Disclaimer: I don't own CSI:NY.
Series: None.
Spoilers: Heroes; Charge of this Post. Any dialogue in bold was taken from the show.
Chapter Twenty Six – Heroes
"No …" The missing person files in her arms fell to the floor with a clatter, but she took no notice.
"Angell?" Mac asked softly.
"No." Jess shook her head, stepping backwards. "No … I … I changed it … I did …"
"Jess?" Danny reached out for her, but she moved backwards.
"No, I changed it, Danny! I changed it!" Jess insisted, her eyes fixed on the dead body – on Aiden, a snide voice hissed in her mind. It didn't work.
Shut up! Another voice shouted. Shut the hell up!
"Changed what?" Danny asked soothingly.
Jess looked up at him, as though she'd never seen him before. "No." She shook her head. "I have to go … I have to check something."
Forcing her legs to move, she ran from the morgue, paying no attention to Lindsay, whom she almost knocked over in the lab, or Don, who called out to her as she reached her car.
Her only focus was on getting to Aiden's apartment as quickly as possible and she pulled her cell-phone out as she pulled out of the parking lot, dialling Aiden's number and putting it on speaker.
"You've reached Aiden Burn. I can't take your call right now, but leave a number and I'll get back to you."
Jess cursed and dialled her cell phone instead.
"The cell phone you are trying to reach is currently turned off. Please leave a message after the tone."
Jess groaned and hung up again. Alright, slow down. The second voice soothed. It's her day off – she's turned her phone off. And she could be taking a shower or something. That body can't be hers.
But still her heart thudded and she pulled up outside Aiden's building, pausing only to lock her car and flash her badge at a traffic warden. "Official business."
It wasn't official, she knew, but she didn't have the time – or patience – to look for a currently legal space. It'll be legal in five minutes anyway.
She took the stairs two at a time and arrived on Aiden's floor, out of breath, hammering on her door. "Aiden? Aiden, for the love of God, answer the door!"
Silence.
"Come on, I changed things!" Jess whispered, leaning against the wood. "This isn't fair … I changed things … You can't be …"
Tears prickled at the back of her eyes and she didn't bother to wipe them away.
It seemed like years ago she had sat in that hospital bed, warning Don that Aiden was going to die in less than a year.
It had been the first thing she had realised that she could change.
Her own actions flashed through her mind. Had she pushed too hard? Had she not pushed enough?
Would they ever forgive her?
Then, amazingly, she heard footsteps.
Jess lifted her head and stared at the door in front of her as it opened, to reveal Aiden, wrapped in a bathrobe. "Jess, it's my day off; what the hell are you doing?"
Jess stared at her for a second. "Oh thank God." She whispered, before promptly bursting into tears.
"Jess?" Aiden tugged her inside the apartment and sat her down on the couch, wrapping an arm around her. "It's alright. What happened?"
On her belt, Jess's cell-phone rang, but she paid it no heed, sobbing into Aiden's shoulder, relief crashing down on her like a boulder.
Aiden unhooked it and set it on speaker.
"Jess, what the hell's going on?" Don's voice asked. "Danny said you …"
"She's with me, Don." Aiden answered. "She's a bit upset. Actually, that's an understatement; she's almost hysterical. What happened?"
"We were in autopsy." Danny answered; apparently, they were on speaker too. "Talking about one of the victims when she seemed to go into shock and then ran out of here like the place was on fire."
"That body." Jess whispered, turning her head so she could be heard. "And that conversation. I've heard it before."
"But Jess, you didn't join until August." Aiden frowned, rubbing her back soothingly. "How is that possible?"
"Danny told me about it." Jess answered. "In exactly a year's time. He was wasted."
Aiden stared at her, realisation appearing in her eyes. "It was me, wasn't it?"
A sharp intake of breath came from the other end of the line.
"What?" Danny demanded.
"She told us, Dan." Don reminded her in a heavy voice. "She said that the Pratt case would kill her, remember?"
"Yeah, but I thought she meant figuratively." Danny whispered.
"So did I." Aiden admitted. "Until she was so insistent that I drop it. And then when Lillian Stanwick was killed … it was blunt force trauma."
"That's right." Sid confirmed. "Body is female. And we're the only people in here, so we can't be overheard."
Jess hadn't even thought of that.
"You think it was him?" Aiden asked. "DJ Pratt?"
"I don't know." Jess admitted. "Anything on the car?"
"An ear-print." Lindsay answered. "And a strange impression in the armrest."
Jess stared at the phone. "No way. We are not going to get that lucky twice."
"Lucky?" Mac repeated. "How is this lucky?"
"She bit him." Jess answered with a vicious smirk. "That impression is a bite-mark. Match the mark on him to the mark on the car and …"
"We've got the son-of-a-bitch." Aiden finished with satisfaction.
"Oh, and Mac," Jess added, "that Marine didn't have any defensive wounds because he didn't need them. He was too good. He could take out an assailant without getting a scratch himself."
"Then who killed him?" Mac asked.
"The abused wife of the man he saved her from." Jess answered with a sigh. "Don told me about this one. Check the hospitals."
"Thanks, Jess."
"Jess, you okay?" Don asked, sounding concerned.
"Yeah." Jess accepted the tissue Aiden handed her and blew her nose. "I'm fine. I just need a minute."
"Alright." Don said softly. "Take your time. Love you."
"Love you too." Jess sniffed slightly as the dial tone sounded.
"Well, at least you two have gotten off your asses." Aiden said with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "You okay?"
Jess shook her head. "Do me a favour, Aiden; never turn your phone off again."
Aiden chuckled. "Sorry. Scare you?"
"Terrified me." Jess admitted. "It just didn't seem fair, you know? I saved a complete stranger last week but I couldn't save you …"
"Well, I'm alive." Aiden stated. "Shouldn't be, but I am. So maybe I can be a sound board now."
"What do you mean?" Jess asked.
"Well, you can't tell us anything that happened from the future in case it changes something, right?" Aiden asked. "At least in a way you didn't intend. But anything that happens to me from now on is changing my future, because I'm not supposed to be here. So, in many ways, I've got a clean slate."
"True." Jess conceded. "But I'd feel better if we cross that bridge after Pratt's been put away for life."
Aiden nodded. "Fair enough."
Three days later, Aiden and Jess watched in joint satisfaction as DJ Pratt was led into the precinct in cuffs.
"We got him." Aiden stated darkly. It was a bittersweet result for her, since the dead woman had turned out to be Regina Moore, one of Pratt's former victims and a friend of Aiden's.
"We did." Jess agreed.
Aiden sighed. "I swear, if I knew Regina would resort to …"
"I know." Jess squeezed her arm. "Come on. I'll get you a cup of coffee."
"One of our apartments." Aiden elaborated. "I want that conversation."
Jess chuckled weakly. "Alright."
When they were both back in her apartment, Jess sent Don a quick text to tell him she was busy that evening and handed Aiden a mug of coffee. "What do you want to know?"
"Whether I can help." Aiden said simply. "It's not fair that you shoulder all this by yourself, Jess. And don't say you're fine. That little breakdown the other day says otherwise."
Jess smiled weakly. "I am okay. I just …" She sighed, setting her mug down on the coffee table. "There's a bomb."
Aiden stared at her. "Where?"
"I don't know."
"When?"
"I don't know."
"Any fatalities?"
"I don't know." Jess admitted. "What I do know is that Don was really badly injured."
"Warn him." Aiden suggested immediately.
"Can't do that." Jess said with regret. "I can't change his reaction, Aiden. A couple of millimetres to the left would have saved his life. But a couple of millimetres to the right will end it."
Saying the words out loud made them a lot more real and she shuddered at the thought.
Aiden reached over and took her hand. "But he was alright, right? So if you say nothing, just let it happen …"
"Yeah." Jess agreed reluctantly. "But have you noticed how Don and I are on the same cases a lot of the time? What if I'm there? Could I walk out of the building, knowing what he was walking in to? Two people have to go in and find the bomb; that's protocol when there's a blood trail. So Mac can't go in alone."
"Right." Aiden agreed. "You don't have a choice, Jess. You can't go up with them; you know Don would cover you."
"Which changes things." Jess sighed. "You're right."
Aiden nodded. "I know. It's just a good thing Don's so predictable."
Jess paused, her mug half-way to her lips. "He is predictable."
"Jess?" Aiden prompted. "What are you thinking?"
"Nothing." Jess answered, taking a sip of coffee.
For some reason, Aiden didn't believe her.
For the next two weeks, Jess remained on alert, half-wishing the bombing would come quickly, half-praying it never would.
Every night, she ensured she and Don spent the night together, even if that day had left them too exhausted to do anything but sleep. She wrapped herself in his embrace, praying that she would never have to leave it.
Each morning, she made a point to kiss him goodbye and tell him that she loved him, lingering longer than she had to, fixing his tie, adjusting his shirt … anything that meant that she could hold on for as long as she could.
If he noticed her increasingly affectionate behaviour, he didn't mention it and if he found it strange, he never showed it.
Finally, one Sunday morning, it happened.
Jess was standing in a stairwell with Mac, staring down at the wide, unseeing face of a security guard.
"Anything?" Mac prompted.
Jess sighed, shaking her head. "It's too common, Mac. Stabbed security guard isn't exactly …" She was cut off by the door to the building opening to allow Don and Lindsay access, letting in streams of music from the street party outside.
"SOS, please, someone help me, it's not healthy for me to feel this way …"
Jess closed her eyes, remembering that song coming onto the radio and triggering a panic attack in her partner.
Stay calm, Jess. Her logical side told her. It's a popular song at the moment. As I recall, it played everywhere for weeks.
"Security guard." Don told Lindsay. "Darwin Judge."
"We got the call because he missed his scheduled check-in." Jess added. "And no, I don't know anything." At the moment.
"Stab wound to the stomach." Mac handed his camera to Lindsay. "No obvious trace of the attacker. But we do have a blood trail."
Jess followed his gaze. Sunday block party. That song. Dead security guard. Blood trail. It's all here. Now if Lindsay …
"There might be some latent shoe prints." Lindsay mused. "I'm gonna go back to the truck. Get the electro-static dust-lifter."
Shit. Jess's heart began to race.
"We'll see where these blood drops take us." Mac stated, as Lindsay left.
"Wait." Jess heard herself say. She had seconds to decide.
Don turned to look at her. "Remember something?"
Jess looked into his eyes, remembering those eyes filled with tears, pain, fear … She couldn't do it. "I think Lindsay did mention this." She shifted her gaze to the door. "Something big's gonna happen."
Don frowned. "Maybe I should go with her."
"It's just a good thing Don's predictable."
Jess mentally thanked Aiden for the idea as Mac agreed and stepped over Lindsay's kit, lying on the floor. As she passed, she squeezed Don's hand. "Be safe."
"You too." Don responded absently, following Lindsay out of the building.
Jess pulled out her penlight and followed Mac up the stairs to the second floor, where the blood drops led to the door to the main building.
"Guard came through this door." Mac commented. "You remember anything else?"
"He's not still here." Jess said confidently. "We can afford to move faster. In fact, we probably should."
Mac gave her a questioning look, but pushed open the door. The corridor was dark and silent and Jess wondered if Mac could hear her heart thudding in her chest.
"Quiet in here." Mac murmured.
"Place is a brokerage firm." Jess said, needing to fill the silence. "No work on Sundays."
"Must be nice, huh?" Mac quipped.
"Oh, yeah." Jess agreed, wishing with all her might that she was back in bed. Preferably with Don safely beside her.
They reached the end of the corridor to find a stepladder lying on its side, beside a potted plant that had been knocked over.
"Guard put up a fight." Jess pulled out her phone. "Hurry up and take a look."
"Danger was never outside the building, was it?" Mac asked, standing the ladder up. "It was inside."
Jess didn't answer, pulling out her phone, dialling Don's number.
"Flack."
"Hey, it's me." Jess whispered, her voice shaking. "I'm sorry."
"For what?" Don asked. "Jess, what's going on? Everything's clear out here."
"I love you." Jess told him urgently. "You know that, right?"
"Yeah, of course. And I love you too." Don sounded worried. "Jess, what the hell's going on?"
Jess saw Mac stiffen and pulled the fire alarm. "Get everyone away from the building, we have a bomb."
"No radios!" Mac yelled so Don could hear him. "Call Central."
"I'm on it." Jess assured both of them. "Love you, gotta go."
"Jess! Jess!"
Lindsay stopped in her tracks, seeing Don's pale face. "What's wrong?"
Don cursed and hung up, pulling his badge off his belt and holding it up. "NYPD! Everyone get away from the building down the street! Move, now!"
"Flack, what's going on?" Lindsay demanded, holding up her own badge as well and ushering people in the opposite direction.
"10-33." Don said grimly. "She knew."
Lindsay's blood froze in her veins and she doubled her shouts. "Come on, this way, down the street! Let's move, come on!"
It was doubtful anyone on the street knew that the code '10-33' was police-speak for 'explosive device', but it didn't matter; two cops warning people away from a building was enough to make anyone nervous, as was the alarm emanating from said building and numerous people spilling from it.
Suddenly the half of the conversation Lindsay had overheard made sense and she sent a silent prayer up that Mac and Jess would be okay.
"Clear." Mac stated, rattling a locked door.
"Clear." Jess echoed, relief flooding through her. They'd done it. The building was empty and there'd been no explosion.
Yet.
"Let's go." Mac told her.
Jess nodded, but they'd only just reached the door to the stairwell when …
"Hey, what's going on?"
They both turned to see a young man staring at them, wearing thick noise-cancelling headphones.
I officially hate those things. "Hey, get the hell outta here?" Jess yelled at him, doubling back.
Out on the street a sort of calm seemed to fall as everyone seemed to think, as one, 'Well, if this is what a terrorist attack feels like, it's not nearly as scary as I thought it would be'.
"Come on …" Don whispered, as he and Lindsay paused, staring back at the building. "You see them?"
"No!" Lindsay answered, her voice shaking as scanned the building for signs of life.
Then the air exploded.
AN: *Ducks again* Oops, I did it again. Last minute change of plans - last minute for Jess, that is, not for me. I've had this planned from almost the beginning. Is Jess alright? Is Mac alright? Will I ever stop posting stupid questions and let you review so I can get the next chapter up faster? Who knows? I certainly don't. Review please!