A Time to Heal

Disclaimer: I am not Anthony Zuiker, Ann Donahue or Carol Mendelsohn. All the

characters of CSI: NY are not mine…I’m just borrowing them for a little bit. I promise

that I will put them back, exactly the way I found them when I’m done….Oh, Cory Reid is

mine and I will take credit for anything she does. :^)

A/N: Ok. Back into the drama!! Please, please, please R&R!!! It makes my

muse happy!!

Chapter 15.

Traitor

About a week after Flack got home from the hospital, Cory was in her office, excited

because she had managed to get a warrant to raid one of the three targets she had picked

out.

Agent Michaels called Cory into his office. “I have some news for you.”

Cory took a deep breath, waiting for him to continue.

“We have investigated everyone that could possibly be the mole and have found some

irregularities with Liz Jeffries finances. We found an offshore account that shows

regular deposits each month for the last six months. It’s not enough to do anything with

right now. We have to trace back where the money is coming from.”

“Ok. So what do you want me to do? I’ve already got the warrant for the next target-it’s

a warehouse that has seen some suspicious activity. We’re supposed to raid tomorrow.”

Cory shook her head, perplexed.

“Right now, actually like nothing has happened. Just proceed as planned.”

Cory shook her head in agreement, her mind buzzing with the news. “Okay. Anything

else?”

“No. I just wanted to keep you in the loop.”

“Okay. Thanks, Agent Michaels.” Cory left his office with her mind still in overdrive.

“Liz? The mole is Liz? How can she do something like that? I thought that she wanted

to catch Ortiz as much as I did!” As Cory walked, she could feel her anger rising.

It was a deadly, cold anger. This type of anger made her more calculating and less

forgiving of any mistakes that anyone else would make. At this point, only perfection

would make her happy.

(The next day, The Warehouse District)

About two blocks from the warehouse that they were going to raid, the FBI had set up a

command post. Cory was briefing everyone on what to expect. When she was done, she

started strapping on her gear. The first thing she put on was her bulletproof vest. Then

she strapped on her thigh holster for her handgun. “I have an uneasy feeling about

this. I’d better make sure that I’m fully armed.” With that thought, she grabbed a

rifle from the van.

Once the whole team was geared up, Cory motioned for them to begin to creep closer to the

warehouse. This time going in, Liz and Cory were going in first, with Travis and Byron

following them.

When they reached the warehouse, Cory waited for confirmation that the remaining team was

in position. As soon as she got the word, she motioned for the battering ram team to

break down the door. She went in low, Liz went in high; both of them yelling,

“FBI!!”

The group of ten Hispanic men inside looked up in surprise but did not hesitate to pull

out their weapons. Cory saw what they were doing and immediately yelled, “Freeze! Put

your weapons down.” The men ignored her and opened fire. Instinctively she dove for

cover, bringing her weapon at the ready. When she got behind the metal drums, she paused

for a breath.

Once she caught her breath, she put the rifle up to her shoulder and began to return fire.

Quickly she took out two of them men before they took over behind some boxes. She took a

moment to call in some backup. By her count, she thought that the men had expended most

of their ammunition.

She stood back up and quickly fired off another couple of rounds, trying to scan to see

where the remaining eight men had taken cover. She saw on her scan that four of the ten

FBI agents that had come into the warehouse were down, including Liz.

Cory caught a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye and turned instinctively. To

her shock she saw that one of the gang members was opening a box. Her jaw almost dropped

when she saw him pulling out AK-47’s. “Crap. I thought this was a drug smuggling

warehouse! Damn it, this is one of their weapons hubs. How much ammo do I have?”

Quickly she mentally went over what ammo she had brought in with her and realized that the

agents were severely outgunned. She knew that she had to end this quickly.

Making her decision, she again checked the positions of gang members. She saw another

agent in her line of sight and with some quick hand motions let him know what she was

planning. He nodded that he understood.

In unison both agents stood up and started firing. The other agents, seeing what they

were doing and opened fire as well. In minutes most of the gang members were down, with

only two left firing. Cory was out of ammo for the rifle, but quickly drew her 9 mm

Glock. She aimed at one of the remaining men and squeezed off a shot.

Travis looked on in horror as the remaining gang member focused on Cory and quickly fired

off five shots. “CORY!!!” His yell echoed throughout the warehouse and Cory was hit and

fell to the ground. Rage flowed through his veins as he took aim at the gang member and

quickly shot him and watched him fall to the floor and quickly ran to Cory’s side.

“Cory? Cory? Are you okay?” He could hear her gasping for breath as she tried to

respond.

“I’m…I’m fine. Feels like I got hit in the chest with a hammer, but I’ll live.” Cory

tried to sit up and then realized that her arm hurt. She looked down at her arm and her

eyes opened wide at the blood running down her arm.

Travis followed her gaze and realized that she was shot in the arm. “Damn it, Cory!

You’re not fine! You’ve been hit!” He clamped down on her arm with both hands to stop

the flow of blood.

“I’m fine, Travis. It’s just a scratch! What about Liz?” In her heart, she knew the

answer, but was trying to hold out hope just in case she was wrong.

Travis just shook his head, his eyes showing his regret.

Cory closed her eyes. “Shit. Even if she was the mole, she didn’t deserve to die!”

Cory lifted her head as the sound of sirens got closer.

Fifteen minutes later, Cory was sitting in an ambulance arguing with a paramedic who

wanted her to go to the hospital. She was refusing. Finally, Travis came over and

ordered her to go to the hospital.

(Trinity Hospital)

Cory sat on a bed in the emergency room, lost in thought. She was mourning the death of

the four agents they had lost and silently cursing herself for not realizing that the

warehouse was storing assault weapons.

The doctor walked into the room, reading her chart. “Agent Reid. I’m Dr. Phillips and

I’m going to check you over.”

“I’m fine, Doc. It’s just a flesh wound.”

The doctor just shook his head and began to remove the bandages that the paramedics had

put on her arm. With the bandages gone, the doctor peered at the bullet hole and started

to clean it. “Well, it looks like a through and through. What kind of bullet was

it?”

Cory bit her lip at the flash of pain that the doctor caused. “Most likely it was a 223

Remington. The perps were firing AK-47’s.”

Dr. Phillips shook his head in amazement. “You were very lucky. There is minimal damage

and it should heal up alright in a couple of weeks. Now it’s also listed that you took

two shots to the chest that were stopped by your vest?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me examine you to make sure there was no damage. With that kind of force behind

them, it could have bruised your ribs.” He lifted up her gown to see two bruises the size

of dinner plates across her chest and midsection. “Do you feel any pain here? Here?

Here?” Dr. Phillips kept testing different spots around the bruises for any pain that was

not normal. When he was satisfied that there was no internal damage he just shook his

head. “You are one lucky woman.”

After he had finished stitching up her arm, he said that she was free to go, with the

normal precautions.

Breathing a silent prayer of thanks, Cory got dressed and left the hospital. She

immediately called Travis to get an update on the status of the crime scene.

“Hey, Travis. The doc gave me a clean bill of health and I’m free to come back to

work.”

“Not tonight, you’re not! We’re still collecting evidence and we don’t need you here.

Just go home, get some sleep and be prepared to work like a dog tomorrow because we have a

ton of computers that we will be going over.”

“But…”

“No buts! That’s an order. Go home.”

Cory realized that she was overruled. “Fine. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She stopped next

to the agent that was waiting to escort her home. They got in the SUV and left.

(Crime Lab)

Lindsay was just finishing a double shift after completing the tests she was running on a

man that was gunned down in Central Park. She rolled her neck, trying to relieve some of

the tiredness she felt. “I’ll call Cory and see if she wants to go to dinner or

something.” She took out her phone and dialed Cory’s number.

“Reid.”

“Hey Cory. It’s Lindsay. Do want to have dinner or something tonight?”

“No. I’m just going home and sleeping. I’ve had a…rough day.”

“The Ortiz case?” Lindsay heard Cory sigh and felt that she was trying not to say

something. “Ok, girl. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just…” Cory trailed off, not sure that she wanted to tell

Lindsay what happened. “I just got home from the hospital. A raid went wrong today.

We lost four agents and I got shot.”

“You got SHOT!” Lindsay’s yell attracted Danny’s attention as he walked by the

lab.

“Who got shot, Montana?” Danny tried to get Lindsay’s attention, but she just waived him

off.

“Where and what the hell happened?” Lindsay asked when Cory left her hanging.

“In the arm. Geez’s Linds. Calm down. I’m fine. The doctor has already discharged

me from the hospital. I’m at home right now.”

“Sorry, I get kinda upset when one on my friend’s fails to tell me that she was shot. Do

you want me to come over?”

“No. I’m just going to bed so I can get to work early tomorrow. I’ll call you

tomorrow.”

“Okay. Sweet dreams.” Lindsay hung the phone muttering under her breath. She turned

around to see Danny still waiting impatiently for her to answer his question.

“Who. Got. Shot?” Danny bit off each word, making each one a statement.

Lindsay saw the look in Danny’s eyes and backed up a step. “Back off, Messer. You look

kinda scary right now. It was Cory. She said a raid went bad and she got shot in the

arm. She’s fine. She’s at home about to go to bed.”

Danny just stood there in shock, emotions battering him from different sides. On one hand

he was angry and scared…on the other hand his brain was telling him that he had no reason

to feel that way. The he remember the way she had been treating him, the conflicting

signals. Danny sighed and made the decision to back off completely.

“Awight. I hope she’s feeling better.” Danny left it at that and decided to go

home.

(The next day, FBI headquarters)

Cory had woken up early and was at work by 7am. She immediately went down to the labs to

see what information she could pull off the computers there.

“Hey John. Have you gotten any info yet?”

The lab tech looked up at her soft words. “Hey, Cory. I’ve gotten through one of the

computers and there was a ton of info on it! How’s your arm?”

“I’ll be fine. I just need to keep the bandage on it and in a week I’ll be close to

normal.”

“Good to hear. I’m sorry to hear about Liz. She was a damn good agent. Here are the

discs from the first computer. I glanced at the data, but I was lost in all the

accounting. Hopefully you’ll be able to make something out of it.”

“Thanks. John.”

When Cory got back up to her desk she sat down. She wanted to get to work, but she

couldn’t get Liz’s death out of her mind. On one hand, she was upset about the death of

her friend, but on the other…she was upset because her friend might have been a traitor.

“Talk about conflicting emotions!!”

Cory sat at her desk for hours pouring over the data. “John was right. This is a ton

of info and this is only the first computer! This is exactly what we needed to help put

an end to Mala Suerte.”

Cory took her glasses off and rubbed her eyes. She was a little overwhelmed at the sheer

amount of data she had to process. She knew at the rate she was going she would still be

processing this data in two months.

She had just stopped for lunch when she heard a knock on her door. She looked up to see

Agent Michaels standing at her door. “Agent Reid. Got a moment?”

“Sure, sir. What’s going on?”

“I wanted to let you know that we were able to trace back the deposits in Liz’s account.

They all trace back to business’ that are known to be owned by Mala Suerte. I’m sorry. I

know she was your friend.”

Cory closed her eyes briefly. “No need to be sorry, sir. I know the pressure that we’re

under and it’s not unheard of for a gang or hell even the mob, to break one of our agents.

I only wonder if there was anything I could have done to prevent it.”

“Not likely. The deposits started about a month before you got here. Don’t beat yourself

over it.”

Cory smiled. “Thanks. I’ll try not to.” Cory got up and walked out of the office with

Agent Michaels, deciding that it was a good time to go to lunch and think things

over.