Mistakes are made, prices are paid
"Just as every cop is a criminal
and all the sinners saints
as hard as nails
just call me Lucifer
'cause I'm the need of some restraint."
-Sympathy for the Devil, Guns n Roses
"Whoa..." Stella exclaimed and jumped back as if she'd felt an electric current beneath her feet. The floor shook beneath her. "Did you hear that, Mac? That sounded like a gunshot."
Before Mac could respond, a second shot rang out and they looked at each other from across the kitchen, eyes wide in alarm.
"Mac, that's in the basement." Stella said and ran from the room.
Mac was right behind her, snapping off his gloves and tossing them aside, unholstering his weapon as he crossed the length of the house quickly.
Everyone in the house and outside in the close proximity had heard the shots. Carmen came rushing down the stairs two at a time. Hawkes and Speed came flying out of their respective rooms and Danny and Flack and three uniforms came bursting through the front door. All had their guns drawn.
"What the hell was that?" Carmen took the last two steps at a flying leap. "That was not thunder..."
"10-13... 10-13!" Flack was shouting into his walkie talkier. "We have shots fired... 11676 Glen Hampton Terrace...I repeat, shots fired...officer involved...requesting EMS!"
The basement door was locked. It had locked itself when it had closed behind Samantha when she'd gone downstairs to process. One of the uniforms kicked it clear off its hinges, and as the collective group began rushing down the stairs, a figure clad in black was beginning to limp painfully up them. When he saw the police, he turned and ran into the blackness of the cold, damp basement.
"He's running!" Danny yelled and vaulted over the banister and hit the floor running. "Gotta get 'em!"
Speed and Flack took off after him and through the musty basement, followed close behind by the uniforms. They chased Danny and the perp into total darkness, feeling their way along brick walls with their hands, praying to God they weren't running into a dead end or straight into even more trouble. They heard racing foot steps and then the slamming open of a door and soon shards of light were leading them up a flight of stairs and out into the expansive backyard that led to a sprawling ravine.
"Get 'em, Flack!" Danny yelled when the taller, stronger man easily passed him. "Keep goin'! You're right behind him! Keep goin'!"
"NYPD!" one of the uniforms was bellowing, only adding to the chaos of the moment. "Stop or we'll shoot!"
"He's goin' for the ravine, Flack!" Speed yelled. "He gets in there and we'll never find him!"
A uniform fired their weapon, catching the perp in the back of the left leg and bringing him down onto the rain soaked grass, which gave Flack the chance to catch up the remaining fifty feet. The perp was struggling to get to his feet, clutching his leg and a wound in his right side that was oozing bright red blood.
"Don't fucking move!" Flack panted, using a knee in the small of the back to force the perp face first into the muddy grass. Then knelt, all two hundred plus pounds of him, on the man's back.
"Fucking pig!" the perp roared.
"I'd shut up if I were you." Flack said, breathless, trying to bring the perp's hands behind his back and meeting incredible resistance. The guy was stronger than he looked. Flack had a good five inches on him and at least fifty pounds, but the suspect was impressively, frighteningly strong.
Probably hopped up on something, Flack thought. Lots of drugs out there that could give people almost super human strength when on a high.
"Don't give me a hard time, buddy," Flack growled, stuck somewhere between needing to do the right thing for the job and wanting to do the right thing for his girlfriend by laying a beating on the perp that neither would ever forget. Mac and his goddamn kept things separate bullshit. Personal on one side, private on the other. It was damn hard not to cross the invisible line in the middle. What scared him most was that one day, he wouldn't be able to kept it separate anymore.
Speed and Danny had finally caught up. Both breathless. Speed on the phone getting the low down on Sam's condition from Carmen and Hawkes. Thank God for Hawkes. It was nice having a doctor on hand.
"You keep giving me a hard time and I'll either break your arms or shoot you in the fucking head." Flack warned the perp, who was making him work for the arrest.
"Got him?" Danny huffed and puffed, bent over at the waist, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"Yeah...do me a favor and hand me your cuffs and then call it in..."
Danny nodded, reached under the back of his jacket for the handcuffs he kept stored at the back of his pants and handed them to Flack. Then took the homicide detective's walkie talkie to radio that the suspect was in custody.
The man on the ground beneath Flack's heavy weight was screaming at the top of his lungs. An obscentity laced tirade that included everything from bastard to pig and asshole to motherfucker. Sometimes all of them in one sentence. Flack had heard it all and been called it all and then some.
"Quit fucking fighting me!" Flack ordered and increased the pressure on the perp's arm. "One wrong move buddy and I'll break your arms."
"And shut the hell up while you're at it." Danny said.
Flack got to his feet, grabbed the perp by the handcuffs with one hand and put his other arm around the man's throat. "Get up!" he demanded.
"Fuck you, pig!" the perp spat at him.
"I said get up!" Flack yelled and yanked the man to his feet roughly. Read him the Miranda rights like a well memorized prayer.
"You all right?" Danny asked his best friend.
"Yeah...fine. I wasn't expecting to have to run. I haven't recuperated from all the exercise I got earlier tonight.'
Danny grinned.
Speed hung up the phone and joined them.
"Sam okay?" Flack asked.
Speed shook his head.
Flack's heart pounded furiously in his chest. His stomach twisted agonizingly.
Danny looked at Speed in disbelief, than looked at his best friend and saw the anguish all over his face, and then looked back at Speed. "What?" he asked incredulously.
"Mac says they're taken her to Trinity Memorial." Speed told them. "Guy nearly crushed her larynx and she took a nasty hit to the head. On top of that, he stabbed her in the neck with a syringe. Whatever was in it, caused her to go into convulsions and slip into unconsciousness. Hawkes hasn't been able to bring her around."
"She got a pulse? She breathin'?" Danny asked quickly.
"Said her pulse is fast, breathing is shallow. Not showing any response to verbal stimuli."
Flack shook his head and blinked back tears, fighting his powerful, gut wrenching emotions of immense sorrow and intense rage. Unconsciously tightening his grip on the perp's throat with each piece of bad news Speed delivered.
Danny decided the best thing to do was to take the reins. Judging by the look on Flack's face, there was about to be massive bloodshed right there on the edge of the back lawn. He tugged at the perp's arm, getting Flack to release his grip as Danny yanked the injured and bleeding perp towards him.
"You need to get in there." Speed said to Flack. "EMS is almost ready to transport. Carmen is going with you."
Flack simply nodded and walked quickly back to the house.
"Let's go." Danny hissed, wanting nothing more than five minutes alone with the guy, but struggling hard to keep focused on the job.
"Hold up." Speed said and laid a hand on the perp's chest and used his other hand to yank the black mask off of the man's face.
Underneath the wool cap was a man in his early twenties with shoulder length greasy blond hair and wild eyes. Both from being doped up and the fact he had been shot in the leg and side. Both appeared to be just grazes, but enough to slow him down.
"Big man, huh? Hiding your face like that? Picking on women. You actually thought you'd get away with it? Attempted murder and rape of a female cop at a crime scene? You didn't think we'd catch you?"
"I've been fucking shot!" the perp wailed.
"Too bad she didn't kill ya." Danny hissed in his ear. "How does it feel tough guy? To get your ass kicked by a girl?"
"She fucking shot me! That fucking bitch!"
"Shut up." Speed said. "Just shut up. Tell me what was in the syringe."
The perp shook his head.
"I need to know what you had in there so the doctors can treat her properly. What was in it?"
The perp's lips remained tightly sealed.
"Maybe you didn't hear me." Speed got right in the guy's face. "Tell me what was in it."
"Do your damn job and find out for yourself. And who cares in the long run? All it would be is one pig off the street."
Speed smirked, made as if to turn away, then before either the perp or Danny could react, landing a hard right to the smirking face of the man in custody. Hard enough for Danny to loose his grip on the man's jacket and the perp to land flat on his ass. Speed leaned over the man now nursing a busted nose to go along with his gunshot wounds and yanked him to his feet by the front of his shirt.
"Let me make this very, very simple." Speed said. "You either tell me what was in that syringe or I lay a beating on you and it goes down that you resisted arrested."
"Fuck you!" the perp shouted.
"That's the wrong answer!" Speed bellowed and yanked the guy even closer, one hand on the front of his shirt and the other on his throat. "Tell me what was in it!"
"Easy, Speed." Danny grabbed a hold of his friend's arm, pulling him away from the suspect. Stopping him from doing anything stupid that would warrant a visit from IAB. Even if the perp did deserve a massive ass kicking. "Take it easy. He's goin' to the ER to get checked out and then he's off to jail where he belongs. We caught him. Let one of the uni's take him to get looked at by a doc and then down to central booking. Then we're gonna go back inside and do our jobs. All right?"
Speed took a heavy breath and let it out slowly and turned away, a hand to his forehead, pacing a patch of grass relentlessly. "Get him out of my face." he told Danny. "Just get him out of here."
"He's going." Danny assured him, handing the perp off to one of the uniforms. "Get this piece of shit outta here." he told the young officer. "Put him in a squad, take him to whatever hospital is closest and then on to central booking."
"You got it." the officer said and none to gently grabbed a hold of the perp and shoved him angrily in the direction of the house.
"You all right?" Danny asked Speed.
"Fine. Just... it could have easily been Carmen, Danny."
Danny sighed. "I know. Could have easily been any of us for that matter."
"What was Mac thinking? Sending a woman down there alone?" Speed shook his head in disbelief.
"Women get sent into crime scenes alone all the time." Danny reminded him.
"Maybe that needs to change. Maybe they shouldn't be going into scenes alone so shit like this doesn't happen. Have someone there to back them up if need be. You saw the hard time Flack was having with him. How would Sam or Carmen defend themselves against that? Impossible. They wouldn't stand a chance."
"You wouldn't stand a chance if they heard you talk like that. They hear ya talk like that and they're ganging up to kick your ass."
Speed shook his head. "This shouldn't have happened." he said.
"You're right." Danny agreed. "But it did. And now it's up to us to find out why."
Adam rushed through the entrance doors of Trinity Memorials ER, his curls wild and out of control from jumping out of bed and having no opportunity to tame them, his eyes wide in both shock and concern. It was close to six in the morning, three hours before the scheduled start of that day's shift, when he hurried to the reception desk and demanded to know where his sister was. He wasn't normally one to get riled up or confrontational about anything, but when the nurse at the window ignored him at first and then told him to wait until she finished a non work related conversation with a colleague, he just snapped. He leaned through the window and hit the button that allowed entrance into the back treatment areas and stepped right inside.
"Sir! You can't do that!" the nurse was on her feet, chasing him in an instant. "Sir! You can't come back here! If you don't leave now I'll have to call security!"
"So call them!" he yelled over his shoulder and kept going.
He found Carmen and Flack outside of one of the treatment rooms. Inside the curtains were drawn around the bed, but Adam could see the shadows, and hear the voices, of various medical personnel and the beeping of an EKG monitor. In the hallway, Carmen was pacing, her hands on her hips, while Flack sat in a chair, elbows on his knees and his face in his hands.
It's worse than I thought, Adam's brain immediately went into panic mode seeing the two of them in such states.
"Where's Sammie?" he nearly shouted. "Is she okay?"
Flack removed face from his hands and stood up, while Carmen stopped her pacing in favor of hugging the lab tech.
"Hawkes is in with her while the doctors check her out." Carmen said.
"What the hell happened?" Adam asked. "Mac called me and said something about her being attacked at the crime scene."
"We went to a scene with multiple DBs on the upper west side." Carmen explained calmly. "Mac split the team up to cover all the bases and Sam went into the basement. The perp was hiding in the wine cellar. She heard a noise and went to check it out and that's when he attacked her. He tried to strangle her and stabbed her in the neck a syringe."
Adam shook his head, his face perplexed. "A what? Who? She was in the basement alone? Why was she alone?"
"Everyone else was processing their own room." Carmen told him. Mac sent her into the basement."
"Why?"
"He's the boss, Adam. I don't know why he makes the decisions he does. And I don't question them either.'
"And where were you?" Adam asked Flack. His tone accusing.
"I was doing my job. I wasn't even in the house when it happened."
"Isn't that just rich." Adam snorted. "So much for your thing with Sarge. Protecting her and all that crap."
"This is in no way Flack's fault." Carmen was quick to defend the detective. We were at a scene. Doing our jobs. No one could have known this would happen. He doesn't get paid to babysit. He gets paid to..."
"Serve and protect and all that crap." Adam cut her off. "I know. Wasn't there to serve and protect my sister. Or maybe serving her is all he cares about."
Carmen had to step between Adam and Flack.
"Better shut your mouth, Ross." Flack warned.
"Isn't it your job to secure the scene?" Adam asked. "What happened there? Wasn't too secure, was it?"
"Adam..." Carmen tried to remain calm. "You're just upset. You need to calm down. Flack didn't do anything wrong. He and his guys checked the house top to bottom. No one thought of checking the wine cellar."
Adam was glaring at Flack as he shook his head. "If anything happens to my sister..."
"What?" Flack asked. "What are you going to do? Beat me up?"
"Anything happens to her, it's your fault, Flack. It'll be on your head."
"Get out of my face, Ross." Flack snorted and waved the lab tech away. "Go back to the lab and do your lab rat shit."
"Guys, this is not the time or place for this!" Carmen scolded them. "Our main concern right now should be Sam. Adam, you're worried about your sister and you love her and want her safe. I understand that. You're upset and rightfully so. On the other hand, Don loves your sister too and he's worried about her and doesn't want anything happening to her either. This was in no way anyone's fault. Arguing and tossing insults back and forth is not going to solve a damn thing. So both of you accept where the other is coming from and concentrate on what matters most. Sam. Okay?"
Adam was fighting back tears. "My sister means everything to me." he said.
"I know." Flack said. "And she's my entire world. So we're both feeling the same way, aren't we. I'm sorry I snapped, Adam. I'm just worried about her.'
"I know. Me, too. I get little defensive when it comes to Sammie. I can't help it. All those times she was there for me. Is everyone still at the scene?"
"It's a hell of scene to process." Carmen told him. "Its huge. They won't be getting done anytime soon."
"What about the perp?" Adam asked. "Think he's the killer, too?"
"Only time will tell." Carmen sighed. "He's on his way down to central booking. Mac will talk to him later. All we know for sure is that all the vics show puncture wounds to the neck, in the exact place he got Sam. Tox will tell us more.'
"Have the doctors said anything?" the lab tech asked.
"All they've told us is that she's stable and breathing on her own as of right now."
Adam frowned. "As of right now? What...?"
Hawkes slipped out of the room, snapping off latex gloves and tossing them in a nearby trash can.
"How is she?" Adam asked frantically.
"She's still unconscious and has a partially collapsed trachea." Hawkes told them. "Her blood pressure and her heart rate have stabilized. They're going to admit her for a few days to keep an eye on her. Once they know for sure what was in that needle, they'll be able to treat her a lot easier. My guess is that it was a heavy sedative or a pain killer. It hit her quick and she's going to be out for a while. Now she had another seizure on top of the two she had at the scene. Does she have any history of seizures with certain meds?"
"What?" Adam couldn't comprehend it all. "Seizures? She's never had one a day in her life."
"They've run a cat-scan and there doesn't appear to be any damage done to the brain." Hawkes said. "Once she comes to, we'll know for sure."
"How long could that be?" Carmen asked.
"Few days." Hawkes replied. "A week. Could be in the next five minutes. They don't know for sure. Now she's hooked up to an IV and anti-seizure meds and and EKG and a bit of oxygen to be on the safe side. She's on a catheter and they've stitched up the wound above her eye."
A doctor in surgical scrubs stepped out of the room and pulled Hawkes aside.
"Thank you, Doctor." Hawkes said and rejoined the others. "They're sending her up to the step down unit now. Give them a few minutes and you all can go up. Mac wants me back at the scene to finish processing. Call me if anything changes. Bad or good."
Flack nodded. "Thanks, Hawkes."
"No problem. Take care guys."
The three watched as the ME turned CSI hurried off down the hall and disappeared around a corner.
Carmen turned to face the two men, noticing how worried they were. She linked her one arm through Adam's and the other through Flack's. "Let's go and get some coffee." she suggested. "We all could use it. Come on." she tugged at their arms. "You heard what Hawkes said. A few minutes. Let's give them that."
"Maybe I should call my mom and Sarge." Adam said.
"Why don't you wait to see how good or bad things are?" Carmen suggested. "Okay?"
He sighed reluctantly. "Okay."
"For now, let's just be here for Sam." Carmen said. "And for each other."
The step down unit was located on the south side of the fourth floor. Sam was put in a generously sized private room that overlooked a back courtyard. When Carmen returned from getting some fresh air and returning a phone call, Flack was in a chair outside of the room, his legs stretched out, hands folded on his stomach and his closed, head leaning back against the wall.
"You asleep?" Carmen asked, sitting down beside him.
"Just thinking." he replied.
"That was Mac." she said. "The syringe contained a mixture of Demerol and Oxycontin. All of the vics tested positive for it. Based on the levels in the vics, they were likely unconscious or dead when he massacred them."
"He talking?" Flack asked.
"Passed out coming down of his high."
Flack snorted. "Go figure."
"What are you doing out here?" Carmen asked.
"Thought I'd give Adam some time."
"Sam still out?"
"What would have changed in ten minutes?" Flack asked.
"You never know." Carmen replied. "So what are you thinking about?'
He shrugged. "Just stuff."
"As in..."
"How if Sam gets out of this all right I want to marry her and have kids with her."
Carmen sipped her now lukewarm coffee. "This conversation is contagious. Me and her talked about the same thing at Coney Island."
Flack opened his eyes and turned his head to look at Carmen. "Yeah? And what did she say?"
"Just that one day she'd like a husband, a family. Are you serious about this, Flack?"
He nodded.
"'Cause you have to want to do it for the right reasons. Not because she could have died and..."
"I want to do it because I love her and when I look in her eyes , I see my unborn children. Good enough reason?"
Carmen smiled. "That's the best reason I've ever heard. And contrary to what you're thinking , this was not your fault."
"I secured the scene." he sighed. "Me and my guys. I had no idea there was anyone in the house."
"Who checked the basement?" Carmen asked.
"One of the uniforms. He told me he checked every square inch of it. I believed him. Shoulda checked it myself."
"Shoulda, woulda, coulda. None of that matters. It happened and now we found out why and how. She's going to be okay, Don. You know that. She's a tough little shit. Once those drugs wear off, she'll be the same old Sam. You'll see."
Flack nodded. "What if she says no when I ask her? To marry me. She's always going on about things happening too soon and all that."
"There's no time limit on falling in love and wanting to be with someone." Carmen told him. "If it feels right to you, which I know it does, that's all that matters. And is she says no, which I highly doubt, you just keep asking until she says yes."
Flack grinned. However that grin was short lived when he spotted Gerrard at the end of the hall talking to a nurse. The nurse pointed in Flack and Carmen's direction and Gerrard, a scowl on his face, stormed towards them.
"Shit!" Flack cursed. "Fuck!"
"What...?" Carmen asked.
"Detective Flack!" Gerrard bellowed, despite the fact it was early morning hours and there was ill and dying patients all around him.
"Wonderful." Carmen murmured as she and Flack stood up.
"What the hell happened at the scene, Flack?" Gerrard fumed. "I get a call saying a perp hiding in the house attacked and nearly killed a CSI? Tried to strangle her and stabbed her with a needle full of narcotics? How the hell did this happen? Did you secure the scene?"
"Of course I did. Me and my guys checked every last inch."
"Not good enough apparently or this wouldn't have happened. You realize IAB will be all over you for this? Never mind how this is going to look in the press?"
Carmen had to speak up. "This wasn't Flack's fault, sir. He..."
Gerrard turned his cold gaze on her. "Was I talking to you, Detective..."
"Devine. Carmen Devine.'
"This is between me and Detective Flack." Gerrard informed her.
"I just don't think it's fair that you're blaming him when..."
Flack laid a hand on her shoulder to quiet her down.
"And of all CSIs to get attacked at the scene." Gerrard shook his head. "You're girlfriend. I told you she was nothing but trouble. And speaking of crime scenes, I suggest you get back to yours."
"I handed the case to Angell." Flack argued.
"And I am handing it back to you." Gerrard told him. "So get back there."
"But, sir, I..."
"Now, Flack. Or do you want a nice suspension without pay for insubordination? Or would you like to choose between your badge and the girl?"
Carmen knew that Flack would choose Sam over the badge any day. But she also knew he needed his job and that he was damn good at it. If not one of the best. "You should go, Flack." she said. "Adam and I will be here. She's in good hands. I'll call you if there's any change."
Flack sighed heavily. "If she wakes up, tell her..."
"I'll tell her regardless." Carmen assured him and gave him a hug. "She's being well taken care of and she'll be fine. I promise I'll call. Okay?"
"Okay." he agreed and stalked off down the hall towards the elevators.
Gerrard sensed Carmen staring at him. "What?" he asked.
"Are you always such an ignorant, cold hearted bastard or is this new for you?" she asked furiously.
"Excuse me?"
"You didn't even bother to find out how she is! You just came here like John Wayne to drag Flack back to work. The least you could have done is ask him how she was! Showed some kind of support and compassion!"
Gerrard fumed. "I don't know who you think you're talking to, Miss Devine..."
"No one important, believe me. And it's Detective Devine to you." she said and stormed away and into Sam's room.
At nine in the morning, Speed and Danny were finally loading their equipment into thier SUV in the misty rain.
"Any news on Sam?" Danny asked, his hood to his rain jacket pulled low onto his forehead.
"Carmen just called. The anti-seizure meds are working and now that they know for sure what drugs are in her, they can treat the OD properly. They're concerned mostly about kidney and liver failure. Next few days they'll keep a close eye on that."
"She still unconsious?" Danny asked.
Speed nodded. "She's showing responses to verbal stimuli so that's a good thing. Carmen and Adam get her to squeeze their hands and all that. So there doesn't seem to be an issue as far as her brain goes."
"Thank God." Danny turned a grateful gaze to the sky above. "Can you believe this even happened?" he asked Speed.
"I've seen it before. Perps hiding out at scenes that you think are secure. I know Flack's beating himself up over it, but honestly, it wasn't his fault. He followed everything to the letter. It's just an unfortunate incident. I can't believe that asshole Gerrard made him come back from the hospital."
"Can't say I'm surprised." Danny sighed. "Gerrard's always had a pickle up his ass when it comes to Flack. How he's not half the cop or man his father was and all that bullshit."
"From what I heard," Speed said. "Flack should be thankful he isn't like his father."
Flack came out of the front door of the house, cell phone pressed to his ear, looking weary and worried. He joined them at the truck just as he hung up his phone.
"Wanna hear some good news?" Flack asked. "Something to brighten shit up a little?"
"Sure." Danny said.
"That was Mac. He just got a call from Phoenix. Zack's dead."
"He's what?" Danny asked in disbelief.
"Dead. As in another prisoner found out he was a cop and said prisoner has an issue with cops and decided to knife him six times in the shower with some homemade shank. Wait, it gets better. Before the guy knifed him, he showed Zack a little lovin' before hand. And none to gently either."
"Talk about devine retribution." Speed said. "So there goes his lawsuit and any future trial."
"That's a definite bright spot." Danny said. "You hear anymore on Sam?" he asked Flack.
"Carmen called and said there was no real change good or bad." Flack replied "It's gonna take some time. Hawkes figured maybe a week at the least."
"Good thing is that everything sounds positive so far." Speed said. "You on your way to Trinity now?"
"Are you kidding? Gerrard probably has people just sitting there waiting for me to get there. I'm gonna get a hold of next of kin and talk to our perp when he finally comes to. And then and only then, will I be off and able to see my girlfriend in the hospital. See you guys later."
"Later, Flack." Speed said.
"Try not to worry too much, Flack." Danny called to him before the detective could get into his squad.
"That's easier said then done." he called back.
THANKS TO ALL OF YOU READING AND REVIEWING AND ENJOYING. HOPEFULLY YOU ARE ALL GETTING YOUR REVIEW RESPONSES BACK!! I APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT AND HOPE ALL OF YOU CONTINUE TO R N R AND ENCOURAGE ALL THE LURKERS TO DO THE SAME!! THANKS TO THOSE ADDING ME TO THEIR ALERT LISTS!!