Life Reassessment

by Castlefan6

Authors Note: Another What If based on the episode, Cops and Robbers, except Rick is injured protecting Martha and Bank Teller Simone. It starts with Canon dialog, goes quickly completely AU. No dinner, no boasts of who saved who, and twists of fate in the Castle's lives.

I don't own Castle; I use the characters for amusement purposes only, except the ones I create.

Previously Courtesy of Dust Jackets Dot Com

INT – NEW AMSTERDAM BANK AND TRUST

The bank is a mess. The dust hasn't settled as the SWAT team enters, BECKETT with them.

BECKETT
Castle! Castle!

She's got her flashlight out, braced underneath her drawn gun. There's no one in sight.

BECKETT
Castle!

***************************************************************************/

Chapter 1

Inside New Amsterdam Bank

"Katherine, please hurry dear, Richards bleeding badly"

She hears her yell and heads in the direction it came from. All the hostages are safe in the safety deposit box room, sitting on the floor, all but Rick. He has a huge piece of shrapnel sticking from his neck, and a huge bump rising from his head as Martha is attempting to stop a flow of crimson from his neck, as he is sprawled out unconscious on his stomach.

The pregnant bank teller, Simone is weeping uncontrollably, "He shielded me, me and my baby."

(to the SWAT team) "They're here! Get me my bus, NOW God Damn it, my partner is down,"

I'm so sorry Martha, let me get in there" as she lifted his head into her lap,

She slid over to cradle his head in her lap, allowing her leg to cushion his other side while she applied direct pressure around the wound as best she could.

Martha was doing well until she noticed the blood on her hands, the blood of her son, and then she began to weep. Kate had seen her go through many trials and setbacks in life, but nothing had ever brought the grand lady anywhere near tears.

"He must have known or felt something, right before the explosion, he pushed both me and the young lady flat on the ground, and covered us with his body, I don't know what hit him, we couldn't see anything and then when I called him, he didn't answer. I thought he was dead Katherine, he isn't, is he?"

"No Martha, he's hurt bad, but he's still alive."

The paramedics have made their way down to the vault area and begin to work on Rick, preparing him for a quick ride to Mercy Hospital, as soon as they could separate the piece of shrapnel from his neck from the framing of the Safe Deposit Boxes. The jaws of life were brought in and finally, they were carrying him out, followed closely by Kate and Martha. Alexis rushed to the stretcher as soon as she saw her father, "You told me he would be OK, you told me you would get him out, why is he the only one hurt?" she screamed at Kate as she pulled away when she reached out for her.

"Alexis Castle, your father protected me and the young lady with child, that's how he got injured, there's nothing Katherine could have done, even if she was right next to us, it happened too fast. Now apologize to her, this minute" Martha was steaming,

Alexis uttered a quick I'm sorry, as Kate climbed into the ambulance, "Martha we're going to Mercy hospital, Javi or Kevin will drive you and Alexis, we have to go, as she watched the paramedics eyes."

The door closed and they were off, Kate could tell by the speed they were traveling, things weren't good. She couldn't believe all the blood when she turned him over, she wanted to kick herself for not telling him before, "Rick, Babe, I hope you can hear me, I heard what you said, and I love you, I love you Richard Castle so you keep fighting, you hear, don't quit on me now, please" as her tears fell onto the sheet covering him.

"What's our ETA?" The EMT in the back yelled out as he watched the signals on the machines and monitors,

"4 minutes out, hang on trying to cut it if we can"

"I'd like it better if you could get us there sooner, Call ahead to the Trauma Nurse, ER,"

"Tell them to have blood setup as soon as we get to the bays, type O Positive, I'm fighting to keep him but we can't wait for them to bring it from CS (Central Supply), he's close to crashing" just as they pulled into the bays of Mercy Hospital ER. The first doctor on the scene had the blood that was quickly injected into the lines in Rick's arms. Kate was pushed aside, but she soon saw Martha and Alexis come up the walkway with Kevin and Javi.

An older lady with a look of authority approached them, and introduced herself,

"Hi, I'm Mrs. Pompeo, the Administrator for Mercy Hospital, if you'll follow me, I'll show you a private area where you may wait, given Mr. Castle's celebrity status. As soon as the doctors know something they will come and brief you, are you all family?"

"Yes, we are" Martha never hesitated, please be sure that Katherine is afforded family privileges, that's all I can release at this time, you know the gossip columns"

"Yes, all too well Mrs. Rogers, we will keep the relationship under wraps, it's their business to break all those bachelorette's hearts, she smiled, trying to lighten the deep load everyone was feeling. Please call me at this number if you need anything,"

"We will, thank you so very much, Sharon, may I call you that?" Martha asked reading the name tag.

"That would be great, thank you, so many times celebrities aren't as nice as everyone said Mr. Castle is, now I can see where he gets it from, please call me if I can help, I'll go check with the doctors, someone should be out to brief you soon."

Kate turned to Martha, and just hugged her, mumbling "Thank You so much, he means so much to me."

"Please Katherine, one of you are going to have to stop this dance, he loves you, and just looking at you, anyone could tell you love him as well. Life is too short, we could have all cashed out chips in today, so please stop wasting time, it's far too precious to waste a minute."

Kate blushed but didn't disagree with her. Alexis came up to her shyly,

"Kate, I'm sorry for what I said back there, I know you were responsible for getting Dad here alive, so thank you, we've missed you at the loft." She extended her hand, but easily fell into Kate's open arms and wept quietly.

"It's OK Lexi, I got you I know you didn't mean it, and really, I know how much you love your Dad, well I told him that he had to fight, for you, for your Grams and for me, I love him too."

Shortly after she had embraced the young lady, a Doctor walked in and quietly asked, "Castle Family?"

"That's us," Alexis jumped to be next to the doctor, "How's my Dad, when can we see him?"

"Hi, I'm Dr. Hernandez, you must be Alexis, all in good time, let me explain your Dad's condition, then I think you'll understand my answers better. Your Dad had lost somewhere between 30-35% of his blood supply and had gone into hemorrhagic, or hypovolemic shock, a condition where there's not enough blood to keep the remainder pumping to the organs that require the oxygen that it brings. Your Dad was fortunate to get here before he went into heart or renal failure, but we had to address the shrapnel in his neck.

Once again, a millimeter closer and it would have punctured the aorta artery, that I'm sorry to say would most likely to have been fatal. We were able to repair the damage to the outlying arteries, and restore normal blood flow. That's the good news, now the bad."

His demeanor changed completely to a very stoic and by the book doctor. We don't know what caused the bump on the head, but it caused a subdural hematoma or brain bleed, we tried to dissolve it, but we couldn't risk having the blood become too diaphanous and threatened the repairs on the arteries.

For now, your Dad is in a coma, we hope we dissolved the clot enough where the body will pass it, but there is a possibility that it could cause a stroke, or possibly worse. We are monitoring his signs and are standing by with treatment options should something drastic as that occur.

Just a warning, if you see a seizure or profuse sweating hit the call button immediately. Since he's in CCU, only two visitors at a time, but today, I'll make the exception. Please no longer than 15 minutes total, and please be aware, he may or not be able to hear your conversations so I encourage you to stay positive, it will only help. The nurse will come get you when they have him settled in,

Any questions? I can be reached at this number, call me day or night" as he handed each a card, and left three stunned women, to hold on to each other.

"Richard is tough Alexis, he made it to the hospital, he'll make it out, just to prove the odds wrong," Martha said softly,

Alexis tried to smile but her tears came flooding out, Kate took her into her arms, and whispered, "Let it out, baby, I got you. God knows that's what I want to do as well, he never heard me say it, I hope he knows that I love him, I can't make it without him" as her tears fell and mixed with Alexis's.

"Trust me, I know my son, he knows Katherine, he's known for a long time. Now you need to go and tell him, it doesn't matter, I'll bet he will hear your voice before anyone else so tell him now."

"Kate, he knows, he loves you so very much, many times I would catch him in his office, thinking and just typing away, he must have over 100 letters he's written to you but hasn't sent one, yet. He's never been this way, not as long as I can remember, so if it's not love I don't know what it is."

The nurse comes to the door, gently tapped and motioned for them to follow her. She took the back way up to his room, and there he was, bandaged around his neck, his head bump didn't appear to have gotten any bigger, but the machines, God the machines, all making different noises.

Alexis strode up to him, took his free hand and held it to her face, "Daddy, you have lots of people saying prayers for you, so you better get well, and soon. Kate's here Daddy, I was right, she loves you, you wouldn't believe how much, so get well for us Daddy."

Kate stood back as Martha stepped up and brushed the hair from his eyes, "Oh Richard, I'm so sorry for dragging you to that damn bank, what the hell where you thinking protecting me and that pregnant bank teller, she's fine by the way, just so happy and sad you got hurt at the same time. Alexis told you Katherine was here, so Alexis and I are going to give you two a few minutes, but we'll be back soon. I love you Son"

She turned and pulled Kate into a hug, and whispered, "tell him, darling, I'm sure it will speed up his waking,"

Kate turned and Martha had collected Alexis allowing her to say what she wanted,

"Rick, it's me, Kate, I'm sorry I couldn't get you out before you got hurt, but Babe, what were you thinking, I love you, I need you, please stop putting others before yourself, for me? I don't know what I would do without you, and I can see your smirk now, thinking yeah you told me so, but Babe, I do, I love you, get well for me sweetheart, I promise you it'll be worth it, Always" she kissed his forehead, then gently kissed his lips" she turned and walked out before she lost all the tears that had pooled in her eyes. Together the three ladies were shown back to the waiting room where Javi and Kevin were still waiting. She just shook her head and to tell them that she would talk later,

"Mrs. R, Kevin and I are going to drive you back to the Loft, we already brought Kate's car so she could follow us to your place. You three need to stay together, and Kate, Captain Gates said she would see you in a few days, call if you need more time." Javi said softly

"Thanks, Javi, tell Captain Gates I appreciate her support, as do all of the family, I'll call her in a day or so, depending on how things go here. Rick's in CCU, they repaired the artery, but he had lost so much blood he went into shock and then a coma. They can't take care of the brain bleed because it would compromise the repair on the artery, so they have done as much as they could, it's going to be touch and go for at least the next 72 hours. I'll do my best to keep you informed, but please tell Lanie, I love her, but this is all I can do to get it out once" as her tears start to fall again.

Kevin pulled her into a hug, "Hey Kate, it's Rick, the only way he's going out is if you shoot him so have faith, I lit a candle and Jenny and I are going to mass to say prayers, so you take care of yourself,"

Javi was next and just held her for a moment, and said, "what he said, except the candles, but you know he's tough Kate, keep thinking positive thoughts. Call us if you need anything. I'll talk to Lanie, she'll understand" and then he pulled away and they were gone.

Martha was the take-charge person, none of them wanted to leave but she realized that it wouldn't do any good to stay, besides Kate had her car and they could get back in less than 20 minutes if they needed to. All three women filed out, Alexis giving her Dad a kiss on the cheek, and whispering close to his ear,

"Love you Daddy, we all do, so wake up soon,"

Next Martha once again brushed the hair from his forehead and kissed him there, "Richard, please, keep fighting Son, I'll never forgive myself if you don't get better, we all love you"

Kate was last, she held his hand and gently kissed his lips, "Babe, please, I never said it before, but I won't stop saying I love you, just please wake up, I need you so much, We'll be back soon, and we all love you, Rick, I love you, bye Babe" as tears fell when she turned to walk away.

It was a quiet night back at the loft, Alexis choosing to go to her room, and Martha to her room. Kate stood looking into his office for the longest time, oh Rick, you are so loved, please come back to us she thought, as she slipped up the stairs to her room. She heard Alexis crying but didn't want to intrude. Less than ten minutes later, she felt Alexis lay down beside her, turn into her and sob as she held her. God if something happened to him, she knew she wouldn't be the only one to be devastated, he was his daughter's world, just like he was hers.