Altered bullet

1

Prompt: What if in 3x24 Castle actually saved Beckett but he got shot, how would she react? Would he tell her he loved her? Would she tell him?

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She couldn't quite believe it. He was gone. Montgomery was dead. And as they were carrying him down in a casket she thought about the speech she'd written the day before, during the night actually. She'd had a hard time sleeping, crying her eyes out. This morning Beckett had stood in the mirror for an hour, trying her best to cover up her lack of sleep, the red spots around her eyes revealing she'd cried. Now she was right there, standing on the podium, about to deliver the speech she'd spent the whole night writing, rewriting and writing again. She cleared her throat, looked down in her papers and looked out over the crowd, all gathered to honor the man who had given his life to save hers. Though, no one could know that. Taking a deep breath she started,

"Roy Montgomery taught me what it meant to be a cop. He taught me that we are bound by our choices, but we are more than our mistakes." She quickly glanced down at her papers before looking up again. "Captain Montgomery once said to me that for us, there is no victory, there are only battles. And in the end, the best you could hope for, is to find a place to make your stand." She paused for a second, before she continued. "And if you're very lucky, you find someone willing to stand with you," glancing back to Castle she hoped he would understand she knew he had been by her side through everything. "Our captain would want us to carry on the fight. And even if there is..."

"Kate!" Castle's sudden interruption had her gut wrenching, he would never cut her off like that unless...

Then everything happened so fast. One second she was standing on the podium, the next she had been shuffled to the ground with a body on top of her. People were shouting all over and it took about two seconds before she realized what was going on and her cop senses came to life. She opened her eyes to find Castle's face looking down at her with clenched eyes and she immediately pushed him off her only to quickly search down his body.

"No. No, no. Don't be shot, Castle, don't..." her fingers met with something wet, and when she looked there she saw the red substance on her fingers. No. No. She looked up at his face again, seeing he was not clenching his eyes anymore. He was looking up at the sky with fading eyes. "Rick, please. Stay with me, Rick. Come on, keep your eyes open, please." She put both her hands on the wound in the side of his chest. Her eyes never left his though, trying to get him to look at her. She noticed the second his eyes landed on hers, their eyes locking like they had so many times before, and fear filled her. What if he... not him too! "Don't leave me, please Rick. Stay with me, okay? You can't... I can't loose you too. I can't..." her voice died out as her tears began to fall. "Don't go. I can't..." she cried out, and she could see his soul slipping away. "No, no, nonono, Rick, stay, stay Rick. I lo..." she was cut off when two pair of hands suddenly grabbed one arm each, pulling her away from him. "No! Stop! Let me go!" She yelled over the top of her lungs, didn't matter she saw the paramedics taking over her place.

The rational part of her brain knew they'd know what to do better than her, they'd know how to save his life, but that didn't stop her from continuing fighting against the two men holding her back, keeping her away from him.

"Kate! Kate! Hey! Calm down, they got this, they'll do everything they can to save him," Espo, or was it Ryan? Or maybe both?, said as they held her firm by her arms.

"No! Rick!" she yelled out, her strength disappearing in the same amount of time it took for him to be pulled further away from her.

Once the ambulance, with him inside, was out of sight her legs gave up and she fell to the ground, her knees hitting hard. Both her brothers sank down with her, trying to talk some sense into her, trying to get her to talk to them. But all she could see was the blood still on her hands. His blood. Rick's blood.