Chapter 8

XXXXXXX

The first thing Danny registered when he regained consciousness was a strong throbbing pain in his shoulder and the overwhelming smell of disinfectant. His head felt muddled and fuzzy but he willed himself to open his eyes and the first thing he saw were Jack and Sam walking into the room.

"Hey, you're awake." Jack came to stand next to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Like something crawled in my mouth and died." Danny's voice sounded hoarse and foreign to him. Sam came up behind Jack and had him move aside. She grabbed the pitcher next to his bed and filled a cup with ice chips.

"Here, this helps." Sam held the cup to Danny's lips and the ice felt cool, crunchy, and blessedly soothing.

"Thanks." While he was swallowing he had a chance to see just how awful Sam looked. Her eyes were puffy and red and it was at that moment he remembered just why he was here. "Martin?"

Sam's eyes refused to meet his so it was Jack who spoke first.

"He's alive." Danny could see Jack looked unsure of how much more to say but he had to know.

"And? Don't hold back on me Jack," he said with as his eyes fluctuated between his two colleagues willing them to say something.

"He's in a coma," Jack said the words so quickly it was if he thought if he said it fast enough it would be less true.

Danny took a moment to register the news. He looked at Sam and felt the familiar pang of guilt.

In a composed voice Jack said, "Danny, I know this is difficult but I need you to tell me everything you remember."

"It was Dornvald and some other guy I didn't recognize. It happened so fast. It's mostly in bits and pieces." Danny hated how fearful his voice sounded.

"Can you take me through it?" He knew that this was the hardest part for an interviewing agent as well as the victim but it was necessary to see if he could remember anything that could help catch this guy.

"Yeah, can I have some more ice first?" Danny looked at Sam who gave him a bit more before he continued, "I had just gotten off the phone with you. There was a dark blue van in front of us. The light turned green but they didn't move so Martin honked the horn."

"C'mon pal, let's go, it's a green light." Martin urged while honking his horn.

"At least we're ending the day on an up note." Danny was so happy and relieved that Viv was going to be okay. He already started thinking about the lame jokes he would pester her with, like her faking it just to get out of doing paperwork.

"Yeah" Martin smiled back.

Then all hell broke loose.

Danny looked at Jack and said, "Dornvald and someone else jumped out of the back of the van."

"Get down!" Danny called out as gunfire sounded and glass was shattered.

Then a piercing pain in his shoulder.

A heavy weight on top of him.

Him pushing on Martin's leg so it would put pressure on the gas pedal hoping to hit the shooters with the car.

"I tried to get the car out of the way and maybe hit them but Martin was slouched against the steering wheel and I guess it made us turn."

Danny felt the car moving fast and then it collided with something because the entire car jerked and Martin was crushed into Danny's side.

"We ended up hitting an SUV at the intersection." Danny's throat went dry so he paused again and Sam, who was quiet the entire time, offered him more ice chips.

"Go o,." Jack pressed.

"I heard tires screeching and by the time I was able to move out from under Martin and get out of the car they were half-way down the street." Danny felt anxiety building inside. He was going to be okay while Martin was in a coma. "I should have suspected something. I should have known…"

"There was no way to know." Jack reassured him before pulling two computer generated photos from his coat. "There were some other witnesses. Is this a pretty good description of the other guy?"

Danny took the photo. It was a computer generated image of a black man but it was pretty nondescript. He actually looked a lot like Teno.

"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head. "Maybe, but it's hard to tell."

"That's okay. Do you remember anything else? Distinguishing marks on the van? License plate?"

Danny closed his eyes to try and remember, "The van was pretty ordinary. The license plate had a 'C' than either a 'Q' or a zero. Then '1-3-3- something,' I'm sorry. I can't remember anything else."

"Don't be, you gave us a lot to work with." Jack had pulled out his notepad and starting writing down the details he gave him. "Is that all?"

Martin struggling to breathe, the pleading look in his eyes…

"Yeah, that's all I can remember right now." Danny lied. He didn't want to go through what happened between him and Martin in the car. He wasn't ready to go there. No yet; maybe not ever.