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Lines of Responsibility	By : BlueHarlequin Category: 1 through F > Castle Views: 2774 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Nothing of Castle belongs to me; this is not for profit. No copyright infringement intended.

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Lines of Responsibility
Author: BlueHarlequin
Chapter 3 - Immersion and Systematic Desensitization
Disclaimer: Nothing of Castle belongs to me; this is not for profit. No copyright infringement intended.
Warnings: graphic sex between men, angst, references to molestation, violence, and drug use, may contain triggers
A/N: unbeta'd. Please be kind. Updates are always posted in my profile. Feel free to PM me with comments or leave a review, I love hearing from ya'll!
Javier Esposito x Kevin Ryan
Summary: Ryan receives a surprise from his past that throws his entire world into turmoil. He finds out that he has a 12yo year old daughter when her mother suddenly dies and he gains custody of her. Jenny flips out and springs divorce papers on him. Esposito finds out they’re separated and his repressed feelings for his partner start to come out. Kevin tries to cope with the sudden pressure of being the father of an abused pre-teen and Javier is there for him.

When the court official had approached him with the manila envelope Ryan had thought, “This is it.” However, it turned out to be something totally different from what he thought it was. In fact, overwhelmed barely described how he felt when he found out. While Simone was talking to them he could barely concentrate. All he could think of was the fact that he had been a father for twelve years and hadn’t known about it. He felt guilty, a little bit angry and completely terrified. What would his life have been like if he had known? After seeing those photos he knew how her life would have been. He would never let something like that happen to a child and now that he knew, he would make sure nothing like that ever happened to her again.
Esposito’s voice cut through his thoughts. “Bro, you okay?”
Ryan blinked, “What?”
“I asked if you were okay. You seemed a bit out of it there. I wanted to know what you need to do next. I’ll help you with anything that gets thrown your way.”
“Oh, I’m fine. I was just thinking. I …” He stopped as his phone started buzzing loudly as it vibrated across the table. He picked it up without thinking and answered. “Ryan.”
“KEVIN! What the hell? What is this about a paternity test? This guy just shows up with papers which he won’t let me look at then this lawyer calls and he tells me you have a kid! I mean why are they showing up here in the first place? How come you haven’t changed your address?”
Kevin had been holding the phone away from his ear since she was yelling at him; her shrill voice was loud in the quiet room. He hadn’t gambled on Javier being able to hear every word. His partner looked at him in shock and mouthed at him ‘changed your address?’ Kevin shook his head and held up his hand, he turned away from the man shielding the phone. “Jenny calm down. I don’t have a place yet. And I thought you said this was only for a little while.”
“I’m still thinking about it Kevin! I mean really? You’re reluctant to have kids with me but not someone else? Just how long have you been sleeping around?”
Kevin was getting angry now. “Jenny! I would never cheat on you! She’s twelve years old! This was long before I met you.”
“Whatever Kevin! Right now I don’t want to talk to you about this!” The line went dead and the detective turned off his phone before tossing it on the table. He could feel Javier hovering next to him and sighed as he realised he was going to have to have a long talk with the man to explain what just happened.
He turned to his partner who was looking at him expectantly. “We’ve been separated for a few months now.”
Esposito’s jaw dropped open in shock. “I thought you two were stupid crazy in love. What happened?”
“It actually started before Christmas. Remember what I said to you?” The other man nodded. “Well I had actually said that to her first and she was really unhappy about it. The lingerie was an attempt to make it up to her. Christmas day we went over to her family’s house and her mother asked when we were going to give her some grandchildren. She told her we were ‘working on it’ but I guess Jenny saw me make a ‘face’ as she put it.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “We had a pretty intense fight when we got home. Most of it was things I had heard before, mainly about how late I work.” Kevin stopped for a moment and looked at his partner. Esposito could see he was struggling with something. He opened his mouth then shut it again as if he was reluctant to speak.
“What is it bro? You know you can tell me anything.” Javier almost reached out to take his hand before he remembered that would be a very bad idea.
Kevin sighed again. “I know it’s kind of weird but ... she ... she’s pretty jealous of you.” Esposito felt a small moment of panic as he wondered if Jenny somehow knew how he felt about her husband. He rationalised that it would have been impossible considering he’d only seen her a handful of times, the longest being at the wedding.
“She doesn’t understand why we spend time with each other outside of work. Jenny said, ‘You see him almost every day for far longer than I see you, why do you have to spend any more time with him than that?’ I didn’t know how to explain it to her, we’re partners, that should be good enough. I don’t know. It just really made me angry.” Javier felt something squeeze his heart and he knew he shouldn’t feel as pleased as he did at hearing those words. Also, Kevin’s confession that he and his wife had separated shouldn’t have filled him with joy. He focused on what his partner was saying and tried to will himself to be sympathetic.
“After our fight, she told me to leave for a couple of days while she ‘thought about where our marriage was going’ and that turned into a week. That week turned into two more and the next thing I knew a couple of months had gone by. Every time I call or go see her we get into a fight or she doesn’t have the time to talk to me.”
All of the dots finally connected for Javier, the weight loss, the fatigue and the strange behaviour. He was a little angry that Kevin hadn’t said a thing to any of them. But he couldn’t stay mad at him, not when his friend was so distressed over it. “So now that I know, I’ll ask you again. What do you need help with? And speaking of which where are you staying?”
“Well since it was only supposed to be for a few days I’m at a motel downtown.”
“No man, that’s got to stop. You’re moving in with me until this is over.” A little voice in Javier’s head was screaming that this as was bad, bad idea but another much louder voice told him that he was being a good friend and that’s what partners do for each other. He ignored the other voice when it added but a good friend and partner isn’t all you want to be. “So is that why you didn’t want me to take you home?”
The younger man smiled ruefully, “Busted.”
Esposito recalled something, “Hey, do you think that lawyer knows something?”
“Why?”
“Because she went out of her way to avoid mentioning Jenny and she pretty much made it sound like you are going to be going at it alone.”
Ryan was afraid of that. “Well if Jenny has already filed for divorce it would be a matter of public record. That would be something easy for a lawyer like her to look up. Honestly, when I got served that is what I thought they were, divorce papers.” He picked up the papers with the court order on them. “This isn’t for another week. I want to get this over with.” After turning his phone back on, he pulled out the card with Simone’s number on it and dialled.
“Hello? Ms. Palmer, it’s Kevin Ryan.”
“...”
“Simone, sorry. How soon could I get a paternity test of my own done?”
“...”
“Do I need to call the DDC for that?”
“...”
“No, that’s not a problem. Do you know how long it takes?”
“...”
“Okay then, I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Bye.”
Kevin ended the call and Esposito looked at him expectantly. “What’d she say?”
“She has to file some papers and she’ll come by in the morning. She’ll make an appointment with a lab up around the Garment District I can go to afterwards and it should take about three business days to get the results. Maeve’s DNA is already on file. She sounded a bit overjoyed and said ‘Good, maybe we can beat the asshole to it.’”
Esposito flashed him a grin then picked up the case file on the murders. “Man this is brutal. It looks like he surprised Kelly’s parents and her brother in the living room. Her parents got it in the chest but it looks like he shot her brother in the groin first before finishing him off.” Both men blanched at that. “He must have had some hate for Kelly, she took it to the face. Apparently she was the kitchen and he chased her from there down the hallway after shooting her family. After he gunned her down, he went to look for Maeve in her room. Not finding her there he started checking the other rooms. When he opened the door to Neil’s room he was confronted by Officer Nathan Callahan. The officer was forced to shoot him in self defence. It was a non-lethal shot that momentarily incapacitated him. He disarmed him and called for backup. Apparently Maeve had been looking for her uncle and Officer Callahan had placed her in the closet when he heard the gunshot in the hallway.” Esposito closed the file and looked at his partner, “Bro, I really hope you are this kid’s father.”
Ryan cocked his head, “Why is that? Not that I don’t want to be, but ...”
“Well I think of it this way. One, if you’re her dad, she’ll at least grow up knowing she’s not the child of a murderer. Two, you’re a cop, we’re the good guys. I think she probably needs as many of those in her life as she can get right now. And three, despite what you said to me about not being ready, I don’t think anyone ever is. But you, I know you’ll make an awesome dad.”
Kevin blushed. He ran his fingers over the file photo of the girl in the folder. “Thanks Javi, I hope you’re right.”
The other man smiled cockily, “You know I’m right. You also realise that since you’re starting off with absolutely no clue you’re going to have to ask for help right?”
“Yeah, but who ...” Kevin looked at Esposito in mock-horror for a moment. “Not ...”
“Yep, Castle. He’s the only one with teenage daughter experience. Beckett will help you with teenage girl insights but Castle’s probably the only one who actually knows anything in our group.” Javier was pleased that he was able to get Kevin’s mood to lighten up just a little bit. He gathered up all of the files and motioned his partner, “Come on, let’s go pick up your stuff at this motel.”

tbc
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Lines of Responsibility