Disclaimer: Oh, not again, I told you already. Oh what the heck, one more time. I don't own CSI.
CSY NY
Ch. 10
After dropping Ricky off back home, they headed back to the crime lab to start tests on the glove. Danny followed them in, rubbing his elbow that still retained a slight throbbing.
" Maybe you should get that checked," Mac said as he led the way inside.
Danny shook his head. " I think I can live with it."
On entering the building, they were met by Stella hurrying toward them, her expression dark.
" Guess who they dragged in here just to drag back out." she said, then turned.
Heading toward them, bound in cuffs and being escorted by two officers, was a face Danny recognized in a disgusted kind of way.
Brian "Bruno" McCalister was being hauled out of the building, most likely to be taken back to his holding cell. Plastered on his face was a self-assured grin that sent anger burning through Danny's brain to go coursing down his rigid spine. He clenched the fist of his good arm, and glared at Bruno as he approached.
Bruno's grin broadened as he neared Danny. He jerked to a stop though the two officers (one of them Jennings) pulled at Bruno, commanding him to keep going. Danny raised his hand to get them to stop.
" Hey Bruno," Danny said. Bruno was taller than Danny, as well as heavier in build. His black hair was slicked back, and the muscles of his arms twitched, bulging, as though he was trying to show them off. It was the reason he always wore T-shirts, even on the coldest days.
Bruno looked Danny over curiously and with a touch of incomprehension Danny knew good and well he was feigning. He then looked over his shoulder at Jennings.
" Never seen this punk before in my life," he said. Jennings rolled her eyes, then looked at Danny with an apologetic, even sympathetic, gaze.
Bruno looked Danny over again. " What happened to him? Get in a fight with a truck and lost?" He laughed a grating, almost high-pitched laugh.
Danny looked over at Mac, and Mac returned his gaze, nodding once. Danny smiled, then looked at Bruno straight in the eyes. Looking into the smug, mirthful eyes of the man that had caused half the misery of his life made Danny want to spit in his face and pound him until he couldn't even think. His heart beat furiously with remembrance, with old imaginings of Bruno smiling as he ordered a crony to drive his fist into young Danny's face, and smiling more when he did the act himself to adult Danny in the dark. Always smiling, he was always smiling, though Danny had never seen that smile for himself, except from a distance whenever Bruno drove by or entered where he was not welcome. He was always so certain, so confident in his capabilities of never getting caught. He was thinking it right now, Danny knew, of what he would do once it was discovered there was no evidence to back Danny's claim. He was probably planning another assault on Danny, maybe even in the same place, just for fun and spite.
Danny swallowed hard as though trying to swallow back his rising anger.
" Good one Bruno," Danny said, his voice flat and wavering on the verge of losing control. But he maintained it. Somehow he found the means to keep himself on the level. " Why not just tell all these nice people what really happened to me. I mean, half of this is your work."
Bruno snickered. " You can't prove that. Not in this life, buddy."
" No, I can't, but then I'm not the one working this case."
Mac then held up the bag containing the gloves, and started moving toward the lab. Bruno stopped snickering, and his face fell; though his lips managed to hold onto a small piece of his grin.
" Looks like you got the better of yourself, Bruno," Danny spat, glaring viciously at the bigger man. Bruno straightened to his full height, watching Mac like a wolf as he headed to the lab, followed by a smirking Stella. Bruno then shifted his attention back to Danny.
" So? Some bloody gloves. Those could be anyone's."
Danny leaned in toward Bruno's face, lowering his voice.
" You hit me pretty hard, Bruno." He then leaned toward the side, looking at Bruno's hands. Just as Tennessee had said, the bruising was minimal, but there were several small knicks on his knuckles. He looked back at Bruno, and allowed himself a small smile. " You didn't stop all the marks, Bruno. You didn't stop 'em all from getting on your hands."
Bruno's grin had completely vanished. " This isn't over, Messer."
" Yeah it is, Bruno, at least between you and me. I owe you a bullet. You come anywhere near me again, I'll be sure to give it to you."
Bruno said nothing for the longest time, refusing even to move. Then he lurched forward in an attempt to attack Danny or at least spook him, but the cops pulled him back. Danny didn't even so much as blink. The police started guiding Bruno out the building when he jerked, causing them to stop, and leaned in toward Danny to speak in his ear.
" How the hell did you find those, huh? Who told?"
Danny pretended to think for a moment, then shrugged, smiled, and walked away. He could hear the two officers snapping at Bruno to keep moving, and could see clearly without having to look the anger on Bruno's face. But most especially, the lack of any kind of a smile.
Danny wanted to shout for joy, to jump and holler, to do anything to release the joy flooding his being and causing his heart, for once, to pound in exhilaration. Bruno was going away, finally going away. Hell had frozen over, pigs were flying, and Bruno was going away. Maybe it wasn't for murder, but that did not matter to Danny. What mattered was that Danny had won. For once in his life, he had won a fight against Bruno McCalister.
Danny, grinning from ear to ear, moved slowly toward the lab and sat in the nearest chair to wait. Despite all the amazement and joy inside him, what he felt most of all was exhaustion. He had never taken a real moment to relax since leaving the hospital. He had rested, yes, but it was nothing legitimate. Now that it was ending, all the tension that had been building up inside him oozed away, leaving him weary and full of aches and pains. His back hurt fiercely from being bent all the time, but to straighten it would only cause pain in his chest. No happy mediums here, but it still did not diminish his smile.
NYNYNY
Danny had fallen asleep without realizing it, with his head tilted back to rest against the wall next to the lab. He jerked awake when he heard the doors open and felt something lightly whack his shoulder. He looked up to see Aiden standing over him, and felt a small twinge of déjà vu.
" Why aren't you out celebrating?" she asked.
Danny rubbed the back of his head. " Didn't we have a conversation like this before? As I recall, it didn't go too well afterwards. Besides, aren't they still doing tests?"
Aiden smiled at him. " They matched the blood on the outside to yours, and they're working on some blood on the inside. It's a closed case, Danny. Bruno's goin' down for this. Justice will – for once in Bruno's case – actually be served. You should be out partying, buying everyone drinks or something."
Danny began rubbing at a kink in his neck. He looked up at her, his eyes heavy with sleep-fog still drifting throughout his brain. Aiden pressed her lips together into a straight line.
" But, all you probably want to do is go home, numb yourself over, and sleep, right?"
Danny nodded. " And there's this cat I gotta feed."
Aiden shook her head. " Yeah, you really do know how to have a good time, don't you Messer. Go home, feed cat, nod off. Come on, we've gotta do something. If not today then some time. Hey, I know."
Aiden suddenly took off only to come back a minute later with a black sharpie. She knelt beside Danny and began writing on his cast, the pen squeaking as she whipped it about in her quick handwriting. When she finished, capping the pen and standing, Danny lifted his arm to look at what she put. He chuckled softly, careful not to aggravate his ribs.
There was a picture of an angry stick-figure man glowering from behind bars, and a grinning stick figure beside it with no bars. The note above both pictures read: Danny Messer 1, Bruno 0, if this doesn't make you smile then nothing will. Below was signed Aiden's name.
" Yeah, it's stupid, I know," Aiden said. " Just don't forget it either."
Just then, Stella came out of the lab, followed by Mac. Aiden tossed the pen to Stella.
" Sign his cast," Aiden said. Stella looked at the pen, then shrugged and knelt by Danny to write something. Danny watched her for a moment, then looked up at Mac.
" Thanks Mac."
Mac inclined his head in a nod. There wasn't much else to be said; though a simple thanks seemed insufficient to Danny. Mac had shown great trust in Danny, and Danny was more grateful for that than Mac probably realized. Or, perhaps, he did realize. It was hard to say with Mac.
When Stella had finished she tossed the pen to Mac. " You ready to go home, Danny?" He asked. Danny pushed himself to his feet, wincing slightly. He lifted his arm for Mac to write something.
" Right now, it's the only thing I'm looking forward to."
When Mac had finished writing something about Danny getting well soon so he could get back to work already, Danny turned suddenly to lean down and plant a quick kiss on Aiden's cheek. " There, you happy? I celebrated," he said with a smirk. Aiden smirked back and shoved him in his good arm as he turned to leave.
" I'll have someone follow you home," Mac said, " just in case."
Danny would have protested, but he really didn't care. Just as long as he got home that was all that mattered to him right now. He would toast to Tennessee, write him a letter on how things went, then take his meds and crash. He felt strangely light, strangely free, free to stop thinking about the past and focus on the now. Bruno was only one speck in the timeline of yesterday, a flaw, but he had been dealt with, so meant nothing to the present. He was where he was supposed to be, and Danny was where he needed to be. So Danny no longer cared about Bruno anymore, or Tom Ryan, tampered evidence, and false accusations. It was all in the past now.
The End
I hope the ending was satisfactory. Many of my readers for my other works tend to want me to end things violently. Oh well.
Thank you everyone who read and responded. I'm glad you enjoyed this, though reading back I find many things I want to change and fix.Oh, I'll do it later. I'm working on one more story for CSI New York. After that, I need to turn my attention to other tales I've been neglecting. If my stories could talk they would be yelling at me right now.
