Perry was between paperwork and another call from his client when the phone rang. He checked the caller's ID - Harry. He sighed and a whole bunch of stupid reasons for the call ran through his head. He wondered what Harry could have wanted and picked up the cell.

"Yeah?"

There was no definite answer at first, just a very harsh breathing and some background noise which Perry couldn't decipher.

"What? Harry, what the hell?" He asked sternly, pissed that it was some kind of a stupid joke, but a small stab of...was it worry?...nagged his mind. This was something Perry was not standard. From Harry there was always the never ending flow of words even while on the phone. This ability to babble was very annoying, but it was also something stable, which Perry was used to after almost year of their partnership.

It also made him smile from time to time, but he would never admit it to anyone starting with Harry. So now the weird silence was more than alarming for him as it could only mean something bad.

"Harry?!" He asked again, more forcefully this time.

Just some accelerated breathing was audible instead of the response. But before Perry could ask or more likely yell again, there was something after all.

"Perry...crash...I...it's...--" The words continued to flow in the same style for a while and Perry had to try really hard to understand at least some bits. The main feeling for him at the moment was shock and three points - Harry, accident and the name of the street.

How he could understand that through the sobbing, he didn't know. But 'Harry' and 'accident' repeated in his head at least ten times, before he started responding - slowly and somewhat gently this time. He had to make sure what happened. That, and if there was any need for Perry to start panicking - not that he was far away from it already and this fact alone was making him nervous.

"Harry? What? What accident? What happened!?" Even though he tried not to, Perry realized he was sounding very adamantly, but Harry didn't seem to notice. The sobbing only grew louder and no more words came out.

That made Perry really worried.

"Harry? Are you crying? Talk to me, okay?"

It sounded as if Harry was trying to respond, but no words came out.

Perry had enough. He ran through the apartment, grabbed his jacket, gun - don't ask him why - and car keys, the phone still tucked between his shoulder and ear.

"Harry, I'm coming, okay? Fifteen minutes top. Is there...did someone call the ambulance?" It was stupid to ask such question, but Perry was a little out of his mind so he didn't care.

"Uh-huh." Slurred reply came back and more sobbing followed.

"Fiftee-- Ten minutes, Harry!"

Perry hang up and stormed out of the building, unlocking his car with remote on his keys. Once inside, he decided it was better safe than sorry and called another ambulance for the street of the name which Harry got out of himself earlier.

"What!? Fifteen minutes? You are supposed to help people! Not leave them bleed to death on the fucking street!" He snapped at the dispatcher roughly. He stopped the flow of his insults abruptly - this wasn't him! When he became such an ass...and wimp?

"I'm sorry. Yeah, I know you are doing your best. Yeah, thank you."

He ended the call and concentrated on the ride, which wasn't really easy. Crazy images and worst-case scenarios were playing before his eyes. Harry laying on the pavement, bleeding and unconscious. Harry trapped in his car - Perry shouldn't have let him buy it! Harry...

"Fuck!" He spitted, when one car tried to overtake him. It only made him push the gas pedal lower, maybe even through the ground. Later, he wondered how it was possible that any fucking cop from the neighborhood had attempted to chase him.

He almost run through the crossroad at the red light. Cursing like mad when he had to brake all of a sudden, causing the idiot behind him to hoot.

Perry wondered if he should let Harmony know. After all, she was Harry's girlfriend - at least he thought so, because he really had no interest in his love life. Or better to say - he tried not to, but just couldn't help it and ended up feeling jealous every time he saw them together.

He felt his heart beat faster when he neared the accident site. The blue and red light were visible from a great distance, because the sun was long time gone behind the horizon.

Perry thanked the God he didn't believe in for making someone call the ambulance sooner than he did.

Police tapes were wrapped around the place and he couldn't see much from his position because of a group of cars, which were waiting here for the street to get unblocked, and a small pack of bystanders between them.

He halted sharply and jumped out. Harry's car was nowhere to be seen, but that was the last of Perry's interests right now. He ran towards the nearest ambulance and scanned the surroundings for any signs of blood and dead bodies lying around.

"Hello, I'm--" He stopped himself, because his P.I. card wouldn't make much sense here. "That doesn't matter. I'm looking for a...friend. He was probably involved in this accident." Perry pointed to nowhere with his right hand, indicating the place around them. He hated that his voice was tight and not very stable.

"Small with black hair?" The paramedic asked.

Perry nodded quickly and felt his throat tighten even more and he really loathed himself at the moment for displaying so many emotions.

"Other ambulance." The man pointed to the van standing nearby. "But it's bad, I'm sorry." He threw Perry an apologetic glance, but then continued in his work on the young lady who was sitting on the stretcher and holding her arm tenderly.

Perry's heart almost made its way out of his chest on the short way to the second ambulance. It was really dark and he didn't notice the damaged cars on his left. He could see only the other stretcher in front of him and two doctors making sure the person on it would live. A cold shiver ran through his spine when Perry realized that he probably found Harry.

"Sir! You can't be here, sorry!" One of the paramedics was trying to hold Perry behind the tape.

"But that's my friend!" He pointed to the stretcher and added, his voice more and more tense, "He called me before you got there, I need to see him!"

The other man was considering his words for a while and that gave Perry the chance to break free and get nearer to the ambulance and to Harry even though the man started shouting at him only seconds after. Perry didn't listen and stopped a few feet from to the doctors, suddenly afraid to face the truth.

tbc

As always, thanks for reading!