Chapter Text
PRESENT DAY
“Dani, you and Bright take the top two floors. JT and I have the first two.” The team split, rushing off in opposite directions. Malcolm had already opened the stairwell door when Gil added, “And hey!” he looked at all three of his team members pointedly, “be careful.”
Dani led the way up the two flights of stairs, Malcolm on her heels. When they reached the third floor, she drew her weapon as he reached around her to open the stairwell door. The building hadn’t been used in over five years. A thick layer of dust covered everything. This floor was clearly an office; numerous desks were spread throughout the open floor plan and a set of columns ran down the middle of the floor, supporting the beams overhead. Dani had already started checking under the desks on the left side. Malcolm entered after her, drew his gun, and went to work doing the same on the right side. They were about halfway through clearing the floor when the stairwell door on the opposite end of the office opened.
Malcolm’s head whipped around and the door immediately slammed closed, whoever had opened it retreating back to the stairs. The two of them ran toward the door. This time Dani let Malcolm lead, jerking the door open for him as they entered the stairwell. Footsteps pounded a half flight above them and they rushed to follow.
The fourth floor was the highest and, unlike the third, it was practically abandoned. The same row of columns ran down the center of the floor and a few stray tools were strewn about, forgotten. Two office chairs were seated next to a large window on one side.
Malcolm exited the stairs first, weapon raised and Dani followed. It took all of three seconds for them to know the floor was clear. Dani cautiously walked forward on one side of the columns, Malcolm mimicked her on the other.
Something’s not right, he profiled everything he could see. Sights weren’t what was concerning him.
“Wait,” he said, holding up his hand. She immediately froze, heeding his warning, “You smell that?”
Dani sniffed the air, “Gasoline.” She turned her head toward him, eyes wide.
“Run!” Malcolm ordered.
They sprinted back to the door, pulling the handle. It opened two inches before stopping abruptly. Malcolm jerked the door as hard as he could, while Dani leaned in looking through the crack.
“The handle is chained to the stair railing,” she noted. Malcolm let go, as she grabbed her radio. “Gil, we’ve got gasoline on the fourth floor. We need to EVAC now.”
The lieutenant’s voice responded, “Copy that. Get outta there!”
“Other stairway,” Malcolm suggested.
They raced toward the door on the opposite side. When they were halfway there, it opened. Each of them immediately halted, when a man wearing full firefighter turnout gear entered the room with them. He was covered from head to toe, jacket, pants, oxygen mask all in place. In his right hand, he held a blow torch.
Immediately Dani raised her weapon, “NYPD! Put your hands in the air.”
Malcolm stared at the torch in the man's hand. The blood in his veins turned to ice water, “Dani.”
“What?”
“He has a torch.”
“I see it.”
He could tell that in the surprise of the man's arrival she wasn’t considering why they were supposed to be evacuating in the first place. “And this floor is covered in gasoline.”
As he made the observation, the man in the suit crouched down, clicked the button on the torch, and touched the flame to the floor. While he straightened up, a wall of fire ignited down the center of the floor, in seconds, creeping up each column as it went.
“Dani!” Malcolm yelled, running toward her, but he wasn’t fast enough. The flames shot up in front of him, separating them.
When he looked back toward the man in the suit, he was nowhere to be found. The fire was spreading quickly, as he searched for Dani’s face through the flames.
“Check those stairs!” he yelled again and the two of them rushed to that end of the floor, Malcolm waiting anxiously to see if she could get out. His heart leapt when she pulled the door and it opened. “Go!” he ordered.
Dani took three quick steps in his direction, as close as she dared. Fifteen feet of flame and intense heat roared between them. “I’m not leaving you here.”
“You absolutely are. Now go! I’ll figure something out. It’s going to be fine.” Malcolm assured her. The room was getting hotter by the second. Flames had already spread out multiple feet from the center line.
Dani hesitated, her face filled with fear. Even through the flames he could see the tears as they fell down her cheeks. “How?”
Malcolm heart twisted in his chest. He hated to see her in pain, but he sure as hell couldn’t allow her to stay and risk her life for his. “Dani, we both know why you have to go. Please.”
She looked up at the ceiling. He was right and she knew it. Then her eyes widened in epiphany. “Is the fire escape on your side or mine?” She sprinted to her window, while he did the same. “It’s not here!” she called.
“Here! It’s here,” he responded. “See I’m fine. Now go! I’ll meet you in front of the building.”
“Okay!” She turned as she opened the stairwell door. He met her gaze and held it only for a second before nodding his head and mouthing “go”. Finally, Dani exited through the floor.
Malcolm turned to the window, then frantically scanned the room for anything he could use to break it.
The chair.
He picked up one of the office chairs and swung it feet first at the glass, shattering it. Over half of the floor was covered in flames. He was sweating profusely as he quickly cleared away any shards from the edges and stepped out the window. Malcolm barreled down the fire escape steps as fast as he could, descending the iron ladder and jumping the remaining eight feet to the ground.
As soon as his feet hit the pavement, he ran. He had just turned down the small alley leading to the front of the building when it rumbled. When he exited the alley onto the sidewalk, a massive explosion ripped through the top floors. Malcolm ducked down, covering his head as debris fell all around him.
When he lifted his head he saw Gil and JT staring up at the damage. Ash and smaller bits of rubble were still falling; flames were engulfing the building now. Malcolm didn’t bother to look at it. He only cared about one thing.
Dani?
He searched the sidewalk and now the street, which was rapidly filling with spectators, for her face.
“Dani?” The first few times he said it, it was practically a whisper. As the realization that she wasn’t where she should be set in, his calls for her became more frantic. “DANI?!”
Gil and JT rushed to him, his mentor spoke first, “Where is she, Bright?”
“She should be here. I watched her leave the floor to go downstairs. She should have beat me here.”
“JT take that alley. Let’s circle around!”
JT sped off in the opposite direction and Gil and Malcolm sprinted their way back to the fire escape, screaming her name in the process. The detective met them behind the burning building.
“Nothing,” he reported.
Immediately Malcolm ran back to the front, his teammates following close behind.
“DANI?!”he screamed, searching the crowd for her, to no avail.
She should have beat me out, he thought, his world shifting on its axis.
Without hesitation, Malcolm rushed toward the front door of the building.
“Whoa. Bright, you can’t go in there!” JT grabbed his arm and Gil stood in front of him blocking his way.
“The hell I can’t! Dani’s in there, Gil. Get out of my way.” Malcolm shoved his mentor, but he stood his ground. “DANI!” JT wrapped his arms around Malcolm from behind, pulling him backward. “Get off me! DANI!” He fought JT’s grasp with everything he had. A few times he escaped, for less than a second, before JT caught him again. “DANI!”
He had to find her, get her out before it was too late.
“We can’t just stand here, Gil. DANI IS IN THERE!” he shouted, the pain in his voice evident.
Sirens wailed as the first responders arrived; Fire, EMT, and police vehicles filled the street.
“You can’t go in there, Bright. The building’s not stable.” JT grimaced as he kept pulling his partner back.
“Let me go!” Malcolm demanded. He whipped his head back, hitting JT in the face. The detective stumbled back once and his grip faltered. Malcolm ducked by Gil and was almost to the front door when the second explosion radiated through the structure. The last thing Malcolm saw was a ball of fire rushing toward him through the glass of the entryway.
Then everything went black.
Silence.
Silence, coupled with a high pitched ringing, filled Malcolm’s ears. His eyes fought against the command to open. When they finally agreed, he saw Gil kneeling next to him. His mouth was moving, but Malcolm couldn’t hear anything he was saying. He blinked multiple times, as though that would fix the ringing in his ears.
What happened?
Slowly other sounds returned, muffled at first, like someone talking into a pillow. He tried to stare at Gil, read his lips. His head was swimming, heavy and unbalanced, despite laying on the ground.
The ground? Why am I on the ground?
Malcolm looked past Gil. The building behind him was an inferno. Firefighters ran past them to enter, as others were hosing the building from ladders. He furrowed his eyebrows, confused.
What’s going on?
Gil’s voice finally broke through the ringing, “Bright? Can you hear me?”
Malcolm looked up at him, his eyes bouncing, trying to take in his surroundings. “What happened?” he mumbled.
Gil looked over at JT, who Malcolm hadn’t even noticed was slightly behind his head. “There was an explosion. You were thrown. Can you move?”
Malcolm squeezed his fists and curled his toes in his shoes.
That’s a good sign.
“Yeah. I think I’m okay.” He pulled himself up into a seated position. The lightheadedness hit him first, then the nausea. It took everything in him not to lean over and retch.
Gil could tell, “You good?”
Malcolm nodded and immediately regretted it, “Yeah.” He looked up at the building. Flames licked up the sides, and out of windows. In an instant it all came back to him.
“Dani?”
Gil put his arm out, “Bright.”
“Where is she?!”
Again Gil looked at JT, unsure of whether or not to honestly answer, “We don’t know.”
“What do you mean we don’t know? We have to get in there. We have to find her!” Malcolm stood up and stumbled, the concussion making him uneasy on his feet.
“FD knows. They’re looking.”
“How-- how long has it been? How long was I out?”
“Not long. A minute, maybe two,” JT answered.
He took a step toward the building, again Gil blocked his path, shaking his head. Behind his mentor, a resounding crash boomed. From the vehicles close to them, Malcolm could hear the FDNY radios.
Floors are starting to collapse. This place is losing stability fast.
Copy that. Sweep as much as you can for the detective safely. Then get out of there.
Malcolm looked up at the man who, for all intents and purposes, was his father. His eyes widened, as he searched for a solution in Gil’s. The lieutenant opened his mouth like he intended to speak, but nothing exited. The fear in his eyes knocked the wind out of Malcolm. He exhaled as though he’d been holding his breath for days. Tears fell down his ash covered cheeks, cleaning a tiny pathway down each of them.
Malcolm stumbled backward again, unable to bear the weight of the realization. Thankfully a car was behind him to keep him from falling. His breaths returned sporadically, causing him to gasp for air. His hands, one shaking intensely, found his head and slowly ran through his hair, clasping onto it for dear life. Malcolm spun around facing the car. He placed his hands out in front of him, bracing himself, to keep from doubling over as the pain hit him.
His head shook of its own accord, slowly at first, then more quickly. He didn’t even realize he was talking until Gil responded to him.
“She’s not gone, Bright. We don’t know that.”
Malcolm looked up at him again, still supporting himself with the side of the car. He couldn’t hold it in any longer. Sobs, that shook his entire body, exploded from him as he hung his head. His breath stuttered as he inhaled. Panic set in and the inhales increased, causing him to hyperventilate.
Gil put his arm across his back, attempting to comfort him, “They’re going to find her, Bright.” He hesitated a moment, looking over at JT, before continuing. “Listen, kid. We know you two are together. You don’t have to hide that right now. I know you’re scared.”
Malcolm huffed a morbid laugh and shook his head, “No.”
“NYPD doesn’t care about that,” Gil began.
Again, he shook his head, interrupting, “That’s not what I meant.” He looked up at him, “Yes, Dani and I are together.” His gaze shifted involuntarily to the inferno behind him. New tears flooded his cheeks, as he inhaled another stuttered breath, and sniffed. “But that’s not why-- not the only reason why I’m scared.”
He was still leaning against the car, his arms straight out in front of him. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to support his own weight.
“Then what?” Gil pulled his hand back and furrowed his brows, “What’s going on?”
Malcolm met his father-figure’s worried gaze, tears still silently falling from his eyes.
“Dani’s pregnant, Gil.”