Disclaimer: I obviously do not own CSI: NY. I just own my car, my laptop and my crazy muse who seems to want to write 4 different stories at a time. I also do own any characters that you do not recognize. You can borrow them if you ask permission first!

A/N: Okay. Thanks to everyone that read and reviewed! Here's the next chapter!!! Many thanks to Aphina and Axellia for the beta. I don't own the chapter title either. That belongs to Alice Cooper.

Chapter 10.

Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me

Cory sat up in the bed, shaking as silent sobs racked her body. Her mind was numb with what she had just seen. She glanced down at Danny who was still sleeping peacefully and knew that she didn't want to bother him with this, so she carefully got out of the bed, raking her hands through her hair. What does this mean? New York…she paused as the vivid images overwhelmed her. In her heart of hearts, she knew that everyone she knew had probably been killed in the attack, but she didn't want to accept it. Accepting it made it a real possibility.

Pacing in the living room, she took a deep breath and decided to replay the images in her head. The reporter had said that it was a coordinated attack on New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Presumably, she had been in Dallas and was safe. Huh. That doesn't make a lot of sense. Why not an attack in Texas? It is a center of economic power as well as the center of the American oil industry. She shook her head, her mind searching for the hidden clues in what she had seen.

Finally, she sighed deeply. She needed to talk this over with someone who could give her some sense of what The Powers had in store for her. "I need to talk to Taylor," she said aloud.

She quickly wrote a note to Danny, so he wouldn't worry and decided to walk over to Taylor's place. She quickly changed into a pair of jogging pants, T-shirt and running shoes and left her apartment.

She walked slowly towards the subway station. She was lost in thought, but tried to stay aware of her surroundings, knowing that a woman walking alone in the wee hours of the morning was a prime target for a mugging. She almost breathed a sigh of relief once she made it to the platform.

Chewing her lip as she tried not to analyze the vision, she stepped onto the pretty empty subway car. Out of habit, she scanned the few people that occupied the car, a homeless man, a couple of college kids and one man in a suit. That struck her as odd. It was early morning and the college kids were obviously drunk and on their way back to the dorm, but the man in the suit seemed out of place. Settling back in the uncomfortable seat, her senses on alert, she kept her eye on him.

She was two stops away from Taylor's—the two college students had gotten off a couple of stops before—when she noticed the man start twitching. She squared her shoulders slightly, wishing that she had remembered her gun. As the train pulled to a stop, the man began to walk towards her. He nodded his head slightly towards her muttering, "Ma'am," before exiting the train.

Cory grinned wryly at herself while breathing a sigh of relief. Damn, I need a vacation. I'm jumping at shadows now. She watched as the platform became a blur as the train pulled away and in a few minutes, she got off at the stop closest to Taylor's. Here, she turned off her mind completely, her senses on full alert. She walked briskly through the streets; she still had a couple of blocks to walk before she reached the apartment building. She kept her eyes moving, roaming the street looking for potential trouble, but made it unmolested to Taylor's door, where she knocked lightly.

Taylor, who had fallen asleep the night before on the couch with Marty, heard the knock on the door and furrowed her brow. Out of habit, she grabbed her baseball bat before opening the door to keep out. "Cory? What are you doing here?" she asked in puzzlement.

"I hate to bother you," Cory responded, "but I really need to talk to someone and I think you're the best person."

Taylor nodded, noticing the dark circles under the other woman's eyes. She shut the door briefly, to take off the chain, and then opened the door, setting her baseball bat aside.

"A baseball bat?" Cory asked as she walked in and noticed Marty on the couch. "Am I interrupting anything?"

Taylor smiled. "Naw, we were just asleep, but let's go to my bedroom so we won't wake him up."

Cory nodded and silently followed her into the semi messy bedroom. They both settled on the bed, sitting cross-legged. Cory stared at her hands for a bit, not knowing how to start the conversation.

Taylor looked at her friend, worried about what was happening with her. Truth be told, she had been a little off since she was kidnapped and she was wondering if she was having flashbacks. She noticed Cory's hesitancy in starting the conversation and being the blunt one, she blurted out, "So are you and Danny okay? Or are you getting flashbacks of being kidnapped?"

Cory's read shot up at the bold question. Then she smiled. "Danny and I are fine and no, I'm not having flashbacks." She sighed. "You know about my visions, right?" At Taylor's nod, she began to tell her of the graphic vision that she had just experienced. "And right now, I'm so confused and scared that I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

Taylor chewed on her bottom lip for a couple of minutes, processing what Cory had just said. "Why do you have visions?" she asked, trying to understand the issues.

Cory shrugged. "I don't know. I know that in my mom's family, twins are not the only thing that is hereditary. My mom and her twin sister both had powers. My mom could see the future and my aunt could talk to ghosts."

Taylor's eyes lit up at that. "Wow, someone like me!"

"Yeah, I'd suggest that you talk to her, but she died when she was ten, so you'd just be talking to another ghost," Cory said wryly. "But, Armando did tell me that the power tends to run in family and that especially with premonitions you're only shown what you can have an affect on. So, I think seeing this is something that I can change, but I don't know how."

Taylor nodded. "Yeah, I kinda got that drift from Maddy. Have you talked this over with Armando?"

"I tried to probe him for information, but he wasn't being very forthcoming. It's like he knows more, but can't give me any help. I think that's what is frustrating me the most. It's like trying to put a puzzle together without having a picture to refer to."

Taylor laughed. "Welcome to my world. All I get are cryptic clues that I somehow have to puzzle out. Why were we chosen for this?"

"Maybe it's because we're the only ones stupid enough to listen to them," Cory replied with laughter.

Taylor nodded as she yawned. "Sometimes I hate the Powers. They annoy the crap out of me." She looked as Cory began to yawn. "Look. Why don't you take my bed and I'll take the couch with Marty. We were sleeping perfectly well there."

Cory shook her head. "No, I can't put you out of your bed. I think that I'll just go home. Tomorrow—I mean today—is Sunday and I can sleep as late as possible."

Taylor shook her head. "No. I'm not going to let you walk around this late at night."

Cory raised an eyebrow. "I got here perfectly safe, so I'll be fine, Tay."

Taylor continued to argue with her as she walked to the door, but she didn't relent. What she didn't want to tell Tay was that she was certain she wouldn't be able to fall asleep, so she wanted to be home where her insomnia wasn't as noticeable. Taylor finally gave up, but left instructions that she at least text message her when she got home. Cory agreed and made her way back to her apartment.

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By the time that Monday rolled around, Cory was exhausted from her lack of sleep and the fact that Danny kept asking her what was wrong. She didn't want to burden him with the nature of the vision, so she kept skirting around the issue, hoping that he would eventually let it drop.

When she got into work, she sighed as she dialed Alistair. She had a feeling that her vision was somehow tied to Etienne and whatever organization he represented, especially since she knew that he was on a mission to destroy America, but since she had no more information on him, she didn't know what to do.

Her last recourse was to see if she could get Alistair to talk, but since he hadn't returned any of her messages or emails in the previous two weeks, she wasn't sure if he'd be of any help. Not feeling hopefully, she dialed the long distance number and was unsurprised when it went straight to voicemail. "Alistair, its Cory. Look, I really need to talk to you about Etienne. Please, please call me!" she begged before hanging up the phone.

She shook her head and turned her attention back to the fireworks case, hoping to find inspiration in that since everything else was being stonewalled with her.

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Lydia and Sheldon rose at the same time Monday morning. He was working the early shift and Cory expected her to be in by nine at the latest, so after a quick breakfast together, they kissed goodbye and went their separate ways. She was almost to her office when her phone rang. "Sanchez?" she answered quickly.

"Hi Lydia. Its Morgan," a deep voice answered her. "I'm in New York and wanted to see if I could meet you."

Lydia hesitated for a moment, not exactly sure what he meant, but decided to treat it as a business matter. "Sure. I'm on my way to the office right now. You can meet me there and I'll introduce you to Cory."

Morgan sighed lightly, so she couldn't hear him. That wasn't what he had meant, but he knew that he had to tread lightly with her. With their history, she was bound to be a little withdrawn. "All right. I'll be there by ten, then. Bye."

Lydia shook her head as she disconnected the call, her stomach fluttering in anticipation.

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Meanwhile, across town, Flack was on the scene of his newest dead body which was dressed like a clown. He was shaking his head as Hawkes and Adam walked up. "So, Bobo here just dropped dead in the middle of the street. Tell me that I can get an ID on him. I hate clowns," Flack began as the two pulled out their cases.

Hawkes nodded to Adam to document the scene and once he was done with pictures of the body, he did a preliminary exam. "No external signs of trauma, a lack of blood. Could be natural causes," he advised Flack from his kneeling position next to the body. "I think this is one time that it's going to take the autopsy to even give us an idea of what caused him to die. Witnesses see anything?"

Flack rolled his eyes. "Please, on a crowded street in the middle of rush hour? Nothing useful or at least anyone who knows anything useful didn't stick around to talk to us," he drolled as Hawkes rolled the body slightly, obviously looking for a wallet.

"No wallet or any form of ID on him," the doctor said calmly as Flack stepped away from the body as it got near to him. Hawkes looked at him inquisitively. "So, why don't you like clowns?"

Flack shuddered slightly. "They're just creepy, man. I mean, a grown man dressing up to obscure his identity to play with kids? That ain't right."

Hawkes laughed. "You get molested as a kid or something?" he joked.

Flack shook his head. "Naw, but Dad used to tell these stories about creeps he would catch that were molesting kids when dressed up as a clown. I can't even stand circus posters now." He stepped back again as the morgue transport van parked beside them.

The two workers quickly had the body strapped on a stretcher while Hawkes and Adam stayed to try to find evidence on a sidewalk that obviously hadn't been cleaned since the end of World War II.

Adam stared up and down the street, seeing surveillance cameras and ATMs. "You know," he mused. "Maybe if we pull the surveillance footage, we can get an idea of where he was coming from."

Hawkes nodded. "Good idea, because other than that, we don't have a lot of evidence. Why don't we head back to the lab and see if we can find anything," he suggested.

Adam nodded and began to pack up his case, hoping that the footage would give them something.

AN: Okay. Sorry this took so long, but my muse has decided to interject a completely new plot line into this and I am trying my hardest to get her back under control! Have you every tried arguing with a dragon? It's very difficult to win. So, as a result, the plot is taking a small detour starting the next chapter. Hope y'all enjoy. On a side note...only 3 reviews for the last chapter? Did y'all hate it? Please, please review! I live for them!!!

Soccer - So, I thought I would also give this to you for your birthday....Sorry it arrived a little late in the night and you MUST email me and let me know what you did!! Thanks!!

Maddy - OMG! You're alive and well! I completely understand about RL. Mine has been swinging back and forth. I swear, I feel like I'm bipolar with how much stuff has been putting me on an emotional rollarcoaster. But, things are finally calming down for me at least. The vision is going to be an ongoing plotline, kinda like Montoya and Ortiz have been, so it will be a slow burner. But I can promise that I have lots of other interesting cases coming up. One of them inspired by a ghost story in NOLA. (What can I say, I love the Ghost Tour in NOLA when I went and it just popped back into my head one day). I can't wait to see if you know what it is!

BEG - No worries! RL has been crazy for everyone. I can only hope that it calms down for the holiday season. But I have a feeling that ain't gonna happen. Really? Maybe baby #2. Wow. We so need to be online at the same time so we can chat! I have some major plans coming up (if my muse would stop giving me new plot lines so I could go with the ones that I have, that'd be great), but the ending is only the beginning. :p (sorry, feeling cryptic right now!). Hope you like this one!