Memorial Day
By Minstrel164
(A Javier Esposito story)
I have always wanted to write an Esposito story exploring a little of his back story, especially the time he spent in the army. This story was the result. It had its origins in another project of mine which didn't go anywhere but I liked this story enough to continue with it. I hope you like it.
XXX
"How long do you think they gonna keep us out here?"
Sergeant Javier Esposito did not respond to the question immediately. He was lying on his back with his head resting on a backpack. His eyes were closed. He had taken the earlier watch and was now resting, conserving his energy. He had been in Iraq long enough to know the harsh summer sun sapped one's energy very rapidly. In this land a soldier quickly learned not to move unless they really had to.
"Javi, how long?"
Esposito slowly cracked open an eye and turned his head to look at his spotter who was sitting a few feet away, dressed from head to foot in desert camouflage fatigues, his eyes peering through the high powered binoculars that were focused on the little village situated at the bottom of the small hill some five hundred yards away.
"How the hell should I know, Cass?" Esposito said. "The brass don't exactly consult with me, you know?"
"You can take a guess, can't you, man?"
Esposito closed his eyes and turned his head, resuming his original pose. Talking could also be energy sapping and the current conversation was starting to take its toll. Cas could bitch and moan with the best of them. Esposito just tuned out his comrade's complaining.
The sun was about an hour away from rising, the leaden sky was slowly transforming as the dawn lifted the veil of night. There was still a chill in the air. No one needed the expertise of a weather forecaster to know that it was going to be another very hot day, just like the day before and the day before that.
"Do you know what I think?"
The question came from the third member of the team, Patrick Flynn, a fresh-faced twenty-one year old native of Buffalo, New York on his first tour of duty in Iraq and a recent addition to Esposito's unit.
"No." Esposito said firmly.
"Yeah, kid, let's hear it." Cass overruled his comrade.
"I think the higher ups have forgotten about us." Flynn informed his comrades.
Esposito pushed up his wide brimmed bush hat and looked past his boots over to where Flynn was sitting. The young private was almost indistinguishable in the near darkness of the morning as he sat resting against the small tree where they had set up their shelter.
"How can they have forgotten about us when we report in twice a day?" Esposito retorted trying to hide his irritation.
"I don't know." Flynn shrugged. "But I think they have."
Esposito pulled down his hat and closed his eyes again. That statement did not make any sense but he was not about to argue.
"Have you done your sweep, Buffalo?" He asked.
"Yeah, I done it, man." Flynn muttered.
"And?"
"All clear, no friendlies or unfriendlies about."
"Well keep your eyes peeled."
Esposito settled down to catch a couple of hours sleep. He had not been too happy to have the newbie foisted on his team. He was more used to operating in two man teams. The sniper and his spotter. In other words, him and Cas. He and Cas had been together for a long time so much so they knew how each other reacted out in the field in combat. Having a rookie along made things a little difficult.
At the mission briefing Esposito had thought about protesting to the CO at having an additional member to the team for the mission but had quickly discarded the idea, realising it would not have done him any good. The Ops officer had made it crystal clear, the kid was tagging along for the operational experience and the orders had come from the Old Man, the CO himself.
Though he did not mention it to either of his comrades, Esposito had an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach that today might be the day they might be seeing some action. It was a feeling that came from having spent two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. It was a feeling that a soldier did not ignore.
"Keep your eyes peeled." Esposito repeated. "Both of you."
"They could at least tell us how long we're gonna be out here." Cas grumbled a few moments later.
"Put a cork in it, Cass, will ya." Esposito sighed in exasperation.
"I'm just saying man."
The village they had been watching for the past two days had no name, at least not one any of them could pronounce. For Esposito and his two comrades it was just a set of coordinates on a map. What made the village important was because it sat astride a road that led to the town of Fallujah some fifteen klicks to the east. The insurgency had started to heat up and all the villages around Fallujah were suspect.
The team had been choppered in under the cover of darkness three days ago to a secluded spot fifteen miles from the village. Esposito and his two comrades had to walk the rest of the way to the village undetected. They had marched through the night and holed up during the day till they had reached their target. The mission had been clear, stay out of sight for as long as possible, observe and keep the road free and clear of Improvised Explosive Devices.
"I'd bet a month's pay those Jar Heads aren't even going to come down this road." Flynn announced.
"Yeah, I'll take that bet, Buffalo." Cas replied quickly.
The other part of their mission was to keep the road open for a Marine combat patrol that would be coming through on its way to Fallujah for the coming push and to provide support if the need arose.
"You're on, Cas." Flynn laughed. "Easiest money I've made in a long time."
Esposito pushed up his hat and was about to blast the young solider from upstate New York but stopped when he heard sniggering coming from his spotter. He saw Flynn break out in a grin and immediately realised his two companions had deliberately been messing with him.
"You two are a pair of comedians." Esposito muttered angrily.
"Sorry, Sarge but Cas bet me we couldn't get a rise out of you." Flynn laughed.
Esposito shook his head and pulled down his hat, ignoring the sniggers from his companions. He could have pointed out to both of them that technically speaking he had not risen to the bait. Instead he chose to remain silent letting them have their fun. Anything to keep them from bitching and moaning.
XXX
"I got some guys taking a walk along the road." Cas announced in a calm voice.
Esposito had been slumbering, biding his time until it was his turn to take over the observation duties from Cas. The sun had risen about half an hour ago chasing away the chill of the morning. He immediately snapped his eyes open and rolled onto his stomach taking up position behind his SR-25 sniper rifle and peered through the telescope on top of his rifle. His thumb flicked off the safety as his index finger came to rest on the trigger guard. The weapon had already been sighted on the middle of the road when they had first taken up position on the hill.
"Twenty yards from the first house." Cas continued. "Three guys."
Esposito shifted his rifle a little to his right and immediately the three men came into his sights.
"I got 'em." Esposito announced.
Esposito studied the first man through the telescope. The man was dressed in a dust covered Iraqi army fatigues, a holstered gun hung loosely on his hip. On his epaulettes he sported the rank of captain. Esposito was struck by the thought the man looked far too young to be a captain. He put the man's age at about early twenties, perhaps even younger. Maybe the guy had found the clothes or maybe they had been taken from an army captain. Whether he was a captain or not was not really important, what caught Esposito's attention was the fact the man looked very nervous as he slowly walked along the road.
The two men walking behind the captain had AK-47 rifles slung over their shoulder. They too were dressed in army fatigues but had no insignia. Between them they carried a wooden box about the size of an ammunition box. One of them had a shovel in his hand. Both men also looked as nervous as their captain.
"Insurgents, I reckon." Cas said.
"Roger that." Esposito confirmed.
Esposito continued to watch the three insurgents through his scope. It was his experience that insurgents planted their IEDs in the dead of night because they believed the cover of darkness hid their activities. That was not always true. The technology that the US forces could call upon could turn night into day. It was unheard of to see them doing it once the sun had come up. Personally he had never seen it on any previous mission.
Esposito shoved that thought aside as he studied the three men walking slowly along the road. In his head he worked out the sequence he would use to take them out when the time came.
"There's just a breeze, barely a couple of miles an hour." Cas reported.
"Copy, that." Esposito replied.
Usually with sniper teams it was the better sniper who was the spotter but Esposito and Cas had been together as a team for so long both men were expert snipers. They worked as one, sharing the sniper role. The only reason Esposito was behind the sniper rifle on this mission was simply because it was just his turn. They next time they went out, it would be Cas with the sniper rifle and Esposito doing the spotting. The spotter provided information like possible targets and gauging wind speed which might affect a shot.
All Esposito and his spotter could do was wait and watch. Watch to see what these guys were going to do. If they started digging up the road to plant to the IED then he would end them. If he had a preference shooting stationery targets were easier but moving targets were not a problem for him.
"Roger Redstone, message received. Night Hawk Three out." Flynn said as he put to down his radio. "The Jar Heads are about ten klicks away, ETA twelve minutes."
"Did you tell them what we got?" Esposito asked.
"Roger that, Sarge."
Esposito almost smiled to himself. Flynn may have been a member of this little team for only a short while but he was showing signs of going far. He did not need to be told repeatedly to do things. He had the right amount of initiative. The other reason Flynn was part of the team apart from gaining operational experience was to carry the field radio and handle the comms as well as being another gun.
The three insurgents came to a halt fifty yards down the road and just stood there.
"Does this feel hinky to you, Javi?" Cas muttered in a low voice.
"Yeah." Esposito breathed.
Esposito had started to get a bad feeling about this situation the moment he had laid eyes on the insurgents walking along the road. Now that his spotter was feeling the same way it made him all the more concerned.
"Time to take them out." Cas murmured.
Esposito curled his finger slowly around the trigger of the rifle. He had the captain's head in the crosshairs of his sights. The man's torso was a bigger mass and a better target to use but Esposito could not be sure if the captain was wearing body armour. Despite all his training Esposito chose to aim at the captain's head because it was unprotected.
He could feel his heart begin to beat rapidly from the growing tension in his body for what he was about to do. There was no compunction in pulling the trigger. The man in his sights was a target, an enemy of his country and countrymen and he had been trained to kill the enemies of his country. He did not have time for the luxury of wondering who the man in his sights was or if he had family or any of those things.
Esposito heard rather than saw Flynn scramble from the shelter and take up position to Esposito's right, his rifle at the ready.
Automatically Esposito went through the breathing exercises he had been taught in order to slow down his heart rate. Many of his fellow snipers resorted to using beta blockers to help them slow their heart beats but Esposito refused to use drugs. It was a point of honour with him not to use any artificial means.
"I don't like this at all, Javi." Cas whispered. "Take them out, already."
Esposito could feel his heart rate slow right down. He silently counted down from three and slowly started to squeeze the trigger.
"Holy shit!" Flynn shouted.
Flynn had barely finished shouting when suddenly all hell seemed to break loose. Sustained gunfire tore up the ground right in front of the observation post. Esposito managed to squeeze off a round before rolling away from the bullets kicking up the dirt right in front of him. He did not need to check to know that he had hit the captain standing in the middle of the road.
"There are half a dozen of them coming up the hill." Flynn shouted in between bursts of his carbine.
"And more coming from the village." Cas added.
Lying prone on the ground Esposito looked over to Cas and saw his friend was crouching down but returning fire. Looking to the other side he saw that Flynn was doing the same, firing back in a controlled manner just like the way he had been trained to do. Looking like he was a combat veteran rather than a rookie out on his first mission.
Esposito needed to see for himself what was happening down the hill. He needed to see what kind of danger they were facing so that he could make a decision on whether they could fight the insurgents off by themselves before withdrawing or calling in assistance.
Hefting his rifle Esposito rose into a crouch and looked down the hill. A quick survey of the hillside and village revealed there were about a dozen insurgents either making their way up the hill or about to start up the hill. He even spotted a handful of men on roof tops down in the village. Where the hell did they all come from, he wondered to himself.
Ignoring the bullets flying around him Esposito aimed and took out the nearest insurgent who was racing madly up the hill firing blindly and had reached halfway up. He shifted a little and took out the insurgent's companion who had been only a few feet from his comrade. More insurgents were pouring out of the village.
A grenade exploded against the tree above the shelter. The three Special Forces soldiers ducked down to avoid the metal shrapnel and splinters. Esposito glanced behind him. The grenade was a little close for his liking.
"The bastards are using an RPG." Cas shouted.
No kidding, Esposito thought to himself. If the guy was any good with the RPG it would not take him long before he had his weapon sighted and lobbing grenades directly on them and making their lives particularly dicey. He had no doubt that the three of them, very highly trained Special Forces soldiers could fight off a dozen disorganised insurgents without too much trouble. However, against a dozen insurgents and a half accurate RPG was possibly another matter.
"Flynn, call in air support and also notify the Marine patrol." Esposito shouted.
"On it, Sarge." Flynn shouted back and started to move back to the shelter.
"Cas, can you spot where the RPG is?"
"On the road, ten yards from the first house." Cas reported back.
Another grenade exploded near where the first one had. It was quickly followed by another. Esposito hunkered down to avoid the shrapnel and splinters whizzing past him.
"There's more than one." Cas shouted needlessly.
Esposito rose on one knee and sought out where the guys with the RPG's were located. He spotted the first man, who was hefting the reloaded launcher back on his shoulder. Esposito ignored the bullets kicking around him and just concentrated on his target. He squeezed the trigger of his rifle and saw through the scope the insurgent with grenade launcher fly backwards. As he was falling backwards and in his death throes he pulled the trigger of his launcher sending the grenade straight into the air, scattering some of the men standing near him.
Esposito did not pause to celebrate taking out the grenade launcher he was already zeroing on the second insurgent with a grenade launcher. The insurgent was struggling to reload his weapon when Esposito's bullet found its target. The insurgent's head exploded in a red mist of blood and brain matter.
"There's a pair of snakes on their way, Serge." Flynn reported.
Esposito was relieved to hear that piece of news. Two Marine Corps SuperCobra ground attack helicopters were on their way to lend support. No doubt they must have been covering the Marine patrol. The helicopters would quickly make short work of the attacking insurgents.
Another grenade exploded close by.
"There's another RPG down there."
"I can't see him, Javi." Cas shouted back.
"Flynn, how far out is the air support?" Esposito shouted as he turned his attention back to the insurgents making their way up the hill.
"Flynn!"
Esposito fired a couple of rounds before he looked over his shoulder. Flynn was laying on his back on the ground, a look of surprise on his face. The front of his fatigues was covered in blood.
"Cas, Flynn's been hit." Esposito shouted.
Cas looked behind him and also saw the young man on the ground bleeding. He looked over to Esposito and gave his friend a quick nod of his head and then quickly scrambled over to the fallen soldier. Of the two of them Cas was the best at administering first aid. Esposito covered Cas' withdrawal.
"How is he, Cas?" Esposito asked a few moments later.
"He's hurt bad, Javi." Cas replied. "Damn kid wasn't wearing his body armour."
Esposito cursed loudly. It had always been drummed into them they had to always wear their body armour no matter how hot it got. He emptied his magazine at the approaching insurgents then quickly pulled out the empty magazine and replaced it with a full clip and fired several more shots before he shifted back to where Flynn and Cas were.
"He's hurt real bad, Javi." Cas said, as he applied a pressure bandage over a wound.
Esposito looked down at the young man. He did not need to be a combat medic to know that the young man was in serious trouble and needed evac immediately.
The radio handset lay close to Flynn. Esposito scrambled over to the radio and reached to pick up the handset. He heard Cas talking to Flynn, desperately trying to keep him awake and conscious. There was a grim expression on Cas' face.
"This is Night Hawk One, we need a medivac chopper ASAP." Esposito said into the radio. "Night Hawk Three is down with multiple shrapnel wounds to the chest, requires immediate evac."
Esposito did not hear the response from the radio. A volley of bullets tore up a line in the dirt a couple of feet from where Esposito was kneeling. He forgot about the radio and focused his attention to where the gunfire had come from. Grasping his rifle in both hands he rose into a crouch and started to return fire at the several insurgents who had managed to get to the top of the crest of the hill. More bullets fizzed past him like angry hornets seeking a target.
"Cas get down, there's more of them." Esposito shouted.
Esposito took out an insurgent and then another coolly and methodically but more of them appeared firing wildly in his direction. Suddenly he felt like he had been kicked by an angry mule. All the breath was knocked out of him as a searing pain erupted in his abdomen like he had been stabbed by a red hot poker…
Esposito woke with a start, a strangled cry dying in his throat. His hand went to his abdomen where he sported a bullet scar. He was bathed in a cold sweat and he could feel his heart galloping madly as if it wanted to bust out of his chest. For a moment he did not know where he was. The sound of battle echoed in his ears as he looked around in the darkness trying to get his bearings.
As he came fully awake he realised that he was sitting up in his bed. He had been having a nightmare. The same nightmare he had been having off and on for over ten years. He had been dreaming of the day outside that village in Iraq.
Taking several slow deep breaths to calm himself, the dream loosened its hold on him and he started to relax a little. His rapidly beating heart began to slow down.
The first time he had suffered the nightmare had been shortly after he had left the army and returned to civilian life. At the time just about anything would set it off. One time a car backfiring had sent him diving to the ground looking for cover and thinking he was under attack outside that nameless Iraqi village not far from Fallujah. There had been nights where it had gotten so bad he had been afraid to close his eyes.
Yet he got on with life, sought help for the nightmares and PTSD. Eventually he joined the NYPD and progressed from a lowly patrol man to detective. In time the nightmares lessened. Its frequency became intermittent and irregular. Sometimes it would be months between an episode or even longer. Yet the nightmare did not completely disappear. It was always there skulking in the shadows, lurking, biding its time, waiting for the right moment to return.
Tonight it had been a bad episode.
The last time it had been this bad had been a couple of years ago during the sniper case when he had helped Beckett with her PTSD. At the time he had felt a little guilty for not having spotted the problem. It had been Castle who had recognised that Beckett was suffering and he had turned to him to help her.
Standing there on the roof top he had felt like he was back in the army. He had taken out Lee Travis when he had been about to shoot Beckett in the adjacent building. His partner had been in danger and he had not hesitated pulling the trigger. He had eliminated the danger the way he always had. The way he had been trained to do.
Shooting Travis had meant spending hours filling out forms and answering questions that always came following a police involved shooting. That night when he had come home and gone to bed the nightmare had returned and stayed for a week or so before it faded into the background once more.
With his breathing now back to normal Esposito reached over and flicked on the bedside lamp and picked up his phone. It was only four-thirty in the morning. Somehow he had thought it might have been later. Putting the phone down he cast a glance to the other side if the bed.
It was empty and he was relieved that it was. Last night he had been out with a girl he had met at a club. She had wanted to come back to his place. In fact she had been eager to come back to his place. Had it been any other night he would not have hesitated but last night he had begged off giving her some lame excuse that he had trouble remembering now. Thankfully she had not pressed him, accepting the rain check he offered.
The last thing he wanted to have happen was for him to wake up in the middle of the night screaming because of a nightmare. It had happened a few times when Lanie had stayed over or he had stayed at her place. The first couple of times it had happened he had managed to brush it off. Yet when it had happened again Lanie had pressed him for an explanation.
At first he had been reluctant to talk about it but Lanie wasn't the type to let things go. She waited him out and eventually he told her about that day outside that village in Iraq.
As his thoughts dwelled on the medical examiner he felt a little bad that he had broken it off with her. Especially so soon after the visit of her parents just before Christmas. Sure the timing could have been a bit better and it had hurt it to do it. Yet deep down he knew he had done the right thing.
While Lanie had been more than happy to continue things the way they were, a sort of friends with benefits arrangement that had suited both of them because of the crazy hours they worked, he on the other hand had been wanting for things to change.
More and more lately he had found himself yearning for something more, something more permanent. He would look at Ryan and Jenny, and despite the trials and tribulations of a young couple trying to raise a family, they would not have it any other way as Ryan had told him many times. Ryan and Jenny were happy.
Then there was Castle and Beckett. Those two had been in love with each other for longer than either would care to admit but they had finally seen sense and admitted the feelings they had for each other and recently they had tied the knot. They could not have been more happier. He still had some reservations about Castle's disappearance but he kept those thoughts for the most part to himself. Beckett was happy and if she was happy that was fine with him. He would look at these two couples, seeing what they had together and could not help but feel a little envious of them.
Esposito let out a long sigh as he pushed those thoughts from his head. He threw aside the blanket and got out of bed. There was no point in trying to get back to sleep so he decided to do some exercises before hitting the shower.
XXX
Esposito emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist and padded into the bedroom. As he made his way to the dresser table he cast a glance over to the wardrobe where his neatly pressed army uniform hung from a coat hanger. He had taken it out of the wardrobe the night before and took special care in ironing it before hanging it on the door in readiness for today.
Reaching the dressing table he opened the top drawer, the one where he kept his socks and underpants and other odds and ends. Reaching into the back of the drawer he took out a black rectangular polished wooden box.
Opening the box he gazed down at the set of medals that nestled on the dark blue velvet cloth. He had been awarded a number of medals for his service in uniform but it was the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart that mattered most to him. Each of them had a story, some he could talk about and others that he could never talk about. He slowly ran his finger over the medals until it came to a halt on the Purple Heart. He had been awarded the Purple Heart for the wounds he had received in that fire fight outside that village.
After spending some minutes gazing at the medals Esposito slowly closed the lid of the box and returned it to the drawer and then closed the drawer. He would not be wearing the medals on his uniform today though he had every right to. He had hardly worn them at all since he had left the army.
Turning away from the dresser table he walked to the wardrobe and prepared to get dressed.
XXX
Esposito emerged from his car in the car park of the cemetery. There was a slight chill in the early morning air but he did not feel it. He closed the door and locked the car but remained standing beside the vehicle. He pulled on the Green Beret with the black flash and Special Forces insignia of two crossed arrows and dagger and made sure that it sat properly on his head. When he had dressed he had stood in front of his dressing mirror for a long time carefully inspecting his reflection making sure that every badge and ribbon was in its correct place on the uniform.
Looking about him Esposito saw that there were a number of people slowly making their way from their cars towards the front gates of the cemetery. Some were in military uniform but the majority were civilians. Sombre looking men and women with bouquets of flowers or wreaths to lay at the grave of a loved one, sleepy eyed children clutching small flags not really comprehending, surly looking teenagers angry at the world and everyone in it. As the day wore on there be would a steady stream of visitors to the cemetery.
Esposito started walking, making his way to the cemetery gates. It had only been in the past couple of years that he had made the effort to make an appearance here on this day. When he had returned from Iraq he was still recovering from his wounds and the memories were still too fresh for him to visit. In the years that followed he had either been a patrol officer working out of the 54th Precinct or a detective working on a case and did not have the time.
Today he was supposed to have been on duty. When the duty roster had come out he immediately gone to see Captain Gates and requested a change of shift, explaining to her the reason he was making the request. Captain Gates had been happy to give him the day off, and he did not have to swap with another detective either. That had surprised him but he was grateful to the captain all the same.
Near the cemetery entrance there was a stall selling flowers to visitors who had not brought their own. Esposito was not much for flowers on graves and did not pause at the flower stall.
A few feet from the flower stall stood a man dressed in old army fatigues. From the old unit patch sewn on the sleeve of his shirt, that of a bald eagle, Esposito saw the man had served in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Esposito did not need to ask if the man had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. He had the look of a man who had seen too many battles and lost too many comrades. Though he may have emerged physically unscathed, there were war wounds there all the same. The kind you could not see.
The former soldier was holding a tray filled with small American flags that he was selling. Proceeds from the sale of the flags went to a charity that assisted veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan according to the hand written sign attached to the front of the tray.
As Esposito approached the flag seller he dug his hand into the pocket of his trousers in search of some money. He pulled out a twenty dollar bill which he handed over to the flag seller.
"Do you wanna flag?" The veteran asked lifting up one of the flags and holding it out to Esposito.
"Nah, just making a donation."
"You need change?"
Esposito shook his head and started walking. "Keep it all."
"Hey, thanks, Serge." The veteran called out as he pocketed the money.
Esposito passed through the open gates and strode along the main roadway.
Ten minutes later Esposito walked slowly along a row of white grave stones some of which had bouquets of flowers that had been left by some visitor, all of them each had a small American flag that had been placed there by parties of volunteers the day before in readiness for Memorial Day.
He came to a halt in front of the grave he had come to see. Standing at the grave already was a familiar face.
"Good to see you, Javi."
"You too, Cas."
Esposito noticed that his former comrade in arms had earned himself another stripe since the last time they had seen each other.
"Congrats on the new stripe, Cas."
"Thanks, Javi."
He was now a Sergeant First class. Cas had stayed on in the army after Esposito had left it. He had remained with the Special Forces until being injured a couple of years later in a training accident. The injury prevented him from any further operational service so he had been assigned to desk duty. For the last handful of years he had been working as an army recruiter.
"I see the uniform still fits you." Cas remarked, nodding at his friend.
"Damn right it does. I still keep in shape, Cas." Esposito said proudly with a hint of a smile.
"You gonna make it to this year's reunion, Javi?"
"I don't know, Cas." Esposito shrugged. "I could be working."
"C'mon, man, the rest of the guys would love to see you."
Esposito had not attended any of the reunions that his former unit had held over the past few years. Usually he was working when they being were held and he could not get the time off to fly to Kentucky for a weekend of drinking, practical jokes and the telling of tall tales.
"I'll think about it, okay?" Esposito offered after some moments of silence.
"Okay."
Cas nodded his head slowly. He glanced at the grave before he turned his attention back to his friend.
"I'll leave you to pay your respects, Javi." Cas said.
"You're not staying?" Esposito asked, looking a little surprised.
"I got here early and paid my respects." Cas replied. "And I have a couple of other ceremonies to attend."
Esposito nodded his head in understanding. "Fair enough."
"I'll see you soon, Javi, okay?"
"You got it, Cas."
The two former comrades shook hands and then hugged each other. Esposito watched his friend walk away before he turned and faced the grave of Private First Class Patrick Flynn.
He knew why Cas did not want to stay. It was still a painful memory for his friend. For him too. Both he and Cas, though they did not say it aloud, felt guilty that the kid had been killed. Private Flynn had been their responsibility. They were the old pros who were supposed to show him the ropes out in the field, teach him what to do and what not to do in an operational situation. It was all and good undergoing some of the toughest military training in the world, no matter how realistic it was, it did not compare to actual combat experience. Some would say it was the fortunes of war to be killed on your first operation. It happened sometimes. Yet whether it was the fortunes of war, just pure dumb luck, or whatever you wanted to call it, even now it still did not sit well with Esposito.
For some minutes Esposito stood there staring, transported back to that little village in Iraq. A small bouquet of flowers lay at the foot of the grave stone. The flowers had come from Cas, bought from the flower stall out the front perhaps. The small flag that had been placed there but some unknown volunteer fluttered lazily in the breeze.
As he continued to stare down he was filled with sadness. Flynn did not have any immediate kin. He had been an only child whose parents had died within months of each other not long after he had finished high school. Esposito had only learned that piece of information some months after his return to the States.
When Esposito had come out of surgery he had been told that the evac chopper had arrived on scene at about the same time as the two Marine Corps SuperCobras. While the SuperCobras had set about sweeping the area of insurgents with canon and Hellfire missiles the evac helicopter landed and had taken onboard not only the wounded but Cas as well. The medics had done all they could but the kid had died on the flight to the nearest Combat Support Hospital.
The kid would have been about thirty-three or thirty-four years old if he had lived. Now he would remain forever young, another name on the roll call of honour of those who had made the ultimate sacrifice in service of their country.
Esposito slowly straightened up to attention and was about to snap a salute when he paused on hearing some shuffling behind him. He turned around to see who was standing behind him. A look of astonishment spread across his face.
"Hey, Espo." Kate Beckett said quietly, a soft smile on her face.
"What are you guys doing here?"
Esposito looked at Kate then at Castle and Ryan who flanked her. He was surprised to find them standing there. He was sure that Beckett had told him something about taking the Memorial Day long weekend off to go to the Hamptons with Castle. He was definitely sure Ryan had said something about a gathering with Jenny's relatives.
"It's what partners do." Kate informed him. Both Castle and Ryan nodded their heads in agreement.
As he looked at his friends and colleagues felt a surge of emotion rise within him. He pushed down the tears that threatened. The last thing he wanted was for them to see him with tears in his eyes.
"Thanks." He said hoarsely before he turned on his heels and faced the grave.
Kate came to stand by Esposito's left shoulder. She placed her hand on his arm and gave it a gentle squeeze which elicited a brief ghost of a smile from him. Ryan took his spot beside his partner's right shoulder. The two men nodded briefly to each other. Castle moved forward. He crouched in front of the grave and carefully placed the bouquet of flowers he had been holding beside the ones that had been left by Cas. Slowly he straightened up and came to stand beside Kate putting an arm around her shoulders and drawing her closer.
They stood there for some time in silence with their own thoughts. It was Castle who finally broke the silence.
"I'd like to know the story of Private Patrick Flynn." He said, glancing at Esposito.
Esposito cast an unreadable look in the author's direction.
"But not today." Castle added quickly.
Esposito regarded Castle silently for a couple of moments and found himself starting to nod his head. It was not such a bad idea, he thought to himself. Who knew, the kid might find himself immortalised in Castle's next book. Anything was better than just a name on a slab of stone.
"Yeah, I'd like that, Castle." Esposito said.
"So, can we buy you some breakfast, soldier boy?" Kate smiled as she turned to look at Esposito.
Esposito returned her smile and nodded his head. He had left his apartment without having had breakfast and truth be told he was starting to feel hungry. They started to walk away from the grave.
"Castle's paying," Kate added, "So you can order anything you like."
"Gee thanks, Castle." Esposito and Ryan said in unison.
XXXXX
As usual, dear reader, your thoughts would be appreciated.
Con