Disclaimer: Castle and the recognizable characters are property of the folks at ABC and their creators who make a lot more money than I do. This is for pure entertainment purposes.

Howdy everyone. It's almost the weekend, and what a glorious thing that is. Thanks again to all you readers, followers, and reviewers. Here's Chapter 7. Enjoy.


Chapter 7: Ground to a Halt

When two more hostages come out, in a little less than an hour apart, everyone outside of the bank briefs another sigh of relief. Despite the fact that they still have an incredibly dangerous situation going on, at least two more people are safe.

"Whatever Ryan is doing, it seems to be working." Castle comments aloud.

"For now." Beckett says pessimistically.

"He's gotten three people out. That's impressive Beckett." Castle responds.

"True, but it raises more questions. What does Phil want? And more importantly, what's his endgame?"

For once, Castle doesn't have an answer and given the stakes in this situation, he's not ready to start spinning his usual theories. The writer is sure that if he starts spouting off any sort of wild scenario, Esposito will murder him. Much like after the first hostage was released, the three of them head over to the two newly released hostages and get their accounts of what has happened inside the bank.

This time as they recount their stories, Esposito doesn't say a word. When he hears about Ryan's challenge to Phil though, he nearly explodes. God, what a dumb move. Every cop knows that the last thing you do is to provoke the gunman in this kind of situation. Not for the first time today, Javier is asking himself what the hell his partner is thinking. For such a smart guy, Kevin can sure be an idiot sometimes. But Esposito's anger doesn't last as long as he thought it would. The last of the hostages, the businessman, mentioned how silent Ryan had gotten after that incident. Esposito has known Ryan long enough and well enough to know what his partner must be doing. He's seen Ryan do it before when he thinks he's made a mistake; he's engaging in his own self-flagellation. If Ryan is beating himself up over this, then Esposito will give him a break, at least for now.

Still, despite, or maybe because of his partner's recklessness, things have improved and Javier decides to send Jenny a text message. Kevin isn't out of this by any stretch, but they've made progress. For the first time since this whole wretched thing started, Esposito starts to let himself believe that things might turn out alright.

To Esposito's surprise, Jenny decides to come back to the scene. This time, she brought Lanie with her. Both women wait for Javier to fill them in on the new developments. This he does, except leaving out Ryan's challenge to Phil. Jenny doesn't need to know that, or at least not hear it from him. If Kevin wants her to know about it, he'll have to tell her himself. Jenny's reaction to all of this is hard to gauge. She's tried to look happy when Esposito tells them about the release of the hostages, but the smile is weak and never makes it to her eyes.

Lanie goes to talk to Castle and Beckett, leaving Javier with Jenny.

"I'm sorry." Jenny suddenly announces.

"What for?" Javier asks, thoroughly puzzled at her apology.

"For leaving, for being angry that those other people are out of that bank, for all of it."

"Jenny, you have nothing to apologize for." He reassures her.

"I just want Kevin to be okay." She says quietly, almost to herself.

"Jenny, I promise we'll get him out alright." She bites her lip and nods, not really believing him.

Esposito has made that promise more than once today: to himself, to one of the released hostages, and now to Jenny. If anything, it makes him more determined to find a way out of this for his partner. Kevin better not make him a liar.

His conversation with Jenny still ringing in his ears, Esposito has to suppress a groan when he sees Heath heading towards them. Esposito's opinion of the man hasn't changed; all of the progress that's been made on this is because of Kevin, not HR. In Esposito's opinion, if Heath and the rest of Hostage Rescue weren't there, it would make little difference. The Detective is going to have a serious talk with Captain Gates once all of this is over with about their colleagues in Hostage Rescue.

"Overall, I'm encouraged by what's going on." Heath announces to the group.

"Doesn't HR have a time limit before you go in and end the situation?" Castle asks, his own patience starting to erode at the long standoff.

"Ordinarily yes, but given the circumstances off this particular case, we're going to keep sitting back for a while. We have snipers in place but beyond that…"

"Beyond that you're going to do nothing but sit on your ass." Esposito says, not bothering anymore to hide his irritation and contempt for the other man.

Heath walks right over to Esposito and stands in his personal space. He is taller than the Hispanic Detective and tries to use his full height to intimidate the other man. Fat chance of that. Esposito just stares right back him; if this comes to blows, Esposito is confident he could kick Heath's ass.

"You've done nothing but bitch and moan about how I do my job since you got on the scene. You got a problem with how we do things? Tough shit, I'm in charge here." Heath sneers at him.

"If my partner suffers so much as a stubbed toe because you do your job like shit, I'm coming after you Heath. Count on it." Esposito says in that low, dangerous tone that terrifies almost everyone, including most of the other cops at the precinct. It works on Heath too; the HR Sergeant squirms at Esposito's tone and hardened stare.

Beckett quickly steps in and pushes the two men away from each other. "That's enough; we're all on the same side here."

"I'm beginning to wonder." Esposito comments.

"That's enough Detective Esposito." Beckett orders in her full boss voice. Solely out of respect for her, Esposito bites back another response.

Heath takes one last glare at Esposito before he turns around and heads back to his colleagues in HR.

Before Esposito can hurl any more insults at the man, Beckett cuts him off "Don't Espo; it isn't going to help us or Kevin at all."

"He's more than worthless, he's a coward." Esposito spits out, his voice full of disgust.

"Espo…"

He ignores her and continues talking "All he's doing is sitting outside, not able to do one damn thing to help Ryan. He's just watching and waiting for all the shit to go down and can't do anything about it. He's completely useless to Ryan …"

Castle opens his mouth to say something but Beckett stops him. It's clear that Esposito has stopped talking about Heath.

"And now Kevin's getting reckless or tired or stupid or whatever and he's going to get himself hurt or killed because he's got no back up or any other way out of this. Even if he gets all the hostages out, what then? That bastard isn't going to let him go; he'll still need leverage and there's no better leverage than a cop. And once he gets away, he'll have no need for Ryan anymore."

Esposito continues for another minute or two before he sits on the pavement. Exhaustion and worry are written all over his face.


After two hostages were released in less than an hour, everyone outside of the Bank of New York is hopeful that things are moving towards a resolution. In fact, the exact opposite happens. Another two hours go by with nothing happening. Inside the bank, they can see Ryan and Phil talking and arguing, but no progress is made.

Afternoon and dusk both came and went. Now, the City is engulfed in darkness. It's been four hours since Phil took the bank hostage and everything seems to have ground to a halt.

Looking inside the bank, Esposito's low patience level has come to an end. Lanie is by his side, trying to keep him calm. Unfortunately, he's not receptive to it right now. Esposito has had it. He digs into his coat pocket and calls Captain Gates again.

"Detective Esposito before you ask, the answer is still no."

"Captain, he's been in there for four hours. This 'Phil' hasn't asked for a ransom and hasn't released a hostage in two hours. And Hostage Rescue has been absolutely useless."

"Detective Esposito, I understand your frustration. I'm not any happier about it than you are. I talked with the Police Commissioner and the answer is still no. Hostage Rescue is still in charge."

"But Sir, they are absolutely useless!" Esposito shouts in exasperation.

"And once this has been resolved we'll deal with them. "

"Sir…"

"Detective, your partner is in there; you aren't objective about the situation. And that is fine. But we can't be in charge with that kind of conflict of interest. I'm sorry. Stay there and monitor the situation. Have Detective Beckett put more pressure on Sergeant Heath to resolve this quickly. That's the best thing you can do for Detective Ryan."

"Yes sir."

"Good. Get Detective Ryan out of there safely. That's an order." She hangs up the phone.

He puts his coat back in his pocket weary and defeated. God this is awful. That feeling of uselessness that's settled on him since this whole thing started is even more acute now. He feels a slender, delicate hand on his shoulder. It's Lanie.

"Gates still say no." She doesn't so much ask as state.

He nods. To Lanie, Javier looks like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. The others had listened in on Esposito's conversation with the Captain. Frustration and impatience are mounting amongst the whole group. Beckett steels herself for a confrontation with Heath. She's more patient than Javier, but she has reached her limit too.

Lanie is about to say something encouraging, something to calm everyone's fears and anxieties when a distinct noise shatters through the night. The moment it reaches Esposito's ears, his heart stops. He can't look at Jenny, Beckett, Lanie or Castle out of the overwhelming fear that they will confirm what he knows he just heard. Ever since he had received the call from Beckett all those hours ago, it has been the one thing that he has most dreaded hearing…

It was the sound of a gunshot.


Yes a cliff-hanger. No worries all will be answered in time. More to come shortly.