Beckett wakes up to white walls and the smell of bleach. Her stomach is sore and she has no idea how she got here. She tries to sit up, but the searing pain in her abdomen prevents her from moving too far. Her police instincts kicking in, she surveys her surroundings. There's a chair by her bed and a coffee on the bedside table. The glass doors give her a good view of a hallway filled with people clad in scrubs. 'How did I get in a hospital?' she thinks.

Castle briefly passes the door, pacing back and forth while talking on the phone. She watches him and reads his body. He seems stressed and worried, maybe even scared. He ends the call and looks into Beckett's room. He sees she's awake, smiles, and enters.

"Hey. You're awake."

"Yeah." Beckett sighs. "Castle, what happened?"

"Do you not remember?"

"No, it's all a little fuzzy. I remember you being in trouble and risking my life to save you and Jo, but I don't remember exactly how I got here."

"Kate, honey, you were shot."

"What? Is that why I'm so sore?"

"Yes. You came to save us."

Beckett sighs once again and tries to remember.

"Mrs. Castle, you're awake. Excellent." Kate looks up to see a tall, brunette woman in a lab coat and scrubs enter the room. She stops beside Castle and surveys her patient before she speaks again. "I'm Doctor Gordon. How are you feeling?"

"Like I just got shot, which apparently I did. Again."

"Well, as I told your husband and family before, you lost a lot of blood. When we got you into surgery, we realized it was coming from a nicked artery in your abdomen. We were able to sew that up no problem. Now, your kidney sustained major damaged and we had to remove it. Luckily, you can live with one kidney so you will be just fine. Do you have any questions?"

"No. Not right now. Comeback in a few hours and I might."

"Of course. I will be here to check on you every few hours and a nurse will be in every hour. You're in good hands, Mrs. Castle." Dr. Gordon then turns to leave to give her patient some time to process all of this.

"I do have one question for you though," Kate says after Dr. Gordon leaves the room.

"Shoot." Kate glares at his choice of words. "Sorry," he apologizes.

"Are you and Johanna okay? Where is she? I saw blood on her face."

"That is more than one question."

"Just answer me, Castle. I was really worried about you two."

"I know you were. We're fine. Johanna needed stitches, but I sat and I held her as they did it. She's strong just like her mom. She's out in the waiting room with my mother and Alexis. She's fine."

Kate lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Good. How are you?"

"I'm fine now that you're awake. I have some minor bruising and a slight concussion, but they said that I should be fine."

"You were drugged, Castle. How are you going to be fine?"

Castle reaches up and places his hand on the bandage that covers the needle puncture on his neck. "They said it passed through my system and there should be no side effects. Kate, I promise, I'm fine. I'm more concerned about you."

"Yeah, I guess I really scared you, didn't I?" Kate looks down at the blanket and occupies herself with picking at some imaginary lint. She doesn't want to think about what she put him through. Too many memories of the first time she was shot; too many broken hearts. The last thing she wanted was for Castle to go through that again.

Castle comes and sits gingerly on the side of Kate's bed. He places his hand on top of hers and uses his other hand to tilt her head up to look him in the eyes. All she sees is fear in his beautiful blue irises and her heart stops for a second because of the pain she's put him through.

"Every time you leave the loft I'm worried you won't be home. I'm not there to protect you anymore. I'm not there to jump in front of a bullet to save your life. Today just reminded me of all of the times you, and I, have been here because of your job. I don't want to lose you, Kate. I don't want our daughter to grow up without her mother. But I know that you love your job and I don't want you to give that up. I just want you to not be so ready to sacrifice your life. I need you to come home."

By now tears are shining in Castle's eyes and Kate can't help but let a tear fall down her cheek. She nods her head and bites her bottom lip.

"I'm so sorry, Castle," Kate chokes out. "I promise I will be more careful. I don't want Johanna to go through what I did. I don't want you to have to be a single father again. I will always come home to you. I promise. Always."

Castle leans in and places a chaste kiss on Kate's lips to seal her promise. He pulls back and looks into her gorgeous hazel eyes and sees that she means it. She will always do her best to make it home to their family.

A sudden knock on the glass door jolts them out of their moment. They both turn to see who it is and smile when they see Alexis standing outside with a very tired Johanna. Castle gestures for Alexis to come in and she opens the door and steps inside. Beckett eagerly reaches her arms out for her baby girl and Alexis gladly passes the toddler over to her mother.

"How are you feeling?" Alexis asks as she makes the trade.

"I'm doing better now that I have this one in my arms." Kate smiles at her daughter and looks her over to assess the damage for herself. Castle was right, she is doing pretty good under the circumstances. She places a light kiss on Johanna's forehead and Jo snuggles deeper into her mother as a response.

"Someone's happy to see her mom," Alexis comments.

"I think we all are," Castle replies as he walks over to put his arm around Alexis.

"You know, you two really scared Gram and I today."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that, Alexis. It's all my fault. Just something coming back to bite me like always," Kate says.

"Kate, it's not your fault a psycho decided to kidnap me and Jo," Castle replies.

"Kinda feels like it is."

"But hey, you saved the day, so it sort of evens out, right?" Alexis offers.

Kate gives small smile at that and starts rocking Johanna back and forth as much as she can with her injuries.

"Well, I'm gonna go tell Gram that you're doing okay. I'll be back later," Alexis explains as she turns to leave.

As soon as Alexis is gone Castle moves to once again sit on the edge of Beckett's bed. "You know I don't blame you for any of this." Castle states. "In fact, I'm kinda grateful. If it weren't for you, I'd probably be dead right now."

"I wouldn't blame you if you blamed me for this, though. I put our daughter in danger, Rick."

"Kate, look at me. Really look at me. Does it look like I'm mad at you? Does it look like I blame you for this?"

"No. But -"

"No 'buts.' I don't want you tearing yourself up over this. I'm okay. Johanna is okay. You're okay. That's all that matters."

"Okay. You're right. I'm just a little… I don't know, crazy, right now, I guess."

"You just got out of major surgery after being shot, you're allowed to be a little crazy and a little emotional right now."

"We're gonna be okay, right Rick?"

"We're gonna be just fine. I promise."

With that Castle places a kiss to Kate's temple followed by a kiss to Johanna's. It might take some time to heal, but this little family is going to be perfectly okay.

A/N Everyone was so worried that I was going to kill Kate! I wasn't expecting that. I could never kill off my favorite character. Anyway, this is the last chapter. I was going to do another one but I like where this ended so I'm going to leave it here. I had so much fun writing this and hope you guys had fun reading it! Thank you all so much for all the follows, favorites, and reviews. They all mean so much to me. :)