Disclaimer: I don´t own the rights of or anything else related to "Castle" and am only borrowing the characters. I am not making any money by doing so.

Author´s note: Thanks for reading and especially to all those who reviewed! =)

Enjoy!

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Knocked Down

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In the car, Ryan slid down the seat, huddled into his coat and, being overwhelmed by fatigue as he was at that point, quickly dozed off, his eyes seeming to close on their own account. Esposito however stared out of the window, his chin resting on his hand, his gaze following whatever lights were flying by.

They briefly stopped by his apartment so he could get a few things; while he threw them into a duffle bag, he called Lanie. If she was disappointed, she did not let it on. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," she all but purred before hanging up.

When they finally stopped in front of Ryan´s building, he only woke up when Esposito gently shook his shoulder.

"Need a hand?" Castle asked, turning around when Ryan unsuccessfully fumbled for the door pull.

"Nah, s´all right," the detective mumbled, "Javi ´s got me."

And sure enough, the door opened a moment later to reveal Esposito. While he pulled Ryan out of the car and onto his feet, Castle and Beckett exchanged a glance, neither of them able to subdue a grin.

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The stairs had never seemed to steep, and why had he not moved into a building with an elevator? Ryan was glad Esposito was supporting him, because otherwise he would seriously have considered just curling up on the first landing and sleep there.

"Come on, bro, nearly there," Esposito´s voice cut through the fog in Ryan´s sleepy brain. He blinked to keep his eyes open while his partner unlocked the door to the apartment, and let himself be steered inside.

"I need a shower," Ryan murmured, "´m still cold."

"Can you manage on your own?"

"Yeah... just show me where the bath is. Oh, but need pajamas."

"´Pajamas´, dude?"

"And underwear," Ryan sighed, oblivious to Esposito´s taunt, trotting off into roughly the direction of his bedroom.

The shower felt so good that Ryan could have wept, just out of sheer elation. He sighed, letting the hot water run over his skin until it was tingling; what a difference it made. No. He refused to go there, did not want to think of the icey cold water he had had to endure earlier. It was worlds apart from the luxurious spray he was under now, and he managed to concentrate on that, on the familiar feel and sounds of the shower.

He let the water unwind the tension that was still noticable in his shoulders, drive away the remnants of the chills. While it did revive him to a certain extent, he was still tired, thus with no small amount of regret eventually cutting the indulgence short. He dried himself off as quickly as possible and slid into his night clothes which he had hung over the radiator to give them a head start, as his gran would have put it, and were therefore pleasantly warm. He used Jenny´s blow dryer to dry his hair and emerged from the bathroom feeling much better than he had anticipated, and much more awake.

Esposito had made tea in the meantime; when Ryan padded into the living room, his partner handed him a mug: "You okay?"

Ryan sat down on the coffee table. "You´re not gonna ask me that every time you see me from now on, are you?"

"No, bro. Life´s too short. But you did look a little peaky before you went showering."

"I was a little peaky."

"Better now?"

"Yeah." Ryan looked down into his tea. "I think I´ll turn in now. Take the other half of the bed?"

"If you ask me like that..." Esposito raised one eyebrow, smirking.

Ryan dragged himself onto his feet: "Apparently, ´tis the night of innuendos," he yawned. "I´m too tired to care. Do whatever you want, but don´t wake me."

Esposito had been wide awake again once they had left the hospital, therefore he still felt too agitated to go to bed. When he finally did an hour later, Ryan was fast asleep. Javier did his best not to shake the mattress too much when he slid under the blanket.

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It seemed to Esposito that he had only just closed his eyes when he was startled out of sleep again; for a moment, he was confused about his whereabouts and why he could not find his alarm, only to realize that he was at Ryan´s place, and that it was in fact his partner who had woken him. Esposito quickly turned on the bedside lamp: Ryan was dreaming. He was shaking badly and had partially thrown off his blanket because he was writhing, breathing rapidly as he did. As if he tried to get away from someone. Esposito gingerly laid his hand on Ryan´s shoulder: "Yo, bro, wake up!"

Ryan flinched violently, but his eyes snapped open; he looked terrified and disoriented until he seemed to register his surroundings and the fact that he had had a nightmare. Slowly, he sat up, running his hand over his face as he did so: "Sorry." His voice was hoarse.

Esposito shrugged it off: "Don´t see what for."

There was real concern in his expression, and his hand, which was still resting on Ryan´s shoulder, felt like a lifeline, firmly anchored to the immediate, safe present. Kevin wanted it to stay exactly where it was and hated his own weakness.

His own hands were still trembling as he made to lie back down: "Don´t ask," he murmured. "I´m okay. But... can you not let go as of yet?"

Esposito glanced at his hand as though noticing it for the first time; when he looked at his friend again, he nodded. "Sure."

Ryan let out a breath he had not been aware he was holding, and sank back onto his pillow, grateful that he was not alone.

He noticed that Javier was suddenly chuckling, however: "What?"

"Well," Esposito shrugged, unable to hide the glee from his voice, "I was thinking if only the good doctor could see us now."

"Oh," Ryan grinned as well, and Javier noticed with satisfaction that it was a genuine grin, not only a grimace, "he´d get it so wrong."

"Only partially," Javier replied calmly.

Ryan opened one eye and squinted at him: "Bro, you´re not going all teary on me now, are you?"

"Says who?" Esposito quipped. "No, dude, I mean it. You´re my partner. With all that it entails."

Ryan peered at him for a little while longer, then he closed his eye again: "Yeah... I love you too."

Esposito sat there with his hand on Ryan´s shoulder, shaking his head.

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The End

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