Wednesday, 1st January 2008. 04:30
Danny sighed as he joined the rest of the team in break room. Only Natalia was awake, Cal and Ryan were sleeping on the couches. Danny sat down at the table, across from Natalia. She looked haggard and she needed to rest.
"Why don't you go to sleep?" Danny asked softly.
"I can't. Not while there is a pedophile still out there."
"Well, you collapsing at work because you're not sleeping, ain't going to help."
Natalia gave him a small smile, "You're right. But I can't sleep… not right now anyway."
Danny nodded. He couldn't really force her, he didn't think it was his place to do so. He had just met the team, and he still tried to remember their names. Forcing one of them to sleep, would feel awkward.
"So what did they say up in NY?" Nat asked, "Any luck on the voice clip?"
"Nope, it's not the same guy." Danny sighed.
"That's too bad."
"Yeah, it is. But it proves that we're dealing with two. Who I believe, know each other."
"I agree." Nat said, "So what is NY like?"
Danny chuckled, "Caine never told you about NY?"
"He doesn't talk much about his past. I think only Eric knows what his childhood was like, and what his grown up life in NY was."
"Alright. Well, New York is… full of live and culture. Many amazing people are walking on the streets everyday, as well as criminals. But then again, there are criminals everywhere. New York is especially amazing at night. When all the lights in the town are on. And during Christmas." Danny smiled.
"I've never been to New York. Sounds like a cool city." Natalia smiled.
"It is. Do you have a boyfriend?"
Natalia chuckled. She hadn't expected that question.
"Um, yeah. Frank Tripp is my guy." She smiled.
"Why don't ya ask him to take you to NY?"
"Haven't thought about it. But I might just do that." Nat smiled.
The door opened and a young officer peeked inside. He smiled at the CSI's, and then walked towards the sleeping Ryan. He placed a small cake in Ryan's left hand, and some shaving cream in the other. Natalia chuckled, she understood that this was a prank from Frank. But since he was in the hospital, it was up to the young officer to make sure the whole prank went correct. Danny looked confused at Natalia, as the young officer took out a feather from his pocket.
"Frank and Ryan has a war going on against each other, and well, Frank has decided to send this officer to do that." Natalia explained and pointed at Ryan.
The officer grinned and started tickling Ryan with the feather over his face. Ryan muttered and turned his head. The officer tickled his nose. Ryan groaned and… SPLASH! He used his left hand to his whatever was on his face. He opened his eyes as he felt something over his face. Still not fully awake, he decided to wipe away the cake with his right hand. Instead he wiped on some shaving cream. The officer laughed and then ran away. Ryan sat up and looked at his clothes, the cake had fallen down in his lap. And his face was covered with cake and shaving cream.
Natalia and Danny were too busy laughing then getting Ryan a towel.
"Damn Frank." Ryan muttered and went for the men's room.
"Frank is clever." Danny chuckled.
"They both are. Soon they will be out of ideas." Natalia grinned.
The young officer came running back, and looked worried at Danny and Natalia.
"We have a hostage situation at Miami International Airport!" He exclaimed.
-I-
Eric sat by Horatio's bedside. His surgery had gone over time just a little bit, but now it was done. And he had survived. He still had a long way ahead though, he had to heal. And getting Horatio to rest and heal wouldn't be an easy task. But Eric hoped that Horatio would let him help him. Horatio was still sedated, and was expected to wake up at noon. Eric wanted to hug him and kiss him, but he was afraid that he might hurt him. An oxygen mask covered his face, he had several monitors attached to him, and an IV in his hand. Eric turned around to see who came through the door, he smiled when he saw that it was Alexx.
"Hey sweetie." She said and gave Eric a kiss on the cheek, she then sat down on the other side of the bed.
"Thank God he's okay." Alexx smiled.
Eric nodded in agreement. Though he knew that Horatio was far from okay, the mental wounds would take a long time healing, longer then the physical ones. And it was all because of him.
"I have to get back to the morgue, you should get some sleep, and then come back around noon. Your face should be the first face he sees when he wakes up." Alexx said and stood up to leave.
"I'm not so sure." Eric sighed sadly.
"Well, I am. Trust me, I know the two of you have a lot of things to sort out, but he still loves you and I know he will want to see you when he wakes up." Alexx gave Eric a hug and then left.
Eric stayed. He couldn't get himself to stand up and walk away. Instead he fell asleep by Horatio's right hand.
-I-
04:50
SWAT leader Greg, walked towards Ryan, Natalia and Danny. Calleigh had been forced to stay at the lab, this was one scene she was not allowed to be at.
"Detectives." Greg greeted, "We seem to have a very bad situation here. So far the guy is staying cquite calm. And all flights have been canceled. He's by the check in desks, and only thirty people has managed to escape. He's holding almost a hundred people hostage."
"Has he injured anyone?" Ryan asked.
"Yes, he shot one girl." Greg said, "And he asked an old man to call the police. Don't ask me why."
"He's not planning on getting our of here, but he wants to create panic." Danny said, "He want us to shoot him."
"Suicide by cop." Ryan sighed, "So, what do we do until then?"
"We talk to him." Danny said, "We get him to release the hostage and then try to take him down alive."
Greg gave a phone to Danny. He gave him a note with the number on the old man's cell phone. Danny dialed it. After a short while someone picked up.
"Hello."
"Hi, My name is Danny Messer, I'm with the police."
"Do you want to speak to the man who is holding us here?"
"Yes, please." Danny said.
It seemed to take some time to get the guy inside to take the phone.
"How come it took them almost thirty minutes to call the police? According to the 911 call and the old man, they've been held hostage since 4 am." Ryan said.
"The ones who managed to escape says that he refused to call. It wasn't until the guy threatened to shoot a nine year old girl that the old man called." Greg said.
---
"Hello, who is this?" Matthew asked.
"Danny Messer, I'm with the police."
"Really? I can see SWAT outside, and almost forty cop cars."
"Well, this is a very dangerous situation."
"I know." Matt sighed, "If my stupid cousin hadn't screwed up, this would never have happened!"
"What's your cousin's name?"
"Jerry Lawford." Matt said, "He's a pedophile in New York. He's the one who kidnapped all those kids, and then left them here in Miami. He was going to kill them."
"What did you say? New York and Miami?"
"Yes!"
Matthew smirked, he could blame Jerry for being the pedophile and maybe he could be a hero or something. All he had to do was to explain that he shot Isabella, because she was the arsonist.
What he didn't know was that Danny recognized Matt's voice from the tape, he knew that Matthew was the pedophile from Miami, who had held all the kids in the basement in the Glades, and killed three kids. Jerry was probably the New York pedophile, but he understood that Matthew tried blaming everything on Jerry.
"How many kids did Jerry take?" Danny asked.
"40." Matt said.
Danny smirked wider. Matt had just make a mistake. The police knew that 45 kids had been kidnapped, and 23 of them were alive and well in Miami. Three dead, and the rest still missing."
"That's a lot of kids." Danny said.
"I know." Matt grinned.
Ryan and Natalia walked together with a SWAT team to find a different way in. They walked out to the airstrip, and asked for a ladder, that way they could get in through the gate. And then down one floor to Matthew.
"So, what is your name?" Danny asked.
"Why should I tell you that?"
"I want to know, and I told you my name."
"Well, that was your own choice asshole, nobody forced you to do it." Matt growled.
"So tell me about the girl you shot."
"She's the arsonist the cops have been looking for."
"How come she burned down specific houses, where the owner of the house had a missing child?"
"Because, she's obsessed with me… um, Jerry."
"Why is, or was she obsessed?"
"I don't know!" Matt growled.
"Alright, calm down." Danny said.
Matt sighed, and then hung up the phone. Danny sighed. In case Matt would call back he kept the phone with him. Greg kept contact with his team. So far, they were still trying to find a ladder.
-I-
05:10
"Come on! Now the team really needs me!" Frank growled at Jason.
Jason had just dropped of Valera at home, to sleep, when he got Frank's call. Frank wanted Jason's help to get out of the hospital. Frank wanted to help at the airport.
"What is one more person going to do?" Jason asked, "Frank, stay in bed."
"You can't stop me." Frank said, starting to sit up.
"I will call Alexx." Jason grinned.
Frank gave him a death glare, before lying back down.
"How is H doing?" He asked.
"Fine so far, he is out of surgery and expected to wake up at noon."
"And Eric?"
"Exhausted." Jason sighed, "He's asleep at H's side. I checked on them before coming here."
Frank nodded.
"And Val?"
"Shook up, but okay." Jason smiled, "Now sleep Frankie."
"Frankie?"
Jason grinned and shrugged.
"It's a cool nickname." He said.
"Nope. What if I would call you Jasie?"
Jason shrugged. Frank was only called, Frank, Tripp or Francis, usually Horatio called him Francis. Jason was called… well, Jason.
-I-
05:25
Danny answered quickly as the phone rang.
"Hello?" He said.
"Hello, I'm calling from Newton's shares, I would just…."
"Sorry, wrong person." Danny said and hung up.
"Greg?" Danny asked.
"Yeah?"
"How come Newton's share can call to this phone? I thought they couldn't do it, because this is like a "cop" phone, and something-something, that my boss told me about once."
"Oh right! It's my phone." Greg chuckled, "We just used the first phone we could get."
Danny chuckled and nodded, then the phone rang again.
"Hello." Danny said.
"Alright. So, this is how it is. Jerry killed all those missing kids, not me." Matt sighed, "I am innocent here."
"I hate to tell you this, but holding people as hostage is against the law, Pat."
"Pat?"
"Since you won't tell me your name, I'm going to call you Pat." Danny smirked.
"What kind of a name is Pat?"
"Short for Patrick."
"Oh shut up!" Matt growled, "All these stupid people around me! All these kids! I hate kids, they're sassy and always think they know best!"
"Pat, calm down."
"My name is Matthew for fuck sake!" Matt growled, and then panted.
He had a short fuse, and always have had it.
"Matthew, now we're getting somewhere. How come you hate kids, but you say Jerry is the pedophile?"
"Just because you dislikes kids, doesn't mean you kill them." Matt sighed.
"True. But it sounds to me as if you're lying to me, Matt."
On the 2nd floor, Ryan, Nat and the SWAT team have managed to get to the stairs. They silently walked down, instead of using the elevator. Hoping they would get a good view of Matthew. They had a green light to shoot him if they felt that things were starting to get out of hand. Matthew hung up the phone and groaned as he saw Jerry approaching him.
"What happened Matt?" Jerry asked, "I fell asleep in the rest room, and wake up to this."
"Shut up you moron! This is because you and your mistakes. Why can't you ever do something right?"
"I have done everything right. Only one little kid got away."
"And that has ruined everything. Look where we are Jerry! Does this seems like a good situation to you?"
"No, but Matt. I heard on the radio, that one little girl got away from you. They say that the cops found her outside the station." Jerry said.
"So? You're still the bigger screw up." Matt growled.
Jerry looked angry at Matthew. He was reaching his breaking point.
"Now we got no kids! But we had 40 kids, Jerry! And they're with the cops now. Except for the three I killed." Matt sighed.
"45." Jerry muttered.
"What?"
"You had 26 kids in your basement right? Well, I had 19. That is 45 kids."
Matthew groaned, "Dammit! The cop is going to know I lied now. I told him that 40 kids were missing."
"Why would you tell him that?"
"Because you kidnapped 40 kids."
"No I didn't!" Jerry growled, "I kidnapped 19, and killed 18 of them."
"Well, then it won't hurt to take the blame for kidnapping 26 kids more, and killing three more."
Jerry suddenly slapped Matthew across the face. Matthew looked stunned at Jerry, before slapping him back with his fist. Jerry growled and grabbed Matt's collar. He threw him against the wall and then kicked his ribs. Matthew shot Jerry in the shoulder. Jerry screamed in pain, before grabbing the gun and throwing it away. Matthew hit Jerry in the face.
"You're trying to pin this on me!" Jerry growled, "I hate you Matt!"
"Good, I hate you too!"
Jerry started hitting Matt with his fists in the face. Matthew got in a lucky shot and kicked Jerry in the balls. Just as he was about to hit him in the face, a shot was heard and Matthew fell down to the floor with a bullet in his head. A SWAT member had shot him.
"No!" Jerry shouted and hugged his dead cousin.
SWAT, Ryan and Natalia ran down and pulled Jerry away from Matthew. All the other cops burst through the doors. Jerry was handcuffed and led away. He was crying.
"Matthew!" He screamed.
"He still has a pulse!" Ryan exclaimed.
Paramedics started working on Matthew, and he was soon driven to the hospital.
"Case solved." Natalia smiled.
"We need to take witness statements. But yeah, case solved." Danny said.
"Let's go home." Ryan yawned.
TBC…
AN: So, I'm kind of out of suggestions on pranks that Ryan and Frank could use against each other. So if you want to, ya'll can leave suggestions.
Please review!