Work Text:
Jenny Ryan smiled from her spot at the stove as she heard the front door to the apartment close.
“You’re just in time, boys!” she called, stirring the stew as thunder boomed from outside. “I figured with the rain we could all use something to warm up-.”
“It’s just me, Jenny,” her husband, Detective Kevin Ryan, interrupted. He sounded horrible and when she turned to look, he appeared even worse. Everything bit of him was wet and drooping, he didn’t lift his head to smile or even look at her. “I think, it’s only going to be me from now on.”
Jenny was a smart woman. It didn’t take more than a look to see that he was hurting. Whatever had happened was bad, so bad that Javier hadn’t come home with his partner like he had for the past month.
“Sit down, honey,” was all she said, turning the heat on the food down. When he kept standing there, she walked over to tug at his sleeve. “Come on, sit.” He moved automatically where she pulled, letting his wife remove his soaked outer coat and shoes. “Did you walk home?”
“Yeah, thought it would help me clear my head, or at least, understand what happened.” He was starting to hitch up as he spoke. “But it, uh, it didn’t.”
“Kevin.” She reached forward, trying to lift his chin and force eye contact. She gasped when she saw how red those eyes already were, still shiny as well. “What happened?”
“I…It started with Beckett’s mom’s murder.”
And then he told her everything. Everything he, Javi, Kate, and Rick had been doing for the past three years. Everything they had found, the dead ends they had overcome and the sheer vastness of what it encompassed. About Roy, the sweetheart captain who had looked at them all with such PRIDE every time she’d seen him, and what he had done to save Kate’s life.
“And then today…Castle wasn’t answering his phone, I didn’t know what else to do!” Kevin stood to pace now, waving his arms around. “I HAD to go to the Captain and I’m not even sorry I did because when I got there Beckett was hanging off the roof by her FINGERTIPS!” Jenny gasped. “And she was practically screaming for Castle, another thirty seconds and she would have been a stain on the pavement!”
He stopped moving, heaving as he tried to breathe. The blonde woman got up and wrapped her arms around him.
“She’s safe, Kev, she and Javi are both safe and alive.”
The detective hugged her back, squeezing to the point of uncomfortable. She dug her nails into his back in response, determined to make sure he knew where he was rather than reliving events that hadn’t happened.
“Javi is on admin leave and Captain said Beckett resigned,” he whispered after a while. “And neither would look at me when they left.”
“Did they leave together?” He shook his head. “Should I call him?”
“And say what? ‘Hey, babe, I know our lover just ratted you out to the captain and probably ended your career but you should come over anyway’?”
“Actually I was thinking more ‘Hey, jackass, get your butt over here and thank my husband for saving you so the three of us can have makeup sex’.” That startled a laugh. “He’s going to hate you for a while, honey, probably a very long while knowing Javi’s temper.”
He sighed, loosening up finally,
“I know.”
“It’ll last way beyond his leave too because knowing Jav he’s gonna sit there and think about it the entire time.”
“I know,” Ryan grimaced.
Jenny looked up at him, pleased to see he was calming,
“But someday he’ll be a little less mad and a little more rational. And that’s the day you get your partner back.”
“Thought you were my partner now,” the Irishman teased, smiling a bit.
“You bet I am,” she snarked, reaching up to kiss him briefly. “Javi cares about you, but his loyalty is also his Achilles heel. Roy would have sent him spinning, which is why he backed Kate’s seriously crazy plan. I mean,
really crazy, I want to call Lanie and tell her so she can see about beating sense into that woman.”
Ryan laughed, stepping away to shrug off his damp suit jacket.
“Beckett uses all her common sense on the job, or she and Castle wouldn’t still be dancing around each other.” Jenny laughed as she walked back to the stove to check on their food. “That smells great by the way.”
“It’s a good night for warm comfort food.” She glanced over to smile at him. “Go shower and warm up, this will be another ten to fifteen.”
“Sounds good.” He crossed their kitchen to kiss her cheek, lingering on her neck to smell her. He did this at times, usually either to try and start something or just for comfort. This was comfort. “I love you.”
“I love you too, honey.”
After he left the kitchen, she fished her cell phone out of her pocket. Checking the side she saw that it was still silenced, which explained why she hadn’t heard or felt when the latest text came.
‘Can’t make it tonight.’ – Javi 6:27 pm.
She looked at it, contemplating her response. As much as she wanted both her boys here, and wanted them to hash their way past this, that time was not now. So Jenny bit her lip and typed.
‘I know. K told me about today. We’ll be here.’
She placed her phone on the counter. Now it was up to Javi. She hoped for Kevin’s sake the other detective would come to his senses soon. Because she knew Kev needed Javier as his partner at work, even if the romantic relationship between them fell apart. She and Kevin would be fine but Javier was his backup, the one always on his six.
Her phone beeped.
She glanced at it.
And smiled.
‘Storm’s getting worse.’
It was their joke. Just between the two of them.
‘We’ll pass through it soon enough.’