2nd Series 02/5 - The Accident

by Macx

Lt. Vega is involved in a serious accident. It's a time to remember how he and Ace met and Cosmo finnaly hears the whole story of Ace's magic powers.

The Accident
by Birgit Staebler
mac@robyn.rhein-neckar.de

The hospital waiting room was as uncomfortable to Cosmo's eyes as it could possibly be. The creamy-gray colored walls and the sickly brown and green seats did nothing to soothe his strained nerves. On the contrary. He felt even more agitated. There were some magazines and newspapers on the table, but he hadn't even spared them a closer look.
Another man was with him in the waiting room. He was tall and slender, dressed in dark pants, a white shirt and his usual black cape. He stood motionlessly in front of the large window. The room was mercifully empty of people, though five minutes after they had entered, the door had opened and a man had peeked in. Cosmo paced the waiting room, stopping in front of the window overlooking the parking lot and the emergency entrance. An ambulance was just pulling up under the small roof hiding the entrance from prying eyes.
Ace Cooper was still a silent statue, eyes fixed on the slowly darkening sky outside, just like the last hour. He didn't move, he didn't speak, and the reflection in the window showed Cosmo an emotionless expression in his friend's eyes. Cosmo resumed his pacing, then finally slumped down in a chair, hands dangling between his knees.
Time went by. People came and went in the room, some eyeing him and Ace curiously, but never speaking. A couple entered and talked in hushed voices about their child, which had been in a road accident with the a bike. They were called by a nurse after about half an hour of waiting.
Another hour later, the door to the waiting room opened and a middle-aged, dark haired man in a white coat entered. He looked at the two men. Ace turned around, his face a pale mask that showed no emotions, but his eyes were a gray sea of turmoil.
"I'm Dr. Matthews. I'm of the Emergency Staff," the man introduced himself.
"How is he?" Ace wanted to know, voice flat.
"Lieutenant Vega came out of surgery half an hour ago. He's on his way to the Intensive Care Unit."
"Intensive care?" Cosmo echoed.
"His injuries were severe."
"What happened?" Ace asked quietly. So far, no one had told them anything.
The call had come in right after the show that Vega had been involved in an accident. All Ace had been able to get out Ms LeSage, who had been too confused and frightened to tell them much more, was that it had not happened on duty.
"Lt. Vega was involved in a car accident. The driver of a bus lost control over the vehicle and crashed. The bus overturned. Two people were killed immediately, a lot were injured. The lieutenant was stuck in his car, which had been partially buried under the bus, and had to be cut out. He was very lucky. A few more inches and it would have crushed him."
"How bad is it?" Ace wanted to know, voice rough.
Matthews' face was a neutral mask. "He broke several ribs, his leg's badly cut and he lost a lot of blood. He might have a concussion. We don't know right now. His spleen ruptured, but we could get him here in time to prevent the internal bleeding from spreading. He's receiving transfusions right now, but he's far from stable. The next hours will have to tell. But he's got good chances. He's a strong man."
"Can I see him?" Ace asked, his face whiter than usual and Cosmo noted a tremor in his voice he wasn't used to.
The doctor shook his head. "Only for a few minutes, Mr. Cooper. You are listed next of kin, correct?"
Ace nodded and Cosmo raised his brows ever-so slightly. Matthews motioned at them to follow him and led the magician and his partner through a pair of doors with 'Intensive Care Unit' written on them. Both were given a green hospital issue gown to wear and a pair of covers for their shoes. Cosmo thought he looked ridiculous, but the seriousness of the situation smothered every spark of dry humor.
Matthews stopped in front of a cubicle which contained three beds. A nurse sat behind some kind of monitoring station, her place separated from the intensive care unit by a Plexiglas screen. She looked up as they entered. Matthews stopped at the monitoring station and glanced at the screens.
"This is Recovery," he explained to Ace. "We monitor critical patients for the first 24 hours after surgery and then they're moved to other rooms. One minute, Mr. Cooper," he reminded them.
Ace stepped forward, followed by Cosmo. Like the waiting room everything was held in a creamy-gray color and just like in the waiting room the color did nothing for Cosmo's mood or emotional state of mind. His eyes fixed on the motionless figure in the only occupied bed. Derek Vega looked completely still. His skin appeared washed out, too white, nearly in color with the sheets. There were several cables attached to his body, monitoring heartbeat and breathing. An IV line fed the unconscious man with a clear liquid. One leg was slightly elevated and in a cast. His face showed ugly bruising, there was a laceration over one eyes, and scrapes all over his arms and hands.
Ace didn't seem to feel anything. He just looked at the badly injured police officers, face devoid of emotions. His eyes were telling Cosmo more so. There was something in them that the younger man found hard to define, but most of what he could read was fear; utter fear.
"Ace?" Cosmo asked softly.
The magician shook his head, then turned and left, looking every bit as pale as Vega.

*

The ride home had been marked by total silence. Cosmo didn't feel any better than Ace about the whole situation, but Vega's condition involved his friend much more than him. Ace and Vega knew each other for a long time now and that the lieutenant might die now.... Cosmo didn't really want to think about it.
Ace parked the Magic Racer in the hangar bay and then walked silently into the train, cape swirling around him. Cosmo trailed behind, not wanting to intrude but wishing he could help his friend. What could he do? Ace was not the person to simply spill his pain and open up; that much Cosmo had learned in the last years. Everything concerning his past or his very personal side, Ace kept hidden. Back in the beginning of their partnership, Cosmo had not trusted him one bit, had thought the older man wanted to use him for something or other. That had been mainly inspired by Ace's silent refusal to tell Cosmo about himself more than the public knew. In time Cosmo had learned to separate between Ace's fiercely guarded private past and the past of Ace Cooper. Cosmo knew more than the public, but he didn't know everything. Still, it had been enough to open up and give trust, because Ace had shown him there was something worth trusting in: friendship.
Walking into the living room/library, he now discovered the magician looking through some old stuff. When Cosmo poked his head in, he looked up and smiled. It was a tired smile, telling the teenager just how badly he was suffering from this.
"Hi," Cosmo said carefully. "Uhm, whatcha doing?"
"Cleaning up a bit."
Cosmo inched slowly closer, hands stuffed in his pockets, neck craning slightly to see what Ace was doing. The box was one of the storage boxes he used for all kinds of things he didn't need or wanted out of the way; those piling up in the loading dock of the Express. It was filled with tidbits, ranging from stones to little statues to stuff Cosmo had no idea what it might be.
"What is that stuff?"
"Memories, mostly. From a time long ago... from a time I started out learning what I could do. When I met Vega as well....."
That caught Cosmo's attention. Ace had never told him much about his past. He learned by piecing together little tidbits and listening more closely when something about this time of Ace's life came up in conversations.
"A lot of it is worthless, sentimental stuff." Ace playing with a polished river bed stone, then tossed it into the box.
"Uhm...." Cosmo fidgeted and Ace met his inquiring gaze. "The doc mentioned you are Vega's next of kin.... You related?"
Ace chuckled slightly. "No. Not he least. Vega has no living relatives anywhere close and the ones he has are not just physically distant. I think he has a cousin somewhere and I believe there is an old aunt, but none of his immediate family is still alive."
"Oh."
"I was listed instead." Ace sighed. "We've known each other for such a long time.... You know, I had the talent surface when I was six, but after that I suppressed it with everything I had."
Cosmo knew the story and it had fascinated him to no end. Ace rarely opened up about himself and learning about his friend was like reading a mystery book. Cosmo had felt proud that his friend had told him about it.
"I didn't want to lose more friends," Ace now continued softly, sounding like he was lost in thought. "But I was alone nevertheless. Will left the orphanage a year after the incident. He was adopted into a family. But in that time he spread rumors about me being a freak to others, told them that the white stripe showed that I wasn't normal, but he never told them about the magic. Later, only Mona knew, and even she didn't know about the true potential."
"And Vega?" Cosmo asked carefully, steering toward the actual story.
Ace smiled sadly. "He found out the hard way and I scared him as badly as Will so many years ago. Vega was the detective in charge of the special task force to take out Jack Malone. He knew who was in the gang and he singled me out as his way to Malone. I was a runaway from the orphanage, I was underage, and I was a criminal. He tried talking to me, but at the time I was loyal to Jack." Ace sighed deeply. "Then the break-in at Techa happened and Gus didn't return. I believed Jack at the time, that Gus was hiding, that he'd be back with us soon. Vega was the one who told me the truth."

They had met in the video arcade again where Ace liked to hang out when Malone didn't have a job for him. It was his way of escaping the reality around him, of forgetting just what he was doing. He had become a criminal against his own will, but he had done it out of love -- as he told himself repeatedly. It was a worn-down phrase, but he clung to it like a drowning man. Then Detective Derek Vega had stepped into his life. He had caught the boy when Ace had broken a few traffic laws and read him a riot act, but he hadn't arrested him. Instead, Vega had started to build a shaky friendship with the teenager, buying him lunches, inviting him to a video game challenge and more. Malone had warned Ace about the tricks of the cops once, but somehow, Ace had found he wanted to trust the older man. Vega had stepped into his life at a time where he was no longer so sure what was right or wrong.
"Your friend was caught in the security measures, Ace," Vega said now, face serious, no smile visible.
"No!" Ace protested, moving back, staring at the dark-haired cop. "That's not true! You are lying!"
"Have I ever lied to you so far, kid?"
Ace bit his lower lip. Vega hadn't, he knew. The dark-haired officer had been open with him and he hadn't arrested him yet.
"Your friend Gus was caught and Jack knows it. He's lying to you."
Ace shook his head again. "No," he said softly.
It couldn't be.
But then, Jack was a unscrupulous criminal and he used everyone as he pleased. He had used Ace and his talents, and he lied. Ace had long since started to dislike what he was doing, but what held him was the thought of Mona. It was the only way to be close to her.... Be a crook or lose her forever. It was a bad choice whatever he did.
"Jack is using you, kid. Help me apprehend him and I can cut you a deal with not only the police but the youth service as well."
Ace felt his mind go on overload. He couldn't sell Jack to the police without losing Mona forever; he also couldn't go on with his current life without losing himself..... It was an old argument between his mind and his soul.
A heavy hand clamped down on his thin shoulders and he looked into a pair of brown, understanding eyes. "I know it's hard to make such a decision, Ace," Vega said gently. "But this is your life and I know you don't like it very much by now. You have to make a choice -- for yourself or against yourself. You are not a bad person, kid."
"I.... I need to think about it...."

"I couldn't decide right away and I lost a lot of sleep over it." Ace ran a hand through his hair. "I wanted to talk to Mona, but I chickened out and never told her. I loved her, I wanted to be with her.... but her father was between us."
As he still is, Cosmo added for himself.
"What happened?" he heard himself ask.
"Malone decided that Vega was getting too close and he ordered him to be.... removed. I didn't know it until it was almost too late."

Ace ran along the silent streets to the museum building, lungs burning, his legs screaming of fatigue. He ignored it all. He had to warn Vega of the trap! He was scared to death, his mind awhirl with the frightening image of a dead Derek Vega, and he couldn't let it happen! Vega was his friend! Yes, he was a cop, but he had also proven to be a good friend and even though they were on different sides of the law, Ace wanted nothing more than to have the older man's respect. If he couldn't get to Vega in time, it would mean he was a participant in the murder of his friend!
It was late in the evening and the streets were deserted of motorists and tourists. The museum was close to the water front, a large, almost colossal building with an air of a past long gone by. Ace made it to the entrance in record time and then stopped, panting. How was he supposed to get inside.....?
You are a thief. You can do it.
And he did. Ace never knew why exactly he did something one way or another; he just did. A little, nagging voice whispered things into his mind, about a talent, but he ignored it. He had to ignore it!
The air had the usual museum smell, slightly old and dusty. It was strange, but museums everywhere, old or new, had this smell. No one was here, but he heard distant voices and Ace pressed himself against the wall. The voices came closer and he melted into a niche, watching two men in work outfits pass him, each carrying various tools. Now he remembered the talk about the reconstruction of the west wing. Part of the museum was open for the public, but the west wing was still closed. Ace wound his way through rooms and hallways, down dimly lit passages and stairways. He ran into a guard once, who he didn't see the intruder, and had to pass by a security system twice. No problem so far.

"I didn't know how I did it at the time," Ace told his listener. "I didn't know that I was subconsciously tapping into the magic. It was what let me find Vega in a maze of rooms and corridors."
He smiled humorlessly.

Ace had no eyes for the exhibits around him. He had seen enough museums in his life and he had been to this particular one before when he had still been at the orphanage. It had been one of those few field trips.
And then he arrived in the West Hall, the one leading directly to the new wing. He stopped and looked around. Two guards stood left and right of the entrance which had been locked. A large sign proclaimed that behind these doors was the soon-to-be opened exhibition. Neither of them noticed Ace. The boy whisked past the outer security perimeter and passed by an open room that was currently occupied by three workers. They never saw him.
Ace crept into a low passageway, a parallel walkway to the main corridor. He moved up a flight of stairs and, looking carefully around before proceeding, walked slowly into a vaulted hall devoted to ancient scrolls. He turned right, passed by the Pre-Human Era Hall and descended a sweeping staircase. He moved quickly and surely, as if he knew the place, and somehow he did. He knew where he had to go. Around here, everything was deserted.
Finally he was at the back entrance of the exhibition hall, the one used by workers who were even now busy mounting stuff, getting electricity cables connected and securing not only the artifacts but also the countless painting, decorations and parting walls.
No Vega.
Ace moved on, deeper into the new wing, and came to the already finished room where only the exhibits were now missing. He stopped when he heard voices.

"Jack had sent Spade and Diamond to set a trap for Vega. I didn't know that it was explosives or it might have ended differently. All I knew was that I saw the two leaving and then Vega came in."

Ace's sense of danger rang loudly as he discovered the dark-haired police officer walk into the exhibit room. Spade and Diamond had left and had hurried outside. So they didn't plan on shooting him....
He frowned, his alarms ringing even louder.
And then Vega stepped into the middle of the room. Ace heard the soft clicking not far away, as did Vega, who now stopped like rooted to the spot. The boy's eyes hurriedly searched everything around him and finally came to rest on an odd looking box.....
His alarms screamed and a familiar feeling, one he had controlled all those years, rose with the urgency to an incredible power that needed to get out.
"Vega, no!"
His cry was out the second the bomb went up.
Ace didn't know what was happening, just that something inside of him tore free, lashed out and caught the hapless officer full force. Vega was thrown back against the wall with a momentum that would have broken his back if not for the same power cushioning his fall. Ace wasn't aware of what he was doing, that the magic played havoc around him, that he was standing in the eyes of an incredible, shrieking magic storm. All he knew was that something was pushing against him, the force of the explosion now trapped in his unleashed power, too strong for the untrained boy to hold it. With an Herculean effort he lashed it back, sending the force of the blow against the other wall -- which blew clear out of the room with an eardrum shattering boom.
Ace, spent and exhausted, collapsed onto his knees, sobs tearing from his throat. He was shaking badly, his body trembling from the effort of channeling such power, hurting. He couldn't move, couldn't talk, couldn't think. There was only the pain and the realization that it had happened again. This time it had been even worse..... This time he felt scorched to the soul, every nerve ending on fire, his hands hurting as if he had burned them, and through blurry eyes he discovered that he actually had......
Someone touched his shoulder and he heard himself scream, which turned into a sob of pain.
"Ace?"
Vega? He couldn't speak and only a whimper left his lips. Tear-laden eyes searched for the older man and he felt himself being carefully lifted from the floor.
"Ace, are you okay, kid?"
He shivered violently, the pain ebbing and then coming back.
Voices could be heard, yelling, shouting, ordering, and then there were footsteps. Vega was saying something to someone else, but Ace no longer cared. He was hurting so much, his body was shutting down.

"What I found out only later was that the bomb had been strong enough to bring down the whole section of the museum. Whatever tore out of me at the time, it took the full blow, absorbed it, then reversed the path it had taken. The west wing was closed due to the danger of a total collapse the next day." Ace clasped his hands behind his back, staring at the wall. "The force I used back then was part of the Magic Force and it could have killed us all, including me. It was dumb luck I survived."
"What happened then?" Cosmo wanted to know, fascinated and surprised. He had never thought about just how Ace had started out.
"Vega took me to the hospital, got me thoroughly checked, but he never told anyone just what saved us both. The news called it luck. He knew it had been me. The magic had burned my hands, it had scorched my very self, and it hurt to just think of what it felt like. I was scared to death, Cosmo," Ace said softly. "I was scared of what I could do."

Ace still hurt. It was an emotional pain, no longer physical, but it was pain nevertheless. He sat curled up on the large couch, arms wrapped around himself, shivering. It had been merely a day ago that he had unleashed the power within him, scaring himself senseless again. His hands were healing, covered by bandages and treated with a burn salve. The few bruises he had would heal as well, but what about the wounds deeper inside?
"Ace?"
The soft voice made him wince. He didn't want to talk to Vega -- ever again! But there was no ignoring the broad-shouldered detective who had taken him home with him after the events at the museum. Vega featured a few small cuts, as well as a sore back, but otherwise he was fine. He had come up with an explanation for Ace so he wouldn't end up on a home, but Ace no longer cared.
It had happened again.
Just like back then when he had been only six.
The lump in his throat rose again and he swallowed reflexively. He wouldn't cry! He was grown up and he wouldn't cry!
Inside him, the magic powers moved and he screwed his eyes shut, wishing them away. They stayed, of course. There was no way of ignoring them now.
"Ace, you want to talk about it?"
Talk? Why should he? Just so Vega could call him a freak, blame everything on him and then send him to a home anyway?
Vega sat down next to him, smiling gently. Still, there was a kind of wariness in his eyes that made Ace want to cry. Just like Will! He was a losing friend again, the only friend he considered he had. Strange as it was, he thought of Derek Vega as a friend and even ally. No one else trusted or liked him anyway, except Mona, but she was special anyway. Now he had used the powers again and because of it, he would be alone again soon.
"I know the press called it luck and shabby construction of the explosive device," Vega went on, "but I know what happened. The explosion would have killed me. It didn't and I owe it to you."
Ace shook his head in denial. "Wasn't me."
"I saw it, kiddo. Whatever you did, it saved me, it deflected the force of the explosion and it finally took out part of the wet wing."
He shook his head again, with more force this time. "No! It wasn't me!"
Vega gently touched the bony shoulder, feeling the boy tremble. "The way you say it, it wasn't the first time this happened, right?"
It was too much for Ace. He jumped up, eyes brimming with tears of anger and desperation. "No! Stop it! I don't have special powers!"
"You do and I saw it."
"No!" Ace screamed, voice breaking. "No, I don't want to...." Something tickled through him and he grit his teeth, swallowing heavily. It was rising again. Now that the barriers had been broken, this.... power moved like a living creature inside him, seeking a way out. "No..... please...."
"Ace, listen....."
"I... I won't go back to the home!" he suddenly blurted. "You can't make me! And I won't let you take me to be examined! I'm normal! I'm not a freak!"
Vega's brown eyes widened. "I didn't plan on any of it, kid. And I don't think you are a freak."
"You do!" the boy accused him, still biting back the tears, trembling even more. "Everyone does! Will did when it happened the first time! He didn't want to be my friend after that! And this stupid white stripe made them call me names! I was always a freak! No one wanted me, no one cared for me, and because of this .... thing... I have no friends! Everyone is afraid, everyone....!"
He bumped against the wall of the apartment building, scared and looking for a way out.
"I'm not a freak," he whispered. "I don't have powers.... I don't want them!"
Vega came closer, face set in an expression of realization and worry. "You are not a freak," he repeated. "You are special, kid. You can use something like magic."
"No, no, no I can't!" He shook his head violently, hair flying.
"You can and I think you need to accept it now. You saved my life!"
Ace swallowed several times, but the lump in his throat stayed. Vega stepped closer, but Ace pressed himself against the wall.
"Stay away!"
And then there were the bubbles again. Tiny, whitish red energy bubbles rose around his hands and he cried out in fear and denial.
"No! No, I don't want it!"
Vega stared at the bubbles, fear trickling through the hardened detective as he saw the powers this boy held up close and personal. Back in the museum he had witnessed everything with an air of detachment because he had been too dazed to take it all in. Now he actually felt the energy in the room, all concentrated around this thin boy.
"Ace!" he called, catching one wrist. He yelped as he felt the energy strike him.
Ace's eyes were wide as saucers and he stumbled back, shaking his head. "No, no, no! I'm sorry, I didn't want to...." he babbled.
"It's okay, kid," Vega tried to calm him, ignoring the stinging sensation in his hand. "Just a little jolt."
The boy was close to hyperventilating, breathing quickly, staring at Vega like a deer caught in the headlights. "Stay away!" he begged. "I will only hurt you!"
Vega just stepped forward and gathered the boy in his arms. At first he fought, but Vega had no intention of letting go. Ace felt a dam break at the human contact, his tears spilling over, his body wreaked by tremors so bad he couldn't do much more than cling to the older man.
"I don't want to be different," he cried.
Vega gently tousled his hair, gazing at the white stripe that set this boy physically apart from his peers. It had been something Vega had noticed immediately when looking at the surveillance pictures so long ago, when he had started out observing Malone and his crooks. Back then he had idly wondered who the kid was, whether or not he had dyed the hair, and he had immediately chosen him as the way inside the gang. Vega had been right. Ace had been his way inside.
"No one wants to be different, even if everyone strives to be," he said softly. "You have a power you have to accept, kid. And you have to learn to control it."
Ace sniffled, still clinging to him. "I don't want it!"
"I think you are stuck with it. Does Malone know about this?"
He shook his head. "No. I... I never told anyone, except Mona. She knows that I can do stuff...." Ace swallowed. "But I never told her about the first time... " He wiped ineffectively at his tears.
Vega smiled again. "Listen, Ace. I can help you and you know you need help. Help me take down Malone and we'll see what we can do about this magic stuff, okay?"
"I can't betray him," Ace whispered weakly.
"Not even after he tried to kill me?"
The boy swallowed and evaded the older man's eyes.
"Just help me gather the evidence I need, the police will do the rest. Ace, I'm your friend and you know it. I only want to help you."
"You can't help with this. No one can. No one knows what it's like," Ace said dejectedly.
Vega was silent, worry clouding his face again. "Maybe, but I can try."

"In the end I decided to help Vega. I betrayed Jack and it ended in a down and dirty fight." Ace's voice was far away and his eyes held a hooded look. "I fought him, I won, he lost.... and I lost as well. I lost everything I had built so far and all because I wanted to be like everyone else and didn't fit in. Vega couldn't help me with my magic and trying to find a teacher, a magician, didn't work out. I only showed them stage tricks, which were really bad at the time, and never the true magic I could do. I was too afraid."
Cosmo swallowed, hearing the pain in Ace's voice at the recollections.
"I tried working tricks with my magic powers, but they went horribly wrong because my emotions warped them. Only when I met Anna did someone finally understand. She contacted Vega and talked to him, explained who she was and that she planned to teach me. I don't know what stunts they pulled to get me out of a possible future in a juvenile home and into her care." Ace shrugged slightly and rubbed his forehead. "The rest, as they say, is history."
Cosmo was silent, chewing on the story. Ace had just opened another window to his past, revealing the pain he had been in. He and Vega had gone through a lot and as a teenager, Ace had looked up to the cop just like Cosmo looked up to Ace. He wasn't his father and genetically, he could never be, but Cosmo thought of him as a big brother and very good friend. The same was true for Ace and Vega. Ace felt a deep friendship for the older cop and what had happened hit him deeply.
"He'll make it," he now said softly. "He's too stubborn to give in."
Ace's smile was sad and exhausted. "I hope so."
"Hey, man, it's Vega we are talking about," Cosmo added with a cheerful grin that was as fake as the cheeriness.
Ace didn't answer. He just looked at the box, the silently closed the lid. Cosmo sighed deeply.

* * *

Derek Vega thought he was swimming through a gray fog towards sound and light. He blinked, surprised he had eyes to see. His hand closed around a blanket and he heard a voice. He blinked again. The light became clearer, too, his vision focusing. The first he saw was a oval something. It turned out to be a face. A pale but familiar face.
"Ace?"
He was horrified to hear how hoarse and weak his voice sounded, but it seemed that it was like music to his younger friend, since he started to grin like a madman. The gray eyes lit up with relief.
"Hello, Derek. Welcome back."
Vega tried to smile, his mind registering the fact that Ace had used his first name. He rarely did. Must have been serious..... whatever had happened anyway.
"Thanks," he whispered. He thought he remembered drifting in and out of sleep several times before now, but he wasn't sure. It was all a hazy mist, nothing clear and definite.
Vega tried to move into a more comfortable position and winced.
"Don't move, Vega. You've been hit badly." Ace's face mirrored worry which he tried to hide as best as he could, and, Vega frowned, he looked cruelly tired.
"What happened?" the lieutenant asked, a bit confused. "Where am I?"
"You don't know?"
He frowned, feeling a light headache just behind his eyes. "I... I remember driving to the precinct and then...." His eyes widened. "I got hit by a bus!"
Ace nodded tiredly. "They had to cut you out to get you to the hospital."
"How long?" Vega asked, fearing the answer. The way he felt, this had been no small injury.
"Three days. You were in a coma and it was touch and go." Ace's voice wavered slightly and for a second, Vega saw the cruel worry and despair the other had felt surface.
"Wow....."
A nurse stepped into his line of view and quietly asked Ace to leave for the doctor to start his examination. The magician gave Vega another smile, then made room for the doctor.

* * *

A week later, Vega was released from the hospital and allowed home. Ace picked him up, driving his old friend to his apartment. As they entered, Vega stopped in the door, staring.
"What the heck happened here?" he exclaimed.
"What's the matter?" Ace asked innocently.
"It looks so different... so..."
"Clean?" Cosmo piped.
Vega shot him an annoyed look.
"Ms LeSage decided to do you a favor," Ace explained, eyes sparkling with amusement.
"You let her clean my apartment? Ace!" Vega searched for words. This was unbelievable! His secretary had been in his apartment?!
"Not exactly. She insisted."
"And who let her in?" he demanded.
Ace's expression turned even more innocent. "I'd have no idea of that."
"Of course." Vega snorted and limped into the now clinically clean room. He liked to have an air of 'lived in' in his apartment, but Ms LeSage had scrubbed it clean; you could eat off the floor!
"You need anything?" Cooper now wanted to know.
"My old cozy apartment back," Vega groused.
Cosmo snickered. "I think he's really his old self again."
Ace raised both eyebrows. "Yes, he really sounds like the Vega we all know." There was a fond smile on his lips.
Vega shot him a dark look and lifted his leg up. His ribs were still healing, as was his leg, and it would several more weeks until he would be allowed back on duty for good. Until then he had been ordered to take it easy.
"Shoo!" he told the two younger men.
"Yes, sir," Ace joked and waved at Cosmo to get going. Vega needed some rest. "Oh, by the way.... Ms LeSage is coming by this afternoon to see after you."
Vega erupted from his chair with a speed belying his injuries. "What?!"
All he heard was the soft laughter and then the door closed.
The aging detective sank down again with a groan and shook his head. "Ace!" he only exclaimed.