I don't own anything and this is a re-edit of the original first chapter, wanted to make it better so I did. Hope this one is better! Much love mwah! mwah! Au re voir!
The work day has been slow, hell, the work week has been slow. A tired Detective Ryan is sitting at his desk, looking forward to a nice, relaxing night at home with his wife and a warm mug of honey-milk. But for the time being he has to take care of some paperwork that had backlogged over the course of the week. He, Esposito, Beckett and Castle had all just finished a tough case that had taken longer than first speculated to put away. Beckett and Castle are back at the author's loft, making a celebratory dinner for themselves along with Martha and Alexis while Esposito is trying to convince Laney to go with him to a concert he'd gotten a pair of tickets for. The tickets had originally been for him and Ryan but since no one seemed to want to do the paperwork Kevin took over and told Javier that he'd make it up to him. The face Javi had made when he declined the offer is still nagging at Ryan's mind and he is starting to consider putting the paperwork away to join his partner in the evenings festivities.
But as it stands, Ryan is mere inches from being finished with all the backlogged paperwork when the phone on his desk starts to ring. He lets out a defeated sigh and puts his pen down, letting the phone ring as he stretches out his sore, cramped hand. He picks it up, ceasing the incessant ringing with a short answer,
"Ryan." There is a pause as the uni on the other end of the phone reports to him about a body found in lower Manhattan. The details are spared but the uni told him to get down there fast.
Kevin scans the precinct for his partner and his coroner girlfriend until he finds them chatting, or fighting, in the break room. He lets out a sharp, precise whistle at Javi and swung his arm in a quick circle over his head, telling him to come out to the bullpen.
"Yo, what's up? You back on board for going to that concert?" Javi grins as he walks back into the array of desks and chairs and computers,
"No, we got a fresh one down in lower Manhattan." He nods to his partner, "Unis say it was called in just a few minutes ago." Javi nods and starts to get his badge and gun from the top drawer of his own desk while Ryan does the same,
"Man. I was really looking forward to going to that concert." Javi complains as he puts on his leather jacket,
"You might wanna get your girlfriend. Pearlmudder's off for the week." Ryan jokes at his partner, pointing after the disgruntled coroner as she storms out of the precinct,
"Ha haha ha." Javi mock laughs at Ryan as he walks after Laney's angry stride, "Hey Laney! Wait up!" Ryan shakes his head as he watches them enter the elevator together.
Watching them do their little dance sparks Ryan's memory and he pulls out his phone and dials his lovely wife, Jenny. He leans back on his desk as the phone rings and watches the floor tiles as they do nothing beneath his feet,
"Hey Kev, what's up?" She sounds a little tired on the other end, but then again, who in her position wouldn't be tired?
"Hey, Jenny, just calling to say a case came up. I probably won't be home until the wee hours of the morning." He smiles to himself as Jenny answers back,
"Oh, okay Kev. I won't wait up for you. Wake me up when you get home though." Kevin nods, forgetting that she can't see him and smirks to himself,
"Sure thing honey. Love you." After Jenny answers him Kevin waits to hear her hang up before turning his phone off and slipping it into the pocket of his dark grey jacket that matches his vest. Ryan was known widely around the precinct for his snazzy three piece suits. Today he's wearing a red shirt with a dark grey pair of slacks, vest and jacket to go over his white, silk tie. To top off the ensemble he's wearing a brilliant, silver Rolex on his left wrist that Castle had gotten him for his birthday earlier that year and the necklace he'd gotten from his sister when they were younger. Its a simple circle with the Celtic trinity clinging to the edges by slivers of gold dangling from a faux-gold chain. He hadn't taken it off since she gave it to him nor her the one he gave her,
"Love you too Kev. Be careful." He smirks and waits till she hangs the phone up before grabbing his coat and following in Javi's footsteps to the car.
"Man, it took me like a week to get those tickets!" The entire drive to lower Manhattan had consisted of Javier complaining to Kevin about his lack of concert going. All Kevin could do was laugh at him and watch the road,
"Yeah well, I'm sure Castle can get you more one way or another." Kevin slams the door of the brand new Mustang Javier had gotten a few years back and Javi did the same.
Uniforms and the coroner are already on scene when Kevin and Javier arrive and a barrier has been set up around the body, keeping the curious standers by from getting any closer than their stretched necks would let them. The body is in the center of a small, side street, close to a lamp post with the upper part of it covered by a jacket. Laney is squatting next to it, scribbling notes onto her examiner's report about the body,
"Hey Lane-"
"Don't you talk to me Javier." Kevin mouths a wince in Javi's direction and tries to hide a smile ,
"Ouch." He laughs at Javi and goes up next to Laney, squatting next to her, "So what's with this one Laney?" He reaches down with his pen to start to move the jacket out of the way but Laney tries to stop him, bumping his hand away but in the process exposing part of the victim's appearance. Kevin freezes and stares down at the item on the ground before him, "What the hell?" As he speaks his eyebrows twitch together and he reaches down and grabs the small, golden pendant in his hand, studying the lines that criss and cross over each other in a melodic fashion,
"You recognize this?" Laney nods toward the small piece of metal and creases her eyebrows,
"Yeah, it's the Celtic symbol for 'sister'. My sister and I exchanged ones just like this when we were younger." Kevin is so lost in studying the small heart that had been interlaced with the Celtic trinity that he didn't noticed Javier come up behind him,
"I didn't know you had a sister." Javi scribbles into his notepad something a uniformed officer whispers into his ear,
"She's the youngest of my family. Teagan is her name. We don't talk about her much but she's really the highlight of my family. Everyone who's met her loves her." He overturns the pendant in his hand, staring as the red white and blue bounces off the delicate gold. He rubs his thumb over the soft metal before it lays flat, upside down in his palm, "There's something written here. Laney do you have a flashlight?" He looks at the coroner who cocks a sassy eyebrow and puts her hands on her hips, "Right. Javi?" The man's partner whips out a small, black mag-light and shines it down into his partner's hand, illuminating the script lettering on the back of the heart.
Ryan squints down at the lettering, studying the script more closely than he had been before. His eyebrows twitch together as he reads the words out loud,
"Teagan M. Ryan. Laney have you taken the jacket off the girl's face yet?" Laney shakes her head,
"No, you guys had only just shown up when I'd begun the assessment of her body." Ryan stands up and continues to stare down at the young woman's body on the pavement, "I can do that now if you want me to."
Ryan's heart jumps into his throat as he nods at the young coroner. His nerves are going wild as he watches her begin to pull back the beige overcoat. Blood is coating the pavement from a head wound received from the killer. Espo and Kevin separate, going to either side of the body, Kevin staying on the side with Laney and Espo going around to the opposite to help her pull back the coat. She pulls it back another few inches and dark, tumbling curls are revealed, matted with blood and dirt. Kevin takes a deep breath, preparing himself for what is underneath the last few inches of coat that are still on the body. Laney and Espo both remove the last bit of the coat at the same time to reveal a stunning young woman. A young woman whom Detective Ryan has seen before.
Ryan staggers back a few steps, shocked at what was underneath the coat.
The woman's face has been carved into. The words are haggard and as deep as the bone would let them be, spilling blood over the rest of her face, making her close to unrecognizable. But Kevin knows exactly who it is. He takes a deep breath and stares down at the body, it was like his first time seeing a body all over again, the twisting and churning of his stomach was too much, he took a few steps backward, bumping into the spotlight that Laney had put on the body and knocking it over before taking a few more steps and relieving his stomach of it's contents onto the pavement,
"Woah! Kevin are you okay?" Espo comes up behind him and puts a hand on his back as Kevin's body starts shaking and his breathing becomes heavier and more uneven as he tries to compose himself in front of what seemed to be the entire police force, "C'mere." Espo grabs his partner's arm and pulls him toward the edge of the crime scene, sitting him down on the curb furthest from the body.
Kevin is staring, wild eyed at the body, his mind racing in every other direction as he tries to come up with a reason why she'd be here,
"Sh-she was supposed to be back home." He mutters to himself as Laney comes up in front of him, putting a hand on his knee as he stares at the body,
"Kevin?" Her voice is soft and kind as her big brown eyes watch him caringly, "Sweety I need you to look at me." His eyes travel, slowly from the body to meet up with Laney's eyes. His chest is still rising and falling with every deep, ragged breath he takes, "Kev, do you know the victim?" He's only barely able to nod to her as tears start to slip from his eyes, "Kev, sweety I need to know how you knew the victim." Her other hand rests on the crook of his elbow as his eyes wander back to the body,
"Sh-she's my sister." Laney and Espo both exchange looks before Laney taps Espo's leg, telling him to go away from a little while.
Kevin's eyes are still wildly watching everything around him as the uniforms and the coroner's aids finish assessing the crime scene,
"Sh-she was supposed to be back home, with our brother. This isn't like her to be down here." He stares down at the ground before grabbing his own necklace and looking at it. Kevin wiped away a few of the tears before they spilled down his face,
"Can you tell me anything about her? Like what she might have been doing down here?" Kevin shakes his head, keeping eye contact with the lovely coroner in front of him, "Did she have a boyfriend?" Kevin studies Laney's face for a minute before shaking his head,
"N-not that I can remember." He starts running his hands through his hair, trying to keep himself from breaking down in front of everyone in sight, "O-oh God, Teags!" He can't help but cry out as his heart broke even further in two. This is the little girl that he had to carry to school because she was too scared to walk on the pavement and the same little girl that he had to take care of when she was sick,
"Kevin sweety, it's okay." Laney sits down next to him and grabs him in a soft hug, holding him gently, "Is there anyone we should call to tell about what happened? Do you wanna call Matt and tell him yourself?" Kevin nods, remembering his younger brother would also want to know about the death of the family's baby.
There's a pause as Kevin's expression begins to harden and Laney sits back a little bit, still watching the broken man in his transformations through grief,
"Who would do this to a girl like her?" He looks up at Laney and then back at Teagan, laying still on the pavement, "Huh?! I mean, she was just a kid! She wouldn't have been able to do anything to anyone."
"I don't know Kev." Laney rubs her thumb over Kevin's knee comfortingly, "You just gotta try and find the guy who did it, okay? I know the killer took some kind of rope to her throat, so it was a crime of passion. Are you sure your sister wasn't seeing anyone?" Kevin shakes his head,more violently now,
"No! Teagan would tell me if she were dating anyone!" At this time it wouldn't take a shrink to diagnose Kevin as distressed, "and she wouldn't let herself get mixed in with the wrong kinds of people. God, she was just a kid!" His cries turn slowly from pained howls into soft wails of pain and distress.
When Castle and Beckett both arrived they find the crime scene to be seemingly void of all members of their team. The only people Beckett can see at the moment is Javier talking to some standers by about what might have happened to the victim,
"Espo, what's going on? Where are Ryan and Laney?" Beckett approaches Javier as he finishes up talking to a very flustered, old woman holding an oversized purse. All Javi can do is sigh and point to where Laney is sitting next to Kevin on the curb, just outside of the yellow tape,
"The victim is one, Teagan Margaret Ryan. Twenty-three years old, a hundred thirty pounds, five foot four, blue eyes, and brown hair. Went to school at Manhattan University." There's a pause as Javi glances back at Kevin and Laney and back to Beckett and Castle, "She's Kevin's sister."
"Woah!" Castle's head whips from looking at Javier to the victim then to Kevin, "I had no idea that he had a sister," He looks from the frantic detective to Beckett, "Did you know he had a sister?"
"No clue." Beckett looks from Castle to Javier, "How do you know?" Javier looks at his notes and then to Teagan,
"The physical similarities are uncanny, they have the same last name and they have the same necklaces." Javi holds up the necklace that had been seen earlier by Kevin in a plastic evidence bag so Castle and Beckett could both see, "Her's means sister and his means brother." Beckett holds her hand out for Javi to hand her the bag, "And Kev identified her himself. But it's not the fact that they're siblings that makes it that bad." He motions for Castle and Beckett to follow him toward the body in the middle of the street. When they reach the still form he grabs the jacket that had been placed back over her face and pulls it back once more to reveal a disturbing message carved into the woman's beautiful face; "DET RYAN U R NEXT".
"Someone is making a personal threat toward my detectives." Beckett does as she always does, states the obvious without so much as hesitation, "We need to find out who did this as soon as possible. And we can't have Ryan on this one. He's too close." As Beckett watches the broken-up detective he stares back at her, a lost, sad look in his eyes.
There's something about those baby blues being so broken-up that can tear anyone apart.