Madison Bellows - I was going to drop an email, but I haven't stopped all week! The muse has much planned out - I just don't have the time to write it (:c)

Shabbs - Hey, I'm heading over there as soon as this is posted! (See note at bottom of chapter!)

ambercsiny - I got your chapters - I shall have them back to you tomorrow morning! She'll be fine, don't worry. I can't kill her off again so soon!

sparky - lol, I keep going back and editing it anyway when the new ideas hit me. I think there might be some surprises coming up, even for you!

RK9 - You're always missed - don't be silly! I hope you get your laptop fixed soon - I know I'd go mad without mine!

meadow567 - they won't, but the birthday won't go unforgotten!

Hailey Lebeau - Yeah, the writers came back after the strike and wrote some cracking episodes!

Okay, I'm still reeling from watching the season finale. I won't give anything away - don't worry. However, there are spoilers for last season's finale instead (Hostage!)

Big thanks to sparky for betaing!

What The Eyes Can't See

Chapter 214: But I'm trying hard these days not to procrastinate and face my fate

Taylor glanced down at her watch for the umpteenth time. It was past eleven already. They had been in the bank for over two hours, although it felt like much longer. She had the general dirty feel one got when they'd been up all night wearing the same clothes. Her stomach felt like it was clenched in knots and there was a dull throbbing from scar tissue where she had been shot.

Mac had remained in the vault for some time, checking the body over, sending information to the crime lab, and awaiting an analysis.

Taylor glanced up at the sound of raised voices. Joe was indignantly telling Mac that he only fired one shot, waving the gun around as he did so.

Taylor shuddered and looked away, trying to replay the scene over in her head. She'd been that busy talking to Danny, trying to plan Don's birthday surprise that she hadn't even been paying attention.

Don.

She'd been that mean that she had pretended that she hadn't even remembered his birthday.

And if she didn't make it out of the bank, that was going to be his last memory of her.

She lowered her head, her breathing shaky. It was a wonder that leaving the house was safe for her these days.

The next thing she knew, she was being ordered to her feet.

'Alright, listen up,' Joe yelled.

Mac looked over and frowned. 'Right, I need you to split up and look around. You're looking for a small piece of metal which looks like a mushroom. But it's important that you do not touch it or move it. Just call me and I will come and collect it.'

Taylor dropped back to her knees and began crawling around, thankful to have something to take her mind off things, and also thankful that she knew what a spent round looked like.

She didn't find it. A woman on the other side of the room did. 'I found it!' she called.

'Don't touch it!' Mac shouted back, his voice originating from back in the vault.

Taylor sat on her knees as Mac hurried over and scooped it up into a dish. He hurried over to a desk and started to process it. It didn't take long for him to sit back with a defeated sigh, setting the bullets on the desk. 'Joe, this isn't going to work. The bullets are too damaged. There's no way to include or exclude your weapon.'

'You- you've just been stringing me along?' Joe cried angrily, returning to waving his gun around. 'You've just been wasting my time?'

Taylor flinched.

Joe grabbed a hold of Mac, pulling him from his seat. 'Get on the floor! Just, get on the floor, man!' He stuck the gun under Mac's chin as he pulled him along.

'Stop it!' Taylor shrieked in a blind panic.

Joe turned the gun on her. 'What is this?' he asked, switching his aim between her and Mac. 'Have you two got something planned?'

Taylor blinked, fear paralysing her to the spot. Finally she found her voice. 'See... see... CCTV,' she stammered.

Joe released Mac and stepped back to look at him.

'It should show us everything,' Mac agreed.

Joe paused, then pointed his gun back at Mac. 'Where?'

'In the manager's office.'

Joe looked around. 'If any of you try anything, I will shoot you.' He turned to Mac. 'Come on then,' he glanced over at Taylor. 'You too.'

Taylor followed Mac, aware that Joe's gun was trained on her back, to the manager's office.

Mac slid behind the desk and quickly accessed the computer, pulling up the recorded CCTV images from various points around the bank. He watched the images for a few minutes before turning to Joe. 'You say you walked in the bank as soon as it opened this morning?'

'Yeah.'

'What time was that?'

'Nine o'clock. Why?'

Mac looked over at Taylor who quickly nodded. With a frown, Mac walked away from the computer and out of the room. 'Hey, where are you going?' Joe called after him. Waving his gun at Taylor, she and Joe quickly hurried after him as Mac re-entered the vault.

'I'm talking to you,' Joe added as he entered the vault.

Mac ignored him, looking at the table next to the door. On it was several stacks of bundles of bills. There easily had to be several thousand. Wordlessly, ignoring the gun trained on his back, Mac pulled a small can of something Taylor recognised as luminal, and began spraying the bundles. They instantly turned the pink Taylor knew meant there was blood present.

'What is that?' Joe asked.

'Blood,' Mac told him. 'We've gotta talk.'

Joe looked at him. 'About what?'

"The money that you took. Where is it?' Mac asked him. 'Did your partner take it? Is that who's been calling you, Joe?'

'I don't have a partner,' Joe told him.

'Then where's the money? The money was here,' Mac pointed to the void matter-of-factly. 'It was taken right after this man was shot.'

Joe shook his head. 'I never had the chance to grab anything. Your friends were here before I had the chance to fill a bag up.'

Mac ignored him and turned to Taylor. 'Did you see him with anything?'

Taylor shook her head. 'I didn't see much, Mac,' she admitted. 'But what I did see, there wasn't any money on him. And he wasn't ever out of sight unless he was with you.'

Mac strode out of the vault and back into the main bank area. 'Did anyone see Joe take any money out of this vault?'

'Hey!' Joe objected, hurrying after him.

Mac cut him off. 'Let them answer the question.' Without giving Joe chance to respond, he addressed the hostages again. 'Did anyone see Joe remove money from the vault?'

Everyone shook their heads.

Mac frowned and headed for the phone. 'We have a problem,' he told Joe as he picked the phone up and dialled. 'Danny, it's Mac...yeah, I'm good. I took a look at the security footage from inside the bank. The cameras were disconnected at a few minutes before eight this morning... and that's not all. I've got a spatter void and money missing from the vault which could only mean one thing... and the vic could be the casualty from that heist. Which means that maybe this isn't a coincidence,' Mac explained to Danny, never taking his eyes off Joe. 'Maybe this isn't about money, but something else.'

Joe hung up. 'What do you mean?'

'You tell me,' Mac suggested.

'Man, you can't be trusted to go anywhere,' Maddy announced very loudly, causing Taylor to jump. Thankfully the action wasn't noticed by Joe as he was completely focused on Mac.

Taylor glowered at her.

'Oh relax,' Maddy shrugged. 'You're not dying today.'

'Why are you here?' Taylor mouthed at her dead friend.

Maddy shrugged as she began wandering amongst the people sitting on the floor. 'God, it's quiet in here. And tense,' she added. 'It's occasions like this that life could do with some background music.' She grinned at Taylor. 'How cool would that be? If there was some ABBA playing?'

Taylor just shot her a disbelieving look.

'Good point,' Maddy agreed. 'This isn't a Mama Mia moment. Maybe some Linkin Park would be appropriate. Or Muse? Muse would work. Get some Time Is Running Out going,' she looked around the room. 'You know, forget background music, I bet the acoustics in here would be fantastic.'

Taylor had to wait until Maddy was looking at her before she could wave her arms at her in a what the hell? motion.

'I told you; relax,' Maddy shrugged. 'You're gonna be fine. In fact, you'll be out of here before you know it. I don't think your birthday surprise for Donny Boy is going to work out though. I just wanted to say, keep an eye on Stella. We gotta make sure that little bebé of hers is alright.' She glanced over at Mac as the telephone rang. 'You might want to listen to this, by the way. It might be important.' And then she disappeared.

Taylor stared at the spot, wondering what had just transpired. Surely Maddy had been a little too forthcoming in information?'

'The bank manager's wife?' Mac was saying.

Taylor blinked and focused in on the conversation.

'When...? Something's not making sense. We've got witnesses out there that say they saw the gun man enter the bank alone and they only heard one shot. There's money missing, two bullets inside the vic from a Kris SuperV and I'm staring at our guy's standard 45.'

And then Joe slammed the phone down. 'Hey, you heard the woman. Someone else was in here. So you call whoever you need to call and you tell them that I didn't murder anyone,' he dropped a phone down in front of Mac. 'Call!'

Mac shook his head. 'I can't do that. All I've got is a theory and your word.'

'You know,' Joe said, his gun waving about erratically again. 'I'm beginning to regret asking for a CSI. We're done.'

'Wait a minute,' Mac told him, reaching behind him for an evidence envelope from his kit. 'If I can get these bullets back to my lab,' be began putting the bullets into the envelope. 'And we can match the bullets from the bank manager's wife, then I'll know what you're telling me is the truth.'

Joe eyed him, and then nodded. 'Done. What else?'

'I want this evidence taken out of here by a hostage.'

'Forget it.'

Mac dropped the evidence bag on the table and stood back with his hands on his hips. 'Then I'm done. Either you give me something I want, or you can take these bullets across the street yourself.'

Joe looked around, his hand sliding over his hair, until he pointed at a man by his feet. 'Alright. You.'

'I want her.' Mac pointed at the woman who had told them she was pregnant, and for a second, Taylor was upset Mac hadn't pointed at her.

Joe nodded.

---

Taylor leant back against the wall and sighed silently. She knew it took a while for the CSIs to process evidence – she knew it wasn't like TV where answers were given in seconds – but time felt like it had slowed right down.

The other hostages were sitting silently, most staring into space, a few doing the same as her and watching Mac and Joe. Mac, also aware it would take time for the information to be returned, had taken to fingerprinting the vault door, whilst Joe was pacing back and forth, constantly checking his watch.

Suddenly, the lights went out and the vault descended into darkness and silence as the gentle hum of the air conditioning unit also ceased working.

'What? What the hell is going on?' Joe asked, watching the lights go out section by section.

'Hostage rescue is getting restless,' Mac explained calmly. 'They're not going to sit out there doing nothing all day, Joe.'

Joe strode over to the phone and picked it up. 'I want you to turn the power back on, now!' he demanded. 'Listen to me very carefully. If you don't turn on the power in one minute, I'll give you a hostage. But you better tell the morgue to come pick her up.'

Taylor swallowed, replaying what Maddy had told her over in her head. She was the only female in the room.

Joe slammed the phone down and turned to Mac. 'Call you friend and tell him to turn the power back on.'

Mac dropped his duster on the desk. 'Enough is enough, Joe. Tell me what's going on. You say you didn't kill the manager, the evidence seems to support that, but if you want my help, you've got to tell me how you got in this position. You're not at the point of no return, Joe. This doesn't have to end badly.'

Joe walked away.

And Mac took the opportunity to grab something off the desk and swing it at Joe's head. As Joe went crashing to the ground, Taylor leapt to her feet. 'Quick!' she cried, half pulling, half helping the other hostages behind a counter, away from the line of the gun as Mac fought to free the gun from Joe.

As she dashed back out to help someone else, Mac's cries startled her and she looked over to see Mac standing over Joe, the gun safely in his hands.

'Don't move!' Mac shouted. 'Don't you move! Get your hands behind your head.'

He pulled Joe to his feet and pushed him forward.

And then Joe did something Taylor didn't expect. He fell to his knees and began crying. 'Please,' he begged. 'Please. They'll kill my family. You can't walk me out there – they're watching,' he sobbed.

Taylor stared over at Mac, mouth hanging open.

'I'm the hostage here,' Joe continued. 'You've got to believe me. My real name is Douglas Anderson. I work for an insurance company. If they see you walk me out this bank, they'll kill my family.'

Mac lowered his gun a fraction as Taylor joined him.

'I don't know their names,' Joe told them. 'The bank manager, Walter; I live across the street from the guy. It was just another ordinary day. I kissed my wife and daughter to leave the house to hit the gym before work. The next thing I know, a car has pulled up in front of me, blocking me in and two guys are jumping out of it, ordering us back in the house, armed with guns. They tied my wife and daughter up and said that if I didn't do what they said they'd kill them,' he yelled the last part at them.

'They wanted you to rob this bank?' Mac asked. 'The evidence says they already robbed it. And apparently they got away. Why would they want you to rob the same bank an hour later?' Mac glanced down at something on the table.' 'They left their phone behind.'

'Yeah,' Joe nodded, still sobbing. 'They said that Walter tried to play hero. They must have shot his wife after that.'

'They forced you to go back in to retrieve the phone?'

'Yeah,' Joe agreed. 'But by then the bank had already opened.'

Mac perched on the edge of the desk. 'And you've been in contact with the bank robbers the whole time.'

'They wanted me to get out of here with their phone,' Joe admitted. 'Because it's the only thing that links them to their robbery. They said that if I got the phone back to them I'd get my family back. I need to get out of here. I need for them to see me get out of here. Will you help me? Please?'

Mac shared a look with Taylor.

'What do you need me to do?' she asked him in a low voice.

'You tell Stella and Flack everything, as soon as we've driven away. You think you can do that?' Taylor nodded as Mac flashed her a small smile. 'It's almost over,' he told her.

---

It was. Moments later, Mac was on the phone requesting a car. As soon as he hung up he began emptying the gun's magazine of its bullets, dropping them on the table. He turned to Taylor as it became apparent the car had arrived. 'Remember, let us get away first.'

Taylor nodded.

They turned around to find Douglas right behind them. 'It's time?'

'It's time,' Mac confirmed, handing him the unloaded gun and putting his hands behind his head. Douglas grabbed it, pulled his hood up, and pushed Mac towards the door.

And then they were gone.

Righto guys:

It's time for the CSI:NY FanFiction Awards again. I believe nominating closes tonight, so head over to the forum and get suggesting your favourite story before it's too late! I'm heading there myself!

Voting starts tomorrow, so if it's saturday when you're reading this, go have a gander and go vote!