In A Heart Beat (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Chapter 9: The Choice

"Kate? Where are you?" Laynie asked from inside Castle's hospital room. As she stood alone, no one around but her and one nurse, she began to wonder what was keeping her there. No one would think any less of her for leaving, yet she felt the obligation to stay. Every time she thought about leaving she thought only about all of the things she'd heard in Castle's plans, and couldn't bring herself to go.

"I'm in the Hamptons. I know Tyson is here, and I have to find him. Rick's life depends on it. How is he?"

"Still asleep, but his BP and vitals are all holding steady which is a good sign." In Kate's voice, Laynie heard the slight twinge of fear mixed with curiosity, but mostly she could hear her own hopeless enthusiasm in her reply.

"Laynie. How bad is it really?" She couldn't bring herself to tell Kate that with a complication of a brain biopsy, odds were she'd never have the same man Castle was again. She couldn't bring herself to tell her best friend that her future fiancé wasn't ever coming back, that her one true love was never going to be the same man, that her boy, the one she knew, the one she fell in love with, the one that made her feel perfect, that made her feel on top of the would, the one that was her other half wasn't ever going to be the same. Ever.

"Kate, you should- when he wakes up- it was a brain biopsy. There was a complication that could mean a lot of things. It was in the general area that controls memory, so if and when he wakes, he could-."

"He could not remember anything. And assuming he wakes up and we find 3XK in time to save Castle with the antidote, he could also have short term memory, or he could remember only certain things and not the last six years, or he could remember the last couple of years and not the beginning, or he-."

"Or he could remember everything and he could be absolutely fine." He could be, but that was like a one in ten thousand odds.

"Laynie, I have to know what ever the hell it is that you all know. I've been going crazy, and I can't think of a single reason for them to come back now. I need to know if this could be a reason, and there is no way any of you will know for sure without me. Because, no offence, but I know Tyson ten times better than you all, and I know how he thinks. I need to know whatever Castle was up to, and I need to know now."

"It's not a reason for him to hurt Castle, but I can't tell you."

"Are you will to bet his life on that?" Wow. Intense.

"Yes." Laynie then looked over to the man on the bed. "I'm certain it's not a motive." She thought a moment about that statement and then decided she was right. "But, Kate?"

"Yes."

"I know you don't want to think about this right now, but, I have to ask, how much do you love Castle?"

"Why?"

"Just answer the question."

"Alright, fine. Pushy much?"

"Kate."

"Alright. Ummm, okay. Just imagine a second that you were reading a book of my thought, okay? And I want this to never leave the two of. Got it."

"Yes."

"Alright. I love him. But I more than love him. I love him so much that I could and would spend the rest of my life with him. I love him so much that every day when I wake up in his arms, I forget about everything wrong in life. I love him so much that being around him makes everything alright. When he is with me, it's like the world doesn't matter and he and I are all that does. Near him, I feel safe, happy, and entirely ready to face everything. With him, magic comes from the ordinary. He is more than the light at the end of a dark tunnel, he's the single candle that shines so bright in that tunnel that it I have nothing dark to see. The candle that burns so bright and so warm that nothing could put it out.