A/N: This is the second part of Broken to Pieces. If you haven't read that one, do that now, because this will make no sense if you haven't read Broken to Pieces first :)
A huge huge thanks to sparkyCSI for beta'ing!
Healed Forever
"He's inside."
The moment Mac says that, shots are fired inside the warehouse, and I feel the lump in my throat grow. What's happening?
"Danny," I whisper, my eyes wide and mouth half open. I stand perfectly still for a few moments, frozen in place, before I rush to the entrance of the building. I hear people screaming for me to come back behind the barricades, but I ignore them. I have to get to Danny.
Once I've passed the walls that had separated me from him, I frantically look around. As far as I can see in the dark, the room is empty. My cop instinct whispers in my head, they could be hiding, waiting for you to come in to shoot you too. I push it away.
I step forward a bit more and suddenly the lights go on. I cover my eyes with my hand; the blinding light hurts after the darkness that had surrounded me before. When I lower my hand I am greeted by the end of a gun, and not the end I usually hold. I'm not alone anymore. The man with the ski mask silently orders me to stay quiet and sit down next to the other man in this room. I want to scream, both from happiness and fear. I sit down next to Danny, but I can't communicate with him. His unconsciousness and the gun is still being pointed at me stop me from trying. A tear rolls down my face. Now that I've found him, what are we going to do next?
Outside I hear people yelling, and the sound of sirens. They must be really mad at me for going in, I think, but I don't really care. I've found Danny. The man wearing the ski mask isn't looking at us anymore, and I shake Danny's shoulder lightly. He turns around, facing me and I almost hug him.
"Don't," he whispers, almost inaudible. "I'm waiting for the right moment."
I nod. "I love you," I mouth to him. He smiles. "I love you too."
Just as Danny returns to his previous position, Ski Mask turns around again. "Stand up," he says, his voice muffled. When I don't do as he says, he points the gun at me again. "Stand up!" he repeats, and I wonder if I imagined that his voice sounds a bit scared.
I stand up, slowly, as to not startle Ski Mask with sudden movement and make him pull the trigger. "You don't have to do this," I tell him, my words carefully chosen. "You haven't killed anyone yet."
I feel like I'm just repeating everything they always say in television shows.
He laughs bitterly. "I never said I want to kill someone."
"Then what do you want?" I try to get through to him, distract him long enough to take the gun and reverse the roles.
"You," is his simple answer. It doesn't sound as creepy as the first time he said that. Now he sounds more like a kid who lost his favourite teddy bear.
"What do you want from me?" I wonder if I want to know.
He shakes his head; as if he was trying to break out of a spell I cast over him. "I want you to suffer," he says, his voice low and dark again. "I want you to feel the way I felt. I want you to realise that everything comes to an end, that nothing lasts forever and that the world is cruel!" he screamed, his rage clearly audible in his voice. I step backwards; scared he'll pull the trigger in his anger. In the corner of my eye I see Danny moving. I close my eyes, praying to God Danny doesn't do something stupid. Just lie there, I pray. Play dead.
"Don't do anything stupid," I say, my words meant for both Ski Mask and Danny.
"Stupid? Stupid, you say?" he laughs. I'm amazed by how quick his emotions change, and it scares me. "How many things would be more stupid?"
More stupid than what? I think, once again wondering what he wants.
"Come here," he orders, and I slowly walk over to him. He grabs my hands and ties them together with a piece of rope. "Stand still," he says, walking around me, stopping when he's behind me, where I can't see him. I feel his presence, and I'm afraid of what he might do. His head rests on my shoulder, and I tremble. "Now," he breathes into my ear, "do exactly as I say." I swallow hard, but manage to nod. He puts the gun into my hands, which are still bound together.
"What are you doing?" I ask, trying to hide my fear.
"You," he says, almost cheerfully, "are going to shoot your boyfriend."
"What?!" I exclaim. I turn around, but he rudely turns me back again. "No, never! You're crazy!"
He laughs. "Maybe I am," he whispers, his lips touching my ear. I shudder at the touch. "But you're going to do it."
"No," I say.
He pushes me away from him, for a second forgetting I still have his gun. As I fall, I turn around, and right before my head hits the stone floor, I aim the gun as well as I can and fire. Two shots. Then I hit the floor, and for the second time that day, everything is black.
"Lindsay, wake up," Danny's gentle voice says. I sit up straight, immediately regretting that as a huge headache hits me. "Are you okay?"
"What happened?" I mumble, appreciating the way Danny holds me. I open my eyes a little further and see that we're still inside the warehouse. Ski Mask is lying a few feet away from us, blood gushing out of his chest. "Oh my god, did I kill him?" I ask, feeling dizzy again.
"I think so," Danny says, running a comforting hand up and down my upper arm. "Why did you come in?" he gently scolds me. "You could've gotten hurt."
I close my eyes and lean back into Danny's embrace. "I needed to get to you. What happened?" I repeat my earlier question. "I came home, found the door open and the apartment empty. At first I thought you'd left me," I admit.
He laughs. "Of course not," he says, burying his face in my hair. "Come on, let's get out of here. We'll talk about what happened later."
He stands up and offers me his hand. I gladly accept, pulling myself on my feet, but never letting go of his hand. When we walk out together, I remember something. "We heard shots outside," I tell him. "Who fired them?"
Danny nods. "He tried to shoot me, but missed by a mile. He didn't notice that though," he says, looking over his shoulder at the dead body that had pointed a gun at us only minutes earlier. "So I pretended to be dead, like you saw when you first came in. I really think there was something wrong with him, he seemed very delusional."
"I wonder why he did all this," I mumble as we walk out of the warehouse.
Danny doesn't even get a chance to respond, as about three dozens of cops surround us immediately and force us away from the building, in the progress driving us away from each other. They ask us how we are, what happened and how we got out.
"He's dead," is all I say, trying to get them to shut up. I look around to see where Danny is, but don't find him. "Where is Danny?" I ask, turning around, just to see Mac looking down on me, a concerned look on his face.
"Come on," he says, guiding me away from the police officers that seem to have multiplied themselves in the minutes I've been gone. Mac and I walk to the car, where it is much quieter. Danny is there too, and the second he sees me he walks over to me and hugs me tightly. I bury my face in his shoulder. Even though we've only been apart for a few minutes, I feel we both have a need to be close to each other now. Our bond has strengthened through this experience.
I become aware of Mac's presence again when he speaks up. "I'll need to get both of your statements," he says, his voice awfully calm, and I nod.
"Do we have to do that now?" Danny pleads, clearly wanting to go home. We both know it's necessary we get this over with now though, and Mac affirms that thought by shaking his head.
"Get in," he tells us, directing towards the car with his head. Mac takes the driver's seat and we sit down in the back of the car.
We drive to the precinct in a comfortable silence. The time we're in the police station seems to go faster than usual, and before I know it I'm lying in my bed, Danny next to me. I curl up beside him, having a need to hold him close. He caresses my hair softly.
"I'm back," he whispers. "Just go to sleep now."
I shake my head, silent tears escaping from my eyes and finding a way into his T-shirt. "I was so scared," I tell him, my eyes trained on his chest.
"I know. It's over now, Linds, I'm safe."
I laugh through my tears. "It's just that... Danny... I don't know what I would've done if you had been..."
He stops me. "Don't think about that, honey."
"No," I say. I need to tell him. "I realized that I would be nothing without you. Without you I'm just a shadow of myself, without content, without feelings."
Danny shudders and pulls me closer to him. "Don't be afraid," he whispers into my hair. "I will never leave you."
"I believe you," I speak softly, and I realize that's really true.
I believe him.
Content to have him back, to have him here, I slowly drift off to sleep, the dried tears on my cheeks a reminder of what happened for tomorrow. Right now nothing matters.