Knight Rider Alpha…..Online.
My Prompt: Mistrust.
Disclaimer: All respective characters and themes belong to their respective owners, Andrew Marlowe and ABC Studios.
"I'm not buying it bro" snapped Detective Javier Esposito. "I can't just let this slide," he said as he stared out the break room window.
"Buying what? I never believed for one minute that Castle would stand Beckett up" replied his partner Detective Kevin Ryan stirring his coffee. Knowing the lengths the team had gone to trying to locate and find the writer, which they were ultimately successful at doing even if he had no memory of his missing time.
"But where did go? What was he doing for two months? Esposito rattled off. "How come he doesn't remember a single thing about it?"
"Javi let it go man" sighed Ryan. "We'll get there, but just let it go for now"
It was at that moment Detective Kate Beckett and her mystery writing partner Richard Castle entered the break room, as Castle took a seat he greeted the pair which Ryan returned warmly, but Esposito just grunted at the writer.
"Hey Castle, remember anything yet?" sniped Esposito.
Castle looked up at the question his eyebrows knitting together "No sito! I don't" he said simply.
Beckett from her place at the coffee machine slammed her hands on the counter, she had enough of Epsositos simmering anger-filled attacks on her fiance, she wasn't handling the situation any better but the fact he was back with her outweighed the questions that still lingered for time being. She had accepted his version of events and they were slowly working their way back to a new normal, but the Latino detective constantly sniping at her partner was starting to piss her off.
"Javi that's enough, give it a rest," said Beckett with a glare.
"Come on Beckett, doesn't it bother you that he just skipped on you for two months and remembers absolutely nothing about it" shouted Esposito slamming down his mug.
"Of course, it bothers me Espo, but doesn't matter at the moment" replied Beckett.
"Yeah well I don't buy" Esposito snapped beck glaring at Castle, "I think he just got cold feet and couldn't hack it"
"Is that what you think Espsoito?" whispered Castle. "You think I would run out on Beckett just like that, you think I would just run and put her through two months of torment, for what? Something so trivial as getting cold feet"
"Well if the shoes fit Castle"
"Esposito! You are so out of line here" shouted Beckett getting in his face.
"Yeah well, I'm done" replied Esposito. "I've said my piece"
With that the angry detective left the break room, Ryan quickly followed him hoping to talk some sense into his angry partner,
Castle still sat at the table his head hung low, Esposito's words still ringing in his ears. How could he think we could do that to Beckett, he had been trying desperately to remember anything from his time aware, but nothing worked, he loved her with all his heart and he would never willingly leave her, especially on their wedding day. So whatever he did, it must have been serious to want his memory erased.
He shifted as he felt Beckett's presence next to him, he could feel her fingers laced with his own as he gripped his hand.
"Rick, I'm so sorry you had to deal with that," she said softly,
"No it's ok Kate, I probably deserve it" Castle replied lifting his head and looking at her worried expression. "But I want you to know, I would never leave you like that. I might not remember what I was doing, but I know I would never willingly stand you up like that, I love you"
Beckett nodded as she gripped his hand tighter "I know Castle, I love you too" she whispered.
They both knew they had a long way to go before they returned to their centre, returned to the way things used to be but as the saying goes, 'where there's a will, there's a way'.
The following day Castle stepped into the precinct and marched right over to Esposito's desk, who eyed the writer's presence carefully he was still simmering from the other day. Getting another dressing down from Beckett hadn't helped his mood, but he was willing to put that aside for the moment.
"Come with me sito. We need to talk" said Castle.
Esposito nodded "Yeah, we do Bro"
So he stood from his desk and followed the writer into the interrogation room, Castle took a seat in the one usually reserves for suspects with Esposito seated in front of him.
"Esposito, I know you have questions so I reckoned why not give you the opportunity...here," said Castle waving his arm at the room.
Esposito nodded "Bro! I just want to know if you had anything actively to do with your disappearance?" asked the Detective.
"No! I did not" replied Castle simply.
"Can you explain the evidence we found" asked Esposito in a clipped ton "The money? this mysterious Jenkins character? The fact you were shot?"
"No! No! and No!" Castle simply replied "I can't explain any of that"
Esposito's anger was starting to boil over "SO WHAT DO YOU KNOW HUH!" screamed Esposito as his fists struck the table.
"Nothing, I don't know anything"
Esposito had finally had enough so he quickly rose to his feet, the detective grabbed Castle by the jacket hauling him from his seat and throwing him into the wall. Esposito seemed to lose control before he punched Castle twice in the face in quick succession splitting the writer's lip. He screamed before he drove his fist into Castle's gut expelling the air from his lungs, which he followed up with another punch to the face.
Despite Esposito's violent actions towards him, Castle didn't react to any of them. He simply stood there taking everything the detective could dish out. He knew he couldn't give the man the answers he was looking for because he didn't even have them, but he wanted to give the man a foil to his boiling anger.
Minutes passed with Epsosito still punching the writer, but eventually, everything faded away and Epsosito's actions slowed until they stopped entirely. He couldn't do it anymore and his eyes widened to see the damage he wrought. Castle had a split lip, a gash under his left eye and a bruise developing over the right. His left arm favoured his rips damaged from the detective's assault, as Esposito stepped back Castle slid to the floor breathing hard.
"Feel better Sito?" asked the writer.
"Castle! Why would you just stand there and take that" asked Esposito surprised and he leaned against the table.
"Because I can't give you the answers you're looking for, because I can't give what I don't have" explained Castle coughing harshly. "So thought I'd give you a target for your anger"
"But...I..." Esposito stuttered.
"Sito, I need you to know I would never leave Beckett, I mean she spent four years sending me away and I didn't listen once". Explained Castle wiping some blood from his chin "What makes think I'd leave by choice, you'd have to drag me kicking and screaming and kicking and screaming, the bill for my Mercedes proves it"
"But the evidence..."
"All these years together, all the cases we've worked together, I thought I'd demonstrated that unorthodox thinking is needed when the orthodox patterns don't match up"
A wave of guilt washed over Esposito, Castle was right even if the evidence didn't make sense there was something deeper going on. He was usually the first one to challenge a "Castle' theory, but the fact he had just battered Castle for the last ten minutes because he couldn't explain his time away didn't make him feel better, it just made him feel worse through guilt and mistrust.
"Castle...I'm sorry" said Esposito quietly. "I have a problem with trust, I think it stems from the fact my Dad was always gone, it takes a lot for me to fully trust someone and that includes you".
"Hey at least you had a father even an absentee one" said Castle ruefully. "I never even knew my father existed until a few years ago"
"I have trust issues, Bro! And that day on the highway seeing how devastated Beckett looked, it just triggered something inside me, made me remember that I lost someone, when I saw hour car on fire I thought I'd lost my friend"
"Someday I'll find out what I was doing during those two months," said Castle getting to his feet he extended his hand to the detective "because I know I'll have the best detective team in New York City to help me"
Esposito smirked taking the compliment before he gripped the writer's hand and pulled him into a bro hug "You know it, Bro!"
So does this mean we're friends again?" asked Castle smirking.
"Sure Bro, no come on let's get you checked out," said Esposito opening the door "Beckett will skin me alive if I've broken you" joked the detective as he pressed the button for the elevator.
Castle just smirked as the elevator door opened.
So a quick emergency room visit to get Castle checked out was certainly a colourful ending to the day, that evening Beckett helped Castle tend to his minor wounds happy the pair had been able to resolve things.
Now they could focus on finding their centre once again, back to being partners in crime solving.
The show always gave the impression that Esposito and Ryan were junior versions of Beckett and Castle, Ryan would follow Castles' wild theories, while Esposito would follow Becketts cold calculating evidence-based logic.
I always thought Esposito never really liked Castle that much, as he was always quick to judge the author and would often be the first in line to snap the cuffs on such as in the 'Probable Cause' scene at the loft which heavily comes to mind.
But one shot is done.
Knight Ridger Alpha...Offline.