At the stroke of midnight
Summery: -
Disclaimer: I do not own CSI NY
A/N: I'm not good at suspense… Sorry.
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Light suddenly flooded into the room as Diego pulled open the door. 'What have you done!' he screamed at her. 'They'll find us! Do you want that?'
'I want to get out of here. If you really want to protect me or help you'll let them find me!' Jess's splintered fingers, still dripping with blood, held the gun in a tight grip. She didn't know what Diego was going to do but what ever it was she wanted to be prepared.
'No, I won't let them take you away from me!' take a leap towards Jess he grabbed her wrist. Bending it back, away from her he forced the gun out of her hand and she cried in agony as he twisted her wrist out of position. The gun dropped on to the puddle water and Diego dropped to his knees in search of it. Pulling it up he positioned it pointing it directly at Jess. He got ready to shoot it, 'You need to stop struggling. You will only get hurt!'
Jess stood carefully grounding herself, waiting for the opportune moment before lunging at Diego. Trying to take back possession of the gun he punched her hard in the stomach causing her to fall backwards gasping for air. 'Stop struggling,' he shouted. Grabbing a handful of Jess's wet hair she screamed as he pulled her up and placing an arm around her waist while the other held the gun firmly at the side of her head. 'I don't want to hurt you,' he said one last time before slamming the gun against her. 'I need you to trust me.'
Blood mixed with the water as the red liquid began dripping out of her wound. She felt nauseas and dizzy. She began to feel tried and suddenly the darkness began calling her. Sounds were simply echoing through Jess's head as she spun in and out of a daze. Her head was throbbing but somewhere between the pitter patter of the water and Diego mumbling to find a way out Jess could hear his voice.
'Don!' she called out!
'Jess,' came the reply as Don entered the room, gun in hand pointing it directly at Diego. 'Let go of her!' he said forcefully.
'No! I will not let you take her! She needs to be with me. I can't let her go,' Diego was getting frustrated, waving the gun around hysterically threatening to shoot anyone who took another step closer.
'Don, get me out of here,' Jess called one more time trying to squeeze out of Diego's grasp. He arm was placed tightly around her waist; he wasn't planning on letting go of her – not for anyone.
'Listen to me, we can talk this over,' it was Mac this time, trying to reason with him.
'No don't you understand, I need to be with Jessica. If I surrender you'll take her away from me.'
'Holding her hostage and threatening to kill us isn't going to help you. You will go to jail on the terms of kidnapping and attempted murder, not to mention assaulting on an officer.'
'But I've waited this long to be here. Why can't you see that?' Diego shouted back at the officers crowded in front of him.
In a bout of frustration Diego's gripped suddenly loosened from Jess's waist and she dropped to the floor. Scrabbling to her feet she began her escape. She lifting her weak and battered self off the wet and soaked ground she took a step towards Don and the crew.
The sound was like church bells ringing in the night. It echoed through out the abandoned construction site and rippled out into the open street. In the cool wet air of the room everyone's faced turned pale as Jess began to fall to the floor and Diego lowered his weapon. Two more shot were fired, louder, faster, aimed directly at Diego himself. Falling backwards he collapsed into an unconscious heap blood pooling slowly around his open wound.
'Jess!' Don ran to her side and pulled her up from the ground. 'Jess, look at me!' Don lifted her up slowly pushing away strands of damp, curled hair. Her eyes were closed and her mouth ajar. From a small opening in her shoulder blood began soaking her jumper. She was hit. 'Jess! Jess, wake up.' Don began applying pressure on the wound trying to stop the blood flow. He stared down at her. Frail and limp in his hands she was helpless. 'Help. Jess's been hit.'
Sounds of radio transmissions and chatter filled the back ground. All rational sense of thought had been pulled away while the chaos and havoc reeked in Don's mind. He couldn't make a decision on what to do – the temptation to save Jess's life was over whelming but seeing her, like a rag doll in his arms, he couldn't move. He felt himself suddenly been tugged away at great force from his protective embrace over Jess. Pushed into a small corner of the room Mac began shouting words and phrases that he couldn't hear. Past Mac's shoulder he could see Sheldon towering over Jess examining her shoulder. Stella had walked in front of his vision blocking his view of Jess.
'No, Don. Just stay calm. Listen to me, everything will be alright. We've got paramedic on the way. She'll be transferred to ER and everything will be fine. Listen to me Don. Can you hear me?'
'Yeah, I know.'
Mac forceful grip loosened from his shoulder as he turned back to the scene unfolding before them. Don slid down the slippery wall and sat silently in the corner while everything happened in front of him. Officers were running up and down everywhere, paramedics came in with stretchers and blue blankets. Water stopped falling from the sky but the sound of rushing water still rambled on in the background. Everything was moving at a constant speed, being pulled away from the crime scene. Officers left but few returned, CSIs were scattered with their silver kits processing. The room began emptier and emptier.
'Don,' Stella was crouched down in front of him, he'd been so dazed and worried about Jess he hadn't noticed her, 'Come on let's get you out of here.' She looped her arm around Don's and, using her strength, pulled him up.
'Jess-,' he began his sentence but was finished for him.
'-is at the hospital. She'll be fine. They'll call us once everything fine. We need you sorted out if you want to go see her.'
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The room was empty but he could see shadows moving around outside the tinted glass window. His fresh, dry clothes hung loosely on his body and the cup of coffee in his hands had since lost its warmth. He'd been waiting in the hospital room for the past 2 hours and watched people pass him bearing melancholy looks on their faces. Don had made the conclusion that if you ever wanted to see all emotions that could possibly be felt, sit, alone, in the waiting room of a hospital, silently, and watch. A lady crying in the corner. A man and little girl smiling at each other. Someone out side the room shouting and screaming. The nervousness and agitation of the man adjacent. Everyone was feeling something different but Don, he was feeling nothing. All emotions were drained from his body when he watched the paramedics carry Jess out on a gurney. Her frail, thin, small body being hauled up onto the stab, people gathering over her pressing and prodding at her wounds. He knew he would never be forgiven if he tried to rush to her side – Mac would have pulled him back, telling him that interrupting wasn't going to help. He'd made a promise to not let his emotions take over the case and he was going to stick with that no matter how he felt towards her. If he wanted this case to become successful the only way to achieve that was to let everyone else do their jobs. The CSIs would find the evidence to secure the case and everything would turn back to normal.
The day grew closet to night and people walked in and out of the room in a blur. Don was joined by fellow team mates who soon left while he sat, waiting patiently for Jess's recovery. 4 hours and 5 cups of coffee later Don was still sat uncomfortably in the hard plastic chairs but this time surrounded by the team. Night was dawning on them as Lindsay quietly dozed off, head resting on Danny's shoulder while Stella murmured inaudibly to Mac. Sheldon was in conversation with a fellow nurse while Don sat alone, clutching the paper cup hoping for the best.
When the hour struck and the clocks in the room hit midnight a Doctor finally entered, bracing himself in front of the team.
'Detectives,' he began, emotionlessly and frank.
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A/N: Exams are over and my muse has ran away from me – that's not a good thing =( Well, the exams being over bit is but the muse thing however, is not. Well, while I struggle to attempt to write something readable I'm hoping you people hang in there since we're almost finished. So, tell me what you think and help motivate me to write some more please! Thanks!