Chapter 9: Terminal

"What's going on?" Sara demanded from her hiding place in the middle of one of the huge spools.

Danny looked down at her, trying to hide the worry on his face, "They're talking, be quiet."

"Who's talking?"

"Dante, Jake, and the kidnapers."

"What?!"

"Sara be quiet."

The detective bit her lip and slouched a little bit lower against the spool. "I can't stay here."

"You leave you're dead, Sara, and Gabriel along with you. Burgess and Orlinsky are still looking for you, be quiet."

"Is Gabriel alright?"

"He's still unconscious."

"Tell me if anything changes."

"I will Sara," Danny said. "Now be quiet."

Sara muttered to herself, but did as she was told. Danny watched nervously as the two White Bulls, walked frighteningly close to the spool where she was hiding.

"We're never gonna find her in here," Burgess said. "We'll be lucky if we find our way out of here."

"Shut up," Orlinski ordered. "We never will find her if you keep making all that noise."

"Why the hell the telephone company need so much wire anyway?" Burgess said as he passed Sara's spool and punched it senselessly. Danny looked down to see Sara, who was jostled and frightened looking up at him, her Witchblade drawn, fear in her eyes.

"Don't," Danny said. "They don't know where you are. Be still and be quiet."

Sara stared at him for a moment, before nodding and, once again, bitting her lip in frustrated silence.

* * *

The plan had been, when they got into the warehouse, Dante would kill Sara, while Orlinsky and Burgess would kill Toph and Nat, then Dante would go over and kill Gabriel, before putting the gun in Toph's hand. And Jake thanked God that that hadn't happened. When they got there Sara was no where to be seen, Gabriel was lying free, unconscious, and the kidnapers were practically begging to be arrested.

"What the hell you set us up for, McCartey!" Toph had yelled from the floor. If he had jumped up to attack the detective it would have been his death. "What kind of bitch did you set on us?"

"Bitch eh?" Dante had asked. "Orlinsky, Burgess, find Pezzini if you can. Shoot anything that moves."

Burgess had opened his mouth, obviously desiring to complain about such tedious task, but Orlinsky had hit him roughly on the shoulder and convinced him to do as he was told.

As the pair set off, Dante had walked over to Nat, who was trying to fade into the shadows. He drew her into the light and she didn't resist him. "What do you say about it sweetheart?"

"I don't know anything," the girl said, her voice low and lusty. "You guys are cops, right?" she asked, wide eyed. "Cause this guy was keeping that guy in a cage," she nodded towards Gabriel. "I saw it."

Dante seemed way to interested in Nat, his hands had moved from around her arm to around her waist. Toph was looking up at they with a smoldering hatred, but he remained wisely silent. Jake felt disgusted, but he too remained silent. If things went as they were going both Gabriel and Sara would be fine, and that was all he could afford to be concerned about.

"Really?" Dante asked Nat, his voice was becoming lusty as well. "And what did this guy do to you?"

"Take me to your station and I'll show you," Nat promised.

Jake couldn't handle it any more, "Sir," he said, his voice clear and clean and hard. "Don't you think we should call an ambulance for Bowman over there?"

Dante sighed with annoyance and glared over at Gabriel's unconscious form. "He dead?"

"I don't think so sir," Jake said, "He seems to be breathing."

"Then he'll keep," Dante said. "It seems to me that our most pressing issue is what to do with Mr. McCann here."

"What do you mean what to do?" the criminal on the floor said. It seemed fairly obvious that he had already given up hope of getting off scott free, Nat was going to do anything, or rather anyone, to buy her freedom, and to that end she had already stabbed him in the back. "Just arrest me already."

"Jake nodded and started rolling off the Miranda rights as he pulled out handcuffs, "You have the right to remain . . ." his speech was cut short by a loud bang.

Jake snapped his head up and saw McCann lying on the floor, dead, with a bullet right between his eyes. Dante, in a cavalier manner, blew the smoke off of his gun before he threw it on the ground and Nat had buried her head in his shoulder and was whimpering slightly.

"You didn't have to do that," Jake said, trying to keep the anger out of his voice. "We had him red handed, he would have gone down."

"Why take the chance?" Dante said casually.

***

"What was that?" Sara hissed at Danny as the sound of the single shot echoed through the building.

"They just killed McCann," Danny said angrily. While the ghost had little sympathy for the man who would kidnap and torture an innocent, he couldn't help but empathize with someone who was killed as they lay helpless on the ground.

"They?"

"Dante," Danny clarified. "Jake had nothing to do with it. In fact, he was moving to arrest him."

"And the girl?"

"She seems to have buddied up with our good captain," the disgust in his voice was very clear. "I don't think she's going to be facing justice either."

"Where's thing one and thing two?"

He quickly scanned the warehouse before saying, "They heard the shot and are heading back. Hush."

Sara obeyed and listened as two heavy footfalls ran harmlessly past her hiding place.

***

"What the hell?" Orlinsky demanded as the came out of the maze of telephone wire.

"Find anything?" Dante demanded, letting the thugs dead body and the girls clinging position speak for itself.

"Nah," Orlinsky said, "She's not here."

"Damn," Dante muttered. "Well, it would seem that our work here is done. I'm gonna take this young lady to the station for further questioning. You two do something with that," Dante nodded towards Gabriel's still unconscious form. "And McCartey, call the coroner, you heard a bang and stumbled onto a suicide."

"Ah, Sir," Jake said uncomfortably. "I'd rather take him to the hospital," Jake said. "Lying's not my strong suit."

Dante turned on Jake and searched him with his eyes. Jake stood still, willing himself to exude honesty, although he had seldom told anyone the whole truth since his arrival in New York.

"Right," Dante finally said. "Orlinsky, you call the coroner. McCartey, you and Burgess take care of Bowman . . . you know what I mean."

"Yeah," Burgess said. "We'll take care of him."

***

"Jake and one of the White Bulls are lifting Gabriel up, they're taking him out of the warehouse. Dante is leaving too, with the girl. Another White Bull is staying here, making a phone call," Danny said. "Probably calling the coroner for McCann."

"But Gabriel's alright?" Sara asked, desperate and foolish hope working it's way into her voice.

"He was still unconscious, and they didn't call an ambulance."

"I don't like this at all Danny," Sara said. She looked up at him, her eyes begging for permission to emerge from her hiding place and save Gabriel from those who pretend to be his saviors.

"Don't move," the ghost ordered. "If you're dead you won't be able to help him.."

"I can't just sit here."

"Yes, you can. You have to."

"They have Gabriel, you know as well as I do that they're not going to take him to a hospital."

"I don't know that, Sara. And neither do you."

"Right, why wouldn't they just call an ambulance?"

"Because they're weaving an elaborate lie, and Gabriel doesn't fit into it," Danny answered, slightly annoyed. He happened to know exactly what was going on, and what would happen, even if he couldn't tell Sara. "He went off with Jake."

"Oh, Jake," Sara said viciously. "You mean the bastard that got Gabriel into this in the first place."

"I mean your partner whom you should trust," Danny said.

"Not gonna happen Danny," Sara said bitterly. "Not until I see Gabriel safe and sound."

Danny looked down at his partner with compassion. "No road is easy for you Sara."

"Oh, Danny, when you're right, you're right."

***

The first voice was totally unfamiliar. "It's more trouble than it's worth."

"What trouble?" the second voice, which was familiar, although Gabriel couldn't place it, said. "We just say we found him and brought him in."

"And get yelled at for not calling an ambulance?"

"Come in with your sirens blaring and we can explain we were quicker."

"It's quickest to pull over and bang bang!" The first voice laughed.

"I don't know about you, but I didn't join the White Bulls to kill innocent people."

"He's the Bitch's friend."

"He probably doesn't even know anything about her," the familiar voice insisted. Gabriel's slowly working mind was clearing enough for him to put a name to that voice: it was Jake McCartey's. The younger man wasn't sure whether to feel relieved by that revelation, or more afraid. However, he was wise enough to lie still and be quiet until after they had decided his fate.

"He's just a kid," Jake insisted. "I'm serious, Burgess, you kill him and you'll be a murderer. You've got no justification."

"He could come back to haunt us."

"Or he could be innocent. I'm all for killing the guilty bastards like that guy McCann. But innocent kids . . ."

"You're assuming a lot."

"So are you."

There was a long, horrible moment of silence.

"Turn here," Jake finally said. "And put on your siren. There's a hospital about a mile away."

"Fine," the first voice said, reluctantly. "We'll just say we found him by the side of the road."

"Works for me. The kid's been knocked out this whole time, he won't know any better."

"Fine," Burgess grumbled again.

***

Gabriel pretended to wake up when he felt the car stop outside of the hospital. He faked a groan, to let them know he was regaining consciousness, then tryed to push himself up and groaned for real as the world around him spun uncontrollably. He closed his eyes tight and rested his head on the car seat.

"Hold tight kid," Jake said, and Gabriel felt a hand on his shoulder in what he assumed was supposed to be a comforting gesture. "We're at a hospital. You'll be fine."

"Where's Sara?" Gabriel asked, his voice seemed to echo in his head and he decided he didn't want to talk again if he could avoid it.

"I don't know," Jake said honestly. "But If I were you I wouldn't say a word about her to anyone. And you shouldn't try to contact her either. The further away you are from her, the better."

Their heart to heart conference was interupted by the arrival of a couple of orderlies with a stretcher. Gabriel felt himself being lifted onto it and wisked away. He didn't see, or hear rather, any more of Jake McCarty or Burgess. The doctors mostly talked around him except for one, who had very gentle hands and an equally soft, sothing voice. "Gabriel," she said kindly, right after she had ordered a series of x-rays. "Can you open your eyes?"

Gabriel obeyed, and was suddenly assaulted by the unforgiving white lights of an emergency room. "Good morning, I'm Dr. Andrews," she had dark hair, pulled back, and deep wrinkles around her eyes that made her seem somehow motherly. She smiled down at him., "Do you know where you are?"

"Hospital," he said, his voice echoed in his head again, but it wasn't nearly so bad.

"Good," She smiled down at him. "Do you know what day it is?"

"No," he said, not because he couldn't figure it out, but because it just wasn't worth the effort.

"Can you tell how many fingers I'm holding up?"

"Three," he answered correctly.

"Good, very, very good. Now I want you to do something for me, do you think you could wiggel your toes on your right foot?"

Gabriel wiggled his toes as the doctor turned her head to watch this feet. "Good, good," she said, not smiling. "Those were your left toes, try the ones on the other foot now."

Gabriel blinked, and then concentrated on wiggling his toes. It suddenly felt like someone was taking a machete to his foot and hacking it to pieces. He gasped for breath and stoped trying to wiggle his toes, but the pain didn't leave. "Good, very, very good." Dr. Andrews said as much to herself as to Gabriel. Then she turned to her fellow doctors and started yelling orders. Gabriel tried to watch what was going on, but slowly his mind became cloudy and his vision became blurred, the pain in his foot ebbed away, and he let his eyes slide shut. He was lulled off to sleep by the technical conversations of the doctors and the cool metallic noises of their instruments.

***

"It's alright, Sara," Danny said. "You can come out."

Sara grunted as she pushed herself up and then pulled herself out of the large spool. She had been hiding there for over seven hours as she waited for the White Bulls to leave, and then for the coroner to come and then for him to leave and then another hour just to be safe. All of her ached and her stomach was growling ferociously, but her bodily well being was the last thing on her mind.

"Where's Gabriel?" she demanded of her phantom companion. "I've gotta see him."

"You can't," Danny said simply.

"What do you mean I can't?"

"It's impossible."

"Why is it impossible?"

"Because they're watching him."

"Who's watching him?" Sara snapped, these evasive answers were getting on her nerves.

"The White Bulls. They expect you to come to him."

"So now they have him?" Sara asked, her voice thin with disbelief. "Out of the frying pan and into the fire!"

"I didn't say they had him," Danny corrected. "He's at a hospital, safe and free. They're just watching him."

"And if I go to see him . . ."

"It's too dangerous Sara," Danny warned. "You have to wait."

"Wait," she said spitefully. "After all this the last thing I want to do is wait."

"But that's what you have to do, regardless."

Sara sighed. "Fine," she spat as she looked around the warehouse blankly because she didn't want to look at Danny and expose how mad at him she really was.

"Besides, there's something else you have to do."

"Oh, really, and what would that be?"

"Talk to Jake."

"Jake," she laughed outright at the ludicrousness of what Danny was saying. "I can't even begin to pretend that I want to trust Jake."

"Pretending doesn't count. You have to actually trust him; you can't do this alone."

"I can."

"You can't," Danny insisted. "I'm not pretending that this isn't a gamble, but he came through today, Gabriel is alive because of him, and him alone."

Sara stared at her dead friend skeptically, "You can't know that . . ."

"I can," Danny said, his voice was resolute and unquestionable. Sara, defeated in this little argument, looked away.

"You've got to roll the dice on someone Sara."

She sighed, "It might as well be on him."

The End (well, except for the epilog . . .)



Authors Note: This entire story should happen during the episode "Apprehension," between the scene where Sara runs away from the TV station and where she climbs into Jake's window. In fact, the very last scene of that episode happens between this chapter and the epilog. SO throw in your ever-handy Witchblade tape if you need to know what happens between Jake and Sara.