Midnight Rider

"Shit." Duffy quietly said.

It had been a day now, a whole 24 hours since the Harbor Hotel incident and the death of Mauricio Yakavetta. Duffy was outside a coffee house down the street from the station. Dolly was filling his black coffee with refined sugar, and Duffy was letting his get cold. He had just gotten a call about someone from the hotel, they had been brought to the hospital, and Duffy wasn't particularly pleased about driving all the way back to that fucked up side of town. With Mauricio gone it seemed like a bloodbath for a new leader. Italians gunning each other down every couple of hours. But with strings still left unattached, every lead had to be followed.

"Yeah, we gotta go." Duffy said. Dolly rolled his eyes as he took a sip of his still hot coffee, burning his upper lip and tongue. The entire drive downtown Dolly complained he couldn't feel his lip anymore, driving Duffy a little nuts. Both detectives having been up all night trying to protect the saints. Murphy being a wreck trying to walk the streets packing heat looking for Paige and her reckless decision to wander off. Murphy was convinced she was there, that she had to have known what happened. And Duffy tried to explain Paige to Murphy. How she was, who she is. Paige always disappeared a few weeks after Duffy would find her a job - disappear. And a few days later he'd find her turning tricks again. This happened numerous times before Duffy stopped trying to help her, and just began arresting her. Every time he put those cuffs on her hands she'd fight him, they'd exchange obscenities and she'd spend the night in jail. That's where she went, or at least where she was headed. She walked away from the bar, and in a few days, she'd be back to her old self, turning tricks.

"Park there." Dolly said pointing at a spot reserved for police vehicles only. They walked in, rode up several flights in an elevator, and walked onto a yellow tiled hospital floor. Tile that was once white, but had now turned to a pale sick yellow.

"Who are we questioning?"

"Some kitchen maid in 503."

They were a little less than prepared to see Paige lying in that hospital bed. Sure, if they had thought for a moment, they would've realized it could have been her. But they didn't.

"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit." Duffy said again.

They loomed over the girl. She looked paler than usual and sickly.

"Can't fuckin' believe it." Dolly said.

"Who knew she had the balls." Duffy said.

"She had the balls to fight you."

"Yeah, that's true." Duffy agreed.

"What we gonna tell Murph?"

"Nothing." Paige said in a groggy tone. Her eyes were open, but only slightly, her breathing was labored, the oxygen hose around her face giving her little help.

"Oh yeah, just how do we go about doin' that, Pretty Girl?"

"How about you leave the thinking to me, Dolly."

"Still feisty, even after she'd been shot."

"Well, Duffy, you certainly know how to push my buttons in any situation." Paige tried to sit up in her rather stiff hospital bed. Her arms weak, not able to properly lift her to the level she wanted.

"I'll take that as a compliment I suppose."

"Yeah, well don't let it go to your head." Paige said.

"We wanted to ask you some... formal questions." Dolly said

"Mmhmm." Paige mustered.

"Did... you kill all those people at the hotel?"

"All of them? Hardly."

"Well, the ones that were shot at least, you know, in the head." Duffy asked.

"I might have shot a few people." Paige said.

"So you killed seven Italians at the Harbour Hotel the other night?" Dolly asked.

"YOU?" Duffy said.

"No, I killed eight." she said.

"Fuck me." Duffy said.

"I don't do that anymore Duffy."

"No! You just fucking kill people now?! I'm so glad you promoted yourself from street whore to killer." Duffy said.

"Yeah, well, they gave me a good enough reason." Paige said without blinking.

"How exactly did you kill all of these men?" Dolly asked.

"Yeah, you're not exactly a trained killer." Duffy said.

Paige looked as though she would laugh. "It was not the most graceful thing I'd done in my life, that's for sure." Paige Said.

"Really? Cause it looks like you wasted these guys while their bullets flew into the walls." Duffy said.

"Yeah, and when did you get shot, we tested all the blood in that room, and yours would've come up." Dolly said.

"Yeah, no it was more like scared shooting. I tried to hit every bastard I could before the gun ran out of bullets." Paige said.

"And at that point they were all dead?" Duffy asked.

"Some of them might have been the cause of friendly fire, I highly doubt I was any sort of good shot." Paige stated.

"Is that how you got shot? Running out of the building?" Dolly asked.

"Sort of."

There was a long pause while they waited for Paige to explain everything. They were both still shocked that this was how things had happened. A scared girl with a gun.

"Well?" Duffy asked.

"Mauricio wasn't in the room. But he showed up to the sound of the shooting. I imagine I was covered in blood, standing over his dead colleagues. I remember him saying something in Italian. Something... I could tell he was mad."

"Yeah, and?" Duffy asked, almost as if a vivid movie was displaying across his mind, waiting for her next words in anticipation.

"He sort of came at me... he nearly got his hands around my throat, but I slipped away and out the door. The fire stairwell, it was empty, and I remember running down the stairs. I thought I was going to trip. He chased me down the stairwell, this time shooting at me, I didn't get hit until I was outside. I was still able to run through the gravel without the pain bothering me. But then..."

"Then?"

"Then what?"

"Well I realized I had come to kill him. The exact man I was running from, and by running, I was letting him get away."

"So you stopped." Duffy said.

"Yes, I stopped running." Paige said. She took a moment to enjoy the semi-proud look she found on Duffy's face. "He called me a bitch, a stupid bitch. He said he was going to make me pay. But I stood there, while two more bullets missed me. Finally he had his hands around my neck, right where he wanted them. But in reality, he was right where I needed him. We were standing in the ship yard, right near the dock, and I was struggling under his strength. There was this... rusty chain, very heavy, meant for one of those large ship anchors, and I was able to knock it just enough that it pulled itself into the water - as it snapped tightly he could see that he'd been standing in the middle of it, when it whipped against his ankle it through him to the ground and pulled him in with it. When I realized what had happened I watched over the edge into the water, all I could see were white bubbles. And then they stopped. I probably sat there for another ten minutes, just waiting for him to come up, ready to push him back under. Or to drown with him."

"Crafty... I suppose." Dolly said.

"More accident, I would say. At least, when you're writing up your police report." Paige said.

"You did just confess to two detectives that you committed murder. You realize we are required to report this, you murdered those men." Duffy said.

"You gonna lock me up for good this time Duffy?"

Duffy breathed in real heavy, and looked at her with disappointment.

"You're not actually going to put me away right?" Paige asked, "I mean, you work with murderers! You're gonna let me go right?"

"Paige, it's not that easy."

Paige teared up for a minute. "I just wanted to keep them safe." she said.

Duffy wasn't sure what she meant by them. First there was her family, but he knew they were safe... he couldn't help but think she was trying to keep the MacManus brothers safe. Maybe like he and Dolly, she found them to be great contributions to society. Or maybe there really was something going on between her and Murphy, something that none of them had realized.

"Paige, there's no way we can let this go on... here."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well... we've got a decent plan for those that get mixed up with Murphy and Connor. It's not exactly easy."

"Why? What's so hard?"

"You need to die, Paige. At least on paper you need to die."

"What do you mean?"

"There's no more Paige... no more Blondie."

"Where... do I go? What do I do?" she asked.

"Just, leave it to us. We'll take care of you." Duffy said.

Paige felt this immense kindness from Duffy touch her in a way that she began to cry. Sort of like she had fix a relationship she thought was forever broken. She was glad that a life of prison wasn't ahead of her. She knew that she'd have to leave her family, and as hard as it was going to be, at least they had the small... but very large gift she had sent them. She had deliberately left out the part about leaving the room with a briefcase, one containing nearly fifty thousand dollars.