kathierif_fic (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kathierif_fic) wrote2009-05-24 07:21 pm
kathierif_fic) wrote2009-05-24 07:21 pm
Fic: Fly Away (AU, CSI:NY) Chapter 13 (14/15)
Title: Fly Away
Author: Kathie
Fandom: CSI:NY
Characters: CSI:NY general cast
Prompt: 076. Rebirth
Rating: FRAO
Warning: Spoilers for Run Silent, Run Deep, Slash, Threesome, serious AU
Pairing: Don/Danny, Danny/Mac, Mac/Don
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
The wind swallowed his shout of surprise when suddenly, gravity turned around again, and he wasn’t falling anymore. Belatedly he noticed the sharp pain in his shoulder, and that he’d pressed his eyes tightly shut.
He opened them again and blinked against the tears and the sting of wind, only to see something he’d never expected:
Danny.
Powerful wings twitched frantically, and they still were getting closer to the ground, but at a more sedated pace; one that didn’t mean immanent death and brains splattered over the pavement.
He saw Danny’s grimace of pain in every detail, and when he was already sure that Danny wasn’t strong enough to hold them both airborne, and stubbornness wasn’t going to save them, not this time – they tumbled down and touched the pavement.
Slowly, gradually, he became aware of the things around him: Squad cars, staring people, hushed whispering, Stella dropping in a crouch next to them, breathing heavily, her wings spread wide, her face a mask of fury and of worry, already snapping orders into her cell phone. Danny had fallen half on top of him. He was breathing in short, pain filled gasps, his wings rippling and twitching unnaturally.
Don opened his mouth to say something, but the wind had stolen his voice, and the words just didn’t want to come.
The wind also had stolen his strength; he just barely managed to lift his left hand and settle it on Danny’s back, at the point where the wings protruded from his body. The accidental brush against the feathers made Danny moan.
Only now did he notice the throbbing in his arm and shoulder, battling the numbness, in perfect synchronization with his still frantic heartbeat.
Danny had grabbed his arm, he remembered – he thought he remembered. It all had been so quick, so surreal…like this dream. However, there was a difference, and he could easily see it where it was glinting in the sun: peeking out of his pushed up sleeve, his bracelet.
This was the reality; not a dream.
“Don!” Slender hands pulled at him; pulled him away from Danny, forced him to look up into Stella’s concerned face. “Deep breaths,” she advised. “Are you okay?”
He did his best to follow her orders, even if he barely understood them over the rush of his own blood in his ears. He heard himself, from far away, reassuring her that he was okay in a hoarse voice that he barely recognized as his own, “just a little shaken up” and asking her about Danny and Becker, while on the inside, he still felt the rush of wind on his face, the speed of the fall in his bones, and a deep trembling that just didn’t stop.
“Come on,” Stella said. “Let the paramedics check up on you two.”
He nodded, but his legs refused to obey his commands to move, and when he wanted to pull farther away from Danny, the move jarred pulled muscles and sent a hot spike of pain through his shoulder.
“Give me a minute,” he gritted out, “What’s happening with Becker?”
“Don’t worry about him, we’ll find him,” Stella reassured him, again, and waved at someone out of his field of vision. “You and Danny, you go to the hospital, I’ll take care of the rest.”
And that stopped every argument, because it was Stella, and when she had that look of determination on her face, it was best to do what she wanted to be done – Stella might have some problems in her personal life, but she didn’t make mistakes concerning cases.
One thing was for sure:
Becker would pay for this.
**
“Attempted murder of an Inferior,” Stella sighed. “Plus the Murder One Charges for Ellie Peterson and Alexander Hollis.”
Mac nodded and opened his mouth to comment when Hawkes stuck his head in, holding up a tape. “I have the video from the fall,” he said. “I haven’t seen it yet, I thought you wanted…” he trailed off at the look Mac shot his way.
Stella forced a smile on her face and plucked the tape out of his fingers. “Let’s see if we can use it as evidence. Flack said Becker pushed him off the roof, Becker said he didn’t.”
Mac hesitated for a moment, but the tape was evidence. And he could hardly say that the thought alone that something might have happened to Danny and Don let his breath catch and his heart stutter, even if he knew that both men were alive.
It was a normal reaction, he told himself. He still was responsible for both of them; it was that and nothing else. It would get easier once at least Don was removed from his care, because then he could stop caring about him. Danny, on the other hand, would stay with him, and Mac knew that he couldn’t keep the younger man at home. Danny wouldn’t understand, even worse, he probably wouldn’t survive without something to do. He would die of boredom. Besides, Danny was a good CSI, and Mac needed him at the lab. And Danny loved fieldwork, he would not accept to stay at the lab. Mac closed his eyes for a second. It would get better with time, and he would stop worrying so much about Danny…
…he just had to tell himself that often enough and it would probably become the truth. He just had to convince himself.
“Mac?” Stella asked and raised an eyebrow when he didn’t move to join them. “You with us?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “Just…give me a moment to finish this.” He nodded towards the file on his desk, a file he’d signed only minutes ago, but thankfully Stella didn’t comment. She just grinned at Hawkes and followed him to the AV lab.
Mac didn’t move. He just stared at his hands on top of his desk, taking in the fine lines, the few dark hairs and the veins on the back of his hands, the short-clipped nails – in every detail.
This couldn’t happen, he told himself firmly. He wasn’t supposed to fall for Don, or Danny, or, even worse, both of them. He still could hear Claire’s voice in his head, teasing him about his refusal to take a Companion, and offering to pick one for him. After all, she had reasoned, a Companion was a sign of status, not only for him, but for her too. They had discussed it, and then Danny had appeared in his life, and his resistance had melted. And then Claire had died, and everything changed.
Or did it? Mac wasn’t so sure about that anymore. Of course, the most important person in his life had been Claire, and she wasn’t there anymore. But he had Danny now.
“Mac, did you fall asleep with your eyes open?” a voice interrupted his thoughts. Mac blinked and looked up at Lindsay, who cradled her injured arm protectively against her body. She was cleared for duty, Mac knew, and he was glad about that – the three weeks where he’d been not only one, but two CSIs short had been hell on all of them.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked automatically.
Lindsay shrugged carefully. “Stella sends me. She says you said you were coming?”
Mac swallowed, but, he told himself firmly, the tape was evidence, it was his duty to watch it.
“Yes,” he said and slowly got up. It was his duty, but he didn’t have to like it. He shook his head slightly. He had to do something about this situation, or he wouldn’t be able to work with Danny or Don anymore.
He followed Lindsay to the AV lab, where the rest of his team already was. Don’s right arm was in a sling, and Danny’s wings drooped to the point where the tips touched the floor, and when he moved them, he did it with deliberate, small movements, but as soon as he saw Mac, a smile spread over his face.
“Movie night,” Stella said with a twist of her mouth. “Let’s check if this is of any use.”
The angle of the camera was a bit screwed, but it was still very clear what had happened: Don tackled Becker to the ground, and when he pulled him up to his feet again, Becker’s hands were cuffed.
Then Danny burst out on the roof, weapon drawn and trained on their suspect, Becker, who whirled around and toppled both him and Don over the edge of the roof. Wings spread awkwardly – one of them seemed broken after the fight with Don – he managed to stop his fall and glide through the air to land on another roof and run off.
Don, on the other hand, didn't have the advantage of wings, and he fell like a rock, downwards, straight towards the ground. And so was Danny, who, without hesitating, had dropped his weapon and dove right after Don, wings pressed tightly to his own body, arms stretched out.
"It's a bird, it's a plane, it's SuperDanny," Stella said with a small laugh of disbelief as they watched how Danny’s outstretched hands closed tightly around the closest part of Don's body, his right arm, and how he spread his wings in a desperate attempt to stop their fall, changing it into a half-glide, only supported by Danny's spread wings, and how they finally reached the ground and landed in a trembling heap of limbs.
Hawkes stopped the tape.
It was quiet in the lab for a moment, and then Stella exhaled.
“Wow.”
Mac didn't react. What he'd just seen - he'd come really close to losing them both. The thought alone rendered him speechless. It wrapped itself around his stomach and his throat and squeezed, it pressed thin, spider-like fingers into his body.
He couldn't breathe.
"Impressive," Hawkes said. "I'd never thought..." He stopped and shook his head. They all couldn't believe that Danny's wings really had held both men.
Danny chuckled embarrassedly. "Didn't rip off those," he said and pointed over his shoulder. "Just sprained them. Didn't even need a lot of new stitches for my cuts." He smirked at them.
"You dislocated Flack's arm," Stella pointed out.
“Yeah.” Danny shrugged – and grimaced. “But that’s not that bad, right, Flack?”
Don only gave him a short look. “You’re going to pack my stuff for me,” he informed Danny with a small smile.
“Pack your stuff? What for?” Lindsay asked and looked from one man to the other. “Did I miss something?”
Don shook his head slightly. “Nothing big,” he said dismissively. “Just a change in keepers, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” Stella looked at him. “And when were you planning on telling us?”
“He didn’t,” Mac said with a chuckle. “He didn’t plan on telling me either. Luckily I was informed by the officials.”
“It’s nothing to worry about,” Don quickly said. “Really.”
“Good,” Danny said, although his eyes told everyone that it wasn’t, and moved until he stood next to Mac. “Mac wants to say something.”
“What?” Mac raised an eyebrow. “What did I want to say?”
Danny didn’t pay any attention to him. “We’ve talked about this, and most of you already know,” he said and grinned. “And Mac wants to invite everyone to attend our Ceremony in two weeks. Here at the lab.”
“Ceremony?” Stella was the first to ask. “At the lab?” Her eyebrow rose again. “When did you decide that?”
“And isn’t two weeks a bit of a short notice?” Lindsay added.
Danny shrugged. “It’s not a marriage, Montana, only a Companionship. It’s a formless…thing.”
“You’re going to wear your lab coats, and one of you is going to run off in the middle of it to finish some tests, right?” Stella guessed.
Mac laughed. “I hope not,” he said. “And I already put in the paperwork – in two weeks, it should’ve come through.”
“When did you decide to have it in the lab?” Stella repeated her earlier question. There was no doubt in her mind that the lab was the perfect place for those two men to have this Ceremony, but it still was somewhat of a shock to actually hear it.
“Before we left to arrest Becker,” Danny answered, and they fell silent again.
“What’s happening with Becker now?” Lindsay finally asked.
Stella shook her head. “We caught him when he tried to leave the city,” she said, and for a moment, her eyes gleamed with something Mac didn’t want to know too intimately. “The evidence is conclusive. He pushed Flack. And he killed Ellie Peterson and Alexander Hollis. We don’t need his confession.”
Danny grinned and bounced a little on his heels. “Case closed?” he asked, and Stella nodded.
“Case closed,” she agreed.
Epilogue.
Author: Kathie
Fandom: CSI:NY
Characters: CSI:NY general cast
Prompt: 076. Rebirth
Rating: FRAO
Warning: Spoilers for Run Silent, Run Deep, Slash, Threesome, serious AU
Pairing: Don/Danny, Danny/Mac, Mac/Don
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
The wind swallowed his shout of surprise when suddenly, gravity turned around again, and he wasn’t falling anymore. Belatedly he noticed the sharp pain in his shoulder, and that he’d pressed his eyes tightly shut.
He opened them again and blinked against the tears and the sting of wind, only to see something he’d never expected:
Danny.
Powerful wings twitched frantically, and they still were getting closer to the ground, but at a more sedated pace; one that didn’t mean immanent death and brains splattered over the pavement.
He saw Danny’s grimace of pain in every detail, and when he was already sure that Danny wasn’t strong enough to hold them both airborne, and stubbornness wasn’t going to save them, not this time – they tumbled down and touched the pavement.
Slowly, gradually, he became aware of the things around him: Squad cars, staring people, hushed whispering, Stella dropping in a crouch next to them, breathing heavily, her wings spread wide, her face a mask of fury and of worry, already snapping orders into her cell phone. Danny had fallen half on top of him. He was breathing in short, pain filled gasps, his wings rippling and twitching unnaturally.
Don opened his mouth to say something, but the wind had stolen his voice, and the words just didn’t want to come.
The wind also had stolen his strength; he just barely managed to lift his left hand and settle it on Danny’s back, at the point where the wings protruded from his body. The accidental brush against the feathers made Danny moan.
Only now did he notice the throbbing in his arm and shoulder, battling the numbness, in perfect synchronization with his still frantic heartbeat.
Danny had grabbed his arm, he remembered – he thought he remembered. It all had been so quick, so surreal…like this dream. However, there was a difference, and he could easily see it where it was glinting in the sun: peeking out of his pushed up sleeve, his bracelet.
This was the reality; not a dream.
“Don!” Slender hands pulled at him; pulled him away from Danny, forced him to look up into Stella’s concerned face. “Deep breaths,” she advised. “Are you okay?”
He did his best to follow her orders, even if he barely understood them over the rush of his own blood in his ears. He heard himself, from far away, reassuring her that he was okay in a hoarse voice that he barely recognized as his own, “just a little shaken up” and asking her about Danny and Becker, while on the inside, he still felt the rush of wind on his face, the speed of the fall in his bones, and a deep trembling that just didn’t stop.
“Come on,” Stella said. “Let the paramedics check up on you two.”
He nodded, but his legs refused to obey his commands to move, and when he wanted to pull farther away from Danny, the move jarred pulled muscles and sent a hot spike of pain through his shoulder.
“Give me a minute,” he gritted out, “What’s happening with Becker?”
“Don’t worry about him, we’ll find him,” Stella reassured him, again, and waved at someone out of his field of vision. “You and Danny, you go to the hospital, I’ll take care of the rest.”
And that stopped every argument, because it was Stella, and when she had that look of determination on her face, it was best to do what she wanted to be done – Stella might have some problems in her personal life, but she didn’t make mistakes concerning cases.
One thing was for sure:
Becker would pay for this.
**
“Attempted murder of an Inferior,” Stella sighed. “Plus the Murder One Charges for Ellie Peterson and Alexander Hollis.”
Mac nodded and opened his mouth to comment when Hawkes stuck his head in, holding up a tape. “I have the video from the fall,” he said. “I haven’t seen it yet, I thought you wanted…” he trailed off at the look Mac shot his way.
Stella forced a smile on her face and plucked the tape out of his fingers. “Let’s see if we can use it as evidence. Flack said Becker pushed him off the roof, Becker said he didn’t.”
Mac hesitated for a moment, but the tape was evidence. And he could hardly say that the thought alone that something might have happened to Danny and Don let his breath catch and his heart stutter, even if he knew that both men were alive.
It was a normal reaction, he told himself. He still was responsible for both of them; it was that and nothing else. It would get easier once at least Don was removed from his care, because then he could stop caring about him. Danny, on the other hand, would stay with him, and Mac knew that he couldn’t keep the younger man at home. Danny wouldn’t understand, even worse, he probably wouldn’t survive without something to do. He would die of boredom. Besides, Danny was a good CSI, and Mac needed him at the lab. And Danny loved fieldwork, he would not accept to stay at the lab. Mac closed his eyes for a second. It would get better with time, and he would stop worrying so much about Danny…
…he just had to tell himself that often enough and it would probably become the truth. He just had to convince himself.
“Mac?” Stella asked and raised an eyebrow when he didn’t move to join them. “You with us?”
“Yeah,” he answered. “Just…give me a moment to finish this.” He nodded towards the file on his desk, a file he’d signed only minutes ago, but thankfully Stella didn’t comment. She just grinned at Hawkes and followed him to the AV lab.
Mac didn’t move. He just stared at his hands on top of his desk, taking in the fine lines, the few dark hairs and the veins on the back of his hands, the short-clipped nails – in every detail.
This couldn’t happen, he told himself firmly. He wasn’t supposed to fall for Don, or Danny, or, even worse, both of them. He still could hear Claire’s voice in his head, teasing him about his refusal to take a Companion, and offering to pick one for him. After all, she had reasoned, a Companion was a sign of status, not only for him, but for her too. They had discussed it, and then Danny had appeared in his life, and his resistance had melted. And then Claire had died, and everything changed.
Or did it? Mac wasn’t so sure about that anymore. Of course, the most important person in his life had been Claire, and she wasn’t there anymore. But he had Danny now.
“Mac, did you fall asleep with your eyes open?” a voice interrupted his thoughts. Mac blinked and looked up at Lindsay, who cradled her injured arm protectively against her body. She was cleared for duty, Mac knew, and he was glad about that – the three weeks where he’d been not only one, but two CSIs short had been hell on all of them.
“Is there anything I can do for you?” he asked automatically.
Lindsay shrugged carefully. “Stella sends me. She says you said you were coming?”
Mac swallowed, but, he told himself firmly, the tape was evidence, it was his duty to watch it.
“Yes,” he said and slowly got up. It was his duty, but he didn’t have to like it. He shook his head slightly. He had to do something about this situation, or he wouldn’t be able to work with Danny or Don anymore.
He followed Lindsay to the AV lab, where the rest of his team already was. Don’s right arm was in a sling, and Danny’s wings drooped to the point where the tips touched the floor, and when he moved them, he did it with deliberate, small movements, but as soon as he saw Mac, a smile spread over his face.
“Movie night,” Stella said with a twist of her mouth. “Let’s check if this is of any use.”
The angle of the camera was a bit screwed, but it was still very clear what had happened: Don tackled Becker to the ground, and when he pulled him up to his feet again, Becker’s hands were cuffed.
Then Danny burst out on the roof, weapon drawn and trained on their suspect, Becker, who whirled around and toppled both him and Don over the edge of the roof. Wings spread awkwardly – one of them seemed broken after the fight with Don – he managed to stop his fall and glide through the air to land on another roof and run off.
Don, on the other hand, didn't have the advantage of wings, and he fell like a rock, downwards, straight towards the ground. And so was Danny, who, without hesitating, had dropped his weapon and dove right after Don, wings pressed tightly to his own body, arms stretched out.
"It's a bird, it's a plane, it's SuperDanny," Stella said with a small laugh of disbelief as they watched how Danny’s outstretched hands closed tightly around the closest part of Don's body, his right arm, and how he spread his wings in a desperate attempt to stop their fall, changing it into a half-glide, only supported by Danny's spread wings, and how they finally reached the ground and landed in a trembling heap of limbs.
Hawkes stopped the tape.
It was quiet in the lab for a moment, and then Stella exhaled.
“Wow.”
Mac didn't react. What he'd just seen - he'd come really close to losing them both. The thought alone rendered him speechless. It wrapped itself around his stomach and his throat and squeezed, it pressed thin, spider-like fingers into his body.
He couldn't breathe.
"Impressive," Hawkes said. "I'd never thought..." He stopped and shook his head. They all couldn't believe that Danny's wings really had held both men.
Danny chuckled embarrassedly. "Didn't rip off those," he said and pointed over his shoulder. "Just sprained them. Didn't even need a lot of new stitches for my cuts." He smirked at them.
"You dislocated Flack's arm," Stella pointed out.
“Yeah.” Danny shrugged – and grimaced. “But that’s not that bad, right, Flack?”
Don only gave him a short look. “You’re going to pack my stuff for me,” he informed Danny with a small smile.
“Pack your stuff? What for?” Lindsay asked and looked from one man to the other. “Did I miss something?”
Don shook his head slightly. “Nothing big,” he said dismissively. “Just a change in keepers, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” Stella looked at him. “And when were you planning on telling us?”
“He didn’t,” Mac said with a chuckle. “He didn’t plan on telling me either. Luckily I was informed by the officials.”
“It’s nothing to worry about,” Don quickly said. “Really.”
“Good,” Danny said, although his eyes told everyone that it wasn’t, and moved until he stood next to Mac. “Mac wants to say something.”
“What?” Mac raised an eyebrow. “What did I want to say?”
Danny didn’t pay any attention to him. “We’ve talked about this, and most of you already know,” he said and grinned. “And Mac wants to invite everyone to attend our Ceremony in two weeks. Here at the lab.”
“Ceremony?” Stella was the first to ask. “At the lab?” Her eyebrow rose again. “When did you decide that?”
“And isn’t two weeks a bit of a short notice?” Lindsay added.
Danny shrugged. “It’s not a marriage, Montana, only a Companionship. It’s a formless…thing.”
“You’re going to wear your lab coats, and one of you is going to run off in the middle of it to finish some tests, right?” Stella guessed.
Mac laughed. “I hope not,” he said. “And I already put in the paperwork – in two weeks, it should’ve come through.”
“When did you decide to have it in the lab?” Stella repeated her earlier question. There was no doubt in her mind that the lab was the perfect place for those two men to have this Ceremony, but it still was somewhat of a shock to actually hear it.
“Before we left to arrest Becker,” Danny answered, and they fell silent again.
“What’s happening with Becker now?” Lindsay finally asked.
Stella shook her head. “We caught him when he tried to leave the city,” she said, and for a moment, her eyes gleamed with something Mac didn’t want to know too intimately. “The evidence is conclusive. He pushed Flack. And he killed Ellie Peterson and Alexander Hollis. We don’t need his confession.”
Danny grinned and bounced a little on his heels. “Case closed?” he asked, and Stella nodded.
“Case closed,” she agreed.
Epilogue.