Season Finale Spoilers in this one!

You don't just become an medical examiner. I've read most of them are doctors. Lanie is real good at her job, so I have no doubt she served her time as a resident doctor.

I should be working on my next chapter for The Things Mothers Would Approve Of... but I can't. Blind-sided by the finale. I have never EVER cried so much over a show.

If you're seeing this for the second or third time, there will be some things missing but I've corrected the Jim Beckett situation best I can. I went through and revamped this. I orginally did not spot him at Montgomery's funeral, so I wrote in a twist and had Jim come in later in my first version. I had to ditch that and edit here and there in early chapters, because it bothered me too much. I think what I've come away with is as close as I can come to resolved.

If you haven't seen this before... welcome aboard, you didn't miss much!

How to Survive

"Move!" Lanie screamed. "Move!" She shoved two people out of the way. Surging forward through the crowd. "Let me at her!" She screamed again through the tears.

People moved around her in a blur, civilians hesitantly lifting their heads from the ground where they'd taken cover. Several officers taking up pursuit, most unarmed.

She fell beside Castle, physically shoving him out of the way, as his hands groped Beckett's bloody chest. "Move." She ordered, body straddling her best friends in an instant, destroying her uniform as she split it open. In a moment of clarity, her tears paused. Her full weight pressed down onto the wound, instantly sweeping her other hand around her back checking for pass through. It hadn't cut through, but where it had lodged had done enough damage. She quickly went about checking her pulse and air intake rates. "Damnit Kate wake up!" She demanded in a voice so loud that Castle startled beside them.

"There's so much blood." He murmured.

"It's not that much." Lanie barked, angry at the amount that spilled forth. "Where's the ambulance?"

"I, I don't know." He gulped.

"Castle." Her father's voice broke in, a hand on his shoulder. His gasp as he saw Kate, was choked. "Is she dead?"

"NO." They chorused.

"Richard, Alexis needs you." The older man's frantic voice sounded again. Beyond the small flutter of officers that had remained for EMT support, he heard his daughters sob and the shallow pitch of his mothers voice as she tried to comfort her.

"Go." Lanie pleaded as a siren finally sounded in range. Tears fell in tiny rivers on his cheeks.

"But."

"I will get you." Lanie swore to him, locking eyes with the panicked man. "We will all go together." She promised. The tears falling again. "Everyone lives." She promised, hands shaking beneath her. Mind desperate to believe.

Castle began to question Kate's survival when he saw the speed at which the responding Paramedic Unit moved. Her father pushed to the side as Lanie and the arriving unit did their best to stablize her in a hurry. Alexis sat, face curled into his side, sobbing hysterically as his world crashed to pieces.

He'd told her. She'd seen it, she'd known.

It still wasn't enough.

It was when he realized Ryan and Esposito were nowhere in sight he began to get nervous. His mother sat stiffly on the opposite side of Alexis and he wordlessly passed his daughter towards his mother.

"The boys." He wondered outloud.

"They'll be okay Richard."

"No, Mother, they're not here!" He protested.

"I'm sure they went," His mother started again, Alexis pulling up, stared at her Dad, feeling where it was headed before anyone.

"Dad, you don't have a gun." She whispered, terror lacing her words.

"They can't do that without weapons." He cried, ignoring the plea from his daughter. Before either woman knew what he was doing, Castle was racing down the hill.

"DAD!" She yelled. "You don't have a gun either!" With wide scared eyes, she looked at the chaos that was Captain Montgomery's funeral. Fresh dirt, a widow cradling a flag and two daughters, and blood splatter. Nothing was right with the world. Alexis stood, clutching Martha's hand as they stood among the mess.

When he came to the bottom of the hill, he found 6 officers, his friends among them. Two armed with guns, four without. At their feet lay the body of a nameless monster. A bullet between his eyes, and several to the chest. A long range weapon was no match in a close fight.

"Castle." Esposito warned, a hand on his shoulder as he approached. Castle shrugged it off. His foot connected with the body.

Repeatedly.

There was no repercussions for him, he didn't protect and serve. He wrote novels and didn't own a gun. He gave the surrounding officers something they couldn't obtain themselves.

The solid connection of his foot to the body, brought him physical pain. Even with the throb in his foot, he couldn't stop. He wouldn't.

"Stop." The voice said in Montgomery's comforting baritone. When he was gently tugged backwards, he was held by Ryan, rather than the man whose body was ready to be lowered into the ground.

"I love her." He confessed. Tears pouring from his eyes. "I need her." He sobbed. No one looked at him in disgust.

"We know man." Esposito agreed, patting his back with as much dignity as he could master, tears cracking his own voice.

"Javier!" Lanie's voice called as she trotted downhill towards the men. "Castle! They're leaving."

"Put me in the squad. Lights on." Castle spoke with sudden clarity. "I need to beat them." No one argued.