow/favorite it, let alone read it. It's really encouraging to know that you guys like it, and it keeps me typing away!
I have more of this story done, so I should be able to post a couple more chapters within the next week. I'm not even close to finishing, but you can expect the next few chapters to be up fairly quickly. After that, it'll probably take a little bit longer, depending on how busy I am with school and the likes.
Anyway, here's chapter two!
Disclaimer: Still don't own Castle(unfortunately...)
Lanie caught her as she fell to the ground. She helped her over to a wall so they weren't standing in the middle of the hallway. Burying her face in her hands, Kate slid her back down the wall until she was sitting on the floor.
"Kate," Lanie comforted. "None of this is your fault."
She dropped her hands to reveal the blood she had smeared on her face.
"But it is, Lanie. He only got shot because he was following me. And he was only following me because he was writing a book based on me. It's my fault that he got shot. It's all my fault..." She trailed off, her face falling between her knees.
"Oh, Kate. Are you really that blind? He could've stopped following you whenever he wanted. He had enough research; he was choosing to keep following you," Lanie said, but it only made Kate start sobbing once more.
She took her friend to the bathroom and helped her clean off the blood from her hands and face. They sat down in the waiting room, joining Alexis, Martha, Ryan, and Esposito. About an hour later, Esposito offered buy sandwiches for everyone. After he left, Lanie took the opportunity to use the time they would spend waiting to go to Kate's apartment to find her clothes that weren't blood stained.
Lanie returned before Esposito, allowing Beckett to change into clean clothes before she ate. Javier walked into the building only a few minutes later, handing out the six sandwiches he had picked up. They ate in silence, all thinking about Castle fighting for his life in the operating room. Kate barely touched her sandwich, only taking small bites when she remembered she should be eating.
To Kate, it felt as if days had passed by the time the doctor walked into the waiting room asking for 'family of Richard Castle.' Heads shot up at the name, almost every person in the waiting room recognizing the name. The six of them stood tentatively, all fearing what the doctor might say.
Kate's mind ran through every scenario, good and bad. She needed it to be good, needed the doctor's next sentence to involve anything but the words 'sorry for your loss', or 'we tried everything but...'. She didn't think she'd ever survive that. She knew there was a strong chance that the bullet didn't hit any major arteries or vital organs, but her mind couldn't help but drift to every minute thing that could've gone wrong.
"Are you all his family?" the doctor questioned, a puzzled look on his face.
They all mumbled incoherent things under their breath, until Ryan, of all of them, finally found his voice.
"Uh, no. The four of us–" he pointed to Espo, Lanie, Kate, and himself "–are his friends. Those two are his mother and daughter," he said, pointing to Martha and Alexis.
"Alright, that's fine. I'm Doctor Haven. If you would all follow me," he said, gesturing to the hallway to his left. They all followed silently, listening to the man as he explained what had happened in surgery. Kate barely heard a word after she heard that Castle was going to be okay, that he was going to make a full recovery. She walked in a daze, the only thing on her mind was seeing him again, steeling herself for how he would look.
She was so lost in thought that she almost plowed straight into Lanie, who had been walking in front of her. It took her a second for her to realize that they had arrived at Castle's room. Dr. Haven explained that it was best if they didn't all try to crowd into his room, so they quickly decided to go two at a time, starting with Martha and Alexis.
The rest of them stood outside of the room and waited. They briefly discussed who would go in next. After deciding that Kate and Lanie would be the next pair, the four of them fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts.
Esposito, although he was worried for his friend, was more worried about Kate than anything else. He had seen the way she had reacted, how she nearly broke down kneeling over Castle's body. He had always suspected that the two of them felt more for each other than either would admit, but he had never expected to hear the words spill from Kate's mouth. He had heard her practically confess her love to the man.
Meanwhile, Ryan's thoughts led him to thinking about what the Precinct would be like without Castle there. Much like his partner, he also thought about how Castle's shooting would affect Beckett. He had seen how much happier she was with him around, and he was afraid to see what she would be like if Castle could no longer return to the Precinct, or worse, stopped talking to them altogether.
Lanie, on the other hand, knew that neither Castle nor Beckett would stop communicating. She had known for a long time how they felt each other, whether they acknowledged it or not. A complete stranger could probably see the chemistry between those two.
Unlike the others, Kate could only seem to think about what would happen if Castle wasn't okay. Her thoughts drifted to how this could permanently affect him physically, if not mentally. She knew people who got shot often suffered from PTSD. It would kill her if he never returned to his old self, knowing it would be her fault.
At the same time, if he was okay, would he keep following her around? Or would he find another muse somewhere else in a safer environment? Would he even bother seeing her again, or simply say goodbye and end their relationship completely?
Martha and Alexis emerged from the room, breaking Kate from her thoughts. They both seemed much calmer now that they had seen him, the fear and worry now wiped from their faces.
Lanie and Kate both stood from the chairs that were placed outside the room. Kate's heart raced, she could feel her hands start to shake. Lanie must have noticed, because she placed her hand on her friend's arm, giving her a reassuring smile. The two walked into the room silently, Lanie leading Kate, who was still struggling to focus.
She could hear Lanie speaking to him, could hear him responding, but she had no idea what either of them were saying. She was frozen in place, only seeing him, staring at his pale face, then moving to look at his chest, that was rising and falling steadily, assuring her that he was okay.
"Beckett?"
She snapped her head up to look him in the eye, his voice pulling her out of her haze.
"Hmm? Sorry, I was just…" she trailed off, looking away as she felt the tears well up in her eyes again.
He could see it in her face, in her posture. She was hurting. Her eyes were red, as though she has recently been crying. But it wasn't just that. There was something else that was out of place. He couldn't quite put his finger on it for a moment, and then he realized what it was—she was nervous. She was nervous about something that has happened, besides the obvious. She was nervous about—
Oh.
Oh.
She was nervous about what she had said as he lay bleeding on the concrete floor. She was nervous about whether or not he remembered.
I can't lose another person I love.
But he remembered. It had been all he could think about since he woke up. It took up all of his thinking capacity. All he could focus on was that he was a person she loved. She loved him. Finally, he knew what she felt. For once, he didn't have to guess how she felt about him, because he knew.
"You were just…?" He prompted, needing to know if he was right.
"I was just… thinking. About everything that happened, and how lucky I am to be speaking to you right now." She stopped, not knowing what else to say. The three of them sat there in silence, Lanie waiting to see how it played out, and the other two not wanting to say anything because she was there.
"Lanie," Castle broke the silence. "Do you think you could give us a minute alone?"
"Of course," she said, giving Kate a knowing smile. She walked out without another word, closing the door behind her.