To quote the Tenth Doctor: I'm so, so sorry! I truly am, believe me! I know, it took me ages to get this damn last chapter up. And I don't even have a good excuse to present you with. Just a mixture of first getting sick, then watching the show's last episode an not liking it (therefor losing motivation) and last but not least hitting writer's block. Oh, and my beta made me wait half an eternity for the proof-read version, too.
But, finally, here it is, the last, not even very long part of 'The Irish Detective'. Big thanks to all of you who stuck with this story even though my uploading schedule was more than just weird! I hope you like this chapter more than I do!
Have fun reading!
It was barely eight o'clock the next day when Castle excited the elevator, three freshly bought cups of coffee in hand. On his way to Beckett's desk he handed one to Esposito, who looked at him surprised and returned his "Morning!" before going back to work.
"Castle, what are you doing here?", Beckett asked instead of a greeting when he placed the cup in front of her. "There isn't even a case we're working at the moment. I don't think Gates will approve of you being here with even less reason than usual." At his look she raised her hands. "Her opinion, not mine."
"Ugh", he said while sitting down, "I don't care, not today." He looked at her. "Do you know what horror it is to sit at home and wait? Far worse than sitting here, I can tell you! Like this, I can at least tell myself I know what's going on. And my laptop doesn't look at me accusingly", he finished in a low voice.
"Writing didn't work?", Beckett asked compassionately.
"No. I didn't manage a single sensible word. How am I supposed to be creative when Ryan decides to put himself in the mafia's line of fire and doesn't leave one another choice but to constantly worry about him?" Now he sounded slightly reproachful and Beckett smiled.
"I don't think it was his intention to annoy you. And he didn't exactly decide to do so either."
"Hm, anyways", Castle said gruffly but it was clear he wasn't really mad at their absent friend.
Beckett smiled again before refocusing on her screen. He settled in his chair and prepared for a long day of waiting.
Hours went by and the clock neared twelve a.m. when Castle, Beckett and Esposito found themselves in the kitchen-like room. The two detectives had both decided they needed a break and Castle was tired of staring off into nothingness. It was one of those times he cursed his over-active imagination. In the beginning he had been trying to at least think about the plot of his latest book, but with every passing minute it had become harder to stay focused, until he had finally succumbed and let his mind drift away. In the end he had come up with what felt like every possible way in which the whole operation could have gone wrong. Or still could, for that matter. Now the three of them were sitting around the table, Beckett and Esposito talking about something work-related while Castle couldn't bring himself to participate. His mind was still occupied with less pleasant things. He couldn't shake the thoughts haunting him.
"What is it, Castle?", Beckett suddenly asked and by that brutally pulled him out of his reverie.
"Hm? What?" He looked at her, slightly confused.
"You've been staring at that point on the wall for a solid five minutes now, man", Esposito answered in her place. "What's up?"
"Ugh, nothing", he deflected.
Beckett furrowed her brows, not letting him off the hook that easily.
"What if it didn't work?", Castle suddenly burst out. "What if the FBI was too late and the mob already found out they were after the right man? What if the FBI had a mole who sold Ryan out? What if ..."
At that point, Beckett cut him off. "Castle, stop."
He looked at her, mouth still open. "But ..."
"No, no buts", she interrupted again. "I won't allow it. We won't", she added with a glance towards Esposito who nodded confirmatory. Castle shut his mouth.
"We're just as worried as you are, man", the Latino said. "But thinking it over and over again won't do any good. Neither him nor us. Just try to focus on something else."
"It will work, okay?" Beckett joined in. "It was a good plan, probably the only one that ever had a chance of working and that it will do. We just have to be patient."
"I'm not patient", Castle said, sounding almost like a petulant child.
"I know", she smiled. "But this time, you don't have a choice I'm afraid."
"No choice in what?"
The curious voice from the door behind them had Castle, Beckett and Esposito spin around in their seats simultaneously. The man was standing in the doorframe leading to the main room, hands in his pockets and grinning.
"Ryan!", Beckett exclaimed, completely surprised while Esposito jumped to his feet.
"Kevin!", he said and strode over to his friend, enclosing him in a short but heart-felt hug and slapping him on the back. "Good to have you back, man!"
Ryan grinned from ear to ear. "Good to be back!"
Beckett got up as well and hugged Ryan, too. "We missed you", she told him, "wasn't quite the same without you here."
"Glad to hear it", he answered in a teasing tone, "I'd hate to be expendable."
"If only you would be, I could have gotten some work done these past few days", Castle, who was still sitting at the table, said, pretending to be upset with the younger man. He then got up as well, a wide grin spreading across his face, and joined the three next to the door. He hugged Ryan just as Beckett and Esposito had, being even more relieved to have his friend back than he would let on. "Nice of you to join us once again", he said a little ironically.
"Yeah, well, wasn't really my choice to be gone in the first place, was it", Ryan answered, laughing.
"No, probably not", Castle agreed.
Suddenly, Beckett looked through the window between the kitchen and the main room. "Did you report back to Gates already?", she asked.
"No, I haven't. Guess I better should and soon." Ryan looked positively alarmed.
"Wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her first hour back on duty, would you?", Esposito joked to which his partner nodded.
"Let's meet at my desk afterwards", Beckett proposed. "No one will listen to us there. This room here is way too highly frequented and at my desk it will at least look like we're working."
The others agreed and moved towards their respective destinations. At the last second, Esposito turned towards Castle. "Don't forget the coffee", he said with a grin.
The older man made a face at him but moved back to prepare the beverages. He really did congratulate himself on having found that tray! With Ryan back, he wouldn't have had a choice but to walk twice to bring them over.
When he tried placing the mugs on it though, the small wooden plate proved to be too small. Determined not to let himself be put off, Castle did his best to make it fit anyways. After one and a half minutes and a few burned fingertips, he decided for the construct in front of him to be stable enough for transport. Slowly, he lifted the tray, on top of which stood three mugs in a triangle once again topped by the fourth one.
Castle had almost reached Beckett's desk at which the three detectives were already seated and waiting for him. Ryan was smiling, Beckett looked content and Esposito was flat out grinning though he obviously tried to hide it. Castle himself had a hard time not to look too relieved or delighted. Both expressions fought for dominance on his face. It seemed ridiculous that Ryan had only been gone for three days, it felt like a lifetime.
When he passed the last desk before Beckett's, Castle miscalculated the space available and slightly bumped its corner. More out of surprise than pain he jumped a little, jolting the tray in his hand. What probably would have caused only a few drops of coffee splashing out of the mugs had he only been carrying two or three of them now set off quite a spectacular chain reaction. The mug on top slowly started to lose its balance and finally slid off the others. Castle watched the whole process with a strange fascination, unable to move and try to stop it. The ceramic fell, spilling its contents, and hit the edge of the tray. The impact caught Castle by surprise so he couldn't grip the wooden plate tight enough. In the end, all four mugs and the tray crashed down, making both a lot of noise and a big mess.
Castle was still staring down at his now coffee-soaked shoes when he registered the laughing. Not one of the three detectives showed even the tiniest bit of compassion.
"Maybe you should practice a bit more before joining the circus," Esposito said, grinning even more than before.
"Oh, shut up", Castle replied. By some miracle the mugs had all remained intact, only one had a small piece missing on its edge but was still usable. He sighed. "Could have worked", he said a bit disappointed. "Would have, in fact, if not for this stupid piece of wood." He lightly kicked the momentarily uninhabited desk.
"Don't get too worked up about it", Ryan said, chuckling, "at least we had some fun watching it. And it's not as if coffee is a limited resource around here, is it?!" With that he stood, picked up the tray and the mugs and left for the kitchen to get a refill. Esposito followed him, not without grinning at Castle again, and Beckett moved to help get rid of the mess on the floor.
When they finally sat around the desk, the same mugs with new coffee in front of them, Beckett looked at the three men contently. Even if it had only been a few days, it felt like far too long since she had seen them all in one place.
"So, Ryan, you want to share your adventure with us?", Castle asked, always eager to hear a good story. Both Beckett and Esposito straightened up a bit and leaned in a few millimetres when Ryan started to talk.
He told them how late in the evening someone had kept ringing the doorbell and when they had opened an Agent Collins had walked in, waving an FBI-badge around. The man had explained how indeed the FBI had an inside man in the Irish mob who had overheard another member talking to the leader about how he saw Ryan working with the police. Jenny had been totally confused. Just like his colleagues Ryan had never told her about his time undercover. At that point, Esposito interrupted him and asked why he had failed to mention it to either of them. Ryan just shrugged in response and got on with his story.
It had pretty fast become obvious that there wasn't much of a choice about whether or not to join the witness protection program the FBI offered them. Of course, neither of them was thrilled at the prospect but if it was either starting a new life or potentially not even have one anymore, the call wasn't a hard one to make. Guessing the FBI would fail to inform anyone about what had happened to them, Ryan had decided to leave his friends a note, correctly assuming that sooner rather than later they would come looking for him. To be on the safe side, he had slipped the piece of paper under his neighbours' door, hoping it would eventually come to the right hands. He explained how he hadn't wanted to write plainly what had happened in case the Andersons read it and in an attempt to be helpful tried to find this "Javi" and thereby accidentally informing someone about the whole affair who might not stand on the right side of the law, badge or no badge. He didn't quite manage to hide how proud he was of himself for finding the perfect solution – setting them onto Simon Gallagher, who they had a chance to find out worked for the mafia but who didn't know Ryan himself, neither from name nor from picture. He laughed when Esposito exasperatedly told him how hard figuring it out had been and slapped Castle approvingly on the back for being the one who had put the pieces together.
From there on, Ryan and Jenny had been in a flurry of events, first being transported to a safe house a few cities over and the next day to a small flat in Indianapolis, where they were supposed to start their new life. Still rattled by what had happened, neither of them had done much those first few hours and before they had had the chance to fully let sink in what all this meant, another FBI agent had come, telling them they could return to New York. At the question how that was possible, he had said a solution for the threat poised over them had come up, but nothing more. Castle scoffed at the implication that indeed the FBI had been the ones to come up with the plan. When they told Ryan what had really happened, he grinned.
"Could have guessed the only ones crazy enough to think of something like this would be you", he said. "Thanks, by the way. I'm sure Indianapolis is a beautiful city, but nothing compares to New York, does it?"
"The city is your only concern? Honestly? What about us, your gorgeous friends?", Esposito asked in mock insult.
"Secondary", Ryan teased.
Esposito pretended to be badly hurt by the comment and turned away from his partner to look across the room. Castle and Beckett grinned at their bantering.
"So within an hour we were in the car back here and last night we arrived at our old apartment. I barely recognized it, all empty", Ran continued his story.
"Believe me, we were just as confused when we first found it like that", Beckett said. "Did the FBI tell you if you will get your stuff back?
"Yeah, fortunately! Apparently, it's stored away in a warehouse at the moment, waiting to get sold to the highest bidder. But since we came back so soon, the auction isn't yet planned so everything can go back to normal." Ryan stopped for a second. "I hope they'll pay for a company to transport it all back to where it belongs", he mused.
"If not, we'll gladly help you carry it back", Beckett reassured him with a smile and Castle nodded. "Won't we, Espo?", she poked at the still sulking detective.
"I guess", he said, still pretending to be insulted but turning back to the others nonetheless. "But, I hope this teaches you a lesson, Kevin", he added towards his best friend.
"Which one?", Ryan asked.
"Not to keep important stuff like having been undercover with the Irish mob from us, for example."
"Yeah", Castle joined in, "because you could have saved us quite bit of worry and yourself some time in the lovely city of Indianapolis, if we had just known what had happened."
Ryan just grinned. "So you did worry about me, nice to know", he teased.
"Not anymore if you pull off something like this again", Esposito threatened and for one last time, the agitated man from three days ago was clearly visible through the detective's calm facade.
Alright, so, you made it, congratulations! Thanks one last time, I appreciated every single reader (but of course those the most, who took the few seconds it takes to leave a short review ;-) )!
I hope you liked my story and weren't too dissappointed by some parts of it. For example the fact that Castle, Beckett and Espo in the end didn't get to actively help getting the Ryans back or something. In my defense: I'm still practicing, my writing isn't as good as I'd like it to be and far from reaching the level of some other authors on this site. So oftentimes I'm not exactly content with what I came up with, either^^ Anyhow, you read all of it, so it can't have been too bad ;-)
Maybe till next time!