Simon Says

He had to come from somewhere, didn't he? In which Ryan weasels his way onto the team. Ryan, Beckett, Esposito, Lanie. Pre-Pilot.

Beckett stepped out of Interrogation and froze with one foot in the bullpen. Someone was sitting at her desk and scrutinizing her murder board. She sized him up as she walked over. The white polo and dark slacks were semi-professional at best, and the dark green leather jacket did nothing to make him look older than he was. Beckett pegged him at twenty three. Chances were he was Sanchez's public defender, which meant he shouldn't have been left alone in the bullpen. He'd gotten there awfully fast, Beckett thought, and if he'd messed with her evidence or her chair she was going to kill him.

"Can I help you?" Beckett asked, standing over him.

He looked up and grinned, blue eyes flashing. Beckett revised her earlier thought. He couldn't be a day over twenty-two. Either the DA was getting desperate, or something fishy was going on.

"I'm looking for Detective Beckett."

"You found her. And you're in my chair."

"Sorry." He gave her another unapologetic grin and moved to the corner of her desk. "Interesting case you got. Molly Paradiso, shot outside her apartment, no suspects."

"It's not a pop and drop," Beckett found herself saying. "We have the boyfriend for it." Damn it, where was Esposito? He was supposed to keep the whackjobs away. "Why are you looking for me? And who are you, exactly?"

"Detective Kevin Ryan. The boyfriend didn't do it. I have a witness."

"What department?" Beckett incredulously asked. What precinct made a kid fresh out of college a detective?

"Narcotics – you know, a few floors down. And I'm twenty eight, in case you were wondering." Ryan smirked. "You don't have the best poker face."

"Esposito!" Beckett called, never taking her eyes off of Ryan.

"Yo, Beckett." Esposito came out of the break room with two cups of coffee and handed one to her. "Still waiting on the phone records. What's up?"

"This is Detective Kevin Ryan, Narcotics. He says he has a witness that can prove Sanchez didn't do it."

Esposito grunted.

"Yeah, that's what I said." Beckett agreed, turning away.

"Hey!" Ryan burst out, affronted. "At least hear what I've got to say, first."

"Why, you going to break this case wide open for us?" Esposito asked, unimpressed.

"Maybe," Ryan shrugged. Smirked. "If I do, you have to buy me a pizza."

"What, don't they feed you down in Narc?"

"Nope. They even have a 'Don't Feed the Animals' sign up and everything." Ryan shrugged. "It's worth a pizza."

"If it doesn't pan out, you buy us pizza," Esposito bargained.

"Cool. You'll like this. Especially since Ballistics just screwed you with Sanchez." Ryan hopped off Beckett's desk and handed her a blue folder.

"How the hell did you get our Ballistics report?" Beckett ground out, eyes narrowed.

"I was there getting my own results. Once I saw what I had, I convinced him to let me bring yours up. Hand delivered, and all."

Beckett ignored him, flipping through the report as Esposito peered over her shoulder. Damn it, Ryan was right. That was obnoxious.

"Guess what mine says."

"What?" Esposito asked.

"Oh come on, you're not even going to guess?"

"Ryan!" Beckett snapped. She wasn't in the mood for games.

Ryan's grin didn't dim at the reprimand. In fact, it got even brighter. "I got your murder weapon."

"Explain this to me again, Ryan," Beckett asked as she and Esposito followed the other detective down to holding.

"Pulled in a snitch this morning. He hangs with some of the Latin Kings, but apparently even scuzzy dudes have morals, because he is way offended by their new habit of dealing at schools. So we get a call every once in a while about a deal going down, go in, bust them, that sort of thing. Got a call this morning and it's our boy Simon. Simon says," Ryan smirked at his own joke. "Hey, I got a tip, come down and meet me. So I go down there with Miller, and in the course of our meeting, Miller managed to offend Simon, who promptly punched him in the face." Ryan shook his head. "Idiot. I hauled him in for assault. We're in the car and Simon says to Miller, hey, sorry about that. If you're willing to let it slide, I got something you might be interested in. Miller's the rookie, but it's his face, so I let him decide. His nose had stopped bleeding at that point, so he was in a better mood. Kid's good, too."

"You ever going to get to the point, whiteboy?" Esposito asked, voice bland.

Ryan gave him a look. "Miller tells Simon that we'll check out what he's got, and if it pans out, he's good. Until then he's gotta cool his heels in holding. Simon has a lead on the gun used to kill Molly Paradiso. Says one of the new LKs was talking abut dumping it on Third after he shot her when she refused to give him her purse. Miller finds it right where Simon said it was. Both Randy and Lanie Parish down at the morgue agree that gun fired the bullet that killed Molly."

Beckett made a mental note to go talk to Lanie as soon as she had a moment.

"Pretty good, right?" Ryan asked, stopping in front of the second holding cell. "Hey, Simon! Come here. Tell these detectives what you told me and you can go." Ryan waved the sheaf of papers he'd picked up on his way by his desk. "All charges dropped, as per our agreement."

"You didn't have to come, Esposito," Beckett reminded her partner as they entered the morgue.

Esposito rolled his eyes. "What was I gonna do, wait around for the phone records? Besides, he's annoying. I want to know what the Doc knows about him."

"So you can destroy him?"

"If I have to."

Beckett sighed and pushed the swinging doors open. "Lanie, are you here?"

"Where else, girl? Hey, Esposito. What brings you two down here?" Lanie looked up for a brief moment and then down again, smoothly cracking open her newest patient's chest. "Can't be about the Paradiso girl, I know I sent the report up last night."

"Actually, it is. Sort of," Beckett admitted. "Did you talk to a Detective Ryan about the case?"

"Kevin Ryan? Yeah, he called about the bullets. A bit strange getting a call about a homicide from a narcotics cop, but then, take a look at Mr. Archer on my table. You gotta do some seriously crazy things to even make my weird meter twitch. Archer's a two."

Esposito winced.

"Why, what's up?" Lanie wondered.

"I'm pretty sure he just proved our murderer didn't actually do it."

"If the prints in the lab back up the snitch's story." Esposito interjected. "Which we won't know about until tomorrow."

"How do you know him, Lanie?" Beckett prodded.

"Ryan? God, he's been here at the twelfth for years. I'm surprised you haven't run into each other before. He came down a few times when he was walking the beat after he helped canvass during homicide cases, to see what happened with the victims, and then when he moved to Narcotics a few years back I started seeing him, oh, once a month? Drug muling never ends well, and that's always been a Narc thing." Lanie tutted and weighed Archer's lungs. "Death by drug mule would have been more fun for this one, I can tell you that much."

"He looks like he's in college, Lanie."

"So much the better to buy drugs off people, right?" Lanie shrugged. "Don't let the Abercrombie look fool you."

Esposito snorted.

"What was that, Esposito?" Lanie demanded.

"Nothing."

"Why all the questions, Kate? Thinking of adopting the stray?"

Beckett stared at Lanie.

"Well, hon, you snatched up Esposito the second he walked into the precinct, and Ryan's a bit of a misfit down in Narcotics. He likes it, and he's good at it, but he doesn't really have the temperament for it. In case you hadn't noticed, he's a bit excitable."

"Oh, we noticed."

"Thought you might've," Lanie grinned at them. "He's also pretty good with the computerized half of investigating – if that helps. He's friends with half of the Tech department."

It did. Beckett and Esposito did not always get along with their computers.

Beckett went down to Narcotics two days later at the end of shift and found Ryan bent over his desk filling in reports.

"Ryan."

"Hey, Detective Beckett." Ryan grinned. "What's up?"

"Your snitch was right."

"On both counts," Ryan leaned back, gesturing to the reports littering his desk. "We took down a delivery system the other day and I've been dotting my i's and crossing my t's ever since. Hey, if he was right, where's my pizza?"

"I have something better than pizza."

"Uh… no offense, Beckett, but I'm seeing someone right now."

Beckett laughed. "Don't worry Ryan, you're not my type."

"Okay, so…?"

Beckett dropped a folder on his desk.

"What're these?" Ryan asked.

"Transfer orders. I've already cleared it with your captain."

Ryan's eyebrows jumped up. "Explain."

"Montgomery's been after me to get someone else on the team. I want you."

Ryan quickly looked around his empty bullpen, flipped open the folder, and scribbled his signature on the line. "When do I start?"

Beckett's phone buzzed and she flipped it open. "Right now. We've got a body."