csi_fiction | Bookends (6)

Title: Bookends (6)
Written by: failegaidin and rorylie
Rating: R
Fandom: CSI NY/24 Crossover
Pairings: Flack/Stella, Jack/Chloe, Kim/Tony, Danny/Lindsay
Summary: Kim is accused of a surprising crime, and the CSI's have to figure out the truth.
Disclaimer: We own nothing

"Go get the cops," Chloe told Jack as she put the information from her computer on the screens around the room. She waited until Jack returned with Mac, Lindsay and Danny before speaking.

"It turns out Melissa wasn't really Melissa," she explained. "Her real name was Elizabeth Jones. She had a cell phone under that name, I'm tracing the numbers now. She also had a bank account, it has close to a million dollars in it."

"Who the hell was she?" Jack demanded.

"I don't know," Chloe answered. "I'm trying to figure that out."

"How could you let this happen?"

Chloe turned to face him. "Let this happen? You're blaming this on me?"

"You didn't do a background check?"

"He was happy," she snapped.

"And now he's dead."

The blood drained from Chloe's face. "Go to hell Jack," she muttered before pushing past the C.S.I.s and leaving the room.

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Flack's breath caught in his throat when he walked into the room. He had promised himself the last time that he would do everything in his power to keep this from happening again. But as he stared at her, surrounded by machines and artificial light, a heavy sense of failure crashed down on him.

"Stop it."

Her voice startled him, and when his gaze met hers, he was surprised to see the fire in her eyes.

"Stop it," she repeated.

He gave her a confused smile. "I'm not doing anything."

Stella rolled her eyes. "You're blaming yourself. And I want you to stop it."

The smile slid from his face as he came closer to her bed. "I –"

"No." Her voice was firm. "There is nothing you have done, Flack. Let it go."

He shook his head. "I should have stayed at the scene. You could have gone with Lindsay and O'Brian…"

Stella watched the pain on his face, her heart going out to him. He took the blame so easily, she wondered how he managed to carry such a burden. Gentling her expression, she held out her hand to him; Don took it, letting her pull him closer until he was sitting on the bed, their fingers still entwined.

"But then," she pointed out quietly, "you'd be lying here instead of me. And I would not be okay with that, Don."

He stared down at their hands. "I thought I'd lost you," he whispered.

Stella reached out to take his face in her hands, forcing him to look at her. "You can't always protect me."

Flack gave her a half-smile. "Can I at least try?"

She couldn't help but return his grin. "As long as you promise not to be an idiot about it."

They stared at each other, Stella's thumbs moving in slow circles across his cheeks. Don lifted his own hand, brushing a stray curl from her face, and then letting his touch linger.

"I can't lose you," he murmured.

He leaned in slowly, tentatively touching his lips to hers. Stella held his head steady as she responded, kissing him more firmly when he went to pull back. They took their time, neither of them moving to deepen the kiss as the world dropped away around them.

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Mac turned away from the room as the phone rang.

"Detective Taylor?"

Mac frowned at the modified voice coming through the phone. "Run a trace," he said under his breath before putting the call on speaker. "This is Mac Taylor."

"I think I have something you might be interested in."

"What's that?"

"You give me O'Brian and Jack Bauer, and you can have Ms. Hayes and the little girl."

"I need more than that. You have to give me some kind of proof that they're unharmed."

"Send Jack and Chloe, alone, to Bethesda Fountain, Central Park, in two hours, and you'll get everything you need," the voice said before hanging up.

"The call was untraceable," Chloe said softly. "They had it programmed to bounce off of cell towers all around the city. There's no way to know where it was coming from."

Mac nodded. "Take the recording apart," he said to Lindsay. "See if you can get anything."

Jack stared at Chloe as the others left the room. "I don't want you anywhere near that place when all of this is going down."

"I don't really care what you want," she muttered.

"You aren't going, Chloe. I won't let it happen."

"They won't give us Karen and Angela if we don't both go Jack, you heard what they said."

"I don't care what some psychopath that killed two people this morning said."

Chloe stared at him. "This is Angela," she whispered. "If I can get her back…it doesn't matter what happens to me, Jack. She's the only thing I have left."

"I don't know if I can protect you."

"I'm not sure any of us ever could. I did a background check on Melissa. Just Melissa. I didn't dig any deeper. Chase was happy. She was good with Angela. I just thought…I wanted somebody to get a happy ending, you know?"

"Yeah," he said softly. "I know."

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Tony's eyes fluttered open as his phone rang, and he picked his head up off the wall behind his chair. Jet lag had hit him hard as he waited at the hospital, and he decided that he was going to pick up a few precious moments of sleep while he could. But when he looked down and saw who was calling him, he knew that he was done resting.

"Almeida."

"Tony, it's Jack."

"Did something happen?"

"You could say that," Jack growled. "We got a ransom call."

Tony's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "For Angela and Karen? These guys want money?"

"Not exactly."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"They want to trade Angela and Karen for me and Chloe."

"You're kidding."

"No. We're supposed to go alone to the Bethesda Fountain in two hours."

Tony caught the tone in his friend’s voice. "You're not actually thinking of going, are you?"

"I have no choice, Tony."

"This is a bad plan, Jack. One of your worst yet."

"We have to get them back."

"So you're just going to sacrifice yourself? And Chloe? This isn't one of your messes that you have to clean up, Jack. There's no reason to play the martyr."

"They're not going to kill us – at least not right away," Jack insisted.

"You don't know that."

"They must want something, Tony. And the only way to find out what it is is to go meet them."

Tony sighed, knowing that there was no talking him out of it. "Alright," he said, pushing himself out of the chair. "I'm on my way back. Don't do anything stupid until I get there."

As he hung up the phone, he shook his head. He needed to go get Flack.

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Stella ducked her head when Tony pushed open the door to her hospital room and Flack pulled away.

"Sorry," Tony said. "There was a call. They want to trade Jack and Chloe for Karen and Angela."

"When?" Flack asked.

"Two hours. Central Park."

Flack turned back to Stella. "I should get back to work, see if there's anything I can do."

"I'll come with you," Stella said, pulling the tape off her IV.

"You will stay right here," Flack insisted.

"I need get back to the lab."

"You were shot."

"And I'm fine."

"Because you're in the hospital. You need to stay until the doctor's say you can leave."

"I don't need your permission, Don," Stella said as she pulled the IV out. "I'm going with or without you."

Flack sighed. "Will you at least promise to take it easy?"

"I promise to try," she said as he handed her her clothes.

As the three made their way out of the hospital they ran into Bill.

"What are you doing?" Tony demanded.

"The same thing you're doing," the older man answered.

"You almost died. Karen would want to stay here, take care of yourself."

"Karen and I learned a long time ago that we can't change each other. She will understand."

Flack shook his head. "You're both impossible."

"We better go," Tony muttered. "We have to save Jack from his own stupidity."

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"You have a job for me?" she asked when he picked up the phone.

"One that requires your…personal touch," he replied, his identity hidden by the voice modifier.

"What's the target?"

"Kim Bauer."

"I've tangled with the Bauer family before – this won't be easy."

"I pay you more than enough to deal with certain challenges."

"I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were getting yourself into. Do you know where she is?"

"A crime lab in Manhattan. I'm sending the location to your phone now."

She pulled the phone away from her ear, watching as a map came onto her screen. Memorizing its lines, she deleted it immediately.

"Anything else?" she asked.

"I want her alive."

"Understood."

Tossing the phone back into her bag, Mandy put on her sunglasses. If she was going to get Kim Bauer out of a Manhattan crime lab, she was going to need some help.