Chapter 10: Changing Sides for Good

Mac continues running for another block until he sees a woman. "I'm Detective Mac Taylor with NYPD. I need to use your cell phone." The lady looks at him like he's lost his mind. "It's an emergency. My partner and I were being held hostage. They could be killing her right now."

Still thinking he is insane, the lady gives him her cell phone, if only to shut him up.

Quickly he dials Danny's number. "Danny, I got away. They still have Stella, but one of them is locked up. They have a gun. She could be dead."

"Slow down, Mac. Where are you?"

He asks the woman for an address and tells it to Danny. "There's one guy that was trying to help us escape, but he could have just been setting us up."

"We'll be right there, Mac," Danny says.

They hear a gunshot, and Mac drops the phone, running back toward the house and Stella. He is relieved to find her running out the door in search of him. "What happened, Stel?"

She embraces him, "He went out the door after you, but didn't get out of the yard. He told Bryan to shoot me when he came back in. For a minute, I thought he was going to, but he turned the gun on the leader and shot him."

"Is he dead?"

"I think so but I wasn't going to check. We have to call the rest of the team and get you some help."

"I called Danny. They're on their way."

"Are they bringing paramedics?"

"I think so. I was kind of going on about… how they still had you in there, and they could kill you at any time."

"I'm fine," she assures, kissing his cheek lightly.

"Why don't you wait out here for them and I'll look inside?"

"Why? I'm sure he's dead by now."

"To make sure Bryan's still here. We made him a deal and considering he didn't shoot you and let us go, we should try to help him out. Running from the police won't help him," he sits her down on the step and turns to go in.

"Mac, what do you think they'll do about him killing… his boss? It wasn't self defense technically since he was after me, not him."

"He did it to help us out. He killed him to save you." Mac comes out five minutes later with Bryan.

Stella smiles at him, "I need to thank you for not shooting me. I wouldn't be here right now if you hadn't… hadn't turned the gun on your partner. Mac and I will definitely work with the DA to help you out."

"I killed him. They can put me in jail for that."

"You did it in my defense though."

Bryan sits quietly for a few moments. "Did you guys kill Derek?"

"No, he's tied up in the basement."

"How long do you think… they'll put me in jail?"

Mac and Stella look at each other. "We don't know. But to get this to work out, you have to cooperate and do whatever they ask. Tell them everything they want to know."

"DNA and fingerprints?"

"Most likely both."

They hear sirens approaching and soon the team is pulling up along with an ambulance. Flack pulls out his handcuffs. "Is he one of them?"

"Don't be too rough with him, Don. He helped us escape."

A/N: So there is still going to be a hospital visit, but not as bad as you thought it would be. Two more chapters left: I'll post the rest by Thursday. So I spent the last half an hour trying to play the piccolo. Now my lip hurts. You know how on flutes there's like a raised spot where you blow in so the headjoint isn't totally flat? Well, I believe most piccolos are the same, at least all the ones I've seen. The one I got for my birthday doesn't have that raised spot, which I think is why I'm having some trouble playing it. My mom got a normal one off ebay, but then found out it was cheaply made and the repair store near us couldn't have done anything to it if it broke. So she sent it back. And got another one somewhere else, probably still off of ebay. When she got it, she had me try to use it; I couldn't get anything out at all. So I tried with just the headjoint and something came out. Now I'm doing better. I can play the whole B flat scale. But where the whole is pressed against my bottom lip and made it hurt a little. I'm hoping the girl who plays piccolo didn't get field commander because... I don't know if any other now senior can play it. And the girl in my grade who could quit so... and I think I may now be the only person that has one. Other than that, I got a whole bunch of shirts about chemistry and some other clothes for my birthday. The rest was money. Which my mom told everybody to give me because I think I'm going to try to get a laptop. And parents said they'd pay for the rest of it. Well, I should go now. Please keep reviewing and reading.