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Danny drove into the alley and parked. She didn’t see the gray SUV; just a blue car she didn’t recognize. She pulled out her cellphone and dialed the office. Taylor answered immediately.
“Taylor, I’m at the warehouse, but I don’t see the gray SUV anywhere, just a blue sedan…” She approached the car but almost discounted it as irrelevant to her search. Then the glasses on the dash caught her eye. She leaned closer to the window and peered down to study them. Yes! They were his. Smart, Bull. Very smart.
“He’s here,” Danny confirmed into the phone, then slid it into her pocket and drew her weapon. She stealthily made her way inside, taking care not to let the door slam behind her. She moved into the dim room, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dark interior. She cursed inwardly as she stumbled into something; grabbing the object to keep it from falling over and making noise. She could hear Bull talking now and made her way silently toward the sound of the voices.
Danny peered around a wall and was greeted with a sight that nearly stopped her heart. Two people faced away from her. Bull was on his knees on the dirty warehouse floor, and a woman who had to be Simon’s mother was standing over him with a gun against the back of his head. Danny listened as he tried to talk her down, but it wasn’t working. She’d heard enough.
She raised her own gun and advanced into the room. “Drop your weapon!” she ordered loudly.
There was a cacophony of simultaneous voices shouting over each other as the suspect whipped around, realizing they weren’t alone. Danny was relieved to see the gun move from Bull to her as the woman screamed. “Stay back!”
Bull’s desperate voice overrode them both, “Don’t shoot…stop, don’t shoot!” he shouted, and Danny knew he was talking to her. “Everything’s going to be okay,” he said more softly. Everything’s gonna be alright,” he said, looking up at Simon’s mother.
Danny watched as the woman’s grip loosened on her weapon and she stood there uncertainly. She pressed her lips together grimly as she deferred to her friend, though her instincts told her to deal with the threat her way, not Bull’s.
Bull kept trying to reach the woman through her devotion to her son. Danny tensed as the woman’s weapon dropped, now pointing down in Bull’s direction again. Her grip had loosened and she appeared to be listening, considering.
“He knew how much you loved him,” Bull was saying. “You don’t have anything left to prove.”
Danny got a sinking feeling as a resolved look suddenly stole over the distraught woman’s face.
“I know,” she whispered as she fired.
Danny surged upright in her bed, the scream lodged in her throat bursting free.
“NO!”
At first, all she could see was Bull lying on the warehouse floor unmoving, as a pool of blood spread from beneath him. The dream image faded and her head whipped wildly back and forth. She stared into the darkness of her bedroom, gasping and drenched in cold sweat.
She rocked and hugged herself. “Just a dream. It was just a dream,” she mumbled. A litany reassurances fell from her lips as she tried to remind herself the dream wasn’t reality. “It didn’t happen, he’s okay…he’s okay.”
Once her breathing calmed, she laid back down and pulled the covers over herself to ward off the chill she still felt. Sleep evaded her the rest of the night.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~TAC Office, The Next Day
Marissa frowned as she watched Danny circle past the glass walls of Bull’s office again. A scowl ghosted across her face, marring the pretty features briefly. She followed Danny into the kitchen, determined to find out what was bothering her, and what Bull had to do with it.
Marissa poured a cup of coffee for each of them while watching Danny poke around in the fridge for creamer. Danny turned and started in surprise on seeing her, nearly dropping the carton of creamer.
“Marissa, you scared me,” she exclaimed, one hand over her hammering heart.
“Sorry, hun,” she apologized and handed Danny her cup. “Take a break with me,” she invited, inclining her head at the nearby table.
They sat and Danny averted her eyes, pretending to be occupied with her coffee.
“You’re distracted this morning,” Marissa began. “Everything okay?”
“Of course,” Danny said, shifting in the chair. “Why?”
“Because you’ve gone out of your way to walk by Bull’s office no less than three times this morning. I’d think you were checking on him if it weren’t for that side-eye you keep throwing, and I can see that you’re uncomfortable right now, ” Marissa observed. “What’s going on?”
Maybe she needed a sympathetic ear. It couldn’t hurt. Danny sighed and covered her face against the dream images of a dead Jason Bull that rose to torment her. “I keep dreaming that she killed him while I watched and did nothing. I’m torn between this need to check and make sure he’s really here, and being really angry at him,” she admitted. “I don’t know how not to be.”
“He’s fine, Danny. Marissa reminded. “He’s back with us and he’s fine.”
“I’m not so sure he’s fine,” Danny disputed. “I’m not sure I am, either.”
Marissa nodded, knowing their boss and friend was still emotionally compromised by Astrid’s kidnapping and the confrontation in the warehouse. She’d had no idea what happened to make Danny feel that way too.
“You got there in time,” Marissa reassured.
Danny shook her head in denial. “You don’t know.”
“Tell me then,” Marissa prompted.
Danny took a deep, calming breath. “You read his statement to the police?” she asked. At Marissa’s affirmative nod, she went on. “He glossed over some of the specific details quite a bit. I assume it was to spare the mother any more severe consequences than what she already faced.” She shook her head in agitation. “The police report…you just don’t know how close it was,” Danny said, her voice cracking with emotion. “We almost lost him,” she whispered.
“You got there in time.” Marissa repeated. Wanting desperately to comfort her friend, she reached across the table to grab Danny’s hand. “You saved him…he said so. She squeezed Danny’s hand tightly as she spoke, emphasizing her words. “He’ll be okay, we’ll make sure of it.”
“I didn’t save him, he saved himself,” Danny shot back resentfully.
“He ordered me not to shoot. Every instinct I had told me to do exactly that. You didn’t see her. She was on the razor’s edge. I don’t think even Bull knew if he was getting through.”
Danny’s voice rose in rare anger as she continued. “He was kneeling there, and everything about him screamed this defeated, ready to die posture.” Danny shrugged helplessly. Unable to sit still any longer, she stood and paced, running her hand through her long curls and pulling them hard, hoping the sting would distract her from those images in her head.
“Stop that!” Marissa rushed to her friend and grasped her wrists. Danny sagged and let herself be guided back to the table.
Danny looked up at Marissa, and the blonde was shocked to see tears in the dark eyes.
“Her pain over the loss of her son was so palpable and he was so affected by it. The guilt poured off him,” Danny said softly, swallowing hard. “I can’t help but wonder if he thought he owed her a chance at the revenge she was looking for. I’m furious that he could even think for a second about just kneeling there and letting her shoot him. Knowing that Izzy and Astrid would be devastated if he died.”
“And us.” Marissa pointed out what she left unsaid.
“And us,” Danny agreed and slumped in the chair, exhausted from baring her deepest fears about what happened.
“And you’re angry at him for not letting you protect him?”
“Yes!”
Marissa sighed and took Danny’s hand again.
“I don’t have to be a psychologist to know you two need to talk,” she said.
Danny shook her head. “He’s been through a lot. He’s got enough on his mind without me complicating things.”
“Talk to him,” Marissa said firmly. “He needs to know he’s not the only one pretending to be fine.”
Danny looked down and sighed. She was no good to anyone this way. “That’s exactly what I’m doing,” she agreed.
“Go,” Marissa urged with an encouraging smile. “He’ll be glad you did. So will you.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A while later, Danny hesitantly tapped on the glass of Bull’s office door. He looked up from his work and grinned, gesturing her inside. She felt a pang in her chest at the thought of them never seeing that bright smile again. She took a deep breath and stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She prayed Marissa was right.
“Bull…I was hoping we could talk.”
~End~