A/N: Thank you for taking this odd little journey with me, for reading, reviewing and alerting. And to Indie for the ... things! :)

The darkness is consuming, it surrounds him, pain filters in from time to time but mostly it is just the long stretch of shadow falling over him. But then the light comes.

The light petrifies him.

When the light comes, he runs.

He lurks in shadows, in the recesses of his mind, in the safety of pitch and the absence of light, he waits. He hovers, lingers and listens intently, aimlessly seeking some source of salvation.

The light comes again and he hears her voice.

He turns, confused by the snow white blindness but he runs, racing towards the sound of her. Safe, her voice feels safe.

Like home. So he follows.

She lurks in shadows, in shade and darkness, and the pull of her voice, sad and sweet, tugs him further. She makes him feel safe and he runs, straight into the comfort of the all encroaching black.

But the light keeps coming for him.

He hears her voice, the peaceful ripple of her voice, again and again, the siren call echoing around his head. Her words on repeat.

"Run."

He does, for her, for them, from the light nipping at his heels.

"Run."

He chases shadows.

"Run."

It's the first thing that breaches the confines of the darkness, her broken voice calling to him, and it pulls him steadily into the room with her.

He slips past unconsciousness, gathering his wits slowly until he tumbles, on fluttering lashes and stolen heartbeats, into the safety of shadows and life and the darkness of a hospital room.

"I run for you."

Her voice.

It trickles like honey and silk through his mind, soft whispers of love and devotion, heartfelt pleas. Her lips brush his knuckles and make him aware of his fingers. Of her fingers wrapped within his own, he can feel them.

For a while they are the only thing he feels.

Her fingers, and her voice.

He tries to open his eyes but his eyelids continue to flutter aimlessly and the brightness, once blinding, begins to recede. It lingers though for a few moments longer than it should and paralyzes him. Like a rabbit in the headlights, like a deer like a -

Her fingers squeeze his own and the light dissipates once more, darkness at the edges coming back, coming back slowly so he can breathe.

Something warm touches him. She sweeps his face, whispers and touches and soft caresses all. Her voice calls him away from the light and he stumbles into the darkness his eyes opening wide.

The hospital bed is still bathed in middle of the night shadow, a haven, a cocoon of peace that he slips into with more ease than he should.

She's here.

Consciousness comes in waves. Lapping at toes that don't move properly, tickling eyelids that are heavy when they lift and washing over him so that he's finally, truly aware of her.

Not just the idea of her, the fragmented pieces that weave their way through his mind, not just the press of her fingers or the disjointed call of her voice. He becomes aware of her, the woman he loves, quiet by his side.

Fingers tangled in his. Heart tangled up with his too.

She ran.

He breathes out a sigh of relief, of pain for the worn look of exhaustion that lays on her heavily, a sigh of simply being.

She's here.

She came home.

Her hair is a curtain that covers her face and her fingers cling to his. Tight. The warmth of her cheek pressed against his hand and she sleeps. It's fitful and though he wants to cradle her to him, to fall into her, for the moment he wants nothing more than to watch her, to let it sink in and to believe.

She came home. For him.

She flinches when he moves.

He pulls her out of sleep with the tug of his fingers, a groan and hiss of pain that rise up through the cloud of medication he can feel settled over him like fog.

His fingers catch at her wrist and she startles upright, his hand and hers still tangled together by unbreakable promises, chain links that circle their fingers and keep their palms pressed together.

He follows the tug of metal that wraps around his hand, the squash of her fingers between his own and he sees her ring resting on his thumb, he can feel it too.

"Castle?"

His eyes are wide, shining too brightly in the dim overhead light in a way that lets her know he's been awake for a while. She swims in his vision and it's not from dizziness or pain or anything other than the joy at seeing her again, rising up from within and springing into his eyes until they shine with tears.

"Kate, you're here." His voice croaks and breaks around the words but there is no disbelief in them, just love.

Tears fall and drip on their clasped fingers, pouring from her eyes and she can't stop them. Doesn't want to now. She gives them up gladly as payment for his safe return.

His body rises in the bed and she moves forwards, their tangled fingers a hindrance, a heartfelt reminder, a symbol and he pulls them into his lips, his eyes wide. "I run to you." He reaches, shaking fingers lifting from the bed, his other hand reaching to where she stands as he tries to explain, " I heard-"

He takes a shuddering breath, pulling her to him and gives over his words in awe, "I heard you."

She nods, understanding immediately, understanding only too well because she's been there herself, heard his voice in her head when she shouldn't have, when she needed him most. Her heart beats faster against the wall of her chest, the only wall between them anymore and she weeps quietly, so grateful that her voice found him somewhere in that coal black blur of unconsciousness.

She quiets him when he tries to speak again, tipping her forehead into his, with the press of her fingers over his lips, quickly replacing them with her kiss. Her lips part over his, warm, soft and full of the promises they will keep.

Family.

He sighs, "Tired." His voice barely a whisper, but she hears and she laughs, for the first time in what feels like years, relief sudden and stark as it strikes at her, she laughs.

She cradles his face with one hand, the other still tangled with his, their ring trapped, safe, in between them. "Sleep." She kisses his forehead, laying their joined hands over his heart as his eyes close. "We can stop running now."

The End.