Work Text:
A Little Jealousy Goes a Long Way
When the phone rang at 3:07 in the morning, Detective Javier Esposito rolled over to grab it with a sense of relief. He cleared his throat and pressed the green answer button. “Esposito.”
He scribbled the address he was given onto a small pad of paper he kept on his nightstand for just such a call then dropped the pen onto the polished wood with a sigh. “Yeah. Yeah, show me en route.”
After disconnecting the call, Esposito flopped back over and kicked at his duvet with his bare feet. He was overheated from the erotic dream he had been in the middle of when the phone had woken him. It was the third one that week…and it was only Wednesday. His hand drifted to his erection, squeezing gently as just the memory of the dream made his body tingle.
Closing his eyes, Javier decided he might as well take a few minutes to deal with his issue before getting dressed. In his dream, the fingers that had slid up his erection to rub a thumb over the sensitive head hadn’t been his own. No, the fingers in the dream had been longer. Thinner. More pale.
The thumb slid across the head of his cock, spreading pre-cum across the reddened skin. Esposito’s own hand mimicked the actions from the dream, and his free hand slid up his sweat-slick chest to tease his nipples. A dream-induced ghost of a kiss seemed to skim along his neck. His dream lover continued to work Esposito closer to orgasm. Breaths quick, an almost-moan huffing out with each pant, the Hispanic detective slid his tightening grip up and down faster now. He was close. So close. With a drawn out groan of release, Javier arched his back and twitched as he finally achieved completion.
The eyes staring into his in his dream had been blue. Bright, crystal, freakishly blue. “Fuck.”
Rolling to sit on the edge of the bed, Esposito grabbed a tissue from the box on his nightstand and wiped the semen from his hands. Once his hands were clean, he picked up his cell phone and hit speed dial #1. After a few rings, a sleep-rough voice answered. Esposito smiled unconsciously, picturing how his partner looked all mussed from sleep. “Body drop, Ryan. I’ll text you the address.”
Ignoring his partner’s muttered curses, Esposito told Ryan he had twenty minutes then hung up. With another sigh, he stood and made his way to the restroom to clean up and get dressed. If he hurried, he could get to Ryan’s before the other man was completely dressed. Javier laughed at himself and shook his head. If he didn’t do something about this infatuation with Ryan, he was going to drive himself crazy.
***********
Since they only lived a few blocks from each other, Esposito did manage to get to Ryan’s before his partner had done his hair. Javier counted it as a win, since he loved seeing the younger man’s hair soft and hanging down near those piercing blue eyes. It made Ryan actually look his age, instead of a few years older. Which, Esposito knew, was why his partner always styled his hair the way he did.
While Ryan finished messing with his hair, Esposito wandered into the kitchen. He pulled two travel mugs from the cabinet next to the fridge and filled them both with coffee. He switched off the Mr. Coffee, pulled creamer from the refrigerator and doctored both drinks. He added a little more sugar to Ryan’s, because his partner looked extra cranky about their early morning call-out.
When Ryan trudged by on his way to grab his coat from the closet, he mumbled his thanks and took the mug handed to him. Esposito smiled as he helped his partner into his coat. “You gonna be awake by the time we get to the scene?”
“Shut up, Javi.”
Esposito laughed as he shut the door behind them and locked it with the spare key he’d been given. The trip to the crime scene was quiet as he concentrated on his driving, and Ryan made a valiant effort to crawl out of his stupor. When they parked the car and climbed out to duck under the yellow tape strung across the mouth of a narrow alley, Espo wasn’t surprised to see Detective Kate Beckett and writer Rick Castle already there.
“What do we have, Beckett?”
ME Lanie Parish looked up from her crouched position next to the partially covered body and raised one perfect eyebrow. Holding his hands up in surrender, Esposito tried to head her off at the pass. “What? You looked busy, and I didn’t want to bother you.”
“Uh huh.” Despite the glare, Lanie’s lips twitched into a half smile as she pointed her pen at Ryan. “Is he even awake?”
Kevin Ryan stood next to Castle, his eyes half closed and shoulders hunched. He actually did look more asleep than awake. Esposito leaned over and nudged the bottom of the travel mug up toward Ryan’s face and the younger man unconsciously brought the cup to his lips and took a sip. Shaking his head, Espo knelt down to check out the body.
“Not all the way, apparently. Ryan gets insomnia sometimes. I’m guessing tonight was one of those nights.” The body was female, probably younger than she appeared and very much dead. Someone had slashed her face multiple times. “Stabbing?”
“Yep.” Gesturing with her pen, Lanie twitched aside the yellow plastic blanket to see the rest of the body and pointed out each stab wound. Most were centered in the deceased’s face, breasts and genital area. “From her clothing, I’d say she was a street worker. COD is this stab wound by her breast. Looks to have hit the heart. She would’ve died pretty quickly after that one, so I hope it was the first strike.”
With a sigh Esposito nodded in agreement. A lot of anger had gone into this murder. The scuffing of shoes on dirty concrete made Espo look up. Ryan’s eyes were a little more alert as he sipped his coffee once more then cleared his throat.
“Pissed off john?”
Seemed plausible. “Maybe.” Esposito stood and frowned in the direction of his boss. “Hey Beckett, have you heard of anything similar to this in recent months?”
Leaving off her conversation with a uniformed officer, Beckett crossed the few steps needed to join her junior partners. The leggy detective was impeccably dressed, as usual. Esposito couldn’t help but wonder how many pairs of shoes she ruined in this job. Pushing a lock of her chestnut hair behind her ear, Beckett shook her head.
“Not at the 12th, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened at another precinct. Are you thinking serial?”
“Just want to rule it out,” Esposito admitted. “Could’ve been her pimp or, like Ryan said, a pissed off john. Could even be random, but I don’t buy that.”
Rubbing his eyes, gritty with lack of sleep, Ryan gestured vaguely toward the street. “Vice might know something, or have some connections we could tap into.”
“We’ll look into it. Espo, you and Ryan head up a canvass of the area. See if you can find any of her fellow workers to see if they saw or heard anything. Also keep an eye out for cameras that might have caught something we could use.”
Waving a sketchy salute, Esposito snagged his partner’s sleeve to drag him over to the cluster of uniformed officers loitering near the crime scene tape. Canvassing was one of the most boring jobs they had, but such was the life of a junior Homicide detective. After handing out assignments, Esposito and his partner made their way up and down the street to talk to the few nightcrawlers still prowling about.
As Ryan stared up at the building they passed, presumably looking for cameras, Esposito nudged his shoulder. “So what kept you up so late? Hot date?”
“Hm?” Ryan gave up his camera search and caught his partner’s look of inquiry. “Oh, no. No date. Just couldn’t sleep.”
Esposito slapped the Irishman on the back and gestured to a man sleeping rough in the next doorway. “We’ll talk to this guy then head back to the 12th and get you some espresso. That’ll wake you up in no time. By the time you get home tonight, you’ll have a caffeine crash and won’t have any problem going to sleep.”
Shooting his partner a skeptical look, Ryan flipped his notebook open as they approached their last possible witness. “I don’t know that I approve of that cure, but I’ll try anything at this point.”
The homeless man was sleeping off a bender and hadn’t been able to give them anything, except grief for waking him up. Leaving the uniformed officers to finish the canvass, Esposito and Ryan headed to the Homicide floor of the 12th Precinct. As Ryan booted up his computer, Espo made good on his offer of caffeine. He made them both espressos, grabbed a couple of donuts from the box someone had brought in from the night shift and gave half of his bounty to Ryan.
Even Esposito was feeling a bit bleary-eyed after such an early call-out. He tried to ignore the lingering memory of his dream, and his indulgence that morning. It would be easier if Ryan didn’t smell so damn good, and wasn’t making little moans of enjoyment as he ate the donut Espo had given him. With an internal groan of frustration, Javier booted up his own computer and tried to focus on what little information they had to go on. Yeah, Ryan seriously needed to stop making those noises.
*************
After a long morning, Esposito and Ryan dragged themselves out of the bullpen to grab a slice at a pizzeria a couple of blocks from the station. The walk and the food seemed to have perked Kevin up, so by the time they returned to the 12th and stepped out of the elevator onto the Homicide floor, the two were bantering as usual.
As the two men entered the bullpen, Beckett, Castle and a third party looked over at them from their positions by the white board. The new guy looked to be about Castle’s age, but his dark hair was showing gray at the temples where the writer’s did not. Though, Esposito suspected that was due more to hair dye on Castle’s part rather than to nature. Crow’s feet were prominent when the man smiled, his brown eyes flashing in amusement.
“Well, if it isn’t The Chameleon!”
He reached out his hand, which Ryan took with a rueful laugh, and pulled the younger man into a one-armed hug. Esposito felt an uneasy twinge of jealousy, because it was obvious the two were old friends.
“Chameleon?” Castle looked ready to burst with questions, a wide grin making his eyes squint.
With a chuckle, Ryan bobbed his head and made introductions for his partner. “Charlie Durrance, this is my partner Javier Esposito. Javi, this is Charlie. He and I were partners off and on when I was in Narcotics.”
Castle moved to stand next to Esposito, his phone out and probably opened to a note-taking app. “What about the Chameleon thing?”
Ignoring the writer from much practice, Ryan narrowed his eyes at his former partner. “What brings you up here, Charlie?”
Walking over to gesture at the information taking up space on the white board, Charlie advised, “I’m with Vice, now. Your victim is Candy, real name Carry Pritchard. She was a frequent flyer with Vice.”
“Narco to Vice?” Ryan shook his head and gave his former partner a look of admiration. “Man, you’ve got a helluva strong psyche to stick it out this long.”
Chuckling, Durrance shrugged. “You’re not wrong, Kevin. It can get pretty brutal, sometimes. But, I use the vacation days I’ve earned, unlike a lot of burned out old dogs. I go camping and fishing a lot to wash away what sticks to me. You should come with me some time, Kev.”
Smiling, Ryan shook his head. “You know me, Charlie. I’m a city boy, through and through. I’d probably get lost.”
This time, Castle waved a hand between the two to redirect the conversation where he desperately wanted it to go. Esposito was actually more relieved than annoyed. “What’s important here guys, is that you tell me about The Chameleon.”
Shooting Ryan a glance, Durrance raised his eyebrows in question. With an amused sigh, Ryan nodded permission. “Go ahead. He’ll drive me insane if we don’t satisfy his curiosity.”
Rubbing his hands together eagerly, Charlie shot the writer a wide smile. “See, when Ryan was only a couple of years on the job, he got tagged for an undercover in a high school. Think 21 Jump Street, but less cool.”
“Hey!”
Waving off Ryan’s protest, Durrance laughed. “C’mon, Kevin, admit it. You were kind of a dork.” When the younger man shrugged, face a little pink from embarrassment, Charlie continued. “Anyway, the kid managed to pull it off and fingered the source of our drug problem in that school. Not long after, he got tapped to go under as a runner for a low-level dealer in the Bronx that, once arrested, rolled over on the next step up the ladder. Next thing you know, Ryan is assigned to Narcotics. Seemed the kid had a knack for slipping into whatever role he was put into. So, we started calling him The Chameleon.”
Narrowing his eyes at his old partner, Durrance frowned. “Then you got yanked by Gang Taskforce working on something with the Fibbies and then the next thing I heard you were promoted and transferred to Homicide. You were gone for more than a year.”
Blue eyes danced from person to person as Ryan shifted a little, uncomfortable about the direction of the conversation. “Yeah, that. Let’s just say the runner from the Bronx got a promotion as well and was a little busy for a while.”
Although he was as bursting with curiosity as he was sure Castle was, Esposito refrained from pushing his partner. He knew Ryan well, and could tell when the Irishman didn’t want to talk. He draped an arm across his partner’s narrow shoulders and smiled. “Well, I’m glad you ended up at the 12th anyway. But I ain’t calling you The Chameleon.”
Ryan shoved Esposito’s hand off his shoulder and smirked. “You’re just jealous.”
Seeing the affectionate smile directed at his partner by Durrance, Esposito had to agree that he was a little jealous. But not in the way Ryan meant. Javier didn’t know if there was ever anything between Ryan and Durrance, but the look on Charlie’s face made something stir uncomfortably inside Esposito’s stomach. Something must have been showing on his face, because when Durrance turned and caught his eye the smile slid into a knowing smirk. Esposito’s eyes narrowed into a glare, a surge of possessive jealously making him clench his hands in anger. The instant reaction startled him, and he couldn’t help hoping that the cop from Vice would leave.
As luck would have it, Esposito got his wish. Once Durrance had passed on all he knew about the vic and her pimp, the Vice detective left. Ryan had followed him to the elevator as the two took a couple of minutes to catch up. Ryan shook the older man’s hand, Durrance stepped into the elevator and that was that. His partner returned to his desk to start looking up information on Candy’s pimp and Esposito felt himself relax. He’d take a little time to analyze his sudden moment of jealousy later. Much, much later.
****************
The following morning, Esposito woke to a similar dream. He once again indulged in a little early morning self-satisfaction before heading into work. Javier had to wonder what had happened to his willpower. He was already at his desk, going through his emails, when Ryan shuffled by and dropped into his own chair.
Shooting his partner a concerned frown, Esposito was about to ask Ryan why he still looked exhausted when Castle stopped on his way to Beckett’s desk with her usual latte.
“Whoa, Ryan. You look like crap. Insomnia still bothering you?”
Tilting his head back to look up at the writer, Ryan scowled and opened his mouth to retort. A much too chipper voice cut him off as Durrance stepped into the bullpen. “Chameleon, thanks for calling me this morning. Good thing I’m an old dinosaur who still has a landline.”
Chuckling softly, Ryan slipped a cell phone from his jacket pocket and handed it to his former partner. “You can be glad someone emailed you before I hit the sack. Heard the alert and found it between the sofa cushions.”
Ryan stood and clapped his old friend on the shoulder as he passed. “I’m going to get some caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine. You be careful over there in Vice, Charlie.”
As Ryan made his way to the break room, Durrance turned to the two men still gathered around Ryan’s desk. Castle looked like he was about to explode, fighting to hide a gleeful smile. Esposito, though...now, that was more interesting. The Hispanic detective’s eyes were narrowed in a glare and Charlie could see the muscles of his jaw twitching. That could be fun. When he and Ryan had had a few drinks at the Irishman’s apartment to catch up, the younger man had been a little too tired, a little too buzzed and a lot too chatty.
The kid had saved his life once. Maybe Charlie could finally pay him back. He let his smile slide into a knowing smirk. The writer was the first to crack.
“So…you two?”
“Well now, Castle, I don’t see how that’s any of your business. Do you?” Years of Vice and Narcotics had taught Charlie a thing or two. One of those was how to be quietly intimidating. It worked on the writer. Castle cleared his throat nervously, mumbled something about Beckett’s coffee and scurried away.
Esposito, however, stood and practically loomed into his personal space. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, detective.” Maybe, if Charlie gave the man a big enough nudge, things would work out for his old partner. “Let’s just say that there’s a reason your boy is a little worn out this morning. Tell him old Charlie will call him again soon.”
Forcing down the nearly overwhelming desire to laugh at the look of fury on Esposito’s face, Charlie winked and sauntered back to the elevator. He was glad now that he’d accidentally left his phone at Kevin’s the night before. It had just been two old friends reminiscing over a few beers, but Esposito didn’t have to know that.
As the Vice cop left, Esposito took a deep calming breath. After all, it wasn’t any of his business who Ryan slept with. Though it was at least illuminating to find out that his partner slept with men. Javier was jolted out of his thoughts when a white porcelain cup slid into his sight. He looked up to see Ryan smiling tiredly down at him, his icy blue eyes red-rimmed from fatigue.
“Here, got you one too. Where’d Charlie go?”
Taking the cup, Esposito huffed quietly to himself in annoyance. “Left. Said he’d call you soon.” He looked up and glared at Ryan. “Have fun last night, did you?”
Blowing gently at the hot coffee in his mug, Ryan shrugged. “I guess. I was a little too tired for that kind of thing. And I definitely shouldn’t have had the beers.”
Trying to project their usual banter, Esposito forced a smile. “Did you at least practice safe sex?”
He was immediately sprayed with warm coffee as Ryan did a classic spit-take. The younger detective coughed and sputtered as he tried to clear the liquid from his windpipe. Feeling a little guilty, Espo stood and pounded his partner on the back. Beckett and Castle stared at the two from her desk, silently asking if they needed help.
Esposito waved them off as Ryan finally caught his breath and gave him a look of horrified confusion. “Wh-what?”
“You and Durrance. You slept together last night, right?”
“What? No!” Ryan wiped at the quickly cooling liquid on his tie as his face and neck slowly turned bright red with embarrassment.
Looking down at the coffee on his own shirt, Esposito sighed. He had a feeling he’d been played. He grabbed Ryan by the arm and hustled them both out of the bullpen. “C’mon. We both need to clean up.”
They crossed the short distance to the men’s room and Esposito gently shoved his partner inside. He grabbed a couple of brown paper towels from the dispenser and wet them from the sink faucet. Squeezing out most of the moisture he wiped at the coffee spattered across his maroon Henley.
Looking a little dazed, Ryan shot him a confused look and copied his partner’s actions. As he wiped the damp paper towels up and down his tie, he wrinkled his brow in puzzlement and cleared his throat nervously.
“So…uh…you want to explain why you thought I’d slept with Charlie last night?”
Nope. Explaining his obvious leap to conclusions was the last thing Esposito wanted to do, but with Ryan looking up at him through his long auburn lashes as he wiped at the stains on his tie…well, nobody could refuse that look. With a long sigh, Esposito balled up the damp towels and lobbed them at the trashcan. Two points.
“Look, bro, I’m sorry if I got it wrong. Let’s just say Durrance said something that I obviously misinterpreted and leave it at that.”
“Would it…would it bother you if I had slept with him?”
Again with the puppy eyes. Espo ran a hand over his close-cropped hair and half-shrugged. “Yeah, bro. It would.”
The Irishman’s shoulders slumped and Ryan seemed to huddle in on himself. He turned to toss his now-shredded paper towels in the trash. “Oh. Well, I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t sleep with him then.”
It took Esposito a moment or two to interpret the sudden change in his partner’s body language. He reached out to grab Ryan’s arm as the younger man turned to the door. “Kev, wait.”
Once Ryan turned back to meet his gaze, Javier felt himself smile fondly at his partner. “I didn’t mean it like that. You know me better than that, man. At least, you should. Though I guess it’s never come up between us, has it?”
Crystal blue eyes seemed to bore into his own warm brown ones, while his partner appeared to search for something unspoken. Esposito stepped a little closer to Ryan and broadened his smile. “It isn’t the thought of you sleeping with another man that would bother me, Kev. It was the thought that you had slept with Charlie, because I’ve been too scared and stupid to tell you something.”
Licking his lips nervously, Ryan automatically leaned closer to Esposito as if drawn by a magnet. “Tell me something?”
“Yeah.” Closing the remaining gap between them, Esposito let his hands settle at his partner’s waist possessively. Their faces were close enough that he could feel Ryan’s warm breath ghosting across his lips. “I don’t want you dating other men, Kev. I want you to be with me.”
“Yes.”
With that one word, Esposito thought his chest would burst. Years of wanting, yearning and wishing were over. He leaned forward as he simultaneously pulled those narrow hips toward his own, claiming Ryan’s lips with a sense of urgency. For the first few moments, they seemed to devour each other in absolute relief at finally having something they’d both longed for. Then the kisses slowed, became more about sharing, until Esposito felt Ryan smile into their kiss. He pulled back, almost mesmerized by Kevin’s kiss-swollen lips.
Eyes sparkling, Ryan smiled and bobbed his head. “Okay, Javi. I won’t date other men. Just you.”
Laughing, Esposito straightened his partner’s tie and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Wanna come over to my place tonight?”
Ryan lifted his chin and pretended to be offended. “I’ll have you know, Javi, that I don’t put out on the first date.”
“Mmhm.” Javier pulled Ryan tight against him and gave the younger man another searing kiss. When he pulled back, he smirked at the blissed-out look on his partner’s face. “Well, when you come over tonight we’ll test that theory.”
A tap on the door was their only warning, before it swung open and Castle stuck his head inside with a worried frown on his face. His frown morphed into a huge grin when he saw the two detectives standing so close to each other, Esposito’s hands still gripping Ryan’s waist. Catching the deep red blush working its way up from Ryan’s collar to his ears, the writer laughed out loud.
“Ha! Ryan is a chameleon. Look, he’s changing colors.”
Still chuckling, Castle ducked back out of the doorway before either detective could make a move toward him and let the door swing shut once more. Ryan leaned forward to thump his head against his partner’s shoulder in defeat. Esposito patted him on the back and laughed.
“C’mon. I’ll help you plot your revenge against Writer-boy while we go pick up Candy’s pimp.”
With a sigh, Ryan straightened his jacket then quirked a grin at his partner. “If I say I’ll put out, can we stop for coffee on the way?”
Enjoying the way Ryan’s pants fit from the back as the two left the men’s room, Esposito smirked and leaned forward to whisper. “I think we can negotiate coffee.”
And Esposito would have to think of some way to thank Charlie Durrance. He’d understood the Vice cop’s meaning very clearly that morning, which meant Ryan’s old partner had been doing a little match-making. But he had plenty of time to ponder that. Right now, he had some serious negotiating to do with his partner.
END