Here it is! Typed in 15 minutes! Whether I get another chapter out before the 25th (I'm going to NYC!) remains to be seen, but I'll get the next chapter out by the beginning of Feb, hopefully. I'll be quiet now.
Danny had slowed to a walk outside, head hung dejectedly. He had given Mac his first, and indeed last, shot. He would go back to Miami and try to forget that a certain Mac Taylor ever existed.
His mother would be disappointed that he had given up so fast, but then she had never met him, never relied on him for approval the way Danny did. Never relied on him to look at his face and not see a Messer. Jenna had met him though...but Jenna was his sister, she'd accept him when nobody else would.
"Danny!" he cringed at the voice, but the sharp note of panic brought his head up. Mac never panicked.
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Mac pelted out of the station, Stella on his heels, as he headed in the direction Danny had left. Weaving around milling people, the surge of déjà vu brought on by the feeling of hopelessness sickened him. Claire had died, and Danny was about to, and he wasn't there at either time when he was needed.
He had left Stella behind, he knew. He couldn't feel her solid, strong presence at his side but at the moment he was focused on remembering the way to Danny's apartment. His place of sanctuary, where he ran to hide.
He rounded a corner, and saw Eric Dayson. His eyes locked on the raised gun. Loaded. Pointed at Danny. Oh God. Panic and fierce affection surged to the surface, bubbling into a scream in a voice he recognised as his own.
"Danny!"
Danny's head snapped up, a frown on his face and in his eyes. His gaze slid sideways to Dayson, as did Danny's, following his eyes. Indigo eyes widened, and Mac, in a terrible moment of clear vision, saw the finger squeeze the trigger. His hand was moving before he knew it, and the first shot was swiftly echoed by a second.
Mac wasn't paying attention to whether his bullet had hit home, though. He was too intent on cradling the head of a felled Daniel Messer as too-bright blood spilled out onto the pavement of the city that never slept.
Please don't kill me!