CSI:New York : Who Are You? (Don Flack/OFC fanfic)

Gracie

As Olivia and Flack made their way along the corridors of the ICU children's ward within St. Luke's, nurses worked their way from room to room, some carried trays of medication, others blankets and clean gowns. The floor was certainly more active to when Olivia had been there an hour or so earlier. Along with the faint humming and beeping of hospital machinery, they could hear chatter and children's laughter. Flack and Olivia exchanged smiles. The children on this ward were terminally ill and yet were able to evoke such positive happiness. Kids were more resilient than adults gave them credit for. Even in the face of adversity.

Reaching the reception area they waited for the nurse on duty to finish her telephone call. Flack looked around him over to a recreation room where he could see bright yellow walls and painting easels placed around the large room. Children confined to wheelchairs, most bald from chemotherapy, others connected up to IVs, busied themselves playing board games and video games. It was their laughter that filled his ears the most.

The nurse ended her call and smiled up at them both. 'Hello, may I help you?' she asked, drawing Flack's attention back.

'Detective Flack, NYPD and Detective Cordukes from the Crime Lab,' he said pulling back his jacket to show her his police badge clipped to his belt. 'We're here to see Gracie Sheridan.'

'Oh, yes. Dr. Conrad said to expect you,' the nurse nodded, her blonde ponytail bobbing slightly.

'How is she today?' asked Olivia.

'She's tired. But that's only to be expected, given her condition. You know where her room is, right?' she asked, to which they both nodded. 'Okay then, just bear in mind that the various medications she's on are strong and make her a little loopy.'

'Loopy?' Flack repeated. 'That a new medical term?'

The comment brought a grin to the nurse's face. She didn't get a chance to reply as the telephone on the desk began to ring and so while she answered Flack and Olivia set off from the station and made their way down the corridor toward Gracie's room.

'You okay?' Flack asked. She had tensed up a little as they neared the little girl's private room. The way she was carrying her field kit in front of her, like some sort of shield, gripping the handle with both hands, and the rigidity of her shoulders gave the game away.

'I'm fine.'

They arrived at Gracie's room and Flack nodded once at the officer standing guard. Olivia took a breath, opened the door and stepped inside.

And there she was.

Gracie Sheridan was propped up in bed, her back supported with at least three pillows, the pull-out table in front of her and on it a coloring book and crayons that had since been pushed aside. There was an IV dispensing a saline drip and morphine into the back of her left hand and beside the metal pole, stood a heart-machine softly beeping as it kept record of her heart-rate and blood pressure. There was also oxygen on stand-by.

For a moment Olivia could only look at her. Her head was turned slightly toward the window, her eyes closed, but she wasn't sleeping. Olivia could tell by her breathing - which had a definite grating due to the bronchial infection - that she was just resting. Her chin-length curls framed her cherubic face and appeared more golden in the natural light. Her baby sister's name whispered through her mind and she had to tell herself to breathe. Just breathe. Slow, long breaths.

She moved deeper into the room and toward the bed and behind her Flack closed the door with a gentle click. It stirred Gracie and her eyes slowly blinked open. She turned her head, recognition lit up her face when she saw Olivia.