Title: A CSI: NY Christmas Carol
Author: Gumdrop
Summary: DnA What the title says it is with some aspects of "It A Wonderful Life" thrown in for good measure
Disclaimer: Without Prejudice. The names of all characters contained here-in are the property of CBS. No Infringements of these copyrights are intended, and are used here without permission.
Author's Notes: Dedicated to Chris, who inspired me to write a CSI: NY Christmas Carol.
Danny Messer laid stretched out on the break room couch. He had removed his glasses, which were his left arm laying across his face to block out the light. He heard the click of high heels approach down the hall and enter the break room, stopping to stand beside him. As soon as he felt her sit down on what little was left available of the couch to sit on he knew it was Aiden.
"Come on partner." She calls to him. "It's time for the Christmas party!" Danny moaned and rolled over, away from her. "Oh come on it'll be fun."
"Office Christmas party's are never fun."
"There are when I'm there." She teased.
"Good, then go there and have fun." Aiden frowned.
"Oh come on Danny, don't be a spoil sport."
"No."
"Please.
"No."
"Please!
"NO!" he shouted at her as he rolled back over to face her. "I don't want to go to no stinking Christmas party! I told you I'm not into Christmas, now just leave it the hell alone Aid." Aiden got up off the couch and started to storm away angrily.
"Dammit Danny!" she snaped at him. "Why d'ya have to be such a Scrooge?" He couldn't see the hurt that lingered in her eyes.
"Oh yeah?" Danny calls out as he rolled back over. "Well Bah Humbug!"
Danny was halfway asleep when the light in the room seemed to grow suddenly brighter. He got up off the couch and froze as a bright white light began to appear before him. He reached up to shield his eyes. "What the hell?" he said, then the light faded away. When he took his hand down he was surprised to see Stella standing before him. "Stella? Where did you come from?" He looked her over and noticed her pristine white business suit. "And why are you wearing that? You just come from court or something?"
"One question at a time Danny." Stella began. "First off I'm not exactly Stella?" Danny gave her a confused look.
"What do you mean you're not exactly Stella?"
"I am Stella in a way, but I'm also the ghost of Christmas past." Danny laughed.
"What, did Aiden put you up to this? Wanted to get back at me for snapping at her earlier."
"This is no joke Danny. The path your life is on can only end in tragedy. You need to understand what is happening and what is going to happen." Danny was sure this was some kind of joke, but he decided to play along anyway.
"So what? I change my ways or after I die I'll end up in shackles."
"Worse."
"What's worse than shackles?"
"I can't tell you that. I'm the ghost of Christmas past, I can't show you the future."
"But you can show me the past?"
"Yes."
"Well, led on then." Stella reached out her hand. Danny frowned, he never liked being led around like a child, but he accepted anyway. As soon as he took Stella's hand the break room was engulphed with light.
When the light faded he was no longer in the break room of the New York City crime lab. He was standing out on a snowy street. He looked around and stared in wonder at the house in front of him. "Whoa." he muttered. "How the hell ya do that Stella?"
"You recognize this place don't you."
"Yeah." he said, swallowing. "I grew up here. This was our house."
"It still is. This is the past." Danny laughed in disbelief. Then again. he thought she did bring us here.
"So?" Danny asked. Stella didn't reply. Instead she walked up the porch and entered the house, right through the closed door! Danny stood there with his mouth hanging open in shock for several minutes before Stella came back out looking for him.
"Are you coming?"
"Um, yeah." Danny said, still in disbelief. I must be losing my fricking mind Danny considered. Once again Stella went inside the house, this time with Danny following. Danny closed his eyes and reached out his hands as he prepared to walk through his old front door. When he opened his eyes again he was standing in the entryway of his childhood home. He turned around to look at the door he had just come through, literally, it was still locked and bolted. "Cool." he muttered.
He turned back around and looked about the living room. It was all exactly as he remembered it, right down to the scrawny looking Christmas tree that was sitting on the corner table. Danny heard someone coming out of the kitchen and into the living room and turned his head to look. He was taken aback to see himself as a boy of seven years old. His past self walked up to his Christmas stocking and peered inside. Nothing. Santa hadn't come yet. The phone rang and both Dannys went to the kitchen door so as to listen in.
"Hello." they heard their mother speak into the phone.
"Yes, this is she."
"He what! Is he ok?"
"Yes, yes I understand. We'll be right there." Danny knew to back away from the door as he heard his mother hang up the phone and move to turn the stove and oven off, his past self wasn't so wise and ended up on his butt when his mother frantically burst through the door.
"Danny! You're father's been hurt we have to go to the hospital." With that the room was washed out with bright white light. This time when it faded Danny and Stella were standing in his father's hospital room. Danny's father was just finished talking to his son and sent him out of the room so that he could talk to his mother in private. Danny had always wondered what they had said after he left the room. Now he would find out.
"Tell me the truth."
"Really I'm going to be fine. It looks a lot worse then it is."
"Fine? Some gypsy cab driver beat you up and you're going to be fine?" His mother's voice cracked.
"Yes I am."
"I knew you should never have worked in that area. I knew something like this was going to happen. That's a bad area. Why were you there in the middle of the night anyway, you don't get off work till five."
"I was laid off."
"What."
"You heard me." his father looked away, a pained expression in his eyes.
"But…on Christmas eve? What happened?"
"They had to let people go, and decided I'd be one of them."
"Did you get any severance pay? What about unemployment?"
"It won't even be enough to cover the hospital bill. We're going to have to tighten our belts. And I'm going to have to get another job. There's a warehouse job I heard of that has night shift work. It doesn't pay much but it's something. And I can take that janitorial job at the grocery store where you work. I already talked to them before I was heading home. I can start tomorrow."
"But I'm working tomorrow. The boys will be alone for Christmas."
"We don't have a choice. Unless you want to tell our boys that there isn't going to be a Christmas this year."
The scene started to fade away into whiteness and Danny turned to Stella.
"We were all by ourselves Christmas day. Most Christmases actually. Dad never did get another decent job. He got close a couple a times, but he was just a blue collar guy, kept getting laid off."
"But they were working to try and give you all you wanted for Christmas."
"I know that now." Danny sighed.
"There was, I think, another Christmas you spent in this place."
"No Stella, please don't show me that."
"I have to." The scene that faded in before Danny's eyes was another hospital room. This time it was his brother Louie who in the hospital bed. Danny was just seventeen years old. Louie was even younger. He had sent his mother out of the room so he could talk to his brother alone.
"What the hell did you think you were doing Louie? Joining the Tanglewood boys. Have you lost your mind."
"It's none of your business Danny."
"The hell it isn't. What is it Louie huh? You can't handle Dad dying so you go out and try to get yourself killed."
"That's not it at all."
"Then you tell me what it is then. Tell me what you lying there with a stab wound in your gut is all about, cause obviously I don't get."
"They have power Danny, and money. I can make a better life for us."
"This is no life Louie, it's a way to die."
"I don't care what you say Danny. You can't tell me what to do, you're not Dad."
"You're right, I can't tell you what to do, but I don't have to watch it either." His brother's face fell.
"What do you mean Danny?"
"I mean I'm moving out. I'm not gonna stick around and watch you ruin your life and break our mother's heart."
"What about Mom?"
"Mom doesn't want to see the truth and I'm tired of watching her sit at home and cry while your out getting into trouble. I can't be a part of this chaos you create Louie."
"I don't know whether you're a worse brother or a worse son."
"Really, then I wonder what that makes you."
When the white light faded Danny was back in the break room, alone. He looked around the room and thought, trying to figure out what really just happened. He finally decided that he must have been hallucinating. Most likely due to lack of sleep. He settled back down on the couch to remedy that situation and soon he was sleeping soundly.
He was only asleep for an hour when he heard someone calling him.
"Messer…Messer..Come on man, get your lazy ass up!" Danny opens his eyes to find Flack standing in the doorway leaning against the frame.
"What the hell Flack? I thought you'd be at the Christmas party getting drunk."
"I'm not Flack, well not exactly." Flack smirked. "I'm the ghost of Christmas present." Danny's face fell.
"Not this again."
"Hey, this ain't no picnic for me neither. There are much better things I'd like to be doing instead of playing tour guide to a 21st century Scrooge." Danny sighed.
"Well, since it doesn't look like I'm going to get any sleep anyway we might as well get going." Flack headed out the door and Danny followed obediently. "What no bright light."
"Not my style." Flack said as he lead Danny down the hall and into an empty elevator. The doors closed and Flack leaned against the back of the elevator, folding his arms across his chest. Danny looks at Flack and then at the elevator buttons, then repeats the process.
"Well?"Danny questions.
"Well what?"
"Aren't you going to press a button."
"No."
"No? Then how are we going to get wherever it is we're going?"
"We're already there." Danny's eyebrows furrowed and he gave Flack a confused look. Then, suddenly, the elevator doors opened with a 'ding' and Danny stepd out of them onto a different floor then the one they started on.
"Whoa." Danny muttered.
"Ya see?" Flack said, stepping out behind him. "Now isn't that more impressive then some lame white light?" Flack headed down the hallway, Danny could hear the Christmas music playing from halfway down the hall before Flack lead him into a large conference room that has been decorated for Christmas.
The office Christmas party was jumping. Danny looked around at all his coworkers celebrating the holiday. Stella was chatting with a group of lab techs by the food table, which is filled with an assortment of cookies, cakes, and of course the obligatory egg nog. Mac was filling his supervisory duty of walking around and mingling with everybody. Hawkes was dancing with the red head from booking. And Aiden…Danny looked around and couldn't find her right away. He searched the whole room before finally finding her by herself by a window, staring out at the night sky and sipping a glass of egg nog. She looked so heartbroken. Danny walked up beside her, but just as in the past, no one could see him.
"What's wrong with her."
"Beats me."
"What do ya mean 'Beats you' I thought you were supposed to help me understand the meaning of Christmas and all that?" Flack shrugged.
"I'm just supposed to show you what goes on this Christmas. Besides I wouldn't have to show you anything here if you'd've just gone to the party."
"Is that what this is about? She upset because I wouldn't come to the stupid Christmas party?"
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe she just wanted to spend some time with you?"
"What are you talking about? We hang out all the time. I'm surprised she's not sick of seeing me."
"But what about Christmas?"
"What about it."
"Do you think maybe you're not the only one with some bad Christmas memories."
"Aiden? Bad Christmas? Are you kidding? Aiden loves Christmas, presents, egg nog, mistletoe, the whole nine yards."
"That doesn't mean she wants to be alone."
"She's not alone. The whole office is here."
"But you're not."
"So we're back to that then? She's upset because I didn't come."
"No. She'd be upset regardless of whether you came or not. But having you there would've made her feel better. Made her feel safe and remind her that she isn't alone in the world."
"She thinks she's all alone in the world?"
"Tonight she does."
"But she's not alone. She has me."
"Does she know that she has you? Tonight is a very hard night for her, she needed you."
"What do you mean? Why is tonight a hard night for her?"
"Come on Danny, it's time to go."
"But what about Aiden?"
"You can't help her now." Flack led Danny back to the elevator, and when the doors opened this time they were inside an apartment.
"I suppose this is the equivalent of taking me to my nephew Fred's house."
"Your mother invites you to Christmas dinner every year, and every year you come up with an excuse as to why you don't show up before dessert."
"But I do show." Danny looked at Flack for approval but found none. Apparently ghosts didn't compromise. Danny walked up to the dining room table where his mother and brother were having Christmas eve dinner. His mother sat at the head of the table, picking at her food. She kept looking up at the door, as if she expected it to open any minuet.
"He's not coming Ma." Danny's brother snapped.
"He could." she defended.
"But he won't. You know he only shows up at the last minuet."
"But this year could be different."
"But it won't be. It's just like every other year. Danny rather spend his time working then with his family."
"Don't say that! Danny's job is very important, you just don't understand."
"Oh I understand perfectly." Danny's brother said under his breath.
"They really think I don't want to be with them." Danny said aloud.
"Isn't that the truth?" Danny whirled around to face Flack.
"No! That's not it at all."
"Then what is it then."
"It's…it's… ya know," Danny realized. "I don't remember what it is any more."
"Come on man, there's one thing this Christmas that you gotta see." They turn around and head to the front door of his mother's apartment which turns into the office elevator right before their eyes. They climb inside and this time when they get off they're in a snow covered cemetery.
"I thought this was the ghost of Christmas yet to come's territory?"
"Not tonight." Danny looked around the cemetery. At first it appeared empty, but then he caught sight of a lone figure standing in the middle of the cemetery. Somehow he recognized the figure, even with her back turned. Aiden his mind whispered. Why? He shivered as the wind whipped violently across his face. He heard the clock in a nearby steeple chime the hour, midnight.
"Why is she here so late?"
"She comes here every year at this time."
"All alone?"
"She doesn't have anyone to go with her."
"What about her family?"
"They don't approve of some of the decisions she's made in her life, including the one that led her here tonight."
"What was that?"
"It's not my place to tell you, it's her's."
"Then why did you bring me here?"
"To see what you weren't willing to see." Flack led Danny over to stand in front of Aiden and behind the gravestone she is standing over. Tears stream down Aiden's face though she stands still as a statue. In her hand was a white rose. Danny watched as she laid it on the gravestone.
"Why didn't she come to me? I would've come with her."
"Why should she think that? You wouldn't even go to the Christmas party with her." Danny looked away guiltily for a moment before reaching out to stroke Aiden's tear stained face, but his hand went right through her like she's not even there. Or more accurately, like he's not even there.
"I should've been here for her. It's my fault she's alone tonight." He waited for a smart ass comment from Flack. When none came he turned around to look, but flack was no where to be seen. And when he turned back Aiden had vanished as well.
He looked down at the rose atop the gravestone, proof that she was really there a moment ago. As he watched it, it began to wilt and die, as if time was passing all around him. After the rose had completely died away a fog began to creep up around him. Then a figure appeared in front of Danny, clad in a long black robe. Danny had always thought the scene of the third ghost's arrival in 'A Christmas Carol' to be rather corny, but standing in the middle of an empty cemetery face to face with a ghost he couldn't help the shiver of fear that ran up his spine.
"You're the ghost of Christmas yet to come." The ghost nodded his head. "Let's get this show on the road then." The ghost pointed into the mist. Danny obeyed and the mist engulphed him. When it faded he was back in the crime lab. The ghost of Christmas yet to come led Danny to the door of the morgue in the basement of the New York City crime lab. The halls were empty and quiet, signaling that it was probably late at night or early in the morning.. Danny turned to the ghost.
"I thought we were supposed to be at the cemetery. Ya know, so I could find my own gravestone, get all upset, then swear to repent if only you could 'sponge away the writing on the stone'." The ghost said nothing, only reached out with a hand and pointed at the doors. Danny obeyed and headed right up to the doors, and as he was now used to the journey he walked right through them into the morgue.
The morgue was as silent as the grave, cheap pun intended, and despite all that Danny understood about what was probably going to happen next he couldn't help feeling a little disturbed. He looked to the ghost once again for guidance and the ghost pointed him to the row of metal cabinets straight in front of him. He entered and just stood there for a moment, taking deep breaths. Then, when he thought he could handle it, it approached the rows of drawers.
He went down the rows, reading identification card after identification card. And there it was, right in the middle, NAME: Daniel Messer. Danny wasn't prepared for the eerie feeling it gave him.
"Alright! I get it! I'm sorry! I'll do better, I'll repent! Is that what you want to hear? Is that what I got to say to end this charade? Do you honestly think I care? Everyone dies. No one will miss me and I won't miss anybody!…" Before he could get another word out the doors to the morgue swung open and Dr. Sheldon Hawkes entered, followed closely behind by Aiden. Danny could only stare at her speechless. She looked bad. Her face was pale and drawn, and her eyes were bloodshot.
"You don't have to do this Aiden." Dr. Hawkes began as he and Aiden approached the morgue drawer containing Danny's body. "I'm sure it must have been a traumatic experience watching him go down today. There's no need for you to see him like this again so soon."
"Yes, there is." Aiden replied, her voice sounding terribly horse. "I need to see him. I need to know it's real. That it wasn't just some terrible nightmare."
"I can assure you it isn't."
"I need to see him Hawkes, I want to see him. I need to say goodbye once and for all." Dr. Hawkes nodded and they both moved to stand on opposite sides of the drawer.
"Are you ready." Dr. Hawkes asked Aiden, placing his gloved hand on the handle.
"I'll never be ready." She replied, her voice distant and haunting. Then she seemed to come back to herself and raised her head, nodding. All three occupants of the room took a deep breath before Dr. Hawkes pulled out the drawer.
A cold chill ran through Danny as he stared down at his dead body. He wasn't sure what to think and couldn't take the disturbing sight anymore so he looked up at Aiden. But what he saw in her eyes frightened him even more, nothing. Her eyes were empty and cold, and she looked as rigid and numb as his own dead body did. If it wasn't for her chest rising and falling with each breath he would swear she should be the one on the slab.
"I want to be alone with him." She said. Dr. Hawkes hesitated, it was against procedure to leave anyone alone with a body until it was released. "Please, I need to be alone with him. Just for few minutes." She pleaded. Dr. Hawkes took pity on her and acquiesced.
"I'll be right outside if you need me." He said before turning and walking out of the room. Aiden waited for Hawkes to leave before she took a step closer to Danny's body. Danny could only watch in cold shock as she reached up a trembling hand and stroked his cheek. She let out a single sob then, tears beginning to run down her cheeks.
"Oh Danny." she whispered. "Why?"
"I'm sorry Aiden." He said to her. Logically he knew she couldn't hear him, but he had to try. He watched as she pulled her hand away from his cold cheek and placed it over her mouth as if she was suddenly shocked at seeing her partner's body lying there. "I should never have said those things to you. I didn't mean it. I know you're my friend, you're my best friend. You just wanted me to be a part of your life because, because…" He looked down at himself on the morgue drawer. "Because we never know when life is going to take us away from each other. I get it now. Christmas is about being with the people who make your life worth living." He looked up at the Ghost of Christmas yet to come who had moved to stand behind and slightly to the side of Aiden. "I get it. I'm sorry, truly sorry. I screwed up, I made a mistake. Now take me back." He looked at Aiden. She had put her hand back down to her side and stood as rigid as a statue, tears streaming down her face. "Make this better." His heart ached for her.
"I can't do that Danny." Danny looked to the Ghost who had just spoken his first words to him all evening. The Ghost reached up and lifted off his hood.
"Mac?"
"I'm sorry Danny. But you were right earlier when you told Stella that 'A Christmas Carol' is just a story. There isn't any going back Danny. This is your existence now. You never learned to appreciate the people in your life while you had them, you don't get to be with them again. Not in this life, not in the next."
"What do you mean Mac?" he kept looking from the stern face of his boss to the tear stained face of his partner.
"I mean that this was your goodbye Danny. All the people that you've seen tonight. You'll never see again." Danny swallowed. What had he done? He looked back at Aiden and stared into her soft brown eyes.
"And her? All the pain that I've caused her? All the pain that I've cause all of them?"
"There's no way to undo what you did Danny. There's no way to fix this. And what happens now you can't prevent." Danny looked to Mac with a scared, questioning look.
"What do you means what happens now?"
"Why Danny?" Aiden's voice rang out loudly through the morgue. "Why did you leave me?" She started to sob. "You were my partner. My friend. And I…" she choked on a sob. "I loved you." she whispered.
"Aiden I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Danny pleaded with any God that could hear him to let him speak to her one last time, to let him soothe and comfort her. But she couldn't hear him, couldn't feel him in the room with her. Danny's heart broke when he watched her lean down and put a soft kiss on his cheek.
"Goodbye Danny." She whispered as she straightened up and lifted her hand, which now held her service weapon. She raised it to her head and pressed it against her temple. Danny's mouth fell open in terror.
"Aiden no!" She started to squeeze the trigger. "Aiden no, NO!" The bang of the gun shot seemed to rip through his heart as much as it ripped through Aiden's skull. She fell to the ground as dead weight and as Danny rushed to her side a puddle of her blood began to form underneath her damaged head. He buried his face in her neck and sobbed. "Aiden I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Aiden…" He started to rock back and forth with her in his arms but when he rocked forward he felt like he was falling into some deep dark abyss. He came crashing down to the ground hard.
Danny lifted his head up and blink his eyes. He wasn't in the morgue. He wasn't holding Aiden's dead body. He was lying on the floor in the break room. He had apparently fallen asleep and fell off the couch. Danny got up and ran down the hallway to the elevator. While he waited for the elevator to arrive at his floor he called his mother on his cell phone and told her to hold dinner, that he was on his way and was bringing a guest.
When he finally got there he ran down another hallway and into the conference room where the Christmas party was still going strong. He garnered more then one strange look as he rushed in and up to Aiden who was standing by the window, just as he'd seen her before.
"Aiden!"
"Well look if it isn't Scrooge…" She didn't finish the rest of her sentence as Danny surprised her by wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight. "Danny what's wrong? You have a bad dream or something?"
"Something." He smiled. "Aiden I'm sorry I've been such a Scrooge to you lately. I promise from now on I'll keep Christmas in my heart and keep it all the year." Aiden pulled away and put an examining hand up to his head.
"Did you fall off the couch and hit your head again." Danny just laughed and started to walk backwards holding her hands. He stopped about halfway through the room and Aiden raised a quizzical eyebrow. He glanced up, her eyes followed to spot the mistletoe hanging on the ceiling. When she tilted her head back down Danny was right there to put his lips on hers in the sweetest of Christmas kisses.
"Merry Christmas Aiden." He said when they finally pulled away.
"Merry Christmas Danny." And it was a very merry Christmas indeed.