This day, above all days, had to be the worst in Danny's life. In the long run, it probably wasn't true, but at the moment he didn't care. He had yet to find a reason to consider it other wise.
There had been bad days, of course. Probably much worse, but it was hard to realize that. There was one unfortunate day when he was thirteen and received the worst beating of his life. He had been doing nothing wrong except walking down the street, when out of nowhere the local creep Kyle Vanser came up behind him and grabbed him by the shirt collar. After spouting off some garbage about Danny thinking he was better than everyone else, he began pounding on him. It didn't end with the usual black eye and a few cuts and bruises as most kids get from bullies. Kyle was a full-on bone breaker, and had left Danny bloody, half-conscious, and with his arm pulled from the socket. After that, Kyle had been hauled off for good, either to some Juvenile detention center or jail. He had been several years older than Danny, and Danny had always hoped the jerk had been old enough for prison, but he doubted it.
That was just one bad day of many his mind wandered back to, yet it had been a long time ago. It seemed insignificant now.
An arctic cold wind was blowing sharp as a knife, and the temperature was undoubtedly below zero. It was a painful cold, and yet, at the same time, Danny found a small amount of satisfaction in it, seeing as how it was keeping the heat of his fever at a tolerable level. In turn, it turned his stabbing, cracking headache into a mere uncomfortable throb. It was for this same reason that he kept his forehead pressed against the icy brick of the building he stood in front of.
" You just should have gone home, Danny," Aiden coldly remarked. Danny winced, clenching his teeth when the pain in his head flared to send it ripping down his spine and into his joints. The key to keeping the pain mellow was to stay as perfectly still as he could. But he had involuntarily twitched his head to look in Aiden's direction. Opening his eyes, he turned them to watch as she crouched before her bag, placing her camera inside. She then stood and removed her gloves, dropping them into the bag.
The street they were on was quiet except for the echoing sounds of distant traffic and the far-off bark of some mutt. The buildings around them might as well have been vacant. Every window was dark, and not a single car had driven by. The streetlights gave them some illumination to work with, but it was a weak light that couldn't even stretch into the inky black alley between the buildings.
" It wasn't like this when I woke up," Danny replied, wincing again. He felt an annoying itch in his chest, so straightened and coughed. It was a dry, poor excuse for a cough and did nothing to clear the gunk that was attempting to clog up his lungs. His ribs ached from all the coughing he had done during the week. A cold, a stupid cold, was all he was supposed to have. A few coughs, sneezes, and spitting up garbage into a Kleenex were all it had been thus far since the week began. He'd only needed a day off when it got to the point that he couldn't think clearly. He had been getting better. At least he could have sworn it when he got up this morning. The day had gone well enough except for the slight throbbing of his head.
" What, the headache not agonizing enough to give you the hint? Crap, Danny, you're supposed to be able to solve a murder and you can't even figure out when you're getting the flu? And why the crap didn't you get a shot?"
Danny turned stiffly to lean his shoulder against the wall and look at Aiden. She was casually pacing in a circle with her arms folded, watching the street. She was careful to avoid the tire marks leading from the alley, curving left. The alley was where they had found the body and the splattering of blood on the wall in the early morning. The tire tracks gave them a direction to follow, but could not tell them what kind of car it had been; not yet at any rate.
" I thought they'd run out of those?" Danny said.
Aiden gave him a withering look. Danny shrugged. " I forgot, okay? I don't get sick often enough to think about it."
" Mac's gonna chew you up for this."
Danny rubbed his forehead. Right now, all he wanted to do was find a warm place, lay down, and drift off into wondrous oblivion. " I'm not contaminating anything. Look, I'm not even close enough to the scene to cause a problem. And didn't I get out of the car in time?"
Aiden jerked her head to toss her hair back over her shoulders. " It splashed."
" On me, not the car." More pain stabbed through his skull and he sucked in a sharp breath between his gritted teeth. The heavy queasiness that had permanently settled in his stomach was getting worse again, so he moved away from the alley just in case. He clamped his jaw shut and put his forehead back against the wall. When the churning in his gut calmed, he took a slow, careful breath and coughed.
Aiden sighed sharply. " Shouldn't that car have driven past by now? That lady said it's the only one she ever sees using this street. So where is it?"
" Maybe they went another way for once," Danny said. " I mean I would if I'd just dumped a body here."
" Sometimes keeping to routine takes off suspicion, even if it means returning to the scene."
" Really? I just summed it up to 'em being morons."
" Can it, Danny. Go sit in the car or something."
Danny rolled his eyes in her direction and gave her a wan smile. " And leave you out here all by you lonesome?"
Aiden turned, tilting her head to one side, and smiled bitterly. " Aw, isn't that sweet. Being all chivalrous. I'm a big girl, Danny. I'm allowed to carry a gun, so I think I can handle myself. But if you insist and would rather stay out here and freeze your butt off, go right ahead, just not around my crime scene." She resumed her pacing. " I wouldn't want you splashing the car anyway."
Danny turned to place his back against the wall. " It's still our scene. Most flu's tend to be twenty four hours anyway."
" Yeah, and some flu's are supposedly so mutated that they can kill you in twenty four hours. Think about that."
Danny sighed, his head pounding mercilessly and his stomach roiling. He didn't have the means to spat a comeback, so instead lowered himself to the ground to sit against the wall. He leaned his head back, shivering when the wind gusted over him. The cold soaked into his bones to multiply the ache in his joints. He wanted to go home, of course, but he wasn't about to say so out loud. Aiden was right, he should have known better. Everyone had kept pushing him and prodding him to take a day off and rest before something worse came along. Go home, go home, go home, that was all he heard, especially from Mac. Stella snapped at him every time he so much as breathed in her direction, and everyone else just plain stayed away from him.
Now that he was given time to think about it, he felt abashed. It wouldn't be fair if others couldn't do their job just because he made them sick. And like him, not everyone had gotten their flu shots. Once word got out that he had come down with the flu, his first day back would be heck.
Yes, this was definitely turning into the worst day of his life. Of course he wouldn't think that once he got better, but sickness tended to be nightmares while it lasted. Bilge rose burning into his throat, and he moved onto his hands and knees, vomiting. It splattered onto the sidewalk, his hands, and the cuffs of his coat. When he was done he spat out what remained in his mouth, panting and grimacing. He then sat back, flipping his hands then wiping them on his sleeve, swearing viciously.
" Hey Danny," Aiden said. He winced, then pushed himself slowly to his feet.
" What?" he snapped.
" Car's coming."
He looked up, only to look away when bright headlights shot into his eyes and made his headache crack. It was moving fast, and shot by them, never giving them the chance to see it in full. It slowed only enough to turn left without screeching the tires.
" Come on," Aiden said.
They headed back to her car, with Aiden setting her bag in the back seat. As she made her way around to the driver's side she pointed at Danny.
" Keep your head out the window."
Danny glared at her. " Don't worry, I think I'm empty now."
Once in, Aiden didn't even give Danny time to buckle his seat belt. She started the motor and pulled out quickly but just under causing the wheels to peel. She moved the car up the empty street and turned left. They came to a street lined by lesser buildings, shops and the like, that showed a few signs of occupation. Lights spilled warmly from the restaurant Aiden and him had visited this morning to ask questions. It was a Mongolian Barbecue joint, run by a woman whose dress was a cross between something Goth and something oriental.
Aiden pulled up next to the restaurant, but her gaze was fixed straight ahead.
" Right there," she said. Three stores ahead was a car, the only other car on the whole block, since the woman said she only had a moped and her chef took the subway. The light of the building where the car was parked was on.
Aiden smirked. " Green Crown Victorian, just like the lady said."
Danny screwed up his face in disgust. " Who paints a car that ugly?"
Aiden chuckled. " Who drives a car that ugly?"
Danny nodded. " Good point." Just looking at the car was making him sick. He quickly got out and turned away from it. They went into the restaurant with its oriental decorations and red padded chairs and booths. The smell of grilled and fried food hit Danny like a slap, and he recoiled as though he had just opened a box full of rotten meat. Aiden gave him a pat on the back.
" Try breathing through your mouth."
Danny swallowed back against rising nausea. " That might not be a good idea," he moaned.
The owner was sitting in one of the booths picking at the remaining food on her plate while talking to the chef. The chef was a thick-armed man with a chest length goatee and long dark hair pulled back in a ponytail.
" Excuse me," Aiden called. " Miss Carlyle?"
The woman glanced over her shoulder. She was young, late twenties, and her dark green eyes went straight from Aiden to Danny. She smiled at him, light glinting off her nose ring and the stud just under her bottom lip. She had on dark blue eye shadow, and a stripe of her black hair was dyed blue as well. She was exceedingly pale, most likely from makeup, and she wore a black silk dress depicting a gold Chinese dragon starting from the hem and twisting about her body to the collar.
" Never thought I'd see you two again," she said with a wry, somewhat pleased smile.
Aiden shrugged. " It happens. Listen, there's a car out here, we need to know if it's the one that comes down that street. We'd have recognized it ourselves but it was going a little above and beyond the speed limit."
The lady dropped her fork on the plate with a clatter that made Danny cringe.
" What's with him?" She asked, jerking her head in his direction. " Hangover? I thought you couldn't drink on the job?"
" He's sick," Aiden stated. The woman lifted an eyebrow curiously.
" Aw, poor guy. Not in my shop, out."
She followed them from her restaurant, and once outside Danny took a deep breath in utter relief.
" It's too freakin' cold," the woman mumbled. She folded her arms and hunched her shoulders, staring at the car for a moment. " Yeah, that's the one. Can't forget anything that butt-ugly. I always see it coming and going up that side street, and that includes last night."
" And does it stop in front of that place all the time?" Danny asked.
The woman shrugged. " Pretty much. Is that all?"
Aiden nodded, and the woman smiled. She turned, but not before giving Danny a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
" Stop by some time when you feel better. Since you came, we decided to have a special. Half price for cops and CSI."
Danny grimaced at the thought of food. " Yeah, sure."
When the woman went back inside, Aiden and Danny made their way up the street to the only other lighted place on the block.
Aiden nudged Danny in the arm. " She's got it bad for you," she said with a sardonic smirk.
Danny took a deep breath and coughed when the cold air cut into his lungs. " I figured," he murmured darkly, shivering. " What's the plan? And please tell me it'll involve something quick."
" We go in, ask a few questions, see if we have to get a warrant or if they'll just cooperate."
Then Aiden looked up at him, and for once her expression wasn't cold. " Don't worry, it probably won't take long. I mean you know how it is. If these are the guys we want, they'll probably play hard to get and force us to get a warrant. In that time, I'll take you home where you can puke your guts out to your hearts content. And since you drove to work, you won't have your car, so you won't be able to come back until you're actually better."
" I thought you guys were kidding about that."
Aiden laughed. " Guess again, germ-magnet. Mac doesn't want you spreading your plague to anyone else. Really though, you should have gone home when you had the chance. I could have handled this myself, or gone with someone else."
" It's our case."
" So? It's not like it'll kill you to let someone else help me out. But I am glad you care so much about this." She patted him lightly on the back of his head, but it still felt as though a hammer were trying to break its way through his skull.
" You know, it's not like I meant to get sick the moment we got here. And I would like you to keep in mind that I didn't ask you to take me back or anything the moment I threw up."
" Good for you."
Danny's stomach churned, and he slouched since slouching sometimes eased the feeling. " Come on Aiden, lay off it. I really can't take it right now. You talked about puking my guts out? What do you think I've been doing since we got here? I haven't eaten anything the whole day and I still have stuff coming up."
Aiden held up one hand. " Danny, do not give me the details…"
" Well get off my back and I won't. It's not like I lied to you or did something in this case without your approval. I'm just sick, but I swear to you that I was feeling fine this morning. I thought the headache was just a headache. I get those sometimes, like all regular human beings do. So get over it. I mean I haven't even messed up anything and you're acting like I have."
Aiden blew out a sharp breath. " Sorry. I'm just giving you a hard time in hopes that next time you feel a little off that you'll listen to us and go home. Besides," she added under her breath, " sometimes those flu shots don't always work that well."
Danny grinned. " Ha, I knew it. Well I promise not to breathe on you or anything."
" You almost landed some puke in my car. I think it's a little too late in avoiding the germs. And when we get inside, let me do the talking. All you need to do is keep your jaw shut and be ready to walk - with dignity - from the door if you feel the vomit coming. Don't show them you're sick. Even if they're not who we think they'll still laugh at you and that won't help matters."
" Sure thing mom."
Aiden smirked, shaking her head.
The green car was uglier up close, with darker green splotches and patches of rust here and there. It reminded Danny right off the bat of the contents exhaled from his stomach, and he had to look away. He saw Aiden out of the corner of his eye in time to spy a genuine expression of concern.
" You do look like crap," she said. " You get any greener you're gonna look like the car, and I'm not kidding. Let's get this over with."
He nodded and followed her inside.
Outside, the building had looked plain except for the diamond panes of yellow glass and a sign above the door that read McNally's Bar and Grill. Inside it was just as plain. On the left was a bar, clean but scuffed, and throughout the rest of the room were circular tables with four chairs to each table. The only decorations to the place were a few deer antlers about the wall, a pool table at the far back, and a single TV in the right hand corner of the room that was blank. The room was empty of any personages, but there was a door behind the bar with a small round window that dimmed and brightened when somebody walked by it.
The place was a melee of smells; the strongest being of fried food and something like sour milk. Danny groaned when the smells hit him and nausea threatened.
" Anybody home?" Aiden called. The moment she did, a man walked out from the swinging door behind the bar. He was a big guy with a thick body and a round face. His brown hair looked as though it were just growing back, and the light still shone off the top of his head through the pin-pricks of his hair. He wore a heavy military green coat and a pair of dirty ragged jeans with his hands shoved into his pocket.
The man's gaze went directly to Danny, and for a moment widened in slight surprise. Danny, in turn, was struck with familiarity but he could not place the face. Then the man's surprise faded, and he tilted his head back as though trying to look down his nose at them.
" Kitchen's closed. Bar's good to go," he said. He looked at Aiden and smirked. " And it's lady's night."
Aiden smiled back. " Thanks, but that's not why we're here. We were wondering if you saw anything unusual last night on your way here."
" Unusual?"
" Yeah, unusual, like a bunch of guys attacking another guy? Something like that."
" Who wants to know?"
" Me."
" And you would be…?"
Aiden pulled out her ID and showed it to him.
" Why do you want to know?" the man asked next.
" Because there was a homicide last night on a street I'm told you like to use, that's why. That your car outside?"
The man stayed silent, still smirking.
" Is it?" she said with a hard edge to her voice.
" You'd like it to be, wouldn't you."
Aiden furrowed her brow. " Why would I like that?"
" Not you, him." The man jerked his chin at Danny. " He'd like that."
Danny wanted to swear. He was teetering on the edge of puking and losing the battle of keeping it back. " Why…" he began, but had to close his mouth when he thought he felt something rise burning into his throat.
" Why would you say that?" Aiden finished.
" He knows why."
Aiden looked at Danny. He shook his head with a shrug, confused.
" No, I don't think he does."
The man snorted out a laugh. " What are you, his interpreter? He can't talk or something?"
" Yeah, got a problem with that?"
The man chuckled. Just then another man emerged. This guy was also tall, but leaner with long blonde hair tied in a pony-tale, and a darker blonde beard. He wore a greasy apron over a gray sweater with the sleeves rolled up, and the tops of his jeans were flecked with grease spots.
" There a problem?" he asked, eyeing the CSI with unconfined annoyance. The first man shook his head. He was staring intently at Danny, but Danny couldn't concentrate enough to figure out why, or what it was about this guy that was so familiar.
" You know whose car that is outside?" Aiden asked the blonde guy. He shook his head immediately, seeming impatient.
" Why do you think we would know?" the big man asked. " Why do you even think the owner's here?"
" Because it's parked in front of this place," Aiden replied coolly. The man's smirk was infuriatingly permanent.
" Fine, then I guess you won't mind if I take a look at it," she said.
" Be my guest," the man replied.
Aiden turned to Danny and talked in a low voice. " You gonna be okay in here?"
Danny wanted to say that he would keep an eye on these two, but all he could manage was a nod.
" Keep an eye on these two then."
Danny smiled. Aiden smiled back and left the bar. When she did, the first guy averted his gaze from Danny to watch Aiden, and his smile became a leer. Danny sat down at the nearest table, scrutinizing the dark-haired man's face. He still could not figure out why it was so familiar to him. It was like a bad case of déjà vu, but unlike most déjà vu experiences it wouldn't go away.
The man leaned casually against the bar. He was quiet for the longest time, while the other guy moved to look out the window at Aiden.
" So, just why is it you can't talk?" the bigger guy asked.
Danny's jaw tensed.
" Need me to sign for you or something?" he asked next with a nasty chuckle. " Seriously though, what's wrong? You sick or something?"
Danny remained silent, both voluntary and involuntary.
The blonde guy became suddenly agitated. " She's taking pictures of it," he said, and moved suddenly to the door. Danny stood up out of his seat, despite a wave of dizziness and the near release of more vomit. The blonde guy stopped, taking a step back with both hands raised. " Just don't think she should be doing that. The owner might not like it."
Danny slowly sat back down. The smells of the bar were worse than at the restaurant, making it difficult for him to breathe.
The big man moved a few steps closer and lowered his head to look over Danny's face, still grinning like a cat." You okay pal? You don't look too good. You need some water or something?"
Danny eyed him suspiciously. Then he felt a cold draft of air at his back. He turned in time to see the blonde guy opening the door. Danny stood a little too fast, swaying a bit. He pulled aside his coat to show the guy his gun, then shook his head with a glare.
" What, you threatening me or something?" the blonde growled, backing away.
Danny shrugged and leaned on the table. So much for trying to show them he wasn't sick.
" What's your problem?" the big guy spat. Danny looked at him, the words sounding strangely familiar to him. The guy went on. " You think you can just come in here, flashing your badge and guns like you own the place? What, you think you're better than us just 'cause you're armed?"
The man's eyes blazed with anger. Danny looked away to keep an eye on the blonde.
" Let's just kick 'em out, Kyle," the blonde man spat.
For a brief moment that seemed to stretch on forever, Danny forgot his nausea and his cracking headache. His jaw fell slowly open, and vague familiarity became absolute.
" You've gotta be kidding me," he said, looking back at the big guy in mind-numbing disbelief. Kyle burst out a laugh.
" Hey, he speaks!"
Danny was too amazed to fully hear what the man said. No way could this be the same Kyle that had beaten him bloody. No way could the universe be that whacked.
He was so shocked that he nearly missed the blond slipping up behind him and reaching out for his gun with the smooth silence of a pickpocket. Startled, sick, tired, and horribly confused, Danny reacted by reaching for the gun himself and pulling it on the blonde.
" Don't move," he said. The gun felt heavy and his hand was shaking. He was breathing fast, his heart pumping, as though he had just run a mile, and his head felt thick and clouded.
Kyle became a blur of sudden movement. He plowed into Danny's back, knocking him onto the floor so that his gun flew from his grasp to go sliding under an old rusty radiator. He pulled Danny to his feet by the collar, and the moment he did Danny elbowed Kyle hard in the face, causing him to stagger back. Danny immediately turned and slugged Kyle across the jaw. Kyle flipped around onto a table, where Danny grabbed his arm and twisted it around the man's back. He held Kyle down, then looked over his shoulder in time to see the blonde guy coming at him with a chair. But the chair was heavy, putting the man off balance. As he lifted the chair to bring it down on Danny's head, Danny planted a hard kick into the guy's knee. The blonde dropped the chair onto a table behind himself as he fell to the ground, holding his knee and rolling about in agony.
It was a moment of distraction for Danny, and in that moment Kyle had moved his leg to hook around Danny's leg and pull it out from under him. Danny fell, cracking his head on a table then falling to the floor. Terrible pain shot through him and light danced in front of his vision. He saw through the sparking haze Kyle looming over him. He grabbed Danny by the collar, lifting him up and slugging him across the face. Danny's glasses flew away from his eyes, and more pain filled his head. Kyle then lifted Danny to his feet and threw him back first against the bar. Danny fell to the floor, the sharp pain in his back clearing his head. He scrambled to his feet as Kyle stalked toward him. Danny then plowed into Kyle, but the man was bigger than Danny and couldn't be driven back far.
It did not matter. It was enough to get Kyle off balance and enough for Danny to drive his fist into Kyle's face, then flip him around to twist his arm behind his back once more with his arm around the big man's throat. Kyle rammed his elbow into Danny's ribs three times, knocking the breath from him, but the pain only made Danny's hold on Kyle tighter.
Panting, shaking, the room spinning, Danny felt his stomach churn in fury. He put the majority of his concentration into keeping Kyle pinned, and some into keeping his mouth tightly closed so the bilge couldn't come out.
" On the floor, hands behind your head!" Danny distantly heard someone snap. He turned his head, startled, thinking the command directed at him. He saw the blurred form of Aiden standing over the blonde man who was a few feet from the radiator where the gun had vanished.
Relieved, Danny began moving Kyle to join his buddy on the floor. But it was one action too many for him, and the nausea could not be ignored. He stopped, his jaw twitching tensely.
" Danny, you okay?" Aiden asked, her voice still distant. Danny swallowed and began breathing quickly through his nose.
" What's wrong with him?" Kyle asked nervously. Danny opened his mouth. He couldn't hold it back anymore. There was less vomit this time though. He heaved once making a strangled sound that became a gurgle, doubling over, and it spilled out of him in a thin stream, splattering onto the heels of Kyle's shoes and the back of his pant legs.
" What the crap!" Kyle shrieked, trying to pull away from Danny.
" On… the floor," Danny panted. Kyle dropped to the floor, cussing and grimacing in disgust. Danny straightened, wiping his mouth and panting with his heart hammering. Blood roared in his ears, and more sparks danced in front of his vision. He reached behind him for a chair, pulling it back and falling into it. With his head down, he saw small drops of blood on the floor, and reached up to the corner of his eye, feeling something wet and warm.
" You okay Danny?" Aiden asked again.
" Not really," Danny moaned.
" I'm calling in some help."
Danny nodded, then vomited again.
The cops came quick. Kyle and his buddy were cuffed then hauled from the bar out into the cold air.
Danny was still in the bar, but sitting in a different chair so that the paramedic checking his head wouldn't have to step in the small puddle of puke at Danny's feet. The cut on his eye wasn't so bad, the paramedic told him, but there was a bloody gash on the back of his head that needed checking. He would have to go to the hospital for that.
The paramedic pressed a cloth against the gash, then had Danny hold the cloth in place. Adrien came over then, holding Danny's bent and broken glasses.
" You may want to check that cut for glass," she said, sounding apologetic for some reason. She handed the glasses to Danny. Danny took them, looked at the cracked lenses, then folded them up and put them in the pocket of his coat.
" Thanks," he said. He then looked up at her uncomfortably. " You mad?"
" Why would I be mad?"
" I didn't really handle things too well in here."
Aiden pulled up a chair to sit in front of him. " I shouldn't have left you alone in here. But I knew you were sick of the cold. I gotta tell you, when you get into a fight you really know how to keep it quiet. I didn't even know what was going on until I finally looked in the window. Oh, and I found a bloody thumbprint on the driver's side door by the way."
Danny grimaced. " At least one of us did something right."
Aiden smiled. " You kept 'em busy, which did right by me."
Danny sighed and shuddered, wanting desperately to lie down and zone out.
" Mac's still not gonna like this."
" Probably. He did tell you to go home… and you did get into a fight. But you did have a reason and he'll know it. It shouldn't be too bad."
Danny met Aiden's gaze. " I knew that guy Kyle. He pounded me into hamburger when I was a kid. Funny thing is, he remembered me like it happened yesterday, and I couldn't remember him until I heard his name. You'd think it be the other way around.
" Traumatic experiences tend to make us try and forget they happened," Aiden replied. " One of the cops did a background check. The guy's been arrested more times than can be counted. Seems he's got an anger management problem, starting back when he was ten or something. "
" That explains a lot," Danny replied coolly. Then, as he thought back, he smiled and tried to laugh, but it hurt too much, both his head and his sore chest.
" Let's go," the paramedic said, helping Danny to stand.
" You know," he said as he was ushered to the door with Aiden walking on his other side, " this wasn't such a bad day."
Aiden snorted derisively. " You're kidding me right? Between the flu and getting the crap beat out of you – again - and not to mention by the same guy - I'd call this a pretty rotten day."
" Yeah. But I won this time… and I got to puke on him. Plus we found the car and more evidence... and whether he's guilty or not Kyle's still going to jail again. You gotta admit that's pretty cool. So yeah, this hasn't been a half-bad day."