He stood on top of a little wall, hands raised in surrender as he stared at the gun aimed at him. However, the taunting look Daniel Atlas gave Interpol-agent Alma Dray told that he was only messing with her. She would never pull the trigger on an unarmed man appearing to surrender himself.

Unfortunately for Danny, Alma interpreted the situation quite differently. All she could see was one of the men the FBI had been chasing for days. One of the men who had made them all look like idiots. Seeing him look at her like she was just the next cop he would be playing a trick on, she made her decision in a split-second.

The weapon recoiled heavily in Alma's hands as she sent a bullet in Daniel Atlas' direction.

Danny's expression changed to one of shock as he realized he had been wrong. Alma was going to shoot him.
His breath hitched in his chest and he let out a muffled scream when the bullet hit him in the stomach.
For a moment Danny was able to keep his balance on top of the little brick wall, but then started to fall backwards. With a dull thud he landed on his back on the concrete on the other side of the wall, scaring some people standing there.

Danny groaned in pain and stared up at the star-strewn sky for about half a second. Warm blood was already staining his pristine white shirt and spilling onto the street beneath him. He could hear FBI-agents yelling on the other side of the wall and he knew that it would not be long before they would climb over. He needed to get away, he needed to hide and he needed to have his wound taken care of.

The Four Horsemen had agreed to split up after their performance and lay low for several hours. Danny would be meeting Merritt in an apartment a few blocks away, and Henley and Jack would be meeting up in an apartment elsewhere in the city.

Danny quickly scrambled to his feet, suppressing a scream in pain and clutching his stomach tightly. He broke into a run as fast as his wound allowed him to go and disappeared into the crowd of people celebrating Mardi Grass.
The pain of the bullet-wound was absolutely searing and threatened to overwhelm him. It wasn't long before he was panting and black spots began blurring his vision, but still he ran on.
His progress was slow because of the huge number of people out on the streets. Quite often someone bumped into him, sending fresh waves of pain through his body and making him gasp for breath.

Danny finally rounded the last corner and ran onto the street where the apartment was. He could already see the door to the building!
His bloodstained hands searched for the keys in the pockets of his trousers. It gave him quite some trouble, since his hands were shaking so badly now from pain and shock.

Danny stumbled over the threshold and into the hallway of the apartment building. As soon as the door fell in the lock behind him, he sank to the ground. He half expected to pass out right there and then, for the pain had reached an all-time high and the panting breaths he was taking did not quite seem to reach his lungs.
Danny looked to his right, to the wooden staircase, with a heavy-hearted feeling. He still had two flights of stairs to climb before he would actually reach their apartment, where he would be out of danger of being seen.

With a grunt and several whimpers in pain, Danny pulled himself to his feet again. For a moment he stood at the bottom of the stairs, mustering up the strength like he was preparing to climb Everest, but finally set foot on the first step.

The stairs took Danny a long while. He had to stop several times to catch his breath or when the pain became too much. How he hoped he would not run into one of the other tenants!

When Danny finally swung the door of the apartment open and dragged himself inside, he could already hear Merritt rummaging around somewhere.
"Well, finally, you're here!" Merritt called from the kitchen, "you should really work on your stamina, man. I have already been here for about twenty minutes". Merritt was patiently waiting for Danny to walk into the kitchen and give him some witty reply. Instead he heard a stumble and a loud thud, like something had fallen to the ground.
"Danny?" Merritt called a little hesitantly, walking out of the kitchen and into the hallway.
"Danny!" he now yelled as he saw his fellow Horseman.

Danny's strength had finally given out on him and he had fallen to the ground right behind the door. He was lying on his side, facing the door. Merritt ran through the hallway and fell to his knees next to Danny. He grabbed the magician's shoulder and carefully rolled him onto his back. It scared him how limp Danny's body felt and the whimper the young man gave when he was being moved did not exactly easy Merritt's mind either.

It took Merritt only a second to notice the blood and the gunshot-wound.
"Oh my God, Danny, what happened?!" Merritt asked shocked. Danny slowly opened his eyes and it took him a few seconds before he answered.
"Well, obviously… I got shot" Danny's voice sounded broken and slurred. Not in any way resembling the waterfall of rapid speech he usually was.
"I can see that smart-ass" Merritt retorted, "but what happened?"
"That lady from Interpol, she shot me" Danny answered, a hint of fear in his voice.

Merritt dropped any further questions, seeing that talking cost a lot of Danny's strength and pained him. Instead he pulled aside Danny's jacket to have a closer look at the wound. It looked nasty, with quite a loss of blood. Merritt felt Danny's back for an exit-wound, but could not locate one, meaning the shot had not been a through-and-through.
"You need to get this attended to" Merritt said seriously now.
"Just leave it" Danny muttered breathlessly, "going to a hospital would be like turning myself in". "Surely" Merritt said, "but if you do nothing I don't think you'll enjoy life much longer".
"Then so be it" Danny whispered.

Merritt felt like he had been punched in the stomach by those words. He had never been particularly close to Danny, but seeing the young man make the decision to just die on the floor of some shitty apartment, was not something he would allow.
"I'm getting you help" Merritt said determinedly and immediately stood up.
"So you actually don't mind being the cause of me going to prison for the rest of my life?!"Danny sounded hurt and disappointed and his eyes reflected pain, both physically and mentally. Merritt did not reply and merely gave him a stern look, before walking over to the phone in the living room.
Danny wanted to stop him, protest, scream, punch Merritt… But he simply did not have the strength for it. So he just lay still and let it all happen, quietly accepting his faith.

Merritt picked up the phone, a land-line to which he hoped the FBI had not seen reason to tap into. He quickly dialled a number and listened as the phone tried to make connection.

It rang four times, five times, six times...

Merritt was about to accept defeat and hang up the phone, when a voice on the other side of the line sounded.
"Hello?"
Merritt sighed a huge sigh of relief. "Hello sweetie" he said, "I am in a bit of trouble..."

Thanks for reading. The next chapter will be up as soon as possible.
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