Disclaimer: I own nothing and all mistakes are mine
Regina opens the door, eager to wake him up. There's a broad window to the left that lets in a little light from the moon. On the opposite wall lies the closet, its doors ajar; she can see some of her clothes hanging. The bed sits in the center up against the wall, where she finds Daniel laying face up on the left side. His right arm dangles over the edge, while his left one lays over his stomach. "Daniel, it's me!" she whispers eagerly. She runs her palms over her pants, her excitement building.
She walks up to his beside and shakes his shoulder, but he doesn't move. Her brows scrunch together in confusion, her heart starts to beat faster as her head slightly tips. "Daniel? Wake up." she says a bit louder, and she moves his shoulder again. Her hands start to shake, she isn't sure what to think. There is no sign of his chest moving, he isn't snoring like he usually does, so she hesitantly moves his left arm, afraid to see what is written on it. She picks up it up and turns it around, there's no green glow, just a gray 00:00:00:00. Her heart freefalls to her stomach, her face pales, tears blurring her vision and pouring out from her eyes. A scream erupts deep from deep within, her shoulders scrunch inwards, her hands cover her face, her whole body trembles. Her knees are ready to give out at any moment but she can't take her eyes off of him.
That's how Ella finds her when she runs into the room. Her senses don't seem to function, as she tries to take in the room, not sure what to expect.
"DANIEL!", Regina's voice has her coming back to reality. She processes everything and pieces it all together. Regina is screaming his name over and over, sobbing as her tears pour down her face, seeping into her sweatshirt. Her screams pierce the once peaceful night.
Regina's knees end up giving out, but her Nana's arm surround her before she can hit the ground. Before Regina knows it, she is being turned around and pressed into crook of her Nana's neck.
"Don't look Regina, please don't look." Ella brings her arms around Regina, pressing her hands over her own mouth, trying to contain her cries as she hears Regina mourn her true love. She holds her tightly, trying to provide any comfort she can, but knows that it is not enough. Regina's screams fill the air, whatever she is trying to say is inaudible. Its deafening, the combination of her sobs and screams, the shock of everything tearing away at her soul, stunning Regina to the spot.
Regina doesn't know how long she stands there clutching her Nana for dear life. She has stopped screaming, her voice doesn't want to cooperate, but her chest heavily heaves up and down. "Please Daniel, please don't leave me" she manages to weakly say. Moving out of Ella's embrace, she sits on the left side of the bed and grabs his arm to try to transfer her frozen time to him. Her head falls back in frustration and pain as it doesn't work. Anger becomes her, for not coming sooner, for not being able to transfer her time, for not being able to save him.
She turns around, their eyes meeting each other. Begging, her voice scratchy and raw, "Nana do something, please Nana" she cries out defeatedly. Ella freezes, she knows that he's gone, he has no time left. A silence befalls them, but she eventually chokes out "I'm sorry Regina, there's nothing we can do. He's-, He's gone. He's gone little one."
Tears still flow down Regina's cheeks, weakly, she asks again "Please Nana, please do something, bring him back, please Nana, I can't live without him." She hunches over, wrapping her arms around her middle, remaining still and rigid while she waits.
Ella approaches the other side of the bed and takes Daniels limp arm. Regina looks away, not wanting to see what happens. Ella twists their wrists together but nothing happens, she knew that already, she knows that once you are out of time that there is no way of getting more.
Ella reaches over, grasps her arm and whispers "I'm so sorry, little one".
Regina gasps in a large breath as her chest heaves more. She falls forward onto his chest, grasping the shirt that covers it, her head tipped to the side towards Ella.
"I'm going to call the police Regina, we can't leave him here." She places her hand on Regina's back and rubs up and down, knowing that it is not enough to ease her pain.
"Nana how did this happen! He had over 3 days of time when we last spoke! We were supposed to be together, we-"
She wipes Regina's tears with her fingers and soothes "Ssshhh, calm down little one, we need to get out of here." Regina pulls back, her eyes widening as she turns to look at his face. "We can't Nana, I can't leave him, I need-"
"Regina your name can't be on that police report. If your mother found out you were here, I don't even want to think what would happen."
Regina gasps her face scrunches yet again as hot tears slide down her face. "He can't be gone Nana, he can't be dead!"
Ella grabs her cell phone and calls the cops and hears someone pick up
"Dayton police."
Ella replies with the address and that there has been a death but abruptly hangs up.
"Hello? Ma'am? Hello? Who is this?" the detective replies to the empty phone line.
Ella puts her phone away and looks back to Regina. "Im going to grab anything that's yours, we don't need it being traced back to you. We only have a few minutes before the police arrive, we need to hurry."
Regina stares straight ahead at his peaceful face, placing her left hand on his cheek, hoping that this is all just be a nightmare that will be gone when she wakes. Meanwhile Ella runs around trying to find anything of hers, photos, makeup, clothes. She thinks she has all of it as she takes Regina's spare hand, pulling her out of her trance. "This is probably the last time you'll be able to say goodbye."
Regina hesitantly inches closer to him and looks down upon his face, her tears hitting it as she now cradles it. She feels the smoothness of his face, pressing their cheeks together as she whispers into his ear all the things she wishes she would have told him sooner. Ella steps in a minute later, sirens can be heard in the background "We need to go little one"
"No" Regina weakly replies "I can't leave him" she bites her bottom lip to try and keep it from trembling. She isn't speaking logically, her heart is clouding her judgement. Her heart says to stay here with him, but her mind tells her that her mother cannot find out that she was here.
Ella makes the decision to peel Regina off of him by circling her arms around her and pulling her up with all the strength she has. Regina instantly starts yelling, her hands claw at Ella's arms as she kicks her feet through the air to gain some leverage. "I'm sorry Regina," she tries to tell her "I can't let something happen to you too".
Regina protests until she is carried out of apartment, then sags against Ella's front, who places her on the ground. She guides her to the car, buckles her in and sets all of her stuff down in the back. "Go to sleep little one." Ella drives away just as the police cars pull into the lot.
"No" she whispers, her head lulls to the side to look at the occupied buildings they pass.
Ella glances over half an hour later, seeing the trails that her tears have marked her skin. She thinks that Regina has cried herself to sleep, too stubborn to actually choose to. It's too much, she thinks, it's too much for her to have to deal with.
Will and John arrive to the apartment complex, turn off the sirens and head inside to the address that was given to Robin. They knock on the door, and get no response. "Dayton police! Open up!" Will yells out.
When they get no response, John nods to Will, who kicks down the already unlocked door. They call into the apartment again, asking if anyone is there but are met with silence. They hesitantly scope out the place, but as soon as Will spots the body he yells over to John saying that it's clear. He turns his head to his shoulder where his radio lays and presses the button "we have a 10-45D. A male adult, out of time. John and I have scoped out the apartment. No sign of the caller. Over."
The radio relays back "sending over our team now. Make sure they take prints of the place. Over." The intercom beeps.
"Got it, we will look around again. Over."
"Hey john? You find anything?" he hears from the other room.
"Not at the moment Will. The caller is nowhere to be found, the door was unlocked, the window opened, and everything looks disheveled. From what it looks like, this death couldn't have been accidental."
Will spins around on his heels and meets Will, looking at the area that he had yet to see. "you should call Robin, this isn't something we can handle alone". He nods his head and pulls out his phone, waiting for the forensic team to arrive while he dials his boss' number.
After the whole apartment was photographed and dusted for prints, Daniels body was placed on a gurney and rolled into an ambulance. Robin steps out of his car and walks up to John and Will, who stand outside along everyone else in the parking lot. "You okay Robin? You don't look like your usual self."
"Ya, ya I'm fine" he says, trying to avoid the question. Will gives him a knowing look before Robin answers "it's almost been another year without her. Okay? You happy?" His friends quietly apologizes, and quickly change the subject.
"what happened here?" Robin says before he takes a deep breath and rubs the inner corners of his eyes, repressing everything so he can focus on the task at hand.
John looks at his chart and back up to Robin. "Dead body, male, 28, we found him out of time in his bed."
"I'm assuming there is an issue if you two called me?"
"Something is not right Rob, things were scattered in the apartment. The door wasn't locked. The body was found lying in bed, but the question is, would you go to bed if you knew that you didn't have enough time to wake up? We had forensics dust for prints, they will be logged into the computer by noon. I already got the footage from the security cameras just in case, we can look at it back at the station. The time of death was about 5 hours ago but the call came in just an hour prior. But why would they leave? Something just isn't right here."
"You're right, we need to inves-" Robins phone starts going off, he looks at the caller and answers it, raising his other hand to motion to John to hold his thoughts "I've got to take this."
"Captain?" Robin presses the phone to his ear, his face showing confusion, pivoting his feet away from all the noise. "But why-" he nods his head "just like that?" He brings a hand to his forehead "Captain something isn't right-", he audibly sighs, "alright, I'll let everyone know." He hangs up the phone and shouts to everyone outside the scene. "Pack it up, Captain Nottingham called. You may go home, thanks for coming out so late."
Will approaches him "why are we leaving?"
"I don't know. Nottingham said to stop what we are doing. He said the case is closed."
John turns around, shocked "closed? He isn't even here! We can't just leave, someone died! What is he thinking?"
"I don't know. But he's the Captain, so we will do what he says." He claps his hand on johns shoulder "good night you two, good work"
"Wait Rob! What about the evidence that was collected?"
He turns around to look at Will and John, "there's no reason to run it, just package it up with everything else and send it to storage. Captain says its closed, and as much as I am against it, there's nothing we can do boys." He turns back around and continues walking to his car, raising a hand in the air and waves "See you in the morning."
