This is my second attempt at Smuffly's who, what, where challenge. As it was the last one and I knew the person was Danny I couldn't say no :) So I got Danny, a picture and an ally way :)
The sun was starting to set, the street lights were just starting to come on, Lights in apartments where starting to be switched on and ones in offices and shops being switched off. Children who had spent the day playing on the streets were now heading in doors with their skipping ropes and footballs, for a dinner and bed. Commuters were walking down the street on their way home after a busy day at work. A beautiful mix of reds oranges and pinks filled the New York skyline. Danny Messer didn't notice any of this though as he walked along, lost in his own thoughts.
Danny had woken up that morning and done his normal routine, sat and ate breakfast with Lindsay and Lucy, After getting dressed he'd taken Lucy to school and made his way to work where Lindsay joined him a few hours later. They'd gone on with their day, even been called out to a crime scene together with Mac and that's when everything in Danny's world changed.
He walked along the street, he needed to find somewhere he could be alone, to think. But in a city of thousands that wasn't the easiest thing to do. People were everywhere, in cars, walking along next to him, up in apartments above him. The noise, the chatter was getting to him, he couldn't think with all of this going on around him. He noticed an ally way on his left and slipped down it, it wasn't the nicest of places but the further he walked down the ally way the quieter it got.
Walking to the end he found two green garbage cans with a small gap between them. Walking into the gap he couched down and leant against the wall. Here was a good place for him to think, to hide, to cry. He knew the others would be looking for him, he'd stormed out after being told the news, he'd heard them calling his name telling him to come back but he couldn't. He needed to be alone to cry, he couldn't cry in front of the others as it made him feel weak. He felt the hot tears roll down his cheeks as his mind turned back to his thoughts. The thoughts that were now swirling around his head, each one louder than the other.
Why couldn't you have just kept quiet?
It should be you lying on that slab.
You'll never now be able to say sorry.
Danny placed his hand over his ears, he wanted these thoughts to end He knew it was his fault, he knew if he'd just kept his mouth shut none of this would have happened. They'd all be at home now with their families but no because Danny had made one stupid move everyone was now grieving.
Danny had been chasing the suspect, they'd both been firing their guns, both missing their intended target. The suspect had hidden behind an abandoned car and Danny had tried to shoot through the windows to hit him but had missed. That's when realised he'd run out of bullets and he must have said something, he couldn't remember what, but something that let the suspect know that he now wasn't armed. The suspect had stood up and pointed his gun at him. Danny could remember staring down the end of the barrel and thinking this was it.
He saw the suspects finger push the trigger and he'd covered his face, closed his eyes and waited to feel the impact of the bullet. It didn't come, why didn't it come? Opening his eyes slowly he saw why. The figure laying on the ground was why it hadn't come. Danny knelt next to him, he was bleeding, the bullet had caught him in the neck, his hands covered the wound, trying to keep himself alive, but Danny could see the blood seeping through his fingers. Pressing his own hands over the top he whispered words of encouragement. Told he would be okay, that they were going to get him to a hospital and the doctors would save him, like that had before all those years ago. This time they couldn't save him, they'd tried, they had operated on him for over three hours but in the end, the wound had caused too much damage and he'd lost too much blood. There was nothing else they could do for him.
The doctor had come out of the operating theatre and all he had to say was 'I'm sorry' and Danny knew, he knew he'd lost his best friend, his brother. That's when he'd left, got up and ran out of the hospital he couldn't sit there any longer, he couldn't watch everyone sit and crying knowing that all this had been his own fault.
Pulling his phone from his pocket he scrolled through the photos till he had found the picture he was looking for. It was one that had been taken recently at central park Lucy was sat on her favourite Uncle's shoulders both grinning with cheesy smiles at the camera. Danny rubbed his thumb over the face of the man in the picture, how could he be dead? Danny's mind then turned to the other face in the picture, the smiling face of his daughter. How was he supposed to go home and tell her, her favourite Uncle was now dead and that it was his fault?
He stared back down at the picture. The picture of Lucy and Flack. "I'm sorry" he whispered to the screen. "I'm so sorry." How was his life ever meant to be the same again? How could he go on knowing that his best friend was dead because of him? All Flack had tried to do was save Danny's life and he'd done that but paid for it with his own.
Danny wiped his eyes with his sleeve, he'd needed to cry, needed to let these emotions out. But he knew he had been here, hiding for too long. He now needed to face up to what he had done. He knew he needed to get back his friends, back to Lindsay, she must be worried sick about him. The light was starting to fade as night-time began to descend upon the city. Standing up he rubbed his eyes. Slipping his phone back into his pocket he made his way out of the ally and back towards the crime lab where he knew everyone would be waiting, mourning the death of their dear friend and colleague, Don Flack.