Dude, I did it. I fixed my line breaks finally. Well, for this story at least. -winces- I have to do it for some other ones too. Long chapter ahead!

Thanks for the reviews Jag Lady, Hordak's Pupil, princess moon shadow, mystery writer5775, Billie Jukes, ImmortalPhantom22, Miriam1, Le Pecore Nere, Alysandra Martin

13. Meeting Alexx Woods

"It's nearly seven," Barrish observed, biting her lip and pulling up more images onto her computer and glancing at Danny. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your hotel or something?"

The teenager sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "I wasn't able to sleep last night, and chances are more than likely that I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight either. I'm way too worried about Sam and Tucker to actually get any rest." He laughed slightly, watching the Audio/Visual tech work her magic at the computer. "So, how long have you been working here?"

She gave a small snicker in return. "Only for a couple of months, to tell you the truth. I got here a little before the former lab tech, Dan Cooper, was fired for hacking into a deceased CSI's account. He was kind of a jerk when he was being ld out, but other than that, he really was a nice guy." She winced. "Still can't believe that he actually was a credit card thief. Kind of painful, if you think about it." She was quiet for a moment, moving photographs and videos up onto the screen, frowning slightly. "That's weird," she muttered, clicking on one of them.

Danny watched with a confused expression. "What is?"

"Check out this video feed I got from a camera inside of Vlad's lab," she told him, clicking on a feed. "It shows one frame of Ryan and your friends in there, and the next, it goes completely dark. Then there's a magenta hue in the room, and suddenly the lights flash back on." She furrowed her brow for a moment. "Do you have any ideas?"

He shook his head. "I'm not really that sure. Maybe it's Plasmius or something."

"His ghost alter ego?"

Danny gave a short nod. "Possibly. Vlad has a sick and twisted sense of humor to think that he can sneak up on someone and scare the hell outta them and maybe do something unpleasent to them."

Barrish sighed. "You act as if you've known of his identity for a long time."

He didn't say anything for a little while.

It wasn't one of the best ideas in the world, but Sam knew it was definitely one of the fastest. If they were going to get to Miami in a good amount of time and try to save Ryan from certain impending doom, she knew she had to go as quickly as she could in the darkness of seven-thirty at night. Not only that, but Tucker was beginning to moan about his hand and how he couldn't do anything that involved his PDA with it. That in and of itself was enough to push the Goth girl to her flying limits.

"I see land!" Tucker yelled gleefully.

Sam couldn't help but smile. She gently guided the helicopter over the land, yelling inwardly with joy. She, too, could not believe it. They were alive- they were alive and going back to Miami. How in the world had they done it? "Maybe being with Danny for a long time has finally done something to us about trying to break free from villains and saving ourselves from certain impending doom," she told her friend happily.

The boy shrugged slightly. "Maybe. Are you two going to have a Hollywood moment when we touch ground in the parking lot?"

She shot him an evil glare. "What makes you think that?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's the fact you two like each other so damn much."

"Tucker, that's not very funny."

The tech teen rolled his eyes. "Maybe from your perspective it's not."

Danny frowned slightly. "Hey, Sam- do you hear that?"

The lab tech frowned. "That loud whirring noise outside? Actually, yeah I do. Have any clue what it could be?"

"I think I might be able to help with that."

Both people turned around at the sound of Natalia's slightly excited voice. She gestured to both of them. "Come on. There's a helicopter landing in the parking lot. Sources are beginning to say that the pilot of it is a teenage girl, and she had an African America teenager in the front seat alongside her. We're thinking it could be your two best friends, Sam and Tucker!"

The rush of wind that passed Barrish and Natalia was proof that Danny had bolted past them in hopes of seeing his two best friends again. The two women smiled at each other. Natalia gave a short nod. "I'll go and grab Alexx just in case they've got injuries or something."

"I'll find the lieutenant," Sam replied, and the two teammates parted ways.

He couldn't believe it. He simply could not believe his eyes.

They were alive and getting out of a helicopter.

Danny ran over to Sam and Tucker and helped both of them get out of the flying machine. His eyes seemed to shine with happy tears as he helped Tucker out first and nodded to him, grabbing his hand that held the PDA and not his limp one. "Tucker! Oh, my god! I'm just..."

The other boy grinned, wincing slightly. "Dude... careful. I've got a broken hand. Vlad decided to think it was cute and crush a limb of mine up against a cage, and it hurts a lot."

"I've got it covered."

The two teenagers looked towards the source of the voice, and Alexx Woods was running over to them, followed by Natalia, Horatio, and Sam Barrish. The medical examiner was carrying some bandages, a split, and other assorted items towards the scene. Danny blinked. "Who are you?"

Alexx set down some of her things. "Alexx Woods, medical examiner for the Miami-Dade crime lab. You're Danny Fenton. Am I right?"

He wasn't even going to ask about the name thing. Sighing wearily and miserably failing to hold back a yawn, he nodded. "Yeah. Are you going to be able to help my friends?"

"Sweetie, I'm going to help them get better for sure. I can't stand to see kids your age get hurt by some psychotic killer who happens to leave his DNA on the body of a young boy." She smiled at him. "Your friend is going to get better. I promise." She took Tucker's hand and examined it, holding it by the wrist. "Okay. This isn't going to be something you'll want to hear, but this is definitely going to take some time to heal. But by the time I finish wrapping it up, it'll heal within... I'm hoping a month."

Tucker backed away. "I'm not one for doctors and nurses and..."

Alexx raised an eyebrow. "Any particular reason?"

"Uh... let's just say I've had really bad experiences in the past with them."

She sighed and looked at the splint, reaching out for the frightened teenager. "Well, unless you'd lke to have your arm not heal properly, I think you'd better have me take a look at it, Mr...?"

"Foley. But call me Tucker." He swallowed. "This isn't going to be realy painful, right?"

"Tucker," Natalia spoke up finally. "Alexx Woods is one of the best doctors in Miami. She has prescribed drugs to Ryan when they..."

The medical examiner gave her a look. "Not a word about that to him until he feels it's right to know."

"Right." She sighed. "Alexx is the best at what she does. I promise."

Tucker bit his lip and reluctantly handed her his wrist. "If you say so..."

Meanwhile, Sam and Danny were standing over near the helicopter, having a slightly awkward moment together. The Goth smiled a little as Danny embraced her. "I'm fine. It was Tucker I was worried about."

"Where's Ryan?"

Sam bit her lip slightly, looking towards the direction they had just come from. "He decided to stay behind and try to distract Vlad for us while we made a beeline for here. I insisted that he come with us, but he said he'd be able to take the brunt of everything from Vlad and we should get back here so we could see you." She looked back at her best friend with tears in her eyes. "I'm worried about him, Danny."

He looked back at the others, nodding. "I think we all are, Sam."

He walked back into the building and made his way up to the floor of the crime lab, sighing and rubbing his forehead. It had been a long day in the lab- longer than he ever would have dreamed of. At least the two kids were safe from Vlad's clutches- that was one thing off his mind. Now ll he had to do was get Ryan out of Colorado and make sure to catch little Michael's killer. It was quieter now, the quietest it had been all day long. He looked around for a moment before smiling slightly. "What is it now, Rick?"

Stetler leaned up against the wall and raised an eyebrow. "You really want to know?"

"I want you to know that my thoughts of you right now are to go and soak your head."

The Internal Affairs sergeant rolled his eyes. "What is wrong with you, Horatio? Am I doing something terrible right now that you hate my guts for? Honestly. I haven't done a thing to you all day long."

Horatio merely gazed at him, facing him at a fifty degree angle. "You're behind a plot to take one of my CSIs, your blood was found at the crime scene of Michael, and yet you're wondering why I'm being an ass to you? Rick, take it from me- you really don't want to be in my shoes right now. I've about had it with you."

Stetler rolled his eyes. "You really have nothing better to do but bash me, huh?"

"Currently, no. Now if you don't have anything better to do, I'd like for you to get out of my lab."

Stetler shrugged his shoulders in defeat and made his way to the elevator. "All right, fine. But I have two things to say to you.

"One- Vlad phoned me a little while ago. He's planning on having some ghosts invade the lab tomorrow. I don't know when exactly, and he didn't tell me who, but I will say that it could possibly split your team in half. Not from not wanting to work together, but from wanting to take out certain ghosts.

"And two..." He looked down for a moment and sighed. "I know about Brazil."

With this, he pushed the button. The elevator doors opened, and he walked inside, leaving a stunned Horatio in his wake.

Stetler knew about Brazil?

That did it. He couldn't just keep this bottled up away from the team. He had to tell someone. Anyone.

Could he tell a teenager about how he felt sometimes?

Horatio suddenly felt lost for the first time in six years- since he first became a CSI.

Hah. I cooked up another cliffie for you guys. How's this one for you? Don't worry. I'll get into the whole Brazil thing. Promise.

Reason for repost: Um, I screwed up. BADLY. Go away. I'm fixing the whole thing between Tucker and Alexx.

I fixed the chapter for the line to fit with "Doctor's Disorders." Thank you Silver Shadowbreeze!