Gotham's Heroes is a collective story from SparkyCSI, Aphina and Axellia (please read the author bio for further information).

Whilst we own our OC's, even when we combine our savings, we are not even close to owning a percentage of CSI: NY - so don't sue us!

Gotham's Heroes

1. Holiday.

Corrine Reid walked into the bank, a couple steps ahead of her friends, who were staring at the sights around them. She giggled a little at Taylor and Carmen's exclamations of wonder at the culture that surrounded them.

She waited patiently in line to exchange her money for Euros, while Carmen Devine and Taylor Turner caught up. She snickered a bit as they finally stood in line next to her.

"Took y'all long enough," she laughed.

Taylor looked at her, rolling her eyes. "Whatever. Like you aren't impressed with the architecture."

Carmen laughed, "It's not the architecture that I was looking at!"

Cory laughed along with Taylor. "I have my own Italian, so I don't need to look at others." Cory moved up in the line as looked at the teller, praying that she spoke English. "I'd like to exchange my money, please," she asked.

The teller nodded to her as Cory handed over her money. Just as she had done that, chaos erupted as masked men stormed the building. The next thing she knew, Carmen was lying on the floor, next to her, in a pool of blood.

Taylor screamed and sunk down beside her friend. "Carmen?" she whispered as she felt for a pulse. She looked at Cory in shock. "Oh my God. She's dead.

Cory awoke to a hand on her shoulder and Carmen begging her to wake up in an urgent voice.

"Cory, Cory." Carmen shook her companion's arm again irritably; the water from the glass Taylor had knocked over still dripping from her clothes.

"For Christ's Sake Cory!" With a final shake, Cory's eyes jolted open and she jumped up as if gasping for air.

"We have a situation." Carmen announced rising to her feet as Cory took in the mass of white tablets littering the floor. And water stain down Carmen's clothes. She glanced at the empty seat beside her.

"Where's Taylor?" she frowned struggling to sit upright.

"That's what I've been trying to tell you! She bought the wrong tablets! She bought ones that lasted for four hours instead of eight, and woke up whilst we're midway over the Atlantic." Carmen pointed at the gleaming ocean for empathize.

"I tried to calm her down with more sleeping tablets but she knocked them on the floor, and them the stewardess came over and asked if there was a problem because she was disturbing the other passengers, and she told her of course there was a freaking problem, the plane is over twenty thousand feet in the air and could crash at any moment." Carmen paused for breath, as Cory stared at her open mouthed.

"I knew she was scared of flying…" Cory said shaking her head.

"She's now proceeded to knock the drinks trolley over and lock herself in the bathroom to which the stewardess is still attempting to remove her." Carmen recounted. Cory climbed to her feet and turned seeing the stewardess banging on the bathroom door.

"So you want me to help get her out." It was more of a statement than a question. Carmen held up two sleeping tablets at eye level between her fingers.

"I want you to pin her down while I jam these down her throat." Carmen growled frustrated. Cory stifled a chuckle before moving to the bathroom door and taking control of the situation from the harassed looking stewardess.

Over the next half an hour through Cory's gentle negotiations, they had between them managed to remove Taylor from the bathroom and doped her up on the left over sleeping pills with slight manhandling on Carmen's part. At the end of all the chaos with Taylor now sleeping peacefully, Carmen and Cory kinked their beers together in a toast.

~G~H~

Taylor stepped out of the taxi and finally let out a breath of relief. It wasn't until she was out of the airport and away from the planes that she felt that she could finally relax.

'This place is beautiful,' Carmen sighed, shutting the door behind her and making her way to Taylor's side.

'You're telling me,' Cory agreed, pulling her shades down over her eyes to survey the hotel in front of them, the sunlight reflecting of its white walls.

An hour later and three women were checked in and unpacking in their rooms. Carmen was calmly arranging her toiletries in the bathroom. She glanced up and caught herself smiling. The holiday had been Cory's idea. With everything the three women had been going through, she had decided that they needed a break. Although, Carmen mused, if she had known how much of a pain Taylor was going to be on a plane, she would have suggested staying in one of the other forty nine states the US had to offer.

Whilst Carmen knew Cory through the crime lab – they had worked together a while back on a case where the FBI had become involved – Carmen wasn't completely familiar with Taylor. She's bumped into the woman a few times in the lab itself, but as she was a journalist, she wasn't completely sure why she was there. According to Cory, Taylor had been seeing Flack, but that had ended not too long before the holiday.

Carmen caught herself smiling again. She couldn't help it – Flack seemed to have that effect on her. The smile left Carmen's face to be replaced by a frown. If Taylor and Flack had only just split up, she really shouldn't be having those thoughts. With a sigh, she reached for a bobble and wrapped her long auburn hair up into a messy bun. Then there came a frantic knock at the door.

Both confused and alarmed, Carmen dashed to the room of the door and peeked through the peep-hole. It was Taylor, biting her lip and looking somewhat impatient. Just as the journalist raised her hand to knock again, Carmen pulled the door open. "What's the emergency?"

"I have no money," Taylor all but wailed.

Carmen's mouth dropped open. "You had your money stolen already? But Cory and I were with you the whole time."

Across the hall from Carmen's room, the door opened and Cory appeared confusion and concern etching her features. "What's the matter?"

"Taylor's had her money stolen," Carmen explained before Taylor had the chance.

"We should call hotel security," Cory started, walking over to Taylor.

Taylor held her hands up to stop the two women. "My money has not been stolen."

Carmen and Cory looked at each other and frowned. "So what happened to it?"

Taylor looked sheepishly at the plush red carpet. "I kinda never had it to start with."

"Taylor, did you not get your money changed before we came out here?" Carmen asked in surprise.

"I had more important things to worry about," Taylor told them.

"Like what?' Cory asked in disbelief, wondering how someone could possibly forget something as important as foreign currency.

"Like the fact I was about to embark on an eight and a half hour flight!" Taylor told them somewhat indignantly. "Besides, I figured the country would take American Express."

"Um, Taylor," Carmen said gently. "It does."

"But the vending machine doesn't! And I'm dying for a Bueno bar," Taylor frowned. "Not that I know what a Bueno Bar is, but it looks tasty."

Cory shot a sideways stare at Carmen. "How, exactly, did you try to sedate her on that plane?"

~G~H~

Thanks to Taylor's insistence at getting her own money rather than borrow some from the other two women, Cory had to go to the reception desk and ask where the closet Bureau de Change was. With the response being the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro was only a short walk away; the three women had quickly changed out of their traveling clothes and into something a little more comfortable.

"I guess it's true what they say about Italian men," Taylor sighed as one particularly fine specimen walked past and grinned at her.

"I didn't need to leave America to tell you that," Cory smiled.

"Well, we weren't all blessed with a Danny," Taylor sighed. "Although, that being said, I think I would strangle him if I dated him for too long. And if he doesn't stop calling me Drew," she frowned, "maybe I actually will strangle him."

Cory just shook her head softly, a smile creeping over her face as the wind played with her curly auburn hair.

It wasn't until Cory walked into the bank that she realized something felt wrong. Only she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.

~G~H~

AN: This is a collective effort – our first! So please be really nice and let us know what you think. There are three very anxious writers waiting on your input here!