"Kate!"

Kate heard everything.

She heard the loud crack of the gun as it spewed its fateful bullet, rushing toward her at an average speed of three thousand feet per second. She heard the dull snip as it lodged deep into her chest, not even a second past. She heard the heavy thunk as Castle tackled her to the ground, a second too late. And she heard the steady thump…thump…of her heart that refused to stop beating, determined to fight to the last minute.

She heard the responding screams as she lay there on the ground, able to identify each individual cry.

"Kate! Katie!" Her dad.

"Stay down, Lanie stay down!" Esposito.

"Dad!" Alexis.

"Beckett down, Beckett down!" Ryan, no doubt about it.

And finally, "Kate, please…"

Castle.

She stared up at him, a mixture of pain, shock, grief, fear, all rolled into one expression as the thin tendrils of agony slowly gripped her body. His expression mirrored hers exactly, eyes filled with unimaginable emotion as he took in her bleeding form.

"Stay with me, Kate. Don't leave me. Please."

Her strength had already left her, slowly draining into the grass until all she could manage was the small, jerky movements overtaking her body. Her mind barely acknowledged Castle's gentle hand cradling her head, the tears running down her own face as her mind finally formed the thought that she wasn't going to make it. She was going to leave him after all.

"Kate…"

She didn't respond, couldn't respond for fear of it being the last thing she ever spoke. She was so close. So close! And yet here she lay, broken, dying, besides the man who had given his life to make sure she'd live. He'd died for nothing.

"I love you."

Time froze for one second. Everything left as her eyes locked with his, the pain, the regret. Everything. Drifted away like a feather in the wind, forgotten just for that one second.

She wanted to smile, to give him an incredulous look and reply with a cheeky, "You tell me now?" But she couldn't. And she wouldn't. Because she knew that he was being dead serious, as proven by his desperate expression, his broken voice.

"I love you, Kate."

And she smiled. A small twitch of her lips, a minuscule light in her eyes. Then she closed them to the world, too tired to resist. The last thought on her mind of peace.

Thump…thump…thump…

Kate had heard everything.

September can't come soon enough.