"Mal: Well look at this. 'Pears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?
Zoё: Big damn heroes, sir.
Mal: Ain't we just." – Mal and Zoё, Firefly
"Bullet in the brainpan, squish." – River, Serenity
"After striking the cranium the bullet was moving at 900 feet per second, a pathetically sluggish, glacial pace compared to the synaptic lightning that flashed around it." –Tobias Wolff, "Bullet in the Brain"
Caught in a suspended moment in time, Tramm fell back, a thousand memories and ideas flickering through his brain as the bullet sliced through. It was true, then- his life was flashing before his eyes. In less than a millisecond, he understood and was awed that the cliché turned out to be true.
He saw his childhood fade into his teen years, his days working in Technologists for Tomorrow- the school's junior computer club. His college days, sitting in the library with Victoria and talking about how together they were going to rule the world someday. And he remembered the day he had to say goodbye to her, and how it had changed him.
He relived the night he'd broken into the National Museum Complex, and been confronted and stopped by his old friend. He felt the shame and the terror of jail once again, and the relief of being allowed to stay in his own home. He remembered Googling how to get out of an ankle bracelet, finding the answer, and breaking out after getting the call from Hopkins.
He heard two gunshots outside his memories, and then he became a memory himself.
"Jenny!" Ryan lunged forward while Hopkins and Skunk fell to the floor, nursing their new wounds. He abandoned his makeshift cane at the door, and crumpled to the floor before he reached Jenny. Esposito helped him to a sitting position while Beckett untied Jenny and Lanie. Esposito grimaced upon seeing Ryan's left knee.
He'd busted it again trying to run forward, and it appeared ripped and bloody. "Kev, your knee-"
"It's not important," he said, waving him off, but the way he clenched his jaw in pain indicated that it was actually very important. "Did you cuff Hopkins and Skunk?"
"On it," said Castle, coming through the doorway, followed by Captain Montgomery. He glanced around at Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito. "Okay, all three of you just did double-takes. Does that make it a sextuple-take?"
"Just handcuff Hopkins," said Beckett after a moment of awkward silence, already doing so to Skunk. Castle knelt to do the same to the ringleader of the escapade.
"Castle found the note saying where you were on Ryan's desk," explained Montgomery, looking at them sternly. "Exactly what happened here?"
"We'll explain later," said Esposito, standing up and letting Jenny get closer to her fiancé. "Ryan needs an ambulance."
The second it could be ascertained that Ryan was safely going through his second surgery in the past month, Esposito began to enthusiastically welcome Lanie back to safety. From across the room, Castle gave the two of them an amused glance and said to Beckett, "You think they realize we can see that?"
She laughed a little. "I hope so." She ran her fingers through her hair and leaned closer to Castle, subconsciously tucking herself into him in a way that made her feel both safe after the hectic day and traitorous for abandoning her strict limits when it came to Castle.
"So what exactly happened in that hotel?" asked Castle, turning to her. In doing so, he unintentionally brought his face within centimeters of hers and, feeling awkward, had to sit back. "I have the slightly disappointed feeling that I missed a good showdown." She laughed.
"I suppose from an insane writer with a lack of any self-preservation, it did seem pretty exciting," she admitted.
"Tell me about it," he insisted. She bit her lip and pretended to contemplate, knowing it would drive him crazy. It did. "Oh, come on, you're holding out on me!"
"Okay," she sighed. "So, Ryan and Esposito figured out that Hopkins was tipping off our suspects."
"I knew it," exclaimed Castle. She raised an eyebrow.
"You knew that Esposito's partner was a psycho and yet you withheld that knowledge from us?" she said. He recoiled and tried to think of a way to rephrase what he'd just said.
"I meant… in a strictly intuitive… just get on with the story."
"If you'll let me," she said. "Anyway, Hopkins and his associates took Jenny and Lanie and held them at gunpoint in this old abandoned hotel as a way to lure Ryan and Esposito there, and told them he'd let the girls free in exchange for us all shutting up and forgetting about David Zeitz and the Amazon scheme, and letting them all run off. Well, we weren't going to do that, so Esposito and I went up to stop them while Ryan was supposed to stay in the car. So we're up in the room and the guys have us outnumbered, no way we'd be able to stop them without one of ours dying."
"And then," said Esposito, sitting down beside them and getting in on the heroic storytelling, "Detective House over there comes limping in on an umbrella, shoots the guy holding Jenny, Beckett and I shoot the other two and they're all down in a second. It was awesome."
"Sorry I wasn't there," said Castle, sounding as though he was more sorry he'd missed out on all the action.
"Actually, as it turns out that was a good thing," said Beckett. "If you'd been there, Ryan never would have had to drag himself up five flights of stairs and never would've hurt his knee again. We had to rush him to the nearest hospital, and these people here…" She paused, marveling at the nature of coincidence and the very real possibility of miracles. "Well, they do a rare procedure, kneecap replacement surgery."
"Ryan's going to walk again," said Esposito, sounding as though he were attempting to not let any mistiness leak into his voice. "And run. We're going to be partners again."
"It's a good day," said Beckett. "Good day." She leaned back against the wall, without realizing it balancing herself even closer to Castle. She thought about moving, but then realized how ridiculous and useless it would be. She was exhausted- it was barely noon and yet she'd gone through a lot today. She'd spent the last almost month fighting against betraying how she'd really felt kissing Castle, and the last three years fighting against betraying how she really felt any time she was around Castle. For just a moment, she'd like to relax, and to let herself feel comfortable.
"So you didn't even videotape it or anything?" asked Castle, almost whining. Beckett just laughed and rolled her eyes.
Shadows danced across the insides of Ryan's eyelids like some distorted puppet show. Fluorescent light filtered in between his crusted eyelashes. Soon enough he came to realize that he was conscious, and that there was no point in keeping his eyes shut any more. He opened them, blinking against the sudden bright light as the world blurred into focus.
There was Esposito, sitting across the room drumming his fingers anxiously on the arm of his chair. He stood up as soon as he realized that his partner was awake and crossed the room in a panic. "Ryan-"
"Ferris Bueller you're my hero," Ryan quipped blearily, mainly because he knew it would annoy Esposito. It did. He huffed and braced his arms on the side of the hospital bed.
"I can't even hit you for that or anything," sighed Esposito, smiling. "You know how bad off that's gotta make you?" Ryan laughed and glanced up at the table held over his cot. It was empty.
"Can you go get me some pudding or something?" he asked. As soon as he said it, he realized that it would've made a lot more sense to ask to see Jenny, to hold her and know that she was okay and let her know that he was okay. He did want to see her- he always wanted to see her. It was just that in this instance, he knew that both of them already knew everything they'd tell each other if they were together. And he was starving.
"Go get it yourself," said Esposito. The brotherly-sounding command wasn't rational, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense. At the moment, Ryan still couldn't walk. But they were both aware that soon he'd be able to, without assistance.
Ryan wouldn't be needing a wheelchair any more. He had another set of wheels to hold him up.