Hello again! Here's my next chapter. Just sit back and enjoy! To all the reviewers: thank you so much More reviews are still welcome of course!

Chapter Thirteen: Choose your faith

Derek felt the head in his hand, falling down. He had one arm wrapped round Mac and used his fingers to check for a pulse while he kept an eye on the others. Was that a beat? Or was it his own heartbeat? No, it was definitely not his own. It was the detectives. He was still alive. Derek let out an unnoticeable sigh. Wait, why was he relieved? The whole plan was to kill the guy, and now he was relieved when he felt a pulse? He was snapped out of his little trance when one of the detectives in front of him slowly spoke.

Danny was the first one who recovered from the sight before him. He knew the Tanglewood Boys well enough too understand that they hadn't exaggerated. When he saw Mac leaving the conscious world, he knew he had to do something before it was too late. And there was also Adam, who seemed unharmed at first sight. Two of his best friends lives hung in the balance, he couldn't just stand here and do nothing! So Danny spoke.

'Let him go, man. You can't go anywhere. Face it. You're trapped.' His words seemed to jolt the others awake. All grabbed their guns tighter in their hands to prepare for the battle that was about to go down in just a matter of minutes.

A smile appeared on Derek's face. 'Well well, you must be Danny. The one and only little bro of dear Louie. How is he doing? Still in a coma or have you already pulled the plug?'

Flack turned his head to face Danny so he could calm him down. He was surprised by the calmness that still covered his friends face. He inwardly smiled. Good boy. Go for it.

Danny, indeed, continued, trying to keep his brother out of his mind. 'This is not about Louie or me, and it's not about Mac either. So why don't you hand him over to us. Then we can negotiate about the other guy.' Danny waved his hand in the direction of Adam who was still on the floor behind Derek. 'Nobody needs to be killed today.'

Derek frowned. 'Hmm, let me think about that. It sure sounds tempting you know, but you see, you're wrong about one thing. It's just a little bit wrong though…' He pressed the gun even harder into Mac's face to emphasize what he just said. '… I got orders to kill AT LEAST two people.' His smiled turned into a evil grin.

The only thing that was printed on Stella's retina was the sight of the lifeless figure in the hands of this monster. Had Mac given up? No, he never gives up! Inwardly, she was screaming with joy for the fact that Mac was still alive, and fear forjust how much longer he was going to remain that way. They both say the same thing but it just helps the flow of the sentence. She needed to do something before it was too late and it sounded like this conversation wasn't going to be a fast one. She took a deep breath and took a small step forward as she spoke.

'I figured you as a guy who wouldn't take orders from anyone.' Her statement brought the criminal slightly out of balance so he didn't notice her step forward, his eyes still focused on Danny. Stella took advantage of the situation and resumed.

'You have to admit, the guy who put you in this position must be a real bastard. You are the one to blame for everything you do here, no matter what your orders are. If you choose to follow your orders, there's a big chance you're going to end up dead too. But if you take control in your own hands and choose otherwise, then there is pretty good chance you'll come out of this alive.'

Stella had managed to narrow the space between her and the gun man till she was about ten feet away from him. She let her eyes slide from him to Adam to Mac and back to him. Adam was pretty shaken up but kept himself quite good for his 'ragging' into the rough business. Mac on the other hand… She focused on the guy in the middle again. Flack, Danny, Lindsay and Hawkes remained silent, ready to attack when it was necessary.

Her words were filled with truths he couldn't turn away from. While he looked in her eyes he became even more desperate. He was fighting a battle that was not his own. Why he was the one who had to deal with this shit, there were more than enough other members who were more experienced with this than he was. Why did Sonny pick him? Wait, why was he questioning the boss's motives? What is this woman doing?

He made a hard face again and got his attention back into the room. Only then he noticed the closing difference between himself and the woman.

'Back off, lady! I'm not kidding here; I will rip his head off his body with pleasure!'

'No.' Silence filled the room, shocked people were looking in Stella's direction.

'Stel…' Lindsay tried, but was interrupted by Stella herself. 'No, I'm not backing off. I'm staying with Mac.' Confidence was mixed with fear. She had left him too many times. Not this time. She didn't care if it would be the last choice she'd ever make. Mac had to know how she felt and therefore he needed to stay alive. Confidence won. 'I'm staying right where I am.'

'Don't do anything stupid now, Stel', Hawkes tried out of desperation. 'Think! Keep focused!' He almost yelled it.

'I am focused, Sheldon.' Stella kept her eyes locked into Derek's. She dared him even more by taking another step, a big one this time. 'Let him go.' The words came out calmer then she thought they would.

'I guess you made your choice, lady. Say goodbye to Romeo, your great detective.' Derek challenged Stella and embraced the trigger with his index finger and pushed a little. Unfortunately, Stella didn't back off and pointed the barrel of her gun right to the chest of the kidnapper.

'I made my choice, now it's your turn. You wanna be someone's puppet and become a corpse or you wanna be a big boy and make your own decision to surrender?'

Derek almost exploded. 'I'm not someone's puppet and I am my own man! Sonny would never make me the boss if I wasn't a capable, I can do whatever I want, whenever I want, no one stopped me in the past and no one will stop me now! Not even cops like you! I freakin' HATE cops like you! Why did you need to get involved with our lives anyway?! You always interfere with our business, with your freaky science stuff you ruin everything. You are totally freakin' CRAZY! And now you pushed too far, bitch! You just killed your darling boss!'

But then Flack laid down his trump.

'Sonny is dead, Derek. He killed himself in jail.'

Derek looked in the direction where the words came from, eyes widening in shock. Everything froze, the words lingering in his mind. Dead. Floating away from reality, his fingers loosened. The gun drooped down slightly, not aiming at Mac anymore.

Two shots were fired. Smoke came from both Stella's and Flacks gun. Bewildered, Derek looked down to where the bullets ran through his body. Flack had aimed at his shoulder which hand handled the gun, just like he had been taught. Stella's bullet on the other hand, had made a hole in his sternum. His hand around Macs skull fell and the seemingly lifeless detective dropped to the floor. Derek first looked at Flack who said the deathly words only seconds ago, second he turned to Stella. He opened his mouth.

'Bbb..bbb…bitch!' He felt backwards to the floor, letting out his final breath.

Total silence. No more pain. Only darkness surrounded him. For years he hadn't been able to imagine what a world without pain and grief looked like and here it was, welcoming him. With wide eyes he floated through the thousand colors of black, some intense black, some with a shade of grey. All the blood seemed returned into his body, his face was a full blown replica of the only picture he had of himself when he was 20 years old. Thick curls on top of his head, the bags under his eyes gone along with the few wrinkles he had accumulated over the years. The darkness softly brushed his cheeks, his hair, his arms, his belly. The darkness caresses his lips whom weren't cleft of dryness anymore. He turned and turned and turned, upside down, from left to right. Freedom without any boundaries. No worries. A smile began to appear on his face. An echo resounded in his ears, first a whisper… 'Mac..' The whisper became louder, he could hear it calling his name from a thousand directions. 'Mac.. Mac.. Mac..' The sound turned into a scream and another one and another one. Frightened, he looked around but couldn't find the source of the many voices in the dark, no matter how hard he tried. A twinge of pain occurred in his leg. He tried to grab it with his hands, but they hung numbly at his sides. Another twinge, then and another one. Not only his was leg being attacked. Within seconds his whole body was screaming in pain. Streams of blood seeped out of the injuries covering his skin. Another scream. A slap on his face and all of a sudden a sparkling light appeared in front of him, getting larger and brighter till his eyes couldn't handle the light anymore. Another slap on his face and the darkness was gone.

The reality catches quickly on the people in the room again. With one big slide, Stella drops herself down next to the lifeless figure in front of her. Within a second, Flack and Hawkes are by her side and helping their friend in a more comfortable position. They put his head into Stella's lap. Flack knelt down so his ear was only an inch away from Mac's mouth, Hawkes grabbed Mac's wrist to feel for a pulse. Both men almost jump in the air.

'He is still breathing!' 'He still has a pulse!' They say in almost unison. Stella lets her right hand slide along Mac's face and body before her thumb moves over his lips. She starts calling his name. It doesn't provoke a reaction from him. Soon they are all calling his name. But his body still lay numbly in Stella's lap. Suddenly, a scream came from the back of the room. Adam, who has been freed from his cuffs by Danny, stumbles to get up only to drop down next to Mac again. With much more force than he planned, he slapped his boss' face with a flat hand while screaming his name almost hysterically.

Because nobody stopped him, he continued. After the second hit, Stella screamed almost as hard as Adam: 'He moved! He moved!' They all unconsciously stopped breathing while they were watching their boss and friend struggle back to the land of the living again. Through eyes filled with tears, Stella saw the love of her life trying to open his eyes, but he wasn't able. A soft groan escaped his lips. Flack unclipped his walky-talky and screamed into the microphone: 'We need medical help here! Detective Taylor is still alive! Get the paramedics immediately, the area is clear! NOW!' When he turned back to his friends and colleagues, he couldn't deny the lump forming in his throat. Stella and Lindsay were both crying on the left side of Mac, Adam and Danny were clinging onto each other while tears were forming in their eyes as Hawkes tried desperately to feel for Mac's pulse again. Running paramedics wheeling a gurney pushed Flack aside so they could get to Mac. Flack heard them calling out medical statistics while slowly laying Mac down on the gurney. One paramedic was busy trying to free Mac's hand from Stella's which wasn't an easy task. Stella screamed that she wouldn't let him go. With some help from Lindsay they succeeded. The medics rushed past Flack again on their way out, still calling out Mac's stats and checking his visible injuries.

Silence filled the room again, nobody was able to speak. Sobs from Stella and Lindsay were heard from time to time. Hawkes was looking after Lindsay. Flack walked towards Stella and grabbed her head in his hands. Stella willingly let herself be held against him, not trying to stop her tears from falling down. Flack heard her mumble into his bulletproof vest. 'He can't die. I won't survive it if he dies. He can't die on me now.' He wanted to say so badly that it was all going to be okay, but he couldn't get the lump out of his throat. He couldn't say what he didn't believe. He saw Mac, he saw him lying there, no life left. How could someone possibly come back from this? Flack could only hold Stella tight to him.

Six people stood in a room without any daylight, all with different thoughts but the subject was the same:

Detective Mac Taylor.

Nobody heard other paramedics enter the room until they knelt down next to the lifeless body of Derek. Because nobody cared about the life of this bastard now, the team didn't hear the medics scream for another stretcher.

Hawkes, who was relieved by Danny to take care of Lindsay, watched the paramedics hook the criminal up to an monitor. Only then did the news register in his mind. The guy was still alive! Just as he went to inform the others, a cop came towards them.

The cop cleared his throat. Six heads turned towards him.

'What is it?' Danny could manage to get out.

'When I arrived outside, I saw the ambulance where doctors were loading someone into. I got a better look and I saw it was Detective Taylor. When I came close, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at me.' The cop looked still a little shocked from the event.

'Oh my god! Did he say something?' Stella's hope grew a little bit when she heard this news.

'Yeah, that's why I came to you guys. Does the name Nick mean anything to you?'

'The kid! It's the kid!' Flack turned towards the others. 'We totally forgot about him. We need to find him before it's too late.' Flack looked deep into Stella's eyes. 'It's what he wants us to do now, Stella. It's not like we can do anything else.' Stella looked up and nodded slightly.

'You go and find that boy, I'm going to the hospital. I'll keep you posted.' She headed towards the exit.

'Stella, wait!' Lindsay caught the other woman up in her steps. 'I'm going with you.' With one last glance to her boyfriend, she left together with Stella.

Everyone pulled themselves together, ready for the next journey.