Disclaimer: I do not own any characters of CSI: NY or Without A Trace. If I did then I would be happily somewhere writing for a show. Please don't sue:) The plot I do own, so please don't steal it. This is for everyone who asked me more about Flack and Elena's history after they met again in my story "A Time To Heal" (Please read it if you haven't already.) This is just a one-shot and it is not a happy story. If you are looking for fluff, look somewhere else. This is pure angst! As always, please R&R! I love to here what you think!
Fractured
Flack watched as the woman whom he had just told that he loved walked out of his life forever. He felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. "How did this happen?" he thought as he fought the urge to punch through a wall.
(6 months previously, The first meeting)
Flack and Danny were getting ready to go to the annual Policeman's Ball. Flack was adjusting the tie on his tux. "Ya know, Danny? The only reason I go to is to see if there have been any hot chicks added to the force. I hate wearing a tux!"
Danny nodded his agreement. "I know what ya mean, man. We need some more good looking women on the force. The hottest ones right now are Stella and Aiden, and ya know, I just can't date either one!"
Flack laughed as he finished getting ready.
An hour later, the two best friends walked into the ballroom at the Plaza. They immediately went to the bar and started scanning the crowd. "Looks like the same crowd from last year," Danny observed. "I wonder if those girls that we met last year are here. They were fine!"
Flack groaned at the memory. "They were fine and all, but I know dogs that have more brains! I want…" Flack trailed off as he caught sight of an unknown woman walking in. "Damn. Now that is what I call a woman!"
Danny looked at Flack and turned his gaze towards to doors of the ballroom. He gave a low wolf-whistle. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph! Who is that? I ain't seen her here before."
Both men felt there jaws drop open at the sight of the woman. She was a Latina with long straight black hair. She was tall and carried herself with an incredible amount of poise. She was wearing a long red evening gown that had a plunging neckline and a slit on the left side up to top of her thigh.
Flack gulped down in drink and began to walk towards her. When he got close to her, he took a breath to calm his nerves and approached her. "Excuse me. I've never seen you hear before. Are you new to the force?"
The woman scrutinized him thoroughly, making him feel like he was on one of the slides that Danny looked at. He fought the urge to squirm under her gaze. In the end, she just held out her right hand. "I'm Detective Elena Delgado, Narcotics."
Flack took her hand and was surprised that her handshake was so firm. "Nice to meet you, Detective Delgado. I'm Detective Donald Flack, Homicide. You can call me Don or Flack if you want."
Elena nodded as she extracted her hand from him. "Wow. He is a very handsome man." After she had reclaimed her hand, she gave him a small smile. "If you'll excuse me, I have to meet someone." She turned and began to walk into the crowd.
Flack just looked at her in shock. Granted, he was not the player that Messer was, but he did alright with the ladies. He'd never had anyone brush him off like that. Shrugging his shoulders, he walked back to Danny. "Her name is Elena Delgado. She's a detective in the Narcotics division."
Danny nodded. "Okay. When are you guys going out?" Danny looked at Flack as he asked the question. "You guys are going out, right?"
"I didn't get a chance to ask her out. She just brushed me off."
Danny laughed, a smug look on his face. "Flack, my man, you are losing your touch. Watch a master at work." Danny walked away from Flack and towards Elena. A few minutes later, he returned with the smug look gone from his face.
Flack grinned. "Lose your touch, Messer?"
Danny just shot him a look and ordered another beer.
Flack decided to cut his losses with the woman and left early.
(Meeting Again, 1 month later)
Flack was coming off of a grueling 70 hour work week. He had made plans with Danny to go to Ray's, a local cop bar. He arrived a little after 9pm and looked to see if Danny had made it in yet. He didn't see him.
Flack walked to the bar and ordered a beer. He was waiting for it to arrive when he felt his cell phone ring. He groaned, mentally. After taking his phone out of his pocket, he looked at the caller ID. "You're canceling on me, aren't you Messer?"
"Flack, man. I'm so sorry, we got a DB on Broadway and I'm the only one not working another case. Have a beer for me, okay?"
Flack just shook his head in frustration. "I understand. Go catch the bad guys."
Flack sat down at the bar and took a long drink at his beer. He was staring at the bottle, lost in thought, when a voice broke into his thoughts. "Is this seat taken?"
Flack looked up into a pair of dark eyes. "Detective Delgado. No, please sit. Can I buy you a drink?"
Elena nodded. "What ever you're having is fine. Detective Flack…"
"Call me Flack."
"Flack. You can call me Elena. I wanted to apologize to you. I was rude at the ball. I was having a bad day."
"That's okay, Elena. I understand. What brings you here tonight?"
Elena sighed. "It's been a long week. My supervisor told me that if he saw me over the weekend, he'd put me on report."
"Me, too. I'm maxed out on my overtime for the month. I can't help that the murder rate doubled!"
Elena laughed. "I'm maxed out, too." Elena rolled her neck, trying to relieve the tension.
Flack decided to try to take the conversation from work. "So, where did you grow up?"
Elena played along. "Puerto Rico. I moved the New York when I was ten."
The two continued to talk until the bar closed. Flack got up after paying the tab. "Can I walk you home?"
Elena smiled as she nodded her assent. "He's such a gentleman."
They walked in silence to her apartment, which was only a couple of blocks away. They stopped at the door and Flack put his hands in his pockets. "So, I guess this is good-night."
"I guess so." Elena was reluctant for the evening to end.
Flack got up his courage and cleared his throat. "So, Elena. Since we don't have to work tomorrow, would you like to have dinner tomorrow night?"
Elena smiled. "I'd love to."
They made plans for dinner the following evening.
(The First Date)
Flack was uncharacteristically nervous about his date with Elena. He had taken longer to get ready than normal, finally deciding on a dark suit with a blue shirt and tie. He stopped by a flower vender on his way to Elena's apartment to get some wildflowers.
When he got to the apartment, he stood nervously at her door. Finally he knocked. When she opened the door, Flack felt his mouth go dry. "Wow. You look…amazing." He presented her with the flowers.
Elena was wearing a blue dress that harmonized with his tie. The dress had spaghetti straps and stopped just above her knees. She was made even taller by the three inch heels on her sandals.
"Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself." Elena put the flowers into water and grabbed her purse to leave.
The restaurant that Flack had chosen was small and intimate. It was lit by soft lights and candles.
Elena was very impressed. She ordered her food and a glass of wine to go with it. Like the previous night, the pair talked about everything, from their pasts to the current political situation.
After dinner, they took a long stroll through Central Park, just enjoying being with each other. Finally around midnight, Flack walked her back to her apartment. As they stood at the threshold, Flack pulled Elena to him and slowly lowered his head for a soft kiss. "Good-night, Elena. Sweet dreams."
When he left, Elena walked dreamily into the apartment.
(The Monday after)
Flack walked into the crime lab, whistling softly. He drew the stares of everyone he passed, but he didn't care. When he finally found Danny, he had stopped whistling and was just grinning from ear to ear.
"Hey, Messer! You catch the bad guys on Friday?"
Danny looked exhausted. "Nope. I caught the bad guys on Sunday and now I'm doing the paperwork on it. I'm sorry that I bailed on you."
Flack just grinned. "That's alright man. It's cool."
Danny looked up a Flack, realization dawning in his eyes. "You met someone. Who is she? What does she look like? Does she have a sister?"
Flack rolled his eyes. "You actually know her. She is one hot, Latina and yes she has four sisters."
Danny thought for a moment. "You went out with Aiden!"
Flack laughed. "Um, no. Elena."
Danny looked confused. "I don't know anyone by that name."
"Messer! Use your brain. I know ya got one. Elena. The detective from Narcotics."
"Oh, the bombshell who totally shot us down. Nice."
Flack got serious. "Watch your mouth. She's a great woman. Plus, she could kick your ass."
Danny tried to think of a response, but before he could talk, both of their phones rang. "Back to work."
(The fight)
It had been five months since Flack and Elena had started dating. Flack was head over heels in love with her. This fact he had shared with Danny who liked to tease him about it. He had even got up the courage to ask Stella to help him shop for a ring. He had found the perfect solitary diamond at Tiffany's.
He had the whole proposal planned out. He had asked Elena to his apartment for dinner to celebrate their anniversary.
All through the day he was distracted. Right before he left, he heard about a big shakeup in the Narcotics department. One of the other Homicide detectives told him the news. "Did you hear? IAB busted a group of Narcotics detectives for being on the take. The axes are falling fast in that department. Already, McMann and Turner have been removed from duty. The whole team that they were serving with is under scrutiny."
Flack grew worried. Both of those detectives were on Elena's squad. "No. She can't be dirty. We both believe in justice to much! I won't believe it."
He hurried home to get the apartment ready. He figured that this might be a good distraction for her.
A couple of hours later, he had the apartment ready. He had picked up some great takeout from an Italian restaurant and had candles lighting the apartment.
When Elena knocked, his heart jumped in his chest. "Okay. I can do this. I can ask the woman I love to marry me. Breathe, Don. Breathe." Flack to a deep breath and opened the door.
"Elena. Hi. Come on in."
"Hi, Don. Can we talk?"
"Sure. I heard about what was happening in your department. Do you want a drink?"
Elena nodded. Flack got a glass of wine. "Darling. I wanted to tell you something. I love you."
Elena started to say something, but Flack put a finger on her lips. "Wait." He fell to one knee and withdrew the Tiffany's box from his pocket. "Elena? Will you marry me?"
Elena looked flabbergasted. "Don? Um…I wanted to tell you that that I'm leaving the force. I took a job at the FBI. I want to break up with you. I'm sorry. I can't have anything to do with the NYPD anymore. Good-bye, Don." Elena got up off the couch, walked past Flack and out the door.
Flack watched as the woman whom he had just told that he loved walked out of his life forever. He felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. "How did this happen?" he thought as he fought the urge to punch through a wall. "Why? Why did she do this to me?"
Flack just grabbed the bottle of wine and drank it down. Still not satisfied with how he felt, he decided to go out. He blew out the candles, grabbed his coat and walked out the door to the bar down the street.
That's where Danny found him, three hours later, completely drunk. He nodded to the bartender, who had called him. "Flack? Don? You okay?"
"Messer? Hey, man! Want to go pick up girls?" Flack was slurring his words.
"Flack, man. You're drunk. Let's get you home. I guess Elena said no?"
"Screw her! I don't need her."
Danny slowly steered Flack out the bar and back to his apartment. When he opened the door to the apartment, he took note of the candles and the diamond ring from Tiffany's. He guided a subdued Flack to his bed and made sure that he passed out on pillow.
(Aftermath, 1 month later)
Danny sighed as a familiar number came up on the caller ID of his cell phone. "Messer. Yeah. Thanks, George. I'll be right there."
Danny grabbed his keys and jacket and headed to Jack's, the bar down the street from Flack. "Damn him. Damn Elena! This has to stop. I know that she hurt him, but damn it. He has to stop drinking like this!"
Danny nodded to George when he walked into the bar. "Sorry, George. I'll take him home. Come on Flack." Danny got Flack back to his apartment. He sat Flack on the couch and decided to have a talk with him. "We gotta talk, man. You've got to stop doing this to yourself."
"Whatever, man. I don't care anymore. Nothing matters. Life doesn't matter. I just want the pain to go away."
"Flack. This is not the way to stop the pain. Put the drink down. Get on with your life. Just move on. If you don't this will start affecting your job and then…Just think about it, man. She's not worth your career." Danny left Flack in his apartment, sitting on the couch, staring at his hands.
Fini!