A/N: This is a rewrite of my original "What Happened Here?" story. The original will stay up for comparison and archive purposes. Thank you all for the suggestions, feedback, and reviews. If you read the original, there may be some obvious things you recognize, but I have also moved some things around, rewritten some sections, and added some interesting extras. I hope you enjoy and as always, I love your reviews!
Chapter 1:
"Beckett!"
"Captain!"
"Castle!"
Ryan and Esposito yelled into the house, banging full force through the front door of the Castle's loft. The two detectives tried to hide the desperation - Ryan's voice was an octave and a half higher than usual, and Esposito's muscles were taut. 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 last night.
"Castle! Beckett! Captain!" The two detectives spread out in trained formation as they stepped over the door and into the space they should have been familiar with. The scene before them was bloody but not chaotic, and from their vantage point at entry they couldn't actually see much. A man, clearly dead with two shots to the chest, was propped up against the kitchen wall to their right, catching Esposito's eye. Ryan's vision traced a trail of blood into the kitchen, terminating at Beckett's bare foot, stretched out on the floor. Prioritizing their injured colleagues, both detectives holstered their weapons as more officers stormed into the loft behind them.
"Come on Beckett. Come on!" Ryan muttered frantically, pressing hard on her bloody wounds. Modesty was out right now, as he desperately peeled back her stained jacket, and attempted to rip her tank top to get as close to the bleeding as he could. She was barely breathing, soft strained wisps whistling through a strained face. The wound through her right pectoral pulsed under his hands with every one of her shaky and slowing heartbeats. He wasn't sure how or when they appeared, but Ryan just kept pressing layers of gauze onto the wound, maintaining pressure.
"Castle?" she breathed weakly, barely perceptible, her eyes blinking open a fraction.
"He's right here Beckett, right…right next to you." Ryan stuttered slightly, tracing his vision up her arm to where she was gripping Castle's hand tightly, his own body bloody and damaged.
Her eyes closed in pain as she pulled in a sharp inhale, medics tending to her gushing abdominal wound on the other side of her body.
With one of the paramedics' sharp presses of pressure, her eyes shot open with horror, desperately pushing out words, "I'm…. I'm….prey….." They faded into a gasp and a shudder, her body heaving as the words she was trying to say drowned in a mouthful of blood.
Ryan felt a shaky hand grip his shoulder tight, Esposito's strained voice pressing through the focused tunnel, "You have to let her go man."
Ryan was frozen, barely able to shake his head in response, muttering, "No…. no….. no….." as he pressed harder into her shoulder, the blood no longer oozing through the layers of gauze.
Esposito's fingers taloned tighter into Ryan's shoulder, "You have to let go of her." There was a perceptible pause, a tense breath from both men. "You have to let her go. So the medics can do their job."
Oh.
Ryan had been so focused on her shoulder wound that he hadn't realized he was holding everything else up. Her abdominal wound was staunched enough to support movement, the gurney ready. He was the one preventing them from wheeling her away toward help.
Falling back onto his heels, Ryan allowed Esposito's grip to ground him back to reality, despite his own uncharacteristic shaking. The moment didn't need words, Ryan's hand coming up to cover Esposito's as both detectives took a silent breath. Struggling to get up from his blood-drained legs, Ryan gladly took Esposito's support hand. Leaning against the counter, both men took in the scene.
There was a trail of blood from the foyer area to the kitchen counter - Beckett's. There was another smaller one adjacent to where Beckett had laid, with its own corresponding drag mark from between the fridge and stove and leading around the counter - Castle's. Esposito had dealt with that.
What had happened here?
Less than an hour ago the two detectives had arrived at the Old Haunt for morning drinks. Just one or two to celebrate their big win from the hectic case. A few on-duty officers had come in for their regular breakfast chats. Ryan and Esposito had just received their drinks when loft's address came over someone's radio. They were halfway out the door by the time the others responded to the "officer down" call. Less than an hour from case ending to staring at the bloody remains in the loft. Neither felt like finishing a drink right now.
Providing a few fortifying pats to his partner's shoulder, Esposito fished his phone out of his pocket and walked away, dealing with the list of calls: CSU, Lanie, Beckett's dad, Martha so that she wouldn't be surprised when she did manage to come home. Ryan took that as his cue to begin securing the crime scene.