I must be evil for keeping you all waiting so long! I cannot apologize enough. I don't know if this makes it any better, but I've already started writing the next chapter, and will hopefully have the entire fic wrapped up by this weekend.

A quick thanks to all of you for sticking with me through this very painful journey, and especially to Tv Centric Universe, runeaglerun, Silverprint, Natz5, lynneanne, Thoughts Of A Shadow, silvermoongirl10, Extant, The ButterflyCurse996, and misenoma. Your reviews were what kept me from giving up!

Now let the agony of waiting end, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: Castle is... wait for it... not mine!

It was the harsh pounding in his head that jerked Esposito back to consciousness. He groaned quietly; it felt like someone had taken a jackhammer to the inside of his skull.

"Javi? That's it, you gotta wake up, bro."

Kevin? Javier panicked momentarily, realizing that he had no idea where he was or what was going on. But if he was hurt, chances are both he and Ryan had been in a dangerous situation. Somehow he managed to shoot upright, forcing his eyes open and looking around in confusion. He immediately regretted it, though, as grey spots danced in and out of his vision and the room around him spun.

"Hey, you're okay. Nice and easy, Javi, you took a serious knock to the head."

The calm, quiet voice of his partner grounded the injured man, and after a painful moment, Esposito was finally able to ground himself somewhat. Calmer, he found himself lying on the cold concrete floor of what appeared to be a storage room. That's right, they had been investigating the Marcus brother's home when he and Ryan had stumbled upon a hidden storage room. And there he was, the man in question, sitting against a stack of crates just a few feet from Esposito.

The Irish detective broke looked at the other man in concern. "How you doin' over there?"

"I'll live," Esposito ground out, although the pain in his head said otherwise. No thanks to you, he added silently. He had to admit that he was more than a little pissed at Ryan. Sure, they were off their game, hadn't been as close lately, whatever you wanted to call it. But if it had been Ryan that had been knocked unconscious, not a thing in the world could have kept Javier from his side. Ryan didn't look like he'd even made an effort to come to his partner's aid. "What happened?"

Ryan coughed. "We got jumped. And it wasn't just one guy, there were a couple of 'em. I didn't move fast enough. They knocked you out and locked us in here."

Well, that would explain why it was so dark in here. The two bare light bulbs protruding from the back wall did little to cut through the general gloomy atmosphere of the room. Standing, Esposito used the wall as support to check out the way they came in, and sure enough the entrance was bared. He ran his hands over it, searching for some kind of latch or handle, but to no avail. Esposito sighed; it was just their luck that they always seemed to get into these kinds of situations. "Did you call Beckett? Let her know what happened?"

"No, I-" Ryan coughed again, looking embarrassed. "They took both our phones."

Esposito fished through his pants pockets, only to find that the other detective was telling the truth. He couldn't help the wave of anger that rocked through his body as he turned on his partner. "So what? They knocked me out and you went all compliant?"

Ryan frowned at him. "What'da'ya talkin' about?"

"I don't know man," Esposito replied shortly, moving across the length of the room in a pacing motion. "All I'm saying is I come around to find that they've taken our phones, left us with no way out, and you've what? Sat there and let it happen? What is with you bro?"

Esposito watched as some of the color drained from the Irishman's already pale face. Ryan opened his mouth to talk, but Esposito had repressed his feelings for too long already and now they came spilling out unchecked. "You've been weird with me since the case we worked with Ike. So what is it? Jealous that I would be willing to take a bullet for someone other than you?"

An wide range of emotion filtered across Ryan's face as he tried to protest. "No, it's just... you never mentioned him before. And I thought we were brothers, thought we shared everything."

"Yeah, well, you're the one who broke that rule, weren't you, Ryan?" Esposito scoffed. "At least when Ike lied to me, it was because he was trying to protect his family!"

At this Ryan made a quick, jerky move to stand, but ended up sinking back down with a pained gasp, hands clasping at his side. Esposito frowned down at the other man, watching him curl into himself against the pain. Alarm bells were going off in his head, warning him too late that all was not as it seemed. In an instant he was kneeling hesitantly by Ryan's side, his own pain and anger forgotten. "Ryan? What's wrong?"

In answer, the younger detective simply removed his hands from their position against his side, revealing a bloody mess of a shirt. Esposito cursed and bent to lift aside the fabric, getting a better look at the wound. It was a single shot clean through Ryan's side, and was bleeding heavily. The Latino detective hurriedly pulled off his jacket, folded it up into a compress, and pressed it against the wound in an attempt to slow the bleeding. "Damn it, Kev, why didn't you say anything? You could have died while I stood there yelling at you!"

Ryan shook his head slightly, his eyes clamped shut as he attempted to breathe through the pain. His response came out tight and pained. "It needed to be said."

As much as Esposito wanted to argue, he found he couldn't. They both had been tiptoeing around the issue long enough; maybe they could actually address it now that it was out in the open. That is, if Ryan could pull through this. "How'd this happen?"

"One guy pistol whipped you," Ryan whispered, opening his eyes to look directly at his partner. "He was gonna shoot you, but I got away from the other guy and got in the way."

"Kev..." Esposito used his free hand to rub at his temples, sitting down heavily next to the other man. How could he have ever assumed that Ryan, the most loyal guy he knew, would have allowed him to be injured without putting up a fight? "Bro, I'm sorry, I never should have-"

" 'S fine," Ryan brushed it off. "I haven't really given you much of a reason to trust me over the last few months."

"Still," Esposito insisted, his guilt intensifying the dull ache in his head. "I know you, bro. You've always got my back, always. I shouldn't have yelled like that."

Ryan's only response was a slight shiver of pain. Esposito took a really good look at the other man, and did not like what he saw. Ryan's face was pale and bathed in sweat, and yet he was shivering pretty badly. Thankfully, the wound appeared to be clotting nicely, the flow of blood noticeably slowing. Still, Esposito wasn't taking any chances, and maneuvered Ryan into a position lying flat on his back with his knees bent, to prevent him from going into shock. Then, shifting into a more comfortable position himself, he glanced at his watch.

"Well, we've been gone about forty minutes, and Beckett'll probably expect us to check back on the hour," Esposito glanced down at his partner. "So that leaves us about twenty minutes until Beckett and Castle notice we're not back yet. Think you can hold on until then?"

Ryan coughed again, but managed a weak smile. "I don't really have much choice, do I?"

Esposito shook his head vehemently. "No, you don't."