Chapter Text
She shakes her head when she sees Bright come into the precinct. He’s shivering under his three-piece suit, even with his winter jacket wrapped tight. Despite the trembles wracking his body, he doesn’t spill a single drop from the tray of coffee he's holding. He’s holding the tray away from his body, performing a perfect little dance as he stumbles through the crowded bullpen to her and JT’s shared desks spaces. He grins at them, not pridefully or like he knows something they don’t. He just smiles like he’s happy to see them.
He places the tray on the edge of her desk, his blue eyes look to her for approval before he removes his hand from the tray completely. His movements are deliberate but small. His eagerness to hand out the four coffees he has is almost childlike, it’s kind of adorable.
“One Caffe Americano,” he hands it to JT, wringing his hands until JT takes a sip. “American soldiers used to drink their coffee likes that, it’s just water and coffee. I don’t know why you like it.”
JT scowls at Bright, rolling his eyes and taking another sip. “Whatever man, thanks.” He puts on his desk and then stops, his hands over his computer mouse. “Why do you know that anyway?”
Bright looks down at the floor,” I had a lot of spare time as a kid. When your father is a serial killer the only kind of attention you get from other kids is the bad kind. So I studied a lot, mostly history.” He leaves it at that and smiles at Dani. He hands her the next coffee,” a Mochaccino. I do have to say I was expecting a plain black coffee, no sugar, no cream from you.”
She rolls her eyes and he grins at her. He takes one of the two cups left and heads off towards Gil’s office. She watches him until he goes in, watching his smile get even bigger and she smiles too when Gil gets up and pulls Bright into a hug. Dani uses the five minutes that she knows Gil is going to use to berate, lovingly tease, and then worry over Bright with to see what’s in the final cup. She lifts the lid and scowls.
“What is it?” JT comes over to her desk, glances over at Gil’s window, and then to Dani expectantly. Dani frowns at the cup and then up at JT. JT just keeps standing there expectantly. Waiting for her answer.
“It’s hot chocolate.”
The door to Gil’s office opens and neither of them has time to move away from the cup. They just stand there because Dani knows that there is nothing she could do to make Bright think she wasn’t doing what she was doing. He’s an awkward little profiler. He always knows.
Bright comes straight to her desk, right to the side of her desk where he parks himself on days like this. He crosses his legs, it’s the only way he fits in the rolling chair pulled to the side. He takes his cup, tossing the tray in the trash can. “I can’t drink coffee.”
He looks at her. It’s like he thinks he owes her an explanation. She doesn’t expect one. The minute the sweet scent hit her nose she knew. She felt a range of emotions and then relief. Stupidly, she feels relief when she realizes that he’s taking care of himself. He doesn’t sleep and coffee, doubled with the fact that he never eats, wouldn’t be good for him.
“I know, Bright.” She goes back to work, clicking and typing and Bright sit down right beside her like he always does. She fills out their latest paperwork, glancing at Bright each time she types his name. Every time she thinks of how well he’s helped their little team. How he’s a part of their team, now.
She’s typing away when Bright suddenly stands. His chair falls to the ground. She looks down at the chair and up at him. He’s shaking but he always shakes. His hands are raised, left and right in the air and trembling in pace in with one another. She meets what he's looking at: the barrel of a gun.
"Sit down, asshat." The gun doesn't move, thankfully, but the worst part is the fact that she knows the face behind the gun.
Bright glances at her, smiling. He grins at the man with the gun, " you're an attractive man." He looks at the man, up and down, purses his lip. "What? Early thirties? Young, fit… full of rage. So, unless somehow JT has amazingly managed to keep his sexuality a secret when he says everything he thinks. I am willing to bet, you're here for Dani."
Dani shivers under the attention. Michael turns right to her, the gun still on Bright.
Bright clicks his tongue, the attention right back on him. "You were abusive? Actually, don't answer that. I know the answer."
Dani blushes, it's a pure embarrassment. She let a man hit her. She let him do it more than once. She lied to Gil. She lied to JT. For a man.
"So, who hit you as a kid? Wait… your mom but she didn't hit you did she? No, she-"
Michael swings. It causes the entire bullpen to go into chaos. Michael swings out, the gun smacks Bright in the side of the head. Gunshots ring out. It's a whole mess in the protocol but when one of their own is in danger…
Michael goes down. Three red stains on his shirt.
"Bright!" Dani moves around Michael and on her knees beside Bright. He's face down, blood spreading from his nose. She flips him onto his back, her hands trembling when he whimpers. His chest is a mirror of Michaels.
"Idiots!" Her voice is venomous, she spits the word at the best cops surrounding them. "It's like you idiots want a reason to hurt him!" She locks her fingers over the wound. Bright grunts in pain.
"...is okay, Dani." Bright coughs, choking on some of the blood already pooling in his mouth. " 'm okay."
“Teammates don’t lie to each other, Bright.” His blood is pooling in the creases of her fingers. She holds them tighter, pushing down harder, and she sees that it hurts him but she has to save him. He gasps underneath her, his face pinching tight before he turns his head away.
“Teammates?” He stutters over the word, nearly butchering it completely around the blood bubbling in his mouth. His back arches on the ground, unconsciously moving away from her hands. His knee bends, slowly slipping on the floor of the present down until it falls limp to the floor.
Dani nods, tears streaming down her eyes. She wipes them away, Bright's blood coating her cheek. "Yeah, teammates, stupid."
Bright smiles, " I… never been on a team before." His voice is hardly a whisper, his lips pale.
Dani laughs,” you are now. Me and you." She glances up for JT, smiling when she finds him in the doorway of the precinct shouting at everything moving. "JT, too."
Bright smiles even bigger. He gasps, moving to take her hand. He squeezes her fingers with his. His grip is tight but all of her attention is in his fading blue eyes. His grip loosens and she moves quickly, wrapping her hand around his and keeping it there.
“B-Bright?” Dani watches his eyes slide shut, his hand limp between hers. “No! Bright! Bright!” She straddles his hips, her body completely over his as searches for a pulse. She finds it, his neck just rolling to the side under the light ministration of her hand.
“Dani!” Gil pushes his way between the beat cops. He falls to his knees, collecting Malcolm's limp left arm. “Is he… Is he?”
“N-No. I don’t know. I don’t think so.”