So I read today that Castle and Dr. Motorcycle Boy are gonna get into a fight during season 4, episode 1. Do you have any idea how excited I am about that? Nathan is AMAZING at fight scenes, and we don't get to see enough of those on Castle. Not to mention the joy we'll all feel at seeing the doc's pretty face messed up a bit. No offense to Victor Webster.

This is how I see the scene playing out, though I'm sure AM's version will be much better. I wrote this in about an hour, so I'm sure there are mistakes. Please forgive me.

The usual disclaimer applies, unfortunately.

THE FIGHT

It was twenty four hours before Kate finally woke up. The surgery had gone on for eight, while the trauma team repaired the damage the bullet had done to her lung, vessels, and something called the "pericardial cavity." Castle had looked the term up, of course, and it was noting more than the sac surrounding the heart. Why did doctors have to use fancy medical jargon? Everybody knows you graduated from medical school. We know you're smart. No need to try and prove it by using anatomical terms that only scare people who have no idea what the hell you're talking about.

Castle, Jim Beckett, Lanie, Jenny and the boys had stayed until the surgeon entered the waiting room and announced that Kate had made it through surgery, but it would be a couple of hours before they could see her. Everyone but Jim and Castle had left to change and get some food. Jim wasn't leaving his baby girl, and there was no force strong enough to get Castle out of there before he saw her roll her gorgeous hazel eyes at him.

Alexis and Martha had showed up with a change of clothes just after Kate got out of the OR. Looking into the bathroom mirror, Castle laughed. Not a small, sorrowful snicker, but a full bellied, nearly hysterical laugh even as tears ran down his cheeks for the first time since he held her and watched her blood slip through his fingers. He looked like absolute shit.

Her blood was all over his hands and suit, and he had smudged it across his face and through his hair at some point. He looked like he had aged twenty years in the last few days. His features sagged, his eyes drowning in deep purple bruise-like bags.

Castle washed the blood from his skin and hair as best he could and changed into jeans and a black t-shirt. He still looked terrible, but at least less morbid. And then he waited.

He waited until she woke up. She wasn't awake for very long, no more than a few minutes. But she looked at him across the room and held out her hand, which he took in an instant. She asked about the shooter, whom they hadn't caught. She asked about her father, who had only just stepped out for coffee. She told him he looked awful, and ordered him to go home and sleep for at least six hours and then come back. So that's what Castle did.

For the next three days Kate slept more than she was awake. She was on an extraordinary amount of morphine, which made her so drowsy she could hardly keep her eyes open. Stubborn as she was, Kate tried to insist that she didn't need so much. But the pain got so bad after a few hours on a half-dose that she begged Castle to call the nurse, squeezing his hand until the tips of his fingers turned blue. But Castle didn't mind in the least. From then on, Kate took the medicine as prescribed.

Lanie and the boys were there often, though they never stayed for more than an hour or so. Martha and Alexis came by a few times as well. Jim and Castle were constants. Castle apologized incessantly for not getting her out of the way sooner, for not protecting Kate the way her father had asked. The fifth time he apologized Jim told him to shut up. So he did. But it didn't lessen the guilt he was feeling.

At the end of the fourth day, while Kate was sleeping and Jim was out grabbing dinner, a tall, dark-haired doctor strode into Kate's room. Castle just stared, rage growing with every passing second. Josh was freshly showered and clean-shaven, gazing at Kate with a look of mild concern.

Castle compared the surgeon's well-rested, well-groomed appearance to his own. Castle had't shaved in two days. He had gotten a cumulative fourteen hours of sleep in the past week. He couldn't remember the last time he'd eaten, he had been surviving on bad coffee and, so that he could get some sleep, good scotch. He hadn't left Kate's side for more than a few hours since she had gotten here. And in waltzed Josh, Kate's boyfriend, like the prodigal returned.

The doctor finally noticed Castle. "Rick" he said the name like it was a swear word. "How are you?"

"Pretty damn terrible" Castle answered, his voice almost a growl. "Where the hell have you been?"

"Excuse me?"

"Where. The. Hell. Have you been? She's been here four days."

"I was in Africa when it happened" said Josh defensively. "Kate's friend Lanie got in touch with me, but I couldn't get a flight out until yesterday."

"I didn't realize it took two days to get here from Africa" Castle snarled.

"It doesn't. But I needed to go freshen up and take care of a few things at work before I could get here." Josh considered Castle for a moment as if debating whether or not to say something. He chose the former. "It's really none of your business. What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I'm here because Kate is my friend and my partner, and she was shot in the chest." Castle stood. "She needed someone to be here for her, and since her boyfriend was MIA…" Caste gave Josh a significant look.

"Maybe we should continue this discussion in the hall" Josh snapped.

Castle didn't say a word, just brushed past the surgeon and through the door. He leaned against the wall outside Kate's room and waited.

Josh shut the door behind him and stood several paces away from Castle. "I'm getting a little tired of this 'he's my partner', 'she's my friend', 'we work together' crap I keep hearing from both of you."

"Maybe you keep hearing it because it's true."

Josh scoffed. "Right. You think I don't see how you look at her? That I don't know why you hang around her all the time?"

"Well you're never there for her" said Castle coolly, "and she deserves for someone to be."

"Where do you get off questioning me?" Josh's voice was raised somewhat now, and he took a minuscule step closer to the writer. "My career is important to me. Kate understands that. And maybe I can't spend as much time with Kate as I'd like, but I have people's lives in my hands and I can't just leave them. Not everyone is like you, with no responsibilities so they can spend all day playing detective and hitting on another man's girl pretending it's for research."

Castle stiffened at the man's insinuations. "Doctor, you don't fucking know me, so maybe you should stop talking before you make yourself look like an even bigger ass.''

"I'll stop talking when you stop making judgements about a relationship you have no part of. Kate's independent, and she doesn't want or need me around all the time. It works for us."

"What about the times when she does need you? You're not there then either." Castle gestured toward Kate's hospital bed on the other side of the wall. "Like when she loses her mentor and friend and then gets shot at his funeral and almost dies. And four days later you think it's more important to go home and make yourself look pretty than get here and see her?"

"You stay the hell away from her" Josh threatened, taking another step toward Castle.

Castle scoffed. ''Like hell."

Josh stepped even closer and looked Castle directly in the eye. Josh was a few inches taller, and almost certainly in better shape at the moment, but Castle wasn't the slightest bit intimidated. "Back off" Josh growled. "Go screw some model or actress or one of your ex-wives and stop pretending like you actually care about Kate." Josh turned toward the door.

"Pretending?" Castle chuckled at Josh's back. The doctor turned to look at Castle as he continued. "You'd know all about that wouldn't you, Doc? Or is it that you do care, but only when it's convenient to your surgery schedule?"

"Fuck you"

"Get in line."

Josh's fist connected with Castle's left cheek. Despite the doctor's motorcycle-riding, leather-wearing, tough-guy image, he punched like a ten year old girl. As Josh prepared to swing again, Castle caught him in the rib cage with his left fist, then in the nose with his right only seconds later. Josh staggered backward, putting a hand to his bleeding nose and then gazing at his crimson-stained fingers. With an animalistic growl that was almost comical coming from the cultured surgeon, he rushed at Castle's abdomen and pinned his back against the wall. Castle was only there for a second. He grabbed two fistfuls of the surgeon's leather jacket and swung him around, lifting him an inch off the tile floor as he slammed Josh into the sheet rock with enough force to crack it.

Castle saw a strange mix of terror and fury in Josh's brown eyes as he pinned him to the wall, Castle's face just inches from the doctor's bloody one. "You hurt her" Castle whispered, his voice shaking with rage, "and I'll mess up that pretty face up so badly that when you walk down the street people will pity you. You have my word on that."

Caste felt a tug at his shoulder and released Josh, who wiped his hand under his nose to stop the flow of blood that was running into his mouth. Castle turned and saw that quite a crowd had gathered. Two orderlies were pushing him away from the doctor and security was jogging down the hall.

"Send me a bill for the damage" Castle said to one of the orderlies, jerking his head at the long crack that now interrupted the white wall next to Kate's door.

Castle turned to make his way through the accumulation of hospital employees, expecting to be escorted out by security at any moment. He caught sight of Jim Beckett in the crowd. This wasn't quite the impression he wanted to make on Kate's father, but to his surprise the older man met his eyes and winked, an almost proud smirk playing across his tired features.

Security was nowhere to be seen, but Ryan and Esposito were standing at the end of the hallway. They greeted their unconventional partner with smug grins and quick fist bumps.

"Nice" said Esposito quietly. "You really kicked the dude's ass, Castle."

Castle couldn't help but grin smugly as he shrugged. "He started it."

"Oh, we saw" said Ryan. "That's what we told security. We also may have implied that you were a cop."

"Thanks, guys" Castle responded sincerely.

"No problem, bro" said Esposito, clapping him on the back. "You've got our back, we've got yours. That's what partners are for."

Castle smiled and made his exit, heading back to the loft for a shower and some ice. Sadly for the doctor, the ice was for Castle's fist, not for his face. But in spite of his victory he couldn't help feeling rather dejected. Sure, he won the fight, but Josh was still with Kate and he was still alone, knowing how much he loved her and knowing that Josh would probably let her down again.

It was well after midnight when the buzzing of Castle's phone woke him from a deep sleep. "Castle" he slurred, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Hey" a familiar voice answered. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"Kate" Castle said, instantly awake and propping himself up in bed. "Are you okay?"

"You broke his nose" she said bluntly. Either Castle's sleep addled brain was playing tricks on him or she sounded…amused.

"I'm sorry?"

Kate laughed softly, warming Castle's heart. "No you're not."

"No. I'm not" he admitted.

"You didn't come back."

Castle sighed. "Kate, I stayed because I wanted to make sure you were okay and I didn't want you to be alone. Josh showed up, and…well, it really wasn't my place to be there, and he certainly doesn't want me to be."

"But I do."

Castle's breath caught in his throat. He wasn't sure what to say. "Is Dr. Motorcycle Boy still there?"

"He stayed for a little over an hour - yelled about you most of that time, by the way - and then said he needed to go home and change and get some sleep. Jet lag, you know."

"Kate, I'm so sor-"

"I told him not to bother coming back" she interjected.

"You did?" Castle cursed himself for not being able to keep the trace of hope and happiness out of his voice.

"It's been over for a while now, Castle. I just finally admitted it." They were both silent for a moment. "So are you coming back?"

"I'll be there in twenty minutes."

Castle started to hang up, but Kate's voice called him back. "Rick?"

"Yeah"

"One of these days you're gonna tell me where you learned to throw a punch like that."

Castle chuckled. "Sure thing, Detective." He hung up, crawled out of bed and pulled on the first clothes he put his hands on. He walked out of his apartment moments later feeling more hopeful than he had in a very, very long time.

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