I am back with a different story. This is not mu usual humor. This is more serious and dramatic

Just a reminder
I do not own Castle or any of the players. Someone else does
If I did, I would have done things differently

A Father and his daughter

Jim and Katherine Beckett, are waiting at the restaurant

Jim is waiting for the love of his life and the mother to his favorite, and only, daughter to join them.

Kate is barely still a teenager. In just a few months she leaves her teen years and turns 20.

Like her father, Kate is waiting for the woman who has been her greatest admirer even when she was a rebellious teenager

They have been at their reserved table now for over two hours, and yet Johanna Beckett has not yet arrived. They are growing more concerned by the minute as they continue to check their cell phones for missed calls or messages. Finally, after waiting for an additional hour, they decide that they best go home and see if there might be a chance there is a message waiting for them there.

In the cab, both father and daughter repeatedly check their phones for any missed calls or texts that might have been overlooked by either of them while waiting, but nothing is found. Calling Johanna's phone goes straight to voice mail.

As the yellow cab rounds the corner and moves up the block travelling toward their apartment building, they see a marked police car and an unmarked vehicle, both double parked in front of the building.

Both father and daughter's hearts sink, afraid that they may be the ones the officers are waiting for and carrying terrible news that must be delivered only in person.

Not wanting to delay the inevitable, Kate rushes out the door as her father pays the driver. When he joins her at the entrance, they see inside a man with an obvious sidearm under his coat standing with a uniformed police officer and talking to the doorman of their building.

As she pulls open the entry, the doorman, Jimmy, points toward her and her father to the plain clothes police officer in the lobby "that's them"

A deeper level of dread washes through every fiber of the pair

The detective quickly approaches the father and daughter who are now beginning to panic "Are you Mr. Beckett?"

Jim starts to turn pale "Yes. And this is my daughter, Kate"

"Is there somewhere we can talk?"

The officer's tone is ominous and brings more fear into the hearts of the two Beckett's

"Officer! What is going on?" Jim Beckett begins to become panicked

"Sir." Then looking toward Kate "Ma'am. We need to go somewhere where we can talk in private" Officer Ragland responds. Looking at the doorman, "Jimmy, is there a room we can use?"

Both Becketts are feeling that they are going to receive some very devastating news.

"Yes sir. Come this way" and he leads the three to the manager's office, lets them in, turns to leave, and closes the door. He exhibits a face of pain

Once the three are in the solitude of the office Jim Beckett speaks once again "Where is my wife? Where's Johanna?"

"She is at Mercy General in the Intensive Care unit"

"What happened?" Kate finally speaks up with her voice shaking "Will she be alright?

"The doctors believe she is going to be ok. She has lost a lot of blood, but the doctors are confident she will pull through but due only to someone being there…. A good Samaritan, if you will, saved her"

"What do you mean?" Jim asks

"It is only because of another person being there that she is alive. But first, to answer your initial question, she was in an alley in the garment district. Do you know what she might be doing there?"

"She is a lawyer…actually, we are both lawyers. She does a lot of pro-bono work. She was following up on a case for a person in prison. A case she was assisting on. We all were to meet later for dinner. When she didn't show up, we became worried and left the restaurant and came home"

Kate asks next "Was it a mugging? A robbery?"

"We don't think so. Her purse was beside her and she had several pieces of jewelry on her including ear rings and her wedding ring, so we do not think it was a robbery. A thief would have probably taken her jewelry before trying to kill her…" he pauses "but we do have the suspect"

"Was there a witness, a camera…what? OH wait, you said another person was there. Is that who saved her? Where is he?"

"We have the suspect in custody but we don't know who the other person is. The person who saved Ms. Beckett"

There is a minute of silence while the two Beckett's consider the statement. Jim speaks first "How…I mean was it a police officer there or what?"

"That is where it gets a bit strange. We don't have your wife's statement yet. They have her sedated at the moment, but when uniforms and paramedics arrived, the suspect was tied up with his own shoe laces around his ankles and a trash can shoved-down over his body, trapping his arms beside him. So, he could not move. His arms were trapped and his feet tied. They. Or whoever, had pinned him against a wall. He was unable to get free"

"You are sure he is the suspect?"

"On the ground beside her was his weapon. A military knife was lying there next to her and his prints have already been matched to the weapon. But someone had placed a compress on Mrs. Beckett's wounds stopping the bleeding. It was tied around her with the assailant's belt. Someone knew at least rudimentary first aid"

"How…I mean who? Who called 911?" Kate asks

"That is also a big mystery. Her phone was used to dial 9-1-1 and a voice yelling 'stabbing, stabbing send help' and then gave the location, then the call disconnected"

"Can you tell who called?" Kate asks again

"No. The call was muffled like the phone was covered by something. The 911 listing came back to her cell phone number. Then it disconnected. When we found her phone, it was covered in blood. We think that is what made the sound so bad and when we tried to look at her call list to find you, the phone was damaged so we had to come to her home and wait to see who came looking for her"

"What about prints? I mean on her phone. Whoever saved her must have left prints?" a very panicked daughter wants answers

"They were smudged like whoever it was, was wearing gloves. It is cold so I would expect anyone walking by would have had gloves on"

"You have no idea who saved my mom?"

"We have no idea who made the call or saved Ms. Beckett, but we also have no idea who tied up the killer. We have no idea who bandaged your mom. We will have to wait until she is out of the woods and the doctors let us talk to her"

Jim looks at the detective "Can we go in to see her?"

"Certainly. I will have the uniformed officer take you to the hospital and then we can have a further conversation" pointing at the man standing beside a cruiser

Both Jim and Kate nod their heads in agreement and walk toward the squad car

/\/\/\/\/\/\

When Jim and Kate Beckett arrive at the hospital they are greeted by an attending physician

"Mr. Beckett, Ms. Beckett, I am Dr. Lanie Parish. I am Johanna's attending physician"

Kate is close to panic seeing the hustle and bustle of the hospital emergency room all around "What can you tell me about my mom…is she going to be alright…when can we see her?" Kate is rattled and almost incoherent in her questions

Dr. Parish points toward a small room at the end of the hall marked 'Family Room'

"Please follow me" and she leads the pair to that quiet place and closes the door after they are all inside

When the three are seated, Dr. Parish begins "Johanna was seriously wounded by a knife attack. She received two every deep and almost fatal wounds, but the attack never went further. We believe if the good Samaritan had not arrived she would not have been so lucky and we would be having a totally different conversation"

"What is her prognosis?" Jim asks

"We believe she has a very good chance of complete recovery…at least physical"

Kate begins her questions "What do you mean…physical?"

"In cases like this we sometimes see mental trauma to go along with the physical damages. Even very deep mental wounds can occur. But right now we need to concentrate on getting her body healed then deal with the other things"

"When can we go see Jo?" Mr. Beckett asks

"She is sedated at the moment but I will tell the staff to let you two in to see her. Don't try to engage her just yet. We want the body to have a chance on healing before we try to get the information the police are wanting"

"OK" Jim responds

"If you will return to the waiting room, I will let the staff know you are waiting there"

The two Beckett's return to the lobby and sit. Neither has anything to say as time seems to come to a standstill

The father and daughter are in an almost catatonic state themselves when a woman in scrubs enters the room "Family of Johanna Beckett?"

The two snap their heads up at the exact same moment and stand

"Please follow me" The nurse directs them toward a set of locked doors. She places her badge to the reader and the doors swing open. "When you leave and need to come back-in there is an intercom. If you press the button and tell the secretary who you are, she will grant you access" They proceed down a long corridor toward a nurse's station.

They are directed to a patient room with a uniformed police office standing guard outside "Your wife is under police protection." The nurse states while pointing at the large man in blue "They are not sure if this was random or a planned attack"

She pushes the door open and allows Jim and Kate to enter first. They are both taken back by the scene in the room. Machines are connected to her. An oxygen cannula is located below her nose. A screen is displaying various physical conditions from oxygen levels to heart rate and blood pressure

Kate steps to one side of the bed and Jim on the other. They both are afraid of touching her, afraid they might cause some harm. The nurse tells them to speak to her. It usually helps the patient to know those who love them are nearby

Out in the corridor, the detective has cornered the attending physician, "Dr. Parish can we talk?"

"I am very busy as you can see, so make it quick" she cuts back to the man

"Yes, I understand. Can you review a photograph of the knife we found and tell us if it is likely the weapon used in the attack?"

"I should be able to do that"

Officer Ragland presents a photograph to Dr. Parish. The image is of the weapon from several angles. "Yes. I would say that is probably the weapon based on the depth of the injury and some seriated skin in the would path"

"Thanks" he responds then looks at the photo himself "If you can tell from just this picture, you might make a good medical examiner"

"When I finish her, I am considering that…thanks. Now I must get back to my patients"

The detective nods his head in agreement and turns to leave then stops and looks aback at Parish "Doctor, will you call me when Ms. Beckett can answer a few questions?"

"Of course"

/\/\/\/\/\/\

Sitting in the waiting room of a hospital, the hours seem like days. A nurse came up to them "Can I get you anything? Water, soft drink, coffee?"

Jim shakes his head "No thank you" but then Kate looks up "I could use a coffee"

"Certainly, Ms. Beckett. What do you want in it?"

Realizing that she really had no preference in coffee she just said, "Sugar and cream please"

Nodding her head, the nurse stepped down the hall toward the refreshment area on the floor

"When did you start drinking coffee?"

Kate's eyes are looking down the hall, but they are not seeing anything "A while back"

/\/\/\/\/\

The sun is appearing outside when the 7AM shift arrives. The staff are doing shift change reports when a low-level alarm begins chiming. The charge nurse checks the panel then her, along with an aid, begins moving toward the room with the officer outside.

The commotion alerts Kate and Jim as they see the staff moving quickly towards Johanna's room.

The father and daughter are only a step behind the nurse as they pass the posted uniformed officer and enter the room with the alarm signal

"What's going on? Jim begins "What's wrong?" he is obviously panicked

The aid turns and stops the man and his daughter "Nothing is WRONG. The alarm sounded because she is moving in the bed. We believe she is waking up."

"I want to see my wife"

"Give us a minute then we will let you come in. She doesn't need a lot of people coming in right now" the woman turns to the sentry "Contact the detective and tell him that she is waking up" and the door closes, stopping the two Becketts from entering.

Closely behind the nurse, Dr. Parish arrives and also enters

Once more the two are left waiting and wanting. They want to know that the wife and mother is alright, but it will be a little longer before they can see her

About ten minutes pass when the elevator door opens to the presence of Detective Ragland. He makes a direct path to the door and enters without even acknowledging the presence to the other two Becketts. Once more, the two are left out in the cold

A few more minutes pass then the door opens and the nurse and aid exit. She looks at Jim and Kate "You may go in, but she is still groggy and may not recognize that you are here"

"Thank you" Jim responds. He takes his daughter's hand and pulls her close. They move quietly into the room.

They see the doctor on one side of the bed and Ragland on the other. The machines are beeping softly and they can see her eyes are open and she is looking around. When she sees her husband and daughter, the monitor upticks a few points and a muffled "hey" is heard.

Kate's tears start rolling from her eyes. No matter what, they will come.

"Johanna" the detective softly speaks. "I am Detective Ragland with the New York Police Department…can I ask you a few questions?"

She nods her head in the positive then reached out to try and take Jim's hand

"We have the man who tried to kill you. He is in custody but we still have a lot of questions we need answered."

"Okay" she replies

We found you in an alley. You had been stabbed by Dick Coonan. Do you know that name?"

A soft response of "no" can be heard

"Alright" he pauses "The suspect had been restrained. He had been tied and left with a trash can over his body trapping his arms. Do you know who did that?"

Once more she indicates 'no'

Ragland looks at his notepad "Someone bandaged you. Stopped the bleeding and then called the paramedics. Do you know who did that? Did you see who saved your life?"

A pained look comes onto her face and she nods only slightly "You won't believe me"

"Johanna. We need to know who helped you. We need to find him and get a statement and thank him for saving your life and apprehending the suspect. So, if you know who it is, we can get his statement about what happened"

"You can't talk to him"

Everyone has a puzzled look then Jim speaks up "Jo…I am sure the police can find a way to talk to your savior"

Pain is in her eyes "You won't believe me"

"Ms. Beckett. We will believe you, no matter how crazy it sounds. Can you tell me who saved your life?

She responds, "Santa Claus"

Leaving the room filled with silence

Well. That's different