Chapter Fourteen: A Happy Ending
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Checking the room number out of the corner of his eye, Danny immediately darted into the room and stared at the solitary bed in the midst of all of the equipment. Luis and Mary followed in his wake, and the latter put a supportive hand on her best friend's shoulder.
"Hey." Leah greeted, looking over at them. Her voice was quieter than usual due to her injury and the oxygen mask over her mouth and nose. Her grin widened as the trio walked over and her brown eyes locked on Danny. "I'm glad that you're okay."
"Me?" Danny chuckled, "You're the one that took the bullet. You should be glad that you're okay."
"I'm a cop." Leah replied with a grin. "It's my job to protect innocent civilians." She paused to take a breath. "Luis told me what happened after I got shot. Thank Ed for me."
"Won't you be able to yourself?" a curious Mary inquired, looking at the brown with blonde streaks haired woman.
"It seems that I'm going to be moving to New York before I had planned to." Leah shook her head, "They're transferring me to a specialtyclinic there in a few days." She smiled at the trio. "My family and fiancé are out there anyway, so it won't be too bad."
"We're going to miss you around the department though." Luis commented as a couple of nurses came into the room, looking ready to take Leah somewhere. As they backed out of the room just as quickly, the brown-haired, Latino man hugged the woman gently. Clearly it was the time to say goodbye. "Take care of yourself, and show those NYPD guys what's what."
"I will." Leah agreed as Mary quickly hugged her too.
"Could I…" Danny asked, looking at Mary and Luis.
"We'll be out in the hall." Mary said as the pair departed.
"So, I guess your friends forgave you." Leah assumed, looking at Danny.
"Well, I did get it for pulling the wool over their eyes." Danny replied, rubbing his arm where Sam had hit him. "But, yeah, they forgave me."
"I knew that they would." Leah nodded before groaning slightly. Worried, Danny started to walk over, but Leah waved him off. "Don't worry. It's just my pain meds wearing off." She held up the call button for the nurses. "If it gets too bad, I can just page someone to bring me more."
"I'm so sorry that this happened, Leah." Danny apologized, shaking his head. "You were right. I shouldn't have gone after the Professor solo."
"Ah, something even worse might have happened if you hadn't." Leah shrugged, "It's like a math problem. Different variables give you a different solution." The brown and blonde woman looked sincerely at him. "You know, you would make a pretty decent cop, Danny. You ever given any thought to joining the force?"
"Not really." Danny shook his head, "I'm pretty happy at the Montecito." A laugh escaped him. "Besides, that would mean that Luis would have a higher position than me, and I know he'd use it to his advantage."
"Probably." Leah giggled as the nurses reentered the room. "I guess this is where we say goodbye."
"Yeah." Danny nodded, brushing some of her hair back with his hand.
"I plan on coming back to Vegas someday." Leah revealed with a smile. "I want to show my fiancé the sights."
"You'll have a full comped stay at the Montecito waiting for you." Danny assured, gently hugging Leah. "In the presidential suite if I can swing it."
"Now, there's an incentive." Leah grinned as she hugged back. "Take care of yourself, and tell that girl out there how you really feel about her, okay?"
"I will one day." Danny promised, noticing a smiling Mary watching the pair through the window.
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As the plane taxied on the runway, Leah gripped the side of the stretcher she was laying on. Thinking of how wonderful it would be to finally be back in New York with her fiancé and her family, she closed her eyes for a moment. The minute she opened them again, she happened to notice an unusual patch of yellow and black on the runway, and she lifted her head to look out the window. A huge smile appeared on her features as she noticed Danny sitting on the hood of his yellow and black Camaro convertible, watching as her private plane slowly passed by him. To her puzzlement, he held up what appeared to be the front page of the local paper. Seeing a copy laying on a nearby table, Leah picked it up to read the headline. She then turned her attention back out the window, and gave Danny thumbs up.
Smiling, Danny simply returned the thumbs up as the plane jetted down the runway and into the sky. The brown-haired, handsome man simply stared after it for a moment before hopping into the driver's seat off his car. Before tucking it under a nearby armrest, he looked one more time at the newspaper headline.
"Notorious cheat set to stand trial." he read quietly to himself, chuckling at the huge picture of the Professor underneath. The older, curly-haired man had obviously been trying to block his face from the cameras as he exited the courthouse to no success. Still laughing, Danny finally did tuck the picture under his armrest before starting up his car and heading back into town.
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{Author's notes: Well, here we have reached the end of another one of my stories. I hope you all had just as much fun reading it as I did writing it...well, actually, I hope you enjoyed it more than that :). I have already started working on my next Las Vegas story (which is going to be a comedy, a genre that I haven't really done before, so it should be interesting), but I think that I might take a break before I post it...I want to work on my current All My Children story (which is turning out to be LONG) and I kind of want to see where season two of Vegas goes. Anyway, thank you again.}