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[needthepractice]

It was almost chilly before the sun rose in the morning, making the run she took up and down the beach a little more of an effort, but it didn't take very long at all to get her heart pumping, kickstarting the routine she always managed to fall into before the other two were even awake. By the time she got back, though, Beckett knew that one or

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[stormweathered]

Castle heard the shout and instinctively, every part of him focused on protecting Alexis and keeping her safe. Instantly, he was grabbing hold of her, tilting his body so that she wasn't in the line of fire. Castle would die ten times over to protect Alexis and he'd never had any doubts about it. Now, it was just about proving it. "Alexis..." was all he got out, before the bullet struck him in the arm, grazing the flesh and causing a white-hot sensation of pain that sent him staggering backwards until his back hit the wall.

He told himself that it couldn't have hit anything crucial, but that didn't stop it from hurting.

[turnedoutfine]

Alexis hardly had time to react, to even register what was going on, when she was suddenly getting shielded by her dad. "What-" was all she had time to get out before she was shoved out of the way in the commotion, tripping in the process, and she cringed in expectation of the inevitable crash into the wall -

which never came.

Instead, Alexis somehow passed right through it, ending up on the other side, stumbling but somehow keeping her feet as she tried to figure out what had just happened. She'd just gone right through a wall, like she was a - a ghost, or something. And her dad had just been shot.

Her dad had just been shot.

It wasn't as serious as what she'd seen in that waking nightmare, back on Halloween, but it brought back memories of that anyway. "Dad!" Alexis cried out in anguish, trying to go back through the wall to see if he was okay, and in her agitation, it took a couple tries before she was able to stumble back through, at Castle's side in an instant. "Daddy!"

[needthepractice]

She was by his side in an instant, kneeling down next to him and putting her hand over his arm to stop the bleeding. There wasn't much of it, only a graze. She couldn't feel the bullet in his arm and Beckett looked up to see it lodged in the wall before her gaze fell on Castle again, her face marred with uncontrollable worry that she immediately tried to hide, for his sake.

"It's not bad," she promised, reaching up for a dish towel while keeping her hand firm against his arm, feeling wet warmth ebb out against her palm. "Just a graze. You're okay." She slowly wound the towel around, trying to keep her hands from shaking, ducking her head as her lower lip started to tremble.

[stormweathered]

Castle sucked in a harsh breath that seemed to sting all the way in -- or maybe that was just the pain confusing his brain and making him think that his body was on fire and ever nerve was screaming out. It would pass. He knew it would pass, but that didn't help him right now. "What the hell is going on?" he spat out, voice strangled. Beckett had deflected it and his daughter just went through the damn wall. "Alexis!" he shouted, loud as he could, starting slightly when she came back through the wall. "What the...hell?" he demanded, hair falling in his bewildered face as he tried to keep still. "I am still bleeding, Katharine," he pointed out, overly calm. "And as handy as you are with a dishtowel, doctor, please."