53When Kate Shot Rick
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I own none of this, as if you didn't know. Rating: K Time: Sometime in late season one. More or less. Thereabouts. Sort of.
She whirled around, her Glock at the ready. "Castle! I told you to stay in the car." She whispered.
"I got lonely. Besides, suppose he comes out and sees me all alone with the car?"
"We have all the exits covered. Will you go back outside?"
"No. I might get hurt. Suppose he's in another creepy, abandoned warehouse?"
She took a deep breath. She just couldn't deal with him right now. "Fine. Just stay back."
"I can't see a thing in here. Why doesn't everyone use their flashlights?" He whispered.
She turned back to him. "Because this is a huge, empty warehouse. He can see our flashlights and know exactly where everyone is. He's an armed killer, remember? Now shut up and stay well behind me."
He tried, but when Kate stopped to listen a moment later, he ran into the back of her. "Castle! What did I just tell you?"
"I can't see anything." He felt wetness on his head. "And it's starting to rain and the roof here is mostly holes." He heard a nearby rumble. "It's a thunderstorm. We're going to get wet."
"The car is nice and dry." She whispered sarcastically.
"I'll be careful."
He really tried to be careful and stay behind her. He even put his hand out to try to feel his way through the pitch-black warehouse. He ran his hand into her hair, tangling them together for just a moment.
She whirled around and got right in his face. "Castle, if you touch me again, I swear I'll shoot you in someplace you'll really hate getting shot. Do you understand?"
Before he could say a word, there was a giant bolt of lightning and he saw Mick McManus, the killer, not twenty feet away, his gun pointed right at Kate's back. He shoved Kate down and heard the crack of a gunshot at once. He felt like he'd been hit with a baseball bat in his side.
"Castle!" She yelled and tried to push him off of her. Then she heard other shots. Suddenly there were flashlights everywhere and everyone was rushing towards her.
"Beckett! Are you all right?" Esposito yelled.
"I'm fine. What happened? Castle decided to run into me and knock me down. Where's McManus?"
"Dead." Called another officer. "Espo dropped him just as he shot at you."
"He shot at me?" She realized Castle was still on top of her. "Castle, will you get off of me."
"Shit." Ryan said. "He's bleeding. He must have been shot by McManus."
Kate ran what had just happened through her mind and came up with an awful conclusion. "No, my Glock fired when I hit the ground. Oh, God. I shot Castle."
"How is he?" Someone asked. "I have an ambulance on the way. ETA, five minutes."
Espo knelt by Castle as Ryan helped Kate up.
"His Kevlar didn't stop the bullet. There's a hole in it. I can't find an exit wound. I don't know how bad he's hurt."
"Get the damned ambulance here now." Kate screamed.
The noise caused Castle to open his eyes and look around. "I didn't think you'd really shoot me for just touching you, Beckett." Then his eyes closed again.
Kate rode the ambulance with Castle in it to the hospital, but was stopped when he was taken into surgery. She sent Ryan and Esposito back to the 12th. She'd stay with Castle and hope for the best.
Hours later she was woken by a doctor.
"You're the detective who's Detective Castle's partner?"
Kate was too tired and way too worried to correct the doctor. She just nodded.
"His vest didn't stop the bullet, but it did slow it down. He has two broken ribs, some muscle damage, damage to the left lung and some internal bleeding. But, he's out of danger. Barring any complications, he can go home in a couple of days, but it'll be a while before he can return to duty."
Kate sobbed with relief. She wouldn't have to tell Castle's mother and daughter that he was dead or crippled. "Thank you. Can I see him?"
The doctor shook his head. "He's still in the ICU and he's heavily sedated. Don't worry. He'll be okay."
Kate drove back to the 12th. The bullpen was empty except for Captain Montgomery.
"You look like hell, Beckett. Go home and get some sleep."
She shook her head. "I need to go see Castle's family and explain what happened. It'll just take a few minutes, sir."
"Not necessary. I went to see them myself."
"What did you tell them?"
"Just that he was shot tracking down an armed killer and that he'll be okay. As far as the rest of it, I said there'll be an investigation."
"Roy, I got mad at Castle for following me into the warehouse and then for bumping into me in the dark. I…I said I'd shoot him if he touched me again. He knocked me down when he saw McManus and that's when my gun went off. He woke up a bit later. He thinks I shot him on purpose. I swear it was an accident, Roy."
Roy nodded. "I'm sure it was. But you'll have to meet a shooting team for their investigation. Esposito will have to meet one in a few days, for the McManus shooting, but yours won't be until Castle can testify. Now go home."
The first thing Kate did when she woke up the next day was call the hospital to see if Castle was okay. She breathed a sigh of relief when told he was.
In spite of the paperwork that the two shootings caused her, Kate snuck off at lunchtime to see Castle and apologize. However, she was disappointed.
"I'm sorry, Detective. "The nurse said. "But there might be bullet fragments still in Mr. Castle. He's been taken for an MRI, but there's some kind of backup. He won't be back in his room for hours."
"But I can go see him while he waits, right?"
"I'm sorry, but that's against hospital policy."
Kate was about to sneak to where ever the MRI was when she got a phone call. They had a body drop. She had to go.
By the time she got back to the precinct, it was well past visiting hours at the hospital. However, Lanie, Ryan and Esposito were gathered around Espo's desk. As soon as they saw her leave the elevator, they shoved something in Espo's desk and started to walk away.
"How are you doing, Sweetie?" Lanie asked.
"Better now that I know Castle's going to be okay. What were you three looking at?"
"Oh, it's nothing Kate. Why don't we get a cup of coffee?"
"If it's nothing, why are you trying to keep me from seeing it?" Kate said as she pushed past Lanie. "Espo? Ryan? What is it?"
Finally, Ryan spoke. "You made the front page of the Ledger. But it's below the fold."
She held out her hand. "Let me see. Now!"
Espo opened his desk and handed her the paper.
There was a photo of Castle, one of the ones used on his books and a photo of her.
"Oh crap! Where did they get that picture of me?"
"From the Helms case. You'd been up for almost forty-eight hours trying to catch the creep, and you caught him in that abandoned building in the South Bronx…." Ryan said.
"And you were kind of squinting because the morning sun was in your eyes." Espo added.
"You were kind of mussed." Lanie added.
"Kind of? I look like I was rolling in a gutter." Kate said as she read the article. "Author Richard Castle, best-selling…yada… yada… yada…Kate Beckett, NYPD Detective…yada...yada…yada…. "Sources close to Mr. Castle say that all has not been well between the writer and the detective. Apparently Detective Beckett has threatened bodily harm to Mr. Castle on numerous occasions. And now this." Kate dropped the paper. "I never meant it. I was just…"
"Detective Beckett. My office. Now." Growled Captain Montgomery.
Kate closed the door behind her.
"You've seen the paper?"
"Yes."
"Kate, did you really tell Castle that if he touched you, you'd shoot him?"
"I didn't mean it, sir." She said softly.
"Never the less, you said you'd shoot him if he touched you, he touched you and now he's been shot."
"Sir, I swear to you…"
"I know, Beckett." Roy said quickly. "I know you'd never intentionally shoot Castle and so does everyone who knows you. But no one on the shooting investigation team knows you. And the local newspapers sure as hell don't know you. Where did they dig up that photo, anyway?"
"It's from the Helms case. God, they didn't even have to caption it. Anyone who looks at it is going to think that's exactly what a psycho rogue cop who'd shoot a writer for touching her would look like."
"Don't worry about it, Beckett. The NYPD has had bad publicity before when we didn't deserve it. This will all blow over. Now go home."
Esposito's shooting team investigation was the next day. As one of the witnesses, Kate was required to be present. Espo tried to explain how Castle had been shot, but was quickly stopped and told that another shooting team would handle that.
The investigation dragged on for hours. It seemed as if Captain Buckley from One PP and Lieutenant O'Toole from Internal Affairs were having a contest to see who could ask the longest, most convoluted and least relevant question. Kate thought that they tied.
At last the investigation was over, with Espo cleared, and Kate could go see Rick and apologize. She went to Captain Montgomery's office to let him know where she'd be.
"Sorry, Beckett, but you have work to do. Assistant District Attorney Morales needs to talk to you about the Jeffries case."
It soon became obvious to Kate that Morales was just out of law school and was not at all confident of her abilities. She asked questions that had clearly been covered in Beckett's report and when Kate tried to move things along, Morales dug in her heels and asked more and more questions. When they were done, it was long past visiting hours at the hospital.
As soon as she went to her desk to get her coat and purse, she could tell by the reactions of Lanie, Ryan and Esposito that something else was wrong.
"Did I make the front page of the Ledger again." She asked, becoming resigned to bad publicity.
"No, Sweetie, you made Manhattan Today, the weekly."
"Do I look even worse than in the Ledger?"
Lanie handed her the glossy magazine. Kate was shocked at the photo. "Oh my god!"
"Where did that photo come from, Kate?" Lanie asked.
"I was borrowed by Narcotics when I first became a detective. They needed someone who could pass for a wannabe model to crack a ring selling drugs to models."
"There's not much to that dress." Ryan said. "In fact…"
"Yes!" Kate snapped. "You can see that I'm wearing bright red panties."
"And you're not wearing a bra." Espo added, then grunted when Lanie kicked him.
Kate began to read the short article. "Richard Castle, known for being the love 'em and leave 'em type, may have found someone who didn't like being loved and left. All we can truly say is that Richard Castle is recovering after being shot by Detective Kate Beckett whom he has been following for his next book. But we can say that Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
Kate dropped the magazine. "They're…they're saying I shot Castle because he dumped me after we slept together!" She shrieked. "We've never even held hands! They can't say that!"
"Kate…" Lanie began.
"I'm going home. It's late." Kate grabbed her things and left.
As soon as Kate reached her apartment, she called her dad.
"Dad, I need some legal advice."
"Is Castle suing you for what happened?"
