In My Veins

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

“Nobody is perfect”

            “Beckett,” Esposito greeted—more cautious than friendly, “Welcome back.”

            “Thanks Javi,” she replied, wondering how she was going to go about saying this. “How are... things?”

            He saw right through the small talk and knew her hidden meaning. “Things have been, well, they’ve been tense. I feel Gates’ eyes burning into the back of my skull. All the time; watching me; scrutinizing my every move. I don’t need a babysitter!”

            “I know you don’t. I don’t want her watching my every move either. However, we did break the rules and go behind her back before, giving her every reason to be more wary of our intentions.”

            Espo couldn’t help but to notice a change in Beckett. First off, she was agreeing with Gates. That rarely happened. Secondly, something about the slight smile she was trying to hide and the gleam in her eyes clued Esposito in that Beckett was the happiest he had ever seen her.

            Maybe she was right; Gates did have reason to not trust them. Without a word Javi gave Beckett a nod to tell her he understood where she was coming from. He turned to leave but Kate stopped him in his tracks before he could. “Javi wait. As glad as I am we had that talk, I didn’t drag you away to talk about Gates. This thing with Ryan; it needs to stop. You two can’t throw away your partnership over something wasn’t either of you guys’ fault. It was my fault we got into that mess and it was my fault that we were in so deep that Ryan had to go to Gates to get us out of it. Nobody is perfect Javier; Ryan did the right thing. I would hate to be the cause of splitting up the team.”

            Yet again, Esposito knew Kate was right but he was too damn proud to admit it. He still felt betrayed by his partner even though Ryan wasn’t trying to betray them. The two silently left the break room to go back to their desks. Espo needed to know something first, “Beckett why did you come back?”

            “Duty called,” she said simply.

~O.o.O.o.O~

            All three detectives—and Castle—were gathered around the murder board trying to fit pieces of their case together. The boys had been working the case of a Jane Doe: mid-twenties, brunette, Caucasian. She had a GSW to the right temporal lobe and the gun was placed in her hand to make it look like a suicide. There had been a partial print on the gun but they couldn’t get a match from their system. Lanie had deemed it a homicide rather than a suicide due to the lacerations along the third and forth ribs and the contusions on her back that suggested blunt force trauma. They hadn’t had any luck finding an ID for there vic and they were dead in the water.

            Trust Beckett to come back when they were dealing with a tough case. 

~O.o.O.o.O~

            Meanwhile, Gates was holed up in her office with the two feds that would be posing as detectives transferring over from narcotics from the thirty-forth.  

            “Captain Gates, I’m Special Agent Nicole Ram and this is my partner Special Agent Aaron Moen,” the pretty female agent said, shaking the captain’s hand. Moen shook Gates’ hand as well and gave her a silent nod. “As you know we are here to protect Detective Beckett,” Agent Ram continued, “We will be continuing to work on the conspiracy behind her mother’s murder while we keep an eye on her and the other members of your precinct to make sure they don’t get into any more situations.”

            “I’m aware of that.” Gates agreed, “I guess it’s time to introduce you two to Beckett and her team.”