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bravevulnerability · 7 months

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so i was rewatching rise and the scene when josh and rick almost get into it is crazy good and i wish we could have seen something like that but with kate present if that makes sense? could you write something if you're taking prompts?

A/N: Set during Rise, 4x01, with some AU finagling in place.

He sees the glint of light in the distance, practically feels the split second of time stopping as the bullet pierces the air. Pierces her.

“Kate!”

They’re both down, his body shielding hers atop the grass, his hands cradling her.

Her lips are parted, a gasp caught there. One hand supports the delicate line of her neck, the other tripping down her side, searching for the point of entry.

“Oh, Kate,” he breathes, the rest of the world - the screams, the orders, the panic - hushed all around him. He can focus on nothing but her. “Stay with me.”

Her eyes are sparkling with the beam of the sun overhead, the unshed tears clinging to her lashes.

“Don’t leave me,” he whispers, the panic in her eyes fluttering with her lashes. “Please, you gotta stay, okay?”

A whimper trembles in her throat, escapes into the air between them.

“I love you, Kate.” The confession is out, slipping past his lips before he can even think to stop them. “Don’t go.”

One of her arms, shaking and unsteady, hooks on his, white gloves snagging in his suit jacket.

“Yeah, hold onto me,” he whispers, stroking his thumb along the swanlike curve of her nape.

Her chest shudders beneath him, her eyes crinkling with a wince that ripples across her face.

“Vest,” she rasps, the word nothing more than an exhale past her trembling lips.

“Vest,” he echoes, unthinkingly. Then it clicks in his mind, makes sense. His hands shoot to her chest, feel the bulkiness of armor beneath her shirt. “Oh thank god,” he gasps, the tears spilling unbidden down his cheeks.

“Stay. Down,” she gets out, her eyes blinking fast with the effort. “In case.”

Castle nods, remains kneeling above her, stroking the hair from her forehead.

“Thought I lost you.”

Her gaze flickers back to meet his and there something more than pain and surprise residing along the edges of her blown pupils.

“Is that why?” she exhales softly, her voice strained, fading.

His brow furrows. “Why?”

Her throat ripples with a hard swallow, her dark eyes fall to his chin. “What you said.”

Clarity blooms bright and horrific in his mind. Shit.

“I - no, it's just - it’s why I said it out loud,” he stammers out, glancing around as the world around them begins to filter back in.

The area is being secured, an ambulance is hurtling towards them from a distance. Esposito and Ryan are bracketing them with guns raised, Lanie watching in horror with his mother and daughter and the rest of the funeral attendees ducking behind their seats.

“Out loud?” she whispers, one of those stray tears pooling in her eyes slipping free. He quickly wipes it away.

“Yeah, Kate,” he murmurs, thumb following the harsh bone of her cheek. "I love you."

He swears he sees the corner of her mouth twitch, but his attention is torn from any hope as her eyes roll back.

Lanie rode in the ambulance with Kate, the only one allowed to accompany her to the hospital. He hasn't been able to see her since he was dragged away from her at the cemetery, allowed to follow the bus to the hospital but then directed to a waiting room. Her father was called back not long ago, but the rest of them are forced to remain.

He just hopes she's okay.

"A sniper." The growl of Josh's voice reverberates through the waiting room as he storms inside. Either someone finally thought to call him or he just happened to be on shift. "At a funeral!"

Esposito is immediately rising from his seat, stepping between Josh and the rest of the group. "We think that the people who sent those guys after Montgomery targeted Beckett-"

But Josh isn't listening to Esposito. His eyes, that fiery stare, are on Rick.

Against his better judgement, Castle steps forward. "I tried to get to her. I tried-"

Josh pushes past Esposito, slams Castle into the wall.

Gasps rise around the room and Esposito is grabbing the larger man by the shoulder, Martha storming up alongside him. "Hey! Man, listen-"

"You did this!" Josh is yelling at him and he feels himself lunging forward, the barely repressed rage in his chest rising. But Ryan jerks him back, stays him with a hand to his sternum.

Alexis is shouting his name, panic rising in her voice. But Josh is shouting too, pointing an accusing finger at him over Esposito's shoulder.

"This is your fault! You pushed her to look into her mother's murder! She was shot because of you and Montgomery is dead because of you!"

Alexis lunges before he can, words ripping out of her throat. "Leave him alone!"

But then someone is grabbing his daughter by the arm before it can swing, lurching her out of the way and taking her place.

Kate Beckett pushes past Esposito and shoves Josh in the chest. Hard.

His back hits the wall and he stares down at her in total bewilderment.

"Back off." The growl that echoes in the suddenly quiet room is fierce, a threatening sound he's only ever heard in the worst of interrogations. "Now."

"Kate?"

Her hands are shaking at her sides, her spine bowing ever so slightly. He can see the trembling line of bones through the thin material of her t-shirt. Oh, oh god, she's in pain.

She was shot. Vest or not, what the hell is she even doing up and about?

"Stay away from him," she snaps, but her voice is losing some of its bite, its strength. One of her hands rises to her chest, cradling the spot he watched the bullet pierce through.

"What the - what the hell are you doing?" he demands, but Kate is turning away from him. Josh grabs her by the shoulder and that's all he needs.

Rick doesn't know how he moves so fast, smacking Josh's fingers from her trembling shoulder with one hand, landing a fist to his jaw with the other.

"Dad!"

Josh stumbles backwards but he recovers quick, arm pulled back and ready to swing. Castle braces himself, ready to take it, but he feels the pressure on his chest first, the weight of her back against him.

Kate stands in front of him, chin up and eyes gleaming as Josh stops short. The other man's dark eyes glance between her body - broken and positioned in front of Castle, shielding him - and Rick's returning glare just above her head.

He scowls, but doesn't come closer.

"Kate, move-"

"Enough," she snarls, loud enough to silence not just the room, but the murmur of surrounding hospital staff. "Josh, it's done. We're done and I'm clear to go. Everyone else, we are leaving."

For a moment, Kate's boyfriend is speechless in front of them, lips parted in utter confusion. But then he is throwing his hands up in exasperation, releasing a disbelieving laugh.

"You know what, Kate? Fine. I love you, but you are not worth... this," he mutters, head shaking as he turns on his heel, shooting one last piercing glare to Castle before disappearing down the hall.

Kate doesn't have time to turn before her knees are giving out.

"I got you," he breathes, catching her beneath the arms.

Castle hooks an arm beneath her knees, the other around her ribs, holding her bridal style.

"She was wearing a vest," Lanie rasps, emerging from the waiting room's opposite entrance, where she and Kate must have happened upon the scene. "She's got bruising to the chest, a fractured rib from impact of both the bullet and the fall combined, but she's stable."

"Oh thank god," Martha lets out, hooking an arm around Alexis.

But he doesn't hear anything past her diagnosis.

"Kate?" he whispers.

Her eyes are open, watching him with her head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," he breathes, doing his best to blink away the tears. He doesn't want to cry, not in front of his friends and family, and not in front of her. But he... god, Josh was right. "I did this, put you in the crosshairs, and I'm so-"

"No," she groans, pressing her cheek hard against his clavicle. Her eyes squeeze shut for a long moment. When she opens them, they're as shiny as his feel. "He's not right. And how dare you apologize after you tried to die for me."

He can hear his mother and the boys in the background, talking amongst themselves, trying their best to give them an ounce of privacy.

"I wasn't, I just - I couldn't. I couldn't." It's all he can say.

Her bottom lip begins to quiver and she quickly pins it with her teeth. "You can't do things like that."

"Kate," he huffs, lowering his forehead to knock against hers.

"No," she whimpers, the sound soft and pitiful and he hates himself for causing it. "You can't."

"Beckett-"

She swallows hard, practically growls at him. "Why?"

"You know why. You heard why."

The shaky exhale of her breath coats his lips, but then she's nodding against him.

"I need... I need time, okay?" she whispers, but her fingers rise soft and unsteady to touch his chin, to stroke the line of his jaw.

He opens his eyes to find her watching him.

"No rush," he promises, inhaling a quick breath of her scent before lifting his head. "I'm not going anywhere."

Her lips quirk, the gentle hint of a smile brewing for him. "Yeah, me neither, Castle. Except maybe back on my own two feet."

"Oh, yeah," he chuckles, easing her back down, but keeping a supportive arm around her. She leans into his side, her torso unsteady with effort.

Their group heads for the elevators. Apparently her dad is waiting at the back entrance for them.

The boys fuss over Beckett in the lift like the brothers they are, teasing her but running anxious eyes from her head to her toes when she isn't looking. Lanie remains close at her side, lecturing her about her recovery process, pushing the visit summary and discharge papers into her hands, along with all of her prescriptions.

Kate hangs back with a hand on his arm as everyone spills through the sliding doors.

"I'm going to stay with my dad for a while, take a few days at his cabin upstate," she murmurs, shuffling with him towards the exit. Alexis is glancing back at them, attempting to be inconspicuous but watching nonetheless. "If I gave you the address, would you-"

"Yes," he says without thinking, earning a huff of quiet laughter from her side.

"Come over," she finishes on a sigh, shooting him a shy smile. "I think we need time to talk."

"To put it lightly," he chuckles. "And if you need an extra escape, from the city, there's always the Hamptons."

Kate purses her lips, cuts a sly look to their friends and family congregating at the double doors that lead outside. Her fingers curl softly at his wrist.

"I'd really like that."

Castle pauses, glances down to her. She's inches shorter than him without her heels.

"Kate-"

But Alexis is striding towards them before he can get the words out. Kate startles at the sight of his daughter, the abrupt stop she makes in front of her, followed by the tentative fold of his daughter's arms around Beckett's shoulders.

"Thank you," she says quietly, her thin fingers at Kate's back. "For defending him."

He watches the woman he loves touch her chin to Alexis's shoulder, a breath of what looks like relief flooding from her chest.

"Nothing to thank me for," Kate murmurs, offering a tired smile to his daughter when she pulls back. "I was just following your lead, killer."

Alexis blushes, but when she glances up at him, her face is solemn. She has more to say, more to lecture them both on, he's certain, but for now, she holds it down.

His fiercely protective daughter. Whom he needs to find a fantastic therapist for, because the amount of trauma she has experienced and witnessed today...

"I'm glad you had the vest," Alexis whispers, turning her attention back to Kate.

Beckett's hand squeezes his wrist. "Me too."

Alexis nods and glances back to her grandmother, Lanie, and the boys. "We'll wait outside."

They watch his daughter leave them in silence, ushering the group to the doors.

"Speaking of defense," Castle muses, nudging her ever so gently. "Thank you, for taking up for me with Josh."

"You tried to take a bullet for me, Castle. The least I could do was take on a boyfriend," she murmurs, but her hand slides down the inside of his arm, slipping along his wrist until her fingers are slotting into place within his.

They begin to stroll towards the exit, hand in hand.

Castle takes in a silent breath. "We're going to take them down, Kate."

Her hand tightens in his.

"But for now, you need to heal."

"I know," she nods, exhaling a trembling breath. "Day by day."

Relief spreads warm and fast through his chest. Thank god the blinders are off. For now.

"Yes. So in the meantime," he says as they slow to a stop in front of the exit. "I'm going to call you tonight."

Kate turns to meet his eyes, the exhaustion lining every crevice of her face, pain pinching the corners of her eyes, but there's something else there. Something like hope.

"I'll answer." She looks down to their tangled hands. "Be safe. Make sure your family-"

"I will," he assures her, hearing the guilt in her words, the shame. But it isn't hers to bear. He did this. "I'm going to double down on security for all of us, the boys and Lanie included, and then - then I'm going to come to that cabin. Heal with you for a little while. If that's okay."

Her gaze flickers back to his, her lips curling softly.

"Yeah, Castle." Her hand is unsteady in his, beginning to shake, but she draws their laced fingers to her chest, her heart, where the bullet tried to pierce and where he can feel the beautiful, beating of her pulse. Alive. "That's okay."

#castle fanfiction #castle x beckett #castle au #kate beckett #richard castle #castle #3x24 #4x01 #mine

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