D: Don't own, don't really want to own because then I could be faulted with the downfall of a great TV show.
AN: I don't have my science degree yet. Still working on it. So the science mentioned comes from the shows. And what I think. If it's wrong, don't blame me, please.
Danny was the first one to notice the missing car. He went over, yelling over his shoulder, "Maybe Mac's at home and is sleeping like a rock for the first time in…" He didn't finish because he flashed his light onto a liquid on the ground. It wasn't oil, because it didn't have the rainbow coloring that came from light refracting off.
Stella walked up behind him. "Get out your kit, find all that you can," she ordered.
"Could just be a nosebleed."
"Let's not assume. Test. Maybe it's one of the escapees. Either one could have attacked Mac. Also, look for any indication on where they came from or where they're going. If they've got Mac, we need to find them before they do anything worse."
"Are we treating this as a separate crime from the escape?"
"For the time being unless anything tells us otherwise."
"Flack was right about you two. You have been working together too long."
Stella rolled her eyes at this. "Just get started."
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Lindsay was processing the pipe when Stella walked in. "What are you working on?" she asked.
"Weapon for the ring in Mac's case."
"How long can you let that go for?"
"What do you mean?"
"I'm pulling off everyone on other cases. I'm going to need your help in processing evidence from the jailbreak at Sing Sing."
"Why? What's going on?"
"DJ Pratt and Drew Bedford escaped. I need any leads on where they are."
"Escaped? How?"
"I don't know, but I think they have help on the outside. I need you to go everything that we collected from their cells for leads."
"Anything and everything?"
"Exactly." Stella left the lab and started to call Hawkes.
"Sheldon Hawkes speaking."
"I know it's your day off, but I need you in. I need all eyes for this."
"All eyes for what?"
Stella noticed Sinclair coming at her. "I'll tell you when you get in." She ended the call after that. "Chief Sinclair, what can I do for you?"
"You could tell me what exactly is the situation with Detective Taylor. I cannot raise him on his cell phone. Is this an attempt to ignore me?"
"We believe Detective Taylor has been attacked. Two inmates, one of which has a personal agenda against Mac may have been the ones. We do not know whether he's alive or dead."
"Have you checked his home?"
"We felt no reason to." At that moment, Stella's phone started reading. She held up the universal moment sign to Sinclair and took the call. "What do you got, Danny?"
"Medium blood splatter. There was someone getting beaten in the parking lot. It cuts off where Mac's car would have been."
"Okay, confirms what we were thinking. What else?"
"We've got some of the other guy's blood. Mac got in a couple of good punches."
"All right, get back up here and run it." She ended the call and turned back to Sinclair. "Did you just hear that?"
"I heard your end."
"There was a fight in the parking lot. Danny is bringing up samples of two possible blood sources to see who they were."
"You think you can handle this high of a case? The kidnapping of a CSI and two escapees."
"Yes, I can. Why, are you going to come back in and take over?"
"No. If you want to deal with the press on this, Bonasera, so be it. You're in charge of the lab until we have Taylor back in the lab." Sinclair walked off.
"Well that was unexpected," Flack commented, coming up behind her.
"Flack, I need you to do something."
"Yeah, sure. What?"
"Go to Reed's, pick him up and bring him here. Echolls sold his information and it's possible that Pratt and Bedford are the ones that won the auction last night. That might also be where Mac is if he got away from his attacker in the parking lot."
"Got it." Flack went back to the elevators.
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Sleep was not coming easily. Never mind that the mattress of the bed was lumpy, the sound of water dripping was getting on his nerves or the fact that he could hear two people talking just beyond the door. He couldn't stand the fact that he was in the hands of two criminals while his stepson had to share it with him. I should say son.
Stella walked out, giving him time to think. "Seven of the thirteen alleles in common. How is this possible?" he muttered to himself. He thought back to before he met Claire, thinking when he could have met her before and not remembered her later. Nothing came to mind.
He still couldn't remember. Plaguing his mind during the times between cases was the thought that he had met Claire before and didn't even remember. Neither of them must have remembered; she never brought it up and he didn't remember himself.
He was in a semi-conscious state when muttering came from the other bed in the room. He cracked his eyes open to see Reed tossing and turning. "No, no, please let me go. Please, please. No, no, no, no, no" he pleaded in his sleep.
Mac made his way over to the bed and started shaking him up. "Reed, wake up." The pleading stopped, but the tossing didn't. "Reed." He sat up straight in bed, breathing heavily for a couple of seconds. He saw Mac beside him and calmed down a little.
"Sorry."
"What's there to be sorry about?"
"I think I woke you up."
"I wasn't asleep." He sat on the bed with Reed and calmed him further by wrapping an arm around him and rubbing his arm in an affectionate gesture. Reed leaned into the comfort and laid his head on his shoulder. "What was the nightmare about?"
"Cabbie Killer."
"You don't have to worry about him. He's not here."
"Yes, in fact, he's in the afterlife," a new voice answered. Mac looked up to see Drew Bedford walk into the room. He made the motion to move when Drew pulled out a gun and pointed it at Reed. He went back to rubbing Reed's arm. "Well, I never thought I would see this day. Mac Taylor, leader of the crime lab, has a stepson." He sat on the other bed. "You know, I thought I knew all of your weaknesses. Your team. Claire. I couldn't get to Peyton in time." He continued pointing the gun at Reed.
"None of them are a part of this," he stated.
"They're all a part of this. They are all connected to you." He took a moment to study the gun he was holding. "Well, I have to get out of here before DJ comes back. He's having fun and torching your car afterwards. Just a little reminder since I couldn't target Aiden as much. Not really much I could do that he didn't do himself." He walked out and locked the door after.
Mac turned his attention back to Reed. He saw the look of content on his face and realize he had fallen asleep during their sparring. He smiled a small bit before setting him down carefully and moving over to his bed. The small thought of being able to comfort him gave Mac a small thought that allowed him to fall asleep. Claire and I had the child we wanted.
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They met in Stella's office, no one wanting to use Mac's office. "All right, for the time being that Mac isn't here, I'm in charge," Stella told them.
"Who did you hire to help take over the lab?" Danny joked. Most of them glared at him and he fell silent.
Stella wasn't in the mood. "Hawkes, you're on for the killing of Jason Echolls and the escape. DJ Pratt and Drew Bedford were the ones that escaped. More or less likely, they're the ones behind Mac's disappearing act," she directed.
"Danny, you're staying on the possible lead that Mac was attacked in the parking lot. You collect two possible DNA samples."
"Adam's running them right now."
"Lindsay, you're going over to Reed's place. See if there's anything there that could help us out. He's missing also. His cell phone was still there. Angell's going to be with you for that."
"And me?" Flack asked.
"Get to the prison and see if anyone knew where they were going and where they were getting help."
Everyone was heading out when Adam met up with Danny. "One of the samples was Mac. The other was DJ Pratt," he informed him.
Stella was behind them. "Okay, so we know that DJ Pratt had a fight with Mac. Mac got the worst of the fight. His car is missing."
Flack came running up the stairs. "Not anymore. Call came in an hour ago. Car was burned over near the pier; body was found inside."
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Lindsay was the first to say it. "Déjà vu," she lamented, walking up to the car. She checked for a license plate and was rewarded with a twisted, charred piece of metal. She put on gloves and started bagging anything she could from the outside.
"Get to the body inside yet?" Flack asked.
"Not yet. License plate twisted from the intense heat. I'm finding things on the outside."
"The wrapping on a present is meant to be torn off. Get to the actual present."
"Geez Flack, what's wrong?"
"Two cons broke out. Mac's missing, so's his stepson. I would like a little reassurance that they're still alive." Lindsay stared at him after the outburst, but opened the driver door. She located the pelvic bone.
"By the angle, I think it's a girl." Flack gave a small sigh of relief. "I'm guessing this is DJ Pratt's work. Drew didn't send a message like this to Mac."
"No, he went through everyone else around him. Flirting with Stella, trying to kill us, killing those people in places important to Mac."
"I got it; I got it." Lindsay looked up to see two ME assistants coming over to them. Flack stepped out of their way so they could deal with the body while Lindsay went over the car more until she needed more light. She then relented to halting her investigation until she got back to the lab.
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Flack arrived at the exact time the place was shutting down. The warden was the one to greet him as he came in. "Detective Flack, you weren't the one investigating the murder, were you?" Benndin asked.
"No, I'm not. I'm investigating the escape. I need to talk to any inmates that had interest in these two."
"Interest?"
"They may have been getting help inside. Set up links outside, get money transferred to certain people, follow people."
The warden was stunned. "I've heard nothing. Check with the guards, and there are also video cameras for the yard, but everything will be hearsay. Rumors that the guards and prisoners know. There's not much else."
"What about their visitors' logs?" Flack asked, trying to catch up when he started walking without warning.
"That too, although Pratt didn't get any visitors. All family members are dead and he didn't really have any rabid enough fans to visit him."
"And Drew?"
"His brother came around in a great while. Parents are dead. He did have one fan that was here the day before the escape."
"What's the name?"
"I can remember it quiet clearly. Terry Loreatta MecGard. I thought it was a beautiful name. She complained about it. People would always ask how to spell it."
"Did she ever write the full name down?"
"Yes, I asked her once. It's in my office. Oh," he said, surprised that he had led them to the camera room.
"Why don't you go get that paper along with the visitors' logs?" The man nodded and walked off. Flack walked in and told his situation to the camera operator.
"What time do you need?"
"When was Bedford out?"
"Around two."
"Give me that time." Flack noticed Drew coming out the building and walk over to a group. He watched a handoff and a handshake before he went over to Pratt. They talked for a few minutes before separating. "All right, what was the first gang he was talking to?"
"Umm," the man stalled, zooming in on the character. "Eddie Williams, in for…"
"Assault and murder." The guy looked at him like he was psychic. "Arresting officer." The guy took on an 'oh, right' look and turned back to the scene.
Flack turned away from the screens to place a call. "Yeah, I need two uniforms to pick up the Williams."
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Their little hiding hole didn't have the comfort of a full kitchen. Mainly, it didn't have a stove. So Drew had gone out to get some breakfast for the two of them and the two prisoners. DJ had been waiting for a time like this. The woman had worked up his appetite. He saw the younger one as a perfect tide over until his next outing. So, he slipped into the room when he was sure Taylor was asleep before going over to the other bed.
He was sleeping on his side. And deep enough that I could ready him without waking him up. He took both of the arms and held the wrists in one hand. He straddled Reed and used his belt to tie his hands to the bed frame. A rag was produced from the back pocket and tied over his mouth.
He stroked the hair and thought about the woman that must have been beautiful to produce this lovely of a child. His index finger slid along the side of his face. How could she end up with someone like him? Stony personality, hard outside with a hard inside, to his observation. His fingers pulled the shirt up a little to glide along the chest a small bit. Small muscles. Wouldn't last long against someone like me. Not saying much since Mac couldn't take me. It was unfair, though. His hands moved down to the pants.
That's as far as he got when something slammed into the side of him. He hit the wall and was pulled off of his intended victim. He collapsed on the floor and saw the seething rage that only Mac Taylor could give off. "Keep the hell off him," he growled, going over and undoing the belt and gag. Reed had started to wake up and fight the restraints. He waited until both things were off before curling up into a ball.
DJ had gotten up and was pulling out a knife before a voice commanded, "Drop it, DJ." They all saw Drew in the door frame, holding the gun. "I told you, play around with the kid and Taylor would go after you. Now get out here and get your food." He threw a bag onto Reed's bed. He walked out and locked the door after both of them were out.
Mac walked over and crouched by his bed. "How much of that did you know about?" He had seen the whole scene after hearing the door open.
"I felt him climbing on me and I could feel him getting," he cut off, squeaking the last word. Mac wrapped his arms around him and he could feel two arms going around him. He rubbed his back while tremors wracked the body of his son. He forgot about the room, about the food and the two men, to just focused on Reed and calm him down.
Darker and darker. But it hasn't gone into M area. Hopefully.
Review please. You like the color green. Celebrate the season. Give a gift for the writer, please.
