Healing Hearts (The Sequel)

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle

Chapter 6

Esposito and Ryan were pacing the hospital corridor. Both Rick and Kate were in the operation theatres. Rick's condition was critical. The doctors had said so when they were taking him in.

Lanie had made it there just a few minutes after them. They had called Martha and she was on a plane back from her retreat.

They rang Alexis up, and told her that they had sent uniforms to come pick Avril and her up from the loft.

"Lanie!"

Lanie suddenly looked up at the sound of Alexis's voice. The girl was red in the face, already having cried the entire way here, and beside her, was young Avril, looking just as scared as her elder step-sister.

"Oh, girls, come here" she stood up and they ran to her.

Avril burst out crying in her arms, Alexis tried to keep her calm, but she too was on the edge of a break down.

"What happened? How..?"

"Sit down, both of you" they did as she said, and Avril wiped the tears off her face, needing to hear exactly what was wrong.

"Your mom and the boys had gone to chase down a suspect. They knew he was in that building. But when they couldn't find him, they fell back. But your dad was sure he was inside, so the rest of them went back in, while your mom and dad were talking outside near her car…"

"Oh my God..." Avril began crying again.

Lanie took her hand in hers and squeezed it and said,

"He shot from the first floor... He had his gun aimed at Kate. And well, your dad saw him just before he shot and..."

"He took the bullet..." Alexis completed. Knowing all too well that her dad would have done just that.

"Yes... two bullets. One to his chest, the other to his stomach"

The girl's held each other and cried.

"He pushed your mom out of the way, and Kate fell down to the side. She landed on her side, and well, there was bleeding. That means something went wrong with the baby..."

"Oh gosh! Mom!" Avril exclaimed in complete fear for her mother.

"Now you two have got to be brave okay. They're both undergoing operation right now and the doctors have only said that your dad's critical."

They nodded their heads.

"We're here for you two... don't worry."

She hugged them tight again. She couldn't help but feel for them, there was no way she'd ever know the fear they had in them right now. Two young girls. And they could lose everything at once if these operations didn't go well.

"we're all here for you"

Half an hour later, and many silent prayers later, a doctor came out of Kate's OT and spoke to them

"we had to prematurely deliver the baby. She had been suffocating after the fall and that was causing trauma to both her and the mother."

"Are they okay now?"

"Both mother and daughter are breathing normally now. The mother is unconscious and the baby is in an incubator. But we can't let any of you see them for another few hours; until we're sure they're both okay and we can move them to another room."

Lanie breathed a sigh of relief. They were okay.

"what did he say?" Avril asked.

"Your mom's doing fine. She's going to be okay." Lanie assured.

"And the baby?"

"They delivered the baby."

"What? They can do that?"

"She's a 6 month- old pre-mature baby and she'll need a lot of extra care over the next three months. They've kept her in an incubator for now"

"Oh thank god" Avril exclaimed.

Lanie smiled. "I need to warn you both though, it's not going to be easy to see your baby sister with those tube's around her."

"As long as she's alive and breathing, I'm grateful"

Lanie hugged Avril, and she looked to find Alexis walking back to her seat. She knew at once what the girl was thinking. She took Avril by the hand and they went to sit beside Alexis.

"Your dad's a strong man, he's not going to leave you four alone"

Esposito chimed in then "Yea, Castle's been so excited for this little one. I can't wait to see his face when we tell him she's arrived three month's early" he tried to lighten the mood.

But Alexis snapped "Stop it; stop trying to make me feel better about this. None of this is helping. My dad's dying and we can do nothing about it, and I just… I just…" She burst out crying.

"What if he never gets to see his baby girl at all, what if he never gets to see any of us. What if he never gets to see me again?"

Just then they heard the one voice they knew was the only one to be able to comfort the crying teen.

"Alexis…"

"She looked up "Grams…" she quickly got up and hugged her. And she cried her heart out.

"It's alright sweetheart, he'll be okay…" and Martha nodded to Lanie and Avril, telling them not to worry, she got this.

Almost an hour later,
the doctors came out from Castle's OT.

Alexis and Lanie rushed to him when he walked out.

"Is he alright? Oh doctor please tell me you could do something…" Alexis pleaded.

"Calm down young lady. Is he your father?"

"Yes"

"He fought well, he's going to make it"

the smile that broke out onto the girl's face was heavenly, without thinking she hugged the doctor and she whispered "Oh thank you, thank you so much."

The doctor laughed.

She was a little embarrassed when she pulled away, but he smiled warmly. He understood.

"We had a few complications, but we managed to get both the bullets out and he's stable now. He's in an induced coma. That means he'll be unconscious for the next few days. And we'll have to keep a close watch on him at all times.

We'll move him into another room soon and then you can go see him."

Avril walked up to Alexis and hugged her tight.

"They made it. They all did" and tears of happiness rolled down their cheeks. It was unbelievable.