Author's Note: Well, here we have it: a CSI:Miami fic! It's only a one-shot but there is more on the way!
Now, this takes place during S5E9 ("Going, Going, Gone!") when Calleigh is about to arrest George Kornspan. Know the bit I mean? Good! XD.
Am I the only one who thinks that Jake Berkeley is awesome? Seriously, the guy is awesome, and there should have been more of him in seasons five and six!
Disclaimer: I do not, unfortunately, own CSI:Miami…If I did, there would be more Ryan and no Natalia! All dialogue in italics are taken from the episode.
Slowly and carefully Calleigh crept up on the small man ahead of her who was standing at the edge of the docks. He was suddenly an important link in the case and she needed to bring him in…the sooner the better and preferably not shot. She however did not want to take any chances and had her gun at hand.
She continued to make her way to the man, who was looking around nervously and he seemed to be under pressure and mumbling to himself. Calleigh stopped at a container and waited to see what Kornspan would do. Would he turn around and see her?
He however didn't look directly behind him and Calleigh decided that it was now the time to alert him to her presence. The sooner she got him into custody the better. He would provide them with new information and possibly; hopefully provide them with a turning point in the case.
The case which involved the death of a young girl. A young girl which had only been in the house because a certain ex-undercover officer had told her to go in and look around or else he would bust her for meth possession.
It was typical Jake Berkeley. The man hadn't shown any remorse over the death of his "little insider" and he had only pretended to do so back at the lab when he said that he had wanted in; to go with her. She knew though that he only wanted to go with her was because he hated being left out of things and he loved to be in the middle of something big. He also loved the risk of a gunfight. It had been one of the main reasons why he had pursued an undercover career which became his life - the taste for adventure.
She hadn't expected to next see him after years of being apart in the middle of a serious biker gang which were caught up in the murder of what they had thought was another biker, only to find out that he was an undercover officer and Jake was his partner.
For a while it had seemed that Jake was the main suspect but Calleigh had refused to believe it and had been glad, though she had not shown it when it turned out that it had not been him.
After the case had been closed, Jake vanished once more, only to be found again at the heart of another murder investigation.
She momentarily paused before she called out to her suspect in front of her, and sighed to herself. Why did Jake have to do this to her all the time? She was thankful that she had forced him to stay behind and refused his offer of help. She didn't need him to confuse her; not knowing if they would get together or not. But enough of him. She had a job to do and Calleigh intended to do it and completely forget about Jake Berkeley.
She took a deep breath, steadied herself and called out at the man now only a few feet in front of her.
"Hands where I can see them, Kornspan!"
The man turned quickly around to face her; shock clearly written all over his face. He paused for a moment, then appeared to gather himself together and suddenly pulled out a gun. Calleigh wasn't surprised though; she had expected that this would happen and she merely raised her gun a little higher.
"I didn't come this far to be taken down!" George Kornspan shouted back, pointing his gun at her, hands shaking. He was extremely anxious and that made him dangerous. Calleigh knew from her experience in the field that panicked and worried criminals that were armed usually fired at anything that moved. She made sure that she had a clear shot in case it would be needed, but she didn't intend to shoot he man before her. Not if she could help it.
"Don't make a mistake that will cost you your life; put the gun down." She said to the man in front of her, watching as he kept moving his gun about with his shaking hands.
He appeared to consider what she had said and she felt a flutter of hope. Maybe he would see sense and allow her to go over to him, take away his weapon, handcuff him and take him away. It would make life so much more easier for her and for him.
She watched him. He looked at her, and it seemed that he was about to say something and put his weapon down when another voice broke the silence.
"Freeze!"
Calleigh started. She knew that voice, and she couldn't believe that he had followed her here. What was he thinking?
She looked to her left and there he was. Jake. Jake, who she had told not to come. Jake, who was probably thinking that he was some sort of knight in shining armour; there to rescue her. He had his own gun out and it was pointed at Kornspan.
Who was now holding his gun up again, swinging it between herself and Jake. He did this several times, moving back and forth nervously before deciding on using her as a potential target. Calleigh felt like screaming- it had been going well until he had decided to turn up and turn everything back on its head again. Trust him. It was just so typical…
Jake was looking at her, but she refused to acknowledge him. He had just made her task complicated again and she wasn't in the mood for his smiles and grins.
She looked straight at Kornspan, and noticed that he had tightened his hold on the gun. He was preparing to fire. Thanks to Jake, he was now more panicked than before and since he believed that he was trapped; stuck in a corner, he had decided to shoot his way out.
She saw that Jake had edged forwarded and looked quickly at him. He was staring at Kornspan, gun at the ready. He too must have seen that Kornspan was preparing to fire at her and had decided to make a move.
Kornspan shifted his weight from one foot to the other, his hands still shaking. His eyes kept flickering from Jake to her and back again. Calleigh saw that he kept more of a longer gaze on Jake, and no wonder. The man was moving directly towards him.
"Jake…" she mouthed at the dark-haired man to her left. "Don't!" She shook her head frantically. Did the man not see that he was putting himself in danger?
Then she almost laughed. Of course he did. This was Jake she was talking about here. He loved these types of situations… it made his day!
Jake however was choosing to ignore her and moved closer towards George, who was still internally debating with himself who he should go for first.
He suddenly stopped his desperate swinging of his gun and appeared to calm down and decide.
It happened so fast that Calleigh didn't even have time to blink; let alone fire her gun.
She heard shot, felt something hit her in the chest and the force of impact sent her flying back.
She heard someone running and shouting what seemed to be her name.
"Calleigh! Calleigh-" She suddenly heard the voice break off and another shot. Picking herself up, she took aim at the retreating Kornspan and fired. He dropped like a stone, and laid still for a second, before holding his leg and moaning in pain.
Calleigh ignored him though, because she had just seen something which made her blood run cold and her heart stop.
Jake was lying down still just a few feet away…
Picking herself up, she made her way clumsily over to the man she had loved crazily all those years ago. At first she thought that he was stunned but then she saw it.
Blood.
"Jake…" she whispered. For a minute she froze and everything she had learnt to do in these situations deserted her. She collapsed in a heap beside him, before she remembered what she had to do. Her own hands shaking now, she fumbled for her phone and called in. She barely understood the voices on the other end of the phone. She stumbled over the location but forced herself to pull together.
"Come on, girl… Think. Stop panicking and remember what you know!" She muttered to herself. It worked and she managed to answer the rest of the questions asked and was told that an ambulance was on its way.
Jake was muttering her name, calling for her. She looked at him. He was deathly pale and he seemed to have difficulty breathing.
"Calleigh…" he whispered again, before breaking off to cough. She suddenly found herself calm again. She knew that her main focus right now was to reassure Jake and she was determined to do her best at the job. She reached down and took his hand in hers, feeling the weak pulse in his wrist.
"It's okay Jake, I'm here. I'm here." She said soothingly to him, making sure to exert pressure on his hand so he would know. "Where does it hurt?"
He smiled up at her, but it was a smile full of pain. He coughed again before he answered her.
"My…chest…I think he got….me in my chest…" he whispered weakly. He moaned and bit his lip. "It hurts, Calleigh… God it hurts!" He muttered, holding back tears. His chest felt on fire; burning, agonising fire.
Calleigh carefully lifted up Jake's shirt which was damp already with blood. He was right - Kornspan had shot him in the chest, and the bullet appeared to be a through-and-through. His chest was covered in blood and she could see clearly the gunshot wound over his right lung.
Calleigh grabbed a packet of tissues from her trouser pocket and thanked her lucky stars that she had shoved them there instead of throwing them into her bag. Quickly opening the packet she grabbed a handful of the tissues and held them over the wound, watching as they turned red almost instantly.
He coughed again, and Calleigh saw with horror that a dribble of blood found its way on his lips and down the side of his chin.
It reminded her of Speedle and his death. She had seen him as she had been first to answer the call to the crime scene. He had also coughed and eventually choked on his own blood… Her thoughts quickly jumped and scared her - what if the same would happen to Jake? Jake couldn't die. Not Jake…
"Calleigh…He shot you…are you okay?" She was interrupted from her thoughts when she heard the whispers of Jake, and almost laughed to hear that he was worried in case she had been injured.
She took her other hand and fished about around her top for a minute and was rewarded for her search with a bullet which she held up so that Jake could see.
"I'm fine, Jake. I'm fine…" She said to him, watching as he attempted to grin, but his eyes showed her how much pain he was in and he coughed again. More blood trickled down his mouth and chin, this time making a river that cascaded down his neck.
"Thank God for Kevlar…" he muttered, and she saw with alarm that he was breathing heavily and irregularly.
"Hang in there, Jake. The ambulance is on its way. You'll be fine, I promise!" she said frantically, watching as more blood covered her hand holding down the tissues. She placed the rest of the packet over the blood-stained ones and they quickly became wet.
Calleigh increased her grip on Jake's hand with her other hand. He couldn't die on her; he couldn't leave her. Even though she had never admitted it, she had always loved him, even after they had broken up she loved him and even when she dated various other guys she had loved him. Now that she had found him again after so long he couldn't go and leave her. He simply couldn't!
"I'm sorry…" he said, gasping in pain. Calleigh started - what did he mean? What was he sorry for?
"Jake? What do you mean?" she asked him.
"I…m-mucked up…m-made you have to…s-shoot the guy…S-Sorry…" he whispered weakly, choking and struggling to speak. Calleigh felt her heart, which had stopped a long time ago, break and shatter into a million small pieces. He was apologised for mucking up; making her shoot Kornspan and he was doing this even though he had been shot? She laughed, feeling her eyes well up and her throat was suddenly constricted. It was typical Jake.
"Oh Jake…Trust you! Don't worry about that!" she said, trying to smile at him but failing when she saw that he was more pale that what he had been; that he was clearly losing this fight for life.
"Jake, just hang in there…I'll deal with you later on the whole following me act, I promise! So you have to fight for me, okay?" she said quickly, feeling herself dangerously on the edge of tears. She was almost crushing his hand, and she could feel his grip weakening as she spoke. This could not be happening to her…
"I'm s-s-sorry, Calleigh…for everything I put…you through…I have always… loved you…" he muttered, coughing and she saw that his eyes were fighting to stay open.
"I have always loved you, Jake Berkeley, and I always will. I forgave you for everything long ago… but please, please stay with me…Don't go; don't leave me!" Calleigh said, feeling the tears starting to fall down her face. "Don't leave me Jake, please!" she screamed, not caring about anything now; only caring about Jake.
She could hear the distant and familiar sirens in the background, getting louder. But they were still too late.
Jake tried to smile, but he suddenly began choking and Calleigh watched as blood poured out of his mouth.
"Calleigh…" he moaned. He closed his eyes, and went still. Calleigh felt his grip completely disappear from her hand.
She sat there frozen in place; with tears running down her face and one hand covered in blood. The other, she kept around the still hand of the dead man who she had loved for so long without ever telling him just how much.
She could hear rapidly approaching footsteps behinds her; the shouts of the ambulance team and police but she didn't care. She was oblivious to the world around her.
For he had left her. She would never again hear him laugh or try to charm her; she would never again see him smile or grin. Never again would she see his bright brown eyes that were usually filled with mischief.
Jake was gone. And now nothing else mattered.
Wow, that went on for longer than I have originally planned, but I'm not complaining or anything xD. I'm now really depressed…. I killed Jake! How could I?
Well, please Review people, and let's see if I made anyone else upset because I killed off Jake…
Toodles, Leah xo