Wrong Place Wrong Time

Maya Santori was dead. There was nothing Castle could do for her. Despite the gun with which she tried to defend her life, a murderer's bullets had found her. Castle was about to call Beckett when he heard the sounds from the next room.. Could the killer be back? He picked up Maya's gun seconds before Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan burst into the room, their guns trained on him.

"Gun!" Ryan yelled, seeing nothing but the weapon that faced him. His finger squeezed the trigger before he could see the face behind the gun.

"Ryan!" issued as a whisper from Castle's lips, even as surprise was frozen on his face.

Swallowing a sob, Beckett knelt at Castle's side, using her bare hands to staunch the flow of blood. "Call the paramedics!" she ordered Esposito as Ryan looked on in paralyzing shock.

Sirens screamed through the New York streets as Beckett followed the ambulance to the hospital, thoughts swirling through her head. What was Castle doing at a murder scene? Could he have killed Maya Santori? Beckett found that impossible to believe. But if not, why was he standing over her body with a gun? Beckett silently prayed that she'd have the opportunity to ask him.

Beckett paced the waiting room as Alexis and Martha sat clinging to each other. The doctor would talk only to them, as next of kin, but Beckett had been well able to overhear. Castle was in surgery. Ryan's bullet had shattered a rib, deflating a lung and causing massive internal bleeding. Making matters worse, Castle was AB negative, the rarest type in the United States, and the supply of replacement blood was low. The doctor had attempted to be encouraging, but his face was grim.

Beckett heard footsteps as Esposito came down the hall and entered the room. "How is he?" he asked.

Beckett closed her eyes and shook her head. "Still in surgery."

"Ballistics checked," Esposito reported. "Maya Santori was shot with a forty-five. Castle was holding a thirty-eight."

Beckett felt a breath she hadn't known she was holding whoosh from her lungs. "So Castle didn't do it."

"Did you really think he did?" Esposito questioned in surprise.

"No," Beckett replied, "but I'm a cop. He was standing over the body with a gun. How's Ryan?"

"He's very shook up," Esposito said. "Montgomery took his weapon and put him at a desk until the shooting investigation is completed. I can't imagine the department can beat him up anymore than he's beating up himself. Jenny took him home."

Beckett turned hesitantly to Martha. "Should I call - Gina?"

Martha sighed. "I tried. It went to voice mail. She may be on an airplane somewhere. She was making the arrangements for Richard's book tour. That's why Richard didn't come back to the precinct when he finished the book. He was supposed to have appearances all over the country for the next few weeks. He was going to call you when he was finished."

Beckett and Esposito looked at each other. Beckett buried her face in her hands. She had been so angry at Castle, thinking his silence meant he had abandoned her, with Ryan and Esposito angry in sympathy, but Castle had intended to return all along. Esposito touched her arm in an awkward attempt at comfort.

"I'm fine Javi," Beckett protested.

Esposito gave her a doubtful look but kept his silence.

Unable to think of anything else useful to do, Beckett went to a cart in the hospital lobby to buy coffee for Martha and hot chocolate for Alexis. She returned just as the doctor was approaching. Martha rose, fear in her eyes. "We stopped the bleeding," the doctor told Martha and Alexis softly, "but we were short a unit of blood. We put as much fluid as we could into him, but he's very weak. We have more units coming in and Mr. Castle will get what he needs as soon as they arrive. There was a lot of damage. The next forty-eight hours will be very important."

"Can we see him?" Martha asked.

"He's in recovery," the doctor replied. "We'll be taking him to I.C.U.." He glanced over at Beckett and Esposito. "I.C.U. is limited to immediate family. Someone will come to get you when he's settled," he added, turning back to Martha and Alexis.

"Thank you doctor," Martha said before turning to Beckett. "Katherine, I know you care about Richard. I'll let you know about anything I hear."

"Thank you, Martha," Beckett replied gratefully.

Martha pointed to the blood staining Beckett's clothes. "You should change. I'll call you."

Beckett nodded her assent, silently indicating to Esposito that she was leaving.

Beckett sat on her desk staring at the murder board. Nothing made sense, The murders of a sculptor, a chemistry teacher, and a vending machine owner were related, but how? Ryan approached hesitantly. "Beckett, how's Castle?"

"Martha said he's stable but critical. He's still in ICU so she and Alexis are the only ones allowed to see him. How are you?"

Ryan shook his head. "I don't know. For the last two days I've been going over and over it in my mind. I saw the body, I saw the gun. I didn't even see Castle's face, I just reacted. You and Javi knew it was him, why didn't I?"

"I don't know Kevin," Beckett replied softly, "but even if you had, he was standing over a body with a gun. Your response was conditioned by your training. I said so in my statement. When does the board meet?"

"This afternoon," Ryan answered. "I'll be leaving for 1PP soon."

Ryan began to walk away as Beckett called after him, "Ryan, good luck!"

Thoughts warred in Beckett's mind. Ryan was her friend and protegé. She wanted to support him and she was trying her best. But Castle! When she saw him walk away with Gina last summer it was if all the light in the room went with him. It was her fault. She'd taken the safe path with Tom Demming and by the time she realized who she really wanted, it was too late. Castle had moved on. She tried to hide the pain but Javi, Ryan, Montgomery, they all knew her hard shell was a sham. When she saw the blood draining from Castle's body, it was as if her life was draining away with it. Now because Ryan was too quick on the trigger, she might never have a chance to tell Castle the truth. She had to try not to hate Ryan for that. She hoped she could succeed.

Beckett's phone buzzed with a text from Alexis. Castle was conscious and being moved to a private room. Beckett would be able to see him. She tried to think of what she could say.

Castle's eyes were closed as Beckett entered the room. His face looked beautiful in rest, with lashes any woman would envy and hair falling over his forehead like a little boy. As much as she denied it to herself, it was the face she had fallen in love with on a book jacket as she had fallen in love with the words he had written inside. When they first worked together, she hadn't seen the man hidden behind the infuriating man child, but as she came to see his supportiveness of his mother and his fierce protectiveness of Alexis, she came to know him. He had saved her life more than once and found solutions to cases she would never have seen. He'd even put forward a hundred thousand dollars of his own money to trap her mother's killer. But she'd hidden behind the walls she'd built so long, she couldn't let him in. She brushed him aside like a casual acquaintance for Tom, who stood no chance of penetrating her tough facade. She'd lied to him, a lie he caught her in before he told her he was leaving.

Beckett lightly brushed her fingertips over his hand. Her whisper of "Castle," barely audible. His lids lifted slowly with an exhalation of breath. "Beckett, Kate."

"Castle, how many times have I told you not to touch anything at a murder scene?" she teased.

Castle tried to chuckle but was defeated by the pain in his chest. "Not enough I guess," he answered.

"Maybe next time you'll listen," Beckett lectured.

"I'll have to," Castle agreed. "I don't know if I'd make it through Ryan shooting me again."

"How do you feel?" Beckett asked.

"Like I've been shot in the chest. How is Ryan doing?

"He's having a hard time Castle. He can't stop blaming himself."

"Tell him to come see me," Castle said."I know how it looked. People get shot in this city for a lot less."

"You are amazing, Castle," Beckett marveled.

"I know," Castle agreed. "So how are you and what was his name, Demming?"

"We broke up Castle," Beckett confessed, "about five minutes before you left with Gina."

"Was that what you wanted to tell me, Kate?" Castle asked.

"Yeah," Beckett confided, "not that it would have changed anything."

Castle reached for Beckett's hand. "It would have changed everything. Kate, I never would have gone. You were with Tom and - I couldn't watch anymore. A gentleman steps aside, so I left. And Gina, she was just - there. I couldn't finish the book because I hated the way the story, your story, was going. I needed her to make me do it, and she did. She's a very determined woman, but she isn't who I wanted to open my eyes to see. You are."

The sound of a clearing throat came from the doorway. Beckett turned to see Gina framed in the harsh fluorescent light."I was wondering how you were doing Rick. Now I know. Rook has found his Nikki Heat. Good luck to both of you."

Wincing in pain at the effort, Castle called after Gina as she retreated. "Do you want her to come back?" Beckett asked.

"No," Castle confessed, "but I don't want to hurt her, either. I need to talk to her."

Beckett squeezed his hand. "You can call her when you're feeling better. Where do we go from here, Castle?"

Castle reached up to pull her lips to his. They came together with a rush of heat escaping dampers forced closed for two years. Their eyes met in wonder. "Anywhere you want, Kate," Castle murmured breathily. "As long as we go there together.