Author's Note: I'd originally intended for this to be a standalone one shot that was meant to be posted before the When the Music Stops series was posted, but somewhere along the way, I forgot about it, and I didn't remember until I'd started this series. I was just going to leave it, until I was driving to work one day and heard Kris Allen's Live Like You're Dying come up on my Spotify playlist, and it just seemed like a perfect fit for this little story. This is the last chapter I have planned for the When the Music Stops series, but I've got a couple story ideas bouncing around in my head for Castle (and other series as well) that I just need to flesh out. It's been a pleasure writing these one shots, and I'm eternally grateful for everyone's reviews on the story. Stay safe and thank you all for reading!

Summary: There's a constant reminder in Kate Beckett's life that life is short, that at any given moment, one's life can be taken from them. Her latest case is even more of a reminder of that, as innocent lives were taken by the senseless act of another. It's a reminder that she's been harboring a secret for nearly a year, but maybe now's the time to face her fears and let the truth come out. Her case involves reconstructing the forty-seven seconds before the bombing, but all it takes is ten seconds to change a life.

When the Music Stops

10 Seconds

Yeah, we gotta start

Looking at the hands of the time we've been given

If this is all we got and we gotta start thinking

If every second counts on a clock that's ticking

Gotta live like we're dying

We've only got 86,400 seconds in a day to

Turn it all around or to throw it all away

We gotta tell them that we love them

While we got the chance to say

Bombings were one of the many things she and her classmates trained for at the academy. Living in the city that never slept meant you had to be prepared for anything and everything, even if the odds of it actually happening in your lifetime were astronomical.

But seeing it in a simulation and experiencing it in real life were two completely different things.

She knew what she was walking into when she approached the crime scene with Castle; she'd spent the entire car ride to his loft and to the crime scene steeling herself for what she was about to see.

But even with all of the mental preparation she did before setting foot on the crime scene, seeing everything still shook her.

She knew how to take it in and compartmentalize it all though. Castle didn't. Even with the FBI and Homeland Security taking point on the case and leaving the NYPD to conduct interviews with the families of the victims, Castle still hung around the precinct, taking it all in. She'd only done two interviews when she stepped away to take a breather, joining Castle in the break room.

"It makes you think about all those things in your own life that you don't want to put off anymore," she said, just before Esposito came to collect them for a meeting.

Now that the interviews were over and it was determined that there was no specific target, they had a new task: reconstruct the forty-seven seconds before the bombing to find their suspect.

o.o.o.o.o

After seeing the toll this case was taking on Alexis, Castle took his daughter home. Beckett watched from afar, but she did nothing to stop him; it was late, and they would have a long day ahead of them tomorrow.

Not to mention Alexis was his world. She was nearly an adult now, but to Castle, she was still a child.

Beckett watched the father/daughter pair walk out of the precinct, and even with the heaviness of this case, she still couldn't help but smile at the sight of them. It was one of the many things she loved about him, one of the things that made her fall in love with him.

But as Castle made his way home and made sure his little girl got to bed, his mind couldn't help but linger on the case. He knew his friends would be fine, though they would probably be exhausted by the end of this.

It wasn't that his mind focused on though.

It was all the things their victims couldn't do. He still had the opportunity to fall in love, to confess his love… to get married again, to maybe have more children. The victims would never get those things again.

Tomorrow wasn't guaranteed. Not for their victims, not for him, not for Beckett, not for anyone. One day, they could end up in the wrong place at the wrong time and lose their lives just by being somewhere.

He resolved to talk to her tomorrow. She had every right to know his feelings for her, even if she didn't return them. Their tomorrows weren't guaranteed, and she had every right to hear it while she was alive and well, not while she was moments away from potentially losing her life.

o.o.o.o.o

She couldn't help but let her eyes linger to his chair as she looked over her murder board. All they had was a sketch of their suspect and no way to find him because they had no idea who he actually was. Esposito and Ryan were showing the sketch around with the hopes that they could find someone, but so far, they had nothing.

Until Ryan came up and interrupted her staring at Castle's chair to tell her they did indeed have their suspect, a young man named Bobby Lopez.

She stayed back at the precinct to prepare for the interrogation while Esposito and Ryan went to collect the young man, but her eyes kept drifting to Castle's chair. Their brief, unfinished conversation from yesterday still lingered on her mind. She wanted to hear him out, she really did, but the case had to come first. She had a duty to the citizens of New York to bring them justice, even if it meant putting her own life on hold, as much as she sometimes didn't want to.

But after this case, she resolved to tell Castle the truth. He deserved to know. He would be mad, and understandably so, but he would know. That was what mattered. At least then, if one of them died, they would both know how the other truly felt.

When the boys returned with Bobby, they took him to interrogation, and moments later, she was in there with him. He was unwilling to tell her anything about the bomb, which wasn't too surprising, but she'd find out the truth one way or another. She always did.

And then he played the trauma card.

"You don't get to play that card," she said, leaning in close. "You wanna know trauma? I was shot in the chest, and I remember every second of it."

The words slipped out of her mouth before she even realized it, and she stepped away from Bobby to let them sink in. Her eyes went to the window, watching herself for a moment, watching her suspect.

She took one look at Bobby, the real one, not the reflection in the mirror, before stepping out of interrogation. There was some time to let him sweat before she came back to him and tried to get the truth, since he was unwilling to talk now. Sometimes that was the best course of action when it came to interrogation. Every suspect was different, after all.

Her eyes fell on the cup of coffee sitting on her desk. Castle. He was here.

But the way Esposito spoke made her feel as if something was wrong. Her heart started to sink, but she shook her head. No, he couldn't know. Maybe he took one look at the murder board and figured something out that she hadn't yet.

Yeah, that had to be it. He couldn't have overheard her spilling her secret to Bobby.

Except he did.

"All this time…" he said softly, once he heard the words leave her mouth. "You remembered?"

It took a moment for them to click, but once it registered in his mind that he heard exactly what he thought he heard, the excitement he felt from watching Beckett's interrogations (there was something about the way she interrogated suspects that fascinated him) quickly faded into disappointment and hurt.

One thing was certain. He couldn't be in the precinct anymore. He couldn't face her when she came out of interrogation. He had to leave.

o.o.o.o.o

They finally found their suspect, Leann West, the reporter who was coincidentally on scene covering the protests when the bomb went off, and their case was closed. It was surprising how well some of their suspects hid right under their noses and they didn't even realize it. It was a lesson in taking in all of the details and not ruling anyone out until they were proven innocent.

Now that their case was over, Beckett still felt wired. The energy that came with working towards solving a case was still with her, which was unusual, considering usually she just wanted to go home, relax, and unwind, especially after the hard ones.

Her suggestion to go out with the boys to celebrate the success of their case was shot down by Esposito and Ryan, both of whom wanted to go home, and understandably so. When the boys left though, it was just her and Castle.

"What did you want to talk about the other day?" Beckett asked.

He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately, he shook his head. "It was nothing," he replied. He paused again, hesitating, before stepping back. "I'm gonna head home. Night."

"Castle, wait!" Beckett called out before he could get too far. Thankfully, her words made him stop and turn back towards her, raising an eyebrow as he did. "I, uh… There's something I need to talk to you about."

He watched her for a moment, but when she said nothing, he spoke. "Okay," Castle said.

It was Beckett's turn to hesitate now. She looked around the precinct for a moment, noticing that despite the end of an exhausting case for all of them, many were still around. She was fortunate to be between homicides when this case came along, otherwise, the boys would probably still be here too and she wouldn't be having this conversation with Castle right now.

"Not here," she said, bringing her attention back to Castle. "Let's go to my place."

o.o.o.o.o

She took a deep breath as she stepped foot into her living room, turning to face Castle. There was a look on his face as if he didn't want to be there, but he was. They were both here.

And now she had to come clean. It was now or never.

"What did you want to talk about?" he asked, breaking the silence.

She hesitated. "Well, um… do you remember how when I was in the hospital after my shooting, I told you I didn't remember anything from it?" she asked.

"Yes," he replied, his voice laced with the disappointment that he felt when he first found out. "I know. You remember everything."

"I remember everything," she replied.

And then she blinked.

Did he just…

You remember everything.

Her eyes widened. The way he acted after that day she told Bobby she remembered everything, the way Esposito spoke when he told her Castle had somewhere to be after she left the interrogation room, it all made sense now.

He heard her tell Bobby she remembered.

She stepped back, taking in Castle's frustrated expression. She didn't question it; she had no right to. This was her fault. If she'd come clean in the hospital, she wouldn't be in this position right now.

And yet here she was.

"When did you find out?" she asked, looking away, biting her bottom lip to keep the tears that stung her eyes from falling. She couldn't bear to see the pain in his eyes, pain that she caused him; if she did, the tears probably would fall.

"When you were interrogating Bobby," he replied. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

She hesitated. "I don't know," she said softly. "I wasn't ready. I was scared. I'm sorry."

There was silence for a moment, but she looked up when she saw Castle stepping back, turning towards the door. "I should go," he said. "Good night, Beckett."

"Castle, wait," she said. He stopped, turning to face her. "Do you, uh… remember that wall I told you about?" She waited for him to nod before she continued. "I think it's coming down, and um, I'd like if you were there when it did."

For the first time since she realized the cause of his pain and frustration, Beckett saw the hint of a smile on Castle's lips. It eased her worries about everything. It was enough for her to see that she hadn't lost him.

"I'd like to be there too," he replied.

His words brought a small smile to her face. Even knowing that she lied, he still wanted to be there. It was almost as if a wave of relief washed over her.

"Good night, Kate," he said after a moment.

"Good night, Castle," she replied, watching as he left her apartment.

As she sank down on her couch after securing the door behind him, she smiled. Tonight, she would rest, but tomorrow? Tomorrow, she would work towards bringing the rest of that wall down, not just for herself, but for him because he deserved to see the best version of herself that she could be.

There was a lot that could be done in ten seconds. It only took ten seconds for her to let the words slip out of her mouth at the wrong time, but with a little extra time, she was able to fix the problem she started. It could only go up from here.