Oh dear last chapter. It's been a long (long) journey, full of a lot of ups and downs, but we got there the end. Do not panic, or fear, there will be a sequel at some point. Maybe. Possibly. I'm kidding, there will be.

Thanks for sticking with me for this long, it means a lot.

Blood.

That's what she remembers the most. Stark and red and vibrant on her hands. She's smearing it on the back of Alexis's coat as she holds the tiny girl close to her on the hospital bench. It's just them two. Just the two of them playing a seemingly never ending waiting game. How long have they been here now? Minutes, hours, days. It's all blending into one, time moving so fast, and then so slow, flashes of memory from the diner car park . Bullets. Alexis screaming. Castle running, trying to get to get to Harry, but he's too slow and it's all going to be in vain, it's all going to be in vain, and-

"Katherine!"

A familiar, soothing voice cuts through the fog, and Martha, brilliant, wonderful Martha appears looking as tired and as hazed as Kate feels.

"Martha, Martha, I - oh, god, I couldn't -"

Alexis is pulling away from her, running towards the one figure she really, truly knows in this sea of unknown, and Martha sweeps her up easily, cradling against her. "Shh, darling, shh, it's not your fault. You couldn't have seen any of this coming. They'll be okay, right? They'll both be fine."

"I don't know." Kate tries to say, but her voice catches, the words stick in her throat. "I don't know, it all happened so quickly."

"They're in good hands. They're in good hands."

The first one they know about is Castle. They're allowed into the room to see him, even though he's groggy and barely awake from the anaesthesia, they're allowed in. "Bullet went in, ricocheted off his collar bone and straight back out again. No long term damage." the doctor tells her, and the relief comes, but it's only momentary.

"My daughter - Harry - I - Harriet Beckett - she came in with us-"

"I'm sorry, I only know about Mr. Castle. As soon as someone knows anything they'll be sure to let you know."

She wants to argue with him, wants to yell at him and tell him to go and find out something about her daughter because she can't sit around and wait any longer, and she wants to explode, but then Martha lays a reassuring hand on her arm, and she deflates, steps backwards, and moves to Castle's bedside.

His eyes are open, he's alert, and when she takes his hand in hers he squeezes it reassuringly. "Alexis?" he croaks, his eyes roaming the room in search of his daughter. She's by Kate's side immediately, and she pulls her up onto her lap, and from there she crawls onto what space is left on her father's hospital bed. "Hey, pumpkin. You okay?"

Alexis nods quietly, and then proceeds to curl into the tightest ball she can, and fall asleep. Castle looks at Kate, so many questions in his eyes. "Harry?"

"I don't know." she whispers, her voice hoarse. "I don't know. They took her in to surgery a few hours ago but nobody will tell me anything."

"Am I okay?"

"Yeah, you're - you just got a nick of a collar bone. Straight forward, really. You're gonna be fine, if a bit in pain."

"What did they do to Harry?"

"I don't know, Castle. I don't know. There was just - there was so much blood, I couldn't see where it was coming from. She was just lying there, she wasn't moving at all, she just kept saying mommy, mommy, mommy until she didn't. And then there were people screaming in the diner, I think the bullets must have smashed through the glass, but I don't know if anybody inside was hurt. This is all my fault. It's all my fault, Castle, I'm so sorry-"

"Kate, shh, no. None of this is your fault. You didn't ask for any of this." His eyes flutter closed, and he breathes in, heavy, and then winces in pain.

"You should sleep."

"I'm okay."

"Castle, you were just shot. You need to rest. I'll wake you up if anything happens."

"Kate…"

She soothes one hand over his forehead, into his hair. "Sleep, Castle."

"Kate." The whisper is gentle in her ear, but it's enough to wake her from the half slumber and she jerks awake to martha leaning next to her. "Kate, sweetheart. Harry's doctor is here."

That's all it takes for her to be properly awake and she stands up, suddenly realising that she's still got Castle's hand in hers. "Is she - is my daughter…"

"The surgery went well. Children are remarkably resilient, in an adult, the injuries would have been harder to fix, but, all being well she should make a full recovery."

"Injuries?"

"She was hit two times. One nicked her heart, that was the one we were most concerned about, the other hit a rib and was lodged in it. We want to keep her in hospital, for monitoring, for at least a week, and then if she's improving we'll let her home. But it's going to be a rough recovery, there'll be physical therapy, and emotionally I don't know how she's going to cope with it."

"But she's alive? She's going to live?"

"We're optimistic." And he does sound it. He doesn't sound like he's giving her false hope.

"Can I see her?"

And it's then that his face falls. Always the bearer of bad news. "She hasn't woken up from the anaesthesia yet."

"But can I see her? Please, I have to see her."

"She's in recovery at the minute. As soon as she's back in the children's ward I will let you know."

"How long will that be?"

"Until she's come out from the anaesthetic. There's no saying how long it will take."

The doctor, to his credit, looks upset that he can't take her to her. He tells Kate that he'll come and get her when they can visit, that she should rest while she can. And then he's gone, promising her that if it's not him visiting then he'll send someone to take her to Harry's room. Kate sags into a chair, head in her hands, can no longer stop the tears from flowing freely. Martha wraps her arms around her, tight and snug, and so motherly and it just makes it hurt all the more.

It's nearing midnight by the time she actually gets consent. Castle had woken up, briefly, just to hear the good news, but then the morphine and the stress and shock of the day had taken hold on him again and he'd drifted back into sleep again. Martha said she'd stay with Castle and Alexis, let her have her time with Harry. Her room is shrouded in darkness, the blinds pulled down fully blocking out whatever light from the moon there is. Over the quiet beep of the machines monitoring heart rates and pressure and all sorts else, Kate thinks that maybe she can hear the sound of the ocean. Harry would like that, she thinks. Will. Will like that. She's still alive.

"Mommy?"

It takes all of two seconds for her to be across the room, crouched down by the side of the bed, taking the hand that isn't full of iv's and canula's in both of her own. "Hey, baby, how you doing?"

"Where am I?" Harry says, her voice barely coming out as something more than a whisper.

"You're in hospital, sweetheart, but you're okay. You're gonna be okay."

"Mommy?"

"Yeah, baby?" She murmurs, running a thumb over the backs of her knuckles.

"I'm… tired." She can't really see in the dark, can't see how pale and thin and sick her daughter looks. "I'm tired."

"Sleep, baby girl. You go to sleep. I'll be right here when you wake up." Kate presses the back of Harry's hand to her mouth, peppers the skin with kisses.

Harry is silent for a few moments, and Kate thinks that she's fallen asleep until she pipes up again. "Can I have ice cream?"

Kate laughs, but it comes out more of a sob, and she presses her forehead into the bed. "Oh, you can have all the ice cream you want. You can have anything you want."

"I want to go home."

"Not yet, baby. You've got to get better first, then you can come home."

"Am I sick?"

"You - you - were shot." The words jam in her throat. They make her want to throw up. Her little girl - her daughter - she's lying in a hospital bed after being-

"Shot?"

"With a gun. You know, like mommy has for work? There was a bad man at the diner, a very bad man who wanted to hurt us."

"Are you hurt, momma?"

"No, no, I'm okay. I'm… fine. Daddy's a bit hurt, but he's okay. He'll be fine."

"Where is he?"

"He's asleep, but he'll visit you as soon as he can. Alexis too, and Martha."

"Momma, can I go to sleep now?"

"Of course you can sweetheart." She stands up, smooths the slightly sweaty hair away from her forehead, and presses a kiss to the slightly too warm skin on her forehead. "I'll stay right here."

She stays by her daughter's bedside for at least an hour before she feels herself drifting off. Coffee. She needs coffee. She knows there's a vending machine just past the nurse's station, and it would only take a couple of minutes. A couple of minutes and she's got a plastic cup full of cheap tasting coffee, but the caffeine is a welcome buzz in her veins. She's gone, maybe five minutes. She hasn't walked out of sight of Harry's room door. But when she gets back it's obvious someone has been in there. Someone who wasn't supposed to be there. Harry is awake, eyes wide and terrified, and the monitors are going crazy. There are nurses and one doctor crowding the room, trying to figure out what's going on but nobody has a clue.

"There was a man. There was a man in my room."

"Were you dreaming sweetheart?" One of the nurses asks, and Kate knows she doesn't mean to sound patronising, but she does. "It's completely understandable."

Harry shakes her head. "There was a man."

"What kind of man?"

"The scary kind."

They eventually calm Harry down, but she doesn't seem to want to settle back down to sleep. Or she just can't. It's impossible for her. She says that every time she closes her eyes she can see him, looming over her, big and threatening.

"Mommy?"

"Yeah, Harry?"

"He said something. Scary man. He bent over me and he whispered it in my ear"

"He did? What?"

"Three strikes and you're out." The way she says it, so matter of factly, so without worry or concern, sets Kate's jaw. "What does that mean, Momma? Why is he talking about baseball?"

"I don't know sweetheart. I don't know."

Or at least, that's what she tells her. It's startlingly obvious what he means. Three strikes. Harry, Alexis, Castle. And after that, they're coming for her. She has no idea who they are, only knows that they're crazy powerful, they have crazy ass resources, and it is clear that gunning down a five year old does clearly not bother them at all.

"Harry, I want you to try and sleep. Can you do that for me?"

"Where are you going?"

"I have to go and talk to your Daddy, okay?"

"You'll come back though?" Harry looks up at her, and Kate hates herself a little bit because she knows that she's scared. She knows that what she needs right now is her mother, to be there, to protect her. Fat lot of good she's doing right now.

"Of course I will. Just try and sleep. The nurses and the doctors are all going to make sure there's no one else in your room."

"Okay, momma." Her eyes are closed before Kate has time to even stand 's tears in her eyes when she leaves, pulls the door to.

Martha and Alexis are both fast asleep on the couch, completely out of it, but Castle's eyes are open in the dim light coming in from the corridor. "Kate."

"Hey, Castle."

"Harry, is she?"

"Asleep. She's asleep. She's okay. They think she's going to be okay."

"Good… that's good."

"Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"I'm okay. Morphine's good."

"That's … good. I'm glad."

"Kate?"

"I've got to go."

"What? What do you mean?"

"They - they want me, Castle. That's all they want. And they've shown that they'll do anything to try and get to me. If I stay - if I let myself be around you guys…"

"Kate, Kate, don't - don't please don't." He tries to sit up, but the pain in his arm has him grunting and he can't manage to move any further than grabbing hold of her arm. But she pries him off, albeit with a huge amount of regret.

"I have to. I have no choice."

"There's always a choice."

She laughs quietly, lets her hair fall forward across her face like a curtain. A shield. "That's Doctor Who."

"The Doctor is a wise guy."

"And he also runs away when he has to. I'm sorry, Castle. I am. I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to. But I can't risk it. You and Alexis and Harry, even Martha. You're all in trouble if I stay."

"You're leaving Harry?"

"I have to."

"What am I supposed to tell her."

"Tell her … I've gone on holiday. I needed a holiday."

"Are you going after them?"

"No. No, the moment I try and touch them is the moment you're all dead. I've just got to disappear. I don't know how long for. I don't even know where I'm going to go." she stands up, she needs to go, sooner or later someone is going to walk in, or wake up, and it'll make it all the more harder to leave. Castle grabs her arm again. "Castle-"

"I love you."

"Wh-what?"

"I - if you're going to go, if I'm not going to see you again-"

She silences him with her mouth, ignores the grunt of pain as she pushes him backwards against the bed. She needs this. Needs to remember this moment if it's the last one she'll get. And before he can retaliate, she's gone.

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