Trapped Soul

Chapter 27 - Waking up

My eyes flickered open and I felt someone holding my hand and something soft in it. I tried to adjust to the light as I led my eyes to the source of the crying.

"Alexis?" I asked with a raspy voice as I saw the little girl sit by my bedside holding my hand.

Her little head immediately turned towards me and I saw her red puffy eyes. After a few seconds I could see she understood what was going on and she jumped up on the bed hugging me tight, letting her head lean on my chest. She cried even more now and I tried to remember what had happened. Why was I in a hopsital bed? Why did that beeping sound so familiar? Why was Alexis crying? How long had I been here? I hushed Alexis as I lifted my right hand to strike her head, only I was stopped by the stuffed animal in my hand. I looked down at the animal and immediately remembered it. It was the stuffed elephant Alexis had given me that night when we had 'camped' in their living room. The night she had surprised me and demanded me to put her to bed. I smiled at the memory before I returned to the crying girl in my arms.

"Alexis? Do you know what happened?" I asked as gently as I could with my raspy voice and she pulled away to look at me.

I wiped away her tears and I smiled at her to make her feel better. She still had that sad face but she stopped crying and I told her to take a deep breath so she did.

"I don't really know it all, dad won't tell me more than that he saved you taking you here and I know you've been in here for four days" she said with a shaky voice.

I nodded and suddenly I remembered the arresting which had gone wrong. Bracken's knife had cut my throat, not deep but still, and then something had hit me in the head. I looked at Alexis confused.

"When did you get here?" I asked and she laid her head on my chest again, hugging me carefully.

"Me and gram came home two days ago, they forced me to go home to sleep but I didn't want to leave your side, dad hasn't left the hospital though, he's down getting us some snacks. I should run and tell him you're awake but I don't want to leave in case you would fall asleep again" she said and it was heartbreaking to hear her think like that.

I put my arms tighter around her and pulled her closer to me.

"I'm sorry I scared you" I whispered in her ear before I kissed her head.

We stayed like that for a while, none of us wanting to let go. I had no idea how we could've bounded this much in such short time. It felt like I had a connection to her too, not like the connection I had with Rick but another kind of connection. If I hadn't known better I would've said it was a mother-daughter connection but I couldn't believe it was that. There was no way I could have gotten that kind of connection with her, right?

"Kate?" I heard him whisper and I looked up towards the door.

It was open and in the opening stood none other than Richard Castle. The love of my life. Alexis pulled away and saw her dad. He looked at me shocked and his eyes started tearing up. I felt my eyes mirror his and I smiled at him. Alexis jumped down from the bed, probably figuring her dad wanted to have full access to me as he started walking towards me. He threw the snacks on the end of my bed before he, with fast steps, were at my side, leaning down and crashing his lips on mine. The kiss was filled with worry, sorrow but mostly it was filled with love. It was passionate and the room started to heat up, I totally forgot about Alexis standing there watching us but her small giggle circled around the room. We didn't pull away until a nurse came running into the room and started yelling at Rick for speeding up my heart rate. I blushed hard and Alexis giggled with her hands over her mouth. The nurse gave Rick an angry eye before she told him not to test her and went out of the room again to tell the doctor I was finally awake. Once she was out I couldn't help but laugh and Rick turned to me again with a wide smile on his lips.