There was a strained silence in the room as they watched the macabre spectacle.
Finally, after an eternity, one figure broke away from the activity and came out of the room.
"Mr and Mrs Messer." The doctor said solemnly. Mac knew it was his cue to step away. Give the family their privacy. He moved off to the far side of the room.
"What's going on with our son?" Mr Messer asked.
"I'm sorry, but your son's heart stop. We've given him drugs, used CPR and electric shocks but so far nothing is working."
"What do you do now?"
"We have two options. The first is that we open up his chest, try internal simulation. Sometimes it will work. Or --"
"Let him die." Danny spoke up.
"That is the other option."
"No. I mean you should let him die."
"Danny." His mother looked at him, shocked. "What are you saying?"
"They beat him up so bad he stopped breathing on the scene. He did it again in the surgery. He's in a coma that the doctors didn't think he was going to come out of before this. Now he's been almost half an hour without oxygen to his brain. That means the chances of his waking up are even worse.
"Louie spent the last 15 years living with the guilt of having done nothing. He didn't stop Sonny from beating up that kid, from killing him. Because he did nothing, at least one other kid died. And then when Salvador couldn't take at any longer, I almost got hurt. And you know Louie, his first rule was no one messes with his kid brother. It wasn't enough for him to just talk. He had to do something. To make up for not doing anything before. That's the way Louie thinks. He caused the problem, it was up to him to fix it. So he did. He knew the risks but he did it anyway. Because it was what he felt like he had to do." Danny looked at his parents, his eyes pleading. "Louie wouldn't want to spend the rest of his life in a hospital bed hooked up to some machine being a burden. That would kill his soul."
"There's no chance he could pull through." His father asked the doctor.
"I can't say there is absolutely no chance but it's very, very slim. One in a million odds."
"And the chances of his heart starting."
"Given the damage to the muscle from the attack and the previous arrests, also very slim."
"Dad," Danny begged his father. "He's been beaten up enough."
They knew Danny was right. Mac could see it in their eyes. But he could also see the pain. Especially for Danny. Louie had acted to save him. It was unlikely that a jury would have convicted Danny of murder. They had enough evidence to suggest reasonable doubt. But IA would have had a field day with the implications and Danny would have certainly been chained to a desk for the rest of his career, if not outright fired. And that, to borrow Danny's words, would have killed his soul. And Louie knew his brother enough to know that. Sonny Sassone and that night had ruined his relationship with his brother, Louie wasn't going to let it ruin Danny's life. Even if it cost him his own.
Mac watched as Danny's father merely nodded to the doctor who returned to the room. A moment later, all activity stopped. It took only seconds for the squeal of the alarm to start. Mac could see the doctor look at the clock, see him mouthing the words "time of death". A nurse reached over and turned off the alarms.
Danny's parents hugged one another. Danny, his face pale, slipped out of the room and into the bathroom at the end of the hall. Mac followed and found him standing in front of a sink.
"Is that what it was like?" Danny turned on the water and splashed water on his face.
"What what was like?" Mac handed him a paper towel.
"When your wife died. Is that what you had to do?"
"More or less."
"Was it hard, making that choice?"
"It was the hardest choice I've ever made."
They walked back out into the hall. Danny stopped outside the waiting room and looked outside. "You can see the stars. Louie would have loved that. He had a thing about the stars."
Mac looked up at the twinkling stars. "The first case Stella and I ever worked together we were processing a roof. As we were packing up our kits, she starts talking about how the stars were out. Says that in the old Greek stories, when a hero died, the gods would pin his body up in the sky so the people wouldn't forget about him and his deeds." He pointed out the window. "You see those stars."
Danny tried to follow his finger. "Which ones?"
"Right there. Looks like a fist with a finger pointing up. I think that that's Louie, hanging up in the stars, giving it to all the Sonny Sassone's of the world. His own little way of telling them that one day they will get what's coming to them."
Danny gave Mac a look like he'd totally lost it. "Anyone ever tell you that you are one strange guy." He glanced out the window and gave a chuckle. "Still I do like the thought. Stupid as it sounds." He laughed.
Mac nodded. It was a tiny return of the Danny he knew. It was good enough for now.
"I'll have your badge and gun waiting for when you're ready for them."
"Thanks, Mac."
