Work Text:
Ride Like The Wind
by Donna Costello
The wind was running through my dark curly hair, thrusting it out of my eyes as I sped down the lone desert road. My tinted sun glasses bade my eyes some sanctuary from the glowing sun. There was just me a single man hurtling towards the border of Mexico in order to save a friend. The sun shone, beaming down on me, its heat swelling around me like stifling cover. The only way I was keeping cool was the wind from the force of the yellow bike underneath me cutting through the air at such high speed. I let my eyes glance down towards the speedometer on the panel in front of me. I could go faster. Ahead of me was straight, I could go as fast as I liked and right at this moment I was opting for as fast as the bike could muster. I'd done some terrible things in Miami, all of them leading up to this moment. I had no idea what was going to go down when I hit Mexico, all I knew was whatever happened I was ready.
It is the night
My body's weak
I'm on the run
No time for sleep
I've got to ride
Ride like the wind
To be free again
It was nightfall by the time I flew past the hotel, the only one on this road for another hundred miles. My body was exhausted, by now I was aware I was running on pure adrenaline. I hadn't eaten in hours or slept in days; ever since Delko had disappeared, my soul purpose in life had become to find him. Now I finally had a lead, I wasn't going to stop until I got to him. There's still so much space I have to cover before I get there. I've left Miami under a haze of bad blood, I'm not even sure if I can go back there again after this, right now I didn't care, the only thing that mattered was getting there to Delko. Lord knows what would happen in the time it would take me to get there.
And I've got such a long way to go
To make it to the border of Mexico
So I'll ride like the wind
Ride like the wind
I know somewhere behind me H is following. I can't let him catch up with me, otherwise that's it I'm finished. He'll stop me getting to Delko and we'll both be finished. I have to stay one step a head of him, or at least a large proportion of miles just to make sure. Once I make it over the border it won't matter, they won't be able to touch me. Deep inside I feel bitter and sad, I was leaving my friends behind, I was destroying the life I had in Miami, but right now the life Delko had, full stop, could be destroyed. In the back of my bike I was carrying several kilos of cocaine that were labelled "evidence" in red tape.
I was born the son of a lawless man
Always spoke my mind with a gun
in my hand
Lived nine lives
Gunned down ten
Gonna ride like the wind
After the jewelry store shooting Horatio gave me another chance, to pick myself up and get me back on my feet, and help me not lose my job. I didn't clean my service pistol, twice in shootouts I'd been hit , in the most recent I'd been wounded, and spent several months recovering in Grace Memorial. Right now that same gun was clinging to my side, religiously clean. I refused to make any mistakes with Delko's life. I knew what H was feeling now, he felt betrayed, like I was doing wrong. But if he'd made a move before the dealers had had time to smuggle Delko out of the country I wouldn't be doing this and we wouldn't be in this mess.
I wouldn't have pointed my gun at Calleigh and held her hostage. I had no intention of shooting her, I'd just needed to get out safely with the drugs, and she'd been stopping me. I knew she wouldn't be handcuffed to that chair too long before someone found her. I'd been on my last chance, and I'd just killed it. I twisted the throttle on the bike, pushing it to move faster. I didn't care how much trouble I was in, only the time that was wasted.
Accused and tried and told to hang
I was nowhere in sight when the
churchbells rang
Never was the kind to do as I
was told
Gonna ride like the wind before I
get old
I'd like to think the worst was over now, but it isn't. Delko's body is lying at my feet. He's been dead for a while now; his glassy once brilliant eyes are staring at me accusing me. They're telling me I failed. The anguish that fills me is indescribable and as I try and push the pain away it hits me in waves. I'd given up everything on the promise he's be alive and he isn't. He's at my feet, stone cold dead, blood congealed in a small pool around him where he was shot in the chest.
The gun lies next to him in the pool taunting me. You had so much time you failed, it tells me. Tears are rushing to my eyes and I just can't force them away. Their tears of anger, rage, and the most indistinguishable pain I've ever felt. I've given up everything for him. I can't go back, and I'm as sure as hell I can't move forward. There's nothing left for me. I know H is right behind me somewhere. I've screwed up my own life again. I'll grow old in prison. I won't even get to see Calleigh get married or Horatio retire. I won't even get to be at Delko's funeral. I'll be rotting alone in a jail cell. Slowly I climb back on my bike, looking back for a second at Delko's body. I give him a small salute.
"Goodbye old friend." I murmur, as I put my bike at full throttle, driving straight towards the solid brick wall in front of me, wearing no helmet, and with my one dying wish, to reunited with my best buddy Eric Delko.