NYPD Blue Fanfiction

Maggie's Fanfic

Diane's Sabbatical

Late Spring 2001


Diane is relieved to be away from the preceint house.  These past two years have been very hard, and Diane gives herself credit for holding up even when Danny's instability were more than she and Andy could bear.  And now Connie has called looking for Danny.   He's missing and noone seems to know where to begin to look.

Diane puts her hot face in her cool hands.  Poor Danny.  So much sweetness, and so much baggage that needed attention.  Diane remembers than Danny was so caring as they made love.  Not rushing, asking her what she liked, patient with foreplay, Danny would hold her all night long. She wipes away the tears. Diane had heard things from around the preceint about Danny's terrible nightmares.  Diane was tempted to suggest to Danny that professional help might put a stop to the nightmares, but then again how would she approach Danny on the subject?  Diane considers taking the issue to Andy but Andy didn't have the time for Danny because he and Theo were struggling with being so very lonely after Sylvia's tragic death.  Diane could understand this. Katie Sipowicz is lending a hand to Andy and the little boy to make their life bearable with hot meals, a clean house, and seeing that Theo gets home safely from preschool.

Diane calls looking for Andy and gets Greg on the phone.  Greg  gently fills her in on the undercover plot at Tail Feathers and  the dead agent.    When Diane hangs up the receiver, her heart feels heavy.  She feels that familiar thirst for liquor.  Diane calls Andy's home and Andy thankfully answers.  He brings a sleeping Theo over to Diane's apartment and Andy, who looks positively exhausted, lays Theo down on Diane and Bobby's bed.  After the little boy is tucked in, Diane and Andy sit in the moonlit living room and cry. 

It's a hot summer in Manhattan.  Victor takes Diane out to eat a couple of nights a week.  One night, he has hinted that he wants to take her somewhere more elegant that usual and when the cab drops them off at the towers, Diane feels on top of the world.  Victor laughs and says "We have to get the elevator to get you to the top of the world".  The express elevator to the top is run to ride and there are many people riding up the elevator that has a beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling.  The view is breathtaking and Diane and Victor have window seats looking down on the beautiful city.  Victor presents Diane with a beautiful pearl necklace.  He smiles when she gasps and after leaving the towers, they take a cab back to his place and make love until the sun is beginning to rise. 

Diane hears from Jill.  She and the boys are living in the midwest and Jill works for a doctor doing his insurance billing.  The boys are in Catholic school and play softball and soccer.  Jill is grateful that they were given a second chance.  Both Jill and the boys see a therapist to help them cope with Don's abuse.  Jill wasn't surprised that Diane shot Harry Denby dead.  Jill said to Diane, "What took you so long"? 

Diane and her mother book a flight to go to Ireland to see an old aunt.  They enjoy ten days of the Irish countryside and on the morning of September 11, they board a flight from Heathrow to Kennedy.  The plane will land about ten.  Diane has missed Victor and wants to get home.  They are enjoying the clouds and the beautiful ocean below when the captain of the plane tells them their plane is being diverted Newfoundland.  Diane and her mother look at each other but there is no sense of alarm and soon the plane is touching down on Canadian soil.  The Canadian police are everywhere.  Diane and her mother, along with other passengers, flock into the airport and are greeted by airport personnel who lead them into  a very large conference room on the second floor.  Diane is worried.  Is there a bomb scare?  Drug sniffing dogs are seen on the runways.  More planes are landing and soon planes are beginning to pile on grass as far as anyone can see.  After about 3 hours, a spokesman for the airline comes in and gets everyone seated and starts passing out beverages, cheese and crackers and makes sure the  room is comfortablely cool on this late summer morning.  The pilot comes in with his co-pilots, two Canadian police personnel and the room soon grows quiet. 

"New York and Washington are under attack".    The room is silent for a long second and then there sounds of people murmurring in disbelief.  The Canadian police tell the people about the WTC, the Pentagon and the plane that has been taken down in rural Pennsylvania.  Hijackers have used jets as missiles.  Someone turns on CNN and a few people run to the nearest bathroom to be sick.  All Diane can think of is her fellow detectives.  She wishes more than anything that she's back on the beat.  Then as everyone is watching CNN, they see footage of the  first tower collapses and then the second tower falls.  Diane is kneeling in the bathroom shaking and crying.  There is vomit everywhere.  Her mother is trying to comfort her by wringing wet towels.  The Canadian police soon find out that Diane is a cop with the NYPD and they immediately  decide to call an ambulance for Diane. Diane's mother rides  with Diane to a nearby hospital where Diane is given fluids intravenously, and a sedative to calm her. 

Later that night, Diane and her mother are staying in small parish hall where makeshift beds have been set up.  Diane wants desperately to call Victor and a kind priest  lets Diane use the phone.  By some miracle, Diane is able to reach Victor by cell phone.  They talk for less than five minutes and Victor assures her that he is fine and that they are treating people at the hospital for an unusually high number of mothers experiencing premature labor. 

With planes still grounded,  Diane and her mother wait it out in Newfoundland and find the most wonderful people there.  Diane and her mother shower at the convent and help prepare food in the huge parish kitchen.  By the weekend, they are allowed to board their planes and return to New York.  Victor meets Diane at her mother at the airport and whisks them quickly to his apartment.  He has chicken parmigana, and salad for them.  He keeps them at his apartment until later in the evening, when traffic begins to clear, and he can manuever his car through the streets to the Brooklyn Bridge.  Neither Diane nor her mother look for the skyline as Victor drives them across the bridge. 

Diane decides not to complete her sabbatical.  Too many personnel are lost in the rubble and they need her.  She is told to report to a Brooklyn preceint until furthur notice.  Diane works the long hours helping in any way she can.  She is pulled over to Queens when an airliner crashes into homes creating more widespread panic.  Victor treats to Chinese food one night and tells Diane that he has to report for duty at Camp LeJuene next week.  He's going to be Afghanistan before Christmas. 

Victor is gone but a few days and Diane receives email from him telling her he is doing okay.   She is sitting at her desk at work back in Brooklyn when she receives a popup from Greg Medavoy to contact Andy at the preceint.  Diane picks up the phone and calls Andy, whose voice is crackling with the stress  tells her about finding Danny rolled up in the rug.   The room begins to spin and Diane is found passed out on the floor by her desk.  Diane hits her head hard and is told in the emergency room that she has a concussion.  She spends the night in the hospital for observation and misses the funeral.

Diane has an ugly bruise on herforehead and another one on her cheek from the fall.  Diane receives emails from Victor with his battalion somewhere in Saudi Arabia.   The desert heat is unbearable, and the Marines are learning how to deal with the climate before moving on to Afghanistan.  The therapist that Diane has seen  after Bobby's death, comes to console Diane. Diane tells her therapist her tremendous guilt about Danny.  Her therapist reassures Diane that she didn't lead Danny on, and that Diane was wise not to become too involved then because she was still painfully grieving Bobby's loss.   The therapist is asking Diane where she sees herself  in a few years and after  several  months of counseling,  Diane decides that she wants to help other women who have been molested by family members.  Within weeks, Diane moves within the borough to the Special Victims Unit.