AN: This is just kind of a teaser or prologue, more chapters to come.

She had fallen asleep in his arms. Her back to his broad chest. His strong arms wrapped tightly around her. She had never been so at peace…Until she jolted awake just before three. Castle's arms were loose around her slim figure. She slipped out as quickly and as quietly as she could and sprinted to the adjoining bathroom.

He woke just minutes later, realizing that she was missing from bed, and couldn't remember her getting up. His throat was scratchy from the four hours he had been asleep so threw back the sheets and slowly walked to the bathroom rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. That's when he saw her.

She was so small huddled on the bathroom floor. Her knees were pulled tightly to her chest and her back and head leaned against the bath tub. She was ghostly pale in her grey leggings and blue NYPD t-shirt that would fit him. He couldn't tell if she was awake or asleep until a small voice came out.

"Castle?" It was rough and painful. Barely above a whisper.

"Kate? Everything ok?"

All he saw was her head shake in a 'no' then her arms unwrapped from their space around her legs and her head fell into them, trying to hold all the emotion in.

His face fell. As cute as she was, he felt so bad for her, but didn't know what to feel bad about. He fell to his knees in front of her, taking her into his arms. She shoved her face into his shirt, holding on tightly to his waist until the second wave came in.

She quickly detached herself from him, lunging to the open toilet bowl just in time. Now he understood what this was about.

He quickly grabbed her hair to get it out of her way. "Kate," he started but was silenced by more sickness. Holding her hair in one hand, Castle started mindlessly massaging circles on her back, trying to comfort her as much as he could.

When it finally stopped, she laid her head on the side of the bowl facing away from him so that he couldn't see her face. He reached up to flush the toilet and then reached over his shoulder to the counter for a hair band to get it off her neck. Luckily eighteen years of being a single father had taught him a thing or two about hair so he was able to get it up to a messy bun so that it was off of her neck and wouldn't bother her.

Finally she turned her head towards her, apparently done with the momentary embarrassment and willing to let him so her at her worst.

"Hey there," he started laying his hand on her cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. "How you feeling?"

All she could do was shake her head. He jumped up then and filled the cup next to the sink with water handing it to her with Tylenol. She gratefully took the cup and sipped at it slowly. When she was finished he took it out of her hand.

Finally after about an hour in the bathroom and no more sickness, she was practically asleep on his chest on floor, so he scooped her up and carried her off to bed. He hoped this wouldn't last in the morning, but knew how ignorant that was.

TBC