A/N: UPDATED UPDATED UPDATED (does happy dance) This chapter is again told from Flack's point of view. Thank you so much to my reviewers, I truly appreciate it.
Don't own them, never will, original characters are mine, song belongs to The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, haven't we been through this before?
Reviews always welcome
I will never let you fall
I'll stand up with you forever
I'll be there for you through it all
Even if saving you sends me to Heaven
Your Guardian Angel- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Now I have nothing to worry about, well maybe I do.
Clay Dobson is dead.
But Mac is going to go down for it.
The only thing is, I don't think he did anything wrong. He had had Dobson in custody sure, but only Mac and Dobson know what went down on that rooftop. Thanks to the frenzy the media is kicking up on this case Mac's become the scapegoat.
He's always been there for the team, and now someone had to be there for him.
And little did I know, or even expect, who it would be.
Angela and Charlotte came back to New York a few days later. Charlotte could see the look in my eye as I lifted her up and hugged her tightly. My eyes closed as I breathed in her little girl scent. Strawberries and peaches, that's what I smelled, like the fresh ones you find on the trees and vines somewhere in the fruit orchards of California.
I was ecstatic to have my wife and daughter back in my arms. Angela told me of all the nights that I wasn't there, how Charlotte would not sleep unless she knew for sure that I would be okay. Angela stayed up with her all night, signing lullabies to her.
I had crashed on Danny's couch for more than 10 days. I didn't know if Clay Dobson would do it again; if we would suddenly be answering a call to discover another body wrapped in packing tape.
We weren't, but I still insisted that Angela and Charlotte stay in New Jersey until we knew for sure that Dobson wasn't going to strike again.
I remember the phone call that finally revealed that my family could come back to me. I jumped into my car and drove to Jersey right away.
"Don, what's happening?" Angela signed to me as she opened the door and I took her in my arms. When she looked at me again there were tears forming in my eyes. I cupped her face in my hands as she moved and let me into the house. I leaned forward and kissed her.
When I pulled away I let go of her.
"Dobson is dead…" I told her, my hands flying faster than they ever had before. Of course, I didn't tell her that he'd either thrown himself and fallen backwards off the roof of an office building. It didn't matter… all that mattered to me right now was the fact that my girls were coming home.
"What?" she asked.
"Clay Dobson is dead," I repeated.
"Does this mean we can come home?"
I nodded.
Her face broke out into a big smile and she jumped into my arms. I steadied myself as I wrapped my arms around her, something I'd taken for granted before, but now I realized just how much something so simple could mean to someone.
Angela, Charlotte and I drove back that day. Angela settled Charlotte back into the apartment while I went back to work. I wasn't particularly happy that I couldn't stay with my wife and daughter at home for the day, but it was my job, I had to provide for my family.
I'm sure everyone in the precinct noticed just how elated I was. I felt the colour in my cheeks return, and I was more eager to do my job, because I had the love of my life back.
I had been so scared for their lives that I had sworn to kill anyone or anything that may have caused them harm. No one touched my girls and got away with it. As we went in search of Dobson all I could think about was how much Angela and Charlotte meant to me, and the sooner I got this fuck bag off the streets the sooner my wife and daughter would be back in my arms.
When Clay Dobson's lifeless body fell from that office building on to the windshield of my police cruiser, I looked up and saw Mac's stoic face.
Two things went through my head. One, what the bloody fuck had just happened? Had Clay Dobson just landed on the hood of my car? And two… would my wife and daughter be home by the end of the day?
Now, as Mac's trial is set to go through as part of an Internal Affairs investigation, I've been subpoenaed. As I lay in bed with my wife I'm not sure what to think. I came so close to losing her and now I'm about to lose a boss?
"Don?" Angela nudges me in the arm as I turn on my side to face the window, away from her. "What's wrong?"
She didn't speak very often; she found it uncomfortable, especially with her lisp. I know she means well, and, as I don't hold anything back from her, I tell her exactly how I feel.
I roll over so that my hands have free reign.
I was so scared I would lose you, I signed. If anything ever happened to you I don't know what I'd do.
"You won't lose me," she insisted, kissing me thoroughly.
"I love you, Angela Sharon Flack."
"And I love you, Don," she signed to me before kissing me again.