Shooting Bullets

Title: Shooting Bullets
Author: NightmareAhead and WarpedMinded
Chapter: 1/2
Fandom: Castle
Pairing: Ryan/Esposito
Warning: mention of hard male parts
Summary: Esposito gets shot and Ryan realizes life’s too short to just wonder ‘what if’.
Disclaimer: We do not own Castle or any of its characters.
Note: This is a role-play between WarpedMinded and NightmareAhead. Warped = Ryan. Nightmare = Esposito.

~.~.~.~.~.~

Javier Esposito shut his car door and waited for Kevin Ryan, his partner, to get out too before approaching the scene before them. They had gotten the call of a hostage situation in progress, which they normally wouldn’t be called to, but the man holding a woman hostage was their suspect, Mike Peterson.

Esposito held up the caution tape for Ryan to duck under and then they went and talked to the man in charge in front of the building surrounded by cops.

Mike must have seen them from the second floor window and recognized them because he called from the phone he was given and demanded to talk to one of them.

Kevin was looking up at the building worried. "You take it. You can handle yourself better than I can." He hoped and prayed nothing bad would happen today. But when the phone was pushed into his hand, he looked up at the man in charge, who he shrugged and pointed to the phone.

"Mr. Peterson, let Lindsay go and we won't add on the hostage charge to your list of crimes," his voice was shaky and he tried to swallow it back.

“No,” came the simple answer.

"What do you want?"

"I want you and that man you came with to come up here." Mike sounded pleased, like the cat got the cream. "You want Lindsay so bad, come up here so you know she is safe." Kevin was shaking his head so Mike quickly objected, "Ah ah. Don't say no to me. You and your partner will come up here, no weapons, or the girl won't make it out of here alive." Then all he heard was a dial tone.

Kevin looked at Javier and whispered into his ear what Mike wanted. He then mouthed 'I'm sorry' to his partner.

Esposito gave Ryan’s shoulder a squeeze before they headed into the building and up to the second floor. The building was quiet, having been evacuated earlier, and they moved to the open door slowly. They had left their guns with the cops outside and Esposito wished for the cold, comforting steel now. Making sure he was in front of Ryan, he entered the room with the hostage and Mike slowly.

“Hey, Mike,” he said quietly and looked Lindsay over to make sure she was okay. “How about you let her and my partner go and I’ll stay here with you. Deal?”

Ryan grabbed Esposito's shoulder and squeezed lightly. "No. You can have us both in here if you let her go. No reason to hurt her or keep her here any longer."

Mike sneered as he grabbed the girl and yanked her up, making her whimper. "Get out of here." He pushed her at the men and aimed the gun at them. "Only her! You two stay in here."

Ryan led her to the door, "Go down the stairs and there’s an ambulance right outside, go straight to them, make sure you’re okay." He gave her a small smile, "You made it. You did great." He soothed as tears filled her eyes and she ran down the stairs. He turned back to Mike, "Alright, you got us. What do you want?"

Mike shrugged, "Money. Power. For all charges to be dropped."

Ryan couldn't help the small scoff that escaped him and he regretted it instantly when the gun was then pressed right at his temple.

"You wanna talk back to me again? Huh?!"

Esposito had to greatly hold himself back from tackling the man holding a gun against his partners head.

“Hey!” he couldn’t hold back the yell however.

Mike moved the gun from Ryan’s head and pointed it at Esposito. “What? You don’t like when I point the gun at him? How about when I point it at you?”

“I like that a whole lot more,” Esposito said calmly as he held his hands up.

“Sit down, both of you!” Mike growled and pointed to the couch as he walked to the window, his gun still trained on them.

Sitting down, Esposito looked Ryan over from the corner of his eye. “You okay, bro?”

Ryan let out a heavy breath and sat down, "Yeah, yeah. I'm good. You?" He gave a sideways grin, wanting to calm Esposito down. "It's alright. Neither of us got shot, which is a good thing." Well, okay, being a hostage in an apartment with a psycho and almost getting shot wasn't okay. But it was way better than being dead.

"Just, don't piss him off, please."

"I'll try not to," Esposito chuckled quietly and looked back to Mike. The man was focused on what was going on outside the window and Javi tried to come up with a plan.

"Peterson, how about you let us use the bathroom, huh? I drank a lot of coffee today." Ryan smiled innocently.

"Fine, you first." Mike pointed to the bathroom and grabbed his arm and pulling him up. "Don't do anything stupid. If you’re not out in 3 minutes I’m shooting your partner in the head."

A lump swelled in Kevin's throat and he shook his head, "No, I won't do anything stupid. Promise." He walked in and shut the door. After using the toilet he quickly looked around for an object to use. He couldn't find anything so he gave up with a sigh and washed his hands. "See, I'm out." He was yanked aside and given a pat down. A very inappropriate pat down. He jerked away and Mike gave him a leer. "Good, you have nothing… dangerous on you."

Esposito growled and gripped his knees to prevent himself from jumping up at attacking Mike.

Said man came over and pushed Ryan down before grabbing Esposito and bringing him into the bathroom.

Javi didn’t have to go so he used the time to look for a weapon and think of a plan, but the bathroom was empty. Mike knocked on the door and told him to move his ass so he decided to go with his original plan. Banging the door open, he tackled Peterson to the floor and tried to wrestle the gun from his hands. An even louder bang was heard as the gun went off and Esposito felt a sharp pain in his thigh.

“Fuck!” he yelled out, and with the last bit of his energy he smacked Mike’s head into the floor, knocking him out.

Ryan ducked when he heard the shot and his eyes widened when he saw the blood on Javi's pants. "Oh no. Fuck." He rushed over and pressed tightly against the wound, "I'm sorry, this is gonna hurt like a bitch." He grabbed the phone, but by the time he got it in his hands cops appeared and gabbed Mike, hauling him down the stairs.

The paramedic's got Esposito onto a stretcher and took him down, Ryan shakily following. He got into the bus with Javier and grabbed his hand.

"Thank god he didn't aim any closer to the boys down there," he joked.

Esposito laughed but cut it off with a groan when his leg was poked at by a paramedic.
“Damn. I’ve been on the job for how long? And this is the first time I’ve been shot. Fuck it hurts,” he hissed through his teeth and watched the paramedic work.

They soon arrived at the hospital and by that time he was dizzy from blood loss. He was rushed into the hospital and he lost sight of Kevin as he was pushed into the ER. After the bullet was removed and he was stitched up they moved him to his own room in recovery.

Kevin had his head buried in his hands when Castle and Beckett came in, looking ruffled and worried. They sat down with him but they quickly jumped up when the doctor came over with a smile.

"You can go in and see him. He will be out by tomorrow the earliest. He needs to stay off that leg for a few weeks, so he won't pull any stitches or cause more damage.”

Kevin walked into the room and smiled, "Man you need to keep your legs out of the way when guns are bein’ fired." He reached down and grabbed Javi's hand.

Esposito laughed tiredly and squeezed Ryan’s hand. “Yeah, I’d like to see how you would handle being shot, bro. Ya big baby.” He softened the insult by looking up into Kevin’s blue eyes and smiling.

“Hey. How you feeling?” Castle asked as him and Beckett walked into the room, politely ignoring the fact the two men were holding hands.

Kevin pulled his hand away slowly and smiled at Castle and Beckett. "We are pretty sure he's gonna live. He's already insulted me," he teased.

When Castle and Beckett finally left a while later, Ryan shuffled around for a minute. "Yeah, I should get going too. You get better alright?" He leaned down, squeezed Javi's hand, and then kissed him slow and deep on the mouth. "Something to pass the time with." He gave a breathless laugh, "Hopefully we will get to do more of that later on, when you are healed." He licked his bottom lip and leaned down for one more, lighter kiss, and stood up straight. "Night." Kevin smiled brightly as he left the room with a skip in his step.

Esposito’s eyes went wide and he stared at the door Ryan had walked out of. With a smile he finally looked away and settled into the bed to sleep.

~.~.~.~

The next day Ryan came by with a box of Esposito's favorite donuts. "I can see you breathing, so that means you made it through the night then?" He laughed as he sat down on a chair next to the bed and ate one of the donuts, moaning at how good they were.

"Oh come on, bro, you gotta give me one," Esposito whined as he watched Ryan eat. Soon enough he forgot about the donuts and focused on Kevin's lips and moans.

Ryan held the box out to Javi, "Or do you want me to feed it to you?" He had a look of mischief on his face as he licked the cream off his bottom lip.

“Well I was shot it the line of duty. I deserve a little pampering,” Esposito smirked. “Get over here, Kevin,” he said quietly as he carefully moved over on the bed to make room.

Kevin looked at Esposito moving to make room for him and he looked down. "Are you sure? Maybe it won't be too comfortable with me in there with you." He slowly climbed onto the bed anyway and looked at his partner. "Did you like it?" he asked, referring to the kiss they shared the night before.

Instead of answering Javi pulled Kevin into a deep kiss, slipping his tongue into his mouth. When the need for air became too much he pulled back and panted.

"Been waiting for you to make a move for a while, bro."

"Wow, that... is some awesome kissing there," Kevin gasped as he put his hand on Javi's chest, and lightly pinching a nipple. "When you get out of here, I am going to make you melt into a puddle of goo."

“Yeah?” Javier laughed and ruffled Kevin’s hair. “Well I get out this afternoon so…” he trailed off with a leer.

Ryan rolled his eyes, "We won't be having fun quite that soon." He licked Esposito's bottom lip and nibbled on it. "But I can make sure you will dream about it tonight." He teased as his hand rubbed over the bulge between Javier's legs, making sure not to bump the gunshot wound.

Javier groaned aloud and pulled Kevin into another kiss, thrusting his hips up into the hand on his groin.

"You're a fucking tease, bro."

Kevin chuckled and nuzzled Esposito's cheek. "Don't call me a tease. You have been teasing me for a while." His eyes were crinkled at the corners as he grinned. "But I probably should get going to work. They want to keep you one more day so tomorrow morning I’ll pick you up and take you home."

"Damn. They said I was gonna get out today!" Esposito cursed, he hated hospitals and didn't want to stay here more than he had to. "Alright, go to work. I'll see ya later."

Ryan tapped Javi's cheek lightly, "Don't cry. They make decisions like that all the time. I don't think they are going to give you a lobotomy while you are sleeping." He kissed his partner one last time before getting up and leaving the room reluctantly.

Esposito sighed and settled back in the bed. He spent the rest of the day bugging nurses and drifting in and out of sleep.

TBC…

Read & Review!!!

AN: I LOVE this pairing so I convinced Warped to watch an episode of Castle (season 2 episode 21? “Den of Thieves” because I liked Ryan and Esposito’s interaction in this one). I then convinced her to do a R/E rp!