Author's Notes:
Thank you for reading my story, I hope you enjoy it.
It takes place somewhere towards the end of the fifth season time frame.
No particular reference points needed other than having seen "The Wild Rover" S5:E18 and maybe "Sucker Punch". You mostly need to know Finn Rourke is a bad man. No spoilers.
By all means, please leave me feedback/reviews on this or any of the other stories I've posted here.


Story Notes:
I have no idea where this came from. I was falling asleep and I thought of how, despite being detectives, Ryan and Esposito are reduced to being shown as almost being clerks. Then this hit me. I thought that this would be a nice little "filler" to an episode. Mostly the kind that ends up on the proverbial cutting-room floor but I felt like I wanted to give some depth to Kevin's character. We know he's the innocent "boy-scout" type but I thought that you can't get to where he is without some serious personality depth. I figured this entire thing would be only about five to ten minutes long.


Esposito comes rushing into the bull-pen off of the elevators. "Beckett!", "Castle!" "Comere!" he calls waving them over to where he is in front of Captain Gates' office door like a kid who just found his father's Playboy magazines.

"What's goin' on Espo?" Beckett asks as they arrive.

"You have GOT to hear this story!" he's bubbling like a new father, his energy is almost unrestrained at this point. He turns and knocks on the Captain's door. Without waiting for an acknowledgement or invitation, he walks in to her office. "Cap'in Gates, do you have a couple of minutes? I need to tell you what just happened with this suspect."

"Detective Esposito. Do I assume you've had another espresso this afternoon?" Gates coolly asks as she takes her glasses off and fixes a withering stare at the man.

"No no... Captain, you have to hear this. I really think you should know about what just went down with this case." He says, still bubbling with excitement and beginning to draw a small crowd since he's not being too quiet about it.

"I guess the best thing to do Detective, is start at the beginning." the Captain instructs leaning back in her chair waiting to hear the story.

"So, Kev and I are working on this case with the drug deal gone wrong where our suspect killed his dealer and shot up a Korean market at the same time. We finally get a lead on our suspect's girlfriend's residence and we go to question her." Javi quickly explains to the crowd now in rapt attention.

"Me and Ryan..." he starts.

"Ryan and I." Castle corrects only to get a room full of cops glaring at him. "Sorry." he says quietly as he tries to shrink.

"Anyway, we get to the apartment, and Ryan had brought along a couple of Uni's because he thought we might need 'em with the girlfriend. We approach the apartment and we hear a man and woman screaming and yelling and fighting and Kevin, in the lead, goes through the door. As we breach, this piece of dirt throws about five shots at Ryan and the girlfriend as he runs out the back door. He missed Ryan but hit the girlfriend once or twice. I leave the Uni's with her and have them take care of her and call an ambulance. Ryan is off like a dog after bacon, he's tearing around the corner, I'm doing my damnedest to keep up with him and he's still pulling away from me. That's when we see the guy go into a bar." Esposito is almost hyperventilating he's so excited.

"Detective..." Gates starts.

"Please Captain, let me finish before he gets up here." he pleads as she waves him on.

"So I catch up to Ryan and we're standing in front of an Irish bar. He says for me to stay about five feet behind him, do what he does, look where he looks and say nothing. Before you can say leprechaun he's swinging the door open and marching in there and holstering his weapon!" Esposito looks around at the captive audience. "Now comes the freaky part!" he says looking back at the Captain.

"So, we walk into this place about ten feet in from the door and he stops in his tracks, he just stands there. You can hear all this buzzing, people talking, music, arguments, shi... stuff like that when all of a sudden you can hear people saying 'Fenton!' and 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph! If it isn't Fenton O'Connell and he's wearin' a badge!' the place goes quiet except for the name Fenton and O'Connell being said around the place. Here's my'man Kevin standing there staring at none other than Finn Rourke in the flesh."

Beckett, from the doorway fills in the "audience" by telling them "Finn Rourke is the head of the Westies".

"Yeah yeah." Esposito says in agreement.

"So here we are and Kevin starts, in this real strong voice 'Squire Rourke, I'm sorry to be disturbing you and your patrons but my partner and I are looking for a common criminal who we think might have tried to hide in here.' and while he's saying this to Rourke, Ryan points his left hand at the bartender, without even looking at the guy!' and snaps his fingers, then he puts his hand out flat and makes a 'down' motion with it, this guy, was obviously preparing for something and he stops, lifts his hands to show he's holding nothing and then puts them down flat on the bar and leans on them without another word. Rourke is just taking a swig of his drink when Ryan says 'While normally we'd not be bothering you with such trivialities, this suspect is wanted on drug charges and trying to kill his girlfriend who's carrying his unborn child.' as soon as Ryan says the thing about her being pregnant, Rourke spits out his beer, slams his drink down on the bar and says 'I tink I know da individual yous looking for.' and he turns and walks back into the place."

At this point, everyone's hanging on every word and even the Captain is smiling at the story.

"So we hear this SMACK and THUD coming from the back and here comes Finn Rourke, walking up to Kevin dragging our unconscious suspect by the ankle, like some wild character from 'Game of Thrones' and he TOSSES this guy at Kevin's feet like a bag of groceries, then looks Kevin square in the eye and says 'We always try to cooperate with law enforcement.' and he turns around and goes back to his seat and picks up his drink."

"Detective Esposito, take a breath, you're going to pass out." Captain Gates orders with a smile.

"Yeah." he says long enough to take another breath "So, Kevin, without flinching gently pulls his service weapon to his side, reaches down and grabs this piece of dirt by the collar and says 'Thank you Mister Rourke, my partner and I will take out this trash for you. Our apologies again to everyone for the interruption.' and he freaking turns his back on Finn Rourke to drag this guy out by the collar. We get outside and I'm shaking so much I can't even put the cuffs on the suspect and Kevin is as cool and collected as if he just mailed a letter!" Esposito says to a rising sound of hubbub outside the door.

"Captain, you just had to hear how Ryan handled this, it was amazing! You could see Rourke knew who he was and gave him his respect." Esposito finishes.

"Thank you for filling me in Detective. Please make sure... no wait... Mister Castle?" the Captain calls out.

His eyes go wide like he's been caught stealing cookies. "Y..y..yes Captain?" he answers trying to hide himself behind Beckett.

"Mister Castle, I want you to work with Detective Esposito to make sure that his report properly and succinctly reflects the events that transpired as we've just heard." she orders without even looking for him.

"Yes Captain, will do." he calls out now that he knows he's not in trouble.

Just then the elevator 'dings' and Ryan steps out and stops in his tracks at the sight of the crowd around the Captain's office he's just about to ask what was going on when a round of raucous applause erupts to cheers and whistles in his direction. He has no idea what is going on nor what he could have done to warrant such a reaction from his coworkers. As he approaches the Captain's door, everyone's smiling, congratulating him and slapping him on the back as they turn and head back to their respective desks.

"Um... Beckett?" Ryan asks, more than a bit confused "What's goin' on?" Just then he sees Esposito standing in the Captain's office.

"Ryan! Man of the hour!" Esposito calls out.

"Javi, what the hell's goin' on here?" he whispers to his partner.

"Detective Ryan." Captain Gates says firmly as she stands up and walks around her desk, interrupting the two from any more exchanges. "Detective, as soon as Mister Castle is finished helping Detective Esposito with his paperwork, I expect him to work with you on yours."

"I... uh... what... what paper... Javi? What's going on?" Kevin stutters.

"Mister Castle!" The Captain barks.

"Yes Captain?" he calls out from Beckett's desk.

"Here's another one for you to work with. These reports are going to be seen by more than a few eyes so do your best." she says as she puts a hand on Kevin's shoulder and gently guides him out of her office. "Detective Ryan," she says in a much quieter voice "Good job, we're all very proud of you." she finishes with a smile.

Ryan turns to Esposito "Dude, what did you do? If you... Oh this is so not cool... Man!" Ryan curses as he heads to his desk, only to be met by another round of applause. Bright red and embarrassed at the attention he's getting. Ryan sits down at his desk shaking his head. "Javi, I'm going to get you back for this dude, I swear. What did you tell her?"

"Bro', I didn't tell her, I told everyone what you did. You got a very large and solid pair to have done that and not flinched." Javi says laughing from his desk. "This is one your children and grandchildren are going to hear over and over again."

Ryan groans and puts his head down on the desk in defeat.

"Javi? What's the thing about Castle and the reports?" Ryan asks without lifting his head.

"The Captain wants to make sure our reports capture the events that went down at Rourke's accurately and clearly. She wants Castle to work with us to make sure they're good." Esposito says shooting an elastic band at his partner's back.

"Javier Esposito." Ryan says quietly "You are going to pay dearly for this. I don't know how. I don't know when but I'm going to make you sorry." he says sitting up and trying to regain his composure.

"Dude, it's soo worth it!" Javier exclaims.

"Guys!" Beckett calls out in a hushed tone. "She's watching!"

The guys notice that Gates is glaring at them through the blinds from her office, somewhat disapprovingly, waiting for them to get back to work.

"Geeze! Javi! Do you see what you've done?" Kevin groans as Castle puts a fresh coffee in front of the detective and pulls his chair over to sit next to Javi.


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