Castle's partner

No Buts

"Nick?"

"Yeah?"

"You called me Samantha. You don't do that."

"I was just worried, I didn't want you to go into shock."

"Do you think it was one of the people in the anti-terrorist organization?"

"Yeah, I do."

"Did you get a good look at his face?"

"What, you didn't?"

"Umm...I was a bit busy being attacked!"

He grins. "Alright. Tomorrow we'll go to the precinct and I'll do a description for a sketch artist."

"No," I say quickly.

"Well why not?"

"They can't know about this. If they find out they'll kill me, and you!"

"Why?"

"Uh, you for letting me and me for going. Please, we can't."

"We are. We are telling them tomorrow."

"But-"

"No buts! We tell them! You got attacked! They need to know! It could help them find the organization."

I growl at his logic.

"Ryan gave me a bag of your clothes. I'll go get it."

But as he leaves the room, exhaustion hits me, and I find myself falling asleep.

I hear Nick come intp the room, but I am not conscious enough to do anything.

He sees me I know, and I hear him chuckle slightly.

He pulls the ice pack from under my hand holding it in place, and lifts me up slightly, guiding me into a shirt, and then pulls the blankets over me.

He kisses me softly, thinking I'm asleep, and whispers, "I love you."

And with that, I lose all consciousness and drift off to sleep.

The man is back, but not for me.

He heads straight for Nick, backing him against a wall, barrel of his gun pressing against Nick's forehead.

Nick doesn't flinch, but I do.

I run at the man, grabbing at him.
Before I can do any good, he pulls the trigger, hitting Nick in the stomach, and he crumples to the ground.

"Nick!"

The man leaves chuckling, and I am now alone with Nick.

"Nick, please, please don't die. I need you, I need you," I sob.

He takes my hand.

"Hey, you need to leave. He might come back.and if he does he'll shoot you too. Go, please."

"No! I'm not letting you die alone."

"Little sis, you're all I've got. You can't die too. I'm fine by myself."

And with that, his eyes close, his breathing gets more ragged, and I grip him tighter.

"No, no Nick!"

But my screams do nothing, and he lets go.

I wake with a scream, tears streaming down my face and my hands shaking.

I stumble to the bathroom, and fall to the ground, arms wrapped around my legs.

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Nick pov

When I first wake, I hear a scream. I think nothing of it. Ever since I got back from the war, I wake up from screams all the time.

But then I remember my little sis is here, and I decideto go check on her.

I walk to where she is sleeping, but she's not there.

I instead walk to the bathroom, and find her curled up in the corner, not crying, just staring off into space.

I bend down so I'm next to her and reach out to her.

"Little sis?"

She latches on to me, and I pull her into a hug.

Instantly, I am her overprotective big brother, the one who comforts her when she has a bad dream, the one who cares.

"Hey, I know what it's like. It's scary, isn't it?"

She nods against my chest.

"But you gotta remember sis, it's not real. Whatever happened, isn't real."

I carry her back to bed, carefully laying her down so I don't hurt her ribs.

"Can you stay with me?" She asks quietly.

I figure, this way we'll both feel safe neither one of us will have bad dreams.

I nod and lie next to her, closing my eyes until morning comes.

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Ross pov

I sleep in, not that I mean to. I'm just tired, and my body hurts.

I groan as I sit up, my side hurts and so does my jawline.

My knuckles have ugly purple bruises on them.

Nick's awake already, but he's always been an early riser. I can hear him in the kitchen rustling things.

I hobble out there slowly.

"Hey little sis sit down don't walk!" He exclaims as soon as he sees me.

"I'm fine Nick. Hurry up so we can go to the precinct."

"You want breakfast?"

"I'm not hungry."

"Are you hurting?"

I hesitate, but only for a millisecond.

"No," I lie.

"Little sis I can tell when your lying. Here, take some medicine. It will help with the pain." He hands me two ibuprofen and a glass of water.

"Alright let's go."

As we walk into the precinct, I feel unnecessarily nervous. I stay too close to his side, and shuffle along so slowly he has to tug me along.

Just as we turn the corner from the bull pen to Beckett's desk, they see us.

Ryan rushes towards me, and as he hugs me he hits my side, and I let out a muffled groan.

He pulls away, and then sees my face, they all do.

"Samantha, what happened?" Beckett gasps.