In the Night (II)

Summery: -

Disclaimer: I do not own CSI NY

A/N:

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'Honestly, why did you want to become a detective?' Don raised a suspecting eyebrow at Jess while she curled up at the other side of the couch clutching a hot cup of chocolate.

'Because I wanted to prove to my father and brothers that I was better than them. Same question to you,' she brushed away a strand of hair with the sleeve of her over sized jumper, which was technically Don's but he'd allowed her to wear it since the night was getting chilly.

'Because I wanted to prove to my dad that I was a real man.'

'Did it work?'

Don thought for a moment, 'You tell me.'

Jess gave him the same questioning, thoughtful look he'd given her before shaking her head. 'No,' she teased trying to sound serious.

He squinted his eyes and gave her an evil look before chucking an empty packet of potato chips at her. She gave a loud protest as crumbs and potato chip dust came showering over her, speckling the front of her jumper.

'You deserved it,' he said back to her but unfortunately turned a second too early and the top of his head got caught by the corner of a flying pillow. 'Thank you, Jess,' he said sarcastically turning back to her as she grinned furiously at him.

They shared a moment of silence in each others company before Don shuffled over to Jess' side. Wrapping an arm around her shoulders she rested her head on his. Don's TV wasn't on but the soft humming of mellow tunes from the radio was playing in the background.

Finally, unable to take the deafening silence any longer Jess turned towards Don.

'Can I ask you something?' she questioned him.

'Yeah, what is it?' he smooched over slightly to look directly at her.

'Do you l-?.... Whoa, what was that?'

Jess stopped in mid-sentence when they both suddenly found themselves sat together alone, on his couch, in his apartment, in pitch black darkness. The already dimly lit lights, softly playing radio and extra warming heater had suddenly switched itself off leaving the room to be illuminated by the fading street lamp outside the window.

'I think the power just went off,' Don replied in his sarcastic manner.

'No shit, Sherlock. I mean how? Why?'

Getting up from the couch, slowly, they attempted to navigate their way around his apartment, searching for candles or a torchlight. Pulling out a draw Don found two torches and tosses on across the room at Jess, who, surprisingly, caught it in the darkness of the room.

'Do you think it's just us or your neighbours as well?'

Don gave a shrug in the darkness and moved towards his front door. Opening it slowly he peered outside and found the rest of his floor mingling amongst each other chatting.

'What happened?' he asked the women living directly opposite. She was clutching a dressing gown over the night dress, her hair limply sitting on her shoulders.

'I dunno, I was watching TV and then everything just went off. I thought it was just my apartment but then Pam knocked asking if my electricity was on.'

Don nodded a thank you before turning back towards Jess, 'Seems like the whole floors got it. Don't know about the whole building.'

'Is there a generator room up stairs or something?' Jess asked still peering from behind the apartment door.

'I'm not sure, why?'

'My brother's an electrical engineer. Do you have a screw driver?' Don raised an eye at her before pushing past her and back into his apartment. Opening a draw in the side cabinet by the door, where he kept his keys, he pulled out a miniature screw driver. 'That'll do,' Jess said taking it off of him and exiting into the hall.

As Jess began slowly walking up the stairs towards the roof she heard Don talking to a resident behind her, 'Make sure everyone get's back into their rooms. We're going to check the generator… thing… upstairs.' Jess laughed silently to herself of the irony of a man not understanding how to fix a generator compressor.

Finally reaching the door to the roof she twisted the handle only to find the door was locked. Obviously, she thought to herself. She waited for a moment before hearing footstep behind her. Turning to face the stairs she crossed her arms and watched as Don's shadow moved to show him carrying a set of keys.

'Met the super on the way up,' he said tossing the bundle of keys at her. She shook her head in disbelief before attempting to fit several different keys into the lock. Finally after minutes of trying they found the one key that fit. Turning it and pushing the heavy metal door open they found themselves in the generator room.

It was an old, musty room with several fuse boxes and what looked like a electricity generator. Heading towards the fuse box first Jess opened the cover and stared in at the breakers.

'None of the main switches seem to be off and no signs of tampering, especially since the door was locked,' she shut the fuse box and headed towards the generator. There was a small hum coming from it but otherwise no immediate signs of life. 'I think the electric company must be doing some back checks because nothing seems to be wrong. They might have only turned it off for an hour or so. It'll come back,' she talked positively and almost carelessly, like she'd done this a hundred times over. They exited together, leaving the generator room behind as they walked down the stairs carrying their torchlights that illuminated the dark stair case.

As they reached Don's floor a sudden loud bang came from where they'd just left. Jolting at the sound they froze in their steps.

'I think I left the door open. I'll go up and close it,' taking the leys back off of Don she turned to walk back up the stairs.

'No, I'll do it,' Don protested pulling her back.

'You go back make sure everyone is alright and tell the super to call the electricity company. I'll meet you in the room,' she looked down into the blue eyes and saw his worry and concern, 'I'll be fine,' she reassured him and quickly placed a kiss on his lips before walking back up the stairs towards the roof.

As she carried on up Jess kept thinking of her and Don. They'd probably made their relationship official to each other that night, devoting themselves to each other, but they were still unsure as to what to exactly tell everyone else. Jess was cool with keeping it quiet, Don wanted to tell Danny to keep him from asking anymore, but there were risks. Risks in everything. Knowing Danny he'd tell Lindsay who'd tell Stella who'd tell Mac who'd tell the Captain and once the Captain knew all hell would break loose. Jess just hoped that for once, Don would trust her, and believe her when she said it was better if no one knew.

As she reached the top step there came another bang and clatter. This time not from the door, swaying in the wind, but something falling over. Jess cautiously entered the room, torchlight high, illuminating everything in front of her. There shouldn't be anyone up there, no one was with them when her and Don came to inspect. As she searched the room quietly she half felt relieved it was empty, but still, inside, wished she had her gun, just in case. Lowering her torch she found there was nothing in there, nothing but some janitor's equipment and old bits and bobs.

Gripping the door handle to leave she was suddenly blinded by a towel wrapped around her face, attempting to scream and kick away, her attack's grip tightened around her and she soon felt the lack of air become too much. She was drifting slowing in and out of sleep and soon felt its weight to be too much. Falling, the ground came almost too welcoming as her whole world suddenly became darkness.

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Don stood by his open front door leaning against it casually. He checked his watch again and found only 5 minutes had gone by since he last checked it. Where is she? he asked himself becoming ever so worried about Jess. She'd gone up to inspect the generator room one more time as it seemed they didn't close the door properly but that was over 20 minutes ago.

'Pam,' he asked his neighbour who existed the adjacent apartment to enter back into hers, 'you haven't seen my friend have you? The tall brunette I had staying?'

'No,' she answered before opening her own door.

Don wondered for a moment, before deciding it best if he go up stairs and check for her. But before leaving he quickly jogged to his side desk and pulled out his gun from the top draw. Jess wasn't in some sort of trouble, he hoped, but it was always best just in case.

Quickly jogging up the last flight of steps he found his self face to face with the roof door which swayed slowly in the cool, evening breeze from the other panelled window inside. They'd seen the open window before but took no notice of it.

'Jess,' he called out causally, 'Jess.'

There was no reply.

'Jess,' he took a few more steps forward before he felt something hit against his foot. Turning his flashlight down, his heart began pounding a little faster, there was a torch lying on the ground the bulb cracked and piece of glass scattered across the floor.

'Jess!' he called out, more seriously this time, his heart picking up speed.

'Jess!' searching in every corner of the room he found nothing, no signs of her, nothing.

His heart almost stopped when it all came together. She was gone.

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A/N: Just to let you know I am NOT an electrician so have no idea what I was talking about when they were in the generator room… Nor do I actually know whether apartment blocks have generator rooms on the roof. So, there you go, one more instalment and while exam day looms closer this might need to get cut down for the next 3 weeks ish… But I'll try my best. Toddles and don't forget to review my wonderful little readers…

('Toddles'- I am way to happy for my own good right now)