Title: Someone to Watch Over Me
Author: Zubeneschamali
Rating: T (language, violence)
Summary: An alternate ending for "Man Hunt." What motivates someone to offer his or her life in exchange for that of a stranger?
Author's Notes: I loved the episode "Man Hunt," particularly the characters of Cooper and Karen, but I couldn't help but wonder: what if the ending was (more than) a little different? I put one line of dialogue in another character's mouth, and went from thereā¦
Many beta reading thanks to Elaine, especially for the medical parts. (Now there's a spoiler if I ever heard one!) Also thanks to Winter for additional comments. Any remaining errors are my own.
Disclaimer: The characters (and some of the dialogue) here are not mine, but the property of the good people at CBS. I'm only using them for fun and angst.
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Don peered around the corner, gun at the ready. He'd last seen McDowd disappear in this direction, but now there was no sign of the fugitive. He saw the white flash of Cooper's shirt across the roof, and mentally recalculated the likelihood of where their quarry might be. He needed to keep an eye on the stairwell to make sure the bastard didn't double back and go after Karen. Hopefully, she was safely ensconced in a room waiting for backup to arrive. Hopefully, that backup was already here.
He heard a sound off to his left and trained his gun in that direction. Cooper had been just to his right. He momentarily thought of the rush of adrenaline his former partner had talked about, the heightened senses you felt when you were about to close in on your prey. He remembered that feeling and wondered briefly why he wasn't feeling it now. They had the guy cornered; it was only a matter of time.
In a few seconds, Don realized he was wrong. McDowd wasn't the one who was cornered. He was.
The soft noise behind him had been too close for him to react. By the time he started turning, there was a gun barrel digging into the back of his neck, and a low voice was hissing in his ear, "Move and there's a hole in your head."
He froze in disbelief. How had the son of a bitch gotten behind him? His eyes flickered across the rooftop. No sign of Cooper. All he had to do was stall this guy long enough for Billy to realize what was going on, and they'd run through one of the scenarios they'd practiced and used years ago. He forced himself to stay calm, slowly raising his hands.
"Give me that," McDowd snapped, grabbing the gun from his hand. "Where's your partner?"
Don shrugged. "Coming up behind you, no doubt." The pressure on his neck didn't ease. Okay, strike one. "Last I saw him, he was heading downstairs to meet our backup."
The gun barrel pressed harder. Apparently, strike two. "Let's go find him then, shall we, Agent?"
At the shove from behind, Don started moving forward. McDowd was so close behind him, they were practically touching. He couldn't take advantage of it in his current position, but he took a deep breath and forced himself to think of possible ways out.
There was a movement up ahead, and Don was jerked to a stop behind a large exhaust pipe. "That him?" his captor whispered.
'Who the hell else would it be?' he wanted to say, but thought maybe it wasn't the right time to be a smartass. "Probably," he said instead.
They didn't move. Then Cooper came out from around another large pipe, weapon extended in front of him, eyes firmly fixed across the roof, perpendicular to where they were standing.
Don heard a low chuckle in his ear. Then to his horror, McDowd straightened his arm and leveled his gun at Billy. "Coop!" Don shouted, but it was too late.
The blast of the gun nearly deafened Don, but it was the bullet hitting its mark that made him cry out. Billy Cooper fell backward, his arms splayed out to the side, his head hitting the asphalt of the roof with a loud thump. Then he lay there, perfectly still.
"No!" Don started forward, but McDowd jerked him back by his arm. "You'll get your turn," he sneered. "Now take off that vest of yours. I got a feeling I need it more than you."
He closed his eyes, fighting a mix of anger and fear that was almost overpowering. Coop was wearing a vest, right? He couldn't have seen what he just saw. But when he opened his eyes, Billy's unmoving body was still there.
"Come on, move it." McDowd gave him a shove, and Don mechanically started removing his bulletproof vest. The sweat on his back instantly cooled in the breeze blowing across the roof, and he gave an involuntary shiver. McDowd snatched the vest from his hand, and he heard a rustling as the fugitive put it on. His captor managed to keep the gun at the small of his back all the while; he could still feel the heat from the weapon being fired, and it made him feel sick to his stomach.
"Okay, Agent. Where did you tell her to go?"
"What do you mean?" Don asked numbly. Surely the other agents would be here by now; he and Cooper couldn't have driven that much faster than everyone else. If the paramedics were downstairs, maybe they could do something --
The gun jammed harder against his spine, and it brought him back to earth with a jolt. His own neck was far from safe here, and if he understood McDowd correctly, so was the witness's. "Where is she?" he demanded.
"I told her to get out of here," Don snapped back. "She's probably already with the rest of my team."
"Well, we're going to go find out." A hand on his upper arm dragged him away from the sight of Cooper's body and towards the stairwell. "There's nowhere she could have run, you know. All the other doors were locked. I checked before I found her. As long as she doesn't want to see you killed, she'll let me in."
"Like hell," Don muttered between his clenched teeth as he stumbled across the roof. "You're not getting near her, McDowd."
The other man gave him a shake. "You don't have anything to say about it, Agent. Now move."
