A/N the speech in italics belongs to the episode
"He killed my partner!" Kevin looked at Javier shocked; Javier had never told him that. He was slightly hurt that Javier had never said, but he kept that thought to himself and led Javier away. Javier kicked the wall of the break room and started cursing in Spanish, Kevin just stood calmly at the edge of the room.
"I know how hard this must be for you Javi"
"You have no idea Kev-"
"My partner may have not been killed; you know I told you about my partner in Narcotics? A thug badly hurt my partner and he had to leave the force; you can't let your grief cloud your judgement otherwise you'll be taken off the case like I was" Javier took a breath and was about to say sorry but Kevin seeing Javier had calmed down turned and left the break room. Javier had seen the look in Kevin's eyes when he had said his partner had been killed, he saw hurt but it had been quickly replaced, he had meant to tell Kevin at some point but he had never found the right time to bring it up.
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Through the case Javier had borne Kevin's words in mind and kept his head. He didn't want to tell Kevin he was going to help Ike, but he wasn't surprised when Kevin stopped him in the parking lot and had said Ike was going for the ledger. Also when Kevin said he was coming with him Javier had to put his foot down, there was no way in hell he was going to bring Kevin into all this. When he told Kevin no he saw the hurt return to Kevin's eyes, as he drove away he looked back at Kevin to see him already walking back inside, he hoped he hadn't just ruined their friendship. There were two reasons why he hadn't let Kevin come 1) because he didn't want to lose another partner and 2) because of the promise he made back in Middle school when Kevin had been beaten up.
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After Holliwell had told him where Javier and Ike were he ran up the stairs not noticing Castle was right behind him.
"Esposito?"
"In here, we have an officer down" Kevin felt bad when he was relived it was that it was Ike that was shot and not Javier. He radioed for an Ambulance, Javier went with Ike in the ambulance when Kevin followed, he found Javier in the waiting room looking at his feet Kevin sat next to him and said "it's not your fault Javier"
"Yeah right, if I had moved quicker" Javier still looked at his shoes,
"You would have most likely have taken the bullet instead"
"So what?"
Kevin got angry with Javier then for the first time since this whole mess started "That's all your gonna say? 'So what?'"
Javier looked up at Kevin for the first time noticing the tone of his voice; Kevin for the first time wasn't looking at him and stared at the wall.
"You felt bad when you thought Ike was killed, think how I felt when I ran up to the office not knowing what I would find. You wanted to keep me way from helping you two tonight, well don't go on about how it should have been you that was shot because in the end… just don't make me feel how you felt four years ago" with that Kevin mumbled something about going to get some coffee and got up and left. Javier watched him go, what Kevin had said struck a nerve, he felt guilty about saying so what about taking a bullet, he wanted to keep Kevin out of harm's way but didn't think to keep himself out of the way either. Ike was going to be fine, Kevin had calmed down and the next day Javier and Kevin started up their usual banter, to Beckett's relief as she knew things had been strained between them.