In A Heart Beat (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Chapter 7: Dream of Your Sleeping

“Clear!” the doctor shouted as they shocked Richard to the third time. Espo and Ryan held Beckett back while Laynie and Jenny just stayed out of the room. Tears ran down Kate’s face and with each shock, she watched as the people trying to get him back to life became less enthusiastic. “Get her out of here! Now!” A doctor called.

Kevin and Javi pulled on her arms, but that did nothing, finally, Espo stepped in front of her and picked her up off the ground, as she screamed in defiance. “No! No! Please, no.” Even in his arms as he dragged her out, she writhed like a child, trying harder than ever to escape his grip. The second the door closed, the curtains were pulled so that no one could see inside the room. Espo let go of her screaming, crying, and relentless body as he set her down against the nurse’s station table. Around them, people stared, and a news team began to walk with the man she’d seen earlier.

To stop her sounds from breaking the ear drums of everyone in the ICU, Laynie put her hand over Beckett’s mouth. The news team still stopped in its tracks and filmed the screaming woman as she sat on the floor. The whispers came from each of their mouths, “Detective Beckett” or the fun “Nikki Heat, it’s Nikki Heat”. In this moment, Kate could care less about the Nikki Heat books, she just wanted Castle. She wanted him to be alright. She wanted more than anything to be in there, holding his hand, and waiting for him to wake up.

“Get out! Go away! Don’t you people have souls?! Go the hell Away!” Laynie stood, shoving the doctor and his men in the opposite direction. “Bother someone else.” They turned and walked into the opposite hall, but Laynie knew as well as anyone that all of this would be on the cover of some magazine in the morning, or headlining the newspaper.

As Kate sat on the floor, she could no longer feel her body. It was as if she’d gone limp. Nothing made sense to her anymore and everything seemed dead in the world. Her tears created a pool in the ground and her screaming drew unwanted and unnecessary attention their way. She felt as though everything good and happy in her life was gone and nothing but sadness and hate could fill her heart. She hadn’t felt this way since her mother died, and then she was a child. Now she knew at least she would have the pleasure of catching the bastard who killed the man she loved. Now she knew she could have the pleasure of taking his life before she slapped on the handcuffs.

Inside the room she’d just come from, she could hear three words that sealed her fate. “Time of Death.”

Kate had grown so familiar with these words. She used the every day in the office. So often, in fact, that she didn’t even bother writing it all out, she abbreviated it TOD in every e-mail, text, or in her notes. Time of death wasn’t something that she’d ever though could hurt this much. These words pulled her up to her feet, shoving Espo, Ryan, and Laynie all aside. Jenny stood in front of the door, but the moment Kate hit her feet, she stepped away and let her through. The crying had stung her eyes and cheeks and now blurred her vision as she screamed a final “No!” With in a few steps, she was at the sliding door. She threw it opened, along with the damned curtains, and watched at the doctors stopped working.

A silence filled the air as everything stopped. Everything was still and quiet. Nothing in the room beeped or buzzed. Kate stood in the door way, staring at Richard as her heart began to die. Staring at his lifeless, limp body, she could no longer think or breathe. The doctors began work, shutting down the machines and unhooking tubes from his body. First the tube keeping him breathing, followed by the wires on his chest. They then took the pulse monitor off his finger and the IV from his arm.

As they worked, Kate blankly stared at the love of her life, dead on a table. She’d seen family member after family member come into the morgue to ID the bodies. They all looked exactly like this. Untouched by a scalpel but beaten or shot by a killer. She never imagined she’d see Castle on that table, covered in burns, gauze and a sheet for the lower half of his body. In the minute it took for them to remove what they’d removed, Kate could no long feel anything. Her heart had stopped, her mind had stopped, she barely breathed, she barely stood up straight.