A/N: There are no new chapters to this, I'm just re-uploading it in sections to fix FFnet's formatting errors and to make it more easy to follow.

"Well, that went better than I'd hoped."

Kate Beckett stepped out onto the sidewalk, shading her eyes from the glare of the sun off the snowy sidewalk. Castle stopped beside her while he fished his gloves out of his pocket.

"Some people handle loss pretty well, Castle. At least now they have some closure and their daughter's killer is behind bars."

They walked in silence down the block towards the car, each lost in thoughts about the case they'd just closed. It hadn't been particularly difficult or odd, just a domestic argument turned deadly. Sometimes the common cases bothered Castle the most, though. There were so many of them and they were all so senseless.

He turned to ask Kate about it and watched in horror as her foot hit a patch of ice, and the back of her head hit the sidewalk.

"Kate!"

His hands shook as he slid to the ground next to her, the words "unconscious and not breathing" running through his head like a hysterical hamster on a wheel. One hand on her forehead, the other gently lifting her chin, and the hamster wheel was interrupted by a bolt of gratitude to first aid instructors when she took a breath on her own.

Her eyes fluttered as she groaned and tried to roll onto her side. Castle stopped her with a hand on her shoulder while he fumbled his phone out of his coat pocket.

"Don't move, Kate. I'm calling an ambulance, but you need to hold still."

"What happened?"

"You fell and hit your head. You are not getting up until you've been checked out." He gave their location to 911 and didn't take his eyes off Kate as he answered the dispatcher's questions. She closed her eyes with a grimace of pain. "She blacked out for maybe a minute - Hey, Kate! Eyes open, no sleeping! - No, she's awake now and breathing okay."