Disclaimer: I am not Anthony Zuiker, Ann Donahue or Carol Mendelsohn. All the characters of CSI: NY are not mine…I'm just borrowing them for a little bit. I promise that I will put them back, exactly the way I found them when I'm done….Oh, Cory Reid is mine and I will take credit for anything she does. :)

A/N: Ok. Back into the drama!! Please, please, please R&R!! It makes my muse happy!!

Chapter 15.

Traitor

About a week after Flack got home from the hospital, Cory was in her office, excited because she had managed to get a warrant to raid one of the three targets she had picked out.

Agent Michaels called Cory into his office. "I have some news for you."

Cory took a deep breath, waiting for him to continue.

"We have investigated everyone that could possibly be the mole and have found some irregularities with Liz Jeffries finances. We found an offshore account that shows regular deposits each month for the last six months. It's not enough to do anything with right now. We have to trace back where the money is coming from."

"Ok. So what do you want me to do? I've already got the warrant for the next target-it's a warehouse that has seen some suspicious activity. We're supposed to raid tomorrow." Cory shook her head, perplexed.

"Right now, actually like nothing has happened. Just proceed as planned."

Cory shook her head in agreement, her mind buzzing with the news. "Okay. Anything else?"

"No. I just wanted to keep you in the loop."

"Okay. Thanks, Agent Michaels." Cory left his office with her mind still in overdrive. Liz? The mole is Liz? How can she do something like that? I thought that she wanted to catch Ortiz as much as I did! As Cory walked, she could feel her anger rising. It was a deadly, cold anger. This type of anger made her more calculating and less forgiving of any mistakes that anyone else would make. At this point, only perfection would make her happy.

--

About two blocks from the warehouse that they were going to raid, the FBI had set up a command post. Cory was briefing everyone on what to expect. When she was done, she started strapping on her gear. The first thing she put on was her bulletproof vest. Then she strapped on her thigh holster for her handgun. I have an uneasy feeling about this. I'd better make sure that I'm fully armed. With that thought, she grabbed a rifle from the van.

Once the whole team was geared up, Cory motioned for them to begin to creep closer to the warehouse. This time going in, Liz and Cory were going in first, with Travis and Byron following them.

When they reached the warehouse, Cory waited for confirmation that the remaining team was in position. As soon as she got the word, she motioned for the battering ram team to break down the door. She went in low, Liz went in high; both of them yelling, "FBI!!"

The group of ten Hispanic men inside looked up in surprise but did not hesitate to pull out their weapons. Cory saw what they were doing and immediately yelled, "Freeze! Put your weapons down." The men ignored her and opened fire. Instinctively she dove for cover, bringing her weapon at the ready. When she got behind the metal drums, she paused for a breath.

Once she caught her breath, she put the rifle up to her shoulder and began to return fire. Quickly she took out two of them men before they took over behind some boxes. She took a moment to call in some backup. By her count, she thought that the men had expended most of their ammunition.

She stood back up and quickly fired off another couple of rounds, trying to scan to see where the remaining eight men had taken cover. She saw on her scan that four of the ten FBI agents that had come into the warehouse were down, including Liz.

Cory caught a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye and turned instinctively. To her shock she saw that one of the gang members was opening a box. Her jaw almost dropped when she saw him pulling out AK-47's. Crap. I thought this was a drug smuggling warehouse! Damn it, this is one of their weapons hubs. How much ammo do I have? Quickly she mentally went over what ammo she had brought in with her and realized that the agents were severely outgunned. She knew that she had to end this quickly.

Making her decision, she again checked the positions of gang members. She saw another agent in her line of sight and with some quick hand motions let him know what she was planning. He nodded that he understood.

In unison both agents stood up and started firing. The other agents, seeing what they were doing and opened fire as well. In minutes most of the gang members were down, with only two left firing. Cory was out of ammo for the rifle, but quickly drew her 9 mm Glock. She aimed at one of the remaining men and squeezed off a shot.

Travis looked on in horror as the remaining gang member focused on Cory and quickly fired off five shots. "CORY!!" His yell echoed throughout the warehouse and Cory was hit and fell to the ground. Rage flowed through his veins as he took aim at the gang member and quickly shot him and watched him fall to the floor and quickly ran to Cory's side.

"Cory? Cory? Are you okay?" He could hear her gasping for breath as she tried to respond.

"I'm…I'm fine. Feels like I got hit in the chest with a hammer, but I'll live." Cory tried to sit up and then realized that her arm hurt. She looked down at her arm and her eyes opened wide at the blood running down her arm.

Travis followed her gaze and realized that she was shot in the arm. "Damn it, Cory! You're not fine! You've been hit!" He clamped down on her arm with both hands to stop the flow of blood.

"I'm fine, Travis. It's just a scratch! What about Liz?" In her heart, she knew the answer, but was trying to hold out hope just in case she was wrong.

Travis just shook his head, his eyes showing his regret.

Cory closed her eyes. Shit. Even if she was the mole, she didn't deserve to die! Cory lifted her head as the sound of sirens got closer.

Fifteen minutes later, Cory was sitting in an ambulance arguing with a paramedic who wanted her to go to the hospital. She was refusing. Finally, Travis came over and ordered her to go to the hospital.

--

Cory sat on a bed in the emergency room, lost in thought. She was mourning the death of the four agents they had lost and silently cursing herself for not realizing that the warehouse was storing assault weapons.

The doctor walked into the room, reading her chart. "Agent Reid. I'm Dr. Phillips and I'm going to check you over."

"I'm fine, Doc. It's just a flesh wound."

The doctor just shook his head and began to remove the bandages that the paramedics had put on her arm. With the bandages gone, the doctor peered at the bullet hole and started to clean it. "Well, it looks like a through and through. What kind of bullet was it?"

Cory bit her lip at the flash of pain that the doctor caused. "I'm not sure. It could have been any assault rifle bullets since the perps were firing AK-47's."

Dr. Phillips shook his head in amazement. "You were very lucky. There is minimal damage and it should heal up alright in a couple of weeks. Now it's also listed that you took two shots to the chest that were stopped by your vest?"

"Yeah."

"Let me examine you to make sure there was no damage. With that kind of force behind them, it could have bruised your ribs." He lifted up her gown to see two bruises the size of dinner plates across her chest and midsection. "Do you feel any pain here? Here? Here?" Dr. Phillips kept testing different spots around the bruises for any pain that was not normal. When he was satisfied that there was no internal damage he just shook his head. "You are one lucky woman."

After he had finished stitching up her arm, he said that she was free to go, with the normal precautions.

Breathing a silent prayer of thanks, Cory got dressed and left the hospital. She immediately called Travis to get an update on the status of the crime scene.

"Hey, Travis. The doc gave me a clean bill of health and I'm free to come back to work."

Not tonight, you're not! We're still collecting evidence and we don't need you here. Just go home, get some sleep and be prepared to work like a dog tomorrow because we have a ton of computers that we will be going over.

"But…"

"No buts! That's an order. Go home."

Cory realized that she was overruled. "Fine. I'll see you tomorrow." She stopped next to the agent that was waiting to escort her home. They got in the SUV and left.

--

Lindsay was just finishing a double shift after completing the tests she was running on a man that was gunned down in Central Park. She rolled her neck, trying to relieve some of the tiredness she felt. I'll call Cory and see if she wants to go to dinner or something. She took out her phone and dialed Cory's number.

"Reid."

"Hey Cory. It's Lindsay. Do want to have dinner or something tonight?"

"No. I'm just going home and sleeping. I've had a…rough day."

"The Ortiz case?" Lindsay heard Cory sigh and felt that she was trying not to say something. "Ok, girl. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. I just…" Cory trailed off, not sure that she wanted to tell Lindsay what happened. "I just got home from the hospital. A raid went wrong today. We lost four agents and I got shot."

"You got SHOT!" Lindsay's yell attracted Danny's attention as he walked by the lab.

"Who got shot, Montana?" Danny tried to get Lindsay's attention, but she just waved him off.

"Where and what the hell happened?" Lindsay asked when Cory left her hanging.

"In the arm. Geez's Linds. Calm down. I'm fine. The doctor has already discharged me from the hospital. I'm at home right now."

"Sorry, I get kinda upset when one on my friend's fails to tell me that she was shot. Do you want me to come over?"

"No. I'm just going to bed so I can get to work early tomorrow. I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay. Sweet dreams." Lindsay hung the phone muttering under her breath. She turned around to see Danny still waiting impatiently for her to answer his question.

"Who. Got. Shot?" Danny bit off each word, making each one a statement.

Lindsay saw the look in Danny's eyes and backed up a step. "Back off, Messer. You look kinda scary right now. It was Cory. She said a raid went bad and she got shot in the arm. She's fine. She's at home about to go to bed."

Danny just stood there in shock, emotions battering him from different sides. On one hand he was angry and scared…on the other hand his brain was telling him that he had no reason to feel that way. The he remember the way she had been treating him, the conflicting signals. Danny sighed and made the decision to back off completely.

"Awight. I hope she's feeling better." Danny left it at that and decided to go home.

--

Cory had woken up early and was at work by 7am. She immediately went down to the labs to see what information she could pull off the computers there.

"Hey John. Have you gotten any info yet?"

The lab tech looked up at her soft words. "Hey, Cory. I've gotten through one of the computers and there was a ton of info on it! How's your arm?"

"I'll be fine. I just need to keep the bandage on it and in a week I'll be close to normal."

"Good to hear. I'm sorry to hear about Liz. She was a damn good agent. Here are the discs from the first computer. I glanced at the data, but I was lost in all the accounting. Hopefully you'll be able to make something out of it."

"Thanks. John."

When Cory got back up to her desk she sat down. She wanted to get to work, but she couldn't get Liz's death out of her mind. On one hand, she was upset about the death of her friend, but on the other…she was upset because her friend might have been a traitor. Talk about conflicting emotions!!

Cory sat at her desk for hours pouring over the data. John was right. This is a ton of info and this is only the first computer! This is exactly what we needed to help put an end to Mala Suerte.

Cory took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. She was a little overwhelmed at the sheer amount of data she had to process. She knew at the rate she was going she would still be processing this data in two months.

She had just stopped for lunch when she heard a knock on her door. She looked up to see Agent Michaels standing at her door. "Agent Reid. Got a moment?"

"Sure, sir. What's going on?"

"I wanted to let you know that we were able to trace back the deposits in Liz's account. They all trace back to business' that are known to be owned by Mala Suerte. I'm sorry. I know she was your friend."

Cory closed her eyes briefly. "No need to be sorry, sir. I know the pressure that we're under and it's not unheard of for a gang or hell even the mob, to break one of our agents. I only wonder if there was anything I could have done to prevent it."

"Not likely. The deposits started about a month before you got here. Don't beat yourself over it."

Cory smiled. "Thanks. I'll try not to." Cory got up and walked out of the office with Agent Michaels, deciding that it was a good time to go to lunch and think things over.

kasmith101-i know i'm a tease! but that's what makes it fun! glad you're still with me:)

screaming-poetically- not it's not bad to squee! but how are you going to feel with they kiss? oh...btw...i'm having a really hard time writing Stella for some reason, that's why she's not in it much! i'll definately have to check out your Numb3rs fics (i'm just in love with charlie! somehow i'm going to have to come up with a story that gets: Flack, Danny, Charlie & Don (from Numb3rs), Eric (from Miami), Greg & Warrick (from Vegas), Martin & Danny (from Without a Trace) all together in the same story...i melt just to think about it!

tylerhiltongroupie52-all i can tell you is that flack&lindsay will kiss before danny&cory...(giggling evily)

chili-peppers-of course i think there good! chapter 17 is the one that actually started the story! if not for that idea, y'all wouldn't be reading this right now! yeah...cory could have kissed danny, but remember she knows that ortiz is following her and she doesn't want anything to happen to danny! (neither does my muse right now!)...it's safer this way... :p

axellia-cory gives good advice, but she doesn't take it very well! right now my muse is happy with danny fully intact (that may change once...i mean IF (lol) him and cory actually break down!...i can't believe that she didn't realize that TCM was set in Texas! (she's not usually that ditzy is she?)

pnkrckprncss-good things come to those who wait! btw-watch the original TCM (not the remake) and it will restore you're faith in horror movies...another good one is Audrey Rose which has Anthony Hopkins in it...very creepy!