Castle groaned as he slowly became aware of the monitors beeping next to him. He opened his eyes a crack and looked at the hand on his chest, a heart monitor attached to his index finger and an IV needle inserted into the back of his hand. As he became more and more aware of the hospital room he was in, his mind darted back to earlier… the day before? How long had he been out? He had no idea. He and Kate had both been shot by Caleb Brown, last he remembered they held each other as they waited for their inevitable deaths.
“Mr. Castle, welcome back.” He looked up at the voice in the room as the doctor walked in. “You, sir, are very lucky,” the doctor told him, checking the chart at the foot of the bed. Castle stared at the other man, he had so many questions but only one he could verbalize. “Kate. Where’s Kate?”
The doctor smiled. “Your wife is fine. She’s in the maternal critical care unit.” Castle’s eyes narrowed at the word maternal. “Don’t worry, your baby’s fine too,” the doctor continued, misinterpreting Castle’s look. “That little boy or girl is very lucky, so is your wife. I can tell you this for sure, you’re going to have a little fighter on your hands.”
Castle blinked. Kate was pregnant? He racked his mind for any clues that he may have missed, any pregnancy symptoms he overlooked. There was none. She hadn’t been sick lately, her eating habits hadn’t changed. She never even mentioned missing her period. “I’ll go let her doctors know you’re awake.” He nodded as the doctor left, “thank you,” he mumbled as the door shut.
Consciousness trickled in slowly, each of her senses slowly coming to, fighting, to pull her from sleep and away from the darkness. In the distance the sound of beeping registered, her eyes slowly peeling open to nothing more than a bright glare before scrunching shut again. The tiniest action only made her head pound, already so foggy, nothing was making any sense right now. She attempted again to open her eyes slowly, this time slightly more accustomed to the fluorescent lighting, but no less confused as they lazily shifted around the sterile hospital room she appeared to be in. trying to rationalize what she was currently seeing. Â
Before she could really place the emotion, she felt a sense of terror come flooding in, her body seemingly remembering before her mind could catch up the sensation of fighting for air, of her lungs burning with the effort to draw breath. Her fingers had been twitching against open space, too far away from his.. from Castle’s, his safe and steady presence the only thing that mattered in the unfamiliar chaos of the room, what she had tried to cling to as unconsciousness had torn her from him with its powerful clutches. In her memories she’d tried to speak to say something to him, forming words she just couldn’t push past her lips and then nothing as they lay there in the loft, everything slowly becoming distant, the last thing she felt was his hand in hers, fingers interlacing together.
Now in her hospital bed, Kate immediately moved to sit up, a frenzy of terrifying scenarios running through her head. Her heart monitor began to race, beeping at her side, her chest immediately tight, and aching.  She gripped the bars at the sides of her hospital bed, forcing herself up into more of a sitting position. Where was Castle? Her ribs ached with the motion and she had to inhale sharply to offset the pain, the corresponding beeps of her heart at her side speeding up further as panic swirled in her gut. Wires were everywhere, in her arm, her nose, each movement reminding  her of their presence and she just wanted to rip them out, tear them away from her body, force herself up so that she could find him. Castle was hurt, it was her fault, everything she’d tried to prevent had exploded in her safest place.
Her throat was so sore, she couldn’t seem to push the words out once again but attempted to do so when a doctor entered her hospital room.  “Castle..” she murmured, her voice so weak, cracking with the weight of his name.  “Where’s Rick?” she forced out louder this time, fear and hysteria beginning to creep into her words.
