When the nurse came in to check on Nathan, she informed the other visiting hours were nearly over. Seamus, Jon and Molly all said goodbye to their friend in their normals ways, Seamus with a "bro-hug", Jon with a fist bump and shoulder pat, and Molly with a huge hug. When Stana got up to him, however, she was ten times more pensive. A breath left both his lips and hers as she leaned down to hug him with only one arm, negating the typical cheek smudging she'd give. When the four of them retreated, Nathan was left in the silence of his room, another night of dreaming about his fiancé ahead of him.
Outside, all three cast members turned directly to Stana. Molly asked with concern in her words, "What happened?"
"What do you mean?" Stana questioned.
"Come on, Stana. We know you, and we know him. How'd the two of you end up in bed together?" Jon questioned.
Seamus added, "And how did you get back here so fast? I figured you'd be gone for the rest of the day with Kris."
She watched their faces and took a moment to ponder how she would answer. She would eventually have to tell them that Kris left, so no time was better than the present, but on the whole bed thing, she needed to be cautious of how she said what she was going to say. "Nathan thinks he's Castle, right?" They nodded their affirmations. "Well, while we were watching Iron Man, which he put on, Nathan was kind of getting distracted and eventually asked me to come sit up with him because, well... he thinks he's Castle. Doctor said play along a little bit, so I did. I hadn't had much sleep the night before and I have seen Iron Man a million times before, so I fell asleep. Nothing happened. I just fell asleep."
"And so did he," Jon pointed out.
"He was mugged like four days ago and beaten to a pulp. He has brain damage. Excuse the guy for sleeping," Molly snapped a bit, clearly exhausted as well. Something about the accusation Jon threw out seemed to push a button as though it was Nathan's fault he was tired and fell asleep watching the movie. She realized she was being snippy, however, and told him, "Sorry, that was harsh. But the point still stands."
Seamus then jolted in, "Yeah, but still, you can't start giving the guy the wrong idea. I mean, even if Kris doesn't have a problem with this, you've got to consider the fact that Nathan will remember all of this when he's back to being... Nathan."
"Yeah, I know, but- I mean, you saw how badly he was hurt, Seamus. Imagine those injuries teamed up with that broken hearted puppy face he gets on the show every now and then. That face that just- makes you want to give him a rainbow and tell him jokes until there's no more depression in his world and he's smiling with out that glaze over his eyes and he's kidding around again." The other three looked at her, seing her confliction as she smiled a bit at the memory of his boyish grin.
Molly changed the subject before the boys could say anything. "Well, what happened with Kris?"
Stana looked at the others and thought, chewing on the corner of her lower lip and searching the floor. Her words became apparent and she looked back up. "He left."
"Left," Jon said in surprise, "What do you mean he left?"
She replied, "I mean he packed up his bags and everything he owned in the apartment, wrote a note and left."
"Well-... you called him, right? You explained to him that you and Nathan didn't do anything?" Molly hopefully questioned.
"He told me not to in the note," Stana stated, small pains flying at her, but none severe enough to be on the level of what she should have been feeling.
Molly then further explained, "Yeah, but people say things like that when they're hurt. He doesn't mean it." Stana swallowed back on her disagreement and simply fell silent. They all picked up on the fact that she didn't want to talk about it any more and respected that. None of them pushed another topic and instead the boys headed off to a bar after offering Stana a drink and being turned down. Molly slid home and Stana did the same.
As soon as she laid her head on her pillow, Stana was fast asleep.
The morning came as quickly as her night had gone. She felt almost like she was flying through the day. In fact, even after finishing an extendended morning workout (a twenty minute jog, thirty minutes on core plus weights, ten on cardio, and twenty on a cool-down walk for milk and back) Stana still found herself wrapping up breakfast and prep time with over an hour to spare before she promised to be at the hospital. After a thiry minute session with her newest script for her summer foreign project, a small role in a film called "the Tourist", Stana logged on to her Twitter page, assuming she'd give the fans five minutes, a post, about ten to twenty replies and retweets, and a shout out to how Nathan was doing.
Once she got on, she did her usual thing by tossing out a piece of artwork scent to her by one of the lesser professional artists she knew and put an inspirational caption on it, waiting for the tweets at her to pour in. She then scanned the dozens of posts and retweeted a few, replying to most and just simply smiling at the ones she couldn't respond to, but thought were charming. As she scrolled, however, one post caught her eye. It was a screen shot of another post with two pictures of her on it, one of her and Kris outside of an interview and another she had taken with Nathan during shooting for season three. The caption above in the screen shot read "Rt for Stanathan, Fav for Kris and Stana". As always, the Stanathan side was winning, even if that wasn't a true relationship. Above this caption, however, the twitter user who had tweeted this post at her wrote "@Stana_Katic do you ever get sick of stuff like this?"
To this, though she wanted to say so much more, she quoted the tweet and answered, "I think it's sweet sometimes ♡♡." She wasn't even thinking when she hit sent, not really realizing how this was the first day in a long time she didn't despise people budding into her personal life. Later she would delete the tweet, but for now it remained, as it did for the rest of the day.
Once she sent that picture, however, a brilliant idea smashed her straight in the face. She instantly shot out of her seat, throwing herself toward her media cabinet and pulling out the seasons of Castle she owned. Tossing them in a bag along with her Castle binder, which currently held the left overs of the season 6 finale, and bringing the scrapbook she had made of her first year on set with these people, Stana dashed toward the hospital. Somehow, she was the first and only one to arrive for the morning, giving her plenty of time to go through with her forth wall shattering plans.
The moment she entered Nathan's room, she saw his face light up a bit and then semi-darken as he remained amused by her presence and unexplained glee. "What's in the bag?"
Her brow raised. "The key to your memories." He smiled and nodded. "Ready for a look into the real world?"
"Absolutely. Especially if it's with you."
She blushed. Why was she blushing? A reminder to herself that he wasn't himself scrolled across her head for a moment before she whipped out her options. "Story time, T.V time or script first?"
He wildly smiled down at the options and then looked up at her. "Stories are always the greatest memories."
"I agree," Stana smiled.
"So, tell me a story, Ka-... Stana." She laughed a bit and turned to the first page, a strip of her torn shirt framing in the memories she could have spent a good year explaining to him. As he listened to her speak, hanging on to every word, he took note of how happy each memory made her. Seeing how much they must have cared for each other, he made up his mind right then and there; he would make sure she was his. He wouldn't take no for an answer.

YOU ARE READING
Within the Script (A Stanathan Fanfiction)
FanfictionStana and Nathan have known each other for years now, and never have they once been anything more than friends. Their on-screen chemistry was just that, on-screen. Then, on his way home from work, Nathan is mugged and beaten, head smashed several ti...