Disclaimer: I do not own Castle... it's probably best that way...
A/N: My first (published and completed) Castle fic. A quick little one-shot idea that came to me after watching 'Always'. Ryan doesn't get enough love and I felt that this was the perfect opportunity for me to work with him as a character. May come back and change some things later but for now, enjoy. Reviews and crits are welcomed.
I'm not naive. I've been doing this job long enough to know that, sometimes, even if you save lives, even if everyone gets back safe, you don't get a happy ending.
I tried to avoid telling Gates, really I did, but sometimes you have to do things to save the people close to you which those people don't understand.
They can't see past the betrayal to the reality of the situation.
If I hadn't acted people would have died. Beckett and Esposito would have died and, quite frankly, that wasn't an option.
One day they'll be able to see past it. One day they'll realise what I did for them and they'll thank me instead of ignoring my existence.
I understand. I know that they're hurt by what I did; that they're angry at me for caving in after all we've been through to keep this thing bottled up tight.
But I did the right thing.
I have to believe that I did the right thing.