Because Of You

Chapter 18

"C'mon" Kate huffs under her breath "Where the hell are they?"

The gun battle inside the warehouse rages on. Kevin, Javier and Mick are still trapped in the middle of it all. Right now, Beckett wants nothing more than to be able to save her two boys, but she knows she can't do that until back up arrives.

"Kate, don't worry, I'm sure back up will be here soon" her husband tells her as he peeks over the top of the pillar shielding him from gunfire.

At a reasonable distance away from him, he can just make out the tightly compact mesh of three bodies, cowering behind a concrete pillar.

"Rick, if anything happens to them" she cuts herself off to get her emotions back in line "They're my boys. I don't know what I'd do without them"

"I know" the novelist tells her as he reaches out to squeeze her hand "Me neither"

"NYPD! Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!" A strong assertive voice breaks through the deafening noise of the gunfire.

Armed SWAT and beat cops swarm through the open doors. The two sides stop firing at one another as a new enemy, the boys in blue, invade their battle ground. The united force of both the Irish and Russian mobs suddenly disperse. The warehouse breaks out into utter chaos as it becomes clear that it's every man for himself. The well prepared SWAT team start trying to round them all up like a sheep dog would do with sheep. Some of the gangsters start firing at the cops as they attempt to escape. SWAT fires back in response and injure a few, but Beckett sees a few escape. Quickly, she gets up on to her feet and indicates to a few officers of the escaping criminals. The officers go in pursuit of the fleeing members of the mob whilst the rest handcuff the ones that have been caught.

Beckett and Castle rush over to their colleagues like worried parents. As they approach, both of their hearts miss a beat. None of the three men lying on the hard ground appear to be moving.

"Guys!" Beckett shouts as she finally reaches them "Espo? Ryan? Are you okay?"

Esposito, who is almost on top of Ryan, moves to the side to reveal his very pale looking partner. Beckett realises Castle's theory is correct as Mick also gets up off the ground. Both Espo and the mob boss were protecting the blue eyed detective from the bullets flying overhead, but from Ryan's blood soaked shirt it doesn't look like they succeeded.

"I'm fine, but Kevin needs a hospital" Javier replies, helping his weak partner up off the ground.

As he shakily stands, both Beckett and her husband can see how awful he looks. It looks like Ryan just took a hit to the shoulder, but he's still lost quite a bit of blood.

"I'll live it's not that bad" Kevin adds, but his body language shows them all he's lying. It's strange to see him like this. Kevin Ryan too exhausted from blood loss to be able to hide his emotions.

"Mick McConnell, you are under arrest" Beckett suddenly announces, causing Mick and Kevin to share a meaningful glance with one another.

"What for?" the mobster questions as she gets out her handcuffs.

"I'd like to see your lawyers get you out of this one, McConnell. Maybe you could explain to me why you're here and why we have a large group of men, who I am sure we'll find are all business associates of yours, in custody for discharging fire arms a lot of them probably don't have licenses for?" Beckett retorts with a small smirk. She knows she has him cornered and in her mind there's no possible way he can weasel his way out of it.

"Beckett, I'm all for nailing this guy for what he's done, but to be fair to him he did protect Kevin from the Russians" Esposito adds much to his captain's disliking.