Author's Notes: This is the first fic I have written in a looooong time and my first for Castle. If you hear any creaking as you read, it's just the rust that fell off my fingers as I typed.

Thanks: A huge thanks to Tanya Reed, who kindly agreed to beta this for me and did a wonderful job - I happily stole some of her suggestions.

Disclaimer: Yeah, I don't own 'em. If I did, Rick Castle would be dressed up as Mal Reynolds more than just at Halloween ;-)

Spoilers: Through the end of Season 2, but ignoring those for S3

Rating: T (just to be on the safe side)

"Esposito! How are you?" Castle said cheerfully into the phone after seeing the caller ID, glad to hear the voice of someone from 12th precinct. It was just after 9am and Rick was sitting out on the deck of his house in the Hamptons, the surf rolling in front of him and his laptop perched at his side.

"I'm good, Castle, how are you?"

Castle paused before replying, taking a moment to glare at his laptop where the next chapter of 'Naked Heat' was meant to be filling the screen. "I'm good," he finally said, "what's up?"

"Uh, the reason I'm calling you, is, uh..." Esposito hedged, suddenly wishing he hadn't been the one to lose the coin toss and have to make the call. Ryan had taken off to the break room, not wanting to witness what he suspected was about to happen, even through the phone.

"What's going on?" Castle asked, his mind starting to go into overdrive as he realised from his friend's tone of voice that it wasn't just a general chit-chat call.

Taking a deep breath and staring across the bullpen at the empty desk where his co-worker should be, Esposito finally said, "It's Beckett."

At the other end of the phone, Rick Castle jumped up from his seat and started pacing. "What about her? Is she okay? What's going on?" After a few seconds of silence he pressed, "Esposito, what's happened?"

"She's okay, but she was in an accident late last night," Javier Esposito expelled in a rush, quickly wishing he'd started the phone call differently. He had hoped to limit the pain he knew his buddy was going to be feeling now, as he no doubt let his mind think the worst.

"What kind of accident? How 'okay' is she?"

Esposito dropped his head into his free hand and took another deep breath. "Car accident. She was t-boned. Look, she's okay, but I just thought you'd want to know."

"Did she ask you to call me?" Castle wondered, and his heart fell a little as he was met with silence.

Finally, Esposito told him, "No, but to be honest, she's not really been awake enough to say much. She has a badly broken arm, it actually needed surgery, but she also has a couple of broken ribs and one of them... it, uh... it punctured and collapsed her lung." He heard the sharp intake of breath from Castle and continued, "Like I said, she's okay, but she has a chest tube in and is going to be in hospital for a few days, then out of action for a while longer."

"She's really going to be okay?" Rick asked in a quiet voice, concern evident in his tone. When Esposito confirmed she was, he asked for and was given the details of the hospital. "Guess I'd better send some flowers or something."

"Actually, if you have any of that book written, maybe you should send it over, give her something to read, " Esposito suggested with a smile.

"Oh no, if she wants to read it before it's finished, she's going to have to do better than that," Castle chuckled, his panic somewhat alleviated, but then added, "Hmm, maybe it's not such a bad idea. When she sees some of what I've written, it'll probably be good motivation for her to get up and out of bed, if only to kick my ass."

"Another page 105, huh?"

"Oh, and then some," Castle smiled.

Kevin Ryan walked over at that moment and motioned to the clock. "Listen, Castle, I gotta go, we need to track down the guy who did this to Beckett," said Esposito.

That got Castle's attention. "You don't know who did it?"

"No. Witnesses said he rammed into Beckett, reversed and took off. Didn't sound deliberate, though. He ran a red light, probably drunk."

"Esposito?"

"Yeah?"

"Go catch the bastard."

"Yeah."

Lanie Parish opened the door quietly and stepped outside, or tried to at least. "Oof," was the reponse from herself and the person with whom she collided. It took a moment, but a head finally peeked around the side of a huge bouqet of flowers.

"Castle? What are you doing here?" Lanie asked in surprise.

"I'm here to see Beckett," he replied with a 'well, duh' look.

Lanie pushed him further into the hallway so that she could properly close the door to her friend's hospital room and then pinned him with a look. "How did you know she was here?"

"Esposito called me, thought I'd want to know." At Lanie's continued glare, Castle took an automatic step backwards. "Is there a problem with me being here?"

"Depends on why you're here," she replied, still eyeing him warily. "Where did you come from anyway, I thought you were in the Hamptons?"

"I drove here as soon as Esposito called, just got in actually, and I'm here because I want to see how the patient's doing."

The sincerity and concern in his voice chipped Lanie's barriers and she decided to give a little. "The patient isn't being so patient." Castle grinned and she continued, "She's desperate to get out of here and back to work, even though that's not going to be happening for a while, or at least not active duty."

Straightening his shoulders and gripping the flowers more tightly, Castle moved towards the door to Beckett's room.

"She's sleeping," Lanie stated, stepping in front of the door again to stop him. "They gave her something to knock her out, she'll be out for a while."

"I'm in no rush," he replied as he reached around her to grasp the door handle.

"Castle, you don't think that watching someone sleep is rather... creepy?" A shrug was her only reply and she pointed out, "You know she hates it when you watch her do paperwork, how do you think she'd like you watching her sleep?"

"She's asleep, how will she know?" he smiled. "I at least need to drop off the flowers."

Stepping aside, Lanie nodded. "Okay, drop off the flowers and then leave. I've got to go to work, but I'll be back later." His cellphone rang at that moment and she looked from him to the phone and back again, pointedly. "No cellphones in the room."

He glanced at the phone and saw Gina's name on the caller ID before turning it off. "No problem, I don't want to take this call anyway. Is there anything I can do for her, get for her?" he asked genuinely.

"No, like I said, she's asleep. I'll stop by her apartment before I come back, pick up some things for her." As Castle opened his mouth to speak, she put up a finger and glared at him. "Don't even think about it, Castle, no way are you going to her apartment to pack her bag. Don't wake her when you go in and by that I mean no shaking her just to check she's okay, they gave her pills because she needs the sleep. I'll see you later."

A thought suddenly struck him and he moved away from the door handle like he'd been electrocuted. "Is Demming in there with her?" he asked, unable to keep the distaste from his voice.

Lanie couldn't decide which of the warring emotions evident on his face was winning; the jealousy, concern, or hurt. She knew Kate may kill her for it later, but she opted to tell him the truth. "No, he's not, they broke up."

"Really, when?" Castle asked eagerly, a look of relief crossing his face and a smile beginning to reach his eyes.

"About four weeks ago."

That puzzled him as he did some mental math. "I only left for the Hamptons four weeks ago." Lanie nodded. "When exactly did they break up?"

"Right before you left," she told him pointedly, then glared at him again as she asked, "How's Gina? She can't be happy you've left her in the Hamptons to come here and see Kate."

Not thinking about the question, too busy doing an internal victory punch at the news of the Demming-Beckett relationship demise, he automatically responded, "She's not in the Hamptons, she's here in New York."

"You brought her with you?" Lanie almost yelled, suddenly wishing she hadn't revealed the Demming information. He had looked so upset and had literally dropped everything to rush to New York, she hadn't considered that he would have brought Gina.

"No. Why would I bring her with me?" Castle was completely confused, but as Lanie continued to glare, he began to get a clue. "You thought that... Oh, no, that lasted about two days, just long enough for her to read me the riot act about getting the book finished and to concentrate on my writing in future, rather than playing – and I quote – 'cops and robbers all day long'."

"She wants you to quit the precinct?"

"Yeah, said something about me having enough research material for fifty books by now."

Lanie smiled knowingly at his words, remembering Javier's recounted tale of what he'd said to Beckett. "So, are you quitting?"

"Only thing I'll be quitting is Black Pawn if Gina makes that suggestion again," he said with conviction. "Anyway, I'm going to drop these off, I'll see you later, Lanie." Without giving her time to reply, he moved around her fully to open the door and went inside, closing the door behind him. Lanie stared after him, knowing he likely wouldn't be leaving anytime soon and knowing that if he woke up Kate, she'd be chewing his ass out for it later.