"Beckett!"

"Captain!"

Ryan and Esposito yelled into the house, the remnants of Castle's front door banging to the floor. The two detectives tried to hide the desperation and exhaustion present in their voices. They had been in these types of situations before, rescuing Beckett and Castle from something. In fact, they had just saved Castle from the CIA building late last night.

"Castle! Beckett! Captain!" The two detectives spread out as they stepped over the door. The scene before them was bloody, and from their vantage point they couldn't see much else. A man, clearly dead, was propped up against the kitchen wall to their right, catching Esposito's eye. Ryan caught sight of a trail of blood leading his vision to the kitchen, terminating at Beckett's bare foot, stretched out on the floor. Both detectives holstered their weapons and ran, as more officers stormed into the loft behind them.

"Come on Beckett. Come on!" Ryan muttered frantically, pressing hard on her wounds. Modesty was out right now, as he desperately peeled back her stained jacket, and attempted to rip her black long sleeve shirt to get as close to the bleeding as he could. She was barely breathing, her face pale and frozen in a wince. The gaping wound in her chest was pulsing with every shaky and slowing heartbeat. He wasn't sure how or when they appeared, but Ryan just focused on keeping constant and hard pressure on the layers of gauze over the wound.

"Castle?" she breathed, barely perceptible.

"He's right here Beckett, right next to you." He replied, tracing his vision up her arm to where she was gripping Castle's hand tightly.

Her eyes closed in pain, as he perceived people tending to her abdominal wound on the other side of her body.

Shooting her eyes open in horror, she panted, searching for words that wouldn't escape. "I'm….. I'm….. pray…." She struggled and gasped. Suddenly her body heaved, a mouthful of blood exiting as her head fell limp to the side.

"Noooo!" Ryan yelled, putting all of his weight into her shoulder wound. He felt a shaky hand grip his shoulder, Esposito's strained voice stretching through a tunnel, "You have to let her go man."

Ryan could only shake his head, muttering, "No…. no….. no….." pressing harder, desperate, the blood no longer oozing through the layers of gauze.

Esposito's grip tightened, "You have to let go of her. So the medics can do their job."

Oh.

Ryan had been so focused on her chest wound that he hadn't realized he was holding everything else up. The medics had already staunch her other wounds, and had the gurney ready. He was pressing so hard into Beckett that he was preventing them from wheeling her away. Wheeling her toward help.

Falling back onto his heels, he allowed Esposito's firm grip to ground him back to reality. His steadfast partner was shaking, uncharacteristic of him. Ryan brought a blood stained hand up to cover Javier's as both detectives silently took in the scene.

Adjacent to the pool of blood in front of him, was another smaller pool, with a clear drag mark from behind the breakfast counter. Castle. Esposito had dealt with that apparently, after assessing the clearly dead guy propped against the wall.

What had happened here?

Struggling to get up from his now blood drained legs, Ryan gladly took Esposito's hand in support. Leaning against the counter, both men took stock.

Less than an hour ago they had arrived at the Old Haunt for morning drinks. Just one or two to celebrate their big win. Yeah they knew it was 7 am, but it had been a very long night. A few on-duty officers had come in for breakfast. Ryan and Esposito had only perceived the address and the call for "Officer Down" from their radios when they bolted out, leaving Lanie stunned in their wake. And now here they were in the Castle loft, staring at the bloody remains.

Providing a few fortifying pats to his partner's shoulder, Esposito fished his phone out of his pocket and walked away, presumably dialing CSU, Lanie, etc. Ryan took that as his cue to begin securing the crime scene.