"Esposito? NO! NO, ESPOSITO!"

Ryan ran to his partner, catching him as he fell. "C'mon, bro," he said, holding the bigger man on his lap, tears beginning to surge from his eyes. "C'mon. Don't go, Espo. Don't leave me." Kevin grabbed at his wrist, searching for a pulse, anything. Almost nothing, just the smallest, most sluggish and irregular beat that Kevin had ever heard.

"Javier. Goddamnit, Javi. Wake up!" Ryan threw off his bulletproof vest and pulled off the shirt he was wearing underneath. He bunched it up and used it to stop the bleeding from the bullet wound in Esposito's stomach. He laid Esposito on the ground and begun compressions. "Come – on – Javi," he said, putting everything he had into saving his closest friend. Thirty compressions and two breaths. Thirty compressions, two breaths. He kept going, for what seemed like hours but was actually minutes. Finally, the ambulance that someone had called arrived.

"Bullet wound to the lower-right abdomen, weak pulse, been doing CPR since it happened," he rattled off to the parameds, getting into the ambulance after they carefully placed Javi on the stretcher-bed.

He was attached to an oxygen mask and one paramedic immediately continued CPR, while the other put a proper bandage on the wound. All Ryan could do was hold Javi's hand. The paramedic shot questions at Ryan. "Does he have any close relatives?"

"No."

"Wife?"

"No."

"Close friends? Next of kin?"

"I'm his next of kin."

"If surgery is necessary, do you give your permission?"

Kevin nodded. "Yes."

When they got to the hospital, Javi was rushed through a door, and Kevin was told to go home and get some rest. Instead, he went to the cafeteria and called Beckett.

"Beckett."

"Kate, it's Kevin." Surnames didn't feel appropriate right now. This was a call to a friend. "Javi's been shot."

There was a shocked silence. "Where's the bullet?"

"Lower abdomen."

"Oh God." Kevin could hear her trying not to cry. "Are you at the hospital?"

"Yeah. He's gone into surgery, I think. They just kinda… I don't know. The ambulance guys took him somewhere else. I'm not quite, not thinking straight right now."

"Do you want me or Castle to come?"

"Nah. I think I need a while to myself, you know? There's nothing you can do here, anyway. But thanks."

"Sure. If there's anything you need -"

"Beckett? What's wrong?" Castle asked in the background.

"I better go, Kate. He'll be fine."

"Yeah. Good luck, Kevin."

Kevin could feel his own tears beginning to fall again, so he got a coffee and just sat in the cafeteria, and waited for news of his partner.