He's in the elevator, shuffling his feet. Trying to relax, waiting for that ding that tells him that he's reached the 25th floor, penthouse, of "The Alexander" hotel.
This should be routine by now. Mac calls him and tells him the situation and where. He gets up and gets ready to work. That's how it always was.
"Ding" He enters the hallway, but not as a CSI.
Everything was where it should have been. A couple of uniforms crowed around doing their jobs. The familiar yellow tape informing others that a crime was committed. Flashes from a couple of cameras. People buzzing around, getting everything from point A to point B. normally he'd be concerned by the same things concerning everyone else, but not tonight.
"Hey, Danny" Flack stops talking to Mac and acknowledges his friend.
"Danny, I called you like 6 minutes ago." Mac Taylor turns around. "How'd you get here so fast?"
The young man briskly walks, worried toward his coworkers.
"Where is she?" he ignores his supervisors' question.
"Who?" Mac asks.
"Daddy?" a scared, little voice above everyone else's.
Danny Messer releases a sigh of relief, hearing the voice of the one person he's been thinking of since Mac gave him the address of the scene. He walks pass his colleagues and sees her.
A young lady, to herself but always a child in his eyes, distraught and shaky, sitting on the couch. She was wearing her pajamas and a blanket the paramedics offer to any and every innocent bystander. She left Stella, who was questioning her, in mid sentence, stood up and ran into Danny's awaiting open arms.
Thank God she was alive. He thought to himself as he was holding her, listening to her. She seemed all right. She could walk. She could still remember him. She didn't have any blood or visible wounds on her. She could talk, hug, and cry. Everything was the same; her jet-black long hair, her 5'3 frame and her voice in little whimpers and indecipherable words. Everything was alright. He holds her in the tightest embrace, never letting her go ever again. He should have been there to protect her.
"You know her?" Stella asks, walking towards the two.
"She didn't say Danny." Mac corrects his partner.
"Daddy… takot na takot ako / I was so scared," the distressed girl, 13 of age, says in between sobs against the older blonde man's shoulder, on the verge of tears himself.
"It's gonna be alright baby…" He coos into her ear trying to calm her down. "Daddy's here."