Chapter 6: For Good
"I'm limited
Just look at me – I'm limited
And look at you
You can do all I couldn't do, Glinda
So now it's up to you
For both of us
Now it's up to you"
Five-thirty. Too early for crime, at least to Mac Taylor. Not to the criminals. Quietly he slips out of bed, trying not to wake his fiancée. He quickly showers and dresses, writing a note for Stella before leaving.
When he arrives at the scene, Flack and Lindsay are already there. "You check the dumpster, Lindsay. I'll analyze blood drops."
They get to work, Flack going to interview the few people up at this hour who might possibly know something. After Mac is done with the blood, he moves to the body.
"Lindsay, go find Flack. This is too much like the other scene a couple weeks ago. It has to be a serial. Tell him to be on the lookout for anyone who was at both scenes."
Cautiously Mac looks around for a person before looking under the dumpster. There was a bomb, very similar to the one that hurt Stella. He radios for bomb squad.
Lindsay comes running back, "There's no one from before here now."
"Okay. Stay back; I'm going to try to shut off it. Look out for anyone. Stella said she saw someone with a control in their hand right before she went flying," he warns.
Carefully he pulls the bomb out from under the dumpster. He takes the scissors from his kit, studying the bomb. There were two wires: one to detonate the bomb and one to stop it. Mac chooses one, hoping it's the right one, and cuts the wire.
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you"
Stella rolls over in bed, expecting to hit Mac. She feels nothing next to her. Tiredly she opens her eyes: no Mac. Where could he have gone this early in the morning?
She gets out of bed, going to the kitchen. Maybe he had started breakfast. Nope, not there either. But what she does find is a note from him: Had a case. See you at the lab. Love, Mac.
Stella sighs, starting the coffee. Work would always interfere with their relationship. Absentmindedly she turns the TV on, seeing if there was a story on the case Mac went to. She grabs a yogurt as a story comes on, only half interesting to her. A detective injured this morning by a bomb. The NYPD had many detectives; most likely she didn't know the injured one. Oh well, just another case for us this bright, snowy morning. Maybe Mac went to get started on the investigation.
After she finishes her yogurt, she jumps in the shower. She smiles, remembering Mac's comment about her tropical shampoo last night. As she steps out of the shower, Stella shivers, missing the warmth from the water. Dressing quickly, she manages to catch the end of the news; nothing interesting to her. She goes back to the bathroom and dries her curls so they do not freeze while she has to process a scene. Then she applies a little make up. Stella finishes her appearance with a necklace and earrings. She looks at her engagement ring for a minute; it seemed like more than three days. As she leaves for the office, she glances at the clock: half an hour to be there. Plenty of time to stop to pick up coffee for them.
"Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good"
Boom.
The bomb explodes on him. He had chosen the wrong wire. And now he was going to die.
"Mac," Lindsay yells as he sinks down the wall opposite the dumpster. She runs to him, but upon seeing his body, she refuses to look at him.
Luckily Flack comes. "What happened?"
"He was trying to stop it from going off and cut the wrong one. He should have waited for bomb squad to get here. It wouldn't have taken that long," she breaks out in tears.
"Get help," he shouts.
"Come on, Mac. Hang in there for me," Mac hears, voice sounding distant. "And if not for me, make it through for Stella." Everything goes black.
"Mac," a female voice says.
He turns around, "Claire. Where am I?"
"It's so good to see you again. You're in Heaven."
"Am I dead?"
She leans up to kiss his cheek. "They're appealing for your life now."
"What does that mean?"
"You might get to go back to Earth. It's up to the council."
"It well may be
That we will never meet again
In this lifetime
So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You'll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have rewritten mine
By being my friend"
"Just in: the detective from the bombing this morning is in critical condition. He is currently in a coma. It is believed the man responsible is a serial killer. He kills in an alley, and when police come, he sets off a hidden bomb. This also occurred two weeks ago to another NYPD detective, who made it out safely with minor injuries," the man on the radio says.
Stella rolls her eyes, "When are you people going to get it. You're only satisfying the killer."
Twenty minutes later she is in the elevator car on the way up to the lab, coffees in hand. She immediately walks to Mac's office; he's not there. Stella checks all the labs, thinking he is analyzing evidence already; not there either.
What she does find is Danny, Lindsay, and Hawkes all in the break room. "Morning," she walks in.
All mumble hellos to her, not very cheerily.
"What's wrong with you guys this morning? Couldn't sleep? Get called out in the middle of the night?"
No answer.
"I'm going to assume you've heard the news this morning. Which detective was injured?"
Again, no response.
"Okay, where's Flack?"
Silence.
"Does anyone know where my fiancé is? Is he still processing the scene he was called to earlier, probably with Flack?"
They all stare at their feet.
"What do you know that you're not telling me?"
"Like a ship blown from its mooring
By a wind off the sea
Like a seed dropped by a sky bird
In a distant wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good"
"Oh, no. God, no. This can't be happening. Tell me Mac wasn't at that scene where the bomb exploded," Stella sinks into a chair, putting her head in her hands.
Lindsay moves next to her and rubs her back. "I'm so sorry, Stella. He's in a coma."
"No, no he's not. Any second now he'll walk through that door," she insists, knowing it won't happen but willing it to.
"No, Stella. He's not going to, as much as you want him to."
"He's dead. That damn son of a bitch killed him."
"He's not dead, just unconscious."
"That's worse than dead. Mac's hanging out there between life and death. He could be like that the rest of his life. I could be the one who has to tell them to let him die," she starts crying.
"Mac will get through this, Stella. He'll come back. For you."
Hawkes pulls her up into a hug, "Sh… it'll be alright, Stella."
"I want to see him."
"Flack said he'd call when Mac can have visitors. It shouldn't be too much longer. Someone can take you to the hospital while the others get started on the evidence brought back from the scene. We're going to get the guy who planted the bombs, Stella. Don't worry."
"I want to see Mac now, Hawkes."
"And just to clear the air
I ask forgiveness
For the things I've done you blame me for
But then, I guess we know
There's blame to share
And none of it seems to matter anymore"
"Flack," Stella calls across the waiting room.
The man turns around, "Hello, Stella. I told them not to bring you until they're finished operating on him."
"They need my consent to perform surgery," she says.
"It isn't life threatening -"
"He's in a coma; how is it not life threatening?"
"They're stopping the bleeding so he doesn't die; it won't hurt him."
"Where is he?"
"In the operating room," he points to the door.
She gets up and walks to the door. "Stella," Don yells, coming after her.
"Miss," a nurse says, blocking her, "you can't go in there." She pushes the lady out of her way.
Flack reaches her as she touches the door handle and grabs her around the waist. "You don't want to see what happened to him, Stella. He doesn't look good."
"I'm a CSI, Don. I knew what happens and have seen victims of bombings. None of my work is pretty."
"It's worse when you know the person."
"Let me go, or I'll shoot you," Stella threatens. She kicks him in the shin, and he lets her go. Before Don can catch her again, she runs in, looking for Mac.
"Like a comet pulled from orbit
Like a ships blown from its mooring
As it passes a sun
By the wind off the sea
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Like a seed dropped by a sky bird
Halfway through the wood
In the wood"
Stella runs to the table with many doctors around it. Mac was lying on the table, cut open. He had a jagged cut on his cheek and a nasty looking burn opposite the cut; neither had been covered. She can't stop looking at his face, as disgusted and upset she is. Hot tears run down her cheeks.
"What's she doing in here? Someone get her out," a doctor says. Two doctors grab her and force her towards the door. She doesn't struggle.
Flack comes in, "I'll take her." He grabs her arm and exits the operating room. Everyone in the waiting room is staring at them. "What were you thinking?"
She feels like a little girl getting scolded by one of the sisters at the orphanage again. "I don't know. I just wanted to see him."
"Did you like what you saw? I can't get that image out of my head, and I told you not to go in there so you wouldn't have to see that. Whose idea was it to let you come down here?" he yells.
"Go ahead and be mad at me, Don. It's my fault, not the person who drove me here. And however sad and upset you feel about what happened to him, I feel ten times worse. I've known and loved him for ten years. The worse part is you're fighting me over this nothing when Mac might not even make it out of this," she walks away in search of somewhere to get away from him, tears still streaming down her cheeks.
"Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better
And because I knew you
Because I knew you
Because I knew you
I have been changed for good"
A/N: Song's from Wicked. This is actually my dance song this year; the other is Pirates of the Caribbean, which neither of the two songs mixed are in the movie. About the story. I'm sad to say it, but this is probably my favorite chapter in this story. Something wrong with me since I like this sad chapter best? If so, there's somthing wrong with my whole English class that's obsessed with death. But I already knew that; we're gifte: what do you expect? I really should be studying for Trig. My really smart friend (never gotten a B on her report card in her life) says she didn't know tweny out of sixty questions. Then again, she says she fails everything and ends up with an A on it. But the one thing I can beat her at is gym class. And now I'm blabbing again, off topic from the story. Only one chapter left to type. And I've started the Silly Games sequel, if your interested. It'll be a while though before it's posted here. I've only written half a page. Anyway, good luck to me and all those other people who have midterms. Only good thing is I get home at eleven. And if I pass the OGT, I'll only have to take two final tests. I'll update hopefully Friday. Cross your fingers: it'd better be new this week.