In A Heart Beat (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Chapter 19: Family Matters, Family Sacrifice

“You’re- You’re what?” Castle said still facing forward.

She repeated her words to him in an attempt to get him to stay, “I’m pregnant.” Kate choked back after she called out the only thing she could think to say. He was walking away to go die and that was all she could think of saying to stop him. He spun around to meet her face as she stood watching his reaction. Shock seemed too dominate his face just as it had dominated hers when she found out. Everyone stared at her and at Castle and neither cared. So long as he stayed she wouldn’t care if she had to strip. They gazed into each other’s eyes with equal seriousness. Then, Castle’s shock broke and shattered into a smile as he raced over to her.

Pulling her into a massive hug and lifting her into the air, she wrapped her legs around his waist as they hugged. Shortly after holding him so close, she couldn’t stop herself from doing what she had to do. Quickly kissing his cheeks and his lips, moving slowly from one side of his face to the other. Her head then dropped to his forehead as she said, “Please, don’t go. Please, Rick. I can’t lose you again.”

With those words, the writer dropped his head to her chest where she then continued to kiss his forehead. Knowing what he was about to say, tears began to over whelm her, and a few slipped out, falling down her face and sinking into his. “Kate, I have to go. I have to save her. She’s my daughter. I can’t leave her there to die, I just can’t.” She let go of kissing him and dropped her forehead to the back of his head.

“Rick, please, don’t leave me. I love you. I can’t- I can’t lose you. Please, stay,” at this point, the entire room felt darkened by her knowing heart that he was going one way or another. Dropping from his waist to the floor and her head moving to his chest, listening to his beating heart one last time, was the final give. He was leaving her, forever.

He held her tight to him, feeling her for the last time. Knowing what he was doing to her, knowing everything he was leaving behind, he held her tight to him and said his final words to her, “Kate, I love you too. But I have to do this. I’m sorry, it’s not a choice anymore. And if this is the last time I’m going to see you, I want you to know I love you more than anyone I’ve ever loved before. So, please Kate,” he said, dropping his hand into his pocket, “Take this and know how much I loved you.”

He slipped the small black box into her hands, feeling her softest touch one last time, and pulled back with a final kiss to her forehead as he left. She stood a moment, silently staring at the floor as she dared not open the box. Lifting her head at the final moment possible, she watched as the elevator doors closed on Richard. The moment they sealed themselves shut, she knew they’d closed out on her entire future, on her heart, on her only love. Standing silently in the awe stricken room, her gaze stared forth at the closed elevators as she held the box in her hands.

She couldn’t breathe knowing where he was going. She could barely move know what was about to happen. The world seemed so cruelly against her and him that this seemed like the hundredth time she almost lost him. Only this time, neither he nor she could fix it with time or words. The only thing that could fix this was a dead 3XK and Riner before they managed to kill her love. With the force of the world behind her, she turned to her boss and asked, “What’s the plan, sir?”

Captain Gates looked her Detective up and down, just to size up what they should do next. Feeling it out, weighing in the possibilities, she knew whatever it was that drove the woman in front of her would drive her into the ground if she came with them. Gates then replied to everyone but Beckett, “Let’s head out. If we can help Mr. Castle in any way possible to get his daughter back, we will. Everyone knows where we’re going, so let’s go.” Kate didn’t move, knowing those orders weren’t for her while she feared what she’d be told to do. “Detective Beckett, please, stay here, watch the baby, we will call you as soon as we know anything.”