The Haunting Past (A Castle Fanfiction)

Part Fourteen: Gambling with Life

Rushing in through the hospital doors, Rick didn't dare look in any direction but straight. He ducked past person after person, shooting down the halls, ignoring the calls that told him to slow down. He had only one target and that single target was the one focus he allowed in his mind. As he chopped out steps to slow to a jog, pushing through his wife's hospital room doors, he barreled in and found the room was empty. His body went weak, but he refused to give in.

The secondary instinct left in his relentless body tossed him back out the door and into the hall where he didn't stop rushing until he was plowed into the nurse's station. Through short breaths, Castle composed the one question on his mind and spat it at the nurse. "Where's my wife?"

Having never worked with him or his wife, the woman pieced together the room he came out of, but checked, "Are you looking for Mrs. Castle?" He nodded, breathing heavily. "They just took her up to surgery. I can call down someone to give you an update."

"Surgery," Rick exclaimed, "Why? I thought they said they could stop this."

The nurse cautiously replied, "It's my understanding that they thought they could, however the medications weren't quite kicking in as fast as they thought they would and they couldn't stop your wife's contractions."

"They couldn't stop it?!" Castle was about ready to lose it. Or pass out. Whichever came first.

Just as he finished this, another nurse was called to attention by the voice at the desk. Looking up and behind her, leaving Kate's door behind, the woman stated, "You must be the father."

Rick turned around. "Yeah, I'm Kate's husband. Where is she? How is she? How are the boys?"

The woman calmly approached and answered, "Everything is fine, Mr. Castle, your wife and the babies are doing great. The medication kicked in just as we arrived upstairs. Something about the elevator ride must had calmed the twins right back down and they are all doing beautifully. They are just going to run a couple of tests, check to be sure that everything is alright with everyone and she'll be right back down in an hour or so."

"She's fine," he checked. "They're all... fine?"

"Yes, sir," the woman smiled in confirmation. "We're just running some tests to be sure the boys are alright and we're going to go ahead and check her heart before we move her, and that should be good. As long as everything comes back normal, you should be able to see her fairly soon."

He closed his eyes a moment just to gather his thoughts. His breaths came and went a pair of times before he was able to ask, "So... she's not in labor anymore?"

"No."

"And our sons are perfectly fine; no harm done?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry, I desperately need to see her. Is there any way I can come up while the doctors are checking on the boys. If I could just be with her for a second, just to know they're all alright-."

"Mr. Castle, I really can't allow you to be up there, but I can promise you that they are fine," she insisted impatiently. He sighed again, thanking her, knowing it wasn't her fault, and went back to the seat outside his wife's hospital room. From there, he called the precinct. This was the first call he made, not thinking to make a single phone call when he thought his wife was in labor. No one knew she had been through anything. To him, it felt wrong that this was his first call when his daughters would kill him for not having already called, but- it was the first call he had to make.

When he told the boys what was happening with Kate, somewhere in the darkest crevasses of his mind, he thought to himself that this thing with his wife could not have come at a better time. He couldn't face the group in that moment. Not when he knew he had sold them out, cost them their lives, and did so without another thought. This way, all he had to tell them was that Kate had gone into labor and they were able to stop it, but he was going to wait there for a while with her. That was all they needed to immediately give him space.