"He tried to strangle me, then dragged me to the ground to get a better grasp, so I rolled over to the side to get out of his choke hold. We wrested for a while, and I think he cut himself on the zipper of my jacket because I heard him groan and I began to smell blood. At one point he gained the upper hand and threw me against the tree which is when I cut my head open. He used the opportunity to pull out his…metal rod or whatever this is and beat me with it. Got me in the arm once and then brushed my ribs. I managed to grab him by the back of the neck and faceplanted him into the trunk, so you're looking for a guy with a broken nose and a nice gash on his forehead. He was dripping blood all over me. Crazy thing was that it didn't slow him down, he kept trying to get me with that pipe. Thankfully, I was able to get out of the way before he could hit me in the head with it. I figured he was armed so I tried to put some distance between us and next thing I know, the guy is gone as fast as he appeared."

"Espo, did you see any identifying symbols on his clothes, anything?", Beckett asked, keeping her voice uncomfortably sterile, "Was there anything else that you saw or heard, anything that could help us figure out who we are dealing with, or what his mission entails?"

At that point, Esposito knew he could have handed her the killer on a silver plate and it still wouldn't take away her discontent with the situation. To make matters worse, she'd drug in Ryan and Castle, their collective empty stares seemingly aimed to further his guilt.

Leaning back against the stiff chair of the interrogation room he was certain Beckett had chosen on purpose; Javier sighed in frustration, then shook his head.

"Nothing more than what I already told you. He wore a black nylon stocking to distort his face. Caucasian or light Hispanic. Dark clothes, no name brands. That guy is good at what he's doing. Any regular Joe Blow off the streets wouldn't stand a chance against him. He might have some combat training, but I didn't see enough to be sure."

Pursing her lips, Beckett nodded faintly, mentally going through everything she'd already asked him, seeing if there was something she missed.

"And eventually he just disappeared? Didn't say anything, didn't curse you or try to shoot you?"

"Nope.", he answered evenly, outwardly remaining as calm as possible, "I think I got a few good punches in and it slowed him down. He may have felt overwhelmed, so he split. I would have followed him, but I was…incapacitated myself and I didn't see where he ran off to, so there was that."

"Hm."

Beckett didn't say anything for a while, her stern glare making it obvious that she was not letting the others chime in either.

Eventually, she nodded faintly and pointed at the nearby door.

"Castle, Ryan, give us a second please."

And here came the rest of the story, Javier mused, unwilling to let her see his inner struggle with the in-depth conversation Beckett would want to have about what happened, analyzing everything to the tiniest detail.

Because the devil was right there. In his case, el diablo and the uncanny grasp she still had on him a couple weeks after their latest reunion.

He watched her dismiss Kevin and Castle before pacing the room for a moment, struggling to find the right words.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do here, Espo.", Beckett finally said, announiating each word as she ran a frustrated hand through her long mane.

There was no sense in justifying anything considering that the facts spoke for themselves in this case, laying out a perfectly understandable explanation of events; for him anyways. The why's didn't matter in the end, even if they did justify the means.

When Javier remained quiet, she huffed exasperatedly.

"You know, when this whole thing with Sonia came up and you made some…startlingly bad decisions, I gave you the benefit of the doubt, because I know how much something like that can hurt. But what about last night? What were you thinking? You went after a serial killer by yourself. You took a hell of a chance there. Matter of fact, it's a miracle you didn't get killed."

Noting the rising pitch in her voice, he slowly stood up, flinching at the stiffness in his back, trying to avoid eye contact as he glanced over at the one-way mirror, almost certain that Ryan and Castle were on the other side.

"I wanted answers. And I may have gotten them."

"By nearly getting yourself killed? Espo, this was a stupid move. Why didn't you tell anybody about this? Bring in some backup?"

There was a long pause before he replied, time spent answering the same question for himself first.

"Tell who? Ryan? So he can waste another night with me instead of being with his family? Castle? Have him alert our guy with his blabbering? You? Like you haven't got enough on your plate? I knew I was gonna be fine."

Not caring whether or not his friends heard him, Javier defiantly crossed his arms in front of his chest, never reacting when Beckett walked up to him to point at the colorful mess that was his temple.

"Fine is not what I would call this. Or what I saw this morning. Your blood was everywhere. So was his."

"So now we can take it to the lab and figure out who we are dealing with."

His indifference to her worry seemed to only fuel her anger and Beckett took another step closer, her eyes boring holes into his skull, forcing him to look up even when he didn't want to.

"That's not the way we operate around here. You know that as well as I do. We are a team. We work together. This was reckless. Other cops could have gotten suspended for a stunt like this."

"For doing what they want during their time off duty? Hardly."

His words must have hit a mark when she drew in a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, visibly trying to control her temper.

"You're walking a fine line here, Espo. Don't push it."

"Or what? You're gonna suspend me again?", he challenged and clenched his jaws, immediately seeing the mixture of betrayal and hurt feelings beneath the tough outside layer of her stern expression, "Listen, we've been dragging our feet on this case for weeks. We needed answers, I brought you DNA evidence. We're gonna figure out today who this guy is and we're going to stop him. No more killings, case closed. All it cost me were a few stitches and some ibuprofen. I'll take that over another day of everyone sticking their collective heads in the sand around here."

"Is that what you think is going on?"

"That's exactly what's been going on. Everyone is so busy with their private lives and the mayhem that has swept through this department lately that we've forgotten we're cops and have a duty when it comes to protecting the people in this city."

He wanted to turn around and pace the room, relieve some of the pent-up frustration of the previous few hours. Instead, Beckett blocked his path, her brown eyes scanning his for any cracks in his conviction, anything she could target to get her point across but finding none this time around.

"You're way out of line."

"Maybe so, but does that mean I am wrong? Ask yourself what all has been going on here recently, all those personal issues that disrupted our investigation. We can't afford to let that happen. Because now we have a case where our killer got a chance to murder five people because we didn't stop him in time. And let me tell you right now, he is…he's dangerous. He's fast. He's damn good at what he's doing. I am going to sleep a lot better once he's behind bars and can't hurt a soul anymore. Because of him, there're a combined seven kids out there who will now grow up without their daddies, five widows and girlfriends who just went through the worst day of their lives because of this sick son of a bitch. If it means saving face in front of the other detectives out there, then go ahead and bench me. But you've got my word right now that I would do it all over again in an instant…even if it meant getting killed."

Their intense staring contest lasted several painful moments, her gaze never shifting, those brown eyes wanting to stare right into his soul.

Whatever she saw there made her features soften significantly, those tense shoulders sagging a bit as she took a step to the side to rest her hands on the back of the nearby chair.

"When I found your keychain and cellphone, I was sure you were dead. I knew it would only be a matter of time before somebody would discover your body. I was coming up with the right words to say to pass on the news to Kevin and Lanie and the others and I was preparing that…that dreadful speech that nobody wants to give. Next thing I know, Lanie is texting me saying you dragged yourself into her apartment and that she's running you to a doctor and your clothes to the lab and to wait patiently until you come into work. That's not…that's not how things are supposed to go, Espo."

Accepting the unspoken invite for a more intimate conversation, devoid of the boundaries that came with her new promotion, he joined Beckett by the table, their shoulders touching as he stared straight ahead, swallowing hard against the many things on his mind; thoughts and feelings he'd buried for way too long, all of them slowly bubbling to the surface.

"Nothing has been going the way things used to go. Things have…I don't know…things have changed. I don't know if it's for the better though."

Like them.

Like the team they used to be.

Like their open-hearted relationship.

Despite her younger age, he'd never questioned Beckett's judgement, blindly accepting her experience in the field and her unsurpassed sense of danger when Montgomery shoved them together years ago, then added Ryan for good measure.

They'd made her the leader of their pack, a position she naturally grew into, and everything had been great.

But then things began to change with the wedding from hell, with Castle's disappearance, with 3XK and Beckett's fanatic search for her mother's killer. Individual agendas began to muddy the waters that was their working relationship, disrupting their progress more often than he cared to admit.

It seemed that no matter how many times he told himself that this was only a phase, that things would get better, he'd succumbed to the fact that all these reassurances were nothing but make-believe, that the team he'd been so proud to be part of for years was no more.

Beckett must have sensed his grief and reached for his hand, squeezing it empathetically where words failed to do the job.

They quietly remained side by side for a while, assessing the past events from their unique point of view, when she cleared her throat again.

"Listen, I ehm…even if we get all our answers today, I want you to sit with Sheringer. She has some questions about the killer and we're going to need to supply her with answers to finish that profile."

Raising his eyebrows, Javier couldn't hold back a defeated sigh.

"So you are punishing me by putting me with the crazy shrink?"

Turning back around to face him, she smiled wearily, most of the earlier tension having left her features.

"For what it's worth, I am thankful for what you did and the evidence you brought in, Espo. But I am furious with you for going out there alone and carelessly risking your life to stop a killer. Your life matters…to all of us. It's about time you start seeing that too."