A short little ficlet. The grammar mistakes in the speech are intentional. Any other mistakes are not (oops!). Anyway, thanks for reading!
"Aiden, you have to promise me you're not going to go after Pratt. Is it worth your life to go find a madman, just to prove you were right?"
Aiden's face hardened, the lines in her young face pronounced. She had just been fired from the New York Crime Lab, and had stopped to say good-bye to her best friend. "I have to, Danny."
Danny slammed his hand down by the evidence, his face contorting into a bared-teeth grimace. "Don't be an idiot, Aiden! You're going to get yourself killed!"
"She didn't deserve it!"
"I know she didn't!" Danny yelled, growing red. An intern widened his eyes as he sped past the glass room filled by two angry people—one a detective, one a civilian. "I know as good as anyone that she didn't deserve what she got."
Her expression softened and she let a single tear dance down her face. "I'll be okay, Danny. You know me."
"I don't feel like I do, not anymore," he said, shutting his eyes against Aiden's soft brown gaze. He knew once he opened his eyes again the expression would no longer be friendly.
He was wrong. Aiden appeared saddened, but she touched his shoulder and smiled a bit. "I'm gonna work on my Private Investigator," she tried to calm him. "We might work together again, Danny. Hell, we'll still see each other around."
"What about Pratt?"
Aiden looked away. "I'll be okay. I'm the only one who can catch him."
"You're wrong."
"Let's hope I am." But the determination in her eyes told Danny that she was going to go after him. And there was no keeping an eye on her anymore. There was no going back to what had been. Aiden was gone from this world. Maybe she had been for a long time.
"This is a mistake." Anger crept back into his voice. Aiden was his best friend! Everyone liked her. How could she be so damn stubborn?
Aiden squeezed his hand in a reassuring manner. "I'm not gonna die on you."
Danny looked at her with sad eyes, and then he turned around to leave the room, stopped, and thought better of it. "Get out of here."
"Danny?"
"Get out!"
She turned to leave, eyes widened a bit, and stopped in the doorway. "I'm gonna miss working with you, Danny," she said quietly. "I love you." It was a love from one best friend to another, a love that couldn't be wavered by time. She hesitated a moment, seemingly waiting for him to reply, and then disappeared from his vision.
When she was well and truly gone, Danny sat, bowed his head, and remembered.