The next morning, Esposito woke up to a chill coursing through his body. Grumbling under his breath he peeked an eye open to see Ryan keeping to his side of the bed...and all the blankets as well.

Espo reached over to tug on the blankets back to cover himself, but he quickly retracted his arm when he remembered that Ryan was barely giving his body any needed rest and couldn't find it in himself to risk waking him up over a damn blanket.

Esposito turned to check the time on his alarm clock, 5:38. He wanted to roll back over but he knew that he wouldn't be able to because he was already alert; his time in the military practically seared early rising into his mind.

With a grunt and some effort he rolled off the mattress and took his time stretching his tense muscles before standing. He was used to the bed to himself but now that he was temporarily sharing with his partner, he had to make sure he stayed to his side thus avoiding any awkward accidental compromising positions when they woke up.

He glanced towards his sleeping partner and leaned over to fix the blanket over his body. Esposito really hoped that he would stay asleep because God knows he needed it. He slipped out of the bedroom after pulling on a t-shirt from his dresser.

He walked into the kitchen and soon found himself sitting at the table with Ryan's endless stack of papers in front of him. He sifted through the papers on top and was not surprised to see any and all of Jerry Tyson's previous reports and anybody that had any sort of connection to him.

He knew it wasn't healthy; spending night after night pouring all of his energy into finding Tyson. They hadn't even heard a whisper on the street to clue them in, but Ryan was dead set on finding Tyson before something happened.

Esposito pitched the bridge of his nose with a heavy sigh. He knew he had to distance Ryan from all this, but he needed to do it in a way that wouldn't upset his partner. He figured he should start by packing away all these files for now.

So he stuck the papers into the empty folders, but made sure to keep it all according to Ryan's 'system'. A few moments later, he had the kitchen table cleared off for the first time since Ryan had been staying in his apartment.

Esposito tucked it into the top cabinet to keep it in a safe place. The sun was beginning to rise in the sky and started to gather the food he'd need for breakfast. A quick check in the fridge told him he'd need to run to the corner store to grab a carton of eggs.

He knew that Ryan would still be sound asleep by the time he got back, so he threw on his clothes and exited his apartment as quietly as he could.

As he walked down the sidewalk passing by other early bird New Yorkers, he pulled out his cell phone to call Beckett. She picked up on the third ring with a small yawn, "Sheesh, Espo, what happened to letting the sun rise first?"

Esposito smiled looking up at the sun shining in the sky, "The sun is up, Becks, maybe if you left Castle's bedroom once in a while you'd notice."

"Ha ha," Beckett gave a short laugh and shot back her own retort, "I'm surprised you and Ryan aren't still in the bedroom."

Esposito rolled his eyes as he entered the store, "Yeah, well he doesn't even leave the kitchen table to go in the bedroom."

Once Beckett heard this the joking was immediately lost, "Is he still worrying over that?"

Esposito went straight to the back of the store where the large refrigerators lined the wall, "Yeah, I'm trying to get him to take his mind off of it, so hopefully there's something today that keeps it that way."

"We don't have a case, but I can stick him to paperwork." Esposito weighed her offer as he pulled a carton from the stack.

"He hates paperwork more than anything, but hopefully that'll keep his mind off of everything." Esposito walked back to the cashier, thankful that there was no one here this early to clog the lines.

"Let's just hope he goes along with it." Esposito agreed with her and knowing his partner as well as he did, he knew that there was definitely a chance he would do anything he could to find a way to continue to slave over this Tyson's whereabouts.

Esposito grabbed his bagged eggs and quickened his pace to get back to his apartment; he wanted to have breakfast done before Ryan woke so he could convince him to stop for a meal. "I'll keep it all away from him, and you should have Castle distract him with something. You know he latches onto everything he says."

"Good idea, I'll tell Castle. He'd be more than happy to help out."

"Alright, we'll see you soon." Esposito started to wrap up the conversation once he entered his building. He stuck his phone back into his pocket and released a sigh he didn't he'd been holding in.

Once again, Esposito was more than grateful that he knew the team would always be there for one another no matter what.

He entered his apartment and listened if Ryan was awake yet. He didn't hear the shower running and his kitchen was empty, so Espo assumed that he still had some time to start breakfast before his partner woke up.

He busied himself with scrambling eggs over the stove and frying up bacon. Around an hour or so later, he had the table set and the last of the bacon frying. He turned around to set a bowl of scrambled eggs with cheese when Ryan stumbled through the kitchen doorway. His hair was mussed and Esposito noticed Ryan threw on his wrinkled Yankee t-shirt that hung a little loose on his right shoulder.

Esposito's eyes raked over his partner and he gave an amused smile, "Get dressed in the dark?"

Ryan's lifeless eyes slowly lowered to look at the t-shirt he was wearing as he pinched it between his fingers, "Sorry, Javi, mine was dirty…"

Esposito waved him off and pulled out the chair, "Believe me, you're doing me a favor by finally changing."

Ryan rolled his eyes as he plopped into the kitchen seat, "You know, you didn't have to make breakfast."

Esposito shrugged his shoulders, "I know, but I figured since I was up."

Ryan nodded absently as he twirled his fork in his hand. Esposito watched him closely as he took a seat next to his partner; the Irishman was barely nibbling on his bacon. Esposito swallowed the eggs currently in his mouth and asked, "Aren't you hungry?"

Ryan blatantly ignored his question and asked his own, "How long are you keeping me from my case?"

Esposito eyed him over his glass of orange juice. He knew Ryan was waiting for an answer, but he really didn't want Ryan to be thinking about that. In fact, this was exactly what him and Beckett were trying to avoid, "Kev, it's not your case. You need to stop working yourself to death over it."

Ryan bit angrily into his fork, "It is because it's my gun that is in the hands of a serial killer." He slammed his fork onto his plate, the sound of glass clattering against metal echoed through the kitchen, "If you were me, you'd be doing the same thing!"

Esposito was surprised that their conversation had taken a 360 turn in a matter of seconds, but remained calm, "No, I wouldn't. Enough is enough! Goddamn it, Ryan, don't you see what you're doing to yourself?"

"I'm going to get my gun back where it belongs."

"Okay! We'll do it when we actually have a lead to follow, Kevin. Chasing around after our tails is making us look like idiots-"

Ryan huffed with his arms crossed over his chest, "No. It's making me look like an idiot because I'm the only one even trying to work on this!"

Esposito shook his head with a shake of his fork, "Seriously, bro? You know, Castle beat himself up for weeks after that night and he was by your side day after day trying to sort through anything that could help you. But even Castle realized this whole thing was making crazy!"

Ryan shot his mouth sharply and Esposito knew he made a mistake, "C'mon, Kevin, I didn't mean it like that."

Ryan pushed backwards off the table and stood up, "Yes, you did. You think I don't notice the way that you look at me? Or Beckett? Or Castle? Like I'm going to break any second."

"That's not true." Esposito challenged.

"Then why? Why can't I work this case until the end?"

"Because there's no where to go! You're at a dead end and I know you know it too."

"Fine, you win! Are you happy? No 3XK!" Ryan said before he turned on his heel to stomp down the hallway.

Esposito waited until he left before dropping his head in his hands. This was definitely not how he wanted this morning to go; he wanted to ease Ryan away from this one step at a time, but his stubborn ass partner made that difficult.

He pulled out his phone and sent Beckett a quick text, 'Srry becks, we may be late. cover us?' He waited for the response a few minutes later, ('sure np') before he followed Ryan down the hall into his bedroom to try and get back on the right foot.

Esposito was sitting on the bed besides Ryan for at least fifteen minutes trying to decide how he should apologize when Ryan actually spoke up. "Sorry, Javi."

Espo looked over with raised eyebrows to his partner that was lying face down on his bed, still wearing only his stupid Yankee t-shirt and boxers. "I think there was a little of both of us to blame back there, Kev."

Ryan shrugged his shoulders, finally turning around to face Esposito, "That doesn't mean I'm not mad at you anymore though."

Esposito felt his nose wrinkle in confusion, "What-"

"I know you and the others don't think I should continue this search, but I think that maybe along the way he'll slip up and I'll catch a lead." Ryan explained cutting off his partner.

Esposito could understand a small part of where Ryan was coming from, but it wasn't worth all the trouble and stress he was putting himself through, "Years, Ryan, years he's been doing this and if you haven't noticed he has hardly slipped up before. You're a blind man in a dark room with this case, bro. It's not even a case."

Ryan took in a deep breath, "I don't want to fight, Javier."

Esposito scooted closer to Ryan, "Neither do I. So can you just meet me halfway and take a short break from this. Catch up on sleep, eating, Blue Bloods...just step away from all of this until you're ready to go back."

Ryan laid still for a few moments shifting between staring up at the ceiling and at Esposito, but finally sighed in defeat, "Okay, I'll take a break."

Esposito smiled patting his partner on the back, "Great, man, but uh, you may wanna throw on some pants before we head off to work. Don't want to get Castle too excited."

Ryan rolled his eyes and shoved Espo with little to no force, "Shut up, besides, I think it's you I need to worry about sneaking free shows."

Esposito caught Ryan's soft smile and just like that, he knew that the tension was gone and they were back to being Ryan-and-Espo.

If only it would have stayed that way.