It's when he ducks into the break room and spots Ryan that he sees his opportunity. Beckett isn't talking to him, the captain is giving him the stinkeye and if Esposito's glare could be any more baleful, he'd be on fire. Ryan's giving him just as hard a time, but he's also the most likely to open up out of all of them.

He hopes.

"Ryan."

The shorter man looks up at him, slightly startled, but then his eyes narrow and shoulders square. Ryan deliberately turns and presents his back to him.

It hurts, it must be said.

Clearly this is about his summer away, his time from the precinct, but for the life of him he can't work out why they're all so angry. Yes, he left, but he'd left to work on his book and to give Beckett (and Demming) some space. While he was sorry, kind of, to hear that hadn't worked out, it could hardly be his fault when he wasn't even here.

And Ryan was his friend, the one who'd been the quickest to welcome into the precinct's inner circle, reading through his back catalogue, talking about the books, told him when drinks were on and generally made him part of the fold.

"Ryan, c'mon."

"Castle…"

"Ryan, you almost shot me. You owe me something!"

He spoke in an urgent hiss, unwilling to attract any attention to the break room. He could see Ryan wavering, but if Esposito or Beckett walked in now, he'd clam up and never breathe a word.

The other man's features softened, and he nodded, his demeanour no longer totally cold.

"Yeah…sorry about that. But Castle, why were you away the whole summer?"

"I was writing."

"Still…no calls, no nothing? For Beckett, for us? Even after you came back?"

He shrugged. He really had not known how to broach the topic of their partnership again, especially if things had been serious with the detective from Robbery.

"Well, with Demming around, I just didn't want things to be…awkward."

Ryan looked at him again, shaking his head slightly at the words.

"You didn't hear this from me, Castle, but ahh, Beckett and Demming were over before you showed up at the precinct with Gina…"

Oh. Oh shit.

A/N: From a prompt about Castle wondering why he was being treated in the way he was during 3x01.