disclaimer: I do not now, nor have I ever in any way owned the X-Men. If I did, I would be rich and have lots more time to write about them. This is a work of fiction based on the X-Men comic book owned by Marvel Comics Group and I expect to receive absolutely no monetary compensation for it. Dammit.

Farewell Sunshine
by Dizi

Chapter 3

With the hope I'd been given the night before, there was a spring in my step as I started the new day.

The first order of business was to check on Sunshine at the hospital. Though I was worried about her, I wasn't too worried because Phil would have called me if there had been a change no matter what the time. It didn't stop me from coming close to freaking when I went to her room and there was someone else in the bed. An orderly was quick to inform me Ms. Jessup had been moved to another room, a nicer one. Maybe a better room helped Xavier sleep last night.

The nurse comes in to do a vitals check while I'm gazing into Sunshine's lovely face the same way I had the day before. As though I don't know, because Phil would have called to tell me, I ask, "Goski still in charge of her?"

"Yes, ma'am." The nurse answered too quickly, as though she's paying more attention to me than her patient.

"Is he available to update me?" I'm watching her and I can see she's being professional but doesn't like being close to a mutant. Her face scrunches when she has to touch her.

"I'm sorry, he's in surgery right now."

"Okay, can you tell me if she's had any visitors?" Casually, I brush my jacket away from my badge clipped to my belt. It never hurts to let them know I'm a cop. Hospital staff tend to be more honest once they have that information and I had never seen her before so she might not know.

She's looking a bit surprised at my question, as though wondering who would want to visit a mutie. "No, ma'am, you're the only one."

Keeping in mind the visiting hours, which no one usually pays attention to in cases like Sunshine's, it's possible the people Logan said cared about her haven't had a chance to visit. Xavier hadn't informed the teachers about her whereabouts, much less the students, and Logan would have gotten back a little late for anyone come to the hospital. Still, I feel an even stronger tie. I'm notorious for getting personally involved, but not this much. I'm the one that's been here for her, I'm the one who wants her to have justice, and I'm the one who can't do shit yet.

Looking at my watch, I reluctantly decide I have to leave. "Alright, would you do me a favor and pass a message to Dr. Goski? Just tell him Ms. Jessup doesn't have any powers."

In my opinion, the nurse looks far too relieved and I might have to talk to Phil about her. I'll make sure the woman gets kicked out on her ass if she's careless and lets Sunshine die. This case is mine and better stay that way.

My expression might have gotten a little fierce because she readily agrees a little more submissively than before, "I can do that, Officer."

To my surprise, Frickman's on time for once because he's already at the station when I arrive. Unfortunately, he left his brain in his pocket. The stupid dipshit is sitting in my chair and has his feet on my desk. Did I say he was getting better? Guess I was wrong.

"Since you're right by my phone, have I gotten any messages?" Casually, I shove him off my desk and he has the nerve to look affronted.

"Geez, Sanchez, I just got here." Frickman yawns, letting me know he forgot to brush his teeth or use mouthwash this morning. "No one's had a chance to call."

It was too much to hope Logan would have gotten through to either Xavier or Frost this quickly. Shrugging off my jacket, I put Frickman's bad personal hygiene from my mind. "How about a new case?"

He avoids my eyes which is not a good sign. "Captain said we're supposed to help Ansley and Weiss."

Well, there's an indication I'm in the doghouse. For anyone else, Captain DeCarlo would pile them up with as many cases as possible, but not me. I'm a workaholic. To show me I've gotten on his bad side, he gives me nada.

At least I can stick Frickman with Weiss and work with Ansley. He was my partner before we both made detective and I've missed him like mad. Ansley used his brain and had never expected me to leave mine at home. I hadn't needed to 'train' him, as partners we'd trained each other in such a way that left all others wanting. Like with lovers, you never forget your first real partner. "What've they got for us?"

"Roarkeman made parole and hooked up with Skinner, they're already wanted for questioning about a mugging near the QuickStop on Fifteenth Street." He shrugged. "We can pick them up any time at old lady Skinner's house."

Known felons, Johnny Roarkeman and Carl Skinner have been partners in crime since kindergarten when they started their careers by taking the other kids' lunch money after beating them up. They can't stay out of trouble and always go to Geraldine Skinner's place to hide, Carl's aging mother. You'd think they'd learn by now we've figured out their pattern but those two don't have half a brain between them. "How 'bout you and Wiess take them and I'll ride with Ansley?"

"Sorry, you can't get rid of me that easy. I'm supposed to stick with you to keep you out of trouble, Captain's orders."

Though not on a personal level, my captain does indeed know me well. I wonder if he told Frickman not to shower so he'd get on my nerves that much more. The man has a mean streak and I've got to respect that. I want to be just like him when I grow up.

But now I'm torn. I don't want to leave the phone for whenever Logan calls and I don't want our perps to give a little old lady a heart attack. Decisions, decisions.

Willing the phone to ring, I sigh. It would be nice to start working Sunshine's case as soon as I got the okay, but realistically I would probably have to switch back and forth between cases anyway. Or usually I would, today's an exception. Also, I'm not good at sitting around patiently. Guess there wasn't really a decision to make.

"Let's go get 'em before the nice Mrs.Skinner's neighbors call and complain that we took too long." Very sweet natured, Geraldine would let her son and his friend stay with her as long as they liked, which her neighbors wouldn't appreciate in the least. They're the ones who always call in, not her. However, sweet old lady she is - and not a little senile - she still has more sense than the 'boys'. She knows they won't be there long. The nice woman starts baking as soon as they arrive in order to give the arresting officers a treat. Captain DeCarlo must not be aware of that one or I'm sure he'd have given the run to someone else. Hopefully she made muffins this time, I skipped breakfast.

Putting my jacket back on and leading the way to our assigned car, I wonder what the point was taking it off in the first place. Frickman's still grumbling about how we could wait, I think he's afraid Mrs. Skinner's goodies won't be done baking. Then, from out of the blue, he goes and says something which makes me see him in a new light.

"By the way, how's that little yellow mutant girl doing?"

Stopping in my tracks, hoping my shock doesn't show on my face, I try to be neutral in my response. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, she's still our case, right?" Frickman even looks earnest. "Would hate for her to go to those jerks in homicide."

I hate when I've got someone pigeon-holed and they suddenly don't fit. With that one question, Frickman's gone up in my esteem. Setting aside the bad hygiene, immaturity, and all around stupidity, he's on our vic's side. He's on my side. He's being a real partner. For all those things, I can put up with a lot.

"Damn right, she is."

"Good." He gives me a lopsided grin. "She's hot."

But he's still a dipshit.

So on the second day of a rape/assault case, we're doing squat. Time consuming errands which any beat cop could do, should be doing. Very little of it made any difference except to make the other detective's jobs easier.

After each errand, big or little, I checked for messages. Sit in on a questioning, check messages. Type a report, check messages. Run a perp through processing, check messages. I wanted to keep busy so even volunteered to get everyone coffee - completely out of character for me - just for something to do before I checked for messages again.

Someone else's phone would ring and I'd jump for it, sure it was Logan. Of course, it wasn't. Obviously, I was anxious. Just a little.

One of the times I was sitting at my desk willing the phone to ring, it actually did. But it wasn't Logan. In a brusquely professional voice, completely without any personal feelings, Phil Goski informed me Sunshine had flatlined. I thought my heart would stop too. He had to shout to get my attention enough to tell me she'd only been technically dead for four minutes. The nurse hadn't let me down and saved her. Everyone was surprising me today. Sunshine was still in the coma but her condition was much more critical. Phil didn't have to say it could happen again literally any minute, it was in his voice anyway.

For the next couple hours, there's no way to release the tension and it just keeps building. I'm not good at waiting, I suck at stakeouts. Patience is not one of my virtues - not counting for revenge which is entirely different. My hope from last night has dwindled to nothing with Goski's call. I'm so pissy even Ansley's avoiding me.

Can't call Logan directly. He got rid of his cell phone when he got married and bought one for his wife, happy he wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. I don't have Jubilee Logan's number and didn't think to ask for it last night. I'm forbidden from calling the school for anything. By going to that arcade, I might screw up any headway Logan's making. I'm stuck here and I hate it.

I wanted to go into a panic. I wanted to jerk Frost's so perfectly coiffed hair out of her head. I wanted to knock Xavier's chair over and watch him struggle like a turtle turned upside down. I wanted to yell some sense into those snotty people up the hill. I WANTED TO DO MY DAMN JOB!

But so far, none of those things were going to happen.

Frickman was lucky Ansley was there to keep him from saying something stupid. However concerned he might be, Frickman has a way of making the wrong comment at the wrong time. It wouldn't help anything if I shot him. Nothing vital, but I wouldn't be averse to seeing blood flow freely from a flesh wound. Maybe someday Frickman will understand how Ansley saved him.

To make matters worse, around three-thirty my captain gets another call. The only reason I realize this, is my fellow detectives aren't giving me sidelong looks anymore. They're looking at his office instead.

A new tension has entered the room, no longer from me alone. Through the blinds of his window, we can see his face. Whatever is being said, it's bad. Very bad. For one of us.

Now, Frickman and I have been on shit duty all day. Why would I possibly think that call is about me?

I've never told anyone, but sometimes I get these... feelings. Sometimes it's a tightening of my stomach, a warning of danger and I need to duck. Sometimes it's a snippet of a scene in a dream that happens the next day. Sometimes just a hint that I've missed something and need to go further in a certain direction. Nothing really explainable, a 'gut instinct' is the best I can describe it.

But other times, it's real knowledge. I just KNOW. I don't reason and got from point 'A' to point 'B' to point 'C', I don't even skip from point 'A' to 'C', point 'Z' is there in my mind without all the trouble. Don't have to think or wonder, I know.

For a second, every bit of it's going on inside me. I know the call is about me. I know the Mayor and the Chief of Police are in conference with my captain. I know the bad thing is going to happen to me. I KNOW.

To confirm it, Captain DeCarlo's door bangs open and he shouts, "Sanchez!"

No mention of Frickman, only me. A really bad sign. Pretending my stomach isn't cramping like I have a period from hell, I walk in and take the chair he gestures to while he closes the blinds. Another bad sign, he only does that if it's very very bad. I am in so much trouble.

DeCarlo is hard to read. He was angry a moment ago, but it's different now. Maybe resigned?

"You know I just got a call," he begins.

Not a question, he knew we all know when he gets one of 'those' calls. "Yes, sir."

"It was both Mayor Hayes and the Chief of Police."

Closing my eyes as my stomach tightens more, "Yes, sir."

"I told you yesterday to keep away from Xavier's, to leave them the hell alone."

Again, not a question. He did say that. "Yes, sir."

His eyes are boring into mine and I feel like a child about to be reprimanded by a stern parent. "Was I not clear enough?"

"I'm sorry, sir?" There had been a question but I didn't understand it.

"Didn't I make it clear you weren't to speak to anyone from Xavier's?"

Oh shit. "You were clear, sir. I didn't call or go to the school."

"But you did talk to one of the staff."

Another statement, not a question. Shit, shit, shit! It didn't take a genius to figure it out. Instead of me getting a call from Logan telling me I could get back to work, the Mayor got another call. To my knowledge, it was the first time Logan had failed an objective. "Outside of school grounds, I spoke to a person I am familiar with to further my investigation into a brutal assault and rape."

"What you did was give information about an ongoing investigation to a civilian associated with your case who is a long time employee of the establishment I told you to have no contact with!"

"I didn't contact the school and I didn't step foot on school property." Holding firm to that was all I had. Going around orders is one thing, getting caught going around orders another. "I was at a bar, one I regularly go to, and someone I knew came in. I pumped him for information since the opportunity was there and provided only what was already given to the school administrators."

"Don't split hairs. Professor Xavier and Ms. Frost had a right to know what was going on, your friend didn't. According to our information you asked him to meet you. Through his wife."

Don't you hate it when something comes back to bite you on the ass? It was a good thing I'd skipped the arcade. "I followed the only course I saw open to me."

He didn't see it that way. "You went against orders! Orders passed directly through me from the Mayor and Chief of Police!"

The way Captain DeCarlo put these things, they sounded like I'd done a bad thing. My being on the defensive and my nerves being shot is the only excuse I have for what I said next. "Sunshine deserves more than she's getting!"

Why, oh why, did I let that out? No matter how true, it was the wrong thing to say. I'm not supposed to take a case personally and it's just another reason for me to be in trouble. Though it should be, this isn't about Sunshine. It's about me. Doesn't matter that the orders were bogus, doesn't matter that I did it for the right reasons, I went against orders. I was wrong and knew it at the time.

But my outburst doesn't have the effect I thought it would. He no longer looks like he's going to explode all over me. DeCarlo's shoulders slump and his expression is back to being that one I'm not quite sure about.

"Sanchez, I like you. You're a better woman than my wife. I put Frickman with you because you think more than most of the other detectives in this department." His hand waves in the air like he's fanning away smoke. "Peterman was a problem long before you made your complaint and whatever anyone else believes, I could have assigned anyone to you. Frickman has potential and I wanted him to learn from one of my best."

This was news to me. Both Frickman having so much potential and me being the best. I don't think I'm the best, I just do the best I can. From what I understood, the main reason I was given the opportunity to become a detective was because I have an 'ethnic' background and I'm a woman. They needed minorities in more levels of the Salem-Center police force which is mostly white Caucasian men. I was a twofer.

"As a woman, you care too much. It's gotten you in trouble before and this time you went too far. This isn't about a girl whose been victimized. The upper brass has their reasons for what they say, and you went against them. Sanchez, you tried to dig a tunnel under their wall and they don't like it."

Maybe I was having another 'feeling' or maybe I've been doing this too long. I hadn't understood what they were looking for. Or maybe I had because I did warn Logan. Mayor Hayes and the Chief of Police may not hate mutants but they didn't like Xavier's. They wanted an excuse to go in and tear the place apart. They wanted Sunshine to die so they could do it. If I solved the case before she died, they wouldn't be able to. And Xavier had played right into their hands.

"Detective Sanchez, I have been ordered to advise you, you are hereby suspended from duty." His adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, apparently from a bad taste in his mouth. "Indefinitely."

to be continued.

note: Bet you weren't expecting that, huh? Things are moving right along though. Don't worry, it's all part of my master plan. (insert evil laugh here) Seriously though, I do have a basic plan going.

Major KUDOS to MeadowLark4491. Both Sanchez and Sunshine, as well as Ansley, are from "Ordinary People". Sanchez and Ansley were the police officers at the QuickStop, and Sunshine was in the last chapter talking to Maggie. There will be characters from other stories in this one so keep your eyes out for them. One of them was seriously requested to have another story of her own. She will only be a secondary character here but her role will be very important.

I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. I had surgery recently and the painkillers and physical therapy messed me up so I completely forgot about posting. No worries, I'm okay. I just forgot what day of the week it was. The next chapter should be right on time next Tuesday.

Thanks for reading and the support,
Dizi