Spoliers for 2x11: Trapped
Yet more hours had passed, and Taylor and Danny were bored. They had exhausted I Spy. Danny had won, mainly because he was using the chemical names of the chemicals, rather than just, ‘bleach’, like Taylor was using.
Danny had since moved from the bed and was pacing agitatedly up and down. Stella had told them that they had found the housekeeper’s uniform halfway through a wash cycle. When Jerry had cut the power to the panic room. it had also cut the power to the rest of the apartment and stopped the washing machine. She and Flack had taken the housekeeper in for questioning. Danny stopped and peered at something on the floor.
“What have you got?” Taylor asked him, curiously. She’d had nothing better to do than watch him pace back and forth.
“Blood,” he told her. “Pass me my phone, will you?” Taylor rolled over and grabbed his Razr and threw it to him. He flicked it open. “Hey, my phone’s dying – I got half a bar,” he said quickly, not giving the other person a chance to speak. “…Nice, nice, nice. But I’m looking at what seems to be a secondary blood donor. If the housekeeper doesn’t have a cut on her body, she might have a partner.” He hung up just as his phone died on him.
“What was that?” Taylor asked, frowning.
“Stella said the housekeeper is under arrest, but this blood drop here hasn’t come from the vic, which means it came from the killer. And if Linda doesn’t have a scratch on her, that means it someone else helped her.”
“You’re listening to Hunter?” Taylor asked, a small grin forming.
Danny rolled his eyes. “No, I’m listening to the evidence.”
“Uh-huh,” she smiled at him. “I think Hunter Hudson committed suicide,” she said, loudly. The room went cold, and Hunter appeared in the corner.
“It wasn’t me.”
Danny jumped and looked towards the direction the voice was coming from, and shook his head violently. He hurried over to the monitor. “Jerry?”
“Yo!”
“Do me a favour and get me outta here,” Danny begged.
“I’m trying, pal,” Jerry responded.
“C’mon. My partner’s got a suspect in custody right now,” he added, walking towards the bathroom in frustration. “It’s going down, and I’m stuck in here, man.”
“Yeah, it won’t be long now, I promise,” Jerry assured him.
Taylor was stood between Danny and the door, still smiling about him hearing the ghost, when the door popped open behind her. Both she and Danny spun around to see Jerry walking in through the doorway. “Thank you, Jerry!” Taylor exclaimed, happily.
“What are you doing, man?” Danny cried, startling Taylor. Taylor glanced back at him, then back to Jerry. She hadn’t noticed it before, but Jerry was holding a gun and it was now pointing at her and Danny. “What are you doing?” repeated Danny.
“I want you to call your partner and tell her to let Linda go,” Jerry instructed Danny, switching the gun between him and Taylor.
Taylor was frozen to the spot, staring at the barrel of the gun.
“It’s you?” Danny was shouting in disbelief. “It was you, huh?”
“Stop moving!” Jerry shouted back. “Stop moving!”
“You could open this door the whole time?” Danny cried. He was pacing back and forth, which, had Taylor been able to concentrate, would have thought was stupid, considering Jerry had a gun. Instead she was stood still, frozen to the spot, and not in any state to be thinking about anything else.
“Stop moving! Stop!” Jerry yelled.
Danny pointed to a bandage on Jerry’s arm (again, Taylor hadn’t noticed it), “How did you get that cut?” he demanded. “Did he fight back? He fought back, didn’t he?”
“Let me tell you something,” said Jerry. “This whack job has been wanting to kill himself for years. Years! Come time, he couldn’t do it.” He pointed the gun at Danny and took a step forward. “Stop moving!”
“Take it easy!” Taylor managed to stumble out.
Jerry ignored her and threw his phone at Danny. “Pick up the phone! Call your partner!”
Danny looked at Jerry, the gun, and Taylor, “Alright!”
From outside, Stella appeared, gun drawn and aimed at Jerry. “Partner’s right here!” she yelled.
Taylor barely had time to process her presence before Jerry had moved, grabbed Taylor, and was pointing the gun at her head, keeping her between him, and Danny and Stella.
“Freeze!” Flack yelled, only milliseconds behind Stella.
The next happened so quickly that for Taylor it was pretty much a blur – both metaphorically, and physically. “Now, Stella!” yelled Danny. Danny lunged for one of the cups of chemicals and threw it at Jerry. Taylor barely managed to shut her eyes in time as the liquid went flying through the air at her. As it made contact with Jerry – and her – he threw her to the side, and she went flying. As Taylor was thrown, Stella fired at Jerry, hitting him in the arm, causing him to drop his gun and fall to the floor himself. The three detectives went straight for him.
While Jerry was cuffed, Flack darted over to Taylor, helping her into a sitting position, “You alright?” he asked her, seeing her clutching at her eye.
Taylor shook her head,. “It burns,” she moaned.
Danny had since moved from the bed and was pacing agitatedly up and down. Stella had told them that they had found the housekeeper’s uniform halfway through a wash cycle. When Jerry had cut the power to the panic room. it had also cut the power to the rest of the apartment and stopped the washing machine. She and Flack had taken the housekeeper in for questioning. Danny stopped and peered at something on the floor.
“What have you got?” Taylor asked him, curiously. She’d had nothing better to do than watch him pace back and forth.
“Blood,” he told her. “Pass me my phone, will you?” Taylor rolled over and grabbed his Razr and threw it to him. He flicked it open. “Hey, my phone’s dying – I got half a bar,” he said quickly, not giving the other person a chance to speak. “…Nice, nice, nice. But I’m looking at what seems to be a secondary blood donor. If the housekeeper doesn’t have a cut on her body, she might have a partner.” He hung up just as his phone died on him.
“What was that?” Taylor asked, frowning.
“Stella said the housekeeper is under arrest, but this blood drop here hasn’t come from the vic, which means it came from the killer. And if Linda doesn’t have a scratch on her, that means it someone else helped her.”
“You’re listening to Hunter?” Taylor asked, a small grin forming.
Danny rolled his eyes. “No, I’m listening to the evidence.”
“Uh-huh,” she smiled at him. “I think Hunter Hudson committed suicide,” she said, loudly. The room went cold, and Hunter appeared in the corner.
“It wasn’t me.”
Danny jumped and looked towards the direction the voice was coming from, and shook his head violently. He hurried over to the monitor. “Jerry?”
“Yo!”
“Do me a favour and get me outta here,” Danny begged.
“I’m trying, pal,” Jerry responded.
“C’mon. My partner’s got a suspect in custody right now,” he added, walking towards the bathroom in frustration. “It’s going down, and I’m stuck in here, man.”
“Yeah, it won’t be long now, I promise,” Jerry assured him.
Taylor was stood between Danny and the door, still smiling about him hearing the ghost, when the door popped open behind her. Both she and Danny spun around to see Jerry walking in through the doorway. “Thank you, Jerry!” Taylor exclaimed, happily.
“What are you doing, man?” Danny cried, startling Taylor. Taylor glanced back at him, then back to Jerry. She hadn’t noticed it before, but Jerry was holding a gun and it was now pointing at her and Danny. “What are you doing?” repeated Danny.
“I want you to call your partner and tell her to let Linda go,” Jerry instructed Danny, switching the gun between him and Taylor.
Taylor was frozen to the spot, staring at the barrel of the gun.
“It’s you?” Danny was shouting in disbelief. “It was you, huh?”
“Stop moving!” Jerry shouted back. “Stop moving!”
“You could open this door the whole time?” Danny cried. He was pacing back and forth, which, had Taylor been able to concentrate, would have thought was stupid, considering Jerry had a gun. Instead she was stood still, frozen to the spot, and not in any state to be thinking about anything else.
“Stop moving! Stop!” Jerry yelled.
Danny pointed to a bandage on Jerry’s arm (again, Taylor hadn’t noticed it), “How did you get that cut?” he demanded. “Did he fight back? He fought back, didn’t he?”
“Let me tell you something,” said Jerry. “This whack job has been wanting to kill himself for years. Years! Come time, he couldn’t do it.” He pointed the gun at Danny and took a step forward. “Stop moving!”
“Take it easy!” Taylor managed to stumble out.
Jerry ignored her and threw his phone at Danny. “Pick up the phone! Call your partner!”
Danny looked at Jerry, the gun, and Taylor, “Alright!”
From outside, Stella appeared, gun drawn and aimed at Jerry. “Partner’s right here!” she yelled.
Taylor barely had time to process her presence before Jerry had moved, grabbed Taylor, and was pointing the gun at her head, keeping her between him, and Danny and Stella.
“Freeze!” Flack yelled, only milliseconds behind Stella.
The next happened so quickly that for Taylor it was pretty much a blur – both metaphorically, and physically. “Now, Stella!” yelled Danny. Danny lunged for one of the cups of chemicals and threw it at Jerry. Taylor barely managed to shut her eyes in time as the liquid went flying through the air at her. As it made contact with Jerry – and her – he threw her to the side, and she went flying. As Taylor was thrown, Stella fired at Jerry, hitting him in the arm, causing him to drop his gun and fall to the floor himself. The three detectives went straight for him.
While Jerry was cuffed, Flack darted over to Taylor, helping her into a sitting position, “You alright?” he asked her, seeing her clutching at her eye.
Taylor shook her head,. “It burns,” she moaned.
* * *
Taylor was in the back of the ambulance, finally starting to be able to see again. She was wearing an eye-patch over her left eye, and was actually listening to instructions that she should continue to wash her eye out for the next twelve hours with the solution the paramedic had given her. As soon as the medic told her she could, she leapt out of the bus and walked straight into Danny.
“Are you alright?” he asked her, eyeing the eye-patch.
“I will be, thanks,” she told him.
“You need a ride home?” he offered.
“No, thanks. I’m going to the paper,” she explained. “And I’m going to try and salvage my job.”
“Let me give you a ride,” he insisted, leading her to his car before she had the chance to object. “I called my brother,” he told her as they headed to her destination.
“And is it the bad news you’re expecting?” Taylor asked, turning her head completely so she could see him.
“I dunno,” Danny shrugged. “I’m going to meet him for drinks in a bit.”
He pulled up outside the building, “I’ll wait here for you – make sure you get home alright.”
Taylor shook her head. “Thanks, Danny, but I may be a while. You don’t have to wait.”
“I know I don’t,” he told her. “But I’m going to. Besides, knowing you, you’ll get kidnapped by a bunch of pirates thinking you are their long lost first mate, or something,” he grinned.
Taylor smiled her thanks and darted up into the building. Alex was there, reading some papers – she knew he would be – he practically lived at the office since his divorce. “What the hell happened to you?” he asked, looking up at her as she entered.
“I was stuck in a panic room with a cadaver, and then the guy that killed him pulled a gun on me,” Taylor quickly explained.
Alex looked dubious. “And your eye ended up in an eye-patch, how?”
“Some random chemical I have never heard of, courtesy of the CSI who I was locked in the panic room with,” Taylor shrugged.
Alex settled back into his chair. “You still missed your deadline, and by all rights, I should fire you, if not put you on probation, for that-”
“Alex, I was trapped in a room,” Taylor interrupted, pleading.
“Not even the fact you have just won an award for this paper should have stopped me from doing that.”
Taylor cocked her head at him, “An award?” she repeated in surprise.
“For the three-edition spread on the Henry Darius case.”
Taylor’s mouth dropped open in shock. She had written the columns not long after Darius’ preliminary trials had been held – after she’d gained Mac’s consent, of course. “I won an award?” she asked again, still unable to believe it.
“Yes, and despite that, I should still have you suspended, especially after that poor excuse of being trapped in a panic room. However, I received a phone call from a Mr Messer.”
Taylor frowned, “Danny called?”
“Yes,” nodded Alex. “He explained how you were shadowing him for a little inside knowledge for your column, but he managed to lock you both in a panic room, and therefore it was actually his fault and not your that you couldn’t hand in your column in time. However, in future, I wish you’d let me know when you are working with the police, in any way. As it stands, I managed to find an unpublished piece you had given me a while back, and ran that. Now, I want your column in to me by four tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, go home and sort that eye out.”
Taylor gave him a nod and a small smile, before leaving, still revelling in the fact she had won an award, and that Danny had lied for her.
“How did it go?” Danny asked her, as she came out of the building. He was stood leaning against his car, waiting for her.
Taylor ran up to him, and threw her arms around him, planting a big kiss on his cheek, “I love you so much,” she told him. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
“DANIEL MESSER?!”
With her arms still around his neck, Taylor and Danny turned their heads to find a leggy redhead glaring at them. “Cindy?”
Taylor dropped her arms and jumped away.
“I knew there was someone else!” squealed Cindy. “I knew it! Well, it’s over!” she practically screamed. Cindy walked up to Danny and slapped him, before storming off.
“Oh my God!” Taylor exclaimed. “I am so sorry, Danny. Do you want me to go after her, tell her she has it wrong?”
Danny shrugged, rubbing his face. “Nah, don’t worry. She talked too much anyway.”
“But, Danny…”
“Nah, seriously. She was half-right anyway.” Before Taylor could ask him who he was referring to, he changed the subject. “There was someone else in that room, wasn’t there?” he asked her quietly, looking at the floor, “Besides you, me and a body, I mean.”
“Yeah,” she agreed quietly.
“Hunter.”
Taylor nodded.
Danny stared intently at her, then gave her a small nod. “Come on, let’s get you back. I have to meet Louie, soon.”
Taylor smiled. “No, don’t worry. I live around the corner. You go, or you’ll be late.”
Danny smiled at her and got in his car. Taylor watched him as he drove off, and then turned around, coming face to face with a white-clad ghost of Hunter, now minus the gaping neck wound. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you. I now have another CSI on my side,” Taylor told him gratefully.
Hunter nodded. “There is a plan underway.”
Taylor frowned, “Come again?”
“The Powers That Be have a plan. You won’t like it, but it must be done. Try not to get too upset. Everything happens for a reason, and you will have somebody on your side.”
Before Taylor could ask him what he was talking about, he disappeared, leaving her staring at a lamp post.
“Are you alright?” he asked her, eyeing the eye-patch.
“I will be, thanks,” she told him.
“You need a ride home?” he offered.
“No, thanks. I’m going to the paper,” she explained. “And I’m going to try and salvage my job.”
“Let me give you a ride,” he insisted, leading her to his car before she had the chance to object. “I called my brother,” he told her as they headed to her destination.
“And is it the bad news you’re expecting?” Taylor asked, turning her head completely so she could see him.
“I dunno,” Danny shrugged. “I’m going to meet him for drinks in a bit.”
He pulled up outside the building, “I’ll wait here for you – make sure you get home alright.”
Taylor shook her head. “Thanks, Danny, but I may be a while. You don’t have to wait.”
“I know I don’t,” he told her. “But I’m going to. Besides, knowing you, you’ll get kidnapped by a bunch of pirates thinking you are their long lost first mate, or something,” he grinned.
Taylor smiled her thanks and darted up into the building. Alex was there, reading some papers – she knew he would be – he practically lived at the office since his divorce. “What the hell happened to you?” he asked, looking up at her as she entered.
“I was stuck in a panic room with a cadaver, and then the guy that killed him pulled a gun on me,” Taylor quickly explained.
Alex looked dubious. “And your eye ended up in an eye-patch, how?”
“Some random chemical I have never heard of, courtesy of the CSI who I was locked in the panic room with,” Taylor shrugged.
Alex settled back into his chair. “You still missed your deadline, and by all rights, I should fire you, if not put you on probation, for that-”
“Alex, I was trapped in a room,” Taylor interrupted, pleading.
“Not even the fact you have just won an award for this paper should have stopped me from doing that.”
Taylor cocked her head at him, “An award?” she repeated in surprise.
“For the three-edition spread on the Henry Darius case.”
Taylor’s mouth dropped open in shock. She had written the columns not long after Darius’ preliminary trials had been held – after she’d gained Mac’s consent, of course. “I won an award?” she asked again, still unable to believe it.
“Yes, and despite that, I should still have you suspended, especially after that poor excuse of being trapped in a panic room. However, I received a phone call from a Mr Messer.”
Taylor frowned, “Danny called?”
“Yes,” nodded Alex. “He explained how you were shadowing him for a little inside knowledge for your column, but he managed to lock you both in a panic room, and therefore it was actually his fault and not your that you couldn’t hand in your column in time. However, in future, I wish you’d let me know when you are working with the police, in any way. As it stands, I managed to find an unpublished piece you had given me a while back, and ran that. Now, I want your column in to me by four tomorrow afternoon. In the meantime, go home and sort that eye out.”
Taylor gave him a nod and a small smile, before leaving, still revelling in the fact she had won an award, and that Danny had lied for her.
“How did it go?” Danny asked her, as she came out of the building. He was stood leaning against his car, waiting for her.
Taylor ran up to him, and threw her arms around him, planting a big kiss on his cheek, “I love you so much,” she told him. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”
“DANIEL MESSER?!”
With her arms still around his neck, Taylor and Danny turned their heads to find a leggy redhead glaring at them. “Cindy?”
Taylor dropped her arms and jumped away.
“I knew there was someone else!” squealed Cindy. “I knew it! Well, it’s over!” she practically screamed. Cindy walked up to Danny and slapped him, before storming off.
“Oh my God!” Taylor exclaimed. “I am so sorry, Danny. Do you want me to go after her, tell her she has it wrong?”
Danny shrugged, rubbing his face. “Nah, don’t worry. She talked too much anyway.”
“But, Danny…”
“Nah, seriously. She was half-right anyway.” Before Taylor could ask him who he was referring to, he changed the subject. “There was someone else in that room, wasn’t there?” he asked her quietly, looking at the floor, “Besides you, me and a body, I mean.”
“Yeah,” she agreed quietly.
“Hunter.”
Taylor nodded.
Danny stared intently at her, then gave her a small nod. “Come on, let’s get you back. I have to meet Louie, soon.”
Taylor smiled. “No, don’t worry. I live around the corner. You go, or you’ll be late.”
Danny smiled at her and got in his car. Taylor watched him as he drove off, and then turned around, coming face to face with a white-clad ghost of Hunter, now minus the gaping neck wound. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you. I now have another CSI on my side,” Taylor told him gratefully.
Hunter nodded. “There is a plan underway.”
Taylor frowned, “Come again?”
“The Powers That Be have a plan. You won’t like it, but it must be done. Try not to get too upset. Everything happens for a reason, and you will have somebody on your side.”
Before Taylor could ask him what he was talking about, he disappeared, leaving her staring at a lamp post.
Originally posted: 28/05/2006