Frozen Love (A Castle Fanfiction)

While She Fought

Rick's POV
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Lanie and I had gotten in the ambulence with Kate and Lanie had taken over CPR. Kate didn't have a pulse and she was barely breathing on her own. The EMTs' and Lanie's face all seemed to have the same theme: urgency. This was bad and they all knew it. I was quick to offer, "She's pregnant. Kate's pregnant. She's about five or six weeks along."

The EMT then asked me something I never thought I'd have to answer. "How attached to the pregnancy is she?"

"Very," I responded, thinking of the many nights in the last two weeks she'd come home and not really felt ready for bed until she looked down at her stomach and talked to the baby. Considering how freaked out she was about it at first, she was so thrilled now. That is- she was thrilled before all of this. Now all I could do was think about the many times she'd asked me to speculate if it was a boy or a girl, if they had blue eyes or hazel, if the baby would grow up to be athletic or creative. She was in love with the thought of being a mother. It meant the world to her now, and then some.

Once we arrived at the hospital, one of the doctors forced Lanie to switch out. She got off the cart and was left behind to watch as they wheeled Kate into another room. The last thing we heard was the start of a patient rundown and the last thing we saw was the trail of blood left by the tires of the gurney. We were left with the image of her blood trailing down the hall.

Soon after we arrived, Javi and Ryan came in on their phones trying to manage the scene from afar. Everything got worse when Esposito asked, "How is she?"

Lanie couldn't pretend she didn't know what was happening. She saw the wound. She was an M.D. When she said, "They just took her to surgery, but-," and couldn't finish the sentence, the whole room knew what that meant. They all knew before Lanie had to chance to collide into Esposito and find comfort in his arms.

I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know who I was supposed to be in this situation. I didn't know what to do. So instead of being useless, I took over the role Kate would have played were situations reversed. "What about the shooter?" I asked Ryan since Esposito was busy comforting the mourning ME.

He slowly and regretably told me, "Gone."

"Gone, how can he be gone?" I quickly questioned with slight anger.

Kevin replied, "We don't know, but he left his weapon behind."

"It's a mark eleven," Javi explain, "modified sniper rifle. Favorite of Special Forces. We're checking for prints now."

When he finished, my mother called my name from behind. This got me to turn around and find both my mother and daughter rushing in. Alexis called after me, "Dad!" and sprinted into my arms. I held tight to both of them, just happy to have someone there to hold, but scared to death about what either of them would say. Alexis tried to ask a question, but Kate's father entered the same way my family had.

"Where's Katie?" he asked, seeming broken and scared, but his face was serious and mad as hell. His next sentence was much more intense and harsh, "Where's my daughter?"

"In surgery," Javi explained.

Alexis looked at me with frightened eyes, "Is that safe? I mean- that's not going to hurt... anything, is it?" I wanted to be able to tell her that it would be fine, but I had no idea what was and wasn't okay for an unborn child in this situation. I looked at her with as much fatherly love as I could muster and thought about how she'd asked in a way that kept my mother and Jim out of the loop.

I didn't answer it in any way similar to that. "I don't know. They asked me how attached she is to the pregnancy, Alexis. I don't know what's going to happen."