So… I lost my flash drive, which had my life on it, and then I forgot to back it up before hand, so I lost everything. And then two weeks ago was dead week, except it wasn't dead at my school, and then we had exams. I've gotten 11 hours of sleep this entire week. And on top of that, I got a concussion last Monday, and then I only got one review on the last chapter, so it made me all depressed and stuff.
So yeah. That's why I haven't updated until now.
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Chapter 4
In which Kevin gets a good nights sleep.
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"Yo," I jerked out of my light doze. We had been stuck in traffic for twenty or so minutes because of some accident involving a bus before I had fallen asleep. If the look on Javi's face was to go by as he put his phone to his ear, we had spent a bit more time stuck after that. "Beckett? Imma put you on speaker. Hold up." He fumbled with the keys on his cell phone for a moment before placing the device on the center console. "What do you got for us?"
"Alexa Volkoff will be fine. She has a concussion, but the doctors expect her to wake up soon," Beckett's voice filtered through the tiny speaker. "We can question her then. How are you holding up, Ryan?" I groaned in response in Javi chuckled.
"He threw a hissy fit when the nurse tried to sew him up," he told her. I glared at him.
"I did not throw a hissy fit!" I was pleased to discover that now that the swelling in my jaw was down and the ibuprofen I had gulped down was taking effect, I could speak properly. However, that was ruined by Beckett.
"You okay, honeymilk?" She asked teasingly. I growled and turned my head to stare out the window. Traffic was finally picking back up. "Anyways," Beckett continued after she and Espo had stopped laughing. "I'm about to interrogate the Irishman. He really is with the mafia and his name is Brandon O'Deorain." I snort and shake my head.
"Figures," I tell them. "O'Deorain means exiled person. He probably got kicked out of Ireland, and joined the mafia in New York. It's also most likely not his real name." Javi looked at me in surprise.
"Thanks, Ryan," Beckett sounded pleased. "I'll cross reference his face with anyone that's immigrated from there in the past few years." I grimaced.
"Better make it fifteen or twenty," I told her. "His accents pretty faded and European ones always take longer to fade than others." Javi looked impressed.
"How'd you know that?" He asked. I rolled my eyes.
"I've got a really large Irish family. Not even my grans accent is completely gone." Javi nodded, turning into his apartment's garage.
"Alright, boys. You've done well today. Get some rest and I'll see you bright and early tomorrow morning," Beckett told us, a smile in her voice. "We'll fill you in when you come in."
"Oh, and be careful whose clothes you pick up from the floor in the morning, as well." I scowled down at the phone as Castle's voice filtered through it.
"Bro, really?" Javi all but growled at the phone before ending the call and silencing the laughter coming from the other end of the line. When the car was parked, he grabbed my bag and climbed out.
"I can carry that myself, you know," I told Javi, tired of indulging his overprotective streak. He ignored me, and walked to the elevator, leaving me to hurry after him.
"So, do you think we'll find out anything from our Irish friend?" He asked, once we were safely inside the building and out of the cold.
"Probably not," I replied. "He most likely doesn't know anything himself." He hummed in agreement and opened up his apartment.
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Dinner was a quiet affair of half pepperoni, half pineapple pizza. The TV was on, but neither of us was really paying attention to the football game. We were both too tired.
"I think you should take the bedroom for now," Javi said suddenly. I gave him an odd look, dipping my crust in the garlic sauce.
"Why?" I asked. He shrugged and stared blankly at the TV screen.
"There no windows in there," he told me. "It'll be easier to defend, and I'll be out here in case someone tries to sneak in." I frowned at him, putting the crust down on my plate and turning towards him.
"But that would mean you were in a lot of danger." He nodded, still not looking at me.
"But you're a material witness. Your life is far more important at the moment." I shook my head angrily.
"Javi, we're in this 'till the wheels fall off, remember?" I hissed out. "I watch your back, and you watch mine. This whole thing is being blown way out of proportion." I could see he wasn't going to budge, so I changed tactics.
"Why don't we both share the room?" I asked. He looked at me sharply, silently telling me to go on. "That way we both have each other's backs and no one can take us out with a sniper." He frowned, thinking it over.
"There's only one bed," he pointed out. "And neither of us should be sleeping on the floor. We gotta be in top shape if we're to catch these bastards." I snorted.
"Bro, I've seen your bed. It's huge. I'm sure we could both fit rather comfortably on it." Javi still looked doubtful, but I could tell he was going to give in.
"Fine," he muttered, turning his attention to the game for the first time. I smiled in victory and picked up my crust, munching happily on the garlic covered bread.
"I'm going to bed," I groaned a little while later, having finished off my last pepperoni slice long ago.
"a'ight, bro," Javi muttered, eyes still riveted to the screen. I walked into Javi's bedroom, shrugging out of my shirt and searching for a suitable replacement and sweats in my bag. I normally slept shirtless, but I would feel weird in Javi's bed. I pulled out a dark blue shirt and black sweats, going into the bathroom to change and brush my teeth. By the time I got back out, Javi was still nowhere to be seen.
His bed is ridiculously comfortable, I thought as I sank into the made side of the mattress. Smells good, too. Like Javi. I immediately blocked that thought out of my head. I had had my fair share of boyfriends. I was bi, after all. But it wasn't something you broadcasted to the precinct and it definitely wasn't something you turned on your best friend and partner.
But his bed does smell nice, I allowed myself to think before drifting off into a dreamless sleep, worn out by the day's events.
A little while later, Javi came in, partially waking me up.
"You asleep, bro?" He whispered. I made an 'mmhm' sound and rolled onto my side, burrowing deeper into the covers. I noticed that Javi had decided to forego his shirt. Javi chuckled and climbed in on the other side of the bed.
"Night, Kev," he murmured, already drifting off.
"Nigh'" I mumbled, falling back into blissful sleep.
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When I woke up in the morning, it was to a feeling of warmth and security. I made a contented noise and nestled sleepily into the warm chest I was resting against.
Wait, I thought. Aren't I at Javi's? I blushed as I started to wake up some more and realized that I was lying against his side with an arm slung over his chest and my head on his shoulder. His left hand had a grasp on my shoulder and his other arm was flung out across the bed. My blush grew until I was sure I was beet red and I tried to disentangle myself without waking him. Unfortunately, just as I slid from his grasp, his opened his eye and blinked blearily.
"Kev?" I don't know how, but my face had somehow gotten even redder. After a few moments, Javi noticed the position we were in and blushed. "Sorry, Kev. I forgot to tell you I tend to grab at things in my sleep. That's why there're so many pillows." I sat up and climbed out of the bed, trying to will my face back to its normal pasty hue.
"It's alright," I told him. In truth, I had been wondering about the ridiculous amount of soft, fluffy pillows that dominated his king size bed. Maybe that was the reason that last night was the best sleep I had gotten in a while.
Or maybe it was because you spent the night snuggled up against Javi, that traitorous voice in the back of my head said snidely. I immediately shut that thought down. Yes, I knew my partner was damn attractive and if I let myself, I would probably developed some misguided crush on him, but he was my partner and I wasn't going to ruin that by coming out to him.
"What time is it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes. I glanced at the clock on his bedside table.
"4:43," I informed him. He jumped out of bed and stretched slowly. I turned my head away before he could see that way I stared at his back muscles rippling.
"Alright, you can take a shower first. Imma make some coffee." I nodded and shuffled slowly into the bathroom, my brain still fogged by sleep and the fact that I liked my partner a lot more than I should.
After my shower, I walked out to the smell of coffee and inhaled deeply.
"Espo, that smells heavenly," I called into the kitchen. He chuckled and grinned at me as I walked into the kitchen.
"How have you survived getting up this early all these years?" He asked me. "You're obviously not a morning person." I shrugged and sat down at the table.
"Lots and lots of coffee." Javi grinned again and set a mug down in front of me.
"Imma go hit the shower, and then we can leave." I mumbled an agreement in his direction and sipped at my caffeine loaded savior.
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"How's your jaw, Ryan?" I smiled at Beckett as she walked into the room, the ever present Castle at her heel.
"It's better," I told her. "I took some ibuprofen before we left."
"So what did we find out on our Irishman?" Beckett smiled and pulled up a file, beckoning us over. Once again, I slid too far in my chair and Javi pulled me back.
"Turns out his name isn't actually Brandon O'Deorain, after all. You were right, Ryan." I grinned and looked more closely at the file.
"Brandon MacMillon?" Beckett nodded, scrolling down the file.
"He's wanted for 3 murder charges along with a slew of other lesser things like B&E and assault." Castle nodded, reading along.
"I guess he ran from Ireland, assumed a fake identity, and came here to join the mafia as a hit man," he said. Espo nodded, leaning over my shoulder to scroll back up the file. I fought down my blush as his arm slid along mine, and shifted slightly in my seat.
"Makes sense," he murmured. "You guys get anything outa him?" Castle snorted and Beckett shook her head.
"He lawyered up." I sighed.
"Well, we know that there's a price on me. He said as much at the apartment." Beckett nodded, closing down the screen.
"Yeah, our guys on the street said a bounty was posted as a free-for-all. They have no idea where it came from, though," she added as an afterthought. "The bounty states that further contact will be made once you're in possession." Javi groaned and sat back in his seat.
"I'm worried about you, bro," he admitted while Castle and Beckett argued over whether they should try and track down where the bounty came from. I grinned at him.
"Why" I asked, eyebrow rising. "I've got a big strong knight in shining armor mother henning over me." I laughed and punched his arm, ignoring the slight tingle that went up my hand at the contact. He snorted in amusement too, but seemed to concede the point.
"There's gotta be something more that we can do about Macmillon," I muttered. Javi shook his head.
"He's got a lawyer, so the best we can do is lock him up. We can't get nothin' outa him." I groaned and rubbed my eyes tiredly. I had slept well, but the frustration of this case was already taking its toll.
"This is a mess," he muttered. I nodded in agreement. Beckett's phone rang, and she snatched it up.
"Becket." She listened carefully to the other line and nodded, as we all watched on. "Okay, thanks," she said finally. "I'll send someone down." We all looked at her questioningly, and she grinned. "Alexa's awake," she told us.
"You want me and Ryan to go?" Javi asked. "That way the two of you can go try to uncover where the bounty came from." Beckett nodded and Castle grinned gleefully.
"This is brilliant!" He exclaimed, going off on some tangent about a new book.
"I'm tired of questioning people," I confided in Javi after Beckett and Castle had rushed out the elevator. He patted my arm and sighed.
"I know, bro, but going into the field is the last thing you need to be doing right now." I shook my head and growled, frustrated.
"Why didn't they just kill me when they caught me?" I asked. It didn't make sense. "Why put a bounty on me now?" Javi frowned.
"You're right," he said. "Why now?" I thought for a moment. It was almost as if they were…
"That's it!" I shouted, jumping out of my chair. "They're advertising." Javi still looked confused, so I elaborated.
"They're letting the criminal world know they're out there,' I told him excitedly. "If you have someone you need to be rid of, what better way than to send them to some obscure part of the world to be sold into slavery?" Javi nodded slowly, catching on.
"And they're so cocky about it because of the dirty cop. They think they'll never get caught with a mole inside the precinct." I picked up the phone and dialed Beckett's cell number.
"Beckett."
"Hey, the smugglers ring is advertising, that's why I got let go, and that's why there's a bounty on my head now." Beckett was a bit quicker on the uptake than Javi had been.
"It makes sense," she said after a moment of deliberation. We'll check it out while we're looking for the source." We said our goodbyes and hung up.
"Now let's go talk to Alexa," Javi said, grabbing his coat and making his way to the elevator.
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I knocked on the hospital door, waiting for a 'come in' before opening it. Alexa was sitting on the bed, her head covered in a bandage.
"Are you the police?" She asked. Her accent was obviously Russian.
"Yes, ma'am," I replied. "We just need to ask you some questions about Kaci Collin." The soft smile that had graced her face at the sight of us immediately vanished, replaced by a sad look.
"Yes, the doctors did say you would be by," she commented. "Ask away." She gestured to the two seats next to her bed, and we sat down, pulling out our notepads.
"Was there anyone suspicious hanging around Kaci?" I asked. Alexa nodded.
"Yes, there was a man," she said. "Her boyfriend, I think but I did not like him." I nodded and wrote that down. "I think his name was Mikhail." Javi nodded and we both jotted it down.
"Is there anything else that seemed odd to you?" Javi asked. "Was Kaci acting strangely?" Alexa shook her head.
"No, nothing. She was perfectly normal except for that Mikhail guy."
"Can you describe him for us?" I asked, holding my pen over the paper. Alexa nodded.
"He was tall and burly," she started. "About six foot five or so. He had blue eyes and a buzz cut, I believe they are called." She paused for a moment. "Oh! And he had this little scar at the corner of his left eye. I'm afraid that's all I have." I nodded and stood up.
"I'll be right back," I told Javi. "Nature calls." Javi nodded and turned back to Alexa, intent on asking her a few more questions. I stepped out of the door, and promptly realized that I had no idea where the bathrooms were. After asking a helpful nurse, I found them and quietly slipped inside, bumping into someone. I reached out to study myself on the doorjamb and looked up.
"Sorry, bro." But I froze at the sight of the man's face. Buzz cut. Blue eyes. Scar on the corner of his left eye. I backed up, my eyes widening, but hit the door. When had that closed? I wondered.
"We've been looking for you," the man said in a thick Russian accent before procuring a cloth and draping it over my face.
My last thought before whatever chemical that was on the cloth forced me into unconsciousness was Alexa has a Russian accent, too.
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Oh, cliffhangers. How everyone but the author hates them.
Sorry.
On another note, I want to know more about my readers! Where are you guys from? What do you do in your free time besides sift through fanfiction? Acceptable answers are read books, cook, practice magic, eat raw cookie dough, and the likes. Each reviewer gets an imaginary Kevin plushy!