Hey, people, sorry about the wait. I know it's been a while. My life's been kind of crazy lately, what with the holidays (aka Thanksgiving and Christmas) and everything in between. Merry Christmas, btw! Thanks for staying with me, and don't forget to review. ;)

Everyone Makes Mistakes

"We should split up," Ioki suggested.

Hanson was more than happy to agree. "I'll go back to where I was when Booker went off. You start at the other end of the street and we'll meet in the middle."

Ioki nodded. "All right. We can ask around and see if anyone saw anything."

"No one's going to say anything. They didn't before and they won't now." Hanson was getting more and more frustrated by the minute. Time was going by…fast. And time was the one most important thing that they didn't have, or at least not much of it. Impatiently he started off to his former post without waiting for a reply from his friend, who shook his head and headed in the opposite direction.

Hanson shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders, keeping to his cover. It was not unlikely that the other regulars would recognize him, especially the guy who had forced him to leave his station outside the adult movie store, and he still couldn't give away the fact that he was a cop. They still had a case to solve, regardless of what had happened to Booker, even though, or maybe especially because, he had very much become a part of the case himself.

Down the street a ways, he spotted the blond kid who had previously solicited the suspect. Maybe he had seen something. The cop shuffled towards him, keeping his head down.

"Hey, have you seen my partner?" he asked furtively. Stay in character, Hanson, he reminded himself.

"You again!" the prostitute snarled. He grabbed Hanson's collar and threw him into the wall. "What, are you going to interrupt my business procedures again? Your friend already stole my customer."

Despite the fact that he was pinned to the wall by the angry man, Hanson felt a small spark of hope.

"What customer?" he asked, pretending to be confused.

"The same one you already tried to steal from me, you moron!" The man shoved him. "And if I catch either of you in my business territory…" He knocked the cop to the ground and straightened his jacket before smiling threateningly and stalking away.

With a slight wince, Hanson picked himself up. Getting pushed around and not doing anything about it was hardly his idea of fun, but it was worth it to get the information that he did. At least someone had seen Booker, and now they knew for sure that he had been picked up by the man in the BMW.

"You all right?" Ioki asked, running up beside him. "I saw you talking to that kid over there. What happened?"

"'Talking' doesn't exactly describe it. He talked and I got pushed around," Hanson said.

"So what did he say?"

A small smile crept onto Hanson's face. "He saw Booker."

"That's great news! Where?"

The smile disappeared. "That's the bad part. He saw him getting into the car."

"The car as in the car that we've been looking for?" Ioki looked around, even though both cops knew that it wouldn't be there.

"Yeah." Hanson nodded and looked at the ground. It was his fault. If he had had Booker's back, Booker wouldn't possibly be dead at the moment. If…

"Hey, Hanson," Ioki interrupted his self-doubts. "We'll find him," he assured him.

"Look, I'm a cop," Hanson began, but Ioki interrupted him again.

"Yeah, and so am I, and so is Booker. We're trained to take care of ourselves."

"We're also supposed to watch each other's backs!" Hanson's voice rose with his irritation.

"Well, that's what we're doing right now, isn't it?" Ioki challenged. "Come on. We're not going to get any more information here."

Hanson sighed. "So what do we do?"

"The only thing we can do. We wait."

"Don't stop believin'..."The taxi driver hummed along to the tune. It had been a long day at work, and he was more than ready to get home and see his wife and kids. He decided to take a shortcut through the abandoned alleyways leading out to the main street on the other side. It was a rough part of town anyways, but the alleys were especially dangerous. Technically, they weren't alleys, but they were empty streets and dark and eerie enough to be considered such.

The man drove along, keeping a watchful eye out. It was not uncommon for crimes to occur there, and he wanted to be aware of his surroundings. He had only driven for a minute or two when he saw a dark shape on the side of the road up ahead. He watched it carefully as he drew closer.

"Probably just some stoned junkie," he sighed and debated about whether or not he should stop. Then he saw the blood on the ground surrounding the limp figure. There was quite a bit of it.

He came to a halt and climbed out of the car, making sure to close the door behind him before approaching the body.

"This better not be a trick," he muttered nervously. "Hey. Hey," he said louder. Lightly he prodded the prone man with his foot, eliciting a groan.

The taxi driver looked around quickly, but no one else was in sight. He knelt and turned the body over. The man's face was covered in blood, and his arm stuck out at an odd angle. He blinked and groaned again.

"What happened to you? We've got to get you to the hospital," his rescuer said. As carefully as he could, he grabbed the fellow under his arms and gradually pulled him towards the back of his car. The man passed out, most likely due to the pain caused by his broken arm being jostled about in such a manner. Finally the taxi driver dragged him into the car to lie across the back seats and sped towards the main street.

"A telephone, I've got to find a telephone!" he whispered to himself anxiously. Once out of the back streets, it didn't take long to find one. He jumped out of his car and raced to the phone booth and picked up the pay phone.

"Operator," he said breathlessly. "Get me the police. Sorry, an ambulance! I need an ambulance!"

I'll try to get the next chapter up sooner.