Just a short one-shot in response to the Best. Episode. Ever. Seriously. I've been home with the flu, and can't stop watching Under Fire. I think that phone call broke me. Castle belongs to ABC, and Andrew Marlowe and David Amann are writing gods.

After the Fire

The will to survive, to just keep taking that next breath, was an amazing thing. They should have died. He had even accepted it as inevitable and made peace with it. But his heart had kept beating, his lungs had kept pumping and he was still alive. And so very grateful.

The coolness of the room's air fought against the hot tightness of his skin. All in all, he'd come away from that room better off than anyone would have expected. Cuts, bruises, minor concussion, smoke inhalation and some first and second degree burns. It could have been, should have been, so much worse. Would have been, if not for his partner's unrelenting optimism, intelligence and will to survive. And their friends' determination to find them a way out. Any way out.

Fighting the tickle in his chest, not wanting to cough and disturb the warm bundle pressed against his chest, Javier poked gently at the canula in his nose to distract himself. It delivered much needed and welcomed oxygen to his abused lungs. He smiled down once more at the wrinkled little bundle wrapped in a pale pink blanket. Seriously, what had his partner been thinking? Esposito could just picture the poor kid at school. A small, pale Irish kid named Javier? Doomed to be teased relentlessly. Thank heavens Jenny had delivered a perfect, beautiful baby girl.

He brushed a gentle finger along the tiny button nose and smiled softly as Sarah Grace wrinkled said nose in response. Just like her father's wrinkled when he laughed. Looking up from his niece's face, Javier sought out his partner. Kevin slept, in a hospital bed next to his wife's, oxygen mask firmly over his face delivering the same cool air Javier was breathing. The angle from his wheelchair, parked between the two beds, was such that the detective could only see Ryan's profile. His partner's face had been cleaned of soot and looked much better. Even if a bit red from the heat of the fire, as was his own. Though, on Kevin's pale Irish skin it was much more obvious.

Ryan, too, had escaped the explosion better off than expected. He had the same list of injures as Javier's own, with the addition of a small hairline fracture in his left tibia from the pressure of the beam that had trapped Kevin. If the beam hadn't also landed on debris, which kept the majority of the weight off of the trapped legs, Kevin might have been looking at a career-ending injury. As it was, the leg should be healed by the time his paternity leave was up.

Movement in the other bed distracted him and Esposito found himself smiling back at Jenny Ryan. He could tell from her expression that she understood some of the thoughts running through his head. Knew that they had been so very, very lucky. Javier fought a surge of emotion, remembering the heart-wrenching phone call in the sub-basement as Kevin essentially said goodbye to his wife, and as-yet-unborn child.

He couldn't even imagine what that had been like for Jenny. In pain, about to deliver her child...saying goodbye to her husband. And Lanie. Stoic and strong to the end. Being there for Jenny, and forcing down her own fear at losing her friends. Javi still wasn't quite sure where he stood with Lanie, but after the fire...maybe it was time he found out. What if he hadn't made it out of that basement? Had never been able to tell Lanie how he felt about her?

"You okay, Javi?"

Jenny's soft query jolted him out of his thoughts and he smiled reassuringly at her. "Just thinking. Counting my blessings, I guess."

Her gaze slid over to the sleeping figure of her husband. Jenny's eyes watered as she cleared her throat and smiled tremulously at Javier. "I know. Don't ever do that again, Javier."

Laughing quietly, Esposito stood and returned Sarah Grace to her mother's care. "She's beautiful, Jenny. Just like her mother, fortunately."

Adjusting her daughter so she was more comfortable, Jenny smiled at her husband's partner. "She has Kevin's nose. With any luck, she'll have his eyes."

"Yeah, well, I'll be there next to Ryan the day she goes on her first date. Cleaning my guns. No boy is touching my niece until she's, I don't know, thirty."

"You'll do no such thing Javier Esposito. You're supposed to help mellow Kevin, not feed his insecurities." Jenny reached out to squeeze Javier's hand where it rested on the bed railing. "Now, I believe there's a certain medical examiner that you should probably be having a deep, meaningful conversation with. I saw her face in that ambulance, Javi. You two need to talk."

Mindful of the oxygen tubing, Javier leaned over to kiss Jenny on the cheek then gave one to his new niece for good measure. Lowering himself back into his wheelchair, he unlocked the wheels and glanced at his partner once more as he rolled back to leave. Kevin was a very lucky man. For the first time, Javier admitted to himself that he wanted what his partner had. And, just maybe, had finally found the courage to do something about it.

Lifting that beam off of his partner would probably prove easier than the upcoming conversation with Lanie. But, if he was lucky, would end up just as rewarding. After all, the will to survive...the will for love to survive...was an amazing thing.

END